Examples of some things Kleon does not believe—ideas that a lot of people do believe because they think that's how they're supposed to think:
"You have to decide on one thing and then just do that one thing for years and years." (an exaggeration, but one of those societal "norms" you sort of pick up because many people do just that).
"Don't procrastinate!"
"Work on a project until it's finished before starting another."
"Being bored is a useless activity."
"If you sit around and do nothing, you're a slacker."
In Chapter 5, "Side projects and hobbies are important," Kleon's main point is just what the title says. People need to have hobbies and side projects in their lives because those things will actually enrich or feed into the other work they do. We all need to have some down time to just kick back and do not much of anything. It can be restorative, and it can help facilitate creative thinking when we need to be creative. It's important to have activities/projects/hobbies in our lives that are things we love to do, and we do them just for the pure fun and joy we experience while we do them. Kleon believes we should allow ourselves the flexibility to jump back and forth between projects, to give ourselves the permission to play, and to sometimes avoid work and see where you wander. "Take time to mess around," he says on page 67, "Get Lost. Wander. You never know where it's going to lead you." I do most of the things he suggests, including jumping back and forth between projects, having things in my life that have the sole purpose fun and play, and trying to always make room in my life for doing things I love and sometimes doing nothing at all (the operative word in that last phrase is "trying").
I could not agree more with Kleon's opinion that hobbies and side projects are really important and enrich our lives and work in so many ways. I have a friend who told me he loves to mow his lawn because it's a totally boring and repetitive activity but he gets into a really "zen place" when he does. It probably does feed into his creativity as he is a writer and musician. Most people I know have hobbies or side projects going much of the time. I have had and continue to have numerous hobbies and side projects, and that's been one of the hardest things about being in school full time for two years—I have very little time for those things. If you know me, you know I'm a musician and play gigs on the weekends; I'm also a songwriter and am actually awaiting the FedEx truck to pull up any time now with 500 copies of my latest CD! Being a musician/songwriter is not, to me, a hobby; it's really more of a second career. Yes, I make money doing it, which Kleon says should not be a part of a hobby, but I think I get as much more even more satisfaction out of my musical projects than any of my other hobbies. Part of being a musician is having music-related hobbies too. I bought a ukulele last summer just because I wanted to mess around and try to learn how to play it! Even though my idea was to incorporate it into live performances very, very occasionally, the real reason was that I thought it would just be fun to do! Sit out in my sun room and play the ukulele. How chill. How fun! Next summer I will be sure to get around to actually doing it. Ha!
On page 67, Kleon says, "Creative people need time to just sit around and do nothing." When I'm doing nothing, it's usually not really nothing. I'm watching a movie or TV show, sitting on the couch, probably eating popcorn or chocolate, and just enjoying vegging. For several years I was in the habit of meditating daily for at least 30 minutes. Now that is pretty much doing nothing. It's just sitting, trying to be completely aware of what is going on with my mind and my body, focusing on the breath, and when thoughts, worries, memories, or other mind activity pull me away and I notice that, I gently bring my attention back to my breath. It's being with myself and not trying to get away from anything. It's accepting whatever arises with kindness to myself and just allowing it to be how it is. Anyway, along with exercise and social activities, meditation has taken a back seat to my focus on school. I hope to be able to get myself to get back into these good habits of spending quality time with myself and sitting around and doing nothing (which can also include just being with friends and hanging out, which I love).
I do find that when I procrastinate, it causes a lot of anxiety. I think that's probably because of the instilled work ethic values that came from various sources through much of my life. It's really hard for me to feel okay if I'm procrastinating and I know I have work I think I should be doing. That's one of the things I love about music. When I'm at a gig or recording or whatever, I really don't think about anything else. I don't think about all of the assignments for school that are due the next week. I absolutely let all of that go while I'm playing and just let myself be in that moment enjoying everything. It helps a lot that my musical partner is my best friend, so it's fun on another level as well! Anyway, enough about music. It definitely enriches my life and I believe it adds to my creativity as a graphic designer.
Other hobbies I have or go in and out of are: gardening, making crafty things (like I wrote about in a recent blog post), working with animals and volunteering with animal organizations, writing fiction, rollerblading (not so much recently, but I still do occasionally!), tennis (again, same parenthetical comment as for rollerblading), painting, and a few more. I got really into a side project the summer before I started the graphic design program which was that I started drawing pictures of what I thought emotions would look like. They turned out to be creatures. I just started and let it take me where it took me, which was to eventually paint these creatures. My goal was to have 50 of them at the end of the project, but school started when I was at 30, so 30 it was. I would like to have them made into a book or cards. I really, really enjoyed that little side project! I also wrote (and designed the cover for) my first short story a year ago or so.
Here are a few photos of some of my various hobbies and side projects.
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| I grew Glads several years in a row. I try different things every year in my flower garden. |
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| I was in the 80s band "The Brat Pack" for several years some time ago. It was one of the most fun bands I've ever been in! SO fun! |
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| My current musical project is my duo simply called "Paul & Gloria." (We do have a website, by the way, which I threw together on Wix: http://www.paulandgloriamusic.com) |
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| Come see us play! It's super fun! |
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| I'm laughing so hard in this picture! We have a great time, and we play some pretty good music, if I do say so myself. |
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| I love making little tiny things. I made this little matchbox "diorama" for a friend of mine who loves music. |
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| I kind of got interested in runes, and I made my own little tiny set of them. Just for fun! |
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| I LOVE taking my dog Silvio to dog training classes! We have a blast! Hobby? For me, I suppose it is. For him, it's his life's work! |
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