Hobbies and us
"You have to love what you do to be good at it," something like that I heard many successful people say, and I'm not saying they are lying, they probably know what they are saying and they are right, but it doesn't mean that if you love something you will be good at it, does it? I mean, am I the only one who has a hobby and yet is still terrible at it?
This makes me think that to be really good at something you need more than just loving it, right? you need a series of qualities and aptitudes, and if you don't have them then you will probably just decide to turn that activity into a hobby.
Are we supposed to be good at our hobby? Of course not! Maybe that's why it's our hobby and not our job or profession.
The hobby is one of the few things we can do wrong and still feel good about it, "it doesn't matter, it's just a hobby," we say.
It would be great if we had the same attitude about other things too, but I guess if we had the same attitude about tackling other things, then the hobby would cease to be a hobby. I don't know.
One of the great things about hobbies is that they can be about anything, you don't need to have money, too much free time, or anything at all. Every person has a hobby, and it is like a suit made especially for them, some people play golf, some people collect coins and some people play sports. Some hobbies are exclusive and others are not, some hobbies are relatively common and others are eccentric.
This makes me think about how much our hobbies reveal about each of us. Perhaps, if they did some survey about hobbies in various communities it would reveal a lot of information about them. I mean, I don't think people have the same hobbies in America, Germany, China or Egypt, do they?
Have you thought about this? Take a second and think about your hobby, and then ask yourself why it is your hobby and not a profession, and why you chose that hobby and not another.
Hobbies seem random, but they are not, they not only reveal something about our geographical location, where we grew up, whether we are introverted or extroverted, whether we are intellectually inclined or not, they may even reveal something about our economic status.
It is possible that the hobby tells us a lot more about a person than his name tells us, maybe when someone introduces himself to us instead of saying "hello, I'm Alan, nice to meet you," he should say something like "hello, my hobby is taxidermy, nice dog," then you would understand why your affable puppy has not stopped barking.