The Modern Trap of Feeling Obligated to Turn Hobbies Into Hustles

We might finally be coming out of the shared delusion that “follow your passion” is some how good career advice. While I’m sure there are people that have discovered the unlikely intersection of fun and employment my own experience is that each of these diminishes the other. It’s from this experience that I bring this article by Molly Conway at Man Repeller:

The Modern Trap of Feeling Obligated to Turn Hobbies Into Hustles

Whenever I have some time to myself, I panic. Unstructured time — especially spent alone — is phenomenally rare in my life and I feel an overwhelming obligation to make good use of it. I should get some laundry done. Meal prep. Ask each item in my dresser if it brings me joy. Figure out how to fold a fitted sheet. Paint my nails. Work on the play I’m writing. Do a face mask. But instead, I deal with my option paralysis in the least helpful way possible: by scrolling through my phone alone in the dark until I run out of battery (literally or figuratively) and put myself to bed feeling like I’ve lost something valuable and hating myself for it. I can’t be productive, and I can’t fully relax, and I can’t possibly be alone in this.

Nope. Not alone Molly.