Adults Need Hobbies That Are Allowed To Be Pointless

When did hobbies become another thing we had to be good at?

Somewhere along the way, adulthood turned everything into a project.

If we exercise, it should improve our fitness. If we read, it should teach us something. If we start a hobby, we should probably get good at it...

Maybe monetise it.

Maybe turn it into a side hustle.

Honestly? exhausting.

There’s something really nice about doing something for absolutely no reason other than:

I like this.

That’s it.

No grand goal or productivity angle. No requirement for it to become useful.

Just something you enjoy doing.

Fun is actually enough.

Adults spend a lot of time doing things because we have to. Work. Appointments. Cleaning. Life admin. Blah!

Even a lot of our “self-care” comes with a job attached to it.

We work out because we should. We go for walks because we should get our steps in. We meditate because we should manage stress.

Useful? Sure.

But sometimes it’s nice to have something in your week that doesn’t need to achieve anything.

Something you look forward to simply because it’s fun.

Hobbies give your brain somewhere else to go.

One of the best things about having a hobby is that, for a little while, your brain has something completely different to think about.

You’re not thinking about work.

Or the email you forgot to reply to.

Or what’s for dinner.

You’re thinking:

Which leg goes where?

Why did that work last week and not today?

Can I do it again?

Sometimes that’s exactly what your brain needs.

You get to be a different version of yourself.

This is one of the things we see all the time at Altitude.

Someone might spend most of their week being a parent, manager, teacher, nurse, business owner or student...

and then they walk into the studio and, for an hour, none of that really matters.

They’re just themselves.

Learning something. Laughing. Trying. Failing spectacularly sometimes. Trying again.

There’s something pretty freeing about that.

It doesn’t have to become another achievement.

Humans are very good at turning fun things into goals.

You start pole.

Then suddenly you think you should level up faster, get stronger, get more flexible, compete, nail the trick, get the photo.

And all of those things can be great... if you want them.

But they’re not compulsory.

Your goal is allowed to be:

I come here because I enjoy it.

That is a perfectly legitimate goal.