If It Brings You Joy, It’s Not “Wasting Time”
Discover the profound truth behind the phrase "time well wasted". Unearth the joy in seemingly unproductive activities and learn how they can contribute to your overall happiness and well-being. It's time to redefine what it means to 'waste time'.
When I was a kid, I wanted to be an Olympic figure skater.
In junior high, my identity shifted from happy and interested in everything to being studious and serious about everything
- I got caught up in not good enough thinking, and I felt like an imposter all the time
- Joy is a part of us, it’s not a place you arrive when you finally finish all of this serious business. It’s something that needs to be nurtured.
Just because you can live without something doesn’t mean you have to.
You can find that joy, even if that little piece of joy has been buried for a long time
- Pursue more than success or accomplishment
- Fill those moments with activities that fill you up
- And above all else, do not cancel on yourself
I made myself so small, I forgot I was in there at all.
I stopped drawing, I stopped making jewelry, and I stopped doing things just because they were enjoyable.
- All because I thought I could live without them.
- I got into that fancy private school on a full-ride, got the Ph.D., got the license, and got the stable job.
- And I became so entrenched in this serious, hard-worker identity that I forgot about me.
All the things I thought I could live without all these years came flooding back.
I filled pages upon pages with illustrations, I made up rhymes and stories, I felt free, I could probably go on living without this, but now I see that I don’t have to.
- Pursuing this didn’t need to make me a cent.
- It was always about joy, and that’s not something I want to live without anymore.