When practicality eclipses purpose.
Approximately five years ago, there was a surge in hobbies. Across all social media, you'd find people who, for a week or a month, experimented with new hobbies or lifestyles. The concept of the "renaissance man" then re-emerged in popular vocabulary. If you weren't pursuing multiple disciplines at once, were you really maximizing your potential? Various influencers took the opportunity to sell their productivity courses, but is the problem of our growing identity crisis truly found in how we manage our time?
Today, it's easy to find people lamenting how they never became virtuous musicians or magnificent painters (among other things). And in part, I share that feeling of not knowing where to fit in, or rather, not knowing what to fit in with, because, what's the point? Why should I invest my time in X skill?
I tried to find a pattern, when and why I would abandon a hobby, and I concluded that they weren't useful enough. And that, in my subconscious vocabulary, means I wasn't gaining any monetary benefit. Worrying, isn't it? If I don't make money, if it's just for me, does it have no value? Is it not fun? I wonder how much of what I do, I do for incentives and not for the simple pleasure of doing it.
It's perhaps a pessimistic conclusion, but I believe I don't enjoy anything. That is, it's not that I suffer when I sit down to write or when I draw or pick up the saxophone again; it's that I feel... nothing. There's no excitement, no vocation, no emotion. Not knowing how to sit with my own discomfort is ruining my life, and I dare say, that of many others too. The normalization, in my opinion and from my Western perspective, of trying to avoid at all costs and demonizing negative emotions is a misstep. I'm not saying we shouldn't learn to cope with them, but it's not the same as bottling them up or letting them explode. There's a balance between being a victim and being responsible.
Okay, we all see the problem. What do I believe is the solution? If we get to the root of this issue, what we see is a void of values. I'm twenty years old, what would I know about such complex things? But hear me out: we are in political and economic crises in many countries, the concept of family has radically changed, men and women seem to be in a constant struggle, and from so many rules, red, green, black flags, we don't know where a friendship or relationship begins and where others' opinions end. The foundations of our society are shaking, and not all of us have our feet firmly anchored to the ground, and our eyes on purpose.
This is nothing new, but if we take the time to cultivate our own values, ones that work for us regardless of external validation or condemnation, we will be less unhappy. If we learn to sit with our constant feelings of loneliness, sadness, and insecurity, the stronger we will be. No one will shake our roots: not a president, not inflation, not our ex-partner or, on the contrary, the lack of a love life. And only then will we understand the value of perseverance and work.