Occasionally, every few years, I like to stop and take inventory of where I am and where I have been, and if the avenue that I have found myself on is one that I would like to continue in the future. One way that I do that is by reassessing my passions and what I enjoy doing and what makes me happy.
So often we find ourselves believing that what made us happy in the past continues to make us happy today and until we reevaluate that we realize that many of those things we haven’t even done or thought about in years.
Write a list of the things that you enjoy doing. How many of those things are on your list only because you still think of yourself today as you did two or five or ten years ago?
I enjoy climbing and hiking (more just being out in nature) and traveling (more on point, I’ve enjoyed taking micro-trips to towns and cities, parks, and interesting things within a few hours of wherever I’m living) and reading and writing and taking pictures and people watching and recognizing and talking about developing things: ideas, strategy, behavior in relation to people, business, other ideas etc.
Some of my interests and passions I haven’t really done in a while but as I continue to reevaluate them, I think about how the thought and memories of them make me feel now, and it becomes clear to me that they are things that I would still enjoy today. I used to boulder quite a bit both at climbing gyms and out following different climbing apps that mark spots that people have climbed. I have not climbed much in recent years, at least to that degree; sometimes I’ll go hiking and happen upon an interesting cliff face and scale it but I haven’t been to a climbing gym in some time and I haven’t made trips exclusively for climbing like I used to when I would travel down to Las Cruces, New Mexico and boulder outside White Sands (Las Cruces and El Paso, Texas have some of the best bouldering in the country, oddly enough).
One passion that I greatly enjoy and haven’t done much in the last couple of years is writing, still that is one that defines me more than most and writing too is one that is paramount to my happiness. With your help it’s long overdue to make the daily habit of it again.
What are some of your hobbies and passions and interests and what do you do to maintain and develop them, and do you struggle maintaining and developing them sometimes too?