A great deal of us are undoubtedly slaves to the system, working our days away with people we don’t really care for, doing things we would never choose to do if it wasn’t for the nagging impetus of mandatory obligations. In reality, it is how we spend our recreation time that truly defines us.
Try not to get caught up in concern as you recall countless hours spent on Facebook. That time is lost, but no worries. You can file those guilty pleasures away in your “leisure time” folder. What I’m talking about is recreation time, which entails a good deal of exertion on your part. Essentially, this is the time you spend engaged in things that are both exhausting and exhilarating. You do them for fun, not for pay, unless you’re lucky like me. In high school, I played in two Youth Symphonies, performed in plays and practiced for sometimes 8 hours a day. All of this I did without a paycheck. Now, as a professional violinist, I am still doing what I would be doing regardless of financial gain.
On this note, I was pleased to find a number of 'Part Time Scientist' communities popping up. Getting four professional degrees will surely not harm your chances at success, but it won’t offer satisfaction unless you pursue it for pleasure rather than profit. Incredible crowd sourcing tools like Foldit have allowed hundreds of “non specialist” online users to solve protein structures that have long stumped scientists. Do a bit of digging on Sue Hendrickson (the woman who unearthed the largest T-rex) and you’ll find she was nothing more than an amateur paleontologist before her big find. Leadbeater and Miller coined a new term for this type of person, “A Pro-Am pursues an activity as an amateur, mainly for the love of it, but sets a professional standard.”
Obsession, love, passion. Fiery emotions lead to remarkable results. This is no secret, but somehow we manage to forget it on a regular basis. The comforts of predictable patterns and routines are alluring in the present, yet so damning over time. We become absorbed by our daily toils and forget to reflect on why we are really here. We exist not to make a living, but to live.
*Ken Robinson’s bestseller, The Element, is largely responsible for the ideas I have expressed in this post.
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