As moms who want to have hobbies and do things they love we get bogged down with notions that we have to monetize our hobby, or that we have to be exceptional at it. We almost use these as measurements to determine if this hobby is 'worth it' in the time, energy, and money it could involve. 

I want to pitch the Joy of Being Mediocre and how it can unhook the hustle from the hobby and allow enjoyment to come into the hobby rather than expectation. 

Full episode transcript is available at the end of this post

 
Monetizing hobbies
We are living in an age where we are constantly consuming images, captions, and videos of people creating amazing things. 

We are also connecting the dots that it is their industry as well

Modern career advice tells us to follow our passions and turn our hobbies in jobs. 

But there a flip-side to this industrialization of our hobbies:  our hobbies don't NEED to be monetized, and (gasp) we don't even need to be that great at them. 

 
How we have lost touch with our passions and our hobbies
Over the years we see a trend of learning that The Best being the ones who get the praise and we need to fade back into the shadows.  Then we pour ourselves into our jobs where we find 'success'. 

Then we turn to hobbies to find some satisfaction in our lives - and we set ourselves up for frustration because we just want to be GREAT at it, NOW.  When we are great at it, then we tell ourselves it is 'worth it'

 
What is 'worth the effort' when it comes to pursuing hobbies as a mom?
This is especially tricky for moms. What is 'worth it' as a mom who wants to spend time, money, and energy on her hobbies.  We measure 'worth it' by how WONDERFUL we are at it and how likely it is we could monetize it. 

 
Letting go of the pressure to hustle our hobbies
Enjoyment is available of pretty much anything when we give ourselves the freedom 'hobby without the hustle'. 

When we let go of that hustle, we welcome in relaxed enjoyment. 

Being mediocre is the cost of getting skilled at something, so we might as well enjoy it

 
Being a mom who 'tries things' that she is not 'good' at
My kids have witnessed me, over the years, being very mediocre at various pursuits. And, most importantly, not being mad about it or deciding to quit trying new things. 

 
Reasons why someone might be out of touch with their hobbies/interests/passions:

They want to be good at it
They need a lot of instruction on how it has to look so they can check the boxes that they are ‘doing it right’
They don’t feel confident to try
They don’t want to commit, out loud, cause then they might feel pressured to actually do it
They aren’t sure if it will be ‘worth it’ - for whatever kind of outcome they are using to measure what make it ‘worth it’
And they have lost touch with what would be interesting to them, they stopped listening to themselves and the weird and wonderful way they are made to experience their life

 
Ways to get in touch with what is interesting to you:

What did you love to do as a kid?
What do you always say you want to try? (what supplies have you bought over the years and never used them?)
What looks interesting this season?
What are you pinning on pinterest?

 
A side note about secretly hoping you can monetize your hobby
If you have the secret motive that 'maybe I could monetize this' I encourage you not to sit on the fence and actually decide if you want to go ALL IN and build it a busines...