That's what I’ve been hearing since my late teens. People are into hobbies that make money. Somehow everything has to be monetized in the name of a hobby. And for as long as I remember I used to subscribe to that until I learned the clear distinction. Today, I can’t subscribe to the idea that a hobby has to be something that makes me money. A hobby is a hobby and a job is a job.

That concept should be simple right? But for someone like me who is currently finding her identity again, this simple thing can be a tedious chore to answer. And for as long as I remember, whenever I am asked what my hobby is, I was scrambling to find an answer. But not anymore which is another thing that I can be proud of to myself that I eventually know the answer to that simple question.

While there is a concept such as Ikigai, where it combines many things including something that we enjoy doing, still there are just certain things where it’s best as a hobby.

Almost everything that was considered my hobby was something that also made me money or played competitively. So, essentially they will stop being enjoyable and relaxing. Until I realized that among everything I’ve tried in this life, there’s one thing that I actually enjoy and never made money from. That is, swimming.

I can’t say I played competitively because that only happened when I was a kid. Yet throughout my entire adulthood, swimming remains something that keeps me grounded and happy. When typically my hobbies change, only swimming remains. I never really have to be forced to do it. I’d happily swim anytime and my dream is to have a house with a swimming pool 😂

Back in the day, I remembered that swimming was that one hobby that kept me going in life. There are many benefits I got from it and I even kickstarted my weight loss with it. Somehow, I stopped swimming until recently I started again. Then, I remembered how swimming always brought me joy and I just loved it after swimming. It’s as if my mind was being reset and I was as calmer as ever with so many good ideas inside my head.

Today, I went swimming again and I am not going to force it like before where I do it 5 times a week. I am going to only have fun and do it when I need to get away from all the stress that life has.

When I eventually realized this distinction, it became a lot clearer to me that some of the things I consider a hobby aren't actually a hobby. They were things that made me money because there was always a pressure to do well or be perfect. With swimming for example, I don’t care if I didn’t do it perfectly. I don’t have to even have the perfect posture to do backstrokes. There was that pure freedom doing it and even when I didn't do it, I wasn’t feeling pressured at all. I used to think writing was a hobby that pays but when I framed that, it became something I hated and the line got blurred. For as long as I remember, my job has always been in the line of creative work. I did writing, translation, copywriting and though it might seem like a hobby for some, to think in that same frame of mindset just didn’t work on me. When I made it clear what my hobbies vs what made me money, it eases up a lot of burden and feelings I used to have.

In the end, it’s okay to do things purely because we love it and not everything has to be monetized. We can simply love something and even if there’s a chance to be monetized, we can opt not to do that. As in the past for me, I kept thinking of ways to monetize my hobby but in the end, once a hobby becomes a job, that takes the fun out of it. While some people can still have fun with it, I just couldn't. So, that's why, now I just like them to be separate.

Did you ever fall into that trap?