As a young adult, I had a very difficult time figuring out how to make my intellectual and professional life meet up with my fun, vibrant, and creative spirit. I lost track of the things in my life that I had enjoyed as a kid and young person because almost all of my time was now scheduled. If you had asked me a couple of years ago what things I was passionate about or enjoyed, I would not have known what to tell you.
I had been so focused on getting through school and finding a good job that I forgot what I actually enjoyed doing.
Luckily, it’s through trials that we tend to grow and learn the most about ourselves. Several years ago, I was working at a job that took up a lot of my mental energy. Finally, I had enough and chose to work for a less stressful company that was closer to my home making quite a bit less money.
Although most of my friends and family didn’t understand why I did what I did, I knew that I had to give myself a break to figure out what I really wanted to do with my life. During this time, I was able to work, come home, and not even think about work again until the next morning. I had essentially 16 hours a day to just relax and figure out what I liked again.
With this free time, I ended up reviving some of my old dreams of running my own business. After a lot of research, I joined an MLM in the fitness industry. I thought that this would be a great way to both get in great shape and make money at the same time.
I worked so hard, but I figured out that I liked working out but I didn’t particularly like the work that I was doing for the business. Of course, this took me over a year to figure out, but it taught me some valuable lessons:
- You can try as hard as you want, but if you don’t like what you are doing, you just won’t get as far as you would if you did enjoy it.
- Overworking is counter-productive
- If you let go and trust that everything in your life is leading you to something perfect for yourself, the pieces really will fall into place
Once I finally admitted that I wasn’t enjoying what I was doing, I did end up quitting. It took me a while to get to the point where I realized it was better to let go of all of the hard work that I had done instead of hanging on and trying to make that business a “success.”
At this point in time, I found myself with a lot more free time. To my surprise, I found myself truly enjoying not having anything to do.
I realized that the pressure I had put on myself was not healthy and I started trying to remember what used to make me happy.
As a kid, I had always wanted to be an artist. I used to draw and make things every single day. Here is a photo of a necklace and earring set that I made when I was only about 10 years old.
No joke. This is the type of stuff I would really get in the zone while doing. I also, of course, used to crochet with my grandmother and still had a lot of yarn and hooks that she had given me over the years.
So I began to poke around on YouTube and Pinterest. I ended up finding a pattern of a stuffed cactus, and since I absolutely love plants, I decided to see if I could figure out how to read the pattern to make it.
I used a hook and yarn that I already had in my stash (a stash which has now grown exponentially!) and just began searching all of the terms that I didn’t know or couldn’t remember from crocheting as a child.
It was absolutely not perfect, but I was so proud of myself for actually starting to make, again. It felt really good to end up with a finished product that I could use to decorate our condo.
For the first time in a while, I felt my chest expanding with the excitement of possibility.
More and more ideas began to come to me and I started working on new projects and doing things that I didn’t think I would ever do again.
And it all felt so natural.
I wasn’t forcing myself to achieve anything. I was just making for the enjoyment of it. It also didn’t hurt that the finished projects were so satisfying and fun to use and gift.
This was the first time I really realized that failure is not a bad thing. I didn’t succeed at something that I didn’t even really like doing. So maybe you can’t even categorize that as failure.
The second big thing that I learned is that the most beautiful and amazing things actually come from times when you are a bit bored or just have a lot of free time on your hands.
When you let your mind wander, that is when truly exciting ideas will just come to you. Because of the fact that I took time to just be and reflect on my past, I rediscovered something that makes me really happy.
And that is the reason that I want to share my love of crochet with you. You and I live in the same world of jobs, commutes, social media, distractions, and just generally sometimes having to do things that we really don’t like. The beauty of crocheting and making with your hands is that the world seems to stop for a while. Everything slows down and it becomes like a meditation.
If you are already an avid crocheter, you probably know what I am talking about. If you are just starting out, I really hope you will find out what that is like very soon.
Even though things didn’t work out the way that I thought they would, because I gave myself the chance to slow down and figure out what I really enjoy, they turned out even better.
In this world of schedules, obligations and people trying to get and keep your attention, it is a beautiful thing to take time away just for yourself. Don’t be afraid of things not working out the way that you think that they should. Your hard work and investment of time will be much more effective when you are doing what you enjoy.
Not to mention that as far as we know, this life is finite. Every single day you should do at least one thing that is just for plain fun and enjoyment!
