🏁 Axios Finish Line: Hard hobbies

Plus: What do you do for fun? | Monday, July 25, 2022

Open in app View in browser     Axios Finish Line By Mike Allen, Erica Pandey and Jim VandeHei ·Jul 25, 2022 Jul 25, 2022 Welcome back. Keep chatting with us at finishline@axios.com. Smart Brevity™ count: 469 words ... 2 minutes.     1 big thing: Why you should do things you're bad at Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios   We value excellence and success and productivity in our pursuits. But there's incredible merit in chasing hobbies you're not very good at. Why it matters: Doing hard things sharpens our minds and bodies — and keeps us grounded. Americans' fixation with perfectionism is chipping away at our mental health, Vox reports. Many of us don't pick up hobbies because we're afraid of being bad at them. We think that once we start something, we have to achieve great things in that field, author Tim Wu writes for the New York Times. It's not only OK — it's also good for us to do things purely for ourselves. Case in point: At the beginning of this year, I set a goal to run at least 10 miles a week, Erica writes. For anyone who runs with any regularity, it's an unimpressive goal. For me — someone who couldn't run a mile without stopping before the pandemic — it's a big one. I'm not a naturally gifted athlete. The miles I run are slow and steady, and I'm never going to be a champion runner. But sticking to my goal has vastly improved my mental and physical health. Most importantly, I'm much braver when it comes to challenging myself and trying even more new things. And I've found that runners who are a lot fitter and faster than I'll ever be respect me a great deal for even trying. There's a scientific case for this: As we've reported, pushing ourselves to learn new skills — whether mental or physical — has been linked to reduced risk of dementia as we age. Struggling, or even failing, is one of the most effective ways to overcome fear and boost creativity. And doing things that we're bad at teaches us to stay humble — and laugh at ourselves. On top of that, being OK with being bad at some things is great for peace of mind. "When you refuse to do anything you're not great at, what you're telling yourself is that you're only okay if you're perfect," therapist Aimee Daramus tells Well+Good. "That's going to lead to a lot of pain in life." The bottom line: If you love to do something, keep at it — even if it's hard and even if you're bad at it. Share this story.     A message from Axios 📈 Boost staff productivity with Axios' winning comms formula     Only 5% of staff make it past the first few lines of any written company update. Axios HQ's tech and templates help bring Smart Brevity® — our communications formula based on brain science — to life. Tune in on July 27 at noon ET to see how the tool is helping 300+ organizations transform staff, client, and other stakeholder communications.     🧶 Finish Line hobbies We want to hear from you! What's a new hobby you've picked up in life and stuck with, even if it's not your greatest strength? Send the activity, a sentence or two about why you love it, and your name and hometown to finishline@axios.com. We'll include a selection of your responses in a future edition of the newsletter.   Thanks for reading. Invite your friends to sign up. Are you a fan of this email format? It's called Smart Brevity®. Over 300 orgs use it — in a tool called Axios HQ — to drive productivity with clearer workplace communications.   Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. If you're interested in advertising, learn more here. Sponsorship has no influence on editorial content. Axios, 3100 Clarendon B‌lvd, Arlington VA 22201   You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from Axios. Change your preferences or unsubscribe here.   Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up now to get Axios in your inbox.   Follow Axios on social media: