barrettchase.com

barrettchase.com
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Wed, 23 Mar 2011

J: There weren't very many photos from your trip on Facebook. Didn't Barrett take any photos in L.A.?

C: No. He kind of runs hot and cold with his hobbies. He gets interested in something for awhile, then loses interest when he discovers something else. Then he picks it up again.

J: So what is he interested in now?

C: The Sopranos.

This is true. But it's also worse than that.

Sometimes, I think of all my hobbies, interests, and creative endeavors in a sort of hierarchy of procrastination. At the top of the pyramid are the things I am actually good at, along with things that are good for me. In other words, these are the things that I should be doing with my free time, things that either expand my horizons and/or lead to growth in some important aspect of my life. Reading and writing are in this category, along with some other highly rewarding things like photography.

Also here are things that I don't necessarily enjoy, but are very important. House projects fall under this category, and they take up a lot of the same kind of creative energy and time.

Underneath that, however, are things that I'm merely interested in. These are less advocations and artistic endeavors and are more along the lines of hobbies. Included here are artforms that I'm not actually good at, but are still fun to try out. For example, awhile back I really got into baking my own bread from scratch. Fun, yes. And healthy. But not really necessary. Mainly, I just wanted to try it, and while I do enjoy eating fresh bread, I don't really need to bake it every other day.

At the very bottom are random media interests like the above-mentioned Sopranos marathons. I never watched The Sopranos when it was actually on. (Well, I caught a random episode here and there but I didn't know the storyline or details about the characters or anything like that.) Another thing I've been getting into lately is contemporary music videos.

So what happens is, I get into B so I don't have to do A. Then I get into C so I don't have to do B. Then I get into D so I don't have to do C. What makes all of this stupid is that A is something rewarding that I really enjoy. Hell, so are B and C for that matter.

But procrastination is so addictive that I dream up all kinds of ways to avoid doing fun, enjoyable things. Ultimately, it doesn't even matter, because it's my free time and I shouldn't feel guilty for spending it one way rather than another.

For some reason, though, I do.

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