in defense of dabbling
As 2025 dawned, I realized that for the first time in over a decade, I wasn’t facing any crushing work responsibilities: no immediate speaking engagements, no book deadlines, and all of my coaching sessions were wrapping up. For the first time in a long time, I was free to decide how I wanted to fill my days.
In the past, I likely would’ve panicked. I would’ve frantically looked for ways to bring in some income, worried that my quiet schedule indicated, to a certain extent, irrelevance. (This panic, by the way, is why it has been so long since I’ve had a break from responsibilities.) But this time, I decided to lean into the quiet and treat myself to a semi-sabbatical: looking at the first ten weeks of the year, I decided that instead of worrying about work coming in, I would protect those weeks from any large projects, and instead, prioritize intentional amateurism. In between the few responsibilities that I have, I would fill my free time with activities that I love to do, purely for the love of doing them. For me, this means focusing on things like making bad pottery and shooting bad videos.
This might sound like I’m twiddling my thumbs or being idle, but I’d argue that even if that were the case, it would still be worth it: after all, you’ve likely heard me extol the virtues of a weaving a cadence of rest into our lives. But honestly, there’s more.
When writing my upcoming book on intentional amateurism, I stumbled upon research that indicates that doing something purely for the love of doing something — even if you suck at it — is good for our well-being. Intentionally injecting joy into our lives in the form of a beloved hobby or avocation helps enhance our intellectual health. When we do it in community, it improves our social health. It can even boost our spiritual health. Doing what we love — just for love’s sake — allows us to practice mindfulness, tap into curiosity, expand our comfort zone, and even access everyday awe and transcendence. By doing this as a committed practice, it helps ensure that we … well, continue becoming.
Anyway.
All this to say that during my little semi-sabbatical, I’m hoping to make a habit of my intentional amateurism, so that it becomes second nature when things do get busier. I want to hone this practice into a cadence of joy, because a cadence of joy, I think, is the secret sauce to thriving.
So my wish for all of us this week is that we all take some time — not a lot of time, necessarily, but some time — to do something we love, purely for the love of doing it. During that time, let’s be total amateurs. Because that’s certainly where we’ll joy.
On a related note …
Last week, my lovely editor Valerie surprised me with some happy news: my book is now available for preorder! So without further ado, I’m thrilled to present:
In Defense of Dabbling: The Brilliance of Being a Total Amateur will be coming to a bookstore near you this Fall 2025! I’m very proud of this little book, and it was so fun to write: I dabbled in several activities as part of the process, from astrophotography (!) to surfing (!!), and I interviewed folks who do everything from automata-making to hummingbird-habitat-building (!!!). The beauty of the whole experience was learning about all these lovely ways that people create joy and transcendence in their own lives — and in a year that promises so much challenge, the ability to curate and cultivate joy damn near feels like a superpower.
If doing a deep dive into how you can create this sort of self-transcendence in your own life sounds appealing, you can now preorder the book — for yourself or (and?) a friend who you know might need a bit of inspiration in bringing joy into their lives. Preorders mean everything to an author, so if you do grab a copy, I’d be really, really grateful. You can order from Amazon, of course (yes, even in the UK!), but don’t forget your favourite independent bookstore, either (just choose your favourite local store before check-out). And if you’d like to pre-order a signed copy, here’s a link to my local bookstore — when the book becomes available, I’ll run over and sign your copy, and they’ll ship it to you, wherever in the world you are!
Thanks so much, friends. I really hope you enjoy this one.
A little about the new book.