Doing things you love.

I mean, we talk a lot about doing things we love. Doing things we used to love as children, etc., etc. But when it comes down to it, we want to do something productive. We expect our actions to have meaning.

Have you ever thought: why does everything we do have to earn its existence?

I read this book called Sweet Bean Paste by Tetsuya Akikawa, where the characters want to do something that will make them a respectable member of a functioning society. A job, an act of service etc. As if being alive and living our lives is not enough.

And honestly, if you look at it, most of the time we are all judgmental. We judge people by their jobs, we judge ourselves by our jobs as well. It is so hard for people to describe themselves outside their jobs. OMG the sheer number of times I have said JOBS 😓

That pressure to be “useful,” “productive,” “respectable” is like an invisible performance review running in the background of life. Even joy gets audited. Even hobbies are asked, “But what is the outcome?”

Anyway, to improve your life you need to do one thing that makes you happy every day. It doesn’t have to be anything big. You just need to do it.
For example: I love trying out various braids with fun hair accessories, and it improves my life in ways that I cannot measure, because that makes me happy and when I am happy I tend to make people around me happy.

Another example is reading; if reading a few pages of fiction makes you happy, go ahead and do it. It doesn’t have to be a classic. You don’t need to read something that will change the way you think or anything.

One small improvement = one daily act of joy that doesn’t need justification.

How to go about this the JOMO way:

Create a no-purpose pocket in your day. 10-20 minutes. Protected like a workout slot. No outcome expected. Do things that make you feel like you, not your role.

So, what are you doing today?

Daily writing prompt

What’s one small improvement you can make in your life?

View all responses