May 6
Please Stop Trying to Monetize Everything
PSA: You’re allowed to do things for fun.
I guarantee if you’ve scrolled through TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook and probably even Instagram, you’ve seen someone telling you how to monetize this or that. Turn your hobby into a 6 figure business! Side hustles that take 30 minutes and pay more than your 9–5! Hustle! Work! Make money!
Now, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to hustle, make more money and monetize passions and ideas. I mean, here I am writing articles hoping to earn enough to fund my Starbucks addiction. But I also want to remind you that: you don’t have to monetize everything.
Our society is so deeply rooted in squeezing money out of every action we take, that we’ve lost touch with just having a hobby. I know I’ve fallen into this trap and it’s one that is extremely difficult to emerge from. This mindset prevents us from just existing for the sake of existing, creating for the joy of creating and learning to expand our horizons. It’s so tiring to approach each new interest or hobby with a price tag in mind. Maybe I just want to learn how to make pottery for the sake of sinking my hands into clay, spending 2 hours at a wheel and not on my phone, and let my mind rest.
Of course, I understand that bills need to be paid and we live in a time where just having a 9–5 is not sustainable enough (that’s a whole other think piece). This is not an attack on needing to make money to pay the bills. This is a request, a plea, a cry for help: please do something that’s just for fun, for you and your interests, your creative impulses, the broadening of your mind and because you love it.
