A lot of what we do has a reason attached to it. We exercise because we want to be healthier. We take a class because we want to learn something. We clean the kitchen because apparently leaving dishes in the sink forever is frowned upon. Even our hobbies can quietly become projects. We track miles, count books, measure progress, post pictures, or try to get better at something that originally existed simply because we enjoyed it.
Adults are remarkably good at turning enjoyment into productivity. Read a book, and someone asks what you learned. Take a walk, and your watch tells you how many calories you burned. Make something, and eventually somebody suggests you sell it. We have gotten very good at asking what things are for.
But not everything worthwhile needs to accomplish something.
You can listen to a song because you like it. You can take the longer way home because the weather is nice. You can order the dessert, call someone just to say hello, doodle on a piece of paper, watch a terrible movie, or spend twenty minutes doing something you are objectively bad at.
There is a strange kind of freedom in doing something without needing to justify the return on investment. Enjoyment is allowed to be the return.
Maybe we don’t need to optimize quite so much. There should still be a little room in our lives for things that make absolutely no sense beyond the fact that we like them.
Do something pointless today.
Just make sure it is the good kind of pointless.
Today’s Prompt
What could you do today for no better reason than you would enjoy it?
