The main plot of life may look similar for many: Go to school. Get a job. Keep up with rent. Occassional vacation. Fall in love. Start a family. Watch the kids grow up. Retire. Enjoy remaining free time.
The main plot is going to take up the lions share of time for the majority of our lives. It often takes until retirement, when time becomes more abundant, for people to begin thinking about what other hobbies and skills they want to pursue to fill their days.
If work and personal obligations take up 12 hours of your day, how do you fill the remaining 12? After sleep, errands, and chores, this number may be down to only one or two free hours on a given day. Somedays even less.
This makes our true free-time a premium commodity. Despite the temptation watch tv or grab food & drinks with friends, our question is do you have a viable alternative?
This is where side quests come in. Side quests are the extracurriculars that are pursued during your spare time. The goal is to carve out real time for you that is memorable. Depending on the hobby or skill, the goal can be finding something new that helps with stress, challenges your brain, creates excitement, has practical benefits, and / or most importantly, gives you something to look forward to.
The Goal of Side Quests
While not all encompassing, we think of side quests as fitting into four buckets of hobbies / skills (below). See our broader list of Side Quests here
- Recreational: Hobbies you can pursue for fun on your own or with others. Examples include chess, poker, reading and sightseeing.
- Creative: Hobbies that allow you to explore your creativity outside of work. Examples include pottery, drawing, and piano.
- Practical: Hobbies that both give you a sense of accomplishment and useful skills. Examples include learning a new language, cooking, or crafting.
- Sports / Fitness: Hobbies that keep you in shape either physically or mentally. This includes both individual fitness activities such as yoga and running, as well as more recreational team sports, such as tennis and soccer.
We use hobby and skill interchangeably above, but how seriously you focus on one of the above is the true difference maker. This depends on the goal in mind and what will make the time invested most valuable to you.
For one, baking may be a soothing activity that allows them to carefully follow instructions and reliably create delicious goodies for friends & family. For another, baking might be an intense passion that culminates with an annual competition at the state fair.
Some people enjoy the thrill of learning new skills. They jump into any new activity handed to them, climb as fast as they can up the learning curve, and once the learning flattens out, they lose interest. Others meticulously choose one extracurricular skill that matches their interests and stick with it for life.
The main plot may not be linear, easy or predictable. Side quests bring stability and purpose to your weekly chaos. Whether you plan to be a recreational hobbyist or a jack of all trades, our goal is to help encourage you to continue to value your free time and reinvest it in yourself.
