Is Taking Lessons for a Hobby Uncool?
This post was automatically translated by AI from the Japanese original.
Lately I noticed I have a strange belief.
It’s this:
“Taking lessons for a hobby = uncool”
I seem to have assumed that if I really love something, I should be able to work at it on my own!
When I think about what I want to try in life, I think there are two kinds:
#1 things I can enjoy just by experiencing them in the moment
#2 things that take time and step-by-step improvement
(There may be others, but what I want to do fell into these two broad groups.)
For #1, for example:
- I want to read novels
- I want to go to a hot spring
- I want to eat delicious food
and so on.
Someone wrote the novel, and the people at the inn provide the hot spring service.
All I have to do is receive it and enjoy it.
For #2:
- I want to draw
- I want to try composing music
- I want to play and sing
and so on.
These aren’t things someone gives you to enjoy. They’re things that become fun when you start moving and work at them yourself.
As my everyday mood became steadier and calmer, the things I wanted to do shifted from “#1 things someone does for me, done in one go” to “#2 things I do myself, a process.”
First, I tried what I could do right away at home.
For drawing, I sketched illustrations in a notebook.
For composing, I wrote down a one-phrase tune I’d hummed as sheet music.
For playing and singing, I touched an instrument. Or just sang.
It was fun, like going back to being a kid and playing around,
but just doing that felt somehow unsatisfying.
I’ve never done music, and my drawing is at the level of a child’s doodles.
A desire to aim higher came up: “I want to draw prettier pictures,” “I want to play freely.”
I want to taste going from can’t to can, and I want to feel satisfied with what I made: “Aww, it’s so cute 😍” or “This is so good ❣️”
Then I realized I’d need practice and study.
That’s when this resistance showed up:
“What about taking lessons for a hobby?”
“If you really love it, shouldn’t you be able to learn it on your own?”
If it leads to work, there’s a benefit to spending money on it.
But for a hobby, do I really spend that much money?
In my head:
Growing at work, studying
Things that lead to health
↓
OK to spend money on
My own enjoyment
Hobbies
↓
No need to spend that much
That’s what I’d been thinking.
Because I couldn’t tell what it would lead to, I felt a strong resistance to taking lessons in something I was just interested in.
I asked myself why I didn’t want to spend money, and I noticed the beliefs I was holding:
“I should be able to do it without spending money.”
“Being taught by someone means it’s not real love.”
There are people who say things like: “I loved drawing and got better.” “I loved touching music and, before I knew it, I could play.”
Because they love it, they get interested on their own, they move, and they improve by teaching themselves.
That’s the “real” love, like people with talent.
What’s more, even “teaching yourself” had a line drawn somewhere.
Looking things up in books or on YouTube → OK, because I’m learning actively on my own
Going to a school or being taught by a teacher → NG, because someone is teaching me
Books and YouTube videos are made by someone, too, and someone is teaching you through them, so this logic makes no sense.
Because of that odd belief, for both illustration and instruments, I tried to get good by relying on the free information scattered around the internet and on YouTube.
But I couldn’t find information that suited me, I couldn’t keep up with the level of the content, and I didn’t feel I was growing, so I didn’t keep going.
I thought: there’s no need to make it so strangely hard.
Lessons might cost money.
But in the same amount of time, I might pick up more.
Going to lessons might also keep me motivated to continue.
To be able to do what I want to do, I can just add training wheels that work for me.
I can put as much energy into hobbies as I like, and spend more money and time on them too.
I decided to give myself permission.
▼ A later post about quitting the piano lessons I’d been taking
