Feeling anxious? You might want to keep up your side project.
The value of your own thing, when everything feels like it's falling apart
Good morning world!
It’s good to be back.
After an extended summer break, I’m back to this sweet corner of the internet, and also back to planning Season 4 of the Out of Hours Podcast. Thanks for sticking with me, and welcome to all the new subscribers since June, it’s great to have you here — please say hi!
Today, as the seasons turn, as the Great British Pound tumbles, and as the instability of the global economy looms, I want to take a moment to talk about uncertainty and fear. I want to go back to the basics and talk about why side projects are so crucial in an unstable and uncertain world — a time where they can seem the most trivial.
Side projects: control in an uncontrollable world
I’ve talked a lot about how I think side projects build self-efficacy (that elusive feeling of “you-can-do-that-thing-you-set-your-mind-on”) through mastery (getting better at certain things, or achieving small things). But I also think side projects offer something else: a sense of control in an uncontrollable world.
Whether it’s writing a newsletter, publishing a podcast, making candles, or making stationary/soap/[your-favourite-thing] - side projects provide something that you are in control of. You can go at the pace you want, you can learn what you want, involve whoever you want, and you are entirely responsible for the final product. It is a place - at least in the early stages - where things change often only if you change them.
Like replenishing your Sims’ green wellbeing diamond - side projects create a controllable way to build fulfilment: a self-development garden that you tend to. You set your own goals, and you decide whether you want to work on it today. It’s a reminder that the responsibility for fulfilment lies within you. Your joy will be impacted by - but is not the product of - your family, friends or partner. Your peace can’t be taken away by your boss, and it won’t be built only by external recognition. Fulfilment is in creating your own self-defined meaning.
Not everyone will agree with this existentialist ideal - but for those that do it can be empowering. I believe having a side project, or even just a hobby, allows you to jumpstart your internal environment by manipulating a small part of your external. Marcus Aurelius - well-known Stoic and Roman Emperor - famously said: “You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength”.
The side project is the practice ground for this strength. It’s your yoga mat, your running track, your theatre to rehearse. It isolates the variables, and forces you to take full responsibility.
Side projects won’t solve everything, but they may help
The low-stakes experimentation of side projects, in a seemingly high-stakes world, builds a robust non-attachment in us. But in this climate, getting round to starting and managing a side project is difficult. It’s especially difficult when you are facing very real financial stress. Creativity can be constrained when you are stressed about money on a daily basis, and even the best side project will not remove the very real concerns of paying rent.
I won’t pretend it will. But if you can find a slither of time or inspiration, what side projects can do - especially if you choose one that is free or very low cost - is create a sense of purpose, a sense of self-determination, and a sense that whatever happens you will at least have one tool to focus on and find meaning in the challenges. At the very least, it will stop you rewatching the news.
When under stress, people tend to either withdraw or endure, as HBR calls it: ‘buckle down and power through’ or distract. But turning to intrinsic motivations - like helping others or learning a new skill - really can help. It won’t solve the external situation, but it may make the layer-upon-layer worry stack that sits on top of it more diffused and manageable.
As Dave Potter - the founder of Palouse Mindfulness: the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction free programme - described it: pain is like a very salty cup of water. If you drank from the cup - it would be unpleasant, but if you were to throw the cup’s contents in a much larger body of water and then drink it, you’d barely taste the salt. Contextualising your pain or worry with other things - whether it’s how others feel, things you’re grateful for, or something you enjoy doing - like a side project - has very real effects on how you feel, and how much focus is on the pain.
So please keep working on your own small ideas. Not only because they may provide some solace in a stressful time - but also because small ideas are where world-changing ideas often begin, and we’ll need plenty of those too.
Let me know if you’re working on a side projects in the comments! And speak soon,
Georgia