My creative pursuits

Over the past 2 years (let's just say since COVID started) I have been pursuing more "creative hobbies". I started this blog, a podcast and am now posting on TikTok. Yes that's a lot of things to be doing in my spare time. This is in addition to the other things I do such as reading, baking and you know working out. This blog aims to synthesize my goals with these various pursuits.

Health

These are activities I do to be healthy, be it mentally or physically.

• I read to escape my daily stress. This is why I only read fiction to start with as it aided the escapism. However, more recently I have started reading non fiction as well. While I don't read self help books, I do think that non fiction informs me about the world so that I can choose to make better informed decisions which might be healthy in the long term.
• Surprising addition here, but I also bake for my mental health. My job is nebulous, I sit around in meetings for a large part of the day and at times it feels like I didn't achieve anything. Following baking instructions to the letter definitely helps me feel productive. It also allows me to fail in a relatively low stakes space. :P
• This blog is also a way of checking in on myself and my various projects and thoughts. It allows me to be organized which does help my mental health.
• Don't worry I do workout as well, I currently have an inconsistent running and weights routine. However, I do want to start hiking once I have a car and can access different hiking routes. This will truly turn me into a Bay area resident :P

Side Hustles

These are activities I am trying out with the aim of monetizing them. I am a Product Manager at Google so I definitely earn enough, however, I do want to see if I have a monetizable side hustle. I don't know what I will do with these hypothetical earnings (most probably donate them) but I do want to see if I can monetize any of my side hustles. What are these side hustles?

• This blog: This blog isn't monetized right now, but once I do get high readership I do want to monetize it via ads or subscription.
• My podcast: Once my podcast reaches a terminal number of listeners I do want to monetize it with ads.
• My TikTok presence: The goal here is to definitely create a monetizable presence. If I am to post once a day, I want to make sure that I am rewarded for that time in some way.
• I do want to create more monetizable ventures when I am able to carve out the time. For now I have my eggs in 3 baskets and I don't have the bandwidth to take on more.

So those are my two main reasons for pursuing all my hobbies. Over time, I will be adding more health and financially motivated activities. At that point, I will be sure to update this blog :)