Full disclosure: I’m currently deep in a mahjong phase and just joined an aqua therapy class (where I’m easily the youngest person in the pool by 20 years). So when I read Corrie LoGiudice’s latest, it hit close to home — but maybe not in the way you’d expect.

Corrie doesn’t do polished-and-safe, and here she names something most high-performing women won’t say out loud: hobbies come with a complicated kind of guilt. If it’s not monetized or productive, it can feel indulgent to spend time on it — and if you don’t have a hobby at all, that comes with its own shame, like something’s wrong with you for having “no life outside work.” Corrie says both of those things can be true, and neither one has to be a problem.

Because here’s her permission slip: if your work genuinely energizes you, she argues, it is your hobby — and you don’t owe anyone an apology for not having a side project.

But Corrie doesn’t stop there, and this is the part worth sitting with: she’s also clear that “no life outside work” can be a real problem — specifically, when you’re depleted or your performance is slipping. So she walks through four practical questions she uses to figure out what would actually restore her, from what excited her as a kid to who she’s craving connection with right now.

I ran through them myself, actually. What calms me down? Puzzles and games — hence the mahjong. What did I love as a kid? I swam competitively every summer, which is probably why aqua therapy felt less like starting a new hobby and more like coming back to an old one. Try the questions on yourself — you might find your answers are already sitting in your past.

Read the full article here.

P.S. — Corrie’s keynoting the Women in Print Alliance Annual Networking Luncheon this September, where she’ll unpack all five “Overwhelm Culprits” (this insight is just one). If you’re attending PRINTING United Expo, be sure to grab your ticket for a seat at the luncheon to hear the rest in person.