Falling back in love with your interests

We can extract much more enjoyment from our existing hobbies than we might think. Every time an activity gets stale or I yearn for new experiences, I first try to approach an existing hobby from a new angle.

We can inform ourselves about new trends regarding our interests. Maybe there exist new ways to enjoy them. We can watch other people talking about them or showing their process. Other people's excitement can be contagious and can give us new inspiration for a different approach. A lot of my hobbies have to do with technical stuff, so there often is an endless ocean of customization and personalization out there for me to explore. The change doesn't have to be huge, because we just want to introduce a bit of diversion from the standard procedure to bring back some freshness, so we can recapture a part of that initial passion.

Maybe this helps us identifying with the hobby again, which will in turn immerse us in the activity. We can now view it from another perspective and learn that there are many facets we probably still haven't considered. Some kind of novelty is key here so that it can feel like a fresh endeavor, even if only in parts.

I like the thought of diving deep into my interests. You can go wide and shallow or narrow and deep. Going deep has the advantage of at some point achieving mastery or a deeper flow state, which can be very rewarding. It's easier for me not to constantly switch contexts, and avoid having many other activities in the back of my mind fighting for my attention.