Written by What has gotten you through the past year? Have you taken up baking sourdough bread or nurturing a small jungle of houseplants?
According to psychologist Adam Grant, many of us have been in a state of languishing. We’re not depressed or burned out, but just feeling joyless and aimless. The cure lies in finding an activity that puts you in a state of “flow,” where you immerse yourself in a challenge—a project.
The key is to find activities that are meaningful to you. Often the best ones to take up are ones that connect you to your past. Write down a list of things you enjoyed doing when you were younger that you haven’t done in years. Sort them by how happy they made you and go from there.
Green Bay Packer quarterback and reigning NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers is really a nerd. He spent his time on lockdown binge-watching Jeopardy! episodes preparing himself for his gig as guest host, which aired earlier this month. He did a great job, and his run saw an increase in the show’s ratings. You can tell Rodgers is very interested in being the full-time replacement for Alex Trebek by watching his Instagram broadcast with his fiancee and Big Little Lies star, Shailene Woodley. I hope he gets it.
Rodgers is a natural in front of a camera, as he has demonstrated for years pitching State Farm insurance to us. It’s not uncommon for quarterbacks to be great on TV. Peyton Manning was great on SNL. Tony Romo was an immediate hit in the broadcast booth and is a little nerdy himself. However, he isn’t in the same league as Rodgers. His avatar on Instagram is Obi-Won Kenobi. Before hosting Jeopardy!, he was a contestant on Celebrity Jeopardy!, where he beat “Mr. Wonderful” Kevin O’Leary and former astronaut and now U.S. Senator Mark Kelly. He made brilliant references to SNL’s Turd Ferguson Jeopardy! sketch both as a contestant and host.
I went to high school in the 1980s. There were clear boundaries between the social groups with almost no overlap, just like characters in The Breakfast Club. The guys who played sports were “jocks” and were popular, and the nerds who wrote about them in the school newspaper were not. Like this guy:
The contestants’ response to a layup question on the Packers looks shows the jock-nerd separation still exists. Maybe having a star quarterback with a 130 IQ score as the host of Jeopardy! can help bridge the divide. Rodgers will have to beat LeVar Burton, Ken Jennings, and many other contenders for the gig. If Jeopardy! goes with someone else, they probably will be more disappointed with their pick sixteen years from now than Rodgers. Ask the San Francisco 49ers.
Regardless of whether he is hosting Jeopardy!, it is clear that Rodgers is already planning his second act after he completes his football career. He indeed is not languishing in his first act and has several years left to go. However, his interests appear to go far beyond football. The preparation and execution of his temporary hosting role provided a meaningful connection to an alternate passion that provides a necessary balance to the grind of his football career.
Many of us get stuck in the grind of our careers and are languishing or even burned out. Engaging in an activity that reignites your passion is helpful. It’s not necessary to quit your job. Take it on as a hobby. Grant wrote a book called Give and Take that was a game-changer for me. Grant classifies people as either being “givers,” “takers,” or “matchers.” Most people are “matchers,” meaning that they will do something for you if you do something for them. “Givers” are both the most and least successful people. The difference was those who didn’t take time to do things for themselves burned out.
Our culture puts a tremendous amount of demand on people’s time. Work demands are increasing, even though many are working from home. Many people my age are taking on the burdens of supporting aging parents when they thought they would have free time as their children have moved out of the house. Most of those caught up in a mode of constant giving will say that there is no time to take up an old hobby. They are too busy. The reality for many is that you may not have time not to.
“Writing about sports” was on my list. So was swimming, golfing, listening to music, cooking, and a few other things. I, too, have learned how to bake bread and bought a couple of plants this year. Anything to keep from languishing.
What’s on your list?