This is a phrase that has quietly escaped the world of video games and found its way into everyday life.
“I’m on my side quest.”
Spend enough time on social media, and you’ll find people using it to describe almost anything that exists outside the relentless pursuit of career milestones and major life goals. Someone learns pottery after work. Another takes up birdwatching. A lawyer spends weekends baking sourdough. A grandmother decides to study watercolor painting at 72. A college student begins photographing Manila’s old movie theaters simply because they’re fascinated by them.
None of these activities will necessarily earn a promotion, increase a salary, or become a business.
That’s precisely the point.
The internet has given this philosophy a name: side quest maxxing—the deliberate choice to invest time and energy in experiences that aren’t tied to productivity, status, or measurable success.
Like many online trends, the phrase is playful. It borrows the language of role-playing games, where players temporarily step away from the main storyline to explore the world, solve smaller challenges, or discover unexpected rewards before returning to the central mission.
Beneath the memes lies a surprisingly serious question.
What if constantly focusing on our “main quest” has made us forget how to live?
A Culture Obsessed With Optimization
Modern life encourages us to measure almost everything.
How many steps did you take?
How many books did you finish?
Then how many followers did you gain?
How productive was your morning?
Even leisure has become something to optimize.
Books become opportunities for personal branding. Exercise becomes content. Travel becomes evidence that we’ve traveled. Hobbies become side businesses before we’ve even had time to discover whether we enjoy them.
Psychologists have a name for this tendency: instrumentalization, the habit of valuing activities primarily for what they produce rather than for the experience itself.
It’s difficult to rest when every moment is expected to justify itself.
The Science of Doing Something “Pointless”
One of the most enduring findings in psychology is that human beings thrive when they experience intrinsic motivation, doing something because it is interesting, meaningful, or enjoyable in its own right.
Researchers Edward Deci and Richard Ryan, whose Self-Determination Theory has shaped decades of motivation research, found that people are generally more engaged and psychologically healthier when their activities are driven by curiosity, personal satisfaction, and a sense of choice rather than external rewards alone.
In other words, your evening spent learning the ukulele may matter precisely because it isn’t advancing your résumé.
Your Saturday gardening project doesn’t need to become an online business.
Your afternoon spent sketching in a café doesn’t require an audience.
Not everything meaningful needs to become profitable.
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The Forgotten Value of Play
Developmental psychologists have long recognized that play is essential for children.
Adults, however, often stop giving themselves permission to play.
The activities change, but the need does not.
Learning photography.
Growing orchids.
Restoring old furniture.
Collecting vinyl records.
Trying a new recipe simply because it looked interesting.
These pursuits stimulate creativity, encourage learning, and create opportunities for what psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi famously described as flow—the deeply absorbing state in which we become so engaged that our awareness of time begins to fade.
Flow has been associated with greater life satisfaction, improved well-being, and lower perceived stress.
Curiously, it often appears when we stop trying so hard to be productive.
Why Side Quests Can Strengthen Identity
One of the strengths of side quests is that they expand identity.
When life revolves around a single role—employee, student, parent, caregiver, entrepreneur—setbacks in that area can feel devastating because they threaten our entire sense of self.
Psychologists sometimes describe this as identity foreclosure, where too much of our self-worth becomes attached to one dimension of life.
Side quests gently loosen that grip.
You aren’t only an accountant.
You’re also someone learning to bake.
You aren’t only caring for aging parents.
You’re also someone who has discovered a love for astronomy.
You aren’t only preparing for the bar exam.
You’re also the person who volunteers at the local animal shelter every Sunday.
These identities don’t compete.
They strengthen one another.
Side Quests and Healthy Aging
Perhaps the funniest part of this trend is that many older adults have been practicing it long before Gen Z gave it a name.
Retirees who learn ballroom dancing.
Grandfathers who cultivate bonsai.
Grandmothers who suddenly become passionate about Korean cooking.
Neighbors who organize walking groups every morning.
People who collect stamps, restore vintage radios, raise orchids, or volunteer at the local parish rarely describe themselves as maximizing side quests.
They simply call it living.
Research on healthy aging consistently finds that meaningful hobbies, lifelong learning, volunteering, and strong social engagement are associated with better cognitive health, emotional well-being, and quality of life.
Today’s viral language is simply rediscovering an old truth.
Your Side Quest Doesn’t Need to Impress Anyone
The internet has a remarkable ability to turn even the most joyful activities into performances.
Before long, someone asks:
“Could you monetize that?”
“Why don’t you post it?”
“Have you thought about turning it into a business?”
Wonderful, indeed.
But don’t you agree that it quietly steals the very thing that made the activity restorative?
One of the healthiest side quests may be the one no one else ever sees.
The sketchbook that remains in your drawer.
Or the guitar you play only for yourself.
Perhaps the recipes shared only with family.
And the neighborhood walks that never become fitness content.
Private joy still counts.
And counts even more.
A Different Measure of Progress
Video games eventually return players to the main story.
Life does, too.
The deadlines remain.
The bills still arrive.
Children still need to be picked up from school.
The medical appointments don’t disappear.
Side quests are often what make responsibility sustainable.
Because somewhere between tending tomatoes, learning conversational Japanese, photographing old churches, or reading novels that no one assigned, we quietly become larger than our to-do lists.
That’s the point.
A well-lived life may also be measured by the unexpected roads we allow ourselves to explore along the way.
The main quest gives life direction.
The side quests often give it texture.
They become the stories we remember most.
*Photo by Earl Wilcox on Unsplash
References
- Self-Determination Theory — Edward Deci and Richard Ryan
- Research on flow — Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and subsequent researchers
- World Health Organization — healthy ageing and social connection
- National Institute on Aging — social engagement, cognitive health and healthy aging
- American Psychological Association — leisure, stress, motivation and well-being
- Peer-reviewed research on hobbies, leisure activities and psychological well-being
