atelic activities

From a website for Stoics:

Telos in Greek means purpose, or goal. Telic activities vary from fairly difficult and unusual ones, like making it into the Olympic squad for a particular sport or writing a book, to the more common ones of getting a college degree or obtaining a promotion at work. The problem with telic activities is that they generate a paradox: if you fail, you are unhappy because you failed. But if you succeed, then the pleasure you got from reaching your goal is extinguished right at the moment you do achieve it, or shortly thereafter...

Atelic activities are done for their own sake, not in order to achieve a particular end. For instance, in case you go out for a walk just because you like walking. Or if you play a sport not because you want to become a professional, impress others, and the like, but because you like it. The activity is its own reward. And — unlike the telic case — it’s potentially endlessly renewable.

Telic vs atelic activities, and the meaning of life | by Figs in Winter | The Startup | Medium

Here's a nice essay on the subject:

Amazing Atelic Activities - Allen Pike

This is from Oliver Burkeman - on the value of play:

This is the paradox at the heart of play: it has many positive effects, but it’s only really play if you do it, primarily, for itself – for the joy of engaging in the activity – otherwise, it risks making life less enjoyable. Walking in the park on an autumn day can be blissful, but if you’re wearing an exercise monitor hoping to attain your 10,000 daily steps, it’s all too easy to become focused on that target, instead of the experience, and to see the walk as a chore.
To increase life’s playfulness, we need more of what philosopher Kieran Setiya calls ‘atelic activities’ – pursuits that have no end goal.
Ask yourself what you enjoy, despite – or even because of – the fact that you’re not much good at it. As a writer, if I were to attempt to produce a novel, I couldn’t treat it as play; I’d be unable to stop myself hoping it might be a bestseller. But I love playing the piano – banging out classic Elton John songs – precisely because I never need worry about getting good enough to perform, as my friends and family will confirm.
‘By taking off the pressure of having to excel at or master an activity, we allow ourselves to live in the moment,’ says Karen Rinaldi, author of It’s Great To Suck At Something (Simon & Schuster, £20.76). You can stop trying to be the best, and instead just… be.

The psychology of play: How to play as an adult | Psychologies

Here he is talking about how to be a bit more playful in managing life:

Mary Oliver: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

Existential Time Management with Oliver Burkeman

And this is from the author of the regular 'Stone' column in the New York Times, looking at the idea of 'durée' or time standing still - especially in these pandemic times:

Opinion | Time Isn’t Supposed to Last This Long - The New York Times

So, when it comes to learning a language, you're never going to 'perfect' it - so, why not just enjoy the doing of it? 

The pleasure of learning languages

The Pleasure of Reading in a Foreign Language - LearnOutLive

The secret science of joyful language learning - why feeling happy helps you learn better - Joyoflanguages

Sex and language learning: as pleasurable as each other?

12 Wicked Fun Ways to Learn Any Language

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