The person returning to an old hobby may be recovering a self that work kept postponed.

Picking something up again after years is rarely about the activity alone. The instrument, the bike, or the paints belonged to a version of you that had time and did things badly without minding, and going back is a way of retrieving that person. Progress matters much less here than the fact of resuming.

If something you used to do keeps coming to mind, give it one short session this week without any goal attached. Being unpractised is part of the point, and it will pass more quickly than the reluctance to begin.