Empower Yourself with These Insights to Pick the Right Hobbies for You.

I often come across people asking about hobbies — How to choose/pick them, How to develop them, and How to sustain with them, and many questions like that.

My intention for this article is to ensure you walk away with a crystal clear understanding of what a hobby is and how you could reflect on it for yourself. You can choose the right hobbies for you. I shall share some good examples as well as much as possible so you could relate to it effectively.

Let’s take a look at the definition of Hobby — an activity done regularly in one’s leisure time for pleasure.

A hobby is something that you do regularly, most of the times, different from your profession/work and day to day routines. For example, a home-maker may consider cooking, washing clothes, buying groceries as routines. A professional worker may consider going to the office, working on projects, attending meetings as routines of the day. Please note that a very routine activity for someone may become a hobby for someone else. For example, I don’t cook in general, but I may find cooking a hobby. Similarly, gardening as well.

So, one needs to do something apart from routines, either physical or creative, through which one can find pleasure, happiness, relaxation, essentially rejuvenation.

What could be your hobbies? Well, anyone could share 100s of examples for a hobby. I would say it is you who should take time to explore and find what can work best for you and can make you happy.

If you google, you will get plenty of examples. That’s one way to see what appeals to you.

Few good examples are Painting, Drawing, Playing an Instrument, Playing a sport, Reading, Writing, Singing, Community Services, Cooking, Gardening, and Outdoor Activities like Hiking.

Let’s get into factors to consider when you get ready to pick a hobby for yourself.

Time Commitment: This is the most critical aspect for anyone when they are considering picking a hobby. Look into your average daily schedule and find out how much time or where in the day you have a slot that you could spare for yourself in spending time towards your hobbies. For example, when I decided to do walking as a hobby for me, I decided to do it in the morning as a first activity. I did not have early morning calls or meetings. I had a nearby park available to walk down in 5 min. It helps to find a nearby location if you are picking an outdoor hobby.

Over time, you may see different hobbies could work out in parallel based on your time availability on weekdays or at the weekends. I generally read more on the weekends than on weekdays.

Creative or Physical: Naturally, people are unique and different from each other. Some may like physical activities, and some may enjoy creative activities. So, you need to know what appeals more to you based on your past experiences and knowledge about yourself.

If you seem to struggle in this area, the best thing to do is try experimenting with ideas. Humans discover more when they act or when they get into action. Experimenting will lead you to understand your natural liking, tendency and will help you find the right hobbies.

For example, I never thought writing could be a hobby for myself. I tried writing a decade ago about one of my travel that was the starting point of my writing journey. Slowly over time, I have discovered that writing is something that I enjoy and have kept as one of my hobbies.

Cost involved: As with anything, hobbies could come free of cost or at cost. Based on how much you could spare and what budget availability you have, you could choose your hobbies as well.

For example, reading is one of the easiest and free of cost hobby. If you have a computer/mobile with the internet, you could read so much out there. Local libraries are available if you don’t have a laptop or mobile device.

Another Example: While I started walking with one of the shoes that I already had, when I started walking, investment was zero. But when walking turned into running for me, I invested in buying quality shoes to enhance my running as a hobby.

Hobbies for professional reasons: This is one thing good to consider when you pick a hobby. When we start with hobbies, we choose them to find joy and happiness and keep it separate from our professional boundaries. But over time, what I have discovered for myself is, when we love our hobbies, they offer us the potential to turn our hobbies into a profession. How beautiful it is when our hobbies become a rewarding profession, so we can live our passion.
For example, I picked running as a hobby. Over time, with my love of running as a sport, I went on to become a certified running coach and have been able to help train people.

For example, I picked running as a hobby. Over time, with my love of running as a sport, I went on to become a certified running coach and have been able to help train people by making it a profession.

Final Thoughts

Being thoughtful about picking your hobbies is very critical because hobbies have the potential to transform us into great human beings. It is about changing our behaviors over time, improving our skills, building our discipline. These are foundational work that has the power to help us see our full potential.

Remember these four insights about choosing hobbies. There could be more, but these four are great to start with.

How much time you can devote?

Is there a cost?

Is the hobby physical or creative?

Could the hobby become a profession?

So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and pick your hobbies and expand/enrich your life.