If you’ve spent years immersed in school, work or other obligations, you might come out on the other side of all that not really knowing what to do with your leisure time. If you have friends who seem passionate about the things they love to do, it can make you feel even worse. Why don’t you have a burning passion for crafting, photography or running as well? The good news is that there probably are plenty of activities that you would love; it can just be difficult to switch out of that mindset you were in when you had to completely focus on raising young children or getting through your medical residency. The tips below can help you with finding your hobby as an adult you’ll love.
Get Organized
If you’ve been working 80 hours a week at a law firm or spending every spare moment getting your startup underway, you probably let some things fall by the wayside. Taking care of them now probably won’t lead you to new hobbies, but it will free you up from annoying distractions and give you a chance to take stock of your life. For example, how’s your living space? If the answer is something like chaotic, you might want to take a weekend to do a huge cleanup. Along the way, you might also find that old snowboard and remember how much you used to love hitting the slopes.
Organizing your finances will give you an idea of what you have to spend. For example, if you have multiple student loans with different due dates and various rates, you can research consolidation. Consolidating your student loans can mean you only have to worry about one payment per month. In addition, reducing unnecessary expenses like going out to eat or chopping the cable bill are ways to put your hard-earned income towards your hobby.
Ask Your Inner Child
What did you love as a kid? You may be surprised to find that you’re still as fascinated with space as you were when you were ten—and here’s where you’ll be glad for that financial organization because you’ll know if you can afford a telescope or a trip to the space center or if you should stick to visiting the local planetarium for a while instead. Maybe you liked painting, riding your bike or helping a parent cook. Whatever it was, that could be the key.
Lose Yourself
If nothing from your childhood resonates, what about now? You might have been absorbed in your responsibilities for a long time, but surely there was an hour or an afternoon here and there where you forgot about all those stresses. Maybe it was while you were out on a friend’s boat, or perhaps it was when your uncle was showing you around his woodworking studio. If you’re still coming up short, go ahead and give some different activities a try. If you are an especially driven person, you might find it difficult to do something just for fun. That’s also okay. If this is the case, think of something you’d like to improve about yourself, whether it’s a learning goal, a fitness goal or something else. Losing yourself can help you with finding your hobby as an adult.
About the Author/s
The New Jersey Digest is a new jersey magazine that has chronicled daily life in the Garden State for over 10 years.
