You need 5 hobbies

 

Why are hobbies important?

They provide us with opportunities to improve our way of life. Hobbies help to relieve stress and improve mental health. They give us opportunities to form friendships and bond with people who have the same interest as us.

What are hobbies?

In layman’s terms, hobbies are activities you do during your free time for enjoyment or to pass time.

In recent years people have started putting hobbies in categories, rather than just things we do to pass time. They have also updated the definitions for better clarification. By doing this, we get a clearer picture of how hobbies impact our quality of life.

There are numerous articles on the internet with 5 Hobbies Everyone Should Have for a Better Life and they all list hobbies in these 5 categories.

Hobbies to make you money. This is additional income, not income from your primary job. By turning a hobby into a source of income, you get extra money and amusement just from doing something you love and enjoy.

Examples for hobbies that can help you earn money are writing, singing, painting, photography, blogging, YouTubing, etc.

Many YouTubers, bloggers and writers have turned their hobbies into full time jobs.  So, why not me or you?

What I do. I’m working on my blog, mikeschronicles@blogspot.com. I haven’t decided yet if I want to try and make money off this or not. Mostly I write post on things that interest me.

Hobbies to keep you creative. Having a creative hobby is very important as it helps to improve brain function, concentration and provides stress relief. It allows you to get lost in what you are doing and truly live in the moment.

Examples of good creative hobbies are writing, painting, doodling, journaling, stitching, crochet, DIY crafts etc.

What I do. I have a daily journal, write short stories for my enjoyment and post for my blog. I am teaching myself to play guitar and recently started learning how to pencil draw. I mostly doodle and draw cartoon characters. It’s fun and I can do that anything and anyplace.

Hobbies to build knowledge. Learning should be a lifelong pursuit!

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson said, “I try to learn something new every day or else the day is wasted.”

In today’s world of the internet, learning is easier than it’s ever been in history. The best way to do this? Make learning a priority. Look for learning opportunities.

Examples of hobbies for knowledge are watching podcasts and YouTube videos, reading books and articles, and listening to audiobooks, etc. - the options are endless!

What I do. I read a lot and anytime I find a word I don’t know or don’t fully understand, I look it up. I watch TedX videos and have favorite YouTube channels I watch. I study with Korean language videos and podcast.

Hobbies for your mindset. These hobbies are solely mental in nature. This category includes all activities that strengthen your mind, improve your thinking, or force you to think in different ways or change your thinking.

Hobbies for your mindset include most of the ones for creative thinking and building knowledge.

What I do. I read social media comments on current issues and then I like to look at all sides of the issues before I form an opinion.  I find in many cases, the most vocal people, only know a few facts and are missing the big picture.

I’m also a big believer that we learn more from our failures than our successes. When you fail, maybe it’s because you need to think in a different way.

Hobbies to keep you in shape. This is probably the most important category since good health is key to us accomplishing the other hobbies. Without good health it’s hard to accomplish anything.

Physical fitness influences how we feel, how we look and how much energy we have.

Examples of hobbies to keep you in shape are endless. It doesn’t need to be hard, doesn’t require special clothes or equipment. There are plenty of exercises you can do from your home or even sitting down. Just pick something you enjoy and get started.

What I do. I enjoy walking and hiking. My goal is 8,000 to 10,000 steps, three times a week. I go to the driving range three or four times a week and hit golf balls for about 90 minutes. Here’s a good tip, it’s amazing how many steps you can get in just eye shopping at the large shopping centers. Your walk doesn’t have to be fast paced and it doesn’t need to cost you a dime.  

Wrap up. I'm not sure if this is considered a hobby, but I'm part of an informal retiree group. There's no official membership, no set meetings, no rules, and no dues. It's just a small group of military retirees, from any branch of service, that meet up at the food court and talk about anything and everything. Importantly, we keep each other updated on issues that affect our lives.

You may be thinking nobody has time to do all the things I say I do. For starters, I’m retired and have a lot of free time. I also don’t try to do everything on my list each day. Some of these don't take much time and can be done together. I pace it out. 

I do know this, having hobbies beats the hell out of sitting on a couch watching TV.