How I Found a Hobby
I was searching for a hobby for years. I was reading many articles, watched hours of YouTube videos about the importance of a hobby and how to find one. I checked countless lists of the top 10 hobbies for people lack of time. Most of the suggestions made me laugh.
I did try out a few, but none of them lasted more than a month. Somehow I lost motivation, didn’t have the grit to keep on going. I gave up when the first obstacle appeared. I didn’t want to overcome it.
I was talking with some close friends of mine, who reported the exact same behaviour pattern. They have tried out cool activities like kite surfing, bouldering, skydiving, but even though they liked the activities at first, they stopped after a couple of months.
It’s either way a great experience. Try out something new, gain some new skills, broaden your view is much better than don’t even start.
However it bothered me. How to find a hobby, something that sticks, something I’m good at, something that makes me happy. I was trying too hard. It’s the same like so many other things in life. Like finding a spouse. If you want it too bad, if you try it too hard, it will not work out. On the other hand, if you don’t care, you don’t force it, you take it easy, it will come naturally.
What I did is planted this statement in my mind: I will find a hobby. I let all forcing go, I wasn’t searching desperately, nor watching countless YouTube videos about the topic. I lived my life. I accepted my situation. I just formulated a need.
After a couple of months I saw a movie. In one of the scenes there was a nice candle holder made from concrete. I was like wow that’s cool. Could I create something like that? I accidentally had like 25kg concrete from the renovation few years ago. Anyway I have tried to create one. I failed. I have tried again and the result was better. I wasn’t satisfied really satisfied though. I tried again and again and again. I did other stuff from concrete just to see if I can do it. Three months passed. One evening I realised, crap I have a hobby.
What worked for me and might could work for you if you experience the same:
Don’t force it. That’s the most important. Accept the situation as it is, don’t try it desperately.
Start small. Set goals like I’ll go skydiving once to try it out, instead of I’ll be a professional skydiving champion. Set some tiny achievable goals. It will give motivation to reach it and keeps you going. Experiment. Try out different things. Be consistent. If you like to do something do it. Try to allocate time for that activity regularly.
It is ok to fail. No one is good at the beginning of developing a new skill. It is fine to fail, it is fine to give up. It is fine to succeed.
