Hobbies
I have a problem with the world: it’s too dang interesting.
Since starting my career, with more time and money, I’ve had the opportunity to explore more hobbies than ever before. Here’s the hobbies I have invested at least some time into, in no particular order:
- Woodworking
- Mountaineering (hiking, bouldering, rock climbing, etc.)
- XC Biking
- Alpine skiing
- XC skiing
- Reading (science fiction, fantasy, historic, business, etc.)
- Video gaming
- Tabletop gaming
- Rotaract/Rotary
- App development
- Web development
- Guitar/singing
- Camping/over-landing
- Socializing
- Auto repair
- Self development (meditation, journaling, etc.)
- Photography
- Financials (investing, etc.)
- Dancing
- Writing
- Martial arts
- Horology
Whew. That’s a lot of hobbies. And I want to pursue them all!
Of course, the watch on my wrist says I can’t; we have a limited amount of time each day and in life. So which hobbies should I be investing in?
Traditional wisdom would say to pick the select few that interest me most and pursue them to completion. The problem is my interest moves between hobbies frequently, and in the past I felt guilty that I was leaving something incomplete. This resulted in me doing nothing for a while — my guilt prevented me from moving on; my change in interest prevented me from completing what I had started.
My solution: move between hobbies fluidly. My constant is my career, everything else is open to change. Thus far, I’ve found I return to some hobbies in time and will eventually pursue them to completion. My posting frequency on this site is a great example of that.
Emilie Wapnick detailed a personality like this in her TED Talk, Why some of us don’t have one true calling.
The world is an interesting place, and I’m going to experience as much of it as I can through a variety of hobbies before my time runs out.