The importance of hobbies

Hobbies are great. I tend to collect them.  I will often have an idea that I want to accomplish or a item I want to make that will steer me toward a new hobby or skill.  I have tried a variety of handcrafts including leatherworking, bladesmithing, woodturning, carving (wood, soap….. laser…..) and the ones I stuck with for more than a few minutes usually resulted in an end result I had been thinking about for months if not years.  So, what’s so important about a hobby?

You can’t work all the time. I know, I know…… everyone understands that they can’t work all the time but how many of you actually work all the time?  Not only that, how many of you do little else besides work, watch TV, and Facebook?  Now, I am not knocking work, TV, or Facebook, but if that is pretty much all you do, you need a life.  We all need a life filled with accomplishment (doing something, anything) rather than idle consumption (watching TV, mindlessly wandering the web, etc).  To me, that sense of accomplishment is found in either a hobby or work.

I want to work all the time. No wait, did I just say that?  What I meant to say is that I want to generate income as much of the time as I can.  I want to help people with my work.  I want to earn so much money I have trouble giving enough of it away.  But….. I want to enjoy my work.  In fact, I want to enjoy my job SO much that you not be able to tell if I am working or having fun.  I wan to wake up in the morning saying to myself “They pay me to do this?”  I want my hobby (or one of my hobbies….) to be at the center of my work.  How do I get started?

Do you have a hobby? Not watching football (or other sports), taking care of the kids (which is more like an adventure), or other distractions, do you have a hobby that accomplishes something?  If you like watching football, are you doing more than yelling at the TV, chatting with your buddies about the game, and providing “back seat” coaching?  What are you accomplishing? Granted, it is a distraction, maybe even something you love to do.  But, what are you accomplishing?

I have been listening to a lot of podcasts recently. I am working my way through the archives of Justin Lukasavige at CoachRadio.tv.  One episode I listened to recently was a Your Story with Jon Tollefson.  You need to listen to the Your Story episode to get the background, but Jonathan’s hobby is snowboarding.  After listening to the podcast, I think you will agree that Jonathan’s passion is snowboarding (or wakeboarding, or just about anything with boards)  He wanted to build a business around his hobby.  He started PARX, a company that offers you the opportunity to snowboard, ski, and sled year-round at your location or his.  He is structuring his life in such a way that he might be working all the time.  But… his work will involve not just his hobby, but his passion.

How long can you spend on your hobby? Minutes?  Hours?  Days?  How great do you feel afterwards?  What if you could make money, I mean real money (enough to support your family or more than you make in your “day job”), what would you do?  How long would you work at your job…. I mean hobby?  What kind of vocation and life could you build for yourself?

What is your hobby? (you have one, right?  If not, please email me and I would be happy to give you some suggestions and work with you on some ideas)

Does your hobby have legs (has the potential to be turned into a business)?

Why haven’t you already gotten started?

This quote (attributed to many people including Chris Guillebeau and Dave Ramsey, among others), really says it all, “The best time to get started was a year ago.  The second best time is today.”

Go… get started.