When I fill out the hobbies and interests section of my resume I lie. My standard reply is travel, photography, and yoga. I do love travelling, I like taking photos but I’ve only been to 20 yoga classes, ever.
If I’m being honest that list should read watching TV and movies, talking to my friends, and staring off into the distance over-thinking. And if I’m being truly honest add to that spending an inordinate amount of time on Instagram and taking care of my farm game to the point where I think I’m getting RSI.
How we spend our free time is a direct translation of who we are, and I’m a bit worried that my actions say I’ve checked out. But maybe it also means I don’t know what I’m about, or even like. Maybe I don’t know myself as well as I thought I did. Could hobbies be a way of getting to know myself better?
The hobby happiness challenge
Hobbies aren’t a thing I pursue with any sort of commitment. I only ever consider them when life becomes a revolving door of working, cooking, cleaning, sleeping. Only when I’m totally fed up with the predictability of my life do I look outwards for some sort of activity that may bring me some happiness, and even then my interest tends to fade quickly.
The same things that other people feel so incredibly passionate about just don’t hold my interest or spark my imagination. And it’s frustrating. I want what they have. I want that happiness too. What’s wrong with me that I don’t find things fun? Could it be that I just haven’t tried the right hobbies yet?
So I’m challenging myself to do two things:
- Complete any previous hobbies/projects that I’ve half finished, because let’s face it, what else am I going to do with all that knitting wool. Also, maybe I’ll feel differently about it this time round.
- Find a hobby that I actually like and makes me happy.
Each hobby I try I’ll report back here, just in case somebody gets inspired by this experiment.
I haven’t come up with all the rules yet e.g. set a minimum period of time to try these new activities, but once I have those worked out I’ll make sure to edit this post.
Wish me luck!