How to Find the Right Hobby in Retirement
Most of us know how beneficial a hobby can be and these activities take on more importance during our retirement years. Winston Churchill was a strong advocate for having a hobby that could command your attention and believed that everyone should have at least two or three hobbies where they could escape from the pressures of life. Writing and painting were two pursuits that he excelled but, if you visit his estate at Chartwell, you will see the brick walls that he laid by hand. He knew the benefits that a hobby could bring but how to find the right hobby in retirement is a question that not enough people ask. Finding the right hobby takes a little effort and finding the right mix of activities that will keep that dreaded word (boring) out of your life completely is a project that every retiree should undertake if they have no hobby that they can call their own. There are three basic steps to follow but the first one is the most important: self-discovery.
Too many people get to this marvelous period in life that we call retirement, and they don’t know themselves as well as they think or, sadly, they left their dreams and fantasies behind as the foolishness of youth and try their best to keep those thoughts buried forever. That’s a mistake because, if you do that, you’ll be haunted forever by a little voice that says, “what if?” and you’ll leave this world without fulfilling something that might have made a big difference in your life. I feel so strongly about this that I developed a process that will help you sift through your memories to determine those bright spots in your life when you felt the happiest and like you accomplished something that made you proud. The interesting thing is that it may not have meant anything to anyone else, but it made all the difference to you. When you look at how to find the right hobby for retirement, you’re doing something that people should do all through their life. Find something that matters to you – not to anyone else. What are YOUR dreams and what do YOU want to accomplish?
Remember, how to find the right hobby in retirement is a process that only YOU can control.
That brings us to the second step in making a hobby a part of your life. The best hobbies are challenging and offer some opportunities for creativity and to find the perfect one will require the second ingredient in this recipe for creating the perfect hobby for you: experimentation. After a period of self-reflection, you hopefully have a list of activities that have given you enjoyment in the past. Now you need to see if you can turn them into a hobby that will hold your interest, challenge you mentally, develop some skills and provide you with a sense of satisfaction each step of the way. You may try out a couple of things before you find the right one but taking your time in this process is part of the fun. If you’re a social person who values new friends and relationships, reach out to see if there are any clubs to join. If you’re a person who enjoys their solitude, explore the realm of interactive activities in the gaming world or on the internet. Even if you decide to become a master chess player, there are computer programs that have beaten world champions, so the “challenge” aspect of your hobby is almost guaranteed.
The really addictive hobbies, in my opinion, are where your creative juices can really flow. I find writing to be the most fulfilling activity for me and, the more I do it, the more experimental I want to become. I’ve written novels that I knew no one would see and was amazed at how it allowed me to escape the pressures of a particularly stressful time at work. Our company went through a downsizing effort that wiped out a third of the workers and even though I knew I would not be one of them, I almost quit because of the pressure I felt deciding who would stay and who would go and then having to tell them the news. It was absolutely awful and my escape was my little laptop where I could take my frustrations out with the characters that I had created in my novel. It’s an amazing feeling to create your own little world on paper and, if you like to write, I suggest giving it a try. When you look at how to find the right hobby in retirement, experimenting with different activities is critical and don’t be afraid to fail. My little writing venture turned into creating this website and it’s something I look forward to doing whenever the urge comes upon me (which is almost every day). I deliberately chose a wide-open topic and I get to write about almost anything I enjoy doing in retirement. You’ll find pages on travel, writing, cooking, golf, pickleball, woodworking (my wife’s hobby), gardening (another hobby of my wife’s), photography, history and everything related to it, making jewelry and almost anything else you can think of. I have an active mind with the attention span of a fly sometimes which brings me to the final step in finding the right hobby for your retirement.
After a serious process of self-examination and embarking on a path of experimentation and exploration to see if the hobby you thought might be the answer is, indeed, the activity you’ve been looking for, the final step is an absolute must. That step, of course, is perseverance. If something is a challenge always remember that there is a tendency to give up if it gets a little hard. Giving up is a big mistake because the mastery of a skill can be one of the best feelings in the world. I happen to think that when you master a skill you’ve mastered what it takes to be successful in life. If you apply all the steps that it took to become a true master at something and apply those same procedures to almost any problem in life, you’re more than halfway to success. A true hobby is challenging and fulfilling and when you look at how to find the right hobby in retirement, keep looking for that perfect combination of learning new things, setting goals that are challenging and celebrating your successes along the way. Get started on that new hobby right now. It’s time to Enjoy Retired Life!
Thanks for visiting. If you like what you see here, please tell your friends. If you haven’t done so already, be sure you take The Self Discovery Challenge for Retirement! It’s designed to help you make the most of this wonderful time of your life. You’re never too old to discover something new about yourself!
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