Never Underestimate the Importance of Your Hobbies
Too many people dismiss hobbies as something you do in your spare time. These activities that can give you so much enjoyment are more important than you think. We live in a crazy world and now, more than ever, people need something that is going to take their mind off the pressures of everyday life. You should never underestimate the importance of your hobbies because they may help you maintain your sanity more than you think. A good hobby should be challenging and transport you to another world where you can get lost in an activity that gives you great pleasure and offers the opportunity to keep your brain active and provides a path to achieving or learning new things. None other than the great Winston Churchill spoke about hobbies with great admiration and was of the opinion that everyone should have more than one pursuit that would challenge their mind and creativity. If you don’t have some activity in your life that fits that description, it’s never too late to find one and you might start by looking at the things that fascinated you as a child. I happen to think our past provides great clues that can bring more happiness and fulfillment into our life.
If you’ve spent any time reading the pages within this website, you’ll know that I love history and that, as a kid, I couldn’t play enough baseball. Did I read about the history of the sport that occupied all my summer days? Of course. I collected baseball cards like almost all boys do but, when they came out with cards featuring old timers, it opened up a whole new world. When I read about these legends, I was fascinated by their stories and, although I absolutely worshipped Mickey Mantle, I would have given anything to have met Babe Ruth, seen Christy Mathewson pitch or watch Honus Wagner define what a great shortstop is. When I found out that there were some games that would recreate a baseball season and you could build your own team with the greats from the past, I was lost in the world of statistics and would play whole seasons by myself or enlist the help of my younger brother when he was in the mood. He didn’t have the same fascination with this activity that I did. It gave me incredible joy to have an all-time Yankee team play against an all-star team from the past. Those games are now computerized, and you can play a whole season in minutes. It still provides me with hours of fascination, and I know of a few leagues where people who have this weird fixation for this type of activity still get together and have a blast doing it. You should never underestimate the importance of your hobbies and the pleasure it can give you.
You should never underestimate the importance of your hobbies. Sometimes they may be the only thing you look forward to when things aren't going well.
I know quite a few people who have turned their childhood hobbies into a full-time hobby in retirement and a couple of people have even started businesses. I had a Civil War set that had blue and gray soldiers which provided me with many hours of entertainment so I can identify with a guy who has a recreation of the Gettysburg battlefield in his basement. It isn’t quite on the scale of the one that they have in the museum in Pennsylvania, but you can see from his face how proud he is of it and how carefully he researched each detail. It took him years to get it to a point where he would even begin to show it off and he has been adding to it every weekend. The world of miniature recreations is fascinating, and I know one lady who has taken her “doll house fantasy” to another level by recreating Mount Vernon, George Washington’s incredibly beautiful estate on the Potomac River. It’s her greatest enjoyment in life and that’s why you should never underestimate the importance of your hobbies.
Finding an activity that absorbs you to the point that you can’t wait to get started working on a new project is not as hard to do as you might think. A little self-examination to analyze what your interests are may get you started on your way to a new hobby that will occupy the rest of your lifetime. Many retirees start a little business or website related to an activity that they love. There’s never anything wrong with making a little money from your hobby and you’d be very surprised to see how many retirees have become entrepreneurs during their golden years. But don’t do it for the money. The enjoyment and challenge that you get from an interesting hobby, or activity is one of life’s great pleasures. Never underestimate the importance of your hobbies because they can literally transform your life. Go ahead and get started. It’s time to Enjoy Retired Life!
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