Having a hobby is a positive pursuit in and of itself. A pastime that you’re passionate about, and put work into, is an excellent way to stay active and achieve results that really make you happy. However, your hobby could also offer a significant boost to your career. The different skills that you cultivate in pursuing a hobby can end up having extremely beneficial translations to your work life.
Creative writing will boost your confidence
Creative writing is one of the classic suggestions when someone decides they need a new hobby. After all, anyone can write, provided they have the drive to do so. However, the drive to create is often countered by the insecurity that comes with writing. People who are new to writing frequently be confronted with the desire to just delete all their work and never try again. However, if that impulse can be ignored, creative writing can really boost a person’s confidence. A writer will eventually become much more assured of their work’s quality, and will even reach a place where they feel comfortable seeking feedback. Ultimately, creative writing can help someone become much more confident in their ideas, and in sharing them with others.
A camping expedition can force you to be organized
Organizational skills seem to perpetually be in high demand and low supply. Everybody wants to be completely on top of what they have to do with no loose threads, but it isn’t always possible. Hiking and camping group exercises are an excellent way to get organized. When you’re in the hills for a few days and your group needs to set up camp, it just isn’t going to fly that you forgot to bring any tent pegs with you. The amount of supplies and information you need to keep track of mean that being disorganized won’t be an option. The sheer necessity of being ready during a survival exercise will be a great help in cultivating proper organizational skills.
Let the stress of painting soothe you
Painting is often portrayed as a soothing pastime, best done in front of a lake on a calm day, or in your living room in perfect peace and quiet. This is about as far from reality as can be. You never see someone painting serenely on TV, only to give up because they’ve accidentally slashed their lake scene with Sportscar Red acrylic paint. Painting can be a very finicky, frustrating experience, but that makes it perfect for learning to overcome stress. A delicate pursuit that requires a great deal of patience and care, it should do an excellent job of building your tolerance to pressure and mistakes. And you might even end up with a decent picture of some fruit in a bowl!
Only two hands, but still light work
While we’re talking about hectic hobbies, let’s look at cooking! A famously stressful pastime, it’s literally produced a saying about the inability to handle pressure. Part of what makes cooking so taxing is the need to keep a close eye on several different components of the process. Ingredients, cooking times and methods, safety – all of these things and more need to be kept in mind while trying to prepare any slightly complicated dish. However, this means that if you can in fact take the heat, you’ll end up polishing your ability to multitask to a very high level.
Paradoxical as it may seem to suggest that taking on more work could make things easier in your career, adopting one of these hobbies really could give a boost to the skills the workplace requires. Try one of them out, and before you know it you’ll be applying the skills you gained to other situations without even needing to think.
