“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. Words that were hard for me to live by but in no time I saw myself as becoming Jack. Living in a foreign land, it was difficult for me to juggle between work and study and everything else that came in between. There was no time for personal growth.

I could feel that I was losing my essence by being caught up in the demands of the world; I was becoming the 21st-century workaholic that I never wanted to be.

My curiosity came to a halt and with that, so did its best friend – creativity.

Pearls are formed when the oyster is irritated by dust, and that is when I came up with an organisational trick that helped me stay happy, maintain my essence, and grow my creativity –all at the same time.

1. Money

The first kind of hobby that I needed to have was something that brought in money. A hobby that generated enough cash for me to sustain myself.

This was easy because I was already working and the best part of it was that I began seeing my work as not just work but as the first kind of hobby I needed to have.

For other working professionals, it can be their current work. For university students, it can be anything from selling items online or trying their hand out in investing and for children it can even be selling lemonade!

While people are sceptical about this one, especially college students, I personally believe that millennials are an extremely smart, rebellious and creative kind of species. They are capable of doing anything if they wanted to.

Having a hobby that generates money is the best thing ever, it keeps you both sane and happy.

2. Creative

The second one is an important one because it helps you remain creative. It really does not matter what you do as long as it makes you think creatively.

For me, it was playing chess. A game with many different possibilities which makes one think beyond the boundaries of conventional thinking. It demands a person to think out of the box (tactically and strategically) because every game, every formation, and the mindset of every opponent is different.

For others it can be anything from writing, cooking, photography, even building LEGO (actually building a LEGO is the best one which I was never been able to do)! It really does not matter what you pick as long as it requires creative thinking.

3. Pleasure

The final one is the best one, a hobby that you can derive personal pleasure from.

Mine was watching Netflix. Yes, it was a hobby that I derived immense pleasure from.

It does not have to be something that generates money or makes you think a lot. It can simply be playing sports, gardening, butterfly catching or even coin collecting.

However, be sure to assign this the least amount of time in comparison to the rest, or you would end up streaming Netflix all day.

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Image Credit: Mpho Mojapelo

 

 

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