Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to borrow a hobby if you are
Speaker 1: unsure what might be worth pursuing in your free time,
Speaker 1: see what your friends are doing and try these things out.
Speaker 1: You will learn something about yourself, whether you decide you
Speaker 1: like the new hobby or not. In research for my
Speaker 1: forthcoming book, Tranquility by Tuesday, I heard from a lot
Speaker 1: of people who wanted more leisure time in their lives.
Speaker 1: And people certainly were busy, but many did have an
Speaker 1: hour or two a day that wasn't completely spoken for.
Speaker 1: The deeper issue is that they didn't have much compelling
Speaker 1: and reasonably accessible that they wanted to do with that time.
Speaker 1: When you feel super busy with work and family, it
Speaker 1: can be hard to think through these things. We stopped
Speaker 1: doing things we once enjoyed, and then eventually you find
Speaker 1: yourself without any hobbies at all, and that is a
Speaker 1: real loss. Having interests besides work and family helps keep
Speaker 1: us interesting. Plus, hobbies tend to be fun, I mean,
Speaker 1: that is why people do them. So how can you
Speaker 1: solve this problem? If you are feeling like maybe you'd
Speaker 1: like a hobby, but you're at a loss of what
Speaker 1: to try. You could borrow a hobby from a friend.
Speaker 1: In many cases, your friends probably have similar lifestyles to yours,
Speaker 1: So you could borrow a hobby from a friend and
Speaker 1: see if it works. It's magic for you. This is
Speaker 1: pretty straightforward. A friend mentions that he plays tennis, You
Speaker 1: ask him to take you out one day to hit
Speaker 1: some balls around. You ask a friend who loves scrap
Speaker 1: booking to help you make a few pages for a
Speaker 1: book on your daughter's graduation. You try it out with
Speaker 1: your friends guidance, and see how it goes. If nothing else,
Speaker 1: you will enjoy spending some time with your friend and
Speaker 1: learning that you don't like something is useful in and
Speaker 1: of itself. That is mental energy that you can now release.
Speaker 1: No need to torture yourself with thoughts of how you
Speaker 1: should be playing tennis or scrap booking or what have you. No,
Speaker 1: you shouldn't, it's just not your thing. But you might
Speaker 1: find out that, hey, it's kind of fun to play
Speaker 1: cards or do woodworking or puzzles or gardening or whatever
Speaker 1: it is that your friend likes. Work in your friend's
Speaker 1: garden for a few hours here and there trying it out.
Speaker 1: When you decide that you do, in fact enjoy this,
Speaker 1: you can get a few pots and plants and start small.
Speaker 1: You've established your interest first before committing much capital to
Speaker 1: the project, which is a much better approach than buying
Speaker 1: all the things and the hope that the habit will
Speaker 1: take That ladder approach is a great way to wind
Speaker 1: up with a lot of unused equipment cluttering up space
Speaker 1: in the garage and your attic and your cupboards. And
Speaker 1: while you might want a hobby, you definitely don't want that.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod.
Speaker 1: That's b the number four, then Breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at i heeart media dot com. That Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: I Heart radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.