How To Discover What You're Passionate About
Over the Christmas break, I was having some discussions with some people close to me about their hobbies and passions and what they were wanting to do in 2024. Some people had many hobbies, while others struggled to come up with anything in which they spent time on regularly and were passionate about.
I personally have always had many interests, mainly around sport but have realised over time that many people don’t even know how to get started in finding a passion and also don’t know how to create the time to do it. In this blog, I’m going to give you a simple system for discovering your passions and creating more hobbies.
One thing to remember is that you can start small and build on it. Don’t try and commit to something extravagant and realise after trying it that you no longer are keen on doing it.
Why Is It Important To Have Hobbies / Passions
We all need to have things that give us enjoyment in our lives and, while yes, you can get enjoyment from your work and your family, we need more than that. Hobbies are an outlet for us so that if we have had a tough day we can jump into something we love doing as a release and a way to take our mind off things for a while.
Hobbies also help us to recharge and refresh so we can continue to show up the best we can at home and work and give the effort required. They also help us to remain interesting to both ourselves, our partner / family and our friends. It gives you something different to be passionate about and share with others.
How To Discover What You’re Passionate About
Grab a pen and paper and write down as much as possible under the following headings. Remember that hobbies can be anything and everything. It might be fishing, tap dancing, joining a sports team or many of the other millions of possibilities.
Do you get more energy when spending time around other people or spending time alone?
Some people love to do things like team sports because of the social aspect where connecting with others brings them great joy. Other people get energy from spending time doing projects by themselves. Which do you prefer?
Do you prefer things that are physically active or more mentally stimulating? Or even a combination of both?
If you love being active then chances are you’ll enjoy something that is active in nature. This could be a sport or even building something. Other people would prefer something mentally stimulating such as problem solving or being artistic. This could be something like painting, writing or being crafty.
List some things that you’ve enjoyed doing in the past.
Maybe it was something you did when you were younger or before you had kids. You might have played guitar in high school and have always wanted to take it up again.
List some things you’ve always thought about trying but never have?
You might have seen a friend do it or seen someone online completing something which you think could be of interest for you.
What would you do if time and money weren’t a restriction?
Dream big here. Write down anything that you have ever dreamt of doing but maybe haven’t done due to not feeling like it was possible.
From what you’ve written above, list as many possible hobbies or passions as you can.
Just write them down, even if you have no intention of doing them. The point is to just get ideas onto the page.
Now pick your top 1 or 2 that you’re going to try first and write down how you’re going to start doing it.
If you don’t know how to start it, do some research, ask some friends or learn more about it to find an easier way to get started.
One of the keys of this is that you try things. You will never know how much you will enjoy doing pottery, knitting or in my case, long distance running, until you try it. I never thought I would enjoy running as much as I currently am and that all because one day I decided I was just going to try it and see how it went.
Creating Time
Now, I know there will be people out there screaming out about how they would love to do more hobbies but they don’t have any time. The problem with thinking like this is that you’ll never have time if you don’t first dedicate the time to it. You make the time when you need to attend a doctor’s appointment or drop your kids to school, why should your hobbies be any different?
Hobbies need to be something that you schedule dedicated time for each week. This means that the less important stuff will either need to fit into a smaller window of time, moved to another day or week, or simply get missed. By prioritising our time we do more of what we want to do and less of what we feel like we ‘have’ to do.
Take my own example of going to the gym. When I didn’t schedule in the time at the start of the week and just hoped that I would find the time, inevitability I would be very inconsistent in how often I went. I then made a change and started to put it in my calendar first and now everything else has to fit around it meaning I now rarely miss a gym session.
The main take away from this blog is to get creative, come up with as many ideas as possible and go out and explore new opportunities. You might be surprised at what you might enjoy (or not enjoy). My final tip is to find someone else to do the hobby with or someone else who you do the same hobby with who you can chat about it with, keep each other accountable, share success with or simply bond over your mutual love for whatever it is.
Thanks Ben - good piece