Rejuvenate Your Hobby

Many adults imagine that they will have more free time in their lives. Perhaps you did at one point before your career took off, before you had children, and before you had an entire household to run and keep up. Sometimes when our lives get that hectic, we realize that we have spent a good deal of time not working on things we want. Instead we have done what is expected of us, whether with our families, at home, at work, at church, or in the community. If you are there, then you can begin today to return to a hobby you once loved or to pick up one that you never really got started working on.

Think about your answer when you are asked about your hobbies. Do you stammer and find that you cannot come up with anything? Do you put down scrap booking although you have not touched a scrapbook page for six months? Then you need to rejuvenate your hobby! Use the new year as the perfect time to get it going again.

Spend some time this weekend evaluating where you stand in regard to your hobby. Get out any old stuff you have related to it or think about what you want to get from the hobby. Those old knitting guides may spark a new interest in you strong enough for you to go ahead and start a new project. More likely though you will spend some time thinking about your hobby and what you used to do with it.

Spend some of your time organizing your supplies. You do not need to get new containers or anything at this point. Instead you should just put everything together. Toss that old paint that is dried up. Get rid of the patterns that no longer fit your tastes. Stack everything together so that you can return to your hobby soon. Then you should get a notebook and pen. Make a list as you go of things you know you will need. For cross-stitching, you should check the threads needed for all of your open projects. Make sure that you have the right colors and put down on paper the ones that you do not have. Keeping a list will make your hobby organized, which will add to your enjoyment of it.

Next you should take a little reflection time. Why did you give up the hobby? Why did you not get farther? Maybe you never got started because you did not have the money but now you do. Perhaps you never knew quite where you begin. Some people picked the wrong hobby. Be prepared to admit if that is you. May be you thought you would enjoy making jar gifts, but it just was not for you. (In that case, toss or donate the supplies now. Do not let them clutter your house!) Some people also found that they just drifted away and are not sure why, though it most likely was a time commitment.

Next you should think about how to solve the problem that led you away from the hobby in the first place. If it was money, decide how much you could spend today on getting the hobby going again. Then decide if you could spend a little each month on it. How much would that be? A time crunch is probably the easiest to solve, though most of us will be most resistant here. If you stopped because of time, begin to carve some out.

Start small. Look at your weekly schedule. Perhaps this week you will be able to commit only to one-half hour on Tuesday evening. Write it down. Put it in pen. Make a date with yourself for that half hour. Then perhaps next week you will be able to find an hour to work on your hobby. The key is not to let anything come into conflict with you working on your hobby. You need to make it a priority, especially if you have been under a lot of stress. You should have something that you value that is just for fun and entertainment in your life. Remember that if you start small and make your hobby a priority, you can make it part of your life again.