On Hobbies

I have found that my life gets fairly complicated when I try and mash all of my hobbies together. I want to do everything, and often find trying to focus on everything gets nothing accomplished. So, how should I manage these hobbies? How should I make sure each discipline of my life receives equal attention? How should I definitively know that development or progress is taking place within each area of interest?

A few years ago, I had a more narrow view of my life, and would often focus on just one thing for months at a time, after which I could completely disregard that interest for several weeks or months, and move onto something new. Perhaps I’m simply excited by too many things, but why should I not consider becoming a polymath? I believe that self-actualization can only come from not limiting myself. If I want, in some years, to be what I’ve always intended to be, then I can’t drop a single hobby I find beneficial.

You guys, careers are boring.

There are many methods I could take to manage my life. First of all, my work life should be organized in terms of projects, not occupations. If I’m suddenly interested in getting a wedding photography gig, then that’s what I will focus on. And maybe, once I’ve satiated that need, I can move on to maybe an idea I had for an iPhone application. And once that is published, and perchance even making a bit of money, I can concentrate on writing, or playing music.

Now, would this generate enough revenue for me to live comfortably? At this point, I’m not sure. I haven’t tested my projects vs. occupation theory, and it may not work at all. Working on several different projects may not make me the sort of cash I need. But this all depends on how I define living comfortably. I think I could be fine living in some tiny house, as long as I had a sufficient studio. I could also live on the edges of some city, perhaps even in the country, as long as I had access to the Internet, which would undoubtably be the source of my clients.

Hey what if I combined stuff?

There are people who make a living combining multiple art forms together. For example, a DJ named Simon V has a love for clouds, and for the release of a new track named Cloudspotter, he collected from his fans a gallery of photographed cloudscapes. Software engineers can specialize in a number of areas. If a programmer had an interest in music, he could work for a number of music software companies. If a philosopher had a love for television, he could write something like this.

This is how innovation in various industries occur. Living in the 21st century, we have already established several basic industries which may not change for a long time. More and more industries go obsolete, and new industries pop up at very large intervals in time. So, in order to create something new and innovative, gaps between these industries must be bridged, which can usually be done by combining art forms. Now that these industries have been around for a while, we can finally relish in specializing in fields, which are much more narrowly defined.

Hey! I have more than one interest! What should I do?

There are plenty of things someone with a number of active hobbies should try and do. First of all, narrow your life down to the hobbies you know you can invest time in. If you’re working a full-time job, you may want to develop one hobby independently until you can manage it as a job itself, and from there work up others. Each hobby will take individual development, and until even care is received by all of the interests in your life, you most likely will be frustrated.

If you don’t plan to make money from your hobbies, you have several options, but the one I most advocate is setting simple goals. For example, I was disappointed in my lackluster reading lately, so I made a pact with myself that I would read every single night. Any extra reading time was wonderful, but I made sure that every night, unless I was supremely tired, I would read a Sherlock Holmes story (as this is the collection I’m working through now). A few weeks later, I decided to work up my creative writing skills, so I made sure to write every day. Because of the intensity poured into writing something, I haven’t been able to keep that up, and recently time has been highly unforgiving.

So, for example, if you have hobbies of photography and computer science that you think could use work, I would suggest doing the following: For the photography, go thrice a week somewhere to photograph something, and try to vary locales. One day, try downtown. The next, the countryside. The next, a car factory or something. Don’t worry about results; natural talent is a myth. On the days you’re not photographing something, see if you can set aside a half hour to an hour to simply research photography. Read photography magazines, or read about techniques. Try and learn something new.

For developing your computer science skills, a different approach may be necessary, as programming is more project-based. You have two main options. The first is to purchase, or download, a programming book in the language of your choice. From there, work through the book from front to back. The second option is to think of something to build; I, for example, have a few sites I’m working on as programming projects — these sites are not ideas from any book, but simply things I’ve been wanting to make. When you have a project, you are essentially working backward from the first method I mentioned. You have an idea, and you need to find out how to make it work through research and reading. To fully develop programming skills, I would try and put in an hour or more a day.

As I mentioned earlier, you’ll want to have no bad hobbies weighing you down. Get rid of anything you know you can do the rest of your life without. To test the sustainability of your hobbies, see if you are willing to practice a certain trade until the early hours of the night. I know I could play music until 4 in the morning, but I probably couldn’t stand sewing for more than 15 minutes.

And once you’ve weaned yourself out of your full time office job, see if you can live a hobby-oriented life. Don’t worry about working for a boss, and don’t worry about sticking to one trade. If you are able to live a comfortable lifestyle doing not only one thing you love, but many, you will undoubtably be the envy of most everyone on this earth.