A hobby lifestyle is perhaps my all-time favourite topic to rave about. I love talking about it and watching the penny drop as people realise that they too could be living a happier, hobby lifestyle with some minute changes. I live my life as a hobby, I quite literally am living proof of the joyful way of living.
First, let’s start with what I mean by a hobby lifestyle! A hobby lifestyle is you, choosing daily to be happier, to find joy every day. It’s waking up in the morning and asking yourself ‘How can I make today happier?’ Ultimately, it’s living life to your fullest and really enjoying everything you have – By fullest I mean in its purest form, daily fullness, not bucket list tasks every day!
A hobby lifestyle is implementing small changes that make you happy, it ritualises your daily routines into something that you enjoy and ‘fills your cup.’
For example, if you really dislike cooking dinner, or you find it stressful with your children around, how can you make this task happier? Could you enlist the help of your children? Teach them as you go, engaging them in this focal part of their day. Perhaps putting on the radio or watching your favourite TV programme as you’re cooking is something that will make the daily dinner cooking session more enjoyable.
The key is to inject joy, simply, throughout the day.
Other parts of your day or week that you find a chore could be outsourced, if you have the means. Do you detest ironing? You already do it while watching something, but it takes up too much of your weekend, too much time away from family when you could be doing something enriching and fun. If you have the means to outsource tasks such as this, then do so. Remove this chore from your plate and replace it with some free time to do something else that brings you genuine joy. This isn’t always going to be doing something with your children, it could be getting out for a run, seeing family or a simple candle-lit bubble bath – activities that recharge you, that make you happy.
Whether you work, run a business or are a busy stay at home mum, there are many points throughout the week that you may dread, but life is too short to live with dread daily or weekly. You need to address it.
So where do you start? Ask yourself some questions:
What part of my day is the part I don’t enjoy?
Why does this part of my day trigger me?
What is it about the school run (for example) don’t I like?
Why do I never feel rested? Because on Sundays I do XY&Z preparing for school and work.
By sitting and asking yourself these questions, wondering why you dislike certain parts of your routine so much, you are breaking down the process to zoom in on your ‘pain point.’ Once you have worked this out, you can start thinking about solutions. How can I improve this situation? How do I make this more enjoyable for myself?
The next step then is implementation and intentionality. If we’re taking the cooking dinner example, you need to be intentional about implementing your solution. You need to override your autopilot and ensure you build up this new habit. If you’re getting out all the ingredients for dinner, don’t start until the radio is on, or set up a station for the children to help at the same time. Your reward comes in realising that your solution worked, you just enjoyed cooking the dinner.
In the same manner, if you are outsourcing something, don’t replace it with another task you don’t like, such as cleaning the house – be sure to replace it with something you love, or something that will ‘fill your cup.’
If you’re thinking that you can’t possibly do anything about your daily commute, or standing in the cold at football practice, look at how you can improve it. Take a flask of your favourite hot drink or wear your favourite pair of snuggly boots.
How does a hobby lifestyle benefit you? Aside from increased levels of happiness, your well-being benefits hugely. As you find yourself less stressed and more joyful, your levels of dopamine and endorphins will increase, creating a positive cycle of your brain recognising how this task has benefited you. Additionally, and importantly, this increased happiness and positivity within the household influences your children. They learn from you and react to your energy, feeling your stress. By removing that stress, replacing it instead with a positive reaction, you are shaping your children’s mindset and how they will tackle the tasks they don’t like doing.
The bare basics of it is to inject more joy into your everyday, to truly enjoy your day-to-day, in the knowledge that everything within your control is happier and without stress.
