If you ask any of your friends or classmates what their hobbies are, the most probable answer would be one among the following:
- Watching Tv
- Listening to Radio
- Reading Newspaper
- Playing Video Games
- Listening Music
- Internet Browsing
- Chatting With My Friends
- Shopping
- Sleeping ( Believe me, this is more common than I ever imagined )
However, most often you could feel greatly exhausted after indulging in such activities. Understand that such activities are not hobbies but mere time waste. Reading a newspaper, and connecting with your friends ( not merely for casting ) should not be treated as pastime killers. Rather, these should be valued as integral parts of your daily schedule.
Based on my years of research and study on people and their hobbies, I classify hobbies into three basic types.
- Time Wasters
- Fun Hobbies
- Useful Hobbies
Time Wasters
Anything that you indulge in only for "meaningless fun" would be a time waste of a hobby. Mostly, you end up feeling greatly exhausted after indulging in these activities. You will also feel guilty for using your time on non-productive actions.
Some of the most common time wasters students enter into are:
- Changing Tv channels incessantly without any purpose and watching anything and everything for hours together.
- Playing worthless video games not only for hours but for days together.
- Eat and sleep whenever and where ever possible
- Mindless browsing and spending time on social media without any clear purpose.
Fun Hobbies
Any regular activity that you undertake for "meaningful pleasure" is considered a fun hobby. Mostly these activities are based on your personal interest or on something you feel happy about. Engrossing in fun hobbies could help you in breaking your stress, refreshing and get you lots of enjoyment.
- Drawing and Painting
- Pursuit of creative and performing arts
- Sports and Games
- Amateur Photography
- Housekeeping and Home Decoration
- Gardening
- Reading Useful Books
- Cooking
Useful Hobbies
Any regular activity that you undertake for a "meaningful purpose" is considered a useful hobby. Mostly these activities are based on your personal interest or on something that would enrich you. Engaging in useful hobbies could lead to significant developments beyond enrichment. Pursuing useful hobbies could help you in gaining significant skills, abilities, knowledge and experience. As said earlier, useful hobbies should be something that could turn into your full-time profession.
Any regular activity that you undertake for a "meaningful purpose" is considered a useful hobby. Mostly these activities are based on your personal interest or on something that would enrich you. Engaging in useful hobbies could lead to significant developments beyond enrichment. Pursuing useful hobbies could help you in gaining significant skills, abilities, knowledge and experience. As said earlier, useful hobbies should be something that could turn into your full-time profession.
Some "Useful hobbies" are:
- Creative writing or blogging
- Professional photography
- Performing arts at a professional level
- Public speaking, quizzing, debating
- Volunteering in an NGO
- Teaching needy children
- Volunteering for technical and cultural events in your college
Many breakthrough technologies were hatched by "hobbyists" in garages and dorm rooms. Prominent examples include the PC, the web, blogs, and most open-source software. There have been instances where hobbies have transformed into a big business. Practitioners of various hobbies went on to become pioneers in their niches.
What the smartest people do over the weekend are often things that everyone else would do over a fortnight in ten years.
In the ever-changing world, it is most likely that you will come across numerous functional roles. You've to work with different people at different levels in different environments. It is important for you to acquire strong transferrable skills. Engaging in some useful hobbies will invariably build your transferrable skills.
What exactly are transferable skills?
Steve Jobs once quipped, "If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the mac would never have multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them."
Do you know that the Linux operating system took birth from a student's hobby? Finnish computer science student Linus Torvalds started off as a small study project and went on to become the chief architect of the Linux kernel.
Mark Zuckerberg, with his college roommates and fellow students, started a small project which went on to become Facebook.
The hobby of co-anchoring the local news channel along with the passion for public speaking had transformed Oprah Winfrey from a simple Afro-American woman into the first African-American Billionaire.
Do you know that the Linux operating system took birth from a student's hobby? Finnish computer science student Linus Torvalds started off as a small study project and went on to become the chief architect of the Linux kernel.
Mark Zuckerberg, with his college roommates and fellow students, started a small project which went on to become Facebook.
The hobby of co-anchoring the local news channel along with the passion for public speaking had transformed Oprah Winfrey from a simple Afro-American woman into the first African-American Billionaire.
More than all these examples above, good hobbies will bring in a better work-life balance. We often see many young professionals spend their weekends, holidays and leisure time in total time wasters, which eventually add to their anxiety. The latter in turn leads to depression, an unhealthy lifestyle, unhappy relations, unsatisfied work life and so much more.
If you are still not sure about the benefits of developing good hobbies, here are reasons to tell you why?
If you are still not sure about the benefits of developing good hobbies, here are reasons to tell you why?
Transferrable Skills
In the ever-changing world, it is most likely that you will come across numerous functional roles. You've to work with different people at different levels in different environments. It is important for you to acquire strong transferrable skills. Engaging in some useful hobbies will invariably build your transferrable skills.
What exactly are transferable skills?
Simply put the skills and abilities you have acquired as part of any activity in your life-your jobs, classes, projects, volunteer work, hobbies, sports and virtually anything, are applicable to what you want to do in your next job. These are the set skills and abilities you develop through your life and can to a variety of situations.
For example, an individual who acquired skills in "conflict resolution" in his/her work environment could effectively use the same in her family situations to solve personal conflicts and issues.
For example, an individual who acquired skills in "conflict resolution" in his/her work environment could effectively use the same in her family situations to solve personal conflicts and issues.
Transferrable skills essential for a successful career are
- Logical thinking - thinking that is coherent and comes with sequential reasoning.
- Numerical ability - understanding and using numbers, statistics and graphs.
- Comprehension - ability to grasp and understand concepts.
- Communication - exchange of thoughts and ideas through various means.
- Teamwork - being an active team member with a solid focus towards the team's success.
- Problem solving - finding solutions to specific problems in an orderly manner.
- Initiative - seeing and grabbing opportunities, setting and achieving goals
- Flexibility - changing and adjusting to new situations, being able to adapt well.
- Interpersonal skills - relating to others and building up good working relationships.
- Leadership - motivating and encouraging others while taking the lead.
- Motivation - high levels of energy and enthusiasm.
A hobby plays a very important education and psychological role. It makes you stronger physically and mentally. Also, it aids you to gain a better understanding of how the world works. These are great sources of opportunity to develop numerous transferrable skills and abilities.
How to sell your transferrable skills?
Imagine a student who volunteers at an orphan children's home, and applies for a position in the Human Resources department of an organization.
How to sell It
"As a caregiver to children, I learned to identify with each child and learn his/her individual strengths, weaknesses and interests. I learned to understand them, their emotions and their feelings. I've also learned the importance of time management, which is an essential skill in the human resource department."
Imagine a student who was an NCC cadet in his school or college days applying for an engineering project manager position.
Imagine a student who was an NCC cadet in his school or college days applying for an engineering project manager position.
His transferrable skills are
Planning and Execution, Team Management, Understanding people, Time management,
How to sell It
"As an NCC Cadet, I've been to numerous camps in various remote places of the country with our team. I've learned to plan and execute the projects on time with the limited available people, budget and resources, which is an important skill needed for any engineering project management"
Hobbies are a great endeavour in pursuit of happiness, satisfaction and career dreams