Happy Monday! It’s been a long time since the last time I did one of these 🙈. It’s so crazy how having Sundays off have made me even more busy on top of an already busy weekly schedule. I’m spending this week playing catch up on blog posts that have been sitting in my drafts along with hopefully part one of my journey of buying my first house in the 2022 market. But today I wanted to talk about a subject that is probably the main reason I haven’t completely lost my mind to stress and a busy schedule – hobbies.
Why do I want to talk about hobbies? I was reading one of those motivational graphics and then my friend and I ended up talking about it the last time she was in town visiting around the Mardi Gras season.
“Hobbies are a great distraction from the worries and troubles that plague daily living.” – Bill Malone
My biggest hobby that I share with everyone across all my social media channels is reading. I’ve always enjoyed reading and realized that during the most stressful times of my life, I would struggle to find time to read and got out of the habit of reading for fun or at all. In 2019, I was so stressed out and dealing with a lot of anxiety that I was trying to find ways to distract myself and reading was that for me. I started with just reading every time I was on the subway train to having a goal to read for 30 minutes every night before bed to now reading at least one book a week and finding fun challenges to complete for reading goals.
With hobbies, you can take as much time or as a little time a week to focus on them. That’s what makes them so great. The biggest holdback for people to get started with a hobby or even commit to a hobby is the fear of not doing well with it. Here’s a big tip: it’s okay to not be great or perfect at a skill. What you’re actually doing is developing the skill of being present.
I just started a new hobby of learning Spanish through the Duolingo app and I honestly struggle with it. There are some days where I can get a few lessons done and finish a few courses and there are other days where I barely have enough time to squeeze in one lesson, but that’s okay. It’s also hard to remember all the words in the lessons and the proper way to pronounce them, but I’m having so much fun going to work and getting help from my coworker who grew up in Argentina.
My challenge for you this week is to find time to try a hobby that you wanted to try for a while.
What are some of your favorite hobbies that you do or what is a hobby you’ve always wanted to try? Let me know in the comments below!
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