I have been working since I was 15 years old. I gain a lot of satisfaction from work. It makes me feel productive and gives my life a sense of worth and purpose. Unfortunately, I work too much. Years ago, one of my students interviewed me for a project about social worker burnout. In retrospect, some of the answers I gave her were rather flippant. I didn’t feel burned out at the time and I had been practicing for many years. Burnout seems to creep up on you, however, and I have since gained a healthier perspective about work/life balance.
For me, many things go into the “life” part of work/life balance. These include close family relationships, time with friends, taking care of my health and leisure time. In a busy world with multiple demands on our time, it can be easy to neglect some of these things. I find that what I neglect most often but probably actually need the most, is leisure time. For me, part of leisure time is having hobbies. Not surprisingly, my hobbies of scrapbooking, reading and gardening/yard work seem to echo the things that I value. Capturing family history, time with family creating memories, gaining a perspective outside of your own and love of nature. In many ways, my hobbies often make up for the ambiguity of my work. As a therapist, one never gets to see the finished work. We plant seeds of thought that grow or die, depending on many other factors in a person’s life. This is one of the reasons why I like mowing the lawn. I get to see an immediate result and there is something ultimately satisfying about the mow lines in the lawn making that almost perfect pattern.
If you have never had a hobby, it can be hard to know where to begin. Here are some tips to get started:
- Spend some time thinking about your interests. Do you want to focus on increasing physical activity, seeing a result or meeting new people?
- Look online, in your local newspaper or library for opportunities and instructions to teach new skills. Our local newspaper prints a column every Friday about the fun things to do in town over the weekend. Yours may as well. One nice thing about the internet is that there are tutorials for just about anything that you might want to learn how to do or have questions about.
- Enroll in a class! Cooking, art, exercise-whatever your interest there is sure to be instruction available. Parks and Rec offers both child and adult classes that don’t cost a lot and can give you a taste of what something is all about.
- Set aside time. This may be the biggest challenge when there are multiple demands on our busy schedules.
- Get motivated. I find that often I am too tired to think about starting a project. This is unfortunate because I usually feel better doing something other than just sitting on the sofa. Concentrate on just taking that first step. The subsequent steps usually come much easier.
- Set a weekly or monthly challenge or goal. Many of us who work too much are used to setting goals at work. You already have the skills, why not use them for yourself. Or if this feels TOO much like work, just go with the flow and do what you feel like doing.
Remember, hobbies should be FUN and rejuvenate you rather than deplete you. Once I did an art class where we all painted the same picture and drank wine. Maybe it was the wine, but my end product was worthy of being stuck in the closet for no one to see. Fortunately, the benefits of spending time with friends and seeing the different skill levels and perspectives outweighed my terrible art (which I suppose could have been considered some kind of surrealism).
Research shows that people with hobbies are generally healthier and have a lower risk for depression and other stress related illnesses. What have you got to lose?
