How long did I spend on a hobby last week?
Think about how many minutes you have spent versus what you wish you’d spent.
What aspect of health am I hoping to improve?
If you’re seeking a physical outcome, you want a physical ingredient. That might be something nature-based, a dance class, or a sport. You might want to be more socially integrated, so think about clubs. Consider what feeling you want to get out of it – a sense of purpose or giving back, a feeling of exhilaration, of calm or of fun. The more granular you can be, the more helpful the question.
What did I enjoy as a child?
Perhaps you loved being in the school choir, or doing cross-stitch. Also think about the alternative career you wish you’d had, where a hobby can be a way of getting some of that fix. Say you wanted to be an actor, you can do amateur dramatics, or people who wished they had worked with children could volunteer with young people, or look for an intergenerational activity.
Why don’t I currently have a hobby?
There are a few common reasons. Capability, so you don’t feel skilled enough. You don’t believe you’re “artistic”, for example. Perhaps you don’t know what’s available locally, or you might feel that it’s not socially acceptable – it’s not the “done thing” for someone like you. Or it could be to do with motivation, whether you really think this is valuable in your life – is it worth the investment, or maybe you don’t believe that it will benefit you. Unpicking why you’re not engaging with a hobby is important because then you can think about how to overcome that barrier.
What would help me get started?
Find a taster session, or watch some YouTube videos that show you how to do it. If you’re worried about going alone, ask a friend to go with you. If you don’t know what’s available locally, a social prescribing team can advise you (look on socialprescribingacademy.org.uk) or you could sign up for newsletters locally.
What essential needs aren’t being met?
We have a number of basic needs: having a sense of autonomy, of mastery, of meaning and of purpose. Consider your “compensation needs”: how can hobbies balance out what you already get from work, or parenting? If you’ve got a sedentary job, you might want an active hobby, or vice versa. If your job is very outcome-focused, you might want something that is just about enjoying the moment. If you don’t have any sense of control at work, you might want something where you make the decisions, something artistic, where you’re designing something just for you.
What would challenge me a little?
This is about “moderate novelty”, so something that feels as if it’s pushing you just outside your comfort zone, but not taking you so far outside that you’ll feel completely lost. Don’t force yourself into activities that feel too random for you; there’s something called “social identity theory”, where if you try to force yourself into a group that’s just not you, you tend not to get any benefits from it. “Moderate novelty” hobbies tend to give you the biggest heavy rushes of excitement and feelings of mastery and accomplishment.
