How to Find a Hobby

Having a hobby helps to make you a more interesting person and gives you something fascinating to talk about with others. It can also help you to avoid feeling bored and often provides the opportunity to meet new people with similar interests. Learning something new is always good for keeping the mind alert and active, as is maintaining a long-term interest in something that enthralls you. This will also make your more of an interesting person than a person who is addicted to Facebook, watching TV, or doing other time wasting and unhealthy tasks, such as stuffing your gut .

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 Steps

1. 1
   Think of a hobby that might interest you. It might be an interest that you always wished you had time to explore, but never had the time or money required to pursue your interest.
   
   
   • Ask yourself these questions: "What is something that I could do all the day?", "Why I love doing this thing?", "Is it worth spending my time?", and "Would I enjoy it?".
2. 2
   Collect things for a cosmo magazine Look at the walls in your post office, and think about collecting stamps and what you might need to do to start and maintain a stamp collection. Think of other items you might like to collect, for example, coins, dolls or chocolate wrappers. You will need to consider how you will get your collectibles, where you will put them and whether you'll display them. And don't forget to think about swaps with family!
   
   
3. 3
   Discover art for a hobby. Have you ever gone to a museum, looked at the paintings on the walls, and wondered if you could do the same thing? How about trying painting for yourself - in oils, acrylics or watercolors? Or maybe try drawing with charcoal or colored pencils. One particularly wonderful way to get involved in your community and make art at the same time is to participate in painting a mural. This will last for a long time and everyone in your community will see it and smile.
   
   
   • Art does have a long learning curve, don't measure your progress against other people's drawings. Measure it against your own past drawings, date everything, take classes or borrow/buy instruction books and do all the projects. Tracing, measuring methods like using a grid and using photographs as references are not "cheating." There is no cheating in art, unless it's breaking the rules of a specific contest.
4. 4
   Write novels and short stories. Every year an online novel writing group at http://www.nanowrimo.org gets together to turn the world's loneliest art form into something like the Boston Marathon. If you ever wanted to write a book, go ahead and give it a try. That's the biggest but there are other online writing challenges and writing groups you can get along with. Many areas also have offline writing groups. Print on Demand technology has made self publishing a volume of your poetry, your novel or your stories reasonably priced for a hobbyist. Like art, there's a learning curve to getting good enough at this for more than your immediate friends and family to like it, but time will improve every hobby and only you know the story you want to tell.
   
   
5. 5
   Enjoy sport as a hobby. Watch soccer, basketball, golf, athletics or tennis tournaments on television or at your local sports ground. Do you feel that a sport is something that you would love to learn? Think about what it would cost, and the time it would take to learn and play. Do you have the funds available for this type of hobby? Would you have the patience it would take to really learn to play or train for any of these sports? Would you rather play a team sport or an individual sport? Maybe there are friends or family members who already have equipment and uniforms you can have, as well as tips for how to begin your chosen sport. Ask them about their experiences and listen to their suggestions.
   
   
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   Maybe electronics is the hobby for you? But electronics as hobby is not single and solid; it has many different interesting branches. Amateur radio, audio, microcontrollers, robotics, and the restoration of various vintage equipment are a few examples. But it's up to you which of these branches to choose - or combine several if you wish!
   
   
7. 7
   Take up an outdoor activity. Maybe you are an "outdoors" person, someone who would enjoy outdoor hobbies, such as fishing, hiking, flying remote controlled model airplanes or kites in the park, water skiing, camping or cycling. Think about how much you like different kinds of weather (hot, cold, rain, sun, snow etc.) and getting close to nature. If this sounds like something you would really enjoy doing, then investigate how you could start learning one or more of these activities. Often these outdoors activities will have a club you can join, or you could get your friends together and try an outdoors activity as a group.
   
   
8. 8
   Take up an indoor activity. Maybe you are more of an "indoors person". Perhaps you'd enjoy knitting, sewing, doing puzzles and jigsaws, painting, making ceramics etc. Browse around a craft store and find various craft ideas and supplies. Ask friends and family if they have craft supplies and patterns that they're not using. Other places to look for ideas include games stores, toy stores, hobby stores, your local library or activity center and school.
   
   
9. 9
   Combine indoor and outdoor activities. Of course, there's nothing that says you can't be both an indoors and an outdoors person! Maybe in summer you love to cycle and in winter you love to make matchstick castles. Think about which seasons you would like to enjoy your hobby in.
   
   
10. 10
    Take up woodworking. Look through the Internet at various woodworking hobbies. Things such as toys, desk top items, furniture, games etc. are all ideas to make out of wood. If you have a work room in a garage, perhaps you would like to buy a project kit like a miniature doll house and build and decorate it all yourself. You might even enjoy making the miniature furniture yourself instead of buying it ready-made.
    
    
11. 11
    Consider miniatures. Miniature trains, racing cars, toy soldiers, gaming pieces etc. are an intriguing hobby that will include painting, construction work, craft and more. Making miniatures suits someone with an eye for detail and a lot of patience. This hobby can be as elaborate or as simple as you like; many of the best miniatures are made from things you find around the house and use your imagination to turn into something else.
    
    
12. 12
    Try browsing through wikiHow. There are a lot of articles to read, and some are very interesting!
    
    
13. 13
    Wait until you have researched the initial cost, and the long term expense and time needed before jumping into a hobby. Make sure you can afford it, and have the time to spare. As you begin, start small. For instance, you can do a lot of astronomy with the naked eye. If you have learned and continued with that, the next step should be purchasing a good set of binoculars. Invest in the fancy telescope only when you are sure you are committed.
    
    
14. 14
    Search the Internet or visit a local library or community center for more information. Look for information related to the hobby you are interested in. Find out if you would have to buy supplies via Internet, or if you have suppliers that live in your area. If there is something on the Internet that you want and you don't have a credit card, ask a parent or a friend to help you. Sometimes even a store owner is the person to ask, as they can order the supplies in for you using their own contacts.
    
    
15. 15
    Get a coach. For example if you always wanted to be competitive in swimming find a swim coach. You are never too old to start.
    
    
16. 16
    Get started on your hobby! Once you have decided which hobby best suits you in every way and you have bought or borrowed the equipment, clothing, tools and anything else you need, it is time to get it happening. Expect to start slowly at first, while learning, so have patience. You might even find a club to join and meet others with similar interests. This is a great way to make friends and to exchange ideas.
    
    
17. 17
    Display your hobby or compete. Once you become very good at your chosen hobby, you might like to enter competitions to test your skills or to display your work. Think of sports competitions, fairs or shows for craft and artwork, club meetings for show-and-tell or perhaps even a school or college event is a good chance to show off your skills.
    
    
18. 18
    Go to the book store. Look in the magazine section and see if there is anything you find interesting. If there is, for example you like Newsweek, maybe a job in politics.
    
    
19. 19
    Why not create an account on wikiHow? or campusflava.com Join the site, contribute articles, and interact with fellow editors.
    
    

Tips

• Make sure you hobby will not take away the time you need to spend with your family and friends. Involve them if you can and ask them to come and watch you play sport or to see your work on display.If you don't have much money at the start of your hobby, begin very small or find a hobby that doesn't cost anything. Borrow things from other people - often older people have tried a hobby and no longer care for it and they can give the items to you. Another way to make money is to sell the items that you have created in your hobby. This will work for hobbies such as craft, artwork and woodwork. It will have to be good quality though, so make sure you're good at it first.
• Before you get involved starting your hobby, find a place to work on it, and to store it if done indoors. Even outdoors hobbies that need equipment will require storage space - hockey sticks, soccer balls, boots, bicycles, tents etc. all have to go somewhere when you're not using them.
• Supplies for virtually any hobby will be much more affordable (and environment friendly) if obtained used instead of new.
• Once you pursue a hobby for any length of time, you'll get good at it. Often you may reach a point where it can pay for itself such as selling art or crafts, coaching other athletes, writing articles, teaching others or displaying it for admission in the case of very extensive railroad setups. This is a good way to keep costs down.
• At the beginning, think about what hobby you don't think you would like. It will reduce search terms.
• Try to find something that you're usually good at!
• Try something that at first seems unlike you, you might be surprised when you excel at it!
• Pick an indoor hobby and an out door hobby to keep things interesting.

  Warnings

• Don't get too hooked on the hobby or you might go broke or lose relationships with the ones you love. Remember spending time with loved ones can make very special memories for you and for them.
• Regardless of what your hobby is, study safety rules related to it and obey them strictly.
• Always get the best instructions on how to make things or do them. If it is sport, be very careful to warm up properly and do not attempt to do anything difficult unless you have had proper training. If it is making something, read the instructions carefully and be patient. If you are handling anything dangerous, either seek assistance from someone else like a parent, colleague or professional or follow the instructions exactly.
• Gambling is not a hobby, and it could very likely become a huge obsession and cost you dearly in the long run.
• Your hobby shouldn't be at the expense of your study or your work.
• Do not start a hobby that would be expensive to start and maintain if you have to use money budgeted for family expenses or a college fund for you or your children.
• Never steal supplies for your hobby for one; it is illegal and you do not want to make a negative image around your hobby.
• When you get good at your hobby, seriously weigh the choice of "going professional".
• It may stop being fun or relaxing when you need to meet deadlines and keep consistent professional quality. If you do go professional, look for a new hobby that's unrelated to take its place as something you relieve stress with and have no expectations of anything but enjoyment with.
• Don't make it so complicated or dull. This will discourage you and decrease the chance of doing it over and over so try to fill it with life. For example, you can dance on music instead of dancing freely without a rhythm.
• Do it with a group of people. This will make it more fun and you would enjoy it as a group more as you won't feel lonely and depressed.If you would prefer to do it alone you can but don't make it so boring.