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How My Own Hobbies Developed

I've been thinking back a bit lately about how my own hobbies actually developed over the years, and I figured there might be a blog post in there somewhere. Maybe someone else can take something away from it as well. So let's start right at the beginning.

As a kid, a lot of things were simply decided for me. I was in a karate club, played the recorder and later the keyboard, and went skiing in winter. A lot of those were things my parents more or less pushed me toward. Sometimes simply because other parents were sending their kids to the same activities and it was just the normal thing to do within our circle of friends.

I tried all of it and obviously had some fun with parts of it, but with the recorder, keyboard and karate, it became pretty clear that they weren't really my thing. Still, I kept doing some of them for longer than I actually wanted to. Once you're signed up somewhere, go there regularly and have already invested quite a bit of time into it, it's not always that easy to just say: Nope, this isn't for me. I'm done.

The one exception from that time was skiing, which is still one of my favorite hobbies today. But even that wasn't a passion right from the start. Tight, uncomfortable ski boots, wobbling around on two planks and several seasons of practice before you can even somewhat confidently make your way down a mountain. If I'd given up too early, it probably never would have become a hobby at all.

Looking back, I'm actually pretty glad my parents pushed me in that direction. Even though I unfortunately don't get to ski much anymore these days, it's definitely one of those hobbies that really grew on me over the years. So I think you do have to distinguish between genuinely not enjoying something and simply not having done it long enough to even know whether you'll enjoy it.

A few years later, during my teenage years, it was mostly my circle of friends that determined how we spent our time. I was basically outside with friends all day. We'd usually ride our mountain bikes around for a few hours and then often end up at the soccer field or the public pool. Weekends were for the youth fire brigade, and every evening I'd sit in front of my computer until late at night, hanging around in chat rooms and forums, messing around with websites, writing blog posts and stuff like that. That was pretty much my everyday life back then.

I basically joined in with whatever happened to be popular among my friends. And of course I sometimes had fun playing soccer or hanging out at the pool too. But if I'm thinking back honestly, I don't remember ever looking forward to finally playing soccer again or going swimming.

I did look forward to riding my mountain bike every day. And I looked forward to sitting down at my computer again in the evening. With things like soccer, on the other hand, I was sometimes almost happy when the weather was bad and we ended up doing something else.

And yet, whenever someone asked me about my hobbies back then, I always said I liked playing soccer. Mountain biking somehow didn't feel like a real hobby to me at the time. I mean, that's just how I got from A to B and how we rode around together. And sitting in front of a computer for hours obviously didn't sound much like a hobby either. So I said soccer. And I guess when you say something often enough, you start convincing yourself too. I was doing it all the time, after all.

Today I'd see that completely differently. Just because you do something regularly, or because everyone around you does it, doesn't automatically make it your hobby. With things like that, it's surprisingly easy to convince yourself that you enjoy something even though you've probably already noticed that other things bring you a lot more joy.

As I moved into early adulthood, things naturally changed again. Friend groups change, you have more freedom to do your own thing and you increasingly start trying the things you actually want to do.

Since I'd always been interested in health, fitness and nutrition, I eventually joined a gym. Over time, that developed into the fitness and nutrition lifestyle I have today, which still takes up a pretty big part of my free time.

My website continued developing during that time as well. It had already been heavily focused on health-related topics, but over time that became more and more important and the focus kept growing. At the same time, more and more web-related things came along with it. Writing, web design, coding, creating infographics and all the other stuff that comes with it.

The whole thing basically developed on its own. I never had to sit there and think about whether this was going to be my new hobby. I just kept doing it because I enjoyed it. And at some point, it simply became a pretty big part of my life.

Those are also the two areas today where I can definitely say they're really my thing. Nobody ever had to convince me to keep going, and I never had to ask myself whether I actually still wanted to do them. I was simply interested and always wanted to learn more.

Of course, I kept trying new things along the way too. Kickboxing, Wing Tsun, MMA, Kendo, parkour, climbing, curling, all kinds of cardio training and quite a few other activities that I did for at least a while. I genuinely enjoyed many of them. Some even enough that I could have imagined sticking with them for much longer. But with most of them, it still never really clicked.

Another issue was that many of these activities took quite a bit of time and were tied to fixed training schedules. And that's something I've always struggled with a little. A hobby should fit into my life, after all. If I have to organize my entire free time around fixed appointments, something that's supposed to be fun can quickly start feeling like another obligation. And if you're also dependent on other people or a particular group, things get even more complicated.

I ran into the same problem with emergency medical services, which became a real passion of mine. I first came into contact with that world during my Austrian civilian service (the mandatory alternative to military service) and realized that I really enjoyed it. After finishing my civilian service, I stayed on as a volunteer, continued my training and took on quite a few weekend shifts.

That was definitely something I was genuinely passionate about at the time and would probably still enjoy doing today if it weren't so time-consuming and difficult to combine with my private life. Eventually, I decided to focus more on continuing my education in that area and keeping the knowledge I'd gained rather than regularly working active shifts.

And yeah, hobbies don't necessarily have to stay in your free time either. Once you know what kinds of things you're good at and what you genuinely enjoy doing voluntarily, it can make sense to keep that in mind when choosing a career too. We spend a pretty huge part of our lives working, after all. It would be kind of a shame to spend eight hours every day doing things that don't suit you at all while your actual interests and strengths are sitting somewhere else and never really get used.

I've always enjoyed analytical thinking, statistics, troubleshooting and solving problems in my private life, so it made sense for me to head in a similar direction professionally. And working as a metrology technician is actually a really good fit for me. I get to use many of the things that naturally suit me while continuing to develop those strengths at the same time. And I enjoy those areas enough that I sometimes find myself learning more about them in my free time too.

That also makes work feel less like some random job you're only doing to get through your hours. And in the end, there's probably some truth to the idea that we tend to be pretty good at the things we genuinely enjoy doing.

Looking back at all the things I've tried throughout my life, only a small fraction of them really ended up being right for me. Some turned into real passions, others were fun for a while, and quite a few simply weren't my thing. I think that's also why finding a hobby isn't always as straightforward as it might seem. Sometimes you know right away, sometimes something has to grow on you, and sometimes you only discover what you enjoy by randomly trying something new. And just because you once started something doesn't mean you have to keep doing it forever.

If someone asked me today what my hobbies are, I'd probably say strength training and cycling, my general interest in fitness, health and nutrition, and pretty much everything related to the digital world. Those are the things I'm still actively interested in today and where I don't really have to think about whether I want to keep doing them.

Alright, that's probably enough about my personal hobby odyssey, which ended up being a little longer than I'd originally planned. So let's see what you can take away from all of this and how to find a hobby that actually fits your life.

Look Back First

If you don't really have a hobby and want to find one, it might make sense to start by looking back at your childhood.

What did you enjoy doing when nobody was telling you what to do? What could you spend hours doing? What did you look forward to, and which things did you keep coming back to completely on your own?

Maybe you were constantly building things, drawing, writing stories, taking stuff apart or spending every free minute outside. Maybe there were also certain things at school that always came easily to you and that you actually enjoyed doing, unlike most of your classmates.

As you grow up, a lot of those things eventually disappear. Your daily life changes, other things become more important and suddenly you realize you haven't picked up a pencil to draw in ten years even though you used to do it all the time.

I wouldn't necessarily try to bring back that exact same hobby, though. The more interesting question is what you actually liked about it and whether that interest might still be somewhere inside you today.

If you wanted to know absolutely everything about animals as a kid, maybe you'd enjoy nature or wildlife photography today, or perhaps even volunteering at an animal shelter. If writing stories at school always came easily to you and you actually enjoyed doing it, maybe you'd have fun writing your own short stories or even an entire book today.

Or maybe you spent hours building things out of Lego and coming up with your own creations. In that case, model building, Lego Technic or working with wood might be exactly your thing today.

Sometimes you don't have to try countless new things to find a hobby that fits. Maybe all it takes is remembering what used to genuinely excite you and finding a way to bring that interest back into your life today.

Pay Attention to What You Do Voluntarily Today

What do you actually spend your free time doing these days? Maybe you already have a hobby, or at least an interest that could turn into one, and you just don't see it as one yet.

Those things can sound pretty insignificant at first. Maybe you're constantly reading articles about cars even though you aren't planning to buy one. You watch videos about astronomy, spend three hours planning the perfect route for a vacation that's still six months away, or take pictures of animals and plants every time you go for a walk.

I find things like that pretty interesting. Because if you keep coming back to a particular topic voluntarily, nobody has to push you into it and you naturally want to know more and more about it, there's obviously some kind of genuine interest there. Maybe you don't need to look for a completely new hobby at all. Maybe you just need to figure out what you could do with the interest you already have.

But the whole thing also works the other way around. Just because you regularly do something in your free time doesn't necessarily mean it's actually one of your hobbies.

Maybe you go pottery painting with a few friends every Tuesday because somebody suggested it once and you've just kept doing it ever since. You enjoy talking to your friends and the evening is usually pretty fun. But do you actually look forward to the pottery itself? Would you still go if your friends didn't have time that week? Or would you secretly be a little relieved if the class got cancelled?

So I'd pay less attention to how often you do something and more attention to how voluntarily you do it and whether you actually look forward to it. If nobody has to remind or motivate you, you keep coming back to it on your own and you'd happily continue doing it right away, that's probably a much better sign than some activity that's simply been sitting in your calendar every Tuesday for the past few years.

Still Try Things That Aren't on Your Radar at All

Of course, there will always be activities that aren't on your radar whatsoever even though they might be exactly your thing. Simply because you've never really come into contact with them.

If nobody in your family goes scuba diving, none of your friends play chess and you've never even set foot inside a climbing gym, you might go your entire life without ever considering that one of those things could actually be a perfect fit for you.

So despite everything I've said so far, it's still worth taking a look at completely new things every once in a while.

You could almost turn trying new things into a hobby of its own. Every few weeks or months, pick some random activity you've never had anything to do with before. Try archery, go climbing, go bowling with someone or end up in some completely random class like glassblowing or blacksmithing that you'd normally never even think about signing up for.

Because how are you supposed to know whether you'll enjoy something if you've never tried it?

And sure, not every attempt is suddenly going to turn into your new great passion. Probably pretty rarely, actually. But at least you'll know, you've had a new experience and you can cross that one off your list. Or maybe you'll be surprised by how much you enjoy it and immediately want to do it again. That's kind of the whole point.

The only thing I'd be a little careful about is how quickly you judge something after the first attempt. Especially with things that require some practice, the beginning might not be particularly fun. If you can barely make it five meters on skis the first time, get stuck halfway up the climbing wall or can't get a single chord to sound right on a guitar, that doesn't necessarily mean you won't enjoy the activity once you get a little better at it.

Having a hobby doesn't mean you need to be particularly talented at it from the beginning. And being talented at something doesn't automatically mean it's the right hobby for you either.

Maybe you discover that you're actually really good at drawing but still have absolutely no desire to voluntarily sit down in front of an easel in the evening. In that case, there's not much point forcing yourself to paint just because you feel like it would be a shame to waste your talent.

I think you can usually feel the difference yourself pretty well. If something is difficult but you still really want to keep going, want to get better and are already looking forward to the next time, that's probably a pretty good sign. If, on the other hand, you're relieved every single time you're finally done with it, you can probably just admit to yourself that it isn't your thing.

Out of ideas and not sure what hobby to try next? Leave it to chance:

The Hobby Has to Fit Into Your Life Too

And well, ultimately the hobby somehow has to fit into your life too. Sure, if you're genuinely passionate about something, you'll usually find ways to make it work and it's probably worth looking at what's actually possible before giving up on it. But let's be real: Some things simply don't fit into everyday life as easily as we'd like them to.

If a hobby requires you to be somewhere at a specific time three times a week, drive an hour each way or constantly depend on other people being available too, all the stuff around the hobby might eventually annoy you more than the hobby itself makes you happy.

For someone else, though, those exact fixed appointments might be perfect. Maybe they love getting out of the house every Tuesday and Thursday, seeing the same people and automatically having a regular break from everything else going on in their life.

So think about what you actually want a hobby to look like. Do you want something you can do whenever you feel like it, or do you like having fixed appointments? Do you want some time to yourself or do you specifically want to meet other people? Do you want to constantly improve and work toward some kind of goal, or do you really just want to switch off for a while? And would you mind if you could only do your hobby a few times a year?

That doesn't mean you have to completely give something up just because it's difficult to fit into your everyday life. Maybe you can simply find a different way of doing it. If you enjoy a team sport but the fixed training schedule doesn't work for you at all, maybe there's a similar sport you can do more flexibly. And if you love acting but don't have time to commit to a theater group year-round, maybe an occasional improv workshop is enough to scratch that itch. It doesn't have to be something you do every week to count as a hobby.

Closing Words

Most hobbies probably develop more or less on their own throughout life anyway. Often you don't even realize you already have one because there are certain things you simply enjoy doing regularly without ever stopping to think about whether they technically count as a hobby. And staying open to new things certainly doesn't hurt either. Maybe you simply haven't come across your absolute favorite hobby yet.

Oh, and don't let anyone tell you that something can't be a "real" hobby. As long as you do it voluntarily and genuinely enjoy spending your time on it, who cares what anyone else thinks? Whether you play PlayStation, are obsessed with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, collect comic books, watch trains or spend hours reading random Wikipedia articles, a hobby doesn't have to be particularly useful, you don't have to achieve anything with it and you certainly don't have to be especially good at it. It can also just be something you enjoy doing.