I need a new hobby

Hello fellow ATSers, happy 2013.

I decided to make a post asking for suggestions regarding entertainment, most specifically I need a new hobby. I've played online FPS games, MMOs and even online card games. I've played Poker both in real life and online, I've played a lot of basketball, soccer and table tennis and used to surf when I was a teenager (I'm 26 now btw) and I've played RPG (the real RPG not MMOs) most of my life, as well as Magic the Gathering.

The issue here is: I'm growing incredibly bored, and I would even risk saying I'm having anxiety attacks and the insomnia is probably related to all that. All my life I had hobbies to look up to, I would never spend a second without doing something I liked - during free time of course. My work isn't boring, I work with 3D and Illustration and I love it, but I'm really lost right now entertainment-wise, so I need a new hobby.

Before anyone comes up with things such "sitting indoors/outdoors, reading/writing or watching TV" I'd like to say I'm looking for a different kind of hobby, that is unique and not too expensive. It can be time consuming, I don't mind. I'm afraid I'll end up turning back to drinking more if I don't find a hobby soon.

So, any suggestions?

Thanks a lot in advance, to all those who participate in here.

You could try drinki- oh.

Hiking. Find a tourist mountain range near you and just walk up it. With travel to and from the mountain, the climb, the dinner on the way back, you can be looking at a whole day.

There's no better feeling than looking down on the world from the peak of a ridge. Go with someone experienced the first few times though, it can be dangerous.

Alternatively, for shorter periods, indoor wall climbing.

I'm in the same boat mate. Suggestions/advice would be cool.

I'm 22, and just recently i got my motorbike license. It's pretty fun riding and i look forward to going for my R class. (Here in australia - specifically in my state, we have R-E class motorbike licence which is up to 250cc, and then once you have had that for 1 year, you are entitled to go for your R class licence which is between 250cc and 1000cc).
But obviously i get bored of riding sometimes, and can't ride all the time.

I tried tandem skydiving, which was pretty amazing. I've wanted to do solo/AFF courses since, but haven't built the motivation to do it.

What be you suggest, ATS'ers?

Guitar!

I've been playing for 13 years (I'm also 26) and its still an "addiction" for me.

You can get a $50 classical guitar to learn on, or throw more money in to it and get an electric and amplifier for a few hundred. It's a wonderful hobby as long as you don't just learn Dave Matthews songs to play at girls.


Oh and as far as the RPGs, I still download SNES roms to play on an emulator. Just finished Final Fantasy II the other day

You can also try gardening .It is awesome. Once you plant your own trees and see them growing ,it will give you tremendous happiness and joy.

Thank you all for the answers, was really fun reading some of them, especially the indoor wall climbing suggestion! lol The gardening suggestion seems pretty cool to me right now but I don't seem to have the necessary space for it, maybe I should try Bonsai? The Hiking suggestion is pretty cool too but I'd really like something I could enjoy/do on a daily basis since travelling (or going far from home - anywhere) is already a hobby of mine.

edit: I like the guitar suggestion as well, but I've already tried music and it looks like I'm not too good at it (I could be wrong and try a second time perhaps?).

You could have a go at a martial Art? Some are cheap and you will benefit out of it (both physically and mentally).

Originally posted by daaskapital
You could have a go at a martial Art? Some are cheap and you will benefit out of it (both physically and mentally).

Yup, that should work but as travelling it isn't something I could just get home and do, it would involve having to go somewhere and I'm fed up with traffic lol. But the idea by itself is very nice though, maybe if I find somewhere close to home and I could walk there.

Thanks!

reply to post by kromaion


I'm going to give you a suggestion that I gave myself - and, sadly, never did it.

Try to imagine all of the hours you racked up in your life playing games. Is it a hundred hours? A thousand? More? What could you (and I) have done with all those hours?

We probably could have learned ten different languages.

We could have simply walked the city looking for change on the ground, along with returnable bottles; if we had put all that money away there's no telling how much we'd have right now.

We could have built bird houses, dog houses, backyard sheds, and sold them for a profit.

We could have learned and mastered every musical instrument imaginable.

Learned how to write novels, music, poetry...

This list could go on and on.

I thought of this stuff years ago, but I didn't know then that all I needed to do to, say, learn a new language, was to stick to it. No matter how hard it seemed, as the days of learning went by I would have picked up more and more of the language, but I just didn't do it.

And now all I have to show for doing things like playing online poker, spending hours playing keno (Mass lottery), watching hours and hours of TV, is NOTHING! I have nothing to show for it.

So, whatever you choose for a new hobby, please make it something that increases YOUR value somehow, and makes you feel like a better person for it. Good luck to you.

Originally posted by jiggerj
reply to post by kromaion

 

I'm going to give you a suggestion that I gave myself - and, sadly, never did it.

Try to imagine all of the hours you racked up in your life playing games. Is it a hundred hours? A thousand? More? What could you (and I) have done with all those hours?

We probably could have learned ten different languages.

We could have simply walked the city looking for change on the ground, along with returnable bottles; if we had put all that money away there's no telling how much we'd have right now.

We could have built bird houses, dog houses, backyard sheds, and sold them for a profit.

We could have learned and mastered every musical instrument imaginable.

Learned how to write novels, music, poetry...

This list could go on and on.

I thought of this stuff years ago, but I didn't know then that all I needed to do to, say, learn a new language, was to stick to it. No matter how hard it seemed, as the days of learning went by I would have picked up more and more of the language, but I just didn't do it.

And now all I have to show for doing things like playing online poker, spending hours playing keno (Mass lottery), watching hours and hours of TV, is NOTHING! I have nothing to show for it.

So, whatever you choose for a new hobby, please make it something that increases YOUR value somehow, and makes you feel like a better person for it. Good luck to you.

Hello, thanks for your answer, very insightful!

I've been thinking about it as well, for the past few years, about how much time I spend on the internet playing games or on forums (such as ATS lol) and as you said, what do I have to show for this? Of course I learned a lot from it, but nothing really tangible or rewarding in fact.

The real truth though, is that in the world we live in right now, it is too "energy consuming" to have a hobby/activity that involves some more work than what we are already "forced" to do. This is why games and internet sucks up all of our free time. Because it's easier and more comfortable; as you said, we can't handle too much of learning, working hard aside from what we already do everyday for others (your company, your boss, whatever).

I've been considering a hobby that would be financially viable as well, I mean, that I would be able to enjoy but get some money from as well.

Originally posted by kromaion

Originally posted by daaskapital
You could have a go at a martial Art? Some are cheap and you will benefit out of it (both physically and mentally).

Yup, that should work but as travelling it isn't something I could just get home and do, it would involve having to go somewhere and I'm fed up with traffic lol. But the idea by itself is very nice though, maybe if I find somewhere close to home and I could walk there.

Thanks!

, traffic is always a pain!

Some Martial Arts instructors may do private lessons as well. Where you can arrange for them to meet you somewhere. The benefit of Martial Arts is that you don't always have to travel. You can practice right in the comfort of your home

I'm glad i could help!

Originally posted by kromaion

The real truth though, is that in the world we live in right now, it is too "energy consuming" to have a hobby/activity that involves some more work than what we are already "forced" to do.

You just described me. lol I have such low energy that I nap three times a day on the weekends, and I am pretty much brain dead after work during the week. I think the problem here is just my diet - it sucks! If I ate healthier I'd no doubt have the energy to do the things I listed. More to the point, I'd have the energy to WANT to do those things.

Don't wait another 26 years before realizing that diet and exercise ARE THE ANSWER to almost everything. I'd like to continue this conversation, but I need a cigarette.

reply to post by kromaion


When I moved two years ago to the "sticks" I found myself in sort of the same boat as you OP. A guy up the road had a quadrunner that he had bought used and rode it a quarter mile and parked it. It never ran again and had been sitting for about a year and a half. I had no mechanic experience, but I decided to try and fix it. Now a year and half later I have been buying atv's and rebuilding them just for the fun of it. Electrical to full engine tear downs. I actually never considered wrenching on things in the past but I really enjoy it. So much that my dad and I leveled out a foundation area to put in a 40' x 60' shop hopefully this spring. Way more money than needs to be spent but I was lucky on my cattle this year so screw it. What I have been able to teach myself so far has saved me a huge amount of cash repairing farm equipment as well as some vehicle work. Just a thought for ya though since I never considered a wrench much fun till I just picked one up and gave it a shot.

As far as financially viable, I do make a nice bit of extra cash selling what I fix.

My father-in-law had an unusual hobby. I don't know if there are dumps anymore, but my father-in-law use to go to the dump and pick up anything and everything with copper in it. Washing Machine motors, and lots of wire. He would then take this stuff into his shed and strip the wire by hand while listening to radio talk shows.

This was over thirty years ago, so when he sold the copper he got something like $1,200 for it. Today that price would probably be quadrupled.

reply to post by jiggerj


The area I live in is very depressed atm and there are many people that do exactly that. I store all my copper and brass scrap in the basement since it seems to walk away from the barn. Odd they wont steal a chainsaw or a nice wrench set but will grab a pile of wire.

try hang gliding ... rock climbing... surfing ....

Originally posted by drivers1492
reply to post by kromaion

 

When I moved two years ago to the "sticks" I found myself in sort of the same boat as you OP. A guy up the road had a quadrunner that he had bought used and rode it a quarter mile and parked it. It never ran again and had been sitting for about a year and a half. I had no mechanic experience, but I decided to try and fix it. Now a year and half later I have been buying atv's and rebuilding them just for the fun of it. Electrical to full engine tear downs. I actually never considered wrenching on things in the past but I really enjoy it. So much that my dad and I leveled out a foundation area to put in a 40' x 60' shop hopefully this spring. Way more money than needs to be spent but I was lucky on my cattle this year so screw it. What I have been able to teach myself so far has saved me a huge amount of cash repairing farm equipment as well as some vehicle work. Just a thought for ya though since I never considered a wrench much fun till I just picked one up and gave it a shot.

As far as financially viable, I do make a nice bit of extra cash selling what I fix.

edit on 5-1-2013 by drivers1492 because: added info

I used to fix my friends' computers and headphones just for the fun of it, but that's the closest I got. Then I kind of got involved with other things and I seemingly have no patience for fixing stuff anymore lol

reply to post by kromaion


I bought and rebuilt/repaired towers and laptops for a number of years and still do on occasion. Got into setting up pc based security systems a bit and installed a few networks for a couple of places. I lost most of my interest in that as well. Not sure why I like wrenching on stuff so much now. I think it may be due to my lifestyle mainly. I went from living in a small town working the regular jobs to living in the mountains running a small cattle farm.

Okay I've read about exercise, various activities that require you to go somewhere, lack of musical ability and your diet.
Based on what I've seen in this thread thus far, my suggestion is for you to become a "foodie" - learn to cook and eat healthier - you still have to go out and buy groceries but everyone has to eat.

ganjoa

reply to post by kromaion

There is always learning to cook, refurbishing used furniture, and starting a collection of some type. All are fairly inexpensive, and can be very relaxing.
When I step into my kitchen, I get into a whole other zone. It's very theraputic, almost as if you are creating an edible masterpiece

Perhaps you could go to the local library and browse the "hobbies" section and see if you can get some ideas from there?