A hobby can bring a ton of enjoyment and satisfaction to your life. However, sometimes, there are some things that a serious hobbyist does that can lead to problems. The new year is a great time to take a hard look at your hobby and decide to make some resolutions that will help you get the most out of your hobby without feeling frustration or damaging family relationships. Here are several resolutions for common hobby related issues.
Hobbies Won't Take Over the House This Year
I have an art studio. If I'm working on a mixed media project or creating a backdrop for a "just for fun" photography project, I should be able to confine my project to that area. The truth is, I have chalk markers and tempura paints on a corner of my kitchen counter right now. I also have an easel with a mixed media canvas on it set up in the play room. One of my first hobby resolutions for 2011 is that I will keep my socks in my sock drawer and my paints in my paint drawer.
Food Before Hobbies
I don't think I've ever met someone who paid for dollhouse miniatures instead of milk or flower bulbs instead of bread, but I have heard stories of people breaking out the ramen noodles for a few weeks so they could buy something to feed their hobby habit. We can't enjoy our favorite pastimes if we are suffering from malnutrition.
Use What You Have
It can be hard to turn down the opportunity to buy a box of awesome scrapbooking papers or to buy a neat American pottery piece you never saw before. However, if your paper bin is stuffed with papers you have yet to even look at or your collection isn't properly displayed yet, you might want to resolve to use what you have before you buy more. This was actually my New Year's resolution last year when I saw how much ephemera and just plain stuff I had collected. When I taught a lot of classes, I could keep ahead of it, but without eight or ten students to help me use stuff up, I definitely had to stop buying and start using. I'm happy to report that I did, indeed, use a lot of things I had sitting around. However, I did end up buying a few carefully selected supplies, so I guess I dented my resolution a bit.
Now that you have some goals for keeping your hobby under control, why not make some 2011 New Year's resolutions that can give you some real satisfaction? Here are two of my favorite resolutions of all time.
Share Your Hobby With Someone Else
Your hobby brings you so much joy. Why not let someone else in on the fun? You can teach a non-credit class at a local community college, offer to do a program at the library, or simply stop by the local nursing home to visit with a few residents and leave them with a mini kit that will start them on their way to enjoying your hobby, too. If you are too shy to try those things, maybe you can involve a family member in your hobby.
Use Your Hobby to Make a Difference
I know someone who loves to knit and had given knitted scarves and blankets to friends and family far and wide. When that knitter kept right on knitting, I asked where the new items were going to end up. It turns out that they were donated to a local retirement community at Christmastime so that residents who didn't get a special gift from their families would have something nice to open on Christmas day. I thought that was a wonderful idea and it started me thinking about how I could give back with my hobby. I ended up getting a group of other mixed media artists together to auction off a mixed media book on eBay. We gave the proceeds to Alzheimer's research. How can you make a difference with your hobby?
Hopefully, these resolution ideas help you come up with some great goals for managing your hobby in 2011 so that you can continue to enjoy spending time doing what you love.
Katelyn Thomas - If you can't find me in the spring, I'm out hiking through the wood with a few pounds of photography gear strapped to my back. In the ...
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