Constant improvement is a hallmark of a successful person, but achieving it also takes sacrifice and intentional behavior.

The sacrifice is your time, as well as the decision as to which hobbies to pursue and which you might like to pursue but simply don’t have time for.

Your intentionality in regularly making time for these hobbies is what will ultimately turn these activities from something you do for self-improvement to something you do for fun; because – let’s face it – if you don’t enjoy your hobbies eventually you’ll stop doing them.

These five hobbies are fun but with the added personal and professional benefit of being activities that are good for your body, mind, and skill set.

1) Strength Training

Like running, or cardio training, strength training also has amazing benefits for your health.

There are the obvious things, like looking better and becoming stronger, which will make you less prone to injuries when you play sports or do your cardio training.

But strength training will also make you feel better.

Often times, even when you can’t yet see any physical difference as a result of strength training, you’ll still walk that little bit straighter and speak with a little bit more confidence just because you feel good about having lifted weights.

Ever heard the cliché, “dress for success?” The reason people say that is because it really works – dressing like a successful person subconsciously makes you actually act more like that successful person you want to be.

It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Feeling better about your appearance, because you’ve been strength training, will help you at work and in your social life, because feeling confident about yourself and how you look affects your success in all areas of your life.

Join a gym or check out some DVD’s, like P90X or Insanity, stay consistent, and you’re gong to like the way you start to feel about yourself.

2) Reading

I have a friend who’s in his mid-twenties and running a multi-million dollar company; he’s the son of immigrants, was the valedictorian of my college class, and recently named on the Forbes 30 under 30 list.

He’s a pretty interesting guy, in my opinion. However, when we would hang out, he used to say to me that the most interesting people he knows are always the people who read.

I found that interesting for a man as well connected as he is, but I suppose what he meant is that success isn’t as interesting to him as someone who’s thoughtful and informed.

Don’t know where to start reading? Then read everything: literature, non-fiction, biographies of those you admire, newspapers, popular fiction.

The more you read the more conversations you’ll find you can join in on, and the more interesting you’ll seem – and actually be – at networking events and with your co-workers.

There’s a reason we were encouraged to read when we were young – reading really is good for you – and while it’s not a side hustle in itself, reading can also be an essential to improving and growing your side hustle.

Warren Buffett famously reads for about 80% of his working day – he’s one of the richest men in the world and he believes the most valuable use of his time is to learn more.

If you read there is a good chance you have considered starting a blog or have already started one. If you run a blog and want to grow it and take it to the next level, then read a great post by DC highlighting 30+ Ways to Improve Your Blog.

If you’re into the stock market or gardening or wedding photography or freelance writing: educate yourself about your field through reading and watch your confidence and business grow.

3) Drawing and/or Painting

Though there is less side hustle potential in drawing and painting than there is in say photography, there is still potential all the same

In high school I actually used to draw and paint portraits of people’s children as probably my very first side hustle. It didn’t pay much, but if it’s something you enjoy then there are ways to make some spare change off of it.

But like photography, writing or any creative pursuit, there’s a creative value to drawing and painting that can’t be measured.

Painting and drawing teach you to look at things more carefully. When I wasn’t happy with a drawing in high school, my fine arts teacher would always tell me that it was because I wasn’t really looking at my subject.

It always frustrated me when he said that because what else could I have possibly been looking at?

But what he meant was that I was drawing from an idea I had in my mind, rather than really opening my mind and examining what was actually in front of me.

That sounds a little abstract, but the reality of life is that after a while we start taking what we see for granted – we don’t see things with the wonder we did as a child. After year of seeing something, we don’t stop to examine it like we used to.

Drawing and painting can help you to recapture some of that wonder for the world; they can help you to remember how to truly look at something again.

In a more practical way, drawing and painting also help you to understand how colors go together, which can help in how you dress yourself or decorate your home; they can help you understand composition, which will help you take better profile photos and cover pictures for your social media accounts.

Most importantly though, drawing and painting will give you a creative outlet that will relieve stress and a hobby that make you more interesting when talking to other people.

4) Gardening

Landscaping may not be as obvious as some of the others on this list, but it can be a full time job or a side hustle too.

Right now I’m working in a hotel for the summer. It’s a nice hotel and the money I make is great, but I can’t do it all week long – I’m just not the personality for that high stress, high pressure environment.

So instead I work there part of the week and then landscape garden and write on my days off.

Working four days in a hotel and then one day outside, with my hands and with fresh air in my lungs, is the equivalent for me of working four days in the city and then one in the country.

It’s less money, sure, but it keeps me sane.

There’s something about planting and watching a thing grow – knowing it could grow taller than your house or outlive you by decades – that just feels great.

It’s also a great way to encourage you to cook at home in the summer – to enjoy the garden you’ve worked so hard for; it’s a talking point with guests and a reason to host guests in the first place.

The final advantage (and maybe this is just me) is that spending money on plants, trees, and dirt feels far less like a self-centered purchase than almost any other I can think of – it feels good in the same way giving to charity does or volunteering does.

5) Hiking

Being in nature recharges you and puts things in perspective. There’s something about the size of the mountains that somehow always seems to reduce the size of your own problems.

It’s also, of course, fantastic exercise – especially with a pack on your back.

It gives you a chance to practice photography or lends inspiration to your writing or other creative pursuits.

It’s exercise like running or strength training, but with the added benefit of the outdoors being good for your mind in a way that running on a tread mill at the gym just isn’t.

There’s something great about turning off your phone, not answering your email, and hearing no noise but the wind in the trees or the rush of a stream to make you truly relaxed and recharged.

I live in the mountains right now, and it’s always funny to me how some people visit to play golf, others to wander around the little touristy-stores, others still to have a drink at a beer garden or swim in the pool, but all of them at some point or another head up for a hike in the mountains.

For most of us, there’s something about a hike through natural beauty that’s simply good for us.

If you don’t know where the trails are around you then check out a travel book for your state or country – those books aren’t just for tourists – or get a travel rewards card like the Marriott Rewards® Premier or the Chase Sapphire Preferred® and earn rewards towards a hiking weekend getaway.

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These hobbies are really just some ideas to get you started; depending on what your goals are, any type of activity could be good for your.

I could have included things such as pottery, which has similar benefits to painting, or rock climbing, which has similar benefits to strength training, but ultimately it’s down to your personal tastes.

The key to anything is picking something you enjoy – it does no good to commit to strength training only to give it up three weeks later because really you prefer to run. In the end, the goal is not so important as picking up and sticking at a hobby that you enjoy and is good for you.

This is part 2 in a 2-part series. Check out part 1 here for more ideas for hobbies that will help you improve your mind, body, and skill set.

What are the hobbies you get the most benefit from? What hobby gives you the greatest benefit to both body and mind?
 

This is part 1 of a 2-part post. Be on the lookout for part 2!

The older I get and the more responsibilities I take on (my 9-5, my side hustle, my hobbies), the more valuable my time becomes.

I find myself watching less movies and less TV series, not because I don’t enjoy that stuff – I do – but because it doesn’t do anything for me. Watching Game of Thrones or Sherlock is entertaining, but it doesn’t help me to be a better writer; it doesn’t improve my photography or help grow my blog.

So instead I’ve tried to substitute those habits, like TV or games on my phone, with hobbies that focus on self-improvement while also being enjoyable.

Finding ways to have fun and switch-off from work while at the same time helping you improve your skills, health, or general well-being is a great idea for anyone short on time but serious about constant self-improvement.

1) Cooking

My friends who can’t cook for themselves (or who can only ‘cook’ an egg or a bowl of Lucky Charms) are also typically those friends who have the most unhealthy diets.

Learning to cook for yourself is the beginning of taking control over your diet and health.

If you’re trying to lose weight or bulk-up, then eating right is around 80% of your battle to achieve those goals – if not more.

Learning to cook your own food provides two distinct advantages in this regard:

The first is that you can control your portion size. When you eat out, you end up eating the amount of food that’s set in front of you. It’s natural. But if you’re trying to lose weight, then cooking your own food allows you to control your portion size and thus limit your calories in order to meet your goals.

The second advantage of learning to cook is that you can control the ingredients you’re cooking with. If you’re trying to lose weight, you can cut out the carbs. If you’re diabetic, you can cut out the sugar. If you’re trying to gain weight, you can increase your protein.

Achieving your fitness goals becomes much easier when you learn to cook for yourself.

But that’s not even to mention the other benefits, such as the satisfaction that comes from sourcing and cooking your own food; the therapeutic value of cooking after working all day; the money you’re going to save by eating in rather than out.

Learning to cook – and cooking healthy – is great for mind and body, and not a bad skill set to impress guests or dates with either.

2) Writing

Writing is a great therapeutic and creative outlet, but with the self-publishing opportunities available now online, it has never been easier to make a little side income off of it as well.

You could opt for starting your own blog using a free platform, like WordPress, or a pay-monthly site, like SquareSpace, where you’ll benefit from beautiful website templates and a high degree of user-friendliness.

The other option that we’re always talking about on YAM is writing for a blog, and that’s probably because we’ve all done it at one point or another!

Writing for a blog, like I’m doing, is a great starting point to get used to the world of blogging and to get an idea how to run your own some day – which is exactly what DC did before starting YAM.

Writing in your spare time is an obvious hobby for those of us who blog; the quality of your blog posts will directly benefit from writing more, that’s clear.

But what about those people who don’t blog and have no aspirations to add to the multitude of (often) semi-informed voices vying for our attention?

While a fair point, there are benefits to writing even for non-writers. Here’s why:

I recently picked up a book called Everybody Writes. The author’s primary idea is that in today’s word of social media and blogging, not only does everybody write, but knowing how to write well is actually more important than ever.

Whether you realize it or not, people are paying attention to how well you write: your statuses on Facebook, your posts on Instagram and Twitter, how you describe yourself on your LinkedIn Profile – all of these things play a big part in how people perceive you.

The quality of your writing can be the difference between more friends, followers, more business, and even job offers.

What you write and how well you write it are as important as ever in modern life, which makes writing a great skill to work on – regardless of your interest in professional writing or blogging.

3) Running

It’s no secret that exercise is good for your body and mind. Regular exercise will, of course, keep your body at a healthy weight and your heart strong, but it will also actually make you feel better too.

Exercise releases all sorts of endorphins (feel-good chemicals) in the brain, which helps to make you feel happier – much in the same way that exposure to sunlight does.

But these are things that most people already know.

An underrated benefit of picking up running as a hobby is the relief it can bring from thinking about work and other stressful things in your life. When I run it’s partially for the exercise and partially for the mental-detox.

I think as I run, and I run until I literally run out of thoughts.

It helps clear my mind. It helps me sleep soundly at night. Training for a half-marathon or marathon creates discipline, and finishing one of those races is one of the most satisfying feelings I’ve ever experienced.

It’s difficult to maintain a balanced lifestyle without some form of exercise and running is perfect for body and mind.

4) Photography

With the rise of Instagram the status of photography has changed from something for tourists or the artsy-type to something of a personal marketing tool; the better your pictures, the more followers, the more popularity and status.

But taking up photography has more potential than just more likes on your Instagram: it can be a legitimate side hustle in itself.

I have a couple friends who are self-taught photographers, and work a regular 9-5, but shoot weddings on the weekends. If they’re good and promote themselves well, this adds up to a couple thousand extra dollars a year from something that started as a hobby.

Another more ambitious route to making money through photography is through Instagram itself.

Popular Instagrammers with lots of followers are paid to subtly advertise products – water bottles, watches, Land Rovers, vacation resorts; it’s actually possible through taking pictures on your phone to literally travel the world and get paid to do it (check out @doyoutravel or at @gypsea_lust).

Speaking from personal experience though, I actually won a travel photo contest on Instagram last year worth a cool $3k (here’s the photo, if you’re curious) – so believe me, making money from photography can be done!

But while these opportunities are fun and the side income potential is real, I also think that taking up photography for those reasons only paints half of the picture.

The famous and often quoted wisdom about photography is that, “The camera is an instrument that teaches you how to see without a camera.”

The real reward of taking-up photography is that it can reinvent how you see the world. By learning to look for photos you re-learn to observe and appreciate what’s around you.

It can become a type of game: wherever you are and whoever you’re with, see if you can find a cool perspective.

Photography provides a creative outlet, which is enjoyable and fulfilling in itself, but it also helps you see the world in fresh ways; it can be the difference between a mundane outlook and a happy one.

It can translate into business benefits too, such as the marketing tool I mentioned before, but you will also benefit in the form of being able to take quality profile and cover photos for your social media accounts.

Much in the same way that everybody writes in this social media and blogging age, so too does everybody photograph.

5) Learning a New Language

If you’ve ever lived abroad or been fully immersed in a foreign language, then you’ll know that it’s frustrating. Very frustrating.

When I lived in Korea, was learning Korean, and teaching in a Korean classroom, my head would physically ache at the end of the day from constantly straining to understand what was being said.

I would learn a word – memorize how it was spelled and practice saying it – only to have people look at me in complete bafflement when I attempted to use it in conversation.

But learning a new language is as useful to you as a hobby as it is if you actually want to visit a foreign country.

When I was studying for my bachelor’s in English, all English students were required to be proficient in a foreign language by the end of our four years. That’s because learning a foreign language actually improves your understanding of your native language as well.

When you learn a language as an infant you simply absorb and internalize the rules, but when you learn a language as an adult you question the rules in order to understand them.

In doing so, you find yourself answering questions about your native tongue that you never knew you had.

One of the best ways to start learning a foreign language (aside from actually living in the country or taking private lessons) are through programs and apps.

When I was learning French and Korean, both times I bought Rosetta Stone. It comes with a headset to listen and then repeat what you’re hearing into; Rosetta Stone will then analyze your speech and tell you how well you’re saying it. It’s incredibly useful.

DC is currently learning French through Duolingo, which is an app with two big advantages if you want to pick up a foreign language: it’s awesome and it’s free.
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The saying goes that the two things that will most significantly affect who you become as a person over the next five years are the people you spend time with and the books you read. If I had to add one more thing to that list, then I would say it is the things you do.

Even if you don’t love writing or photography or running when you first start, stick at it. Most things in life aren’t enjoyable to begin with but, over time, as we grow in proficiency and confidence, so does our love of that skill.

If you can learn to truly find enjoyment in hobbies that foster self-improvement while also helping you unwind, then you’re going to find yourself much more able to achieve your goals and well on your way to becoming a happier, more well-rounded, and more satisfied person.

What hobbies help you to become a more well-rounded individual? How to you unwind while still working on self-improvement?

But then I stopped to think: is it a good deal?

Sure, it was saving money, but only as long as I typically purchased three loaves of bread a week anyway – which I don’t – then sure it was great to get an extra free, as long as I would actually eat it – which I probably wouldn’t.

With the bread still in my hand though, I began thinking how I could make it work, “yeah, I could just eat a lot of sandwiches this month or make some bread pudding or something.”

I was trying to justify the savings; I’ve never made bread pudding in my life. I’m not even sure I’ve eaten bread pudding in my life, but because the deal seemed like a good one – because it felt like I would be saving money – I wanted to buy the bread anyway.

In the end I came to my senses, put the bread down, and walked away baffled at how I almost bought something I didn’t need on the premise of “saving money.”

We do this kind of thing all the time: we’re lured in by deals that claim we’re “saving money.”

The problem with that logic is that spending money is rarely saving money: money in your pocket is saving money. Here’s some ways to avoid spending your money on deals that aren’t actually as good as they seem.

Budget

Your monthly budget is always going to be your best weapon against any kind of unnecessary spending.

When you impose strict spending limits – and stick to them – it helps to put any spontaneous purchases into perspective.

If your food budget for the week is $50 and you see a sign for four loaves of bread for the price of three, then it helps to realize it probably isn’t the smartest idea to spend $7.50 of your $50 budget on bread you probably won’t eat.

When you have a budget you’re adamant about sticking to (and maybe a rewards systems for reaching your budgeting goals, too) then any unnecessary spending – no matter how good the deal – suddenly becomes bad for your wallet and your financial goals.

Read our Step-By-Step Guide to Getting Started with Budgeting and 6 Options for Tracking Your Expenses.

Shop With a List

You’re not supposed to shop for food on an empty stomach, that’s pretty common knowledge, but for the same reasons you shouldn’t go shopping without a list.

When you don’t have a list to remind you what you’re there to buy, then like food shopping on an empty stomach, everything starts to look good.

Wherever you go and for however few items you’re going, make a list. When you’re tempted to buy something you didn’t intend to buy, your list is a physical reminder of how much money you intended to spend and that any extra item is not saving money but spending extra money.

Adjust Your Thinking

When you see a good deal it can feel like the company or supermarket is doing you a favor; the reality is that they wouldn’t be selling it at that price if it wasn’t to their advantage in some way.

Maybe they’re trying to get rid of stock that isn’t selling or trying to push a new product, either way they’re still making a profit – no matter how good the deal seems.

It’s rare that companies are ever truly giving something away.

Before you buy something it helps to adjust your thinking and remember that someone is making a profit off of your purchase, so really consider whether or not you need the item.

Assess Your Needs

I’m going to regress momentarily. Sometimes a good deal can truly be a good deal.

If you’re fitness enthusiast, for instance, maybe you eat grilled chicken breast five nights out of the week. In that case, if you see a deal for four packs of chicken breast for the price of three, then this truly is a good deal for you.

Chicken breast were a part of your monthly budget anyway, so by getting one free you are genuinely saving money. They can also be frozen and thawed whenever you want, so you will be able to eat them rather than having them go bad.

In this case, the deal actually is a good one.

Where it gets tricky is with items that you simply don’t need. If a T-shirt is on sale for $3 down from $20, but you already have twenty T-shirts, then if you buy it you haven’t saved $17, you’ve lost $3.

It’s all about assessing your needs; assessing what you’ll actually use, and whether it was a part of your monthly budget to begin with.

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Companies want you to feel good after you purchase their items. They want you to feel like you’ve saved money by buying their product.

The reality is that the only way to save money is to not spend it. Saving $500 on a $3,000 TV isn’t saving if you only went into the store intending to spend $300 on a digital camera – you actually just lost $2,500 rather than saving $500.

Savings aren’t money in your pocket: money is.

Here are some of our top posts on saving money:

• 30 Ways to Save Each Month
• One Strategy That Immediately Limits Spending
• Why You Should Consider a No-Spend Challenge
• 10 Free Things on the Internet You Should be Using
• 6 Extreme Measures to Save Money
• 5 Reasons to Choose a Frugal Lifestyle
• 6 Spending Areas You Can Cut if You Really Need To

Have you ever thought something was a good deal but later found out it wasn’t? Like that waffle maker you bought but never used?

But with so much information at our disposal, where do we start? It’s a smart idea, before you start signing up for various rewards cards and buying items on Amazon, to start with a plan for travel hacking.

By doing a little planning and research before you get your full travel hack on, you’ll give yourself a much better idea of the strategies, rewards cards, and discipline on your end necessary to take full advantage of all the information out there.

1) Set Your Goal 

Before you can decide where to aim your travel hacks you first need to set a goal.

What kind of goal? Well, simply deciding where you want to go is a great goal to start with. You need to decide this because where you’re going will determine what travel hacks are the most useful for you.

If you decide to get an air miles card, it’s good to know whether you’re aiming for 5,000 miles or 20,000 miles. For instance, if you’re taking a domestic vacation, rather than an international one, it will require far less spending on your card to reach the air miles you need for your flights.

Know what your travel goals are so you can start planning your rewards accordingly.

2) Decide Where to Use Your Rewards

 Once you’ve decided on your goal-destination, you can then start researching the most efficient use of your travel rewards. The main thing you want to differentiate between is whether you’ll be targeting air miles or hotels when earning your rewards.

For some places you’re going to travel to, like many developing nations, the air fare will be your main expense, as your hotels and hostels will be relatively cheap. In that case, you’re going to want to target air miles so that your main expense is covered by rewards.

Conversely, for places like the United States the air fare can be fairly cheap or even substituted for a car rental, but there aren’t many cheap hostels like in Europe and Asia. In that case, hotel rewards would be what you’d want to target.

Know your goal then choose the rewards you want to target, because that will make choosing your rewards card much easier.

3) Track Your Monthly Income & Expenses

 Before you set about choosing which rewards card you want, you need to have an accurate idea of how much of your fixed income you can put on your new credit card.

After all, it won’t do any good to have a rewards card if the minimum amount you have to spend to get your rewards is $2,000 but you can only spend $1,000 per month on that card.

By tracking your monthly income and expenses, you will get an accurate idea of what type of rewards card you should get and realistically how many points you’ll be earning each month. Catherine wrote a great post just a couple days ago that shared 6 options for tracking your expenses.

If you’re struggling to meet the minimum requirements to earn rewards, then try looking into putting more of your fixed income on your card. Things like rent, tithes, and even insurance are expenses you might not be paying for with your card but potentially could if you look into it.

4) Get Out of Credit Card Debit

 Before signing up for another credit card, make sure to first get out of any existing credit card debt you might have. Travel hacking will not save you money long-term if you carry a debt balance.

Not sure where to start? Read this post about what to do if you are in credit card debt.

One option to attacking debt is increasing your income through a side hustle. We’ve written about it extensively here on YAM, because it works. Blogging or freelance writing, like I’m doing, is a great way to get started earning some money on the side, but the internet is full of ways for you to make money.

Here’s some of our top posts on side hustling and making more money to help you  get out of debt:

• The Ultimate Guide to Side Hustling
• 7 Ways to Make More Money
• 5 Practical Ways to Improve Your Finances

But if this is something that you’re serious about, then look into DC’s new book, Hustle Away Debt, it’s got everything you’re going to need to know on the subject from someone who knows.

5) Choose Your Rewards Card

When deciding on your travel rewards card, you basically have three options: air miles, hotels or a generic travel rewards card. Which you choose will largely be determined by the goals you’ve set and the rewards you’ve decided to target.

If you decide you need to target air miles, then get a good air miles card that will reward every dollar you spend with a certain amount of air miles.

Be careful though because some airlines will only fly to major destinations. If you’re planning to go somewhere obscure using your air miles, then make sure your airline actually flies there first.

Some great cards for targeting air miles are:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred®
• Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards® Premier

If you decide to target hotels, then likewise get a card that rewards dollars you spend with dollars off of hotels. Again, be careful to make sure the hotel chain you use actually has hotels in the location you’re planning to travel to. Lots of rewards points but no hotels to stay in won’t help you!

Some good hotel rewards cards are:

• Marriott Rewards® Premier
IHG® Rewards Club Select

A great generic travel rewards card is the Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite MasterCard®. This card offers a $400 credit to be used on travel-related expenses (flights, hotels, etc.) when you spend $3,000 within the first 90 days of having the card.

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Before you start pouring hours into seeking out the best deals and hacks to help your travels go smoother and cheaper, take a little bit of time to really consider your goals and which rewards you’re in most need of.

Planning your travel hacking is like that old saying, “it’s not about working harder, it’s about working smarter.” Be smart about your travel hacking, plan, set goals, and then reap the rewards.

What things do you do before travel hacking? What are some of your favorite travel rewards credit cards?

YAM itself was started as DC’s side hustle. His first book, Hustle Away Debt, is all about using those techniques he learned from starting YAM and other side hustles in order to help pay off your debts.

But it’s not just DC who likes talking about the subject – most of the contributors on this site are either writing as a side hustle or have done writing as a side job turned full-time job.

We talk about side hustles here because it’s what we do; it’s worked for us and it can work for you as well. If you haven’t already, now’s a great time to start a side hustle and it’s not just about the extra cash – there are lots of benefits to starting a side hustle.

 

1) Pay Off Your Debts

As the title of DC’s book suggests, a side hustle or two is the perfect way to get rid of your debts from school or pay off a mortgage. That’s because a side hustle can fit around your 9-5 job in a way that traditional moonlighting can’t.

If you’re running your own blog, writing for someone else, consulting or any of the other various things you could do as a side job, then you have the luxury of being able to do these things when and where you choose.

You don’t have to worry about scheduling conflicts between two jobs or working late and then waking up exhausted for your day job. A side hustle is flexible. You can do it while you watch TV or sit with your family in the evening.

By putting 100% of your side hustle into paying off your debts, you’re going to relieve stress on yourself without burning out while you do it. Check out DC’s book, Hustle Away Debt, for more on how to use side hustles to pay off your debts.

2) A Way to Meet Money Goals

A side hustle is a great way to meet your money goals while still being able to enjoy a normal social life as a young adult. Use your side hustle to save for a vacation or pay into investment funds, and then you’re free to have more of an entertainment budget or eating out budget, if that’s what suits you.

Having an income on the side is a simple way to balance your money goals with general spending on the things that make life worth living.

3) A Stable Income

An underrated benefit of having a side hustle is how it can free you from being dependent on your 9-5. We all know that friend who complains about how much they hate their job and how they want to quit and do something else, and we sit there thinking, “Well, why don’t you then?”

Most of the time the answer is fear. We’re afraid to give up the security of a 9-5 for the uncertainty of when our next paycheck will be. I’ll admit, it’s a scary thing to do.

But if you have a side hustle it gives you the freedom to know you have another income, however small, while you’re in transition. A side hustle can quite literally give you the confidence you need to follow your dreams and brave some uncertainty to do it.

4) Self-Improvement

If you’re running a side hustle such blogging, freelance design or photography, consulting or any number of other industries perfect for side hustling, in all of these cases you are your own boss. It gives you valuable experience in managing – even if you’re just managing yourself!

You’ll get the traditional advantages associated with autonomy, such as problem solving, becoming self-reliant, and learning to market yourself – because, hey, no one’s going to do it for you! But a side hustle also has the sometimes overlooked benefit of building your confidence.

Watching your side hustle succeed, through no one’s effort but your own, is a huge confidence booster, and the best part is that confidence changes everything – it’s not just confined to your side hustle.

Increased confidence will begin positively affecting your day job and your life, because confidence it’s the way you feel and view yourself.

Knowing your value and ability to succeed could ultimately benefit you just as much in promotions in your 9-5 as the monetary gain you make on the side.

5) Relieves Pressure at Work

While a side hustle will no doubt mean more work – a lot more if you’re going to make it profitable – on the other hand it also has the potential to do a less-obvious thing, which is to relieve pressure at work.

Everything has a learning curve at first, but after a while things get easier. A side hustle can begin as a chore and end up being a form of escape from your 9-5.

When you have something other than work that you can draw value, confidence, and identity from, it can help to put problems at work into perspective – not that they aren’t important, but that the problems often aren’t worth all the stress we cause ourselves.

If things aren’t great at work, it can help to have a job on the side to take our minds off of it.

6) A Side Hustle Can Become A Full-Time Business

Something that starts out as just a hobby you do on the side could one day turn into a full-time business if you want it to. Sure, it’s not a guarantee that your blog or freelance venture will be a success, but there are plenty of strategies for growing your side hustle into something profitable.

For the more creative and entrepreneurial types, a side hustle and the excitement of growing it into something large enough to live off of is a great goal. It’s perfect for those who would prefer to be their own boss, set their own hours, all while doing something they actually matters to them.

7) Opportunity for Creativity & Fulfillment

Most of us have jobs that at one point or another we find unfulfilling; expectations we have before entering a field are often hard to match in reality. We go to work, do our jobs, go home and repeat in an endless cycle that’s sometimes hard to see the good we might be doing or the impact we’re having.

One of the greatest benefits of a side hustle is that it provides an opportunity to find fulfillment. DC started Young Adult Money to make a side income, yes, but also as an outlet for his love of writing and finances.

A side hustle can be an outlet for your creative and entrepreneurial sides that might not be realized in your regular 9-5.

While you’re probably not going to start a blog this week that’s making hundreds of dollars in ad revenue by next week, you can start a blog in an area you’re passionate about, enjoy the process of it, and eventually work towards making it profitable.

If nothing else, within a few short years you’ll most likely find yourself an expert in your field.

Start a side hustle in an area you find fulfilling and interesting, use it as a creative outlet and a way to find meaning outside of your 9-5. If you stick at it, keep improving and streamlining, you might make money or you might not, but if you’re lucky it might not matter much in the end anyway.

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There are so many opportunities to make money online today that it’s really only a matter of picking the one that suits you best.

If you want to blog then here’s a list of ways you can make money doing it and here’s how to start a blog today. If it’s another type of side hustle you’re interested in then here’s DC’s ultimate guide to it.

The benefits are both personal and monetary, and if DC can do it and I can do it, then with a little effort so can you.

“I just traveled to Asia over the summer, but I really want to go to the South America this winter, too – I could borrow some money from my emergency funds and pay it back later…”

Ultimately I know I can’t listen to this voice. Traveling is great, but so is meeting the money goals you’ve set for yourself.

The way to balance travel and money goals? Get smarter about how you travel so you’re neither borrowing money from places you shouldn’t nor sacrificing your long-term goals.

Get a Travel Rewards Card

Signing up for a card that actually rewards you for traveling is a great idea. It can help you meet your money goals because a lot of these cards offer points for money that you would already be spending anyway.

For instance, rather than spending $2,000 in a month and splitting it between multiple cards and cash, if you have a rewards card you could be getting two free nights in a hotel or maybe 1,000 free air miles for spending all $2,000 on that card instead.

Then when you travel, your hotel or flight is either free or heavily discounted and you haven’t spent anymore money than you would in a regular month ­– you’ve just been smart about where you’ve spent it.

A lot of these cards are free for the first year and offer great points at the beginning to get you to sign up. Here are some cards with good travel rewards that are worth checking out:

• Marriott Rewards® Premier Credit Card
• Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card
• Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card
• AAdvantage Credit Cards
• Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite MasterCard®

Don’t Rent a Car

Don’t let the convenience of having a car distract you from the fact that you’re wasting money by doing it. If you’re going to be staying in a city, then unless you’re planning on traveling constantly, it’s probably going to work out cheaper to catch an Uber.

Most people already do this now, but if you’re one that hasn’t yet tried Uber or Lyft then go ahead and sign up for both on your next trip, because both offer a free ride the first time you use the app.

Travel Off-Peak

There are plenty of advantages to traveling during the off-peak season: places are quieter, the weather isn’t so hot – oh and it’s typically way cheaper.

Hotels and airlines will raise their prices during peak-season and lower them during the off season, so finding prices to match your money goals is going to be far easier.

When I went to Cambodia with a friend it was during the off season. We had our pick of the best hotels at lower prices and we had the luxury of being able to haggle on everything from the price of our room and our meals to the price of scooter rental, because it was obvious everyone were fighting over our business.

The down side was that we did get rained out by a typhoon for a couple days – but that’s part of the risk and reward of traveling in the off-season!

Travel During the Holidays

This one is tough, because it’s a good thing to go home for the holidays. But if you’re the type who has the travel bug and has it bad, then this can be a great time of the year to get away and do it on the cheap.

Flights on the 26^th of December and flights on New Year’s Eve are typically well below the normal rates, but the other advantage of traveling during this time is that it doesn’t use up your vacation time.

You could use the holidays to plan an expensive international trip, without using up your vacation time, and instead take a domestic vacation in the summer when international travel is expensive, so your bank account doesn’t feel like you’ve been on an international vacation.

Book with Small Tour Companies

I’m a big fan of guide books, like the Lonely Planet series, I’m convinced they give you good advice and plenty of options. However, sometimes smaller tour companies and guides that didn’t get mentioned by Lonely Planet are the way to go because they’ll do same thing but for much cheaper.

In New Zealand my friend and I wanted to go spelunking, we called up a few in the guide book that sounded good, but then the hostel desk worker told us about a much smaller company that was family-run, cheaper, and in his opinion better.

He was right. Rather than paying a lot of money to go on a tour with lots of other people, we went on a tour with roughly half the people, for half the price, to a cave that was far more remote than the ones the bigger companies went to.

Sometimes it’s good to look around and ask a local opinion in order to find the best deals.

Take Advantage of Business Trips

If you are fortunate enough to find yourself in the situation where you’re getting to spend a couple days in a city or foreign country for business, then why not consider using some of your vacation time to add a few days to the end of your trip?

Even if you have to pay the difference on a more expensive ticket home, hopefully some of your airfare will have been covered as a business expense, meaning you can spend a few extra days seeing major sights and museums without having paid for a round-trip international flight.

Just two or three extra days in a city on the end of business trip can really make it seem like a quick get away and it’s a great way to strike that balance of travel and money goals.

Work Where You Want to Travel

Ultimately, it’s hard to balance travel and money goals – one usually wins out over the other. The best way to compromise between ten vacation days a year and quitting your job to travel the world is to find a way to live and work in the place where you want to travel.

One way you can do this is to teach English abroad, like I did in South Korea. This way work and travel are the same thing every day, but you’re also still putting money in the bank while doing it.

English Teachers are often able to see the world without the heavy costs of international travel, while also consistently putting money away for things like grad school or buying a house.

Another option is applying for a position in an international branch of a corporation. Finding a company with international branches is one of the best ways to see the world for a couple years while still maintaining a secure job you can keep when you return home.

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In the end, achieving your money goals or traveling frequently all depends on what your priorities are.

If your money goals are too lofty or your itch to travel is too severe then there will always have to be some compromises: if money is what matters, then maybe you’ll have to cut back on traveling, and if traveling is important then maybe it’s time to reassess how lofty your money goals are.

There are plenty of travel hacks and rewards schemes that can help you to make traveling while still achieving your money goals a very real possibility, but it’s still up to you to figure out exactly what that balance is.

We’re eager to prove ourselves, to move up in the company or better our craft, but this comes at a cost.

Usually this cost is stress and while stress itself is neither uncommon nor necessarily a bad thing for your work, prolonged periods of intense stress can lay the foundation for burnout, which is a bad thing.

Suffering from burnout can place metal limits on what we’re able to achieve at work while destroying relationships with colleagues and family. It’s important for young professionals to both be aware of burnout and understand how to avoid it.

1) Identify the Symptoms

One of the strengths of being young is our energy – we can pack our schedules with both work and play, burning the candle at both ends, only needing a cup of coffee – or five – along the way to keep us buzzing.

But strengths are often weaknesses too, and the weakness of pushing ourselves to far is that we end up burning out – sometimes without even realizing what that is.

The first step to avoiding burnout is to be aware of it and to realize that even young professionals can be vulnerable to it.

It’s important to understand that burnout is different from stress (here’s a great article on the differences), but the essential difference is attitude; with stress you will feel a range of emotions, good and bad, but with burnout you will mostly feel apathy towards work, life, and even loved ones.

If you start becoming cynical and apathetic towards work you previously felt passionately about, then these are two strong signs you’re about to burnout.

2) Start Saying No

Being busy is a natural state for most young professionals and, let’s be honest, though we might complain about it, being busy often feels good. Being busy allows us to feel in control, helps us forget insecurities or problems, and gives us a feeling of purpose.

It’s a good thing, too. Working hard – very hard – is a staple of our culture and a reason we have the amount of opportunities we do, but it can become dangerous when it becomes an addiction that we can’t say no to.

If you’re feeling the onsets of burnout, then being constantly busy is something you’re going to have to tackle.

You’re going to have to learn to say “no” to new opportunities, even good ones, and maybe even reduce your prior commitments as well. The good feelings – the feelings of worth and control – that being busy brings need to come second to our physical and mental health.

It may feel strange at first, but if you feel the onsets of burnout, then you need to working yourself so hard. The solution is to start saying “no,” and stop feeling bad about saying it.

3) Begin As You Mean To Go On

I’ve heard it said that successful people start their days as they mean to go on.

So if you wake up late and are scrambling around, then the tone you’re setting is chaotic. Likewise, if you get up in plenty of time – with time to read or think or meditate before the day begins – then you’re setting a tone for yourself that’s peaceful and in control.

Unsurprisingly, this is also a strategy for avoiding burnout.

Try taking ten or fifteen minutes at the start of your day to switch off your phone and shut your laptop. Instead, do something you enjoy – reading for pleasure, journaling, or maybe taking the time to cook a decent breakfast.

Think of it as a mental detox first thing in the morning. By doing so, even just for ten minutes, you’re taking control of your life while relieving the stress by reminding yourself that work isn’t so important that you will let it rule your life.

4) Prioritize Your Physical Health

Being young is not the same as being invincible, even though it may seem that way at times. If you aren’t treating your body right, it will eventually catch up to you.

A simple way to avoid burnout is to start following expert advice on how you should treat your body: get seven to eight hours of sleep a night, exercise regularly, and eat healthily.

These are things we all know we should be doing but often aren’t. Whether you need to start setting yourself some goals or just work on gathering some motivation, these are areas that need to be priorities in order to maximize our working lives.

5) Get Creative

Creativity isn’t just for the artsy types, and it doesn’t mean you have to draw a picture about your feelings or write some bad poetry.

Getting creative could be simple as taking up a hobby, writing the book you’ve meant to write, or getting outside for a hike – give yourself an outlet, and not necessarily one that helps your career or work: something for you.

The point of finding a creative outlet is to give you space in your life – burnout comes from exhaustion and feelings of being trapped, creativity is freeing and a powerful remedy to those suffocating feelings.

6) Work on Your Self-Efficacy

Self-efficacy is your own faith in your ability to achieve what you set out to do. If you’re the type of person who regularly accomplishes their goals, then you’re likely to be someone with high self-efficacy.

The advantage of this when it comes to burnout is that people with high self-efficacy aren’t as susceptible to stress, simply because they are confident in their ability to get their projects done.

They will still experience stress, like anyone else, except they won’t spend every hour of the day worrying about their work, like someone with lower self-efficacy will.

So how to you improve your self-efficacy? By setting yourself goals and achieving them.

Start small and set goals you’re sure you can achieve, and then progress to harder things. Greater self-efficacy will reduce your stress levels by giving you the confidence to know you’ll get things done, even if you aren’t quite sure how!

7) Take a Break – a Real One

If you really feel like you’re on the edge between stress and burning out, then the best solution may be to just get away from it all. If you haven’t taken an actual vacation in years, then a three day weekend probably isn’t going to cut it.

Book a vacation, take some real time off. Recharging and acquiring some perspective is sometimes the only way to really tackle the deeper issues of stress and burnout. It’s standard advice, but it’s also good advice: take a break – a real one.

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Just by being aware of burnout and respecting the affect it can have on our careers and lives is an important step to beating it. If you know the warning signs and can feel the onsets of burnout coming, then be smart, swallow your pride, and start taking the steps to avoid it.