5 Hobbies that Will Improve Your Mind, Body, and Skill Set (Part 2)

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.

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?
 

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