More Than Just a Hobby

Imagine sitting in a warmly lit room with a cup of coffee nearby while doing one of the various different hobbies you love. The atmosphere is warm and it feels pleasant to do something that fills you with this joy.  Now imagine that this was actually your job. 

 

There is a very wide range of hobbies one can do that vary from drawing, 3D printing, making jewelry, photography or the various sports people can do. For some, they have been able to turn their hobby into their career.

 

Choosing a career can be highly stressful. District Administration.com reported that 37% of students, regardless of what level of education they are at, are unsure of what they want to do with their career path. A solution that might help people on their career path journey is to consider their hobbies.

 

While some people turn their hobbies into their jobs, others can take inspiration from it. LinkedIn has found that hobbies can increase confidence and make it more comfortable to take risks. Likewise, it can be efficient to have a hobby outside of one’s career. Having a hobby can generate creative activity which has been shown to increase the quality of work a person can do.

 

There are also many  people who wish to turn their hobby into their career. Around 50% of adults wish to make their hobbies into full time jobs, but this can be difficult as the difficulty of working full-time with certain hobbies is not the same as other hobbies. One person can have a hobby of caring for animals and turn that into their career by becoming a vet, but for another it can be difficult to start a career around artistry. This does depend on the industry the person wishes to work in or if they choose to be entrepreneurial.

 

Kateri Reubenshtal, an art teacher at Washingtonville High School, has been able to make her hobby into a career. She found her love for graphic design in high school and continued doing it into college thinking that she wanted to do graphic design. Later she found that she didn’t want to work freelance full time or work behind a desk. So instead she found a way to implement graphic design into her career through teaching it.

 

Not everyone is able to turn their hobbies into a full-time career, but have still found a way to pursue their hobbies and monetize them. Around 27% of adults who work full-time have recently started opening side businesses based around their hobbies. There are many outlets that make this easy for people to start up businesses. Etsy is a great platform to start on. They have systems that track shipping and taxes for business owners to help them sell their products easier and more efficiently.

 

Lara Held, another art teacher at Washingtonville High School, has recently started a sports  photography business. She had a love of photography ever since she was young and had “taken the Held family’s passion for photography and melded it with the Key family’s love of soccer” as she created Lara Simone Photography. Held uses GFCrew which pre-registers 2-5 clients for sporting events and provides photos of sportage action and sideline portraits.

 

There are a number of adults that have found that they wish to pursue their hobbies, whether it be leisurely,  through a small business, or career paths. There are at least 20% that do say they don’t have any hobbies and there are others who say they are a waste of time. However, there are a shocking amount of benefits a hobby can have. Hobbies can actually help decrease stress, depression, and loneliness.

 

Lara Held uses her hobby as a way to reinvent herself as she shares “Lara Simone Photography was inspired by my mulling over the word, reinvention.” She found herself contemplating what her life would look like after she retires in 2029. So, Held has found her passion in youth sports photography, furthermore showing the benefits of pursuing a hobby.

 

There is a lot of creativity in the world today as more people embrace having hobbies and are exploring what they love to do as life is becoming less centered around only working till retirement. Expanding skills and interests have truly helped those in society today as more and more people have been able to turn what they love into what they can do full time.