The Benefits of Getting Your Hands Dirty
Some of the busiest and most productive people you have ever heard of have been practitioners of a wide variety of hobbies. They have been fans of getting their hands dirty and trying a number of things.
One example is Winston Churchill who in addition to being an accomplished painter loved to be a brick layer! He had a goal of writing 2000 words a day and laying 200 bricks a day while he constructed many of the brick walls that still exist on his family property.
Theodore Roosevelt loved boxing. George Lucas loves doing home repairs. French King Louis XVI had a metal forge and worked at it every day. The Wright brothers had a passion for bicycles and Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was an expert outdoors-man and canoeist.
The point is that even though these were very busy individuals, they made time for hobbies and interests because of the benefits that they provided, both mental and physical.
The benefits of hobbies and pastimes include:
Lowering blood pressure, depression and cortisol.
Increasing your social life as you meet people that also do the hobby.
Removal of boredom during times that we are not working.
Making you more interesting as you can converse on more subjects.
Making you better at learning new skills and acquiring new knowledge. Both of these can make you a better employee as well.
Learning patience as when you start a new hobby you will need to learn the basics and how to deal with making mistakes until you improve. This can also teach you how to take on new challenges.
Creating good habits like logical thinking and precision.
Encouraging you to live in the moment as you lose yourself in the hobby.
You learn how to explore yourself and your talents and find out what you are capable of.
Fostering your creativity as you branch out in the hobby and try new things.
Lessen time wasting and bad habits by replacing these with productive actions in the pastime.
The Two Most Important Benefits
Two of the most important benefits of hobbies and pastimes are that they encourage you to take a break and that they promote “eustress.”
Hobbies can offer a break from our work while also giving a sense of productivity. We all need breaks and with an interesting hobby, we can do something while learning and hopefully having fun.
Eustress is another important component that hobbies give us. This is the kind of positive stress that makes you excited about what you are doing. For example, if your playing hockey with your friends, the stress of scoring on the other team and defending your goal is stressful, but it is an enjoyable stress that make you feel better as you do it.
As you can see, the most productive and busy people mentioned were on to something when they took on new hobbies.
Try something new or expand an existing hobby and see the benefits that will occur as you do.