Hobbies

Our elders were not joking when they said that its important to have hobbies. I found that hobbies keep one sane, happy, and most importantly, motivated to live *_*

Before one decides on what kind of hobbies one should have, it is important to understand what exactly 'hobbies' mean.

 

First of all, hobbies are something you do in your free time. This is important because your hobby should be something you do because you have nothing better to do, or something you do to release stress. Many a hobby ceased to become hobbies anymore because they start to feel more like chores. Games most often the victim of this phenomena, as players invest more and more time and effort to improve. Once you start thinking of allocating time for your hobby, that's when its beginning to dangerously transform into a chore.

Second, hobbies are things that you enjoy doing. It's the only way you'll be able to release stress through it and also ensure that you keep going back to it. The most common mistake is getting a hobby for the sake of getting one. "Hmm.. I read in some blog that I need a hobby.. what should I do.. guess collecting stamps sounds.. fun." Doing so puts a certain amount of pressure to 'enjoy' yourself, which already sounds ridiculous.

Third, hobbies don't have to amount to anything. This is the hardest concept to grasp by most people, but its the most important. Nobody likes to do things that are seemingly pointless. We're too preconditioned with the pressure to produce results, if you spend time doing something, you should at least get something in return or achieve something, right? True, but some things are very difficult to be measured using such standards.

This is especially true for hobbies, as the aim of hobbies is to have fun. How do you even measure that?! I don't know either. What I know is, attempting to measure whether you had fun or not would definitely be not fun :P

To take an example from my own experience, Magic: The Gathering was my hobby. I had a lot of fun reading on the multitude of cards, combos, and interesting strategies from articles all over the internet. I loved playing Magic, I always find tons of enjoyment playing such competitive strategy games~ I used to love playing chess, until nobody wanted to play against me anymore T_T;

The problem started when I took into account the nature of playing Magic competitively and often; you constantly needed to keep yourself updated and have a large enough cardpool. Which means, you need to constantly spend money.

Like many (Malaysian) Magic players, I was quickly turned into a mode where I constantly tried to make money by obtaining and selling the most expensive chase rares of the current set, and trying my best to play decks that required the least amount of money to build.

After awhile, I got tired of it and stopped spending too much time and money going to the stores. But I did constantly read up on the latest news on the cards themselves. I then realised the absurdity of my money mindedness regarding this.. hobby of mine. I was so wrapped up in the business of not losing money that it no longer became something I did to have fun, but to make money!

So in the end, whenever I felt like I wasn't making a profit out of the money I was spending on Magic, I just tell myself; I'm not buying the cards, I'm paying for the experience to play and enjoy the game~ Its less like buying a toy to play and more like spending money to go to an amusement park. You don't really get anything tangible in return, but you do get lots of enjoyment and memories ^o^ (of course, in Magic's case, you do get tangible cards to keep and collect, its just that cards have such disparate values that the common ones are actually thrown away by most players T_T)

Of course, Magic is no longer a hobby for me. Its.. complicated for now, but I am trying to be more competent in it and hopefully be able to play at a higher level and actually achieve something T_T easier said than done, but its more like a job or ..thing that I'm pursuing. It'd be awesome if I actually won a big tournament sometime soon.. :P I daydream of being able to be a full time pro player and be payed to play.. *_* *dreams dreams*

So yeah, its important for one to know what hobbies are in order to properly enjoy them fully and not have them transform into chores.. though even if they do, sometimes it wouldn't exactly be a bad thing.. look at those YouTube celebrities whose hobbies become their jobs *_* being paid to do what you enjoy doing~ wow. I wish I was paid to blog.. XP

What's my hobby? Oh, my hobby is watching variety shows, pretty girls, and people in general *_* I actually enjoy watching people interact while I'm like a fly on the wall.. when I was having dinner earlier, I watched a table and how the boys and girls interacted~ I'd love to spend time at shopping complexes watching people too.. if only the act of people watching doesn't seem so stalker-ish and creepy.. :P