Every man has a hobby. Or if you’re like me, you have several. Hobbies are great to have, though. They provide a constructive outlet from the stresses of work. They sprout opportunities for families to spend quality time together. However, that lends the question: How do you choose your hobby?

Picking the Right Hobby

First and foremost, you know what you like and dislike. I don’t feel like I need to tell you what to do. You do you, my dude. However, there’s some things to keep in mind that may help you narrow down your options. A good starting point would be to consider your friends’ interests. Can you delve into a hobby with someone who shares the same interest? By doing so, you gain accountability and motivation to keep that fire burning.

Another way to guide your decisions is to not start hobbies that have conflicting genres. For example: You wouldn’t start collecting action figures while also building a mini-forge for knife making. Those are completely unrelated and could cause you to get overwhelmed and lose interest in both. K.I.S.S. – Keep It Simple, Stupid. If you have an interest in camping, why not start that mini-forge and make some camp knives for your friends to bring with them on the hike? You could even make connections in gear acquisition and start making some money on the knives you make. Which leads us to our next segment.

Count the Cost

As with anything we add into our lives that aren’t necessities, you have to find out if you can afford it. So, before jumping head-first into a new hobby, count the cost. How much are you willing to spend for your new hobby? Sit down and figure up a budget. Can you perhaps exercise patience and slowly piece together what you need to start it up? Consider starting small. What if you get into the hobby and find it’s not right for you? If you went all out in the beginning, then it may be hard to recoup your funds spent.

Another thing you can consider when it comes to expenditures on a hobby is whether or not you can actually make money off of it. Not any hobby you choose will be able to pay you back, but some certainly will cover your costs. Any hobby that makes a product (forging, beekeeping, woodworking, collecting of any sort, just to name a few) can be used to sell some sort of product. True, you may not be able to make a living out of it, but wouldn’t it be awesome to have a hobby that pays for itself?

Well, that’s a good start for you, I’d say. Get out there and find something fun to do! Still having trouble? Here, I’ll give you a generic list of things that can get your creativity flowing.

• Woodworking
• Model building
• Rock climbing
• Collecting
• PC gaming
• Painting
• Writing
• Beekeeping
• Forging knives or similar gear
• Camping
• Overlanding
• Gardening
• Playing an instrument
• Golfing
• Leatherworking
• Beer, wine, whiskey tasting
• Car building
• Home brewing
• Reading
• Photography
• Hunting
• Grilling
• Fly fishing