Let me share a real story shortly. Once I came to know about the professional advancement of one of my ex-employers. Learning languages was his hobby. As long I worked there, I saw him practice both Hindi and Chinese when he was around 47 years old. As I heard, he joined the organization as a teachers’ trainer, before that he used to teach French in an academy. During a donor visit, he was asked to work as a French interpreter since his diverse language capability was already known to the management. However, the visit was completed successfully and after a while; the man was appointed as the country Director of the same multinational non-profit organization, though he had no experience in the area of project management. I also saw him struggle with learning the things of project management. However, the learning from this story is one of his pastime activities helped him to get a promotion with a huge increment.
According to a study report by the American Psychological Association, over 39 percent of the employees work more than 40 hours in a week. Ever you think we spend such a long time for securing our living! This is why we should maintain some hobbies so we don’t become bored with our jobs. Moreover, maintaining a hobby offers you many advantages that can help you advance your work performance. Even a hobby like sewing may have no activity in your corporate professional development, but it has also some impacts on your work performance as it gives a sense of mastery, increase confidence, and reduce stress in both personal and professional life. Here are twelve such hobbies that can help you step away from your work desk, though make you better at your workplace performance.
1. Volunteering
Practicing a hobby like volunteering in your free time not only gives you self-satisfaction and inner peace but also helps you to build your own strengths and convey success in life. Interact with people, dealing with both expected and unexpected situations that are part of some volunteering activities can help you to build your personal strength and handle any distraction in your life. Volunteering can help you engage with the outside world successfully and safely. Moreover, it helps to build the network, which might offer you new employment opportunities.
“How pleasant the hobby is if it helps to make your community a better place! And it is Volunteering.”— AUHStyle
2. Team Sports
As an ex-shooter, I would like to say that people with a sporting background have an improved level of dedication to work than others. Sports people work really hard to accomplish their goals. They have a strong sense of resilience and are capable of managing their time effectively. Particularly, team-based sports can help you obtain job-related advantages because such sports activities help to improve your teamwork skill, which is an important ability in the workplace.
3. Yoga
Yoga can contribute greatly to improve your overall job performance. It makes you a bit more aware of your inner self and allows you to manage it accordingly. While you passing a stressful time in your work, yoga can help you to cope with the situation. Meditation is similar to yoga which also offers a sort of mindfulness or self-exploration. Meditation can make your focuses easier and can enhance your work performance. Even the following simple breathing technique can help you set your mind while a stress continues in your work – just take a deep breath in through your nose and breathe out through your mouth slowly. BTW, this breathing technique is not suggested as a hobby, but a good life practice.
4. Reading
Reading is vital for many reasons as it helps to expand our thinking ability and helps to our emotions and change things in life. It helps with our journey to become the best versions of ourselves. A dynamic literary life has several advantages that extend beyond the workplace. Reading boosts brainpower, improves mental abilities, builds language expertise, helps to release stress, and builds you as an empath. Whatever you read fiction, non-fiction, poetry, self-help books, and even encyclopedia, it will develop you into a more knowledgeable one. In fact, reading is types of education, fun, entertainment, and sometimes escapes from the things we don’t like.
5. Music
If you play a musical instrument, you are actually developing a high level of self-discipline, good listening skills, and unbeaten collaboration skills. Musicians achieve a variety of skills that can increase their performance at work. Without being master in theoretical concepts or improving presentation ability, it is almost impossible to be a talented musician. Indeed, musicians do a lot of practice and practice makes them perfect in music and being perfect is beyond the reach of average people. So a musician can be a great resource for an employer.
6. Language Learning
Learning a new language can be a great hobby as it improves memory, level of attention, multitasking capability, and decision-making skills. Moreover, a recent survey by the Economist states that the multicultural character of the organizational teams has been increased across the world. Consequently, the language learning can open a new door for you. I hope you read the story I shared at the beginning of the post. Furthermore, engaging with other cultures can enrich you with new knowledge and teach you valuable life lessons that you can bring to your workplace.
7. Gardening
Research reveals that gardening has constructive impacts on our emotional health. Gardening is an easy and inexpensive hobby, but it requires determination and care from your end. It can give you the pleasure of creating something incredible. In my case, sitting at the desk all day and in the evening putting my hands in the dirt of my balcony garden gives me an amazing pleasure. Some people think it is not a great deal to nurture a plant as it needs only water and sunlight. But a living thing requires more than that; it needs the ideal environments to grow. Indeed, caring for your plants helps you to be creative in your workplace.
Read more about Gardening 12 White Flowers With Magical Fragrances For Summer Garden
8. Painting
Painting is a great way to reveal such repressed emotions that may be held back. Only a thirty minutes break can have a great impact on your mental state. As a pastime, you can take a painting brush and try your hand even if you are not a gifted painter. Many people have subdued emotions that they may not capable to escape through words. When you are overstressed at work, you can take a painting tool and paint anything to expose your emotions. If you are not confident about your painting talents, you can pick a coloring book that is also an excellent stress buster.
9. Photography
Photography is both hobby and artwork. If you can take quality photos of things, there is a great possibility of becoming a photographer of the major events that may take place in your organization. Moreover, you can consider your photography skills as a source of some side earnings. There are a number of websites where you can sell your photos to different users; you just have to know which of those are and what you have to do. In fact, anyone with some basic skills can sell photos online.
10. Dancing
Dancing improves brain power; a good news for both employees who have taken dancing as a hobby and employers who prefer to hire a dancer. By stepping forward to learn dancing or a new dance technique, you are actually learning to think faster. It’s the white matter of the brain that connects the nerve cells and helps people to process things quickly. The faster you can think, the faster you can solve a problem. Dancers can also communicate their thoughts more clearly than others.
Read another post How To Enhance Your Creativity
11. Crafting
Crafting is easy to learn but a small mistake can ruin all your efforts. Each craft requires the utmost patience and creativity. Whatever you initiate to craft from a pair of earring to ceramic potteries or arts, each requires you to remain calm and confident. Your craft making skills can help you to do so in your workplace, even when things go out of your plan. It also helps you make adjustments in your project.
12. Decorations
Decorating is a nice hobby that personalized your personality as a perfectionist. The person who nurtures decorating as a hobby is exceptionally an organized individual in everywhere and has an extreme concern regarding the aesthetic view of things. If the decorating is your hobby you can build your career in event management, interior decoration, consulting, and management. As an employer, hiring such people means you hire someone who is able to make your workplace more attractive and relaxing.
Involving yourself in some particular hobbies has a great impact on your job performance. Maintaining such hobbies can improve your mood and confidence, reduce stress, and open up networking opportunity, consequently, help you create a constructive notion on your existing and future employers. On the other hand, employers should also take the personal interest section of potential employees’ resumes sincerely.
Read more from our Pastime Category.
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