Hi everyone. I am feeling like I’ve lost any direction after getting laid off earlier this year (was working as an analyst in telecom and very recently landed a much lower position in healthcare data entry due to necessity). I already have several hobbies but I am either burnt out on them or they have lost their luster (similar to how life has lost its luster for me this past 6 months).
I would really love to learn a new skill, preferably using my hands to create something while challenging my brain. I’m willing to take classes, study, practice, and buy some equipment required for the skill.
Please tell me about your skill/hobby that gives you purpose. I’ve kind of exhausted google search which always returns the same 20 or so craft suggestions like “make custom invitations for weddings”, and while that sounds good for someone, it may not be good for me.
Current hobbies: Music composition and gardening,
EDIT: trying to move away from hobbies that involve me sitting in front of a computer. I already do that way too much.
I really enjoyed learning to homebrew, and my family and friends really enjoyed drinking the mead I’ve made. You can homebrew all sorts of stuff, too - beer and wine of course, but also kombucha and ginger ale (edit: and cider! Thanks /u/cyberpunk007). I’m looking at professional kit for my next batch which is going to be a few hundred dollars at least of steel, but my first fermentation tubs were something like $35.
My only up-front recommendation would be to get a conical fermenter as it minimises loss when racking/bottling.
Homebrew is so fun, and I love how you can make it as complex as you want. Like, you can just mix some honey and some water (in the right ratio) and let it sit, and you’ve got mead! Or you can add flavors. Or experiment with yeasts. Or brew beer and experiment with hops and grains. It’s a hobby that really meets you where you want it to.
That sounds really cool. I am going to look into this some more.
Awesome! I found https://stormthecastle.com/mead via the sidebar of the old meadmaking subreddit and still go back to reference the tutorials and recipes occasionally. Seems like the only community on Lemmy is https://sopuli.xyz/c/homebrewing (or !homebrewing@sopuli.xyz I guess, thanks bot), but it’s a big one.
This was one of my favourite recipes posted on the old orange site (luckily it was crossposted to imgur): https://imgur.com/gallery/neon-knights-indigo-mead-D0IAs
It’s really all going to depend on your tastes and lifestyle. Like I could recommend that you get a dog and start learning how to train dogs as a hobby, but that’s just not going to work for everyone. What’s important is that you explore things and maybe even try some hobbies that could potentially improve your well-being. Maybe you live somewhere near a good hiking spot and you could take up hiking to get outdoors and get more exercise. Maybe you could learn how to cook and explore how to make healthy meals that suit you better. Or maybe you just want to create something and you could take up woodworking or make model planes or something. The possibilities are endless, you just need to decide what you’d like to get out of it.
Personally, I spend most of my time for work indoors on a computer, so most of my hobbies involve using my hands and getting outdoors. I took up a lot of extra hobbies during covid for obvious reasons. So here goes my list of >!hobbies that will maybe give you some ideas:
- Cooking/baking/bread
- Candy making
- Jam making
- Gardening
- Canning (goes great with gardening!)
- Succulents
- Mixology
- Dog training
- Camping/hiking (this one is minimal only because I don’t live somewhere with good hiking spots)
- Board games, video games, and movies during the winter when I can’t go outside
Other things I’ve considered taking up but haven’t for various reasons:
- 3D printing
- Bonsais
- Home brewing
What kind of candy do you make? I make cannabis edibles. I’ve done gummies, peanut butter cups, caramels, and hard candies. I tried peppermint melts but they were really terrible!
I mostly make chocolate based candies, but I dabble in other candies from time to time like caramels, candied nuts, candied fruits/ginger/etc. I like to make candies around Christmas time to give to family and friends as they make really nice gifts.
I’ve made ginger hard candles. I want to try candied ginger and I’d really like to figure out a ginger chewy candy.
Taking your initial post and this comment into consideration, you may be in a situation I find myself in (or I may be projecting, who knows). I started out with some regular ass depression and threw in what was originally some recreational weed consumption. After a while I found myself as a daily weed smoker. My partner seems to have a much different experience as a daily smoker than I do. For me it manifests itself as you are describing, just a lack of excitement about life. I feel like my weed hangover isn’t like an alcohol one, but rather it saps my motivation to do anything productive that I’m not being held accountable for. If I was also unemployed and unable to find a job, I’m sure it would be worse for me. At the moment, I’ve cut back on my consumption and am making it a point to only partake on weedkends. Pairing that with more exercise has worked well for me in the past, but I find it difficult to get in the exercise habit with that low level of motivated energy. Finding a form of exercise where you don’t notice the work you’re doing is also helpful. I don’t much like basketball, but a friend of mine invited me out to fuck around and shoot hoops with them. Probably the easiest time I had getting in some cardio without realizing it. Nowadays, I’ve got a rowing machine that I use while I watch streaming shows. I usually find my lust for life returning when I’ve put in the maintenance on the machine that is my body. It’s a lot easier to feel alive when you feel alive.
I think you meant to reply to OP. But yeah, it can make it hard to be productive. I mostly use it late in the evening, like a nightcap.
I’m taking some welding classes later this year. Being able to fix or create things with a welder seems like a useful skill to have.
I suspect the intro classes are all the same regardless if you take welding into the art direction or the mechanical direction.
That’s really cool. I’ve considered welding, seems really neat. Good luck, build something awesome!
Also, you can make really good money welding.
Gymnastics. Seriously. You don’t need to be all that athletic to do the core basics. You get fitter and have fun just throwing yourself onto big soft mats.
Navigation?
A few years ago, mid pandemic, I started collecting ancient coins. I was really passionate about it even thinking about finding ways to make it a small after-hours job or such, but I’ve since run into a few walls and have subsequently lost my drive. For example, I wanted to take very high resolution pictures of the coins and then compose a catalog of sorts, but while I have all the gear that I need (camera with a macro lens) my shots keep coming out wrong and I’ve since kind of given up on the idea altogether.
My entire life is one long succession of passionately started projects that got abandoned either midway or after heavy setbacks. If I ever find one that brings me lasting happiness, I’ll gladly share it, but for now I’m just as much on the lookout as you are.
I know that feeling. You and I are on a mission to find what gives us purpose and happiness. I hope you find it, friend.
Are you looking for a new career as well? Or just a hobby? I sit in front of a computer all day and always thought being an electrician would be kind of neat. Decent money, get to work with your hands, and still some problem solving involved.
Edit: If you’re looking for more of a hobby, volunteer conservation work may also be something to look into. Something like trail work. I did a few stints in my younger years, and they were transformative experiences for me. The folks who do this type of work are super interesting and passionate in my experience, and it can rub off on you.
Both kind of. I mean, that’s the dream right? Finding something you find interesting and gives you purpose and then being able to make a living wage doing it. Its interesting you mentioned being an electrician. I have a tour scheduled next week at a local trade school to explore being an electrician. Do you have any suggestion on questions I should ask during my tour?
I recently got into video game development, and I’ve had so much fun, and it’s given me some much-needed meaning. I’ve solved problems unique to my game using programming skills as well as game design skills, and it feels meaningful because i can send it to my friends and they can enjoy it without needing to appreciate any of the technical aspects. I get to be creative about how people I care about can have more fun. It could also involve your music composition hobby, since every good game needs some music and sound design! I’m a programmer for my day job so most things I do there are only meaningful to other programmers, and the problems I solve there are incredibly boring ones.
Edit: I saw your comment about being burnt out on programming, and I totally understand that. That happens to me frequently. I enjoy programming as a hobby when I’m not burnt out so we’re kinda in different boats there. There are lots of skills involved in making games and the variety has really refreshed me, though I’ve still gotten sick of sitting at a computer while working on it.
I appreciate what you are doing and am glad you found something that you enjoy. I’ve tried to contribute music to game development before, and each time the project ended up falling apart and the game never finished. I even wrote a score for an independent film once… then covid hit, funding fell through, and the movie was left in post production hell. I’ve released a ton of stuff on my own, but as a big ol video game nerd, I would love to breach that medium.
I learned how to flintknap a little, and it was super fun. I heard buying rocks can be expensive if you don’t live near where they’re plentiful, but what hobby doesn’t get expensive? I went to the class with my brother in law and he got absolutely lost in the sauce working on his flint, and didn’t talk to anyone else there
It can be tiring but it’s definitely fun seeing what you’ve made (even if you’re not very good at it like me) and besides, you get to say you’re hitting rock/buying rock so there’s even more fun to be had!
cooking is an awesome hobbyyy
Yah! It is. I cook often, but its not really a hobby for me. I just like good food and I don’t like spending money eating out.
Sales. If you want to starting make really good money without a masters or PhD. Learn sales. Get a bdr type role. Even part time and get some experience. After that you can start making 6 figs within a few years.
While I agree you can make good money in sales. I think it takes a certain personality and a tough skin to handle the job well. It can be an extremely stressful work environment.
Have you deepened into jazz harmony theory? What about permaculture?
Learning buddhist meditation is also a great asset IMHO
Skill #1: You’re fine just the way you are. You aren’t lost, you’re still deciding where to go.
My advice is to take an SDS test (career interest) to get your Holland code and learn about all the jobs that would excite you.
Thank you for the kind words. I will look into the SDS test.
Sure thing! I think there’s a fee for the real one but you might find a free version or see if a local community vocational center type thing wouldn’t let you take it for free. If it sets you in the right direction though, it’s worth the cost.
And just if you could benefit from some proof, people change careers an average of 5-7 times in their lives. If you haven’t decided where to go next, how could you possibly be lost?
Take care, friend. I promise that you know all the answers to the questions you haven’t asked yourself yet.
Do you live in an area where you can go sailing?
Heh, unfortunately no. I was born and raised in Ft Lauderdale, but now reside in Missouri… so no where near water, lol.
Not trying to dox myself, but I also live in Missouri and have a sailboat on Carlyle Lake in IL (about an hour from St. Louis). If you’re anywhere in the area, our sailing club is doing our annual Try Sailing Day on June 22nd. Free rides on a variety of different small sailboats and catamarans in exchange for a gentle sales pitch to sign up as an associate member, take some lessons, and be able to rent out any of the club’s fleet boats or volunteer to crew for someone on the Sunday buoy racing circuit.
Thats super cool. I didn’t think it would really be a thing around here. I will look into it. Thanks!
Most of the larger lakes in the region have similar organizations, Perry and Smithville over on the KC side as well as the Ozarks in south central all have sailing orgs to a greater or lesser extent.
deleted by creator
