How do you find a hobby or interest?

[Zebraboop]

The title sounds kind of lame, but I'm generally in a bind. I feel like my life is on halt currently due to not knowing what I want to do for hobbies or things that will make me not so boring.

I usually don't do anything outside my normal routine and struggle to trek away from it. However, I really really want to.

I'm 25 years old and feel like I'm wasting my life by not living. Any words of advice?

 

[Sid Delicious]

It depends on your motivations and skills.

I prefer to do things that have an end goal. So I like projects that involve making something (a novel, wedding cake, painting, piece of furniture, dress, etc). After spending hours/days/weeks making something, I have a completed item at the end of it that I can use or give to another person. I take photos of a lot of the completed projects and put them into a portfolio, so when I look back over everything I've done it feels very much like I've achieved a lot over the years. But I'm very creative anyway, so perhaps that wouldn't suit everyone.

My other hobby is investment. I like staring at graphs and charts and data all day, so get a kick out of that. Again, not for everyone. Most people find it boring.

My brother runs an IT services company in his spare time that started as a hobby with his other half (although he could do it full time these days if he wanted to). That's his skill set and combines everything he is good at and enjoys.

Other people pick a charity that means a lot to them and devote their free time to fundraising or offering their time/skills for that cause.

Do you like music? Would you enjoy playing an instrument or making music yourself?

I'd suggest just trying a few things until you find something that fits.

 

[clg114]

Welcome to Aspies Central.

 

[tlc]

I'm with making things. Often (after working with similar things, I'll think of how I want something applied to me, and realize the only way I'll get that is if I make it myself. Sometimes easier said than done, I don't know what skills you have. I have steelwork skills and facilities, among other things.

Or with fixing things, when somebody says you throw this away and buy a new one, I think: "Well a human designed this and made it. Why should those people be the only ones allowed in it? There's no reason I shouldn't be able to figure it out and fix it." So I do. I've rebuilt power window switches and lots of things.

Same with playing music. I do get inspired by lovely attractive sounds. But if it's something I really like, it's just as much a puzzle as sound enjoyment. I think "Ok a human played this part. Why can't I learn to play it too?" So I work out the part, sometimes it takes a long time but I do it better all the time. I get all giddy as the notes I play get closer and closer to the passage I'm trying to duplicate. And sometimes I play it to how it sounds better to me.

So yes, I say a hobby is a quest to make the things that other people do, or figure out how to make them better or more suited to yourself.

 

[RainbowAura]

Really just mess around with different things. I personally suck at everything..nothing has found its way into a happy hobby...

What did you used to be into?

 

[Mr Allen]

I kind of inherited my computer and gaming hobby from my older NT Brother.

He was a gamer on the ZX Spectrum back in the early 80's and I kind of picked that up as he got older and less into gaming.

Most of my PC knowledge though is self taught from books and stuff, although in 2003 I did a web design course at Uni 1 night a week, which I passed, I also did a Visual Basic course at Uni which I passed after producing, with my Brother's help, an app to predict National Lottery numbers.