What Types of Hobbies Boost Your Happiness?
This is part of a series on the influence of interests on well-being. Read the first installment - here
I'll tell you a secret insecurity. When asked, "What do you do for fun?" I freeze. I'm a fanatic about psychology. I relish diving into data. I consume scientific articles and books like a stack of Pringles and write thought-provoking pieces. I love being on stage, delivering keynotes or singing karaoke. Traveling off the beaten path, bodybuilding, and playing pickle ball are my jam. To me, I sound like a combination of everything nerdy or cookie-cutter. A bit like the side character in "10 Things I Hate About You"1 who ends up with a magic-marker penis drawn on his face.
The Icon
You might understand why I gravitate toward people how possess diverse interests. Consider my favorite president who earned an entire chapter in one of my books, Theodore Roosevelt...
He was a living embodiment of the phrase "variety is the spice of life". Roosevelt indulged in sports ranging from golf to tennis, sailing to boxing, horseback riding to rock climbing. His passion for the wilderness manifested in big-game hunting. A fascination with animals led to the creation of his personal 'natural history museum'. His intellectual capabilities were as towering as his physical prowess, as evidenced by prolific writing - authoring a staggering 40 books, around 155,000 letters penned to secretaries, colleagues, and friends, and a multitude of newspaper articles that flowed from his quill. Who knows when the hell he slept because there was also his vast stamp collecting by day, and a voracious appetite for devouring books at night from his vast personal library on topics spanning history, politics, nature, science, and fiction.
The Big Questions
A wide spectrum of people exist - at one end, folks lost interest in things previously enjoyed - often a sign of mental health issues. Then, there are those with a single, laser-focused passion. An avid mountain climber, a bourbon connoisseur, or a film buff tatted up with lines from "Cinema Paradiso". Then, there are folks like me, with a handful of closely related passions. On the far end of the spectrum? The Teddy Roosevelts, brimming with a cornucopia of hobbies.
This begs the question - what's the upside of a wide, complex range of interests?
For over 40 years, scientists investigated this topic. I also conducted research on it, though I never published the findings. Despite the popular appeal of curiosity, nobody seems to discuss it.
Allow me to share what we know about Hobbies and Happiness...