One of my good qualities is curiosity. One of my bad qualities is... curiosity. I feel a boundless fascination with the world and have a constant hunger to absorb more of it. I think though that this need for stimulation is more on the brain level than physical. My extraordinary level of clumsiness, slow processing speed, and lack of motor skills made me realize early in my life that I am not very good at sports. My lack of social skills has also given me ample time to pursue solitary things, like learning new skills.
The reason that curiosity is my saving grace AND my downfall is that I want to learn everything. But alas, I am but one human. One human with limited means, time, energy, etc. But by some miracle, I have learned many interesting skills. I used to fear that I was a hummingbird, flying from flower to flower and not staying long enough for my hobbies to be of any lasting use or meaning in my life. But when I thought about it, in some subconscious way, I was able to integrate my hobbies seamlessly into my life. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I have some small implicit rules about hobbies and leisure activities.
The first rule of Hobby Club is that WE ONLY INDULGE AND FULLY FOCUS ON 2 HOBBIES AT A TIME. No exceptions!
The second rule is that hobbies are done for pleasure. Unless I am working on a gift with a hard due date, or if it is feeding my daughter, hobbies should be treated as a therapeutic activity. If it turns into a burden it's to be put aside until I am ready to do it again.
Most new hobbies seem to be absorbed into my life in useful ways. Knitting lets me create meaningful gifts for those around me. Bread-baking sustains my family without the preservatives in many store-bought breads. Writing has improved my communication skills, and gaming has improved my problem-solving and strategic abilities. Reading helps me broaden my perspective, open my mind, and improve my focus. Drawing pulls me into a restorative flow state I seldom can slip into otherwise. The occasional movie teaches me how to focus my attention on the spoken word and process it in real time (I struggle with that a lot!)
I work on some of my hobbies daily, but my true focus can only stop at two to ensure that I don't lose my mind by overwhelming myself by doing too many things (that the energy expended on them doesn't take away from the things that need to be done). I read the other day someone referred to this as crop rotation and I thought it was a wonderful way to explain this concept. The soil cannot thrive with only one crop growing on that land perpetually, but by alternating. This can be a luxury of course. Often I am too tired from my duties to even think of doing any leisure activities beyond staring blankly at my walls. But I try my best.
I could have spent my life only knitting, or only drawing, or crocheting, or sewing. But I feel my life is richer for my experimenting and trying new things. The rotation aspect is key. A hobby one never returns to generates waste (of time and resources), which is not always a bad thing, but should be minimized. But I never wanted a graveyard of old hobbies. Like old friends, I always aim to return to them, a little better and a little wiser for the break than I would have been if I kept my nose to the grindstone with it.
I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.
– Groucho Max