“What is your hobby?” One of the most common questions that almost all of us had to face from our childhood, be it by our relatives at our home or by our teachers and friends at school. As we all know our hobby basically represents our pastime activity or activities that we like to do, it can actually turn out to be activities that have a meaningful impact on our lives.
The scope for variation in hobbies is very wide. It can range from silly stuff to even momentous activities. There are a lot of aspects that can influence the hobby of an individual. Hobbies are usually shaped by individual thinking patterns and preferences. In many instances, it can be shaped up by the people around us. The demography and cultural aspects also have their mark in the practice of people’s hobbies.
Now, many people might wonder about the impact of hobbies in their lives. Hobbies do not necessarily mean that it has to be a pass time only, rather it can work as a form of practice going into the professional lives. As hobby comes from the inner liking, there is a huge chance an individual will be good in aspects related to their hobby. As a result, the hobbies can turn out to be the actual profession of the individuals. When asked Fahim Ahmed Chowdhury, Marketing Executive of Robi 10 Minute School, regarding his hobby and its utility he responded saying, “Hobby mattered a lot going into my professional life. From a very early age, my hobby is debating. It assisted me to enhance my communication and critical thinking skills. I am pursuing my major in Marketing and most of my work is also related to marketing which requires the mentioned skills. So, my hobby not only worked as a medium of amusement but also was a great form of practice for my professional life."
Some people were going on with their hobbies with absolutely no intention of aligning it with their work-life, but circumstances had other ideas. When asked Homaira Atia, a home baker, she said, “My hobby is baking. I just love it! I had no intention of having any commercial benefits through it. During the lockdown, my friends pushed me to open a page and sell cakes on it. They absolutely loved my handmade cakes and believed others would like them too. Hence, I opened my own page and started selling cakes. Within a short time, I got a huge response and people loved it. Now, I often have a hard time catering to all the orders. Maybe my love for baking made the cakes even tastier.” Hobbies have a big impact on enhancing our skills. The sheer love for a particular activity only makes us better at it and quality gets enhanced.
The impact of a hobby can be psychological too. It can help people to get out of stress and depression. It helps people to maintain a healthy state of mind. Mehnaz Mariyam, an undergraduate from the Bangladesh University of Professionals, loves to paint. When asked regarding her hobby of painting she said, “It makes me feel good. I hardly show my paintings to people. I just make them and keep them in my room. It helps me maintain a calm state of mind. I just like doing it. Painting had a great impact in getting out of depression. Even in my work life when I get stressed, I start painting. It just makes me feel happy.” We can see that a hobby cannot have an impact commercially and still might be something very precious. It might matter a lot just for the inner peace that it provides.
Hobbies can matter to people in various forms. It can enhance the skills in general. Alignment with professional life makes the work easier and the work itself does not feel like a burden, rather feels good. An individual can also have multiple hobbies. One might like to collect coins and do gardening at the same time.
Hobbies do not have to necessarily be something serious or innovative, it can be the silliest things. Some people just might consider simple activities as their hobbies like eating, cycling, running and so on.
A very thoughtful insight was gathered when asked to Zoana Zafrin, an employee at Talent Centric. She said that doing community service and helping others is her hobby. It is something she loved doing from a very early age. “Whenever I find any opportunity to do something for others and society, I rush there. Some of my recent activities are distributing masks, cleaning the street, and teaching children. People’s priceless smiles gives me a great amount of joy.” added Zoana.
A hobby is one of the significant portions of an individual’s life. It might matter to that person and others around them in several ways. Direct alignment of hobbies with professional life enables an individual to perform better. Hobbies can only be a source of inner happiness for people. It can also be a mere time pass for individuals which might work as a jailbreak from mainstream everyday life. In a nutshell, hobbies have a huge impact on the lives of people.
