You know you need a new hobby but aren’t entirely sure where to start. About nine months ago, I was in the same situation, but after reading a book I quickly learned that I needed a few hobbies to find the fulfillment I was seeking. So, what are the 3 hobbies you should have?
The 3 hobbies that everyone should have includes one to make you move, one to help you reflect, and one to help you grow. Move hobbies are focused on physical health, reflect hobbies are meditative and drive introspection, and grow hobbies cover those that inspire you to think or spur creativity.
While some people take on these 3 hobbies unknowingly, others need to make a concerted effort to incorporate them into their lives. I’m part of the latter, and I’ll walk you through how to make these hobbies habits, and find fulfillment along the way.
THE 5AM CLUB AND 3 HOBBIES YOU SHOULD HAVE
In early 2022 I made a concerted effort to read more books. It’s never been a strong suit of mine – I’m far too easily distracted. But I randomly stumbled across a book called The 5 AM Club written by Robin Sharma.
I was hesitant to pick it up at first because I wasn’t on the search for a self-help book, but I eventually decided to go with this read because I hate the idea of sleeping the day away, and thought maybe the 5 AM club would give me ideas of how to maximize what I can accomplish every 24 hours.
Now, there are many concepts and models throughout the book, and all had a profound impact on my thinking. But the namesake of the book, the 5 AM Club concept, shifted my thinking about hobbies.
The 5 AM Club is about getting after it no matter what, at 5 AM, every day; and while everyone else is sleeping, you’re working on yourself. Give it 66 days, and it will become a habit. That’s the exact amount of days to consistently do something and stick with it.
No distractions from work or friends and family. It’s just you and 60 minutes.
Every day at 5 AM, you break the next hour into 20-minute increments along three categories – move, reflect, and grow.
1. Move | 5-5:20 AM
Move is about the physical you. In the book, the idea is about getting your cardiovascular system heightened first thing. There are many benefits to this throughout the day as well as over your lifetime.
There is certainly flexibility to everything within the book, but it’s recommended that you “move” first thing every morning. And it also recommends an activity that makes your heart pump and creates fatigue.
Running, cycling, rowing, basketball, etc – are all activities that would pass the “move” criteria.
2. Reflect | 5:20-5:40 AM
Reflect is taking time to be mindfully present. There’s a lot of flexibility to what is and what isn’t suitable for reflection, but in general, this is a peaceful place where you are left alone with your mind.
You could think about the day ahead, think about the day behind, or visualize experiences. Or you could be more productivity-focused and think about what’s going on in your life and areas that need work.
Meditation, yoga, journaling, etc. – activities that put you and introspection at the heart of it are “reflect” material. Even creative activities like painting or weaving, ones where you sort of lose yourself in the action can have you reflecting on yourself.
3. Grow | 5:40-6:00 AM
I like to think of the “grow” category as a way to get sharper – sort of the antidote to Netflix.
These could be things that help you learn something new, or they could be things that challenge your creativity and fuel your imagination.
Reading a book, listening to TED Talks, taking a painting course, and of course, learning a new skill or hobby.
The 5 AM Club and Hobbies
Now, the 5 AM club wasn’t necessarily built for you to learn new hobbies, and it certainly wasn’t created to do three hobbies in the course of an hour.
What it was meant to do was to help bring fulfillment and organization to your life by taking the most important hour, 5 AM, and doing three activities that make you sharper and more improved every day.
I’ve certainly modified my daily 5 AM routine – it consists of walking my dog (move) while listening to educational podcasts (grow) for 40 minutes. Then followed by 20 minutes of meditation (reflect). I do this every day, rain or shine.
And after doing it for months now, it feels weird if I do it later than 5 AM or have to skip a day for one reason or another. After so much repetition, this has become a hobby of sorts.
The benefits of feeling more well-rounded because of these three daily activities are tremendous. This is why I’ve recently incorporated The 5 AM Club’s thinking into how I approach finding new hobbies.
Trying new things and taking up a new hobby is one of my passions, after all.
I now try to figure out how a new hobby fits into the construct of improving my physical well-being, self-reflection, and areas that help me grow as a person.
Transparently, if it doesn’t check one of those boxes, I will most likely look for something else.
This article is meant to help you evaluate hobbies in the same way, and find fulfillment through them, similarly to how the 5 AM Club works.
This is where the 5 AM Club references conclude – now let’s focus on how to find your 3 hobbies.
HOW TO FIND YOUR 3 HOBBIES
Let’s level set on what a hobby is – a hobby is an activity that someone does in their leisure time because it brings them enjoyment.
You may not know that you love the hobby yet, and that’s fine, but as long as you have some general interest in it, or at least enough interest to learn more, then you’re good to go.
If you pick something you either dislike already or have no interest in, you’re setting yourself up for failure.
With those ground rules out of the way, let’s dig into each of the three categories.
1. Hobbies To Keep You Moving – Physical Activity
Hobbies that keep you moving are physical. This could be as extreme cardiovascular workouts or as passive as walking.
There’s no trophy for how quickly you can run or how much you sweat – it’s a pass-fail system for moving. In other words, you either move or don’t.
Sure, there are obvious benefits to cardiovascular exercise, but if you prefer to walk over running, you’re more likely to stick with it. Exercise can be a hobby, but this bucket is broader than exercise.
2. Hobbies That Help You Reflect
Hobbies that help you reflect are important because they give you time to think about your life, what’s going on, and how you’re feeling. They can be a form of therapy, and help you work through problems in a productive way.
While some can be as obvious as meditating, others can be more abstract, like dancing, or painting. Truly, for a hobby to be self-reflecting, it has to put you in a sort of trance. One where your motor functions are going, but your brain is working through other things simultaneously.
These are often activities that teeter between spiritual and cathartic.
For me, listening to certain music, or playing guitar can be self-reflective.
I get into a flow state where I’m not thinking about how to play or how the music is constructed, and it allows my brain to work through problems on its own.
Aside from listening to music or playing an instrument, here are a few others that can get some ideas going for your “reflect” hobbies.
3. Using Hobbies to Grow
Hobbies that help you grow can be pretty broad. From an intellectual side, it could be any form of educational content. But it can also be spiritual, creative, or even learning a skill.
What all of them have in common though is they are fueled by learning. Although that may take many different forms, at the end of the day, these are hobbies that keep satisfying your quest to improve your brain and stay sharp.
I live for these types of hobbies.
Even without classifying them as “grow,” hobbies that are an important part of my life fit into this category. Difficult to describe at times, but the feeling of teaching yourself something new is one of the most extraordinary human experiences.
So let’s help you find some “grow” hobbies, in case you’re on the hunt to kickstart life’s education.
THERE’S NO “RIGHT” WAY TO TAKE ON A HOBBY
While this whole article is built on the premise of categorizing hobbies into three sections to find a more fulfilling you, this is by no means the answer for everyone.
This is my experience, and how I wanted to use hobbies in my life.
Remember, hobbies are just leisurely activities that make you happy. They don’t need to be labeled, and they certainly don’t need to be sanctioned by anyone but yourself.
In my life, I needed the construct of “move,” “reflect,” and “grow” so that I didn’t make excuses for zoning out to Netflix or playing video games all night – and cloak them under the idea that they were hobbies.
I wanted more and needed something to assist to get me there. The 3 hobbies became that Northstar.
And if you’re in a similar position, I hope they can help you as well. And if this is you, but you’re still struggling to find the right hobbies, I’ve listed out 19 unique hobbies here for you to get you started – all of which follow the the move, reflect, grow philosophy.