Hi everyone. I am feeling like I’ve lost any direction after getting laid off earlier this year (was working as an analyst in telecom and very recently landed a much lower position in healthcare data entry due to necessity). I already have several hobbies but I am either burnt out on them or they have lost their luster (similar to how life has lost its luster for me this past 6 months).
I would really love to learn a new skill, preferably using my hands to create something while challenging my brain. I’m willing to take classes, study, practice, and buy some equipment required for the skill.
Please tell me about your skill/hobby that gives you purpose. I’ve kind of exhausted google search which always returns the same 20 or so craft suggestions like “make custom invitations for weddings”, and while that sounds good for someone, it may not be good for me.
Current hobbies: Music composition and gardening,
EDIT: trying to move away from hobbies that involve me sitting in front of a computer. I already do that way too much.
Skill #1: You’re fine just the way you are. You aren’t lost, you’re still deciding where to go.
My advice is to take an SDS test (career interest) to get your Holland code and learn about all the jobs that would excite you.
Thank you for the kind words. I will look into the SDS test.
Sure thing! I think there’s a fee for the real one but you might find a free version or see if a local community vocational center type thing wouldn’t let you take it for free. If it sets you in the right direction though, it’s worth the cost.
And just if you could benefit from some proof, people change careers an average of 5-7 times in their lives. If you haven’t decided where to go next, how could you possibly be lost?
Take care, friend. I promise that you know all the answers to the questions you haven’t asked yourself yet.
cooking is an awesome hobbyyy
Yah! It is. I cook often, but its not really a hobby for me. I just like good food and I don’t like spending money eating out.
How about taking a trade?
Definitely something I’ve considered. From my decades of working in front of computers, I would love to do something with my hands. I’ve looked at trade schools in my area and weighed some options.
Going thru similar shit right now myself I found an anchor in working out. I started from total zero - zero push ups, zero pull ups, zero sqats, zero crunches. I can do most of these now, with pullups to go still. But I also got into better mindset and learning discipline too. Good stuff that I’ve neglected for 20+ years.
Keep it up! That’s great progress.
Gymnastics. Seriously. You don’t need to be all that athletic to do the core basics. You get fitter and have fun just throwing yourself onto big soft mats.
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All great suggestions. I was gifted a secondhand resin printer a while ago. I don’t have any post processing stuff or anything so haven’t really delved into it.
Currently I am sitting on the board of directors for a new non-profit. Been trying to get it off the ground and have done some good in the form of utility relief for families in need. Its a lot though and while I am keeping at it, its not really scratching my itch to find new purpose.
This one combines with my suggestion, too. Lost PLA casting is a thing - you bed the print in sand or similar, add sprues, vents and feeders (and maybe some sort of extra drainage to be closed up after? I haven’t looked too closely into it), and melt it out instead of having to manually take the mold apart and put it back together.
Then, you can have a cast in metal or glass without having to manually build the form, and without having to use a million mold pieces to achieve any kind of hollow geometry.
Drawing. It’s seen as a skill reserved for an elite few, but in reality anyone can develop it. I learned it at school from lessons very similar to how Peter Gray teaches it (see this book for example on the Internet Archive).
All you need is a pad of paper, a few pencils and an eraser. And then sketch away, plants, people, landscapes, characters, whatever you want to explore.
Definitely a good idea. I’ve never been talented in drawing or painting, but that doesn’t mean I can’t develop it.
Trades are great careers to be in now. Maybe cabinet making and volunteer at habitat for humanity? Learn something new that might help down the line, and do some good at the same time. Wiring, welding, or fixing an old car is another route to learn a useful and potentially employable skill.
I really want to get into casting, because it’s crazy how much stuff you can make. Machining too, but that requires a lot of equipment. If you want to use metal casting to make machining tools, David Gingery’s works are a classic.
Machine is a very fun hobby, but be very careful when using high power tools. Mills, lathes and surface grinders can easily bite yah. As my shop teacher once said “If it can cut metal it can cut you!” “Metalworking tools are not toys, treat them with respect and they will respect you back” “Follow the MSDS procautions and shop rules, ie no long sleeves or gloves near rotary equitment and dont roll up sand paper on the lathe”
It is very rewarding being able to show people the part you made and solving problems feels great too!
Casting can also be dangerous. It’s not too surprising, when glowing hot molten liquid is involved, but it’s not necessarily intuitive. Any excess moisture in the work area is a potential steam explosion, including the water in porous concrete you might not think about. Materials weaken at high temperatures, and thermal expansion of metal when you’re going up that high is more than a detail. To deal with that, use PPE, your brain and Murphy’s law. They say to assume everything in a metalworking shop is hot unless you know for a fact that it isn’t, for example.
Machining is also cool because you can get microscopic precision with pretty standard equipment, and quite often need to if you want something to make something like a smooth-rolling bearing. That makes it a lot more of a science than more common skills like woodworking.
I did not know about water expantion being a hazard when casting. Wow go figure. Casting is pretty neat, ive had a few buddys cast alumium and its hot as balls when pouring into a mold, but has alot of compontents that you really dont know unless your into it. Like water expantion, thats pretty cool thanks for sharing!
Does art interest you? I personally really love drawing!
I’ve never been particularly talented at visual arts like drawing and painting, my artistic talents mostly come in music. Which I’ve been doing for a long time and burnt out on. I do know you can develop a talent like drawing with enough time and effort, so its not totally out of the question.
I fondly remember a time where I could only draw stickmen. I’m sure if you spend time and effort, you can do pretty much anything! If you don’t mind me asking, have you shared your music anywhere?
Yeah, I’ve got a ton of music published, its all on Spotify/iTunes/etc. The name of my band is Giant Monsters on the Horizon. Been doing music for a long while. https://open.spotify.com/artist/4HmglWNfF7jAYQxbEjv9Xt?si=wKM8b_rATrSgx5WV7ITDdw
Holy cats - just bought Night City Redux on Bandcamp. Great stuff!
If you’re burnt out on music making, have you tried other ways of creating? Like if you’re used to a DAW, invest in hardware like a groovebox or a handheld tracker (my current love is the Dirtywave M8) or something. Try modular (but don’t, it’s expensive) or some weird boutique noise machine. Or dive into orchestral instruments and perfecting a classical music performance.
It could be a way to defamiliarise yourself and make music creation new again.
You are my favorite person, I appreciate you! :D
Seriously, thank you for supporting. I’ve worked with softsynths all my adult life, mainly Reason for production and arranging, Ableton for live shows. One of my bandmates is a gearhead, we’ve tried all kinds of his hardware including modular stuff, and it was just a learning curve that I was not really interested in. My music production time is really limited (One of my bandmates and his wife just adopted 2 kids out of foster care, and my other bandmate is a full time teacher), I only get about 4 hours a week to actually collaborate with them. Every time we’ve tried writing and creating with hardware, it just left us with getting nothing done during our once a week session. We stick with the softsynths we know and keep the train moving forward. So the balance struggle there is, do we take several sessions off to try something new? Or do we keep creating and being productive. Its tough.
Thank you for introducing me to a new (to me) band! Yeah, life can be kind of a roller coaster, and everyone’s interests ebb and flow (as you’ve discovered with yourself and your bandmates). Sadly we only have so much energy to roll with it, and I’m sorry you’re at a low energy area right now. Those suck, and it is VERY difficult to battle inertia and muscle back into the fray.
Art is kinda cruel in the way that it makes you choose - familiar and possibly uninspiring, or new and possibly a frustrating dead end. The reason I mentioned the M8 was largely due to its pocketability. It’s not much bigger than a large smartphone but it’s a whole production device with instant-on and a sensible design. Work on stuff during lunch, at the park, on the bus, etc. But there is a learning curve, so spending a lot of energy you might not have may get frustrating if it doesn’t click right away.
One thing you might try is suggesting gentle deadlines or challenges for yourself and your bandmates - like write a catchy 10-second jingle by the end of the week. Or parody the chorus of an existing song by the end of your next phone call. A deadline for something silly is easier to meet, and you all would have created something and had a little fun.
There are a lot of amazing people here suggesting different things you can do, and I notice a lot of their ideas are creative activities. I think you can land on any of those and find satisfaction. There’s no high like creation. No matter what, remember that things always change. If you’re at a low point, it can’t last forever, especially if you keep powering through it. You’ll come out ahead.
If you become a plumber or electrician it will satisfy your desire to create with your hands while challenging your brain. It pays decently good and keeps you in shape too.
As an electrician you’ll start off paid low for a year or two as a laborer, but in four or five years I think you’ll be a trade professional making good money and doing useful work.
Thanks! I have a tour scheduled next week for a trade school for their electrician program. I’m not 100% sure if I have an interest in it, but it has the traits I am looking for. Being useful, having a purpose, working with my hands, etc. I will see how I feel after the tour.
I’m taking some welding classes later this year. Being able to fix or create things with a welder seems like a useful skill to have.
I suspect the intro classes are all the same regardless if you take welding into the art direction or the mechanical direction.
That’s really cool. I’ve considered welding, seems really neat. Good luck, build something awesome!
Also, you can make really good money welding.
Maybe woodworking? It can get dusty and you need some room but you can also make smaller things that don’t need big power tools or a lot of room. Like miniature things.
Or computer programming. Create an app. Or do something fun like follow one of the coding challenges from the YouTube channel The Coding Train
I definitely have wood working on my radar. I have some basic hand and electric tools for home improvement stuff. Unfortunately I’m really burnt out on programming and computer stuff. I spend my work day in front of a computer doing mind numbing repetition. I know I should have clarified that further in the original post, sorry about that.
I was going to say the same. My husband likes gardening and builds all different kinds of planters - raised beds on the ground, elevated planters on wheels, small box planters with handles so he can easily carry it in/out for starting seeds.
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Based on what you wrote, referencing burnout, I suspect that the issue isn’t that you need a hobby, it’s that you need to make time to do nothing at all.
Go for walks in nature, away from technology, walk alone or with friends, laugh, tell stories, share secrets and dreams.
The more you do, the more resilience builds up, the better you can cope with stress and work.
Only then might you find joy in a hobby. For me it was Amateur Radio, but it might be different for you.
All good points. I make time with friends when I can, getting laid off from my job really messed me up. I had been there for 11 years a lot of my closer friends are tied to that job and people I worked with. I still go out to lunch or for coffee with them when possible, but I don’t see them every day like I used to. I am going to double my efforts to spend time with them.
i got my amateur radio license (U.S. technician) about a month ago at a big convention. i was thinking of suggesting the hobby to the poster but first read through the comments, to check if it were suggested already. your initial advice is probably better. i’m realizing i overloaded myself and burned out during the time leading up to the test and now i’m not entirely sure why i tried getting the license in the first place. i still don’t even have a radio. I think i wanted to learn more about electronics and one thing led to another. now my mind goes blank when i try to think about what to do. i’m not OP but found it to be good advice, thanks.
Welcome to the community, we’re all still figuring out what to do with it :)
When you want to reconnect with the hobby, after looking after yourself, look for my callsign, VK6FLAB. I have produced a weekly article about the hobby for the past 13 years and there’s plenty of suggestions for things to do and learn.
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