With a new year comes the desire for change and personal development: it’s a chance to take a look at your life and the routines that tick along within it, and weed out the ones that aren’t working for you while adding new ones that can make your life better.
Many people resolve to start a new hobby with a new year – and it’s not hard to see why. Hobbies can provide a creative outlet to help you deal with worry, a refuge from stress you can’t control, a new social life, and the satisfaction of learning new skills and making things you can feel proud of independently from the financial reward of work. As with all New Year’s Resolutions, it’s not always easy to keep up when the initial novelty and motivation fades into February. Today we’re going to have a look at how you can start right, whether you’re learning a language, stocking an embroidery box, or beginning a couch to 5k.
Commitment or Overcommitment
It’s very tempting to overcommit in the first days of a new hobby. When it’s still novel, and you’re still full of optimism, it’s all too easy to take on too much and then find yourself overwhelmed. Try to start a new hobby with achievable goals – if you start running by embarking on a marathon, or knitting by attempting a huge blanket, you might find you’ve set yourself up for failure.
Look for small milestones that let you see how far you’ve come. Ramping up your running schedule slowly will let you see how your endurance and strength have built over time, and starting with small crafting projects let you practice and perfect the basic skills before you set them to work on a bigger project. This approach also gives you lots of small triumphs to enjoy along the way.
The Difficult Second Month
It’s easy to keep to a new routine or hobby when it’s fresh and novel. It’s also easier to do when you’re more practiced, and can take pleasure in exercising your hard won skills. Unfortunately between these two states, there’s a tricky period when your new hobby is no longer novel, but you’re not yet practiced enough to relax and enjoy it for its own sake – whether it’s running, sewing or (maybe especially) playing a musical instrument, it’s all too easy to fall into this valley and give up, rather than climbing out again.
Put some positive reinforcement in place to encourage you to stick to your new schedule until it starts to provide its own rewards – whether it’s snacks, favoured TV shows or existing pastimes you take pleasure in, you can build a framework that will carry you forward until your new skills kick in and the frustration passes!