How do you spend your weekend and days off? Collins Dictionary defines hobby as an activity that you enjoy doing in your spare time. More than an activity to pass the time, hobby has an added value that will make your life be more amazing. Research from Harvard Business Review (HBR) on “Why CEOs Devote So Much Time to Their Hobbies” reveals that having hobby will provide detachment like nothing else can. One of survey participants said, “Sometimes work can really be…all-encompassing. You can never let go when sleeping and eating and being present with your friends and family.” However, with one active leisure pursuit such as doing your hobby, you can get full recovery.
HBR research also finds that hobby can provide humility lesson, offer full control experience, and create different and deeper connections with your employees or followers. Your leadership skills might as well improve by having a pursuit of happiness from your hobby.
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As quoted by Verywell Mind, a strong and good leader should encourage creativity and be able to think broadly and deeply. Leaders should be looking for new solutions for every problem faced by organisation, as well as be a role model for their employees and encourage them to be the best version of themselves. Needless to say, a hobby can provide all that skill. Michael Hyatt said in his podcast that “hobby would be enough to justify in terms of living a life. It definitely impacts our work and personal life.” Additionally, hobby is restorative because it frees your mind and relieves stress. Likewise, according to Hyatt, there are four magnificent benefits of how hobby makes you a better leader, which are:
1. Having hobby makes you smarter because it activates areas of your brain that produce a feeling of well-being and helps you think differently. It also controls how we feel about life. By doing what you love as a hobby, you can as well activate neurotransmitters that sharpen your focus and become energized around one activity. As a result, you will be refreshed and recharge, and able to see things in different ways.
2. Having hobby makes you more creative. Hyatt said, “Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology concluded this creative activity is likely to provide valuable experiences of discovery that uniquely influence performance-related outcomes.” It means, the pursuit of hobbies and fun things can actually end up showing in business. On the other hand, if your hobby does not do something proactively, you will only get in a rut.
3 Having hobby makes you feel more relaxed because it can lower your negative stress. Studies show that relaxation can decrease your blood pressure, relieve your pain, and improve immune and cardiovascular systems. Thus, when you jump to another activity that requires enough of your focus and you forget about work, you will feel the serenity of relaxation which results on well-being and fresher body.
4 Having hobby makes you more productive. “Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology reported that people who engage in creative activities gain these benefits: they have a greater willingness to take risks, are able to think of alternative solutions, are willing to take on extra responsibilities, are more willing to collaborate, and have the ability to acquire new skills, grate mastery, greater ability to work and better attitude toward business.” Thus, it can be concluded that having one activity outside your work will improve your productivity.
In conclusion, hobby makes you do something that you ‘probably’ never do before. You can learn new skills, try new things, and think about problems you don’t usually face, get into a new environment, and switch the side of your brain from analytical to creative or the reverse. Additionally, hobbies can build a variety of skills and knowledge bases that you need to be a strong leader. So, what kind of hobby are you currently committing?
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