Introduction
If you struggle with focusing on a hobby or task that you’ve set yourself then you may start feeling frustrated with your daily inaction or inability to do one thing at a time.
This can have a cascading effect and can negatively impact other parts of your life such as your mood and even your general health if you’re avoiding healthy habits such as exercise.
This is why it’s important to learn techniques or tactics that play to your strengths that can help you get things done when they need to be.
This also applies to your hobbies too; it’s all too easy to get distracted by the idea of a new hobby or something that’s fresh to sink your teeth into.
In most cases, you only like the idea of something new because it’s avoiding the effort that you need to put into an on-going hobby and you’ll probably justify it by saying you did something productive anyway.
Rest assured, this flitting between hobbies will never lead you to anything great as you’ll end up a jack-of-all-trades who is only mediocre at a multitude of things rather than amazing at one specific pastime.
It’s better to perfect your craft before you move onto something fresh. This will allow you to develop a hardened mind and will help you prove to yourself that you can dig deep when the going gets tough.
As a caveat, some of these techniques are rather multi-faceted and can also be applied to many situations in life but are also profoundly impactful when integrated within your hobbies.
Let’s take a look at what this process looks like and how it can help you overcome your current issues with commitment.
Identify Your Weaknesses and Turn Them Into Strengths
It’s important to look within to find what causes you emotional turmoil or frustration when trying to stick to a hobby; it may be something from the past, perhaps a negative childhood experience that has followed you into adult life.
It may something as simple as feeling like there are too many thoughts swirling around in your head about the possibilities of many things.
All of this frustration and negativity creates energy, and it’s exactly this energy that you want to harness to drive your productiveness in your main hobby.
For example, if you were bullied as a kid then you may have been told you weren’t good enough or that you had something wrong with you.
This might have left a negative impression in your mind but it will be the fuel you use to light the biggest bonfire from underneath you to keep you grinding and hustling every single day without fail.
It will also be the biggest middle finger you give to your haters who said you wouldn’t amount to squat.
It will also be the most important revelation you can make to your own mind that you have the ability to commit and follow-through even when you want to diverge down an easier path.
Visualize Your Victories
If you’ve ever done especially well at something, whether that be to help a family member with a household chore, or even where you may have done well in a competition or task at work, you’ll probably remember it made you feel quite good and gave you a surge of energy afterward.
These types of victories don’t come along often in life, but they usually leave a strong emotional impression in our minds and this is something you can visualize when trying to persevere with something challenging such as sticking to one hobby.
Just imagine how you would feel if instead of going down that well-trodden path of abstinence that you actually followed your passion and became the person you know you can be.
Using the mind to visualize these scenarios can help you commit to the long grind rather than abandoning it before it starts to get good.
Set Smaller Goals
You may have heard this one before, but setting smaller goals within your hobbies is hugely important if you want to go as far as you possibly can.
This is because when you set smaller goals you can reward yourself more often for the hard work you’re doing rather than only celebrating once you hit a milestone.
In fact, you should visualize every day that you work on your hobby or passion as a milestone because you’ve done more than the days before you.
You can apply this to basically anything you want to work towards in life, whether it be a goal to lose weight or to read more books.
If you don’t set small goals then you’ll always be looking at the entire mountain before you rather than the few steps you need to take to help you get across a ridge.
In fact, we only exist in the present, it’s impossible to live in the past or the future.
Yes, it’s true we can imagine what the future may look like or what it may hold but it doesn’t really make much sense when we can only work in the here and now.
Remove Distractions
Removing distractions doesn’t mean getting rid of your enjoyments altogether but it does mean dedicating a specific segment of time to work towards your hobby without interruption.
Your brain can only dedicate its resources towards so many things and if you have your phone going off in one ear and people talking in the other then they’re likely to pull your attention away or reduce the time spent towards furthering your hobby.
If you have to deal with a person who talks or distracts you all the time then it’s important to use strong communication skills to indicate that what you’re doing is precious to you and you want to take it seriously.
Alternatively, if you’re dealing with YouTube or modern distractions like social media then you need to turn them off altogether during your hobby time as they are designed to hook you in psychologically.
Again, this doesn’t mean you can’t go back to your modern comforts but it’s important that you make dedicated time specifically for your hobby.
Change The Format
If it’s just general boredom you’re suffering from then it can really help to change the format of the hobby you’re doing.
For example, cycling is a form of exercise but it doesn’t have to be the only exercise you perform.
You can still hit your daily goals by doing a different type of workout such as some weightlifting, running, and even going for a swim.
Alternatively, if you enjoy reading books then you could opt for a more passive method of reading instead such as an audiobook.
Staying creative within your hobbies is vitally important as it will allow you to freshen them up without losing sight of the ultimate goal.
Reality Check
If you’re seeing real struggles within your hobby then it’s important to stop yourself and really assess what’s going on.
This could involve the money you have available to keep up with it as a hobby; maybe it’s simply not affordable for you right now.
In these situations, it’s extremely vital that you prioritize meeting your basic needs first such as keeping yourself fed and making sure the power bills are paid for.
Aside from the cost, it could just be that the hobby you’re doing is really not something you’re interested in anymore.
In these situations, it’s easy to confuse your lack of motivation for not being interested in the hobby at all.
We all go through ebbs and flows periodically through our life so make sure before you give up that it’s not just a lack of willpower.
Having said that, if you’re still finding you don’t enjoy the hobby then you may need to take a break or look for an alternative.
FAQ
Most of what we’ve mentioned above should help you stay strong within your hobby or at least wake you up to your real desires.
However, we’re now going to take a look at some common questions that people ask in relation to hobbies and motivation.
Is it OK to have multiple hobbies?
Personally, we think it’s great to have multiple hobbies as you’ll be able to challenge yourself in a variety of ways, mentally and physically.
In fact, the true definition of a hobby is to do something that you enjoy in your spare time. So in reality, if you enjoy sitting on YouTube all day watching documentaries or even cat videos then we can’t discount that as being a hobby.
As a caveat, we think you should at least have one productive hobby that you work towards as this will increase your opportunities to have a better life whether by improving your physical health or by bettering your finances.
If you’re not sure what to pick then why not check out our top lists of hobbies to give you some inspiration.
Can you master more than one thing?
If you really must have more than one serious hobby then you might have asked whether you can master more than one as well.
In truth, a select few people have been able to achieve Rockstar status in a multitude of areas meaning if you’ve got the ambition then why not?
It all comes down to determination at the end of the day and if you’ve got an abundance of it or know how to motivate yourself then you can definitely master more than one thing.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that it can be hard to focus on one hobby if you’re easily intrigued by the prospect of starting something fresh or are averse to hard work when your hobby starts to get a little tougher.
This is often what stops someone becoming great at a specific pastime or even making millions of dollars in real life.
If you can push past the part where most people will give up then you’ll be on to a winner.
As always, feel free to share our article and don’t forget to bookmark our homepage for regular hobby updates or advice.
