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The Importance of Maintaining Hobbies as a Manager

The Importance of Maintaining Hobbies as a Manager

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Many of the world’s most passionate managers would say they were married to their work, and while loving your job is certainly a sign of a good career, it’s incredibly important to have hobbies outside of the professional environment. 

Having a hobby to escape into after a long week can be a profoundly relaxing and eye-opening experience, even if that hobby has nothing to do with your job in any way. In fact, it might be better for you if it has nothing to do with your professional background. 

If you feel like you’d like to experience more of life outside of work, then picking up a hobby could be the ideal place to start. For the typically busy managers among you, this can seem a little too time-consuming at first. 

If this is the case, or you’re on the fence about taking up a new hobby for another reason, it’s worth checking out the many great benefits they can provide you with. 

Keeping Yourself Grounded

It can be easy to lose sight of your personal goals when all you have in front of you is work. This particular type of tunnel vision can result in a narrowed perspective, one that fails to let you make the most out of life. 

Sometimes, a break from the norm is a must for this very reason. Hobbies can be a superb way of allowing yourself to expand your mindset while opening up your life to welcome new experiences in the process. 

It doesn’t have to be a hobby that takes up a huge amount of time or money either; it can simply be a topic you’re interested in and want to learn a little more about from the comfort of your own home. 

Many exceptionally successful CEOs like to explore interests outside of their professional environment – take a look at Michael Savage New Canaan for the ideal example. 

It’s a great way to stay grounded at a time when work can feel overwhelming. Having that interest that stimulates your brain in a different kind of way than work can make all the difference, especially when you’re trying your best to avoid burnout. 

Developing Your Interpersonal Skills

Managers need to regularly rely on their elite interpersonal skills to get by, and in order to do this, they need to constantly revisit their abilities and commitment to personal growth and development. 

Hobbies like team sports can help you with this, as it adds a totally new dynamic into the mix, one that requires a different type of communication to master. 

Communication is one of the pillars of managerial work – without it, there would be no way to control an entire team. Picking up communication skills wherever you can says a great deal about your self-motivation and dedication to development opportunities, and it’s the perfect way to meet new people! 

Meeting New People

It’s important to have friends outside of the workplace. Having people you can talk to about topics other than work can give you a break from the action, a way to empty your mind and lose yourself in many other facets of life. 

For managers that have to support their team members all day, this interactivity change can be a huge benefit. 

Having no one to rely on you, nobody to ask you anything, and no targets to meet, even for just an hour or so, can be a wonderful feeling. 

While hobbies can indeed be a superb way of developing your professional skills, they can also be pure escapism, and they don’t have to necessarily represent anything more than a bit of fun. 

Conversely, they can also be a superb way to network, so they have benefits on both sides of the spectrum. 

A Sense of Freedom 

Managers need to cover a huge amount of ground in their day-to-day job, all while representing their company. 

Indulging in a hobby can be a prime way to escape the workplace confines and restrictions, allowing you to experience a great sense of freedom. 

It can be tough to feel as though you have any concept of autonomy when you’re constantly at work, performing the same tasks for the same people day in and day out. A hobby can remind you that there is much more to life and that you do indeed have the option of autonomy in some way. 

Exploring Your True Passions

For many people (in the United States at least), being told that their passion and their work should be one and the same is an all too common occurrence, and this doctrine, unfortunately, becomes apparent at a very young age. 

This is simply impossible for many, particularly those who need to take on a job solely for the money or managers who don’t have the time to explore their interests in the workplace. 

Hobbies can be the bridge between work and passion. It’s perfectly reasonable and even sensible to want to separate your true passions from your work. This doesn’t mean that you can’t be passionate about what you do by any means, but it does mean you should explore a new area of life, and a hobby is perfect for this. 

Remembering to Take a Break

In the midst of a busy working week, it can be incredibly easy to forget to take breaks. Rest is an important part of health and mental wellbeing, and unfortunately, it gets overlooked by countless busy managers. 

Hobbies are more than just a break from the action; they’re a reminder to take a break from the action in the first place. 

If you’ve got a hobby waiting for you at the end of a long day, it gives you a justifiable excuse to divert some quality time away from work and into an avenue that fulfills your mind in a different way. 

No matter what you decide to take up, be it kickboxing, painting, reading, or writing, a good hobby can last a lifetime and bring you a wealth of joy and a sense of achievement in the process. 

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