Just imagine the following scenario: you are a thoroughly qualified professional at your workplace, always the go-to professional in the organization. With your career development assuredly on the ascendant curve, how could hobbies ensure consolidation of the ascendant curve? Let us examine the subject matter.

Hobby – a Definition

A hobby is a voluntary regular activity during one’s leisure time. A hobby gives you pleasure and makes your life more enjoyable and meaningful. The keyword to note in this definition is “voluntary.” Though your successful professional career is enjoyable, meaningful, and also gives you pleasure, it is not voluntary.

Hobbies – the Go-To Marg

An excellent professional career, in isolation, is comparable to a one-horse town; good but something crucial is missing. Your career is your life-line but it does not define you as a person. For a well-rounded personality, one needs to have a hobby. 

Whether in personal, social, or professional life, you are called to interact continuously with people and events all around you.  To respond to these varying situations you are called to play different roles. This is a positive and meaningful challenge; employ your strengths and beware of your weaknesses. Hobbies create a work-life balance.

Since a hobby is a voluntary activity that gives pleasure, etc. you would normally take up a hobby that complements your strengths. Consequently, you would, gradually, involve yourself deeper and deeper into it. 

Progressive companies are, nowadays, into hiring professionals who are a “cultural fit.” HR Divisions and recruitment agencies are aware of your professional achievements but unaware of how you can fit in the culture of their organization. Your hobby is a key indicator of your cultural and personality fit.

Generally, a hobby inserts you into a social milieu; others have the same or similar hobby, so you “compare notes.” You have now entered into a new world of meeting people and learning new things. More interesting is the fact that all people you meet and interact with may have different mindsets and you now have opportunities to widen your horizons.  Your response is the birth of creativity that leads to the elasticity of thinking – different mindsets need not be divisive but inclusive. And this is a big step forward in the shaping of a well-rounded personality.

Below are a few subtle outcomes of hobbies to support workplace career advancement.

       1. A New World:

You are now in a world different from the daily humdrum of working life; this voluntary activity relaxes and de-stresses you. If this is an outdoor activity, you benefit from fresh air, varied natural sceneries, and exercises that help to reduce stress and generally enhance bodily functions. You are now in better shape for enhanced professionalism.

       2. Making New Friends:

As you initiate your first new friend, you realize that you are pleasantly enjoying a gradual ever-expanding network of human relationships from different walks of life but with similar interests. This could lead to new professional opportunities – the benefits of which you will carry to your workplace.

      3. Train the Brain:

Immersed in your hobby, you are now exposed to different mindsets and different ways of doing things. This trains the brain to think as it were “out of the box.” Thus strategizing and collaboration seeps into your professional life at work too.

     4. A Happier Person:

The above developments are a catalyst for the flowering of your personality. You are now a happier person as you have pleasant and empowering experiences. You carry this new-found happiness into your work-life.

    5. Deeper Engagement with Colleagues:

This positive view of life broadens your world view and generates a sense of quiet confidence in yourself. Your interests become an opportunity for interaction with your colleagues on topics other than work. This is important, not only, for you but also for your colleagues and the employer too. Positive interactions on extra-curricular activity assists in producing a pleasant atmosphere and relationship building. 

     6. Self-Discipline & Time Management:

Your hobby has a certain priority in your life and making time for it generates discipline and an ability for time management. This new characteristic of your life is now ingrained in you. You simply carry these positive effects in your professional work life.

      7. A Contributing Team Member:

Your well-rounded personality exudes a quiet confidence and a general sense of wellbeing. In this frame of mind, you generously share with your colleagues, relevant workplace skills, and knowledge contributing to general employee wellbeing and productivity at the workplace. Your boss is sure to notice this and thus your ascendant curve will improve.

       8. An Improved Relationship with the Boss: 

Having noted your positive interactions with  colleagues you have now created an opportunity for a quiet chat with your boss at an opportune time. If your boss and you have similar hobbies, you have another  opportunity to deepen your relationship with the boss. 

Analysis of  Hobbies for Enhancement of Professional Career

A hobby is an indicator of a cultural and personality fit indicating the type of strength you are looking to project. Thus, this list of suggestions is representative and not exhaustive.

      1. Endurance Sports:

Examples of these sports would be walking and walkathons, running including marathons, cycling, swimming, etc. You showcase a tendency for tenacity, an inner drive, and perseverance. To achieve a modicum of success in these sports calls for dedication and self-discipline. At the workplace dedicated and disciplined professionals are valued. 

       2. High Risks Pursuits:

These pursuits include sports such as mountain climbing, mountain bike racing, skydiving, bungee jumping, F1 car racing, etc. These are risky and indicate your willingness and capacity to push boundaries and take calculated risks. Each of these pursuits involves deep planning, precision thinking, and adequate knowledge of weather conditions. Overall, an excellent springboard for senior managerial positions.

       3. Creative Hobbies:

These hobbies call for creative impulses and a capacity for the artistic. These are, normally, understood as “left brain” impulses. Playing music instruments (a plethora of musical instruments are available), painting, photography, and cooking are some of the pursuits under this category. These creative abilities appeal to progressive employers for specific dynamic applications in the organization.

       4. Team Sports:

By far, team sports contribute to the widest assortment available. These include cricket, soccer, hockey, football, rugby, softball, basketball, and a big money-spinner, viz. American Football. Most of these team sports are sponsored by progressive organizations all over the world. An important takeaway for team sports is honing team spirit, a valuable quality on the field, and immensely valuable at the workplace.

       5. Strategic Mind Games:

These include chess, backgammon, sudoku, crosswords, etc. These call for strategic thinking and planning. A crucial requirement at the workplace for policy development, strategy formulation, and elasticity of thinking for prompt responses to business developments in a dynamic market place.

        6. Creative Writing:

Creative writing is the dissemination of creativity on paper – a self-fulfilling hobby.  Every creative writer is a voracious reader – another hobby within a hobby. Highly sought after appointments in progressive organizations for influential positions in the field of public relations with emphasis on social media, etc. 

        7. Community Services:

This is an arduous hobby. It not only involves working with different types of people in the community but also calls for good managerial capabilities and the tenacity to negotiate, plan and deliver for the common good despite various local and political “hurdles.”

Conclusion

Being a successful professional in your workplace is a basic premise that you have worked at. There is nothing voluntary about it. Your goal now is to further your interests in the fields of social acceptability, building relationships. Immersing yourself in hobbies is the way forward. You will embrace a hobby only if you enjoy doing what you have set out to do. If you do not enjoy the ball being hit towards you, you will certainly not opt for team sports, viz. cricket, hockey, or football. So enjoying a hobby gives you pleasure and, and in the process, creates untold benefits that have become a part of your now well-rounded personality.  You are the master of your destiny.