Jack of all trades

At least in terms of hobbies I am the proverbial person of the title. Depending on my mood and the availability of time and inclination, I can be found dabbling in a number of hobbies. Now that I am no longer working full time I have tried to find a hobby to start anew or pick up for the first time.

It’s not easy because I have more time. Why is that? Well, I now have to decide whether to concentrate on a particular pastime or branch out in a number of directions. I also have to decide how seriously I am going to take any particular hobby and whether I want to find a way to monetise it. For example, I was walking through my home town and I saw an advert for a craft and food fair. I found myself wondering if I could make my cucumber relish on a bigger scale and sell it. I then wondered if I really wanted to, because it would probably be a lot of effort for very little return once you had paid for ingredients, jars and a stall at the fair.

I decided that on balance it’s probably better to keep the hobbies as hobbies and then take advantage of any opportunities that may arise. In the last month or so I have increased the focus on my blog, looked for new recipes to try out, focused on trying to increase my creativity and considered a couple of areas I can look at that may yield more tangible dividends in the future. So, all this time is weighing, if not heavily, confusingly on my mind. I daresay I will find something to really focus on in the future, but for now I will continue to adjust to my new normal. Come back to me in 2026 and I might have a definitive answer, but then again I could still be trying to work out what I really want to do. Either will be OK I think, because I will be guided by ideas and opportunities rather than trying to force them. That way I hope I will get the right answer.