I don’t know about you, but lockdown has certainly give me time to think and re-evaluate my life and the direction it was going in. Over the years, I’ve spent the majority of my spare time attending training courses to develop my skills and expertise in order to benefit my career. There’s nothing wrong with this of course, but I feel I’ve neglected the other side of things, and “all work and no play” really does make Jack a dull boy.

Lockdown gave me the opportunity to step back from everything and see the bigger picture. I started to get reacquainted with old hobbies and interests, and invest more time in these. This has definitely made me happier and brought more balance to my life, which is why I feel it’s important to do what you love.

It brings balance

Like I said, focusing solely on work and developing my career has been really helpful of course, and I genuinely enjoy learning. However, over time I started to feel that all I was doing was learning for necessity. What about learning for fun?

Once I stepped back from the situation I could see it was time to return to some interests which had been neglected. When I started getting back into my interests, I felt my life was much more balanced. I had things I could look forward to outside of work, rather than finishing work for the day and not really having anything else to occupy my time.

If you can bring things into your life that you enjoy, then they are more likely to balance out the periods when perhaps work, or life in general, are tough.

I’m not saying that I don’t enjoy my job, by the way! Because I get a great deal of fulfilment from what I do. However, for me there need to be things outside of work which help refresh me and enable me to keep doing the work I do.

You can be ‘in the moment’

Have you ever been doing something and before you know it a few hours have passed, and you barely noticed?

When we immerse ourselves in the things we enjoy, they don’t feel like a chore, and time flies because we’re so focused on what we’re doing. We can really be ‘in the moment’ with whatever it is we’re doing.

I find it so satisfying to lose myself in the things I love doing. I feel it takes me to another place, which I’ll cover in the next point.

It gets you in touch with a deeper part of yourself

This might be something not everyone agrees with, but I find that doing the things I love can often take me to a deeper part of myself. I’m not sure if this is a ‘spiritual’ place, or what you might call it. Perhaps you have your own name for it?

What I do know is that it takes me away from all the “I’ve got to do this” and “I really should do that” kind of thoughts. I’m able to forget about my ‘to do’ list and anything I might have on my mind. I go to a deeper place ‘away’ from the world.

Whatever this deeper part is, I believe it needs to be nourished on a regular basis. I believe this helps when I ‘return’ to daily life, and I can tackle things with more energy.

How about you? What are the things you love doing? How does it benefit you to make the time for these things?