“I need a hobby.”
– Every bored person, ever.
Have you ever said this phrase out loud before? Raise your hand if you have. If your hand is up, I have some bad news for you. You might be boring.
The good news is that you’ve just stumbled across an article literally called “Hobbies For Men”.
Now, before we get into the hobbies themselves, let’s talk about what exactly hobbies for men means. Yes, I realize you want to get to the meat of this post – but this isn’t a Buzzfeed website with 90% pictures and 10% words. If you can’t sit through a 1,500 word article about picking, developing, and benefiting off of hobbies – then you probably aren’t going to develop and benefit off of them to begin with.
If you have enough free time on your hands that you are quite literally bored enough to say, “I need a hobby”, then it becomes a matter of needing to fill more time. A man who has his shit together doesn’t have time to sit around and mope about not having anything to do. He’s too busy living life – dating a harem of cute girls, getting out of the grind, or traveling the world. While he might not classify all of these things as “hobbies”, he has a passion for them, which is the most important thing.
Now, there is a huge difference between passion and a hobby.
People say to be passionate about your work. They also say to be passionate about your hobbies. But work doesn’t equal hobby, and neither does passion. You’re much better off channeling your passion into work – hopefully it’s something you enjoy. I think of a hobby as something that you use to escape from work. It doesn’t have to necessarily be mindless, but it should be something that’s stress free and that you get enjoyment out of. A way to recharge.
When I think of hobbies for men, I think of men building model airplanes.
When I think of hobbies for women, I think of old grandmas knitting.
Neither of these scenarios invokes thoughts of passion in me when I think of hobbies for men. When I think of passion, I imagine a man pouring his heart into his music or writing. I don’t see many men being so passionate about building model airplanes. It’s more or less something to do to pass a little bit of time here and there. Sure, there are enthusiasts that are extremely passionate about their model planes, but they’re the exception, not the norm.
Of course, some men would say guitar is their hobby. For many, like myself, it is. It’s those who are passionate that are playing live music on the streets every day, selling their latest album with the hopes of catching just one break from the right person with the right connections.
Likewise for women knitting. While your grandma might tell you her hobby is knitting, ask her if it’s her passion. Most likely, she’ll tell you her passion is something else like travel. If given the choice, she wouldn’t choose to spend 180 days a year knitting. On the flip side, if given the choice, she probably would gladly spend 180 days out of the year traveling.
So, to recap this section…
I’m defining hobbies as a way to get away from your normal life. They should be fun and a way to unwind. You may feel passionate about your hobby, but there is a difference between it being your passion and simply being passionate about it. The best formula to look at is this: if you could make a living off of it, even if it mean 100 hour workweeks – would you do it?
Personally, I couldn’t play music for 100 hours a week.
I could spend 100 hours a week doing this blog and my various other endeavors (design, coaching, etc.). I don’t have quite those available hours yet, but I’m getting there!
How do hobbies for men add value?
With all that I’ve already said, I do believe that all men should have hobbies. Ideally, those hobbies would somehow add value to your life in a way that goes beyond personal entertainment. For example, building ships in a bottle probably isn’t going to turn a girl on. Playing guitar does – I can tell you that from a lot of personal experience.
If your hobby is building computers, you can make some money off of that. Playing video games won’t do that for you.
If your hobby is porn, you’re not getting any benefit out of it. Making porn though…whole ‘nother story.
Developing, nurturing, and pursuing masculine hobbies is one of the most important things a man can do. Hobbies provide a snapshot of who you are.
Are you artistic or creative? Athletic? Perhaps daring? As you can see, how you choose to spend your time, therefore, the hobbies you pursue, are a reflection directly on your character. If you want to be successful in the world, hobbies like slaying wild bears makes you more of a badass than playing World of Warcraft.
Ladies will make a note of the bear slaying, gents.
Good Hobbies For Men
Slaying Wild Bears
What, you thought I was kidding?
On a more serious note – more realistic hobbies such as hunting, fishing, and other outdoorsy exercises where you, ya know, slaughter wild animals is a fantastic hobby. It teaches you to use your hands, handle potentially dangerous situations, and not to mention – you get to shoot shit.
Cars & Racing
I used to race go-karts on a competitive level. Not the type that you see at the latest “funland” mini golf venue, but real competition karts that go 100+ miles an hour. I learned how to wrench on them and how to drive like a badass. Being able to take a girl drifting in a real car will moisten panties – but don’t do it unless you have the skills and experience to do something like that. Not to mention, speed itself is masculine, because it’s dangerous and pushes you to the limit.
Take a trip to your local competitive indoor karting center (where they at least require helmets and suits, not the kiddy kart crap) to see if racing is something you’d be interested in pursuing. If not, classic cars and wrenching are excellent hobbies for men.
Weight Lifting
I almost hesitate to list this as a hobby, because weight lifting should be a way of life for all men who are capable of doing so. It promotes testosterone, bone density, and I’ve found that it is one of the best ways to actually prevent injuries from occurring. But, I did say that hobbies should be something that you enjoy and that get you away from the rest of the bullshit going on in your life. I definitely consider
Playing Guitar
I know, I already mentioned this a few times already. But it’s worth mentioning again.
Nothing drops a girl’s panties faster than a well-played version of her favorite song. You don’t even have to be a strong singer to make this work. In addition to that, nearly every song in the world can easily be broken down into 4 different chords and transposed to fit the proper key.
Cooking, Specifically Grilling
If you can grill a mean steak and make some other basic dishes in the kitchen, this gets you well on the way towards several things:
- Eating healthy, which is integral to every man’s health.
- Saving money, something every man should aim to do. Gotta have that “fuck you” fund.
- Making it stupid easy to get women over to your place to eat, and then bang.
Fashion
This is a fine line. Being too much of a fashion snob will make you simply appear as a homosexual. But, being up to date on the latest trends and keeping a sharp wardrobe can absolutely be a hobby. Being well dressed makes you more confident.
Reading
Much like weight lifting, this is something all men should be doing whether or not they’re passionate about it, or consider it a hobby. And frankly, I’m being a bit hypocritical because I don’t read anywhere near as much as I should. I have my stages where I read a ton though, so let me offer a little bit of advice for those looking to pick up a few books.
- If you hate clutter or are lazy, get a cheap Kindle or other eReader. This was one of the best investments I ever made, because it allowed me to just click “purchase” and have a book at my disposal, rather than having to trot down to the bookstore, or wait for it to ship. Instant gratification is a powerful thing. I can see how Amazon makes such a killing on eBooks.
- Don’t set a goal of reading “X books a month”. You’re just setting yourself up for failure. Aim to just finish the book you’re starting.
- While fiction/pleasure reading shouldn’t be all of your reading, it’s okay to do it sometimes. But ultimately, you want to add value to your life with your hobby – reading Harry Potter won’t do much of that.
- Just start. Now.
Travel
Extremely cliche, but it’s here for a reason. Traveling the world gives you experiences that you simply can’t obtain by doing the same routine over and over. It constantly takes you out of your comfort zone socially, and allows you to see deeper into human culture and history.
The trick is to do it in the atypical way that your average American does it. When I went solo to Europe last year, I was constantly out of my comfort zone. When I went to Mexico with my girlfriend a few months later – not so much. Basically, if you want to get the maximum growth out of your travels, follow these guidelines:
- Travel solo or with one friend.
- No cruises, all-inclusive resorts, or pre-planned vacation packages.
- Immerse yourself – this means AirBNB or hostels instead of fancy hotels.
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Got anything to add to this list? Sound off below.
Conclusion:
- If you have enough time to wonder out loud what you should do for a hobby, you need to become less boring.
- Hobbies should add value to your life in someway, even if it’s small. Your hobby does not have to be a passion that you are obsessed to the point of madness with.
- Knitting is a hobby, not a passion – in most cases. If you don’t want to spend a lot of time on something, it’s a hobby, not a passion.
- Find hobbies that add a tangible benefit to you – whether it be body, money, women, etc.
- Good hobbies for men: cars, working out, travel, reading.