How to get out of a hobby rut

Wondering how to start a hobby again after months of finding yourself stuck or self-delaying? Here is what you need to know.

Have you found yourself thinking about the hobby you want to get around to, but find yourself stuck as to where to start or continually self-delay where you know you need to start? If the answer to either scenario is yes, there is a good chance you have found yourself in a “rut” with your hobby.

Ruts can look different for many people. As previously indicated, some ruts involve knowing what you want to do, not knowing how to do it, and thus not doing it. Other ruts involve knowing what you want to do, how to do it, but still not doing it. There are other shades of “rut” as well. But thankfully, there is a similar path you can follow to address this inaction (regardless of which scenario applies to you). Here is what you start doing today to begin working your way out of your hobby rut and get back to doing the hobby you enjoy.

Become Inspired Again

To exit a hobby rut, you must first recall which aspects of the hobby inspire you. Consider what had originally drawn you to the hobby and why you wanted to do it yourself (or had already started to do so). Pulling from my own hobby examples, I found myself drawn to particular types of cabled and fair isle sweater, poncho, and cardigan designs, and I became inspired to learn how to hand knit those for myself. I also found myself moved by particular vocal performances and sounds and became intrigued about learning healthy vocal technique to support and enhance the music I was already creating.

I find the idea of inspiration (and what causes it to occur) to be so fascinating because, essentially, any sensory input can contribute to it. So, as you’re evaluating your hobby and getting back into it, come back to your early sources of inspiration for that hobby and remember why you’re doing what you’re doing (which especially helps when your hobby becomes tricky). Then you can start to amplify that inspiration with the concrete measures that follow.

Establish Your Next Steps

Here is a preliminary stage where you may find yourself challenged. It is one thing to think to yourself that you’re going to start at last; it is another to establish what the next steps are. Depending on what your hobby is and what it requires, you may find that this is simple and that you don’t need to do much (if any) planning. If this is the case for you, that is great; go on and start your hobby! I have observed from my own experiences and with others, though, that this tends to be a large inhibitor when the hobby is new and whomever is starting from ground zero.

When planning your next (or first) steps, take some time to do so before you attempt to start taking action. You will be much clearer on what you need to focus on if you have a clear roadmap of at least the next 2-3 next steps for your hobby. If a next step involves answering a question, be sure to list that as well. You can resolve uncertainty of where to start by planning your next steps, and then use that to begin working through your uncertainty of how to start.

Give Yourself a Chance to Start

Here is a secondary stage that often makes a hobby drop off again. You could have the most well-thought, clear list of next steps for your hobby, but you will find yourself in the same hobby rut as you did before if you don’t give yourself a chance to start on it.

There are many ways you can give yourself a chance to start. This, first and foremost, includes redirecting where your time goes. You need to put some amount of time toward your hobby to work your way out of a rut. I say “some amount of time” here because if your hobby rut is derived from uncertainty of how to go about your hobby, then you will most certainly need time to learn the techniques that will make your hobby a more enjoyable and relaxing experience.

Hobbies are often discontinued because of the learning curve involved. You will need to overcome this if you are inspired enough by your hobby to want to stick with it. Other ways you can give yourself a chance to start include eliminating distractions, scheduling some time blocks where all you focus on is your hobby, and perhaps making some optimizations in your life that create more space for your hobby.

Pinpoint Where You’re Stuck

A tertiary stage that will really put you to the test is pinpointing and working through roadblocks you encounter with your hobby. It is much easier to let your hobby come to a screeching halt when you get stuck rather than facing these challenges head-on. You will need to confront roadblocks along the way, however, to exit (or prevent) a hobby rut.

The most manageable way to work through the discomfort that occurs with roadblocks is to take it step by step. Start by writing down questions or uncertainties about your hobby that are inhibiting you from moving forward. Half the battle is understanding where you’re stuck. Then you can prioritize what makes sense to focus on first and begin incrementally working through these roadblocks. Be resilient with your hobby and actively choose to stick with it even when the process gets tough. You will thank yourself for pushing through the temporary discomfort you experienced.

Choose to Do Your Hobby Anyways

No one actively chooses to enter a “rut” of any sort, but it can certainly seem much more attainable to fall back into familiar patterns as opposed to challenging those. In regard to your hobby, the only way to break this cycle is to pick somewhere to start and dive right in.

Become inspired again, evaluate your next steps, carve out some time, and get unstuck. Once you clear these hurdles, you will rediscover just how fun it is to hobby and may even find yourself welcoming the occasional challenge.

Happy hobbying!