The Ultimate List of Hobbies for Men: 75 Ideas For Your Free Time | The Art of Manliness

In the days of old, leisure time was not thought of as a chance to “veg out,” but as an opportunity to pursue one’s passions and interests — an outlet for the sides of a man that were not stimulated in his professional vocation. Hobbies were deemed important for the way in which they can strengthen every part of a man’s life. They can bring you joy, increase your eye for detail, keep your mind sharp, expand your creativity, help you meet friends, and teach you valuable skills. In short, hobbies add interest to your life and help you become a more well-rounded man.

Unfortunately, we now often spend our leisure time camped out in front of the TV or computer. We feel that modern life has become so busy and stressful (even though it hasn’t) that when we have free time, laying on the couch is all we can manage.

Yet if you’ve been feeling depressed, restless, anxious, and in need of real refreshment, the problem may be a lack of activity, rather than too much of it.

As Winston Churchill, a vigorous hobbyist, put it:

“It is no use saying to the tired ‘mental muscles’… ‘I will give you a good rest,’ ‘I will go for a long walk,’ or ‘I will lie down and think of nothing.’ The mind keeps busy just the same. If it has been weighing and measuring, it goes on weighing and measuring. If it has been worrying, it goes on worrying…It is useless to argue with the mind in this condition…A gifted American psychologist has said, ‘worry is a spasm of the emotion; the mind catches hold to something and will not let it go.’ One can only gently insinuate something else into its convulsive grasp. And if this something else is rightly chosen, if it is really attended by the illumination of another field of interest, gradually, and often quite swiftly, the old undue grip relaxes and the process of recuperation and repair begins.”

For those of you who want to have an engaging hobby, but aren’t sure what pastime to pursue, we’ve created a couple guides to hobbies over the years. Yet even after the second was published, we continued to come up with more ideas. So we decided to compile all the old ideas along with the new into one ultimate list of hobbies for men. This still isn’t an exhaustive list, but there is surely something that will catch your eye, or will spur you to think of one yet unmentioned.

Our hope is that every man is able to find a hobby that can turn into an enjoyable pastime during the current season of his life, and maybe even become an enduring passion that lasts a lifetime.

via The Ultimate List of Hobbies for Men: 75 Ideas For Your Free Time | The Art of Manliness.