It’s easy to think of entreprenuers as all work all the time people. While the fact is being an entreprenuer is a lot of hard work theres also time for pleasure, or at least there should be. Are there really hobbies that are favoured by successful entreprenuers? Yes there are and here’s a list of 10 of the top ones. We’ll also briefly look at why some of this hobbies might be favoured by entrepreneurial minds.

Puzzles

Well this is fairly obvious. Puzzles as a thinking exercise are simply hard to beat. When doing puzzles your mind is forced to work and not always in a manner that it’s used to working. The mind is a muscle and needs to be worked regularly just like one to become stronger. Puzzles help with areas of critical thinking and problem solving.

Gardening

It sounds crazy but many successful do engage in this. I dont think it is ultimately the reason they are successful but it does seem a popular hobby. While necessity and the general environment have lead to a lot of the gardening being focused on horticulture and food there are others who focus on flowers and niches like bonsai. The idea here is learning to nurture and grow things naturally and understanding process.

Musical instruments

I’ve had enough encounters with musical instruments to understand that learning and mastering a musical instrument is about continuous and repetitive practice. So it’s quite easy to see how such a hobby can be popular with successful entreprenuers. It will teach you patience like you’ve never known before and as n entreprenuer learning is something you will do a lot of.

Gaming

Gaming is a very wide field but there a few ways to look at this. Firstly games which involve character role playing combined with strategy help with thinking within systems but outside the box. Secondly games which have elements of puzzles and mystery also greatly assist in developing critical thinking. Finally, it’s not just playing but making them. Gaming is how many coders practice code writing. I remember learning to make games in q-basic as a child. I do not know a single modern programming language as I went into finance instead of computing but I can hold decent conversations with those in those fields.

Fishing

Hopefully you’ve tried fishing at least once. Fishing is another pursuit that involves planning, patience and perseverance. Depending on conditions a lot of time can be spent waiting. When fish do bite, especially bigger ones theres a lot to learn about technique and patience when reeling them in. Fishing is a highly technical pursuit.

Exercise

Exercise is of course more of a necessary activity in life. The link between physical and mental health is bleeding obvious. Not so obvious is how much exercise can teach you and how it trains you about habits and growth. A popular example is running. The beauty of running is that the only requirement is a decent pair of running shoes. It’s a refreshing exercise and all while making the body healthier. Other popular exercises include cycling, swimming, zumba, aerobics, rowing.

Yoga

Not quite exercise yoga is more about body flexibility and stretching. If exercise makes you strong then yoga makes you flexible enough to access your strength. The benefits of yoga are not just physical but mental. You see, yoga is not simply about holding a pose, it’s about holding a pose better than you held it the day before. As you become more flexible and balanced you improve your posture and ability to hold known poses as well as incorporate new poses you could not hold before. Incremental growth and new found capabilities.

Painting

Painting is all about unleashing creativity and the best entreprenuers know that this is essential. It is also a pursuit of skill and dedication despite what they may have told you about art being subjective. Remember there are styles in painting and learning is just as much a task as is learning an instrument. So it’s pretty easy to see why this is popular with successful entreprenuers.

Cooking

Food is an adventure and that’s just eating it. Cooking in all its forms has elements of adventure in it, experimenting with knew and sometimes known foods in new ways. Also the ability to follow instructions to perfection is a key skill in entrepreneurship. If you’ve ever baked you’ll know exactly what I mean. Cooking and mastering different types of cooking is perhaps the hobby that most epitomises the full range of experiences that an entreprenuer goes through.

Reading

If you regularly follow my articles you would’ve expected to see this at the top of the list. Reading is a wonderful hobby and while I usually talk about reading biographies and business books I did talk about reading fiction books that can help entreprenuers. Reading is a wonderful habit that just happens to have the habit of feeding the very mind that you rely on in your entrepreneurial pursuit. It opens up your mind to new ideas, possibilities, customs, cultures and entire paradigms.

Which of these hobbies do you partake in? Any you would be interested in trying? Some of these hobbies are also listed in an article on hobbies you can make money from.