Remember those talents you pushed to the backburner, time to bring them to the fore
Why pursuing your hobby all through your life is important!
If you are a first generation Indian in Australia, I am assuming you have either come here to study or maybe you got married and then came with your partner. If it is the latter, then you have left most of your relationships behind to create a new life with that someone ‘special’.
When you were younger, just like your children go to various extracurricular activities, you would have done that too. Remember at school—did you participate in music competitions or drama or anything that you were passionate about? Remember the time you won a prize? I still have my awards from my singing and dance competitions.
As we progress through our higher studies, quite often we tend to put our ‘other’ talents on the back burner and focus more on our studies. By the time we finish University and get a job, our priorities have changed totally and we focus on our job and how to climb the ranks of the career ladder.
Then what happens? We get married and suddenly find ourselves overseas. If you are lucky, you get a job within the first year of being here and life continues.
So, what does this have to do anything with your hobby?
1. I really want to pursue a hobby, but I don’t have time.
As women, we always put our family first. That is also because of our nurturing mindset. We tend to give out more than we are comfortable in receiving. If you are passionate about a dance class on a weekend, can your partner look after your children for an hour while you can take care of your health and have fun doing it?
Or, if your partner works then, is there a friend who can offer you child minding and you can return the favour?
2. I want to go to a painting class, but I don’t have enough money for another class!
I totally understand where you come from. Especially if you have children and they are already attending a few extracurricular classes, we tend to prioritise them over us. Isn’t that what our parents did for us?
Do not despair! The first step is to do your family budget—use a budget tool or any financial app to understand how much income vs how much outgoing. If you haven’t done this before, then I am pretty sure you will find expenses that you thought you were not spending.
What I mean is, if I asked you how much you spend on takeaways every week, you might say that you never eat out or at the most may be once a week. Sometimes when you check your bank statement, you will find may be money spent on coffees or whatever. There is always some extra that you can cut back on to pursue your hobby.
3. I’m too old to go back and learn. What if younger kids make fun of me?
To be honest—who cares! If you love dancing, you just go and learn dancing. If there is someone better than you at class—aim to reach that level.
Age is only what your mind thinks it is. There are so many examples of women who have pursued a new hobby after the age of 60 and have become world famous—including pole dancing! Can you imagine that?
Ladies, if you really want to pursue a hobby, it is up to you. You will find a way to make it work. I too have gone back after nearly 20 years to pursue my hobby—learning the veena, a stringed instrument.
Pursuing a hobby keeps our mind young and focussed on learning new talent as your body ages. Not only that—once our children grow and leave the nest, we still have something to occupy our time and minds.
So, go on and sign up for that class you’ve been waiting for!
The writer is Director, Smart Money Solutions, a mortgage broking firm helping female professionals with their home loans. She is also the author of Smart Women, Smart Home Loans, blogger and a speaker. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oburamaraj/
Send your feedback or questions to obu.ramaraj@smartmoneysolutions.com.au
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