53. Turn Your Hobby Into Your Job

One of the wonderful benefits of simplifying my life is that I have created more time to devote to my hobby, reading. But it can work the other way, too—making time for your favorite pastime can simplify your life.

A few years ago my friend Sandra, an attorney, took a leave of absence for the entire summer to visit her sister, who lives in Italy. They were in a small village in the mountains with not a whole lot going on. Her sister suggested they visit a neighbor’s sculpting studio. Sandra knew nothing at all about sculpture and wasn’t really interested, but because there was nothing else to do, she agreed to go along. She didn’t know it then, but she’d found a hobby that would eventually change her life.

She spent every day for the rest of her vacation in that studio, learning everything she could about sculpting. When she returned home, she enrolled in a sculpture class. She resumed her legal practice during her workday, but her evenings and weekends were now devoted to her stone. Gradually, she began to acquire the various tools she needed, and, eventually, she set up a studio in her home. Before long she was selling her work at local art shows. Recently, she resigned from her law practice and is now a full-time sculptor. She exhibits her work regularly at galleries around the country.

Sandra says her life has never been better—or simpler. Before sculpting, her life was filled with phone calls, appointments, depositions, briefs, court appearances, and the endless number of other things required by the legal profession. Now, her life consists of getting up in the morning, pulling on her jeans, and going to her studio to sculpt. Her gallery manager handles all the mundane details of her business. Of course, the fact that she is doing something she truly loves also contributes to the simplicity in her life.

I have another friend who combined his hobby, helicopter flying, with his profession, physical therapy. He set up his new business in a remote resort area where there is a lot of hiking and other physical activities and, consequently, vacationers with physical injuries who need to be flown out to medical facilities. He simplified his life so he could do what he wanted to do, and his life has never been busier or more complicated. But it’s a complication he loves, and that makes all the difference in the world.

In any case, if you’re not already doing what you love, starting with a hobby is one way to get there.