What are your passions?

SecondHalf · Jun 25, 2011

After a failed 15-year marriage to a HPD woman, a year of licking my wounds and some fast and furious failed short-term relationships, it’s time to break the cycle.

I’ve been reading these forums for a while now and have been paying attention and really taking an inventory of my life.

Some of the common themes are be a man, get a life, and bring the woman into your world. After the aforementioned “fast and furious” relationships, it’s becoming quite apparent to me … I have no life.

My career is great and I’m financially stable. What it seems I’m lacking are hobbies, passions and friends. The hobbies and passions of yesteryear are no longer healthy for a person my age (wild man, party, drinking…). What I’m struggling with now is what do I do for fun?

I’m in good shape for my age and have started attending the gym again to get back some old deserted muscle mass.

I have lots of work to do (renovating my home, some bus-dev for future income …), but these are practical things. They are nothing that a woman would want to be a part of and more importantly, not too fun for me either.

What I’m interested in, is what you fellow mature DJ’s do for hobbies, passions?
i.e. sports, flying, jamming?

Thanks in advance,

SH

Atom Smasher · Jun 25, 2011

Playing guitar (electric, acoustic, and lap slide), hiking, boating, fishing, restoring antique coin-op machines.

Look into a site like meetup.com. It's a place where people of similar interests form groups and meet on a regular basis to pursue their interest.

women haze · Jun 25, 2011

Hmm I like Video games, Martial Arts, Motorcycles, Gym tying to experience new things in my life I wish i had a list like Atom here lol

KarmaSutra · Jun 25, 2011

Writing.

Putting what I write into practical application.

Those are my passions. The best advice I can give you is to do what makes your heart smile. It doesn't matter if it's building with Lincoln Logs or Flipping houses. Whatever you love doing, do it.

Mr.Positive · Jun 25, 2011

Secondhalf, I'm a frim believer that the key to life, balance, and happiness is to have a passion for something that's all yours. That separates you from all the other folks around in our society that "chase things".

Mine is sailing. To me sailing is the ultimate in pure freedom, living in the moment, peacefulness, adventure...and stepping back in time to enjoy the simple things right in front of you...catching the wind, nature. When you are sailing nothing else in life matters, it's the ultimate vacation.

SecondHalf · Jun 25, 2011

All good suggestions, thank you.

I suppose it will be a work in progress.
Before marriage and child (yep, single dad), it used to be just consumption and fun.
I've got some experimenting to do.

The house flipping is something I've been considering for a while. The divorce set me back a bundle and screwed up the eventual retirement plans.

I used to play the guitar, might be fun.

Pushing the weights I love, but it's going to be a whole different ball game at my age (gone are the days of quick recovery

).

SH

Retro1 · Jun 25, 2011

SecondHalf said:
All good suggestions, thank you.

Pushing the weights I love, but it's going to be a whole different ball game at my age (gone are the days of quick recovery ).

SH

There is a guy at my gym who is 70 years old; he trains 6 days a week. He only started taking it seriously a few years ago and he is now in great shape! Once you get your body used to working out again, eat the right foods and get enough rest and sleep you should experience good recovery times.

Atom Smasher · Jun 25, 2011

I lean toward creative activities as for me creating something can be very therapeutic.

I will sometimes embark on "mini-hobbies" as the mood hits. Usually I do them for a few months and then move on.

Right now, I'm using No Limits Coaster Design software to design my own coasters. It's a blast and makes a great late-night activity.

typical · Jun 26, 2011

Music, Dancing, Sports just to name a few.

You could also get into philosophy and debating its fun.

Colossus · Jun 26, 2011

Weightlifting, hiking, disc golf, indoor climbing, cooking (not really a hobby but growing on me), some writing, and traveling. For the past year all I've done is study so I'm starting to reconnect with my interests. I'm in the process right now of laying the groundwork for a fantasy novel or series of short stories...for fun. Not sure how far I'll go with it but it's becoming a great creative outlet. Making maps, characters, etc.

I think it's important to periodically generate new hobbies for yourself and drop the ones that dont bring you joy anymore. Diligence is good in many endeavors but if something is straight-up boring what's the point?

squirrels · Jun 26, 2011

Climbing...in a rock-gym so far but I love every minute of it. I'm just STARTING to be able to finish 5.11 climbs, because of my size, though, anything past vertical is really a bear.

Used to be passionately into motorcycling...it was like a religion to me. After a couple of trackday crashes, though, I started to worry about injury interfering with the climbing...if I wasn't doing that, I'd probably still be riding.

The new one that's forming is the pursuit of the perfect steak. I have the strip of a 100% grassfed cow raised in Idaho sitting in front of me as we speak. Surprisingly...I think the organic beef raised out in western MD is actually "beefier". This steak...it seems to build over time, rather than hitting you all at once. Maybe I'll have to try the ribeye.

I've also been re-discovering roller-coasters this year.

A bunch of other smaller hobbies...poker sometimes, used to be big into martial arts...guns.

Atom Smasher · Jun 26, 2011

squirrels said:
I've also been re-discovering roller-coasters this year.

Squirrels, I'll have to post my first "No Limits" Atom-Smasher designed coaster up on Youtube so you can go for a ride and review it.

It's a woodie, and it would probably kill someone since it pulls 9 g's every here and there. I decided that I would not worry too much about human tolerance levels on my first one, since I'm just learning the program.

She's a yellow and black beauty, called the "Silkworm". It starts off similar to Kingda Ka, with a linear-induction acceleration to 120 mph. The neck is immediately broken over the crest of that first hill, so I will be charging a reduced rate to ride it.

FairShake · Jun 26, 2011

Your potential passions are probably already there. What would you spend all night doing, spare little expense in pursuit of, and do even if you were sick. That's your passion. I tell my fellow nerdlingers this all the time: Whatever you spend your time reading about on the internet, start doing. That's your passion.

Now, a practical look. You are a property-owning single father with a career who is ALSO starting a business on the side. I don't think you need something else in your life taking up alot of energy. You sideline passion should probably be REST! Or something that helps take your mind off the stresses of your already very full life. Fishing, billiards, shooting ranges. These might not be classified as passions but they take up a small but very important part of mine.

SecondHalf · Jun 26, 2011

Thanks again. All good suggestions.

I suppose I should be working on my circle of friends.
They've decreased in numbers over the years.
All the "couple" friends are ... gone.

I did go to meetups for a while, but found myself worrying about women there more than the meetup purpose. At the time it was too early for me to jump back in, but was always walking out with a phone number

Perhaps I should try them again.

SH

speed dawg · Jun 26, 2011

Thinking about martial arts really hard right now. At this stage of my life I'm very interested in flexible type training and keeping my muscles in working order. Also love golf and grilling.

Honestly I'm still trying to find my passions. I enjoy college sports, but I really don't know how I can make that work for me. I thought about umpiring or refereeing.

Three · Jun 28, 2011

SecondHalf - I like your screen name. I turned 40 last summer and I'm kind of looking at life now as the second half.

You're definitely not alone. I got divorced after a ten year first marriage and I'm now recently separated from my young, hot second wife and trying to get back into some of my hobbies and maybe find some new ones.

Finances are definitely a limiting factor. After starting to nicely recover from the financial disasters of my first marriage, I jumped into a second one that provided me with one fresh catastrophe after another. Live and learn.

I used to go shooting at least once a week and martial arts two or three times a week, but that can get a bit expensive if you're not in prime financial shape.

It seems like just about everything worth doing costs lots of money. Anybody have any ideas for cheap hobbies?

SecondHalf · Jun 28, 2011

Hey Three,

I've picked up my guitar again after almost 30 years.
You can learn to play from the internet.

Beach volleyball in the summer (not too far from me, lotsa hard bodies).

There are lots of cheap / free things to do on http://www.meetup.com

For me, I'm still trying out new things

Paintballguy · Jun 29, 2011

speed dawg said:
Thinking about martial arts really hard right now. At this stage of my life I'm very interested in flexible type training and keeping my muscles in working order.

Look into Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

What are your passions?

SecondHalf

Master Don Juan

Atom Smasher

Master Don Juan

women haze

Senior Don Juan

KarmaSutra

Banned

Mr.Positive

Master Don Juan

SecondHalf

Master Don Juan

Retro1

New Member

Atom Smasher

Master Don Juan

typical

Master Don Juan

Colossus

Master Don Juan

squirrels

Master Don Juan

Atom Smasher

Master Don Juan

FairShake

Master Don Juan

SecondHalf

Master Don Juan

speed dawg

Master Don Juan

Three

Don Juan

SecondHalf

Master Don Juan

Paintballguy

Master Don Juan