Flying As A Hobby

Ask a room full of people what hobby they have and you'll get as many answers as there are people. Others will confess that they don't have a hobby. They probably dobut just don't label it as such. By definition, a hobby is an activity or interest pursued outside one's regular occupation and engaged in primarily for pleasure.

Whether flying, stamp collecting, chat rooms, trains, softball,scrapbooking, golf, reading, painting, tap dancing, yard work, crafts, auto mechanics, music, hunting down garage sales, sewing, fishing, cooking, boating, furniture refinishing, javelin tossing or a plethora of other activities or pursuits that the crucial element is balance.

You must find balance between your family life and your extracurricular activities.

Too much of a good thing turns bad. Everybody should have an outlet and a special interest that they like doing for themselves. Self indulgence, to a point, is very healthy.

Escaping from day to day grinds to take some time to dedicate to your flying hobby or concentration is therapeutic.

You have all heard,"if Mamma ain't happy, nobody's happy."

It doesn't matter if your role is father, mother, husband, spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend, son, daughter, sister or brother, if you are going to work or college and have no real outdoors activities, you are probably not always the most friendly person to be around.

Conversely, if you bury yourself and it appears to others that all you care about or all you ever want to do is fly all day (or hang around the airport), you are setting yourself up or prolonging discontent. People deal with depression in many ways. Some sleep all the time. Other people want to do nothing but read,read, read. Still others are going to spend hours upon hours downstairs creating a larger, faster widget, merely to avoid the real cause of the frustrations. Hobbies are supposed to be a healthy outlet, not a catalyst to ignore problems that need addressing.

Likewise, hobbies can become very expensive. Sure, flying, snow mobiles, motorcycles and ski equipment are obviously costly. But sometimes those apparently low cost activities can add up. You start out with trying to budget for the weekly flying courses. You then need (or want) the unnecessary (but enjoyable ) goodies that we all"want" to pursue our passion. "Let's see, do we pay the mortgage this month, or find that (fill in the blank) that you just have to have?"

If your flying hobby is doing more harm than good, if it is dipping into the family budget and time allocation, more than you can or should be spending, it is time to reevaluate. Not prevent the flying, mind you, just make sure it's appropriate for you and your family and its lifestyle.