Learn One of These Top Enjoyable Skills During Leisure Hours

There is more to life than just work. Learning a new skill outside of work brings you joy, heightens social skills, improves wellbeing, health, and confidence. It also refreshes you to think better on the job and adds to your interactions with customers and colleagues. How?

Leisure provides a break from your world of work. Our work is about production, customer relations, marketing, problem-solving – sometimes back breaking and other times head breaking. From time to time we need to pause from all of that hard stuff and enjoy the moment with a craft, hobby or a new skill. Here are seven top ways to enjoy your leisure time. Pick one that fancies you and go for it. 

Musical Skills

When I was young and well into my adult life, I played the piano and clarinet. When I was older, I enjoyed pounding away on an organ in our rumpus room. It was a way to relieve stress and gave me the freedom to get lost in my own melodies, even if those who heard them wondered what was up with me. I know a gentleman who took up the violin in his eighties (you are never too old or too young to learn a new skill), and several friends were the life of the party as they played the piano or strummed the guitar while the rest of us sang until our throats hurt. We sang out of tune but sang anyway. Learning an instrument can be great fun. Perhaps you would like to learn how to play the guitar, piano or some other instrument? 

Guitar: For those who want to learn how to play the guitar or even if you are a seasoned strummer, I came across a neat video course about how to play chords with just one finger. Go figure. CHECK IT OUT HERE and you will be playing the guitar and astounding your friends within a couple of weeks. 

Piano: Maybe your interested in learning how to play the piano. Imagine being able to sit down at a piano and play Ballads, Pop, Blues, Jazz, Ragtime and even Classical Pieces. Well now you can in a very short time without spending a lot of money. Pianoforall is one of the most popular online piano courses available with over 250,000 students worldwide who now play beautiful music. Become the life of the party and learn with PIANOFORALL.   

Five Other Top Skills 

Woodworking:  Working with wood is a great hobby. Over the years I have made tables, chairs, fish stands, and desks to name a few items. Once I even ventured into building our own rumpus room. There was a time when I struggled with what should go into a small woodworking shop and what was the best way to set it up. Perhaps you have questions about: How much money you need to setup a functional woodworking shop? What size should it be? What are the best and minimum tools you need to create basic wood projects? How to avoid bad quality tools? And, whether you should buy tools anyway? The ULTIMATE SMALL SHOP will help you find answers to those questions. 

Writing: Some people enjoy writing, even if they write all day long at work. Others feel that because their work is all about writing, they want to get away from it during their leisure time. Here’s the thing. Writing can be rewarding, frustrating, tension relieving and enjoyable all at the same time. Some of us are late bloomers when it comes to writing, and others start young. Wherever you are on the spectrum writing can become a hobby and blossom into published works. I found a neat product that allows me to write with ease, publish my books, follow my customers and open my store - all with a push of button. I’m talking about Sqribble, the world’s number one eBook creator. If you are an aspiring author, or write reports or whitepapers, I would CHECK OUT SQRIBBLE HERE. 

Photography:  One of my distant mentors in consulting was the famous Peter Drucker. I didn’t know Peter personally, but I must have read all of his books. He had a profound influence on my career. One of his pieces of advice, was that busy people need to take a break from their work. He recommended that we take up something that we weren’t familiar with and turn it into a hobby. One time he turned to photography. For three years he studied the art and mechanics of photography and built it into his leisure activities. I mention this because photography is an easy hobby to fall into as many of my friends will attest. I think it is easier now than in the past, because most of us – if not all – are tethered to a camera on our mobile phones. All we need to do is learn how to take better pictures (not selfies) and broadcast them about. I found some astonishingly simple secrets in how to turn your smartphone into a high-quality DSLR and capture eye catching photo that will blow you away. Find the SECRETS HERE. 

Cooking: There has to be a cooking explosion going on in North America. Just look at all the cooking shows on TV, YouTube, and the number of cookbooks that are available on-line and in our favorite bookstores. People are trying all kinds of new recipes to fit their lifestyle. The good news is that most of the TV shows and cookbooks promote healthy eating. Something for which Canadians and Americans need to pay attention. 
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Cooking can be great fun and not a chore. I think that is why many of the cooking shows are so popular these days. People want to get back to healthy eating. And cooking can be a great release from the tensions we feel from work and our busy life. It tends to slow us down, yet in a very short period of time we can feast on the results. Something that many of us who don’t see the results of our labour for many months and sometimes years, appreciate.

Along with the explosion of cooking methods have come an extensive list of diet fads. Our family uses an old fashion method, eat well balanced meals, and don’t over fill your plate. Simple yet effective. However, often because of lack of exercise, I tend to put on weight around the waist – especially during the winter months. One diet plan that makes great sense to me is the Mediterranean Diet as it transforms our bodies naturally and safely. The Mediterranean Diet is filled with natural foods and eases the want for sweets. The recipes are easy to follow and a pleasure to include in any family gathering. Want to learn more about the Mediterranean Method GO HERE AND ENJOY. 

Sports – Jump Higher: Taking up a sport is another way to build a leisure activity. With sports you can gain confidence, improve socialization and keep fit. Thousands of people join a sports team during their leisure time, everything from curling to basketball. Many of the sports required you to jump, like in basketball, volleyball, football and yes, even dance. Did you know you can improve the height of your jump by practicing a few techniques? Techniques that professionals use and which have received recognition from such media outlets such as Sports Illustrated, ESPN and Men’s Health. And these jumping methods are backed by scientific research and are found to be the most effective exercises, training sequences and techniques. Just because you are an average jumper doesn’t mean you can’t improve. Find out how thousands of average athletes have used a popular jump manual to consistently improve their vertical leap. Are you interested? FIND OUT HERE.

Thank you for reading and enjoy your leisure hours,

Richard Fontanie

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