‘Hobbies are like dating’: How to find one and be happier in 2025
As we crawl into the New Year, many of us are thinking about how we want to spend our time. Given our increasingly busy lives, the breakdown of our days matters – so if your 2025 resolution is to start a hobby, you might be happy with just one.
But recent social media discourse suggests you might need more than that.
In a TikTok post that’s clocked over half a million views, a user from the US posits that we should all have four different types of hobbies, which a commenter later dubbed the “Four Cs”: Create (hobbies like painting or gardening), consume (hobbies in which we learn something, like reading), cavort (physical activity) and commune (hobbies which connect us with others).
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While we know that having a rich life of leisure is important for our physical and psychological wellbeing, do we really need to diversify our hobbies? Or is this simply too much to ask when most of us are already spread so thin?
What are the benefits of hobbies?
There is a bevy of scientific research to demonstrate the wide-ranging benefits of hobbies, from improved mood to reduced stress.
Yazdan Mansourian, a researcher and senior lecturer at Charles Sturt University, has spent the past few decades studying serious leisure – hobbies that require one to learn something or acquire a skill, like bonsai or knitting.
They are activities which are “sufficiently challenging but adequately rewarding. You are engaging in something meaningful in the long term,” Mansourian explains.
Serious leisure can imbue people with a sense of achievement, enhance self-esteem and of course, teach them a skill.
His research also found that serious leisure promotes connection and a sense of belonging, since many hobbies involve interacting with other people.
Jemma Sbeg, a mental health advocate and host of podcast The Psychology of Your 20s, sums up the benefits of hobbies in one word: joy.
“It’s the joy in making bad art, in feeling human, in dipping your toes in just for fun,” Sbeg says.
But she thinks that a culture focused increasingly on productivity means we are often unsatisfied with doing things purely for joy.
“I see it in the wellness community a lot – it’s not just running for the sake of running because it’s fun. It’s running because it’s good for my focus, which is better for work, it’s good for networking – everything needs to be linked back to some benefit. That seriousness is worthwhile, but it also means that to be a novice is no longer noteworthy.”
Tips for finding a hobby in 2025
- Let your curiosity guide you - don’t feel pressure to stick with something if it doesn’t serve you.
- Try everything and anything to find what you like.
- Find your people: look for local communities, like a sport club or board game group, that can help you stick to a passion.
No, you don’t actually need a hobby (or four)
Despite what social media might have you believe, you don’t need a hobby (let alone four) to lead a fulfilling life.
Mansourian believes the pressure to fill our spare time with activities we deem meaningful goes against the spirit of leisure itself.
“I believe leisure in its highest form is liberty,” he says. “When you have the freedom to join a hobby and then you have the freedom to leave it at any point you want, that’s real authentic leisure.”
Sbeg agrees that a diverse portfolio of hobbies is not a must. But she thinks rules like the four Cs can be a helpful framework.
“As humans we could survive off only potatoes or carbs, but doesn’t it feel better to be enriched by many ingredients and many things?”
How to pick a hobby and make it stick
If you are keen to find a hobby in 2025, Mansourian says passion is key to seeing it through, but curiosity lays the groundwork.
And be gentle with yourself about letting hobbies die.
“If you are curious about something one day, and you lose your interest tomorrow, nothing’s wrong with that. But if it happens gradually and organically, then it’s very fulfilling,” says Mansourian.
Sbeg suggests trying as many things as possible to discover what you like.
“I tried life drawing, bouldering, soccer, open water swimming, knitting, painting until I landed on things that I really liked. Hobbies are kind of like dating: not every one is going to be the right fit, so feel free to look around.”
If you’re struggling to fit hobbies in, Sbeg recommends “habit stacking”: “If you’re working out, listen to a podcast about your latest niche interest. Knit whilst you zone out in front of the TV. Combine sports and socialising.
“Make time for what you care about. We have plenty of hours for our phones ... Challenge yourself to do one of your hobbies for 20 minutes every day for a week and just see how much happier you feel at the end of the day.”
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