Outside of work and travel, you have daily tasks. They may include taking care of a family with kids, or just a spouse and/or animals. Or as I knew until I was 41, just myself kept me busy. What to eat and cook? Run errands, clean, bathe, maybe some downtime to read or watch TV. Who can forget adding in the time to sleep?

I was once told I needed hobbies when I was single so I was accomplishing something. I tried. Sure, I had many ‘interests’ and I put them on my ‘to do’ list. Guess what? That made it unfun, like a chore. I needed to relearn my clarinet and maybe sign language! Should I get back into painting? What did I feel passionate about? By the time I gave this thought, I had the phone or remote in my hand.

What I have found is that I was thinking about my personal interests as a job, not as something I not only wanted to learn more about, but engage with. I ended up asking myself two questions:

What did I care enough about to carve out time for?

Was there something I wanted to invest time in for life-long learning?

I still want to relearn the clarinet, try painting and photography again and learn an new language. I’ll get to that. This time I let it come to me. I tinker with gardening and more than anything, I always thought about a cut flower garden. The kind with zinnias and dahlias and all the flowers that bees and butterflies love. What would it take for me to dedicate my time? I need to learn more – I need to know more about the clay soil we have and how to prepare it for bulbs and spring seedlings. One day as I drove past an Episcopalian church near our home, I noticed a path to a beautiful garden. I looked them up online and saw that they had a group of volunteers that maintained the grounds. I emailed and asked if I could join and I expected nothing in return but to learn. Guess what, I am the head dead-header of the flower garden! And as an extra bonus, they give me bulbs and seeds to plant. I am learning about weeds and plants and soil and transplanting and watering. Yes, there is a way to water! It’s hard work but it’s also brain, body and soul rewarding. I dedicate one morning a week to helping out and have made new friends.

I used to look to my job to learn. I love to discover and I was fortunate enough to travel and learn about new medical technologies along the way. At some point, I realized I wasn’t learning anything new. There was plenty to learn, but it wasn’t a lifelong learning passion.