In case you haven’t noticed yet, I love love love to dance. I actually get scolded constantly for supposedly “doing too much”. Full time career, ballroom dancing, gym, blog etc. However, contrary to popular belief, doing more outside of work may actually help you with your career. Hobbies help you maintain a well balanced life, relax after a tough day, and foster certain qualities such as resilience and determination. Take that!

Even if you don’t have the typical nine-to-five job, I’m still a big proponent of successful women having a hobby to call their own. Something they can do to escape regular life for a couple of hours a week.

Oprah Winfrey is known to love reading. Anna Wintour plays tennis, and Beyonce watches reality TV. Ok, well maybe watching reality TV isn’t that much of a hobby per say, but it does allow you to switch off your brain for an hour after a long day at work. I’m personally not ashamed to say I’m obsessed with the Real Housewives of Bravo. Guilty as charged.

If you don’t yet have a pastime of choice, do seriously consider taking up something as it’ll have a positive impact on many areas of your life, I promise. It’ll help you create proper work-life balance and stimulate creativity and positivity which will then spill over into your work life.

Here are just some of the reasons having a hobby may make you more successful in the long run:

A hobby helps you focus on the moment.

Doing something you love is easy to do, so it doesn’t require much thought. It’s the best way to clear your mind. More specifically, hobbies like hiking or cooking help you focus on the present and rid your mind of all worries. Studies show that this relaxed state of mind eventually leads to periods of high productivity and performance.

A hobby will give you inspiration.

Artsy hobbies like painting, sculpture, and writing get your juices flowing, and tap into your thoughts, desires, and feelings. So it might even inspire wonderful ideas for the workplace. Ever since I started my blog and writing regularly, I’ve found myself to be more creative and determined to come up with innovative ideas at work.

A hobby fosters determination.

Hobbies that force you to push through barriers and obstacles, like running, help you to use similar methodologies for finding solutions and overcoming problems in the workplace. Dancing, for example, requires a lot of hard work and dedication so it’s a surefire way to increase general productivity. Trust me, it’s helped me. Learning movements and routines not only strengthens my memory but makes me so determined in my every day life.

Now of course not all hobbies will have the same positive impacts on your life. Like I doubt drinking vodka will get you anywhere.  But if you find something you love and stick to it, the possibilities are endless!  You may end up turning your hobby into a full-time job. As George Bernard Shaw once said “Happy is the man who is living by his hobby.”.