To ask if you developed a new skill/hobby that changed your life after 30

[raringtogo354]

I'm interested to hear about your skills and hobbies and if they gave you a new lease of life/turned things around for you. I'm in my 30s and feel stuck in a rut and have done so for a few years now. Absolutely not asking for a pity party here, but I don't feel like there is anything I am good at. Sure I'm okay a bits and pieces, but would like to channel my energy into something where I can later on down the line say 'It's taken me years to learn XXX'.

As a youngster I did very well academically but have taken a route in life where my degree is no longer useful or indeed of interest to me. I had a bit of a moment this morning where I thought, in a dinner party scenario, there really isn't much I can say about myself and don't feel like there is a lot to me and I really want to change things.

Explaining to my DH this morning, I want something to work at in life, something that I love. I want to put the hours into something physical and creative - which is where I thought maybe I could learn an instrument.

Has anyone else started something life-changing as an adult?

@LadyPoison

I took up silversmithing as a hobby and it's now a major part of my income.

Considering I had never picked up a tool in my life it was quite a steep learning curve - it took me a week to have the courage to turn on my baby butane soldering torch,. Within days I had bought a serious "grown up" soldering torch and from then on I was totally hooked.

Oh I'm interested in this! May I ask how you got started?

OP I'm 30 but I started getting into comedy when I was 28. I do paid shows now on the side of my steady job and income...but it's mostly a fun hobby and creative outlet.

I learned to drive. And I moved abroad, so became fluent in another language as a result. Both life changing!

Reading. Doesn't sound exciting but it's been more about granting myself time in my routine to read every day, and accept that all I want to read is fantasy romance! Much of it is fluffy and surreal but I've shrugged off the pressure to read high brow or more acceptable stuff and just embraced my geeky side.

Also weight lifting, I absolutely love seeing myself get stronger and lift heavier and heavier.

And I've just started a little social media account to document my absolute joy in vintage and secondhand shopping and hoping I can use it to connect with like-minded others.

@Lucia23

My husband bought me a basic beginners kit for Christmas one year after I said I wanted a new hobby!

I had no idea what to do with it but started watching you tube videos and had a go. There are some excellent beginner tutorials on there. I was rapidly hooked. I started raiding his tool box for more tools, upgraded what I already had and then signed up for classes with a local silversmith.

Yes, Ashtanga yoga. It’s changed everything about my life for the better.

Sewing! Dressmaking for myself and my children is both creative and technical, and I can choose to stretch my skills or make something within my comfort zone. There are huge online communities on Facebook and Instagram and opportunities for real life meet-ups, and it’s been fantastic for my self esteem, mental health and being kind to my post partum body.

Loads of stuff. Changed my career, became a mum, picked up various creative things and put down a few.

If you're not always learning new skills throughout your life I'd imagine it would get pretty dull.

My Son who is 50, gave me an electronic music keyboard that he was chucking out, so I am trying to do some music stuff up in my large attic room, I use to play the piano when young, but gave it all up after I left school years ago, I also have taken up watercolour painting in my attic room, just dabbling at the minute.. I am 79, and just doing stuff to hopefully keep my mind active now. In the summer or better months I am a keen gardener, so like to be outside all the time then. I also like a bit of DIY. I found some good lengths of decent wood in a neighbours skip last years, and asked if i could have all the pieces of wood, so I made a longish wooden flower trough with legs on, woods stained it, and now it's in my garden. with plants in it. I have an array of good tools in my shed, suitable for woodwork.. I am an oldie with three cats, so got to keep a bit busy !

I don’t have one. I was once in an embarrassing conversation with a chap we’d just met and my OH had been listing off his hobbies, he and this chap had a right good chat about some shared interests. Multiple interests and hobbies that my OH can discuss at quite a detailed level.

And then he turned to me and said “and what do you do when you’re not at work?”

All I could do was gesture at my OH. Having a boyfriend was honestly a full time hobby at the time. And took up all disposable income.

A friend has recently taken up dragon boat racing, and flipping heck she’s in the best shape of her life, and travelling all over the place!

I started horse-riding when I was 50. We had moved to another part of the country and I knew no-one. Apart from the utter joy of it, I also have a great circle of friends.
Oh and I also upped sticks and changed country and language when I was 35. You are just getting started at 30!

I got an allotment at the beginning of the first lockdown and it was marvellous for my physical and mental health. Digging around, planning, planting and admiring the literal fruits of my labour has given me so much. Sadly I had to give up my plot after a year and I was miserable, but luckily I have just been offered a new plot in a gorgeous setting and I'm so happy. I've been going up there with DH and DC every day and we all have such a great time and I was just saying to DH that I suddenly give less fucks about things that stress me out.

Would recommend!

I learnt to swim as an adult.

I had a really ugly midlife crisis when I hit 30! I ended up retraining after a boring career in investment accounting and also took up running. Both of those significantly improved my mental health and outlook. I have much greater life satisfaction.

I had babies in my early 30sc but wouldn’t describe or recommend that as a hobby
However I took up running as a way to get rid of the baby weight, late 30s and it changed my life. I’ve never been so fit, some of my best friends, I’ve met in the running community.
It should have an empty nest come October, so I’m looking for something more creative to fill my time as well.

Yoga. I used to be a runner until disability stopped me. Someone suggested yoga. I wasn't keen but tried it and it's really helped.

Good for managing pain. Feel better now that I am more flexible ( couldn't touch my toes as a teenager, can now!). And I used to have terrible spatial awareness - never really sure where my body was in space, which led to walking into things a lot. That has reduced loads since I started yoga. Don't go over on my ankles as much as have strengthened them with the balance poses.

I took up crochet, started running and growing my own veg. have also started a degree with the Open University. All since turning 35.

Yes, I joined a choir at 33. It’s great. This isn’t my blog or my choir but this blog expresses how I feel about it.
www.antoniahoneywell.com/a-love-song-to-my-chorus/

Yes, started learning photography when I was about 33, enjoyed it, so did a degree in it, and then started getting into drawing and painting as part of my photography practice, so now I'm building on that skill too (I'm starting secondary school art and design teacher training in sept). Also, playing the drums - been doing that for about 6 months, and have learned how to play the drums on some of my fave songs.

Signing
Knitting
Yoga
Basically anything I can learn for free
Riding, reading & swimming are my passion though, I like being physically exhausted when I go to bed

I started climbing when I was 32. I almost exclusively boulder now (which is climbing on lower walls without ropes). It's great fun, especially as there seem to be more and more climbing gyms opening. Bouldering is great because you can go on your own, but everyone is so friendly that you meet new people all the time. All you need is a pair of climbing shoes, and you can hire those for a couple of ££ until you want to buy your own. It's really rewarding to feel yourself get stronger, more flexible etc and to be able to measure your progress by seeing the grades of your climbing get higher.

Coding. Became a software engineer. That was pretty life changing. Started with free courses online.

Also took up a number of sports and strength activities and began to compete. Great fun and very social.

I am 44 and in January I took up weight lifting and love it. I still lift light weights as I have gone my whole life without any proper exercise. However, I already have defined biceps, my shoulders are getting a lovely toned shape and I am seeing the beginnings of abs now too. I am still a little overweight (working on that) but amazed and proud at the changes in my body so far. I have an old back/ shoulder injury from childhood and since then my posture has been rather lopsided with one shoulder sitting a good couple of inches higher than the other - tried physio etc and nothing helped. However since starting my weights my posture has corrected itself and both shoulders sit level, also my pain is greatly reduced. There is a real buzz when you increase weights or manage to do an exercise that you couldn’t previously do.

Also, I took up acrylic painting during lockdown. I am absolutely terrible at it but I don’t care because I find it very relaxing and just get lost in the process.

After age 30; I

learned to play Taiko drums, joined a group and won a national award
Learnt to ice skate
Learned how to weld and built a new metal frame for the communal water tank
Learned how to build drystone wall and rebuilt 200 yards of our boundaries
Learned how make rag rugs; some just for us and others I sold.
Learned to do reiki
Trained, qualified and worked as a reflexologist.
Went to evening class to study Geography and Biology which I'd dropped at school. Passed A level in both.
Learnt how to use a computer
Started writing poetry and got published
Taught myself to wallpaper, and strip wood.
Taught myself to use a sewing machine
Taught myself to grow native trees from seed.
Grew a bluebell wood.
Climbed an oak tree I'd grown from an acorn

I did a lot of music and swimming as a teenager and have picked up both again since my mid 40s.

Running. I started in my mid-30s and now I'm mid-40s and I've run three half marathons.