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?

Learnt swimming as an adult, come from a country where there were not many opportunities for women to swim.

Started running in my 30s, run for fun and not entered any races. Longest distance I have run is 10km. But love it, do it intermittently. Had covid twice, have asthma and took a long time to recover, so hopefully can restart again.

Do yoga and weight lifting regularly. Post covid have personal trainer. Never been overweight but look slim and toned now!

Got a dog, never been a dog person but absolutely adore her. Go on hikes for nearly an hour or two over the weekends.

Read books regularly. Never feel lonely with a book anywhere.

This thread is so full of joy and inspiration! I'm 52 and wild swimming is a game changer. It was especially useful during lockdown when pools were closed. Now my pool is a lake on top of a mountain.

I think you can take up new interests at any age, and I recommend trying an instrument if you think you'd like that. If the first one doesn't click with you, try a different one. You don't have to get it right on the first try.

I did a degree with the OU in my 40s, then joined several choirs/started singing lessons. Oh, and Pilates.

Currently only really singing, but am planning to dig out my brushes and start painting again (have an A level in art).

Started Scottish Country Dancing at 50+.
Now dance several times a week. It’s great exercise, intellectually challenging and you meet really interesting people. Also easy to join groups in other parts of the world when you travel.

Stated running in lockdown and was massively surprised to find i enjoyed it.

What’s age got to do with it? I’m 50. Took up running 2 years ago and love it. Have a long list of things I want to take up as I am released from the jaws of full on parenting. Choir. Learn to tap dance, maybe adult beginner ballet class, yoga, drawing, painting … so many things to explore and enjoy. More reading and writing. Love learning new things and have no intention of stopping.

After years and years of watching UFC, I started training in MMA, but concentrate on boxing and BJJ. It’s given me focus and clarity. I adore it. It also means that when I’m not working with my coach, I’m concentrating on my overall fitness and conditioning. We are working towards my first amateur match.
I have a very ill husband (a whole other thread) and it gives me time for myself where i think about nothing except what I am doing in that moment and what I need to do next. Absolute freedom where my coach sees me as me, not a wife, mother, teacher or daughter. Just me.

I took up painting when I retired. I had always wanted to give it a go and it has given me an ongoing interest and hobby. I also met a new, very good friend through going to classes. I wish I had had the time to try it years ago. I even sell a few.

I’m in my thirties as well and started sewing and playing the piano during the pandemic. I got a subscription to one of these online piano apps for my daughter when the lock down started just so she’s not bored but because one can have more than one profile on the app, I set one up for myself.
2 years later and I’ve played almost every evening (not played when away on holiday) for at least 30 minutes a day. I love every moment, it was hard at first but playing recognisable tunes now is lovely and it’s something I look forwards to after work.
For the sewing, I’ve mostly been doing this adhoc by watching videos on YouTube. I’ve made 3 skirts and a dungaree for the 3yo this year and it’s just mostly fun.

There are some great ideas on here. I am taking notes!
I joined a large choir without knowing much about it before I joined. I have learned loads about classical music. I have to work really hard to learn the music but I love it.

Weight lifting.
Discovered I'm naturally strong. It's genuinely great for my mental health.

Worked in finance until I had my first dc at 32. Had 2nd dc in quick succession, and as they were heading towards school age I needed something new to do.

Volunteered with children and that led on to volunteering in the advice sector. Now FT employed in advice sector :)

Also learning to ice skate and so is my husband

My DH is in a band so I realised I needed something for me so i joined a rock choir. Also took up the drums.

I learnt a new sport in my 40s

I've joined the local club

I've travelled to some amazing places to enjoy the sport. It has opened up a whole new world to me !

I posted a similar thread on MN some years ago. I have a “big” job and found all the men I worked with had endless hobbies and interests whilst I was always just work and mum.

I tried many things and then I got therapy. Obviously not a hobby but helped conquer feelings I had of “not being enough” and guilt at making time for myself.

I now realise that being a great mum, sibling and friend, interspersed with some poorly executed hobbies (horse riding, piano playing, gardening, reading, cycling) is actually enough.

Kick boxing in my forties 🥊

@2bazookas

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

That's inspiring to read!

Moved to Holland in my mid 40s and since then have taken up:
Learning Dutch
Growing cannabis for medicinal use
Making cannabis balm, its the only thing that helps my arthritis
Weights
Yoga-lifechanging
Race cycling
Stained glass
Ice swimming
Copywriting, which I do freelance
Event planning for charities

Am in my 50s now and life is so much better, apart from the aches and pains, but I manage them with yoga and cannabalm

Great thread. I'm really lonely and have no close friends. An abusive relationship then being a single mum and focussing on kids and career mean I don't have any hobbies or good friends. Or rather, I do have hobbies but they are solitary ones - swimming, Pilates etc (how do you all make friends at the gym?! Definitely doesn't seem to happen at my gym)

I am struggling to even know where to begin, but I think this thread has inspired me to just at least give something a go!

I am going to get the sketch book out that I bought years ago and put in a drawer. I loved being artistic when I was younger but have lost it in adulthood. I love this thread!

Not 30’s but when I hit 40 I took up pole dancing. .. fab to keep fit. I fell pregnant soon after though with my 6 DC and not done it since. Maybe when little one starts nursery I will start again.

I went back to riding at 49 after a 20 year gap and now have my own horse. New friends, lots of fun.

Also started running at 47 and have completed 4 half marathons for charity, with more booked.

I’m much fitter than I was in my 20s with a similar body shape, though I’m now 55.

Loving this thread, as I've recently taken up glass painting and am really enjoying it.

My 'life changer at 30' though was craniosacral therapy. I've retired as a physio, but I will never stop being a craniosacral therapist. It also led me (indirectly) to the job I do full time now - weird to think that if I hadn't begun the CST training, I might never have come to the place I am now.

I do professional bookbinding and I'm a miniaturist. I make doolshouse furniture and accessories. I plan to do both as a second career when I retire from the NHS in a few years time.

I started CrossFit nearly four months ago, six weeks before I turned 40. My h has been trying to get me to join for years, and I insisted that I would hate it and yoga and running were the right exercises for me. I only went to a free class to make him stop bothering me about it.

But...I love it. It's challenging but addictive, and every time I go I add a new skill or improve on something. My shape has started to change and I'm fitter than I've been since I was at uni.

Yoga was a lockdown thing for me - I had always been quite sniffy about it, but I found Adriene and got really into it. And now that compliments the CrossFit, helping me stretch my aching muscles.