My belief - no, opinion - is that the most beneficial hobbies are productive ones, e.g. where you're making something. Could be furniture, artisan cuisine, poetry, songs, anything. I think there's an innate human need to produce things. Such hobbies teach you a lot of positive lessons about life itself.


I know it can be frustrating to try your hand at something and not get the results you want. Perhaps it could be an opportunity to build patience and persistence, though.


A good mindset as you start a new hobby would be "I'm not perfect and never will be, but I'm doing the best I can with the skills I have right now. And I'm going to learn from mistakes and improve my skills more and more every day."

I would say my main recreational hobby is traditional wood joinery. I started out kind of goal-oriented (needed some furniture items) but after a while I came to enjoy the activity itself. In fact, I haven't bought any powertools because I love the Zen-like moments of sawing, chiseling, and planing completely by hand. Slower, but it's a calm, meditative activity.