Filling Void Number 2

[Huey]

There is more than one void to fill in lifestyle design.
The focus of the book is filling the void once full-time work is removed. The second void that I am talking about is the one left by removing old hobbies.

For as long as I can remember (Im 26 now) any free day or weekend with friends or family would include some form of shopping, that is, a day out to the city center, shopping mall or suburban retail park.

Now I come from a middle class background in England and have lived in the US where the situation is similar. I look at my family and friends and think "when did shopping become a hobby and the default one at that?"

Since reading Tim's passage on reducting clutter and 'Vagabonding' by Rolph Potts I've realised that most of us spend our time and money buying crap we dont really need. Tim emphasises sports, getting out into nature and once in a lifetime experiences. The difficulty for me now is finding these activities in my local area after twenty odd years of heading straight to the mall. Also, after spending my whole life around people who like to walk around the shops every saturday, I'm searching for people who want to come rock climbing or water skiing.

I apologise if this post comes across as an Naomi Klein-style anti-consumerist rant, it's not meant to be. What I do enjoy about going to the mall is that it is usually full of people and I enjoy being around lots of other humans.

This post is just about my own challenges after spending my time and money the same way for years now im finding it super difficult to spend those two resources in different ways with different people.

Anybody else going through a similar experience?

[Psytherium]

While I'm not in your situation right now because my wife and I are in a very transitional period in our lives (we just got married 2 months ago, she just started her job teaching 2nd grade this past Monday, we're still getting settled in to our apartment, we just graduated in May, etc), I can understand where you're coming from. Try looking online for meet-up groups in your area for various activities. Even if you don't meet-up with them right away, join the group and get to know the people.

I couldn't tell from your post if you're still in England or if you're in the US now, but if you're in England, kiteboarding on land is HUGE (landboarding). Not sure if you're interested in that at all, but just an option. You mentioned rock climbing and water skiing. See if there are any rock climbing gyms in your area and just go for an hour or two each weekend. Water skiing is a little less convenient, but you could go once or twice a month, etc (depending on your location, of course). At any rate, finding a group of people who are enthusiastic about a hobby and getting involved with that group is one of the best ways to get involved with the hobby.

P.S. meetup.com is a great place to start. I just searched rock climbing and the first result was http://rockclimbing.meetup.com/131/ (I live in Houston, so it does some sort of geocoding when you search). But if you go to http://rockclimbing.meetup.com/ , it gives you ALL results around the world. Give it a try.

[froldt]

I'm not sure there's a huge difference between having available time from eliminating work or eliminating hobbies. But I diverge...

If you're looking for rock climbing or water skiing, I would suggest that you visit some gear stores. Not the big-box type, but some small, local places. Go in, ask, check out the bulletin board. All of them that I have been in had contact info for people looking for company on outings. Also, there were often clubs that you can meet with, and the info is available.

[Huey]

Thanks for the help guys, much appreciated.
Visiting specialist stores-great tip that can be used to get information about virtually any hobby.
I will look into meetup.com, kitesurfing and landboarding.

The post came to me when I was sitting at home with the whole day free and the only thing that came to my head was to phone one of my regular friends to go to the mall then the cinema. But, as I said, I've been doing this for as long as I can remember.

The challenge is breaking up with some of your old friends and deciding to spend your money and time with new people. Even if I cant convince someone to join me I'll have to go alone the first few times.

[chris.wright.martell]

How about using dreamlining to fill in those gaps, specifically with "being" goals?

I find, looking at my many things I'd like to "be" or "be able to do", that many of them are time intensive. While I wouldn't want to do any of them "all day, every day", I could imagine piano lessons in the morning, personal trainer in the afternoon, etc.

~Chris