Physicians, Jumpstart Your Leisure Time

As odd as it might seem, even when physicians actually have the time for leisure, some of them have been at the grind for so long, they are at a loss at what to do. Stay home and watch sports all day long? Temporarily rewarding, but hardly invigorating for the long-term.

Jump Start Your Efforts
Here are five ideas on how to jumpstart your approach to leisure, including some specific activities that you might not have previously considered:

• Become an amateur geologist, going on your own fossil hunts. You don't need to have a background in geology to appreciate this easy and relaxing pastime. All you have to do is start walking... down a trail, up a hill, or around a lake; anywhere that you'll see rocks, collect them easily and legally, and perhaps reveal the mineral contents inside by breaking them open.

• Buy a telescope and do some sky watching. Telescopes are available in a wide variety of sporting goods stores, general department stores, and of course, online. Because virtually all sections of the sky have been mapped out, you can run a copy off of your home printer and hold it up to the portion of the sky you are viewing to better know exactly what you're seeing. This is a tremendous advantage over what sky watchers of decades ago could do.

• Enroll in a course in handwriting, calligraphy, or perhaps sketching. If you have any inclination to create with your hands, and as a physician this is probably the case, you might find such a pastime to be quite rewarding. Classes exist in every community above about 50,000 people. Also, you have the option to engage in a self-teaching program, simply by going online and making searches using terminology such "as do-it-yourself calligraphy."

• Take up a sport you've never previous attempted, or perhaps even considered. Even at an advanced age, you still can become proficient in golf, archery, racquetball, snorkeling, scuba diving, and hiking. You also have the option of getting into crafts, be it with ceramics, wood, pottery, stained glass, metal, jewelry, or leather. Believe it or not there are even competitions for such crafts: If you're 55 or older, you can enter your county's "Silver Arts" competition, which is part of what's known as the local state and national "Senior Games." If you place first or second at the country level, your entry will be enrolled in the state-wide competition as well.

• Designate one night a week as "library night." On this night you, and perhaps your spouse or significant other attending with you, will head to the local library. Upon arrival, feel free to read whatever magazines appeal to you, walk the book stacks, look at the collection of newspapers, find the map collection perhaps, or flip through the reference books. In other words, you will allow yourself to focus on whatever strikes your fancy - with no agenda in mind - and feel free to roam about the library to your heart's content.

Group Action
In support of any of the above activities, if you can find others who enjoy the same pastimes, it will be that much easier for you to stick with the activity. Think of it, if you meet with even one other person, let alone a group, on a weekly or monthly basis, you will be that much more committed to investing your time and energy in your newfound pastime. If your spouse or significant other is interested in your newfound activity, all the better.

In combination with others, you have the ability to teach or be taught, guide or give guidance, train or offer training to your leisure time partners. They can alert you to activities and opportunities around town that you might not have encountered on your own. The added major support you attain means that you will be more likely to pay homage to the activity on a regular basis, as opposed to just engaging in it a few times, and letting it go.