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Find 3 Hobbies You Love and You'll be Set for Life!

I recently heard the quote, "Find three hobbies you love: one to make you money, one to keep you in shape, and one to be creative" and thought wow, that really is the secret to success, fulfillment and happiness in life. But then I started thinking more to figure out not only what mine were, but also what was missing. It turns out there are two more hobbies everyone should have. The good news however is some of these can be combined so one hobby such as writing books, blogging or creating videos can fulfill both the making money aspect as well as fulfilling creativity. Unfortunately some of my favorite hobbies are actually holding me back from success and I'm willing to bet some of yours as well.

I'm going to share with you my three hobbies that keep me successful, fulfilled and in shape while traveling and enjoying life without worrying about work, money, or stress. As a bonus I'm also going to share two more that aren't listed yet that everyone should have to level up in life and really be truly successful in all aspects, both in life, bank account, and achieving greatness. The big secret of life is hard work, time spent, and dedication. But those things are hard when you dread what you're doing...now imagine if these things weren't work but hobbies. Things you would do anyways even without the reward. Things that were fun, enjoyable, and came naturally. Let me help you discover your fierce five, and really allow your best life to unfold. Keep reading for a breakdown of my five and what yours can and should be.







My Three Hobbies



A lot of people don't realize this, but it took me most of my adult life to find even a single hobby I was passionate about. Growing up as a kid I never liked what most other kids liked and always felt out of place and alone. When everyone got super into playing and watching Basketball, then later football, I would sit on the sidelines and go home alone out of boredom for months at a time until the season ended. Even though I had zero interest, I started tagging along with friends to collect comic books, look at graffiti, and do other things I had no interest in just because it was something to do.

The first sport I was ever really interested in was MMA when I finally discovered UFC in 2007. The first hobby I ever became passionate enough about to get my "black belt" and go all the way was scuba diving. But it turns out both of these hobbies even though technically considered sports were actually holding me back from success in other aspects of my life. Scuba divers aren't very healthy and as exhausting as it is, you're not actually getting in better shape from it. And even though training Muay Thai and MMA is a fantastic workout, it's not very sustainable as it often results in injuries. Both sports were also fun hobbies to do, see the world with, and meet some interesting people, but working in both industries, even as a professional kept me dirt poor and barely scraping by as I wrote about in my first book 12 Weeks in Thailand: The Good Life on the Cheap. I was in decent shape when training Muay Thai six days a week, four hours a day, but was always inflamed, injured and it wasn't sustainable long term. 


johnny jen fd muay thai mma
Before my Muay Thai fight in Phuket, Thailand



My Fitness Hobby



I could lie to myself and say that I have plenty of fitness hobbies including hiking, weight lifting, body weight exercises, brazilian jiu-jitsu, crossfit, and not surfing. But that would be lying to myself as I don't do any of those consistently and weeks or months often go by in between sessions.  It's easy to list off three random hobbies you have to fulfill all three needs when you read the quote, but when you sit down and really be honest with yourself, you may realize that your so called hobby is either not a reality or is actually holding you back.

The way to get around this is to look at the end result your hobby should be giving you as a side benefit, and in this case keeping or getting you in great shape. If it's not, something is wrong. You're either not doing it consistently enough, not putting enough effort in it and just coasting, or the hobby itself just doesn't deliver real results. Results don't lie. For me as much as I enjoy doing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu twice a week when it's convenient, it's not really a passion and may not be sustainable due to the amount of long term injuries you can get from making it a passion. For hiking and surfing it depends so much on where I am and if there's a place to do it and the weather. Traveling and living as a digital nomad makes it really hard to actually get into routines. 

When I got in really amazing shape during the writing of Life Changes Quick it was because I was living in one place and was super into CrossFit. Since then my fitness has gone downhill and this is a major part of my life I'm actively working on.


johnny jen fd scuba diving
Scuba Diving in the Komodo Islands




My Creative Hobby



I don't know if everyone realizes this but I really enjoy blogging, making videos, and editing photos. Writing blog posts has always been my creative outlet since far before it has made me any money. I spend a large majority of my time messing with friends on facebook by creating silly photos which may seem like a waste of time, but in reality help me become not only more creative but also teach me a valuable skill. I'm self taught in both photoshop and iMovie and only got as good as I am today because I genuinely enjoy messing around and creating fun projects.

If you don't have a creative outlet, find one. It's relaxing, stress-relieving, and could potentially fulfill your money making hobby slot as well as I've learned to do and teach inside my Earnest Affiliate course. The truth is I make pennies per hour filming, editing, and uploading my scuba diving videos, but I love doing it. The same with taking photos, and other random things I do just because it helps me fuel my creativity side. This video has made me a total of $4.03 and took me about three hours to film, edit, and upload to Youtube paying me about $1.34 per hour. Many of my diving videos have made even less or close to zero. But I do it because I love it, it keeps me creative and  it has taught valuable skills like how to use a GoPro, film underwater, edit better, and find and add royalty free soundtracks.  But aside from that, most importantly gives me a memory of where i've traveled and in this case, scuba diving with my cousin Jacob in Koh Phi Phi which is something we can watch years later and reminisce as he still lives all the way out in California.






Money Making Hobby



A hobby is defined as an activity or interest pursued for pleasure or relaxation and not as a main occupation or source of income. The nice thing about hobbies is that even in the definition, it doesn't exclude you from making money from it, you just have to want to do it regardless of if it does or doesn't. For me, my hobby as always been sharing information. I was always the one to call my close friends and tell them if there was a hot deal on something, and to want to share things that I found that genuinely worked for me. Even though my main medium of sharing information has always been through my various blogs, now I do it through videos, podcasts, and even books. But it all started with me writing about things like following the Paleo diet, CrossFit, Muay Thai, Cheap Travel, and even Pick Up Lines in the past. 

But aside from making maybe $100 every few months here and there, or less than $300 a year on average, I never really made any money from any of my previous blogs. But here's the thing, I didn't start blogging because of the money, I did it as a creative outlet and still do. But by following what I now teach inside Earnest Affiliate it now satisfies both my creative side and it just happens to make me money on the side and often a lot of it. I started with sharing my journey on making money online, through kindle, dropshipping, udemy, affiliate, courses, etc. Now that I'm getting really into investing and am excited to share about what I've learned and did for myself, I'm sure it'll become a new income stream as well even though it's something I'd enjoy doing for free regardless. This is actually the big secret on long term success. Sam Marks and I started the Invest Like a Boss podcast and didn't talk about taking on sponsors or making money from it for almost a year. We both said we liked doing it and would do continue doing it for free. The fact that it's now a profitable stream of income is just a cherry on top.

Find your money making hobby by simply finding any hobby then monetize it after you've grown an audience. I guarantee any hobby you get into can be made into a source of income once you get good enough it at and start sharing enough value to enough people regardless if your hobby is working out, traveling, drinking wine, investing or writing.


Drinking Wine in Transylvania with Sam Marks



Two Bonus Hobbies



With just the 3 hobbies above, you should live an incredible life. But to get it to the next level, here are two more hobbies that everyone should have. Remember, a single hobby can fulfill more than one category so it doesn't mean you need 5 separate hobbies which can get a bit much to make time for and juggle. The first bonus hobby is doing something regularly that you enjoy that allows you to have deep conversations with people at or above your level. This helps you grow and level up your success by surrounding yourself by people as smart or smarter than you and taking the time to talk in length about business, culture, society or the future. For me, the podcast is a great way for me to sit down and talk at length with smart people every single week and dive deep into learning and growing.

The second bonus hobby is all about balance, it's having a regular activity that involves interacting with the opposite gender. It's easy to only find hobbies that appeal to your sex, but without the balance our lives usually aren't completely fulfilled and it's hard to be complete without it. When I was living at a Muay Thai camp and even in the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey when there were fewer female digital nomads, I would often find myself only hanging out and talking to other guys for weeks at a time. If it wasn't for hobbies like doing yoga and playing board games, my life wouldn't be as balanced as it is today.



Playing board games with friends in Ubud, Bali

I'm curious what your hobbies are, which categories they fulfill and what else you plan on adding in. Leave a comment below and let me know!

Remember, the secret to life, happiness and fulfillment is simple:

"Find three hobbies you love: One to make you money, one to keep you in shape, and one to be creative."



Warm Regards,

Johnny FD


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