How TikTok’s "5 Types of Hobbies” Trend Lays Out a Path for Success

Painting, running, singing, building model airplanes — most of us indulge in at least one hobby or activity outside of our regular workload merely for the joy it brings us. But hobbies can bring more than joy.

People that nurture hobbies in their personal time have higher work satisfaction and self-esteem and experience less burnout. According to research by Matthew Zawadzki, a health psychologist at the University of California, Merced, engaging in hobbies can provide immediate stress relief, improved focus, and a greater sense of happiness, even days later.

Our hobbies may be as different as we are, but a recent TikTok trend highlighted five types of hobbies that promote self-improvement. They also help lead to more successful professional lives.

1. Creative hobbies

Writing, drawing, music: Creative hobbies improve brain plasticity and connections between motor and auditory regions while strengthened neural pathways to the hippocampus improve memory. They also increase job creativity and promote better recovery from a demanding work environment. My personal favorite creative hobby also came from TikTok – Henry, my dog, has a page that allows me creative freedom and laughs when it comes to content creation. 

2. Fitness hobbies

Hiking, dancing, swimming, boxing, hula hoop — many hobbies can both bring joy and improve our physical fitness. Fitness reduces workplace absenteeism and stress and improves brain power, sleep, and workplace well-being while cutting down on health care costs.

3. Knowledge-building hobbies

Most of our existing hobbies come with the opportunity to learn more: Read a book, take a course, listen to a podcast, or join a professional development program. Research has linked greater education with a higher lifetime earning potential, reduced stress, and delayed onset of Alzheimer's and cognitive decline. 

4. Social hobbies

By seeking out groups of like-minded enthusiasts to share in our hobbies, we can become more social. Face-to-face interactions with others release neurotransmitters that make us more resilient to workplace stressors. Social contact can also improve memory formation and recall while protecting the brain against neurodegenerative diseases. Better social habits increase happiness, improve life satisfaction, and promote a healthier lifestyle.

5. Money-making hobbies

I held this one to the end because all of the hobbies mentioned above have the potential to become a source of additional income. Mark Zuckerberg’s side project, a small social media application for Harvard University students, became a global company worth billions. Dr. Hudson Sessions, assistant professor at the University of Oregon, surveyed people engaged in supplementary work and found that after a night of working on their side gig, colleagues at their day job rated them as performing better the next day. Side gigs improve worker productivity, so make a hustle out of a hobby and try.

These five types of hobbies each come with significant benefits, but many individual hobbies cross several of these different types. Playing an instrument opens the door to learning more about composing or finding others to join a band; dancing can become a money-maker while boosting our physical health. Whether we have curated hobbies for years, or are looking to spice up our leisure time by picking up something new, approaching hobbies through these five lenses helps us reap the rewards of a better professional career.

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Tom Popomaronis is Executive Vice President of Innovation at Massive Alliance, a global executive branding agency. Tom co-founded Massive's Executive Leadership Branding program – which transforms world-class executives into contributing authors at leading publications.

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