Hobby Burnout

Hey Everybody. Welcome! To Episode 79 of the metal detecting show podcast. My Name is Ciaran and I have been Metal Detecting for nearly 30 Years. This week I want to chat to you about hobby burnout and give you a few tips to counteract the burn.

Hey everyone before we start I want to thank you for listening to the podcast and I hope you enjoy the episode this week  If you want to support the show there are many options available from the links in the episode notes below and if you want to interact with me and the show that information is there too.  

but most importantly If you like this content please don’t hesitate to tell your friends and don’t forget to hit that subscribe button.

Content:

Hey everybody welcome to this week’s episode I hope you have had a great week out hunting for trash or treasure, 

I have been Sick in with a viral infection nothing to serious but enough for me to leave the dishes till later but not to serious for me to not want to go detecting, figure that one out. 

Anyways probably prompted by the week ive had I want to talk about burnout but more specifically hobby burnout and believe me it’s a real thing. 

So Whats burnout well traditionally its classified as the feeling of extreme physical and emotional exhaustion but the symptoms are of having feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion, 

Increased mental distance from ones job or Career

Or reduced professional productivity and as you can tell from the definition it is very much a condition associated with Work or your Career but it is now being recognised as having impact on people personnel life’s and can manifest with ones attitude to their hobby and metal detecting is no different, 

I would postulate that hobby burnout may be the number one reason why people give up the hobby. 

So have you lost the passion for the hobby is it a slog to get out on a hunt  or are you cutting short your hunts, you may be suffering from hobby burnout. 

Other Signs that you may be suffering from hobby burn out is are you looking at your peers or others seeing what they a finding and are resenting the fact that you are not finding the same level of finds, 

Are you chasing technology thinking that if you had the latest and greatest detector that you would be able to match these finds. 

When people are asked about burnout they always site that they have this huge body of work that they cant seem to get finished and that seems to keep getting bigger.

the advice that is given to these people is to pick one thing something that you enjoy and finish it so you get the warm fuzzies of completion. 

Unfortunately Metal detecting doesn’t have a finish line but it may have some things that are building up that need to be sorted out. 

I know for me im a disaster for cleaning finds I could have king arthurs crown in a bucket in my shed waiting for me to get to it to clean it, I don’t get to it because I don’t enjoy cleaning or restoring finds. 

I love the hunting but I have this hanging over me as a job to be done see what I said there I said Job and that is key here you may be feeling the effects of hobby burnout if it starts to feel like a job to be done. 

You may find that life gets in the way sometimes you just cant get out maybe your job has changed and you need to adjust your routine meaning your not gonna get out as much maybe your family situation changed with the same results you just cant get out and if your like me not getting out can stress you out.

I know I’m in a unique situation my primary hobby is metal detecting but I also put out a podcast every week and I have to admit sometimes that feels like a job that takes me away  from doing the thing I love most which is the hunt and because I’m creating content I can’t help but compare my stats every week to the top guys 

now don’t get me wrong we are number three globally for metal detecting and in the top 5% of all podcasts globally but being a competitive soul sometime I look at number three and go how can I get to number one and doing that too often can kill your passion and metal detecting is no different comparing yourself to others who post glamorised impressions of what they found and comparing yourself to this is Crazy.  

A picture paints a 1000 words however it doesn’t capture the 1000 hours that went in to find that gold coin, stick it in the grass stalk which seems to be the trend these days take a great shot of it and then promote and post it online. 

That’s the shine on all the shit they had to wade through to get that find, content doesn’t equal quality so don’t measure yourself against online content that’s there for your entertainment this is why I don’t do many YouTube videos I couldn’t spend all that time looking for great finds to post regularly especially in Ireland that would become a job for me. 

So there are many reasons we get burnt out in the hobby with the following being the most obvious to me

Expectation: like I said comparing yourself to others and not having the same results.

Pressure: Putting yourself under pressure to get out every week to meet an unspoken expectation.

Patience: Lack of Patience for results or getting over that learning curve.

Technology: Chasing a technology edge because of all the previous points in the hope of quick wins.

But this episode is not all doom and gloom with me preaching from my pulpit here there is hope try to remember why you got into the hobby in the first place. 

what inspired you to get into this great hobby It could have been some great content online or a book you read or something you found while walking but what was it about that book, that content or find try to distil the why to why you got into the hobby.

 If you do Feel burnt out from the hobby here’s a few tips to get you over that hump.

Reset! take a brake no one is cracking a whip telling you “you need to get out this week” Take a few weeks off and come back refreshed and enthusiastic. 

Spend some time appreciate some one else’s finds, go to a museum or even an antique store to look at the smalls section I guarantee you after that you will want to go out.

Talk about it, this is the reason I do the podcast I love to talk about metal detecting, it awesome especially if I cant get out I just talk to you guys. 

Teach the kids to detect build the next generation of detectorist or take a noobie under your wing it wont take long for a kids enthusiasm to rub off on you or bring back a memory to why you got into the hobby in the first place.

Patience, this is a hobby of patience you don’t have clear wins or a list of jobs to do it really is about the journey not the destination. 

If you can accept that you are not going to find gold or silver every week you can start to enjoy the hobby for differing reasons like the headspace the exercise the research the stories of the ridiculously bad finds I have dined out on my diging a diaper story so many times. 

And finally remember this is a hobby for life it’s not a job no one is telling you to get out there every week so take the time to enjoy each and every step along this great journey your on and when you have momentum protect it, don’t force it and enjoy the inspiration and remember why you are doing this.

Wrap Up 

That’s it for this week’s I hope you liked this episode of the metal detecting show podcast.

Check out our website www.themetaldetectingshow.com for this episode show notes. 

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If you like this content and would like more please don’t hesitate to tell your friends and don’t forget to hit that subscribe button.

Once again, I hope you have enjoyed this episode and we will chat to you all again next week. 

Get out there eyes down and Happy Hunting.