Relaxing is one of the unspoken keys to being a successful entrepreneur — it helps give you focus, reduce stress, and much more.
But simply running a bath and letting life pass you by isn’t enough for driven entrepreneurs — you expect to get something tangible from your relaxation.
From life-drawing to learning a new language, I’ve listed four ways that you can relax after work but still get benefits to your entrepreneurial work.
Recommended reading: How to Start a Donut Shop Business
Attend a life-drawing class
Not an arty person? It doesn’t matter — people of all levels of artistic skill attend life-drawing classes and (speaking from experience) there’s no judgement on the standard of your work.
There are a number of useful and productive benefits that you can get from a life-drawing class:
- Helps to improve both your focus and observation
- There’s a meditative and cathartic quality to them
- Gives you something tangible at the end (you could even sell your work)
As far as I’m aware, there’s no site, tool, or app for finding life-drawing classes near you. But have no fear — you can often find them at schools, universities, and studios, or you could get a private class from a tutor.
Try online gambling
Online gambling is a broad arena that covers a range of games and sports — you could play poker or place a bet on your favourite sports team. For the purposes of relaxation, I suggest that you try one of the many games you can select from.
While it might seem a leftfield choice for a relaxing hobby, there are some clear and productive benefits to online gambling:
- Poker and blackjack can improve your logical thinking
- You can win real money while you’re relaxing
- Interacting with other gamblers has a communal element
There are many great places you can try online gambling but you can find the very best sites at OnlineCasinos.co.uk, with casinos devoted to sports, blackjack, slots, and more.
Go to talks on unrelated topics
What do I mean by talks on unrelated topics? Put simply, they’re conferences on subjects that are different to those you encounter in your day-to-day entrepreneurial life.
Though drinking in knowledge on areas without a direct relevance might not sound like a productive use of your time, there are some productive benefits to going to talks:
- Can allow you to find new angles for your work
- It’s a way of boosting your mental dexterity
- You can potentially network with other professionals
Googling local events or looking out for flyers in venues near to you is a good way of finding talks, but Meetup is the clear leader in this field.
Learn a new language
It’s pretty simple to grasp the concept of learning a new language — you pick up a language that’s not in your native tongue.
The productive benefits of doing so are very straightforward too:
- Helps prevent mental illness
- Improves your decision-making
- Boosts your memory
But it’s not only mental benefits that you can take from learning a new language — it can also open up new business opportunities for entrepreneurs. How? By giving you the skills to converse with prospects, clients, and customers from other nations.
There are many sites that you can use to help you learn a new language but Duolingo is probably the most popular.
All of these four ways to relax give you something tangible, whether it’s improved focus or a drawing that you can sell — if you want to.
So try them out and return to your day-to-day life with renewed vigour, energy, and decision-making.