How many of you balance a sport or hobby?

Published

I am wondering how many of you are serious about a sport or hobby that requires daily participation and weekend or day long competition or attendance to other relevant events?

I am into riding reining horses, which is something I've done for 20+ years, and it requires about 3 hrs per day to keep my horses conditioned and trained, plus I try to go for a lesson or two at least once a month. Shows are seasonal from May to October and require a 2-4 day commitment. I have a goal to compete at a national level.

Do any of you compete in a sport, participate in a hobby such as this, and if so how do you balance it with the demands of your nursing career? :monkeydance: Do you find managers are receptive when you request time off to attend events?

Specializes in LTC.

This will be my third season doing triathlons & duathlons.

Eats up quite a bit of time with cross training, mainly running, biking and weight training, anywhere from 8-12 hrs/week.

Kids are grown, so there's more time right there, but our house is still a zoo at the best of times:

my wife and I both work FT shift work, she's finishing her degree, in addition to starting a PT teaching stint at a local nursing school, and me working crazy hours (on my own time) as our union's local leader, plus restoring an 1890's victorian manor...not enough hours in a day.

Specializes in med/surg.

I do karate up to 5 times a week & we have gradings & competitions at weekends. I have good colleagues who swap shifts if I get really stuck!

Specializes in PICU, surgical post-op.

I'm a photographer as well as a FT RN. Depending on the season, I'll have shoots scheduled every day that I'm off. Add that to the time spent in postprocessing and getting prints made and shipped etc, and you're looking at a pretty big time committment, especially during wedding season! If I'm scheduled to work on the day of a wedding, I've always been able to find someone to switch with me. Otherwise, I schedule around my work days. Probably not too helpful, since your competitions are pre-scheduled and you do'nt get to pick when they are. =/ I've always found that people are pretty accomodating to switch, especially when I make myself available to switch for them when they ask.

This will be my third season doing triathlons & duathlons.

Eats up quite a bit of time with cross training, mainly running, biking and weight training, anywhere from 8-12 hrs/week.

Kids are grown, so there's more time right there, but our house is still a zoo at the best of times:

my wife and I both work FT shift work, she's finishing her degree, in addition to starting a PT teaching stint at a local nursing school, and me working crazy hours (on my own time) as our union's local leader, plus restoring an 1890's victorian manor...not enough hours in a day.

Sounds like my life. We have a 10 acre acreage, with lots of fences to fix and work to do on the yard and house. My husband works FT at a 8-5 job with w/e off so that helps, but still don't seem to find enough hours in the day. I also don't find that my co-workers/manager really care to help me to make it all work, just ask for more all the time.

Now I have a .6 FTE with a 4 day weekend every other if I don't pick up, so that will help, as long as the shows I want to go to fall on the right w/e.

+ Join the Discussion