This Is What The Greats Did During Their Free Time

Do you spend your time scanning pieces of paper for alphabetical soup arranged in a very special way by a talented writer? Or, perhaps you heat things up and cool things down and put them together in a special way, and, voila—cooking!

Hobbies!

Others sew, write, draw, paint, sculpt, do pottery, work wood, make video, photograph people, learn, dance, brew alcohol, reshape glass, hunt, and all sorts of things.

They’re magical. The bulk cannot imagine their lives absent of hobbies. Hobbies enrich our leisure—they give it a much-needed breath of life.

Beyond Rest

For some, recreational activities go beyond decompressing after work. Some find themselves learning, growing, improving, still others find tranquility—they meditate, read, paint, sculpt—to experience mental quietude.

If you stole a DeLorean, spun your wheels, left a trail of fire and reeking rubber and travelled back in time—like, a few million years kind of back—you would see the same thing. Humanoids dancing around campfires and delighting in random s**t, whence they get the chance.

Shift Down

Today’s diversions allow many of us to remain sane in an ever-faster spinning, melting, inventing planet. They let us stop the racing mind and watch the speedometer’s hand shift to the left as we amuse ourselves. A terrific feeling—stepping out of the redzone.

Seeing what those who arranged the bridges we walk, the music we hear, the language we speak, the arts we indulge in, what those people did during their leisure—that’s interesting!

Compos Mentis Through Leisure

We see a historical figure’s name along with their invention and our mind conjures up a story of some old man, sitting there, day in and day out, sketching up physical formulas on a chalkboard or quilling masterpieces of literature or stroking a canvas to utter perfection.

An unrealistic depiction, don’t you think? We stand on the shoulders of giants. Here’s what some did during their leisure—you might notice many complimented their work.

Albert Einstein

Amidst his adventurous life of taking selfies with his tongue turned out, scratching chalkboards, acing school—he didn’t get bad grades, that’s a myth—and absolutely dominant sex life, Einstein caressed the strings of a violin.

Leonardo da Vinci

The way Leonardo stroked his brush and painted masterpieces—that’s what he’s best known for. Leonardo probably has more pieces in the Louvre than the average artist has anywhere. Well, the master wielder of the brush, painter of the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, studied anatomy in his leisure.

Marie Curie

The Polish and French physicist who spent her work drying up her fingers with long pieces of chalk scratching out formulas was revolutionary. She discovered radioactivity, isolation of radium, and polonium—one of the chemical cool kids. Not only that, she was an avid hiker!

Pablo Picasso

The author of the Cubism Movement with many stories fluctuating around him. Picasso had that classic, artsy look to him—he even wore a beret! If you ask a designer to depict an artist, you would get him. Weird as it may seem for a wielder of the brush and graphite—he enjoyed watching bullfights.

Jane Austen

The renowned novelist and author of “Pride and Prejudice” and “Sense and Sensibility”. She arranged and quilled her alphabetical miasma in a legendary way—and her ideas were philosophical, artistical, and political, all in one. During her leisure, she played piano. Artsy!

Stephen Hawking

I pay my respects to Hawking’s death six years ago. You were awesome! Hawking was a theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and I’m sure you know - a man in a wheelchair, paralyzed. He has ALS, and his motor neurons degenerated, making it unable to control muscle voluntarily. Yet that didn’t stop him from public speaking! Motivating!

Vincent van Gogh

Another wielder of the brush, a blesser of the canvas, author of many masterpieces but best known for his “Starry Night”. Vincent van Gogh was a painter, but too an expressive writer—he wrote letters to his brother.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Doubtlessly, you know Mozart. The musician, composer, the man who arranged and played notes so well, he is still listened to hundreds of years later. He had that youthful look to him, and in his short thirty-five years composed more than eight-hundred works! And he had time to dance and play billiards—what a stunner!

Complimentary

Galileo Galilei, the physicist, observed the night sky. Oddly enough, he improved the telescope and made astronomical discoveries.

J.K. Rowling, writer of the Harry Potter series, one who can arrange fantasy in a way that makes you live it—spent her leisure walking and reading.

Carl Sagan was interesting. He popularized science through books and television, and himself was a scientist—but he wrote science fiction! The artistic expression of his real-life, logical pursuit—interesting mix.

Ludwig van Beethoven, another renowned composer, competing for the title and wrestling Mozart’s youth, also walked like Rowling. But he also composed—just for fun.

A big flock enjoyed gardening: Charles Darwin, Emily Dickinson, George O’Keeffe, Virginia Woolf. Too many to name indulged in leisurely walks. Still others found themselves indulging in horseback: Ada Lovelace and Coco Chanel.

The greats, the titans, those we rely upon when advancing our world, they can be explored all day. This could be a hobby—exploring the leisurely of the giants!

Rev Limiter

Every masterpiece creator, be it one on a canvas, a sheet of notes, quilled on paper, or one intensely written onto a chalkboard, every one of them had favorable recreation. As if they wished to have spent more time working, but were limited by their bodies.

Writers read, and walked, and talked. Physicists… Physicists did their physics things and unrelated activities. Composers composed and indulged in arts! Their activities were sympathetic to those of their main works, and this, combined with many other ingredients and blended nicely, helped them embody the five-star legends we know today.

What About You?

Does your recreational activity compliment your work? Do you read to learn? Do you spend all-inclusive weekends warming your buttocks on the sofa, digging your eyeballs into a television screen, with a melting tub of ice cream on your oversized self? Do you exercise regularly?

The Take Home

Collectively, it circles back to the same things. Humans are creatures of habit. Our civilization was built that way, and the habits you have now, determine who you will be later. Boil it down. Find out. Grow. Improve. Seek it. Chase it. Enjoy it while you’re at it—they did!