What things did you used to be obsessed with but barely take even a passing interest in now?

For me it’s…

• 10m Match Air Rifle shooting. I started started in my early teens and carried on till my mid twenties. At the range 3 or 4 times a week.

• Skeet Shooting – again started in my early teens and by mid twenties had 7 guns. I had 5 Air Rifles and 2 Shotguns at one time.

• Cycling! Did pretty much all I wanted to do over a 20year period and gone from 7 bikes in the shed to just 1 for the odd family ride. Not ridden a proper ride for 2 or 3 years now.

At the minute I have no obsession and feel a little adrift. 😀

Apathy. I used to be really into it, now just can’t be bothered.

Real ale and biscuits.
Don’t indulge in either now i know they are the false grail and rot your brain.

I used to be well into my competition shooting and traveled all around the UK for events.
I gave up around ten years ago and haven’t given it a second thought.

However. Just moved to a different country and there is a 300m outdoor range down the road 🙂

Mountain biking. Still cycle, more than ever, but none of it is off road.
Cooking interesting stuff. Used to do lots, now just cook the same old stuff day in, day out.
Football. Used to follow every game and played to a good standard, now barely notice the results and my playing almost nonexistent.

Climbing (rock, ice, alpine) – 30+ years of going round the world doing little else with my spare time. Running, mostly fell running, still involved with admin side.

American Football. Played all through my teenage years and was utterly obsessed. Mountain biking took over from the age of 20 though. Have watched the odd match in the last couple of years having paid no attention to it for 2 decades

Hubris, but I’m less confident these days.

Lacrosse. Played throughout my 20s and early 30s. Got too much on the body in the end and I wouldn’t recover from the game until Tuesday.

Haven’t even seen a game for 10 years or more.

Drink.

Back in the day I was a proper piss artist. Hardly touch it now.

Football & cricket.

Played cricket 4-5 times a week, always down the ground mucking about on the slip cradle/nets etc. Even played @ county level at U16’s. Couldn’t wait to get in and watch the test matches with my old man..

Played footy up to the birth of #1 5 years ago and as I just didn’t have time. Can’t even be bothered to watch it on TV any more.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndBjraV-3UY[/video]

Following the football (Man Utd mainly). was oassionate about it and spent so much time doing what football fans generally do – including let it dictate my spare time and my moods! Feel liberated since turning my back on it all – although my dad wants to disown me (lifeling Man U fan). Then again, he’s become a vegetarian! Wtf! Haha

Wish I had spent my early twenties getting good on a mountain bike instead. Although I’d probably be totally broken given my track record of injuries since getting into biking a few years ago. Currently sat in day surgery waiting room about to go in to have some screws removed from my ankle.

I’m bored. This wait is terrible.

Fiesta and Escort. Publications, not cars.
I blame it on the internet

Windsurfing and kitesurfing over 25 years for a living. Not done either for about 5 years.
Seriously fast RC gliders for ten years. Stopped that 5 years ago when I took up biking.
I’ve had guitars in my life for over 40 years but I doubt if I’ve picked one up since Christmas.

Wakeboarding.

I used to shoot a lot, then stopped, then started again, but not so much. I still bike a fair bit and go to the gym a lot.

I miss the fun of wakeboarding and wakeskating, but I have enough to keep me occupied right now.

Quite a few things, actually.

– Mountain biking. I used to think about riding off-road all the time, but while I cycle now more than ever, it is almost always on the road.

– Outdoors-y activities, including camping, fishing, climbing, canoeing. Since I left Canada 15 years ago, while I can still appreciate these things, I just don’t give them much thought anymore.

– Music. I grew up in a musical family, and played a number of instruments to a high standard. Now, while I still LOVE music in an intellectual sense, I almost never touch an instrument, and even my listening is largely passive.

– Pop music. I was the king of band trivia, and knew practically every chord progression in every song from about 1969 to 1989 (well, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration). But I have had no interest whatsoever in such things since the onset of the 1990s. The only bands that have piqued my interest, really, are Fleet Foxes and Twenty One Pilots.

What things did you used to be obsessed with but barely take even a passing interest in now?

Pre-Uni

and

During Uni

Internet Trolling.

When everyone’s a Troll what’s the point these days?? 😆

When everyone’s a Troll what’s the point these days??

Must. Resist.

Orienteering – used to be on the Yrkshire squad as a teen and won the Yorkshire school champs a couple of times. Did quite a bit of MTBO as well. Stopped when I went to Uni and never got back in to it.

Photography – used to spend hours out taking photos, then hours editing them at home. Nearly got to the point where I though I had something worth selling.
Think in reality it was just major procrastination while at Uni when I should have been doing work!
That stopped when kids came along though (seems a common theme in this thread). Now I want to get back in to it but ,y main everyday lens is broken and that means spending money I don’t have to replace it.

And I’ve got back in to mountain biking in the last couple of years which has become my new main hobby.

Collecting records/CDs. – this used to be a huge obsession, but I sold 90% of the collection 4 years ago and just do Spotify these days.

Off-Roading, I had a Landrover Defender then a Discovery for the best part of 10 years – drove 1000s of miles off-road, did a Rally to Bosnia and have been down to the Sahara.
The disco went 8 years ago and can’t afford another.

Mountain biking – used to be my only bike – but not ridden it for over a year, even though I’m cycling more than ever.

Scouting – used to be really into it – was AVSL at a really busy unit – jamborees/camps every year, collecting memorabilia, etc.
These days I help out with the local Explorer scouts but don’t have the time to commit to camps etc.

Since having kids they are my main priority now – this weekend i’ll be running them between dance/gymnastics on Saturday, then taking the youngest to a Gymnastics comp on Sunday.

LSD. Explains a lot about my world view.

Sprint and Marathon Canoeing, used to race loads as a junior, discovered beer and girls in 6th form and packed it in, would love to go back but cant make it to the club from work even if I had the time in the evenings which I don’t.

2 of my old mates from Jr GB trips in the late 90’s won a gold medal each at the London and Rio Olympics, I’m pretty sure I was faster than one of them too, Ed used to destroy me when we were 15 but Liam was a bit skinnier then.

Another former orienteer here. Parents used to drag me to events every weekend. Also used to be musical. Now I just whistle tunelessly

Sailing here too:
Used to be

but for the last few years it’s changed to lying around on something like this for a week

and plenty of bass fishing on this

Could be worse.
[I’ve got a bike somewhere also apparently!}

Motorbikes. I still have the bike- daily driver and show winner, one of the best of its breed but it’s up the back of the garage with a board over it, being a worktop. I used to spend every weekend riding it and many nights tuning it, shaving off grams or squeezing in horses and handlings (I nearly sold it one time but it turned out it was too powerful and too light for the race series the guy wanted to ride in). Organised national rideouts, some folks on here came on them so hopefully they were good. And I could still rebuild its carbs in the dark.

Then one day, couldn’t give a shit. Tried hard to get it back, went from not giving a shit to actually disliking it. I massively miss the social side, it was fantastic, but there’s never been a moment when I’d rather be on the moto than the pushbike- they’re just incompatible, I can’t do both.

And, tabletop wargaming and collectable card games. I actually do miss this, I could easily start doing it again but I decided it was too much time and money and not enough hot chicks so I walked away from it. I spend a couple of days a year doing boardgame stuff and really like it, it’s a nice thing to dabble in.

At the minute I have no obsession and feel a little adrift.

Word!

I have no real hobby at the moment, not even cycling, sort of fell out of love with everything, i’m just really Dad.

I have OCD so obsessing about anything is generally dangerous. It’s a rather unsettling feeling.

Painting & drawing. Studied a degree in fine art up the opposite end of the country as a ladder out of the hole I’d dug myself into. Continued in spare time after university for a few years.

Then I got back into programming so painting took a back seat while I taught myself C/C++/Linux/PHP/Bash. After a few years created a couple of open source projects and forked a couple of others. While the things that interested me were potentially math heavy, ie audio and fractal graphics, quite a lot can be achieved with only a fairly basic grasp of maths, but for the real stuff, a high level of maths is required and I just don’t have that.

These days my art is restricted to doodling, and programming doesn’t get more complex than playing around with BASH scripts for some purpose or other.

I was well into coarse fishing from 12 until I was 22. I have been the odd time since but it has to be warm and even then after an hour I am bored.

Following road racing on telly.

Watching live telly.

Shopping (in person).

Video Games – used to love them. Not played any for over five years.

Rock climbing – just don’t have the time.

Martial Arts – used to go to loads of classes, take bits away, sparing, one on one tuition. All sorts.

Music – both playing and listening to.

Weight Training – just stopped doing it.

Drink / recreational drugs – not touched drugs since my early twenties and rarely, if ever, drink.

Occasionally get out on the MTB, but not nearly as much as I’d like. Think it’s about time I got a sensible bike for towpath, bridleway and road riding. Anybody fancy a Stache 7 as a swap for something more sensible 😆

Edit: Am I actually the most boring person alive?

Playing the guitar – nice SG under the bed, rarely gets used.
Golf – expensive kit in the garage, not used in two years.
WRC – I used to obsess over my Impreza too (bought from following McRae, Burns etc) now rarely gets a wash.
Rugby League – I used to have Wakefield season tickets until the kids came along. Going to my first match this year tomorrow.

Same as PMK2060…..spent my entire youth fishing but have not done any for 20 years and have now given all my stuff away.

Computer/video games.

Watching films (dvd/blu-ray/cinema). Used to be a bit of a home cinema nut, big collection and surround system. Rarely watch the stuff now.

Reading books.

And to a lesser extent photography. I still get the SLR out occasionally, but weekends are taken up with bike rides now (amongst other days/evenings), and camera phones can produce reasonable pictures for casual shots.

Games, books and films, the problem is I think about the time involved and think I’ve got better things to do than waste my time on those. Maybe it’s a mid-life thing, thinking that you’re now on a count down to death. Though I then go ride bikes and risk my life.

Though new films I’ve given up on as they’re just so derivative and mostly remakes or 99% CGI with too much going on in an attempt to keep the interest of short attention span kids (yeah, I sound old).

I’m shocked even that I still haven’t seen Rogue One, as a big Star Wars fan. I’m not overly exited at the next main Star Wars film even.

@ deadkenny

Lots of good animation in the last 12 months, don’t despair!

I’ve had a bit of a renaissance. I used to shoot competitively (rifle at school, clays once I started work. ) but when the kids were born there was too much commitment needed at the level I was competing at. I did however continue to shoot vermin and game with both rifles and shotguns, particularly as my lad took an interest once he was old enough to come with me.

Since my enforced retirement I have spent a lot more time shooting, joined a rifle club and got into reloading, long range targets and vermin, as well as deer stalking. I’ve even been tempted back onto the competitive clay shooting scene, and am back with my old team. It’s costing me so much I’ve had to get a job to pay for it……. 😀

Interesting how many people that started mountain biking now ride mainly road, I still think of myself as Mountain Biker and have ridden off road a bit this year but most miles have been on the road. I think you need the time to properly enjoy off road riding, the stopping and enjoying the view is as important, on road it’s head down and get the miles in.

When younger I did put a lot of hours in as a conservation volunteer for the National Trust, my greatest contribution to them these days is my membership (which I used to get free) and my spend in the tea shops. Maybe I’m still doing that though as my volunteer hours morphed into maintaining my local church yard for six years and since stopping that have been putting a 100 hours plus per year into building mountain bike trails for the FC as a volunteer.

I have done the opposite
I have gone from road riding to MTB over a 25 year slow drift

Tried rigid MTB that can **** the **** off

Returned when i was getting unfit – ie past my peak which was hardly stellar- and bikes had brakes that stopped you and suspension that worked

Since then I find the roads to busy and stressful – still ride them but [ commuting aside] probably only 4 times a year

I know a lot that are drifting towards road. It seems mostly about lifestyle and having little time to get out on an off road ride but still wanting to get some miles. Worst though are people riding trainers at home, on nice sunny days! (yes, I know a few).

Just make the time. Evening rides off road are great fun.