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7 Ways To Have More Fun
How to get serious about play and find more joy in your life.
Why is finding time for fun so difficult?
We’ve all got to do lists a mile long, and between trying to eat healthy, go to the gym, call our parents, be a good friend, climb that career ladder and BE PRODUCTIVE, it’s easy to forget about the things we enjoy.
When we’re exhausted it’s just easier to sit down, re-watch How I Met Your Mother for the 8th time, and try not to question whether we’re even enjoying it.
But having fun should be the top of our list, purely because it makes our experience of being alive better. We all want to have lives full of laughter and joy, and having lots of fun is the best way to guarantee that.
Here are some starting points to help you get there:
1. Do something challenging
When you look back over the past year, what are the things that you remember?
For me, it’s acting in a short film, making a bunch of new friends at a work conference, and telling someone I had a crush on that I liked him.
All of these things scared the crap out of me in some way.
I was reluctant to get out of my comfort zone, and in many ways I would have preferred to stay home, away from the possibility of rejection or failure.
But when you deviate from your normal you create more excitement in your life. You create memories that you can look back on. You prevent the days from blending into one. Living a full life is the best way to have fun.
2. Do what you enjoyed as a child.
Children are really smart. They just start doing things, purely for the fun of it. They don’t drag mountains of anxiety and self-judgment into everything they do. They don’t worry if they’re being productive enough. They just play.
That’s why when you look back on what you loved doing as a kid, you can often find a clue into the activities that you really love.
For me, that was scrapbooking, making collages, and making up elaborate stories about my enormous collection of beanie babies.
