Fuck seriousness, let’s play more
Play forces me to be better all the time, to never be bored. I do this naturally, but apparently research shows it radically improves everything in life.
“…it’s all around us, yet goes mostly unnoticed or unappreciated until it is missing.”
This is Stuart Brown, founder of the National (American) Institute for Play, comparing play to oxygen. In his TED talk, Brown said:
“Play leads to brain plasticity, adaptability, and creativity… Nothing fires up the brain like play.”
Stuart studied over six thousand people and winded up having this epiphany that playing can take everything to the next level — from you being you, to relationships, to learning, and to your professional potential.
You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation — Plato
Defining play is difficult because it’s a process, not a thing. It’s a feeling not a result. All kinds of emotions are involved in play; surprise, hope, pleasure and then comes frustration, skill and strength. Then it all starts again, it’s a looping process of mind, body and spirit.
Some people do research and start institutes, which is awesome, people like me just play a lot and like to invite others at scale to do the same.
Every day of my life I try to play as much as possible. When working, cycling, doing chores, dancing, anything really.
I take play very seriously
So seriously that for the last five years I have been playing ‘Tag you’re it’ with grown up friends, if you know me you’ve probably seen me running around or campaigning while playing Taggy.
This running gag has been in the news too many times, I have been interviewed on the radio and television and we even funded €15k to build an application to let people play Taggy. Crazy.
Play transcends languages, does away with disconnect and makes life just exponentially more fun.
Anything can be approached through play, if stuff gets too serious, you’ve missed the point. Like for example using your own name or birthday on Facebook, playing ultimate frisbee when you’re sober, or using only real company positions on your LinkedIn, where’s the fun in that?
There so much written about it I don’t know where to start, but think of the cognitive and social benefits.
What play does to you and your brain
- Enhance memory and focus
- Improve language learning skills
- Perk up creative problem solving
- Get a better sense of responsibility and awareness of rules
What play does to you and your relationships with other people
- Betters problem solving with team work
- Improve conflict resolution in stressful situations
- Increase leadership skill development
- It can even create collaboration with non players/participants
Think about it, when was the last time you played? Remember how you felt, how you forgot about the world, isn’t that amazingly heart warming?
WHOAA YEAAH sounds good, where can I start?
- First, if you want to play Taggy with us, let us know by following Taggy on Twitter. We’re craving to revive this side-project for a long time now and something’s coming on Twitter, we promise.
- Second, check out that awesome TED talk by Stuart.
- Third, let your friends know by pressing the heart 💛 below, that you’re coming to get them very soon hahaha.
Bonus step: Go watch Adventure time, where all these gifs are made from, and then get of your couch again LOL.
