Where's The Fun Gone?
Ever considered that somewhere along the way, we forgot to have FUN... and isn't that what life is all about...
“Having Fun Is Not A Diversion From A Successful Life;
It Is The Pathway To It.”
Martha Beck
My eldest son is 13 and has decided he wants to play football… not competitively, but just as a sport, to feel part of a team, just for fun… and can I find something?!
Everywhere I look, it’s all about working your way up through the ranks, proving yourself every step of the way, that you are good enough and deserving of a place on the team…
Where’s the fun gone?
Do you ever feel like everything we do is for some form of achievement, to prove ourselves, to reach a goal, to hit a target?...
What about doing something just for fun… just because we want to… just because we enjoy it… just because…!
I was recently with someone who was talking about being part of a singing group, and she loves it!
You can see that it’s her passion, but also her ‘fun’! And yes their singing group enters competitions, but their ethos is that they’re fully inclusive, they accept everyone that wants to be part of the group… everyone is welcome… and where they come in the competition doesn’t matter because they are all there because they want to be, because they’re loving it and because they’re having fun!
They’re enjoying life!
I could see this on her face, in fact, much deeper than her facial expressions, you could see that it lit up her soul… and I thought, ‘She is onto something really special’…
Now I cannot sing a note – I did karaoke once with my best friend, an intoxicated mistake on holiday, belting out Britney Spears… and even our friends disowned us! That memory still haunts me to this day… but to know there are people out there who would even open their arms to someone like me is truly special, and unfortunately somewhat uncommon…
Play time
I’ve recently taken part in a training programme at work, which uses art-based therapy techniques to explore deep and meaningful topics; an alternative to form-filling.
Now I love a good form-filling session (I know, what is wrong with me?!), but even I can agree that a more creative and playful approach allows us to reflect more accurately on what is important to us…
The sessions involved cutting and sticking, drawing, colouring, decorating, and even weaving on a loom…
And once I shrugged off the cloak of my inner critic panicking that ‘I’m not creative’, I was truly stunned… not just at my amazement of how I can actually achieve something ‘creative’… but the deep reflection that was unearthed, whilst doing something fun!
By the end of each session, I was staring at a piece of art!
Pens strewn across the table… my fingers sticky… colours and textiles adorning my paper… and myself tangled in weaving wool! And I thought, when was the last time I did this… got down and messy, stuck my fingers together with glue, used felt tip pens and oil pastels to draw and colour, or created a vibrant piece of art using a loom (well never actually when it comes to the loom), but it reminded me that everything in adult life is about doing… ‘doing’ to achieve… ‘doing’ because it’s our responsibility, ‘doing’ to complete, to strive, to prove, to reach…
Where is the fun in your life?
What do you do just because you enjoy it?
Do you do anything just because it’s fun, not because it’s productive or achieving a goal?
I don’t know about you, but starting now, I’m bringing more ‘unproductive’ enjoyment into my life, just because it’s fun… and that’s enough!
Take care and much love,
Julie x
Why not get in touch, I’d love to hear from you…
I dance in my room for 10 minutes a day because it connects me to just what you are talking about-- something just for me because...fun!