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Why You Need More Fun in Your Life

If I asked your spouse, your kids, or your roommate if you are a fun person…what would they say? When was the last time they saw you laugh?  Could they name something fun they did with you recently?

No one wants to be boring or serious all the time, and yet the difficulty for most of us is that fun doesn’t seem like a priority…there are other things that seem way more important than fun. It just doesn’t seem urgent in our weekly schedule.

But fun is a secret ingredient to relationships that many people miss. Fun makes a relationship go deeper. Fun is like Gorilla Glue. It keeps you cemented to each other.

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Fun reminds us that life may be hard but there is also joy that can be found in the midst of hardships.

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How To Rest Effectively

I don’t know about you but I have a hard time resting. I enjoy the idea of resting and I certainly think I need more rest, but when my day of rest rolls around I find that I’m tackling a different “To Do” list. That’s the list that consists of all of the personal things I need to get taken care of so my life stays together. I’m sure you have a list like that as well.

Everyone says they need more rest, but no one tells you how to rest. We all need a rhythm of rest but we haven’t been taught how to rest. For me, resting conjures up images of sleep and taking a whole day to sleep sounds extremely boring. Lying on the couch all day and watching Netflix would get old really fast and I certainly wouldn’t be looking forward to my day of rest.

Part of the problem is that it is easy to confuse active rest with passive rest. Passive rest is more of the lounging and napping variety, whereas active rest means that you are doing certain key activities that fill you up.

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It has been helpful for me to imagine my emotional, spiritual, and physical energy much like a glass of water.

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The Secret to Rest

I’m sure with a title like that is seems to be a bit of hype but I’ve found one simple practice to help me rest. I’ll give it to you right up front. Here it is: You must make a conscious decision to limit your work.

That means you have to decide how many hours a week you are going to work and stick to it. If you are self-employed this is really difficult. Trust me I understand. It is hard to stick to a schedule. There is never an end to my emails, FB messages, voicemail, and to-do lists, so I have to create an end. I have to make a conscious decision to end my work. So if you don’t get a response from me right away it isn’t because I don’t love you, it’s because I’m trying to put boundaries in my life.

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Entrepreneurs, you have a tendency to never stop. You bring your work home, you work in the car, at the dinner table, even in bed. If you’re married there are a lot better things to do in bed than work.

Some of you are pushing back right now and thinking, “But if I take a break there is no one else who is going to do this. If I don’t work, I don’t get paid.”

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Creating a Rhythm of Rest

What’s your rhythm of rest? Do you have a regular set schedule to take time to recharge and refuel? If not, you need one. Most people I talk with don’t take rest seriously enough. They all know they need more of it, but it always gets pushed to the bottom of the priority list as other things seem to be significantly more urgent.

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How to Have a Fulfilling Job

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I’ve heard that more people die at 9am on Monday morning than any other time…because that’s when they have to head back to work. How do you feel about your job?  We all enjoy work, maybe not your job, but we love some type of work. Whether you enjoy gardening, or cooking, or working on your car there is a real sense of enjoyment that comes from work. That’s one of the reasons why we feel sorry for people in nursing homes-their physical activity is limited.

Work isn’t the problem, for most of us it’s the job that’s the problem.

What if there was a way to instill passion into your job, the job you have right now?  What if it was possible to find purpose in the midst of cubicles and spreadsheets? I think it is.

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In the Beginning…

My goal is to help you to run to win no matter what arena God has called you to step into. Just to be clear and up front I’m not a runner, at least not yet. My exercise comes through the gym, but I have many friends that are avid runners and participate in several races every year. I really admire the distances that they can accomplish each year. Sometimes I wonder if I could walk that far! Each year they push themselves to try something a little harder. Some try a tough man style race or they move up from a 5k to a 10k, a 13.1 or even marathons. As I listen to them prepare for their new race I never hear them say they want to win, I just hear them express sentiments about being happy if they were to just finish. And they train accordingly. I’ve yet to have a friend tell me they are actually training to win this new race. I don’t think finishing is a bad strategy for running new races and tests of stamina, especially when you are stretching yourself. In fact, I applaud them for trying to push themselves to accomplish things I can’t.

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What I’ve noticed over the years is that some people apply this strategy of “I just hope to finish” to life. There is no such thing as a goal like that when it comes to life. Everyone finishes life, it is called death. The race you run determines what that finish line looks like and how many people welcome you when you do actually finish.