“Having FUN, we get more work done!”

In my opinion, having fun is creating happiness and joy, and creating happiness and joy is living life! They say you can add years to your life by simply adding life to your years.  That means having fun will allow you to get more done because you will be here longer!

Life is a grind.  It is not easy, and it has its daily, weekly, and yearly challenges.  Shortly after we are born, it begins! School, relationships, college, work, career, bills, etc., etc. So many responsibilities and things we need to do and accomplish that it can seem overwhelming sometimes.

When we focus on all those things, we tend to get anxious and complain about all of it. It would be easier to walk away or not even try to accomplish or do some of these things. Sometimes that’s what we or others we know end up doing. That bad word that starts with a Q: Quitting!

Why do we want to quit? Cause we are not having FUN! We look at our many responsibilities and only see the bad. Even if we try hard, we can’t see the good in some of these responsibilities, and it’s only because we have not figured out how to have FUN while doing them.

School was always a struggle for me mentally. It was hard for me to focus during subjects I did not like or deal with the constant pressure of social interaction that I struggled with growing up (yes, I was shy), so I wanted to avoid it every day. Eventually, though, I figured out a few things. There were friends that I chose to associate with that made me happy and comfortable and teachers too!  Eventually, I realized picking friends and classes helped me control things and allowed me to have more FUN, and once it became FUN, it was easier to go to school. Since it was FUN, I eventually started to like school and was eager to go every day.

My work experience goes back for four decades. At the young age of 7, I was already looking for ways to earn money, so I started shoveling snow and delivering newspapers. I liked having my own money to buy candy as a kid, but the fun pretty much stopped there; I was not too fond of the actual working part.

Eventually, I learned that shoveling snow with a friend instead of alone was more fun and chose that instead and as I got a little older (8 to be exact), I started cutting grass for my neighbors, and I realized it was fun for me, it made me happy, so I did that as much as I could. Creating straight lines, sweeping up all the mess, making everything look good, and collecting all the money was FUN for me, so I just kept doing it and looking for more opportunities to do it. I would choose that over playing sports with my friends because it was FUN for me, and creating those straight lines became like a game for me.

As I grew up, earning money was never a problem for me but saving it was.  I was a terrible saver and spent as much as I made all the time. Eventually, though the fun of spending turned into no fun at all because my credit was terrible, my bank account balance was embarrassing, and I had no assets to show for the money I had earned in my 21 years of life. I eventually realized I wanted to have a family and provide for them, so what I did was instead of finding joy in spending, I made it a game to save money every week.  It was FUN to try and save more this week than the week before.  It was fun to see my account grow, and it was fun to buy things that made sense like property and a house instead of all five versions of Z-Cavaricci jeans and every new pair of Nike’s that came out every week.

Many of you have some of the same stories or experiences, and we could exchange those back and forth forever, but the point is this:

We have all heard that “We can accomplish anything we set our minds to,” but I am here to tell you we can accomplish anything we set our minds to, but it’s easier and quicker if you figure out how to make it fun. In the examples above, I shared how I changed some things and figured out how to make work, school, or whatever else I had to do into something FUN and I think that is important, but what I didn’t mention above is what changed, and this is the key to having FUN.

ATTITUDE! Yes, that is what really changed, not just the classes, the friends, and the environment but my attitude. When I decided to change my attitude and focus on the good instead of the bad and change my attitude instead of my aptitude, that’s when everything became FUN for me, and that’s when I started getting more done.

  • Prisoners play cards and join a book club with other prisoners.
  • Soldiers in the military sing while they march and do their drills.
  • Seniors in retirement homes make new friends and learn to play shuffleboard.

ALL of us have been somewhere or been forced to do something we don’t like or don’t want to do, but all of us have a choice. We can figure out a way to make it fun, or we can be miserable and complain about how bad we have it every day, but I know if you look hard, you will see the potential for FUN everywhere, but to see if you don’t need to get special glasses, you need a special attitude.

Once your attitude changes, you start having FUN, and once you start having FUN, your attitude gets even better. Next thing you know, your cheeks hurt every day because you have been smiling and laughing all day, and you start forgetting that you even worked a 10-hour shift on the assembly line because you figured out how to have more FUN and get more work done.

What’s your attitude? I choose FUN, and I choose a positive attitude, try it out!

Thanks for reading, have a great week!

