Play. Seriously…
There are two ideas that I really buy into:
- Success takes hard work and determination.
- If it’s not fun, why do it?
They seem a bit conflicting though, don’t they? Of course there are times when hard work is needed, and it doesn’t exactly feel like Mardi Gras. There are the late nighters, the putting out fires, and days when it’s one fail after another. And then there are times when all the stars align, you have big wins, and it’s the most fun, awesome thing in the world.
Wouldn’t it be great if hard work could be fun too? What if it didn’t have to be either/or, but could be both? What would that look like?
It would look like a game. After all, mostsports are just hard work at a game, and we have fun playing it. Running back and forth on a field is hard work until you throw a ball in and then it’s suddenly fun!
Here’s the scoop on how to have both:
Hard work is something you do. It’s work that takes focus and effort. Fun is not something you do. Fun is something you are – a mindset or an outlook you have on life. That’s why is absolutely possible to have fun doing hard work. The secret is you’ve got to make it a game.
“When the going gets tough, the tough do what they do,
while the wise find the game in it.”
The easiest way to make hard work fun is to engage your childhood imagination. Remember making a fort out of old sheets and dining room chairs and how suddenly the world transformed and you became this pirate, beautiful princess, or fugitive escaping the bad guys? That’s the imagination you want to engage to make any project turn from grueling hard work into a exciting challenge and thrilling ride. Go ahead, put on a costume and get your work done!
