Fun is Essential

Are you having any Fun?  I Am

Fun is the fourth word in how to move towards owning your future:

The four words are Faith Focus Finish Fun

While grinding is necessary to achieve your goals. It does not mean you cannot have fun along the way.

Anything in excess can be harmful to you. The lack of fun can lead to burnout. I noticed this when I was on LinkedIn in February. There were so many posts about how to avoid burnout. I wondered why people were burning out so early in the year.

I talk about burnout because it happened to me.  I was running my own consulting business burning on both ends of the candle and I was exhausted.  I had nothing left in the tank.  I was not having any Fun.  I was worried about customer problems, finding the next customer and building up my team. Supporting my team.  Concerned about taking off work because that impacted the 💵.  

I ended up shutting down that business and took a job for a few years.  

I reconnected with Fun while learning how to teach young women how to play high school volleyball. The best coaching clinics emphasized two things. 

Your players need to know you genuinely care about them. 

Your players need to have Fun. 

It changed how I coached and started changing how I looked at life. It was more than making sure bills were paid and figuring out how to make the next dollar.

When our kids were younger, we made sure they had fun.  We would check them out of school for no reason at all and hang out with them.  They were A and B students and we made sure they were not missing any tests when we did it. We took them out to attend a baseball spring training game or simply go to a movie when it was less crowded.   

However, as they got older, my wife and I stopped. We focused on paying bills and thought that was living. 

Paying your bills is important but, what type of life is that.

We had a neighbor named Henry who was a cool guy. We didn’t socialize much with our neighbors or spend a lot of time outside. But whenever we saw Henry, we would chat with him. He always had a positive attitude.

One year, we both had a productive garden. My wife and I grew tomatoes, onions, potatoes, and Anaheim Peppers. Henry had lemons and jalapeños. We shared our surplus with each other.

My new job required me to be out of town a lot.   

We noticed we had not seen Henry in a while but, we did not know the wife's name. We never had a conversation with her.  My wife became the brave one and asked where is Henry we have not seen him in a while. 

She looked at us and said.  Henry Died.  We had a gut punch. He had died some 8 months ago.  That really hurt.  We were so in the grind, we did not notice for 8 months. Well really about 4 months but it took 8 months for us to say something.

We then had to ask her.  What is your name?  Another gut punch for me.  It seems like something we should have known over the few years they were our neighbor.

She looked at us and said.  Are you enjoying each other? We said yeah… It was not convincing.  She looked at us again and said.  Are you really enjoying each other?  Life is too short not to enjoy each other. 

We then learned Henry had Brain Cancer.  He had it the whole time we knew him.  He was in remission but then it came back aggressively. She said we knew it was possible but my regret is we did not take the time to enjoy each other more.

Another gut punch for me….

We felt bad after that encounter, but we soon resumed our normal routine. My wife had a habit of browsing cruises online for the past 10 years. We would discuss the possibility of trying one, but we were not sure if we would enjoy it. We had been talking about it for years.

One day doing the normal routine of wouldn't it be nice, The question: Are you enjoying each other? Hit me hard.

It was another 6 months later and we were in our comfortable rut. I realize enjoying does not require a trip, but a trip could help. It could help us to get out of our comfort zone. So I asked for her laptop, wen through the process of picking the room, to final costs. As we have done many times before. But this time I pulled out the old credit card and hit purchase.

Since then, we have gone on six cruises and several other trips and weekend getaways. We are about to go on our seventh cruise and we are planning our eighth one.

The point is. You have to find the fun and there is fun in the journey. 

Reward yourself for the small steps you have taken. You bought and completed an online course.  Celebrate.  It doesn’t have to be big and you don’t have to justify it.  For instance, when I achieve one of my objectives and a good milestone. I buy myself 1 bag of Haribo gummy bears.  It is my favorite candy and costs less than $1 at Walmart.  

Spending time with your loved ones is also a legacy that can last.  You set an example and that example will be passed down from generation to generation.

This wraps up the introduction to the fours F’s Faith Focus Finish Fun.

To take ownership of your future and build a legacy that lasts:

• Start with a small amount of faith that you can be your future self.

• Create a plan with measurable objectives and maintain Focus on those goals.

• Everybody starts but only the few Finish, Don’t wish things were easier wish you were better.

• Remember there is a time and place for everything and Fun has its place in success.  

Ok so now it is time for action: For each of your top 3 goals.

• How will you celebrate the completion of the goal?

• How will you celebrate the completion of big pieces of each goal?

• How will you celebrate life with your family?

To your plan.  Document the reward for each accomplishment.

Until next time…

Major