Tag Archives: play

When Goals Get In The Way Of Fun

by on April 16, 2006 in Life

Well, leave it to Kathy Sierra to inspire me to do something else. She asks a seemingly simple question about why many people (and I’m included here) don’t like to exercise when most animals crave it.

She muses…

Take a human out of his work cubicle or off the couch and turn him loose outside. What happens? Hmmm… for far too many of us, nothing happens. Or we turn around and walk right back in the door and head for the couch or the chair in front of our computer. The one thing that usually does not happen is the kind of physical exuberance–the sheer joy of being able to run and jump–that so many other animals do.

She offers some explanations but I know for myself that it’s a matter of just not enjoying the process of exercising. Or, at least, that was my old story. This old story continues that exercising is boring and pointless (forgetting all the pointed stats that it’s actually good for us to break a sweat). So, to make it less boring and pointless, I always tried to initiate a set of goals and keep a log to track my progress. This always worked great…for a while. And then something would happen like I’d get sick or my work got heated up. I’d miss a few workout sessions and before I knew it I’d be back to where I started. Only this time, frustrated and depressed to have to begin the long progress back toward my goals. I wager this might be a familiar pattern for most folks.

So, in keeping with my new living philosophy of rewriting my personal story, I’m taking a very different approach to exercise: I’m giving all these goals the boot. I’m rediscovering whatever exercise I’m doing and focusing on the fun of the activity. I’m running again and leaving the stopwatch at home. Rather I’m listening to my body tell me when to run, when to walk, when to just enjoy the time outside.

Now my recrafted personal story is that I love to exercise and that my body is a finely tuned system that will always tell me what it needs. I don’t have to impose any artificial goals to force me to workout. I’m more than able to find the fun in things without creating structures.

If you find yourself on a treadmill going nowhere (exercise, work, relationships, you name it), slow down and let the rhythm of a playful life take hold.

Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work On April 27

by on April 4, 2006 in Career, Life, Work

For Leah, my oldest daughter, April 27 is shaping up to be one of the most exciting days of the year (next to her birthday and Christmas). Why? April 27 is Take Our Daughters and Sons To Work Day.

I think her excitement seems to be a mixture of spending time with me and doing something grownup. And I’m excited to be able to show her the working world again. The last time I was able to do this was when she was four years old and she spent a half-day with me coloring and playing with a magnadoodle. Now that she’s seven, we can create activities so she can explore what work can be. Do some dreaming…I think I’ll join her.

The organization behind this day is the Ms. Foundation for Women. Their resource site has plenty to offer, particularly if your workplace or your child’s school sponsors the day. And if not, no worries…just play around with it and create something on your own.

As I was touring around the site and discovered a quote from Bob Drago, a friend and former Board member of mine when I was at another association:

When my daughters were younger, I found Take Our Daughters To Work Day invaluable, partly for the positive exposure to the world of work that it provided to my daughters, but also because it strengthened the bonds between us. Today, I believe in Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work more broadly as a way to educate children regarding the world of work, a way to humanize our workplaces, and as a device to teach parents about how work looks from the family side (which is often an eye-opener!). Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work is a great way to open up the workplace to issues of family, to see a side of employees that is often (and unfortunately) hidden, and to educate children, employees and managers as to options around flexibility that we either already have or should have in the future.

So, if you have children of your own, take some time to introduce them more intimately to your work (and if you don’t have children, grab a niece, nephew, or a neighborhood kid). Don’t think your work’s interesting? Just try to see it through the eyes of a child…you might be surprised.

Something For The Geek In All Of Us

by on March 29, 2006 in Creative

Wil Wheaton has an ant farm and it’s super cool. You’re probably asking how ‘ant farm’ and ‘super cool’ interact in the same sentence. Well, take a look at his post for today, i call the big one bitey (which is itself a funny riff on a Simpsons one-liner).

Need further proof? Seriously…check out his Flickr photos. Time to introduce the many splendors of our workaholic and very social insect cousins to my two girls.

Creativity Is An Act Of Courage

by on March 22, 2006 in Creative

Dave Gray at Communication Nation is conducting an experiment in facilitating an asynchonous conversation with Maish R. Nichani who writes the elearningpost blog. I’ve seen just a couple of attempts at creating an open, evolving dialogue like this on other blogs so it will be interesting to see what happens.

What’s particularly interesting are some of the initial comments from Maish about our learned lack of comfort with being uncomfortable. As someone with children just entering the U.S. educational system, his thoughts run parallel to my own – we either need to worrk to change the system (which is an uphill battle and frought with much despair) or change the way we help our kids (which is something specific that all parents have the power to do). Here’s Maish’s thoughts:

It’s one thing to be out of touch, it’s totally another to do something about it. In this day and age, success, I think, comes to those who are comfortable being uncomfortable or those who deliberately practice being uncomfortable. But many of us shy way from being out of touch. A few days ago I had a chat with a friend who runs creativity courses here and he signaled out the education system as the reason for this passive shyness. Right from the start we are told to draw on the lines and color inside the boxes and this conformity mindset has molded us into being passive receivers. But thanks to the Internet, there is hope.

So, let’s encourage our kids to draw outside the lines, wear clothes that don’t match, make messes, make mistakes, think really big things. Build their confidence to be active generators rather than mere passive receivers. And continue to listen and encourage them when an old, industrial-era teacher comes along to squash these better qualities. Because it will happen at some point either as a kid or as an adult. Creativity is an act of open disobedience against the norms. Creativity is an act of courage

Soulful Work Is About A Revolution

by on December 19, 2005 in Career, Life

Now that I can actually post to the blog again (goodbye TypePad?), I want to write about something that I’ve been itching to produce since last Friday. Beware, a rant is brewing…

On my way to work, NPR’s Morning Edition had a brief segment called Salary Level May Not Indicate Contentment. If you go to NPR’s website, here’s the description of the piece:

Researchers say just about the time people are making the most money in their careers, they bottom out when it comes to contentment. Renee Montagne talks with Jonathan Clements, personal finance columnist for The Wall Street Journal.

Based on this, my only guess is that NPR is coming up empty when it comes to discussing meaningful career-related topics. Do we really need another long-winded report about how money doesn’t buy happiness? Making it all worse is the blathering of Jonathan Clements on how we can make our job seem better through fringe benefits like telecommuting and flextime. And listening to him talk, it makes me wonder why a guy who doesn’t seem to derive much joy from his own work has been asked to give pointers to public radio listeners. The poor fellow just perpetuates the whole notion of "work as drudgery."

Of course, it’s all masked in the idea of being busy, that ever-present status symbol of the fast and elite professional. The next time you’re at a dinner party and someone asks how you are doing, just respond that you’re doing great and have plenty of down-time in your life and watch for the reaction. I reckon that it will be somewhere in the ballpark of skeptical and amazed.

You might wonder why all of this gets me riled up. I guess its the narrow idea that if we dress up the fringes of our work and life, then we might find some contentment. The placating and safety-minded inner voice whispers that even if we stay in soulless work, at least we can do it from home or at a more convenient time. Yet, we’re only scratching at the thin veneer of what’s truly possible.

Digging deeper is much more dangerous (or at least to the rest of our society). It means tossing aside firmly held cultural norms that work is work and never to be confused with play. It means shunning the shallow tag of busy and replacing it with the elements of flow where creative ideas and passionate actions intersect. It means consciously and courageously pursue those things in life that matter. It means practicing love for ourselves and for those who come into our own unique vision for the future.

We get only one shot at this life. Live with no regrets.