Enjoy your weekend~

Pix by Busy Mommy

As summer comes to an end often we feel it’s time to "get back to work." The time for fun and play is over. But fun and play can add energy to your life all year ’round.

It seems fun is usually fit in when we have finished our work. And we never seem to finish our work so we rarely allow ourselves to play. It’s time to plan for play.

Planning for Play:

• Find three fun activities or events in the weekend paper you’d like to attend and plan to do at least one.
• Gather an email list of friends so when someone has an idea like going to the art exhibit or seeing the Time Traveler’s Wife they can email the list and find people to go with. Our women’s group at church is doing this.
• Re-invigorate a hobby you have let go of and plan some time this weekend to participate.
• Find a fun activity that also interests one or more of your kids. Then you are still parenting and having time together, but you both have fun. My 15 year old daughter and I are doing Wreck this Journal and How to Be an Explorer of the World together.
• Take a class that looks fun. It’s harder to back out of it if you have paid for it.
• What did you like doing as a kid? Bike, hike, do crafts, do puzzles, play an instrument? Do any of these things sound fun now?
• Find a project that you can get lost in. Maybe refinishing some furniture, creating an herb garden, writing your memoirs, or researching your genealogy. Now add time to your calendar for your project.
• Since you want to keep healthy why don’t you find exercise that is fun? Dance around your living room. Take a hike in a beautiful place. Go bike riding with your kids. Find a tennis partner to play with. Join a hockey league. Play frisbee golf.
• Play with friends. Have a game night, a movie night, dress up and go to tea.
• Think about different activities. What makes you smile and gives you a boost of energy just thinking about it? Plan to do it at least once this month.
• Don’t always say no because you have things you "have to do." So the family has to get their own meal sometimes. Maybe the house doesn’t get cleaned one day. Perhaps you don’t sit in that boring meeting. This is your life, you need to do what you want to do once in awhile.
• Plan something to look forward to every day, whether it’s a chapter in a novel, playing a song on the piano, going out with friends, or going to your dance class. Make sure every day has something in it that brings you joy.
• Keep a fun file folder with things from magazines or ideas of activities that look like they would be fun. When you get stuck with what would be fun this week you can open up the file folder.
• And be open to spontaneous fun, like playing in the leaves.

I know there are tons of excuses why you can’t or don’t have time for fun and play. But, everyone needs downtime to recharge. Most likely you already do passive activities to relax like watching TV, surfing the internet, reading, playing Farmville, or vegging. And while that’s fine, you may find you get more energy pursuing active fun.

Often excuses are made because you feel guilty you aren’t being productive. But, if you know that a healthy human being needs time to recuperate from the daily stresses of life, then you realize fun is productive. From all the people I have coached, many who think of themselves as lazy, the problems rarely stem from too much playing. Problems arise from exhaustion and impossible expectations of themselves. Give yourself permission to play a bit, guilt-free.

What fun can you plan for the next few days?

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Photo credit: Will Game

The guidebook said it was going to be an informative walking tour of history and stone bridges.

As we hiked, we saw many places where signs used to be. But, it wasn’t until sign 14 that we saw any informative signs. And that was the  only one.

The white trees against the blue sky were beautiful

During the 2 mile walk we kept hoping to see the stone bridges towering in the sky. When the end of the road was gated off we had to turn back around. I was hearing some grumbles. The rest of the family wasn’t as excited about the butterflies and trees as I was.

At the next empty sign post, I announced a fake historic event that happened here about President Andrew Jackson crossing the bridge.  We found the stone bridges – tiny bridges we didn’t even know were bridges when we crossed the first time. But, on the way back we saw the stones. My husband declared that bridge we came to was built by the squirrel army.

I pointed out the spot where a scene from Goldfinger was shot. Could have been, we were near Fort Knox .  And the kids were naming new landmarks and telling the stories.

By the time we got back to the car we couldn’t stop laughing.

I still don’t know the history of that trail.

Even people that hate their jobs aren’t looking to jump ship right now. Maybe you don’t hate your job but are bored by your work, or it annoys you or you’d rather not go. We don’t have to like every aspect of our work to help people. I’d rather do just about anything than do my accounting month ends.

Sometimes it just takes a slight shift to make work more enjoyable.

1. Go to work feeling good. Have some quiet time, a few minutes of exercise, wake up in time to get your grooming in and start your day right.
2. Listen to people. So many people feel unlistened to as people’s own agendas and egos get in the way. How would really listen make the other person feel? And how would that make you feel?
3. Play get it done games. Race a timer. Challenge in with a friend. Say if I get these five things done by break, I can break an extra 5 minutes.
4. Connect with others throughout the day – by twitter, facebook, phone, email, over the coffee machine. Just make sure you do it not on company time and probably not with company computers.
5. Play music. This was a life saver as a stay at home mom to get those chores done. It also it great for those tedious tasks that don’t require much brain power. You can use headphones if you work with others.
6. Take breaks. Working straight through lunch and breaks just makes you frazzled. Take your breaks – away from your computer – and feel how energetic you are.
7. Volunteer for one of the interesting projects. It may be more work, but will seem less like work if you are mentally or creatively engaged in the project.
8. Tap into the big picture of how you are helping people through your company or through your work. Are you making people’s days by always have a smile when they order their coffee? Are you talking with people as you drive your route? Is your company making a difference and need your part to do that? Are you helping people manage their finances and take care of their dreams? Perhaps reread some thank you notes or emails from people. Or thinking of every person you meet as a person to love today. How you do your work does matter.
9. Put a cap on grumbling, gossip and complaining. There is no joy there.
10. Think of ideas to make others have a more joyful day at work.

Use your imagination and you can always find ways to make work more enjoyable.

Chuck Wolfe has fun at work

The past three weeks have been fuller than usual with some special projects and vacation coming up. I was on edge more than I like to be. OK at some points I was down right cranky. So was my husband. So were my kids. 

But, I found what got us through was finding moments. Like laughing hysterically at something absurb. The kids and I singing songs really loudly in the car going from place to place. Grounding myself in a prayer every few hours. Enjoying chocolate marshmallow eggs. Finding wild turkeys in our back yard while washing dishes.

A walk and talk with a friend. Seeing a groundhog on a hike with my husband. Getting lost in a book in the evening.

I get excited by a small blue flower I run across or the scent of an orange. When I see bliss type moments I stop what I am doing to enjoy.

But, I could have easily missed all these moments. I could have stayed stressed by thinking about all my to do’s during those times. And sometimes I started that way, but quickly came back to the present.

I’m sure there are also moments I did miss by not stopping to notice or listen or slow down.

Are you missing any moments in your life?

I am offering a printout of a gratitude list you can use. What are you thankful for this year? Here is a PDF I made that you can download and print out. On most computers right click and save to your hard drive. http://www.encouragingcoach.com/docs/thankful.pdf You can even print some out to take to Thanksgiving dinner.