How Can You Have More Play In Your Life?
More fun. More play. That’s what I realized I needed in my life and shared in my New Year’s letter.
Maybe you feel the same way?
But how can you have more fun and play in your life when the world is more serious and we feel like we need to be serious to deal with the struggles of a serious world?
As I wrote about in this other letter, one tool to integrate more play into your life is simply your attitude.
No matter how difficult things are, you can cultivate a playful attitude.
To do this, firstly I think we just have to say that it’s okay to play. That’s what I had to do and it’s really helped with mentally freeing me to do things that last year I felt like I couldn’t do.
There are a couple other ways I can think of that can help to create more play in life.
One of those ways came to me on the exact same day, literally just a few hours after I had released me New Year’s letter about realizing I need more play. I was scrolling through the X platform and I came across a speech by the very insightful Alan Watts. I really enjoy listening to Alan Watts and it was the most impeccable timing that this speech about work and play presented itself to me.
As Alan Watts says, “Regard everything that you are doing as play, and don’t imagine for one minute that you’ve got to be serious about it.”
For me this was really relevant to hear. Last year I was feeling stuck with certain things because I felt I needed to be serious about everything that I was creating and sharing. This year I'm looking at those things with fresh perspective and aspiring to turn everything into play.
Another way to turn everything into play is to turn everything into a game. Everyone loves games, and if you can turn life into a simple game it can be a lot more fun.
How do you turn life into a game?
Games give you goals, levels, and rewards. With life, you can set your own goals, set the levels for your ambitions, and set your rewards for beating the levels.
If life is difficult right now, just view it as a more difficult level of a game you have to beat. Every new game level is going to require you to improve your skill level.
Most importantly, set the rewards that you get when you beat the levels. Whether that’s a new gadget, new attire, a vacation, or something bigger.
Treating life like a game is something I’ve been doing for awhile, but playing a game is just one type of play. There’s another type of play that’s more freeing and boundless.
Play of experimentation. Play of exploration. Play without expectations.
The play of creativity. That’s the play I want to do most of all.
More fun. More play.
Soon.
How about you? Can you think of any other ways to make life more playful?
Next time on Tune In With Tannar, I’m going to start sharing some of the fun stuff that I’ve been wanting to share for awhile.
Stay tuned. Stay curious!
-Zach