Guilt Free Fun

As a society, we have been taught from a young age that we need to take life seriously and fun was for the idle. Let me tell you this... I never suscribed to that and my parents would be the first to back that up.

When I was a kid, I loved having fun and I would find creative ways to do so.

Dad: "Ann, don't climb that 10 foot fence."

Two hours later...

Me: "Daddy! Daddy!  Debbie is stuck up on the fence!"

Dad: "Why is your sister stuck up there?"

Me: "She followed me cuz I said it would be fun. And it was. But she got scared. Go get her, daddy. Please!"

Dad: as he shook his head and climbed to get my sister.

Yeah, I got into trouble a lot, in the name of fun. And no matter what my parents said about being the oldest and being the role model, I was all about fun. What I didn't know was it helped me to be a good mother. I knew the value of fun as a child and for children to have a childhood.

There are too many parents that do things to make their kids grow up fast. They do things their kids see and it awakens their grown up side so they never have a childhood. When they are older, they come to resent that parent or parents.

In Italy, even grown up have fun without guilt. They even have a saying, "dulce far niente," which means the sweetness of doing nothing. Just being there. I love that concept and have incorporated it into my teachings.

We need to get away from feeling guilty when we have fun. It is something that helps us with our stresses in our every day life and it keeps us young. Yes, repeat after me... it keeps us young!

Lot of people talk about doing something fun in a offhand manner as if fun is not important. We need to stop doing that. Fun is important!

Sure, there is value in working hard and being serious but we forget to be silly and enjoy the little moments in our lives that can make us laugh.

Have you ever watched a comedy and at the end, you feel good? Really good? It's because you laughed and had fun.

How is this for an experiment? Before you go out, watch something funny. It changes how you seem from the outside because the glow of fun is reflected on your face from the inside. You seem more approachable. And smiling is contagious! It sets off a chain reaction of smiles.

They say laughter is good medicine and you have to believe it. Don't you seem to be closer to the friends who make you laugh and are positive in their outlook than the serious and stressed out friends?

Sure, there are times when we need to be serious but we need to find that balance of seriousness and fun.

Here's a story that happened at work a few years ago when things were coming to head. I was a project manager opening stores for the company I worked for, at that time.

We got talking about a particular store project I was heading in Georgia. There were roadblocks everywhere we turned and we could not get anyone in Savannah to sign off on the building after we retrofitted it.

Everyone was serious and tempers were about to flare. The architect I was sitting next to started to sing "If I Were a Rich Man" from the Fiddler on the Roof musical, softly... in a chipmunk voice. The room got very quiet... then it erupted with laughter.

Once the laughter died down, our VP stood up, walked over and shook his hand, thanking him for keeping things light. It reminded him that it was just work; we were just selling clothes, not saving lives.

From that moment, that song was our theme while we worked on the project in Savannah. I am sure we looked and sounded like a bunch of lunatics but as hard as the project was, we all had a great time. It was the best business trip I took and the two weeks in Savannah was great. Any time things got out of hand, one of us would start to sing that song and viola, laughter soothed the moment and we finished the project on time when we were at one point a month behind.

So next time you are told to be serious, think about where you are and wonder if you really have to, at that moment. Fun is good for you. Let's play!