It’s Time To Rethink Fun - Becky's Mindful Kitchen

It's Time To Rethink Fun

Having fun is not a reward. 

Having fun is not something you get to do once everything else is done. 

Having fun is not dessert. 

Having fun is essential to productivity, happiness, success, and a good life. 

It’s time to rethink fun. 

This past week in the 10 workshops and meetings I have had at BMK, every single group said that fun wasn’t part of their day like they wish it was. 

Why? 

The reasons given were universal across industries. There isn’t time for fun and if they have fun they will be judged as not working hard enough. Having fun was allowed only when everything else was done. 

We are conditioned to think that we are a heck of a lot better at being productive when we are grinding things out at work than we actually are. Instead, if we were to take a few minutes to engage in fun, to connect to give our brain a break, we increase our efficiency, we do better work, and our work simply becomes more enjoyable. 

We also forget that having fun doesn’t have to be separate from actively doing work. It’s in the tone of our voice, the way we interact with others. The silliness we bring to lighten the heaviness of reality. 

Have compassion instead of resentment for those who try to make you feel bad for having fun. We’re human, and if we are miserable and see others having fun, it’s easier to try to bring them down to our state than rise to join theirs. It’s easy to get envious and tell ourselves stories about why others can laugh at work and yet we cannot. So instead of letting others keep you from having fun, allowing them to dictate the culture, remember that leadership is a lifestyle, not a job title- and start leading. 

Fun is a state of mind, it is finding humor in the absurdity and bringing play into the everyday tasks that we both enjoy and abhor. 

Denying fun results in diminished quality of work and mental health.

Which is why I tell leaders to make “fun” the rule, not the exception, a requirement not a reward. 

Having fun doesn’t deny reality, it allows us to stay grounded in what really matters. 

It allows us to live life instead of simply passing time

Follow For Daily Posts and Baby Goat Videos!

About Becky

Becky Schmooke (pronounced “Smoke”) is a Mindful Leadership Consultant and Speaker, focused on providing action based mindfulness and leadership training to organizations and businesses who are ready to do things differently.

Becky’s Mindful Kitchen, is located outside of Iowa City, and provides truly unique team building and leadership retreats, strategic planning workshops, private parties and classes and weekly summer camps for kids. The commercial teaching kitchen, treehouse, archery range, bush craft skills, first aid training, wood fired pizza oven, chickens, baby goats and timber adventure playground provides endless opportunities for hands on activities.

As a mom to three girls, 60 chickens, 4 goats, 2 dogs and a fire fighter’s wife- life is never boring and provides Becky with endless stories which she uses to illustrate her approach to mindfulness in daily posts on social media.

In all that she does, Becky has one goal, to build confidence in others to take action to live their best life, not just pass time.