THE LIFESTYLE ENTREPRENEUR

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How to Play Today

Play is a core human need.

Food, water, shelter, faith, sex, purpose, relationships, play.

Science has proven this, and we know it intuitively. But it’s something that’s driven out of us if we let it.

It certainly was driven out of me at an early age. I had older brothers and we lived with our mother, who worked multiple shifts as a nurse.

I don’t know how old I was, but I’m positive that most of my play was focused entirely into sports by the time I was in middle school.

And by the time I was in high school most of my play time involved alcohol, which enhances play for about 1-2 drinks, and then dramatically hinders it to the point of being non-existent.

Moving towards adulthood life got serious. Building a career, then a family, then businesses, play never got a second of consideration.

The past 10 years has been a slow and steady relearning of how to play - with my children, with friends, and with family.

Today I find play daily. I invest my time, money, and energy in it. I also want to help others find it.

The Science of Play

Play makes everything better. It doesn’t just make life more enjoyable, it does so many things:

1. Enhances brain function - Play improves cognitive function, improves memory, and enhances neuroplasticity.

2. Improves emotional health - Play reduces stress, anxiety, and depression, and helps humans work through emotional challenges and heal from trauma.

3. Promotes physical health - Sports, dancing, creative games, all involve movement, and movement is medicine. The right amount of play makes traditional “exercise” not even a necessity.

4. Boosts social skills - Play involves other humans, and relationships are also essential. Play is the lubricant for building relationships and learning to interact with humans.

5. Builds creativity - Play encourages creativity, innovation, and flexibility in thinking. Want to work through a difficult problem? Go play for a while and then come back to it.

All these factors are true - and they’re all so impactful, that if we’re trying to optimize ourselves for performance, and enjoyability of life, we MUST find time for play each day and week.

So how do we do that?

This topic is broad, so today I’m going to focus into how to find play during our daily grind. How do we play during our workday when we have meetings all day and five kids’ activities to get to?

Here’s how I break it down:

1. Prime for it

2. Plan for it

3. Be present for it

Prime for it - We have to be primed to be able to play when the time comes. If we’re overtired, overworked, and burnt out we won’t have fun even at the greatest party in the world.

Priming for play means caring for ourselves on a daily basis. Sleep enough, eat well, exercise regularly, work a reasonable amount and not 100 hours in a week.

Funny how I always find a way to talk about caring for yourself, right? Well it’s important - you have to have some energy to be able to enjoy yourself.

Plan for it - This falls into the concept of planning out your entire day, down to the minute. When are your breaks from meetings and work? When are you hanging out with your kids and friends? When are you spending time with your partner? When are you doing something for yourself?

The more you plan out your day to the minute, and stick with your plan, the more you will be able to prioritize play time.

As you get better at planning out your day, then you go about placing more play events inside of your day.

Be present for it - Creating space is the first step, now you have to make yourself do it. You can’t play with your kids if your mind is racing through your to-do’s or work challenges. Learning to disconnect, shutdown, and be present is a lifelong skill that’s required to enjoy your moments of play.

That sounds great, but how do I cram this into my days?

Ok with the above in mind, here’s a few ways I make sure to play each and every day:

1. Workouts - I find workouts that involve some element of sport or play. The most specific one for me is Jiu Jitsu - which is literally fighting with very specific rules. It’s doesn’t seem like play from the outside, but it very much is.

2. Music - I find ways to play music and create mini dance parties everywhere I go. In the morning when we’re all getting ready for school and work. During meals. Before sessions and during breaks with clients. Dancing is the highest form of play, and it can be done for 3 minutes on a break between marathon zoom sessions

3. Disconnect - Being connected to everything all the time absolutely kills any potential for play for me. If I’m always connected that means any spare moment I have, I’m going to check my phone or my mind will shoot straight to the issue that’s top on my mind.

   Deliberate disconnection allows you mind to relax and be open to opportunities for play.

4. Meditate - Meditation trains the mind to focus. It also trains the mind to be be in the present moment. Both of these skills are essential to getting the most out of life, and make play come easier.

   If you haven’t started meditating at this point, seriously. Give it a try. You only need to do it for 5-10 minutes for a week to start noticing a benefit.

5. Get toys - Fidgets, footballs, gadgets, all of them are great for messing around in meetings, work sessions, or solo sessions. Have some handy wherever you work and use them.

6. Fake it till you make it - The best way to have an amazing time at a dance party? Dance way harder than you feel like. Eventually your mind will catch up with your body and you’ll start feeling it.

   This concept applies to all forms of play - if your mind is elsewhere, you’re distracted or preoccupied - fake it and play hard. Eventually your mind will catch up with your body.

Play is an attitude, and if you’re like me it may be an attitude that’s foreign to you after years of atrophy.

That’s why you have to be deliberate about it for awhile, and make it happen.

At first it will come slowly and might be awkward. It also might be infrequent that you get really present and really get in the flow.

But like anything worth doing - if you stick with it and are persistent - great things will happen. Those moments of flow, where the world stops existing and you are nothing but energy, will start coming more regularly.

You’ll even find you can have them on a wednesday during the day. A peak experience during the mundane.

That’s possible, and can be found on a regular basis.

I hope you find some play this weekend. I know I will.

Talk to you next week,

Mike

Thanks for reading The Lifestyle Entrepreneur

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