Hey Team,
In my Go Team posts, I tend to spend a lot of time reminding you (and myself!) that it is ok to find things challenging and I like to share ideas for how to face those challenges in a way that lets us be kind to ourselves.
It’s true that making change/expanding our lives will involve some challenges but those challenges are only part of the story.
Changing/expanding/enhancing our lives also involves FUN.
It can be exciting to add new elements and activities to our lives.
It can be fun to have new experiences and try new things.
It’s interesting and inspiring to build new skills.
There are all kinds of great things that happen in the habit-building process.
And just as it doesn’t serve us well to pretend that the process is easy, it also doesn’t serve us well to treat it as an unrelenting ordeal that requires extensive work at every turn.
Just as it is important to prepare for challenges, it’s important to recognize the fun in our new habits, to add extra fun where we can, and to celebrate the good feelings that arise in the process of expanding and enhancing our day-to-day lives.
So, Team, today I am inviting you find the fun part of your habit-building process and inviting you to add extra fun wherever possible.
Here are a few places to start:
- Do you get to listen to good music, a good book, or a good podcast while exercising?
- Is it fun to look forward to your practice or your workout?
- Do you enjoy the feeling of working your muscles, of sinking into your meditation, or getting your words out of your head and onto the screen/page?
- Is it good to be outdoors? Or is it good to be exercising indoors when it’s cold outside?
- Do you get to spend time with different people? Or get extra time alone? Or do you get to choose good company each time?
- Do you enjoy how you feel after your practice?
- Is learning something new fun for you?
- Can you put a gold star sticker on a chart for each practice?
- Do you enjoy how your workout/practice clothes feel on your body? Do you have anything special or fun that you wear during your sessions?
- Are you playing a sport or game that you enjoy?
- Do you get a sense of satisfaction from taking good care of yourself?
- Are you proud of yourself for learning how to rest?
- Can you pat yourself on the back for learning to recognize that you have more energy on some days than on others and that that is perfectly ok?
- Can you add any elements that will increase your fun – different lighting, a candle, a fuzzy sweater, better socks, really good recovery snacks?
Some of the the fun of the habit-building process will be obvious, some might require a bit of digging, and some might be a conscious choice on your part but it all counts as fun and it all adds to your enjoyment of your practices.
So, go ahead and colour in the edges of your journal when you are done writing, call your friend so you can both brag about how great your workouts were, wrap yourself in a warm blanket for meditation, wear your ‘Maybe Swearing Will Help’ shirt* while you do your strength training, bop around your kitchen to 80s pop songs.
In fact, do whatever fun thing you want to do in the habit-building process. There is no virtue or glory in pretending that the whole thing is a joyless slog of challenges.
Nothing is lost by celebrating the good parts and it’s always good to add more fun to your activities.
So, Team, here is your gold star for your efforts today, whether those efforts are to celebrate fun, to add fun, to find existing fun, or to promise to keep an eye out for fun in the future. (You can also have a gold star if you think fun is pointless, I’m not gatekeeping here.)
Go Team Us!
*Yes, this is strangely specific. Yes, I do have a tank top with that phrase on it. 😉
