Sometimes we have these great ideas.
Last week I was asked to participate in a sprint triathlon and pretty instinctively I thought, “Sure!” So, I am doing it this coming up weekend. In like a few days.
I haven’t trained for it. But, I have done one before. I have some mixed feelings. I have a lot of thoughts. One of them is, “This is going to be miserable.” But I know better than to think that thought because then it will be miserable. My brain believes I have every reason to think this thought, and that it seems logical. See, I haven’t swam in forever, and will be swimming 1/2 a mile. I am going to bike 12 miles, which takes me almost 45 minutes. Then after doing both of those I will run 2.5 miles.
But get this… I am doing it to have fun! Ha.. Kind of ironic.
A thought that I grabbed onto a few months ago is this. You don’t have fun-you ARE FUN! Which changes totally how I view things that I do to have fun, right. If I think the doing of something creates fun then I have a high expectation of said thing. But, if I know that I am the fun, it puts all the responsibility back onto my court.
This new way of thinking has been especially interesting with kiddos. A couple weeks ago we took the kiddos on a hike. They were about 5 minutes into it and one of my kids said, “Is this supposed to be fun?” Which I of course chimed in, “Yes, if you make it fun!” See they, just like I used to think, believed certain activities were fun and certain activities were not fun. And according to my daughter hiking was under the not fun category.
I started to think about what fell under my categories.
Not fun: Laundry/Dentist/Cleaning House/Taxes/OBGYN visits/paperwork/confrontations/selling
Fun: Eating out/coffee dates/being outside/coaching/pedicures/hosting a party/speaking
It is not laundry’s job to be fun, that is my job. If I want laundry to be fun then bring it on. I create the fun. I turn on music, dance around, make it a competition. I do whatever it takes to make it fun. I am the fun.
I can take not fun things and make them fun. I can take fun things and make them more fun. That is a great thought. And when you think about it some of the fun things that I think are fun can be not fun when I allow them to be.
So, let me get back to this whole triathlon thing. I want it to be fun, so I will bring the fun. If you know me that means I will be laughing, and carrying on. I may taunt a little, or try to be competitive with someone else, all in the name of FUN. See the swimming, biking, and running are all as fun as I make it. If I counted on them to make it fun, well then I am at the mercy of them. I give them, the activities, all of my power. We don’t want to do that.
Tell me, what are you deeming fun and not fun right now and what if you started believing, “I don’t have fun, I am fun.”
Hoping for lots of purposeful fun in your future!
Angie
