It’s back to school for many of the young ones which is a perfect time to recommit to making time for play. Because play is purposeless by definition we have a hard time making time for it. BUT it is essential to our wellbeing so don’t be deceived by old thoughts of play AFTER all the work is done. When will all the work ever be done? Plus play will help you be more present at work and in your relationships so you’ve simply GOT to make time for it. It’s the jam in your PB&J, or the match for your life’s sparkler. Take this assessment to learn about what your play style or personality might be.

Play-Personality-AssessmentDownload

It isn’t having a clean house that will help you have what you think you want. It’s not your career, your body, stuff you buy, how much of the world you see, or any of the other thousands of the things on which we place importance.

So what matters?

A few years ago, I learned about the 83+ year-long Harvard Grant Study, a longitudinal study of 268 Harvard sophomores. This study followed these people throughout their whole life, from their time at Harvard through their careers, their retirements, clear until their deaths. And 83 years later, after the highest levels of professional and worldly success, incredible success in business and government and community service and the arts, when measuring every factor of the lives of these highest achievers, the single most important determinant of a fulfilled, happy life was the quality of their closest relationships.

Think about the power of that. In the end, what matters most in the end is the quality of your closest relationships. That’s the thing. And PLAY helps you connect in a way nothing else can.

In this episode, Tara Wardle tells her story of investing in her family relationships through skiing. I tell of connecting to those less close through kite flying.

I think there’s something so so so useful in these simple lessons. They may be reminders, but they’re worth being reminded of!

Enjoy 22 minutes about connecting!

This is the rest of the conversation from episode 32 with Bre about creativity. We get into how play can be a part of your work, why that’s cool sometimes, and why you should also find times when play isn’t part of work, but something totally kept separate.

One of the key characteristics of play is that it’s done for its own sake, without thought about accomplishment or achievement – it’s enough to just to be doing, without the stress of accomplishing. That’s such a cool element of play that’s just natural for us to understand, but crucial for us to remember.

Bre has unique perspective about how to make it work with setting boundaries. She’s a pro at it, and we can all learn a lot from her!

Enjoy!!

Whether or not you consider yourself a crafty artist, this episode will remind you that creativity is actually about solving problems, and that everybody creates.

Bre is a mommy, actor, and headshot photographer and she finds ways to be creative in each of these areas of life. You can see her work and the incredible business she’s created at pepperfoxphoto.com.

Enjoy this conversation with Bre as she helps us realize some of us DO play this way; we just didn’t realize it.

Let’s play!

We have lots of reasons to want to have beauty; and quests for beauty are common with us women as we seek to be valid and confident in this world. 

We want to feel good.  We want to feel acceptable or loved.  Whatever it is we want to feel, we think we can get it from looking as the world wants to look.  But as most of us have found, that dangling carrot never gets us lasting peace, or confidence.

The money that marketers can make from us believing we will be valid if we only use the right products for long enough is in the billions.  So of course they’ll keep us strung along.  They’ll change the standards and fads so quickly that you’re in one day and out of date the next.  

If you’re looking for these feelings of peace, validity, confidence and acceptance, try PLAY on for size.  Find a way to play today and you’ll feel joy, exhilaration, authenticity and in short you’ll be present.  You’ll feel enough.  Now that is a guarantee that beauty can’t offer.  

Try it on.  Have fun.

Wealth is often what we are waiting for in order to feel like we deserve play time. It’s just not true. Play can give us wealth now and improve our quality of life. Choose to live well by scheduling time to play. You won’t be sorry you did.

Explorers are naturally good at something inherent in play and that is discovering what they like AND what they don’t like.  We would all do well in our play journeys to learn a rad skill from our Explorer friends – the art of finding out.  

Let’s say you are a Collector and you don’t know whether or not you’d like to visit every baseball field in the United States or not; Find out! Go explore the idea! Try it once.

Or read the blogs of others who have done it before.  Bust out a timeline and see if it works for you and your people.  Exploring play options is the best thing we can do to improve our play.

Listen as Angie Call, our resident explorer, explains the thrill of finding out.  If you don’t go, you’ll never know. 

Enjoy 22 minutes about exploring!

Have you noticed how on vacation you clearly see the beauty of the area and wonder how the locals handle all that amazingness? They don’t even seem to notice it. Have you ever observed someone’s life and found it totally charming only to have her show you all its shortcomings?

In a way, our brains have two modes – Vacation Mode and Regular Life Mode. The way we go about our Regular Life Mode days is by noticing what’s wrong or what needs attention. It’s an evolutionary thing, and it’s totally normal! It’s how we survived and evolved. The problem is, it totally sucks the energy out of your life if you’re not careful.

Today’s episode invites us to get into Vacation Mode for parts of the day, every day. To be present, to appreciate what’s good in your neighborhood and your life. To see the beauty of your own place and life and figure out how to handle the amazingness of it

It’s a form of play that ALL play personalities can practice. And we can get better and better at it as we practice. It doesn’t take long to learn how to activate Vacation Mode every day.

So the next time you notice you’re in the doldrums of life, stuck in Regular Life Mode, look at your situation from an observers point of view. You just might realize you’ve actually got it going on!!!

Play a little!

Did you know I’m a Tiny Habits coach?

Learn about it here!!!

EVERYBODY PLAYS! EVERYBODY!

Do you collect bobble head figures? How about spoons from your travels? Playbills? Do you want to visit every state or see every solar eclipse? You just might be a Collector!

My father-in-law loves thrifting. LOVES IT! He visits a local thrift store probably three times a week. I’m not exaggerating. His collection of used shoes is only rivaled in number by Imelda Marcos. He’s got more knife sets than a Cutco salesman. The man just cannot get enough.

But, the thing is, he never puts on the shoes. He never uses the knives. But there aren’t enough thrift shops in the whole world for him.

What a totally awesome way to play, right??

But can you imagine how wildly infuriating this thrifting obsession would be for my mother-in-law if she didn’t recognize it as a way that he plays? She’d spend her life wanting to report false thrift store policy violations to every health department. But, she’s cool with it. Because this is how he likes to play.

If you’ve been listening, you know that Play comes in many forms. And today we’re talking about Collectors.

The Collector we are talking to today is Jessie Funk. You are going to love this woman. She’s smart and funny and dynamic, and she collects like the world is ending.

Jessie has been teaching and mentoring students for over a decade. She holds a leadership certification from Notre Dame University and a degree in Psychology. Jessie is the Executive Director of the Non-Profit organization, Ivy Girl Academy. She has authored six books and as a professional singer she has released five albums adding the dynamic element of music to her presentations.

She loves to speak at school assemblies, leadership conferences and student events, and you can learn more about her at jessiefunk.com.

Here’s your Doggie Bag! Learn your Play Personality, and the Play Personalities of your people!

Play-Personality-AssessmentDownload

Hi! We’re talking about Play today, as we do.

But, like, as we’re talking about Play today, we’re getting a little academic. Not in a boring way, I hope. But, as we seek to understand how something like Play can really make our lives better, I think it makes lots of sense to have researched, legit, real reasons for it.

So, sometimes we’ll have days like today, where I talk about some great ideas from smart people within other non-play disciplines that can actually help us be better Players.

There are two disconnects in parenting that exist in every family. This isn’t just for parents, so go with it if that’s not you. It applies to everybody, somehow.

The first is the expectations gap. This is the difference between your original hopes of your experience as a parent would go, how your relationships with your kids would be, and how those things actually play out in the real world.

The second is the connection gap. This is the space between you and your child in your relationships now. Is anyone as connected with their people as they’d like to be?

In this episode, we talk about how getting out of the patent ego (hippie word alert!) and get into into our vibrant, authentic child ego. Stay with me, I promise.

Amy McCready, in her revolutionary patenting book If I Have to Tell You One More Time, offers a yell-free solution to getting your kids to be on the same page with you.

Guess what the solution is?

Duh.

The solution is PLAY.

Play like a kid to connect with your kids! It’s brilliant, and it’s basic, and the best part is, it’s FUN.

Finally, a solution that’s just pure fun.

Here’s your Doggy Bag: Play with somebody in your life for 10 minutes, twice a day. That’s it. Go do it.