Saturday, September 5, 2009

Day 30

"Today was good.  Today was fun.  Tomorrow is another one."

-Dr Seuss


Well, here it is. 

Day 30.

30 days of having fun.


I received a fair amount of heckling from this challenge. 


When you say you are going to set out to make yourself have fun, all of a sudden people want you doing body shots off of strangers in Tijuana.


But to me this challenge wasn't about doing things that are supposed to be fun.

It was about discovering what I think is fun and trying to bring more of that into my life.


So often, we categorize things as "fun" based on our habits or on other peoples opinions.

We pre-judge whether or not we like something based on our past experience of it, rather than on our actual present moment experience of it.


I remember a couple of years ago I was waiting tables at a cafe and the owner's daughter, who was about 7 at the time, came in to visit.

She took a liking to me and started following me around while I was working. 


She started asking if she could take the orders, if she could punch them into the computer, if she could bring bread to the table.

I was like, "Uh...sure, kid.  Knock yourself out."


As I watched her running around full of joy and light, I was about to set her straight.


I was going to tell her, even though it seemed like she was having fun, she was most certainly NOT having fun because waiting tables was categorically an UN-FUN activity.


Then that struck me as a ridiculous thing to do.  


I was going to tell this little girl to stop having fun because I had decided, many years ago, it was NOT fun and therefore that decision overrode her actual life experience.


I think in life, for organizational purposes,  we decide ahead of time what we think will be fun or not fun.

But, often, this not the case.  


I've been on splendid vacations and been miserable, and I've been food shopping and had the time of my life.

The experience of whether or not things are fun seldom has to do with the activity itself.


So, here on Day 30, this is what I've learned from my fun challenge....

Ready???


You cannot make yourself have fun.

You can only make yourself be fun.


And if you make yourself be fun, you will attract fun.

Because we do not attract what we want....


We attract who we are.


Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Yoda.


May your days be filled with Fun.


- Jen D.


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