Look, I know you are busy! And if you are a working mom, I bow down to you. You have always been the busiest group of people I’ve ever known. Let’s just throw the last 13 months on top of that, with even more responsibilities, even more time that is required by you. And I’m right there with you; I have always been a full-time working mom.
I love it. But in the past I was so focused on my professional and personal goals, I was so serious all the time. It was rare to see a smile across my face; I was definitely not having any joy or any fun in my life. I was on that verge for 13 months, until I hit burnout.
Where during those 13 months, I said, “Fun?! I can’t have any fun! Who has time for fun?! In fact, fun is the working mom’s ‘f-word,’ it’s forbidden. It’s a bad word.”
Oh my, god forbid anybody see me having fun. It’s going to mean I’m not serious about reaching my goals, or I’m not taking care of my family, because I’m out having fun. But what’s our life worth living if we don’t have that joy, if we’re not experiencing that f-word. And you’ve probably heard me talk about this before, the importance of it, but that’s not why I’m talking about it on today’s video.
Today, I want to talk about how you can have fun even during these really busy times, when you think there is no way you can squeeze fun into it. I thought I would share with you an example of a woman who is in my membership group, The Five Star Society. I am just always not in awe, but have such great respect for her, that she does an amazing job of blending fun into other aspects of her life.
Instead of compartmentalizing, instead of thinking about, “Oh, I have to schedule fun during this particular time block,” she says, “Well, what other aspects, what other balance points of my life do I want to focus on, and where could I bring fun in to intertwine the two?” For example, it’s really important for her to spend quality time with her son, building her relationships. So she tries to figure out, what are fun things we can do together? Or for her personal development, ways that she enriches her mind and her spirit. She says, “Well, I’m going to find something that I also feel is fun.”
So having fun doesn’t necessarily mean we’ve got to block out two weeks and take the whole family to Disney World. We can be building fun into our daily lives, without pulling time away from something else.
It’s about looking at what’s already on our schedule, where our focus areas already are, and how can we start to build a little bit of that fun into it?
Something to bring a smile, something to bring some levity to you – especially during these past 13 months, when you probably need the f-word more than ever. So comment below, I want to hear what’s your idea, whether you already do it or you want to do it starting today. Where are you going to blend the two, so you’re not pulling time away, you’re just enriching the experience and adding some fun into it? I’d love to hear from you!