May 29, 2012

cultivate your play ethic

This is a guest post by Hannah Kane.

Play Day Today print by thepairabirds - click for info

If you’re an independent artist or entrepreneur, you may have been told that you have a good work ethic. You must have pulled your share of all-nighters, worked through weekends while your friends went to the beach, or gone above and beyond in some way to please a client. In these modern times, a strong work ethic is lauded as a key to success and a sign of character.

I’m not going to make the point that we should work less. I’m sure we’re all here because we’ve made the commitment to do what we love, so working less isn’t an issue. Instead, I would like to argue for cultivating a strong play ethic to complement your work ethic.

Developing a strong play ethic not only increases our level of personal happiness, it also stretches our creativity muscles, allowing us to form a creativity habit that’s hard to break.

So, what does it mean to have a strong play ethic? It means taking the same high standards you would apply to your work and applying them to your “leisure” activities. In the same way that you would nail the details of a work project, you aim to nail the details of a surprise party you’re throwing for a friend. And just like you would exceed your client’s expectations, you exceed your partner’s expectations when planning a romantic picnic. Or you can apply the same level of perseverance you would use to overcome a professional obstacle to meeting the logistical challenges of organizing a family reunion.

Play is a skill that can be honed just like any other.

You can go as far as creating a “play practice,” intentionally incorporating play into your daily work and life routines until a habit is formed. Consider these elements of a play practice:

Game-ify everything. This strategy is often recommended in order to make everyday mundane things like housecleaning, exercising, or driving to work more tolerable. While that’s a pleasant side effect, there are other benefits, like engaging your brain in creative problem-solving. The next time you run into a problem, consider how applying game mechanics (strategy, rules, arbitrarily limited resources) might help you discover a solution. A friend of mine who edits a popular blog sometimes finds it challenging to pick photos to accompany blog entries about non-visual topics. When this happens she invites her friends to play a fast-paced free association word game in order to spark ideas.

Let’s pretend (or: purposeful repurposing). Kids know that a piece of cardboard can be used as a pirate ship’s plank, or that an empty box can serve double duty as a rocketship. We grown-ups can exercise our imaginations by repurposing just about anything – whether it’s an everyday item, a familiar tool, or a standard practice. A colleague of mine has been borrowing ideas from a common software development process to help plan her wedding. Now that’s useful repurposing!

Bring a level of “playful seriousness” to something that, upon first blush, doesn’t seem to warrant it. Another friend was recently put in charge of acquiring snacks for a short staff retreat, a task that seemed relatively simple and required nothing more than a trip to the grocery store. But she decided to treat it as “a real project,” crafting a survey full of silly questions like, “True or false – melon-based fruit salad is the biggest racket in the food industry.” She illustrated the survey results in a five-page full-color report, complete with infographics. It wasn’t necessary, but her co-workers appreciated the attention to detail and it helped set a positive tone for the retreat.

When you start incorporating the play strategies above into all aspects of your life (both work and leisure), you’ll find that you increase your brain’s flexibility, learning, and problem-solving. Play has even been linked to optimism, resilience, and happiness. Not bad for something that’s typically relegated to childhood, right?

What strategies do you employ to cultivate your play ethic?

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If Hannah could go back to college, she’d major in Theme Parties and Scavenger Hunts with a minor in Board Games, since those are the things she likes best. Hannah has 12 years of theme party and scavenger hunt planning experience, and plays a mean game of Bananagrams. She is the winner of the 2010 Pietopia: Life in a Pie essay and recipe contest, has released a record of songs about running away, and can solve a standard Rubik’s Cube in under two minutes. Most importantly, she is a Space Camp graduate. Hannah blogs at Everybody’s Invited!, tweets @evrybdysinvited, and is Facebook-able at Facebook.com/everybodyshere.

Filed Under: guest posts, Read & Play Tagged With: , , , , , , , , 8 Comments
April 3, 2012

are you doing those things that make you happy?

In our work to get where we’re going, sometimes it’s the simple things we leave off our list, the things that we tell ourselves we’ll do later. And sometimes doing these simple things — the things that just make us plain happy, and remind us why it is we are doing whatever we are doing – are just the things we should be doing, for our well-being, for our health, and for our success.

So every day:

Do those things that make you happy.

Do those things that make you want to get up and do a little happy dance.

Do those things that make you feel five years old all over again. Remember bringing home a drawing that you spent an afternoon making in kindergarten, a drawing you loved making from start to finish, to give it to your Mum.

Do those things that make you grin so wide, that your eyes get squinty and your face feels a little stretched out afterwards.

Do those things that you put at the bottom of your list, because there’s more important things, like balancing the checkbook or picking up the dry-cleaning, sweeping the kitchen floor or meeting a deadline. Turn the list upside down, and do the *fun* things that might be at the bottom of it, too.

Do those things that you wake up thinking about.

Do all of those things because they feed every other little thing you could possibly have on your list of must-dos, to-dos and need-to-dos.

Do those things that you are moved to do because they feed your soul, your imagination, your spirit, and your chi.

Just do those things that make you so very uniquely You.

We’d love to know what some of your “do those things” are. What are the things in your life, in your work that fill you up to the brim and keep you going?

Filed Under: creating action, Plot Notes Tagged With: , , , , , , , 1 Comment
February 21, 2012

are you leaving enough space for your life in your work?

some celebrating - photo by liz kalloch

If you are an entrepreneur-self-employed-part-time-creative-consultant-activist-full-time-trying-to-find-your-calling-and-your-raison-d-être it’s not all about the marketing plan, the biz plan, the to-do list, the connections, the working it, the social media-ing, the never ending must-dos. It’s also about fun.

Fun, you say? But I’m trying to get a business off the ground so I can make the living of my dreams; so that I can leave the place I’m working at now; so I can keep things status quo and so I can be happy and fulfilled and not feeling like I am being crushed like a bug by boredom and fatigue in that 9-to-5 gig I left, or am trying to leave. {wow, I feel out of breath, what about you?}

{breathe in, breathe out} Yes, fun and joy and lightness and ease are just as important as the work, because I’m guessing if you’re anything like me, though I love my work, I didn’t sign up for my own gig so that I could work all the time.

It may be your life’s work, but remember to make sure there’s enough space for your life in your work.

Some reminders, suggestions, and prompts for all of us:

  • Celebrate all your quirks, all the silly things that make you you, all the things that got you to where you are right now, to the person you are right now.
  • If you have a work schedule that is solidly in place, mess with it. Turn it upside down. Start with what you usually end your day with, or start with what you do in the middle of the day. Keep yourself on your toes.
  • Instead of pushing yourself through a problem, a glitch, or a roadblock, take a break for some perspective: call a friend, go for a walk, stare at the sky, take a nap, play with your cat (or dog, or stuffed teddy bear) and know that you will solve whatever it is if you give yourself some space to breathe.
  • Skip {or run} when you could could get there walking. {Take a cue from your 3 year-old self.}
  • Keep yourself inspired by whatever means necessary. Spend a moment to recollect and then write down all the feelings and thoughts that you can remember having when you first realised you wanted to be who you are and do what you’re doing.
  • Ask yourself this: Who am I if I am not working? And also: Who am I when I’m working?
  • Go to your go-to people. Go to them a lot. Talk. Skype. Meet. Talk. Listen. Understand. Share. Laugh. Gather. Talk. Listen. Repeat. Often.
  • For one day throw out your to-do list and make it up as you go. Take some notes and remind yourself how that went.
  • Ask your go-to people to be your memory, and when you’re feeling lost, ask them to remind you of who you are and why you are doing what you do. Think of them as life-lines, because they are.
  • Make some part of your workday about play: Clean off your desk and leave a sticky note paper with a smiley face on it, paint the cover of the folder your tax papers are in, make a playlist of songs that you can sing along with while working. I think you get the idea.
  • We human beings are a mix of a lot of things: serious, silly, loving, competitive, insecure, certain. The list is potentially quite long, so I’ll leave it at that… What I’d like you to do is list some of the things you’d like to see yourself being more of, and then start to put those same qualities into your work. {NOTE: Please make this list, while also NOT dissing yourself for any qualities you’d like to see less of; keep your focus on the things you’d like to see more of.}
  • Celebrate your work and life successes in whatever ways are meaningful to you; just mark the occasions. Sometimes these successes happen at moments when we feel we are too busy to stop, and we think we’ll go back to acknowledge them. Truth be told, we rarely do. Stop to acknowledge, even if it’s five minutes worth of lighting a candle and calling your mum.
  • Make ridiculous, idiotic faces at yourself in the mirror. It diffuses a variety of blah, icky, stressful situations. Very quickly. {Yet another cue from your 3 year-old self.}
  • Check in with yourself semi-regularly, and ask: Am I still doing {or moving towards doing} what gives me joy and purpose and expresses who I am in this life?

Whatever it is that you are working on, working towards, working for, remember to remember just why it is you’re doing whatever it is you do and keep your life and your work happy and light. You can have some deep and intense too, just keep some joy for the side.

We’d love to hear any of your own queues for keeping the moments light and buoyant. How do you keep remembering why you do what you do?

Filed Under: action, creating action, creative thinkers, Plot Notes Tagged With: , , , , , , , 10 Comments
September 16, 2011

little things link love: indoor forts

Pillow Fort by Le Petit Elefant - click image to view more

Bring back the indoor fort.

When I was little, my best friend at the time used to roll her eyes when she came over, because I always wanted to make a couch fort. We had this fantastic 1970s behemoth that had little finials all around the top. The tiny holes in the large blanket we had fit perfectly over them, making it the greatest base for my forts. All we needed then was a yard stick to prop it up from the inside. It was magnificent.

I haven’t made an indoor fort since grade school, and that’s just a flat-out travesty. Where’s the rule that they’re only for kids? I sure don’t see one. Personally, I think as adults, we’re more deserving of a special little place to get away from the world from time to time.

Turns out that I’m not alone in my thoughts. Here are some great links to show that kids aren’t the only ones who should have all the fun:

  • How to make a blanket fort – In case you’re still not familiar with the concept of what an indoor fort entails, you can read up on these instructions to help get you started.
  • Tumblr blogs devoted to forts – There was not just one, but TWO blogs on Tumblr that I found, both dedicated to curating images from around the web. Take a peek at what others have created to get some inspiration.
  • The Reddit fort subsection – Reddit users seem to be pretty fond of forts, as well, as evidenced by all this activity. To quote one user, “There is no problem in the world that cannot be solved by forts.” Indeed, my friend. Indeed.
  • Wild Things fort contest – Back when the movie Where the Wild Things Are was out and about, the blog BOOOOOOOM held a contest for the best Wild Things fort. Check out these winners and scroll to the bottom for links to the other entries.
  • Craigslist’s totally dope blanket fort – If you’re not familiar with the way some people use Craigslist as a medium for some pretty hilarious creative writing exercises, this listing from a few years back will break you in. After reading it, check out the Sesame-Street-style music video spoof Details magazine made to celebrate it.

Did you make indoor forts as a kid? Do you still? What are your best memories of them?

Filed Under: Link Love Tagged With: , , , , , , 12 Comments
August 26, 2010

Permission to Make A Colorful Mess

wake.create.repeat_Header

MaddieMural

i make lots of messes every day. i make messes with acrylics, varnish, Mod Podge, and zillions of itty bitty scraps of colorful paper. Having a workspace that looks like a bomb went off is par for the course. But i make controlled messes. i keep the paint on the canvas and rags and the cut paper is vacuumed right up when i’m done.

Recently, i came across the blog of one mom who encouraged her kids and their neighborhood friends to make UNCONTROLLED messes. It sounded too good not to try!

So i set about planning a day of no-rules, squishy, messy art and splash fun. It was our end of summer hurrah for my 4 year old son and his friends and cousins and it happened last friday.

The itinerary went something like this:

11am – kids arrive and change into bathing suits, then proceed to run around the yard like maniacs playing on swings and slide pool and sprinklers and slip n slide and sandbox……

11:30am – i gather kids onto the deck steps to explain our fun projects which included Crazy Mixed Up Paintings, Marble Painting, Squishy Sculptures and a huge Group Mural. i hand out color coded stickers to help manage the group of 25 kids and we’re on our way!

CrazyMixedUpPtgs

11:45-12:45 – Chaos ensues and we love it! the boys especially were out of their skin excited over the POW! painting technique where baking soda, vinegar and paint are combined into a baggie and then allowed to explode and fizz all over heavy paper. then the kids attacked the already colorful papers with fly swatters dipped in paint and even Koosh balls dabbed in brightly colored tempera.

Some of the moms helped out with marble paintings made by rolling paint-dipped marbles all over inside box lids lined with paper. Gooey fingers!!

Marble

Another mom manned the 4′x4′ mural station where tons of random brushes and colorful paints were used to make what i now refer to as “my new dining room art” : )

The kids were all over the place getting messy at the art stations and getting clean in the sprinklers and pool (Actually, we had soapy water buckets at each station to keep the pool water clear, but the pool helped) and the parents even gotten to relax a bit and chat.

12:45 – 1:15 Pizza!!! plus fruit and healthy snacks finished off with classic Flavor Ice pops.

1:15 – 2pm – i face/body-painted a LOT of children (and some kids did their own!) while everyone finished up projects and completed the task of wearing themselves out. The families all contributed to my son’s Lemonade Stand to Save the Planet as well. Kids got a dixie cup and an Oreo in exchange for their donation which we are planning to give to a local cause this week.

2pm – Goodbyes and cleanup

The day was so much fun. We never even got to the Squishy Sculptures or Shaving Cream body “painting” parade i had planned, but i don’t think anyone noticed.

i might have to make this an annual event. Watching the kids explore and create with wild abandon was too much fun!  And heck, in a few years, i can be rewarded with artwork for every room in my house!

Filed Under: wake. create. repeat. Tagged With: , , 22 Comments