What is fun?  I think everyone you asked would be able to provide a definition.  What’s more interesting though, is what things people would describe as fun.  In other words, fun as a noun is boring, but fun as an adjective is fascinating.  Yes, I just said fun is boring.  

If the concept of fun is easily understood, why do so many of us struggle to experience it?  I believe it is because fun actually has a negative connotation in our society.  

Has someone ever told you they were just having some “good clean fun”?  When did this become a euphemism?  Why can’t we just have fun without it being questioned?

Our lives are so public now.  We have to be careful of things that are in no way unacceptable strictly based on the perception of others.  In order to truly enjoy something, one has to participate without concern.

The great thing about capitalism is that we can work as hard as we want to be as successful as we want (whatever our definition is).  The bad thing;  everyone who isn’t working 70 hour weeks is having too much fun.

I have the solution.  Work in a field you like.  Do something you enjoy.  Make it happen.

I have found that those who enjoy their work find more meaning in what they do.  It is more than simply having fun at the job.  It’s more than enjoying waking up and going to work.  It’s knowing that you are spending your time and talents (and maybe treasures if your are a business owner/entrepreneur) to accomplish something.  

A simple internet search will come up with endless employee satisfaction survey questions and ideas to implement.  There’s a difference between satisfaction and fulfillment.  Fulfilled employees (or partners, colleagues) will find ownership in their work.  They will have a stronger sense of belonging, contribution, and value.

Another concept giving a bad name to fun is on demand entertainment.  I had the internet connection at my house upgraded today (This actually came as a result of cancelling my DirecTV service after many years of being a customer.  The cost of the upgraded internet is less expensive, for the first year of course, than the dial-up speed we used to have.).   We now have fiber optic cable underneath the house.  Sounds high-tech, right?  Honestly, I don’t know what to think about it.  I downloaded a few podcasts.  That seemed to happen faster.  Youtube worked.  But, I just don’t feel like my quality of life is that much better.  I guess I’m supposed to stream some movies or play more Fortnite (dang, it’s been months) now.  

A faster internet connection is supposed to make life better.  One could argue that my productivity should rise, and if I like what I’m producing, it would be a useful tool.  In reality, it’s not uploading, downloading, sending e-mails, and web-browsing that I enjoy.  Those may be tools to help me accomplish something, but it’s that thing that I want to get done, that mission, that is the source of my joy.

More information at faster speeds does not equal fun.  It just means more.

At the risk of sounding like I’m stuck in the 20th century, we aren’t anymore capable of enjoying our lives than those that came before us.

Fun is good (Dr. Seuss).  More is just more.  Team leaders, check out funisgood.com.

When someone asks where you are the answer doesn’t have to be “She/He went to work.” Or “She/He’s out having fun.”  They are not mutually exclusive.

Also, young people are encouraged to choose a major before they get to middle school.  This assumes they should even go to college.  Here’s this concept being applied to sports in an article entitled The Multi-Sport Athlete: Why Your Child Should Play More Than One Sport by Amy Sara Marshall.  I love a good sports example.  Another article, by Lexie Petrovic, touches on the mental strain and exhaustion from playing only one sport.  We can learn a lot of lessons from this aspect of our culture.  

From an academic perspective, the focus tends to be on test scores and “service hours”.  While standardized testing provides data for universities to use, it does not correlate entirely to a teenagers worth.  I am a huge proponent of serving. We should all be encouraged to use our gifts to help others (isn’t that what this blog is all about?).  However, my wife and I have spent much time with young people (we have no kids of our own but she is a kindergarten teacher and we have been heavily involved in youth ministry).  We are considering various forms of adoption or fostering (we tried in vitro fertilization, but were unsuccessful, that story is for another blog entry).  The way that most of the teenagers that we know view service hours is as a task or necessary evil.  They are NOT selfish people.  They like to give.  They just don’t like it being measured by hours.  There are drastically different types of hours of service.   

The youth that find a project or purpose to get behind are the ones that don’t “worry” about service hours.  They just do what they enjoy doing, have fun doing it, and log the hours as needed.  

I am proposing that we can make all service hours or testing a fun process for people, but we can focus more on encouraging youth to look for ways they can experience things that are joyful for them and others.  These things certainly exist, and someone shouldn’t have to wait until their second or third career to figure out what their’s is. 

If we can encourage people of all ages to seek out things that are fun AND productive, fun will not be so isolated and loathed.  

When fun is considered to be good, there is no guilt.  We also tend to find it in new things.  When you experience joy in different ways it becomes habitual.  

So, what happens when we see fun as good?  I don’t think there is one answer that applies to everyone.  But I do think it gives us a better chance of acting on inspiration.

Acting on inspiration can be one of the most powerful things we see.  Seek it first.  Find it.  And then act (but don’t forget your roots, more on this later).  

For business people, “9 Sources of Inspiration for High Successful People” by Vivian Giang is a worthwhile five minutes.  It holds up.  She references the Richard Branson post, “What Inspires Me: Game-Changing People Everywhere”.  The quote that sticks out to me is, "My professional inspiration has no separation from my personal inspiration: it is people who will stop at nothing to make a positive difference to other people's lives”.  The professional and the personal are merged.  

If you are looking for some inspiration, check out these 15 Great Sources of Daily Inspiration from Life Optimizer.  

Once you find your inspiration, act.  Don’t be reckless, but begin working to accomplish whatever it is you are inspired by.  

Don’t short change yourself.  Once you act, you are making and impact!  Measuring impact can be very challenging whether just starting a project or working on it for a lifetime.  Different projects will have drastically different measurements. 

The most important thing to remember is that Fun + Inspiration = Impact. 

If you are having fun and inspired, you’re making an impact.  Let that settle in.  Now, get to work.

While working, one must always keep the two ingredients to their impact project fresh.  

If you are no longer having fun, go back to your roots (I told you this would come up later).  What are the things that you like doing?  What is enjoyable?  Where did your fun come from?

Once fun leaves, burnout is not far behind.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with quite a few non-profit organizations (I believe this is my version of playing more than one sport at this point in my life).  Getting to know the employees I have grown to appreciate “Why Nonprofits Have a Burnout Problem”.

For Non-Profit leaders these articles could be very helpful (apply to yourself as well): Non-Profit Burnout: How to Recognize it and Manage it and “3 Leading Causes of Nonprofit Burnout and What You Can Do To Prevent Them”.

There are many other resources, some general and some specific to other industries.  Use them well.  Keep fun alive.

Usually, missing fun is because of burnout and changes in activity.  Mission Drift is real.

Missing inspiration, on the other hand, can sometimes be the result of something good.  If your purpose was something more solvable than world hunger (see some stats from Feeding America), then you might fixed things and not be inspired anymore.  Back to the drawing board!  

It is possible that you are not inspired anymore because you’ve learned new information and your old feelings aren’t as strong or do not apply.  I find this to be more of a spectrum that a yes or no.  How inspired are you?  If things have pulled back a little, maybe reconsider your exact mission and review your past thoughts.  If it is drastic (this would most likely happen after a reasonable length of time), you may need to consider a new steward of your mission (as long as there is still a need you shouldn’t just drop things abruptly).  Once you’ve effectively moved on, you may need to take a step back and recharge.  Jumping right into a new project is not for the feint of heart.

Whether you’re the single life’s work (or sport) type, or you are one who tends to give large amounts of efforts to multiple things, the consistent flow of fun and inspiration will maximize your impact.  Monitor them closely.

If you become a leader for a specific cause or business, it may be hard, but you will have to consider these two things for each of your team members (or if it is big enough, you will have to train others to do the same).  You may not have the time to “get your hands” dirty like you used to.  You spent a lot of energy doing the work.  You will not be able to scale your impact without training others.  Also, you will not always be able to do the work.  The cause is bigger than you.

I have always loved trying new things (like a blog).  The opportunity to experience different things is such a blessing.  What I have not always realized is that what drives my desire for new things is the potential inspiration I can find.  Always experience the things that you like to do for fun (it’s good), but consider some new ones from time to time.  You never know what you’ll find.  

Have fun.  Seek inspiration.  Make impact.