This weekend a big annual event takes place in Baltimore. It’s called “Honfest”. Check it out at www.hon
fest.com. It’s a fun celebration of remembering a great era in the history of our city. If you are from Baltimore or have visited the area, you are familiar with being called “Hon”. It is a popular term of endearment here and part of the native language of Baltimore called Bawlamarese. No, I’m not kidding. We even have a Baltimore Lexicon of our native language; check it out at www.balatimorehon.com. I love living in this area because it offers a variety of ways to have fun and that’s something most of us don’t do enough of.
If you are like me, you let the busyness of life overtake your time and having fun either gets forgotten or we create more stress in our life trying to make room for it. We’re in a series at ALC titled Refuel: we all need to at some point and this week we’re talking about the need and benefits of having fun. I think it’s something most of us don’t do very well; mainly because we haven’t learned to place the right value on it. So, join us tomorrow at 9AM or 10:30AM to learn more. And here’s a list of 10 things to make life more fun created by a guy named Keith Varnum.
Practice random acts of connection. Smile at someone you don’t know. Have a friendly conversation with the cashier. Leave a generous tip. Volunteer.
Make at least one just-for-fun phone call a day. Call a friend who is consistently fun to talk to – not for business or to have any other need met – just to have a sociable hello with no agenda or expectation.
Look upon life as a mystery school. Invite surprise. Cultivate spontaneity. Realize that unpleasant people and situations are deliberately placed in your path as a challenge to help you grow enough to embrace even them.
Have an exciting destination. Seek wonder. Don’t dwell on the old or the past. Move towards the future.
Rejoice each step of the way. To keep from being overwhelmed—yet still make headway—break your larger goals down into more manageable steps. Take at least one action a day—no matter how minor. Then you can make some progress if you only have a few minutes. Always focus on the advancement you’ve made as being just as important as the distance you have yet to go.
Strive for success—not for perfection. Giving up perfectionism means seeing the good in our lives rather than the faults, focusing on what is working rather than what is not working.
Take a daily mini-vacation. Take 15 minutes each day to do nothing. We need time each day to not race against the clock or be productive. The point is to relax. No multi-tasking. Don’t live in your daily planner. Take a break from technology for a while.
Just say “no”. Consider everything you habitually say “yes” to each day. In saying “no” to the people and events that aren’t intuitively right for you, you are actually saying “yes” to yourself—and to the people and values that mean the most to you.
Give yourself a place lift. By intuitively re-arranging the elements of your daily life, you can create the space to nurture the fun, freedom, opportunities and effectiveness you desire.
Share your life experience. We thrive when we feel we are valued and have left the world a better place at the end of each day. Leave a grand legacy. Happiness comes from sharing happiness.
