Hi guys! Welcome to Episode 557 of the Wildly Successful Lifestyle Podcast! Good to be with you! Im happy you’re here, if you’re new don’t forget to click on the 3 little dots at the top right and follow the show and also give me a 5 star review, every little bit helps me reach more people, which in turn helps us all spread good energy and good thoughts further into the world. We are making the world a better place one episode at a time, twice a week and I thank you for being part of it.
I have a question for you. Have you ever wanted to do something and then changed your mind because it seemed “silly” or maybe a little “childish” for an adult to be doing that? I remember my mom once telling me “Life isn’t supposed to be fun all the time”. She meant well but that obviously had an impact on me because I’ve often thought of her saying it. But I don’t think she came up with that on her own. I think Society sort of brainwashes us into the idea that fun should be limited to the weekend or to the kids. Well I take offense to that. I believe life is supposed to be fun and I also believe we forget that we have the power to make life more fun, to add more fun things especially as adults.
Recently where I live it has been raining so much. When it’s not raining, it seems like it’s just dreary and overcast. It’s that time of year. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love a good rainy stormy day. Absolutely love it. However, 5 rainy cloudy days in a row and it can get a little bit depressing if you’re not careful! So this last week we had that kind of weather and finally after several days of rain and clouds, my husband Eric had had it with the lack of sunshine, and he knew I had to so he said “I know it’s warm out, but what do you say we turn the air conditioning way up and turn the fireplace on and light candles and read in the living room?” He said fire lifts your mood too kind of like sunshine. He learned that when he was in survival training. They said starting a fire was like survival tv. Anyway, that’s what we did and it was so exactly what we both needed. He even brought our little rechargeable lamps in and set them around. It felt so cozy and fun because well who lights a fire in the middle of a warm muggy day?? Apparently we do. And it was perfect. He definitely made lemonade out of lemons! reason 300 why I love my husband. Life truly is exactly what you make of it. There’s always a way to make things better even if it’s just changing the way you look at things by doing something a little out of the ordinary.
I read this the other day:
You can’t change other people but you can change:
The way you respond.
The way you spend your energy.
The things you give power to.
There were several other things they listed but those were the ones that really stood out.
So often we feel like someone or something in our life is making it difficult for us to be happy. When it isn’t anyone else’s job to make us happy. We are in charge of the happiness department in our own life. My happiness or lack of depends on one thing and that’s me and what I’m focusing on. It really does boil down to that. We are the only ones that can change the trajectory of our own day. Even if you have to do something silly to do it like starting a fire in the middle of summer just because it brightens your day. When we were kids we would find silly ways of entertaining ourselves all the time. As adults we’ve been sort of trained that we have to be a certain way, do things a certain way, don’t be silly, life isn’t all about having fun. But I believe Life is supposed to be fun. We are supposed to be having fun even if we are adults and yeah even if it’s a Tuesday and especially if it’s raining.
When we had all those rainy days in a row, my little cavaliers, Sonny and Charlie were rowdy and looking at me like when are we going for our walk mom?? I looked at them and said it’s raining we can’t go for a walk, yes I talk to my dogs like they’re kids but unfortunately and also obviously all they heard was the word walk so now they definitely think we’re going! In my mind I was like people are gonna think I’m crazy for walking you two in the rain! And then I realized wait a minute. I mean it’s not storming out right now, if I’m being honest, it’s really just drizzling, and even if it does pour rain on us, who cares? Especially who cares what anyone else thinks…Ok, mind made up, we’re going. So I put on their collars grabbed a rain coat and off we went. I think it was their favorite walk yet, because weirdly the squirrels didn’t get the message that you’re supposed to stay in when it’s raining either so they were everywhere much to Charlie’s delight. And honestly it was one of my favorite walks too, it felt like being a kid again, not caring that we were all soaking wet when we got home. Fortunately Eric had set out towels and a wet washcloth for what he knew would be their muddy paws. Good to know we have one responsible person in the house, right?
Those rainy days got me thinking about how often we let the world—or even the weather—dictate how we feel. I’m guilty of it too. But I think we just get into habits of what we should and should not be doing as responsible adults. Society hands us these unwritten rules: act your age, stick to the schedule, don’t be silly, don’t light a fire in the middle of a hot day. But why not? When we were kids, we didn’t think twice about doing something just because it felt fun. We’d make mud pies, I actually tasted my mud pie and it tasted exactly as you’d imagine. Like mud. And we would be so muddy and it didn’t matter. We would chase our dogs in the backyard, or scream our heads off on a roller coaster. Somewhere along the way, we’re taught to tone it down, to fit into this “adult” mold. But here’s the truth: life is supposed to be fun, even on a random Tuesday. We have good friends who recently retired and went to Disney with their grandkids and they were literally still deciding who had to skip the scariest rides because their youngest grandkid wasn’t tall enough to ride. My aunt who is 82 still has domino parties every weekend, she will invite 8 people or so over to play dominos and she buys all these little gifts and wraps them and puts them in a corner so anytime you win a hand you get to pick a gift and at the end everyone opens them and the person who won the whole game can trade their gift for whichever gift they want. Not only is she bringing joy to her own life, but she’s bringing joy to other people as well. She is so much fun even though she struggles to get around, she still loves to go go go. I love that spirit and I hope she never loses it, it inspires me so much to see grown ups who don’t forget that life is really about having fun and enjoying each moment. Sure we have responsibilities, but that doesn’t mean we can’t figure out how to have a little fun every single day.
That’s my challenge to you today. How can you incorporate a little more fun into your life? Is there something you wanted to do but stopped because you thought it was silly for a grown-up? My challenge would be to do it anyway! Figure out how to add a little bit of fun into your everyday life, even if it’s a Tuesday and especially if it’s been raining for 5 days straight! Let’s not leave the fun to the kids. Share this with 3 grown ups who deserve to have fun, I love you guys, I’ll talk to you in a few days!
