Let’s be honest. We’re great at stress. Great at over-working. Even better at burn-out. But fun? We’ve forgotten about fun – and make all kinds of excuses about why we can’t have it.

As we get older and our list of responsibilities grows, we push things like fun, delight, and enjoyment further and further onto the backburner – writing them off as unimportant.

“I’m too busy to have fun.”

“Fun is for children.”

“Fun isn’t a priority for me.”

And we bury ourselves in our work and our to-do lists and find ourselves trudging through a life we were made to enjoy.

We take a lot of cross-country road trips as a family. It’s something all six of us love and enjoy. And sometimes, it’s necessary for us to pull a LONG day in the car. On these days, we drive for 10-12 hours, stopping only briefly to eat and use the bathroom. It’s destination-driven. All about efficiency. And we’re totally capable of pulling it off. But…If our entire road trip was comprised of long days in the car, these incredible memory-making experiences we love would quickly turn into drudgery. We’d quickly become bored, irritable, and restless. And before long, something we once loved would turn into something we tolerated. And if we’re being really honest, it wouldn’t take long before it became something we didn’t like at all.

My example may feel extreme – but it’s not so far from many of our daily routines. Our increasing busyness has forced us to become driven by efficiency and a sense of urgency. We’re all about getting the next thing done. Accomplishing. Achieving. Crossing the next thing off the list. And, it’s doable. And because it’s doable, we do it. A lot. In fact, we do it so much, it’s become the norm instead of what it should be. There are going to be days and seasons where we need to be in overdrive to survive. But when that becomes our standard operating procedure, we stop enjoying our life!

We cannot continue the frenetic work-oriented pace we’ve come to accept as “normal.” We were not created to constantly live life at an 11. We must begin to make fun a priority or be willing to accept the consequences of burn-out and exhaustion.

So I implore you – allow yourself to have fun. (And by fun, I mean ACTUAL fun – not scrolling Instagram or getting ahead on tomorrow’s to-do list!) Do something for the sheer enjoyment of it. (Because when was the last time any of us did that?!)

Do something playful. Connect with someone you enjoy. Find your flow.

it could be as elaborate as finally getting around to throwing that murder mystery party you’ve always wanted to have or as simple as blasting some music and dancing around your kitchen. Just give yourself the freedom to take a fun break. (Heck, take a fun afternoon if you can!)

Not only will you come back to work or the task you’re working on in a better mood, but studies show you’ll actually be more productive and creative having taken the fun break! (And you’ll lower your body’s level of the stress hormone!) So stop fighting fun. Stop making all the excuses about why you can’t or shouldn’t. (You can and you should!)

So get out there. Sing in your car. Jump on the trampoline with your kids. Grab coffee with a friend. Have the fun your soul craves. And never forget that you were created to ENJOY this beautiful life we’ve been given. So enjoy it!

For more encouragement on this topic, I invite you to listen to Episode 19 of the Girl on a Hill Podcast: We Forgot to Have Fun. I (along with some incredible ladies) started Girl on a Hill to encourage women to stop hiding, start shining, and be the women we were created to be. We’re all about getting real about the issues we walk through in a fun and relatable way. Come find us wherever you get your podcasts.

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Show Notes for Episode 19 – We Forgot to Have Fun: https://girlonahill.com/girl-on-a-hill-podcast-episode…/