My mum was the first person to throw down the gauntlet.
“Love,” she said down the phone line from Australia, “do you actually have 21 different outfits for each day of the challenge?”
This was back at the beginning of August when I’d just started running my free 21-Day Joy Challenge online.
I’d committed to posting a video on the Facebook group every day sharing a tip on how to bring more play, pleasure and sustainable joy to your life.
I’d made a plan for what I’d be posting in terms of content but I hadn’t given much thought to the outfits!
Did I indeed have enough? Hmm, I could feel my own challenge coming on here…
What my outfits have to do with joy
One of the steps in the process I use when working with clients involves making sure you are consciously choosing to include play, pleasure and joy in your life. Some of my clients can get quite a shock when we start working in this area as they begin to realise just how little attention they pay to the things that they really love and enjoy doing.
The tool I share to help with this on a daily basis is a simple question:
“How can I make this more fun?”
You can use this tool in a few different ways:
1. Inject some joy
There are often things in life that we don’t enjoy, don’t look forward to, and quite frankly, would just rather not do. Think taxes, lunch with the (not-so-nice) in-laws, cooking for a group of 10 or more people (OK, that may just be me ;p)
But sometimes, you just gotta do these things. So, how do we follow our joy in those moments? Ask yourself the question, “How can I make this more fun?” Stay with me here. Usually in life, if we don’t like a situation, the quickest way through is to change the way we perceive that situation.
So if you don’t like it, how can you love it (even if just a teensy bit)?
Pretend you’re like Picasso with a blank canvas and you are going to liven things up with splashes of colour; or imagine you’re a creative genius like Tony Stark (Iron Man) and think laterally about how to change things up!
What can you add? Music, chocolate, flowers, a reward, wine, coffee (always my solution), colourful scarf?
What can you change? Location, people, food choices, how you get there, the route you take, how the event is structured?
How can you think differently? Can you choose to be more open-minded, more accepting, more curious, more courageous, more compassionate even? Or more light-hearted and playful?
There are infinite ways to alter a situation if you are open to the possibilities and willing to do things differently – so put on your “fun” frames and start looking for ways to add it.
TIP: things become more fun when the things YOU love are involved. So if you’re in a group – speak up and say what you would like! If you are doing something by yourself (ie those taxes) what would make the experience delicious for you? There are no rules, just combine the things you love! Beautiful stationery + chocolate + Jessie J + wine = a taxes party for me!
2. Explode Your Enjoyment
I like to talk about squeezing every last drop of joy from a situation, and this is how you do it.
Because there are lots of things in your life you already enjoy (hopefully, if not you need to download my free ecourse pronto), and we can make them even more fun!
For instance, back to my 21-day challenge (see, it wasn’t a random intro, I had a plan 😉 )
I love what I do so doing the challenge was already going to be fun for me, but there were a few ways I knew I could love it even more. Enter stage left, Eighties music and outfits galore.
So when my mum said did I have enough outfits, I was like ooh, ooh, I will make sure I do! ‘Cause it wasn’t whether I had enough clothes, but whether I had enough outfits suitable for on camera (a onesie just isn’t quite the look I’m going for…)
So I had fun with it – I planned out my outfits as well as my content. I love colourful clothes, I love statement jewellery and I love co-ordinating the above, so that’s what I did! My mission was to make sure I never wore the same piece of clothing twice (accomplished!).
It took on an extra dimension of fun as I had friends tuning in just to see what outfit I would be wearing the next day and voting on which one I looked best in (the hot pink T-shirt with matching bunny ears was the outright winner – I wonder why ;p)
OK, so the point here is…
Combining the things that you love with the things that you DO is a brilliant way to increase your every day joy.
If you’re feeling a bit stumped about what you love, simple pleasures are a great place to start.
If you need some inspiration, here’s a free playsheet from the 21-Day Joy Challenge that can help you identify your favourite pleasures.
Over to you
What is one thing or area in your life you’d love to have more fun with? And what one thing will you add or change to ramp up the enjoyment factor? Love to hear your ideas in the comments below.
Big hugs
Lynn
PS. The next London Joy Club is coming up Thurs Oct 15 and I’ll be talking about how to put the fun back into your relationships. Read more about it over here.