Playing for Adults: Why It's so Important for a Good Life

Let's talk about what playing for adults is. Basically, it's that fun thing we all did as kids and then forgot to do!

Today, I'd like to encourage you to start playing again. By that I mean the Oxford Dictionaries definition of play as engaging

“in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose.”

If we define play as something that isn’t done for a practical purpose, this brings up the question:

As Floris Koot explains in his article about the importance of play, humans (like other mammals) learn through playing: “When children play tag, the simplest game ever, they learn so much at the same time: hunting and being hunted, (dealing with) winning and losing, motoric skills, fairness within the group, collaboration, how to improve the game when it gets boring, social patterns, leading and following, creativity, presence of mind, being present in the body and probably more.”

Given all this, we can assume that play is important for children’s wellbeing. Medium's largest publication (The Mission) has, through of an article by Peter Gray, drawn attention to the decline of play and rise in children’s mental disorders.

At the same time, play is not just for children but also benefit adults.

For instance, the data in a paper out of Michigan State University suggests that there is a “very significant relationship between success as a scientist and evidence of adult arts and crafts avocations.”

According to the data presented in this paper, Nobel Prize winners are almost three times as likely to have these avocations as the US general public.

Given this correlation and the importance of play when it comes to learning, could play also be important in other endeavors?

Let’s explore…

Your passion will generally feel to you like something you enjoy doing and that you would do even if you weren’t getting paid for it. Sounds suspiciously like how children feel about play, doesn’t it?

Here’s the thing: your passion will feel like play to you. Like something you do just for the sake of doing it.

How then, could you find your passion if you don’t give yourself time to play?

You can’t. So, give yourself time to play (= to do something for the enjoyment of it).

With all that being said, let’s move on to…

To put this into practice, go through the following process.

(If you want to get the most out of this or if you're afraid of getting stuck, get the "Taking Action Worksheets" and begin by filling those out.)

• Get your calendar
  It doesn’t matter if your calendar is in a digital or in a physical format. (Seriously, just do it. If you have the time to read this article, you have the time to get your calendar.)
  
  
• Schedule one hour of uninterrupted “play time" in your calendar
  Once you find an open one-hour slot at a convenient time, block it off.
  
  
• Observe the following “rules” for the “play time” slot in your calendar
  - Set a timer for 55 minutes.
  - For your “play time,” do something you like to do without paying attention to the outcome. For instance, if you decide to paint, don’t worry about how the painting looks like. Simply enjoy the process.
  - Stay away from digital devices. Reading something on the internet or watching something on Netflix doesn’t count as play time
  - If you don’t know what you’d like to do, simply observe your thoughts and feelings until you come up with an idea of what you’d like to do.
  - Once the timer goes off, you can either choose to continue (if you have the time) or stop.
  
  
• To complete your “play time,” take a moment to reflect on how the process was for you
  For instance, was it enjoyable? Weird? Did you have a hard time finding something to do? Do you feel more relaxed than before?
  
  
• Decide if you’d like to do this again
  If so, schedule another “play time” appointment with yourself.
  
  
• Congratulate yourself on a job well done! 👏

It's hard to underestimate the importance of playing for adults. Just like kids, grown-ups benefit from this fun activity, too.

If you find it hard to connect to your passion and purpose, set aside some time each week to play. Simply do something that you love doing without expecting any results from it.