Finally, time for a little fun! Not only is December all about parties and celebrations, but it’s also my birth month. All of my life, I’ve looked forward to December only to have it pass by before I’d even had a chance to notice it. As part of my Happiness Project, I decided to try to remedy that by focusing the entire month around “fun.” Of course, this is Me-Style Fun, which is pretty low-key and introverted, but how much fun would I actually have if I tried to have someone else’s fun? I remember reading a cousin’s list of holiday parties on her Facebook profile a couple of years ago. It was party after party after party. She was clearly having a blast and loving all of the socializing, but I thought at the time (and still think) that that many parties would be my idea of hell. No exaggeration. Hell. She’d likely think something similar about my comparatively hermit-like lifestyle. That’s totally cool, and good to know as I plan my Fun Month. So, my first criterion: Fun Month will involve a minimum of parties.
Here’s what it will involve:
December 2010 – Fun
Focus: Let myself have a ball.
–Set the stage for enjoyment. Back in college, fun involved staying up late and coming home feeling sick and smelling like cigarette smoke, getting two hours of sleep and then heading to class in the same clothes I’d partied in, barely held vertical by large amounts of caffeine. In the intervening years, my definition of fun has changed significantly. I look back nostaligcally at my baccanalian days, but I realize that as I approach my mid-thirties nothing’s fun if I’m sleep-deprived or know I’m going to feel crappy as a result of my frivolities. So I basically want to re-commit myself to the resolutions I’ve already introduced, especially the Mindfulness and Self Care resolutions from August and September, and explore these resolutions as they relate to fun. I’m hoping this gives me the best odds of being able to enjoy whatever it is I’m doing. I’m also hoping it helps me feel less self-conscious about the things that I find enjoyable. Who cares if other people think the things I’m doing are boring as long as I find them fun?
–Make time for fun. Each day, I would like to know that I’ve got time earmarked for me to have fun. I spend most of the day doing things that simply need to be done, like feeding my family and overseeing their hygiene. Like it or not, I’m in charge of everyone’s underpants. I will try my best to enjoy underpants management through mindfulness. But I think it will also help if I know that I’ve got 30 minutes (or so) set aside just for what I want to do. If this is reading a novel instead of a nonfiction book about happiness, so be it. If it’s watching the John Adams miniseries I have out from the library while crocheting a scarf and sipping non-alcoholic wine, great. So long as it’s for me and I know it’s coming, I think I will be better able to enjoy those moments that aren’t so universally viewed as “fun,” as the John Adams miniseries is.
And that’s it. Broad strokes, not so measurable, but I think it’s the best approach for me in relation to my quest for fun. If you’d like to review my full Happiness Project schedule, please click the link to the left.
Let the FUN begin!
Imperfect Happiness 
I’ve been thinking about this since you wrote it and about different people needing different kinds of fun. For me fun is going somewhere new, meeting someone new, laughter, adventuring, finding the perfect cup of coffee or lunch spot everywhere I go, comparing notes about dreams and progress with others on the same track, spontaneity, surprises, story telling, accomplishments…. I’m excited that Tucker invited our surfer, sailor, rock climber, Alaskan, Stanford grad, rockstar new friend over tomorrow because I know lots of laughter and good stories are guaranteed. I sure am starting to understand where my daughter comes from.
Your posts are so good for me! I find myself reading them quickly and thinking about them all day as I walk down the dock or up to the marina, and then I come back to read them again. Self care and mindfulness are not my strengths, maybe I should go review those months now.
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Victoria, the fact that my posts stick with you as they do is a such a huge compliment. Thank you so much for letting me know that. It’s funny, though…I usually write about those things that are clattering about in my brain while I’m doing other things. I suppose it makes sense that they’d clatter about in others’ brains after they read them.
At the Buddhist Temple, they talk about the “Incense-Scented Man.” One of the reasons they use incense in the temple is to symbolize the way we touch other people’s lives. Just as we leave the temple with the smell of incense still on us, when we interact with others, we carry their influence with us and they carry our influence with them. Kind of like my kids smell like our babysitter when I get home to cuddle them (the babysitter smells good, by the way).
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I loved that miniseries! That would certainly be on my fun list. In fact, vie always been rather ashamed of my total guilty pleasure pastime of coloring…until I found grown up coloring books at Dover.com. There are other people like me!:-)
I am so enjoying your project and your insights. It’s pleasantly surprising to find we are similar in many ways…except I have a chest freezer. :-).
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Those coloring books are really nice! I may just have to get a couple of those (or at least print the sample pages) to color with my daughter this month!
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have FUN! 😀
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