Play is often correlated with being trivial and work as being serious. I think the two are not mutually exclusive; in fact, I think we have work all wrong. I try to never be serious and to instead always be sincere. Of course there are deadlines and bills and appointments to be on time for, and I complete all those basic-human-life tasks never being serious. The key to engaging in play at work is your mindset. If something is serious, it implies the possibility of disaster. And when you start honestly answering the question what’s the worst that could happen, you realize nothing is ever as scary as you make out to be. When you start walking around really thinking about how most of the things we worry ourselves with every day are nothing more than social constructs we didn’t want to buy into in the first place, a huge weight is lifted and you can come to the realization there is so little cause for worry and so much more to wonder about.

Sometimes all you need to do is reframe a hard problem to get a different perspective. Like many millennials, Steve Kamb grew up glued to a TV and computer screen. A few years ago, he realized that playing video games was fun but there was something missing. Kamb knew he should be getting out more and exercising, but didn’t know how he would ever find the motivation to start living a healthy lifestyle and exploring the world beyond the screen; so he started thinking about his life as a video game he calls [the] Epic Quest of Awesome. He started blogging about his experience and sharing his level-ups, which gained a positive reputation among the blogosphere and inspired many others to start playing the real real-life-game as well. Kamb now has a website called Nerd Fitness where he encourages other gamers to get outside and start gaining real-life experience points. (Side note: Games like Ingress are responsible for getting gamers out and about, incorporating play, physical movement, and the outdoors)

Being from the Midwest, my friendly roots have stuck with me as I have set up camp in new cities across the country. I grew up talking to the service workers at the gas station, making small talk with the grocery clerks, asking the baristas at the local coffee shop what book they were reading, and so on (I didn’t think this was uncommon until I traveled and spent time in larger cities). I usually start by asking: How’s your day going?

The most common response I have gotten from Seattle to D.C., down to Orlando and up to Minneapolis, is: Well, I’m at work…

The opposite of play is not work: it is depression. “Work” is something we do between the time when we get up in the morning and before we fall asleep, and how we do that work defines who we are. If your work is the worst eight hours of your day, you are going to feel more drained of energy after your shift than someone who has worked the same amount of time at a job where they are able to play. If you can’t enjoy your work, find new work. If you can’t find new work, take stock of what is really going on. The only way I was able to survive some jobs in the past was to think of it all as a game. I thought only about what was right in front of me, one customer at a time, one project at a time. This idea comes from Alan Watts. He describes a job washing dishes where instead of thinking of the towering stack waiting to be washed, he only thought of the one dish he was washing. It then turned into a dance, taking a dish, wiping it down, rinsing, and moving on to the next. Instead of it being a chore, it turned into a “dish dance”.

Play as Escape: Hobbies

"Play is the highest form of research.” - Albert Einstein

For the most part, play is fiddling around with something or other just for the sake of liking what happens when you tinker. All of my mentors have had at least one hobby they are “armchair” experts at to tamper with as a way to de-stress from work. My mentors spend their time brewing beer, playing chess, doing carpentry, restoring cars, cooking, gardening, and marathon running. I de-stress by messing around with my creative writing and meeting up with my book club.

You don’t have to have one go-to hobby: feel free to explore. Here are some ideas of things you can do to inspire the freedom play offers by rediscovering your inner child:

Game Night. One of my friend groups meets up one night a week to play board games. Some of them who are writers have told me that if they are having an off week, they sometimes leave game night so inspired that when they get home, they work through the night until early the next morning.

One of my friend groups meets up one night a week to play board games. Some of them who are writers have told me that if they are having an off week, they sometimes leave game night so inspired that when they get home, they work through the night until early the next morning. Trade Night. Another group of friends get together once a month to learn something new. They spend Saturday afternoons learning how to knit, throwing clay, or learning a new dance step. One Saturday, they even went to a shooting range (this is not as common in the city, rural friends). One of my (guy) friends told me: I found out I am great at knitting and it’s something I actually enjoy doing. It’s relaxing. And then I realized that there were all these things out there that I have never tried that I may really like or be good at. So one of us [in the group] will say, ‘I’ve always wanted to ice skate,' so the next month we will all meet at an ice rink. Sometimes you love it, sometimes you hate it, but it’s better to try and hate it than not know what you’re missing.

Here are some other ideas: