A few weeks ago, I wrote about
reading Edmond Morris'
three-volume biography of Theodore
Roosevelt. This week, I
finally finished it! While there are
many reasons to
recommend it (which I do!), it got
me thinking about how we
define fun. Late in his life, TR
said that he had enjoyed
"about as much fun as any nine
men I know!" How did he
accomplish so much and still have
time for all that fun
along the way?
I've often written that happiness is
one of the most
universal human desires. Happiness
pretty much sums up the
best of fulfillment, satisfaction,
achievement and
contentment in life. Everyone wants
to be happy.
And a big part of happiness is
having fun. On the surface,
fun is just FUN! Fun is laughter and
play, it's pleasure
and relaxation and escape from our
daily chores. It's about
teasing or games or vacations and
watching our favorite
movies or watching our team win a
big game. Fun is fun!
We all want to have fun, but on
closer examination, it's
not as clear-cut as it seems. In
fact, it turns out that
how we define "fun" is an
important and rather complicated
thing.
We all have fun in different ways,
and I suspect our
definition of fun ultimately
determines our success in
life. Our definition of
"fun" impacts the goals we achieve
and the things we fail to achieve.
This may be unfair, but I want to
point to some people and
use them as examples of unfortunate
definitions of fun.
Based on news reports, Charlie Sheen
seems to define it as
drugs, alcohol, sex and outrageous
parties. My impression
is that Elvis Presley, John Belushi
and Lindsay Lohan
defined fun as doing things that
often resulted in pain,
embarrassment, arrest, even death.
To some degree, we all know about
this kind of fun. Who
hasn't done something we hope never
comes back to haunt us?
At the time, it seemed like
"fun." We laughed about it. We
were "letting off steam"
or trusting that the phrase, "what
happens in Vegas stays in
Vegas" would turn out to be true.
But does that definition of
"fun" lead to long-term
happiness? I suspect not.
Teddy Roosevelt defined fun
differently. He thought it was
great fun to write books, run for
president, explore new
territory and build the Panama
Canal. For him, fun was
doing things most of us would
consider work. It turns out,
our definitions are very important!
If we define fun as avoiding
"work," and if we combine it
with being silly or acting out, we
can predict the long-
term results. In moderation, these
things may be harmless
but if they become our primary
definition of fun, our
pursuit of pleasure becomes very
expensive.
In contrast, TR and most highly
effective people, define
fun differently. In his lifetime, TR
was President for
almost two full terms. He built the
Panama Canal. He wrote
about 40 books, some of which are
still the definitive
works in their field. He wrote
hundreds of articles and
gave thousands of speeches. He won
the Nobel Peace prize.
He started a third political party.
He collected thousands
of zoological and ornithological
specimens for the
Smithsonian. And along the way, he
had "more fun than any
nine men I know."
For TR work and fun were
indistinguishable. His life was
about productivity, learning, and
doing. He made plenty of
mistakes, and some of them were
whoppers, but oh! did he
have fun along the way!
The lesson I take from TR is to be
very careful about my
definition of fun. Like everyone
else, I want to be happy
both now and at the end of my life.
And, I want to have
tons of fun along the way! For him,
fun was about learning
and challenge. It was about building
and doing and making a
contribution.
What do you do for fun? I suspect
your definition of "fun"
has a lot to do with what you'll
achieve in life.
No comments:
Post a Comment