328. SOUND BITE: What If Fun Is the Point?

[00:00:06] [SPEAKER_00] Welcome to Soundbite, a reflection inspired by a recent conversation on Girl, Take the Lead. And I'm your host, Yolanda Canny. Before my daughters, Emma and Kiki agreed to come on the podcast for this most recent episode, they made one thing very clear. It had to be fun. And I remember thinking, okay, fun. I can do that.

[00:00:32] [SPEAKER_00] So we went back to something we'd done together way back in 2022, the slang challenge. They gave their boomer mom, me, some of the slang they were hearing. I tried to figure out what it meant and I gave them some words from my generation. No big leadership topic, no problem we needed to solve, no important question we needed to answer. Just fun. You know what? It was.

[00:01:00] [SPEAKER_00] We laughed a lot playing the game. I got some things right and I got a lot wrong. But somewhere in all the laughter, I started wondering, when did fun become something we think we have to earn? When I was growing up, I had to finish my homework first before I could go outside and play. Work first, then fun.

[00:01:30] [SPEAKER_00] There's nothing particularly wrong with that. But I wonder how much of that belief I've carried with me. Be responsible. Work hard. Apply yourself. Don't waste time. Take this seriously.

[00:01:52] [SPEAKER_00] Maybe that sound familiar to me. And maybe somewhere along the way, serious became associated with worthwhile.

[00:02:05] [SPEAKER_00] If I'm accomplishing something. If I'm accomplishing something. Learning something. Producing something. That's good. But what if I'm just having fun? Shouldn't I be doing something? What is fun anyway?

[00:02:27] [SPEAKER_00] So I gave it some thought. And I've been thinking that for me, it might be one of my cards. For someone else, fun might look like playing a sport, going to a comedy show, dancing, cooking, traveling, playing with a dog, or sitting around a table laughing with people you love.

[00:02:53] [SPEAKER_00] Fun is fun. Fun is pretty individual, right? But I think it often has a companion nearby. Laughter. Maybe because when we're laughing, we're usually not taking ourselves quite so seriously. We're not trying so hard to perform. We're allowed to be a little ridiculous. And maybe even get things wrong.

[00:03:17] [SPEAKER_00] That's certainly what happened during our slang challenge. I don't know what some of those words meant. Sometimes I got close. Sometimes I wasn't close at all. But being wrong was part of the fun. Think about that. How often do we give ourselves permission to be wrong and enjoy it?

[00:03:42] [SPEAKER_00] We can turn fun into work. I know I can. I love making cards. But it doesn't take much for me to start thinking every card has to be beautiful or original or good enough to put in my shop.

[00:04:01] [SPEAKER_00] Suddenly, I'm not playing with paper at all. I'm performing. We can do that with sports, exercise, travel, hobbies, even entertaining friends. Sometimes we can take something we enjoy and quietly add an expectation. Do it well. Then maybe do it perfectly.

[00:04:29] [SPEAKER_00] Well, there goes the fun, right? And that's why I keep coming back to the condition Emma and Kiki gave me. It has to be fun. It has to be fun. They didn't say it had to be meaningful or educational or productive. Just fun. And here's what I love. Meaning showed up anyway. Toward the end of our silly conversation, I asked them the question I ask all my guests.

[00:04:59] [SPEAKER_00] What would you tell your 20-something self today? Emma talked about relaxing and not feeling as if she had to have everything figured out. Kiki talked about being honest about what she feels, allowing herself to disagree, and understanding that she doesn't have to make everyone happy. Suddenly, we weren't talking about slang anymore. We were talking about being human.

[00:05:25] [SPEAKER_00] We hadn't planned it. We didn't engineer it. The fun didn't keep us from getting somewhere meaningful. Maybe the fun helped us get there. And that's what this episode reminded me. Learning doesn't always have to feel like work. We can care deeply about taking ourselves not so seriously.

[00:05:52] [SPEAKER_00] We can create without needing the result to be perfect. We can be beginners. We can be ridiculous. We can laugh at ourselves. We can play. And sometimes we can do something for absolutely no other reason than it's fun. So here's the question I'm taking with me. Where have I made something more serious than it needs to be?

[00:06:21] [SPEAKER_00] And what might happen if I had a little more fun with it? Maybe something meaningful will come from it. Maybe it won't. And maybe that's okay too. Because perhaps every experience doesn't need a lesson. Sometimes fun can simply be the point. And next week, we're shifting gears as we return to our Threshold series and the question,

[00:06:50] [SPEAKER_00] Who are we now? Especially when a major life change shifts the shape of our lives. Five years ago, I made a career pivot of my own. I didn't know podcasting and art were waiting for me on the other side. Now my husband Steve is making a career pivot of his own, hopefully toward more balance. And I find myself wondering, what will he discover?

[00:07:17] [SPEAKER_00] And maybe even, what will his change mean for me? Types, right? Types, right? We'll explore that together next week. And if you haven't listened to my Slang Challenge Rematch with Emma and Kiki, I hope you'll check it out. It's in the show notes. You may learn a few new words.

[00:07:45] [SPEAKER_00] You may discover that you're completely choogy. And if I just used that incorrectly, I'm sure my daughters will let me know. Until next time, stay curious, have a little fun, and remember, you are totally enough. Bye!