Start Playing Around
Start Playing Around
Almost all creativity involves purposeful play.
Abraham Maslow
We’ve ruined play.
We’ve organized it, monetized it, and sanitized it.
As children, we played outside until dark and didn’t want to stop even then.
We didn’t have any sophisticated electronics.
There were no adults organizing us into teams.
Occasionally, someone would get hurt, but the injury was usually treated with a BAND-AID®.
As adults, we’ve not only relegated play to the weekends, but we’ve turned it into work.
What we call play is usually competitive, expensive, or mindless.
The play of our childhood was mentally stimulating, such as the politically incorrect role-playing game we preferred.
Nowadays, we’ve replaced play with something we call decompressing.
This is not recreation. It is neither physically healthy nor mentally healthy.
We even tell our children, “Stop playing around. You’re going to break something.”
If we look, play can be found in the most unusual places.
My elementary school playground had crushed limestone gravel.
After significant rain, numerous puddles would make it difficult to do much during recess.
So, we started scratching out drainage canals with sticks or the heels of our shoes.
By the time the puddles were gone, recess was over.
But we enjoyed the challenge of draining the playground so much that it quickly became something we looked forward to.
I learned a lot about hydrodynamics and problem-solving on that playground.
And I enjoyed it more than swinging or playing on the monkey bars.
Even our work can take on some of the qualities of play.
Play can be described as something that is done for its own sake.
Work has a purpose and a goal.
But we can introduce elements of play into our work.
We can gamify routine tasks and turn them into play.
We can try creative ways to produce the results we need.
Not only does this make it more enjoyable, but it also can produce innovative solutions we wouldn’t have thought of otherwise.
It is good to look for ways to merge play with work, but we also need time just to play.
And we must protect that play, not allowing it to become another chore.
Today, look for ways to bring play into your work.
And set aside some time strictly for play, play that doesn’t involve the use of electronic devices.
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