When was the last time you had fun?
There is a wide range in how we can define the word fun. Let’s set aside the kind of fun where you go to a party and have some drinks with friends, or binge-watch movies, for instance. Oftentimes in such interactions, we end up feeling more isolated than connected. I mean the kind of fun where you laughed like a child, did something you had never done before, and had a blast doing it, or felt so still and inward that you lost the sense of past or future.
Several years ago, my mother was visiting my wife, son, and me while we were living in Italy. We went to a villa in Rome with the most exquisite gardens. It was a lovely, warm, sunny afternoon when out of nowhere it began to rain—not a light sprinkle, but a total downpour! Quickly, we found the nearest overhang in the garden to wait it out.
We waited… waited… and waited some more. Eventually, my son and I, who was perhaps four at the time, looked at each other, smiled, and walked right into the waterfall from the sky, with my wife and mom following right after.
We were all going to be soaked on the way back to the car anyway, so why rush? My son and I splashed in big puddles, while I noticed my mom had the same idea, laughing and dancing joyfully around a fountain. We could have kept waiting and eventually walked away dry, but where would the fun have been in that?
As we get older, many of us become a bit dry in the fun department. With the pressures of day-to-day life, fun often takes a back seat. In the old film The Shining, the wife discovers at a certain moment that her husband, who was supposed to be writing his novel, wrote, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”
Fun is not just a nice thing to do; it is essential to our well-being. It does not require money, exotic places, or even other people. It derives from inner spontaneity and is a plant that must be watered regularly. Pure morements of enjoyment will then feed into all aspects of our lives.
I invite you to take a few minutes today to open your notes app and start a running list of things you would genuinely find fun. If something pops into your mind during the day, add it. It does not need to be complex—something as simple as walking somewhere you have never been is enough. Let this become your fallback list.
At the same time, stay aware of in-the-moment opportunities. True fun comes from the inside out. The more we notice it, the more we will see.
So what are you going to do this week, just for the fun of it?
Written by Jaidhara Sleighter
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