#PlayMore #WorryLess #fun
Laurie Santos greeted her Yale University students with slips of paper that said, “No class today.”
Though she was canceling class in the middle of the semester with exams and papers looming, she instructed her students NOT to use the 75 minutes studying. She told them that they had to enjoy their time.
“She was asking them to stop worrying about grades, even if only for an hour,” writes Susan Svrluga, in an article for The Washington Post. It was also published May 20, 2018, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
As you might guess, Santos psychology class, titled “Psychology and the Good Life,” is the largest class, by far, in Yale’s 317-year history, Svrluga writes.
Before you start laughing, students, particularly those who go to top-notch universities, have pretty rugged schedules. They take courses. Some juggle those courses – homework, tests, papers etc. – around part-time jobs.
There are times when kids need to just kick back and do something fun or, at least, restful.
Perhaps some folks are, let’s just say, not sympathetic. Life isn’t like that. One has to have rigor to make life good, right?
Yet, that is an oxymoron.
The bigger lesson here might be creating balance in your life. If you work all the time, even make lots of money, but never take time to enjoy it, what good is it?
Certainly, for the students, their rigor is temporary. But what Santos is trying to teach them is, to quote the old adage, “all work and no play makes Johnny (or Janey) a dull boy (or girl).”
All too often, the “good life,” as we see it, involves trappings such as kids’ ball games, cooking dinner, mowing the lawn and, oh yes, having a job that might eat you alive.
We schedule ourselves, or over-schedule ourselves, if you prefer, down to every last minute. If you are going from the time you get up to the time you go to bed – perhaps incapable of finding down time – that, by and large, is not good.
The Santos class is teaching young kids who are, just from the school they are attending, likely to be high achievers to, using another cliché, “stop and smell the roses.”
We’ve previously talked about creating happiness. This class is showing kids that they MUST find time in their busy schedules to do that, however they wish.
If you find the idea for this class instructive, but are overly worried whether you are doing enough to keep your head above water, know that there are many vehicles out there to help you if you are either time-broke, or not financially where you’d like to be. To learn about one of the best, message me.
Meanwhile, don’t laugh at Santos’ class or the many students who are taking it. Life lessons are as important, or more so, than academic ones.
Sometimes, you have to say to yourself, “I need a break.” But, your life has become such that you have no clue how to take one.
Perhaps you should study what’s taught in Santos’ class. It might even change your life for the better.
Peter
Tag Archives: fun
HOW HARD IS IT FOR YOU TO LEAVE WORK?
#work #All-ConsumingJob #FamilyFriends #fun
You don’t work an eight-hour day.
You don’t know when to leave the office.
Even when you leave, work goes home with you.
Perhaps you’ve made a new year’s resolution to spend more time with family, friends and other people or things that give you pleasure.
But, you feel you can’t.
There’s a crisis at work you have to deal with.
Laura Petrecca discussed this topic in a Jan. 16, 2017, article in USA Today. Here are some figures quoted in the article:
• 60 percent of people have dreamed about something at work;
• 49 percent check work e-mail after work hours;
• 46 percent work during non-business hours;
• 44 percent are up at night thinking about work;
• 15 percent gave up vacation days.
Here’s another stat: the average person in Europe works about 19 percent less than the average American. Thus U.S. workers put in 25 percent more hours than Europeans, according to a study by a group of economists, quoted in an article by Ben Steverman for Bloomberg News. The article was published March 13, 2017, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
You may know your job is eating you alive, but you fear that if you don’t put in the extra effort, you may be replaced.
News flash: you may be laid off regardless of how well you’ve performed, or how much extra effort you’ve put in.
“There is pressure globally … to do more with less,” Petrecca’s article quotes Patrick Kulesa, director of employee research at Willis Towers Watson.
So what does one do to bring sanity back into his or her life? One way is to just stop working when you get home. Reserve your home space strictly for family, friends and pleasurable activities.
If you have an after-hours crisis at work that requires immediate attention, deal with it at work, so you can go home with a clean slate.
Or, create a Plan B for earning money in what spare time you have, so you can eventually kiss the pressure cooker goodbye. There are many such ways to do that. To learn about one of the best, message me.
Instantaneous communication has become both a blessing and a curse. Take advantage of its blessing to give you pleasure, and pay less attention to the curse that allows work to follow you home.
In short, give yourself a break. Know that no matter what you do, you are not indispensable at work. Know that your boss will not hesitate to let you go if it makes his numbers look good, regardless of the effort you’ve put in.
Leave work at work. Delegate more of what you do, if you can. If you are good at what you do, look for other options if your situation shows no end in sight.
There’s only one you. You deserve to engage in the pleasure of family, friends and enjoyable activities. Don’t let a job deprive you of that.
It’s OK to enjoy your work, but it should not control you, or keep you from other things. No matter what happens at work, learn to live well.
Peter