When’s the last time you felt exhilarated, lighthearted, and free? Or the last time you were fully present? When’s the last time you felt alive? Playfulness, connection, and flow are all energizing, happiness-boosting states when they occur on their own. But when we experience these three states at once—in other words, when we experience True Fun—the effects can feel magical. When we have True Fun, we are not lonely. We are not stressed. We are not consumed by self-doubt or malaise. Instead, we are focused and present, free from anxiety and self-criticism. We laugh and feel connected, both to other people and to our authentic selves. When people talk about past experiences in which they truly had fun, their faces light up because True Fun makes us feel alive. Prioritize fun, and you will feel yourself coming back to life. If our goal is a meaningful and joyful existence, both in the long term and in the day-to-day, understanding the importance of our attention is only the first step. Next we must decide, what do we want to pay attention to? Our natural tendency is always going to be to pay attention to the negative, to scan the horizon for potential attacks. It’s a survival strategy that serves us well when our dangers are physical and real. It also affects our experience of life—we pay far more attention to correcting what’s wrong than enjoying and nurturing what is going right. We all want lives that are filled with meaning, happiness, satisfaction, and joy—but we don’t know how to get there. These are nebulous destinations with no clear path, so instead, we spend our time chasing, striving, and competing, dwelling on the past as we sprint toward future goals, like drivers who are so focused on the road ahead that the scenery rushes by in a blur. But we are not problems that need to be fixed. We are lives that want to be lived. Living does not suddenly start when we achieve inbox zero, or win an argument on social media, or earn a promotion. It happens in every moment—it is happening right now.
