Do you ever get tunnel vision when going thru a crisis or major event in your life; where you don’t think about anything else? For me, the answer is a resounding YES!!! And 2020 was not exception: COVID, lose of job, kitchen remodeling, and a major roof repair project. Any one of them by themselves would cause major stress, but when you have 2 or 3 hitting at the same time, it’s easy to get this tunnel vision, where I just want it to end. I drop connections and activities, because I just want to get it done. Or in other words, I start to just live and don’t have a life; thinking “I can start having a life again when XYZ is done”. And all the fun get sucked out of my life. We wake up each morning thinking about everything to do, but do we ever wake up thinking about “What will I do today to have some FUN”. Given where my mind has been with the items above, I’ve been thinking a lot more about how I can intentionally make having fun apart of my regular routines.
In Hiking; we can get tunnel vision on goals we have set for ourselves; distance per month, elevation gain per month, setting new PRs on the incline, 14ers climbed etc. We start to lose track of why we are hiking in the first place and begin to limit ourselves on who we are hiking with because they don’t have the same goals or speed. I think we have break out of this by adding a mixture of activities to our hiking. Intentionally ask other to hike with us, Doing a trail in the opposite way, Putting together a new trail combination, Going for a hike without a watch on or time limitation, etc. All these things can help put the FUN back into hiking. Just image doing the Manitou Incline WITHOUT tracking your time!!!
In our Personal life; I think back and remember all the FUN we had playing “Kick the Can” with all the neighborhood kids in the middle of the street. Internet, WIFI, smart phones, apps; all words never invented at that time and we still had FUN. Yes, and no one ever got ran over while playing in the street either. Fast forward to today and we tend to think that having FUN, has to involve play games on devices, watching movies, or binge-watching TV series. All done in isolation and with no people interactions. Here are two ways to break out and have FUN; 1) Hop in the car and do a half/all day road trip; exploring off beaten paths or small towns or 2) Get together with family or friends for game night with a favorite board game or card game.
At Work; we can break the work cycle by doing taking time for early morning hikes, lunch time walks/meals or team celebrations. We get into the mind set of thinking we have all this work to do and can’t stop for any breaks. Yet it is the breaks to have FUN that allows our brains to reset and recharge our batteries and soul. Think of the lumber jack who stops on a regular basis to sharpen their chain saw blade. Without the stop, the blade gets duller and duller till it’s no good or worse; breaks off.
Like everything else these days, unless we schedule it, FUN is not going to happen. And it may not be with the same people. We need to identify what we are going to do to have fun, who we want to do it with and when we will do it. What are you going to do to start having FUN on a regular basis in your hiking, personal, and work life???
Al Andersen 