Random Thoughts by Shelley: Fun expectations

Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh. Choose with no regret. Appreciate your friends. Continue to learn. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is. – Mary Ann Radmacher

Week 8 in 49 Weeks ‘til I’m 50 – Ready, Set, it’s all about A FOCUSed plan to get there! Foundation - Fun

At this point in our journey to 50, we’ll be focusing on what I call the foundations in life. In other terms, the dimensions of wellness, Oola, or a healthy balanced life. There’s a dimension to all of the terms, or at least our application of them in life that I believe is directly related to our expectations of the foundations. Our expectations seem to me, drive in a sense, the outcomes we get.

As in any blog I write, I share my opinions regarding either something I’ve read or participated in that triggers my random thoughts or intentions for writing that day. Earlier this year, I read the book Oola Find Balance in an Unbalanced World: http://www.oolalife.com/book/

It is fun read. I found myself drawn into the authors’ stories, and it is inspirational. I would recommend reading it if you haven’t. I am re-reading bits and pieces of it to test it out as part of the next 7 weeks. As I was thinking about my list of foundations, I remembered attending the Wellness session a few weeks after reading the book. I like the ideas shared regarding the 7 Dimensions of Wellness.

http://www.ndsu.edu/wellness/wellness_education_services/seven_dimensions_of_wellness/

For consistency, I've chosen 7 elements or as I call them foundations. Some the same as the two references above, some slightly different. I don’t know that I could argue with either list, I just have my own little twists to the concepts of a balanced life.

My take is that there is a definitely a combination. They all use common words to describe a state of a balanced life or wellness. As someone who is almost 50, I have had many years to test out the theories. I wonder if there is any connection to the term ‘mid-life crisis’? Does a person going through a crisis not feel balance in their life? I’d be shocked if there wasn’t a connection. I do believe keeping balance helps prevent you from having a crisis. There might be many “mini-crisis moments,” but if you look close enough, you’d be able to see the imbalance and implement changes to get you out of the imbalance. I have learned all these years that taking a step back and looking closely for the area that is out of balance is the way out of the imbalance.

I’m looking forward to 50. Discovering the changes I see in myself is fun. I could be depressed by the ones that I didn’t want to change, but seeing them appear as expected is kind of fun in a weird kind of way. Every day there are subtle physical reminders that I will be 50. Like the BUTT Challenge to be “completed” in two more days. I can’t wait to take the after shot, have a good laugh and make the whole experience fun after all. I know there was an imbalance in the level of muscle tone. Therefore, I definitely have felt the changes over the duration of the challenge. Seems simple enough to just do more exercises right? Last night after 27 days in a row of doing squats, bridges and lunges, I definitely felt the difference and a bit of imbalance. But that’s just a random thought!

I wonder if I’m expecting the changes of being 50 and then notice them or if they simply happen and I connect the dots and say, “Oh yeah, that must be something related to my age.” I know that I have enough experience under my belt (or above as the midsection indicates) that I can recognize imbalance rather quickly. I recognize that I now have less tolerance for imbalance. At this stage in life, you too have likely encountered many levels of balance or unbalance.

The foundations in life are building blocks to success, no matter what age or stage in life. If you are out of balance in any area, you simply notice things are not “right”. If you spend too much time working, your family life is affected. If you spend too much time having fun with friends instead of studying for school, your school-life is affected. If you eat or drink too much and don’t exercise, your physical well-being is affected. If you put off something like preparing for your taxes as you go throughout the year, there’s going to be an imbalance and you’ll have to readjust your efforts to get caught up.

The good thing is you can change the unbalanced portions of life at any point in time. It might or might not be an overnight change. Recognizing the imbalance is the starting point. Acknowledging that you need to change is the next step. Then take action! Break it up into smaller manageable parts and make it fun.

Let’s start out with my first foundation – Fun. Fun to me has been one of the areas I find myself very reserved at. I’m pretty introverted, so perhaps that’s why I'm reserved? I do think that I’m a bit out of balance, under-balanced in a way. One of the changes I decided would help me have more fun was to start blogging. Blogging helps me become more extroverted without really having the in my face feedback that being in a crowd as an extrovert would give me. One of my other favorite “funs” is photography. That fun, I can take anywhere. I don’t even have to have my camera! I can look around wherever I’m at and take mental pictures. Seeing the world through lenses of a camera or the lenses of my eyes creates moments of fun throughout my day. Whenever I feel a bit out of balance, I wonder what it would look like if I took a picture of it. Or I wonder how I could adjust the camera to make it a unique prize winning shot. A girl’s gotta dream right?

Fun is definitely a unique foundation for everyone, but we all have a fun factor need. I’m sure there are others who might think skydiving is fun, I on the other hand would not. There is a similarity though. It is our expectations re: what it is going to be like to do the thing that we think will be fun. Think about an occasion where you had very high expectations for fun, and it turned out to be an awful time. Now think about a time when you had very low expectations for fun, and it turned out to be one of your favorite fun days.

I think it has to do with carefully balancing the level of expectations as you approach situations. Too high or too low, can and will affect our level of perceived Fun. What about when you’re getting ready for a trip, you set off and have fun. Then you come back and dread getting back into the routine you left behind while you were having fun. Why is there a difference? Is it our expectations that being away is more fun, or that we expect to have fun when we are away but not when we’re here? Either way, it is our expectations that change the outcome. Every day can be fun if we set the expectation that we will have fun.

Do you approach every day with the attitude that it is going to be fun just to be alive? Or do you approach each day with dread of what might happen that will throw a wrench into your day? The fun factor helps us maintain a positive attitude and helps us be enthusiastic about life. It breaks up the monotony too. What do you do to keep the fun factor balanced in your life? My challenge for the next week is to see if fun is truly a foundation. Hope you’ll join me…every day, approach each situation and look for ways to make it fun. Expect fun, find fun, experience fun!

Thanks for stopping by – next week we’ll look at the next foundation – Fact-Finding (aka, intellectual well-being). Enjoy your moments of fun – create them if they aren’t there and see if it makes a difference in your week!

PS – Photography moments of the week. Taking pictures remains fun to me. Finding new and different objects keeps it fun too. Here are my Valentine’s fun moments. I can always count on my husband joining me in creating something interesting out of randomness. He finds cooking new recipes fun, and I call them photo ops of fun.