Three Kinds of Fun

A number of years ago I read Gretchen Rubin's book, The Happiness Project. She devoted a year of her life to see if she could boost her own happiness. Each month she had measurable resolutions on a different aspect of her life; January; boost energy, February; relationships, March; work, April; parenthood and so on. Her book really changed how I look at things and I am looking forward to her new book that is suppose to come out this summer, Happier at Home.

I also read her blog everyday and I remember that she wrote a post about having fun and that there are three types of fun; challenging fun, accommodating fun, and relaxing fun. Relaxing fun is self explanatory. It's sitting by the pool side reading a book or watching your favorite TV show after a long day. These do not require a whole lot of effort or thinking.

Accommodating fun is the family trip to the museum or the zoo. It's bringing your kids to their soccer game or basketball game. There is a little bit more effort involved but the end result is stronger relationship with your kids and memories are being made as a family. You are still having fun but you are accommodating a number of people in order to do it.

The last kind of fun is challenging fun. This can require the most effort but also can be the most rewarding. This is learning a new skill or hobby. It could be learning how to golf or play tennis. It could be learning photography or using a new computer program. 

This weekend I can say that I experienced all three kinds of fun. I did have time to read and watch some TV. I did drive my kids to their games and enjoyed cheering them on but I also experienced some challenging fun. 

Saturday was my mom's birthday and I really wanted to make her a slide show of pictures with her grandkids. This may not sound too challenging to some of you tech geeks out there, but I am not all that savvy when it comes to using the computer. I scanned a number of pictures, downloaded them to my computer and then dragged them into imovie. With a little bit of help from Shannon, I was able to get something presentable. It took a lot of time and a lot of "playing" on the computer, but when it was all said and done, I really did have fun doing it and I was proud of myself for learning something new.

Happy Birthday Mom! I hope you enjoyed your video as much as I did putting it together.