Play, Enjoy, Rest

Work 9:00 to 5:00. Get home and rest a couple of hours. Back to the grind.

That was my schedule, like many aspiring internet entrepreneurs. Work. Recuperate. Grind.

This isn’t sustainable. Maybe for some super alpha Twitter gurus (who have a sweet course for only $200!) and who eat only steak and Adderall, that lifestyle works. But most of us are actually well adjusted and we want more than that out of life.

That is when I had an epiphany.

What is Play?

How do some people have fun sitting quietly and knitting for hours? Or playing puzzles? When you think about it, most hobbies are actually super boring for most people. I don’t want to tune an engine for hours. Sitting indoors and cataloging the butterflies that took months to catch is not my idea of a good time.

And yet for millions of people do this. For fun! How?

According to neuroscientists, play or fun doesn’t actually require enjoyment in the moment. Rather, it requires being creative within constraints. It means having challenges that we can overcome, and going deeper into a subject until we find the elation of mastering it.

Thinking of play that way, you can transform your “work” into play by recategorizing it in your brain. If you’re working on something you are interested in, you don’t have to always enjoy it — you just need to keep exploring it until you reach a place of mastery.

So instead of coming home from work only to go to another grind, I now go home in order to play — to build, to create, to learn. Generate an email list, outline a book, master SEO. To solve problems and create value.

Sometimes it’s tough, but if I think about it rightly, it’s always fun.

The Right Work/Life Balance

The right work/life balance, then, is actually a play-enjoy-rest balance. But you have to think of them in a particular way.

• Play: Do something creative that you can master and monetize it.
• Enjoy: Do those things that give life meaning e.g. relationships, art, and volunteering.
• Rest: Do those things that recharge and energize you.

The goal is to get to a place where all one needs to do is play for work, rest when you need, and enjoy life.

Instead of grinding your way to success, why not play all the way there? Find something you can enjoy or master, redefine “work” in your mind, and never work again.