Play without Productivity

Recently I’ve been revisiting Life Lessons by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and David Kessler.

Today the chapter I opened to was “The Lesson of Play”. I was reminded how central playfulness is to our wellbeing, and how often and easily we seem to put it low down on our lists. I could do with rekindling some playfulness, and I hear it often from clients who are slogging it out with no end in sight.

Kübler-Ross and Kessler write:

Many people work all day and then work nights to get ahead, forgetting why they were trying to get ahead. And if they go out, it’s to an event that provides good networking possibilities, rather than to a get-together that simply offers fun. Weekends are turned into “catch-up and get-ahead time” at work. When these people do attempt play on the weekends, they can’t escape the nagging feeling that they’re wasting their time.”

The book was published in 2000. I wonder what the authors would make of the impact of social media on this drive to turn everything into work. When even your “play” and social connection time is curated, branded, commodified and displayed for commercial consumption, when are you just playing?

If it took brains and personal awareness to fix this problem, almost no-one would still have it. So why do we do this to ourselves? We are social creatures and when the cultural imperative in our organisations and wider society seem to be demanding this relentless seriousness and hustle from us, it can be hard to march to a different beat.

It’s so important to play without turning it into productivity.

That’s my focus for this week. Bye – I’m off to catch up with a friend for coffee!

Until next week,

Take care of yourself and others

Madeleine

PS Sometimes I don’t feel like playing. It’s ok to have negative emotions too. Read my post What is toxic positivity, and how to cultivate healthy positivity instead to find out more.

I work with clients from executive leadership teams to the front line, helping them to make clearer decisions about what they want, and adapt faster and more easily to change and transition. I use deep purpose as a key to unlock powerful thriving in work and life.

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