I’ve been doing a lot of podcasts lately to promote the preorder of my upcoming book, The Fun Habit. During these interviews, I’m consistently asked the same question, “What advice do you have for those of us that want to have fun but, for whatever reason, do not feel it’s an appropriate time right now to prioritize our own enjoyment?”
Here’s the answer: Science tells us that when we feel our “fun cup” is full, we ready ourselves for betterment. A great study out of Harvard, Stanford, and MIT (“Hedonism and the choice of everyday activities”) looked at how and why people choose their everyday activities. The study included twenty-eight thousand people who were asked to download a free smartphone app that prompted them to answer questions about their mood and activity choice at random times throughout the day. The study’s purpose was to determine what influences our choice of activities: mood or, let’s say, day of the week?
What these researchers thought they might find is that we are wired to always look for activities that make us feel good. If we feel bad, we look for activities that will make us feel better. If we feel good, we look for activities that make us feel even better—potentially validating the commonly held belief that we are simply pleasure-seeking animals.
But, ultimately, that’s not what they found. It turns out to be true that when we feel bad, we seek out pleasure to make ourselves feel better. However, the magic happens when we’re living a life we feel is fun enough. In the study, people who felt good were more likely to choose useful activities that weren’t necessarily mood-enhancing. For example, they might choose to forgo a little lighthearted fun to sit down and write a book about it. (Or maybe that’s just me. But you get the point.)
What the study suggests is that when our “fun cup” is full, we’re able to resist the allure of short-term gains (because these types of “rewards” are already bountiful through deliberate design) and invest in long-term enrichment that supports our existence and the existence of others. It seems that we need to prioritize fun, because when fun is notably absent in our lives, this scarcity limits our capacity to be our best selves.
Dr. Maxime Taquet is an Academic Clinical Fellow within the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford and the lead author of the above-mentioned study. Max is passionate about combining data of many kinds (brain imaging, mobile phone, electronic health records, etc.) to better support mental health. My interview with Dr. Maxime Taquet about the hedonic flexibility principle can be found here.
Lygeia Ricciardi is the founder & CEO of AdaRose, which makes self-care easy for busy women through a subscription experience that includes mindfulness, body care products, and virtual expert guidance. Lygeia has been at the vanguard of the patient and consumer engagement movement for over a decade. My interview with Lygeia Ricciardi about the importance of prioritizing self-care can be found here.
For life experience this quarter, I cemented my spot in the Guinness Book of World Records (along with 379 other life adventurers). Three hundred eighty of us showed up at Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland, Oregon, as part of the WDS conference put on by Chris Guillebeau. We all dressed up as dinosaurs and crushed the previous record of most inflatable dinosaurs in one place, which previously stood at 252.
Contribution this quarter went to supporting some amazing service work rooted in fun. It included donations to the Oakland Easter Egg Hunt, the Dolphin Dash, Augie’s Quest, Comic Relief, Summerfield Elementary, and the Make-A-Wish Trailblaze Challenge.
As the excitement for The Fun Habit ramps up, one of the areas I’m enjoying the most is getting to engage with so many of you. If there is any way I can help you in your journey toward more joy and delight, please let me know. I’m here for it and continue to really appreciate the conversations with our community. Whether we connect or not in the coming months, wishing you and your loved ones all the fun you can handle in the summer months ahead.
Yours in fun,
Mike Rucker, Ph.D.
P.S. Here is a partial list of my recent podcast marathon:
If you know of any podcasts where you think I might make a good guest, please hit reply and send them my way. I’ve been having a ton of fun doing these lately, and motivated to keep the momentum going.