Having Fun is the Key to a Satisfied Life

If someone were to ask you what personality trait brings the most satisfaction in life, what would your answer be?

Someone active? Someone who has peace with their circumstances? Someone who easily makes new friends?

According to a study from the American Psychological Association, the trait that leads to the highest rates of satisfaction are people who “have a lot of fun”.

Play More: Defining “Fun”

One of the main things I try to accomplish in my job as a pastor is establish a culture of playfulness.

Church can be a place that is difficult to be playful, and for understandable reasons. It is a place that many people go as a place of refuge from the difficulties of their lives. Many people enter the doors of the sanctuary looking for rest, comfort, peace, and shelter from the storms of life. People enter the doors escaping homes full of abuse. They are recovering from workweeks in jobs they struggle to find satisfaction with. People are feeling the anxiousness that comes from raising kids, from tight budgets, from spousal pressures. People are lonely, lost, abandoned. It is a place that walks through death with people.

Church can be a place that feels heavy.

But, I would argue, church should be the preeminent place of fun. It is the place where you can leave your burdens and should in turn share with you a Spirit of freedom.

So, what does having fun look like?

You’ve met fun and playful people before. They are the kind of people who bring the fun with them wherever they go. The ones who want to have a good time every time. The ones who laugh easy, and draw you into their joy.

They see the brighter side of things, they are enthusiastic, social, and resilient.

This is a trait that takes cultivating, if not naturally gifted in it.

Cultivating Joy

I think there are some keys to success in being a more joyful person:

1. Find the things that make you happy. It could be working out with friends. It could be going out to eat. Maybe it’s taking your dog on a hike. Producing artwork, learning something new, or just meeting a friend for coffee. Choose to focus your life on these things.

2. Schedule fun things. Those list of things that make you happy won’t just magically happen in the midst of your busy schedule. You have to make them happen by giving them priority scheduling in your life. Your life will not be remembered so much by your 9 to 5, but how you live from 5 to 9. Everyone has to work, but how you spend your time outside of work really matters.

3. Remove the distractions to fun. The biggest distraction to fun, which has ruined more fun times than it has created, is your phone! Social media and Netflix might seem fun, but the joyful Spirit requires you to interact with life, not simply be consumed by a screen.

4. Be spontaneous.But didn’t you just say to schedule things? Yes, I did. But there has to be room for adventure. To say “yes” to the last minute invite to that thing that sounds a bit crazy. But it builds a new kind of muscle. A muscle that allows you to explore the unknown, to try new things, and to recognize that you can enjoy, and be a joy, in just about any circumstance.

5. Soak it all in. You’ve heard this before, I am sure, but being present is absolutely essential to having fun. You need to be immersed in the experience, letting all of your senses report back their extraordinary findings.

Conclusion: If you want to have more fun in life, you must decide to have more fun. Go into every situation with the intentional thought of “how can I make this more fun?”

Bonus: The lowest life satisfaction is “feeling misunderstood”

Being a clear communicator is an obvious way to reverse the pain and dissatisfaction that comes from feeling misunderstood.

If you would like to read “Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection” with me, I’d love to form a book group and have a zoom book club surrounding it. Email me back if interested!