OPTIMIZE FOR FUN

Ready? Here’s the plan…

We go to school for 13 years.

Then, crossing our fingers, we get into a good college where we go a cool $100k in debt.

Then, somehow, many of us come out of 20-some-odd years of “education” without the necessary skills to actually get a job, much less a job we’re going to enjoy.

And when we DO get a job, then we can look forward to working full time for 40 years…

(Which means if you’re retiring right now, you entered the work force when gas was 63¢ a gallon, the first Star Wars just came out, and Earth had 3 BILLION fewer people on it.)

Then, and only then, are we supposed to enjoy our “golden years.”

This is the deal we’ve been sold by society… and I’m sorry, but I’m just not buying it.

As you can tell, I’m not a big fan of the school system. If it worked for you, that’s awesome, but it didn’t work for me…

I graduated high school with a < 1.0 GPA and I didn’t go to college.

But I’m not here to rant about school.

I want to talk about this flawed idea that we should delay gratification and prioritize hard work and sacrifice.

Don’t get me wrong — I’m all for hard work. I’ve had to do a ton of it in my life.

But I don’t think hard work is something we “owe” the world, while fun is something we earn by paying our dues.

I think fun should always be the goal.

If life were a Facebook ad, I’d say optimize for a dang good time.

Because I believe that you get better at whatever you put your attention on.

If you practice hard work and grinding, you’ll get better at it.

If, at the same time, you practice putting off fun and ignoring what really matters to you (including finding out what matters to you)…

Then you’ll get better at that, too.

Again, I’m not saying avoid hard work, because here’s the thing:

The best things in life — your relationships, your passions, helping your community — they all take hard work.

But hard work isn’t as “hard” when fun is the goal, and when you’re trying to have a good time and help the people around you have a good time.

So have fun always be the goal, and don’t let anyone convince you to work hard for the heck of it.