Transform your daily routine with simple, fun-focused activities for a brighter life

Many of us experience the inclination, over time,  to let our lives become fairly serious day to day. Having goals to achieve requires focus, discipline and diligence; but the tone that we set for ourselves does not need to be sombre. Quite the opposite, in fact. 

If life is meant to be a journey, why not choose, where possible, to cover ground with a spring in our step, and a smile on our face?

Why wait for a holiday, or the weekend, to relax and have a good time? To lessen the perceived severity of our weeks, we can consider finding ways of injecting more fun into our daily lives. We can smile and laugh more easily, or try to see the humorous side when things go wrong. 

We can hum a bit! We can call a friend to share an anecdote with. Or we can listen to music, instead of the news.

Aside from trying to be more fun-focused in the ways that we move through our days, there is also the world of hobbies and interests to consider.  There are many pastimes that we could try for enjoyment, that we may like so much that we create chunks of time in which to do more of them. Consider adding dimension to your life with activities that make you smile, give you joy, help you to blow off steam and connect with others. The rewarding social aspect of having a hobby or a common interest can be an unexpected added bonus.

A few simple ideas

• Exercise: A fitness group, a yoga class, a walking group, Pilates, dancing
• Sport: Volleyball, golf, tennis, running, padel, hockey, darts
• Craft: Classes in art, sewing, writing, beading, woodwork, cooking, model building
• Interests: Groups that meet socially to discuss books, photography, cars, gardening, watch birds, go to museums, visit art galleries
• Games: Bridge, poker, canasta, scrabble, monopoly
• Spiritual: Religious group, meditation group, nature hiking group
• Music: A band, a choir, a piano lesson, a mixing group, a playlist-making group
• Collect: Cars, art, antiques, coins, frog ornaments, dessert experiences in restaurants
• Learning: A language, a skill, a technique, a subject
• A support group: Feeling better, sharing, finding strength in numbers

Spending time doing what you love relaxes and releases you, and can bring you joy when you experience it by yourself, or as part of a group. You may prefer to do some things alone — read, write, cook, walk, meditate, hoola hoop. You may derive pleasure and energy from doing some of your hobbies with a group — exercise, art, bridge, dance, dinners.

The point is to find things that make you smile, and create rituals around them so that you do them regularly. Many of us use the excuse of (a lack of) time as a reason for not starting and developing a hobby that interests us. 

We start off with “I’ve always wanted to….” and finish with “but I just don’t have the time”. When we add up the time that we choose to waste on routines that often involve bad habits, we will find that there is always more time available than we think there is.  

Some of the biggest time wasters in our days include endless scrolling on social media, checking messages and emails we have already seen, procrastinating, or feeling sluggish because of poor health habits: too little sleep, unhealthy eating, lingering hangovers, or not enough movement.

As the saying goes, “mood follows action”, and if we decide on performing positive actions even fairly regularly, a mood of energy and good humour should follow. 

Aside from hobbies, fun can also mean one-off adventures that are almost as much fun to plan as to do. 

It could be something right on your doorstep: a new restaurant, a show, a museum or an exhibition. It could be a whole country experience that you save for, like fishing in Zambia, dune boarding in Namibia, hiking in South America, walking in the Winelands, cooking in France, bird watching in the Lowveld, museums in Britain, or scuba diving in Sodwana.

Sometimes knowing clearly what you don’t want to do steers you more strongly towards what you really do want to do.

There is a world out there for us to experience — let’s consider stepping off our life treadmills, slipping off our blinkers, and gazing around us at the sheer opportunities for fun. 

Then, stepping back on (with a smile on our face and a hum in our throat) and working well, saving hard, curating sustaining hobbies, and looking forward to the fun that we plan — both the daily bursts and the big adventures. 

It starts with a dream, followed by a decision. And then, it’s up to us to get going with the doing, and enjoying. DM