“Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game.” ~Michael Jordan

In the game of life, if you’re not having at least some fun every day, you’re not really living.

If you don’t feel alive, you’ve come unplugged from your passion.

If you’re waiting to retire to begin to do all the things you want to do, you’re missing the whole point.

The point of life is to learn and grow and stretch and feel…alive. Which means connected to a sense of purpose and meaning and autonomy.

Work before play. Peas before dessert. We tell our kids that. It’s been ingrained in us. “Gotta’ get this done, or that done” before we can relax.

It becomes a habit, go-go-going all the time. More and more, studies are linking reduced performance to lack of rest and recovery time. Lack of “fun” time. In fact, last year it is estimated that lack of restful sleep cost the U.S. 411 billion in productivity.

We don’t even take all our vacation days. Until 2000, Americans averaged 20 days per year of vacation/holiday time; last year it was 16 days.

That’s not enough to recharge our depleted batteries.

Remember the impact of Robert Fulghum’s bestselling book, All I Really Needed to Know I Learned In Kindergarten? Truth resonates.

So, maybe we should play more. Learn to have fun again.

Look at the popularity of adult coloring books. There’s a reason we are drawn to them.

Playtime. We need it.

And while we’re at it, naptime, too.

Oh, and milk and cookies.

Because they’re all parts of the game. Time to enjoy it.