Blue Bike Word of 2020: Play

I spent most of December sitting in hospitals or on the couch, which means I caught up on all of my HBR and The Atlantic and book reading (and started my 2020 personal planner…in paper, with stickers!). It was refreshing.

Reading, planning, decorating, craft projects, writing - they are all a source of joy for me.

Blue Bike is also a source of joy for me, if I remember how much I love to play with words and ideas. So, my personal focus word for 2020 is “patience.” But for Blue Bike, we’re going with “PLAY!”

…Farms begin to look like gardens…and cooks become gourmets…To play SO AS TO be relaxed and refreshed for work is not to play, and no work is well and finely done unless it, too , is a form of play. - Alan W. Watts

In such simple words, we can see where “playing with” can create a beautiful home or a well-written poem or an assortment of seashells gathered by tiny hands.

As grown ups, we often end up using so much of our energy and effort to “play” and “relax” in order to be prepared for a week of work. This likely means we have lost the ability to see our work as play, and there is a good chance we’re not doing that great of a job of it.

In the Nov-Dec 2019 issue of HBR, an article about creating a culture of innovation ends with a bang:

Remember, when the people in your organization were children, they were brimming with curiosity and creativity. Your job is to bring that youthful spirit back to life.

Why did we enter this field in the first place? What part of our youthful exuberance has been grind down by the bureaucracy? How did we find ourselves buried under the pile of administrative (or marketing) work that we just can’t find joy in?

Maybe it’s partly “your boss’s” job to cultivate youthful spirit, but if you’re a small business owner, consultant, or nonprofit leader - then the job of finding joy in the work is your own. Yet another demand, right?

The trick isn’t to play with toys you don’t like. The trick is to figure out what you like to play with, and give away the toys you don’t like to someone who will love them.

Build a team of people who geek out on your garbage, your cast offs, your discarded toys. When you clean that clutter, you’ll have the space to play with the work you were drawn to in the first place.

In his December 2019 article about Mister Rogers in The Atlantic, Tom Junod echoes the lost perspective - and the importance of finding it to cultivate empathy and love.

‘You were a child once too.'

And that’s it, really - [Mister Rogers] message to doctors was his message to politicians, CEOs, celebrities, educators, writers, students, everyone. It was also the basis of his strange superpowers…If you remembered what it was like to be a child, you would remember that you were a child of God.

We all have limited time, and I believe that it is only fitting to honor our children, our god(s), and ourselves if we spend that time in fine play. Or as Elizabeth Gilbert writes in Big Magic: “Be the weirdo who dares to enjoy.”

I think that’s why I am so drawn to Mary Poppins, the ultimate example of fine work and serious play.

“Snap! The job’s a game!”