2023 Lessons. 2024 Aspirations.
Last month, my business coach, point-blank, called me out for not having enough fun in my life*. Jenni uses Human Design and her experienced business intuition to help make business more streamlined and fun. It took me nearly two weeks to stop shaking my fist and apply her guidance. And admittedly, I could see near-immediate results.
Vulnerable share (vent?): Life right now is not very fun. Geopolitics are scary. The climate crisis is really scary. Frozen water pipes and power outages are scary. Business is shifting which is disheartening and scary. I'm doing my best not to take any of this personally, but most days, I do.
On top of those scary things, my beautiful wife is navigating the not-very-fun, disheartening and scary, incredibly slow, and tone-deaf Western medical system while returning to school for a time-consuming degree at Naropa University. I'm so proud of her, and she is devouring her coursework. To do this, she needed to scale back her personal cheffing business, adding to the current financial uncertainty.
Throw into the mix a deafening spiritual calling that I feel so far away from that keeps me up at night; oh and the impossible task of finding reliable child care … I'm real close to losing my cool. (Thank you, deep breathing and meditation, for gently holding me together.)
I am not sharing all this to get attention or place my experience over (or under) anyone else. I see so many clients right now that are simply not having fun. And, as you can gather, I relate. I am sharing this because hearing my business coach tell me I'm "not having enough fun" initially felt like a gigantic, dismissive middle finger.
"Not having enough fun?!?! Jenni, the world is F#¢king scary. Are you not living on the same Earth as I am?"
Then, after I allowed myself to have my big emotions, I did a thought experiment. Geopolitics, Climate, Genocide, and Debt aside, what if I tried to add a little more fun to my life? So I brought out my colored pencils (okay, Brittany let me borrow her colored pencils), and I began to freely explore on a scratch piece of paper with the sole purpose of "having fun."
** Though the mandala isn't world-changing or artistically moving, it felt fun. And I could feel my stress levels decline. And, real time benefit, I met our frozen pipes the next day with quite a bit more spaciousness, lower blood pressure, and fear.
So, in summary, 😬: 2023 was a scary, challenging, frustrating year. I learned that I have indeed not reached enlightenment (I’m shocked too), and it quite possibly could be because I was not having fun. 2024 shows no signs of being more fun (something about Pluto changing signs and all our systems dying because of that?). But I can actively reach for fun. I can aim to create it. In doing so, I will move closer to myself and, in turn, move closer to others with more spaciousness, lower blood pressure, and fear.
So, I’m talking to you, 2024. I will turn my attention towards actively creating fun (I have a toddler for goodness-sake who is a blast a majority of the time). Having fun is not a dismissive, bypassing, naive gesture. It may, in fact, be the tool that helps me survive the day-to-day geopolitics, climate, genocidal, and financial heartbreak that seems to be very loud. If I can do it, I’m bringing others with me. So, whose in… Fun Club 2024?
Foot notes:
*One of the aspects of my Human Design chart is the Self/Not-Self theme. It is a feeling that allows me to know when I am moving toward myself versus moving away from myself. My "Self" feeling is Satisfaction, and my "Not-Self" feeling is frustration. Jenni was pointing out to my thick skull that I was spending most of my time being frustrated and unsatisfied. Having fun is a sure way to feel satisfied and realign myself with myself.
**Little known fact about me: I initially wanted to become an illustrator, and before I changed my major in university (http://www.colostate.edu) to Anatomy and Physiology, I was majoring in Medical Illustration.