Having Fun is a REQUIREMENT!!

Courtney Townley

“There is little success where there is little laughter.”    -Andrew Carnegie
There is no question that many of life’s most rewarding experiences require a significant amount of hard work.   Just consider the following:  earning a college degree, marriage, raising children, maintaining lifelong friendships, saving enough money to work a little less as you age, and maintaining a fitness level that allows you to do all of the activities you enjoy throughout life.  To be sure, these things require effort and attention every single day.   To be long-lasting, they demand that obstacles be overcome and comfort zones be expanded.  They require us to consider deeply who we are, in order to be more clear on who it is we want to become and what type of influence we want to have on the world around us.  They all involve  A LOT of consistent hard work, but it cannot be overlooked that , for them to be truly rewarding and gratifying in the end, there must be a strong dose of fun and light-heartedness sprinkled in during the ride.   If it’s not fun, what’s the point??   It’s hard to celebrate a college degree, if you never felt inspired by the subjects you studied.  It would be ridiculous to praise a 40-year marriage, if there were not bucket loads of laughter and love along the way.   It would be impossible to transform a life, as the Genesis Transformation process does, if the backbone of the transformation was not happiness and fun.  Put simply, if you don’t enjoy the journey, you sure as heck won’t be able to enjoy your arrival.
We ALL have days when we feel less than inspired to do the thing we said we would do.  It would be easier to spend the entire paycheck, rather than put away a little into a retirement account.  It would be easier to leave the room in a fury rather than force yourself to communicate rationally with your spouse in a heated debate.  It would be easier to not plan what you were going to eat for the day and skip your workout for a number of reasons.  But, ultimately, where would the easier route take you if practiced repeatedly?  Certainly not to the place you initially said you wanted to be.  No, to get to THAT place and truly enjoy your arrival, you need to find ways to enjoy the process.  This is not a suggestion; it is a requirement to truly taste the sweetness of your success.  Sheri Lynn deliberately signs off on her e-mails and newsletters with the words, “have fun”, because she knows that having fun combined with hard work is the perfect recipe for creating the life you want!
Take some time to think of the many ways you are already enjoying your Genesis Transformation process and brainstorm some ways to expand on the fun you are already having.  Here is a short list to get you started:
–  Try a new recipe each week.
–  Change your environment for your workouts.  Join a new gym if you have been at the same one for years.  Do your cardio outside, if weather permits, on a trail or road you have always wanted to explore.  Take your dog, or if you don’t have a dog, borrow one!
–  Try a new fitness class, DVD, or work with a trainer you have never experienced.
–  Download new music on your Ipod.  If you don’t have an Ipod… get one…they are little boxes of inspiration.
– Workout with friends or family.
–  Host a clean eating dinner.  People will be inspired and surprised how good “real food” tastes!
–  Make a commitment to laugh at yourself more often, especially during moments of self sabotage.  You want to make brownies because your toilet overflowed?  That’s funny!
–  Reach out to support someone you see making an effort to improve their health.  Life is always more fun when we take the time to support someone else!