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The clock hits 5 p.m. on a Friday afternoon. You tear out of your cubicle, office or classroom screaming "Weekend!" The drudgery that will wait until Monday becomes a thing of the past as you look forward to spending good times with friends. In fact, according to a 2017 Gallup poll, 85 percent of people hate their jobs.
Related: 5 Scientifically Proven Ways to Make Your Job More Exciting and Enjoyable
Even as entrepreneurs, who often set our own hours, we become so singularly focused on building our businesses that we forget to take breaks, celebrate and have fun. For many of us, in fact, weekends afford us two additional days to get more stuff done.
What if running your business were as fun as your weekends? What if you could learn to enjoy your work, or even turn the drudgery into a game, perhaps the game of life?
Here are four ways to do just that.
1. Develop a positive mindset.
Types of businesses and jobs vary as much as workplaces. A workplace can possibly be in an office building, a room in your home, a hotel, the car or somewhere in the field. The surroundings or office location are not as important as the work or task at hand. No matter what you do, it is important that you approach it with a positive attitude and with respect for yourself and your coworkers.
When you choose to have a positive approach to any task or challenge you might face in your business, it allows you to think in a solution-oriented manner. Remember for a moment when you were a child, you would play the "clean up game" or approach a challenge as an adventure with positivity, imagination and love. Using this approach releases the inner child within to see a task with a clear fresh vision.
Richard and Robert Sherman wrote the song "A Spoon Full of Sugar" that was sung by Julie Andrews in the movie Mary Poppins. "In every job that must be done there is an element of fun. Find the fun and snap! The job's a game. And every task you undertake becomes a piece of cake." This song suggests to maintain a calmness and sense of humor even if the challenge seems impossible.
Related: Why the Best Leaders Act Like Playful Puppies
2. Change your point of view.
Trying out different perspectives and scenarios to get a complete 360-degree view of the task allows you to look at things from all angles so as not to miss an easy solution. When I was little, I went to a museum exhibit where there was a spectacular 3D virtual interactive display, like a Star Trek medical bay. All I could see was an empty room, but everyone else was fascinated. My mom finally got down on my eye level and saw that I could not see anything, so she had me stand on a chair and I was able to see it. Wow, when I was able to see the display I did not want to leave. This taught me that people see things differently depending on their angle and view. When you have a true 360-degree view, you will be able to think so far out of the box you do not know where the box is.
3. Gamify the work.
It is important to have a passion for the work you have chosen to do. When you enjoy what you do it is easy to have fun. They say that when you do what you love you never really work a day in your life. Life is what you make of it, the choice is yours.
A child learns though games and play. By unlocking and using the skills of your inner child, you can again learn and grow through play and your coworkers become your teammates. Though many new technologies preclude human interaction, we are social beings. We like to be on a team, be valued and feel important. The more you work together, brainstorm and listen to each other, the more ideas will flow to you.
When baking a cake, you need to have the right ingredients and directions. While you are mixing the batter and waiting for it to cook, you can use a song as a timer when it says to mix for two minutes, or pretend you are putting the batter into a volcano. These games make the time pass faster and make the day seem more fun.
When the Apollo 13 mission ran into problems they played a game I like to call the "let's make it work" game. They dumped all their available items into a pile. Next, they had to work together to solve the problem with a solution-oriented mindset. Our rich history of invention and innovation stems from our ability to let our inner children out and explore "what if?"
If we held fast to the rigid, tried, true and safe solutions that adults often feel compelled to make, we would have never gone to the moon or created the internet.
Related: The Competitive Advantage of Fun. Yes, That's Right: 'Advantage'
4. Celebrate often.
When you celebrate the little high fives of life and build on your accomplishments, bigger and better things are possible. When you start your day out by making your bed, you have accomplished something, and, no matter what else happens, you can build from that. By accomplishing something and celebrating it, you prime yourself to accomplish more and to do so with a positive attitude.
5. Always be learning.
Knowledge is necessary to succeed and help others. This knowledge can come from books, other people's experiences, our own experiences or by being trained either on the job or in school. My experience is that I learn more when I am teaching someone else how to do something, which is why I love to help others. I think it is true that, the more you give, the more you grow and the more you able to do. More and more companies have implemented community outreach, team building and continuing education programs. When you take advantage of these programs, you can have more fun and have a greater sense of your own possibilities.
I think that having more fun in our businesses will allow us and those around us to lead fuller and more engaging lives.
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