In yesterday’s post we finished up with our mission and vision with respect to our roles. Then we moved through and discussed our energy, enthusiasm, and excitement for our role. We will continue on with that and move into some words around “fun”. So if you missed yesterday’s post, just take a minute and back track before joining us here today.

In addition to the planning part of the RCII event, I also love to feel the adrenaline building as the anticipation builds. I get excited when new speakers come on board and new relationships form. I love connecting people with other people and I love meeting like-minded nurses who are passionate about helping our profession be healthier and happier. I am absolutely thrilled by learning from each of the speaker’s and hearing their expertise. So that is the “life-long learner” in me.

Finally, I love sharing all of the information with the participants. I am energized when I see people talking and sharing and bringing back to the group the tools and techniques that they have tried… and have already had success with! I love seeing people “get it” for themselves. I love when people are empowered to create healthy options in their own busy lives.

Now onto today’s topic: work should be fun and enjoyable! There is nothing worse than being at work and feeling all day long like you are “work”ing. Right?

What I mean by this is- yes, I agree… we “work” at work. But all day it shouldn’t feel like work, work, and more work. This is the reason people work in teams. This is the reason we go out to seek new knowledge. This is why we want to learn more things and get new resources. Instead of being “bored” doing the same old thing day in and day out- we desire challenge, change, and fun!

My belief is that we will do better, excel faster, and live healthier if we are also having fun with our career. You should be able to enjoy yourself at your job! I mean, how many hours a day do you spend there? In fact, how many waking hours a year do you spend at work?

For most of us, in typical work roles, we spend:

Nine hours a day (adding in a commute hour and not counting work-at-home time), 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year… so akdlfkjasdlkfjasldfjkalksdjf… the math turns out to: 2250 hours a year. And there are 8760 hours a year (24 hours a day x 365 days a year). That’s over a quarter of our time spent at work… and I am being generous as I didn’t even take into account “homework”, work functions, work weekends, etc. And let’s be honest, as a nurse we are “on” all of the time…

Now if you spend THAT much time in your work… don’t you think it should be work where you can have some fun? Don’t you think you should find it enjoyable?

Think about this… as children we could run, play, giggle, and be silly. We didn’t care who was looking at us or what other people “thought”. It was probably the “free-est” part of our life. I was at a conference last week and during my lunch break sat in the sunshine near the water. There was a mom there with three children. One little girl took off her shoes and was just running… running, running, running wild in the grass. Her arms were outstretched and all she did was laugh. Wow. Imagine feeling that every single day…

I encourage you to look at your situation. Are there opportunities for fun at your job? Is your career something that you take pleasure in? And if your role is starting to seem boring, frustrating, or plain old dry… can you shift, change, uplift, or spice up your work environment? How can you have more fun??

For one, think about participating in the RCII as you may learn some tools that you can use to enhance your professional life. Some of the workshops that are offered may speak to self-care but the concepts very much can be applied to multiple settings. So join us. Why the heck would you not? Because guess what…

It is going to be a WHOLE LOTTA FUN!!! I promise you that!

What are some ways you can have fun at work? Can you bring more play, joy, and laughter into your role? Are you allowing yourself to express your childhood qualities?