What happens, happens to us all. It is what you do about what happens that count.

Don’t forget that joy doesn’t have to be earned

Have you ever wanted to try something new, but as soon as you started thinking about it,

that nagging voice in your head started telling you that you can’t—or shouldn’t?

If we’re not careful, our inner critic can keep us stuck right where we are.

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Our inner critic can hold us back from trying something new by making us feel like we don’t deserve it.?

We don’t have time for fun.

Time is money!

Why spend three hours at a ball game when you could spend that time catching up on work?

Or learning a new skill?

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In our productivity-obsessed culture, we feel guilty about using our time in ways that won’t “improve” ourselves.

Even our leisure has turned into work.

We’re told that our hobbies need to be monetized and turned into side hustles, and

our leisure needs to promote our personal development by making us smarter, stronger, more interesting, more useful and more marketable.

But this?fixation on productivity?risks mistaking the proxy for the goal.

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We might start with the desire to improve our skills and talents because we think it will improve our lives.

But if we lose sight of the ultimate aim and start pursuing growth for its own sake,

we’ll continue to chase after growth opportunities even when it makes our lives as a whole worse off.

If we become too focused on productivity, we risk spending all our time and energy on improving our skills and

talents and social capital in ways that crowd out other things that make life worth living.

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Researchers have found that when people view leisure as wasteful or unproductive,?they are less likely to enjoy it.

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Productivity and efficiency are good things, but so are joy and connection and contentment, and trying to maximize the former undermines the latter.

Silence your inner critic and aim for joy above all else!

Next time, silence your inner critic when it tells you not to waste your time on things that won’t improve your bottom line or look good on Instagram.

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Remind it that joy is an essential part of a good human life.

We don’t need to earn our leisure by making it productive.

Sometimes it’s OK to try something new?even if?it’s just for fun.

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