The World is Your Playground

Reading time: 5 minutes

As a child, do you remember how your trips to the playground were like? Do you remember the excitement that you experienced on the way there? The freedom that you felt to just... run around? Do whatever? Did you get the sense that the day was long and was never going to end? You could play all day without a care in the world for anything else.

Do you remember the people at the playground? It didn't matter if you went by yourself, with your siblings, or with your friends - you were bound to meet somebody new that you could play with. You were not afraid to introduce yourself or have somebody else introduce themselves to you. It was easy to make new friends and you never gave it a second thought.

But of course, what happens as we get older? That child-like faith we had begins to go away. We develop these fears, create social boundaries for ourselves, and start living in a box that society puts us in. We start to lose that sense of freedom and naivety that we once had - all in the name of "adulting".

But does it really have to be that way? I know it's not 100% the same. As adults, we have responsibilities to manage that children do not. But in principle, I don't believe in letting go of that child-like faith. We just have to look at our world differently now. In my attempts to relive the joy that I had as a child, I've worked on developing the attitudes to still see the world as a playground where I am free to play and pursue whatever I want.

While there are many, here are 3 key attitudes that I've discovered:

1. At any moment, something GOOD is going to happen - in my article The Power of Connections, I talked about how a random encounter involving an Apple Watch and Chipotle landed me a job interview. I could've never predicted something like that to ever happen. However, I've been training myself to expect that at ANY MOMENT, no matter where I am or who I am with, something good is going to happen in my life. I've done it by simply telling myself this constantly throughout the day. I've made it a daily mantra and find that it works! What you expect the most actually happens.

2. Strangers are just friends you haven't met yet - you didn't know all of your current friends at birth. At some point in time you were all strangers and had to meet and get acquainted. Just like how children did at the playground. The same principle applies now. For me, I had to start going out of my way to make peoples day better with a sincere compliment, a simple act of kindness, or just simply saying "Hello!" It doesn't take much but this practice has gotten me cool new friends, insightful conversations, memorable experiences, business deals, free stuff, and wisdom. I don't do it intending to get personal benefit. I just see it as a by-product of doing something that I feel is right - and it's FUN!

If reading this makes you nervous, rest assured - I'm a self-proclaimed introvert. Growing up I was a shy, sheltered, individual who was deathly afraid of people. I'll talk about in a future article how I overcame that.

3. Don't care what other people think - children are really good at this and as cliché as it sounds, your biggest freedom in life comes from you finally letting go of the opinions and judgements of others. I started to realize that everyone has way too much of their own problems and needs on their minds to care about anything that I am doing. It's even more so today with people caught up in their smart phones and dealing with information-age distractions. I think we give people way too much credit for paying attention to us when it is not warranted. One of the biggest regrets of the dying is that they wished they would've done more of what they really wanted to do instead of conforming to society's expectations of them. Worry less about how you are being perceived by others and go live your life. I promise, it's okay to do so!

Even to this day, I have to make a decision every morning and throughout the day to adopt these attitudes. It would be nice to default into this state of mind but that is not the case. We constantly have to fight that inner, negative voice that tries to convince us that the world is a scary place. But I will attest to fact that if you make an intentional effort to adopt these attitudes, your quality of life will improve dramatically (this is not an exaggeration, trust me!).

Have you adopted any of these 3 attitudes into your life? How have they worked out? Are there any other attitudes that have helped you see the world as a playground? Please comment and share!