Are you serious about having fun- part 2

 

Two things are in full swing at the moment – one is the sweltering heat and the other is the holiday season. I am glad because of both, the sweltering heat gives the most amazing, luscious mangoes and the holidays – no need to explain more!

Continuing from my last post, I thought about coming up with some real life examples to justify the benefits of serious recreation.

One of the benefits of recreation is that if we are lucky enough it might just become our profession. For many people this has been possible and wow! wouldn’t one love it if their play becomes work too! We could then say that all work has become play ;). Though there are many examples of people who have successfully converted their hobby into their livelihood, for inspirational purposes I choose these two.

Aamir Khan: his achievements and feats are known to all. What I want to tell is that Aamir was passionate about acting from childhood (he worked as a child artist) and even though his father was a film producer, still when Aamir decided to pursue acting professionally, his parents opposed him! And thank god he did not listen to their advice of taking up medicine or engineering 😛

Michael Faraday: what is amazing about this giant of a scientist is the fact that he never had any formal schooling. He worked in a London bookshop and loved reading books on science. From there on started his love affair with science and led him to many discoveries in the field of electricity, magnetism and chemistry.

Surely these examples are very inspiring but there is a flip side too, for instance we all know about the famous desire of Adolf Hitler wanting to be an artist and how his wish was denied by the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. Many have speculated about the course of history if Hitler had been allowed to follow his passion for creating instead of his passion for destroying.

Even if your hobby or recreation does not lead to becoming your profession, still there are ample of benefits to be had from indulging in pure acts of play, fun and enjoyment. One very clear benefit which I wrote about in my last post was about getting to know yourself. Increased concentration, self confidence and creativity are some of the other tangible benefits. Apart from this leisure and pastimes allow us to explore hitherto unknown talents and skills which were just lying unnoticed and useless. Off-course the biggest benefit and the most important one is that of a sense of well being, rejuvenation and happiness. In this mad bad world who does not want a few moments of relaxation and fun?

So whenever someone tells you to plan your fun and be serious about it, remember it might be the most sane piece of advice in a world drowning in insanity!

Happy holidays and hope you all have fun 🙂