We all know the feeling. There are times when farming can seem relentless. There’s another decision to make, another conversation to have, and always another job waiting to get done. Even so, if you or someone on your farm feels like you’re getting burned out, consider it for what it probably is — a signal to everyone to take a break, not proof that the farm is getting to be too much.
On a lot of farms, in other words, it’s time for some fun, because fun is good and it will also help you recharge your batteries.
Organizational psychologist Dr. Michael Rucker is a leading proponent of fun. He even wrote a book in 2023 called The Fun Habit: How the Pursuit of Joy and Wonder Can Change Your Life.
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Research, he says, shows having fun isn’t frivolous. Instead, it’s often an antidote to stress. Fun can relieve loneliness and boredom and it can lower blood pressure.
Rucker says it’s also much easier to have fun than it is to achieve the loftier goal we call happiness. This is something he learned through personal experience when he tried seriously pursuing happiness by applying all the findings of positive psychology research to his life. He thought he was being smart about it but happiness was still eluding him.
The problem, Rucker said in a phone interview, is that happiness is subjective. Thinking so much about whether we’re happy gets us comparing ourselves to our perceptions of how others are doing and how we come up short.
By contrast, Rucker says, fun is in the moment. It’s something you do. It’s a tool and it sets you up for an upward spiral of small steps that can have a positive effect on your outlook and emotional well-being.
We do need to be realistic about it. You can’t “fun” yourself out of depression. That’s one of the great lessons of the 2020s and we all need to learn more about mental health and to be much more aware of when we should be contacting a health care provider to help with a mental health challenge.
That said, fun is a real opportunity, which is something else we all need to be aware of.
Despite all of the positives associated with having fun, Rucker says that if you’re like most adults, fun hasn’t been a priority. With the strong work ethic associated with agriculture, this is even more applicable on the farm.
As adults, we think we must be serious. We feel guilty if we’re not being productive. We think we don’t have time for fun. We may even have forgotten how to have fun.
Worse, we think we should feel guilty if we do have fun. We even frown and call it “slacking off.”
Rucker says this is misplaced. “Having fun is not a selfish act,” he insists. Instead, it actually makes us more productive. Research shows that the day after participating in a fun activity, we have more vigour and vitality and are more productive.
The “no-time” argument doesn’t usually hold up either, continues Rucker. Spending as little as two hours a week on a fun activity can be a significant mood booster. Many of us are spending time every day on passive leisure activities such as mindless channel surfing and scrolling through our social media feeds even though research has shown that this makes us less happy.
Doing a time audit can help you pinpoint time in your schedule that could be redirected to more enjoyable activities. For one typical week (given how much the work varies seasonally in farming, you may need to do this at least quarterly), track how you spend your weekly allotment of 168 hours. Instead of doom scrolling on social media, for example, Rucker suggests getting your news just once a week from a handful of trusted news sources.
Most likely, even in your busiest season, there are opportunities to have micro doses of fun. This could be as simple as taking a few minutes to reminisce about a happy memory (the photos on your phone could be used as a prompt) or listening to a comedy podcast while driving.
Bundling activities can also help you achieve more than one of your life goals simultaneously. For example, by planning a fun activity for date night, you can boost both your connection to your significant other as well as your fun level.
However, it’s important to note that to realize the benefits of a “fun” activity, the activity must actually be fun for YOU. Because what constitutes fun is different for each of us. Your extraverted friends may think a big party is the ultimate fun but you may prefer a quiet dinner with a few good friends.
“Fun is yours to define,” says Rucker. It can be solitary, it doesn’t have to take a lot of time, and it doesn’t have to cost money.
For some people, it has been so long since they prioritized their own personal enjoyment that they have forgotten what gives them a sense of fun. Many of our favourite childhood pastimes get left behind once we become busy adults.
So take some time to recall what you liked to do when you were young. Did you like to draw? Play a musical instrument? Sing in a choir? Play a sport? Build model cars?
It’s easier to plan for fun if you have a reference list of do-able fun activities. Rucker recommends creating a “fun file” by brainstorming all the things from your past and present that bring you pleasure and enjoyment. Whether you use paper, a Word or Google doc, the Evernote app or save it as a note on your phone, keep the list handy so you can add or remove ideas as you think of them.
Next, create a shortlist of eight to 15 fun activities you could do in the next few months. Use your shortlist to start adding more fun activities to your calendar.
Getting to the fun part
Spending less time on tasks you don’t like can also have a positive effect on your emotional state, continues Rucker. Can you outsource tasks you don’t like or eliminate them altogether by changing your processes?
The 2021 book, The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again, by science journalist Catherine Price is another excellent resource to guide you in tapping into the life-changing benefits of building more fun into your life.
When Price joined a local beginner guitar class, she rediscovered the power of fun and it set her on a mission to learn more. She recruited 1,500 people of different ages and backgrounds from around the world to aid in her research. By asking them to describe a fun memory, she discovered that all their stories had three elements in common: playfulness, connection and flow.
She defined playfulness as having “a spirt of lightheartedness and freedom — of doing an activity just for the sake of doing the activity.” Connection refers to “the feeling of having a special, shared connection with someone or something else.” (This could be to nature, the activity, a pet or your own body.) And flow is the term used by psychologists to describe being “fully engaged in the present experience to the point where you lose track of the passage of time.”
Price warns, though, we need to be on the lookout for “fake fun.” These are activities and possessions marketed to us as fun but that leave us feeling empty when we’re done. “True fun,” she says, “makes us feel nourished and refreshed.”
Both Price and Rucker caution that having more fun isn’t a cure-all, and Price acknowledges that we can’t focus on fun unless our basic needs of food, shelter, adequate rest and physical safety are met.
Plus, Rucker warns, a focus on fun is not about toxic positivity, the damaging belief that we shouldn’t have negative emotions.
“Grief and pain are a part of the human experience,” Rucker says. “We need to process, to feel, to mourn.”
Resources
- The Fun Habit: How the Pursuit of Joy and Wonder can Change your Life, a book by Michael Rucker (Atria Books, 2023)
- The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again, a book by Catherine Price (The Dial Press, 2021).
- Also, check out Catherine Price’s TED talks, Why Fun is the Secret to a Healthier Life and 3 Elements of True Fun and How to Have More of It, on YouTube.
- For more clues to deciphering your “fun type,” check out Michael Rucker’s Fun Type Calculator on his website.
