If you want to get a boost of confidence, become more creative and have healthier relationships, then you need to spend more time playing and goofing off, psychologists say. Being playful provides a sense of “forgetting time, of feeling that your goals are clear, of getting clear and immediate feedback, not feeling bored or anxious,” psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi said.
As a first step, it is suggested to take stock of our own state of playfulness and whether we are getting enough “play time”. It is also important to ensure that we let our minds play as well, be it imagining you’re somebody or something else, as part of “play pretending”, or being inventive and coming up with your own games, rules and boundaries. This can apply in our own worklife too, where being open to play can bring up alternative ideas and paths as we progress through our career.
What “play” techniques have you used to help you in your career?
One Comment
A great way of bringing this into business is to have part of a meeting that is unstructured, where team members can bring their thoughts and ideas to the table, without fear of having to justify. In one of my teams this became so popular that we eventually started off with it for the first 15 minutes, setting the scene for great and enthusiastic problem solving. Using De Bono’s six hats is another way – particularly the green hat!