I just learned a new word—Powerfun. Even though there is a whole chapter on the “Power of Play” in Getting to G.R.E.A.T., I just never heard this word until the other night.
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What is Powerfun?
Ayman Elyasin, VP Sales, BrandMuscle, and Host of Business Podcast, had invited me to appear on his podcast as a guest expert, at which time he dropped the word. Then he sent me a definition:
Powerfun
noun: empowering fun
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- enjoyment, amusement, or lighthearted pleasure that is empowering and makes your life better in some tangible way “The team was having powerfun and making money”
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- a source of this. “people who get things done are powerfun”
- playful behavior or good humor. “They’re all about powerfun”
- behavior or an activity that is intended for empowerment, skill development, and amusement and should be interpreted for productive and enriching purposes.
There are variations on the theme for adjective, adverb, and verb too, but the noun one worked for me because it reminded me so much of a wonderful client I’m working with now.
Case Example: We’ll Call Him Jim
Jim and I just started working together. Early on, my clients and I typically do a quick and easy Wheel of Life exercise that clients tend to appreciate, because it is…well, a fun way—a powerfun—way to learn something about themselves. (Here is a free link in case you want to do one yourself.)
Jim had an idea that if he got a less high-powered job, then he would have time to take care of his health and have fun/leisure, his lowest scores on his Wheel of Life. But Jim really likes doing critically important work in a prestigious environment.
So, there he was in meetings all day, hardly ever leaving his seat. This was probably not necessary, even on that job, but Jim didn’t believe that yet. Meanwhile, Jim’s doctor just diagnosed him with a GI disturbance they think is related to stress, duh. At some point, Jim and I will learn together what is driving him beyond reason in his work. For starters, though, I proposed we make the Wheel of Life categories “Fun/Leisure” and “Health” carve-outs that we could go at directly right now.
Jim realized that a lot of his meetings were with close associates who wouldn’t mind his being on the treadmill while they talked. He thought he might try that to get his rear end out of the seat, and see what happens. He didn’t imagine that would be fun, so it didn’t quite qualify as powerfun but, on his own, he said he’d come to our next appointment with an idea for something fun he wanted to add to his life.
Jim had an idea that the only way to improve his health and enjoyment was to change his job. And he may or may not do that. Or he might make adjustments in other parts of his life that reveal an appreciation for his present work. I’ve seen that happen, and time will tell. But Jim has already learned in this first session what an immediate difference he could begin to make by changing how he thought about things, by changing his mind
Powerfun as Purposeful Play
From an earlier post I wrote on Play:
Teddy Roosevelt said, “When you play, play hard; when you work, don’t play at all.”
But Einstein and others would disagree:
Albert Einstein: “Play is the highest form of research.”
Richard Branson: “I don’t think of work as work and play as play. It’s all living.”
Simon Sinek: “The goal is not simply to ‘work hard, play hard.’ The goal is to make our work and our play indistinguishable.”
Life is what our thoughts make it (Marcus Aurelius). So how can we use our thoughts to make work play? For that, we need to realize that it’s not really enough to just want to do it. We have to actually be into doing it while we are doing it.
And that means we have to be paying attention, exquisite attention, to create what Csikszentmihalyi calls FLOW, the joyful state of optimal experience when we lose ourselves in what we are doing by paying attention to it. That’s when it feels like play, Powerfun, play.
Just for fun, Powerfun is also an app for biking. From their website: TRAIN WITHOUT LEAVING HOME THINKRIDE AROUND THE WORLD Maybe you will want to try that. Whatever you may choose: “behavior or an activity that is intended for empowerment, skill development, and amusement and should be interpreted for productive and enriching purposes,” Practice, Practice, Practice…see what happens and let us know.
Warmly,
Madelaine
Photo by Pexels Pixabay
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