Fun Isn't What We've Thought It Was

“Fun turns out to be fun even if it doesn’t involve much, if any, enjoyment...fun doesn’t HAVE to feel good! By relinquishing our notions of what fun should feel like we open up ourselves to seeing tasks in a whole new way. We discover that play can be part of any difficult task and though it does not necessarily have to be pleasurable, it can sharpen focus and free you from discomfort.

Fun is not a feeling so much as it is the exhaust produced after we treat something with dignity. Fun is the aftermath of deliberately manipulating a familiar situation in a new way.”
- Ian Bogos

Game changer, right here. Total game changer.

“Deliberately manipulating a familiar situation in a new way.”

Isn’t this the journey of the artist? Isn’t this what discovery of self through creative practice is all about? You’re not doing it wrong (art, life, growth) if it doesn’t always feel like hand-clappy, dance-party giddiness. In fact, if you’re doing the stretch of deliberate manipulation of familiarity for the purpose of discovery (thoughts, paper, words, paint…) you’re probably doing the most joy + satisfaction + fun producing actions possible.

If it feels like anything less, it’s the thoughts you have about it that may need a little deliberate manipulation probably more than the actual actions you are taking. It’s a bit of a mind bender if you’re used to measuring your alignment to your authenticity based solely on how you feeeeeeel. Your feelings weren’t created in a vacuum and feeling more satisfaction and fun in your creative process CAN be as simple and unconvoluted as identifying and changing a single thought you’ve been thinking (sometimes a hundred times a day).
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I’m going to be going deeeeeeep into this thought-changing process specifically for artists who want to create with joy and freedom (in life and art) in my upcoming course, The Unstuck Artist. Registration is opening soon! Click on the link to be among the first to know when it’s ready!