What's Fun?

The young man, about 22 years old, smiled as I approached the paint counter in Lowe's store. "Hey brotha', what can I do for ya?" he asked. 

"I need this primer tinted to match a certain color. Can you do it?"

"Hmm...not sure. Let me look."

As he opened the paint can, he asked, "So, whaddya paintin' ?"

"The outside of my house, well, at least part of it."

He stopped what he was doing, put both hands on the counter, and looked up. He said, "Man, I can't wait 'til I have a house to paint someday. That must be awesome." He turned and looked right at me and asked, "Are you havin' fun? I just think that would be so awesome to paint your own house."

"Fun? Well, I like painting okay. I'm not sure sure about fun though."

"Well, I gotta plan. I got me a real small apartment - cheap but clean - and I'm saving as much as I can every month. I got about two years to go and I can get me a small house. Just a two bedroom - that's fine by me. I just want a house and I can't wait to take care of it," he said dripping with sincerity.

When I went into the store, painting was about the last thing I considered fun. In fact, I may have been grumbling ever so slightly as I entered the store. His question made me think about the whole notion of what's fun and what's not.

When you want something badly enough, even the most tedious things can seem fun.

I think this is what helps some people overcome significant injuries or surgeries. They find the fun, somehow, in the process of recovery. What's fun about learning how to perform a quad set or how to stretch your shoulder, or how to move your knee cap around? What's fun about having to elevate your leg every hour for ten minutes, or lie down on the floor and prop up your legs on a big rubber ball or roll it back and forth? I don't know but I do know people who have found the fun buried inside these seemingly mindless tasks.

When you want something badly enough, you make a plan to get it and get excited by the plan.

My buddy at Lowe's wants a house and put together a plan to get a house. He doesn't seem to mind that it will take him three years to get there. He's not intimidated by the size of the task. He didn't say, "Man, I'll never get a house. I don't make enough money, houses are too expensive. Life sucks." If you want to beat an injury, you had better be like my buddy at Lowe's. Do the same thing. Figure out what you really want (run, hike, play with the kids, workout, etc.) and begin chipping away at the stack of boulders in front of you. Day after day after day. And, keep your eye on the prize not on the size of the boulders.

So, three things to think about this week: what do you really want, what are you willing to do to get it and can you have fun doing it?

Ciao.

Comments

[Guillaume]

That's a GREAT writting, thanks for posting!