This guide outlines how to be fun, which will make people want to be around you and increase your enjoyment of life.
Yes, we all have to be serious sometimes, but nobody wants to be serious ALL the time! Fun spontaneous people are fun to be around, and light up your day as well as their own.
There are ways to develop how to be fun, but without putting yourself in situations that are dangerous or that undermine your social position or your career. We explain with the strategies below.
How to be fun: key steps
Tip 1: Let go of your strict plans
John Lennon once said, “Life is what happens while we are busy making other plans”. With that he hits the point when you want strategies for how to be fun.
For many people, letting go of their own plans is the greatest challenge on their way to a spontaneous life. Those who manage to do this often act unplanned, but still do not live without a plan. It just depends on creating a balance between your own plans and spontaneous actions that you are personally comfortable with.
The first step in how to be fun and more spontaneous is to say goodbye to the idea that plans offer you security. There is no such thing as security! Something unexpected happens even to the best planner. So it is better if you are prepared to improvise in a change of plans.
Tip 2: Embrace the moment!
We’d like to say it again: there is no such thing as security! So if you suddenly feel faced with an unsolvable problem, you should accept this moment instead of letting it throw you off track. With this you defeat your inner ‘panic rabbit’ and practice being more spontaneous.
For example, think about what you can work with in the new situation instead of falling into shock. Then it is much easier to find a solution that offers a way out of the situation.
Tip 3: Train your spontaneity muscle
We are spontaneous from birth, but have to train this ability over the course of our lives, like a muscle. You can do that without much effort if you want to work on how to be fun. For example, when we try a new dish in a restaurant or take a bike instead of the car on the way to work, our spontaneity strengthens.
By consciously choosing to improvise over and over again, we continue to develop our spontaneity muscle and it then saves us even in difficult, unpredictable situations. It provides more sovereignty and self-confidence and makes our lives easier and enriches immensely.
Tip 4: Sharpen your ‘navigation’ system
When it comes to spontaneity, rely on your navigation system – by that we mean the healthy mixture of intuition, gut feeling and navigation that we can basically all master if we only work with it properly. While our head applies what has been learned, gut and intuition stand for felt knowledge that you have gained through numerous experiences.
For example, those who use their intuition as navigation have a built-in alarm signal if someone asks them to do something absurd. From now on, you will never ‘drive into a river’ if your inner ‘navigation device’ advises you to continue driving straight ahead even though the front tires are already in the water.
Tip 5: Defeat the inner censor
The inner censor has developed in us over many years and is a chief challenge in how to be fun. It stubbornly sticks to all beliefs that limit our spontaneity and formulates thoughts like “What could happen if I act spontaneously?” In order to get a grip on it, we mustn’t let it block us.
Therefore, sharpen your view of how the situation is actually presented. Ask yourself how big the risk is that you will take it with a little spontaneity. Then you can make your own decisions without the cheeky censor guy simply interfering with you.
Tip 6: Give new perspectives enough space
If we keep looking at situations from a different perspective, our actions change too. Are you stuck in a brainstorming session? Then get up from your office chair and sit on the windowsill. This new look at the situation is sometimes enough to develop new ideas. Or go for a walk and watch what is going on around you. This creates free space in your head and allows you to work more flexibly on a topic.
Tip 7: Learn to say yes!
We are trained early on to reflexively say no. Saying yes is like leaping into the unknown. However, if you want to change something and are curious, you will gain many great experiences with a yes.
So a yes is the prerequisite for spontaneity, a no is your death sentence in how to be fun. Say yes whenever common sense allows you, but don’t let yourself be persuaded to do so. By the way, a “yes, but …” equates with a no. It immediately stops any creative approach and leverages arguments from the start.
Tip 8: Take responsibility
If you are an entrepreneur or a manager yourself, do not be afraid of employees who are responsible for your own initiative, but give them scope. That brings more innovative ideas and your employees dare to do something. As an employee, it is best to use the leeway you have in order to find a solution that is advantageous for customers and the company in the event of difficulties.
So don’t always just follow the standard procedure. If you do not have enough leeway, first discuss individual cases with superiors and colleagues in order to achieve more flexibility in small steps. Show clearly that you are not taking advantage of your leeway, but are dealing responsibly with the trust placed in you.
Tip 9: Play with your ‘status’
When we speak of status, we mean what status we have within a social fabric. It is not about your economic status or how wealthy you are. It is about a certain position, about authority, influence and validity in your social group. Since this is important to us, we so often deal with the question of what others think of us and think of us that we let ourselves be determined by others.
Do you know your comfort status? This is exactly where your comfort zone is. Dare to leave your comfort zone, even if there is a risk of making a mistake. However, this does not have to endanger your social status in the quest for how to be fun. The best thing to do is to consciously change your status again and again in different situations. That practices dealing with mistakes.
In other words, you don’t always have to let the boss hang out, even if you are the boss and could clearly say what’s going on. As an employee, you don’t have to be a lemming, even if it may be more convenient at times.
You can also make a decision or question a decision from above. You will quickly notice that this does not endanger your social position, but rather strengthens it.
Tip 10: allow mistakes!
Mistakes have a bad reputation in our society, but they are actually the best teachers for life and for how to be fun. They make people creative and encourage top performance, which in turn often leads to great success. So if we change our attitude towards mistakes, our attitude towards life changes!
The top priority when making mistakes is to allow the mistakes to be made. Regardless of whether it is your own fault, whether others have put obstacles in your way or whether it was simply a ‘force majeure’. In all cases, spontaneous action is required.
That in turn requires serenity. Don’t waste your energy on getting annoyed for a long time, instead find spontaneous, creative solutions. Because if you accept your mistakes and dare to play with them, you will have a lot of fun with them.
Conclusion
By following a few simple but sensible strategies for how to be fun, you can add more light and laughter into your life without bad consequences, and this will over time build your confidence and spontaneity.
Photo by Roberto Nickson
