Climbing the ladder toward happiness may, in truth, be scaling the wrong wall. That's the persuasive case Mike Rucker makes in The Fun Habit: How the Disciplined Pursuit of Joy and Wonder Can Change Your Life, a lively and engaging argument for escaping the "happiness trap," by trading the pursuit of an elusive mental state for the effort to inject more fun into your everyday life.
If there's an overriding theme to Rucker's book, it's that there's a strong element of intentionality in the quest for more fun. In aid of that effort, for example, he recommends creating a "Fun File" of activities in the upper two quadrants of something he calls the PLAY Model (just one of the book's several helpful acronyms)--things that are easy to execute and enjoyable ("Pleasing") and those that are more challenging ("Living"). And rather than detracting from enjoyable pursuits, he points out that it's critical to schedule time for fun, "looking carefully at the choices you're making about how to spend your time and considering whether they are in alignment with what supports your well-being, now and in the future."
The Fun Habit blends abundant, but concise, accounts of contemporary scientific research, stories drawn from Rucker's life--including the sudden death of his brother, his participation in an Ironman competition in New Zealand and the hip surgery that brought his athletic career to a premature end--and a profusion of practical tips on how to consciously bring more joy into our "critically fun-starved" lives. "Happiness is a state of mind," he writes, "but fun is something you can do."
Rucker helpfully includes a chapter on having more fun as a parent (making it child-centric is a key) and devotes another to fun at work, pointing out that there's greater value to "engaging with your work more playfully," than there is to dutifully attending yet another happy hour with your colleagues. And in a moving epilogue on life's finitude, he reminds readers that "Fun allows us to cope with life's pain, and even sometimes transcend it, by more fully experiencing life's gifts."
Though he holds a Ph.D. and is a charter member of the International Positive Psychology Association, Rucker writes in a conversational style that makes The Fun Habit feel more like advice over a coffee from a well-informed, thoughtful friend than a dry academic treatise. He leavens his insights with substantial doses of humor, even nominating several candidates to an imaginary "Hall of Fun," among them Albert Einstein and Chris Hadfield, the first astronaut to create a music video in space, for their willingness to approach life with a sense of whimsy. There's ample fun to be found in Rucker's book, but the real delight will begin when you put its prescriptions into practice. --Harvey Freedenberg, freelance reviewer
Shelf Talker: Psychologist and fun lover Mike Rucker has written an enjoyable treatise on the art of bringing more play and joy to life.