Making every day fun, fulfilling, and meaningful

Should everyday be fun, fulfilling, and meaningful? We think so! Even the days when you don’t seem to accomplish much can be very fulfilling, perhaps as a day to reenergize or just relax, or maybe because you are working toward something not yet finished. How did we come by this daring line of thinking? It all started with a text message.

That we live on opposites of the country makes coordinating communication and activities challenging. Text messages provide a quick and easy way to get information through without a three hour difference threatening to interrupt a meeting on one side or much needed sleep on the other. They are always waiting patiently until there comes a more convenient time to respond.

Being on different sides of the country also means we usually are experiencing different weather. One’s sunny and warm day far too often is met with the other having a gray, rainy day. And as usual with people, whoever is having the sunnier day often seems to exhibit the sunnier disposition. That’s how we got around to verbalizing what everyone should know but often is too wrapped up in the day’s activities, or the surrounding environment, to realize – not only that every day should be fun, fulfilling, and meaningful, but that they are!

The particular conversation was at a time when the sun was shining brighter in the east and Michael was having several good days in a row, actually checking off items on the to-do list, sometimes as fast as they were put on the list. Diem had mentioned that one of his days was a “full day. It was fun, fulfilling and meaningful. It’s what makes this life interesting and rewarding.” And although texts can’t convey the nuances of thought or emotion, the next line almost telegraphed the thoughtful pause that happened before it was typed. “Should everyday be like that?”

So many of us are conditioned to believe that life is hard. And it is. Growing up is hard. Growing old is hard. Parenting is hard. Work is hard. Even the fun things often seem hard, like getting an entire family to agree on a vacation destination and then coordinating schedules to actually get going on that vacation. Just saving for the vacation is hard. But that also adds to the interesting and rewarding qualities of life. When we successfully navigate our way through a difficult report at work, or successfully navigate our way through a difficult detour to that mountain or seaside get away, we feel good about what we’ve accomplished. Shouldn’t we feel just as good during the execution of those challenges that we are in the process of accomplishing something?

That life is hard adds to the good feelings we have when we uncover the positives of life, those parts of it that make you truly happy. Likewise, we need those days that seemingly are unproductive. They may seem unproductive often only because we are still in the “accomplishing phase” and haven’t yet finished whatever we are working on. In life we need the gray, rainy days as much as we need the warm sunny days. We need the gray days to truly appreciate the sunny ones. And we need those days when we don’t accomplish something or don’t get what we want to fuel our need to accomplish things. If our wants become our expectations we risk rarely accomplishing anything, often growing selfish while doing it – or not doing it.

But does all that mean that every day should be fun, fulfilling, and meaningful? We believe it does. Every day contributes something to our lives. Even the ones that at first glance seem not so meaningful because we didn’t particularly have fun, fulfill an expectation, or accomplish something. Those days are still meaningful in that they provide us with the time to rest, recover, and reflect, and we recall from last week how important those opportunities are. So yes, not only should every day be fun, fulfilling, and meaningful, every day is fun, fulfilling, and meaningful because there is fun, fulfillment, and meaning in everything we do – even when it seems we aren’t doing anything at all!