The benefits of playing

On the 30 Day Challenge, we pledge to spend at least 20 minutes a day playing with our chosen projects. In the spirit of being more creative with my camera, I decided to photograph some fairy lights…

VERY IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: This might look like an assortment of pretty pink lights but in fact, what you’re witnessing is a breakthrough of mammoth proportions.

I don’t normally play.

Not really. I’m too busy worrying about earning money. Or what other people will think. Or about the end result being perfect.

So my creativity remains locked away.

This time, however, inspired by the 30DC, I truly 100% played. For 20 blissful minutes my world consisted solely of me, my camera and the lights sparkling…AND I LOVED IT!

My ‘playtime’ took minutes but it stayed with me for the rest of the day. I felt more grounded. Happier. Lighter. More hopeful (like something good might be round the next corner).

It was nothing short of a revelation!

Why hadn’t I done this before?!

What idiot would banish this amount of joy from their life?!

(Er… that would be me then.)

Don’t underestimate the power of playing. The benefits include:

You start to feel alive again!
This is an amazing feeling. Period.

You start to figure out what you do and don’t like
I can think about taking photos of fairy lights all day long, but it’s only when I actually do it that I know whether I like it or not…and whether I might like to do it again. If I discover that I don’t like photographing fairy lights then I have saved myself X amount of months or years pondering whether this should be my next big career move.

You start to get feedback on what you love
I don’t know whether there’s a market for my photos until I test the water, put some stuff out there, and get some feedback. Once I have the feedback I can choose to keep doing what I do, tweak it so it’s a better fit for me and/or my customers, or move on to something else. Whatever, it’s all excellent feedback.

Other things start happening
By taking action I am inviting opportunities into my life that I would never experience by sitting at home thinking about doing things. For example, the 30DC has inspired me to create a video (something I never thought I would do) and to come up with an exciting idea for a range of greetings cards (more on both these things later). On the 30DC forum yesterday I met someone who told me the best place to go to get my cards printed, and when I met another lovely lady for coffee today, she gave me an impromptu tutorial on how to edit videos in MS Movie Player. Would this have happened if I had been ensconced on the sofa at home???

IT’S FUN!
I left the most important point to last.