Your Life Needs More Fun, Not Just More Things Getting Done

I think one of the easiest things to lose as we get older is the part of us that does things simply because they are fun.

As working women, there is always something that feels more important. Work needs our attention. Dinner needs to be made. The washing needs to be done. We have appointments to book, messages to reply to, goals we are trying to reach and things we want to improve about our lives.

And I am not going to pretend those responsibilities don't matter.

They do.

But I also think we can become so focused on keeping life running that we forget to actually enjoy being inside it.

For me, whimsy has become a way of protecting that part of myself.

It is not about pretending everything is magical or spending money trying to make an ordinary life look aesthetic. It is about keeping curiosity, play, imagination and small moments of enjoyment in a life that can otherwise become very practical.

Fun does not have to be productive

I think this is something many of us have quietly been taught as adults.

If we are reading, it should teach us something. If we are exercising, it should change our body. If we have a hobby, maybe we should turn it into a side hustle. If we have free time, perhaps we should use it to organise our life or work towards another goal.

Even wellness can start becoming another form of productivity.

But some things are allowed to exist because they make you happy.

I love Disney. I love cooking something unnecessarily elaborate because I enjoy being in the kitchen. I love making things, imagining my future, dressing up, romanticising a normal day and letting myself be excited about things that might seem small to somebody else.

I don't need those things to make me more successful.

They make me feel more like myself.

And I think there is something really important in that.

You do not need to finish everything before you are allowed to enjoy yourself

This is probably one of the biggest mindset shifts. We tell ourselves we will relax once we are caught up.

We will start painting again when work settles down. We will read when the house is clean. We will make something when we have more time. We will go for the sunset walk after we finish everything on our list.

But adult life rarely becomes completely finished.

There will always be another load of washing.

Another email. Another appointment. Another thing you could organise. Sometimes you have to choose enjoyment while unfinished things still exist.

That does not make you irresponsible. It means you understand that your life cannot only happen after everything else has been handled.

Whimsy can be incredibly ordinary

You also do not need to spend money to make your life feel more interesting. A lot of the things that make me feel most connected to my life are incredibly small.

You could:

• put music on while making dinner and actually dance around the kitchen

• rewatch a film you loved when you were younger

• sit outside with your morning drink instead of immediately reaching for your phone

• write a ridiculous little bucket list for the season you are in

• draw, paint, colour, bake or make something badly without needing to be good at it

• take a different route on your walk and pay attention to what you normally rush past

• dress nicely for an ordinary evening at home because you feel like it

• create little traditions around Friday nights, Sunday mornings or certain seasons

• read fiction purely because you want to disappear into another world for a while

• make your dinner table nice even if you are the only person eating there

• look through old photos and remember versions of yourself you had forgotten

• sit somewhere without doing anything productive and let yourself think

None of these things are life-changing on their own. That is almost what I love about them. They remind you that your life is happening in the small moments too.

Learn what fun actually means to you now

Something else I think we need to talk about is that fun changes as we get older. You do not have to recreate what fun looked like when you were eighteen.

Maybe your version of fun now is cooking for people you love. Maybe it is reading fantasy novels. Maybe it is going for long walks without headphones. Maybe it is crafts, dancing in your room, gardening, gaming, decorating, writing, baking, dressing up or spending an hour researching somewhere you would love to travel.

The important part is learning what genuinely makes you feel alive rather than copying somebody else's idea of what a fun life should look like.

Ask yourself: When do I stop thinking about what I should be doing and actually become absorbed in what I am doing?

That is usually a useful clue. You might also ask yourself what you loved before you started worrying whether it was useful, impressive or mature enough. Sometimes the things we left behind are exactly the things we need to bring back.

Put enjoyment into the week before the week fills itself

I don't think fun always needs to be spontaneous. Sometimes we have to create space for it intentionally.

If I know my working week is going to be full, I would rather decide that Wednesday night is going to include a movie I love or Saturday morning is for making something than hope that free time magically appears.

This does not mean turning fun into another schedule. It just means treating enjoyment as something worth making room for. We make time for appointments because they matter. We make time for work because it matters. We can also make time for things that make our life feel fuller.

Even an hour counts. Even twenty minutes counts.

The life you are building should contain things you actually enjoy

I care deeply about growth. I want women to dream, visualise their future, build strong systems, understand themselves better and take real action towards the lives they want.

But I never want Wellness Glow Club to become another place telling women that every spare part of their life needs to be used for self-improvement.

There has to be room for living too. Fun does not distract you from building your life. It is part of the life you are building.

Keep the hobbies that make no sense financially. Keep the childhood interests that still make you excited. Make ordinary evenings a little more interesting. Do things badly. Be silly. Make memories that will never become content. Let yourself look forward to small things.

You can be responsible and playful. You can be ambitious and whimsical. You can build your future while still enjoying the woman who is living today.

Because getting things done might keep your life functioning. But fun, play and whimsy are often what make that life feel worth being present for.

Soft life. Strong systems. And plenty of room to actually live.