“Would you like fries with that?”
This simple yet brilliant question helped McDonald’s make billions.
It eventually morphed into, “Would you like to super-size that?” which became a symbol of our culture’s nasty habit of overconsumption.
Indeed, we are conditioned to want more stuff. Bigger homes. Better appliances. Faster cars. Fancier vacations. I’m skeptical whether we are better off because of it.
But there’s one question we should ask ourselves more often. It has the benefit of not only leaving our waistlines intact and our homes less cluttered, but would decrease our overall stress levels as well:
“Would you like fun with that?”
I’ve never encountered a study alerting us to the negative effects of too much fun, and indeed, the world is aching for silliness. But Adultitis has us conditioned to believe that fun is merely a sliver of the overcrowded pie chart that is life balance. You work, you run errands, you do chores, you chauffeur your kids to soccer practice. If there’s enough time left at the end of the week, then maybe, just maybe, you are allowed to have a little bit of fun. And once in a while, the calendar gives you permission to do things like dress up in silly costumes or blow stuff up, but only if the date happens to be accompanied by fine print that says something like “Halloween” or “Independence Day.”
But wouldn’t work be better if it came with a side of fun? What about errands? Or chores? Or those everyday road trips with the family?
In case you’re scoring at home: yes, yes, yes, and um, yes.
What would your life look like if you always made it a habit to ask, “Would you like fun with that?”
It might inspire you to make some ugly cookies to share with your coworkers.
It might inspire you tell a funny joke to the checkout person at the grocery store.
It might inspire you to make crazy bets with your spouse to see who has to do laundry this week.
It might inspire you to instigate regular Chinese fire drills with your family.
When we take the time to ask this simple question, and when we take the little effort it requires to answer said question with a big, fat, unapologetic “Hells yeah!”, we end up creating what I like to call “scenes.” And even though we may spend most of our days fretting over serious things like the economy and health care and the war on terror, when you get to the end of your life, and have gathered your friends and family around your death bed to share your last days and moments, those big, serious things never seem to make the conversation. You know what does? The little things. The scenes we created with one another.
It’s the scenes that matter most in the end.
So do yourself a favor. Every time you’re faced with some seemingly mundane or otherwise unexciting use of your time, ask yourself this simple question:
“Would you like fun with that?”
And don’t forget to super-size it.
Yes, all that supersizing got a lot of people into trouble financially. I think as a whole we’ve learned a lot. And as for fun, there are SOOOOOOOOOOOOO many fun things to do and share time with your family all at the same time! Most are free! Walking in the park, sitting around a fire pit, laying in the grass and seeing what you see in the clouds, walking the dog, having a laugh fest.… yep… people need to enjoy spending time with themselves and their families. It’s great for us in SO many ways!
Excellent ideas, Sheila! Funny how as we get older, it takes more and more to impress us. But the simple things still usually end up being the best!
Nice post. People today are way too serious. Most people’s lives are not very serious at all, with decisions that don’t affect any other people, so it’s totally safe to have fun. I’m not saying go out and buy toys, I’m saying just “Have Fun!” like your suggestions. Cleaning can be fun, fixing something can be fun, dinner can be fun, hanging with the family can be fun.
You’re right, Alex, almost everything can be fun. Except maybe getting audited. But even then I bet there’s a way to inject some kind of fun…in any case, we do take ourselves way too seriously and a little perspective can do wonders!
Hey Jason,
Fun is good. Many seem to live their lives in boredomsville and wait till the retire “to have fun”. Excuse me, I’m not waiting 65 years to have fun.….make every moment as fun as possible.
be good to yourself
David
David — you know, I never saw it guaranteed anywhere that we automatically get 65 years. And if you wait till then to start having fun, you’ll have wasted 65 good years!
Absolutely!
You made me look (at the ugly cookies.)
Oh, I absolutely LOVED this! “Would you like fun with that?” I’m going to use that all the time. (Interesting that I just posted something about fun myself.) And the super size add on is priceless. This is my new mantra. Thanks!!!!
Rock on, Galen.
This is great. I always what FUN with that. and yes you can spuersize it. These days life is to busy and we need to remember to have fun. Great article and it put a smile on my face and now for the rest of the day what ever I may be doing you can bet I am going to have fun.
Blessing to you,
Debbie
I love this idea & honestly, those cookies look good to me!!! I am a cookie lover!
Jody…I’m not too picky about my cookies either. I’m kind of like Cookie Monster in that regard
Lance, true, we don’t make enough ugly cookies. And we don’t have enough fun. Life wasn’t meant to be so serious all the time. I think God laughs when we get serious about our plans. We must stop taking ourselves so seriously!
Jason, I hadn’t seen this was a guest post. My apologies. It’s a brilliant reminder.
Forgive my slip-up!
No worries, Bryan. Referring to something I wrote as brilliant more than makes up for it
Hi Jason. What a simple and empowering question — a great way to snap us back to our Authentic Self who wants only to practice with joy and ease in all daily activities. When we can turn tasks and chores into “labors of love” we can handle any challenging circumstance life may hand us.
Well said, Rob. “Labors of love” sound way more appealing than stupid chores.
I think society as a whole is slowly but surely moving away from the era of supersized happy meals, gas-guzzling SUV’s and gaudy McMansions. I’ve noticed a growing interest in things like minimalism, sustainability and off-the-grid living in the last few years. No doubt the recession has a lot to do with this, but I like to imagine we’re all evolving beyond the ideals of conspicuous consumption into something more refined and less wasteful.