Why being playful at work matters

"Remain playful as your responsibilities increase. It's easy to become serious when people and results depend on you, but nearly everyone's performance improves when they proceed lightly through the world." - James Clear

I have witnessed James’s statement with myself throughout life. It is so true. 

We often take ourselves very seriously and especially when our responsibilities increase, we for sure want to make the right decisions. It has an impact on the business and other people!

This holds even more truth when we go through crises: 

Let’s not make another mistake.

or

If we put in enough (much) effort, things will become better again.

or

There is so much going wrong, but if we do our best and go beyond our limits, the situation will improve.

While there is nothing wrong with a highly engaged mindset, it is easy to forget about the following:

It is not the hard work that guarantees success.

It is the smart work that brings us to the next level.

The better we understand how to insert playfulness into our big challenges, the easier we will reach and move beyond the known. There is so much we don’t know. And what we don’t know we cannot imagine. Being playful allows us to reach new potential "by accident". We try things which we have never tried before. We dare to risk and fail. We are more creative. We laugh and enjoy. 

And all of a sudden, our performance improves without all of that overthinking, overpreparing, overcontrolling.

When I was younger, I thought that giving one hundred percent would equal one hundred percent of outcome. With playful situations, I have realized that inserting lightness might feel like giving less than one hundred percent, but that the actual outcome is even better than what I expected with one hundred percent. And people’s feedback undermine my perception.

With the right mindset, remaining playful will not only make you feel better about what you do, but you will also notice a positive shift in your work and results.