The Recreation Threshold / 2

The first step in awareness is knowing what you like to do. What you are good at, some people never learn that. They just go through the motions once they get a job. We are trained to make choices based on structures: social, educational, family. There is nothing wrong with that, that’s life. But it weaves through us a momentum “to do,” not “to experience and learn.”

How many of us took our first job is usually based on the practicality of the choice. Working in careers services for 6.5 years, this is what we taught as a graduated life lesson. You get your first job to acquire marketable skills. Or at least obtain a basis for that. Then you either stay in that job, advance in that job, not like the job, and leave it for hopefully something else or move on to some other training or education, taking that life experience with you. This is just an example. You might think it has nothing to do with recreation but it does.

All skills transfer over to other areas of our life. Again, recreation is a respite but it can be more. It can help us function within our four walls and make us feel better. A pandemic is not the only time you might find yourself stuck at home or with nothing to do. Why is this so important? Keeping up our interests makes us whole. Not doing that is on the top 5 list of job dissatisfaction, relationships folding, or managing stress. One could even go so far as to say it is the cornerstone of depression.

Getting back to interests, I am going to give you a crash course right here and now on personality, yours. Know thyself. Then take those interests and decide on a course of recreation that will not only help you with pandemic-related stress but help you to be more efficient, relaxed, or stronger-willed, throughout your day. Yes, through the accomplishment of recreation.

I am going to give you 3 questions on four “topics.” Then I am going to give you ideas to consider for the answers you get. You can answer these mentally but it is more fun to write them out. Then I will explain what it means.

An Introduction To Self

There is no wrong answer. You simply cannot be incorrect about yourself. Don’t try for the expected or perfect answer. You’ll see what I mean.

Question Set 1

1) Do you prefer your day to be a) organized? Or b) spontaneous?

2) Do you work better with a) schedules given or b) planning your own time?

3) Do you look forward to a) a carefully noted event? Or b) get antsy the closer you get to a scheduled event?

Question Set 2

1) Do you make decisions based on your a) heart? Or your b) logic?

2) Do you think it is more important to a) make a special purchase regardless of the cost because you know you can make the budget balance by cutting back on something else? Or b) does the idea of that at all seem ridiculous?

3) Does expressing sentiment a) matter to make a person feel whole? Or b) is that something that should be understood?

Question Set 3

1) Do you prefer a) attention to detail? Or b) more of a big picture person?

2) Does working on a puzzle a) relax you? or b) create stress?

3) Does a) hard work make you happy? Or b) you trust your dreams for happiness

Question Set 4

1) When you go to a social occasion or party, you a) can’t wait to talk to as many people as you can? Or b) you look forward to having at least one good, long conversation with someone?

2) The idea of going to a social event or a party a) is an absolute necessity of life? Or b) has absolutely no interest to you?

3) a) Tennis or b) Scrabble?

Those questions are in no way a full personality assessment to give you a profile all about yourself. They are simply an introduction to an idea.

Points

People are born with natural preferences. Things they are good at. These evolve into traits as we are exposed to or not, to certain events or skill opportunities.

These preferences determine our choices and the way we think and see the world.

Everybody is different and you don’t want a world where everyone is the same because it won’t function properly. The difference between apples and oranges is all a matter of taste and if we had to survive on one or the other only, the taste would only matter more. Our choices in recreation are the same.

Just as with recreation or entertainment, if we had to choose one thing to keep us busy but were given two limited options: a television set versus a book, or a puzzle versus a swimming pool, an exercise bike in the living room versus a cooler in reach to working on biceps by lifting a can of bud regularly. It’s all in the pudding so to speak. The ingredients of mind.

Answers

The first set of questions has a lot to do with our life outlook. How we function best, whether in a structured environment or an unstructured one. This not only determines, or partly so, what careers we will be drawn to but the type of recreation we would therefore find enjoyable.

A’s — prefer plans to be organized and to know what to expect.

B’s — the very idea of a schedule makes you uncomfortable.

The alternate personality types might both enjoy swimming but one might prefer an indoor pool with swimming classes. While the other might never go to an indoor pool but only prefer the beach.

***

The second set of questions has to do with how we make decisions. We either make them through an organized calculated way of concluding. Or by not concluding at all but letting timing and choice determine.

A’s — make decisions based on fact or what is expected.

B’s — are going to consider everything or anything before deciding and not get caught up in what to the other type, would be senseless details or formula.

In terms of recreation, one might schedule their recreation as a needed value, while the other questions if it matters at all or do what they want when they want.

***

The next set of questions is simply whether we are detail-oriented or a big picture person.

A's - prefer details. You make sense of the world through facts and figures. What you perceive through your senses matters more. The tangibles, what you see, taste, touch, hear, matter more than anything.

B's - are the big picture people, the person who flies by the seat of their pants. The one who can observe and calculate without any details in front of them. You thrive on hunches, intuition, and if this preference is nurtured properly are usually right.

The first type is more than likely going to prefer puzzles, word games, knitting, sewing, things that hold their attention by focusing on details. The alternate type will enjoy music, movies, open sports activities, like running, or activities not organized. When it comes to creative pursuits, interestingly both might enjoy reading books or art but their choices of reading material or the manner in which they go about doing their art will be different.

***

The final questions have only to do with what energizes us. Quiet time or interaction. Much has been written about preferences for introversion or extraversion but the words were meant to define just that, where we get energy from. A preference for introversion is not a flaw or part of a mental health issue and never was the word designed to be understood that way.

A's - after a busy day want to go home and be alone to relax, blow off steam, de-stress

B's - after a busy day want to go out and spend time with people doing something, anything. In this way, they relax, blow off steam, de-stress.

This has everything to do with how we fit our recreation time in our life. When you spend time doing what you enjoy. How much we value that recreation moment shapes our reasoning. Is it essential or desired to take 20 minutes to meditate at the end of the work day, or in between caring for children, errands etc. Or take that time to read a book. But really do it. Take the time to do it. Would shooting hoops or playing frisbee for 20 minutes with friends after work or the busiest part of the day really take away from anything you have to do? Then try re-arranging your schedule s that you can. It matters.

***

Now that you understand a little more about what makes you tick you need to discover what recreation suits you. It's not just a matter of what is your favorite thing to do though that is a good start. It's more about what is a satisfying leisure activity.

You would be surprised at how many people only know recreation as something to do on the weekends. Taking in a movie or playing a sport.

I guarantee if you can embrace the point that a serious though light approach to a leisure activity that fits you will not only change your mood but your entire outlook.

The next step is to make your Wish List. Write down all the things you ever wanted to do for fun, everything. Use your imagination and look at it is a brain-storming exercise where nothing you write down could possibly be wrong. Now, keep that Wish to explore activities and how to adapt any activity to your personal space. Even mountain climbing.

More of Lisa A Lachapelle's work HERE.