Get serious about having fun

HEY you, lighten up! Mary Jeanne Vincent wants people to bring more fun and passion into their everyday life.

Vincent, 43, a trainer and coach, is in the business of helping individuals rekindle their life passions and find the cosmic chuckle that may have gotten lost somewhere along life’s highway.

Serious is the key here, said Vincent, who has given hands-on workshops for businesses and individuals for the past decade. Her topics; how to jump-start your creative brain, hot tips for speakers, speak ing up at work and making career changes.

Laughter and play are among her

favourite topics, and participants easily get

into the groove, she said. She gets them to rate their fun quotient, revisit their child

hood and play the “lying game”.

“When we were kids, we were told to finish our work before we could play,” she said. “As adults, we're still carrying that around with us. We’ve forgotten how to play”.

The lying game gives clues to our true dreams, and it is fun, she said, hi this game, groups of three take turns making up fantastic fibs about themselves. “It loosens you up and gets close to those passions you never talk about”.

Ideally, work and play should be mixed to give relief from the serious, said Vincent, waving a hand toward a table scattered with brightly-coloured toys.

Playing with these Slinkies and weird shaped puzzles gives people a chance to be a child again for a little while. But more important, it opens the heart and mind to humour.

Among her 21 tips for “de-stressing,

re-energising and enhancing creativity” is

the key word “colour”.

“When was the last time you

cracked open a new box of 64? She asked. “Get

yourself a

colouring book, and spend some time adding colour to your life”.

Vincent got into the business of

motivating

others after the death of a

family mem

ber. She went

back to school and got a master’s degree in human resource management, and then found her niche in workshops for business es and consulting with individuals.

Those who have been downsized out of a job are hurting, she said. Although it may not seem possible at the time, they often go on to better and higher paying jobs.

Time wasting is another of her favourite topics, but it all comes down to making time for things that really matter.

This means not allowing yourself to get trapped into a job that doesn’t fit, she said.

If you want more time with your family, a job that requires long hours may not be the best one, she said.

Have some new experiences, change your philosophy to allow more fun, she advised. Take action when you are job hunting or when stress hits, she said.

“Make a call, send out another one, get out there and network. Do something!”

Many believe they are too busy to take time out for pleasure, lunch with

friends or even a walk on the beach, she said. Taking a day for oneself is important for the renewal of spirit, and it doesn’t have to cost anything, she said.

“Resign as general manager of the universe,” she said. “Laugh some more.

Kids laugh hundreds of times a day. By the time we are adults, we are lucky if we laugh 10 times a day”.

Vincent and her husband, Richard Gadd, executive director of the Monterey Museum of Art, are believers in taking time out for new experiences. They follow the flip-chart method of listing what things they would like to try. It can be something as simple as reading a good book or taking a nap, or it can be all-out like a cruise.

Make that list, she said. “How hard can it be? Otherwise it’s back to the movies

again”.

Picking up a Slinky in the same lavender tones of her fingernail polish, Vincent laughed at the Easter-egg hue. The colour was her niece’s idea, she said with a smile. “Then I thought, why not?” KRT ■

Taking a dau for one self Is Important for the remewal of spirlt