Word-Of-the-Week #1096: Enjoyment
August 21, 2025 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word-Of-the-Week #1096: Enjoyment
Enjoyment– the pleasure felt when having a good time.
Are you waiting for the right time to have a “special occasion”? Do you believe that difficult tasks will somehow be easier in the future?
This week features the last half of “Why we procrastinate on joy, and how to stop,” by Richard Sima of The Washington Post.
We may fall into a ‘trap’ of wanting something to feel special, which causes us to delay enjoying it now, research says
To Recap:
- Waiting on joy
The new research suggests that people delay enjoyable experiences to maximize the benefits and avoid “spoiling the moment,” O’Brien said.
“‘Right now’ always feels insufficiently special compared to any better moment in the future,” he said.
This mindset may be shaped by what behavior psychologists call “occasion-matching,” a phenomenon in which people really care about when and where they enjoy things. We might wait to open an expensive bottle of wine for the perfect celebration even if it would taste just as good right now.
“Ironically, the thing that really builds dust is the really fine wine,” O’Brien said.
At the same time, we tend to believe we will have more time and energy in the future to do the things we like, which may be why people who live near landmarks and attractions often put off going to see them, as one 2010 study found. (Research also suggests that we tend to believe difficult tasks will somehow get easier to do in the future.)
However, while this general tendency is “important and interesting,” there may be more than one explanation for why different people procrastinate, said Akira Miyake, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Colorado at Boulder. “I think things are much more complex, and we need to start paying attention to idiosyncrasies or adopting more person-specific ways of looking at why this is happening,” he said.
For example, returning to a fun activity after a long break might require more effort to reacclimate, which is aversive.
Or seeking out specialness might relate to perfectionism, which is associated with procrastination tendencies in general, said Miyake, who was not involved in the study.
Plus, other goals we have may take more precedence, he said. “In everyday settings, you always pursue multiple goals,” Miyake said.
- How to stop putting off enjoyable experiences
We may not always be aware that we are procrastinating doing things that make us happy even when it comes at a cost, but there are strategies to help us, experts said.
Notice the trap: If we are more aware of the tendency to continue delaying positive things, we can catch ourselves and subvert it, O’Brien said.
Change the friction level: Borrowing from research on habit formation: If you want to do something positive, make it easier to do it. Come up with ways to remind yourself of what you want to do so you don’t forget it, Miyake said.
Schedule fun: Making a rule to do something enjoyable at a set time could make it easier to follow through than simply relying on willpower alone, Miyake said.
Change your mindset about what’s special: Trying to get over the trap of specialness may be key.
In one last set of experiments, O’Brien and his colleagues tested different strategies to get people to return to their long-delayed enjoyable activities sooner.
A strategy that surprisingly did not work was having participants reframe how much time had elapsed as not being that long in the grand scheme of things; they were still not more likely to jump back in compared with the control group, which received no such instruction.
Instead, what worked was reframing what could count as a special occasion.
“Think about how any moment can be made to feel extra special from the right perspective,” O’Brien said. “You can make any random Tuesday feel extra special if you really think about it.”
This week’s focus is on enjoyment Are you delaying positive things? How would it feel to schedule FUN?
I LOVE feedback! Join my Facebook community on my FUN-damentals Fan Page.
Word-Of-the-Week #1057: Enjoyment
November 7, 2024 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word-Of-the-Week #1057: Enjoyment
Enjoyment – the pleasure felt when having a good time.
How much enjoyment are you experiencing in your life? Do you have a good time at work? How about at home? Are you able to find enjoyment in the simple pleasures of life?
I was featured in Sarita’s What do you say Communique‘ monthly e-newsletter. She titled it, “Are You Having FUN Yet?” Since this week I am having FUN in Loreto with my best friend Gloria, it seemed only fitting to share it again. 😊
Sarita wrote, “We sometimes spend lots of energy trying to fix or change negative situations that are really beyond our control. (ie–corporate decisions, the economy)
Instead, it would be a better use of our time to find ways to counteract the negativity by focusing on creating more of ‘what provides amusement or enjoyment’ (Webster Dictionary definition of FUN).
My colleague Susan Clarke, CFO (Chief FUN Officer) of FUN-damentals.com says it best: “Fun is riding the teeter totter on the playground of life. There will always be ups and downs. Hold on and enjoy the ride!”
Sarita’s 12 Tips for “Enjoying the Ride.”
- Make peace with your past so it doesn’t spoil all the fun in your future.
- Don’t try to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
- Each day do something nice for someone.
- Don’t compare your life to others’. You have no idea what they’ve been through.
- Develop a network of friends to support you in “enjoying the ride.”
- Don’t take yourself so seriously…keep a sense of humor.
- Use your “resiliency resources.” i.e. – spend time doing your favorite activities.
- Smile. Laugh. Play.
- Create a list of FUN things to do, then start doing them.
- Don’t take things personally. It’s usually NOT about you.
- Ask for what you want. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
- Remember…no one is in charge of your happiness except you.
Copyright 2024 Sarita Maybin. All rights reserved.
This week’s focus is on enjoyment. Are you “enjoying the ride?” What pleasures do you relish? Which of the 12 tips could you start doing to ensure a FUN ride?
Sarita’s book, “If You Can’t Say Something Nice, What DO You Say? is available on Amazon.com.
I LOVE feedback! Join my Facebook community on my FUN-damentals Fan Page.
Word-Of-the-Week #864: Enjoyment
February 25, 2021 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word-Of-the-Week #864: Enjoyment
Enjoyment – the pleasure felt when having a good time.
How much enjoyment are you experiencing in your life? Do you feel good about your work life? How about at home? Are you able to find enjoyment in the simple pleasures of life?
I am focused on finding some enjoyment during these crazy times and so I’m taking the liberty to rerun a past WOW. I was featured in my fellow speaker and friend Sarita’s What do you say Communique‘ monthly e-newsletter. She titled it, “Are You Having FUN Yet?”
Sarita wrote, “We sometimes spend lots of energy trying to fix or change negative situations that are really beyond our control. (ie–corporate decisions, the economy) And now the coronavirus!
Instead, it would be a better use of our time to find ways to counteract the negativity by focusing on creating more of ‘what provides amusement or enjoyment’ (Webster Dictionary definition of FUN).
My colleague Susan Clarke, CFO (Chief FUN Officer) of FUN-damentals.com says it best: “Fun is riding the teeter totter on the playground of life. There will always be ups and downs. Hold on and enjoy the ride!”
Sarita’s 12 Tips for “Enjoying the Ride.”
- Make peace with your past so it doesn’t spoil all the fun in your future.
- Don’t try to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
- Each day do something nice for someone.
- Don’t compare your life to others’. You have no idea what they’ve been through.
- Develop a network of friends to support you in “enjoying the ride.”
- Don’t take yourself so seriously…keep a sense of humor.
- Use your “resiliency resources.” i.e. – spend time doing your favorite activities.
- Smile. Laugh. Play.
- Create a list of FUN things to do, then start doing them.
- Don’t take things personally. It’s usually NOT about you.
- Ask for what you want. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
- Remember…no one is in charge of your happiness except you.
Copyright 2021 Sarita Maybin. All rights reserved.
This week’s focus is on enjoyment. Are you “enjoying the ride?” What pleasures do you relish? Which of the 12 tips could you start doing to ensure a FUN ride?
Sarita’s book, “If You Can’t Say Something Nice, What DO You Say? is available on Amazon.com.
I LOVE feedback! Join my Facebook community on my FUN-damentals Fan Page.
WOW Word-Of-the-Week #416: Enjoyment
July 25, 2012 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on WOW Word-Of-the-Week #416: Enjoyment
Enjoyment – the pleasure felt when having a good time.
How much enjoyment are you experiencing in your life? Do you have a good time at work? How about at home? Are you able to find enjoyment in the simple pleasures of life?
I was featured in Sarita’s July What do you say Communique‘ monthly e-newsletter. She titled it, “Are You Having FUN Yet?” Since this week is the 8th Anniversary of my WOW’s it seemed only fitting to share it.
Sarita writes, “We sometimes spend lots of energy trying to fix or change negative situations that are really beyond our control. (ie–corporate decisions, the economy)
Instead, it would be a better use of our time to find ways to counteract the negativity by focusing on creating more of ‘what provides amusement or enjoyment’ (Webster Dictionary definition of FUN).
My colleague Susan Clarke, CFO (Chief FUN Officer) of FUN-damentals.com says it best: “Fun is riding the teeter totter on the playground of life. There will always be ups and downs. Hold on and enjoy the ride!”
” Sarita’s 12 Tips for ‘Enjoying the Ride.'”
1. Make peace with your past so it doesn’t spoil all the fun in your future.
2. Don’t try to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
3. Each day do something nice for someone.
4. Don’t compare your life to others’. You have no idea what they’ve been through.
5. Develop a network of friends to support you in “enjoying the ride.”
6. Don’t take yourself so seriously…keep a sense of humor.
7. Use your “resiliency resources.” i.e. – spend time doing your favorite activities
8. Smile. Laugh. Play.
9. Create a list of FUN things to do, then start doing them.
10. Don’t take things personally. It’s usually NOT about you.
11. Ask for what you want. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
12. Remember…no one is in charge of your happiness except you.
Copyright 2012 Sarita Maybin. All rights reserved.
This week’s focus is on enjoyment. Are you “enjoying the ride?” What pleasures do you relish? Which of the 12 tips could you start doing to ensure a FUN ride?
Sarita’s book, “If You Can’t Say Something Nice, What DO You Say? is available on Amazon.com.
Reader Responses
“No. 6 sounds like my “life is too serious to be too serious.” – Ralph
“It is up to us to find that enjoyment – EVERY DAY. If we don’t, it is no one’s fault but our own. So, we have to go for it. It starts with a smile and a good attitude. I know I look forward to seeing my coworkers and finding enjoyment in our conversations. It is important to make the time for enjoyment. In terms of doing something nice for someone, I make an effort to remember what my friends and family members enjoy and then send something. Most times it will be just sending an anniversary card or a birthday card to them or their children. When I do that, I feel a goodness right in the center of my chest. Maybe it is because I am sending out positive vibes to the universe. Especially when it is a birthday wish for children. I’m sure that getting mail in their mailbox is a big deal. I know that it was for me when I was a kid. When our family traveled to Pentwater, MI, last month, I never turned on my cellphone. It was such a good feeling to leave behind the noise and simply relax and find enjoyment in the sand, surf and breeze. I don’t make a list of things that I want to do. That is being too conscious. I try to leave enough room for spontaneity in this area of my life, and then when the opportunity presents itself I try to take advantage of it. The Moody Blues have a song I enjoy entitled “Are You Sitting Comfortably?” which is what I sometimes think of when I am sitting in our backyard with a cup of coffee, simply watching a woodpecker atop the telephone poll in the park. Or a robin calling out for another robin on the telephone wire. It is in these very simple things of life that I find enjoyment. Great word, Susan. Keep up the great work. I will give you a report on the James Taylor concert at Ravinia on Saturday night. Take care.” – “Warrior” Joe
The FUN-damentals of Attitude: How to Turn a Positive Attitude into Positive Results
March 28, 2009 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on The FUN-damentals of Attitude: How to Turn a Positive Attitude into Positive Results
In today’s world, having a positive attitude is often given as a secret to success, but how do you get it, hang onto it, and spread the fever to others? In this practical and pragmatic program, Susan Clarke shares with you how to remain upbeat to achieve your desired results.
Practical, Action-Oriented Steps
While many speakers simply talk in platitudes, Susan uses her trademarked humor and frankness to actually take you on a step-by-step journey towards changing your behavior. She first provides you with the tools to understand yourself. Then, she gives you the tools so that you can understand others. You walk away with proven ideas that will help you achieve your relationship goals with colleagues, superiors, family, and friends.
Shifting Attitudes Leads to Positive Latitude
The power of a positive attitude affords you maximum flexibility – you can adapt, change, and even evolve so that you can respond appropriately. And, with a new positive attitude, you can expect to:
- Enjoy your work environment more thoroughly as you laugh and find the humor in everyday rituals;
- Achieve a higher degree of team work and cooperation from colleagues;
- Appreciate the differences and idiosyncrasies of family members, close friends, and life partners.
- Realize work, personal, and relationship goals.
Long-Lasting Results
Susan Clarke’s programs stay with you long after the laughter has subsided. In fact, you’ll notice that once you start implementing your new tools, you’ll be in a better mood today and for many tomorrows.
Attitude is all about choice… make the decision today to have Susan help you change the way you think!