Hello my dear fellow Earthling.
Did you know that wherever you live on this little blue planet, we speak the same language. And that is the language of PLAY. You were born with it and naturally used to speak it a lot when you were young. It was how you connected to others, how you learned new skills and knowledge in a very natural and fast way and it was how you created magic to show up. But unfortunately for most of us grown ups, we have forgotten to speak it on a regular basis. We were told to behave like adults and that meant to act serious. So it’s a game of seriousness we are playing, without realizing that it’s a game. And a game that is making us miserable.
The opposite of play is not work, the opposite of play is depression (Brian Sutton Smith)
On my personal life journey I experienced this myself. After my studies, I didn’t know what it was I wished to do. The only thing I knew, was that I loved to travel, but had no money in my bank. The magical thing happened that my eye fell on a little job-add asking for tourleaders India/Nepal for a low budget travelagency. So I became a tourleader in India and Nepal for some time and it was great! Travelling, meeting people and even getting paid for it (a little). Then I thought it was time to get serious about a career, so I came back to the Netherlands and started persuing a career as a corporate trainer. I could start as a trainee for a franchise training company. And it seemed to lead to the success I was looking for; I liked my work as a sales- and mangementtrainer and was good at it, I learned a lot in a very short time, I made good money and was happy being self-employed (as a franchisee after being a trainee for 6 months). I bought my first house and had a boyfriend, who shared my passion for travel, so when I wasn’t working we were on the road together. It all seemed perfect….until we came back after 4 weeks of travelling through Asia and I went back to work. When I came home, I sat down on the couch and started crying. And it didn’t stop.
I was diagnosed with a burn out
During my recovery I had a few very strong dreams, that told me to reconnect to my inner child and start playing more. So I did. I joined a theatre improv group and had a weekly dose of playful fun (up until today, 15 years later, I’m still an active member of this group). Playing helped me to reconnect to myself, to my creative spirit, to my playfulness and to others and it felt really great! In play I could experiment and fail safely. In play I could use my imagination to create. In play I was able to move my body and feel free. But I still saw it as a separate thing from work. What I didn’t realize was that whenever I was taking a playful approach at work (with figgering out how to build a website, writing stories for blogposts) I was learning fast and getting unexpected and magical results. For instance, when I wrote a little blogpost about Personal Branding (based on a 1 hour online workshop I listened to), I was invited by a University to give a guestlecture about it! And ofcourse I said YES!
Whenever I took my work and myself too serious, things got stuck and I felt tired and stressed, up until I almost went bankrupt in 2009. Clearly something had to change. I decided to only do things I really enjoyed doing and try to make a living out of that. Someone suggested to take a look at the Applied Improv Network, a community of people that use Improv Theatre principles and exercises in non theatrical settings, like corporate trainings. I immediately felt a connection to both my love for the playful improv acting and my background as a trainer. So I went to a conference in 2010 in Amsterdam.
And magic happened. Again. I met a guy from Singapore, Avi Liran. He asked me what I liked most about the conference day and I replied to him I admired the way Matt Weinstein was able to do a key-note in a very playful interactive way. Avi’s reply was: “you can learn how to do that, when you join a Toastmasters group” I didn’t know what that was, but looked it up on my trainride home. Toastmasters are non-profit groups of people, helping eachother with their public speaking skills, according to a meetingformat. I signed up for a club near my home and went there. I liked the concept, but realized that my level of public speaking was already higher than the participants, from my trainer and theatre experience, I decided to start my own little group with self selected people from my network and wrote a thank you email to Avi for giving me his advice. After hitting the sendbutton it didn’t take a minute for my phone to ring from Singapore. First thing Avi said to me: “You are easier Done than Said”. And he explained: “You want something, you get a tip from some stranger and you just do it and based on your experience you decide your next move. ” I said that is the way I operate and the next thing he asks me is if I want to join his team of international facilitators because that is what his trainingmethodology is all about; Experiential learning by doing. Easier Done than Said! He had never seen me facilitate anything! And I didn’t know a thing about his programs. So two weeks later I joined him and Lenny Ravich in a two day program for 30 hotelmanagers in Istanbul. And I was amazed to see and experience for myself what happens with a group when immersing them in lots of playful learning activities. Not only the fun and connectedness, but also the deep learning that takes place. And I thought to myself: “What a way to make a living!”
Since then, I fully dedicated myself to integrate play or having a playful approach to everything I do. I decided to get serious about playfulness. At work and at home. And magic kept and keeps appearing.
I’m now traveling the world, inviting people* to play and getting paid for it 🙂
(*) from MBA students in Tallinn Estonia learning about leadership and themselves, to teams learning to innovate in a customer centric way, to people at events to connect and network playfully, to leaders and large audiences at international conferences
I gave myself a Licence to Play and my life has unfolded in a very nice way. And now I give others a Licence to Play and invite them to play (more). Because life is not supposed te be hard and difficult. It’s supposed to be fun and playful and magical.
Are you ready to PLAY?
Here’s again the link to my TEDx (in case you wanted to read the whole thing first) “What happens when you press PLAY?”
Playfully Yours,
Annemarie Steen
LICENCE TO PLAY 