I grew up in New Orleans. We were poor, we couldn't afford to travel, but I didn't need to. Fun was where I was. Where else in America do teachers suspend homework for two weeks so you can go to a parade every night and come home loaded down with colored beads and bright, shiny doubloons?
Then I got into nursing and somewhere along the way I began losing my sense of fun. After all, what's fun about 12-hour shifts? Five-minute lunches? Dealing with bedpans? Dealing with doctors?
Looking into my future I didn't see much fun. So I decided to start my own legal nurse consulting business and inject fun into my life. TGIF is so limiting. I wanted, "Thank God it's Monday – TGIM" or better yet, "TGIT – Thank God it's today."
Take a Vacation Every Day
We spend more than half our waking life on the job. When we're working so hard, it's easy to wait for the fun part of life to begin. "When I get my next raise, I'll take a vacation. When I pay off the house, I'll start my exciting new career as a CLNC®. When I retire, I'll have time for fun with my family."
We don't have two-compartment lives – a nursing life and a personal life. We only have one life. You can't turn off one and turn on the other. It doesn't work that way.
What would your life be like if you vacationed every day, even for a 30-second sanity break? Instead of making fun a once-a-year event, inject it into your whole life.
Ask yourself, "What am I waiting for to enjoy a life of fun and excitement? When I have enough money? When I lose enough weight? When my job is perfect? When my spouse is more perfect?" Don't wait.
Fun is everywhere – we just have to find it. If you're not used to letting yourself have fun every day, try starting each morning with an "attitude of fun" that enables you to attract joy and see the humor in every situation.
If you're thinking, "But Vickie, legal nurse consulting is serious. I can't laugh and have fun when people are suffering."
That's totally understandable. As a CLNC®, you're dealing with serious stuff – brain injured babies, quadriplegics, deaths of loved ones. But you don't have to be serious to achieve serious things.
We can all loosen up a little. Laughter keeps us sane. As nurses we know laughter raises T-cell counts. It even relaxes blood vessels. Laughter is healing. Fun is healing.
Create Your Own Party
Don't wait to be invited to a party. Parties can happen anywhere – at your house, in your mind or, as my dad says while chowing down on a good muffuletta, in your mouth.
Put a smile on your face wherever you go. You might be surprised how much fun the people you meet will add to your day if you set the tone.
Make a game of an unpleasant situation. Look for the absurdity in it. A little fun can take out the sting and even spin a new attitude.
Celebrate your accomplishments with your fellow CLNC®s, friends and family. Minimize your mistakes and play up your successes.
Lighten your language. As soon as you label something "bad," it limits your ability to have fun.
Imagine the worst that can happen. You may chuckle about how insignificant the "tragedy du jour" really is.
There's never a wrong time to have fun. Fun can happen when you least expect it, if you're open to it. When my dad was in the ICU on a ventilator, Tom and I made it our mission to keep him laughing as much as we could. Don't wait until conditions are ideal. Start creating fun in the situations that aren't obviously fun, and your energy and success will soar.
The time to enjoy life is now. Vow during this holiday season to make the world a better place by being the person who creates a party wherever you go.
Have Fun,
Vickie L. Milazzo, RN, MSN, JD
Vickie L. Milazzo, RN, MSN, JD is the founder and president of Vickie Milazzo Institute, established in 1982. The New York Times credited her as the pioneer of legal nurse consulting, and Inc. named her to the nationwide list of Top 10 Entrepreneurs. She received the Nursing Excellence Award for Advancing the Profession and the Stevie Award (business's Oscar®) as Mentor of the Year. Vickie is the author of Inside Every Woman: Using the 10 Strengths You Didn't Know You Had to Get the Career and Life You Want Now (published 2006 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.). Now in its fourth printing, this business bestseller ranks in the top 10% of all business books being sold and is being published in five additional languages.
