Terri's Tuesday Tip of the Wek - July 11, 2023

 When work becomes play, and play becomes your work, your life unfolds. - Robert Frost

I don’t think of work as work and play as play. It’s all living. - Richard Branson

As we are in the middle of the year, Christmas is less than six months away and Texas is hitting 100+ degree temperatures, how did the reader fare on their mid-year goal review? Is goal achievement moving along or is the reader not where they expected to be at this point? Summers can be challenging as vacations are occurring. Work and goals are often pushed aside. How can we make working on our goals fun even when we know there is still so much time in the year?

Tom Sawyer is the answer. Think back to reading “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” by Mark Twain. Aunt Polly punished Sawyer for another one of his mischievous antics and he had to whitewash the fence. As his friends continually came by jeering at him, Sawyer said it was fun and that he was not upset, and he was actually enjoying it. By the end of the day, Sawyer was paid for the opportunity to help paint the fence (pp. 26-27) 

In “Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us” by Daniel Pink, he defines “The Sawyer Effect” as “the practice that can either turn play into work or work into play” (p. 331). Tom learned he could sway a group into helping him by simply making work into play.

ACTION: As there may be days that are difficult to work on goals, how can you turn work into play to move you closer to accomplish your goals even during the summer months?

 

Resources

·        https://www.williamlanday.com/2010/08/02/the-sawyer-effect/

·        https://darrenkbourke.com/blog/the-sawyer-effect

·        https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/how-did-tom-get-ben-paint-fence-93809

·        Pink, D. (2009). Drive The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Riverhead Books. (electronic version)

·        Twain, M. (2012). The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Duke Classics. (electronic version)