On Monday 7th August 2023 PropelHer’s Book Club discussed The Fun Habit: How the Pursuit of Joy and Wonder Can Change Your Life by Mike Rucker PhD.

* This book was gifted to the Founder of PropelHer’s Book Club by Bluebird

 

In this summary of The Fun Habit by Mike Rucker PhD  I’ll be briefly summarising the book to help you to make a decision about whether you should buy a copy of the book for yourself.

The introduction and chapter 1 both delve into the ideas of happiness and fun. Mike talks about his relationship with happiness and how that led to him writing the book. He came to the belief that by concentrating on trying to be happy it did the reverse. It drew attention to what was missing and instead made him unhappy. But whilst on his journey to find more happiness he discovered something. He states that “I couldn’t always make myself happy, but I could almost always have fun” and as a result wrote the book to help adults have more fun. 

In Chapter 2 explores the idea of making time for fun and it becoming a regular activity in your life. The reader is encouraged to create a Fun File with clear activities you can do to add more fun into your life. Then Mike shares two frameworks SAVOR and PLAY to help the reader identify the different things can do to have fun, but also the different categories of fun and how some are more beneficial than others. 

To get the most fun out of activities it is important to be present, but being present in the moment not only enables you enjoy the moment more but will help you create a stronger memory which will make reminiscing even better. Chapter 5 delves further into how we can activities even more enjoyable by finding reminiscing afterwards. 

Chapter 6 and 7 talks about how escapism can be a great for you and the power of taking a long vacation (holiday for my fellow Brits) and taking sabbaticals from work. Then you’ll learn about the Fun Pyramid, which places The Mystery at the top. I never really did work out what Mike meant by the mystery so if you read the book and understand what he is on about please let me know. 

Then in Chapter 7, 8 and 9 look at how to have fun in specific contexts: with friends, with your children and at work. Whilst friends can improve the quality of your life not all friends are great at increasingly the amount of fun you have in your life so the book helps you develop fun friends. 

On paper spending time with your children should ensure you have more fun since play is the norm for children, however, many parents struggle with having fun with their children and so Mike shares tips so you and your children can both have fun together. 

Then with so much time being spent at work it is key for you to be able to have fun at work and the book even gives examples of people with very serious jobs who have found ways to add more fun into their work (and have found it hugely beneficial). 

The book closes with a conclusion about death and specifically the acceptance of death. Mike was told that he couldn’t have a chapter of a book about fun focused on death and so slipped it into the conclusion instead. His belief is that by remembering that your life will come to an end it will encourage you to have more fun with the time you have alive.

 

That’s it! You now have an idea about what you can expect to find inside of The Fun Habit by Mike Ruckert PhD. 

 

Like the sound of The Fun Habit. Why not buy a copy of the book and have a read? 

 

 

The Fun Habit by Mike Rucker PhD was read as part of PropelHer’s Book Club. PropelHer’s Book Club is an online non-fiction book club for ambitious women that meet monthly. Every month PropelHer’s Book Club reads a different book to help ambitious women concentrate on their personal development and professional success. You can see what else we have read so far here. If you would like to join PropelHer’s Book Club you can find full details here.

And don’t forget to share your book pictures! Tag @Propelherorg.