240 - Give Yourself Permission to Have More Fun with Dr. Mike Rucker

The Verywell Mind Podcast

Dotdash Media Inc.

Health & Fitness, Self-improvement, Mental Health, Education

5 • 703 Ratings

🗓️ 20 February 2023

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mike Rucker, Ph.D., is an organizational psychologist who focuses on the science of fun. He’s a charter member of the International Positive Psychology Association, and his academic work has been published in peer-reviewed journals. He discovered that many of the tools he had built as a student of positive psychology failed to help him during a difficult time in his life. He realized there’s a lot of misinformation out there about happiness, so he launched his own research into strategies that could bring more joy into his life. He wrote a book called The Fun Habit in which he encourages people to give themselves permission to have more fun. He describes concrete strategies for creating time for fun and describes how to make every day activities — like going to work — more enjoyable. Some of the things he talks about are how to make everyday activities more fun, how to prevent burnout, and an exercise that will help you discover what kinds of fun are most important to you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Very Well Mind podcast. We've interviewed over 100 authors, experts, entrepreneurs, athletes, musicians, and others to help you learn strategies to care for your mental health.
0:22.9	This episode is hosted by psychotherapist and bestselling author Amy Morin. Now let's get into the episode.
0:49.6	Okay. Do you ever feel like life is all work and no play? Do you feel guilty doing fun things sometimes?
0:55.3	Do you struggle to have fun at work? If you answered yes to any of those questions,
1:00.6	today's episode is for you. We're talking about all the reasons why it's okay to incorporate more fun in your life and the steps that you can take to do that. Here to help us figure that
1:05.5	out is Dr. Mike Rucker. He has a PhD in organizational psychology and a long background in working in the tech and health
1:13.0	industry. He's also the author of a new book called The Fun Habit. It's based on his years of
1:19.4	research as well as his own personal experiences. And in it, he describes how our usual
1:24.7	pursuits to happiness aren't effective. Some of the things he talks about
1:29.1	today are how to create time for fun, how to prevent burnout, and how to discover the best fun habits
1:35.5	for you. Make sure to stick around until the end of the episode for the therapist take. It's the part of
1:41.1	the show where I'll give you my take on Mike's strategies and share how you can apply them to your own life.
1:46.5	So here's Dr. Mike Rucker on why you should give yourself permission to have more fun.
1:51.9	Dr. Mike Rucker, welcome to the Very Well Mind podcast.
1:54.9	Thanks so much for having me. I feel like I'm at home because I used to be part of the Very Well family. Well, yeah, funnily enough, when I invited you to be on the show, it was because I wanted to talk about your book.
2:04.8	I had no idea that you have a connection to very well.
2:08.0	Do you want to talk about that for a minute?
2:09.4	Yeah, it started when it was about.com.
2:11.2	And so I've always been interested in health and wellness. And when I moved to San Francisco, I got involved with
2:19.4	Gary Wolf in the quantified self movement. And so that kind of led to an affinity for digital
2:25.0	health. And at the time, I don't know how Rachel found me, to be quite honest. And at Rachel,
2:31.8	now is a figurehead, right? Very well.
	...

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