I realized a long time ago that if I wanted things from life, I needed live with intention. What I mean by that, is everything I do should be for a purpose to help me grow into a better person. Though the purpose will vary depending on the situation, I don’t think “having fun” should ever be anyone’s actual reason for doing anything.

“Fun” is by product of our attitude toward a situation. With the right attitude, anything can be fun. But fun isn’t where we find growth so it shouldn’t be our focus.

For this reason I’ve stopped asking my kids “Did you have fun?” whenever they come home from school or an event. “What did you learn? What did you dislike or like? What would you do differently?” are common questions I ask my kids.

Most of the time they roll their eyes as they answer, but they answer. Even with the one word responses I sometimes get out of them, I hope that over time this conditioning will help them focus on finding greater purposes than having fun.