Have More Fun: How to Be Remarkable, Stop Feeling Stuck & Start Enjoying Life

By Mandy Arioto and Bob Goff

When was the last time you had some good and serious fun? If your to-do list has become the boss of you, if you're so exhausted and overwhelmed you can't remember--all of that is about to change. Have More Fun is your crash course to getting unstuck, laughing freely, and enjoying the ride.

MOPS International CEO, Mandy Arioto, is known to thousands worldwide as a lively storyteller, a force of hope, and an audacious risk-taker. She brings it all in this rollicking adventure of an audiobook bent on helping you do more of what makes you come alive.

Have More Fun is for anyone who has forgotten that fun is an option. In a world where political dramas and cultural uncertainties churn through our news feed every day, Mandy is here to suggest that the answer to many of the most pressing questions is fun.

• How do I get more done? Fun.
• How do I parent in meaningful ways? Fun.
• How do I make friends? Fun.
• How can I find my purpose? Fun.
• How do I spice up my sex life? Fun.
• How do I adapt when things don't go as planned? Fun.
• How do I improve my marriage? Fun.

Not to mention that choosing fun can be a spiritual discipline--a place to experience the boundless love and joy of God in everyday, surprising ways. If you have ever waited until your to-do list is finished to have fun or you can't remember the last time you really laughed, it is possible you might be taking life, work, or parenting too seriously. Weaving together science, historical trends, hilarious stories, practical ideas and spiritual truth, Mandy uncovers fresh ways to take fun seriously instead.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Apr 9, 2019
• ISBN: 9780310340454

Mandy Arioto

Mandy Arioto, as President and CEO for MOPS International, represents the voice of the organization’s 130,000+ mother members. A recognized speaker, Mandy addresses faith, modern motherhood, and cultural trends for both national and international audiences, and she has also been featured on MSN, Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, and USA Today. She and her husband are in the throes of raising three young kids to be adventurous, tender-hearted world-changers. Follow Mandy at www.mandyarioto.com and mops.org, and be sure to catch her Have More Fun podcast.

Book preview

If you’ve ever felt like you were too busy to have fun, this book is for you. If, like me, you measure your worth by productivity and deep down you’re unsure if you deserve fun, then this book is definitely for you. I got teary in the first chapter. Mandy’s words will speak to your heart, and if you are open to thinking differently, they could change your life.

LISA LEONARD, jewelry designer and author

As a recovering perfectionist, I’m often so worried about failing that I forget to enjoy this one beautiful life God gave me. Mandy’s book is a poignant, insightful, hilarious reminder to make room for joyful absurdity. My mind is already swimming with ideas of how to have more fun with my kids, my marriage, and my job!

JJ HELLER, singer and songwriter

I’ll admit, I consider myself a fun person. I am always looking for the next fun thing to do. My Instagram profile reads, pretty good at laughing, and I never take myself too seriously. But as the saying goes, life happens, and days fill up, and the to-do list is far too long, and I can forget about the fun. Mandy’s book Have More Fun is a sweet reminder for me about how much I love having fun and how easily fun can fit into every corner of my daily life, even when I may feel too busy. Full of silly stories and easy ways to incorporate fun into our day-to-day, this book is an important reminder for all of us.

HEATHER AVIS, author, influencer, shouter of worth

In a world that pushes us to run harder/faster/stronger, Have More Fun offers us a daring, amped-up drumbeat to dance to along the way. For the overworked and underwhelmed, join Mandy Arioto as she turns up the volume to hear the jubilant lyrics many of us have long forgotten.

ERIN LOECHNER, author of Chasing Slow and founder of OtherGoose.com

Mandy writes, I don’t want to get to the end of my life and realize that the best thing about me was that I was really good at keeping up with my email. Yikes. She totally got me. Right. Where. I. Live. I’m great at emails and less great at fun. Okay, I’m not terrible at having fun. But here in Mandy’s honest, inviting, winsome, and playful style I see what I haven’t before. Beyond playing with grandkids. Beyond entertaining audiences. Beyond my hobby of reading or walking my dogs. A divine version of life-giving fun is waiting for me in the here and now of my everyday. And I’m going to embrace it.

ELISA MORGAN, speaker, author, The Prayer Coin, The Beauty of Broken, President Emerita, MOPS International

Ever gotten to the end of a week, or month, or OH MY GOODNESS . . . YEAR, and realized that while you’ve accomplished plenty you’ve forgotten to enjoy the journey? Been there! I have good news though. Mandy Arioto has penned a resource that is inspiring, encouraging, hilarious, and chock full of fabulous ideas for adding fun and meaning to nine areas of your current life. She’ll have you laughing one minute and crying the next, in the best way. I read every word, and this book is worth your time.

SANDRA STANLEY, author and speaker

ZONDERVAN

Have More Fun

Copyright © 2019 by MOPS International, Inc.

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

Epub Edition February 2019 9780310340454

ISBN 978-0-310-34043-0 (softcover)

ISBN 978-0-310-35537-3 (audio)

ISBN 978-0-310-34045-4 (ebook)

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.Zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.®

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from THE MESSAGE. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible®. Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org).

Some names and identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.

Any internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Cover photography: Erica Krysl

Printed in the United States of America

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Information about External Hyperlinks in this ebook

Please note that endnotes in this ebook may contain hyperlinks to external websites as part of bibliographic citations. These hyperlinks have not been activated by the publisher, who cannot verify the accuracy of these links beyond the date of publication.

To Joseph, Elle, and Charlotte, who are my favorite part of any day.

CONTENTS

Foreword

Introduction

1. When You Forget to Have Fun

2. Have More Fun with Friendship

3. Have More Fun with Parenting

4. Have More Fun in Your Body

5. Have More Fun with Sex and Marriage

6. Have More Fun When Things Don’t Go as Planned

7. Have More Fun with Work

8. Have More Fun with Self-Improvement

9. Have More Fun with Spirituality

10. Have More Fun Changing the World

Conclusion

Acknowledgments

Notes

FOREWORD

A few years ago my professional bio simply read: attorney, diplomat, and nonprofit founder.

Reading it sort of made me want to take a nap.

So when I’d meet new acquaintances, and I’d crack a joke or notice something completely absurd, they’d often glance past me in search of the real grown-up. That’s why, for the sake of transparency, I changed the bio to say: Chief of Fun & Whimsy.

It felt more honest.

If you were to ask the people who know me best in this world what my one thing is—what wakes me up every morning, propels me through the day, and rattles around in my head at night before I fall asleep—most of them would say love. It’s my thing. It really is.

It’s what I was made for, and it’s what you were made for.

But if you’d only known me a few minutes, if you were that handshaker—shaking your head and wondering what sort of shenanigans would unfold should I be allowed to speak in a court of law—you might also make the reasonable guess that my thing, my one thing, was fun.

And you wouldn’t be entirely wrong.

I don’t really like to draw hard and fast lines between love and fun. In my life, and in my family’s life, the two are often tangled up together.

Before my wife Maria and I got married, we discussed what our future might look like. Specifically, we began to imagine how we would live. And we decided together that we wanted joy and whimsy and fun to be central to the life we shared and to the family we were building. So when our daughter Lindsey was ten, and we saw $99 airline tickets to London, we decided I should take her to London for a tea party. As one does.

Another weekend I purchased a radio-controlled airplane and dragged the kids outside for our plane’s maiden voyage. As you might imagine, it was totally awesome! It was awesome for all forty-five seconds before I flew that plane into a tree (which, of course, was actually also kind of cool). I wasn’t worried about Maria’s reaction to wasting the money, because . . . well . . . fun. It’s one of the things we’d chosen to be about.

You can choose fun too.

You can choose it for yourself, and if you’ve got a family of folks who are willing to play along, you can choose it with them.

Deciding to embrace fun is what Mandy Arioto has done, and it’s what she can help you do.

One of many things I love about Mandy is that she has chosen to be about what matters most (and by that, of course, I mean fun. Obviously. And love). She’s been intentional about both of those priorities because there was a moment in her life when she recognized a joy deficit. She noticed that she was only allowing herself to have fun after the things on her to-do list were complete. That she’d been prioritizing productivity over delight. And, in that moment, pausing to look forward and imagine the rest of her days on this earth, she considered whether she needed a new trajectory.

Do I want to check a lot of tasks off of lists, or do I want to celebrate the wonderful life I’ve been given and invite others to embrace joy along the way?

So Mandy did something similar to what sweet Maria and I had done years earlier: she committed to living the rest of her days prioritizing fun, love, and legacy.

Mandy has written Have More Fun for you because she is convinced that fun matters. And she’s persuaded that, in ways that can’t quite be quantified, tiny moments reshape people’s hearts. Including yours.

If you’re game, fun can change your life.

It can change the lives of the people you love.

And it can change the lives of people you’ve not yet met, but who you were made to love.

Does that opportunity make you as amped as it makes me?

Mandy is inviting you to kick off your shoes, ignore whatever your law-abiding neighbors might think about you, and join her on this journey.

Say yes.

Your neighbors need you to say yes. Your family needs you to say yes. The world needs you to say yes.

And know that as you choose to live with joy and delight and whimsy and fun, I’m cheering you on.

Bob Goff

INTRODUCTION

I grew up in a home where, every Saturday morning after eating breakfast together, my parents would look across the table with a glint of mischief in their eyes and tell my brother and me to go outside and have an adventure, and don’t come back until you do.

This means that I did a lot of really dumb stuff.

It also means that I used to be really good at having fun. That is, until I became an adult. No one prepped me for the fact that 82 percent of adulting is admin, and the other 18 percent is making food for other people and asking your kids, How did this get wet?

Very unintentionally, between making babies, building a career, and figuring out how things got wet, my priorities became checking things off my to-do list and getting stuff done.

I have spent most of my adult life waiting to have fun. I’ll focus on fun once my work is caught up or when I feel rested, but up to this point neither of those things has happened. I can’t tell you how many times I have missed playing with my kids to put one more load of laundry in. If I had more time, I’d have more fun, I told myself, but it wasn’t the truth. I was lying straight to my face, because the alternative felt too big to admit.

I had simply forgotten to have fun.

I realized I had a problem when a coworker came in to my office one morning and said, "I just wanted to check on you because you were kind