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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
That Sounds Fun summary
Annie F. Downs
The Joys of Being an Amateur, the Power of Falling in Love, and Why You Need a Hobby
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Key idea 1 of 5
3.8 (146 ratings)
17 mins
5 key ideas
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What is That Sounds Fun about?
That Sounds Fun (2021) explores how we can bring more joy into our everyday lives. It outlines the spiritual benefits of simple pleasures and reveals how love and fun can counterbalance our pains and disappointments.
About the Author
Annie F. Downs is a speaker, author, and the host of the popular podcast That Sounds Fun. Her best-selling books include 100 Days to Fun and Remember God.
Table of Contents
Key idea 1 of 5
We can still enjoy simple pleasures, even when our lives have shrunken.
What’s your idea of fun? The author asks all her guests this question on her weekly podcast That Sounds Fun. But the answers she gets vary.
Most people answer by talking about vacations they’d like to take, or special meals they want to savor. But sometimes, instead of naming something big, a guest says their idea of fun is something small; like eating fried food or reading a particular book. These are the answers the author finds particularly interesting.
In the wake of the COVID-19 global pandemic, all of us have had to make our lives smaller. We haven't been able to do much of what we'd usually describe as fun. And yet, we still crave it; our hunger for joy hasn’t gone away. What we really need in these times is low-key fun.
The key message here is: We can still enjoy simple pleasures, even when our lives have shrunken.
Fun doesn’t need to be a big flashy activity with bells and whistles on. Fun, in its purest sense, is actually simplicity. It’s a feeling of having a clear and empty mind with nothing to worry about and no responsibilities to weigh you down.
Not convinced by this definition? Then think about your childhood, and try to remember what fun meant to you back then. When the author does this, she remembers sitting with her mother and grandmother on the front porch of their farm in Georgia. She remembers how these three generations of women would snap beans and talk, slowly but surely, until the sun went down.
Today, the author is a forty-something professional with a busy job and a packed schedule. But only now does she truly appreciate the transcendent simplicity of those evenings. Thinking back to this golden time of childhood, when she had nothing on her mind except snapping the next bean, she knows it was the closest she’s ever come to experiencing that perfect paradise that her Bible talks about: the Garden of Eden, where there was no sin or shame, just boundless love.
Looking at the world now, she’s pretty sure we’re about as far away from the Garden of Eden as we could get. And yet, in moments of pure simplicity and absent-mindedness, we can still glimpse it. Whether we’re snapping beans on a Georgia porch, or getting lost in a book, or joking around with a friend, for a fleeting moment we can feel like we’re there. And it's in these fleeting glimpses that real fun lives.
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Who should read That Sounds Fun
- Spiritual souls looking for a new connection
- Anyone seeking more fun in their lives
- Listeners of the That Sounds Fun podcast
Categories with That Sounds Fun
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