Slow Down and Play - Essay Example

Topic: Slow Down and Play Lecturer: Presentation: Slow Down and Play It is widely acceptable that all work and no play make Jack a dull boy (Miller 2008 p 26). This is a saying which is used to encourage people especially in their young ages to incorporate co-curricular activities in their day to day lives so as to enhance their skills as well as to expose their minds to different challenges associated with solving problems. Majority of people though view playing as wastage of valuable time, which could be spent on conducting other important duties such as studying or working.

It is therefore not always okay for a person especially a parent to keep on insisting that their children should direct all their efforts towards academic work, however important it may be, and forget allowing them time to mingle with their friends through constructive activities such as sports and child games (Miller 2008 p 49). This is due to the fact that it helps them to become more aware of their surroundings as well as improving their socialization skills which are essential in their later lives especially in environments that require sharing of resources.

In order to experience this, I have been able to go out and play, with the intention of understanding more on the real effects of participating in games. This I accomplished by involving myself in two different sporting activities i.e. playing football and climbing mountains. It is important to note that this requires personal motivation especially in mountain climbing due to the fact that there are a lot of challenges involved, which may discourage someone from accomplishing his mission. Unlike in other professional sporting activities such as those involved in Olympics as well as football competitions, whereby participants are always under pressure from sponsors, fans and their governments to accomplish the goal of acquiring a medal, playing in this case was purely intrinsic as the persons involved were out to have fun without caring much on the achievements, in fact, we took it a way of spending leisure and relaxing from the routine tasks which are boring and stressing.

Mountain climbing is rather a difficult task especially since it requires a lot of stamina and confidence to enable you to hold on to the rocks as well as to keep up with the pace of other team members. Football on the other hand requires team work and as such, the success of your team depends on how well you calculate your moves incorporated with lack of selfishness in passing the ball. From this experience, it is true to say that team work irrespective of whether it is between strangers helps to develop friendship between members while at the same time providing one with more skills for playing a perfect game.

Playing provides an avenue for doing so and as such, it is equally important for adults as it is to young children. In addition, it is more interesting when these activities are conducted voluntarily rather than through forced inclusion because I realized that by doing so, a person to feels obliged to follow the guidelines out of the need to stay in the team and the passion to come out as the best in what you are doing thereby gaining self motivation. This helps in maintaining discipline especially while communicating with peers as well as those at a higher level than you are.

After spending quality time playing, I realized that life responsibilities are important for they define who we are in the society. However, it is true to say that these responsibilities can be much more easier to accomplish if one takes time to play based on the fact that every moment I spent on the field game me the opportunity to clear my mind and forget pressing issues, which I was able to tackle confidently as I was feeling much more relaxed such that I could even work for longer hours without experiencing fatigue.

More importantly, my mind became more open to new challenges and more keen on achieving my goals however difficult they might be as opposed to the past when I felt anger towards my boss for allocating difficult tasks to the extent that I almost lost my job for being rude after a heated exchange that almost resulted to a physical fight. In fact, I have adopted the habit of going out occasionally to play especially when I am stressed so as to relieve the mental anguish. I would therefore recommend everyone to undertake similar expeditions especially parents together with their children as playing enhances brain development and relaxation.

Reference1. Miller, H. Outdoor Sports and Games, Indypublish, 2008