How To Enjoy Life Like The Italians

A few weeks ago, the wife, kids, and I attended a wedding in the south of Italy (Sorrento to be exact). My nephew Danny (who is Italian) was getting married and invited his dear old Uncle Jason. Trip to Italy for an Italian wedding on the Mediterranean Sea? Ummm, yep! I’m in!

Our trip found us still in Italy during the first week in August and I was reminded that most of the country stops working for the entire month of August to enjoy themselves. They go to the beach, mountains, hang with friends and family, vacation, and just enjoy. I can already hear some of you rumbling about “hey, you were in southern Italy and it ain’t that way up north in Rome or Milan - ‘cause they work up there.” And since I've been back stateside, I have heard things like “well if they would quit enjoying themselves so much and get to work, they wouldn’t be headed down the same road that Greece is on right now!” That could be, but those statements (about northern versus southern Italy, and parallels to Greece) seem like kind of extreme generalizations. And this isn't an essay on geoeconomics, so I can only go by what I saw.

My observations of the wonderful people of Italy enjoying themselves did make me think of the work that we do with our clients at Rewire and what we have noticed when it comes to the topic of enjoyment. Enjoyment is a theme that we are pretty hot on and in fact the word Enjoy is what the first “E” in R.E.W.I.R.E. stands for. (Click here to watch a short video on this topic)

I certainly don’t want to over simplify anything here, but here are a few items that I know to be fact that you may benefit from when it comes to enjoyment:

1. Rewire coaches our clients regularly to go have more fun and to enjoy themselves as a path towards better relationships and better performance at their jobs. And we get feedback weekly that it is working out tremendously for them. For instance:

• We have a client in Florida who is now golfing with her neighbors weekly and her sales have increased at the same time.
• We have a client in Wisconsin who is having fun taking long walks with his wife while they laugh and discuss the day. And he’s losing weight AND his sales have increased at the same time.
• We have a client in Canada who recently enjoyed a BBQ with her team where she also expressed sincere gratitude to each person on her team. They are all having fun and her sales are through the roof.
• We have a client in DC who is enjoying a passion of his that one day may just become his primary source of income.

And on and on it goes…

2. When you are enjoying yourself, your brain releases what are commonly referred to as happy chemicals. These happy chemicals make you well… happy. And - believe it or not - being happy has a whole host of secondary impacts that help us (IQ, cooperative problem-solving skills, creativity, communication skills and so on all are improved.).

3. When you are enjoying yourself, you are more likely to have better relationships, sleep better, and perform better at work (see above examples).

Here’s the take-a-way: If you are reading this article today and thinking to yourself: “I don’t really take enough time to do things that I enjoy,” then take one small step today to change that. Just one small step and let us know how it goes or if we can help you in any way.

Thanks to my Italian brethren for the reminder of this lesson.