The value of play is that it's grounded not in future achievement or success, but present moment awareness. And this gets to another practice you strongly suggest in the book, which is this idea that we have to get out of the optimization mindset generally. So for example, one way that I diversified my own identity is I play on an ultimate frisbee team.
We can put huge amounts of physical and emotional energy into our jobs - even basing our self-worth on our achievements at work and letting ourselves be defined by what we do. So have our careers taken over too much of our lives?
Simone Stolzoff (author of The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work) argues that we should stop hunting for the "perfect" job - that idealized career that will prove to others how smart, industrious or virtuous we are - and instead find an occupation that allows to us live happier and more rounded lives that don't revolve only around work.
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