Fun, Joy, Play Index 2024

It’s January 3rd, 2024. Between now and January 15th, people forget or give up on their New Year’s Resolutions. So, I asked myself:

Why not create something new that allows you to savor the current year while exploring the possibilities of the upcoming year?

So, I created the Fun, Joy, Play (FJP) Index.

It asks us to embrace our favorite fun, joy, play moments of the previous year, savor those moments, and think of what type of moments we want to create in the upcoming year. It’s a fun and inspiring exercise that speaks more to the soul.

So, in the face of so many unknowns in 2024, where many people have gone through major change and personal growth, the Fun, Joy, Play Index can play a vital role in helping you reflect on 2023 with a new perspective. Then, you can embrace the uncertainty of 2024 with hope and anticipation.

The Play Adventure Challenge

“If you don’t prioritize adventure, if you don’t prioritize newness, you get a calendar full of responsibilities and appointments.” – Jesse Itzler

So, I challenge you to try the Fun, Joy, Play (FJP) Index. Consider this a play experiment. Be curious and see what comes up for you.

There are nine FJP questions.

If you need a guide on answering these questions best, check out my personal answers below. Enjoy the FJP journey!

Suggested Tips:

• The deeper you are willing to go with the answers, the more you will get out of the play exercise.
• You may feel compelled not to want to explore the fun, joy, play moments of 2023 when you may have dealt with tragedy and loss. This is precisely why the exercise is worth trying. Embracing the complexity of 2023, both joy and grief are vital to living in this complex world. Celebrating happy moments does not discount the sad ones and vice versa. Both can exist and should be acknowledged.

Fun, Joy, Play (FJP) Questions

1. What moments bring you an immense amount of joy & fulfillment when you think about 2023?

2. What themes show up when you look at these moments from 2023?

3. When did you laugh the most, and who were you with?

4. What day or moment made you smile the most?

5. What was your most awe-inspiring, surreal experience of this year? (List more if you can’t narrow it down to just one. Why limit yourself?)

6. What did you learn this year that blew your mind?

7. What adventures did you go on this year, and what made them so much fun?

8. What FJP moments do you want to create in 2024, and who can help make them happen?

9. What old stories are you willing to let go of so you can have fun, joy, play moments in 2023?

If you are up for a fun challenge, take the answers you came up with for 2024 FJP Moments and reach out to the people who can help make these moments happen.

Anticipation is sometimes as much fun as the actual event.

I wish you all of the most fulfilling, fun, joyful, play-oriented, epiphany-filled, life-affirming year of your life in 2024!

My Personal Fun, Joy, Play Index 2024

1. What moments bring you an immense amount of joy & fulfillment when you think about 2023?

So many. I really focused this year on creating as many fun, joy, play moments wherever I traveled.

Scooting through all the airports as I travelled on over 100 flights this year.

Visiting England to watch English Football (soccer) with friends and going to Liverpool’s Anfield Stadium, my favorite team since I was a kid. I even made a video about it.

Going to Hawaii with my family and having such a phenomenal time.

Going back to Camp Reset, my favorite play camp in the world where there are no phones, you can’t talk about work, and you can share your real name. I went instead as Uche, my stuffed orangutan from when I was a kid. This is me describing my experience at Camp Reset.

Doing the #OperationCandy Drop by giving Flight Attendants a thank you card and chocolates on almost all my flights this year. One flight crew read my letter on the intercom:

Running my favorite workshop of 2023 at SXSW with Sara Surani, Embrace The Fear: We, Not Me. The workshop even got featured on Do512 SXSW page.

So many people attended that we had to turn people away.

2. What themes show up when you look at these moments from 2023?

Play, Gratitude, Joy, & Being Present.

We took this picture after trekking for over an hour through a thick forest and finally showing up at a lagoon. Thanks To Wrenn Okada for the adventure.

3. When did you laugh the most, and who were you with?

I laughed the most heckling the sun after going to the Untalented Show at Camp Reset. I recognize this sentence does not make sense. Neither does this video, but I’m including it anyway.

4. What day or moment made you smile the most?

The I Love My Life Day. I was feeling gratitude for all that I had done that year, all of the amazing people I had connected with, and all of the adventures coming up that month between visiting NYC, going to Camp Reset, and going to England. At that moment, I just loved my life.

Feeling so happy about life in NYC that I had to holler about it.

5. What was your most awe-inspiring, surreal experience of this year? (List more if you can’t narrow it down to just one. Why limit yourself?)

Doing reverse gossip with two dudes, T-Money & Toronto Duck, where we talked about how awesome people were from Camp Reset for over 3 hours. When we were done talking about other people, we started giving each other praise for how awesome of human beings we each were, and it got a little emotional. I had never had an experience of sharing that vulnerably with two straight dudes for that length of time. So surreal.

6. What did you learn this year that blew your mind?

The power of gratitude. I’ve been doing a gratitude journal since the beginning of the year, and I can directly see correlations between how much I’ve enjoyed this year and how much time I’ve spent feeling gratitude about my experiences. It grounds me and helps me appreciate what is happening, in the moment. I still have a long way to go to feel more present, but it’s a good start. Also, giving praise and running workshops on gratitude, I’ve seen the ripple effect it has on people. I even received a letter from someone sharing how the gratitude workshop changed their life.

Also, helping people has brought me so much joy this year.

7. What adventures did you go on this year, and what made them so much fun?

• Doing 50 speaking gigs and finding fun ways to play in each city.
• Running a workshop in South Carolina with Lauren Yee.
• Riding a Big Wheel around in the Fairmont Hotel in SF. Still need to make a video about this.
• Surprising my friends in San Diego at the last minute.
• Going to Hawaii with my family and dancing in a Lūʻau.

• Visiting New Orleans on whim.
• Finding a waterslide in Edmonton at my hotel.
• Discovering Fong’s Pizza in Des Moines, Iowa and eating a Chinese pizza.
• Hearing such a powerful story in Rancho Cucamonga about gratitude.
• Getting over 300 College HR Leaders to play and talk about their inner child in Boston.
• Dancing in a Harvard studio.
• Dancing for four days straight at Camp Reset, played 3 AM basketball by myself, slept in a hammock, and also used the sauna.
• Going early to Toronto for Camp Reset and then going back to Toronto again.
• I went to Vegas to speak at the largest HR Conference in the world and then saw Janet Jackson live, 30 ft away from her, for free.
• Going to the OneBite Pizza place and being in the rain. It was horrible, but it was an experience.
• Hanging out in Maine and New Bedford, MA for the first ever and bumping into the story of the 54th Regiment from the Civil War.
• I saved up for almost 1.5 years to go to England and then had such a grand old time, even going to Phantom Peak and Monopoly Go.
• Attending a random play experience run by Jessica Encell Coleman, participating with Khan Ramkeesoon, and connected with a hundred people through play.
• Hanging out in the Chicago Suburb with the family for 20 days, eating way too much, not knowing what day it is, and wearing pajamas all day.

8. What FJP moments do you want to create in 2024, and who can help make them happen?

Themes: Play, Abundance, Gratitude, Creating

Motto For This Year: Create Abundance

• Find random novelty adventures like Phantom Peak, Camp Reset, The Magic of Human Connection, and Fong’s Pizza to try out
• Do one thing each day that is playful, chooses abundance, allows me to create, and feel gratitude for doing
• Do a TEDx Talk this year where I’m vulnerable, fun, and take bold risks
• Write a draft version of my fun, ridiculous book and have a joyous time doing it
• See more of my friends at home in the Bay Area and in different states and abroad
• Getting paid to travel abroad and hang out with friends

9. What old stories are you willing to let go of so you can have fun, joy, play moments in 2024?

Let go of the story that I’m not qualified to do this work.

• Call out my negative talk as BS, as I’ve now done enough work to prove to myself that I’m more than capable.

Choose Abundance

• Be careful of a scarcity mindset, believing there isn’t enough to go around, or constantly looking for patterns of FOMO.
• Must remind myself whatever is meant to be for me will appear and what isn’t for me, was never for me

Create From A Playful Place of Wonder

• As I create, I must remind myself not to take the stuff for the result, but because I’ll be a different person by the end of creating the work
• Enjoy all aspects of the ride and feel all the feelings, as that is part of the human experience

Celebrating The Beautiful Sadness & Adventure of Love