THE power of play is magical.
I always love seeing children playing—actual physical play and not being stuck on tablets, phones and computers. Kids get to explore things around them, enjoy the company of others, and learn new things in the process of play.
And if kids can enjoy fun and games, we grown up kids can, too.
If you haven’t had the opportunity of letting your hair down, rolling up your sleeves, and playing around like a little child recently, then you’re missing out.
I recently had the opportunity of running a quick afternoon play session and team building for some participants of the Capitol Citizenship and Leadership Academy (CCLA), a joint program of the Province of Cebu and the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc.–Eduardo Aboitiz Development Studies Center.
Forty or so participants of the CCLA were young (everyone was young, trust me) employees from the Provincial Capitol, who, for the next couple of weeks, will undergo a series of workshops and learning sessions. The program will help develop their skills and at the end of the sessions, they would implement a project in their immediate community.
I’ve always believed in the power of play and adventure in bringing out the best in people. By going through fun structured learning activities that are done through games, we are able to discover more about ourselves and grow to become better versions of ourselves.
I love running programs for government employees because there’s always much to learn from each other. We have our biases toward people working in government and in some cases, our biases may not always be the nicest.
But by running programs for government employees, you discover so many beautiful things about how hard many of them work to help ensure that our government runs smoothly.
Through the CCLA, I met passionate young government employees who have devoted much of their time to ensure that our Provincial Capitol runs at its best and services are effectively delivered to all of us.
It was a fun afternoon of toys, flags, sticky tape on our noses, and discoveries. For many, who mostly have desk jobs, a few quick games that illicit a few laughs and a few discoveries of themselves was a welcome change.
I think the more opportunities we have to do real play, we find more opportunities of finding ourselves more, too. If you have a chance to join play sessions and team building sessions, enjoy these. You’ll discover more about yourself and others, too.
When was the last time you had the chance to let your inner kid run loose? Go for some fun and games and discover new things about yourself and the world around you.
Have fun!