Interesting how people still have a negative image of leisure, as a period of time in which people "slack off and waste good working time". This image was created in the Industrial Revolution when they painted leisure as evil (“idle hands are the work of the devil"). The IR took us from home productivity to factory productivity. The factory became the centre of life’s value and importance.
Leisure today isn’t a period of time. It’s an experience of the mind, the opportunity to creatively express your talents, passions and potential, for the enjoyment of doing so.
It’s about how you feel during the experience. The difference between work and leisure now is now more to do with the purpose behind what you do (even more so now that we live in the era of the knowledge-worker where the mind has become the workplace).
People who are unhappy at work have no say over what they do. Happy workers get to have at least some say in what they do. Leisure interests go further in that you have total control over how you express yourself. That offers powerful potential to personal growth.
Leisure experiences now have a huge role to play in stress management, self esteem, resilience, creativity and innovation – all the things important for high quality work productivity and keeping the best staff. Leisure has a valuable role to play today in work productivity and personal development.
