Thank you for joining us for episode 473 of Live Happy Now.

Summer officially begins on June 20th, and that's the perfect time to launch LiveHappies Summer of Fun.

I'm your host, Paula Phelps, and this week I'm joined by Mike Rucker, an organizational psychologist,

charter member of the International

Positive Psychology Association, and author of The Fun Habit, how the pursuit of joy and wonder can

change your life. We've teamed up with Mike to offer a free eight-week email course that will set

you on track to have a fun-filled summer. And today, he explains why

fun is so important, how to make more room for it in your life, and what to expect when you commit

to having a summer of fun. Let's have a listen. Mike, thank you for coming back on Live Happy Now.

Oh my goodness. I love being here. So thanks for having me.

Boy, you're so great to talk to because you're one of the few people that I know who studies

fun. And what a great career pursuit that is. You know, it's like, I'm going to study fun.

So I wanted to find out, I don't think I've ever asked you this question. Like, what made you realize the importance of prioritizing fun?

Yeah, so my story really is being an early part of the International Positive Psychology Association.

When that started in 2000, right, Cheek sent me high and Marty Segglement, you know, brought all these

folks together, was lucky enough to be, you know, one of those early folks. And rightfully,

we were all looking at happiness, right? Because that at the start, I think, as an ideal,

trying to figure out how we can make the world happier was a good goal. We ultimately

called it thriving because we added elements of subjective well-being, right? You know, like academics,

we have to make everything so much. I'm working with some academics now with regards to fun,

and I feel like in the book, the fun habit, I made fun fairly easy. You know, we'll just get real quick to my definition. It's essentially anything you find pleasurable. And then I'll circle back to your question. But now because you can bring it down to levels, right? We're now talking about fun in different contexts. And I find that fascinating. Because again because again you know academics picking up where

I left off now you know fun has 30 different subcategories and I think that's great but you know because

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