I have decided to get back into the Warhammer 40k hobby I was first introduced to about 5 years ago.

Building and painting miniatures is something I had a passion for ever since I walked into a gaming store five years ago and saw a glass display case which had a whole army of hand-painted miniatures in it.  I was completely blown away by how cool and realistic these models looked and was in awe as to how much patience and effort must have gone into creating each one.

My wife must have seen the look on my face because a few months later she bought me a Warhammer Fantasy starter set for my birthday and I was hooked.  Eventually once I really learned about the Warhammer universe of miniature models I decided to switch to the Warhammer 40k series but I never did end up getting the starter set for that series.

At the time the starter set was called the Battle for Macragge and honestly I had no heart for it.  It came with a starter army of Space Marines and Tyranids.  My younger brother, fueled by my enthusiasm for the hobby, ended up getting into the Space Marine army so I didn’t see a point in getting my own set of Space Marines at the same time, and I didn’t really care for the Tyranids.  So I decided to stay away from the starter set for Warhammer 40k and instead started collecting some pieces from the Tau army as well as the Eldar.

The challenge was that as much as I enjoyed collecting and painting these two armies, my brother and I really had no clue how to play the game so we never fully got to experience that aspect of the hobby.  Also at that time in my life, things were getting extremely busy at my job so I didn’t have much time to devote to Warhammer and when my wife and I moved to our new home four and a half years ago all of my Warhammer “stuff” was boxed up for the move and there it stayed buried in a box until now.

In this last week I have begun to really take inventory of what I am passionate about and as far as the relaxation and fun category of life is concerned, building and bashing RC Cars was one thing while Warhammer 40k was another, so that is why you’ve seen me covering those two topics on my blog lately.  Another thing I’m looking forward to getting back into is playing World of Warcraft, but I’m going to wait until the next expansion pack comes out in a few months to get back into that.

Why All This Focus on Fun Stuff?

Since I mostly Blog about more “serious” stuff such as personal development, spirituality, making money online, nutrition, fitness and topics like that some of you may be wondering why I’m all of a sudden jumping into talking about RC Cars and Warhammer 40k miniatures.

Well, there are several reasons for this.  With my decision last Sunday to embrace what I call the Mastering Life Path to living life, I sat down and started doing some brain storming as to what things I want to accomplish in life.  Using a top-down approach I listed off the six main categories of life I normally start with – Health, Finances, Family/Relationships, Personal/Spiritual Growth, Career/Business/Contribution and Fun/Relaxation – and I realized that I always start with Health and Finances and always leave Fun/Relaxation for last.

This time I decided to do things totally differently and to start with the Fun and Relaxation category of my life and to really get clear on how I can master that side of things.  It may sound illogical to put Fun and Relaxation ahead of everything else but my intuition was telling me that this was the exact right move to make – and so I went with it and I’m glad I did.  I’ll explain why in a minute, but before I do I’ll mention the second main reason I decided to do this.

For the last few years and especially in the last 6 months whenever I’ve had an intuitive reading done I’ve been given the message that I need to reconnect with my “inner child” and to bring him up to the surface.  Meaning, I need to reconnect with things that I’m really passionate about and have a child-like wonder about.  I’ve gotten this exact same message from several psychics but I haven’t really followed the advice until now.  I’ve been so focused on building my online business that Fun and Relaxation have always taken a back-seat.

Partly this was due to the fact that I really enjoy what I do for a living so much that I don’t really look at it as work, but I’ve come to the realization that it isn’t about that.  I realize now that it’s not about whether or not you enjoy your work, but rather about learning to engage and disengage from work.

Meaning, I have been aware for quite some time that when I fully engage in my work I am incredibly productive and accomplish amazing feats in very short periods of time.  However, I also know that when I’m not fully engaged I dabble and putt along on a project and still make progress but nowhere near at the same speed or effectiveness as when I am fully engaged.

Athletes call this being in “the zone”.  The interesting thing about the zone is that while being in the zone makes you more productive and effective, getting in the zone does not come from trying to be more productive.

Meaning, lets say that by being in the zone your productivity and effectiveness jumps to 10 on a scale of 1 to 10, and let’s say that you are currently not in the zone and so your current productivity and effectiveness is 5 out of 10 as an example.  The logical thing we try to do in such a situation is to try to become more productive by working harder & smarter to try to increase that productivity and effectiveness from 5 up to 10 – which is where we naturally are at when we are in the zone.

However, even though that sounds logical, sometimes what we may need to do in order to get in the zone is to actually work less, and create space for fun and relaxation in our lives instead of working more.  This sounds counter-intuitive, but it really works.

Effects of Being in The Zone for the Last Week

Even though I wouldn’t say that I have been in the zone this whole last week, I can tell you that I’ve spent a heck of a lot more time in the zone this week than I have in a long time.  The crazy thing is that I accomplished this by trying less than more, and by setting aside time to relax and have fun rather that trying to be more productive.

For example, one of the things I’ve been really trying to get back into for months now is to create more video content on a more consistent basis.  For months now I’ve been trying to set aside time to shoot more videos and get them up on YouTube.  For some reason things just kept getting in the way of me producing video content no matter how hard I tried to get going on it.

Well, in this last week ever since I burned my goals and since I started focusing on getting the Fun and Relaxation part of my life figured out, I’ve been shooting, editing and posting videos like crazy.  In the last five days alone I’ve shot, edited and posted four videos on top of getting work done on all my regular projects AND I’ve had a blast doing it at the same time.

If you haven’t seen my Savage Flux HP – First Run video you can see it on my Paulymath Channel on YouTube and I have also created a second channel specifically dedicated to Warhammer 40k where you can see my first three videos - Assault on Black Reach Unboxing, Assault on Black Reach – Tools and Accessories You’ll Need and Assault on Black Reach – Paints and Paint Accessories  You’ll Need.

Also during this time of having fun, I have seen some positive shifts on other projects I’m working on and I will also be bringing on board a new mentoring student.  I have also started a new section on my site specifically dedicated to Warhammer 40k and the Assault on Black Reach starter set, and will soon also be starting a section on RC Cars and specifically on the HPI Savage Flux HP.

All in all this last week of relaxation and fun has been more productive and effective than most weeks when I’m actually trying to buckle down and work hard.

What about yourself?  Are you working so hard trying to get in the zone that you’re working yourself right out of it?