Life can feel so overwhelming with everything you have to do that it’s easy to forget it’s also important to enjoy yourself sometimes.

My latest reminder of this happened this past weekend when my partner Sunaina and I were doing our usual Saturday family time with our daughter.

I enjoy our family time, but it often carries the extra weight of responsibility because we tend to choose activities based on how well they educate / entertain our daughter and whether she’ll get tired enough to go to sleep before the average college freshman.

As parents, our enjoyment of said activity is rarely a deciding factor.

That’s how we found ourselves going for a late afternoon walk, that, while pleasant, was moving at a glacial pace to accommodate my daughter’s halting tricycle cruising speed and complete fascination in every bug we passed.

My partner and I started daydreaming about things we’d like to be able to do someday, like watch a movie together.

A flash of inspiration struck my thick skull.

“Why don’t we have a movie night tonight?” I asked.

Immediately both Sunaina and I thought of obstacles: Our TV wasn’t set up for a group; we weren’t sure our daughter had the attention span to sit through an entire movie; we didn’t have the right snacks to make the night feel special.

These were understandable reasons to wait.

But then we looked at each other and did that couple thing where we spoke with our eyes: “But we really want to do this so maybe we can try?”

So I went back to our apartment and rearranged the room; Sunaina prepared the tastiest snacks we had; and we told our daughter to tell us if she wanted an explanation or was getting bored.

Then we watched Frozen together.

And we all had a great time!

Sometimes the best reason to do something is because you’ll enjoy it.

So I invite you to think about something you might enjoy doing with your partner and family that you’ve been putting off for one reason or another.

Can you do it without trying to make it the perfect experience?

Do it, and let me know how it goes.

-Matt

Subscribe to the Grow More Joy newsletter to learn more ways to strengthen your relationship.