These are two very important questions.  We have spent the last two years in the pandemic which has helped us to slow down enough that many of us are reevaluating our lives and what is most important to us.  This has been one of the benefits that have come out of the pandemic.

Twenty -four years ago, I was asking myself these questions and reevaluating my life after a catalyst that stopped me in my tracks and caused me to slow down.  I was plowing forward in my life checking all the boxes, burned out and unhappy.  The signs where there but I was so busy checking off the boxes of what I thought I was supposed to be doing, that I never noticed how far off my path I had gotten.  Then everything changed on Feb. 3, 1998.  My two by four moment.

Because of this immediate halt in my life, I began to reevaluate what I wanted, not what I thought I was supposed to do.  Honestly when I posed this question to myself, I had no idea.  Have you ever been in this place?

Then in one important moment it became clear.  I wanted more Joy in my life, more play and no more drama.  I wanted to shape my success around the lifestyle I wanted to live and not around how much money I could make.  I focused on playing more and the things that brought me Joy.  The only thing was that I had no idea what that was.

This is when I started on the Journey of what I now call Joyful Play.  I began discovering what brought me joy, what play meant to me and what was really important to me and how I wanted to live.

All of us can get so caught up in conditioning, cultural beliefs and expectations of others that we can end up creating a life that is not serving us and we settle into survival mode. Getting by day to day.  I believe this is a huge part of the “Great Resignation”. We slowed down enough to say enough is enough, look ourselves in the mirror and question.

I’ve been talking a lot about Joyful Play for the last 4 years and I know that there has never been a more important time for you to find what Joyful Play is for you and to create the lifestyle you want.

When you find what Joyful Play is for you, you can then create a business or career around a lifestyle you want to have.  This doesn’t happen overnight, but I will tell you Joyful Play is the Key.

Over the last 24 years I committed to the journey of Joyful Play and have created an amazing lifestyle. I retired from one business and started Step into Great, my coaching business because it was a better fit to my gifts and gave me the flexibility that I wanted.  It allowed me to keep my priorities and what I valued most in order. 

I was talking with a friend of mine about my intentions for 2022.  We set our business intentions and she asked me “what do you want personally?”.  I really had to think about it for a minute and the one thing that that was so present for me was that I wanted what I have! When those words came out of my mouth, I felt so much gratitude to the journey I choose 24 years ago.

Through my journey of Joyful Play, I have been able to create what I have now.  I have an amazing husband who is my favorite playmate and best friend, two incredible teenagers, a home we love, surrounded by nature and all the things we love to do.  I have an amazing business that has evolved with me and supports my lifestyle.  My business is flexible, I get to be in my gifts of intuition, teaching, guiding, coaching.  I have beautiful relationships in my life.  And, most importantly I know what brings me Joy and what Play is to me. 

The thing I really want now is to share this journey with you. To guide you and show you how you can also create the life and business/career you want to have.  To guide you in finding what brings you JOY. To discover what play is to you and how you bring it all together on a journey of Joyful Play.

I invite to you to take a leap of faith, to be courageous, curious and join me on the journey to find what Joyful Play is for you. Joyful Play is unique to you just as the lifestyle and business/career you want to create will be unique to you.

Here is the first step you can take to get started:

1. Go to https://laurirubinstein.com and sign up for the free Play Book.  This will give you an introduction to what Joyful Play is. It will guide you through a few clues to begin discovering what brings you Joy. You will also receive several emails that will give you tips and suggestions as you move through the playbook.

If you want to take it a little further, I will be launching a new online course you can do at your own pace, with live Q&A sessions with me on February 14^th.  We are launching this on Valentine’s Day because I know what an amazing gift this will be to give yourself. 

I am still finding things that bring me Joy and are Joyful Play to me.  Check out our new Instagram account at http://instagram.com/joyful_play_rx . I have posted several short videos of a new experiment I did over the last weekend. 

As always, I welcome any questions or comments you have. 

I look forward to being on the Journey of Joyful Play with you!