Take the Stairs for Fun

I’ve always been a proponent of taking the stairs for health. After all, it’s one of the easiest, cheapest, and most accessible ways to get some exercise in. But when’s the last time you took the stairs for fun — or at least with fun?

When I was younger, I genuinely enjoyed going down the stairs. I always turned it into a game. I’d have to walk sideways, backwards, or race down as fast as I could. Somewhere, there’s still an old video of me taking an entire flight in our school in one leap.

How often do we take the stairs without actually being there? Nowadays, I’m often lost in thought, pondering some issue or planning my next to-do, and by the time I reach the next floor, it’s almost as if I’ve teleported there.

Every now and then, however, the spiral staircase at work brings me back. I’ll race down trying to match the beat of the music in my headphones or deliberately walk slowly in a marching rhythm. It’s nice. It makes me feel young again. There’s more to life than emails and appointments. And yes, taking the stairs for fun definitely counts.

Maybe for you, the stairs didn’t do it. Maybe it was touching every handrail, counting bricks in the sidewalk, or spontaneously sprinting from lamp post to lamp post. Whatever it is that you once did for its own sake, try it again. If not for, then at least with fun this time.

Life only feels serious when we make serious faces. Relax your muscles, be a bit silly, and remember that the steps that feel only necessary are still 100% part of the way.