Kimberly Rash unpacks how adulthood slowly trains us to turn every hobby into a hustle, every walk into a step count,

and every joy into a job. She shares her own habit of taking things she loves, like gardening and crafting, and

pushing them into production mode until the fun disappears, along with stories about her daughter, stepdaughter,

and sister choosing play and connection in their own ways. Kimberly makes the case that play is not frivolous, that

adults need it just as much as kids do, and that small, unmonetized moments of joy are what actually recharge us.

She closes with a challenge to remember what you loved before anyone told you whether you were good at it, and

to go do it anyway. Real living, she reminds listeners, happens in the ordinary, unproductive moments just as much as the big milestones.

RTR Ep 22 Play Rough

Kimberly: Do you even remember? Because somewhere between childhood and adulthood, I think a lot of us forget how to play. I definitely have forgotten how to play at times in my life. Just think about it. Think about being a kid when we rode our bikes with absolutely nowhere to go. We colored, we painted, we made friendship bracelets.

Kimberly: I mean, think about your average adult day. We wake up, we get ready, we have our coffee, we go to work, we take care of people at work, then we come home and we take care of people. We answer our texts, our emails, we make dinner, we clean something, try to get a load of laundry in so we're not inundated at the weekend.

Kimberly: Place, pay, some bills, schedule all the appointments, and then you remember something you forgot to schedule, or maybe you even missed a, an appointment. And even though we're technically relaxing because we're not working, we're often still on. We're often doing something at the same time. We're watching TV while we're scrolling.

Kimberly: We're sitting outside while we're answering emails. We're going for a walk while listening to something that's supposed to make us smarter, healthier, richer, calmer, more enlightened, like the podcast. Wink, wink. When did simply enjoying ourselves start feeling like wasted time? Somewhere along the way, adulthood teaches us that our time should be productive.

Kimberly: But here's a thought, like, isn't joy just a reason? Fun, laughter, connection is a reason. You don't have to earn enjoyment by making it useful This might be one of my favorite things about us as adults. We can take almost anything enjoyable and make it into work, and honestly, I am a prime candidate for that, right?

Kimberly: I am the worst at making hobbies into projects. The worst.

Kimberly: It's like you decide you like walking. Well, that's great. Three days later, you've downloaded an app. Now you set a goal. You're tracking your steps. You're competing with your watch. And I do that at lunchtime a lot of times. And instead of just enjoying going out for a leisurely walk, I'm like, " Ew, I'm such a failure.

Kimberly: I competed against myself from the day before, and I didn't match my steps or even beat them." Now I feel like it's a wasted walk. Or, ladies and gentlemen, do you ever wear your watch, your Apple Watch or your s- your Garmin or whatever it is that you got, and you go for a walk, and then all of a sudden you're like, it's a day you forgot to wear your watch, and you're like, " I can't track my steps.

Kimberly: I used to just plant a tomato. It's cute. I enjoy it. Next thing I know, I have 42 tomato plants. I have zucchini coming out of my ears. This year that was so true. I had so much zucchini coming out of my ears.

Kimberly: And then I feel like I'm responsible to make sure I'm not wasteful with anything that I've grown. I start crafting because it's relaxing, and next thing someone's like, "Ooh, you should sell these." And I'm like, "Bet. Yes, I do. Yes, I will." And then I'm like, "Ooh, challenge accepted." Now I'm selling things. And that is okay, by the way.

Kimberly: It's just not okay when you lose any joy of doing it. If you wanna sell things, like I make the beeswax wraps, and yes, some days when I'm making them, it takes me eight hours to cut the fabric, to make the mixture, to get them all together, to trim them, to pink sheer them, then to fold them, then to package them, and I'll spend a whole Saturday getting them all ready, but I actually enjoy doing it.

Kimberly: But if there comes a point in time that you're doing things like walking and cooking and producing and making and there is no joy, then you need to take a step back And really reflect on why did I love this in the first place? You know, it's interesting that play isn't actually frivolous. We tend to think of play as something children need, but adults benefit from it too.

Kimberly: Play says like, "Hey, there doesn't have to be an outcome. I can paint a terrible picture." You should see my caterpillars. I, like, make great sticks and watercolors, but if it's creating an animal or an acorn or anything like that, I am no Picasso. Actually, it looks more like Picasso than like a Monet, that's for sure.

Kimberly: I can paint a terrible picture. I can dance badly. I can sing off-key. I can try pickleball and completely suck at it, and nothing bad's gonna happen. And maybe that's the reason play can feel so freeing. At least for a little while, you're allowed to stop performing. And it's so vital, you know, deciding that you wanna go take a hike, or you want to just go do something completely different.

Kimberly: I was a water girl all summer. I, like, enjoyed the lakes that we were in. When we went to the ocean, I was in my pool. Like, I have a pool, and I can tell you in eight years that we've had that pool, I was probably in it eight times. And this year, I was in it, I don't know, at least 20, 25 times, which is huge for me.

Kimberly: And I just enjoyed being in it. I enjoyed just doing nothing and lounging and playing in the water with my friends and floating with my little beverage in my hand and having fun conversations, and it felt great. It was freeing. It was worth all the work. If you're working and you're busting your heinie and you're working 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 hours a week, you have to take time for play.

Kimberly: But my daughter's in Utah, so I got her a Utah one, and I love the fact that when they're trying to think of something to do for date night or something like that, they actually pick out of the box sometimes, and they go out and do a decorating strawberries class, or they check out a museum. They play. My daughter works really hard, but she plays really hard too, and I love that for her.

Kimberly: I love that she knows when she needs to restore and she's getting depleted. She also knows that you need connection, and that's what we do. You need to be able to connect to the person that you're with, connect with your friends, connect with your family, and you have to take time to be able to do that.

Kimberly: Before you worried about looking stupid, before you thought about money Before you cared whether it was productive, what did you just love? Did you draw, dance, sing? I remember when I was little, I used to watch my sister draw, and she could draw so well. She used to draw horses and, all kinds of things really.

Kimberly: She has amazing handwriting and penmanship, and she just had the most beautiful drawings. She is a talented artist. And she's a talented cake decorator. And then she made it work, and I think she lost the joy and love of it, not of the drawing. I don't, she doesn't really do that anymore, but the cake decorating, she just has a skill for it But I could see where it lost its luster when she actually started doing it as a job,

Kimberly: And when we start doing things and we lose our joy, then what's the point of doing them? That's not play. That's not something that makes you feel good that you accomplished at the end. I like crafting. I love finding cool little things to do. my daughter loves crafting, so we'll send each other little ideas, of little things to do even though we're kinda far apart right now.

Kimberly: And I can't wait till she moves home so that way when they get back to New England, I'm like, "I can actually do crafts with you, and we can do things together. It's gonna be so much fun."

Kimberly: They weren't on the list anymore. I remember when I was younger, I loved playing the piano. I was good at it, and I loved it. And then as life got life-ing, I fell away from doing it. And then back into, you know, my adulthood, I picked it back up again and I started playing, and I was playing at church and, playing at home when I wanted to relax.

Kimberly: And now it's more of a thing that I do when I wanna relax and enjoy. I don't play for anyone anymore except for myself, and I love that for me. But I think that people are really good at just turning joy into responsibility you just don't bake the cookies. We bake cookies for everyone. You just don't throw a party. We create the Pinterest board, buy the decorations, make the food, clean the house, host everybody, and then clean everything up again, and then get frustrated in the interim because everyone else isn't doing what you need them to do to help you get ready even though they have no idea what the execution of your vision is.

Kimberly: My friend Dave is at Sanding Castle, Travel, and he is amazing, and he takes care of our family vacations now because, one, he saves me money. Two, he takes care of everything, so I have to worry about nothing. When I actually say, "Here, this is our budget. This is what we wanna do. What can we do?" He says, "No problem.

Kimberly: I'm on it." He books it. He gets it ready. He does the things. I went on vacation and didn't worry about a dang thing. Not how we were getting from the airport to the hotel, not w- what excursions we were doing, how to get there, what to do, how to maneuver through the TSA, how to do our passports, all the things he takes care of.

Kimberly: Don't you actually wanna go on the vacation and be like, "Dang, that was so much fun. That was so relaxing"? My last vacation, we just went to Aruba, and it was the most relaxing vacation I've had in a long time, and we just enjoyed our family, and we enjoyed all the things that we got to do. We enjoyed doing literally nothing, and it was so nice.

Kimberly: It was so nice. It recharges you to be able to come back, bust it out again, to look forward to the next time that you can go back and recharge fully

Kimberly: Again, book the travel agent

Kimberly: now that you've been doing this for a while and you've, basically sucked the joy out of your own life and all things fun, what if you don't know what you like anymore because it's been a hot minute, right? Because someone listening might be thinking, "Kim, I honestly don't even know what I like anymore."

Kimberly: And that's okay, because you know what? I've done that, too. I haven't known what I liked anymore. I sat there and I watched people have hobbies and jobs that they may enjoy or doing all those things, and I sit there and go, " Man, I wish I had a, a desire. I wish I had a passion. I wish I had things that I enjoy doing."

Kimberly: Experiment. Try things. Go somewhere you've never been. Take the pottery class. Go down to Long Pond Pottery in Plymouth, Mass. That's my cousin's shop. She does lessons, she does groups, and she is the coolest, most chill chick you will ever meet. Her name is Chicky. And you would just totally enjoy the experience of being with her.

Kimberly: I highly encourage you. You want somewhere where it's... you're just gonna have a good time and it is low-key, low-pressure, just chill and create? Go to Long Pond Pottery shop in Plymouth Buy the adult coloring books. Go dancing. Ev- even if you, like, were a little kid and you always wanted to take dance lessons but your parents couldn't afford it or it just didn't fit in your schedule as a little kid, I highly encourage you, go do it.

Kimberly: There's adult dance lessons. Plant the flowers. Go paddleboarding. Go bowling. You don't know how to play cards? Find a friend who wants to play cards with you. Teach yourselves how to play. I have a friend that plays cribbage. I think that's phenomenal. She enjoys doing that. Do you like to do karaoke? Are you a singer?

Kimberly: It, it's, it was just so much fun. go to a concert. My stepdaughter, Molly, she goes to concerts by herself all the time, and I'm so envious of how b- and not in a bad way, but, like, envious but, like, so proud of how brave she is. She just steps out and does her own thing. She's like, "Oh, I wanna go see that, that concert."

Kimberly: Bet I'm there. I'm like, "Who are you going with?" She's like, "Myself." I'm like, "All right, now I'm having a heart attack because I'm a parent," and I'm like, " Who's gonna be with you? How do I know if you're okay?" Like, and she's in her, her younger 20s, but you still worry when the young girl goes out by herself into the city or anywhere.

Kimberly: And you forget, like, how cool it is to not be afraid and just go out and be you. And she finds complete joy in her life by doing these things, and I think more of us should be like her

Kimberly: It's not about discovering like a new life purpose or anything. The goal is simply, do I enjoy that? And if I do, I wanna do more of that. And if I don't, like, "Mm, I tried that, that's really not for me," next. Move on to the next thing. That's great and I don't want you to sit here and be like, "You know what?

Kimberly: Be obnoxiously loud in your car and turn up your music all the way. Buy yourself flowers, right? Call the friend that makes you laugh. Watch the stupid movie. Dance while you're cooking dinner, Turn on some good music. Move your body.

Kimberly: Just moving your body's gonna boost your endorphins. You're gonna get joy from that anyway. I know some people that love to go sit by the ocean color with your kids. Color with your grandkids. Color on your own

Kimberly: Wear something ridiculous that you love and wear it with confidence and walk out the door

Kimberly: Put your phone down and actually be present. Be where you are in the moment. Set aside intentional time of no electronics and have moments where you're actually just with the person that you wanna be with, whether that's by yourself or having conversations with people around you. It's okay. You can connect.

Kimberly: When was the last time you laughed really, really hard? So for me, I don't even know when the last time I laughed really, really hard is. But I do know there was a time in my life where I was working and I did a lot of awake overnights, and then I would go straight to my day job. And delirium is really what it was, but man, it was funny.

Kimberly: And I'll post some videos on the, Rooted to Rise Instagram page, of hysterical laughter. Laughter where, I'm crying. but it was funny, and it was hysterical, and it hurt my belly, and it messed up my mascara, and I was howling, and then everyone around me was howling. Like, we just would die with belly laughter.

Kimberly: I love belly laughter. And if you can laugh till you cry, you're doing two things, right? You're, you're just laughing, and then you're releasing, and isn't that so good

Kimberly: We always talk so much about what makes a meaningful life, your purpose, your success, your relationships, growth, legacy, all the important things. But I think that when we're much older and looking backwards, some of the memories we're gonna treasure the most aren't going to be the accomplishments. You know what they're gonna be?

Kimberly: They're gonna be When I walk with my grandniece and my grandnephew and my grandson and we climb dirt mountains and we walk around the bogs and we go on adventures

Kimberly: And we make forts and we do things. Those are the memories. Those are the things that fill your heart. You have to make time for those things

Kimberly: I can't wait With my sister too Because that's life The stories that our family will tell 500 times because everyone still laughs at it

Kimberly: I talk a lot on this podcast about growth and change. It is literally called Ready to Rise. I believe in learning and becoming. I believe in looking at ourselves and asking how we can live better. But I also think it's, there's a point when we need to stop treating ourselves like we're a never-ending, like, renovation project,

Kimberly: There's always going to be something we can improve, something you can heal, learn, optimize, or work on. But you know what? You're also allowed to enjoy life while you're still becoming. You don't have to wait until you figured it all out. You don't have to become the perfect version of yourself before you're allowed to have a really good life.

Kimberly: root into remembering. Remember the things about younger you. What did you love? What made you laugh? What did you do when no one was grading you or criticizing you or telling you you were really good at something and now that felt like pressure? Remember what you used to do simply because it felt good to be alive.

Kimberly: Write down those three things. Write down three. Don't overthink them. Just start a list and be like, "Boom, bet. I'm gonna go do that." And then release the need for everything to be productive. Release the idea that your time only has value when it's producing something. Release the idea that you need to monetize on every talent.

Kimberly: One completely unnecessary thing you should do this week. Buy the weird, goofy hat. Do the funny thing in Save Us where you do the timed and everyone walks and then, like, someone says stop and you have to grab all the things in your size, and then you have to go outside in that outfit that you have just picked from Save Us.

Kimberly: Like, that's hysterical. I may do that. I may do that, 'cause I think that just looks really funny. Do something that you can't check off your life goals list. Do it simply because it sounds fun, and pay attention to how you feel afterwards, and think maybe I should be doing that more. Because there's a part of you that's been waiting a very long time for you to come back and get the fun her

Kimberly: Your life isn't only the milestones. It's not just the promotions, the houses, the weddings, the graduations. Look at me, look at me, the I love me walls. Your life is also Tuesday night in the kitchen when your favorite song comes on. It's laughing so hard when somebody you love makes something funny that it hurts your s- your stomach.

Kimberly: It's getting your hands dirty in the garden. It's dancing badly. It's trying something new. It's doing something you're terrible at and loving it anyway So maybe the next part of you doesn't need another lesson. Maybe she doesn't need another thing to work on. Maybe she just needs to laugh more. So all I want you to know is I am so proud of you.

Kimberly: Go out and do something fun And until next time, stay rooted, release what no longer serves you, and rise. But seriously, go freaking play, and