The Top Tips to Play Your Way to a Fun, Healthy Life with Dale Sidebottom

Dale Sidebottom is a full-time play consultant, and the founder of Energetic Education and JUGAR LIFE. He uses his 20+ years of experience in the education and fitness sectors to educate schools, clubs, families, and corporations on the relationship between daily play and enhanced mental health and wellbeing. Dale is the author of ‘All Work No Play, the host of the top rating ‘Energetic Radio’ podcast, and a popular TEDx speaker.

In part 1 of our conversation, we'll discuss some of the ways you can integrate play into your life in order to accelerate health, wealth, and self image. Dale is offering a free deck of Daily Mission Cards to the first 5 listeners to contact him with a way that you have spread kindness recently.  

Connect with Dale and his work at https://www.jugar.life/

Transcript

1:01

Welcome back to A Magical Life. I'm your host, Magic Barclay. And today Dale Sidebottom joins. He is the creator and founder of Zhugah Life and Energetic. Education to multidisciplinary business platforms that provide people with the tools to make play a focus of their every day. Dale is a full time play consultant who taps into his 20 plus years working in the education and fitness sectors to educate individuals. Schools, sporting clubs, and corporate organizations globally on the benefits of adult play and what that can have on mental health and wellbeing. Dale is the author of All Work No Play, a TEDx speaker And the top rating energetic radio podcast host, Dale has worked face to face with students, teachers, schools, and corporations in over 20 countries around the world. Welcome Dale. Thanks, Maggie. Great to be here with you at another Victorian. It's uh, even though we are over zoom, it's lovely to hear that lovely accent, the Australian accent. Isn't it a change? It is. I just having a chat before. It is. And it's really refreshing. I'm really excited for today. And thanks for having me on the show. Thanks for joining. I'm going to swing straight into my standard question format. Before I do, I'm just going to say, wow, I sound Aussie when you're on. I say, and as I present all over the world and people go, do you speak English? I do. I just don't speak it well and they can't understand me. So. I am as Aussie as it comes with my voice. Sorry about that, Magic. No, it's all good. So to the listeners, this is your Aussie barrage to your ears. Let's work with it. So the first question I have is what can your expertise do to accelerate health, not just physical, but also emotional and spiritual health? Yeah. So a lot of the work I do now is it's just about having fun, Magic. So. I feel when you're having fun, it doesn't matter what you're doing. You're going to not only want to keep doing that, but also you'll get the benefits normally of connecting and sharing that with other people. So I use play and that's play to move your body. That's play to learn. That's play to practice mental and physical wellbeing, whatever you want it to be. Um, so essentially my model and what I try and do is just give people the tools and techniques to have fun. Um, particularly like with fitness and things like this. Traditionally, a lot of people might find it challenging, but if you can turn into a game where it's fun, it's not about winning or losing, it's about connecting with others. you get a lot of health benefits. but more than ever, I suppose, after, you know, what we've all gone through, particularly in Melbourne, teaching people how to have fun again, finding that inner child. and if you can get the benefits of people, it's magic to see. I often say to myself in business, I need to gamify this. I need to make this a game. This is not, you know, something serious. It's not something I have to, twist myself inside out about. This is a game. So is that one way to play through business? Yeah, a hundred percent. And like you just said there, I think we're realizing that why are we so serious? Why are we so busy? Why is everything, you know, so, Oh, I've got to get it done. And why not make it fun? I think everything you're doing. And I remember when you were on my podcast, magic that you said. You work seven days a week because it's not work because you love what you're doing. You're having fun. And I feel everybody should do that. And there are ways to do that. And for that is gamifying things, making it into a game, making it fun, connecting with others, through play. It smashes anxiety. It destroys stress and improves your mental and physical wellbeing. It helps you connect with other people. But the big thing I talk about is play based mindfulness, because when you are doing a lot of different activities or you're playing a game, you're not thinking about, did I feed the dog this morning? Did I lock the car? What am I eating for dinner? Did I pay the mortgage? You are present, you know, and that's a gift in this crazy world that we live in magic, those little play breaks where you can gamify a task that you have to do, but it's fun. You get so many other benefits with it. So, it may sound like, Oh, well, that's all airy fairy, but that's what I've sort of dedicated my life to is finding ways to do that. it's not about winning and losing. And I think too often. When we talk about games and play, people have a bad memory about it or something, because, you know, they did a beat test at school or they were graded or they'll evaluate. It's not about winning or losing. It's about simply enjoying the game and sharing it with yourself or others. And, and so gamifying things, it does work. and it makes it fun and makes any task you're normally doing. Well, think about if you've got kids at home or something and you want them to clean up. How many people have, I'll time you to see how quickly you can do it. Like little things like that, they're doing the same task, but it's fun. It's a game. So, yeah, I think gamifying and play are crucial and they're needed more than ever now when people have literally been locked down for so long and forgotten how to do it. Two little side jumps here for this. I was actually saying to a client the other day, she was dealing with some pretty heavy, multiple autoimmune conditions. And I said, do you remember the game Elastics when we were young? So. For anyone that's 45 and under, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about, but there was a game called Elastics and it was a three people or two people in a chair game. And so you'd have this long piece of elastic, go around a couple of people's feet and you go up levels. So it starts on their ankles, you jump a certain way. And then it goes up to their shoulders and then it goes back down to the ankles, one foot. And yeah, so Elastics is the game. So I said, do you remember the game Elastics? And she said, yeah, I do. I said, following your autoimmune journey is like that because when you in Elastics, when you trip over or you miss an Elastic or you, you know, can't cross it over, like because there's so many progressions. You just go back a level and then you start again, but it doesn't mean that you've lost and you haven't given up the game. So this is your game of Elastics. And she just burst out laughing. She goes, I get it now. And, and it's funny you say that because I do know that game. I used to be a PE teacher and, it's still being played because I think with a lot of things and particularly games that I use, there are metaphor for life, like you've just used there that. You're not always going to win. You're not always going to lose, but it's about trying, you know, and each time you try something and you get knocked down and hit your elastic, you go back and you work on it and you improve. That doesn't matter if it's your autoimmune system, if it's your health, your wellbeing, relationships, you know, you can't give up. and that's why kids, you, you've just got to go and I don't mean go to a playground and be a creepy old person and watch, but what's primary school students, what do they do? They play all day. That's how they. Build resilience. That's how they find their strength, winning and losing. Build their strongest social circles. We need to realize that as adults that that's what we need to do as well with any hurdle issue we're facing. So elastics, I love that magic. And you mentioned About kids, when my kids were little, we had a specific game at the end of every day that resulted in a treat or, you know, something they could choose for the next day. And that was who can pack up fastest. Yes, that's an old, that's, I think everyone uses that. That's a real teacher one, that one too. Who can collect the most blocks? Who can, who can sit down quickest? Oh, I'm timing you. Particularly when it comes to Lego and it's fiddly and it's. Everywhere. It was like, whoever collects the most Lego, puts it in a bucket, gets to choose the first activity tomorrow. Worked every time. It does. And, and, but that's where we, I think as adults, we forget, for some reason we just think life's too serious and we actually forget how much fun it simply is. And that's why having kids is brilliant because you revisit all these things and I'm loving it at the moment, but We need to get those things into the office. We need to have like silly, it's silly. Like a lot of play is silly, but that's why it's meaningful because it allows people to show a different side of themselves. And that's what we all need now because it's been suffocated and locked inside explode that inner child out, I say. All right. So our second standard question is around wealth and people think that's just financial, but it's also personal and emotional wealth because they all tie in together. So what are your top three tips to creating wealth? Well, it's the, I feel wealth is, it's not what you own. It's not the assets you have. It's the connections and friendships you have in your life. and. I'll keep bringing up COVID, but I'll try not to do magic. But I think we've realized that, you know, being locked down that you can't spend money, you can't go overseas. You haven't been able to do these things, but the one thing you have had are people in your life. So the number one thing I recommend is invest time, not in stock, not in Bitcoin, not in shares, whatever you want, invest time daily in your friendships. And if that means each day you randomly. Ring a friend, send someone a text message. One thing I like doing is call it the phone swipe and get out your phone, all the images in there magic, and just swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, and stop. And the first image that is you and somebody else together in it, you send them that image and you remind them of what they mean to you. Or really simple little things. And that's a lot of the work I do magic is they're basic, but people. People just forget to do it. So setting reminders to do things like that each day, reach out to somebody and connect with them. And it only has to be a text message. I think that's really important. The second thing for your wealth, um, is set play dates in your calendar. it sounds silly, and I know people are like, what do you mean? Find something that you love doing. If that's elastics. Awesome. Set five minutes aside sometime throughout the day that's non negotiable because if you don't set that in your diary, you will get busy. Something will come up and you will push it to the side when that's the one thing you need. Because as I said, that is your mindfulness. that is your time. And not only that, you're moving your body. You're getting those endorphins as well, which is really, really beneficial. and the last thing for wealth I would say is, Each day go for some form of a walk. it doesn't matter if that's in the morning, if it's on a meeting, make sure that you're going for at least a half an hour walk a day. And why walking is crucial, I feel is that it's such a beautiful thing that you can do. And I think we take it for granted and people think it's not exercising, but it does so much more than exercising for the rest of your body. And that for me is wealth. The joy that you have, so many people can't walk and so many people take it for granted. So, yeah, my top three is reach out to somebody, do something different to connect with them. And not only don't just say, how are you? That's a, that's a crap question. Never ask someone, how are they? Because they'll say, good. Never ask someone, how was your day? Good. How was your weekend? Okay. That's a rubbish question. Ask them what's the best thing they did in the last seven days, or what's excited you? Do something different to create a meaningful conversation. Uh, the number two is set a play date. That could be any form of play date. And if you can do it with somebody else, even better because your wealth, you're sharing that with other people. Um, in the last one, set time aside each day to walk. I do it with no distractions. I don't take my mobile and that is just my time to walk, think and be by myself. So that would be my top three tips. Love them. I was on a course this week, bored to tears. So I, uh, actually turned my camera off and just, I should film one day what goes on in my office. So just beyond my desk is a little mini tramp, a rebounder with a bar. And so I had my long headphones on with the long cord, and I was on the mini tramp halfway through the conference, jumping and doing side jumps. And you know, it was just crazy. One of my kids actually walked in and just went, what the heck are you doing? What course are you doing? I was bored and now I'm not. And do you know what, it just, it doesn't take long. You only need to do that for a couple of minutes and it resets you. Instead of when you're sitting through something that is boring, you need to change it. You need to change your environment and you're still part of it. But you're more present now because you've done something for yourself. And essentially that's a play break. that's a play date. Jump on your trampoline. Yeah, do a somersault. I don't know. Whatever it is. I love that. And so now we're getting to our final question and it's around weight. So many people are battling their weight and So, you know, they often look at maybe speakers or consultants and therapists and go, well, you've never had a weight problem, you know, so why should I listen to you? So have you ever battled your weight? And if so, what was the trigger to winning? If not, what can you offer the listeners around that and particularly around that self image problem? Yeah, I'm fortunate. I have never battled my weight. and the reason being is I love moving. I love moving my body. I think it's a gift. I don't look at exercise or fitness as something I do to lose weight. I look at it as that. I am so fortunate that I get to do that daily. Um, and I think that mindset alone for me and, and I know listeners will be like, Oh yeah, but you love that. That's what you do. And I do get that. But. Thanks. Like I was saying before, with how we question ourselves or question other people, it's the way you, that narrative, you sell it to yourself. And I think too many people think they have to do exercise to lose weight. And when you start talking like that, it becomes a chore. And when something's a chore, we don't want to do it. So, I've been very fortunate. every day in the morning, I get up and I either go to a gym class, go for a walk, or do some form of exercise. Um, and for me, that is non negotiable because if I don't do that, I know I'm not going to have as good day as I did. And, um, it doesn't, it's not always easy. It's hard. Like, we live in Melbourne. It's not the nicest place at the moment. Let's be honest. It's, Bloody raining all the time and cold, but I owe that to myself each morning to get up and do that. And, um, I think that attitude and it's, and I know some people really struggle with this and I can empathize. I was, I ran a fitness company for 10 years. And so I used to do PTs. Um, I had multiple bootcamps and things like that. And during that, I found so many people had so many. Different concerns or different issues that they were facing. And I can empathize with everybody, but the thing I found, and again, this is probably where sort of my business really took off is I found ways to use play to make exercise fun because people were, when they were coming with me or to my sessions, they knew they, that they would have some form of fun and I would have had some new game. And it's really simple. You just get a dice or a deck of cards or, or something like that and I love using dice because they're randomized, nobody's a professional dice roller, it is all luck and all you need to do is just pick six different movements or six different stretches, roll the dice and do one for 20 seconds or something like that, really basic. And I think the biggest thing I find with exercises, people think you need to do it for an hour, an hour, plus you don't. there's a great book called Move by Caroline Wilson where she talks a lot about having regular play intervals or regular movement intervals. so that's simply just getting up and moving your body, going for a walk. not doing one HIIT class in the morning and then sitting down for the rest of your day. That, that actually doesn't. benefit anybody. So, if you struggle with exercise, I understand that just going for three or four different walks a day, and that might just be around the block or around your office or take the stairs, um, little things like that, little wins and celebrate them. I think this is. The biggest thing I used to find magic is that people are so fixated on their image and wanting to lose weight and things like that, that they don't get the results they want. They don't celebrate what they've already been able to achieve. And I think that's the biggest crucial mistake anybody can make. You need to be your biggest fan. You need to love yourself. And sometimes that is really hard, but you start by. You know, really celebrating the things that you do and they may not be what I could do or what magic could do or the person on Instagram, but that's the problem. Never ever compare everybody's on their own journey in their own race, and you just need to get your race going and be happy with that. And, and that would be probably the biggest thing I try and. You know, inform people on and, and, and don't, don't be somebody else. You don't want to be me. You want to be you. You're special. You're unique. And you need to celebrate that. But it's not easy. I'll admit that. It's not easy. but that's why it's so rewarding. so I know I've ranted a lot there, but I am really passionate about magic. I think it's, I. I hear it. And like, particularly I used to get so many inquiries. I want to lose this much weight. Can you help? I'm like, well, it's not about losing weight. That will probably happen when you come as so much more that I'm going to give you in your life and you're going to get it being part of a community. And I think that's the narrative we need to change. Not that I want to lose weight. What else do I want to, when I commit to something and the benefits I'll get, you know, that language we use with ourself is the number one thing that people need to really work on, I feel. I couldn't agree more. I'm back on the weight loss track and I was going to our local gym and working out with a guy that's learning to be a trainer. So I was training him to be a trainer and getting the benefits, but I got bored. Because it was just me and him. We ran out of stuff to talk about every day and I'm in there for an hour power lifting. So, you know, I need to be entertained as well. And the music they'd have on would just be so incongruent with my training because it's a resort style. Facility. So let's have Ladi da music on there was absolutely nothing there to stimulate me apart from the exercise. And it's just sometimes not enough. So I couldn't agree more. I actually stopped going because I was bored. And I think people, you know, they get disheartened, they'll go to one gym. Um, there's so many gyms and there's a reason for that magic. There's so many hairdressers and pubs. You're not going to like every one. And so don't just go to one and have a bad experience and then give up. you've got to keep looking and searching. And one of the best things I think you can do with fitness is find a community or a tribe because then you're going to be accountable. And not only that, the friendships that you make from that. I personally now go to a local gym every morning. I do a 610 class. And I see the same faces every morning. I know them now. They're all different walks of life. We share things. I know what's going on. This reminds me of what I used to have when I was running boot camps and I'd have the same people. I rely on that now because I look forward to seeing these people and they will message me when I don't turn up. So. Really, if, if you haven't found that yet, there are so many out there and there's so many people that when you go in here, they don't judge, nobody's judging what you do or anything like that you're showing up and you're trying your best and everyone's encouraging. And it's for me there, I think a lot of people have really bad experiences, but there's so many great experiences that we don't celebrate enough. and that's why. Like what you were saying that you weren't stimulate enough, particularly if you're doing powerlifting, you're having a lot of downtime and if you're running out of things to talk about and you hate the music, I would have hightailed out there as well. True that. Now look, we've covered a lot and I know you've got so much more to offer the listeners here. What I'm actually going to do is wrap this episode up. I'll give you socials in a minute, but would you join me for the next one? I'd love to. Yes. Okay, so you can find Dale on Insta, Twitter, and LinkedIn at Dale side bottom, or you can email him at team at Zhugar Life. So that's J U G A R dot life. And Dale, we love freebies. What can you offer the listeners? I can offer the listeners of, uh, so I think, as I said before, finding ways to make fitness fun or ways to make movement fun. Um, and that's what I've sort of dedicated a lot of the work I do. I've created over 30 mobile apps in the same space, but I don't like using technology with this. So we've created, um, some daily mission cards, which are basically this deck of plastic cards is 55 in there, I think. And there's 30 different exercises. They are all body weight. They explained how to do it. There's a QR code with me showing you how to do it. And then there are 20 different games using either cards or dice. And all you need to do is find a game you like. Then you select the number of exercises that you want. You place them down and you play the game. And these games go for 5 or 10 minutes. And that's all it is. And that's what I talk about. You don't need to dedicate a huge amount of time. To exercise, you can just do a couple throughout the day, play them with somebody else. And it is brilliant. So, I've got five of these decks to give away. what I'd love is maybe if somebody, if you want a deck of these cards, if you could do something nice for somebody else today and let us know, um, let magic and myself know, however, we're going to do this, Thinking about how you could uplift somebody or make their day better or reconnect with somebody and let us know that because kindness inspires more kindness. and I think the world needs so much more of it at the moment. So, um, that would be an entry. Okay. So listeners, the first five people to do something nice for someone else. Email dale at team at Zhuger dot life. Tell him what you've done. Give him all your details and you'll get a set of these cards. Fantastic. Dale, thank you for joining me. I'll see you again for the next episode. My pleasure, magic. Thank you so much. And listeners, thank you so much for your time. Go have a game, make it play and create your magical life.