The Playful Way: Creativity. Connection, and Joy Through Everyday Moments of Play
Piera Gelardi
HarperOne (April 2026)

“After 90 years, I am still struggling to see the world again as I did as a child.” Pablo Picasso

Those of us who lack Picasso’s talents can still be much more creative if (HUGE “if”) we can complete a shift from the frustration, disapointment, and depression caused by severe stress to (in the the words of Reinhold Niebuhr) gaining “the serenity to accept what cannot be changed, the courage to change what can be changed, and the wisdom to know the one from the other.”

This book’s title refers to both an attitude and a methodology. More specifically, to feeling and being positive, open-minded, appreciative, patient, resilient, self-compassionate, forgiving, and without bias. Those who live and work in a playful way are grateful for what they have rather than regretful of what they don’t. For them, each new day is a precious gift.

As Piera Gelardi explains, “The Pressured Way is similar to what psychologists call psychological inflexibility — getting stuck to specific outcomes. Research shows this mindset limits our ability to adapt to changing circumstances and contributes to increased stress and decreased well-being.”

“The Playful Way, by contrast, aligns with psychological flexibility or with rolling with whatever comes your way by adapting your perspective. This adaptable mindset enables us to bend without breaking when life’s squalls hit us.”

Many (if not most) people view play as being “frivolous.” I certainly did, at least until my teenage years when I began to interact with a much wider range of people of various ages and circumstances whose positive attitude attracted my attention and admiration. They faced the same challenges and setbacks that everyone else did. They felt the same disappointments and self-doubts that everyone else did. But they managed them so much better than anyone else did.

I also began to pay more attention to comments by others. For example:

“Champions get up when they can’t.” Jack Dempsey
“Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re probably right.” Henry Ford
“Vision without execution is hallucination.” Thomas Edison
“I don’t care how far you fall. How high do you go when you bounce back?” George S. Patton
“We have met the enemy and he is us.” Pogo the Possum

“If you’ve always done it that way, you’re probably wrong.”Charles Kettering
“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” Eppie Lederer (aka Ann Landers)
“The worst habits are like chains too light to notice until they’re too heavy to break.” Warren Buffett
“The early bird may get the worm but the second mouse gets the cheese.” Steven Wright
“Many people feel threatened by change because they’ve become hostage to the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom.” James O’Toole

I commend Gelardi for creating a book that can be of incalculable value to those who feel challenged and sometimes discouraged by a world today that is more volatile, more uncertain, more complex, and more ambiguous than any prior time I can recall.

If your “cup” seems half empty, fill it with it with Piera Gelardi’s wisdom.

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Here are two suggestions while you are reading The Playful Way: First, highlight key passages. Also, perhaps in a lined notebook kept near-at-hand,  record your comments, questions and action steps (preferably with deadlines). Pay special attention to Piera Gelardis’s concluding thoughts in “On Play Ripples” (Pages 175-177)

These two simple tactics — highlighting and documenting — will expedite frequent reviews of key material later.