Last weekend, a group of us had a crack at a 40k, 12 hour hike in deepest, darkest Yorkshire.
And towards the end of the day I was suffering.
I could hear my breathing as I climbed. Raspy, harsh and strained.
My legs were wobbling like an old-school strawberry jelly and even the tiniest step felt draining.
And my stomach was doing somersaults. In 10 hours, I’d eaten enough sugar to power a 20 person trip to the South
Pole. Let alone one guy climbing a few hills.
But even though the last 2 hours were gruelling, they were a lot of fun.
Maybe I was having fun because of the stunning views…
Perhaps I felt like I was achieving something…
Or maybe I was buzzed about how the 40k walk would impact my daily step-count average.
It doesn’t really matter.
Thing is…
Even though it was bloody tough, I was enjoying it.
And I think there’s an important point here.
Sometimes we unwittingly conflate “hard” and “not fun”.
And quite often the two do come hand in hand. Hard often does mean gruelling or miserable.
But not always.
As my trek on the bumpy Northern peaks shows, something can be hard and fun.
And recognising this difference can be useful.
It can help us enjoy things more if we stay open to the possibility that hard can be fun (especially if we
go looking for the fun parts of challenging tasks).
It can help us understand our preferences and values if we identify why we find a difficult task fun.
And it can help us ask broader questions about the role we want fun to play in our lives. And ultimately ask the question – am I having enough fun?
Something to ponder perhaps.
That’s all for today.
Catch you
tomorrow.
- Tom
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