Why fun is the most undervalued key to living a fulfilling life

“Work hard, play hard” was probably the most damaging motto I once believed in. This assumes that work requires serious dedication, and enjoyment is to be reserved for non-work time. This assumes that it’s not okay to live a balanced life. This also assumes that fun is not essential. This led me to push myself harder to be better, faster, and appear smarter until I burned myself out. Work began as fun, but somewhere along the way, that completely got deprioritized. I played hard, but it was no longer fun because I was too exhausted. Almost two years after I broke that vicious cycle, now I’m finally seeing what was missing: fun.

Fun is not just an amusement. It’s a much deeper experience that brings joy, engagement, and emotional connection. Do you remember when you were catching up with childhood friends and realized a few hours passed without you realizing? How about when you were in a sports game cheering for your team? Fun forces you to be in the “flow” where you are fully present and completely immersed in the whole experience. We all know that fun brings a whole suite of wellness effects, such as relaxation and stress management. What we didn’t know is that fun is essential to living a fulfilling life, including a fulfilling career. Here is why.

Fun leads to the discovery of self and passion. Manolo Blahnik, known for his exceptionally crafted shoes, is known to have had a childhood fascination with footwear. During this pastime as a child, he would make shoes for the reptiles in his garden using chocolate candy aluminum wrappers. You can just imagine how much fun he must have had making aluminum foil shoes for the reptiles in the garden as a kid. Steven Spielberg, who is considered one of the greatest film directors of all time, loved telling stories and making home movies as a kid with his father’s 8mm camera. Not every child who has fun playing will end up being a top master in their field, but they would have learned so much about themselves that leads to the discovery of their true passions.

Fun is a powerful motivator for learning. When I was trying to get my seven-year-old daughter to do her math homework, it was like pulling teeth. It was a two-pager, and the thirty minutes of trying to get her to do it felt like three hours. At the end of it, we were both feeling tired from the exchange of negotiations and arguments. None of us were having any fun. After hearing about the sad situation, my husband decided to give her a math challenge. He wrote down the problem on a paper and gave her one week to solve it. Boom. She was up for the challenge. I never thought she would ever try to do any math by herself, and yet, here she was, trying to learn how to add. She was practicing math equations and thinking about different ways to solve the problem. She was having fun. She was taking in all the learning.

Fun leads to mastery, expertise, and ultimately, to a sense of purpose. Simone Biles, the most decorated gymnast in history, has always talked about maintaining a sense of fun and joy in her training. While pushing her own limits, she made sure that she was having fun. When an activity is inherently fun, it creates a positive feedback loop. As such, that makes the person persist, even when faced with difficulties. Fun is a crucial ingredient to mastery.

Instead of “work hard, play hard”, now I tell myself and my kids, “have fun!”. When was the last time you had fun at work? If you can’t remember, it may be time that you begin searching for the most fun work. Then, enjoy the process of learning, and see how far you go in mastering your work.

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