Make It Fun To Do

As someone who has been obsessed with the idea of behavioral design, and how to help myself and others be more likely to take action in the ways that align with their best self, I just realized I’ve been overlooking something critical:

If you want to increase the likelihood that you take action, make the action more fun to do.

How simple? We are naturally attracted to doing things that are fun. We don’t need any incentive, or any discipline, or any willpower, or anything to do what we genuinely think is fun. We are wired for it, and we can use it to improve our approach to living our best lives.

It’d be ridiculously hard to make yourself work out in the gym all day, but it’s a no brainer to spend the day on the ski slopes and get the same amount of exercise in. It’s hard to sit down and create content to market yourself, but it’s easy to have a deep conversation with a friend and record it. 

The reason that’s the case is because ‘fun’ is one of the factors that your unconscious mind considers when it creates meaning, produces emotions, and makes choices for you. 

And that’s because our mind’s processing works on two different layers: Conscious influence and unconscious influence. 

Conscious influence comes from the way you determine things to be. You can shape your reality when you have the awareness to do it. However, 95% of the time, it’s unconscious influence that’s calling the shots behind the scenes. Things like necessity, perceived difficulty, belief systems, and social pressure all contribute to what the unconscious mind resolves to do.

Now add ‘fun’ to that list. If something’s fun it can offset the influence a negative belief or the perceived difficulty has, and supports you in following through on that action.

Here are some quick, easy, and generalized ways to make something more fun to do: Do it outside in nice weather, do it in a different setting, do it with people you enjoy, make it a game, make it an adventure, or add variety.

One of the things I’m excited to explore is how to apply this to my own personal development systems and filling out my Self Improvement Scorecard. I’m very motivated to use my self improvement systems, but if I could find a way to make it fun, I know that would take things to the next level. Stay tuned until I have updates on that!