How to Make Hard Things Fun: The Science of Enjoyment in Endurance Training and Everyday Life
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January 2026 me would have laughed if you’d said “fun” is one of the most important tools in training for a 36-hour event like 29029 Everesting—but here we are. I literally wrote the book on saying yes to life, Yes Your Way to Success! Why Don’t You?, and a huge part of that philosophy is finding ways to turn ordinary (and often difficult) moments into a full-on GavinPalooza. For me, a GavinPalooza is any big, joyful, slightly over-the-top experience wrapped around something I care about—abundance, excitement, maybe a little chaos, but always a lot of meaning.
Last week was a perfect example. A work trip wrapped up a day early, I realized the PGA Farmers Insurance Open was happening at Torrey Pines, and Torrey has been on my bucket list forever. So I said yes: bought a ticket, walked the iconic South Course, soaked in 70+ degree sunshine, and watched the pros go to work in one of the most beautiful places in golf. This weekend, I’m flying into another Palooza I actually talk about in my book—Mardi Gras—where I’ll ride in a Sunday parade with the Krewe of King Arthur. It’s loud, colorful, a bit wild, and absolutely unforgettable. That’s the energy I try to bring into everything, including endurance training: if I’m going to do something hard, I might as well wrap it in as much joy, creativity, and GavinPalooza-level fun as possible.
How I Use Fun to Do Hard Things
Training for something that lasts 36 hours is a full-time relationship with discomfort: early alarms, sore muscles, food experiments, hydration targets, and a body that occasionally files formal complaints (looking at you, right foot). If all I brought to that relationship was grit and discipline, I’d burn out; fun is the thing that keeps me coming back.
In my home gym, music is my favorite kind of performance-enhancing drug. When the right playlist hits, a boring treadmill or strength session turns into something closer to a private concert where, coincidentally, I’m also getting stronger. Outside, I flip the script: no headphones, just nature. Listening to wind, birds, and footsteps on dirt turns long hikes into moving meditation instead of mileage math.
Recovery and self-care are also more sustainable when I make them enjoyable. Yoga and meditation are not just items on a rehab checklist; they are time I actually look forward to because I feel calmer, clearer, and more grounded afterward. Even nutrition becomes a creative experiment instead of a list of rules: working with a nutritionist, trying new foods, and testing how different options impact energy and recovery gives me a sense of curiosity rather than restriction. The more fun I can inject into this process, the more likely I am to show up again tomorrow, foot issues, tight muscles, and all.
This isn’t new for me; it’s the same spirit behind my Amazon best-selling book, Yes Your Way to Success! Why Don’t You?, a reminder that saying yes to your own playful, creative approach is often the smartest way to get through the hard stuff. Whether it’s in business, endurance training, or everyday life, I’ve learned that designing your own fun is not a detour from success; it’s often the shortest route.
The Science Behind “Fun First”
Behavioral scientist Dr. Katy Milkman from UPenn’s Wharton School calls this strategy “temptation bundling”: combining something you should do but resist (like exercise or chores) with something you genuinely enjoy (like audiobooks, music, or a favorite show). In a famous study dubbed “Holding the Hunger Games Hostage at the Gym,” participants were given access to addictive audiobooks they could only listen to while working out; those in this program went to the gym about 51% more often than people who didn’t have the fun bundle. Many even chose to pay to keep their gym-only audiobooks afterwards, which tells you how powerful it felt to make exercise something they actually wanted to do.
In newer field experiments, teaching people to create their own temptation bundles, like pairing workouts with a favorite story, boosted both the likelihood of working out each week and the number of workouts they completed by around 10–14%. On Mel Robbins’ podcast, Milkman describes how she used this herself during frigid Boston winters: she only allowed herself to listen to certain page-turner audiobooks while at the gym, turning “I should exercise” into “I get to find out what happens next.” Mel adds her own twist at home: when it’s time for family clean-up after dinner, she turns up the music and everyone dances through the chores, Mary Poppins style.
Underneath the fun is serious psychology. When we attach joy to a difficult behavior, we’re more likely to start it, less likely to quit, and more willing to come back again and again. Fun changes how our brain labels the experience, it stops being “pure grind” and becomes “rewarding plus effort,” which is exactly the combination that fuels long-term goals.
Real People Using Fun to Do Incredible Things
This isn’t just lab-coat theory; people doing big things in the real world are using fun as a secret weapon. Milkman’s own Hunger Games gym-buddy participants weren’t elite athletes, yet with the right fun bundle, they trained far more consistently and discovered they actually looked forward to workouts. That’s the same principle you tap into when you refuse to do the dishes without a great playlist or save your favorite podcast only for long runs or hill repeats.
Adventure racers and obstacle course athletes routinely design their training around play: they sign up for themed races, adventure-style events with music and festival atmospheres, or obstacle races that feel like adult playgrounds instead of sterile tests of suffering. Many endurance athletes use costumes, inside jokes with friends, or goofy mid-race rituals (like a “dance break” at a certain aid station) to keep spirits high when the miles and hours start to feel impossible. Even everyday fitness communities build fun into the process with challenges that feel like games, posting daily selfies, competing in step-count battles, or turning weekend hikes, yoga, and gardening into a rotating “fun fitness menu” rather than a strict program.
Seen through that lens, your own strategies, music in the gym, quiet nature hikes, mindful yoga, playful nutrition experiments, are not indulgences; they are evidence-based performance tools. You are already doing what Wharton researchers and top behavior scientists recommend: making the process feel good enough that the hard thing becomes something you’re willing to do again tomorrow.
If you’d like, we can turn your current training block into a “fun map”: specific playlists for different workouts, nature-only days, mindfulness anchors for recovery weeks, and food experiments as mini adventures, so every tough block has a built-in way to smile through the grind.
If you want to learn more about Gavin Mlinar, check out my website: yesyourway.com.
And Don't forget to check out my book: Yes Your Way to Success! Why Don't You?
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