CONFESSION: I Haven’t Had “Fun” in Years

In our first three years, I coached 3,531 classes and private clients. Roughly four per day, six days a week, for a thousand days.

I could drone on about doing so to establish culture and consistency, but really, it was selfish. In those moments there was nothing on Earth that I have ever enjoyed more.

It was pure fun.

I wasn’t studying what made a successful gym or coach. I didn’t have to worry about the overhead of three facilities or playing a role in the development a dozen people. It was a series of dopamine-based experiences where fun was at the forefront of what I was doing. I was accountable to very few people, and vulnerable to even less. I was the rich kid with the mansion to himself for the weekend. Free of self-examination and repercussion, I enjoyed every minute of it.

Seven years later, my day looks entirely different. Those to whom I am accountable are many, our gyms and subsequent obligations have tripled, and my exposure to consistency demands are perpetual.

Fun has now become work, in totality, yet I don’t view work in the same light as is commonly portrayed. I love work. I now view why I wake up as an indispensable need and no longer a way to fulfill my wish for fun, which has allowed my respect for the task and contributions to it to grow (at least, I think so). No longer exhausted after coaching everyday, I’m able to apply more of my mental bucket towards research, growth, education, and team development.

What I suppose I am trying to say is, work creates purpose, and purpose is the only way we can achieve the desired sustainability of our pursuits.

If we want our passions to have shelf life, they must be tied to intent. Fun is a drug that requires a daily hit and when the needle runs dry, so too does your fulfillment from the environment. Purpose is everlasting.

It’s true. I haven’t had “fun” in years, and yet, our sustainability is up and I’ve never been more fulfilled.

-Dave