The world of work needs more Type 2 fun.

I have learned so much from hiking that applies to my career and the clients I work with.

One of the most important lessons of hiking is that 'fun' can be categorized into three categories:

• Type 1 Fun. Immediate pleasure. My gourmet lunch with friends on Sunday to celebrate two birthdays is one of these experiences.
• Type 2 Fun. Challenging or not entirely enjoyable, but you know at the moment that time will make you proud, make you laugh, or bring some form of enjoyment/ gratification later on. The picture below (more on that soon) shows me hiking through waist-deep water while hiking under big storm clouds.
• Type 3 Fun. It's not fun at the time nor fun to look back on but it might make for a good story. Think of that scene in Jaws or recall when a group of people sat around a table and shared glory stories of the silly injuries they got playing sports or doing stunts as a kid.

A Lesson From Hiking that Applies to Work and Achieving Goals

Before we get to the world of work, let me share a bit more about the photo that led off this post. I know I must look goofy - smiling like a banshee in waist-deep cold water that's rushing around my every side. My glasses are fogged with humidity and my shirt is soaked with sweat.

What you can't see in the photo is that my feet were already soaked and caked in mud from the trail. At the precise moment of this photo, my feet were buried in sludge and sinking deeper as I stood still to take a vain selfie. There are also 1,753,456 invisible mosquitoes flying around my head. There would have been one more but I swallowed it (my 7th this year) a few minutes earlier. Gross.

So why am I smiling a genuine smile?

I've been looking at this particular river crossing for three years. The moment the digital shutter made a make-believe "CLICK", I realized that I was at the deepest part of this crossing and would make it to the other side (the alternative was being forced to retrace my steps). The act of crossing the river wasn't fun - but at this point, I already am looking back at the accomplishment of facing my fear and discomfort and knowing I'm going to make it. This isn't a fake smile for social media - I am having a good time in the middle of an utterly uncomfortable moment.

Hiking is like that. I've hiked over 20 miles (32+ kilometres) twice this summer and regularly walk up and down steep hills for 14 kilometres (88.5 miles) before or after work. The desire to walk down a path has woken me up at 4:00AM and had me walking with a flashlight well after sunset. I walk in the rain and I walk in the snow. I am learning to enjoy walking when I DON'T want to (more on that in a future post).

And my enjoyment is due to embracing type 2 fun. Knowing that the enjoyment and personal satisfaction will easily outweigh the moment's pain I'll get when I look back at that moment.

Before we get to how this applies to work, I want to share something interesting. I've posted hundreds of pictures of my hiking adventures on my personal social media channels for three years. I've received many lovely comments but only five requests to join me on my hikes (from people I know). TWO of the five (40%) requests came after I posted this photo!

We want a challenge. We want stories we can be proud of. We want to be uncomfortable if only to prove we are capable!

Where the World of Work Has it "Wrong."

I am sure that there are many exceptions to this. Still, through experience (both professional and based on stories others share with me in my personal life), our workplaces either eliminate fun or have built a culture that celebrates type 3 fun. As a refresher:

Type 3 fun is not fun at the time nor fun to look back on but it might make for a good story.

Examples of how we celebrate type 3 fun at work:

• We compete with how busy we are.
• We joke about the day being 'awesome', say that we are 'surviving' or use another sarcastic descriptor when asked about our day or week.
• We greet one another with, "Thank God It's Friday."
• We tell people how stressful our jobs are like it's a badge of honour.
• We tell people about our nightmare days or complain about our nightmare bosses or clients.
• We can't wait until a specific project ends to get away from it.
• We complain about how dysfunctional a business, management or our teams are.

We have created environments which often neglect to create, celebrate and reward Type 2 fun.

A Type 2 Test For Leaders and Others

If you have a team, ask yourself, "Do any of my team want my job, or do they think it's a nightmare?"

If you're a team member, ask yourself, " Do people I know want to be part of this team or has my description of it scared them away?"

If your answer is negative, you likely have one of two situations:

• A real problem that needs addressing beyond trying to make it 'fun.' (More on this in the next section)
• An opportunity to transform your current experience into something else.

How Type 2 Fun DOES NOT Apply to Work

Before discussing how Type 2 fun could be applied to work, a word of caution: this isn't about putting lipstick on a pig. Some tasks and some experiences and genuinely horrible.

This isn't about tricking people into thinking a bad job is a good one. Any tool misused will yield bad results and trying to trick people into having 'fun' while doing something with no benefit or fun will be as helpful as trying to clean a window with a hammer. The view will be clear for a while but there will be dramatic consequences later.

How Type 2 Fun DOES Apply to Work

When you and/or your team find yourself in the middle of a challenge in any project, it's possible to refocus your energies on the genuine benefits of a project (assuming, again, there are actual benefits).

Some of the ways you can do that include:

1. Ensure everyone knows, shares and buys-in to the WHY we do this project or task. It is difficult to take pride in the work that we are doing if we don't understand the 'why.' Many project teams jump to the 'what' of a project and tackle known tasks but don't know - or lose knowledge of - the purpose of the project as pressures of time and quality press us. Build a meaningful 'why' into challenging work to make it mean something.
2. Build genuine memories into the experience. In the middle of one of the most challenging projects of my career, the project manager brought orange slices in for the team to share. It wasn't the oranges that made a difference - the leader shared a story of what he learned about being a team player as a child and told a meaningful story about how their soccer coach would bring orange slices to all games and what it meant to be on that team. We each shared a story from our youth that we could apply to the project. Was it cheesy and awkward? Yes, at first. But it changed the tide of that entire project and I remember that one 30-minute meeting 20 years later.
3. Look for - and share - perspective. Take a few moments to chat or write down what you've learned since the start of the challenge at hand. If you're in a group, ask the team to share one thing they've learned about or from the person to their side. When we take a few moments to look at what we are learning, we'll often shock ourselves at how much we've learned and are learning.
4. Celebrate leaving your comfort zones. Growth comes, in part, when we experience new things. Take a few moments to write down (or be vulnerable and share this in a group setting) the uncomfortable moments this project has offered and what you've learned from them. Even mistakes can be celebrated in this format and you'll often find your uncomfortable spots are strengths for others willing to share the load or help you along.

You made it to the end! I'm a human and I'd love to know if you agree or what insight you have to share or glean from this article!

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As a Business Performance Coach, I work with entrepreneurial individuals frustrated by their lack of progress in achieving their goals with a 3-part framework to accelerate their success so that they can grow into their own potential and see their value reflected in their results.