Type 2 fun is an experience that's miserable in the moment but deeply satisfying once it's over — a hard climb, a cold expedition, a brutal training block. It sits on the 'fun scale': Type 1 is fun while it happens (a great meal), Type 2 is fun only in retrospect (the epic you'll tell stories about), and Type 3 is never fun. Growth, meaning and the best memories cluster in Type 2.

Type 2 fun: why the hard thing is the good thing.

Q: Why is type 2 fun good for you?

Because comfort rarely changes anyone. Type 2 fun asks more of you than you thought you had, and the reward is a bigger sense of what you're capable of. For leaders especially, deliberately choosing hard, meaningful experiences builds the resilience, perspective and confidence that ease never will.

The short answer

Type 2 fun is miserable while it happens and meaningful once it's done — the hard climb, the cold night, the brutal push you'll tell stories about for years. Type 1 feels good now; Type 2 changes you. Growth lives in the second kind.

Climbers named it "the fun scale." Type 1 is fun in the moment — a great dinner, a perfect ski run. Type 2 is miserable in the moment and glorious in memory — the summit you swore at, the storm you pushed through. Type 3 is never fun and best avoided. Notice which one produces the stories you actually tell.

Nobody tells the story of the comfortable weekend. The reps that changed you were all Type 2.

Here's why it matters for a leader: comfort rarely changes anyone. The experiences that expand your sense of what you're capable of are almost always the ones that were hard while you were in them. Choosing Type 2 fun on purpose — a real challenge with a real chance you'll struggle — is how you keep growing after success has made your life comfortable enough to stop.

Type 1

Fun now, forgotten soon. Pleasant, not transformative.

Type 2

Hard now, treasured later. Where growth and the stories live.

Type 3

Never fun, no upside. Skip it.

Design some on purpose

Put more Type 2 in your calendar.

The free Mindset Workouts help you choose the hard, meaningful thing on purpose — and a Misogi is Type 2 fun by design. Start with one rep.

Enter the gym — free → Design a Misogi

Straight answers

Why is type 2 fun good for you?

Because comfort rarely grows anyone. Type 2 fun asks more of you than you thought you had, and hands back a bigger sense of what you're capable of — resilience, perspective and confidence that ease never builds.

What's an example of type 2 fun?

A hard alpine climb, a winter survival night, a marathon you hadn't fully trained for, a wilderness expedition. Miserable in the middle, unforgettable after. It's the whole premise behind an experiential immersion like a Shakubuku.