Title: What Do You Enjoy Doing? | Psychology Today
Headings: What Do You Enjoy Doing?
Art Markman Ph.D.
What Do You Enjoy Doing?
A challenge can be an enjoyable thing.

Content: Second, some of these activities were being done for extrinsic reasons (the participant had to do them) and others were being done for intrinsic reasons (the participant wanted to do them). An interesting pattern emerged. People generally enjoyed intrinsically motivated activities more than extrinsically motivated activities. For all activities, participants enjoyed them more when they thought they were doing them well than when they thought they were doing them poorly. However, the results for challenging tasks depended on the reason for doing them. For intrinsically motivated tasks (like playing chess or doing a sport) the activity was more fun when it was challenging than when it was not. For extrinsically motivated tasks (like housework or an exam) the activity was more fun when it was easy than when it was challenging. So, what can you do if you want to enjoy life's journey? First, try to focus your life on activities you do because there is something about them you enjoy. Even when there are things you technically 'have' to do (like going to school or going to work), you can try to find elements of them that are inherently enjoyable.