Most people find things fun that are enjoyable in the moment and easy. Pleasures that come with little risk or discomfort. There are a rare group of people that find the accomplishment of a challenge enjoyable. They like type 2 fun. They’re addicted to challenges. They’re challenge junkies.
These challenge junkies are a small but interesting group. They live to accomplish objectives, the harder the better. My best guess is, there are around 50 million people that love this kind of type 2 fun. They’re as a rule extremely motivated - more motivated, I’d say than highly competitive type 1 fun people. Accomplishment is what they are chasing. It is extremely personal and satisfying to them. Type 1 fun that is easy and instantly rewarding is boring to these people.
Challenge junkies tend to be single minded. It might seem like this is a bad quality, but empirically it’s not. Up to a point, focus is the most important quality to have. Extreme focus expands their comfort zone, increasing the size and magnitude of their next challenge. Every objective complete is a stepping stone to the next. The competition isn’t against others, it’s against personal progression. Their single mindedness can be misconstrued as lazy or unmotivated. It’s quiet the opposite. A complete dedication to one’s pursuit is a sign of high intelligence.
People always in pursuit of the next challenge tend to have a positive attitude. They don’t view obstacles as bad things. They actively seek them out for fun. There is a sense of optimism in everything they do. Every obstacle is viewed as a way to get better, to grow, and learn how to conquer the next obstacle. They also tend to not worry about problems unrelated to their next challenge.
I would say the thrill of taking a risk and finding ones limits is what makes challenge junkies most interesting. Challenge junkies find the daily activities of life to be boring - watching TV, playing with a pet, cooking, or going to an all inclusive resort. This makes them socially awkward to most. It also increases the chances they are experts at everything they do, making them far more interesting to be friends with.
Another quality you find in challenge junkies is self motivation. A strong sense of curiosity and adventure drives them to be more disciplined. That discipline is what moves them faster than most towards their objective. They tend be great at setting goals. If they were not good at these things, they wouldn’t enjoy type 2 fun activities.
There is a natural connection between challenge junkies and nature. This is because type 2 fun is unique to certain geographies. The people that like these activities tend to concentrate in cities and towns where access to challenging outdoor activities are prominent. Where I live in British Columbia, you see this everywhere in the little mountain towns like Revelstoke, Squamish, or Fernie. You live there only because of your love for challenging activities.
When you combine all these qualities in sufficient quantities the result is quiet formidable. The most famous examples are RedBull athletes who’s feats are now that of legend. Less famous, but equally impressive are the millions of challenge junkies who are super human in their abilities. People that summit 3000m peaks on weekends. Wild one’s who back country snowboard for 6 hours to ride 2 epic powder lines. People that can pedal a bike up 1500 meters on a Tuesday night after work. These people tend to be great at what they do everywhere in life.
The idea of challenge junkies seems weird to most people even to type 2 fun people. This is likely because of the term “adrenaline junkie”. The confusion being that challenge junkies are not blind risk takers. They don’t seek adrenaline like a drug. They actively reduce risk as a technique to accomplishing the challenge. The accomplishment gives the adrenaline hit, not the risk exposure.
I have good news and bad news for challenge junkies like myself. Good news, your love for taking on a challenge will be a great help to you in life. Not just physically, but in all parts of your life. Your ability to solve problems, your discipline, and sense of adventure will give you an advantage over most of the population. The only thing you need to wield these abilities is focus on a singular challenge.
The bad news is that if not channelled properly, the single minded obsession with type 2 fun will make you intolerable to most of society. You will turn bitter towards others who do not share your interests. You become the grumpy hater of everything that isn’t your obsession. In BC, we call you “Dirt Bags” or “Ski Bumbs”. People that only eat, sleep, talk, and obsess over Skiing, Climbing, or Mountain biking.
How to avoid this fate? Find ambitious projects that are not just physical type 2 fun. Creating a business, starting a not for profit, perfecting an artistic craft. If you succeed at these things you will neutralize the bitterness that comes from the boredom when you don’t do type 2 fun activities. But you don’t need to succeed; merely working on hard things that are not physical will give you the same sense of accomplishment you get from type 2 fun activities.