8 Ways To Have More Fun

I made one resolution for myself in 2026: Have. More. Fun.

No, this is not some kind of corporate SMARTIE goal that can be reviewed in an annual report. I don’t even know if a person could or should put parameters around a goal like this. “Have more fun” is a fully intuition-based resolution, highly personal, and entirely ethereal. The antithesis of what every piece of research says makes for an actual, achievable goal.

And yet.

Just six weeks into the new year and I feel like I have a beacon. A north star. When I drop into decision paralysis or deep frustration, I look up, see “fun” shining somewhere over the horizon, and take one step in that direction.

The success of this resolution will simply be measured by whether or not my soul feels like a lumpy mashed potato at the end of the year. I don’t know how else to explain what NOT having fun feels like.

I can’t give you a coherent map or measurable outcomes for “have more fun,” but I do have a few thoughts on how a person can get closer to it.

1) Grow Toward Fun

Sunflowers are heliotropic, meaning they follow the sun throughout the day. I assumed this phenomenon worked the same way it does for animals—that they just physically turn themselves toward the sun. But plants don’t have muscles. They can’t “move” the same way animals do. Any “movement” a plant undergoes is literal cellular growth. Throughout the day, sunflowers don’t move their bodies toward the sun, they grow toward it.

Sunflower cells are controlled by something called differential growth, which is when cells on the shady side of the plant grow faster than those on the sunny side, which bends the stem in specific directions.

Sunflowers don’t have the luxury of simply turning their big seedy heads toward the sun whenever they want—they have to wait patiently as their cells grow and divide, slowly changing the shape of the plant over the course of the day.

I think having more fun is a lot like being a heliotropic plant. You can’t just race to the fun with quick firing muscles and synapses. You have to grow toward it. You have to help the shady side of yourself replicate and divide more quickly so it can catch up to the sunny side. And you have to do it every single day as the sun changes its position in the sky.

2. Go It Alone

Friends are undeniably fun, but sometimes everyone’s busy or everyone bails and you still have to show up for yourself to make fun happen. If you wait around until everyone’s available, you’ll probably be waiting your whole life to have fun.

3. Stop Consuming Media Where People Aren’t Having Fun

Sometime in 2024, I abruptly stopped listening to the podcast We Can Do Hard Things—a piece of media that had long been one of my favorites. No shade to the show, but every single interview was so HEAVY. And after a couple of years of listening to the three hosts over-analyze their lives in real time and seemingly NEVER make progress toward peace, I dreaded having to learn about some new way people were awful to one another that we never even realized (which is what every episode seemed to be about). No matter who the guest was, I could guess with near perfect certainty what they would talk about (which was usually something about how fucked up we all were, how deep the fuck-upery went, and how long it would take to dig ourselves out of fuck-uped-ness). Layer in too much self-analyzing and hyper-dissection of the psyche and you end up with the hosts picking over their own metaphorical bones like vultures over carrion.

There was nothing fun about listening to this podcast. I felt worse about the world and myself after each episode. The hosts seemed to feel worse about themselves and the world too. And then one day it dawned on me: I don’t HAVE to listen to this.

And I haven’t listened since.

[This is also your reminder that you don’t have to leave mean comments or write an entire diatribe about creators you don’t like. You can just…stop engaging. Whenever you want. It’s that easy.]

Nowadays, I drop a lot of media when I get the feeling the hosts or creators haven’t belly laughed in a while or don’t seem to be finding enjoyment in their lives or just take everything too seriously. I’m exhausted by content that has to be therapy-adjacent to be seen as meaningful. I’m questioning if we really need to learn more dark truths about ourselves, or if we just need to go have some damn fun.

4. Make Expansive Friends

I have a friend who lives across the country—so I don’t get to experience this very often—but every time I’m in her presence, or read a text from her, or just generally think about her, my life becomes more expansive. She’s curious, she pushes past discomfort, and she challenges herself all the time. She cares deeply about the world without navel-gazing. She can feel sad and lost like the rest of us and still joyfully packs her bags for a dive trip to Cozumel.

After two days with her a few summers ago, I walked away buzzing—already signed up for my first scuba course, my first horseback riding lesson, and a fully formed idea for a book. I’ve since gone on 20+ dives, bought a horse, and submitted my book proposal to agents.

And it wasn’t peer pressure that got me there. The way this friend talks about and lives her life is like a great expanding universe filled with infinite possibilities. She makes you feel as though abundance is around every corner (and then, somehow, it is).

Being around her feels fun. Because rather than filling me with worries about everything that could go wrong, she so often asks, “What if everything goes right?”

What if you take a scuba course and you love it? What if you get a horse and he’s an absolute dream? What if you write a book and people want to read it?

There are people who push at their own boundaries with a grin on their face, stretching their world bigger and bigger, and there are people who grab tightly to their boundaries and yank in toward themselves, shrinking into the fetal position.

Life is too short to be around people asking you to shrink. Surround yourself with people who challenge you to an even bigger life.

5. Take Yourself Less Seriously

Take it from someone with clinical anxiety—spending your days dissecting your thoughts will not magically free you from having thoughts. Sure, it’s great to dig into frustrating aspects of your personality and figure out what’s going on from time to time. But if you spend every single day picking yourself and your psyche apart, looking for explanations to everything, you’re going to have an incredibly intense, serious relationship to life and I promise you that will not leave room for fun.

6. Being Comfortable Is Not The Same Thing As Having Fun

Fun requires risk, challenge, confrontation, thrill, and adventure. It’s why we can’t be having fun ALL the time—it would be way too much to take in.

But on the other hand, trying to be perfectly emotionally neutral and have a constantly “regulated nervous system” (or whatever the kids are saying these days), is certainly a way to be perpetually comfortable—and also a surefire way to never have any fun.

Staying home and getting snuggly might feel good (and might really be needed!) but it’s not the same thing as actually having fun. Fun is going to require shedding the fleece blanket and the comfort shows you’ve seen a million times for something a little more daring.

Being comfortable is great, but just don’t confuse it for actually having fun.

7. Don’t Wait For Perfect Conditions

There’s no such thing as perfect conditions. Go have fun and worry about the details later.

For every fun thing I’ve done in life, there’s been a forecast of rain, or wind, or snow, or super cold temps, or super hot temps, or I was a bit sick, or I wanted to be a little stronger, or I wanted more money in my savings account.

If I’d waited for perfect conditions, I never would have learned to ski, mountain bike, scuba dive, or ride horses. I never would have discovered the communities I’ve come to love. I never would have lived where I wanted to live. I never would have built the life I’ve built.

Fun isn’t waiting on perfect conditions and neither should you.

8. Take Risks

Fun happens when outcomes are uncertain. This is why comfort and fun can’t be the same thing. Fun carries a risk of failure, or at least the risk of things not going to plan. Fun is born of unpredictability. That’s what makes it so thrilling.

Our culture, however, is becoming more and more risk-averse. We remake old movies and put out a hundred sequels. We plaster every coffee shop with white subway tile and matte black fixtures. We watch the same five trending videos on TikTok. We’re comforted, but we’re not really having any fun. (This is the foundation of enshitification).

Fun is looking back on the moment with a shit-eating grin on your face, saying, “No freaking way, it all came together!”