When Life Starts to Feel Like Play Again

If you’ve spent any time in the fitness scene in Bali, you’ll know about the two cults.

Not religious ones: fitness ones.

One lifts heavy things, goes for runs and occasionally throws up after workouts.

The other chases balls around a small court with strange looking rackets.

The first is the CrossFit/Hyrox cult.

The second is the fast rising Padel cult.

Both cults have obsessive followers.

Gyms are a breeding ground for recruitment, where cult members will quietly go to work.

They are full of enthusiasm for their cause and will stop anyone who will listen to explain how joining their cult will change their life.

They will tell you that you will get in great shape, have fun learning something new, can compete with others and join an inner social circle full of like minded people.

After talking to one of them, you can’t help but wonder if you’re missing out.

So you give it a try.

And the next thing you know, you're hooked.

The Padel Cult

Recently, I was recruited into the Padel cult.

It started slowly at first.

"You have to give this a try", turned into a few friendly games.

I instantly got the fun side of it and I could see why people enjoyed it so much.

But I was training for powerlifting and didn't have time to play Padel every day like these other cult members.

I remember thinking, "it must be nice to play games all day, but I've got serious things to do".

It stayed this way for the next 6 months.

I played weekly games with friends, but I still kept myself on the outside looking in.

I was too busy for Padel and too serious about my powerlifting training.

Then, almost out of nowhere, I got obsessed with the game.

I was suddenly playing three to five times per week.

I hired a coach. I began entering tournaments.

Now I'm the one stopping people in the gym to talk about Padel.

Telling everyone they should try it.

Trying to convince all my friends to play.

Without realising it, I’d become a Padel cult recruiter.

My fiancee has also been recruited — partially by me, partially by others.

For her, it was love at first sight and she's as obsessed with it as me.

Not a day goes by where we’re not either playing or talking about Padel.

Just last weekend, I played my first intermediate level tournament — a three day Padel event with all the other cult members.

And I absolutely loved it.

I feel like a child again.

Playing a game for fun.

Trying to win.

Learning something new and being fully immersed in it.

A Different Way to Live

Somewhere in the middle of all this, I had a major insight.

I realised I hadn’t felt this alive, this playful, this me in a long time.

It left me pondering a deeper question: Why does this feel so fun, and most of my life feel so serious?

For most of my adult life, I’ve taken work seriously.

I showed up with discipline.

I put in long focused hours.

I prided myself on my output.

But beneath it all was this unspoken pressure.

To achieve.

To perform.

To prove myself.

There was always something I was chasing.

• Beat the next poker level

• Grow the coaching business

• Get more clients

• Set myself up for the future

It was very much work hard now, have fun later.

Padel interrupted all of that.

It reminded me of something I’d long forgotten: That joy isn’t a reward you earn after the work is done, it needs to be built into the work itself.

When I’m playful, it's easy to convince myself that I’m wasting time

That I'm not pursuing my goals with enough intensity.

When in reality, I’m actually tapping into my best self.

Alan Watts said, “This is the real secret of life: to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realise it is play.”

Naval Ravikant talks about this too.

He says the goal of your life is to get paid to play.

To build a life around doing things that look like work to others, but that feel like play to you.

That line has echoed in my mind for years.

But now, for the first time, I feel it.

My old mode has been effort-heavy, outcome-focused, serious.

My new realisation?

Play isn’t the opposite of productivity — it’s a more creative version of it.

When I’m happy and curious, I think better.

When I’m not trying so hard to prove something, I connect more deeply.

When it feels like play, the results take care of themselves.

So now I’m wondering:

What if I built my life, including my work, around play over productivity?

What ‘Paid to Play’ Looks Like for Me

So what does this actually mean?

It doesn’t mean I want to spend all day playing Padel — although some days, that’s tempting.

It means I want to design my life so that my work feels like a game worth playing.

For me, that looks like building a personal brand around the things I already love to do:

• Thinking deeply

• Writing honestly

• Speaking freely

• Creating transformational content that stirs something real in people

Video feels especially alive for me. When I imagine crafting a message, delivering it with emotion, and hitting record — it feels like I am at my best.

I’m not teaching, I’m expressing.

I’m not marketing, I’m sharing what matters to me.

Even hosting live events and public speaking — the idea of performing, connecting, feeling the room — that could be play for me.

Writing is different.

It's more introspective. Like brain training.

Harder some days, but still meaningful — like carving something slowly out of stone.

But the point is this: none of this has to be heavy.

I’m done believing that meaningful work needs to feel like a grind.

I want to spend my days creating things that feel light, creative, and true to who I am — and get paid because of that, not in spite of it.

That’s what “paid to play” means to me.

Not escaping work, but transforming it.

Not chasing freedom, but living it through the very act of doing what I enjoy.

What If It Was All Meant to Be Play?

I used to think freedom meant escaping work.

Now I’m starting to believe freedom means doing work that feels like play.

Not every moment needs to be joyful.

Not every task needs to light you up.

But maybe, just maybe — we’re meant to spend more of our lives in the game, not just grinding towards the goal.

The question I’m sitting with is this:

What if life isn’t a ladder to climb, but a game to enjoy playing?

That doesn’t mean giving up on ambition.

It means remembering why we started in the first place.

To grow, to learn, to create — and to feel alive doing it.

So here’s my gentle nudge to you (and myself):

• What’s the thing that lights you up effortlessly?

• What's the activity that makes hours disappear?

• What's the part of your day that feels most like play?

And how can you do more of it?

Unapologetically.

Playfully.

Joyfully.

Because maybe that’s the real work.

And maybe that’s where your deepest gifts are hiding.

Adam