How To Build a Life Where Work Feels Like Play

I shared this online the other week, and it resonated with a few thousand people:

“The goal is combining art, work, and play into a single masterpiece you call your life. Figuring out how to pursue your natural curiosity and solve problems in a way you enjoy and the world rewards you for. It won’t be easy, but I can’t imagine a better mission to pursue.”

I think it’s because for most of us, these three things live in separate boxes.

Work pays the bills. Play happens on the weekends. And art, the thing we used to make just because we wanted to, got abandoned somewhere in our early 20s.

The first time I saw someone actually combine all three was a few years ago, when I joined a mastermind.

The guy hosting it had over a million followers online, had bear crawled a marathon, and was the co-founder of an 8-figure supplement company.

About 50 of us were at his ranch for one of the events.

We did a workout with a trainer who trains some of the best UFC fighters, listened to a talk from a guy running a local 8-figure business, ate good food, competed in some activities, and finished in the sauna and cold plunge.

Sitting in the sauna that day, I realized this whole thing was his side thing. And it was grossing 7 figures a year.

Bringing people together like this was both play and an art form for him, and he was getting paid well for it.

Some people might shrug this off and say he got “lucky.”

I was inspired.

It made it clear to me this way of life was possible.

And spending time with him and the others there reminded me no one was inherently “special.”

They’d just found something they enjoyed and were doing it to the best of their abilities.

I’ve been thinking more about this idea this week because the NBA season started, which had me thinking about the life of a pro athlete.

They’re paid millions of dollars to play a kid’s game.

Almost all of them are living out a dream they had as a kid.

They’ve combined their art, work, and play into a single mission, and they’re rewarded handsomely for it.

Yes, they’re incredible at what they do.

But what they have is the ultimate goal: a vehicle that lets you tap into all three and strive for greatness.

The catch with the NBA is you have to be one of the best 450 people on the planet at your thing.

For the rest of us, the internet is the best vehicle for this.

If you make art, you can document your process and attract people to what you’re creating.

If you’re obsessed with fitness, or business, or gardening, you can share what you’re learning and turn yourself into a magnet for others who care about it too.

Shaan Puri shared something his trainer once told him: “the best product is often just you, pushed out to the world.”

What I believe this means is the people who win online are living their brand.

They’re obsessed with something and pursue it in a way that attracts people to their mission, and through that they solve problems for others and get paid for it.

That’s the underlying piece of making this work: building a brand around yourself, your values, and your expertise.

When I set out to do my own thing 2 years ago, I didn’t really know what form it would take.

I knew I wanted to write, create, and share, and I figured if I got good at doing that online I’d be able to build whatever I wanted.

I looked at writing as my vehicle, my daily lever, my “work” that was actually “play.”

A way to attract people to my world, my values, my interests, and to explore my natural curiosity and solve problems in a way I enjoy.

Yes, I had to achieve things offline to give me credibility and to have unique experiences and stories to pull from, so I wasn’t just an armchair philosopher.

But I distilled it all down to writing, which if you think about it is the foundation of marketing, sales, persuasion, and communication.

The way I get paid for this now looks like helping founders build their own brands and hosting retreats around the world for creative, ambitious people.

But this is only possible because of everything I’ve done to become the person who can help others.

I share my ideas freely and help others filter through the noise to figure out what makes them different and how to attract people to their own mission.

And because I’ve built up a group of people who know, like, and trust me, I can keep evolving and follow my curiosity into whatever comes next.

Now you might be thinking, “Eric, won’t turning the things I love into the way I make money ruin them for me?”

It’s a fair point. I do think turning your hobbies and play into work can ruin them if you don’t approach it the right way.

If you put all the pressure in the world on making it work in an unrealistic timeframe, you can make yourself miserable and grow to hate the thing you once loved.

But if you take the long-term view, and think 5 to 10 years out, you can start walking the path to make this a future reality.

Burning the boats will likely stress you out, both physically and financially, but even if you can only start with 30 to 60 minutes a day, the progress will begin to compound.

Writing was my foundation.

I figured if I did it every day for an extended period of time, focusing on getting 1% better each day, over the long term I couldn’t fail.

The goal each day was simply to write and attract people to my mission, and I knew long term the results would take care of themselves.

The guy hosting that mastermind did the same thing.

Before the ranch, the supplement company, or the events, he spent years getting in great shape, bear crawling a marathon, and making fitness content because he loved it.

The play came first. The leverage came later.

Like I said up top, it won’t be easy.

But think about you in 5 years, waking up and doing your thing. The thing others think of as work, but feels like play to you.

I don’t know what your thing is, but it’s a good thought experiment for you on this lovely Saturday.

What vehicle could you tap into that lets you combine art, work, and play into a single masterpiece you call your life?

Hit reply and tell me. I read every one.

Rooting for you.

-Dodds

(P.S. At the beginning of October I opened 5 VIP consulting spots and we sold out. I’m heads down over the next few weeks with the founders who chose to invest in themselves, but if you want to know when I open spots next, get on the VIP waitlist here.)