Fun Is Actually a Wealth Strategy. Here’s Why You Don’t Believe That Yet.
Fun is threatening when your identity is built around earning your worth.
Because if joy creates results, then what happens to the story that says you have to suffer for success?
Early on in our lives, we were taught that hard work = being worthy, pressure = productive, and sacrifice = success.
Success became associated with stress, effort, and proving ourselves. And while discipline absolutely has a place, many of us took it too far. That’s why when something feels fun, easy, or playful, we unconsciously distrust it.
Which raises an interesting question:
If fun is so effective, why are so many of us convinced that success has to hurt?
Why High Achievers Struggle With Joy
Many women believe:
If it’s easy, it doesn’t count.
They have a natural gift for coaching, writing, speaking, leading, creating, or connecting with people. But because it comes easily, they assume it can’t possibly be valuable.
If it’s fun, it’s frivolous.
They spend years dreaming about writing a book, starting a business, moving somewhere exciting, learning to surf, taking an improv class, or doing something that lights them up.
But because it sounds enjoyable, they convince themselves it’s irresponsible.
Meanwhile, they’ll gladly spend twelve stressful hours perfecting a PowerPoint presentation because suffering feels productive.
If I’m enjoying myself, I’m not being productive.
So they spend an afternoon laughing with friends, reading a book, sitting in the sun, taking a walk, surfing, or doing something that genuinely nourishes them. Then, they go home feeling guilty.
Pressure often comes from fear: fear of failure, fear of judgment, fear of not being enough, or fear that if we stop pushing, everything will fall apart.
But pressure doesn’t always improve performance. Sometimes it just makes us miserable.
And when we’re miserable, we’re less creative, magnetic, connected, effective, and less of who we really are.
Who benefits from that?
I didn’t fully understand the connection between success and joy until I visited Weekuri Lagoon in Sumba, Indonesia.
A few weeks ago, I talked about how I quit my Corporate America job by embodying the identity of someone who quits their job and starts their own business (The Secret to Making Scary Decisions Without Knowing If They’ll Work Out).
After nailing the logistics to Sumba after a cancelled flight, I had a magical time surfing and exploring. One day, I decided to take one of the resort’s bicycles to the lagoon.
I pulled up to the lagoon’s dirt parking lot and immediately, upon resting my bike against a tree, a small group of young local boys who seemed to be around 8–10 years old ran up to me. Like, they were literally running and excited to see me.
One boy was clearly the leader, and he offered to hold my bag and phone, and declared in his broken English that they were going to be my guides for the lagoon. I immediately understood that they would be expecting monetary compensation for this, but that was not their energy at all.
They were excited, having fun, and genuinely wanted to guide me.
The lead boy taking pictures and videos was maybe 7 or 8 but was treating it like a professional photo shoot: climbing fences, instructing me how to pose, telling me I looked beautiful, and hyping me up before I jumped off a high platform into the lagoon.
My phone almost overheated because he was so overzealous with the videos. I had to jump off the ledge a second time because he didn’t get the video the first time, but I didn’t give a shit because their energy was contagious, and I was having so much fun.
When we were done, instead of going off to their next customer, they brought me a coconut, macheted off the top, and chatted with me while I drank my coconut, telling me about how they are studying English, photography, and other skills for the lagoon. And then they escorted me to my bicycle.
Never once did they ask for money or give off desperate vibes about it. Obviously, I tipped them well because I was so impressed by the hustle.
But what struck me most wasn’t their hustle.
It was their energy.
These boys weren’t desperately trying to squeeze money out of me. They weren’t treating me like a transaction. They weren’t worried about whether they were qualified enough to be guides, whether their English was perfect, whether their photography skills were professional enough, or whether they were worthy of being paid.
They were having fun, excited, and fully expressed, and as a result, they were magnetic. They were the best tour guides I have ever had because of the fun experience that they created. I don’t even really remember much about the lagoon itself because all I remember is their energy.
Watching them reminded me that children don’t wake up wondering if they’re qualified enough to have fun, and they don’t ask whether they’re worthy of joy. They simply participate in life.
Until someone teaches them not to.
Many of us grew up in homes where love, attention, praise, or safety felt conditional. We learned that being responsible was more important than being joyful, and achievement was more important than fulfillment.
And eventually, those lessons become our identity. We start believing things like:
“I have to earn rest.”
“I have to earn joy.”
“I have to earn abundance.”
“I have to earn my worth.”
And that’s also where many money problems come from.
Because if you believe you have to earn your worth, money stops being a tool and starts becoming a scorecard. You feel guilty spending it, don’t feel worthy receiving it, undercharge, overwork, and burn yourself out proving something.
And people who are busy earning their worth rarely feel safe receiving abundance.
The irony is that some of the most abundant people I’ve met aren’t treating life like a never-ending self-improvement project. They’re the ones who trust themselves enough to enjoy and celebrate their lives. Joy is the strategy for success.
So, what’s the solution?
Start paying attention to what lights you up.
Not every hobby needs to become a business. But joy is information.
The things that energize you, excite you, make you lose track of time, and make you feel more alive are clues. They’re pointing you toward the version of yourself that exists underneath all the conditioning.
Because success was never supposed to feel like punishment.
We’ve just spent so long associating struggle with worthiness that we’ve forgotten life is allowed to feel good.
The boys at that lagoon weren’t trying to prove anything. They were simply showing up fully expressed, fully present, and fully alive. And somehow, abundance found them anyway.
Maybe that’s the lesson: remembering that you are already worthy of feeling good in your own life.
And that’s how you become a magnet for abundance.
Glow Tip:
This is something simple you can start implementing in your day-to-day life.
The Sumba boys didn’t wait until they were qualified, polished, or perfect to show up and enjoy themselves. They had energy. They showed up fully, joyfully, and without a single thought about whether they were qualified enough to deserve what came next.
And they were the most magnetic people in the room.
This week, try doing the same thing in one small area of your life.
Find one thing that genuinely lights you up (not what “should” light you up, not what looks productive, not what you’ll allow yourself to enjoy after you’ve finished everything else) and do it.
Dooooo eeeeeet!
Not the perfect version. The fun version.
And it doesn’t have to be a whole planned production. Put on a song and dance for 10 minutes. Sing in the shower. Walk barefoot in the rain.
Then notice what happens in your body when you let yourself enjoy it without immediately justifying it, minimizing it, or pivoting to the next thing on your list.
Joy is not the reward for doing the work. Joy is part of the process.
And every time you let yourself experience it without guilt, without apology, and without earning it first, you are sending your nervous system a message that abundance is safe and that good things are allowed to stay.
And that’s what it means to shine from the inside.
Have You Ever Driven the Same Route to Work so Many Times That One Day, When You Needed to Turn a Different Way, You Turned the Usual Way Anyway?
That’s autopilot. And that’s exactly how money stories work.
You can keep blaming your bank account on the economy, your boss, your spending habits, your childhood, Mercury retrograde, or the price of eggs. Or you can finally identify the subconscious story that’s been making your financial decisions for years.
The Money Story Rewrite is a 3-day live Zoom masterclass where we do something most money programs never actually do: we go underneath the surface. Not budgeting tips. Not manifestation journaling. Not another chapter of Think and Grow Rich.
We rewrite the subconscious stories that have been running your bank account on autopilot since before you were old enough to know money was something you could have a relationship with.
Here’s how we do it:
✦ Day 1, July 7th: We identify and rewrite the stories blocking you from receiving money, opportunities, and abundance.
✦ Day 2, July 8th: We rewrite the stories blocking you from keeping money, because receiving is only half the equation.
✦ Day 3, July 9th: Live hot seat coaching! I get my eyes on YOUR specific story (like,“My mom used to tell me we couldn’t afford dance lessons, but somehow there was always money for my brother’s hockey equipment. So now I believe I’m not worth spending money on.”) and we rewrite it together in real time. My private clients pay thousands for this level of proximity.
📍 Live on Zoom · ⏰ 4–5pm EST · 🎥 Replays available if you can’t make it live
And because I want to reward the women who show up, every live session you attend enters you to win a VIP 60-minute 1:1 Signature Glow Session with me ($380 value). The more days you attend live, the more chances you have to win!
This is not a course you buy and never open. This is you, in the room, doing the work, walking out different from how you walked in.
Your next level is not waiting for you to read another book. It’s waiting for you to rewrite the story.
Because if information alone changed lives, you’d already be wealthy.
While others continue repeating the same financial habits year after year, you are going to stop, look underneath the surface, and rewrite the story.
If you’re ready to become the woman who confidently receives, circulates, and grows money, I’ll see you inside The Money Story Rewrite.
We don’t play small anymore.
With Love & Fire,
Angie
https://www.innerglowbyangie.com/
Angie Hawkins is The Inner Glow Coach who helps successful-on-paper women rewrite the money stories that have been costing their voice, visibility, and earning potential so they can show up as the woman who knows exactly what she’s worth and finally create a life that feels as good as it looks.
Through her signature GLOW Method, Angie combines money story rewriting, identity work, practical money strategy, and real-time action to help women stop playing small, use their voice with confidence, and become the kind of woman who naturally attracts more money, opportunities, visibility, and fulfillment.
She is the author of Running in Slippers, a raw and vulnerable memoir about finding resilience after emotional rock bottom.
Angie has moved from Chicago to Hawaii on her own, jumped out of a helicopter and into the ocean Navy SEAL-style, bungee jumped, skydived, and cliff jumped, yet is still terrified about allowing herself to be seen.
