Well sure life is like that- also, most Simulation and Strategy video games. Learning a language. Many jobs. And so on.

But the idea here is to make something dull interesting, or make something hard fun, or make something normally odd habitual.

Also, and this is key, to give a reason to keep doing something stupidly long and single minded, that it can be done better. A 'lesser' example is that I can walk treadmill, it is dull, but by playing a sufficiently difficult video game during (to "flow") the time flies by and I can walk faster without any extra will.


To close with a direct question:

What methods can build mental pain and pleasure?