There are people who genuinely enjoy things that you or I don't find appealing at all.
We can use evidence for the ability to change what we find enjoyment in in the progression from soccer player to soccer manager to soccer fan. The individual who used to love playing the game is injured, ages, or isn't competitive enough to compete and so must turn to either management or being a fan if they are still to find joy in soccer. They are physically unable to enjoy it the way they used to and so adapt.
But, if one can adapt to being a manager after an injury, one can adapt to being a manager before an injury.
Outside of sport, we see the same in labor. Someone working a physically demanding job may find that they cannot compete in the market as their body ages. They must either adapt to become a manager or find some other job that is not as physically demanding. This too is a physically forced transition, but it shows that it is possible and could have been done before the aging.
In both, we find evidence that it is possible to find enjoyment in things that we do not already enjoy. The buddhists say "before enlightenment chop wood carry water after enlightenment chop wood carry water" because you change who you are/what you enjoy rather than what you do. The recognition being that there are things that must always be done: hygiene, food, water, shelter maintainence etc and that it is silly to waste our time hating or finding no joy in these things if it is possible for us to enjoy them.
We know we've got to pump water to drink and chop wood to keep the house warm, why be upset about it?
I guess I am struggling with this concept as a whole, maybe because it’s tied to the passage of time and the idea of stages.
How would you say what you are trying to tell me without those? Or is that the whole point of it lol