Ready for the Quest
NOTES // Chapter One
2:26 // "A coach by both training and nature..."
My coaching training in the theory, skill, and practice of evidence-based coaching comes from The Flourishing Center of New York City. The Applied Positive Psychology Coaching Program (APPC) is recognized by The International Coaching Federation (ICF.) My coaching is based in the principles of Positive Psychology. More about that later in the audio. If you like, you can read more on my website, right here: https://dontwa.it/pops.
The nature part, well that's a whole other book, probably. Next time.
2:57 // "And so I would recommend books..."
I've been working on this list of the books that I most often recommend.
Coach Matt Slaybaugh
I'll keep updating it. A lot of them are referenced in Ready for the Quest, but definitely not all of them.
4:01 // "I really should meditate..."
If you're one of those people, or you're just generally interested in mindfulness, you might be interested in one of these apps I'm about to mention. The Headspace app is what I first used to get started with meditation and it really worked. However, it's not cheap. I've since discovered the Healthy Minds app, which was created by a non-profit. It's free and quite wonderful. Don't let the price fool you into thinking it's sub-par. It's definitely not.
4:23 // "How to do it and how to get it done..."
I have to mention David Allen's classic Getting Things Done. I read it many years ago and it probably saved me & Available Light Theatre from disaster. I vividly (and fondly) remember sitting on the floor in my office with a label maker and a stack of folders, pulling things out of a giant box. It's a wonderful book and Omnifocus is still part of my daily life because it.
Of course, the classic line about GTD that I hear from so many people is, "Yeah, I got that Getting Things Done book – I never finished it." Ha ha ha... ugh.
It would be a perfect companion before or after Ready for the Quest.
Actually - the best version is probably that you start reading Getting Things Done and when he get overwhelmed and stuck (which happens to a lot of people) you move over to Ready for the Quest. Then, later, when you're ready and you need it, you go back to GTD.
5:16 // "...to make a fancy dessert..."
Snacking Cakes by Yossy Arefi. Those desserts aren't fancy, but they never fail.
5:52 // "I wanna play Dungeons & Dragons..."
There are going to be a fair number of references to role playing games and video games and things like that. It's part of what makes this a Matt Slaybaugh joint. What can I say? I have a lot of hobbies, these days, and I enjoy talking about them.
There's not better explanation of role playing games (like D&D) than this →
Deb Shows Jon How to Play D&D.
When people ask me about Dungeons & Dragons, I tend to steer them towards Knave, Shadowdark, and Index Card RPG – all of which capture the flavor of D&D but don't require quite so much parsing of 400+ page tomes. See also: this video.
6:57 // "Achievement Skills"
This is a set of essential skills (from the A in PERMA-V, see below) that will help you do your most meaningful work. Read more here.
Here's a little bit that I cut from this chapter:
We are going to build a system of Achievement Skills. The great thing about building a system is that the processes and techniques you learn in beginning this mission will be transferable and reliable. When it’s time to scale the next summit, whatever it may be, you’ll know what to do, you’ll know how start. Once you've learned this stuff and put it into practice, you'll have it.
In fact, I’d wager that once you learn how to do it, once you finish this quest, you won’t stop there. You’ll wake up everyday, eyes on the horizon, ready for what’s next.
7:10 // "PERMA-V"
- P = positive experiences and emotions
- E = energetic engagement in work and play
- R = relationships that are positive
- M = meaning & purpose
- A = achievement & accomplishment
- V = vitality of mind & body
Here's a good online article about it →
Mark Dlugosz
8:33 // "...techniques and competencies that cooking requires."
I learned to cook (for real) at Kona Bistro, in Oxford, Ohio. I worked there for a couple of years while I waited for my wife, Acacia, to graduate.
Sadly, Kona is no longer there. I particularly enjoyed eating the Smashed Salmon Salad and I enjoyed cooking the pasta dishes. Oh - and the brownies!!! I learned a lot of life lessons (I wrote about one of them.) working in that kitchen. I also learned a lot about leadership from my boss, Tom Eliot. Thank you, Tom, for all of it.
9:24 // "As a coach..."
Did I mention that I'm a coach? If you need a coach, I might be able to help you with that.
I work with all sorts of people. Many of them are going through some kind of transition. Many of them are moving from a structured work place to an unstructured work life. All of them benefit from having a regular, designated time to think and talk about what their dealing with.
Check out my coaching page, please →
Spectral Web Services
9:34 // "Just do it."
Do I need to acknowledge Nike here? Should I? I dunno.
10:40 // "That's my vision..."
Shout-out to Storyforge! Haley Boehning teaches about the importance of having a powerful and clear vision. If you're struggling to tell your story and get everyone on the same page, she's the person to call.
11:04 // "Everyone deserves to have the knowledge, the ability, and the skills..."
Shout-out to Michael Franti and Spearhead.
11:14 // "It's about getting you ready..."
Fun fact: For about a year, the audiobook was called Ready for Action. I couldn't believe that there wasn't already a great self-improvement book with that title. In the end, though, it was a little too generic. I wanted something that felt more like me – a title that was powerful enough to get me out of bed in the morning, know what I mean?
When I thought it was the start of a podcast I called it Coach Matt's Radio Workshop. I'll probably use that for something, sometime.
Other discarded titles include [How to] Do Hard Things and [How to] Make Shit Happen.
11:40 // 🎵 music
This music is called, "Be Good, Margo."
Margo is a tiny Maltipoo (Is there any other kind?) who lives in Yellow Springs, Ohio. She was kind enough to invite me to stay with her on a number of occasions over the last several years. I did a whole lot of the writing and recording and editing (and almost all the music making) for this book in Margo's home. In fact, Margo's been present for more of the making of this book than anyone else. She's a fine creative companion.
I don't remember what Margo was doing when I chose that title. It's dated April 25, 2024. When I went looking for something to use here, I found this little scrap hiding away in a long-forgotten folder. Honestly, I don't even remember making it. It really does sound like, Margo, though. (And you'll hear her voice later in this chapter.)
11:42 // "We're out in a country that has no language / no laws..."
That's Jeanine Thompson (Performer, Director, Creator of New Work, Theatrical Intimacy Director) reading a few lines from the late Adrienne Rich (1929—2012.)
Footnote inside a footnote: (I'm deciding here and now that I'm not going to attempt to write at length about every person who has contributed their voice to this project. [Please accept my apologies, persons. Please know, I love you all.] We would be here for a year or more if I attempted to encapsulate each of these 36 different relationships in pithy prose.)
[Yes, that was a footnote to the footnote inside a footnote.]
These lines are from number "XIII" of Rich's pamphlet, Twenty-One Love Poems (1977.) It's collected in The Dream of a Common Language. For now, "XIII" is online here →
© by owner. provided at no charge for educational purposes
Wow. This poem is so dear to me. I don't know how to express it. I'm moved just hearing it, now. I've quoted it in at least one other project. I'm not going to rank my top five verses, not now. But this would make that list, without a doubt.
My copy of Collected Poems: 1950-2012 sits on a shelf upstairs. It contains a large feather that I plucked from the grass in a magical place called Chimaingo. (More on that much later.)
12:12 // "We are walking, far from home..."
This passage quotes from an Available Light Theatre production, Don Quixote: a pilgrimage, written by Jen Schlueter and directed by me.
And some of what I'm quoting from that play is itself quoting Rebecca Solnit's beautiful A Book of Migrations and Cervantes' Don Quixote itself, Volume 2, Chapter VI.
Also... we saw Iron & Wine in Nashville just before I re-re-re-wrote this chapter so this song was on my mind.
13:15 // "Pure invention..."
Quoting that Adrienne Rich poem again.
13:17 // "Saying a new word, making a new thing..."
This audiobook is, in a very real way, the sequel to the very first Available Light Theatre production, The Absurdity of Writing Poetry, which debuted on June 2 at Kaldi's coffee shop in Cincinnati Ohio as a last-minute addition to the 2006 Cincinnati Fringe Festival. (Thanks, Bruffy!)
It was just me on stage, speaking what was essentially a manifesto. The title of the piece comes from Wisława Szymborska's poem "Possibilities."
I said a lot of these little phrases in that play, while I was sitting on a ladder. Many of them came from The Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers and The Writing Life: Writers on How They Think and Work.
13:40 // "To add to the plus side of the equation..."
I use this all the time. Allllll the time. Here's a little story.
On Saturday, September 15, 2001, Acacia and I traveled from Oxford, Ohio to Chicago for an album release concert at Park West. Kurt Elling was celebrating his third album, Flirting With Twilight. Before the concert properly began, Kurt said a few words. Given the world-changing events of the week it must have seemed helpful to provide some context for doing something as (seemingly) frivolous as attending a jazz concert.
It was a profoundly moving moment and I repeated Kurt's words over and over to burn them into my brain. Later on, some of what he said would become part of the lexicon of BlueForms Theatre Group and then Available Light. Here's what I heard:
We are here, as artists, to increase to the sum total of joy and brotherhood in the room. We want to give expression to the human condition and to add to the plus side of the equation.
Remarkably, he later put his diary entry from that night online and it includes what he actually said, which is a little different from what I remembered. Memory is funny and – in this case – a good writer. You can read his diary here (Scroll down to September 15.) →
And since you've read this far, here's a little more from that night...
As we arrived at the show, I bribed a waiter to get us a table for two overlooking the general admission area where we were supposed to be standing. Acacia thought that was pretty cool. Then, on the way out of the show, we said hello to Kurt and got him to sign a poster. I asked if he remembered playing a show at the College of Wooster a few years back. I was starting to say "I was..." and he finished my sentence, saying "... the piano player! Oh yeah, that was a great show, I definitely remember that." I'm pretty sure that was the moment Acacia decided she was in love with me.
14:33 // "We need you..."
Ellen Lauren of the SITI Company said that to me once, at The Krannert Center in Illinois. (We'll talk more about them later.) It provided a lot of fuel for the fire over the years. So I started saying it to young artists and anybody else who needs encouragement.
14:46 // "Your cheerleader..."
My friend and mentor Artie Isaac wrote a book of poems and essays called Cheerleading: A Little Encouragement. Isn't that just what we all need? I find it a noble calling.
9:34 // "To build a more conscious and compassionate world..."
Welp. It was in the BlueForms Theatre Group mission statement (which John Dranschak and I composed after gathering a ton of ideas from the Group.) And then it made it's way into the Available Light mission statement. And now it's here. I guess it's just what I'm doing.
I find it a noble calling.
15:44 // "Put in work..."
And my work is personal. I'm a workin' person. / I put in work. I work with purpose.
– Yasiin Bey, "Champion Requiem"
18:00 // "Resistance, as described by Steven Pressfield..."
Next chapter, you'll hear a lot more about Pressfield and he's ideas about Resistance, as described in The War of Art.
21:34 // "Let's hear from some of 'em right now."
You can find the full cast list here.
25:56 // 🎵 music
Yes, that is my version of the "resting in a tent" music from the Final Fantasy games. Here it is again...
26:33 // "Installation..."
Dr. Rick Hanson has a lot of great info at his website. For an intro to installation AKA taking in the good you can watch this TedX Talk video or read this article.
And then, when you're hooked, you can get the book on it.
In fact, that video is so great, let's just put it right here.
Dr. Rick Hanson on hardwiring happiness.
28:37 // David Allen Sibley
That's Michelle Schroeder Lowrey reading David Allen Sibley's words.
We're quoting from Mr. Sibley's book What It's Like to Be a Bird.
31:12 // "Five questions to help guide your thoughts..."
These questions are adapted from the "conscious selling" work of Matthew Bloom, to which I was introduced by Emiliya at The Flourishing Center. He doesn't seem to have followed up on it or published it anywhere, as far as I can tell. Matthew – if you're reading this, I'd love to know more, so please get it touch with me.
31:53 // "One of my favorite coaches..."
Finally, I get to talk about Dr. Kelly Starrett! Dr. Starrett is "the #1 expert on the planet when it comes to the intersection of mobility, movement, and human performance."
K-Star appeared on a podcast called London Real in 2013. It was one of those discoveries I made late at night, diving into a rabbit hole as I was learning about the science of movement and mobility for the first time. Amazon dot com recommended I check out a strangely titled book – Becoming a Supple Leopard. It seemed to be a $60 textbook about getting rid of pain (I had plenty, at the time.) and learning to move right. I was intrigued.
A little bit of searching led me to a video of that podcast episode (which doesn't seem to be online anymore) in which a well-built guy about my age was quoting from Dune and saying things like "People have the right to have this information. We feel like we can empower people and what we’re playing for is leading a better life." And he was really, really excited about it!
That video changed my life. Seriously. That one, and the rest of Kelly's work. At the time he was making daily videos under the name MobilityWOD (Check this out.) and teaching all over the place. It wasn't just his work on movement and mobility that changed me, it was also his philosophy about that work. It was a big influence on this audiobook.
(Later he changed the name of his business to The Ready State and I love the correlation between that name and the concept of "state of readiness," which I have long preached about to actors ever since it was taught to me by the SITI Company.)
At any rate... here Kim Garrison Hopcraft reads from Kelly's explication of a quotation from Miyamoto Musashi's The Book of Five Rings. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about that guy.
Miyamoto Musashi (c. 1584 – 13 June 1645) was a Japanese swordsman, strategist, artist, and writer who became renowned through stories of his unique double-bladed swordsmanship and undefeated record in his 62 duels. Musashi is considered a kensei (sword saint) of Japan.
32:43 // "You don't have to get ready, because you already are ready..."
Or, as Bianca Belair puts it, "Stay ready so you don’t have to get ready."
33:44 // "So that you can get through this thing called life."
Man, that sounds really familiar...
Coach Matt Slaybaugh