Ready for the Quest

NOTES // Chapter Eight

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Here’s your regular reminder that I am not licensed therapist, psychologist, psychiatrist, or counselor. This stuff is for informational purposes only and should not be taken as medical advice or treatment.

00:30 // "The baseline intention to try..."

We begin with Mark Snyder, quoting Anne Bogart again, from A Director Prepares.

Mark and I recorded a long conversation together, about the book →

2:02 // "The ability to use your willpower..."

Much of this research on self-regulation comes from Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength by Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney.

According to Baumeister & Tierney:

Willpower is what separates us from the animals. It's the capacity to restrain our impulses, resist temptation – do what's right and good for us in the long run, not what we want to do right now. It's central, in fact, to civilization.

3:40 // "Lever of the day..."

This is Ben Jones, playing the role of Cookie Monster. He's reading from my all-time favorite McSweeney's piece →

4:58 // "The Flourishing Center calls self-regulation..."

The Flourishing Center calls self-regulation the secret sauce of "showing up in the world in the way you want to." And they attribute that phrase to Srikumar S. Rao.

Here's a quotation from (page 114 of) Rao's recent book Modern Wisdom, Ancient Roots. It was in Chapter Eleven of this audiobook for a long while, but it got removed, in the end.

Do create and maintain a grand vision and work toward it, because that is your path in life, and it feels right to walk along that path. Your activity will not be driven by ambition if you fully recognize that your reward does not lie in achieving whatever you set out to do. Your gain comes from the effort you put into attaining it. That effort is what produces the learning and the growth and the change in you that is a true blessing.

5:43 // 🎵 music

There's that Final Fantasy tent music again. And you're about to hear (again and again) some sound effects from a couple of old Pokémon video games.

9:46 // "You switch on Carly Rae Jepsen and sing along..."

Remember when I mentioned Carly earlier, and I said "there's one song of hers that is precious to me?" There it was, for just a moment. In case you didn't listen earlier, I'll just paste it in here.

13:20 // "If you wanna work through some serious FFTs..."

Remember those Effing First Times?

17:08 // "Between intending to do it and actually doing it..."

That's Jaylene Jennings (who was the stage manager and fourth collaborator on Remain in Light) quoting Jessica McCabe, who wrote the book How to ADHD and has a fabulous YouTube channel of the same name.

Here's Jessica's video about Motivation Bridge →

I am one of the people dealing with ADHD. I found that out just a few years ago and it has been a revelatory and mostly positive experience. If you're ADHD-curious, about yourself or somebody else, please check out this page I made →

17:53 // "If there's anything fundamental about our nature..."

This is Adam Humphrey, Managing Director of Available Light Theatre, reading from Daniel H. Pink's book Drive. One of the great features of this book in Part Three, which Pink calls a Toolkit. It includes seven sets of questions and suggestions and resources for individuals, companies, parents, educators, and more. (And there's a lot of overlap between his reading list and mine.)

18:37 // "In the 1980s, Edward L. Deci and Richard Ryan wrote a book..."

I read the title backwards, it's actually Intrinsic Motivation and Self Determination in Human Behavior. That book is exceedingly expensive these days.

However, Daniel Pink recommends Why We Do What We Do: Understanding Self-Motivation, which Deci wrote ten years later with Richard Flaste, so that's probably a better resource if you want to read more.

20:06 // "I could be takling here about any number of my favorite musicians..."

Here's that list in case you want to dig further:

Sonic Youth
Lou Reed
Beastie Boys
Talking Heads
Fugazi
Sleater-Kinney
R.E.M.
Miles Davis (late 60s quintet or 1970s bands)
Blood Incantation

20:50 // "I listened to 'Bird Song' all morning..."

Here's a great version of "Bird Song" from 1972.

And here's one from 1973.

23:26 // "Let's talk about the Grateful Dead..."

Most of what I learned about the Grateful Dead came from three places.

Long Strange Trip. The four hour, 2017 documentary, directed by Amir Bar-Lev.
No Simple Highway: A Cultural History of the Grateful Dead by Peter Richardson.
Cornell '77 by Peter Conners.
So Many Roads by David Browne.

24:55 // "When we belong it has a profound, positive impact..."

Social support is a big part of motivation that most of us, it seems, ignore. In this case I'm not just talking about a general feeling of love and support in your life, I'm talking about love and support around the very specific goals you're pursuing, actions your taking, and tasks you're trying to complete.

I already had a lot of love in my life, but when I was starting my coaching business I gained a lot of significant support by joining a professional peer group. Going solo is tough, but it's a lot easier when you don't feel like you're going it alone.

Now zoom in to the task level. If you've got some spreadsheets to parse, and it's a job only you can do, and no one's going to help you do it – wouldn't it be less onerous if you had someone to talk to about it for a minute? Just hearing a friend say, "That sounds really tough. Good luck, I'm rooting for you." can create a powerful wave of motivational energy.

I know it's not the usual thing to ask our friends to support us in this way, but maybe you could change that. I bet they'd appreciate it, too.

And hey – You, yes, YOU, reading this right now – I'm rooting for you.

25:01 // "We didn't invent the Grateful Dead..."

That's Kim Garrison Hopcraft speaking the words of the late, great Jerry Garcia.

32:40 // "Robert Brisk, an educator with forty years of experience..."

I love this talk. It's super useful and super funny, too.

34:29 // "Once source of frustration in the workplace..."

That's Adam Humphrey again, quoting Daniel Pink's Drive.

36:30 // "To meet and overcome Resistance is a heroic act..."

That's Mark Snyder, quoting from my favorite Anne Bogart book again.

37:07 // "If you need help clarifying your goals..."

There are several options for you in the notes for Chapter Seven.

22:13 // "Lever of the day..."

There's my old friend Matt Hermiz, quoting Steven Kotler's book, The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer.

That was the first book that came out and made me think, "This guy's about to eat my lunch!" There's some overlap, but obviously, I still felt like the world could us this one.

Kotler has another book, The Rise of Superman, which is about flow. If you tried read one of Csikszentmihalyi's books but found it difficult to get through, you might want to check out The Rise of Superman. It's pretty fun.

40:21 // "...when I see a certain t-shirt that my wife wears..."

Here's that shirt from Compete Every Day →