Ready for the Quest
NOTES // Chapter Ten
📓 And here is the official Coach Matt // Ready for the Quest Practice Planner worksheet →
00:29 // "Its begins as a lump in the throat..."
This is from a recording of our the 2006 production of The Absurdity of Writing Poetry, in Columbus, Ohio. As I've mentioned previously in these notes, that show, which I wrote and performed, was the first Available Light Theatre production.
That quote about "a lump in the throat, a homesickness" is a well-known Robert Frost quotation.
The sound design here is by Dave Wallingford (though I added the birds for this presentation.)
2:03 // "The reason we're not living up to our potential..."
That's Kim Garrison Hopcraft, reading from The Art of Impossible by Steve Kotler.
2:35 // "I begin each day of my life with a routine..."
There's John Dranschak again, he's reading from Twyla Tharp's book The Creative Habit. Lovely title. Lovely book.
Here's a video from PBS's American Masters documentary about Tharp. In this we get to hear from David Byrne and see some footage from The Catherine Wheel (1981.)
3:13 // "Jan Stanley put forth some really useful definitions..."
Here's Jan Stanley's article from MAPP Magazine →
Jan Stanley (C’10)
5:01 // "CrossFit Games athlete Katrín Davíðsdóttir wore pearls..."
A native of Reykjavik, Iceland, the former gymnast and track athlete took 30th in her first Games appearance in 2012 after less than a year of CrossFit, improving to 24th in 2013. Famous for recouping her mental strength after a devastating event at the 2014 Europe Regional sidelined her from the Games that year, she returned in 2015 with an improved focus and took the title of Fittest Woman on Earth. Now living in Natick, Massachusetts, she proved it was no fluke with a repeat victory in 2016.
Here are some highlights from those 2016 CrossFit Games →
5:52 // "You are most at peril of turning back..."
John Dranschak again, reading The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp.
6:22 // "Steve Nash, eight time NBA all-star..."
Observe →
7:04 // "A whole book of examples..."
Here's that book, Mason Curry's Daily Rituals: How Artists Work. The people I mentioned are:
7:36 // "I rise sometime between 6:00 and 6:30..."
This is Matt Hermiz doing a magnificent job bringing life to B.F. Skinner's words. Note how proud he is of breakfasting alone and reading "The Globe."
8:45 // "Writers all devise ways to approach that place..."
Ben Jones is quoting Toni Morrison from Curry's Daily Rituals book. Apparently, she spent the 1970s and 80s working in the evenings, but at some point in the 90s she switched to early mornings.
7:36 // "It's not just the writers..."
These are the folks mentioned here:
A quick plug for Rick Rubin's podcast, Tetragrammaton. He has very interesting guests. A surprise favorite for me was the episode with John Mayer. John Mayer is (I think it's fair to say) a genius guitar player. He's also written some hits and for the past decade he's been a part of Dead & Company, a hugely popular Grateful Dead cover band that happens to feature several members of the Grateful Dead.
Tetragrammaton
Listening to this episode, I found out that John Mayer is the real deal. Here's a part that I really love.
John: It’s not about how you’re doing when the spirit’s in the room. How will you survive on the scraps [that come between the moments of brilliance] long enough that the next moment of magic will show up?
Rick: Sometimes you have to show up and make something happen, and sometimes you have to make something bad happen to get to the good.
John: You’re a great writer if you can drive home with the radio off, knowing that you didn’t get it today, and you can shake it off. Like a great basketball player who didn’t win the game. And wake up the next day and say, “let’s hit it, let’s go again.”
I actually wrote about this but I haven't published it anywhere yet. I'll do that soon, and then I'll come back here and add a note about it.
10:10 // "According to Alison Wood Brooks and her team..."
Well, this is certainly interesting. Some of this information may be dubious.
One of my assumptions here – that enacting rituals decreases anxiety – is based on the work of Alison Wood Brooks (Associate Professor, Harvard Business School) and her team, which was published in 2016 in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.
However, in the issue of the journal dated November 2024 (the month that Ready for the Quest sees its release) they have published a retraction.
The Editor-in-Chief was contacted by the author team following a self-initiated review of the data reported in this article. In their request, the authors noted that, after an audit into their data, they no longer have confidence in the integrity of the data. The authors requested a retraction after identifying issues across several studies.
There's not any info that helps me make much of this. It's certainly unfortunate that their data was unreliable, for whatever reason. I do not, however, think this entirely invalidates their ideas. Most important, as always, is your own experience. I, myself, do find that a good ritual helps calm my nervous system. If you, too, find that to be true, then it doesn't matter what this research does or does not prove.
10:57 // "I put on my lucky work boots..."
There's Acacia Duncan, reading The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. This is from the very beginning of the book, a section titled "What I Do."
11:56 // "Hijack that big, meaning-making brain..."
During the writing and recording and editing of this book, I have had a ritual. Before I start to work, I draw a card from the Spirit Speak Tarot Deck, created by Mary Elizabeth Evans.
I'm not especially into tarot, but I love this deck. It has simple-but-funky, black and white illustrations. And it came with a helpful, handwritten pamphlet which provides optimistic interpretations of the cards. We've had some very meaningful days together.
During one of the last big pushes on the project, I was working in Yellow Springs, and I brought with me a different deck. This one is by Jessica Lei Howard AKA The Forager's Daughter.
I love this deck, too. In fact, one of the cards I drew during that last, very difficult push, was the Ace of Swords. I love the art so much, and it held so much meaning for me, that I've now got a print of it hanging in my home.
So, as I said, I'm not actually that into tarot. I'm not getting readings or anything like that. But I like thinking about a problem or just asking "What should I focus on today?" and then pulling a card. I read the interpretation. and consider the implications and it helps me set aside the day and transition into the state of mind I need to work. And, my brain loves to make meaning, tell stories, and find connections, so nine times out of ten, it seems like the card I've drawn really does have something to to say that's relevant to the moment. Sometimes, very relevant.
22:13 // "I'll be referring mainly to these three book..."
- Wendy Wood – Good Habits, Bad Habits
- Katy Milkman – How to Change
- James Clear – Atomic Habits
14:05 // "We forget nearly half of the information we've learned..."
This is Brant Jones, quoting from Katy Milkman's book.
19:02 // "To our conscious minds, such a small distance..."
This is Artie Isaac, reading from Wendy Wood's book.
20:15 // "One of my favorite cookbooks..."
Melissa Joulwan wrote these three fantastic cookbooks. They are paleo recipes, and we do not follow a strict paleo diet. But there's something about the smart structure and no nonsense nature of these books that has us reaching for them again and again. They are reliable. Also - the food is delicious!
22:28 // "I only get to wear my favorite cowboy hat..."
That's my version of the very famous theme by composer Ennio Moricone. It's from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, directed by Sergio Leone.
23:25 // "Doing the right thing is often unsatisfying..."
This is Brant Jones, quoting the section on temptation bundling from Katy Milkman's book.
25:02 // "John a culture where your desired behavior is the norm..."
This is Elena M. Perantoni, reading from James Clear's book.
25:15 // "People like us do things like this..."
That's what Seth Godin says!
Go there for a short essay (the PDF) about a big idea.
25:46 // "You might start a habit out of motivation..."
This is Elena M. Perantoni, reading from James Clear's book.
26:49 // "A drawer full of Rogue Fitness t-shirts..."
We used to live just a few blocks from Rogue (their older, smaller facility) – so I do, actually, have a drawer full of Rogue Fitness t-shirts.
27:10 // "Step one: Decide the type of person you want to be..."
This is Elena M. Perantoni, reading what is perhaps the best quotation in the entire audiobook. It's from James Clear's book.
27:22 // 🎵 music
I haven't mentioned this specific music cue yet, the one you hear when we're talking about Mastery Experiences.
It's my version of the "Get Deluxe Item" music from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. You hear this in the game when you've discovered or earned something exceptionally special.
I imagine that if you heard something like this in real life, whenever you learned something significant or "leveled up" a skill, you'd want to do that way more often.
28:31 // "Naw ma'am, I can't accept yer money..."
Actually, I don't know if any of John Wayne's characters ever said that. Isn't it funny how I have that archetype in my head, though? I bet if we traced it back to my childhood we'd find out it actually came a parody on Sesame Street or The Muppet Show.
This is kinda like how I first learned a bunch of Rolling Stones songs from "Weird Al" Yankovic.
29:05 // "I've come up with a short list of rules for rewards..."
These rules synthesize the info in these three books:
- Wendy Wood – Good Habits, Bad Habits
- Katy Milkman – How to Change
- James Clear – Atomic Habits
30:08 // "Uncertain rewards matter most..."
For more on random rewards, specifically the dark side...
Michael Easter (author of Scarcity Brain) is featured on this episode of The Ready State podcast →
If you listen, you'll come to understand the phrase, "Seeking behavior / random rewards." And then your life will never be the same.
And you may wish to supplement with this article →
Michael Easter
30:35 // "Right now I'm using something called a Slackblock..."
Balance is power!
The Slackblock is the first product on this page.
31:28 // "Habits are built in the moment, from our experience of pleasure..."
This is Artie Isaac, reading from Wendy Wood's book.
32:49 // "All preferred working states..."
There's John Dranschak, reading from Twyla Tharp's book The Creative Habit.
33:48 // "Can you teach creativity..."
This is Ben Jones, quoting Artie Isaac. (Fun fact: They both went to Yale!) I've heard Artie talk about this topic many times. He wrote about it here →
Artie Isaac
33:19 // "Artie and I used to talk about renting a little Airstream trailer..."
Holy moly! Somebody did this.
22:13 // "The myelin in your mind doesn't deteriorate from disuse..."
It does, however, begin to deteriorate in middle age, like the rest of you. The good news is that even as that myelin is begin to break down, you still have the capacity to create new myelin, so you don't have to lose all the progress you've made.
If you like, you can read more here →
*Correspondence: robert.hilldartmouth.edu
and here →
Alan Peters
37:58 // "You're ready for action, let's go!"
Did you hear it? Ready for Action used to be the name of this audiobook, and there are vestigial traces of that title throughout the audio.
38:38 // "When we set out to make our own happiness..."
This is my ol' buddy John Michael Holmes quoting from a book by Jane McGonigal, It's called Reality is Broken.
I also really like what McGonigal has to say about the ways in which video games teach optimism. When I finally write my long piece about Dark Souls, this will be central to my praise of the series.
Learning to stay urgently optimistic in the face of failure is an important emotional strength that we can learn in games and apply in our real lives. When we're energized by failure, we develop emotional stamina. And emotional stamina makes it possible for us to hang in longer, to do much harder work, and to tackle more complex challenges. We need this kind of optimism in order to thrive as human beings.
Fun fact: Jane McGonigal has an identical twin sister name Kelly McGonigal. She wrote a great book called The Joy of Movement.
40:36 // "Your last lever of the day..."
Here's that worksheet →
I hope it's helpful. If you have questions or concerns, please let me know.
Coach Matt Slaybaugh