You’ll Never Achieve the Impossible, Ricky Bobby
Go slow to go fast.
Yeah, right!
In 2022, we’re all Ricky Bobbys.
A quick-fix solution to everything is our…well…fix.
In today’s society — where there is something on the market to fix any of our ailments or problems — why would you ever take it slow?
Go slow to go fast!?!
Yeah, right!
Should I Continue Reading?
Ask yourself:
On a scale of 1–10, with 1 being not satisfied at all and 10 being the most satisfied you’ve ever been,
how satisfied am I with my life right now?
If you answered 8 or above, you can stop reading now.
Seriously, this isn’t for you.
But, if you answered below a 7, I invite you to keep reading. And, while reading, consider the role that a quick-fix mentality plays in your life.
Is it encouraging you to expect unrealistic outcomes?
Is it forcing you to focus too much on outcomes and hindering your ability to embrace—and enjoy—the process?
Is it leading to repeated fits and starts?
Go slow to go fast.
While I firmly believe the veracity of that statement, what I’m about to argue is that taking the time to go slow has a much more important outcome than simply going fast.
Taking the time to go slow will drastically improve your overall life satisfaction.
So, Ricky Bobby, it’s time to put on the brakes.
And, well, if you’re an 8 or above, maybe you want to stick around, too—because even your life satisfaction can improve.
From Passion to Purpose to Satisfaction
I’ve been immersed in Steven Kotler’s, The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer. Let’s just say it’s a “go slow to go fast” kind of book.
It’s one of those books you need to study — you need to repeatedly come back to — in order to fully understand the concepts and ideas laid out. It’s a book that holds a lot of value if you take the time to put the ideas and suggestions into action. And, for someone trying to improve life satisfaction by taking things a bit slower, maybe it’s just the book you need to read.
Be warned, though: The Art of Impossible takes work.
Most things in life that are good — long-lastingly good — take work!
But, since I know your time is limited, I want to share with you an activity from the book that, overtime, will seriously alter your overall life satisfaction.
Briefly, here are the steps:
Establish, what Kotler calls, a Massively Transformative Purpose (MTP).
Identify major steps—milestones along the way—to bring you closer and closer to your MTP. Kotler calls these High, Hard Goals (HHGs).
Create daily, small-scale steps—Clear Goals—that incrementally move you closer to your HHGs, which, in turn, incrementally move you closer to your MTP.
Got it?
Off you go, Ricky Bobby.
That’s the nuts-and-bolts of it all.
You can seriously transform your overall life satisfaction by taking the time to establish your MTP, think critically about what HHGs fit into your MTP, and then use both of those to create daily Clear Goals.
How So?
Because it becomes your filtration system.
Life is messy. It’s muddy. There are lots of things to consider. Distractions. Requests. Temptations. Things that you think you’re supposed to do. And, because of this, it makes it hard to say no to certain things.
Having a filtration system — your MTP, which informs your HHGs, which inform your daily Clear Goals — helps you to filter out what is important to take on—what is important to do— and what should fall by the wayside.
In short, with this filtration system you are focused — on a daily basis — on work that matters to your purpose and, in doing so, you’re more likely to tap into flow states.
And flow states have been repeatedly shown to improve wellbeing and life satisfaction.
More on that at a later date.
First…
How the Heck Do I Establish a Massively Transformative Purpose?
Well, for starters, it takes time.
You’re gonna have to go slow!
And, before we jump into the specific steps to develop your MTP, a bit of advice:
When working to develop your MTP, you must remember to…
Because change is hard.
What follows not only takes time, but it will likely force you to change the way you approach your days. And, as humans, we don’t particularly like change. We’re creatures of habits.
So, be kind to yourself.
Kotler provides a 5-step activity:
1. Write down your curiosities.
Write down 25 things that you’re curious about. These are things that — on weekends, in the evenings, or in the early hours before work — you’d read books about, attend lectures on, or even search out experts to deepen your understanding.
In writing down your curiosities, the key is to be specific.
For example, rather than saying: “I’m interested in swimming” I would say, “I’m interested in understanding the necessary techniques and training mechanisms that help make novice adult swimmers more efficient and effective in the water while swimming long distances.”
2. Look for intersections.
Once you have your list of 25 statements, begin to look for intersections withinyour different curiosities. The goal here is to find intersections between 3-4 areas of curiosity.
Finding intersections is a crucial step in this process because it 1) creates energy and 2) taps into something that the brain does at a very primitive level: pattern recognition. When we find patterns, we get a little reward: a dopamine burst. And dopamine is crucial in this process for four reasons:
Dopamine helps us focus better — when we’re focused and engaged, we’re more likely to fall into a flow state, which has oodles of research linking it to life satisfaction.
Dopamine helps to reduce the noise in our environment so that we can find more patterns, which, in turn, leads to additional dopamine bursts.
Dopamine feels good and when things feel good, we’re more driven to seek out more — the experience almost becomes additive.
Dopamine amplifies memory and improves how we learn— transferring information from short-term memory to long-term memory.
By layering curiosities when looking for interactions, you’re automatically increasing your drive to engage in work without feeling like you’re doing the work — you’ll do really important work without feeling like you’re working.
3. Play within the intersections.
Once you’ve identified key intersections among your curiosities, now you get to spend time playing within the intersections.
The key here: you have to take time to play.
I’ll say it again: Go slow to go fast.
This step requires time!
Play within the intersections a little bit at a time on a daily basis.
What does this look like?
Spend 30 minutes a day reading books, watching documentaries, listening to podcasts, surfing the Internet to find out information — do whatever you need to do to add daily fuel to your curiosities.
By playing within the intersections a little bit at a time, you’re continuing to feed pattern recognition — more dopamine — which will increase your motivation and, over time, you will start to develop a bit of expertise in the area.
In short, this step is crucial for you in cultivating a passion.
And passions are wonderful things because they become things that you 1) want to share with others and 2) can turn into purposes.
4. Share your curiosity.
While identifying a passion is key, it’s not enough. It needs to be amplified, and you can best do this by seeking public successes. In other words, you’re seeking positive feedback from others.
Why?
You’re on the hunt for more dopamine. Receiving social reinforcement from others helps to release more dopamine, which, as we know, helps drive motivation.
So, simply start: teach a friend about what you’re learning, have a conversation with a stranger while waiting in line at the grocery store, join a like-minded group, or, heck, start a blog or a newsletter.
Once you feel like you are starting to develop some expertise, start sharing — and then continue to share on a regular basis.
5. Write down a lit of 15 massive problems you want to solve.
Passions are wonderful.
But, passions can be selfish.
So, the key is to transform your passion into a purpose. This is the step where you finally get to develop your MTP.
To do so, get writing.
Step back from your passion and create a list — being specific again — of 15 massive problems in the world that you’d like to solve.
Then, start hunting.
Ask yourself:
Where does the work that I did in Steps 1–4 fit with one of the problems that I’ve identified?
While passions are selfish, purposes are selfless.
In turning your passion into a purpose you’re identiying and develping a rallying cry that will inspire others and attract others to your cause.
So, What’s a Massively Transformative Purpose Look Like?
Well, here’s mine:
Reverse declining life satisfaction and wellbeing in the United States
by guiding people to live purpose-driven lives.
I will do this by:
Engaging in peak performance coaching
Delivering talks and group training to cultivate an interest, understanding,
and desire for people to improve the quality of their livesWriting books that guide people to improve their overall life satisfaction
And, now it’s your turn, Ricky Bobby!
I can’t wait to hear what you come up with!
Go slow to go fast!