The Jane Goodall of Excellence

The Meaning and Aim of Deconstructing Excellence:

(1) Talent is a useless concept. Varying conceptions of natural ability (“talent,” e.g.) tend to mystify excellence, treating it as the inherent possession of a few; they mask the concrete actions that create outstanding performance; they avoid the work of empirical analysis and logical explanations (clear definitions, separable independent and dependent variables, and at least an attempt at establishing the temporal priority of the cause); and finally, such conceptions perpetuate the sense of innate psychological differences between high performers and other people.

(2) Excellence is a qualitative phenomenon. Doing more does not equal doing better. High performers focus on qualitative, not quantitative, improvements; it is qualitative improvements which produce significant changes in level of achievement; different levels of achievement really are distinct, and in fact reflect vastly different habits, values, and goals.

(3) Excellence is mundane. Excellence is accomplished through the doing of actions, ordinary in themselves, performed consistently and carefully, habitualized, compounded together, added up over time. While these actions are “qualitatively different” from those of performers at other levels, these differences are neither unmanageable nor, taken one step at a time, terribly difficult.

The Greatness Formula

Excellence in any endeavor is simply the accumulation of small techniques, handed over to the subconscious via conversion to habit. The better your world, the better the techniques to which you have access. Here is the formula:

The first priority is to get your world right; and that is the primary argument for the necessity of books. Books enable access to the greatest minds of history – the eminent dead, as Shane Parrish puts it. There are few finer doorways to better worlds so commonly available.

On this foundation, we build a second priority – the identification and selection of techniques to convert into habits.

The third and last critical element, then, is to become a virtuoso in the art of conscious-to-subconscious conversion – in other words, the breaking of old habits and the making of new ones.

And that, my friends, is the meaning, and the aim, of deconstructing excellence. While the newspaper headlines fawn over the latest wunderkind and stand in awe of the revered visionary, we’ll be instead studying their habits, their rituals, their methods, and their techniques. The main difference between these outliers and you is that they have learned to apply this formula. Having said that, the quickest way forward is always to follow those who have gone before you, and use their tools to think better and do better as you blaze your own path.

The Two Most Common Mistakes of Optimizers

This blog is about optimizing your life. Because such efforts often fall prey to the rabbit hole of self-help books and motivational speeches, it would be wise to distance ourselves from the pitiful plight of meaningless and misguided optimization by defining precisely what we are and are not trying to accomplish. To head off the inevitable critic before he speaks, I want to delineate the two common pitfalls of optimizers.

Many people seek happiness in life, and by most standards, that is a somewhat worthwhile endeavor. You can optimize for happiness by becoming better in certain areas that are proven to bring a bit more than a momentary feeling:

• Achieving and maintaining good physical and mental health.

• Creating and building relationships.

• Making and properly managing money.

• Frequently enjoying peak states, flow, and a high proportion of positive emotions over negative ones.

Other people see fulfillment as a more worthy goal than the fleeting emotion of happiness. Fulfillment is best defined as achievement of self-actualization, which happens by the following avenues (all of which can be optimized):

• Growing.

• Learning.

• Teaching.

• Helping others.

• Accomplishing worthwhile things.

• Otherwise expanding the boundaries of who you are and realizing your potential. (If you want to be more precise, here is how Maslow defined self-actualization.)

But learning how to better achieve happiness and fulfillment means nothing without action.

Unfortunately, most self-help books and motivational speeches lead to lives that are abundant in talk but lacking in action (pitfall #1). That tragedy is the impetus for this site – to help you quickly understand and focus on your personal application without getting lost in the weeds of the Swamp of Self-improvement.

There is, however, a higher goal than happiness and fulfillment: meaning. Meaning, or purpose, comes only from something that makes you satisfied with not being happy or fulfilled.

It is not possible to optimize for meaning, and it can be difficult to find it. Some seek it in religion; others in philosophy; still others in a higher expression of some form of self-actualization.

All I want to say is that I hope this site does not become a tool for anyone to elevate the pursuit of happiness or fulfillment so high that they confuse those things with meaning (pitfall #2).

Take action, and don’t let optimization eclipse meaning.

Good luck.

Maslow's characteristics of self-actualizers

A self-actualizer is a person who is living creatively and fully using his or her potentials. What a man can do, he must do. It refers to the desire for self-fulfillment, namely, to the tendency for him to become actualized in what he is potentially. While the theory is generally portrayed as a fairly rigid hierarchy, Maslow noted that the order in which these needs are fulfilled does not always follow this standard progression. For example, he notes that for some individuals, the need for self-esteem is more important than the need for love. For others, the need for creative fulfillment may supersede even the most basic needs. In his studies, Maslow found that self-actualizers share similarities. Whether famous or unknown, educated or not, rich or poor, self-actualizers tend to fit the following profile.

Maslow's self-actualizing characteristics

• Efficient perceptions of reality. Self-actualizers are able to judge situations correctly and honestly. They are very sensitive to the fake and dishonest, and are free to see reality 'as it is'.

• Comfortable acceptance of self, others and nature. Self-actualizers accept their own human nature with all its flaws. The shortcomings of others and the contradictions of the human condition are accepted with humor and tolerance.

• Reliant on own experiences and judgement. Independent, not reliant on culture and environment to form opinions and views.

• Spontaneous and natural. True to oneself, rather than being how others want.

• Task centering. Most of Maslow's subjects had a mission to fulfill in life or some task or problem 'beyond' themselves (instead of outside of themselves) to pursue. Humanitarians such as Albert Schweitzer are considered to have possessed this quality.

• Autonomy. Self-actualizers are free from reliance on external authorities or other people. They tend to be resourceful and independent.

• Continued freshness of appreciation. The self-actualizer seems to constantly renew appreciation of life's basic goods. A sunset or a flower will be experienced as intensely time after time as it was at first. There is an "innocence of vision", like that of an artist or child.

• Profound interpersonal relationships. The interpersonal relationships of self-actualizers are marked by deep loving bonds.

• Comfort with solitude. Despite their satisfying relationships with others, self-actualizing people value solitude and are comfortable being alone.

• Non-hostile sense of humor. This refers to the ability to laugh at oneself.

• Peak experiences. All of Maslow's subjects reported the frequent occurrence of peak experiences (temporary moments of self-actualization). These occasions were marked by feelings of ecstasy, harmony, and deep meaning. Self-actualizers reported feeling at one with the universe, stronger and calmer than ever before, filled with light, beauty, goodness, and so forth.

• Socially compassionate. Possessing humanity.

• Few friends. Few close intimate friends rather than many superficial relationships.

In summary, self-actualizers feel finally themselves, safe, not anxious, accepted, loved, loving, and alive, certainly living a fulfilling life.

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#Readingnotes #sociological #Psychology