No Map. No Guide. No Limits.

As we head into the third year of No Map. No Guide. No Limits posts, a few words about my underlying philosophy and thoughts about the posts on the site:
I know some of you would like to see more frequent posts here. A new card in the mail every day is a great, fun literary treat. But I find there is an trade-off that gets made between quantity and … if not quality, than at least complexity. I’ve been working on this site, and as a correspondent for The Atlantic, for the past two years, and I’ve also been observing the blogging world even as I contribute to it. And I find I have mixed feelings about a lot of it.
There is no lack of what I call “immediate reaction blogging,” and no lack of quick bites of hyperlinks or quick notes, dashed off and published just so new content appears on a site more frequently. There’s a place for quick, light morsels of humor or insight, of course, and there are any number of people who make an art form of the short form.
I also understand that these constant short-form bits thrown against the wall as quickly as possible is the predominant model of the internet. But it seems to me that there’s plenty of that around for folks to partake of, if they want. What I find more rare on the internet is thoughtful, considered writing, about more complex ideas, that emerges only after a little more time has been invested in its exploration and creation. [click to continue…]

My, how time flies! I always look at the expiration date on my license or credit card and think “It’ll NEVER be 2009.” Or 2010. Or 2011. And then, boom! That impossible future date has not only become the present, but has already receded into the past.
So here we are, already into the second decade of the new century. And, into the 3rd year of No Map. No Guide. No Limits. posts!
A lot has changed in the past two years, of course … both on the site, and in the life of the woman behind it (which would be me). Of course, since this site is about embracing change and new adventures, that’s all well and good. I’ve noticed, in fact, that the universe seems to call me—sometimes almost immediately—on any pronouncements I make about life. Really? You say your biggest fear is being bored? Okay, try THIS for a series of life events! … You tell people that change and uncertainty can be good things? Okay, let’s see how you handle a heap of your own medicine, all at once!
It’s annoying at times, but at least the universe keeps me honest.
An update on some of the big changes … at the beginning of October, after almost 12 years at the job, I resigned my position as West Coast Editor of Flying magazine. For a number of reasons, I decided it was just time to move on. For the moment, I’m still writing my monthly column for the magazine—if that changes, I’ll certainly post any news about it on this site. In any event, my writing won’t go away … I’m still writing as an online correspondent for The Atlantic, and I’ll keep writing on this site, no matter what. I’m also working on a book about passion (Passion: Where It Comes From, Where It Can Take You, and Why It Matters) … so I’m not without projects or outlets.
But leaving a secure job, especially when the industry you work in (publishing) is in the middle of an spectacular (and, some would say, terrifying) implosion, is still a bit of a leap off a cliff, into very uncharted and uncertain territory. Like I’ve often said—adventure comes in many forms and guises, and physical adventure is just one of them. [click to continue…]

Ah, the gift that gives on giving! In re-reading the article on creative problem-solving I discussed in my last post, I realized there was another important lesson it pointed to, in terms of taking the road less mapped.

Yes, it’s true, we sometimes “see” our best solutions when our minds are in a more playful or distracted state. But the article also talked about the appeal of puzzles in general. Dr. Marcel Danesi, a professor of anthropology at the University of Toronto and the author of “The Puzzle Instinct: The Meaning of Puzzles in Human Life” attributes the allure of puzzles to the fact that solving them is “all about you, using your own mind, without any method or schema, to restore order from chaos.”

Dr. Danesi was talking about manufactured challenges like crossword puzzles and Sudoku. But he could just as easily have been describing the allure of uncharted adventure or entrepreneurship. To be an entrepreneur or adventurer, you stand at the brink of an unknown territory. And figuring out how to navigate that territory it’s all about you … using your mind to restore order from the chaos of the unknown.

And, not surprisingly, our brains release a reward of dopamine when we actually come up with that order and solution.

So, humans like solving puzzles, and nothing is as puzzling as an unmapped course. Which means that on some very fundamental level, we’re really hard-wired to be adventurers. Some people just do their adventuring on paper, that’s all.
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So … here’s another bit of information on the daydreaming vs. happiness question. It may very well be true that we’re happier in any given moment if we’re actively engaged in a task at hand—even if the task isn’t particularly fun—than if we’re daydreaming or musing unproductively. (See my last post for a more in-depth discussion of this.) But a New York Times article this week backed up my point that “not all daydreaming is ‘wasted time.'” Or, to put it another way, letting our minds wander, while not necessarily happiness-producing in the moment, often leads to either creative insight or more productive work later on, which can make us happier in the long run.
The Times article, entitled “Tracing the Spark of Creative Problem-Solving,” offered some solid neurological reasons why—at least sometimes—it’s actually important to let our minds wander.
The article reported on several recent studies that explored people’s puzzle-solving abilities—especially their ability to solve a puzzle by “insight thinking” instead of trial-and-error or analytical thinking. Interestingly enough, it seems that people who’ve just been told a good joke, or have positive attitudes in general, have a greater ability to see an “aha!” solution to a puzzle. The reason, researchers explained, is that humor and optimism tend to put our brains in “broad, diffuse, attentional state that is both perceptual and visual,” where “you’re not only thinking more broadly, you’re literally seeing more.” [click to continue…]

Well, the holiday is now over and we’re all back at our desks, facing a depressing pile of work that somehow, disappointingly, didn’t magically disappear while we were off eating turkey. So I seriously doubt I’m the only person who was a bit slow in digging in this morning. On mornings like this, email, web surfing, and some good, old-fashioned daydreaming are powerful temptations. Anything to avoid the overwhelming reality of the bigger or less fun work tasks in front of us.
But according to a recent study by Harvard professor Daniel Gilbert (author of Stumbling on Happiness) and doctoral student Matthew A. Killingsworth, succumbing to that impulse to daydream—even if it’s a dream about a very hot date on a tropical island somewhere—will not help. In fact, it apparently makes us less happy than if we were two elbows deep in that unpleasant work pile in front of us.
The study used an iPhone application to ask people, at random points during the day, what they were doing, what they were thinking about, and asked them to rate their level of happiness. In general, the study found that almost regardless of the activity they’re doing, people’s minds tend to wander a lot. At any given time, 30-47% of the population is apparently not thinking about the activity they’re involved in. It also found that in general, people who actually were focused on the task at hand were happier than those whose minds were wandering. [click to continue…]

It’s easy, if you’re out forging a trail up a very steep mountain (literally or metaphorically), to see only the challenges and struggles of the moment. As a friend of mine says about any adventure, “Sometimes you have to remind yourself that you’re having fun.” Sometimes you also have to stop and remind yourself of all the things you have to be thankful for, on whatever challenging and uncharted journey you’ve undertaken.

Indeed, the very first Thanksgiving was a conscious act by the Pilgrims (or “English Separatists,” as they were called back in England) to stop the work of the adventure for a day and remember, and give thanks, for all the gifts of the moment. Even though much uncertainty still lay ahead.

So in the spirit of that first pause in the action, I offer the following list of “Things to be Thankful For” to anyone who is currently in the midst of any uncertain, uncharted, or challenging life adventure:

1. Be thankful for the fact that you are not bored. Overwhelmed, maybe. Terrified about failing, perhaps. But imagine the alternative. A day where nothing challenges or excites you, and no great satisfaction of accomplishment is possible, because no great accomplishment is ever required.
2. Be thankful for the limitless possibilities an uncharted path holds. [click to continue…]

In my last post, I talked about the story of Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple Computer, and how even grand success doesn’t guarantee a golden path—or even future success—as life moves forward. Especially if you continue exploring the uncharted road of adventure, invention, and entrepreneurial ventures. Each former success may give you extra wisdom (and some extra cash) with which to arm yourself as you head into new territory, but the challenges are new, every time. And the odds are still high against any new venture succeeding. Just not quite as high if you’ve already succeeded in a similar venture before.

So what makes the difference between those who succeed and those who don’t? Or, in Wozniak’s case, an initial success but a subsequent failure (his second venture, Cloud Nine)? To a certain degree—indeed, to a large degree, the ideas themselves, and the skill of the person pursuing them, play a big role. That’s why venture capitalists are more likely to back someone a second time who has succeeded before.

But uncomfortable as it might be to contemplate, luck—or its twin, misfortune—plays a significant role, as well. [click to continue…]

Like it or not, failure is a part of any exploratory process. Jimmy Buffett may have been half-joking when he said that “even the best navigators don’t know for sure where they’re going until they get there,” but there is a grain of truth in that statement. And if you change “navigators” to explorers, inventors, entrepreneurs, or adventurers in creative ventures or life, the statement is 100% true.
Anyone setting out across uncharted territory can’t know what they will encounter along the way, or where they will eventually end up—even if they have a clear direction or goal at the start. Which is why a central key to success, for any explorer, is learning to recognize wrong turns or mistakes, learn from them, and adjust course accordingly.  (Or, “navigate, evaluate, and innovate,” as I’ve put it in talks I’ve given on the subject.)
That kind of process is what business writer Evan Schwartz would call “failure iteration”— failures that lead you to change your approach or design, producing another iteration. But not all failures fit into that category. In a piece called “What Steve Wozniak Learned From Failure” that Schwartz wrote for the Harvard Business Review a while back (but which I just stumbled across this week), he acknowledges that not all failures are alike. Most, if you pay attention to what they’re telling you, can be educational. But sometimes, Schwartz admitted, a failure “doesn’t seem to tell you anything.” [click to continue…]

The name of this site is, of course, No Map. No Guide. No Limits. – stemming from the idea that adventure is what happens when you’re charting your own course … without the help of a known route to travel, but with the advantage of no limits to what you can do, learn, or experience.
But I came across a story last week that reminded me that adventure can occur even when you do have a map – or, at least, an ostensible map or plan. I wrote about this story on The Atlantic website on Friday. And I rarely reprint my Atlantic columns here – seems redundant. But this story seemed worth calling out a second time.
Mike Ehredt was actually following a map on his recent run across the country. A GPS-drawn map, to be exact, listing each and every turn he was to make along the way. He even knew where he was going to stay each night; how many miles he would travel every day. And yet, the trip ended up being every bit as uncharted an adventure as many less-structured journeys … because of the people, and the world of emotions and stories, he encountered along the way. [click to continue…]