Soaring…

I love to see someone’s joy!  His shadow makes an even bigger impact:

Joy – what a great feeling!  We often hear a pro athlete after making the “big play” say they used to dream about being in that moment during their childhood.  They used to imagine soaring.  Such joy is not limited to sports. 

Bill Gates’ marathon coding sessions to become the first to create an operating system for PCs (e.g. DOS, the Disk Operating System) are legendary.  Though a self-proclaimed introvert, I bet he was joyous when his operating system booted up for the first time.  Maybe he didn’t physically soar for a dunk, but I bet he was more than happy. 

The variety of sources that give us joy are further defined by experts.  In Daniel H. Pink’s book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us ©, we find: 

The performance of the task provided intrinsic reward…  The joy of the task was its own reward. 

Harry S. Harlow 

Regardless of what we get paid to do, is the joy of the task our own reward?  Assuming we are doing something that drives us, of course.  Daniel H. Pink goes on to clarify: 

… true motivation comes from autonomy, the desire to direct our own lives; mastery, the urge to get better at something… 

What do you think?  Are we spending most of our time self-directed; autonomously pursuing and yearning for mastery?  Or, are we stuck in our daily routine?  Autonomous motivation is easy to write about, but it’s hard to soar in the real world, true?  Nonetheless, we are wise to heed this advice: 

If you're not enjoying the journey, you probably won't enjoy the destination. 

Joe Tye 

My friend Dom above reminds us of what joy looks like during the journey.  And who knows what his destination might be:  

See the similarities?

GAP

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.