What comes after mastery?

The first day of my fifteenth month of running a mile each day.

My quadricep muscles are still really stiff. I think I was being slightly overconfident by not stretching after Sunday's half marathon.

When will I ever learn when it comes to stretching?

I have now finished Daniel Pink's excellent book "Drive". In the book, Daniel Pink suggests that there are three key things that are most important to us when it comes to motivation.

The first is autonomy, which is not necessarily the same as independence. It's the ability to choose what we work on, when we work and who we work with, either within or outside an organisation.

The second key is to have the opportunity to develop mastery in what really interests us. This is the type of work that every now and then lets us experience the phenomenon that's known as "flow".

It's not about attaining mastery. Is it actually ever possible to do that? If it is, what comes after mastery?

The final key is to have the sense that what we are doing is contributing to something that is more important than ourselves and also more important than profit alone. This is what we might call purpose or making a difference.

Autonomy, mastery and purpose. Sounds like something worth aiming for, and in a funny way my experience in Sunday's half marathon ticked all those boxes.

Time to catch up

My legs were pretty stiff on my gentle jaunt around South Cave this morning, after yesterday's half marathon followed by a six-hour train journey up to Yorkshire.

I've delivered my three workshops for the day, which went really well and am now sitting in a coffee shop in Brough, waiting for the first of the three trains that will take me home.

I've been reading about intrinsic motivation again in my gaps between workshops.

I do think it's so true that the world, at least the western world, is changing towards being more motivated by autonomy, mastery and purpose rather than by profit alone. At least it's true for individuals.

Now it's up to businesses and government to recognise this and catch up with the rest of us.

Day 57 - why I do it

I am definitely beginning to notice the lighter mornings. The fact that it's not raining certainly helps, but the early morning run is still a game of attempting to dodge the puddles.

Two days ago I was writing about it being hard to get going even after 55 days, but now I'm feeling that running a mile is just something I do in the mornings, I don't even really think about it. It's like brushing my teeth.

How can I have changed my thinking so quickly? Maybe tomorrow it will be a struggle getting going again?

What is it I'm trying to prove with this mile each day experiment? I've forgotten.

Actually, I don't know that I'm trying to prove anything. First and foremost I was just trying to see if I could actually run a mile every day for a month.

Now I know that I can, I'm just curious as to how long I can keep it up for. Also, I'm curious as to what I discover, if anything, from continuing the experiment for as long as I can.

I wonder why I always try to find a purpose? Running is something that I know nourishes me, my body, my mind and my spirit, so doing some of it ever day makes sense.

I watched Jill Bolte Taylor's TED talk - "A Stroke of Insight" again yesterday. I never fail to be inspired by this video, no matter how many times I've seen it, and it brings me back to what I have eluded to in a previous post about running and connection.

Running somehow temporarily disables my logical left side of my brain that relates to the past and the future, and that sees me as a separate entity. It engages my creative right side of my brain that lives in the present moment and that recognises that I am just part of an energy force that encompasses everything I can see, hear, feel, taste and touch.

This helps me feel that it is never just me alone. I am always a part of something way bigger. I find that uplifting, empowering, reassuring and inspiring.

And how I got here from how I started this post, I have absolutely no idea.

Oh well.