Greg Faxon (speaking on camera) describes a personal insight: he was viewing his to-do list as mere tasks and lost excitement. He recommends reframing actions as "quests" to make life more engaging. A good quest has two components—exploring unknown territory and stretching you beyond comfort—and he gives a three-step method: (1) follow your excitement, (2) define a clear success/objective that pushes you, and (3) explicitly call it a "quest" (use acronyms/names). He offers examples (grocery trips, hair growth, coaching program) and invites viewers to try this and comment.
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Hey everyone, Greg Faxson here. I got the Shenandoah river behind me and I want to make a video because I had a huge insight this weekend while my girlfriend and I were walking our new dog, right? So we're walking our dog and Emma, my girlfriend, says, what are you excited for this week? And I just came up blank. I couldn't think of anything. And I realized that's kind of ridiculous. I love my work, I love what I do. Why can't I think of anything right now? And so I realized what was happening, which was I was viewing my to do list just as a series of tasks that I just had to get done. I just needed to get them done. And that's not that exciting. Even if you love your work, you can get in this rhythm of being trapped in this productivity mode, alright? And it's not, it's just not exciting and it doesn't feel like an adventure. And I realized what I needed to do, which was I need to start turning everything that I was doing into a quest. And I remembered that in high school, one of my best friends and I used to turn, we turned everything into a quest. Like getting a girlfriend wasn't just involving asking a girl out, it was girlfriend quest, right? It was gq. And we would make these acronyms for each, every single quest. And it was the best. And I realized I need to do that again. There's two components to a good quest, okay? One is exploring unknown territory. So if you're thinking about a quest in medieval times, right, a knight is going to venture off into these unknown lands to rescue a damsel in distress. And then the other thing is it needs to stretch you. It needs to stretch you outside your comfort zone. So there needs to be some time limit or some activity that's hard for you or something that's going to push you outside of your comfort zone. Because that's what gets you into flow. That's what makes it exciting, that's what makes it an adventure. Otherwise it's kind of just a mundane thing. Here's why this works, is because when you view your life as a series of tasks, you're just waiting to get them done. You're just trying to complete them, okay? And that basically that just means you're trying to complete stuff. And then the only time you're actually complete is when you die. Because otherwise you just have another task after that. But if you view it as a quest, you get engaged in the journey, right? You get engaged in the whole process of completing those things. And so you can actually enjoy the process. You don't have to wait until you check it off. And so I think that's a huge part of why quests are so much more exciting than tasks. Alright, so how do you turn any series of tasks into a quest? Well, the first thing you have to do is follow your excitement. Okay? So either choose an area that would be really exciting for you to make a quest in or take an area that's mundane and make it into a quest by using those two criteria. So something my girlfriend does is she turns every grocery shopping trip into a quest. And I hate grocery shopping. And I realize why is because I'm viewing it as a task or a chore to check off. And she's made it into a quest because she's looking for the healthiest food for the least amount of money, right? So she's taken this criteria or she'll go to a new place, she'll figure out we'll get some food from some place and some food from another place. So I still don't totally understand it, but she's made it into a quest that works for her. So number one is follow your excitement. The second one is figure out what success looks like. Discover what is your objective in your work. You know, maybe you say, well, the objective is to get. I want to get five clients, right? I want to get five new clients. And so what am I going to have to do? Well, I'm going to have to explore unknown territory. Maybe I'll have to have 50 free coaching calls in three weeks. This is something that I actually did, right? And then you're going to have to push yourself so that number is more than you've ever done as well. And the outcome is I want to get five new clients. So just even though we're focused on the process, not the outcome, you really need that goal to get you amped up and to really make it a quest. Because otherwise it's just kind of like, okay, I'm doing this thing, alright? And then the third thing is call it a quest. Okay, Actually call it a quest. And I know this sounds trite, but it's really not because there's something, I don't really know what it is, but there's something about that word quest that just makes everything more exciting. So like I, you know, I'm growing my hair out right now and I could think of it as like, okay, I got to grow my hair out and it's in an awkward phase, blah, blah, blah, or it can be hair quest hq. Make the acronym and you're good to go and then you can talk about it like I've been talking to Emma, my girlfriend about all this stuff like yeah I'm on like Catalyst Quest which is like my new group coaching program and I want to make it the best coaching program for entrepreneurs that exists in the world. So it's Catalyst Quest, it's cq. These are the three steps to make anything into a quest and what will happen when you do this is you won't feel so much anxiety day to day about I need to get this done or and there's always another thing. No, your life is a series of quests and you can actually enjoy the journey of it. Alright so what would happen if you turned one thing in your work or your personal life into a quest? I would love to hear from you. Write in the comments, shoot me an email with your ideas and I hope you love the video and have a great week everyone take care.
