Monday Morning Wake-Up Call

Posted on by Live & Learn

[…] Whether it’s coding, cooking or gardening, people intrinsically desire to achieve excellence at their craft.

This desire to build, create and get more competent at something is why Benjamin Franklin taught himself to write by translating magazine articles into poetry and then back into prose. It’s why Bill Bradley taught himself to dribble a basketball by taping cardboard to the bottom of his glasses so he had to rely more on intuition than on sight. It’s why Marcel Proust rewrote portions of “Remembrance of Things Past” from his death bed. Even while in agony, breathing his last breath, he wanted his work to be better, to get it right.

When you see people ensconced in their craft, you’ll notice that they are often living what I’ve come to think of as a Zone 2 life, after the exercise trend. They are not manic; they are persistent. They’re not burning out with frantic energy, but they are just plowing their furrow, a little bit farther, day after day.
They live with an offensive spirit. They are drawn by some positive attraction, not driven by a fear of failure. They perceive obstacles as challenges, not threats. On their good days, they’ve assigned themselves the right level of difficulty. Happiness is usually not getting what you want or living with ease; it is living, from one hour to the next, at a level of just manageable difficulty.

By the time you’ve reached craftsman status you don’t just love the product, you love the process, the tiny disciplines, the long hours, the remorseless work. You may want to be a rock star, but if you don’t love the arduous process of making music and touring, you won’t succeed. The craftsman has internalized knowledge of the field so she can work by intuition, using her repertoire of moves, relying on hunches, not rules. W.H. Auden captured it perfectly:

You need not see what someone is doing
to know if it is his vocation,
you have only to watch his eyes:
a cook mixing a sauce, a surgeon
making a primary incision,
a clerk completing a bill of lading,
wear the same rapt expression,
forgetting themselves in a function.
How beautiful it is,
that eye-on-the-object look.

— David Brooks, from “A Surprising Route to the Best Life Possible” (NY Times, March 25, 2025)

46 thoughts on “Monday Morning Wake-Up Call”

  1. I love this.
    It’s funny; yesterday, I was cooking up a storm for my son’s birthday feast. I was so in my happy place.

    2. “Humble”… Yes, indeed… A great way to describe him, Dave. The word “empathy” comes to mind when I think of him as well. He seems willing to listen to opposing views, even when he does not agree. Thanks for the link!

      1. (Begin rant)
        Jetpack app on my old iPhone looks different. (did I update it?). Anyway, when Dave mentioned “humble”, and I followed it up with “empathy”… Jetpack did not put my “empathy “comment below his “humble” comment. How hard can it be to put comments in the correct order?

        I’m a dinosaur now, but there was a day when I could write software that simple in my sleep. These days, you could get AI to write it correctly and it would be a trivial job for the AI.

        I can accept bugs in software that are difficult to write, but simple stuff like this makes me crazy.
        (End of rant)

  3. Watching you round the nooks and crannies of Cove Island…. I would say that you may have found your vocation.

    1. Dave seems to be (he is too modest to acknowledge this)…a man with many many talents, some of which I am sure we are not aware of. This blog, for example, is a gift to so many people. Ditto for his Instagram photographs… Take a look at how many views he gets on Instagram :-). Sorry, Dave… Couldn’t help myself! 😉

        1. (As I write this, I have an image of Dave refusing to help you pull a log out of the pond 🙂

          I have not had the good fortune of meeting Dave in person as others have, but I stand behind my comment. 🙂

          2. Paul, everyone, with me at the head of the pack considers you to be a man of great character and wisdom. And you proved it again, not getting drawn in by the Clucking Hen. Bravo.

          4. Defend away.

            But, no matter what his current occupation might be… his vocation is this blog and sharing his photos with the world. I stand by that.

          5. This blog and David’s photography are outstanding! No argument there! I have never had the privilege of meeting Dave in person, so I can only express what I have learned by interacting with him online. Be well, Cara!

          9. (PS: no “photography competitions” allowed! 😊. Some people like graffiti, and others like Monet. Art is too subjective to be “given a measure of quality” (most of the time) in my humble opinion.)

          12. You’re the only one working from home Big Guy. Teachers on assignment. 😉

          14. That was very sweet Paul. Thank you. Honestly, Dave has taught me a lot about it. I’m new here.

  4. For me it begs the question – what comes after this? I think of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and how he added later on a level beyond self actualization (being the best you can be). He saw that self transcendence was the peak experience. It moves beyond the personal and involves a sense of connection to something greater than oneself: nature, the universe, and other people.
    This is in line with spiritual awakening, and the hope that science and spirituality come together for the benefit of humanity.

  5. I loved watching young children creating., using process art, with no expected outcome, just watched them get into the zone, going further and not satisfied until they felt it was done. and only they knew when it was done. and they were happy to explain it at that point.

  7. At the time of retirement my role was as a self-employed Jobsearch Consultant. There were some clients who lit up when they talked about their work and I remember vividly a couple of secondary school lads who were applying for apprenticeships in their chosen field, their passion evident in what they did at weekends. I was thrilled to bits when they were successful and some years down the track they still light up.

  10. Late to the party, but no less enthusiastic about this piece, pal. Brooks is such a gifted guy…somehow always manages to capture the essence of things. There really is nothing like being ‘in the zone.’ I visited an art gallery the other day, something I haven’t done as frequently of late as I should, and it lit me up. Being around works that challenge me, excite me, or simply move me, images that make me pause and ponder made me remember how much I love that space and how happy and fulfilled I feel when I am in it. The joy of immersion in something you love…powerful medicine for these troubling times. 💕

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