Whether it’s David Foster Wallace talking about fun or Chase Jarvis telling you to create without judgement, there’s often a sense that writing, and even art, must be earnest and painful.
Speaking from experience, the more loose I am, the lighter I approach the work, the better it is. And that’s something echoed in the work of Christopher McDougall too.
He’s the author of, most recently, Running with Sherman: The Donkey with the Heart of a Hero and Born to Run. He told me during our conversation:
“I sort of learned a lesson in life that if anything is unpleasant, you’re going to postpone it, you’re just not going to do it. And so it’s like for exercise for dieting, any time you don’t want to do, you will find a reason not to do it. And so I think even though you know, all those aspects, with nutrition and exercise and everything, you gotta negotiate a happy compromise. So you got to figure out what’s the thing that makes it fun, and then do that thing. And so what I realized is that as long as the sun is up, I am not getting shit done. I’m not going to be at my desk. And so I get up in the morning and just blast out the door and just busy myself with stuff all during sunlight hours and then around five or six, I’m physically tired. I’m winding down. I eat some good food and then I’m ready to sit down like seven o’clock at night and just busted out till midnight, one o’clock in the morning.
Christopher McDougall on Episode 172 ofCNF.
You caught that, right? What the thing that makes it fun? Sure, some topics are heavy and not always fun. I’m thinking Eli Saslow writing Rising Out of Hatred. Not fun.
But there must be moments of joy, otherwise, why do it? And you can hear it in Chris’ voice that the work is fun and that’s the key to unlocking your potential. Play and fun.
You might want to pair this up with Ep. 172 with Christopher McDougall as well as Ep. 169 with Chase Jarvis.
As always, thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts and leave a kind rating on Apple Podcasts. Newsletter and show notes are at brendanomeara.com and please keep the conversation going on Twitter @CNFPod.