How to Pursue a Quest - by Chase Jarvis, on Author Chris Guillebeau

We all know that life is a journey, not a destination. How you get there is as important as where you end up.

 

Chase Jarvis recently interviewed author Chris Guillebeau, who's just written a new book called The Happiness of Pursuit. Chris also runs a blog called "Art of Nonconformity." I'm going to check both of these out.

 

(Click Here) to read the interview post on Chase's blog. I love the story that Chris shares of the family living in Oklahoma who decides to have an international perspective, which they obtain through preparing ethnic food from around the world. Pretty cool.

 

I've copied the following directly from Chase's blog, rather than restate them myself:

 

"According to Chris, here are the 5 key qualities of a quest:

1. A clear goal and a specific end point
2. A clear challenge
3. A sacrifice of some kind
4. A calling or sense of mission
5. A series of small steps and incremental progress toward the goal"

This whole idea of a quest having a beginning and end, milestones, etc. sounds very familiar to me. This is the same set of features that are used to describe a project, any project, from a project management perspective. Pretty boring, actually. The inspiring part comes from the challenge, sense of mission, expecting the unexpected, and sacrifice. That's not typically part of the project management discussion.

 

There are many questions to answer in forming your own quest. How big, how long should it be? Lifelong quest or weekend quest? How do you get a quest with a sense of mission that will still be enjoyable, or at least endurable? How many quests can you be on at any given time?

 

I am going to buy this book and see what I can pick up from it. If you're interested, please use the link below to purchase yours from Amazon.

 

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