Challenge

Challenge is the third of the major core concepts of OptimalWork.

Preliminary Topic Outline

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The Idea Behind Challenge

• Application of the athlete's mindset to our daily tasks
  • Runner practicing for an event needs a stopwatch
  • Pole-vaulter needs a pole to measure progress
  • And the use of high-intensity training, just beyond one's capacities, to create that progress
• Seeing one's own work, and ability to work, as a skill to be developed
• Challenge as the way to be constantly improving
• Psychological benefits of flow, too

Reframing Adrenaline

• Jeremy Jamieson's "Turning Knots into Bows"
• Allison Wood Brook's study on public speaking
• Closely related to the concept of reframing: seeing surges of catecholamines as good
• There are some circumstances in which adrenaline naturally arises due to the nature of the task
• Cultivation of challenge allows for one's adrenaline to be called forth at any time
• Chronic effects of stress vs. beneficial effects of adrenaline

Neurological Effects of Challenge

• Sends person into flow
• Colloquial description of flow
  • Effortless attention
  • Optimal efficiency of the brain
  • Clear sequencing
  • Being in the "zone"
• Allows the brain to be in continued mindful activation/attention (parasympathetic activation) while re-engaging the sympathetic nervous system
• Brain in harmony; 3 axes and hierarchies in the brain
• Sends rush of acetylcholine and norepinephrine into the brain
• [Will need to find fMRI studies that demonstrate the areas of relative activation of specific brain regions]
• Increased plasticity and ability to rewire while surpassing one's own abilities
• Also re-engages the default-mode network as a sequencing tool that carries your attention forward to the next step along the way

Can There Be Too Much Challenge?

• Dienstbier
• Hans Selye
• Jamieson's collection of sAA levels in 2010 study
• Original conception of the Yerkes-Dodson Law

Quantitative and Qualitative Challenges

• Quantitative
  • Amount per hour
  • "How much of this task can I possibly accomplish within the time I've allotted to myself?"
  • Good introductory concept, but has limitations:

Challenges in Work

• Challenge should include laying out the tasks beforehand
• High-intensity interval training
• Specific hours of work with crisp deadlines and clear tasks to accomplish

Challenge and Growth

• Challenge as the fulfillment of mindfulness because it allows for greater growth than does mindfulness alone
• Can refer to Peak: several hours of deliberate, focused, intense practice creating growth
• Again can refer to the study of superagers
• Seeing challenge as the raw material for growth
• OptimalWork focused on reframing any challenges along the way that might otherwise become negative difficulties, but also seeking out challenge to be inducing growth continually