A Job as Creative Quest

By Jeffrey Davis, M.A.

Created Oct 3 2012 -Psychology Today
Talking about mindset to other people is tricky. I speak to and consult with ind
ividuals, groups, and organizations about doing just that - changing how they fr
ame their work and themselves, consequently changing how they do what they do, a
nd changing their environment.
Mindset. Method. Place. It s not a formula. It s a working tripod that any individua
l, group, or organization must consider to lift themselves and one another out o
f an eh work world and possibly toward an Ah! work world.
One of the first bits of Southern wisdom I assimilated as a malcontent teenager
applies here: Either change your circumstances, or change your mindset. Easier s
aid than done for the less rosy among us. To change a mindset incrementally requir
es a creative cognitive reframe and some cognitive tools.
For some despondent or near-burnt out workers, a quest might be the thing to cha
nge their channel.
A quest mindset
Mindset matters. It s not about starting with passion. Young flames can burn quick
ly. I m more interested in helping people nurture abiding fires for what they do.
And telling someone who doesn t love her job to Just start finding your passion in
your job often breeds more antipathy than passion.
If you or someone you work with (or, worse, someone you work for) has lost that
loving feeling for work, begin with this reframe:
Treat your job as part of a creative quest. Psycholgists Alexander and Helen As
tin s seminal work in higher education notes that those who consider themselves to
be on a quest tend to exhibit an active, open disposition toward tackling the pe
rplexing issues that many individuals face when trying to establish their place
and purpose in the world. (29)
You might not be a confused 20-year-old anymore. But if you re like most 30-, 40-,
and 50-somethings I work with, you are seeking something.
A quest by definition involves seeking, and by seeking, it s assumed you don t know
the answers to something. It means you are after something that matters - to you
and possibly to a group or organization. Quests awaken a desire for meaning & m
astery.
But seeking in a quest also means that uncertainty, ambiguity, and novelty are p
art of the game. Seeking in a quest also requires facing - not avoiding - challe
nges and taking risks.
Problem-tracking, not problem-fleeing
That last trait raises a big shift in attitude. It means that a gratifying job b
y definition is not problem-free. Gratification comes most consistently after tr
acking problems and by pushing your wits and skills to a new level to solve thos
e problems.
Optimal risk and novelty lead to enduring flow states. That s the conclusion of ps
ychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi of Claremont Graduate University after he res
earched, interviewed, and studied thousands of deeply gratified writers, scienti
sts, artists, rock climbers, and others who persisted in their work despite no o
r little guarantee of fame or fortune.

What kept them going? Not profit or high performance reports but feeling. It was
the feeling state they experienced when consistently engaged in stimulating act
ivities that involved optimal risk and novelty.
I spoke to a group of leading executives, presidents, and administrators whose o
rganizations coordinate and train grant-makers that in turn fund non-profit grou
ps. Think of how the economic crash and recession of 2007-08 whammed this chain
of funding better education, healthcare, public arts, communities, and more.
In my pre-talk research and surveys, participants told me via email something li
ke, My days are spent fixing technology problems, preparing for meetings, and res
ponding to board members complaints. Hardly the climate for creativity.
And there s the rub. A creative mindset is not one necessarily centered upon paint
ing Hudson Valley vistas or writing a poem about the smell of burnt wood on an a
utumn evening. It s often about acknowledging an itch - something that needs address
ing, tracking, resolving.
Creativity is more about problems than painting or poetry as I explain in myth:
the creative life is romantic & problem-free.
That itch on the job can be as minute as Respond to this client s request, something a
s mid-league as Find a new system for responding to prospects, or something as gra
nd as Devise a new strategy for our marketing calendar.
The creative mindset, the questing mindset, expects problems as part of the job.
So much depends upon how those problems are approached.
Live in a hut of questions
I asked a client - an acupuncturist with a booming clinic and shop - how she get
s herself back on track when she feels burnt out. She said, almost automatically, I
usually step back and ask if I can change the way I m doing something. It s usually
a matter of tweaking something simple. Like changing how I schedule clients to
allow for more space and time with each client. Or how my assistant fills herbal
orders.
A pragmatist and problem-solver, her response offers three telling traits: One,
she innately directs attention toward how she is doing something instead of blam
ing circumstances or other people whose actions are beyond her control. Two, she
focuses on the how more than the what.
Three, she asks questions - of herself. Questions extend out of quests.
How am I doing something that is contributing to my disgruntlement?
How could I change the way I do _____ to lead to _____?
How could we change the way we do ______ to lead to ____?
Asking these questions every day on the job establishes a new mindset groove. As
king these kinds of problem-tracking questions opens up our minds to new possibi
lities instead of closing off on the victim blame game.
Asking these questions also elicits a sense of autonomy and of some control over
our moods on the job - strong correlates in the research on people who thrive a
nd not merely survive at work.
Another questing question to raise relates to mastery:
What new skills or what new knowledge would lead to ______ (positive outcome for
individual or group)?
Carol Dweck s research on undergrads is telling about what motivates most of us fo
r the long haul.

Dweck discovered two groups of students according to what motivated them. First
group, I ll call the Praise-seekers: People who are motivated to learn mostly to g
et high grades, pats on the back, and praise - and then profit post-graduation.
Second group, I ll call the meaning-makers and mastery-seekers: People who are mot
ivated to learn mostly by a desire to make meaning, to advance their own knowled
ge and skill set, and to use knowledge and skills toward a greater goal beyond t
heir own advancement.
In a longitudinal follow-up, guess which group, ten years later, was more conten
t with work and life?
Yep, group two. There s incomplete evidence on how to help a person who is pattern
ed by extrinsic motivation (rewards, material gains) to shift to motivating hers
elf intrinsically.
But our centuries of human experience coupled with a few decades of consistent r
esearch on human motivation makes clear how passion and profit relate.
An issue of the Harvard Business Review focused on this relationship. In one art
icle, researchers Gretchen Spreitzer and Christine Porath studied workplace fact
ors that led to people thriving. Thriving employees have a bit of an edge, they no
te, they are highly energized - but they know how to avoid burnout. Here are two t
ake-away statistics:
Thriving workers are 46% more satisfied than their peers.
They are 125% less likely to burn out than their non-thriving peers.
What s characteristic of thrivers?
They have passion mixed with mastery. They love what they do, but they actively
pursue more knowledge and skills.
A sub-title on the a Harvard Business Review cover sums it up: How Passion & Pur
pose Drive Profits. It does not read, How Profits Drive Passion & Purpose.
If you cannot change your work environment today, you can change your mindset to
a more questing reframe. Your active questing on the job just might change the
attitudes of your co-workers.
Who knows? Maybe you can change your work environment from the inside-out.