Life Advice, Personal Perspective, Creativity, Innovation

It is common for causal observers to see a big breakthrough, amazing creative achievement, or other big professional accomplishment from another and think to themselves "wow, that person must be super talented" or "they are so lucky!". And while talent and luck play a part in "success", what often gets less attention is the amount of work that goes into an "overnight success". 

Complex and ambitious achievements usually take even more time and effort to come to fruition. A particularly interesting set of stories comes from the Walt Disney Company's Pixar division (before they become part of Disney) and Disney's venerable Imagineering unit. 

Perhaps the name most synonymous with "magic" is Disney. The Walt Disney Company is dedicated to making magical experiences for its customers via its movies, shows, and, perhaps most prominently, its theme parks. The first park at Walt Disney World in Florida was literally named the Magic Kingdom when it opened in 1971. And having been to the park as a child, I can attest that it is, indeed, a magical place. Disney Parks are full of state-of-the-art attractions that can leave you speechless and wondering how they accomplished such feats.

If you are interested in learning more about what goes into creating the many fabulous rides and experiences at the Disney Parks, I highly recommend the Behind the Attraction series on the Disney+ streaming service. What struck me the most profoundly when watching episodes of this series was how much planning and work goes into creating (and updating) a Disney attraction. In essence, magical experiences come from hard work and planning, sometimes taking years to reach a final product. 

Often, the Disney "Imagineers" must invent new technology to bring a ride to life. For example, the Indiana Jones Adventure ride at Disneyland in California relied on an entirely new ride vehicle invented by the Imagineers to simulate the motion of an off-road jeep. In fact, the Imagineering team at Disney holds over 500 patents for new technologies they have developed to create the unique rides and attractions at the parks. 

Experiential and Emotional Impact Through Technology & Innovation

At Disney they firmly believe that the story and experience should drive the design and execution of all they do and that they can iron out technical details to bring an idea to life. Disney rarely sacrifices practicality for the sake of creative quality and experiential impact on their customers. ​

Disney's Pixar Animations Studios (which was an independent company from 1986 until 2006 when it was acquired by the Walt Disney Company) perhaps best illustrates how dedication and commitment to one's craft combined with a passion for creating memorable experiences can produce amazing results. 

Pixar invented new computer animated techniques and approaches beginning with its founding but its journey from start-up to box office hit maker took time. In some ways the technology had to catch up with the company's ambitions and its employees had to become more familiar and confident in the use of said technology. Pixar initially struggled with a business case focusing mostly on producing animated commercials in the 1980s and early 1990s to pay the bills. In 1991 the company numbered 42 employees (nearly the same size it was at its founding) as it removed hardware and software sales from its operations to focus on the core creative business. In that same year, Pixar signed an agreement with Disney to develop at least one computer-animated movie that Disney would market and distribute. That movie become Toy Story, which was released in November 1995 to critical acclaim and sensational audience reviewers on its way to ​earning nearly $400 million at the global box office (~$823 million in 2024 dollars). ​

This began a 20 YEAR run of amazing box office success for Pixar films with every movie they release from Toy Story 2 in 1999 to Inside Out in 2015 earning at least $500 million at the global box office with 2003's Finding Nemo hitting the $900+ million level and Toy Story 3 released in 2010 crossing $1 BILLION in ticket receipts (~$1.43 Billion in 2024 dollars). But if you watch the documentary The Pixar Story, you will realize that story is core to all they do. During its run of successful films from the mid-nineties to the 2010s, Pixar continued to push the envelope in what could be computer animated to drive new and novel story ideas from thousands of animated ants in A Bug's Life to life-like fur for Monsters Inc to water environments in Finding Nemo and human characters (with muscles) in The Incredibles. Technical innovation was core to making these stories come to life and making audiences feel connected to the worlds depicted in these films. 

Pixar's success during that time was undoubtedly fueled by its willingness to grow and innovate with each new project, never resting on its laurels. But the technology served the stories they were telling, never dictating or limiting the narratives. In addition, those at the company will tell you that its operation was driven by a willingness for creative and technically gifted individuals from diverse backgrounds to collaborate on projects that were driven at their core by stories to make the audience feel something.

The lesson to take from this is, I think, is to not innovate just to innovate but to think about how a new technology or idea serves others. Does it help solve a critical problem? Does it make peoples' lives or society better in some way? Does it bring joy to the world? Does it provide entertainment and life lessons (in the case of many movies)? Innovation without impact will fall flat. If the technologies or innovative ideas you are leveraging aren't in service of something that improves peoples' lives, they rarely resonate. In Pixar's case, they leveraged technology to create characters and stories audiences cared about and that spoke to human challenges, struggles, and ultimately triumphs (even if many of their characters weren't human, they amazingly made us care about bugs and fish!).  

"What most people call overnight success is actually the market suddenly realizing the value of a great product or service that had been kept in obscurity for too long while its creators refused to give up." - Entrepreneur and author Luis E. Romero, from Forbes

Another lesson from the Pixar story is the commitment and perseverance often required to see a novel concept "breakthrough". The conviction of Pixar's founders to stick to their core business over the first 5+ years as it gained its footing allowed it to be in a position to make Toy Story and what looked like an overnight success in 1995 after Toy Story's release was many years in the making. Pixar's animators developed their expertise on commercials and short films in the company's early years and realized producing a full-length computer animated film​ at its core is still an exercise in constructing a compelling and moving story. The combination of compelling narrative, endless storyboarding and editing (story development for a Pixar film can take YEARS), a committed and technically gifted team, and innovative technology allowed Pixar to create movie magic. The company and its employees gave audiences something they had never seen before and, in the process, left a lasting impact on the entertainment industry.   ​

Learn more about the animation innovations Pixar pioneered in the video from Business Insider, below (and the follow-up video here):

Disney Magic In Real Life - Innovation and Iteration

Crafting of real-word experiences through physical rides and attractions requires another level of commitment. Examples of technical and impactful achievements in the Disney parks include the floating mountains in the Pandora - World of Avatar land within Disney's Animal Kingdom, the creation of Cars Land (based on the Pixar movie) and its mountain range at Disney's California Adventure Park, the Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind attraction at EPCOT, and Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge at Disney's Hollywood Studios. The combined efforts of designers and engineers led to the creation of immersive and unique experiences that help transport park visitors to locations they had only see on a movie screen before and in the process allows them to escape the worries and challenges of the real world, if only for a bit. 

None of the work Disney does is easy, especially when it comes to building actual rides and landscapes people interact with in their parks. Imagineers blend creativity with modern technology and an understanding of human perception to create amazing experiences. And the more you learn about how they build attractions the more you appreciate how Imagineers not only invent new technologies to bring an attraction to life but often build on previous designs and take lessons from the design of past attractions to make new ones. There are so many examples including leveraging the technology from Test Track in Epcot (opened in 1999) for Cars Land's Radiator Springs Racers (opened in 2012) to improving on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad with new projection mapping technology and revolutionizing the classic Pirates of the Caribbean boat ride for the 21st Century with the installation of Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure (and use of technology to guide the boats through immersive sets) at Shanghai Disneyland. These examples highlight that Disney never stops innovating and improving, realizing that creating magical experiences requires learning from the past while constantly pushing the boundaries of technology and storytelling.     

As mentioned earlier when discussing Pixar films, storytelling at its heart requires the need to make the recipient feel something, to care about the characters, relate to their challenges, and celebrate in their triumphs. To be an effective story it must relate to our human experiences including struggle, loss, love, friendship, and family and the realization that happily ever after is often the result of overcoming adversity in our lives. 

The Story Comes Together

In my last post, I reflected on our human relationship to time. Recently, while watching the Behind the Attraction series on Disney+ that I mentioned above I learned about this amazing "nighttime spectacular" at Hong Kong Disneyland titled "Momentous". Learning about the history of creating this show we discover that when Hong Kong Disneyland was renovating and updating their castle, the technology for Momentous was literally built into the castle's redesign. The show has been described as "a love letter to the memories we make throughout our lives" and if you watch the video of it below you can see that the creators of this spectacular incorporate Disney and Pixar characters, stories, and songs over the past 30+ years from The Little Mermaid and The Lion King to Aladdin, Moana, and Up. Featured songs include classics like "Kiss the Girl", "You'll Be in My Heart", "A Whole New World" and lesser-known but appropriate songs like "Friends on the Other Side" from the Princess and the Frog and "Remember Me" from Coco. 

The feelings the show generates are tied up in the audience's memories of Disney movies and it can only achieve the effect of moving onlookers due to the fact that it builds on the creative efforts of the thousands or animators, artists, and musicians who contributed to the creation of the content. In addition, the spectacular itself relies on a variety of technological advancements from the Disney Company including projection mapping technology, water screen projections, and sophistically timed pyrotechnics and fireworks that can be positioned with pinpoint accuracy via compressed air. The result of all these efforts is magical. 

Live the Moment & Love the Memories - Momentous Nighttime Spectacular's Tagline

The show's "theme song", Love the Memory, that unites its various chapters has a super catchy and impactful chorus:
Time's always moving, we can't slow the hands
Won't last forever, so take every chance
To learn and to love and to dream and to dance
Live the moment and love the memory

Momentous's songs and storytelling remind us that life is a journey and ultimately consists of the impact we have on others and them on us. It is filled with highs and lows, love and loss, but through all these things we learn and grow, hopefully becoming better versions of ourselves in the process. A powerful notion, for sure.  

Making Impact Everyday

While most of this post has contained reflections on the Walt Disney Company's and Pixar Animation Studios' quest to create memorable experiences through creativity, technology, and hard work, I think the lessons from their efforts can apply to everyone's work and life. 

We often seek the "magical solution" to our problems or want a quick fix to the challenges we encounter. We want to lose weight NOW, we want to earn more NOW, we want to be more productive NOW, we want to be recognized for our achievements NOW. But these things are most often the result of consistent work and incremental improvements that slowly and steadily build on themselves to achieve the desired result. And sometimes, maybe even often, the end result of our efforts is more impactful than we could imagine when we begin on our journey. I don't think the creators of The Little Mermaid when it was released in 1989 would have ever imagined its scenes and songs would be projected on a water "screen" and physical castle at a Disney theme park in Hong Kong purpose built for these projections but that is what ultimately occurred. 

Good content and story that touches us as human beings is timeless and transcends any specific media. Much the same way, each of us doing "good work" and making "good decisions" ultimately leads to good outcomes and impact ​in time. We all know deep down what is good and right and will ultimately lead to the outcomes we want for ourselves (eat more healthily, exercise more, stress less, make more time for those we care about, help others etc...) but the consistent commitment to these actions over time (often in the face of very little short-term "results") is what is needed to produce the magical (ie, impactful) results we are looking for. 

It is also worth mentioning here that we often cannot fully predict how our work and actions now will impact our (and others) future. And we shouldn't necessarily try to map all our actions to some future state because the future is always in flux. Rather, we should work to do good and important work now and realize that the positive impacts of this will resonate over time. This work may also be built on and improved upon by others to produce further innovation and impact, as is often the case with the Disney attractions and experiences mentioned above. 

So, what ideas do you want to share with the world?
How can you contribute your gifts and talents to society to impact others?

• See my Career Exploration 101 piece to help with your self-reflection

​What story are you trying to tell about yourself? 
How can you collaborate with others as part of a larger narrative and goal?

• Learn more about volunteering and the impact of cultivating serendipity through your relationships  

The Often Long, Methodical Grind to "Success" 

So, what's my story? How do I see my gifts and talents contributing to the world? ​

Well, I have always been interested in helping others, even from a young age. I am fairly empathetic and find a lot of joy in teaching and mentoring others. I do this to some extent in my day job helping support postdoctoral researchers at Virginia Tech. I also use this blog and platforms like LinkedIn to share resources, programs, and opportunities with a wide audience. My hope is by doing this I can help others realize how their skills, interests, and values can be applied productively to activities and careers that benefit the world in distinct and important ways. I firmly believe we all have something to contribute. Personally, I have been working on building my platform and finding my voice so I can reach and impact more people, including those of you reading this post or leveraging the information shared on my blog and website. 

And the statistics show I am slowly making progress in these areas. ​

In a blog post from January 2021 I spoke to the fact that returns on our efforts to build skills, invest in our networks, and growth our brand often compound. Seeing measurable growth in these metrics can be slow at first but many online activities result in network effects where knowledge accumulation and impact can increase over time non-linearly. For example, building one skill early on helps you develop a related one more easily next time or one connection can lead to another. Similarly, the publication of one piece of creative or scholarly work can lead to citations by or engagement with others who then amplify your work to their networks and, in the process, help your ideas and content spread more rapidly than you could manage alone. 

I figured now, three years from when I spoke to the compounding returns I was seeing from my creative and scholarly works, would be good time to revisit the stats. For context, I launched this personal website in August 2014 as I began my postdoc position at Vanderbilt University. I figured I need to work on building my professional brand as a neuroscientist at the time and later launched this blog in April 2019 after having written pieces on my postdoc experience for the NIH BEST website (see those archived here). The blog launch was an attempt to build up a writing portfolio for potential future use in my career. I also enjoyed the process of sharing resources, advice, and research focused on a variety of topics from career and professional development to Ph.D. career pathways, the job search, and neuroscience findings with others.  

As you can see from the chart above that only reports my personal website traffic data over full calendar years, for 5 YEARS yearly unique visits to my website were under 2,000 and from 2015 to 2017 struggled to cross 1,000 (in 2017 the number of unique site visits for the year was 1,068 or an average of 89 per month). Beginning in 2020, however, visitors to the site began to rapidly grow (rising 243% from 2019 to 2020 and another 117% from 2020 to 2021). Essentially, unique visits to my site more than tripled from 2019 to 2020 and then more than doubled from that level from 2020 to 2021. Growth has slowed since then but now I average more unique site visits per month than I did in all of any year from 2015 to 2017: average monthly visits August - December 2023: 753 versus unique visits compared to 341, 476, and 626 unique visits in the years 2015, 2016, and 2017, respectively.  

Compounding growth like the stats mentioned above is hard for us to wrap our minds around.

​In the case of my website, growth in visits is most likely the result of several factors:
1) In 2021 I launched a newsletter (now with 181 subscribers) to share resources and readings with interested individuals, where I also highlight my new blog posts as well as a few select posts from my blog archive 
2) As I create more content there is more for a visitor to my website to engage with
3) I have added content beyond the blog over the years including job search resources, funding resources, and a growing list of career and professional development research studies
4) I often point to past content in new posts so individuals can "rediscover" older posts/content and this may, in turn lead to the growth in overall views of my content
5) As I grow my network and professional brand outside my website, when I point to blog pieces or resources on LinkedIn or X/Twitter more individuals see my posts on these platforms

I also believe well-written and useful content ultimately resonates with people and hopefully I am providing that via this platform. 

But my own journey to greater reach and impact has not happened overnight. It requires commitment and dedication. I have written 55 blog posts over the 57 months from April 2019 (when I launched my blog) to now, January 2024, or nearly one post per month. I try to consistently share something interesting and thought provoking here. Mostly I do it for myself, to keep my writing skills sharp. But I also do it for those who read these posts and in the process hopefully learn something or are made to think more introspectively about their lives and the impact they can have on the world. Sometimes this is accomplished through a resource or process I share to aid readers in their career and professional development but other times it is through sharing an insight into neuroscience research, like findings illustrating the power of our mindsets and beliefs. In a way, I seek to inspire others to take steps to improve their lives, whether that be spending more time with loved ones or realizing that finding fulfilling work is a process. I plan to keep doing this hard work (this post alone is probably the culmination of at least 30 hours of research, writing, and revision) because I think I have something important to say and I hope it helps my readers live better, more fulfilled, and more impactful lives.  

Growing One's Network & Scholarly Impact

In my blog post on network effects from January 2021 I also mentioned LinkedIn as a powerful tool for professional networking and how one's reach on the platform can grow with both a commitment to engaging on it and time to allow for growth. For a superb guide to leveraging the platform for career success, including building your network and engaging in career exploration, see the 2022 book Linked: Conquer LinkedIn. Get Your Dream Job. Own Your Future. by Garriott and Schifeling. 

Over the years the number of my LinkedIn connections continues to grow as I interact with new colleagues and coworkers, meet people at professional conferences, or work with new leaders and volunteers in organizations I am involved in. Additionally, individuals will reach out to me to connect and I almost never turn down a personalized LinkedIn connection request.  

I joined LinkedIn in April 2013 and by the end of that year had 43 connections. I really worked to expand my network on the platform during my postdoc position, which began in August 2014. In the graph below you can see the steady rise in my cumulative LinkedIn connections for calendar year 2014 to 2023. Steady investments in leveraging the platform have resulted in my total connections increasing 36-fold over 10 years. 

Big things can come from small beginnings and consistent effort. ​

Over the past few years I have leveraged LinkedIn's "Creator Mode" to better broadcast the content and resources I share and have moved away from gathering connections (Creator Mode replaces the default network option on LinkedIn from "Connect" to "Follow"). In 2023, my follower count grew by 19.5% and now allows the content and resources I share on career development, the job search, networking, mentorship, and more to reach thousands of people. Through the technological platform that is LinkedIn I am able to amplify my impact, helping more people learn of opportunities and resources to assist them in their career development and professional journeys. 

I firmly believe LinkedIn is a powerful multiplier for networking and brand building that you simply cannot ignore as a professional in the 21st Century. So, start investing in that platform today.​

As an administrator who supports early career researchers (graduate students and postdocs in particular), I understand that growing one's scholarly profile is essential to academic success. One of the most important metrics for a scholar is one's citation count as it indicates other researchers acknowledge your work in theirs. By definition, citations of your work take time to accumulate as your work must be disseminated first (passing through an often lengthy and grueling peer review process to get published), others must read and cite it, and then they must also publish their work before your citation is registered in various systems (Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science). So, it can take years for citations to accumulate on your work. This can sometimes discourage early career researchers as they don't feel they are gaining traction at the beginning. Patience and persistence is required in one's academic scholarship. If you are putting out work that contributes to your field by asking important questions and addressing critical topics, it will eventually be cited. It also takes time and some promotion to help get your work discovered.  

My first peer-reviewed publication was in February 2012 and I did not start seeing citations of it until 2013. Over the years I published more publications in neuroscience from 2012 until 2019 (and to a lesser extent now as a researcher interested in mentorship and the faculty job search) and slowly the citations of this work grew along with the number of my peer-reviewed publications. So, the chart above is the result of continuing to publish, even as an academic administrator, and letting time work for my prior work's visibility. 

You can certainly see in the Google Scholar stats the effect of me transitioning from postdoctoral researcher to postdoctoral affairs administrator in January 2019 and a stunting in my citation momentum in 2020 but in June 2020 I was listed as an author on my first non-neuroscience paper, focused on a survey-based analysis of the academic job market which led to new connections and research directions for me. Recently, I was involved in important work on mentorship of which our analysis of faculty mentoring experiences was published in December 2023. I expect to continue to work in these areas as a postdoctoral affairs administrator as these topics relate to my work supporting this population and, as a result, my scholarly output may increase in the coming years. And while it is nice to put out work that gets recognized and cited, that isn't really ​why I do it. Rather, I try to be part of teams contributing important insights into processes that need improvement in higher education including the hiring of faculty members and providing increased support and training for aspiring and new faculty members. 

And though I don't actively publish in the neuroscience area anymore, my past research is still being cited and contributing to new knowledge in reward processing, decision making, and substance abuse risk. That prior work is, in effect, still having an impact. When you publish scientific findings, you are leaving a legacy and contributing to the broad, upward trajectory of human knowledge and progress. When you are in the thick of the scholarly work, though, you can sometimes forget this but know that "good work" can have an impact and though it might not immediately be recognized that does not mean it won't be of value to future researchers.    ​

Your Mileage May Vary

Before wrapping up this piece I want to emphasize that the personal metrics presented above reflect my priorities in brand building (personal website, LinkedIn followers) and networking (LinkedIn connections). Growing one's scholarly metrics is mostly out of your direct control but ultimately does partially depend on producing good work consistently that others value. The activities and platforms you leverage to measure your "success" could look very different. The metrics you care about may also differ from those I shared. 

Everyone's goals are unique and the pathway to achieving them distinct. I hope seeing how my metrics and impact grew from small beginnings with time drives home the point that if you invest in activities important to you, their reach and impact can expand through consistent effort and commitment over many years. The key is to decide what you value in terms of your personal and professional growth and invest your time in those areas. Success won't come overnight but I believe you can increase the odds of making an impact through dedicated action that is genuine, internally motivated by your values, and leverages your unique skills and gifts. ​

Final Thoughts

In today's post, hopefully you can see that to have an impact you have to start by taking action to share your knowledge and gifts with the world. That looks different for each of us. It might be putting out creative works or thought pieces on the internet, it could be publishing scientific and scholarly papers, or making YouTube videos explaining complex research topics to the public. It could be as simple (and important) as showing a student in your research group how to perform a new experiment or analysis (ie, mentoring them). Whatever you are doing and sharing, the process requires engaging with others in some way. You can also take advantage of network effects to ensure your message is being amplified by reaching others you don't know but who could benefit (ie, your connections shares it with their connections or the student you teach shares the knowledge with another and then another and so on and so forth). Only by sharing our skills, talents, and ideas with others can we truly spread them. Similarly, others can only build off your ideas if they know about them. So put your thoughts out there in the world! 

Magical outcomes, which we might rightfully call innovation, begin with novel ideas that through collaboration with others and the combination of hard work, creativity, and technical know-how result in real-world impact. The impact might be creative, scholarly, or entrepreneurial. To achieve these results, though, requires a person to reach and impact others and in the process make their lives better - more informed, more efficient, more joyous, more fun, or more meaningful. The final result can often to an outsider seem like magic or overnight success but it rarely is that. Rather, consistent effort, belief in your craft, and the right group of people in your network combined with, yes, some luck, is essential.

Furthermore, the impact from one's creative or innovative efforts will only endure if you and those who come after you build off prior work and knowledge to make it even more impactful, allowing it to compound to a level of scope and reach its original creator could never have imagined. In the process these efforts hopefully move others to contribute to making the world a happier, healthier, safer, and more prosperous place through the deployment of their own gifts, skills, and actions. That's when the magic happens. ​

More from the Blog

• Career Exploration 101
• Compounded Returns: Growing Your Network and Personal Brand
• Past, Present, Future: Reflections on Time
• Mind Over Matter
• To Be Rather Than to Seem
• Giving Thanks: Finding Personal Fulfillment
• Find Your Passion? Finding Meaning and Purpose in Your Work & Life

Additional Readings & Content

• Disney & Technology: A History of Standard-Setting Innovation
• The Imagineering Story documentary series on Disney+
• Pixar Animation Studios - Our Story Timeline
• The 22 Rules of Storytelling, According to Pixar
• Pixar follows 5 storytelling rules to make every movie feel so perfect (video)
• Pixar in a Box - The Art of Storytelling (Online Learning from Khan Academy)

As we approach the end of the calendar year and are in the midst of the holiday season, time is often top of mind. Both reminiscing on the year that was or holidays past are common in December. Memories often made with those we love can bring comfort if we are apart or if those individuals are no longer with us. We can mentally time travel back to the past and in the process drag the positive feelings from that time into the present, if only for a bit. 

In addition, as the calendar transitions to January many people begin to think about the new year and our goals for the future. We project ourselves into the future and ask: what can we do now and in the immediate months ahead to get us where we aspire to be years from now? Getting more "in shape" today will make us healthier long-term, saving a bit more for retirement now will pay off when we are older, learning a new skill over the next few months can make us more marketable for a future career. These are all worthy goals that involve simulating how our actions in the present will potentially impact our future. ​

In both instances mentioned above we are constructing other moments in time in our heads and using them to affect our current state or guide near-term actions. Thinking about both the past and future also reminds us that the passage of time is constant and persistent and that the present is quite fleeting. The clock ticks on around us pushing the present into "the past" and pulling "the future" into the present. And while we are certainly aware that time is a real, objective thing that can be measured in second, hours, days, and years it is also, in a way, a subjective experience that can be hard to fully describe.   

Time is certainly an intriguing concept, especially to human beings. We have all experienced time seeming to slow down or speed up in our daily lives. In some ways it can seem arbitrary (who decided a minute is 60 seconds?) but in other ways it is very tangible and real, relentlessly moving forward (regardless of how you measure it) and in the process reminding us that it is personally limited. ​Time is our most precious resource as it is finite. You cannot create more of it. Objectively, time is constant and immutable in the sense that one cannot escape it. 

"To be human is to be aware of the passage of time; no concept lies closer to the core of our consciousness."
                    - Dan Falk from In Search of Time: The History, Physics, and Philosophy of Time

Our fascination with and fixation on time is most certainly related to our mortality in that we all will die in time. All living things have an expiration date and one could reasonably argue that the act of living is the delaying of death through information and action. 

Time as our most precious commodity can perhaps best be illustrated by the fact that some of the world's most wealthy and powerful people have been working hard to extend the time they have on Earth with investments in Altos Labs, Unity Biotechnology, Juvenescence, and Calico Labs and organizations like the Methuselah Foundation. It has become popular these days for many of us to try to hack our longevity (for more see the work of Peter Attia including his podcast and new book Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity for more on this). And while certainly having information and resources could increase one's longevity and potentially extend one's time on Earth, time as a daily commodity is the same for everyone. ​

We all have 24 hours in our days which we fill with commitments (work, raising a family), biological functions (eating, sleeping), and exercising our own preferences and desires. And while certainly those with means and privilege may be able to spend less hours on "basic needs", they can't extract more than 24 hours out of a day. Those 24 hours are limited and precious for everyone. So, what will you do with the 24 hours you have each day? Should you seek to optimize them to the hilt (to try to squeeze all utility out of them) or is their value in "wasting time" or enjoying your time? And how should you balance the allocation of these activities?  ​

The quote "How we spend our days is how we spend our lives" is attributed to the author Annie Dillard in her book ​The Writing Life. She goes on to speak to the value of daily schedules defending us from "chaos and whim" and that "a schedule is a mock-up of reason and order—willed, faked, and so brought into being; it is a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time; it is a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living." 

This quote speaks to both the unpredictability of the future and inability for us to completely "master time" (chaos and whim; the wreck of time) while also conveying the value of having structure in our lives to ensure we make time for what is important to us. This could include key work priorities or making time for companionship and fun, all of which are important to human flourishing. But in our limited time, how do we prioritize amongst the many things we could be doing while also ensuring we make progress on what we have to do to survive? There are no easy answers. Rather, we must try to the best of our human ability to plan for the future while not letting the present pass us by.  ​

Given that most of us perceive we lack sufficient time in our daily lives, many search (often unsuccessfully) for various approaches to boost their productivity and "maximize their time." The rise of smart phones and communication technology like Slack and Zoom make it possible for us to work from virtually anywhere at anytime. It is exceedingly difficult to disconnect in such an environment. I think many of us believed, especially with the rise of "remote work" in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic in Spring 2020 that we would be liberated from the bounds of an office, strict working schedules, and the dreadful daily commute. And in a way we were but when the lines between work and home blur it makes separating one's "work time" from "personal time" a challenge. Even the most exciting sounding possibility for remote work technology - work from anywhere, including while on vacation - seems to miss the point that one takes a vacation to, at least conceptually, escape work. 

There are plenty of resources and writings that try to address time management in the digital age or successfully setting and maintaining work/life boundaries. Various tools and apps promise to help. And while certainly there may be some value in these approaches, I think we have all found a "solution" to our time management problems elusive. So did author Oliver Burkeman who, in his book Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, comes to a shocking but perhaps accurate conclusion that we have more responsibilities and work to be done than can ever be accomplished in our lifetime (the average length of which is 4,000 weeks). He says we should accept this reality and in the process try to liberate ourselves from the notion that there is some hack or approach that will help us accomplish our many tasks. When I read this book, its central thesis shocked me at first. I expected to get some practical tips or insights on time management and was left with the hard truth of the inability to ever "accomplish my work". This is something I am still coming to terms with even though at my core I realize it is, in fact, true. 

​However, there are always new things we will (or feel we will) need to do...the to-do list is essentially never able to be fully checked off. The challenge we all encounter is the idealized future we are "working toward" is often a future that we never pull into the present...it never reaches us. 

So, why be so worried about all these responsibilities and to-dos if they prevent us from living in the now? Why not just live fully in the present - YOLO and all of that? Well, living too much in the present, the NOW, also has its issues. 

A quick detour into how our brains perceive time. First, there is very interesting work from Thomas Suddendorf and Michael Corballis suggesting that "mental time travel" (ie, the ability to transport our consciousness to the past - episodic memory - or future - prospection) may make humans unique or at least is a process more developed in humans. These researchers also speculate that human language may have evolved to facilitate group mental time travel through stories from the past and/or coordinating/planning future, collective goals. 

So, our brains are built for time traveling. They also can get fixated at different points in time to our peril - ruminating too much on the past and/or becoming too anxious about the "unpredictable" future. We also struggle calculating the time value of money and are rightly biased to be more concerned about having a resource like money to spend today versus investing it for a future purpose. ​

Living wholly in the present has its appeal and deep biological origins in our animalistic need for survival. Humans and other animals indeed will "discount the future," favoring rewards available NOW (or soon) over those delivered in the future, even if the future rewards are large. Academics call this tendency to favor NOW over LATER delay discounting behavior. 

In short, we are biologically biased to favor the NOW over LATER, though some of us more than others. My Ph.D. dissertation work at the University of North Carolina was focused on investigating these individual differences in delay discounting behavior in humans. As mentioned, we know from years or research on a variety of species that rewards have less value if they are delayed and the degree to which individuals discount this delay varies. In humans, these variations in delay discounting are based partially on biology and our environment but can also be susceptible to temporary states such as acute stress. And understanding this phenomenon is important as delay discounting has also been shown to be associated with drug addiction and may indeed be a risk factor in developing addictive behaviors. 

While certainly we can see how thinking only about the NOW and our impulsive urges may be problematic, so too is an over-emphasis of our thoughts on the past or future. It has been demonstrated that depression is more associated with past events while anxiety more often associates with future events. This indicates that an unusual fixation on both the past and future can also be problematic to our mental health and well-being. 

The cliché phrase (attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt, among others):
Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift, that is why they call it the Present.   
​May by a bit trite but that doesn't mean there is not wisdom in it. 
It speaks to the idea that the present is within our control as it is happening now. 

Focusing too much on the past or future prevents us from living in the moment and taking actual action in the here and now. 

In some ways we think living in the present moment (right now) should be easy. However, to be really present in a moment requires you to resist distraction. Sitting with your thoughts or being engaged in the presence of others (ie, having meaningful conversations and connections) can be surprisingly uncomfortable if you haven't done it frequently. 

In an age of unlimited work and entertainment distractions, one of the most difficult things for us is to be truly present in a moment. Part of the challenge is that we know at a deep level that our time is finite and limited and so we often attempt to master it, to maximize it. Sitting in the moment and enjoying it can seem somehow wasteful and superfluous - what do we get from being "in the moment"? Well, being present in the moment is effectively at the center of the practice of mindfulness, which has shown a range of positive effects on human health and well-being. Despite this knowledge that being in the moment is valuable, we almost can't help our thoughts from drifting to our "to-do list" or the need to use our time "better". 

At the center of our focus on optimizing time is the realization that we are mortal and finite...that we will die. Time will run out for all of us. The irony of this fact, though, is that when we accept this, really accept this, we can stop trying to convince ourselves that by maximizing our schedules and time we will somehow create more of it. Rather, realizing our mortality and relishing the present can help us focus on what matter most to us and stop waiting for "one day" to come. 

In the personal finance realm, a focus on saving for the future is seen as an unequivocally good thing. Indeed saving for the future is critical to retiring in a financially stable position (especially if your government does not provide a strong social safety net to retirees). However, it is very easy for many individuals, especially those obsessed with the Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) movement to overly focus on future retirement instead of present satisfaction. Many individuals have gone to great lengths to cut so much out of their current lives to expand their savings rate that they live lives of immense deprivation (NOTE: there is a difference between frugality and deprivation). 

But one should reflect during their working life and ask: What are they saving this money for? What is the purpose of having retirement savings? Upon deeper self-reflection you could come to the conclusion that there is such a thing as delaying one's consumption too much into the future. 

Also, as none of us really know how long we will live, we could be saving for a future that may not come. The influential book Die With Zero may have an extreme title but its thesis seems correct to me: one should think critically about when it makes sense to spend money NOW on experiences that should not be delayed for a future retirement. 

In the book, the author speaks to the need for us to consider when we should have certain experiences and questions whether waiting "until retirement" is the right answer. Backpacking through Europe is probably best done in your twenties, for instance. Even something like hiking a beautiful trail may be more feasible when you are forty or fifty not seventy. And the thought experiment goes even further when it brings up the point that you can only do certain activities with others during select windows of time. You can't constantly put off playing baseball with your 10-year old because they won't be 10 for more than 365 days. You can't keep delaying that big family trip with your parents until "your work slows down" because their time on Earth is probably more limited than yours (and the work will probably never "slow down"). When you bring other people and their mortality into the equation or, less grimly, the fact that they are also aging and moving into different seasons of life themselves, you reach the conclusion that you can't afford to wait to do certain things with them. This doesn't have to be a morbid or depressing experience (ie, focusing on a loved one's aging and mortality) but hopefully it is a motivating force to take action NOW to have memorable experiences with the people important to you. 

These memorable experiences produce what the author of Die With Zero calls "memory dividends". Essentially, these experiences with others live on in our memories for years and the recalling of them can bring joy and fulfillment well into the future. So, by investing the time in key experiences and moments NOW we reap the benefits in the future via our memories and recollection of "that time when" story. This is not unlike investing for retirement and reaping dividends on our capital...we put money in now for a payoff later. But in the case of memory dividends we often sacrifice money now for experiences we will treasure forever. Money can't buy happiness but it can provide us with the means to have special experiences with others we will treasure. 

Nostalgia is defined as a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past. For example, we often look back on our times as children fondly when we perceive life was simpler and less stressful. And data show older adults are more likely to be nostalgic as they reminisce on their youth or days gone by and in general these nostalgic experiences lead to higher subjective well-being in the elderly. So, in a way, nostalgia and positively remembering the past allows us to cope with approaching the inevitability of death as we age. It seems a bit morbid at first but our brains and consciousness are probably doing us a big favor by increasing our subjective well-being as we age. It often helps us feel we had a good life. 

We have already covered this secret. Your existence, your impact, your story can live on in others. When we interact with those around us we are laying the groundwork for a sort of oral history of ourselves. How we treat them will often be recounted. The person we were in their eyes can persist for years to come. So, what kind of person do you want to be remembered as?

This brings to mind the concept of "resume virtues" and "eulogy virtues" from David Brooks. Brooks argues that what we all should be focused on are the actions that could end up in a funeral eulogy (he was a kind, caring husband and father who gave much of his time to his favorite charity after retirement) and not points on a resume (he rose to the rank of senior vice president). In the moment, however, we often are more fixated on the resume items. It is up to us to reflect often on our actions and ask ourselves if the things we are obsessed by in the now will be things we and others care about in the future. ​

We build our eulogy virtues through caring for others. ​

And, lest we forget, if you are a creative, writer, or scientist, we also build our legacy through our work. So, doing good work is important in the sense that it can produce a piece of knowledge or creative work that others can consume, be inspired by, and build on and through this process has the potential to live on after us. And sometimes what we put out there in the world can have an effect or impact we can't even imagine (or experience) during our life. For example, in the sciences there are many who question the value of "basic research" but this type of work can inform big breakthroughs, often years later (see for example, Mendelian genetics, the decades-long development of technology for mRNA vaccines, and an overview of other innovations from fundamental research published by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine). I say all this to emphasize that anything you put out in the world, from a product of your creative or cognitive labor to the way you treat others, can have long-lasting and unexpected effects. The key is to do these things without always questioning (or obsessing over) their "value" in the now. I know that is easier said than done but history shows underappreciated work can have a big impact later. 

And while "history" may not chronicle the impact good deeds and kindness have on others at an individual level we all know at our core that how others treat us affects us. Think back to an elementary school teacher in your life...they almost certainly positively impacted you in ways they may never know. And they do the work because they care and aren't necessarily focused on "measuring" or "tracking" the product of their labor. In the immediate term there are crude and ineffective ways to "measure" ​a teacher's impact (ie, test scores) but in the long term their impact is immeasurable (igniting curiosity in young people, encouraging a student to pursue a passion, or modeling how to be a caring citizen). Measuring one's impact on others is hard unless they tell you explicitly about it but that doesn't mean an impact wasn't made. 

In the end, all of you reading this (at least with the current state of technology in late 2023) will eventually move on to whatever comes after life. As such, your life is precious and limited. So, how will you spend it? 

In my mind, our job as living beings is to try our best to bring joy, happiness, and meaning to ourselves and others while also adding value to the world. Sometimes the value you add is obvious, sometimes less so. In a way, it is not for you to judge or measure your value (though I know we all do it...hey, we are human beings after all). But if you deeply examine how you can take actions or deploy your skills to serve others today and in the future, whether they be family, friends, or your fellow man, I promise you that you will have made good use of your limited time on Earth. ​

More from the blog:

• The power of human connection
• Why you should get involved in things outside the lab/work
• Cultivate serendipity by giving back and getting involved 
• Find your passion? Finding meaning and purpose in your work and life

​
For Further Reading:

• The Science of Mental Time Travel and Why Our Ability to Imagine the Future Is Essential to Our Humanity
• In Search of Time: The History, Physics, and Philosophy of Time (Book)
• Your Brain is a Time Machine (Book)
• Die With Zero (Book)

Watch:

• How to stop fighting against time - Tedx Talk by Oliver Burkeman 
• Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals video summary
• Die With Zero book video summary 
• A longer watch: Die With Zero - Net Fulfillment Over Net Worth, an interview with the author

November brings with it a host of collegiate and professional sports taking place in the United States from American football to basketball and hockey. 

Being a sports fan is a complex endeavor that can be both painful and joyous. Depending on the resources and talent on your favorite team they may be more or less likely to win games or an eventual championship. But anyone who has watched a few sporting events knows that sometimes (even often) the team that is favored to win doesn't for a variety of reasons including mistakes, luck, and an opponent being better on that day. 

I grew up as a Wake Forest University Demon Deacon fan as both my parents went there. My sister is also a Wake alumnus and lives near the campus, only a few hours drive from my current home in Southwest Virginia. As such, for the past few years I have been to many Wake games with her and witnessed the highs and lows of fandom. 

In 2021, the Wake Forest football team won 10 games (out of 12) in the regular season and advanced to the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) football championship game. It was an amazing season for a school with the smallest enrollment among institutions competing at the highest level of collegiate football in America. Despite what was objectively one of the best football seasons in Wake Forest HISTORY, there were still 3 losses that took place that year including in the ACC championship game itself with my sister, her boyfriend, our tailgate buddies, and myself present to witness it. That loss in particular still stings. We all know from behavioral economics that losses loom larger than gains and indeed any sports fan can tell you that losses stay with you longer (and eat at you more as you play the "what if" game) than the highs of a win.  ​

While 2021 was an amazing football season for Wake Forest, 2023 has been a struggle. A team that has been so offensively gifted the past few years has had a difficult time scoring in 2023. At the college level players graduate and leave and so some variability in results is to be expected. Regardless, watching "your team" make mistakes and struggle is challenging. You can see the players are putting in effort but the results are just not there. You hope they continue to commit to the work of getting better, gelling more as a time (chemistry between the players is important), and realize that next year things can be different. However, a variety of factors in modern day college sports makes commitment of players more elusive than it has ever been. 

The modern college sports landscape has introduced an interesting set of incentives that have cast a spotlight on what an athlete gets from their experience playing for a university. It used to be that an athletic scholarship and the chance to build skills and a resume that made one competitive to be selected to join a professional team (and get paid a professional athlete's salary) was what a prospective college athlete could expect. Now, in the revenue-generating sports of college football and basketball mostly male athletes have the ability to get paid for the use of their name, image, and likeness (NIL). In theory this sounds like a great idea as historically colleges with large fanbases generated millions of dollars in revenue from the efforts (and results) of their collegiate players who did not themselves reap many financial benefits despite the risk of playing physical and often violent sports. Practically, though, the ability for players to receive NIL compensation has become a "pay for play" arrangement where the most promising players are offered serious money (especially for a soon-to-be high school graduate) to come play on a university's team. As you can image, institutions with more resources are able to offer more to these high school prospects than those with smaller fanbases, less wealthy donors, or less lucrative media contracts. Yes, there are a set number of scholarships a school can give out so it is not possible to hoard talent in pure numbers but NIL has allowed for some of the best talent to concentrate at a select number of institutions.  

And NIL is perhaps even more "effectively" used in combination with the "transfer portal", which allows players already on a collegiate team to express an interest in potentially leaving the team for a "better" opportunity. Again, in theory the transfer portal seems like a good idea. Allow collegiate players who have yet to find the right "fit" to be able to change their environment such that they can get the coaching and experience they need to develop and grow. And if someone is graduating from their current institution and seeking to enroll as a graduate student at a new institution that isn't all bad in terms of the educational and professional development. However, when coupled with NIL offers the transfer portal allows for more well resourced teams to potentially "poach" players from teams that are either underperforming and/or under-compensating their current scholarship recipients. Growth in transfer players on college football bowl subdivision rosters from 2019 to 2023 was >220% (from 6.4% to 20.5% of rosters), indicating this mechanism is becoming a more popular way for teams to upgrade their talent.  

Personally, I also believe the current system makes it easy for players to "quit" on their current team. Things not going well individually or as a team? Not getting the playing time you want? Feel like the coach is showing preference in terms of increased playing time to another player that you think you are better than? Put your name in the transfer portal in December and look for greener pastures. But is such an action what is ultimately best for these young men? 

The individual player challenges mirror larger team challenges and fanbase angst over "winning". In sports, unlike many other aspects in life, there is an objective record of outcomes associated with a team each season: wins and loses. 

A game that can run 3-3.5 hours in length for college football is eventually reflected in a single win or loss. There can easily be 80 plays per team with 22 players (11 on offense and another 11 on defense) on the field for each of them. While every player is not directly involved on every play for simplicity let's run the math assuming all 22 play a part in every play (which is more true than the casual fan realizes). This calculates to over 3,500 individual "actions" occurring in a single game. 3,500 actions and easily 80 total players involved per game. A game that again is ultimately reflected in a binary outcome: win or loss.  ​

If you watch American football games for any length of time you begin to observe that the line between "winning" and "losing" is incredibly thin. Literally one or two plays out of the 80 or so each team runs can change the outcome of a game. So when one team wins and another loses, what really is the difference in talent and effort between them? Sometimes very little and sometimes a lot. One also must acknowledge that talent and effort alone don't determine outcomes. Luck is a factor for sure. Does a defender fall down and allow an offensive player to be open down the field for an easy touchdown pass? Does a sudden gust of wind knock a ball off course preventing a field goal kicking attempt from being good? 

And what of the opposing team's effort? Fanbases will sometimes be so fixated on their own team that I think they sometimes forget that the other team has players who also want to win. So, your favorite team's success is not based completely on their own effort as they are playing against individuals who are also exerting effort and seeking an outcome (ie, a "win") that only one of you can obtain. And there are games where clearly the opposing team is just playing better or worst than your team, which will ultimately influences the outcome.  

I say all of this to make clear that while teams are often judged on their record (ie, wins vs losses), these numbers cannot capture the effort of players, level of competition, and luck. A sensible fan should then not be so obsessed with these numbers but rather look more closely at the effort players are exerting. Players make up teams and with experience and development they can become more effective in their roles that will ultimately give one's team a better chance to win in the future. This is predicated on these players continuing with your team and committing to put in the work to get better over the years.  

Wake Forest University's football team has been one particularly focused on developing its players with many "redshirting" (ie, not playing their 1st year) to allow them to remain eligible to be on the team for 5 (versus the usual 4) years. Most new additions to the team spend their first year practicing and learning the plays but never actually playing in a competitive game. This is the ultimately illustration of delaying gratification, realizing that the work they put in will often not be put on display for a year (or more!). This developmental model faces considerable headwinds in our modern era and the current collegiate sports environment. Will a freshman player with considerable talent and expectations be willing to wait their turn and trust the developmental process? 

What is even the goal of playing on a collegiate athletic team? I mentioned many embark on this trajectory with the hopes of playing professionally but very few college players will "turn pro". So, while it seems to the external observer that the goal of playing in college is to become a professional athlete, the actual value in this experience is in the development of critical skills (leadership, dedication, hard work) for succeeding in the world after college. Furthermore, playing a college sport provides one memories that last a lifetime. 

So, it is the JOURNEY of practicing, playing, and competing at the college level that matters most to most individuals rather than the DESTINATION per se. The phrase "focus on the journey not the destination" may be a tired one but that doesn't make it untrue. Results and outcomes are fleeting moments in time boiled down to numbers on a ledger X wins, Y losses. The experience of being on a team, forming bonds, and working toward a common goal is a rich one. A memory that will last and often ages well...many players come back to their alma matters many years later proud of their efforts playing on a past team. ​

Chris, this blog normally focuses on career and professional development topics. What does all this sports talk have to do with that? A lot. First, most students and younger employees are seeking to grow and develop skills that will make them more marketable in the future (just as a college athlete is trying to develop skills and experiences for a professional career). Many will encounter challenges in these roles and setbacks are expected. Perseverance is key. Not giving up when things get touch at school, at work, etc... but realizing that through challenges comes personal growth and development.  

Similarly, many of us focus on professional outcomes and not the process of developing as a professional. Just because you didn't get that promotion or land a new job doesn't mean the process of honing one's skills and revisiting and highlighting one's accomplishments aren't worthwhile in and of themselves. 

In each competitive endeavor we undertake professionally the outcome may be binary - winning or losing - but we must look beyond that. Similarly a true fan must get past measuring "success" in wins and losses. Wins and losses are an external scorecard that cannot account for personal growth or internal state. We can lose but learn in the process. We can lose but know we are getting better and closer to a "win", even if we cannot completely predict when that win will come. 

If we all focus a bit more on the process of personal growth and fulfillment versus looking at external measures to define success, we would all be better off as fans and professionals. You can't fully control if you "win" or "lose" but you can determine your mindset (if not always your mood). Certainly losing sucks and no one likes it. But being more reflective on an experience may allow us to take something positive from it regardless of the outcome. We may have lost the game but the defensive is playing better this year and hopefully the offensive improves next year as well (in the case of Wake Forest football). We didn't land that job we really wanted but we were reminded of all we have accomplished and have to offer our next potential employer.  

I believe the key to moving from an external scorecard to internal growth is via personal commitment to our own development and not allowing factors external to us (and often outside our control) to govern how we feel about ourselves. This is a hard thing to do but we all would be better off adopting this mindset. And we can't give up when things get difficult. Success means more if it is achieved through overcoming adversity. 

According to the professor and author Arthur Brooks, satisfaction is "the joy of accomplishing a goal with effort" (learn more about the art & science of happiness in the TEDx Talk featuring him, below). 

The with effort part is important as it is achieving something through striving and overcoming obstacles and challenges that is rewarded in our physiology and psychology. You won't be satisfied if you always take the easy way out and don't commit to doing the work to get better at your craft (as an athlete or professional). ​

This past Saturday, Wake Forest played its last football game of the season at Syracuse and I was down at my parents house for the US Thanksgiving Holiday. Typically my Dad doesn't like to watch the whole game as it makes him nervous but we did turn it on with about 5 minutes left in the game. Wake was down but had a chance to go ahead with a score. They had scored more points in this game than any against conference opponents and had a relatively new player in leading the team at the quarterback position. We were excited to see the team executing on offense for a change as they moved the ball down the field. In the end, it came down to one play where the team couldn't get the ball in the end zone. But how exciting to witness what the players were capable of. We were proud if disappointed in the outcome. That performance gave us hope for next season. 

"I am not happy with our record but these guys showed up everyday, they prepared hard, they practiced hard, they played hard down to the final play....I understand we are expected to win football games and we accept that expectation but I am proud of our players."
- Dave Clawson, Head Coach, Wake Forest University Football 

In the end, winning is great but it certainly is not guaranteed nor should it always be expected. Rather, relying on our own internal scorecard (a term popularized by the legendary investor Warren Buffett) and knowing work is being put in that will pay off is critical. In an ironic way the next win will mean more because of the past losses it can be measured and contrasted against. 

With near infinite distractions and choice available through modern technology, humans are often left adrift and detached from reality. While we think escape from life's hard problems is the answer, ultimate satisfaction usually comes from commitment and the overcoming of challenges.  Dedicated: The Case for Commitment in an Age of Infinite Browsing by Pete Davis is a book that I think captures our current societal state while offering insights on what can be gained from commitment to causes bigger than ourselves. 

In the book and his 2018 commencement speech at Harvard Law School that inspired it, Davis laments we, especially younger adults who were raised with the internet, smartphones, and on-demand content, are stuck in "Infinite Browsing Mode." This state, facilitated by technology, leaves us swiping through endless choice, content, and information and often paralyzes us from commitment. It may be most apparent as an issue in examples like browsing Netflix for a show to watch or scrolling through countless dating profiles on apps like Tinder and Bumble but it goes beyond this. It has permeated our society and culture and leaves people either afraid or unable to commit. Solving the world's biggest problems requires action not passive "browsing" and people would be on the whole happier and healthier if they detached from their screens and engaged with the physical world. 

Making the effort to commit and live in the physical world is hard. It requires vulnerability and courage and a willingness to forego the easy but often unfulfilling online world for a messy, challenging, yet beautifully flawed "real world". 

I find the third point interesting as the author defines this as the worry that commitments we make will threaten our identity or sense of control. He mentions, and I agree, that there is a "messiness to working with other people" and that no organization, institution, group, employer, etc.... is going to perfectly match the characteristics we might desire and/or feel perfectly aligned with who we are. 

It is certainly "easier" to remove the messiness of working with other people from one's life but it would lead to a less fulfilling experience. You can imagine that when we have a choice about whether to associate and work with others we may be even more hesitant to do so given this fear of association and all the challenges interpersonal relationships (even professional ones) have. But removing other human beings from our professional and personal lives is not the answer. We are a species who evolved to cooperate (and also compete & fight). It is core to our humanity and despite the challenges of working with others, it is something we cannot and should not excise from our lives. 

In last month's post I spoke to current challenges in volunteer engagement with non-profit organizations across the United States. I see how this could be the result of individuals' fears of association mentioned above. Why would a person who already sees the challenges of working with others in their professional or personal life choose to work with even more individuals in a volunteer capacity? Why add more stress and potential interpersonal conflict to one's plate when you aren't paid to deal with it? How can you effectively work with and motivate individuals in these settings where no compensation is tied to their engagement? These are certainly valid points and challenges non-profit organizations have always faced. 

The difference now, though, is that potential volunteers have so many options to occupy their time and even activities that may make them feel like they are making a difference. Sharing one's reactions and concerns on social media requires a few clicks on a keyboard or screen and can leave one with the impression that they have "done good". And certainly, engaging with organizations and causes online can be effective and useful in its own way. Nothing, however, replaces true engagement in a cause or organization and the satisfaction that can come when working with others towards a common objective or goal. ​

Breaking out of "Infinite Browsing Mode" in our age of distraction and cynicism requires us to dedicate ourselves to something larger than us - to a cause or community that matters. 

Davis talks about sustained commitment and that many of us are led to believe we will find "success" or self-actualization through some major, life-defining moment like the climax of a Hollywood film. Often, however, we change and grow gradually and our lives are filled "not with big, brave moments, but a stream of little, ordinary ones out of which we must make our own meaning." And in an age of endless distraction, staying committed to work or causes over time is very challenging. He goes on to state that everyday boredom, distraction, and uncertainty threaten sustained commitment. 

As someone who works to support career and professional development of graduate students and postdocs, I think a lot about how developing oneself and advancing toward a career goal also requires a gradual and sustained approach. Commitment to learning a bit more or advancing a bit more in one's craft can ultimately yield results but it rarely happens overnight. Similarly, "networking" to land a job takes time and should ideally be done months if not years in advance. Relationships need to be cultivated to yield fruitful results. 

I wrote a few years ago about compound returns in growing one's network and ultimately career. I need to update that piece soon as I have certainly seen how the visibility of this blog, my website, and my personal "brand" have grown over the past few years. Importantly, this didn't happen overnight and requires a relatively small but sustained commitment on my part: to publish a blog post once per month. I have been doing this since early 2019 and after nearly 5 years, I am seeing sustained interest in the resources and content I share here and in my monthly newsletter (launched in January 2021). I think doing all this helps me build professional credibility and also provides me a means of sharing resources and readings I care about with others who may be interested. It allows me to extend my reach beyond my day job and contribute to the field of graduate and postdoc career development. 

While I wouldn't call myself a "thought leader" in this space (and don't really like that term to begin with), I do think maintaining this personal website, blog, and newsletter has allowed me to build professional capital. After I landed my current role at Virginia Tech, our Senior Vice President of Research and Innovation commented that he really liked my website. While I don't think having this platform got me my current role, it certainly was an attribute that stood out to my employer.

Do you need to go out and create website, blog, YouTube channel, or newsletter to build your personal brand? Not necessarily. The point of this story is that I found an avenue outside my work responsibilities to contribute to my community and share resources. Furthermore, my efforts are gaining traction after dedicating myself to continuing these efforts over many years.

What could a commitment to your own career and professional development look like for you? Maybe a Coursera course or training on a skill you would like to build? Or perhaps attending a campus workshop on a topic you have been curious to learn more about? There is so much out there for you to engage in and online platforms like Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, and even YouTube make accessing new knowledge and developing new skills easier than ever. ​

The same technology that distracts us can empower us. As with so many things, it is how we use the internet and online platforms that matters. ​

For more see this short video covering some topics and recommendations around good habit formation from James Clear's book, Atomic Habits.

Dedication and commitment to any cause, activity, or action helps develop the habit of said action. And once something has become a habit, it becomes automatic and less subject to disruption by our rationalizing mind with excuses like "I will get to that tomorrow" or "the weather is bad today". Habits become a sticky aspect of our behavior...hard to disrupt. In some sense, habitual actions become a part of us. Who wouldn't want to develop the habit of self improvement or volunteering or being a more kind and compassionate human being? Most of us want these things but if we do not commitment to consistently engaging in these activities we are almost certainly doomed to fail. Forming a habit requires considerable intention and effort early on but ultimately it can become second nature. 

To close, dedication and commitment are not easy. But they also can start from small acts, performed consistently over time. The formation of good habits that help you develop and grow or contribute to other's well-being are ultimately worth the initial effort. They leave us with improved skills, more diverse interests, and/or those around us more supported, engaged, and loved. We all feel like we could be doing more to both better ourselves and make the world a better place and certainly there is much to be done. But starting small and realizing that any action you take either internally or externally can lead to meaningful changes in your life and the lives of others is critical.   

It won't be easy at times to stay committed to causes and activities you care about but in the end it will be worth it. ​

"Commitment is about choosing to pursue—in the face of our limited length—boundless depth, for the more time we add to something, the more beautiful it becomes. The two meanings of the word “dedicate” are revealing. First, it means to make something holy (like “dedicate a memorial”). But it also means to stick at something for a long time (like “she was dedicated to the project”). I don’t think this is a coincidence: We do something holy in the extraordinary moments when we set out on long hauls, and we do something holy in those countless ordinary moments when we sustain them."
​           - Pete Davis, Author of Dedicated: The Case for Commitment in an Age of Infinite Browsing 

In a prior post I spoke to the importance in getting involved in various organizations and groups as a way to build skills, expand one's network, and give back. Volunteering around causes you care about is vital to so many areas of one's life. Sadly, however, volunteer engagement is on the decline. 

In a survey of over 1,200 non-profit leaders conducted in 2022, 46.8% said that recruiting sufficient volunteers is a big problem for their organization. Those numbers have almost doubled from the 2003 survey, in which 29% of nonprofits saw this issue as a big problem. Furthermore, nearly half of non-profit leaders believe that the lack of volunteers is a "big problem" to their organizations fulfilling their missions. This same report also pointed out that the ~100 institutional funders they surveyed were less likely to endorse the belief that volunteers provide important programmatic and functional support to non-profit organizations (when compared to responses from non-profit leaders) and  were less aware of some of the challenges organizations faced in recruiting volunteers. This gap in funders' understanding of volunteer engagement and impact may result in it being difficult for non-profits to solicit funding support for these efforts. Importantly, the study also found that most non-profit organizations do not ask for funding for volunteer engagement and emphasized that funders see benefits to supporting volunteer engagement if they perceive the investment increases the capacity of volunteers to form or strengthen connections with other people or organizations in the community.   

I have seen some of the challenges in volunteer recruitment and engagement first-hand as part of my involvement in two organizations close to my heart: the National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) and the Graduate Career Consortium (GCC). Across both organizations, interest and engagement with what one might call "service" committees has eroded, potentially because some volunteer tasks and activities in these areas seem like "work". 

While the NPA has a small staff (of 3.5 FTE as of this writing), many of them are focused on the day-to-day running of the organization and trying to "keep the lights on." As such, focusing on a complex problem like "volunteer engagement" and "leadership development" is a challenge. The GCC suffers from the fact that it is a 100% volunteer-run organization. So, all day-to-day operational tasks of the GCC falls to its leaders and members to execute. Having served on the Executive Committee of the GCC, I can tell  you that it is A LOT of work. Furthermore, much like the NPA, GCC leadership spends much of its time trying to keep the organization running and fiscally stable.  

Both the NPA and GCC are great organizations with important missions and are working diligently to try to improve and evolve their operations and structures to serve their members better. That said, they can only do so much at their current volunteer levels. Both organizations would be transformed if more members engaged in volunteer efforts and activities. This requires infrastructure and a plan to accomplish, however. And while leadership in each organization can start to shape processes and procedures to improve volunteer recruitment, engagement, and retention, it will ultimately be up to volunteer leaders across various committees and taskforces within each organization to do the work. We need to engage volunteers in volunteer engagement which highlights the weird circularity of the problem. It will take effort to get this flywheel going but perhaps combining established volunteers and leaders in each organization with newer volunteers would allow for fresh ideas and insights to emerge. There are no easy answers but we have to start somewhere. 

Certainly the COVID-19 pandemic hit many hard and led to burnout and a re-setting of priorities. Ironically, non-profit, volunteer-driven organizations offer an important service to those affected by the pandemic. Feeling isolated and uncertain? Organizations that foster community, connection, and resource sharing conceptually are more important to you now. But taking advantage of organizational resources and programs is quite different from helping to run and manage them. 

Perhaps part of the lower levels of engagement in volunteer work (and paid work, too) is a general issue in our limited attention and bandwidth today...stretched to its breaking point with the proliferation of content and technologies engineered to distract us. Email, notifications on applications like Slack, and the infinitely vast distractions available via the internet and streaming content services like Netflix provide a countervailing force on our attention and focus on work that is almost insurmountable. And this is work we are paid to do that gets crowded out by digital distractions. What hope do we have for engaging in work we are not paid to do (ie, volunteer work) in such an environment? 

There is also the issue that engaging in volunteer or leadership capacity in a non-profit organization is WORK. It requires effort and commitment that many have too little of these days. 

Similarly, developing more robust structures to engage and support volunteers within non-profits requires work on the part of an organization whose bandwidth is already stretched due to lower levels of engagement. Ironically, solving the problem often requires more engagement and volunteers. One can see how this state of affairs could lead to a sort of "doom loop" where a decrease in volunteer engagement erodes the organization's ability to "get stuff done" and provide examples of projects and activities for prospective volunteers to get excited about, ultimately leading to less new volunteer interest in the organization. 

There is some interesting research looking at what factors affect both volunteer retention and engagement. In the sample of 232 active volunteers working in social or environmental non-profit organizations, regression analyses found that commitment, and not engagement, predicts intention to remain with the organization, and that engagement, and not commitment, predicts psychological well-being of the volunteers. These data suggest a need for non-profits to articulate their "why" to volunteers to solidify their commitment to the organization and its mission to keep them engaged and then through their engagement, volunteers improve their sense of well-being (ie, feel "good" about their involvement). 

Indeed, other studies show that the volunteers perceive that their satisfaction with life had significantly changed as a result of doing voluntary work. In addition, this study found that the link between self-determined types of motivation and eudaimonic well-being ("living a life of virtue in pursuit of human excellence") is mediated by engagement. Engagement also mediated the positive effects of motivation on satisfaction with volunteering, which in turn acted as a second-order mediator on the relationship between self-determined types of motivation and hedonic well-being ("feel good"). In other words, volunteers need to be internally motivated to contribute to an organization and then be given pathways to engage with the organization to feel fulfillment from their involvement on a variety of levels. 

Qualitative analyses of interviews with experienced volunteer managers have found that key engagement strategies could include "fulfilling ulterior motives" of the volunteers. So, organizations must work to understand what is motivating their volunteers to engage and how can the organization help to fulfill this need while also involving the volunteer in activities crucial to the organization itself. Flexibility in engaging volunteers also came up in this analysis, supporting the notion that providing volunteers different mechanisms for engagement (including potentially asynchronous tasks) allows them to remain engaged on their own terms. None of these findings are that surprising but they emphasize a need for organizations to develop infrastructure to hear from their prospective volunteers and offer them a variety of options to engage with the organization. Additional studies on volunteer engagement are linked at the end of this article. 

Reader, perhaps you can help jump-start volunteer engagement efforts in societies or organizations you care about by taking the first step of getting more involved? This could look differently for each person and organization but active engagement of some kind is critical. Perhaps you can identify a leader of a subcommittee or group within an organization and setup a meeting to learn more about their work and whether your skills and interests could contribute in some way? These conversations (and your continued involvement in an organization) ultimately help you widen and broaden your professional network and you can develop new skills in interpersonal communication, project management, and leadership by becoming involved in a project or initiative within the organization. If you are helpful and provide value, people around you will notice and could also be excellent references for jobs you may apply to in the future. In closing, volunteering is helpful for you professionally but also helps the organization accomplish its mission. It is the ultimate win-win. So, what are you waiting for? 

If you are a postdoctoral scholar or individual working to support this population, consider joining the NPA as a volunteer. There are several committees and taskforces to get involved in. 

If you work in the graduate-level (graduate student or postdoc) career & professional development space, the GCC is an amazing organization that could benefit from your contributions and involvement. Learn more about GCC committees and the organization's work and consider joining as a member if you aren't one. 

Additional Reading & Resources

• Nonprofit Volunteer Management: Three Tips to Increase and Maintain Engagement
• Initiative for Strategic Volunteer Engagement
• Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration 
• University of Maryland Do Good Institute
• Understanding and Improving Employee Engagement - Insights from Gallup

Research on Volunteer Engagement​

• Volunteer engagement and organizational commitment in nonprofit organizations: What makes volunteers remain within organizations and feel happy?
• Enhancing Volunteer Engagement to Achieve Desirable Outcomes: What Can Non-profit Employers Do?
• Volunteer Engagement and Retention: Their Relationship to Community Service Self-Efficacy
• Leading Volunteer Motivation: How Leader Behaviour can Trigger and Fulfil Volunteers’ Motivations

Get Involved!

• Great Nonprofits.org
• Volunteer Match

More from the Blog

• Why You Should Get Involved in Things Outside the Lab/Work
• ​To Be Rather Than To Seem