My
favorite television show, right now, has got to be Naked and
Afraid. Have you seen it? If you haven't, you really should. The
show is extremely compelling. It is so good. Though the season just ended, it was
airing on the Discovery Channel on Sunday evenings.
The
premise of the show is simple. Take one woman, and one man, strip
them naked and force them to survive, in an inhospitable environment,
for three weeks. I couldn't imagine doing it. There is no way I would
last. I tend to give up when they forget to put cheese in my burrito.
As weird
as it may sound, Naked and Afraid reminds me of two things
from my favorite book. My favorite book is called Flow and it
was written by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. The subtitle to the book is
“The psychology of optimal experience.” (Here it is) You gotta read it!
Csikszentmihalyi
is a professor of psychology, at the Claremont Graduate University,
in California. In his book, Flow, he mentions a finding that
is rather consist throughout the research. That finding is the
following. When psychologists ask people to talk about someone they
admire, the two traits which are most often cited, as reason for
admiration, are courage and resilience. And, I think this is why
Naked and Afraid is such a good and popular show.
We all
know that people value rare things. The more rare something is, the
more value people place on it. Obviously, this is what makes gold and
diamonds, and all that stuff, so valuable. It's also the reason
people admire, that is to say people value, courage and resilience.
Courage
and resilience are traits which tend to be in short supply. And, the
very essence of Naked and Afraid is that it tests the
contestants on these highly admired traits. Of course, for the casual
viewer, it also helps put our difficulties into perspective. Our
daily fears generally pale when compared to walking barefooted
through a jungle filled with snakes and spiders. And, when you watch
somebody not eat for more than a week, it sure makes you feel like
you'd be resilient enough to perhaps skip a meal.
Ever
since reading Flow, I have tried to create a policy for myself. On a
day to day basis, I try to build my levels of courage and resilience.
This is because I know, like most people, being courageous and
resilient does not come naturally. It's something we must work on. As
often as possible, I try to remember what Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Do
one thing every day that scares you.”
This
leads to the second thing the Discovery show reminds me of. In Flow
Csikszentmihalyi uses a word which isn't very common. That word is
“Autotelic.” Even when I typed that word, just now, my spelling
checker put a red line under it. Autotelic means, “Having a purpose
in and not apart from itself.” Meaning, something that is its own
reward.
An
autotelic activity is an activity that you do simply to do. Meaning,
it's something you do for fun. It's something we do even though there
are no external rewards or punishments. Singing and dancing would be
good examples of autotelic activities. For the most part, doing the
laundry, or cutting the lawn, are not autotelic. Laundry and the lawn
are exotelic, the opposite of autotelic.
As it
turns out, autotelic activities tend to be more enjoyable than
exotelic activities. Most people are not familiar with those terms.
Nowadays, we tend to talk about intrinsic versus extrinsic
motivation. It's the same thing. But, a mistake that is often made,
is people sometimes think intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are
mutually exclusion. They are not. They can co-exist to varying
degrees.
Part of
what's so compelling is that the adventures, on Naked and Afraid,
tend to be autotelic. That is to say they are intrinsically
motivating. The show makes no mention of any sort of reward for
finishing the challenge. The reward is simply that you finished the
challenge. And that's the very definition of an autotelic experience.
A
cynical soul may be thinking, “The reward is, they got to be on
television.” To which I would agree, that probably does play a
role. Some people simply like the fame, and others use the visibility
to grow their businesses. But, that doesn't explain the end of the
show.
If you
have seen the show, you have seen the ecstasy on the contestants'
faces when the challenge is over. If you haven't seen the show, you
can imagine. After 21 days of misery, the couple reach the finish and
that are ecstatic. The most common exclamation seems to be, “We/I
did it!” That's an intrinsic reward. I highly doubt the people are
thinking of all the leads they are going to get for their survival
training business. If anything, they seem to be thinking about cheese
burgers and cookies.
I'm not
saying anything you don't already know. Bit I do think this is such a great
lesson to learn, or to be reminded of. To put it very simply,
becoming a better, more skilled person, is very rewarding
psychologically. So, if you wish to experience true bliss, challenge
yourself. Not for what you will get, but for who you will become.
