In 1955, Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California, when a ten-year-old boy went inside and asked for a job. Labor laws were loose then, and the boy reached the point, where he could sell guide books for $0.50 each.
Within a year, he moved to Disney's Magic Store, where he learned tricks from older employees. He experimented with humor and tried simple procedures for the audience. He soon discovered that what he wanted was not to do magic, but to do it in general. He focused on the goal of becoming a comedian.
Beginning in his teens, he began performing in small clubs around Los Angeles. The crowd was low, and his activity was low. He was rarely on stage for more than five minutes. Most of the people in the crowd were busy with things like drinking alcohol or talking to friends. One night, he gave his stand-up routine at an empty club.
It's not an easy job, but he's doing well. His first procedures last only one or two minutes. In high school, his content included a five-minute action, and a few years later, a ten-minute program. At the age of nineteen, he performed at a time of twenty minutes a week. During the show, he had to read three poems.
He spent another decade experimenting, adjusting, and training. He worked as a television writer and gradually, he was able to get down to his own appearance in talk shows. In the mid-1970s, he was a regular guest on The Tonight Show and Saturday Night Live.
Finally, after nearly fifteen years of work, the young man became famous. He toured sixty cities in sixty-three days. Seventy-two cities in eighty days. Then eighty-five cities in ninety days. An event in Ohio was attended by 18,695 people. A further 45,000 tickets were sold for his three-day show in New York. He progressed to the pinnacle of his genre and became one of the most successful comedians of his time.
I recently finished Steve Martin's wonderful autobiography, Born Standing Up.
Martin's story offers a fascinating perspective on what it takes to stick with habits for a long time. Humor is not for the faint of heart. It’s hard to imagine a situation that causes more fear in the hearts of more people than acting alone on stage and not even getting a laugh. Yet Steve Martin faced this fear every week for eighteen years. In his words, "10 years of learning, 4 years of refinement, and 4 years of great success."
When most of us struggle to stay motivated, like Martin, follow their own habits — comedy practice or cartoon drawing or guitar playing? How do we design habits that pull us in rather than fade? Scientists have been reading this question for years. While there is still a lot to learn, one of the most consistent innovations is to work on tasks that are "manageable difficulty" as a way to retain motivation and reach the pinnacle of desire.
Goldilocks rule
The human brain wants a challenge, but only if it is within an optimal zone of difficulty. If you like tennis and try to play intense competition against a four-year-old child, you will soon get bored. It's very easy. You will win at every point. Conversely, if you play a professional tennis player like Roger Federer or Serena Williams, the competition will be so tough that you will quickly lose inspiration.
Now, consider playing tennis against someone you like. As the game progresses, you win some points and lose some. You have a good chance of success, but only if you really try. Your focus shrinks, distractions disappear, and you are fully invested in the task at hand. This is a challenge of insurmountable difficulty, and it is a prime example of the Goldilocks rule.
The Goldilocks rule states that humans experience supreme motivation when working on tasks that are on the edge of their current abilities.
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