How “Spark Joy” Can Be Your Secret Weapon for Success in the Coming Year
Your gut knows more than you think
Photo by David Billings on Unsplash
Let me say right off that I’m guilty of mocking Marie Kondo’s advice of holding an article of clothing to your heart to see if it “sparks joy” before deciding to dump it in the recycle bin.
If I use the term at all I’m more likely to say “ugh, does not spark joy” when the dog throws up in the middle of the living room.
But recently I discovered that the “spark joy” method of decision making is pretty effective when you’re shopping for shoes. I came home with a pair of respectable business-casual bluchers that I don’t regret.
The Science of “Spark Joy”
There is a growing body of research that backs up Marie Kondo’s method of using a visceral sensation to make intelligent, good decisions. True, her practice of saying hello to houses, tapping items to “wake them up” and seeing if they spark joy in your heart all have their origin in the Shinto religion. But there’s also some pretty good science behind the idea of acting on your feelings.
Your brain, it turns out, is not the only way you process information. There is a complex network known as the enteric nervous system (ENS) that is just as important as your brain for certain kinds of thinking. The main job of the ENS is to regulate digestion and elimination. But it can also remember things.
This memory plays a big part in “thinking with your gut.”
Make Choices, Not Decisions with Your Gut
Marie Kondo’s spark joy method may be great for sorting through old t-shirts or buying new shoes. But can it really help you make some of the biggest decisions in your life?
Yes.
No.
Thinking with your gut is a terrible way to make good decisions if you don’t have a command of the facts. You wouldn’t want to, let’s say, go to war with Iran on a gut instinct. Big decisions require a complete understanding of the facts.
But when you do have facts, your gut instinct can be a great way to evaluate your choices.
Bill Burnett explains this, citing research by Daniel Goleman:
You cannot choose well if you choose only with your rational mind. There’s a part of your brain, way down in the basal ganglia, that summarizes emotional decisions. Whether something that you’ve experienced is good or bad. The problem with that part of your brain is that it has no connection to the part of your brain that talks...it has no connection to the prefrontal cortex or anywhere else. It’s only connected to your GI tract and limbic system. So it gives you information through feelings...a gut sensation.
Burnett’s point is that without listening to your feelings you can’t fully assess how well a particular choice measures against your past experience. The good news is that your gut is generally pretty accurate.
How Spark Joy Can Save You Millions of Dollars
Using your gut can also be a quick way to move through a multiverse of possible decisions, arriving at a good decision much more quickly and reliably than pure analysis.
Architect Christopher Alexander believes that deep feeling, making a visceral connection with your work, is an essential part of the process of getting stuff done, and getting stuff done well.
Before we take an action, we can grasp the latent structure as the emotional substance … a dimly held feeling which describes where we are going, but is not yet concrete, in physical and geometrical terms. This means we can sense, ahead of time, the quality of the completed whole – even when we cannot yet visualize it. We then keep this quality alive in our minds and use it as the basic guiding light, which steers us towards our target. The final target, then, has the feeling which we anticipated much earlier, but often has an unexpected unfamiliar geometry.
Here’s an example I saw today.
There’s a restaurant property in downtown Ventura that has been vacant for a long time. I don’t know if it ever opened. Why is it empty?
On paper the property looks pretty good. The large outdoor patio is inviting and perfect for Southern California’s climate. The location is a quarter mile from a popular beach, within easy walking distance of popular tourist destinations. The headquarters of upscale clothing maker Patagonia is right around the corner.
Here’s what I think the problem is -the design is absolutely wrong for the location. The patio is designed to look outwards. The plexiglass windows give a clear view of the surrounding area.
If the architect had taken fifteen or twenty minutes, dragged a table and chair out to the lot and contemplated whether or not his design sparked joy, he would have seen this view and quickly had his answer:
The architect could then have changed his plans, created something better suited for the location and saved everyone a lot of money. Here’s a patio one block further up Main Street that solves the problem in a better way and is a much more pleasant place to sit.
It’s Worth a Try
I’m naturally intuitive but also analytical. When push comes to shove I think I tend to make decisions by asking myself “which is the most responsible course of action?” This often leads to success…I usually accomplish my objective. But in the process I often feel trapped, imprisoned.
This year I’m going all in with “spark joy”. Faced with a choice of actions I’m going to ask “which path feels most alive?” And if the answer is neither, I’m going to explore whether there are changes that can add life.
Let me know in Comments if you’ve had success decided with your gut.