I was introduced to Trae Stephen’s idea of choosing Good Quests through the Meditations with Zohar podcast. His essay (cowritten with Markie Wagner) explains the idea further:

At the dawn of the 20th Century, the Wright Brothers embarked on a quest to build the first controlled airplane. A half century later, NASA embarked on a quest to put a man on the moon. Combustion, penicillin, nuclear fission; the discovery of America, the drafting of the Constitution, Normandy — history is defined by protagonists pursuing good quests.

And a simple definition of a good quest:

In the most simple terms possible: a good quest makes the future better than our world today, while a bad quest doesn’t improve the world much at all, or even makes it worse.

So a question to ask ourselves as the New Year ushers in: What’s your quest?

Maybe write the idea on a notecard and pin it above your desk: Choose good quests.

Read Trae Stephens and Markie Wagner’s essay in full here.

And listen to his interview with Zohar Atkins here.

Happy New Year!