So… What’s a Quest?
A quest is: a journey or mission undertaken by a person to reach a specific endpoint, often involving challenges, obstacles, and personal growth along the way.
It has some particular flavours. For a Quest we’re talking…
Self-direction vs institutional structure
High degree of intrinsic purpose vs specific external certification/validation
Unique journey vs conventional path
Emergent outcomes vs heavily pre-determined
It also has strong design elements. These include:
A purpose and endpoint
Likelihood of a transformative journey
An exciting level of challenge
A sense of meaningful accomplishment
Sound fun? It is. But it also requires next-level intentionality.
Defining my own Questful approach has fundamentally changed how I think about learning and growth.
What do you know about Quests, Danielle?
In the last 3 years, I’ve completed some really fun Quests, amidst a full-on work and home life.
This is my latest and longest Quest (completed on 15th July 2025):
I spent 1000 nights (2.7 years) reading a poem, a short story and an essay a night. (Inspired by Ray Bradbury.)
I’ve also written 52 short stories in a year (in under 2h each) and interviewed 52 podcast guests about narrative comedy. (Your Quest doesn’t have to take this long! I learned a ton from one that spanned 52 days.)
The week of July 28th 2025, I’ll start my next Quest. (It will take me up to 2 years to complete.)
During this time, I’ve been asked a LOT of questions about my approach. People can see that I’m having fun, and finishing them. But how?
How I enjoy the process AND finish them is counterintuitive to most goal-setting methods. This was confirmed in my recent pilot. 😊 (May-July 2025). I helped participants take a Questful approach to designing and completing their own Mini-Quest. Consensus was that it was mind-bendingly different—in a good way.
A Quest could be awesome if…
- You’ve already achieved a lot in different areas of your life, and now you want a new and invigorating challenge. (This could be 2h a week, part of a sabbatical, career break, or a full-on post-exit exploration.)
- You do like ‘hard’ that links to meaning, but you’d also like it to be more fun.
- You want to explore new skills and interests, but in a bespoke and self-organised way (e.g. writing, storytelling, learning a language, cooking, music, philosophy).
- You want someone to help you figure out what you’d really love to explore on a Quest and why.
- You’re good at getting things done, but your planning process and/or pressure sometimes sucks the life out of it.
- You’d like to work with someone who can provide: an energy boost, warm accountability, a clear and fresh perspective, and a playful level of challenge.
- You’d like help rebuilding attention, energy, and curiosity.
I actually don’t think doing a Quest is for everyone, or suits all circumstances. (Sometimes a course, or a hyper-efficient plan is totally the way to go. )
So, if you’re curious, I recommend having a quick chat with me. You can ask me anything.
We can talk through your circumstances, and what kind of adventure you’d love. It might be a Mini Quest, a Sabbatical Quest, or your very own version of the Fun Four.
PS: The internet can be wild—people talk a lot of rubbish, and overpromise a lot of things. You can see that I am an experienced coach, who’s genuinely invested in helping people, here.
