How Seth Godin's The Dip Relates to Change - BFTJ

#bornforthejourney #AIVidsumDB ##TheDip

Show Notes

This episode of "Born For The Journey" features David Bourne discussing three interconnected concepts crucial for personal growth and navigating life's challenges: the #The Four-Part Self Cycle, #The Dip, and #The Gap.

Bourne explains how understanding these frameworks can help individuals embrace difficulties with more gusto and connect with their #True Self.

He delves into the cyclical nature of personal evolution, the inevitable plateaus and struggles in learning new things, and the importance of perseverance.

The discussion highlights how recognizing these patterns, rather than succumbing to #Resistance, is key to sustained growth and achieving one's calling.

He emphasizes the need for a resilient mindset to push through the "dip" and close the "gap" between aspiration and current reality.

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Video Info

Table of Contents

1. Overview

This video explores three interconnected concepts vital for personal growth and creative endeavors: the #The Four-Part Self Cycle, #The Dip, and #The Gap. David Bourne explains how understanding these frameworks can empower individuals to navigate challenges, embrace difficult phases, and ultimately connect with their #True Self. He emphasizes that perseverance through the inevitable plateaus and struggles, often where #Resistance is strongest, is key to sustained growth. The discussion highlights the importance of a resilient mindset and consistent effort to bridge the gap between one's aspirations and current reality.

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2. Key Points with Timestamps

David Bourne introduces the three main topics for the video: the four-part self cycle, Seth Godin's "The Dip," and Ira Glass's "The Gap," explaining how they interrelate for personal growth.

Bourne details a four-part cycle of self-evolution, drawing parallels to the hero's journey and the four parts of the brain as understood by #Jill Bolte Taylor and #Carl Jung. This cycle helps in navigating life challenges and embracing difficult parts of life.

The #The Dip, a concept by Seth Godin, describes the inevitable plateau and struggle encountered when learning something new after the initial excitement. It's a period where #Resistance is high, and many people quit.

The bad news is the difficulty and #Resistance faced during the #The Dip; the good news is that perseverance often leads to competitors dropping out, revealing opportunities and a "magical part of the universe" that aids in growth.

Ira Glass's #The Gap describes the frustrating disparity between one's high taste and the current quality of their creative work. The only way to bridge this gap is through consistent work and deadlines.

Bourne illustrates the #The Four-Part Self Cycle as a continuous loop of encountering a problem, taking action, getting a result, and gaining a new truth, which incrementally brings one closer to their #True Self. This is also referred to as the #The Four P.A.R.T. Cycle.

Overcoming the #The Gap requires a mindset that understands the iterative nature of growth. Even if results don't immediately meet expectations, continuous learning and tweaking lead to eventual improvement.

A critical question during the #The Dip is whether to quit or persevere. It's acceptable to quit if it's not one's true calling, but if it is, commitment through the dip leads to breaking into a higher quadrant of self-realization. This is the question: #Am I meant to quit or keep going?

Competition often drops away during the #The Dip, creating an opportunity for those who persist. This phase is where one's commitment is tested, and enduring it can lead to significant advancement.

Ultimately, understanding and applying these concepts leads to greater self-awareness, which David Bourne considers the primary job of the journey.

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3. Actionable Takeaways

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4. Glossary of Terms

The Four-Part Self Cycle

A cyclical process of personal evolution, drawing parallels to the hero's journey and the four parts of the brain (Jill Bolte Taylor, Carl Jung). It involves moving through phases of problem, action, result, and new truth, leading to greater self-awareness and connection with the #True Self. Also referred to as #The Re-Creation Cycle or #The Four P.A.R.T. Cycle.

The Dip

A concept by Seth Godin, referring to the inevitable period of stagnation, difficulty, and decreased motivation encountered when pursuing a new skill or goal after the initial excitement wears off. It's a crucial phase where many quit, but perseverance can lead to significant advantage.

The Gap

A concept by Ira Glass, describing the frustrating disparity between an artist's high taste and the current quality of their work. It's the space between what one aspires to create and what they are currently capable of producing, which can only be closed through consistent effort and deadlines.

True Self

The authentic, evolved version of oneself that one strives to become through continuous growth, learning, and navigating life's challenges. It is the ultimate destination of the #The Four-Part Self Cycle.

Resistance

The internal and external obstacles, doubts, and distractions that arise when one attempts to pursue a significant creative endeavor or personal growth. It often manifests as procrastination, fear, or perfectionism, and is a key challenge to overcome during #The Dip and in closing #The Gap.

Jill Bolte Taylor

A neuroanatomist who studied her own stroke and described the four parts of the brain, which David Bourne references in relation to the #The Four-Part Self Cycle.

Carl Jung

A Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology, known for his concepts of the collective unconscious, archetypes, and the four functions of consciousness, which David Bourne references in relation to the #The Four-Part Self Cycle.

The Re-Creation Cycle

An alternative term for the #The Four-Part Self Cycle, emphasizing the continuous process of renewal and transformation in personal growth.

The Four P.A.R.T. Cycle

An acronym used by David Bourne to describe the phases of the #The Four-Part Self Cycle: Problem, Action, Result, and Truth.

Am I meant to quit or keep going?

A critical question to ask during #The Dip to discern whether a struggle is a temporary challenge in a worthwhile pursuit or a sign that the endeavor is not aligned with one's #True Self.

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5. Stories

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6. Resources Mentioned

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7. About This Document

This summary was made by me, David Bourne, with the help of AI tools. I'm using AI because it's fast, mostly accurate, and it provides me and the reader with something that would otherwise not exist due to time constraints.

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How Seth Godin's The Dip Relates to Change - Born for the Journey with David Bourne - YouTube
Feb 25, 2026

Transcript - Unedited From YouTube

0:02

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All right, I think I'm streaming.

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I'm not sure, but I'm just going to go through my different parts of this uh of this setup.

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I'm using Obsidian here on the screen.

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Obsidian with a little bit of a picturein picture. We're talking about David Bourne. That's me. Born for the journey. And I've got my iPad, iPad,

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picturein picture. Those both seem to be working miraculously. I had a camera die today. But did that hold me back? It did

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not. I got another camera. My other camera works. And in some ways, I like it even better. So there you go. You

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live, you learn, you grow. That's what this is about. Growth along the journey.

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We'll be talking about three things today. particularly we're going to talk about the uh let me flip through them

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here on my screen. Um my main topic is this fourpart self cycle. Okay. So this

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is a a cycle uh where we move through the four different parts of our self.

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And if we're aware of this cycle, it can really help us to navigate life challenges better. not only navigate

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them better but become we can learn how to embrace the the difficult parts of life with more gusto and and enjoy life

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more because of that. And um you know if if the word cycle makes sense to you,

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you may you may have reference to the hero's journey um which I believe the change cycle is kind of baked into the

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into that uh just how things change animals, plants, uh life and earth,

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people, how we all just go through these different phases. I break it down into four parts because it makes it it makes

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it more um more clear to me especially because those those four parts mimic the

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four parts of the brain as understood by Jill Bolty Taylor, Carl Jung, four parts

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of the self and uh this is a universal principle these I I think this the progress through these different phases.

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So, I want to talk about that, but I also want to talk about the dip, which is something I talked about yesterday in this series, which is whenever you're

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trying to learn something new, it is uh at first exciting and challenging and you just have a lot of energy for that.

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And in because you have that energy for it, you grow, you change, but then you start to plateau where it's not as exciting, it's not as fun, and inevitably you're going to hit a dip,

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which is both good news and bad news.

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The bad news is that you're going to have to work through it. And it is a real pain because every well, those

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parts of you that don't think you can do this, they're going to show up. the resistance. These parts of you that have listened to other voices in your life that say you can't do things like that,

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they're going to show up. You're going to face obstacle after obstacle after obstacles, just kind of like the hero's journey. Um,

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meaning the hero has to face the villain and all the challenges that that happen.

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And that's the dip. Well, the bad news is that. The good news is that you can fight through that. And especially if

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you know that the the dip often causes your competition to drop away because a

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lot of people quit in the dip. And so that's where you have your chance to shine. And so often the dip will things

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will be revealed to you just as in the hero hero's journey. some if this this kind of magical part of the universe

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often I don't know I know that sounds corny but I have come to believe that that is true and it's hard to talk about

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that but it's one of the things I'm I'm learning to do is to talk about that mysterious mystical connection that

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often happens in that part of uh the journey uh after and during the struggle

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and so that can help you skyrocket out out of the dip and get you where you really want to be, which is ultimately in connection with your true self. So,

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another concept I talked about a couple of days ago is the gap, which is a really cool idea from Ira Glass where he says, you know, when you start out,

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particularly if you have really good taste, which I know all of you do, that it is really hard because the work you create, the writing, the art, the music,

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whatever it is you're doing, video production, this is me right this very second. it doesn't feel like it's living

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up to what you think it should be. Your tastes are really high, but your work level is down here. And and that stinks

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because uh that's hard. And so there's a gap between where you want to be and where you want to go. And he says

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the only way to work through it is to put yourself on a deadline, which is what I'm doing with this project.

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a deadline to get out as many videos as I can and to show up and do the work and it'll

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get better and just you have to you have to let go of these often wrong

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expectations. I mean, how can it be any better than I'm able to do? It just can't be any better than I'm able to do

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right now. Will it get better? Of course. Will I be able to speak about these ideas more clearly in the future?

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Of course. Well, that's the goal. But if I don't do the work, that's not going to happen. So, uh, I just want to draw these out a little bit and particularly

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talk about how they work within the fourpart cycle. So, let me switch over here to the iPad

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and hopefully one of my batteries isn't going to die. That's all too common that

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that's what they want to do right about now.

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So the dip let's see the dip is let me change my level here.

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I'm just going to create a new well let me let me do this. So the dip

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is where is this?

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I'm going to divide this up into three different screens.

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That's not a big enough pin. One, two, and three.

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I'm going to redo that. Whoops. Hey, I didn't know you could redo that. Let's see.

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Where'd you go? Okay. Three sign. Sorry about this one. Where did it go? Hidden layer. Of course, I can't draw on a hidden layer.

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It's hidden. Turn it on. There we go.

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All right. Here we go. See, I should have done my setup better.

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All right. We got three different things. You've got uh the first one I mentioned, I'm going to put it over here. It is the four-part

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self. So, you've got your true self up here at the top. This is what you want to become. This is where you're going.

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This is the part of you that uh you're trying to flesh out that you're trying to become the artist that you know that you can be. You're trying

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to do the work, the writer, whatever it is. Well, you start out here in phase one, we go to two, then we go

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to three to the four. Right? So, what are these? Well, you go in a circle. You start out with, I don't know,

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an attempt. you try something. So, you've got this new thing, right?

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You've got this new thing and you try it and there's a lot of unknown here,

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right? There's a lot of question marks here.

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But every time you try something, every time you take action, what happens?

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Well, you're going to learn something. You're going to get a result.

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And I call these the P problem.

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Let me change the color of my pen because this will make more sense if it's a different color. You've got your problem,

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you've got your action, you've got your result, and then you've got a new truth.

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Okay? You got a new truth. That's where you're going. Well, whenever you do the work and you continue to go in these cycles,

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you're going to gain more and more truth as you go. Now, what's really hard

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is that you're going to you're going to actually and it's kind of more like this where

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you're going to be kind of stuck in this this area here. You're going to feel stuck. You're making progress, but it's not going to feel like progress, right?

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That's where the gap comes in. So,

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Iglass's idea of the gap is you start here and you want to get here. So, let's call this A and let's call this Z. Well,

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the quality of your work, you know, you want it to be up here. I'm taking a risk here because I've never drawn it out like this before.

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You want to be You want to be up here. Can you see that dotted line? Sort of. I'll make the dots a little bit bigger.

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You want to be up here, but in reality,

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your work feels like it's down here. It just doesn't feel that good. The quality

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doesn't feel good. And it'll get a little bit better, you know, as you iterate and as you do these cycles, just like over here

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in this third quadrant where you're getting these results. Now, the results not may not feel like what you want them to be, but nevertheless, you're

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learning, you're growing, you're changing, and so eventually what happens is you're going to get up here, but it's

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going to take a lot of work. And it's going to take a mindset that understands this. And that is so critical. the

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mindset that understands that this is how things work. You've got to see I don't I don't mean to be preachy. I'm talking to myself.

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I've got to see that every time I make a new video, even though it's not going to be as good, I'm going to learn something

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and I'm going to tweak. Like I learned that this camera I bought the other day,

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which I was really excited about, it just broke. I thought, "Oh, I'll just carry around a little camera like this instead of, you know, one of these and

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it'll be uh, you know, spend a hundred bucks on this instead of a lot more on that and I'll be able to keep this in my camera

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bag and take it where I want and I shouldn't have the power on if I'm not

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using it." But this thing died on me today. And luckily, I've done this

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enough that I know how to set up another camera because I've done it enough. You know why? Well, because I made a whole

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bunch of mistakes. What I think are mistakes. See, I even call them mistakes. I make a bunch of other attempts. So, I know how to connect

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another camera. I know how to connect all this stuff. And yeah, it's a little bit frustrating, but it's also pretty fun. And but the real work is down here doing this.

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It is doing the iterations that are eventually going to get here. Even though it feels like

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it's down here, you are going to get to you are going to get from A to Z

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if you do the work. And it's going to be satisfying. And it is satisfying. You know, in the past couple days, I've made a few videos and it is so much more

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satisfying to have done that. Now, so what am I doing? Well, ultimately what

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I'm doing is I'm working towards my true self here.

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I'm working towards uh growing and changing and I am I can already feel it,

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you know, I'm starting to understand these concepts better. The next step for me is going to be to write these out.

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And so I spent a lot of time today when I told myself I would be making a video.

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I spent a lot of time on this. Gotta mean to switch over. Remember to switch over. I've been a lot of I spent a lot

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of time writing this and um and adding to my notes because I want to publish these notes so that they

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will be uh out there for folks like you to to enjoy and understand. Now I have a third one, the dip. There videos that I

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have on the gap and the videos I have on the on the um the dip too.

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So this one is to be how these three all work together. So with the with the gap or the names are kind of confusing. Seth

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Goden wrote a book called the dip and what he's let me write this down. This will make more sense. This is the gap.

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This is the gap. This is Ira Glass. Look him up. And then I have the dip.

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So, what's important? Ah, see, my damn battery died. What the All right,

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I'm going to do something. Pardon my French. I knew my battery is going to die. I'm going to add another camera

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that is yellow. Let's see.

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Stop when not visible. Restart. See, this is a problem I've never had before.

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Always play even when not visible. I hope that works. I don't know what this is.

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Video source. What's the video source? Uh, it's a playlist. Never mind. Shoot.

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I'm gonna add another capture device. That's what I'm doing. What is the capture device going to be?

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It's going to be my web camera. Dunda. My web camera is not even in here.

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Detail camera. FaceTime HD camera. There you are. Okay.

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I hope this is viewing. I can't even tell if you're seeing this,

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but I think you are. So, anyway, um the next thing's not going to work, but my iPad. Okay, get back to the iPad. Sorry about that. You just got to keep going,

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folks. The old Dave would have quit and redone all this, but screw that. I'm not doing that.

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Uh the dip. So the dip is um again you've got where you want to be and and

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so you have all this energy at first and it's great. It's awesome. It feels good.

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You're learning a lot and things are going great. But then you have this downward

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slump and forget this for a second. You got this downward slump and it's a lot of people right here quit. then you know

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maybe you should quit. If it's not your true work, if it's not your calling, if it's not the thing you should be doing,

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you really need to find out, is this the thing that I need to be doing? That is a very important question down here because there's nothing wrong with

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quitting something you really shouldn't be doing.

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But if it's something that you are just committed to and you know this is your life's work, like I know making these videos and talking about this stuff is

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my life's work. So I am not going to quit. I am going to work through the dip and I'm going to go in these cycles. And

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remember the cycles are this part. You start out with a problem. You keep taking action. You keep getting

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different results and eventually you're going to break into this fourth

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quadrant which brings you closer and closer to your true self.

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Um so that is what this represents when you get here. And remember the competition

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is going to be much greater uh here in this part. The competition is going to be much greater in this part

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because a lot of people are going to be trying to do what you want to do. But right here a lot of people quit. This is a mess. I sorry about that. A lot of

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people quit here. This is your competition quitting.

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But you're not going to quit. You're going to make it. You're going to work through the dip. All right. So, those are those three ideas put together. And

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um yeah. So, ask yourself,

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where am I in all this? Is there something that I've been trying to do that I just can't do?

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Check into the gap the gap concept. Look at Seth Goden's concept.

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Look at these four parts of the self and ask yourself,

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you know, am I meant to quit or am I meant to keep on going? And whichever thing you do, it's okay. But make sure you're aware of what you're doing.

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Ultimately, these three things just lead to greater awareness and that's awesome.

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And if you get that, then I've done my job here. All right, folks. I'm David Bourne. This is born for the journey.

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Where is my text? Oh, yeah. My camera stopped working. Uh, so hope to see you in the next one. Cheers.