I Dare You Again: Danforth’s Motivational Classic, Updated for Modern Life

By K Fisher

‘Who wants to do unimportant and uninteresting things? To develop your gifts to the largest possible use – that’s your dare.’
William Danforth inspired generations of people to aim at the best that is in them and now, 70 years on, we can dare to do even more with modern ideas of personal growth and achievement.
We can use developments in the science of psychology that were not available to Danforth so that we can take his ever-popular motivational messages and incorporate evidence-based research on thinking and behaviour change. Now we can ‘aim for the best we can be’ even more successfully.
Life is a four-sided affair. This book dares you to develop the physical, mental, social and spiritual aspects of yourself and tells you how to do it using current examples and practical exercises.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Nov 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9781787101852

K Fisher

K Fisher held positions as a consultant clinical psychologist in the NHS for 30 years and has a special interest in treating emotion and self-esteem problems in patients with long-term health conditions and disability. She has written a number of academic papers, though she particularly likes to compose self-help booklets for individual patients, exploring ways of reaching the goals of living their best possible life with their particular needs. This has led to an interest in broadening the scope of psychological theories to help people achieve the most fulfilling aspects of themselves in their everyday lives.

Book preview

You.

About the Author

K Fisher held positions as a consultant clinical psychologist in the NHS for 30 years and has a special interest in treating emotion and self-esteem problems in patients with long-term health conditions and disability.

She has written a number of academic papers, though she particularly likes to compose self-help booklets for individual patients, exploring ways of reaching the goals of living their best possible life with their particular needs. This has led to an interest in broadening the scope of psychological theories to help people achieve the most fulfilling aspects of themselves in their everyday lives.

Dedication

Dedicated to American Youth Foundation –

one of the philanthropic projects of William Danforth.

Copyright Information ©

K Fisher (2020)

The right of K Fisher to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

Austin Macauley is committed to publishing works of quality and integrity. In this spirit, we are proud to offer this book to our readers; however, the story, the experiences, and the words are the author’s alone.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781786298331 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781787101852 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published (2020)

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd

25 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5LQ

Acknowledgement

Thanks are due to Alex Hedger for the original idea of updating the book and to the editorial team at Austin Macauley for bringing the project to life.

Introduction

If it’s so good, why update it?

William Danforth, the author of I Dare You!, is still revered as an inspiration to many generations of people through his writings and visits to the youth camps he established in America. This book, first published in 1931, has remained in print ever since. Numerous reviewers note its motivating effect at different stages of their lives and its encouragement to live beyond mediocrity. While it retains its huge popular appeal, the language and material are now dated and less likely to resonate with the more critical experience of a modern reader. Many of Danforth’s examples have their basis in his involvement in World War One. He describes Generals as those who exercise their minds to rise above those left on kitchen patrol, and he illustrates bravery and dedication with the achievements of the nurses in the field hospitals.

"Why not start an offensive today? he says. Will you set a zero hour to go over some top that has stood as an obstacle in your life?"

Many reviews of the book admire its clarion call to action, but we could improve it by including how much more we now know about the influences that motivate people to progress – and those that hold people back – on their life’s journey.

This updated version uses newer ideas, current examples and evidence-based research on thinking processes. In the first place, it was necessary to modernise some of the concepts Danforth uses by expanding them and incorporating the ideas of our current culture. For example, in the physical domain he gives us simple exercises but does not consider the need for increasing our activity to balance our more sedentary lifestyle.

He talks of educating and training the mental side of living, but he did not have access to the cognitive theories from which modern opinions about feelings and behaviour have developed. Our thoughts and beliefs, our cognitive processes, are now considered to be the foundation of most of our emotional and behavioural reactions.

When discussing the social aspects of the best version of the self, he means ‘Developing a Magnetic Personality’. These days, we talk about Leadership. ‘Social’ has a wider context which we need to explore in more detail.

Another aspect of the best self is called ‘Religious’ and Danforth was writing from a strongly Christian background, at a time when there was little alternative in the mind of the majority of the American public. This is no longer appropriate in modern times so we have relabelled this ‘Spiritual’, which allows us to include the influence of Eastern and Western philosophies on a fulfilling life. We are only just now learning to appreciate, and use their impact on contemporary thought and action.

The style of the book is direct, and in places, quite authoritarian. This is clearly intentional as Danforth’s aim was to give simple commands to get things achieved. This might be appealing, but it is off putting at the same time. While he gives clear instructions (Walk a mile every day. Don’t say you haven’t time. Do it), he doesn’t allow for people’s need for self-direction, and does not take account of their personal circumstances, which trigger or impede the behaviour. These factors were not as well recognised as important aspects of behaviour change until later in the twentieth century.

Nowadays, we try to encourage people to change their behaviour – to take steps towards self-development – by giving them choices and establishing an interactive approach that allows them to explore their own paths to ‘go somewhere and be somebody’. The science of psychology has developed since Danforth’s time and it has taught us many aspects of learning and development that were not available to him. BF Skinner was critical of early work on ‘conditioned reflexes’ (such as Pavlov’s reports of dogs learning to salivate on hearing a bell that had been associated with food), and became famous for his scientific and experimental work on ‘operant conditioning’ in the 1950s onwards. His theory states that learning in all organisms occurs by a process of selective reinforcement (rather than by a purely unconscious physiological reaction). Behaviours that are followed by a good outcome or which prevent a bad one are reinforced or strengthened, so that they are more likely to occur again. Behaviours that are not followed by any particularly useful outcome will tend to die out, or be extinguished. The conscious brain evaluates the utility of the reinforcer.

We see examples of this all the time in normal life. If we put money in a vending machine, we are rewarded by a drink or a bar of chocolate, thus reinforcing our expectations of a similar outcome the next time. Even if the machine fails to provide our reward today, we are likely to keep trying on other occasions – after all, it works sometimes, so this might be our lucky day.

On the other hand, we mostly decide against engaging