1: It was March of 2011. SEAL Team Six Commander Master Chief Dave Cooper and another Team Six leader were summoned to CIA headquarters in McLean, Virginia.
“We think we’ve found Osama bin Laden,” Admiral William McRaven, commander of Joint Special Operations Command, told them bluntly.
Admiral McRaven then outlined the plan: “Team Six operators would fly into Pakistan in stealth helicopters, fast-rope onto the the compound’s roof, … continue reading
1: There is a big difference between perfectionism and optimization.
Perfection is the distant star we can never reach.
Philosopher Brian Johnson has a year-long Heroic Coach program that focuses on Optimizing.
The person who is mistake-free is sitting around doing nothing, Brian tells us.
As professional optimizers, we accept our imperfections. We have high standards. But we accept ourselves, and we accept reality.
Our commitment? To do our absolute … continue reading
1: If we are hunting high achievement (and we are), “motivation is what gets you into the game, but learning is what keeps you there,” Steven Kotler writes in The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer.
Steven cites psychologist Gary Klein’s classic book on decision-making, Sources of Power, which identifies eight specific types of knowledge “that are visible to experts yet invisible to everyone else.”
o Patterns that
1: When we reflect on our lives, what are our proudest accomplishments? Steven Kotler asks in The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer.
“Now think about how hard we worked to accomplish them. Sure, everybody gets lucky a few times. There’s always a handful of occasions when you get exactly what you want without having to work very hard to achieve it,” he observes.
“But are those the memories that … continue reading
1: Grit is “the intersection of passion and perseverance,” University of Pennsylvania psychologist Angela Duckworth tells us.
Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle’s observation three hundred years ago is even simpler: “No pressure, no diamonds.”
We all know the path to consistent high performance is a bumpy road with many rocks, boulders, and unexpected hairpin turns.
In his book, The Art of Impossible, author Steven Kotler identifies three indigents required for … continue reading
1: “Late in his reign, sick and possibly near death, [the Roman Emperor] Marcus Aurelius received surprising news,” writes Ryan Holiday in The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph.
“His old friend and most trusted general, Avidius Cassius, had rebelled in Syria,” Ryan notes. “Having heard the emperor was vulnerable or possibly dead, the ambitious general had decided to declare himself Caesar and … continue reading
1: Theodore Roosevelt spent almost every day of his childhood fighting severe asthma.
“Despite his privileged birth, his life hung in a precarious balance—the attacks were an almost nightly near-death experience,” writes Ryan Holiday in The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph. “Tall, gangly, and frail, the slightest exertion would upset the entire balance and leave him bedridden for weeks.”
When he was twelve, … continue reading
1: What is the one strategy that is the most effective to overcome the seemingly endless problems that affect us as individuals and as a group?
Perseverance.
“Hold on and hold steady,” Ryan Holiday tells us in The Obstacle is the Way. “It works in good situations and in bad situations, dangerous situations and seemingly hopeless situations.”
Perseverance.
Odysseus leaves Troy for his home in Ithaca after ten long … continue reading
“My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it… but love it.” -Nietzsche
1: Thomas Edison was at home one night after another busy day in his laboratory. Suddenly, a man appeared at the door. A fire had broken out at Edison’s … continue reading
“In the meantime, cling tooth and nail to the following rule: not to give in to adversity, not to trust prosperity, and always take full note of fortune’s habit of behaving just as she pleases.” -Seneca
1: “Because he has become more myth than man, most people are unaware that Abraham Lincoln battled crippling depression his entire life,” writes Ryan Holiday in The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art … continue reading
