1: There are two ways we can measure our progress.

The first way is to compare where we are now against our ideal, Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy write in The Gap and The Gain.

“Ideals are like a horizon in the desert,” the authors write. “No matter how many steps we take forward, the horizon continues to move out of reach.” 

When we measure this way, we are living … continue reading

1: “Early-stage passion doesn’t look like late-stage passion,” Steven Kotler writes in The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer.

Imagine LeBron James as “a little kid standing in front of a big hoop, trying to get his shots to drop,” Steven writes. “On the front end, passion is nothing more than the overlap of multiple curiosities coupled to a few wins.”

Sure, to be passionate, we want to … continue reading

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: Author Steven Kotler is a skier.  

“I started skiing when I was five years old and have never stopped,” Steven Kotler writes in The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer. “As a result, every time I head into the mountains, I am making a choice (autonomy) that is aligned with my passion and purpose.”

This week we’ve been exploring the importance of autonomy to drive peak performance. … continue reading

1: Imagine it’s 9:30 am on a Wednesday morning. We are sitting at our desk. We receive an email from a colleague: “The waves are good!”

We stop what we are doing. We close our laptop. We stand up. We go change into our surfing gear. And we run to the beach.

This happens regularly at the outdoor retailer Patagonia, where the corporate headquarters sits on the Pacific Ocean, and … continue reading

1: Yes, the research is clear: Goal-setting improves our performance.  

But there’s more to the story.

“Simple as the idea of goal setting might seem, there’s trouble in the particulars,” Steven Kotler writes in his brilliant book The Art of the Impossible. 

“What the research shows is that not every goal is the same, nor is every goal appropriate for every situation and—most important—the wrong goal in the wrong … continue reading

Peak performance. That’s our goal.

To perform at the highest levels, we must tap into four cognitive abilities: motivation, learning, creativity, and, most importantly, flow, Steven Kotler tells us in The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer.

Yesterday, we looked at the importance of intrinsic drivers to maximize motivation. We engage in activities and behavior when intrinsically motivated because we find them interesting and internally satisfying. Intrinsic … continue reading