NEWSLETTER & ARTICLES
ARTICLES Archive
Welcome to our annual reading list. If you are familiar with our work, you’ll know that it integrates ideas, research, and practices from diverse domains. (See our latest book, for example.) People often ask us how we come up with…
What does a high-performance environment look like? Depending on where you go to answer this question, you might be met with descriptions such as obsessive and relentless work ethic, high expectations and standards, excellence, optimizing everything, and accountability. The picture…
The past few years have come with plenty of disorder: Climate change. Political dysfunction. Pandemic. War. Artificial intelligence. The list goes on. It’s hard to know what to think, let alone do, amidst so much uncertainty. It’s even harder in…
“It’s 10pm, I’m going to bed,” is what I told the group of friends, teammates, and strangers who were gathered in our house for a get together during college. It was a Friday night and I had a long run…
The more you define yourself by any one activity the more fragile you become. If that activity doesn’t go well—or when there is inevitable chaos or change—you lose a sense of who you are, which is a stressful and discombobulating…
Growing up in the nineties, there was one constant in both our lives: neighborhood sports. Just about every day following school, you could find us amidst a dozen friends playing basketball, baseball, football, or rollerblade hockey. Steve would make the…
When people think about progress they often use the metaphor of a road. It’s why “the road to progress” is such a common aphorism. You could certainly do a lot worse, but you could also do a lot better. The…
I recently heard someone say that that inherent unpredictability and uncertainty of life can feel like “looking both ways before crossing the street, and then getting hit by an airplane.” For better or worse, we often live under the illusion…
Pressure can be insidious to performance. It can alter the link between perception and action, making us feel like foreigners in our own body. It can push us to panic, freak out, and catastrophize; where all we see and can…
If you value basketball, find it very fulfilling, and want to craft a life around it, would you spend the majority of your time watching, playing, and practicing football? Probably not. It’d be simple to see that you are playing…
When you react to a situation you fuse with it and become it. Going from one reaction to the next is an emotional roller-coaster.
Can you recall a time when your parents criticized you? It could be about your motivation for school or work, or a time you messed up on the soccer field. Chances are there’s a vivid memory that pops into your…
Welcome our Fall 2023 reading list. If you are familiar with our work, you’ll know that it integrates ideas, research, and practices from diverse domains. (See our latest book, for example.) People always ask us how we come up with…
Is it better to focus only on the positive…or expect life to be hard? Research suggests the idea of “tragic optimism” — holding space for both pain and joy — can help you to bounce back better from tough times,…
The day you launch a book feels like sprinting an all-out mile; it’s a full on push—emails, social media posts, podcasts, columns, radio shows, responding to early readers, and more. The only thing is this: at the end of the…
Essential Reading
What is The Growth Equation—and Why You Should Pay Attention.
Redefining Success So It Doesn’t Crush Your Soul.
We've Reached Peak Wellness—Most of it is Nonsense; Here's What Actually Works.
When a Stress Expert Battles Mental Illness.
The Best Routine, According to Science.
Performance, Health, and Well-being are Contagious.
Practicing the Mastery Mindset, a Path to Long-Term Progress.
Consistently Good Enough Beats Occasionally Great.
We Make Fitness Way Too Complex and That is Dumb.
Languishing and the Art of Showing Up.
Quit Being So Hard On Yourself: Self-Compassion and Peak Performance.
The Key to Sticking to An Exercise Program? It’s Supposed to Feel Easy!
How To Build High-Performance Habits.