NEWSLETTER & ARTICLES
ARTICLES Archive
Welcome to the annual reading list. If you’re familiar with our work, you’ll know that it integrates ideas, research, and practices from diverse domains. People always ask us how we do this. The answer is simple: We live in the world…
Grit. What comes to mind? An athlete pushing through pain and fatigue. A potential Navy Seal surviving “Hell Week.” Or for the more research savvy amongst us, Angela Duckworth’s definition of Passion + Perseverance. Early in my coaching career, I…
Self-improvement as we know it, said the philosopher Alan Watts, is a hoax. Because the self that needs improving is the same self that is doing the improving! So long as you think of the self as a closed system,…
Health and wellness is a 4.2 trillion dollar industry. Throw performance in there and we’re probably talking over 6 trillion dollars, or half the entire GDP of China. And yet, as individuals and communities we are struggling to be well and sustain…
Over the past few years, there has been an ever-increasing obsession with biohacking and life extension: FDA-approved studies to see if metformin, a drug historically used to treat Type 2 diabetes, can slow aging. A supplement called Basis, which purports to extend life and is…
When I first started training for marathons a little over ten years ago, my coach told me something I’ve never forgotten: that I would need to learn how to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. I didn’t know it at the…
At the United States Track & Field Olympic Team Trials in Eugene, Oregon, 28-year-old Brenda Martinez was in prime position to win her best event, the 800-meter run, which would qualify her for the Olympics for the very first time. But with…
In Silicon Valley, techies are swooning over tarot-card readers. In New York, you can hook up to a “detox” IV at a lounge. In the Midwest, the Neurocore Brain Performance Center markets brain training for everything from ADHD, anxiety, and depression to migraines, stress,…
Earlier this year, Anne Helen Petersen wrote an essay for BuzzFeed entitled “How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation.” The basic gist was that millennials, people between the ages of 22 and 38, tend to suffer from a combination of low-level anxiety, fatigue, and…
Common advice is to find and follow your passion; to be passionate. It’s what parents, teachers, managers, coaches, and commencement speakers champion. A life of passion is a good life, or so we are told. But it’s not that simple. The same…
There’s a popular theory that willpower is like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it becomes. But like any other muscle, if you use willpower too often without any rest or recovery in between, eventually it fatigues and gives out—you eat the…
“Good is the enemy of great” is one of the most popular self-improvement expressions there is. It’s the first sentence of an international bestselling business book, the title of another self-help book, and a mantra that NFL superstar J.J. Watt has used in press conferences. It…
Last August, I was in New York City doing media spots for my book, Peak Performance. In between interviews, I went on a long run in Central Park and didn’t eat or drink enough afterward. I went to meet a friend…
Common advice is to find and follow your passion. But it’s not so simple. You don’t just magically stumble upon the feeling and enjoy everything from there. Expecting to only sets you up for repeated disappointment. Passion needs to be…
Peak performance happens as a result of trying really hard, and then not trying at all. It’s a paradox. I’ve never met someone who has described a breakthrough performance as effortful or straining or tight. It’s the opposite: when people are…
Topics
The Base
The Climb
- Drive and Passion
- Toughness
- Core Values
- Resilience
- Productive Stress
- Rest and Recovery
- Self-Awareness
The Peak