NEWSLETTER & ARTICLES
ARTICLES Archive
In his fascinating documentary Vietnam, director Ken Burns briefly profiles Robert McNamara, former US Secretary of Defense under John F Kennedy, and Lyndon B Johnson. McNamara focused exclusively on the measurables, believing that everything imaginable should be quantified. “What you…
At the 1972 Munich Olympics, Frank Shorter did the unthinkable for an American: he won the marathon. At the same race, his friend, countryman, and occasional training partner Kenny Moore ran an incredibly strong race to take the heartbreaking 4th…
When success occurs, to what do we attribute it? Do we take full credit ourselves or acknowledge the helping hand of a mentor or coach? Does that coach claim full responsibility in creating the athlete who stands upon the podium?…
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…
Topics
The Base
The Climb
- Drive and Passion
- Toughness
- Core Values
- Resilience
- Productive Stress
- Rest and Recovery
- Self-Awareness
The Peak