excellence, actually
excellence, actually is a podcast from The Growth Equation, hosted by Steve Magness, Brad Stulberg, and Clay Skipper. Drawing on their work with Olympians, coaches, executives, and other elite achievers, they provide mental and physical tools, practices, and frameworks used by the best in the world. Each episode offers concrete ideas and tips to help listeners become more meaningfully engaged in pursuits that support their goals and values. The podcast focuses on evidence-based systems rather than performative nonsense.
Episodes
Peptides 101: Evaluating Hype, Risk, and Reward
Peptides! They're everywhere in the health and performance world (and, increasingly, outside of it, too). So... what is a peptide? Are they safe? Should you be taking them? We're going to get into all of that today, breaking down what the science says (and doesn't say) about the efficacy and safety of peptides, go over a "three-legged-stool" framework that will help you evaluate novel sup
How to Not Turn Into a Robot
This week, we're reacting to an article about the rise of souped-up A.I. baby monitors, and a video from popular podcast host Chris Williamson responding to the anti-optimization movement. Both hint at something nefarious happening in the health and wellness industry—and, as always, we're hoping to inject a bit of sanity and wisdom. We talk about weighing the costs and the benefits of tra
How to Reset Your Focus
Why is it so hard to focus these days—and what can we do about it? On today's episode, we talk about the science behind our collapsing focus and fractured attention. (If you're feeling frazzled, foggy, or unable to concentrate, you're not alone—so are we!) Then we get into the practical ways you can begin to build both back. We talk about the four key pillars of focus (and how to train th
The Ten Commandments of Coaching
Coaching is one of the most meaningful and valuable jobs out there. Which is why it's all the more important that it's done the right way. Today, Steve and Brad—who have more than 30 years of sports and performance coaching experience between them—share their ten commandments for transformative coaching (you won't be surprised to hear it overlaps with great teaching, parenting, and leadin
World Cup & Mile World Record: Consistency, Joy, and Calling Your Shot
Brad and Steve are solo for a throwback episode. First, they discuss Josh Kerr's mile world record: Kerr called his shot four months ago, named the time, named the meet, and then went and did it, fueled entirely, he says, by consistency and stacking days. Then: the World Cup. Brad and Steve dig into the moments that stuck: Haaland's cowboy boots and Katz's Deli pastrami as a lesson in com
Don't Get Rid of Anxiety. Use It.
It's natural to want to get rid of anxiety. It's uncomfortable, we worry that it holds us back from being our best, and we believe that those who perform at the highest levels have figured out a way to beat it. The bad news is that we can't just rid ourselves of anxiety. It's part of the human condition. The good news is that, despite the common misconception, elite performers experience
How to Endure, According to a 4-Time Tour de France Cyclist
What is it like to race 21 days across France wearing little more than underwear, going over 50 miles an hour, burning 8,000 calories a day, in the shadow of the ever-present threat of a violent peloton crash? Brent Bookwalter did it four times, including the 2011 race that Cadel Evans won — one of the great team performances in the sport's history. He did it clean, in arguably the dirtie
You Can't Have It All: A Guide to Making Sacrifices
We've been sold a lie: that with the right systems, mindset, and tools, you can have it all — great career, present parent, devoted partner, thriving social life, passionate hobbyist. You can't. But that's not a bad thing! It's the sacrifices that give meaning to our lives. So today, we're exploring how to make hard choices with clarity and honesty. We discuss why we don't even like the w
Six Books That Changed How We Think About Performance
Brad and Clay Skipper first became friends over books — specifically, a DM about Brad's bookshelf. Today, they return to that origin with a show-and-tell on six books that have genuinely changed how they think about performance: a poet-philosopher on the tension between work, self, and relationships; a Buddhist nun on learning to stop fighting the inevitable; a tennis coach who figured ou
How to Come Back, from the Greatest Playoff Run in NBA History
Last Saturday night, the New York Knicks won the NBA Championship. It was an improbable, remarkable run, one of the best in NBA history. After going down 2-1 in the first round, they won 15 of their next 16 games, beating the Spurs 4 to 1 to win the title. Their point differential over that stretch was 283, the biggest in the history of the league. Most incredibly, the Knicks trailed all
Longevity, Actually (with Brian Koppelman)
Brian Koppelman has been writing great films and shows for 30 years — Rounders, Ocean's Thirteen, and Billions, to name a few. Now 60, he's working with as much energy as ever. He'll be back in the role of "Computer" on the hit show The Bear when it returns later this month, and he's three years into a powerlifting journey he began at 57 after almost fainting on a tennis court. When we th
Lessons on Excellence: Caring, Doing the Work, and Being Antifragile
Today, we discuss three moments from the past week that highlight a few of the key habits of truly excellent performers: what Victor Wenbanyama teaches us about caring deeply and being yourself; how the failed Enhanced Games highlights the importance of showing up to put in the work; and why a three-glasses-of-wine hangover proves being antifragile trumps optimization.- Get a free LMNT dr
Dream Big, Start Small: Lessons from World Record Miler Jim Ryun
Jim Ryun couldn't make his junior high basketball team, track team, or even his church baseball team. Two years later, he was the first high schooler to run a sub-four-minute mile. He'd go on to run a world record mile in 3:51, and compete in three Olympics. Now 79, he shares with us some of the best stories and wisdom: the time he ran a workout of four sets of 10x400 (doesn't recommend i
How to Get Small Wins out of Bad Days
We've all got those days: you can't seem to get started, your motivation is low, or something comes up and throws you off track. It happens to all of us! It only becomes a problem when a bad start to the day becomes a bad day, and then a bad couple of days, and then a bad week, and then a bad month... on and on. High-performers who have sustained success over many years are elite at getti
The New Science of Pain (and What It Means for You)
We're all going to experience pain in some form or another. Unfortunately, our long accepted model for what pain is — and how to treat it — has been wrong. Today, we're breaking down the biopsychosocial model of pain, which presented a recent change in how researchers, doctors, psychologists, and performers think about why we feel what we feel. We discuss an important distinction between
The Cost of Keeping Your Options Open (with David Epstein)
In 1960, A publisher at Random House bet a writer $50 that he couldn't produce a children's book using just 50 distinct words. That writer was Dr. Seuss, and the resulting book was Green Eggs and Ham, which has gone on to sell more than 200 million copies. Sometimes, limits aren't a bad thing. In fact, they often lead to unexpected breakthroughs in creativity, productivity, and satisfacti
How to Break Through Barriers (Lessons from the Sub-Two-Hour Marathon)
Not just one, but two (!) men finished this past weekend's London Marathon in under two hours, a time that has never before been beat and was once largely thought to be impossible. Today, we unpack how it happened: the advances in running shoe and fueling technology that made this moment possible, the giant elephant on the podium (the ever present question of doping), and what we can all
How to Save Your Brain (with Cal Newport)
There's a good reason you can't concentrate. That's not just a statement; it's also the title of a viral piece that our friend Cal Newport (author of Deep Work and Digital Minimalism) recently wrote for The New York Times. Cal argues that we're at a precarious moment in the history of thinking. The ease and convenience of technology and digital media (think: junk food for your brain) have
What Every Athlete Can Learn from Elite Distance Runners
Today, Clay taps into Steve's wisdom as a long-time running coach—which doesn't mean you have to be a runner to get something out of it. The episode covers the most efficient type of aerobic training for any athlete (hint: it's not Zone 2 or HIIT), the mindset and mentality that sets elite runners apart, what makes for a great coach-athlete relationship, how much mileage you need to maxim
How to Change, Actually (with Eric Zimmer)
Once an addict, Eric Zimmer is now 26 years sober. He has made that one huge change through a series of many small, daily changes, or what he calls "low resistance actions done consistently over time in the same direction." His theory of behavior change is at the heart of his successful coaching practice, his wonderful podcast, The One You Feed, and his great new book, "How A Little Becom
Use the “Zero-Zero Reset” to Perform Under Pressure
This past weekend, in the men's NCAA tournament, Duke led UConn by 19 points and had a 99% chance to win and advance to the Final Four. Instead, Duke improbably blew their lead, and UConn stormed furiously back to win on a last-second shot. We analyze both sides of that performance, answering two questions that apply not just to basketball but to life: How do you stay focused and maintain
How to Coach Anyone, Including Yourself
March Madness has given us some incredible moments between coaches and their players. Today, we use one in particular — the viral moment between Maryland's coach Brenda Frese and star player Oluchi Okananwa (you can watch it at the link below) — as a jumping off point to talk about leading and motivating more broadly. What can all of us learn from the moment between Frese and Okananwa? Ho
Stop Self-Sabotaging: How to Get Out of Your Own Way
Today, we unpack one of the most universal performance problems: getting in your own way. Drawing on the "Self 1 vs. Self 2" framework from The Inner Game of Tennis, neuroscience, and child psychology, we explore why caring too much can be the very thing that tanks your performance — and what to actually do about it. From fourth-grade Turkey trots to Roger Bannister's sub-four-minute mile
Unstuck Yourself: The Art of Building and Keeping Momentum
What do success and failure have in common? They can both trap you. Success can lead to complacency or a plateau, and failure can render you so discouraged or apathetic that you don't feel ready to try again. That's not a fun place to be! So today we're discussing how you can build and keep momentum, no matter the reason you might get stuck. Drawing on wisdom that ranges from NBA star Ste
Beautiful Suffering: How Elite Athletes Find Joy in the Grind
How do you have fun while working really hard? For many elite athletes, figuring out how to balance joy and suffering is the key to a long and successful career. Today, we explore how they do it — and how you can, too. We dig into the psychology of "beautiful suffering," explain why joy is connected to agency, the important difference between authoritarian and authoritative coaching, and
Back to Work: Navigating Success, A.I., and the Unknown
Today, for our monthly round-up, each of us shares a reflection from February: Brad explains what his chaotic book launch taught him about achievement, fulfillment, responding not reacting, and putting into practice other lessons we discuss regularly; Steve discusses using A.I. to help him do his work, and whether it can ever produce something truly great; and Clay shares a tool that has
Olympics Review: Lessons in Pressure, Courage, and Going All the Way
The Olympics are the ultimate laboratory for human performance. So today we're diving into some our favorite moments from the 2026 edition—and the lessons we can take from them. Between the bizarre "penis-gate" ski jumping scandal, Lindsey Vonn's downhill ski, and Ilia "Quad God" Malinin's ice skating performance, there are tough questions to tackle: When does dedication cross into danger
The Olympian's Guide to Handling Pressure, with Lilah Fear
We're going to go ahead and say that today's episode is more densely packed with wisdom than any episode we've ever released. We are joined by Great Britain's Olympic ice dancer Lilah Fear (@thelilahjoshow), who, along with her partner Lewis Gibson, is currently competing in the Olympic games. You don't need to know anything about the sport to appreciate just how dialed-in Lilah's mental
How to Pursue Excellence Without Sacrificing Your Values
Why do so many people sacrifice their values to make it to the top? People in business who commit fraud; writers who plagiarize; athletes who dope — the list goes on and on. At the core of understanding why is a question that is useful for all of us to ask: How do we pursue excellence without losing ourselves along the way? In today's episode, we unpack the dangerous dynamics of optimizat
How to Get Out of Your Head and Into the Zone
This past weekend, when Alex Honnold climbed Taipei 101's 1,667-foot tower without ropes, he wasn't thinking his way up; he was doing what elite performers across disciplines—from musicians to surgeons to mathematicians—do when they're operating at their peak: feeling their way forward. In this episode, Clay and Brad unpack two related concepts from psychology: situated cognition (thinkin
The Way of Excellence: Inside Brad's New Book
Clay interviews Brad about his new book, The Way of Excellence, which releases January 27th and is a culmination of 15 years of research, reporting, and coaching on what it means to live a truly excellent life. Brad shares the remarkable story of how his book landed a blurb from Steve Kerr, how this idea originated on a trip to the Himalayas almost two decades ago, and breaks down the bio
Why Your Routine Might Be Working Against You
Routines are powerful tools for peak performance—until they become the performance itself. In this episode, we explain the important difference between routines that serve you and routines you serve. You'll learn why elite athletes keep their warmups simple, how to avoid turning routines into superstitions, the "training wheels" theory of routines, Brad's 3-3-3 daily, weekly, and monthly
New Year, Same BS: How to Build Habits That Actually Stick
91% of New Year’s Resolutions fail. That’s because behavior change is really hard. Which means that the only real way to make new habits stick is to build them in the right way. Today, we’re giving you a few ideas on how to do just that, exploring why values-driven goals beat outcome-based ones, how to design your environment for success rather than relying on motivation or willpower, and
26 Lessons on Excellence to Jump Start 2026
We're ringing in 2026 by bringing you 26 lessons that will help you achieve excellence in whatever it is you do. These are the the habits, practices, and mindsets that we revisit so often in our work and that have proven effective in creating a foundation for high-level achievement. Consider this your cheat sheet: Give yourself credit for the things you're doing well, notice areas you mig
Best Of: Courtney Dauwalter — Inside the (Joyful) Mind of an Elite Ultrarunner
Merry Christmas! We're taking a little break, so we're bringing you an episode with an all-time great athlete, Courtney Dauwalter, whose interview, two years later, still delivers some all-time great advice on excellence. Here's the original intro...01/04/24: Last summer, ultrarunner Courtney Dauwalter did something that had never been done before. She ran three of the sport's most iconic
How to Push Your Limits, with World-Champion Climber Sasha DiGiulian
Just last month, Sasha DiGiulian completed only the fourth ever free climb (and the first by a woman) of "Platinum," a route on El Capitan—a 23-day feat that tested her physical and mental boundaries, including nine days of being stuck in a hanging portaledge 2600 feet above the ground to wait out inclement weather. Sasha opens up about overcoming fear, handling adversity with grace and p
"It's Never All Bad:" How to Suffer (with Matt Fitzgerald)
At some point, we're all going to suffer. So what if you treated it as a practice—something to be done skillfully? This was the question Matt posed to himself when he came back to running in his late twenties, after quitting the sport following his senior spring season of high school track. He said he'd become fearful of the pain of racing. He was scared to suffer. He's spent the last two
The Talent Episode: Is Greatness Born or Built?
Today, we dive deep into the age-old debate of talent acquisition versus talent development, using the contrasting blueprints of top college basketball teams as a springboard. We discuss the complex interplay of genetics, opportunity, motivation, and grit—not just in sports, but in every domain of life—as well as challenge the binary of nature vs. nurture, discuss the pitfalls of applying
Q+A: On Bad Habits, Post-Race Fitness, and “Boring” Work
As a thanks you to you on Thanksgiving week, we're answering a handful of listener questions.1. How can I navigate periods of intense work where my life is out of balance without developing bad habits?2. If I truly internalize that achievement won’t make me happy, won’t I lose my drive?3. How can I manage the tedium of doing a job that’s meaningful but involves a lot of boring day-to-day
The Mental Fitness Playbook: Resilience, Regulation, and Flexibility
Elite performers know: mental fitness needs the same intentional training as physical fitness. In this episode, we break down mental fitness into three trainable components: resilience (your mental strength), emotional regulation (your psychological endurance), and psychological flexibility (your mental mobility). Drawing from meditation research, disaster psychology, and ultra-running wi
Doing it All: The CEO Who Ran a 2:29 Marathon (with Nick Thompson)
How does someone become CEO of The Atlantic, run a 2:29 marathon at age 44, write books, make music, and still be present for their family? For the answer, we turned to Nick Thompson, who, conveniently (and impressively), does all of those things. On today's episode, we use the release of Nick's new book, The Running Ground, to discuss his systematic approach to productivity and running,
The Optimization Trap — and How to Escape It
This week, we use the L.A. Dodgers' Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s gutsy back-to-back World Series appearances in Game 6 and 7 to discuss what we’re calling the optimization (or protocol) trap. This is when you become so tethered to a specific routine or “optimal zone” of performance that you become fragile. You trade self-efficacy for hyper-control or neuroticism. There are plenty of times when yo
The Marathon Mindset: How to Endure, Actually
In anticipation of the New York City Marathon this weekend, we (well, okay, mostly Steve) discuss the ins and outs of how to have your best race, building you a complete toolkit to help you get through 26.2 miles. BUT! It’s not just for runners. As the legendary marathoner Eliud Kipchoge once said, “Marathon is life, and life is marathon.” So we're explaining how each of the tools you can
Everything You Need to Know About Managing Fatigue
For a long time, it was assumed that fatigue was a muscular phenomenon. It was thought be a set point and once you hit it, you couldn't go any further—like running into a wall. However, more recent research has showed that it's actually much more of mental phenomenon. Our brain shuts us down before our body does, in order to protect us from injury, exhaustion, or even death. (See: Tim Noa
7 Lessons to Help You Unlock an Elite Competitor's Mindset
We talk a lot on this podcast about the principles that underlie true excellence, so we’re especially excited when we see those core ideas exemplified in the real world. On today’s podcast, Steve, Brad, and Clay each pick one sports moment from this past weekend that illustrated a lesson (or three) about healthy competition, unpacking what you can learn from the Tigers and Mariners going
How Curiosity Can Take Your Performance to the Next Level
Today, we're exploring the transformative power of curiosity, which is one of the most effective tools elite performers use in high-pressure situations. We'll explain how shifting from a mindset of fear or rigid confidence to one of open curiosity can change your biology and psychology, unlocking new levels of performance—whether you’re stepping up to a heavy barbell or presenting to a bo
Is Self-Improvement Just Making Us More Selfish?
Is personal development and self-improvement making us better—or just more self-absorbed? In today's episode, we wade into the debate sparked by a recent New York Times article (link below) about whether the world of betterment is actually helping with personal growth, or just creating inward navel-gazing? We discuss how to think about the role of individual agency in a world of structura
It's Time to Move Past Bullsh*t "Toughness"
Forget everything you’ve been told about toughness. On today's episode, we're taking on many of the macho myths that dominate sports, business, and social media. Is “pushing through the pain” just stupidity in disguise? Are Instagram’s chest-thumping “tough guys” actually the weakest of all? We'll unpack the lies we tell ourselves about grit, reveal why real resilience is nothing like wha
The Sports Psychologist Who Taught MJ and Kobe How to "Manage the Moment"
Before the 1993-1994 NBA season, coach Phil Jackson wanted to get his Chicago Bulls some help. They'd won the championship the previous year, but right before the season, Michael Jordan made a surprise retirement announcement. So Jackson called George Mumford—a meditation practitioner who was then teaching mindfulness in hospitals, clinics, and prisons—hoping he might be able to use the s
Fall Performance Syllabus: 3 Ideas to Help You Thrive
As we transition into Fall, we've got a few ideas and strategies that we're trying to implement into our lives. Today we're sharing those with you, with the hope that they might also help give you some good momentum heading into the last quarter of the year. You can think of it as your Fall Performance Syllabus. We'll break down the importance of thinking through "set and setting" when be
How Hard Should You Be Working?
What role should work play in your life? How hard should you be working? And how can you do it in a way that's sustainable over years, or even decades? These aren't simple questions to answer, even if both the "grind like crazy to get ahead" and the "find your bliss" sets tell you that they are. Today, we've enlisted the help of Cal Newport to discuss healthy ways to think about how hard,
How "Narrative Values" Can Change Your Psychology & Biology
The stories we tell ourselves shape our reality, heavily influencing our decision-making, behavior, and ability to bounce back from challenges. Which is why it's important to identify the "narrative values" that help frame the story of your life. These are the words that will impact how we show up in the world, and how we interpret what happens to us, affecting both our psychological and
From Success to Mastery: The Art of Sustained Excellence
We spend a lot of time on this podcast talking about how to achieve success in your own personal pursuit of excellence, but we don't spend all that much time talking about what happens after that: how do you sustain it? That's the question facing Cooper Lutkenhaus, a 16-year-old who recently ran a blazing 1:42 in the 800-meter race at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, who pro
Build Better Work Habits, Manage Anxiety, & Quit Leaking Energy
Since we launched "excellence, actually," we've gotten a bunch of questions from listeners and members of The Growth Equation Academy. So today we're answering four of your most pressing questions. (1) Where is the line between productive preparation and preparation that is done purely to curb anxiety about an upcoming event? (2) How should we transition between important tasks or deep wo
Restless Exhaustion: What to Do When You Just Can't Turn Off
It's the end of the day and you're finally ready to shut down, unplug from work, relax, or go to sleep—except your mind won't stop racing. You're wiped, but your brain and body are still vibrating. Maybe this doesn't just happen at the end of the day, but during breaks throughout it, or maybe you notice it when you've finally gotten to the weekend or a vacation and still can't turn off. T
Tools for Navigating Discomfort and Difficulty
At some point, we will all face discomfort, be it psychological or physical, at work or in a workout. But we do often get to choose how to handle that difficulty: Can we work through it? And if so, how? Or is it a case where fighting it actually makes it worse? If we can’t work through it, can we continue to perform at a high level despite the discomfort? Today’s episode is all about givi
How to Avoid the Achievement Trap and Find Lasting Fulfillment
Just about everyone has been caught thinking that some big achievement would fulfill them—only to get there and realize it didn't. This is the Achievement Trap, and it's so sticky that even those who are well-versed in its trickery still find themselves following into its clutches. But there's another way, one that was exemplified by golf's #1 ranked player Scottie Scheffler during a rece
The Art of Doing Hard Things: Meaningful Challenge vs. Useless Suffering
We believe it's important to do hard things. In fact, as your may know, Steve wrote a book with that very title. But there's a difference between taking on challenges that lead to meaningful growth, and meaningless suffering for likes and validation. That difference is often lost in the performative world of social media. Today's episode is about giving you the skills to build true resili
Balance is a Myth: How to Build Healthy Obsession
Today, we're taking exception with a couple ideas you often see passed around in the health and wellness space: that balance is achievable (or even desirable), and that obsession is unhealthy. To be truly excellent in a pursuit, it's going to require a level of hyper fixation or single-mindedness that is often maligned, and that will draw energy from other areas in your life. The key is t
How to Build a Meaningful Identity in a Status-Driven World
Here's a phrase we often come across: “Comparison is the thief of joy.” This is absolutely true! Unfortunately, we’re biologically wired to seek status and recognition, and with that evolutionary need comes comparison. It’s inevitable. So today, instead of telling you not to compare, we’re giving you the practical tools that will allow you to do it in a healthy way. You’ll learn about the
How to Be Excellent, Actually
On the inaugural episode of our rebranded podcast "excellence, actually," Steve Magness, Brad Stulberg, and Clay Skipper discuss the rebrand of the show (previously FAREWELL), define what they mean by excellence, and show how it's available to all of us—starting with three counter-intuitive but significant mindset shifts that will help you in the pursuits that matter to you most, and that
How to Take Better Breaks: Mastering Rest & Recovery
We all know we need to take breaks to allow ourselves to rest and recover, both physically and cognitively. But it can be especially hard to do when we feel like we need to keep pushing. So today, we're tackling that problem: What would it look like to design our days around sustainable rhythms rather than maximum output—and how do we do this while still meeting real-world demands? We tal
How to Know When to Grit vs. When to Quit
How do you know when to persevere through a rough patch—and when to give up entirely? And if you do decide to push through, what are the most effective tools to bolster your resilience and get you through to the other side? That's what we're breaking down on today's episode. We'll help you recognize when to continue striving despite setbacks and when it's wiser to avoid the sunk cost fall
9 Important Life Lessons We've Learned from Exercise
Exercise isn't just a way to better yourself physically. In fact, through our years of running, competing, and working out, we've found some of exercise's greatest gifts to be the lessons it teaches us about ourselves and about life. Here we are sharing nine of our favorites that you'll find useful whether you exercise or not: how to stay patient, how to relax when things get hard, how to
120 - A 66-Year-Old Powerlifter with 71 World Records on the Secrets to Long-Term Success (with David Ricks)
David Ricks first competed in a powerlifting competition in 1981, when he was 21 years old. At 66, he is still competing. Along the way, he's won 13 world championships, 32 national championships, and 71 world records. You might say he knows a thing or two about mastery, excellence, and sustaining both over a long period of time. Today, he shares his training routines, the importance of s
119 - How to Turn Your Inner Critic Into a Coach
By some estimates, the voice in your head can spew up to 4000 words per minute, making it all the more important that we learn how to live with it. This can be especially hard when it's loud and critical, which (maybe you've noticed) it has a tendency to be at some of the most inopportune times: right before an important event. Today we discuss strategies for turning your inner critic int
118 - How to Build Discipline
Why are some people disciplined and others aren’t? It’s not because of an innate character trait, but because disciplined people have simply trained the skill of being disciplined. Today we break down how to do that by discussing how motivation and inspiration can (and often do) get in the way of discipline, the power of routines and constraints, strategies to embrace the discomfort of ju
117 - The Masculinity Crisis, and Why It Matters for All of Us (Part 2)
This is the second of two episodes we're devoting to the topic of masculinity. Last week, in part one, we spoke with Richard Reeves about how changing ideas of what it means to be a man have left many men feeling adrift. Today, Brad, Steve, and Clay discuss that episode, reflect on some clips from a few other voices who've thought deeply about this issue, and open a conversation about pot
116 - The Masculinity Crisis, and Why It Matters for All of Us (Part 1)
Over the next two weeks, we're going to be exploring the topic of masculinity—more specifically, how changing ideas of what it means to be a man have left many men feeling adrift, and what a path to a more positive masculinity might look like, particularly amid a backdrop of hyper-productivity, optimization, and toxic influences like Andrew Tate. Today's show features an interview with Ri
115 - Mailbag: Daily Health Checklist, Rut vs. Burnout, & Taking Good Breaks
You've got questions, we've got answers. Today, we dive into listener emails and voicemails to answer some of your questions.1) Can you give me a minimalist daily health checklist?2) How do I tell the difference between a rut and burnout?3) What do "good" breaks actually look like? 4) How do I stay committed to long-term goals when short-term stuff always gets in the way?If you have a que
114 - Choke, Recover, Repeat: Mastering the Art of Resilience
In the world of sport and performance, a lot is made of executing under pressure. "Don't choke," we often say. However, what is perhaps more impressive (not to mention realistic) is being able to bounce back from choking. (In some ways, this is what Rory McIlroy displayed in his Masters victory this past weekend, winning in a one-hole playoff after a couple of big misses—and, to be fair,
113 - Playing the Long Game in a Quick-Fix World
As we often say, people have a tendency to drastically overestimate what they can do in a day and drastically underestimate what they can do in a year, particularly these days when so much of our world is oriented towards instant gratification. So today we're talking about the art of sustainable success and how to play the long game. We discuss how to overcome the difficulties of setting
112 - Building True Confidence: The Practical Path from Bravado to Belief
Today we're breaking down confidence. We discuss what it is (earned self-belief) and what it isn't (bravado, arrogance, positive thinking, or the absence of doubt and insecurity); how to build and maintain it; the cons (and some surprising pros!) of delusional confidence; how to keep from tipping over into complacency or arrogance; and practical steps to get your mojo back after a slump.J
111 - How to Better Manage Stress
Today, we talk about how to navigate life and athletic performance amidst stress. We discuss the impact of mental and emotional stress on physical performance, and share personal anecdotes and scientific insights on the interplay between cognitive stress and physical endurance, including effects on the immune system and cortisol levels. We've also got some practical advice on adjusting tr
110 - Bracketology: Who is the World's Top Performer?
March Madness is back! In honor of its return, we put together a special edition FAREWELL bracket with sixteen of the world's best performers, across sports and entertainment. Following a random seeding, we broke down each matchup until we had our lone champion. So give it a listen and find out who took home the title of World's Top Performer. And then please let us know what we got right
109 - How (and Why) to Spend Some Time Alone in Your Head
"All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone." The French philosopher Blaise Pascal said this in 1654. A study published in 2014 found this to be true: many subjects chose to administer an electric shock to themselves rather than sit alone with their thoughts. It's a universal difficulty being with the discomfort that sometimes bubbles up out of our
108 - Musk, Chalamet, and Real vs. Fake Greatness (with Cal Newport)
A couple of recent events—Elon Musk parading onstage with a chainsaw at the Conservative Political Action Conference and bragging about DOGE's 120-hour work weeks, and Timothée Chalamet saying he wanted to be one of "the greats" in an acceptance speech at the SAG Awards—ignited a conversation on the Growth Equation text thread about what role work should play in our lives. In a society th
107 - Wise Words: 16 of Our Favorite Quotes to Live By
Today we're sharing our all-time favorite quotes we've collected over the years. These are words about everything from performance to spirituality to decency that we keep coming back to when we need inspiration, a thought-provoking prompt, or a tidy bit of wisdom. Message us at clay.growtheq@gmail.com with a few you liked from today's episode, or some favorites of your own.Join The Growth
106 - Mastering Mental Performance with Sports Psychologist Alex Auerbach
From years of experience working with NBA players, CEOs, para jumpers, and Olympians, performance psychologist Alex Auerbach has learned about the most effective strategies for giving some of the world's most elite performers a mental edge. Today, he walks us through how to use those tools in our own life: how to manage pressure, performance anxiety, and impostor syndrome; how to think th
105 - Building Resilience and Finding Resonance: How to Embrace Life's Chaos
Two topics for you today. On the back of the Super Bowl, Brad shares a message of resilience inspired by Eagles' quarterback Jalen Hurts. Then, a discussion, inspired in part by Hartmut Rosa's book "The Uncontrollability of the World," about the role of technology in helping us achieve peak performance and live a meaningful life. How can we use devices in such a way that they aid our obje
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