excellence, actually

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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!...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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?...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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?...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...