excellence, actually

"You need to feel like a pot of water on the stove that's just about to start boiling over," says Molly Seidel, in describing what it feels like to run the marathon pace that won her the bronze at the last Olympics. "You just hold it there, right on that line." This is as draining mentally as it is physically, she says. In fact, Seidel says so much of what holds athletes back is their brain tellin...

In October 2022, many people witnessed triathlete Chelsea Sodaro, in her first time running the race, become the first American woman to win the Ironman World Championship in Kona. What they didn't see was that, in the months leading up to the race, she was learning how to balance motherhood and training, and struggling with intense OCD and anxiety. Today's episode is about that: the things we don...

"You probably grew up with motivation being super important: 'Think positive. Get hyped. Find inspiration. Ride your bliss,'" says Brad Stulberg, on this week's Coach Up. "And that's great—except for the 98 percent of days where you're not super hyped and motivated." On those days, when you need a little extra oomph, you might want to use a psychological tool known as behavioral activation, which...

Do you ever feel like you've got too much to do and not enough time to do it? Welcome to one of the enduring sensations of existing and working in a very noisy world . (We feel it, too.) On today's roundtable, Brad, Steve, and Clay discuss how we got here, why the sense of task overwhelm is a particularly modern affliction, and the strategies they use to deal with it, like prioritizing, doing good...

"The sky's the limit." "Shoot for the stars." When it comes to success, we often think in terms of being our absolute best. On today's episode of The Coach Up, Brad Stulberg explains why, if you want to get better, you should focus on your bad and average days—not the good or great ones. Listen and subscribe to FAREWELL now! iTunes and Apple Podcasts Spotify Android Stitcher Got a question, feedba...

Let’s be honest: Winter ain't always fun! It’s cold, dark, icy, and often sticks around far longer than we want it to. Even if you’ve moved somewhere warm as a way to permanently escape the frosty months, well, there are winters there, too; times when you or someone you love gets sick, you go through a break-up, or you lose a job. “Everybody winters at one time or another,” writes Katherine May, i...

Growth comes from facing weaknesses, and we learn about those weaknesses from getting feedback. But feedback has a way of raising our defenses. Which means helping others grow by giving feedback—or growing ourselves, by taking feedback—is fraught with challenges. Luckily, Steve Magness's countless years as both an athlete and a coach have earned him some insights into the practice of delivering (a...

We've always been a country obsessed with happiness. It was, quite literally, built into the promise of America (right there with life and liberty). But maybe you've noticed: the market for happiness content is absolutely booming, which suggests that there's a rather large market of un happy people out there. It's almost as if our obsession with happiness is inversely correlated to our actual happ...

When it comes to thinking about how to design your days, weeks, and months, to get done everything you want to get done, we often think in terms of goals and routines. In the long-term, goals give you a North Star to aim towards; in the shorter term, routines help you knock out the tasks you need to do on a daily basis. Sometimes that works great. But sometimes it doesn't. We can feel too loosely...

Over the course of two days, Olympic decathletes participate in ten different track and field events, ranging from pole vault and shot put to long jump and a 1500-meter run. It’s a grueling competition that requires speed, strength, explosiveness and technical ability, which is why, in addition to receiving a gold medal, the winner is also crowned the “best athlete in the world.” Right now, that t...

Have you ever noticed that your behavior is sometimes misaligned with your goals? You go to school to learn, or take a job to do meaningful work, or join Instagram to keep up with friends. But instead you end up chasing GPA, money, and followers. It's an increasingly prevalent complication in a society obsessed with metrics, where everything is gamified and measured. On today's episode of The Coac...

What type of leadership builds a culture of winning and excellence? Is an approach that prioritizes joy, care, and love, more effective than one that's more demanding or authoritarian? Using examples from contemporary sports, and in the wake of the departure of three of the most storied football coaches of all-time—Nick Saban, Bill Belichick, and Pete Caroll—each of whom fostered a unique type of...

A special edition of The Coach Up! In the wake of the Kansas City Chiefs' playoff victory over the Buffalo Bills, Clay revisits a 2020 conversation he had with the Chiefs' head coach, Andy Reid. Coach Reid breaks down what makes Chiefs' quarterback Patrick Mahomes great, and gives an insight into the coaching philosophy that has made him one of the best coaches of all-time. Don't miss these lesson...

What if I told you our country's approach to wellness was heavily influenced by the history of American religion? Kate Bowler, a professor of religious history at Duke, traces the self-betterment movement back to America's "prosperity gospel," which promised that true believers of God would be rewarded with health, wealth, and happiness. Replace "God" with diet, workouts, supplements, self-help bo...

Throughout his many years of coaching, Steve Magness has put together a unique set of tools for training mental toughness. In this week's Coach Up, he walks you through a clever way to approach the end of your workouts that will help widen your tolerance for uncomfortable feelings. Think of it as exposure therapy for discomfort, making it easier for you to approach difficulty in your everyday life...

We are living in an entertainment boom, which is both a blessing and a curse: there's more great content than ever before, but you have to sort through a lot of noise to find it. In an effort to help you comb through it all, Brad, Steve, and Clay do a good old fashioned fantasy draft in order to select the best movies, shows, and documentaries about performance, craft, and mastery. What does "best...

For the first episode of The Coach Up, we've got three different experts—Brad, Steve, and Katy Milkman, a behavioral scientist at Wharton—offering three different perspectives on how to think through goal-setting in the new year. You'll learn the difference between an open goal and a specific goal, when to pick a small goal versus when to pick a big goal, why something called "the what the hell ef...

Last summer, ultrarunner Courtney Dauwalter did something that had never been done before. She ran three of the sport's most iconic 100-mile races... within 10 weeks of each other... and won all three. (She also set the women's course record on two of them.) It was an incredible achievement, even for someone who has long established herself as one of the greatest ultraunners of all-time. How does...

On January 4th, we are relaunching The Growth Equation Podcast as FAREWELL. Hosted by Clay Skipper, it's a show about performance, delivering you the insights, habits, and practices that, if done consistently, will help you perform your best on the things you care about most (and help you, more generally, fare well). You'll hear from Growth Equation founders and performance experts Brad Stulberg a...

Steve, Brad, and Clay react to a recent story in the The New Yorker about the motivational speaker economy (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/12/11/jesse-itzlers-secrets-of-success), why mastery involves more than motivation, and the difference between performance and endurance. Plus: the guys debate whether or not they could win a 100-mile race against LeBron James. The Growth Equation Podc...

Clay, Brad, and Steve round out the year by answering four questions: What's a habit you started (or stopped) in 2023? What's a physical goal you have for 2024? What's an idea, book, or theme that you're carrying into 2024? What wellness fads are you buying/selling? The Growth Equation Podcast is rebranding to “Farewell” podcast in the new year, so be sure to subscribe now! Got a question for the...

A deep dive on Mark Epstein’s book “Going to Pieces without Falling Apart:" Brad and Clay unpack the key insights and takeaways that will help get you out of your head, into flow, and more at ease in the world. Got a question for the podcast? Leave us a voice memo at 6468935903 You can find this episode on: iTunes and Apple Podcasts Spotify Android Stitcher Get Master of Change , Do Hard Things , ...

Clay and Steve discuss how to approach health and exercise during the holidays and into the new year, whether you want to stick to an existing plan or start a new one.  Got a question for the podcast? Leave us a voice memo at 6468935903 You can find this episode on: iTunes and Apple Podcasts Spotify Android Stitcher Get Master of Change , Do Hard Things , and  The Practice of Groundedness  on audi...

Have you ever wanted something badly, finally achieved it, and then found it didn't quite live up to the hype? Brad, Steve, and Clay discuss why this happens—and how you can protect against it. Got a question for the podcast? Leave us a voice memo at 6468935903 You can find this episode on: iTunes and Apple Podcasts Spotify Android Stitcher Get Master of Change , Do Hard Things , and  The Practice...

Steve Magness, Brad Stulberg, and Clay Skipper chat about practicing restraint to avoid burnout, easy days, and the Century Beer Mile. Got a question for the podcast? Leave us a voice memo at 6468935903 You can find this episode on: iTunes and Apple Podcasts Spotify Android Stitcher Get Master of Change , Do Hard Things , and  The Practice of Groundedness  on audible (Or in hard copy: Master of Ch...