excellence, actually

This past weekend, in the NFL playoffs, one game featured quarterbacks aged 37 and 43. The other game featured quarterbacks aged 24 and 25. Quite a stark difference, huh? In this episode of the Growth Equation  podcast, Brad and Steve dive into the relationship between peak performance and age. They draw upon the latest research and their own coaching experience to introduce a simple framework for...

Resilience is the capacity to bounce back when you get knocked down and to persevere during challenging times. It is a timeless quality, but also one that feels particularly timely. In this episode of the Growth Equation  podcast, Brad and Steve discuss what they refer to as the factors of resilience , or the attributes and practices that help people to cultivate this important quality. Per the us...

Over 70 percent of New Year's resolutions fail in the span of just a few weeks. Yikes. In this episode of the  Growth Equation  podcast, Brad and Steve discuss what the latest science says on making change that sticks. They touch on the habit-forming cycle of trigger, behavior, reward, and discuss why so many people follow it and still fail. They offer additional frameworks and practices that are...

Well, 2020 was a long and challenging year. It's over! But just because the calendar flipped doesn't mean everything is suddenly fine. In this episode of the  Growth Equation  podcast, Brad and Steve discuss an interesting behavioral science concept called the “fresh start effect,” which says people tend to start aspirational behaviors on Mondays, the first day of a new month, and certainly at the...

In this episode of the Growth Equation podcast, Brad and Steve discuss the evidence-based, do-it-yourself methodologies to improve day-to-day mental health and well-being. They explore movement, meditation, and other ways to create space between a situation and your response to it. There is a whole lot of noise when it comes to this sort of stuff, and in this episode, Brad and Steve focus in on si...

Taylor Swift just released her latest album,  Evermore . It is wonderful. It is also the second album she's released this year, following  Folklore , which is also wonderful, and was released back in July. The crazy thing is this: Swift didn't start working on either of these albums until April of this year. This means that she averaged writing a song about every 7 days for 225 days. Originally, F...

A few weeks ago, Zappos founder and CEO Tony Hsieh tragically died in a house fire . It is unclear whether the death was accidental, if Hsieh was intoxicated at the time, or if he locked himself in a room. What is clear is that during the last few months of his life, Hsieh was spiraling downward into substance abuse (nitrous oxide) and biohacking (starvation and nonsensical sleep schedules), while...

In 2010, the writer Katie Arnold welcomed her second daughter into the world. Three weeks later she lost her father, also her best friend. Dealing with the grief was discombobulating. As she told us in this week's podcast, “I could not talk my way out of it. People could not reassure me the fears I was facing about my own mortality were not true…I tried lots of different healing and therapies, som...

Earlier this week, the  New York Times  broke a story detailing how the prestigious consulting firm McKinsey and Company “proposed paying pharmacy companies rebates for Oxycontin [a popular opioid] overdoses.” Worse, partners at McKinsey allegedly tried to cover the evidence of their recommendation. In this episode of The Growth Equation podcast , Brad, a former McKinsey consultant himself, and St...

In this episode of the Growth Equation podcast, Brad and Steve dive into an underground classic from the 1980's: Amusing Ourselves to Death,  by Neil Postman . The main premise of the book is that the medium via which we consume information is a metaphor for the culture; our brains, both as individuals and as a collective, become what we pay attention to and how we pay attention it. At the time Po...

Rich Roll is a globally renown ultra-endurance athlete, wellness advocate, bestselling author, husband and father of four.  He also hosts the wildly popular Rich Roll Podcast, one of the top 100 podcasts in the world with over 100 million downloads.   On this episode of The Growth Equation Podcast, Brad and Steve welcome Rich.  He shares how his experiences in competitive swimming, law school, and...

A wise professor once told Brad, “Trust is the most important thing there is and all inefficiencies at their core are created by a lack of trust.”  On this episode of The Growth Equation Podcast, Brad and Steve discuss the importance of trust and what it means to trust yourself and to trust others.  They consider what it means to “trust your training” and review the research and science behind how...

In this raw, uncut, and immediately uploaded episode, Brad and Steve explore the still-unfolding chaos around the 2020 US presidential election, how we got into this mess, and how we can get out.   For the two articles we reference in the podcast: Driven Apart or Coming Together: It's Our Choice The Simple Reason that the 2020 Polls were Wrong You can find the podcast on: iTunes and Apple Podcasts...

It infiltrates every aspect of our lives and deserves the time for a thoughtful discussion. On this episode of The Growth Equation Podcast, Brad and Steve welcome back friend of the podcast Jojo McDuffie to discuss the topic of race. The three share their different experiences with race growing up in Michigan, Texas and Virginia. They discuss the convergence of racism and mental health and talk ab...

This month Lebron James won his fourth NBA Championship and once again spurred the question: who is better, Lebron James or Michael Jordan? On this episode of The Growth Equation Podcast, Brad and Steve tackle the question, but go beyond the championships and MVP awards and consider performance and success more broadly. They discuss their differing paths to greatness and how they each managed to s...

The Social Dilemma , a documentary on the rise of social media and the damage it has caused to society, is one of the top shows on Netflix and it has us thinking.  On this episode of The Growth Equation Podcast, Brad and Steve tackle the issue of social media and its impact on our health and wellbeing.  They discuss the pros and cons of the most popular platforms, how they hijack our attention, an...

Ever wonder what Brad and Steve do for the first and last 90 minutes of each day? What their in-home offices look like? What their favorite apps are? On this episode of The Growth Equation Podcast, Brad and Steve take more questions from their listeners. They share how they stay motivated and stay connected to friends and family during the pandemic, how they wind down each day, what they put in th...

This week marks the conclusion of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals and the start of the NBA Finals and MLB playoffs. We've seen (and are sure to see more) spectacular performances and unfortunate collapses. On this episode of The Growth Equation Podcast, Brad and Steve discuss what we can do to be clutch and avoid choking when the stakes are high. The pair discuss what it means to be clutch and how to p...

You asked, they answered! On this episode of The Growth Equation Podcast, Brad and Steve take questions from their listeners. The pair discuss strategies for staying positive when the news is seemingly all negative, how to balance multiple passions, and how to be patient with long-term goals. Steve tackles the importance of pausing training when injury lingers and Brad considers whether sacrifice...

Amelia Boone is one of the most accomplished obstacle race athletes in history, having won the Spartan Race World Championship in 2013 and the World’s Toughest Mudder in 2012, 2014 and 2015. She’s also struggled with OCD and an eating disorder that resulted in hospital and treatment center stays. On this episode of The Growth Equation Podcast, Brad and Steve speak with Amelia Boone about her highs...

She’s back! This week on The Growth Equation Podcast, Brad and Steve check in with NYC Marathon Champion, Olympian, coach, and friend Shalane Flanagan. The trio first discuss the challenges that come with transitions. Shalane candidly describes the hard and dark days she faced when transitioning away from being an athlete and how she struggled to see her purpose and meaning. Brad, Steve and Shalan...

On this week's episode of  Growth Equation Principles , Brad and Jojo explore self-compassion, and explain why cultivating it is key to lasting performance and wellbeing even, and perhaps especially, for high-achievers. The post Growth EQ Principles: Self-Compassion appeared first on The Growth Equation . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. See Privacy Policy at https://ar...

On this episode of The Growth Equation Podcast, Brad and Steve offer six hot (and thoughtful) takes on topics related to performance and well-being. They discuss whether it's better to have low expectations and if inspiration can actually help performance. The two debate how much of performance is luck versus skill and how our perceptions change when our knowledge changes. Finally, they turn to wh...

Understanding that most important things in life are nine-inning games can help support happiness, performance, and satisfaction. On this week's episode of  Growth Equation Principles , Brad and Jojo explore patience. The post Growth EQ Principles: Patience appeared first on The Growth Equation . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/p...

In the United States the COVID-19 pandemic is slogging away, now entering its sixth month, making it the perfect time for Brad and Steve to discuss one of their favorite topics: burnout. On this episode of The Growth Equation Podcast, the pair dive into why so many of us are feeling burnt out at this time—from lack of temporary boundaries (e.g., work time v. family time) to lack of physical bounda...