Welcome to my monthly Science Digest.This month we're diving into the psychology of competition versus cooperation. Are they zero-sum, or mutually beneficial? We'll turn to our primate cousins for some insight. We'll also go into the role of testosterone in competition: is it about aggression? And finally, how Tetris might help us deal with stress and trauma...and may be the thing we need to be playing after a tough loss. As always, these monthly digest pull from the most interesting research...
25 days ago • 7 min read
A Truly Optimal Routine Read on TheGrowthEq.com Reflect: Excellence Requires Intimacy Excellence—in sport, art, music, writing, craft, or relationships—requires intimacy. It’s about going deep when everyone else is going shallow. You’ve got to protect time and space for focus. You’ve got to get close. You’ve got to risk failure. You’ve got to lay it on the line, expose yourself, and make yourself vulnerable. It’s where the magic happens. Read: A Truly Optimal Routine (Read this on the Growth...
30 days ago • 6 min read
The Fitness Influencer Survival Guide Read on TheGrowthEq.com Listen: The FAREWELL Podcast 🎧 With March Madness returning this week, we decided to devote today’s FAREWELL episode to crowning our own champion. We randomly seeded 16 of the world’s top performers across sports and entertainment, put them in a bracket, and debated round by round until only one remained. Some good points were raised. A lot of bad ones also—which is half the fun of these things. Give it a listen, find out who won...
about 1 month ago • 11 min read
A Better Way to Optimize Read on TheGrowthEq.com Reflect: The Limits of "One Percent Better Every Day" People think success is linear but in reality it includes peaks, valleys, and plateaus. If you become addicted to visible progress, if you require immediate and visible gains to fuel your consistency, you will not last long at whatever it is you do. Anyone can crush it when things are going well, when they are getting one percent better every day. But it’s how you show up when things aren’t...
about 1 month ago • 5 min read
Pseudo Greatness vs. True Greatness Read on TheGrowthEq.com Reflect: Courage Everyone faces anxiety, fear, and doubt. Try not to let them shrink your life. Courage is not the absence of these emotions; it means taking these emotions along for the ride and doing it anyways. Read: Elon Musk, Chain Saws, and Pseudo Greatness vs. The Real Thing (Read this on the Growth EQ website here.) Over the past few days, we saw two representations of greatness on big stages: The first was Elon Musk at the...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
Welcome to my monthly Science Digest.This month we're diving into the psychology of competition versus cooperation. Are they zero-sum, or mutually beneficial? We'll turn to our primate cousins for some insight. We'll also go into the role of testosterone in competition: is it about aggression? And finally, how Tetris might help us deal with stress and trauma...and may be the thing we need to be playing after a tough loss. As always, these monthly digest pull from the most interesting research...
about 2 months ago • 7 min read
The Messiness of Greatness Read on TheGrowthEq.com Reflect: If we want to do well, we need to care. We need passion. Yet, in a world that encourages us to define ourselves by our outcomes, we all too easily move from loving a pursuit to marrying it. From wanting to do it, to needing to do it. From "I failed at..." to "I am a failure." A hyper-focus on the external causes our perspective to become overly narrow. We start protecting our sense of self and avoiding challenges, instead of daring...
about 2 months ago • 9 min read
How to Save Youth Sports: A Manifesto Read on TheGrowthEq.com Reflect: Staying Human in an Automated World The reason I write and deadlift is because Elon Musk can’t design a robot that can feel this way for me. Maybe the robot can write more elegantly or lift more weight. But it can’t make me feel the aliveness of a great idea. It can’t make me feel the rhythm of a great sentence. It can’t make me feel the heavy-ass weight starting to move. This feeling is what makes us human. Find it in...
2 months ago • 19 min read
The Case for Mastery and Mattering in a Chaotic World Read on TheGrowthEq.com Reflect: The Resilience of Jalen Hurts Jalen Hurts just led the Philadelphia Eagles to a Super Bowl. Eight years ago, he lost the College Football National Championship to Clemson. Seven year ago, he was benched at halftime in the College Football National Championship in favor of rising star Tua Tagovailoa. Five years ago, four quarterbacks were drafted before him. Two years ago, he lost the Super Bowl. Now he is a...
2 months ago • 8 min read