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The Growth Equation

Weekly ideas about living a good, meaningful and high performing life in a chaotic world from Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness. Best selling authors of PEAK PERFORMANCE, DO HARD THINGS, and THE PRACTICE OF GROUNDEDNESS.

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How to Spot and Develop Talent

Reflect: Instilling Love or Fear "We can either instill a love of sport in our youth, or we can turn sport into a burden where kids are exhausted, stressed, and scared. We’ve seen this go both ways, and the results couldn’t be more different. One leads to happy, healthy, and better young athletes. The other leads to burnout, family tension, mental health challenges, and quitting." —Win The Inside Game How to Spot and Develop Talent To read on the GrowthEq site, click here At the World Cup,...

Hi all, I'm conducting a survey on performing under pressure and I'd love your help. Whether you're an athlete, musician, actor, public speaker, or anyone who steps on to the "stage" I'd love to hear from you.If you could take a minute and fill this out, that'd be great. It's step one to understand people's experiences.FILL OUT THE FORM HERE.Thanks so much. I appreciate your help. It helps so much when I get your input to help guide my work. Steve And FYI, for Prime Day, my recent books are...

Reflect: Excellence is Not Hustle Culture Bullshit Excellence is not hustle-culture bullshit. It is not waking up at 4 AM to cold plunge and telling everyone about it. It is not a restrictive diet. It is not a chest-thumping act of look how great I am. It is not sacrificing your soul or bending the knee to make as much money as possible. Excellence is throwing yourself fully into things that support your values. It is caring deeply and giving your all. It is making the most of your unique...

Reflect: Go Local Instead of Global Comparisons are making us miserable. Part of the reason is that we were meant to compare locally, not globally. For millennia, it was all about finding a role and purpose among a few dozen people in your tribe. Now, we look around and feel insignificant because we're trying to measure up to the entire world. Shrink your comparisons. -Win the Inside Game The Cost of Safetyism To read or comment on the Growtheq site, click here When we were 11 and 12, we’d...

Reflect: Explore Your Weaknesses "Truly tough individuals don't mind exploring their weaknesses. They develop the capacity to express vulnerability and pain without fear of being shamed. Refusal to explore or acknowledge your weaknesses is a sign of insecurity, not confidence." -Do Hard Things The Freedom of Constraints To read or comment on the GrowthEQ site, click here At the beginning of Steve's coaching journey, a star high school athlete came down with mono heading into his senior track...

Reflect: Confidence is Based On Evidence This past weekend, Sabastian Sawe became the first person ever to run a sanctioned marathon in under two hours—1:59:30 in London. The morning after, his coach sent Brad the following message: Sorry to bother you but I saw your post in Instagram and I just want to say thank you because through your books and podcast, you have been a great source of inspiration in my job. I am currently having in my hands “ The way of Excellence” and it has been of great...

Reflect: Self-Complexity "When we flatten ourselves into a single dimension of identity, we score low on two measures of complexity: social and self. When individuals score low on complexity, they have much wider swings of mood and emotions. Their self-worth is like a ping pong ball, bouncing back and forth, entirely dependent on whether that narrow self gets validated or rewarded or not. On the other end of the spectrum, higher levels of complexity buffer the effects of stress and any...

Reflect: Learn How to Read Your Body An experienced athlete can separate pain and injury. A stage performer can distinguish between nervousness and anxiety. An executive understands when her gut is pushing her in the right direction and when she should ignore it. An expert at reading our body is no different than the veteran pilot who needs to merely glance at a gauge instead of reading the label or manual. When we aren't able to make sense of our internal world, we turn to external ways to...

Reflect: Not Just About the Destination Excellence is not just about the destination. It's an internal standard of giving something your best shot, a process of becoming. The real reward isn't a bigger deadlift, a faster mile, a fancy promotion, or a sturdier table. The real reward is that you become a better version of yourself and experience the deep satisfaction and fulfillment that comes from giving something your all. -- The Way of Excellence Go Touch Grass: A Real World Survival Guide...

A 30 Second Ask that Really Helps It’s been two months since The Way of Excellence came out, and I wanted to say thanks again for being an early reader. If you've already left a review, thank you! I am grateful. If not—and you've found the book valuable—please take just 30 seconds and leave one now. It genuinely affects whether the book shows up for the right readers, and people really do consider the reviews. Just click on this link to submit your rating, and while you're there, consider...