Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Brad Stulberg - Just Manageable Challenges - [Invest Like the Best, EP.49]

5 snips

Aug 8, 2017

Brad Stulberg, an author and journalist known for co-writing Peak Performance, dives into the science of sustained growth and creativity. He shares insights on the growth equation: stress plus rest equals growth, emphasizing how this applies to both athletes and creators. Stulberg discusses the power of 'just manageable challenges' to foster improvement and the importance of recovery for aging athletes. He links purpose to enhanced performance, revealing how our values can counteract fear and drive breakthroughs in various fields.

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ANECDOTE

Professor's Purpose Born From Tragedy

Vic Strecker found a new life purpose after his daughter died and it led him to study purpose scientifically.
His shift to purpose research inspired parts of Peak Performance and illustrates purpose's power in recovery.

INSIGHT

Purpose Quietly Lowers Fear

Reflecting on core values reduces fear responses in the brain and enables better performance under threat.
Self-transcending purpose can quiet protective fear mechanisms and allow exceptional effort.

INSIGHT

Stress + Rest = Growth

Growth follows a simple equation: stress plus rest equals growth where stress is meaningful challenge not daily hassles.
The body and mind adapt only when stress is followed by recovery, which is when actual growth occurs.

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This week's conversation is about performance. More specifically, it is about the ins and outs of steady progress and growth. My guest is Brad Stulberg who coauthored the book Peak Performance, which combines research from many fields into a description of how athletes, creatives and others continue to push boundaries in their respective crafts.

As someone who is intermittently lazy, the growth equation framework that Brad and I explore has impacted me often since I first read the book several months ago. I hope you enjoy this conversation, which isn't about investing, but which is, at its heart, still about the power of compounding.

Books Referenced

Outliers: The Story of Success

Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise

Online References

Jool Health

Show Notes

1:32 – (First question) – How Vick Stretcher influenced the book, Peak Performance

4:32 – Looking at some of the preliminary research at the science of purpose

7:58 – The idea of a growth equation and the components that can lead to success

11:47 – How the introduction of stress can help in all sorts of creative and entrepreneurial pursuits.

13:39 – The ratio between physical and mental as an impact on this formula

14:56 – Just manageable challenges and the role that they play in the growth equation

18:06 – The idea of just manageable challenges through the example of an athlete

22:19 – Favorite example of a crazy feat of physical performance, stress on older athletes operating at high levels

23:30 – Thoughts about outside influences like mentors/coaches and how they help high performance individuals advance

25:51 – Describe catabolic and anabolic states and why anabolic is so important

29:13 – How the relationship of catabolic and anabolic states also helps the mind

30:47 – How does the idea of practice play into the growth equation

32:49 – Exploring the nuances of practice and why you don’t go all out

32:56 – Outliers: The Story of Success

33:00 - Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise

34:24 – The idea of designing of a day

42:06 – What role can environment play on us

43:40 – How far is it healthy to run

46:25 – How does ego play into all of this

48:06 – The idea of camaraderie and study of Air Force Cadets highlighting this

49:28 – Fatigue and why it is believed to happen in the mind and not the body

54:00 – Most memorable day

55:43 - Method for finding purpose

56:29 – Jool Health

58:26 – Kindest thing anyone has ever done for Brad

Learn More

For more comprehensive show notes on this episode go to http://investorfieldguide.com/brad

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

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Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag