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 thinking about aging and peak performance: two curves that eventually meet—one for raw talent and quickness; the other for wisdom and experience. They discuss how these curves are unique for different pursuits and different people, and they offer advice on planning and executing a career or craft over time. This conversation is a good one; it combines conceptual nerding out with practical tips.Please write a review on Apple Podcasts and help new listeners discover the show!You can find the podcast on:iTunes and Apple PodcastsSpotifyAndroidStitcherFind Brad and Steve on Twitter: @Bstulberg and @stevemagnessThe post Tom Brady and the Relationship Between Peak Performance and Age appeared first on The Growth Equation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 usual, they draw on the latest research, historical patterns, and their experience coaching individuals through dark times. In all, there are nine factors of resilience. Each is helpful on its own, but their power is fullest when they are applied collectively. In this hour, Brad and Steve walk you how through how to do just that.Please write a review on Apple Podcasts and help new listeners discover the show!You can find the podcast on:iTunes and Apple PodcastsSpotifyAndroidStitcherFind Brad and Steve on Twitter: @Bstulberg and @stevemagnessThe post Factors of Resilience appeared first on The Growth Equation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 proven to drive meaningful and sustainable change, and they discuss their own personal challenges with the topic too.Please write a review on Apple Podcasts and help new listeners discover the show!You can find the podcast on:iTunes and Apple PodcastsSpotifyAndroidStitcherFind Brad and Steve on Twitter: @Bstulberg and @stevemagnessThe post The Secrets of Lasting Change appeared first on The Growth Equation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 beginning of a new year. From there, they talk about the importance of tempering expectations in the now while, at the same time, being optimistic for the future. For example, with COVID-19, though everyone is (rightfully) excited about vaccines, the truth is that we just got to mile 20 of a marathon. This is not the time to celebrate; it's the time to dig in, knowing the celebration is down the road. Finally, they conclude by discussing individual goals for 2021 and various insights, self-talk strategies, and practices that can help you stay on the path and achieve them.Please write a review on Apple Podcasts and help new listeners discover the show!You can find the podcast on:iTunes and Apple PodcastsSpotifyAndroidStitcherFind Brad and Steve on Twitter: @Bstulberg and @stevemagnessThe post We Finally Made it to 2021—Now What? appeared first on The Growth Equation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 signal, aka, the stuff that actually works.Please write a review on Apple Podcasts and help new listeners discover the show!You can find the podcast on:iTunes and Apple PodcastsSpotifyAndroidStitcherFind Brad and Steve on Twitter: @Bstulberg and @stevemagnessThe post How to Make Your Brain a Better Place appeared first on The Growth Equation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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, Folklore was slated to come out in March of 2021, and Evermore significantly down the road from there. As context, before this creative burst, Swift put out an album about once every two years.  Yet many critics say these two recent albums, in a span of just a few months, may be her best yet. In this episode of The Growth Equation podcast, we explore Swift's hot streak as a way to better understand the science, and art, of getting into a groove more broadly. We discuss entering a rhythm, maintaining a rhythm, and exiting a rhythm; as well as the common cycle of mastery: from simple, to complex, to simple but different.Please write a review on Apple Podcasts and help new listeners discover the show!You can find the podcast on:iTunes and Apple PodcastsSpotifyAndroidStitcherFind Brad and Steve on Twitter: @Bstulberg and @stevemagnessThe post Taylor Swift and the Principles of Hot Streaks appeared first on The Growth Equation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 at the same time latching onto utopian fantasies. This somber but important episode takes Hsieh's devastating story as an inroad to explore how even the smartest, kindest, most optimistic souls can all too easily veer off the path, and how if we are not careful, we can too.Forbes article on Hsieh's “American Tragedy of Self-Destruction” mentioned in the show.Brad's new post on a toxic culture that says you should be happy and healthy always. Please write a review on Apple Podcasts and help new listeners discover the show!You can find the podcast on:iTunes and Apple PodcastsSpotifyAndroidStitcherFind Brad and Steve on Twitter: @Bstulberg and @stevemagnessThe post The Trappings of Unchecked Striving: Zappos and Tony Hsieh's Tragic Death appeared first on The Growth Equation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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, some worked a little, others did not, but really what worked for me was running. Moving on my own two feat through the wilderness.” Arnold followed her drive to run all the way to being the women's champion of the grueling and highly competitive Leadville ultramarathon in 2018. In this fascinating podcast, we discuss everything from running's role in processing grief and other challenging emotions; to the commonalities between Zen, running, and writing; to how instill in children a love of movement and nature. This was a fun conversation, and Katie is full of actionable wisdom. We hope that you enjoy it!Katie's memoir is titled Running Home.Please write a review on Apple Podcasts and help new listeners discover the show!You can find the podcast on:iTunes and Apple PodcastsSpotifyAndroidStitcherFind Brad and Steve on Twitter: @Bstulberg and @stevemagnessThe post The Zen of Running and Writing appeared first on The Growth Equation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Steve use this moral failure as a jumping off point to discuss ethical creep in high-performance organizations and cultures—from the corporate world, to start-ups, to sports—and what we can do to prevent it in ourselves and those we coach, parent, teach, and lead.Please write a review on Apple Podcasts and help new listeners discover the show!You can find the podcast on:iTunes and Apple PodcastsSpotifyAndroidStitcherFind Brad and Steve on Twitter: @Bstulberg and @stevemagness(NYT Story on Opiods: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/27/business/mckinsey-purdue-oxycontin-opioids.html)The post McKinsey, Opiods, and The Dark Side of High Performance appeared first on The Growth Equation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Postman wrote the book, he was concerned about how television news was becoming more and more about entertainment and less and less about serious discourse. If only Postman, who died in 2003, could be alive to see the current information environment. Brad and Steve do their best to update Postman's argument for modern times and share tips and tricks on how you can protect your attention, be a better citizen, and create space for serious and meaningful discussion in a world of nonsense and noise.Please write a review on Apple Podcasts and help new listeners discover the show! You can find the podcast on:iTunes and Apple PodcastsSpotifyAndroidStitcherFind Brad and Steve on Twitter: @Bstulberg and @stevemagnessThe post Amusing Ourselves to Death appeared first on The Growth Equation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.