Episode 337 | Achieve Peak Performance through Hard Work and Mindfulness with Steven Kotler

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Do you often find yourself giving up when things get hard? Are you more interested in instant gratification? Most people will say yes to these questions. After all, taking the easy way out feels safe and comfortable. But the truth is we are biologically designed to reach peak performance; we just need hard work to achieve it.

In today’s episode, Steven Kotler will share with us why fear and hardship make us quit. And as one of the world’s leading experts on human performance, he will also talk to us about hard work to manage our fears and anxiety to reach our peak performance. He will also discuss what triggers our flow.

Tune in to the full episode and learn how you can train to reach the impossible.

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Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full episode:

Learn how fear motivates you.
Discover how you can motivate yourself to reach your peak potential.
Steven shares the foundations of the flow.

Resources

Steven’s books: Bold and The Art of Impossible
Steven Kotler: Author and Speaker
Try out Steven’s Interactive Worksheet!
Flow Research Collective — Learn about what breaks your flow.
Cognitive Neuroscience of Attention by Michael Posner
Create a daily meditation ritual in just seven days! Download BUILD YOUR DAILY MEDITATION RITUAL and other freebies at RadicallyLoved.com!
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Episode Highlights

Fear and the Impossible

Some people become successful in life because they overcome the impossible. They reinvent themselves to make their dreams a possibility and a reality.
Steven explains this is important to know because nobody starts at their peak. We begin with a combination of focus and action.
Fear can direct you to where you need to focus.
The key is learning how to manage your fear and anxiety and turn them into a challenge that you can overpower.
Listen to the full episode to learn why fear is essential in overcoming the impossible.

Dealing with Fear Using Hard Work

Reaching the impossible becomes hard because powering through your fears — real or imagined — is challenging.
Start with motivation, then focus on goals. After that, you put hard work on your grit skills.
This is not a quick process; you need to keep going until you have enough grit skills as your foundation.
You’re going to be truly successful if you have a solid foundation and the perseverance to work hard on your fear.
This is similar to how athletes train to be their best before taking on risks.

Understanding Peak Performance

Flow or peak performance is the optimal state of consciousness that occurs when you feel and perform your best. When you’re in the flow, everything — creativity, learning, productivity — is amplified.
There are 22 known triggers to the flow. They work by either increasing dopamine or norepinephrine — focusing chemicals — in our system, lowering the cognitive load, or both.
The most important trigger is a complete concentration on your task. Michael Posner, a former psychologist at the University of Oregon, also explains the importance of meditation for your flow training.
Everybody can get into the flow because we are biologically designed to do so.

What Is Peak Performance Training?

Peak performance training starts with an extrinsic motivation
These extrinsic things often fuel your anxiety or fear, which drives your motivation and focus.
After overcoming them, you move to intrinsic motivators, like curiosity, which lets you develop your passion and pursue hard work to fulfill it.
Your passion drives you to have a purpose, which leads to your need for autonomy. And autonomy requires mastery.
Tune in to the full episode to learn about the role of these factors in your peak performance.

How Anxiety and Depression Affects the Flow

It is essential to understand that while anxiety fuels our motivation, it can also dampen it.
This happens because two known causes of anxiety — genes and trauma — affect our ability to focus.
However, research also shows that these causes don’t necessarily translate to anxiety disorders. Genetics is only half of the factor, and trauma may also lead to post-traumatic growth.
The remaining six causes often occur because we can’t find our motivation to work on the flow.

Using Grit and Motivation as Foundations

Physical grit is simple to train because we are all built to be persevering. Training it is working on it consistently.
The next level of grit is controlling your thoughts, and this is where mindfulness training becomes essential.
Motivations are as crucial as grit in creating solid foundations for peak performance because it pushes you to work on your fear and determination.
If you find your motivation and start working on your goals, your body releases the reward chemicals you need. And these chemicals also help you train your grit.
However, it is essential to note that laying down these foundations is neither easy nor fast. They need constant work.

Important Notes on the Flow

Although the flow works wonders, it can also have adverse effects because it can blur your understanding of the past, present, and the future or the deep now.
Since it takes years to train, we may initially feel demotivated, especially since we often seek instant gratification.
But working on your grit and motivation, as well as reaching your flow, is the ultimate gratification you can get.
Do the hard work slowly because it takes time to cultivate your passion.

5 Powerful Quotes

[06:53] “Learn to use fear as a compass and what I mean by that is — and you don’t start really in peak performance — if you’re sort of following your biology, there’s a sequence, there’s an order, and you don’t really go directly head-on at fear for a little while.”

[15:27] “Triggers (of focus) work by doing one of three things. They either drive dopamine into our system, they drive norepinephrine into our system or they lower cognitive load, or they do some combination.”

[19:49] “Everybody can get into flow, right? Man, women, children the age, the old. It is universal. It shows up in anyone anywhere provided certain initial conditions.”

[23:30] “What we call passion is nothing more than like the intersection of multiple curiosities, right? You just got to live there for a little while and let it grow into passion.”

[38:21] “Grit without flow is misery. Like, flat out. You can’t have it like it’s technically — grit without flow is burnout.”

About Steven

Steven Kotler is one of the leading experts in the study of human performance. He wrote several New York Times-bestselling books and was nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes for his journalistic work.
He is also the co-founder of Rancho de Chihuahua dog sanctuary and a cohost of the top-rated iTunes podcast called Flow Research Collective Radio. If you want to connect with Steven, visit his website or LinkedIn.