Knowing how to be tired is a skill. If you don't know how to work with fatigue, you won't be able to push yourself when things get hard. On the other hand, if you only know how to push and can't understand your body's warning signals when it's overdoing it, you might find yourself injured or burnt out. On this episode of The Coach Up, Steve Magness explains how to better walk that tightrope by getting to know—and making friends with—your fatigue. If you are enjoying FAREWELL, the best way you ca...
Mar 25, 2024•13 min
We’ve got voicemail(s)! On the last roundtable, we opened up our phone lines a you all answered the call with some great questions. So today’s episode is dedicated to answering three of the issues raised: how to know when a relationship to exercise becomes unhealthy; (2) the psychological downsides to gamifying your movement practice, and how to know when to use intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation; (3) how to think about exercising and fitness as you age. Enjoy—and thanks for the great questions.&...
Mar 21, 2024•38 min
The world can be pretty wonderful. It can also be pretty terrible. So we need a mindset that works for both of these circumstances. Unfortunately, these days, we often live on the extremes. On the one end of the spectrum, there's toxic positivity, which means remaining upbeat in the face of something that's really difficult, or hard, or sad, and needs to be experienced and processed as such. On the other , there's straight up hopelessness or nihilism, a sense that everything is so bad, we m...
Mar 18, 2024•10 min
In his books The Comfort Crisis and Scarcity Brain , Michael Easter explores two of the major complications of living in our modern world. The world is rife with comfort and convenience, which is great some of the time, but not all of the time since we need to discomfort to grow and become resilient. The world is also abundant, but humans have evolved to have a scarcity mindset, meaning that no matter how much we have, we're wired to crave more. This means we often struggle to do the necessary h...
Mar 14, 2024•49 min
In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear makes the point that it's your habits, multiplied over time, that create the person you become. That's because habits compound. The difference between the person who reads 20 minutes a day and the person who doesn't may not seem that big on a day-to-day basis. But over the course of a year, the person with the reading habit will likely have read 30 to 40 more books than the person without that habit. So building the habits that are going to get us closer to...
Mar 11, 2024•10 min
Health and fitness is in a weird place these days. On one hand, there’s a lack of foundational health literacy in society (as evidenced by a recent Exercise I.Q. Quiz in The New York Times that left us with more answers than questions: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/02/27/well/move/fitness-workout.html). On the other hand, we’re overloaded with fancy-sounding jargon that can leave even high-level exercise enthusiasts feeling like they need to do and learn more. Today, Steve, Brad, and ...
Mar 07, 2024•38 min
"You need to feel like a pot of water on the stove that's just about to start boiling over," says Molly Seidel, in describing what it feels like to run the marathon pace that won her the bronze at the last Olympics. "You just hold it there, right on that line." This is as draining mentally as it is physically, she says. In fact, Seidel says so much of what holds athletes back is their brain telling them to pull back because their going into the danger zone. The antidote? Learning how to be with ...
Mar 04, 2024•9 min
In October 2022, many people witnessed triathlete Chelsea Sodaro, in her first time running the race, become the first American woman to win the Ironman World Championship in Kona. What they didn't see was that, in the months leading up to the race, she was learning how to balance motherhood and training, and struggling with intense OCD and anxiety. Today's episode is about that: the things we don't see. Because, in the world of performance, a lot of the focus goes to success and achievement—and...
Feb 29, 2024•1 hr 1 min
"You probably grew up with motivation being super important: 'Think positive. Get hyped. Find inspiration. Ride your bliss,'" says Brad Stulberg, on this week's Coach Up. "And that's great—except for the 98 percent of days where you're not super hyped and motivated." On those days, when you need a little extra oomph, you might want to use a psychological tool known as behavioral activation, which Brad details on today's episode. Plus: how to know when you have the type of fatigue that ...
Feb 26, 2024•9 min
Do you ever feel like you've got too much to do and not enough time to do it? Welcome to one of the enduring sensations of existing and working in a very noisy world . (We feel it, too.) On today's roundtable, Brad, Steve, and Clay discuss how we got here, why the sense of task overwhelm is a particularly modern affliction, and the strategies they use to deal with it, like prioritizing, doing good enough work, and understanding what's truly urgent (versus what just seems urgent). If you are enjo...
Feb 22, 2024•31 min
"The sky's the limit." "Shoot for the stars." When it comes to success, we often think in terms of being our absolute best. On today's episode of The Coach Up, Brad Stulberg explains why, if you want to get better, you should focus on your bad and average days—not the good or great ones. Listen and subscribe to FAREWELL now! iTunes and Apple Podcasts Spotify Android Stitcher Got a question, feedback, or ideas for the show? Email [email protected] or leave a voicemail at ( 646) 893-9503 &nb...
Feb 19, 2024•9 min
Let’s be honest: Winter ain't always fun! It’s cold, dark, icy, and often sticks around far longer than we want it to. Even if you’ve moved somewhere warm as a way to permanently escape the frosty months, well, there are winters there, too; times when you or someone you love gets sick, you go through a break-up, or you lose a job. “Everybody winters at one time or another,” writes Katherine May, in her book Wintering : The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times . May says that instead of “...
Feb 15, 2024•49 min
Growth comes from facing weaknesses, and we learn about those weaknesses from getting feedback. But feedback has a way of raising our defenses. Which means helping others grow by giving feedback—or growing ourselves, by taking feedback—is fraught with challenges. Luckily, Steve Magness's countless years as both an athlete and a coach have earned him some insights into the practice of delivering (and receiving) criticism. On this episode of The Coach Up, he gives you a primer: how to give it, wha...
Feb 12, 2024•12 min
We've always been a country obsessed with happiness. It was, quite literally, built into the promise of America (right there with life and liberty). But maybe you've noticed: the market for happiness content is absolutely booming, which suggests that there's a rather large market of un happy people out there. It's almost as if our obsession with happiness is inversely correlated to our actual happiness. Why might that be? Steve, Brad, and Clay discuss, unpacking different ideas of happiness...
Feb 08, 2024•35 min
When it comes to thinking about how to design your days, weeks, and months, to get done everything you want to get done, we often think in terms of goals and routines. In the long-term, goals give you a North Star to aim towards; in the shorter term, routines help you knock out the tasks you need to do on a daily basis. Sometimes that works great. But sometimes it doesn't. We can feel too loosely connected to a goal that's far away—or too rigidly attached to a routine that, when it gets disrupte...
Feb 05, 2024•9 min
Over the course of two days, Olympic decathletes participate in ten different track and field events, ranging from pole vault and shot put to long jump and a 1500-meter run. It’s a grueling competition that requires speed, strength, explosiveness and technical ability, which is why, in addition to receiving a gold medal, the winner is also crowned the “best athlete in the world.” Right now, that title belongs to Canada’s Damian Warner, who took home the gold in Tokyo in 2021. On today’s episode,...
Feb 01, 2024•56 min
Have you ever noticed that your behavior is sometimes misaligned with your goals? You go to school to learn, or take a job to do meaningful work, or join Instagram to keep up with friends. But instead you end up chasing GPA, money, and followers. It's an increasingly prevalent complication in a society obsessed with metrics, where everything is gamified and measured. On today's episode of The Coach Up, Michael Easter, whose books The Comfort Crisis and Scarcity Brain assess the problems of our m...
Jan 29, 2024•8 min
What type of leadership builds a culture of winning and excellence? Is an approach that prioritizes joy, care, and love, more effective than one that's more demanding or authoritarian? Using examples from contemporary sports, and in the wake of the departure of three of the most storied football coaches of all-time—Nick Saban, Bill Belichick, and Pete Caroll—each of whom fostered a unique type of culture, Steve, Brad, and Clay discuss the merits of various coaching styles. You'll learn the impor...
Jan 25, 2024•44 min
A special edition of The Coach Up! In the wake of the Kansas City Chiefs' playoff victory over the Buffalo Bills, Clay revisits a 2020 conversation he had with the Chiefs' head coach, Andy Reid. Coach Reid breaks down what makes Chiefs' quarterback Patrick Mahomes great, and gives an insight into the coaching philosophy that has made him one of the best coaches of all-time. Don't miss these lessons on leadership, focus, and greatness from a future Hall of Famer. Listen and subscribe to FAREWELL ...
Jan 22, 2024•9 min
What if I told you our country's approach to wellness was heavily influenced by the history of American religion? Kate Bowler, a professor of religious history at Duke, traces the self-betterment movement back to America's "prosperity gospel," which promised that true believers of God would be rewarded with health, wealth, and happiness. Replace "God" with diet, workouts, supplements, self-help books, and time management systems and you've pretty much described today's billion-dollar health and ...
Jan 18, 2024•57 min
Throughout his many years of coaching, Steve Magness has put together a unique set of tools for training mental toughness. In this week's Coach Up, he walks you through a clever way to approach the end of your workouts that will help widen your tolerance for uncomfortable feelings. Think of it as exposure therapy for discomfort, making it easier for you to approach difficulty in your everyday life. Listen and subscribe to FAREWELL now! iTunes and Apple Podcasts Spotify Android Stitcher Got a que...
Jan 15, 2024•9 min
We are living in an entertainment boom, which is both a blessing and a curse: there's more great content than ever before, but you have to sort through a lot of noise to find it. In an effort to help you comb through it all, Brad, Steve, and Clay do a good old fashioned fantasy draft in order to select the best movies, shows, and documentaries about performance, craft, and mastery. What does "best" mean? Well, as you'll see, that was up for some debate... Let us know who you think picked the bes...
Jan 11, 2024•47 min
For the first episode of The Coach Up, we've got three different experts—Brad, Steve, and Katy Milkman, a behavioral scientist at Wharton—offering three different perspectives on how to think through goal-setting in the new year. You'll learn the difference between an open goal and a specific goal, when to pick a small goal versus when to pick a big goal, why something called "the what the hell effect" can derail your goals, and the subtle but powerful mindset shift that will help you stay on tr...
Jan 08, 2024•20 min
Last summer, ultrarunner Courtney Dauwalter did something that had never been done before. She ran three of the sport's most iconic 100-mile races... within 10 weeks of each other... and won all three. (She also set the women's course record on two of them.) It was an incredible achievement, even for someone who has long established herself as one of the greatest ultraunners of all-time. How does she do what she does? Through a rare mixture of joy, curiosity, and intensity that will change how y...
Jan 04, 2024•1 hr 2 min
On January 4th, we are relaunching The Growth Equation Podcast as FAREWELL. Hosted by Clay Skipper, it's a show about performance, delivering you the insights, habits, and practices that, if done consistently, will help you perform your best on the things you care about most (and help you, more generally, fare well). You'll hear from Growth Equation founders and performance experts Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness, but also a long list of others who study or practice performance at the highest le...
Jan 02, 2024•4 min
Steve, Brad, and Clay react to a recent story in the The New Yorker about the motivational speaker economy (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/12/11/jesse-itzlers-secrets-of-success), why mastery involves more than motivation, and the difference between performance and endurance. Plus: the guys debate whether or not they could win a 100-mile race against LeBron James. The Growth Equation Podcast is rebranding to “Farewell” in the new year, so be sure to subscribe now! You can find this epis...
Dec 27, 2023•48 min
Clay, Brad, and Steve round out the year by answering four questions: What's a habit you started (or stopped) in 2023? What's a physical goal you have for 2024? What's an idea, book, or theme that you're carrying into 2024? What wellness fads are you buying/selling? The Growth Equation Podcast is rebranding to “Farewell” podcast in the new year, so be sure to subscribe now! Got a question for the podcast? Leave us a voice memo at 6468935903 You can find this episode on: iTunes and Apple Podcasts...
Dec 20, 2023•53 min
A deep dive on Mark Epstein’s book “Going to Pieces without Falling Apart:" Brad and Clay unpack the key insights and takeaways that will help get you out of your head, into flow, and more at ease in the world. Got a question for the podcast? Leave us a voice memo at 6468935903 You can find this episode on: iTunes and Apple Podcasts Spotify Android Stitcher Get Master of Change , Do Hard Things , and The Practice of Groundedness on audible (Or in hard copy: Master of Change here...
Dec 13, 2023•50 min
Clay and Steve discuss how to approach health and exercise during the holidays and into the new year, whether you want to stick to an existing plan or start a new one. Got a question for the podcast? Leave us a voice memo at 6468935903 You can find this episode on: iTunes and Apple Podcasts Spotify Android Stitcher Get Master of Change , Do Hard Things , and The Practice of Groundedness on audible (Or in hard copy: Master of Change here Hard Things here and Gro...
Dec 06, 2023•35 min
Have you ever wanted something badly, finally achieved it, and then found it didn't quite live up to the hype? Brad, Steve, and Clay discuss why this happens—and how you can protect against it. Got a question for the podcast? Leave us a voice memo at 6468935903 You can find this episode on: iTunes and Apple Podcasts Spotify Android Stitcher Get Master of Change , Do Hard Things , and The Practice of Groundedness on audible (Or in hard copy: Master of Change here Hard Things ...
Nov 29, 2023•1 hr 12 min
