Finding Mastery with Dr. Michael Gervais

Dr. Michael Gervais•www.findingmastery.com

Dive into the minds of the world’s greatest athletes, leaders, thinkers, and doers with Dr. Michael Gervais—a high performance psychologist and world-renowned expert on the relationship between high performance and the mind. Dr. Gervais’s client roster includes Super Bowl winning NFL teams, Fortune 50 CEOs, Olympic medalists, internationally acclaimed artists, and more.

On Finding Mastery, Dr. Gervais sits down with the best at what they do, like David Goggins, Brene Brown, Toto Wolff, soccer legend Abby Wambach, neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella — translating their life stories, mental skills, and personal practices into applicable tools you can use to unlock your potential.

Walk with us to the edge of human possibility and learn what you are capable of. New episodes every Wednesday.

Last refreshed: June 10th, 2026 at 7:34 AM ⓘ

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Episodes

Rich Roll: Change

If you've ever thought, “If I would have known then, what I know now, I’d shift gears in a heartbeat” — or — If you've ever wanted to shift gears and blaze a new path, but quickly stepped on the excitement by saying," It's just too late now, I've got too many responsibilities” -- or — if you've ever wanted to make a radical shift in your business, but were afraid of what others might think -- you're going to flat out love Rich, and I hope this conversation. Rich set out to figure out his place i...

Jan 20, 2016•1 hr 58 min

Steven Kotler: Ultimate Performance

Steven Kotler, a New York Times best-selling author and award-winning journalist, teaches us about "going for it" -- and the path through chronic pain that has led him to explore the neurobiology of flow. Kotler is the cofounder and Director of Research for the Flow Genome Project, an international organization, dedicated to putting flow state research onto a hard science footing. In this episode: -How dealing with lime disease led to discovering flow -Overcoming injury as a skill and finding a ...

Jan 13, 2016•1 hr 26 min

Jon Gordon: Storytelling

If you’ve ever found yourself wondering if you’ve made the mistake of trading your deepest talents — for the security of a good-paying-gig — I think you’ll appreciate the shift that Jon Gordon made mid-stride on his career path. Gordon's best-selling books and talks have inspired readers and audiences around the world. His principles have been put to the test by numerous NFL, NBA, MLB coaches and teams, Fortune 500 companies, school districts, hospitals and non-profits. Show Notes: 8:02: Where h...

Dec 16, 2015•1 hr 42 min

Elizabeth Lindsey: Elders' Wisdoms

Dr. Elizabeth Lindsey is the first female and first Polynesian to become an explorer for the National Geographic Society. She has made it her mission to find, preserve and share the knowledge and traditions of indigenous populations before they disappear. Show Notes: 8:43: Where she found her passion for understanding ancient traditions and ancient wisdoms "True masters have nothing to prove to anyone" 10:27 19:20: Determining whether your psychological model or the environment is off "The most ...

Dec 09, 2015•1 hr 41 min

Kevin Levrone: Strength

The path toward mastery requires honoring what is true. Often times what is true can be intensely painful. Kevin Levrone walks us through his journey of loss, grief, turmoil, love, commitment, and risk -- which eventually lead to being inducted into the hall of fame for his craft. Kevin has much to teach. His humility, honesty, and courage to be vulnerable in this conversation is as refreshing and inspiring as you would hope. Kevin is former American IFBB professional bodybuilder and now entrepr...

Dec 02, 2015•1 hr 57 min

Ashley Merryman: Science of Competition

The origin of the word "compete" emphasizes the notion of striving together (as compared to striving against). Author Ashley Merryman takes a deep dive into the science of competition - and reveals practical strategies people can use to "become better." There's an art to bringing the mechanics of science to life, and Ashley uses storytelling to illuminate the application of good science. Show Notes: 12:11: The quest to always be better 16:27: How she became interested in what she does today 21:1...

Nov 25, 2015•1 hr 50 min

Michael Gervais: Finding Mastery

As the fable goes — there are three paths for each us, to become: The Old Fool: the person who chased external rewards and pleasures. The Bitter Old Fool: the person who chased external rewards, but didn’t get enough. The Wise: the person who searched for insight and wisdom. Likewise, the path of mastery captures deep understanding and insight -- it's not a path that is laying a bet now, by investing in a craft, for payment or recognition at some later time. The spoils of victory might just happ...

Nov 20, 2015•29 min

Dave Phillips: Golf & Entreprenuership

One of the accelerants to growth is surrounding ourselves with people that have insight…..another accelerant is going down the path of developing insight within yourself. Dave Phillips has done, and is doing, both of those. He has devoted the past 25 years to becoming a world-class coach. He is one of the most sought after golf instructors in the country and is rated one of the Top 100 Teachers in the country by Golf Magazine. Show Notes: 6:45: Coming to America at a young age and quickly gettin...

Oct 21, 2015•1 hr 30 min

Ariana Kukors: Swim

In this conversation we learn from Ariana Kukors, who is a USA Olympic Swimmer, current American Record holder and former World Record holder in the 200-meter individual medley (long course). A 2-Time World Champion, Kukors has won a total of seven medals in major international competition- two golds, three silvers, and two bronze spanning a 10-year national team career. After barely missing the 2008 Olympic Team, she set out to explore a deep understanding of her mind and craft. The result was ...

Oct 14, 2015•1 hr 38 min

Luke Tyburski: Endurance Adventurer

Luke Tyburski has designed the past three years of his life to push the limits of what “we” think to be possible. He’s designed an event to test his mental and physical skills over the course of 12 days, which has been named the Ultimate Triathlon. He’s trained for it for 3 and half years. On October 20, Luke will be taking on a never before attempted challenge- a 1250 miles in 12 day swim, cycle, and run adventure from Morocco to Monaco; The Ultimate Triathlon. Show Notes: 8:15: Life as a journ...

Oct 07, 2015•1 hr 23 min

Keith Power: High Performance

Imagine working to optimize the human performance strategies and outcomes for an entire nation’s elite sport efforts. It’s challenging enough to do so for an elite sport franchise, let alone an entire country. In this conversation with Keith Power, he shares with us how he’s structuring his efforts on high performance for Malaysia. He provides insights on how to align groups of people to pull in one direction. He breaks down his understanding of the art and science of human optimization. Show No...

Sep 30, 2015•1 hr

Fik-Shun: Dance

Shownotes: 4:30: Reasoning behind not choreographing his dancing 7:15: Trusting your instincts and creating an organic experience for the audience 11:05: Why instincts are the necessary choices 15:20: Type of legacy he wants to leave 18:00: How dancing is like playing a game and you're trying to get the highest score possible 20:48: Manipulating the crowd and controlling their emotions 25:54: Why true perfection doesn't exist 29:20: Living in his head in his early life 34:00: Competitiveness fue...

Sep 16, 2015•1 hr 16 min

Baggio Husidić: Soccer

Sport is a way to learn more about who we are — how we handle success, failure, pain, loss, friendships, challenges and opportunities. In this upcoming conversation, sport becomes the initial “handshake” that has allowed us to talk about the deeper experiences in life — freedom, love, risk, and family. Popularly known as Baggio, Adis Husidić was born in Velika Kladuša, SFR Yugoslavia (present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina). Baggio and his family fled Bosnia in the mid-1990s to escape the Bosnian Wa...

Sep 09, 2015•1 hr 42 min

Tom Osborne: Leadership

While in graduate school, a psychology professor asked the class to draw a line across the middle of the paper. He asked us to write down, above the line, three people that have helped shape who we are — that have helped us feel good about who we are. He also asked to list three names below the line, that have negatively contributed to how we see ourselves. The purpose of the exercise was to reflect on the way that people “coached” us from an “above the line” perspective. Coach Tom Osborne is an...

Sep 02, 2015•1 hr 15 min

Kai Kight: Violin

Some conversations will be with those who summit the pinnacle of their profession —or break molds attempting to scale untold peaks. In this conversation, I was fortunate to sit down with a contemporary composer & innovator, Kai Kight. His background is anything but typical. Sports, Design, Stanford, Violin, Composing. He holds an engineering degree from Stanford University’s d. school where he was introduced to the innovative culture of Silicon Valley. As a Kleiner Perkins Design Fellow and ...

Aug 26, 2015•1 hr 13 min

Volleyball Great Karch Kiraly on Leadership, Passion, Risk

Volleyball legend and three-time Gold Medalist, Karch Kiraly joins the show to discuss his path to Finding Mastery. The ‘winningest’ player in the history of the sport, Karch Kiraly is considered the “Michael Jordan” of pro beach volleyball as he is the oldest player to compete in the sport and continues to perform at the highest level — beating competitors literally half his age. He has won at least one tournament in 24 of the 28 seasons he has played, spanning four different decades. _________...

Aug 19, 2015•1 hr 2 min

Finding Mastery: Welcome

Dr. Michael Gervais is fascinated by the psychology of high performance. Throughout the past 25 years, Michael has been in the trenches with some of the best performers in the world – some who shift how we conceive what’s possible — others who have pushed their own boundaries — ranging from hall of fame athletes to action sport game-changers, entrepreneurs, Mixed Martial Artists, to musicians who influence the rhythm of the world. He’s excited to share the many paths toward mastery and provide v...

Aug 01, 2015•19 min

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