Rebecca Rusch is an athlete whose feats of endurance have included two self-supported, 350-mile bike rides on the Iditarod Trail and led a magazine to once dub her the "Queen of Pain." On today's episode of The Coach Up, Clay pulls from a conversation he had with her a few years ago where she shares her surprising approach to mastering her craft. You'll learn about the Zen concept of "Beginner's Mind," the power of pessimism, and the perils of over preparing. Full interview here: https://podcast...
Jun 03, 2024•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast Clay discusses his recent experience at a 10-day silent retreat, and the guys use it as a chance to go deep on the relationship between meditation and performance—including how Brad and Steve have changed their thoughts since first writing about the connection in their 2017 book, Peak Performance . If you are enjoying FAREWELL, do us a huge favor: text your favorite episode to three people so they can enjoy it, too. Thanks! iTunes and Apple Podcasts Spotify Android Stitcher Got a question, feedb...
May 30, 2024•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast To be a coach, you have to have a level of expertise in your field. To be a truly *great* coach, though, you have to have so much more than technical knowledge. You need a deep repertoire of soft skills that allow you to get the best out of your athletes. On today's episode of The Coach Up, Steve Magness, who has spent his entire life coaching or being coached, explains the attributes shared by great leaders and culture-builders. Of course, these are skills useful to anyone who works with people...
May 27, 2024•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Increasingly, algorithms are affecting the culture we consume (the news we read, the music we hear, the restaurants where we dine) and the culture that gets made (physical spaces are designed to be Instagrammable; art that can’t be marketed online may not be created). But, as you’ll hear Kyle Chayka, author of Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture, explain today, the algorithms are also deeply influencing our identity. Instead of “exploring the weirdness of our own taste,” we j...
May 23, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Transcript available on Metacast Whether we like it or not, change is inevitable. In his book Master of Change , Brad cites research that the average human will undergo 36 major life changes in their time alive. Which means it's vital that we have the right tools to navigate disruption. Today, Brad explains how our understanding of and reliance on the concept of "homeostasis" has contributed to our inflexibility, and how a newer concept—allostasis—allows for a more adaptable version of stability. Want to learn more tools for ha...
May 20, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week's roundtable is a hodgepodge of good stuff. Brad and Steve share their thoughts on (and criticisms of) last week's interview with Evelyn Tribole on intuitive eating. The crew reacts to a clip of the actor Jesse Eisenberg talking about how he learned to use his fear and anxiety as motivation. And there's a discussion of the recent Apple iPad ad, and how to best protect our humanity from the ever advancing grasp of technology. (All of the referenced material is linked below.) Intuitive E...
May 16, 2024•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast We live in an age where attentional well-being is more important than ever. In our increasingly noisy world, there are an infinite number of things vying for our attention—which means it's more important than ever to have some control over how we direct it. In order to be able to do that, we have to have a deeper understanding of how attention works. Today, Clay, with the help of Oliver Burkeman's book, Four Thousand Weeks , breaks it down, explaining why we're so easily distracted and how we ca...
May 13, 2024•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our diet has one of the biggest influences on how we feel and how we perform. But, particularly in the U.S., eating has become rather complicated, given that we have unbelievably easy access to ultra-processed foods and toxic, misleading fad diets (and all the disinformation that comes with them). So on today's episode, Clay talks to Evelyn Tribole, a dietician and one of the co-founders of Intuitive Eating, a framework for eating that is much more a mind-body practice than it is a diet. At its ...
May 09, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast Over many years of evolution, we've been wired to have very trigger happy alarm systems. Unfortunately, those alarms tend go off most loudly right before a big performance, creating a cascade of nerves that can derail our ability to run a race, deliver a presentation, or nail the interview. Today, Steve offers some of the best strategies he’s used (and coaches his athletes to use) for turning down the alarm and marshaling the energy of your nerves to work for—not against—you. If you are en...
May 06, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today's roundtable is all about building a more robust and more effective toolbox for handling the challenges life throws at you. After years of studying and writing about performance, Steve, Brad, and Clay highlight the practical tools that they have found most helpful when it comes to exercise & working out, productivity & work, diet & nutrition, and managing anxiety & mental health. If you are enjoying FAREWELL, do us a huge favor: text your favorite episode to three people so...
May 02, 2024•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast On the fifth episode of FAREWELL, Kate Bowler joined the show to talk about the ways in which the cult of wellness is failing us—namely, by making unrealistic promises about how limitless we are. We revisit that idea on today’s Coach Up, as Kate shares some thoughts on why the mandate to constantly live your “best life now” is particularly harmful, and why it’s okay to accept that, many days, we’re probably not feeling our best or making it through all (if any) of the things on our to-do list. I...
Apr 29, 2024•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast We humans have a tendency to get in our own way. When it comes to starting new habits, changing our behavior, or making big decisions, we create all kinds of complications for ourselves. Fortunately, we’ve got Katy Milkman, a Wharton professor and expert on the science human behavior. Today, she gives strategies for beating our impulsivity (which she calls the “granddaddy” of obstacles to behavior change), making hard decisions, and why sometimes the best solution involves subtraction not additi...
Apr 25, 2024•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast Brad has been a performance coach for some time now, working with executives, physicians, founder, attorneys. Today, we're going to get a little insight into what that work looks like. Brad shares one of the strategies he uses with his clients to help them organize and more effectively mange their lives, and achieve their goals: his three-tiered coaching pyramid. If you are enjoying FAREWELL, do us a huge favor: text your favorite episode to three people so they can enjoy it, too. Thanks! iTunes...
Apr 22, 2024•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast For the last couple decades, Cal Newport has been thinking about how to do quality work productively, effectively, and sustainably. His latest book Slow Productivity, a New York Times bestseller, presents a refreshingly sane idea: that we might be able to do more work and not be completely burnt out or exhausted doing it. Today, Clay and Brad sit down with Cal to talk through how that’s actually possible. Plus, as a computer scientist and productivity expert, Cal lays out his most effective...
Apr 18, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mantras are a good tool to have in your toolkit when life inevitably gets frustrating and difficult (to wit: in their FAREWELL interviews, ultrarunner Courtney Dauwalter and triathlete Chelsea Sodaro both shared how mantras have helped them become world-class athletes). Today, Clay shares three of his favorite mantras, phrases that have helped him manage anxiety, work, and exercise over the years. If you are enjoying FAREWELL, do us a huge favor: text your favorite episode to three people so the...
Apr 15, 2024•7 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, NCAA March Madness wrapped up, and two teams were crowned National Champions—which means 134 other teams lost. This is the hard reality of any type of competition: the vast majority of people who compete will lose. But it's those who know how to lose well that can best set themselves up for a future win. On today's episode, Steve, Brad, and Clay discuss the best way to cope with the acute loss in a competition, and the more general loss of ability that comes with age: how can we learn...
Apr 11, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Any time we are developing a new skill, hobby, craft, or practice, we have to go through various stages of development—these are called the four levels of competence. At the first level, you're learning and everything can feel difficult. At the fourth, you're in flow. By knowing what they are, you can identity where you're at on the progression, which, in turn, will help you figure out the tools you need to continue to grow, improve, and move to the next level. Today, Brad breaks down the four l...
Apr 08, 2024•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Good news, bad news. The good news: in our modern world of endless entertainment, we have essentially solved the problem of boredom. The bad news: turns out boredom wasn't a problem, but a skill. The ability to do deep, creative work, to complete a long cardio workout, to avoid mindlessly falling into social media doom scrolls—these all require an ability to be bored. As Manoush Zomorodi, host of NPR's TED Radio Hour, lays out in her book " Spark: How to Free Your Brain From Technology and Ignit...
Apr 04, 2024•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast "A ritual is routine with intention," says Katherine May (author of Wintering and Enchantment ) on today's episode of The Coach Up. Whereas routines are a set of steps you don't have to think about, a ritual is about performing an action that consciously allows us to work in harmony with the various rhythms of the day, month, and year. In this way, rituals can become important ways to mark the passage of time and keep us on track as the days fly by. Since we're already three months deep into 202...
Apr 01, 2024•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast Last week, ESPN's Wright Thompson wrote a wonderfully reported profile of Iowa's Caitlin Clark (link below), who is playing in her last NCAA tournament and capping off a career as one of college basketball's greats and it's all-time leading scorer. At the heart of that piece was a compelling question: What is the cost of greatness? How does someone like Caitlin Clark balance relentless hustle with joy and rest? Obsessional devotion with relaxation and play? Hyper competitiveness with teamwork an...
Mar 28, 2024•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast "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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast "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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 
