Peak Performance

Ready to reach your potential and perform at your best when it matters most? Fantastic. Let’s get clear on where you’re headed, go all in, and cultivate our grit + presence + self-confidence as we vacuum up any potential choke dust, visualize, let it rip and win or learn.

Trevor Moawad is a mental conditioning coach to elite performers. He is well known for being the mental coach to Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and has worked closely with prestigious NCAA football programs and coaches, the US Special Operations community, Major League Baseball, and the NBA. This book is, as per the sub-title, all about “How to Think Neutrally and Gain Control of Your Life.” I loved it and, if you’re also equally fired up by the mental toughness in sports and life genre, I think you’ll enjoy it as much as I did. Big Ideas we explore include neutral thinking (much better than positive or negative), goats and G.O.A.T.s, the law of substitution (focus!), the illusion of choice (if you’re REALLY ALL IN, there is no choice), and drawing a line in the dirt (and getting to it… again and again and again!).

This is a SHOCKINGLY good book. Want to get your mind right? Lanny Bassham, an Olympic gold medalist, has been teaching the art of mental training/peak performance for decades and this book tells us just how to rock it. In the Note, we'll look at the importance of making the process primary and other fundamentals of mental mastery.

Anders Ericsson is the world’s leading scientist studying expert performance—looking at how, precisely, the people who are the best in the world at what they do became the best. In this Note, we take a quick look at The Gift that we all have that’s the key to our potential greatness, HOW to go about tapping into the benefits of that gift via a certain type of practice (forget naive practice and go for purposeful + deliberate!), the fact that there is no such thing as a “10,000 Hour Rule,” and why we should be called Homo Exercens rather than Homo Sapiens. :)

Brian Cain is one of the world’s greatest mental toughness coaches whose client list includes four Major League Baseball Cy Young Award winners, eight UFC world champion mixed martial artists, World Series and Super Bowl Champions and MVPs, Olympic medalists, and countless other elite athletes and coaches. In this note, we explore how you can "intentionally invest 1% of your day into yourself and become a better version of you today than you were yesterday." How will YOU get 1% better TODAY? It's Day 1, Hero.

New Zealand’s national rugby team The All Blacks are arguably THE greatest team ever. In this book, James Kerr unpacks what makes them so great and how we can lead + create a Legacy. Big Ideas we explore include the fact that Better People Make Better All Blacks, Kiwi Kaizen, embracing expectations and leaning into the power of Loss Aversion (remember: no pressure, no diamonds), hitting the psychological gym and answering a couple questions that will help clarify YOUR legacy.

If you're looking to live an extraordinary life, this great book lays out the new model for rockin' it. In the Note, we'll explore some Big Ideas on how to get into your Trusting Mindset where you just let it rip as you eat stress like an energy bar and put yourself on super pilot. Remember that everyone who's ever made history was a nut… until they did what they said they'd do and then they were a genius.

Colvin tells us talent is overrated. (As you may have gathered from the title. :) Where’s it at? 10,000 hours of deliberate practice, yo. That’s the bedrock on which greatness is developed. In this Note, we’ll check out The Mozart Myth (you think he was born great?! Think again!) to falling on your butt 20,000 times, and we’ll have fun seeing how we can create our own personal greatness.

Dr. Bob Rotella is widely recognized as the world’s leading sports psychologist. He’s coached everyone from basketball stars like LeBron James to rock stars like Seal. The golfers he’s coached (including greats like Rory McIlroy) have won an astonishing 80+ major championships. Want to know how champions think in both sports AND life? Well, here you go. Big Ideas we explore include the importance of going for "exceptionalism" (by definition, to be great/a champion you need to be an "exception" to the norm so...), a message from God (key takeaway: focus on the process, results are all good), train it and trust it, enthusiasm (it's the catalyst of champions), how to create your own reality (hint: don't do what average people do), and how to win the ultimate game of life.

Tim Grover was Michael Jordan’s trainer and, basically, his mental toughness coach. Kobe Bryant’s as well. And Dwayne Wade’s. And... Well, a ton of other elite athletes. He’s one of the world’s top mental toughness coaches and this book is, as per the sub-title, a manual on how to go “From Good to Great to Unstoppable.” Big Ideas we explore include: relentless commitment (vs. "Meh, good enough"), Do. The. Work (eat frogs and dominate), Pressure (pressure, pressure! BRING IT ON!), the source of true confidence, greatness math (remember: effort counts twice; just ask Michael Jordan and Jerry Rice), and turning your dreams into reality (ready?).

As millions of people would agree, Malcolm Gladwell is an extraordinarily (!) captive writer. This is another one of Gladwell’s gems—packed with riveting stories that challenge our notion of what it means to be an underdog and how, as the sub-title suggests, we can embrace our misfit status as we master the art of battling giants. It’s awesome—especially if you’re looking for a fun, entertaining read that’s packed with wisdom but delivered in a delightful package. Big Ideas include the fact that David SHOULD have won, full-court presses, the inverted U, earning courage and desirable difficulties.

Michael Phelps is the most decorated Olympian in history and arguably the greatest athlete ever. This book is a quick look at 8 virtues that led to his 8 gold medals in '08. Big Ideas we explore include how to train your mind, going all in, knowing what's important now (aka W.I.N.), and not confusing "can't" vs. "won't."

Originally published in 1974, this book is, as the sub-title suggests, the classic guide to the mental side of peak performance and transcends tennis/sports. If we want to win the game of life, we've gotta start by winning the inner game. In the Note, we'll take a quick look at how to do that, learning about Self 1 + Self 2 (and how to help them get along), quieting our mind and asking for qualities we aspire to have.

The Rise of Superman. What an awesome title and vision. Steven Kotler is one of the world’s leading authorities on the science of flow. He created the Flow Genome Project that is all about “decoding the peak performance state of flow.” (<—Awesome.) In this book we take a peak at how we can get our greatness on. Big Ideas include a quick look at flow and how to hack it, achieving mastery sans misery, using fear as a compass and how to do the impossible.

Whatever you want to learn, know this: It’s ALL about the myelin. Myelin? Yep. Myelin. In this Note we’ll learn what myelin is and why it’s so cool along with some other Big Ideas—ranging from the importance of “Deep Practice,” to the importance of baby steps as the royal road to skill and the fact that greatness isn’t about not magic, it’s about hard work.

In The Talent Code, Dan Coyle introduced us to the power of myelin and its role in creating world-class performance. In The Little Book of Talent, he shares 52 uber-practical tips on how to improve our skills. Big Ideas we explore include how to actually deliberately practice (hint: find your sweet spot), the most important skill (hint: get good at actually practicing), playing mental movies, adopting a blue collar mind set and thinking like a gardener while acting like a carpenter.

As with all of Malcolm Gladwell’s books, this is a fascinating read—exploring the underpinnings of what *really* makes great people great. In short: It’s more complicated than we think and it’s *definitely* not simply innate talent. Culture and hard work and other often wacky variables play a pivotal role. Big Ideas we explore: The 10,000 Hour Rule, no naturals + no grinders, The Beatles (and their 1,200!! shows before they hit it big), Bill Gates sneaking out of bed in high school and the three keys to meaning.

Chris Hadfield is the super cool guitar-strumming Canadian astronaut who served as Commander of the International Space Station. This is his guide to life on Earth. It’s awesome. Big Ideas we explore include the power of negative thinking, why we need to sweat the small stuff, creating deep love time blocks and finishing strong.

If you’ve ever worked out at a CrossFit gym and/or watched the Reebok CrossFit Games, you know that the absolute best CrossFit athletes are absolute beasts. Well, Ben Bergeron has been the coach behind six world championships. This book is his inspirational, wisdom-packed (!!!) look at how he coaches greatness told through the lens of the 2016 Games in which his athletes (Mat Fraser and Katrín Davíðsdóttir) BOTH won. (Think about that... He coached BOTH the men’s and the women’s champions. <- That’s amazing.) My copy of the book is r i d i c u l o u s l y marked up. The book is OUTSTANDING. Big Ideas we explore include: Committing to excellence (vs. "Meh, I'm good enough."), the 12 character traits of a champion, grit (how's yours?), positivity (selection attention + confirmation bias), embracing adversity (overload and get stronger!), and acting like a champion NOW.

Stan Beecham is a sports psychologist who has worked with many of the world’s elite athletes. As per the title of the book, he tells us that it’s their MINDS that make the difference in sustained high levels of performance—creating a competitive edge and maximizing success. Big Ideas we explore include your case of mistaken identity (you're greater than you think), the curse of perfection (remember to play poorly well), the true meaning of the word "compete" (= "to strive WITH" not against) and of the word "contest" (= "to make a promise"!) your ultimate opponent (fear!!) and the ultimate question: To go or not to go (Answer: GO!!!).

Would you like to find the Zone more often? Well, yah! Leading sports psychologist Michael Lardon, M.D. shows us how. 10 core lessons. In the Note, we'll look at why you want to have two scorecards, the importance of activation energy (451 degrees, please!!) and how to keep your confidence dialed in.

Do you think you can or do you think you can't? As Henry Ford told us, either way you're right. Orison Swett Marden (who created Success magazine) walks us thru some old-school no-nonsense mojo in this great little book. In the Note, we'll look at the power of being a functional dreamer and bringing ourselves to a 212 degree boil!

Matt Fitzgerald is a journalist, coach, sports nutritionist, and author of more than 20 books. In this book, he walks us through the different scientific perspectives on how to tap into our latent potential with a deep dive into what’s known as the “Psychobiological Model.” It’s a super-engaging look at some ridiculously inspiring elite athletes and how they mastered their minds to do some extraordinary things. Big Ideas we explore include a quick look at the psycholobiological model (see: sub-title of the book: Mastering the Psychology of Mind over Muscle), the fire walk of life (how far do you get to your wall?), the psychology of pain (brace yourself!), perfectionism (vs. optimalism), the audience effect (eyeballs = better performance), motivation (= the strongest influence) and Steve Prefontaine's approach to crushing it ("Bring it on!").

Leonardo da Vinci. Charles Darwin. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Martha Graham. The Wright Brothers. Jane Goodall. Benjamin Franklin. Thomas Edison. Zora Neale Hurston. What do they all have in common? Mastery. In this great book Robert Greene shows us the key components of their mastery and, most importantly, how WE can each attain our mastery in our own lives.

Brad Stulberg is a writer focused on health and the science of human performance. (Amy Cuddy calls him her favorite health and science writer.) Steve Magness is a coach to some of the top distance runners in the world. Together, they’ve written a super-engaging, quick-reading book on how to pursue growth in a healthy, sustainable way—aka, without burning out. Big Ideas we explore include the secret equation of sustainable awesome (Stress + Rest = Growth), just-manageable challenges, the iPhone Effect Part 3 (aka how to decrease your productivity in one step!), the optimal work/rest ratio, and the paradoxical twist of fulfillment.

Alan Stein is a peak-performance coach who was immersed in the basketball world for fifteen years and now applies that wisdom to the broader game of life. I’m a huge fan of peak performance books, especially those with sports themes so I enjoyed this book. It’s broken down into three parts, capturing the various roles we play in life and work: Part I: Player, Part II: Coach and Part III: Team. Each section features a set of five core virtues we need to master and integrate across each domain. Big Ideas we explore include the importance of Self-Awareness (it's virtue #1!!), two case studies on discipline (featuring Steph Curry and Kobe Bryant), the comparison game (note: you will always (!) lose), the five virtues of being a great Coach, and one more rep (up Hell on the Hill).

DC Gonzalez is one of the world's leading peak performance/mental training experts and this quick-reading manifesto on the art of mental training is fantastic. In the Note, we'll take a quick look at why mental training is so important, the critical three (breathing + relaxation + imagineering) and the most important lesson of all.

Jim Afremow is one of the world’s leading sports psychologists. We covered his first book The Champion’s Mind. This one is kinda like part 2 in which we look at how the Champion responds to the inevitable (!) setbacks faced on the road to greatness—using those setbacks as opportunities to bounce back and make a sweet comeback. Big Ideas we explore include seeing setbacks as challenges rather than threats, outperforming our contracts, practicing ’till you can’t get it wrong, and the 3 P’s of peak performance.

Brad Stulberg writes, coaches, and speaks on health and human performance. Steve Magness coaches some of the world’s top distance runners and has propelled numerous athletes to Olympic trials, world championship teams, and the Olympics. This is the second book they’ve written together. We featured the first one Peak Performance. When this book came out, Brad reached out to let me know I might enjoy it. I immediately got it, immediately read it and, well, here we are. He was right. I loved it. Big Ideas we explore include the fact that passion needs to be handled with care, the "fit mind-set" (vs. the mastery mind-set), two kinds of passion (obsessive vs. harmonious), the mastery mindset (secret sauce #1) and self-awareness (secret sauce #2).

Ready to attend The School of Greatness? Awesome. Lewis Howes shares his lecture notes from 200+ interviews with extraordinary humans for his uber-popular podcast. Lessons include Creating a Vision + Turning Adversity into Advantage, and Flexing Your Hustle Muscle. To greatness!

Wallace D. Wattles. Funny name and funny looking dood but lots of great wisdom. In this Note, we'll have fun looking at how to get our greatness on. Big Ideas include the fact that we've gotta move beyond our fears, obey our souls (always), be patient, pay attention to our habitual thoughts and, perhaps most importantly, if we want to be great we've gotta SERVE greatly.

This book is one of the most densely packed with goodness books out there and in the Note we're going to explore the different brain waves and the fact that stress causes faster brain waves than relaxation along with how and why we want to drop into "alpha" as often as possible. Plus, we'll look at how to turn fear into excitement (really cool Idea!), the seven hermetic laws and the five rules for happiness.

Richard Machowicz. Mack for short. He’s an intense, inspiring and empowering former Navy SEAL. He’s an ultimate warrior. In this book, Mack teaches us how we can unleash the warrior within ourselves to, as the sub- title suggests, “Develop the Focus, Discipline, Confidence, and Courage You Need to Achieve Unlimited Goals.” Big Ideas we explore include World War 0, “Not Dead Can’t Quit,” the #1 question (hint: Do you have the guts?), and 110% vs. 80%.