Love your article. It's one that I'll return to again. Of special note is something I've heard before that really resonated with me:
You don’t need to feel good to get going.
You need to get going to give yourself a chance at feeling good.
I'm pretty disciplined by nature but sometimes it's good to be reminded that waiting until you feel good to take action and you might end up wating for a long long time.
As always loved the writing and ideas. Just to get more clarification for me, i find the word mastry or excellence a bit confusing in the sense that what does it even mean, is it like a destination where one reaches or it's just a "process of getting better everyday ". The other thing is life is composed of millions of things one do and one can be master or even excellent in one or 10 or 50 things, and at the same time average in other 50 and really bad in other 50 as well and it's okay.
This was an absolutely excellent article on excellence. Well done. Perfectly encapsulated what it takes to push yourself to the best version of yourself. I look forward to reading your upcoming book.
Every day I have a “to do” list. Maybe 3 things, maybe 10 things, and what doesn’t have a deadline can roll to the next day. It is a fun way to wake up to meaning and feeling proactive about the day’s value.
Love this! “Excellence” is one of many words within my world that are used a lot but not truly understood and/or mean quite different things to different people. Your definition aligns really well with my definition. (“Talent” is another example of the same confusion I think).
Love this, have book marked it for returning to, you have indeed synthesised and pulled out what matters and is meaningful from the various efforts in this area.
I'd also add: work out what gives you energy and what needs it from you, and how you best plan these each. E.g. I do output in the morning when my energy is highest, thereafter interactive stuff e.g. meetings, and then social then reflective before bed. If I mess with this program and e.g. read to start the day or leave work until late, my output is 5% of what it would be otherwise - and I feel rubbish.
Great post, important points. As a life long “sort of “ athlete I can say the plethora of information is a challenge. There are people who want hacks because they don’t want to do the work. But, there are many of us who want to optimize our training so we try to find a protocol that is an efficient use of our effort and time. Good luck — diet, strength training, sport training, mobility, cardio info is everywhere and often contradictory. Sure we want to be consistent, but consistent doing what? We used to think practice makes perfect, but now we know perfect practice makes perfect. Obviously something is better than nothing but I’d sure like better guidance on improving that “something “.
Reminded me a lot of some of Oliver Burkeman’s writings (a good thing!). Lots of overlapping themes. This was a really good read and great timing as I start a training block. Thank you.
This is the most sane thing I’ve read this year.
Thank you, Ethan! I do my best...
QQ LM OQIIQI
Love your article. It's one that I'll return to again. Of special note is something I've heard before that really resonated with me:
You don’t need to feel good to get going.
You need to get going to give yourself a chance at feeling good.
I'm pretty disciplined by nature but sometimes it's good to be reminded that waiting until you feel good to take action and you might end up wating for a long long time.
As always loved the writing and ideas. Just to get more clarification for me, i find the word mastry or excellence a bit confusing in the sense that what does it even mean, is it like a destination where one reaches or it's just a "process of getting better everyday ". The other thing is life is composed of millions of things one do and one can be master or even excellent in one or 10 or 50 things, and at the same time average in other 50 and really bad in other 50 as well and it's okay.
Thanks! I actually wrote about the meaning of excellence in a recent post, "The World Needs More Excellence." It may help clarify some of these questions for you: https://bradstulberg.substack.com/p/the-world-needs-more-excellence
Good read. My version of #4 is “mood follows action.”
This was an absolutely excellent article on excellence. Well done. Perfectly encapsulated what it takes to push yourself to the best version of yourself. I look forward to reading your upcoming book.
Good stuff, Brad. It is wild how easy it is to get looped into continual development without any actual action. My mantra lately has been “embody it.”
Dig where your feet are 💯
Every day I have a “to do” list. Maybe 3 things, maybe 10 things, and what doesn’t have a deadline can roll to the next day. It is a fun way to wake up to meaning and feeling proactive about the day’s value.
Love this! “Excellence” is one of many words within my world that are used a lot but not truly understood and/or mean quite different things to different people. Your definition aligns really well with my definition. (“Talent” is another example of the same confusion I think).
Love this. Will definitely bookmark for repeated future reference.
Love this, have book marked it for returning to, you have indeed synthesised and pulled out what matters and is meaningful from the various efforts in this area.
I'd also add: work out what gives you energy and what needs it from you, and how you best plan these each. E.g. I do output in the morning when my energy is highest, thereafter interactive stuff e.g. meetings, and then social then reflective before bed. If I mess with this program and e.g. read to start the day or leave work until late, my output is 5% of what it would be otherwise - and I feel rubbish.
Great post, important points. As a life long “sort of “ athlete I can say the plethora of information is a challenge. There are people who want hacks because they don’t want to do the work. But, there are many of us who want to optimize our training so we try to find a protocol that is an efficient use of our effort and time. Good luck — diet, strength training, sport training, mobility, cardio info is everywhere and often contradictory. Sure we want to be consistent, but consistent doing what? We used to think practice makes perfect, but now we know perfect practice makes perfect. Obviously something is better than nothing but I’d sure like better guidance on improving that “something “.
Reminded me a lot of some of Oliver Burkeman’s writings (a good thing!). Lots of overlapping themes. This was a really good read and great timing as I start a training block. Thank you.
I love your outlook. Gonna scour your back catalog after reading this. Hoping osmosis works!