"Brave New World": A Powerful Mindset for Pushing Your Limits
How three simple words can change everything
We all reach moments when the next step is unknown; when the weight feels heavier than anything we’ve lifted before, when the stakes feel higher and the outcome is anything but guaranteed. It happens in the gym, at work, in relationships, in creativity—in pretty much every arena that demands growth. These moments can paralyze us with fear and doubt or energize us with possibility.
The difference comes down to mindset.
Instead of bracing with “What if I fail?” we can meet these thresholds with a declaration of a different type: brave new world.
The notion of “brave new world” first came to light years ago in the gym, when my training partner and I would become fearful before attempting big new lifts: Walking up to a barbell loaded with more weight than you’ve ever touched before can be scary. You have no idea what the lift is going to feel like, let alone whether you’ll make it or not. One day, when we were feeling particularly apprehensive, my training partner turned to me and said brave new world. These three simple words changed everything.
The shift from: “Oh no, I don’t know if I can do this...” to... “Brave new world, let’s find out…” is a powerful one. It changes your psychology and biology in profound ways.
Years ago, the neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp discovered that there are seven distinct emotional systems in the brain: seeking, care, play, lust, fear, rage, and panic. He also found that each competes for resources, meaning it’s nearly impossible to be seeking (curious) at the same time as fearful or panicked. By learning how to adopt a mindset of curiosity prior to big challenges, you down-regulate fear.
This isn’t just about lifting weight at the gym. Pushing your limits in any area of life is uncomfortable. You may experience fear, doubt, and uncertainty. Welcome to the club.
Stepping up to a barbell loaded with more weight than ever?
Brave new world
Starting a new job?
Brave new world
Submitting your first manuscript?
Brave new world
New relationship after heartbreak?
Brave new world
On the starting line of a marathon?
Brave new world
Brave new world teaches you to tolerate uncertainty, to stay calm in discomfort, to stretch your sense of what’s possible. You not only develop skill of being curious (instead of fearful) about challenges, but you also develop an identity—proving to yourself that you are someone who is capable of going on quests and experiencing growth.
“I Play to Learn Something.”
Before his tragic death, Kobe Bryant was asked: “Do you love to win or hate to lose?”
“I’m neither,” he responded. “I play to figure things out. I play to learn something.”
When you fixate on winning, losing, or some other external outcome, it takes you out of the present moment. It makes it impossible to get into a flow state. It makes you fragile. But when you adopt a mindset of curiosity and growth, it relieves pressure and helps you stay anchored. That simple shift—from fear or outcome-obsession to curiosity and growth—changes everything. It keeps you grounded in the present. It frees you from the pressure of perfection and opens space for learning.
“If you play with a fear of failure or the will to win, I think it’s a weakness either way,” Bryant continued. “Because if you play with the fear of failing, you’ll have the pressure on yourself to capitulate to that fear. If you play with the sense of I want to win, win, win, then you have the fear of what happens if you don’t. But if you find common ground in the middle, in the center, then it doesn’t matter. You aren’t phased by either. That enables you to really stay in the moment, to stay connected to it, and not feel anything other than what’s in front of you.”
Finite and Infinite Games
Our culture glamorizes the podium moment but often skips over the failures, missteps, and clumsy beginnings that make mastery possible. Every expert stumbles and fails and questions themselves—just like you.
Bryant was known for his killer instinct (Mamba Mentality), and yet even he realized the difference between the finite game and the infinite game, and how the interplay of the two is core to mastery.
The finite game is time-bound. There are winners and losers.
The infinite game knows no end. The only goal is to keep playing, learning, and discovering.
All the greats have had to learn that the infinite game is every bit as important as the finite one—and that by staying in touch with the infinite game, you give yourself a better chance at performing your best in the finite ones.
Whether you play basketball or cello, repair cars or build tables, write books or coach young people—your craft can be a vessel for self-discovery. We have a biological imperative to flourish, evolve, and grow. There is no greater source of fulfillment and satisfaction than pushing yourself, pursuing a challenge, and developing along the way. When you take on a big challenge, you aren’t just training for the big challenge, you are training for life—stepping into the unknown and embracing the process without any guarantee of the outcome.
You’ll never feel fully ready. Nobody does.
The next time you walk up to a barbell—be it actual or metaphorical—loaded with more weight than you’ve ever lifted before, think: I don’t know what’s going to happen, but it sure will be interesting to find out.
Wonderful way to approach and appreciate life, to “play the infinite game”.
I found this in my inbox recently. It really helped today. After a tough tempo run, I came home, said hi to the family and took a shower. Then came the hard part. It was time for my injection. Every 2 weeks I take Dupixent for my skin by giving myself a shot with an injector pen. Sometimes it hurts. I said "Brave New World" to myself and it was a little easier. The funny thing was it obviously wasn't a new situation.