The Art of Impossible: Part One

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Hello there! 🏄‍♂️

It’s been a little while since I’ve done a MINDSET REC RUNDOWN for you.

If you’re a new reader, THANK YOU! 🙏

Every now and then, I share a breakdown and the OPPO FLOW takeaway on a recent book that I thoroughly enjoyed.

So for this week’s FLIGHT, let’s dive into… 🤿

I think it’s super important to start by giving a little background info on who Steven Kotler is and provide some context for this book from his experience…

He is an accomplished author and journalist renowned for his expertise in human performance, flow states, and extreme sports.

With a passion for adventure, he has not only written extensively on the subject but also actively participated in a variety of extreme sports, including big wave surfing, rock climbing, and snowboarding.

Kotler's work often explores the intersection of science and the human experience, shedding light on the extraordinary potential of the human mind and body in high-pressure, high-stakes situations.

There’s so much great EYE-OPENING stuff to point out and share, that I will be breaking it down into Part 1 and Part 2, with two separate FLIGHTS. ✈️

Here goes PART ONE… 🙌

*Disclaimer: Many of the words below are not my own and are credited to the book.

What Is Impossible?

Kotler breaks it down like this…

• UPPER CASE I = World changing feats thought to be out of reach.

• lower case i = Personal feats thought to be out of reach.

Here’s a few examples of an UPPER CASE I…

• From 400 A.D. through 1996 the largest wave ever surfed was 25 feet.

  • Since then… this feat continued to be topped over the years, resulting in the largest wave ever surfed on record, an astounding 86 feet to date by Sebastian Steudtne. 🌊

• Eliud Kipchoge is the greatest male marathoner ever after running a full 26.2 miles under 2 hours, with a time of 1:59:40. (And to think… I’m trying to PR a HALF marathon with the same finish time. 🤣)

  • This has been discounted because it was not timed on a record-eligible course, but it was still done. Here’s a LIST of the fastest marathons completed on record-eligible courses.

• El Capitan, a famous granite monolith in Yosemite National Park, was free solo climbed by Alex Honnold on June 3, 2017. 

  • He completed this historic ascent without the use of ropes or protective gear, relying solely on his climbing skills and physical abilities.

All of these events and many other FIRSTS that have been achieved, were once considered IMPOSSIBLE.

But yet… They were actually… Possible.

Now you may be on a quest for a WORLD-ALTERING feat and I think that is pretty incredible if so…

…but most of us are working on our own PERSONAL feats thought to be out of reach.

So… Let’s start there.

Kotler goes through the quartet of cognitive ability to reach the impossible…

• MOTIVATION - Where it all starts

• LEARNING - Keeps you going

• CREATIVITY - How you navigate

• FLOW - How you achieve massive results

Motivation is a CATCH ALL for three subsets of skills…

• DRIVE

• GOALS

• GRIT

ELITE PERFORMERS never rely on a single source of fuel along the way and it takes working on all three at a consistent level to reach the impossible.

The recipe for DRIVE is to stack, cultivate, and align in the following order…

• Curiosity - Your basic interest in something, which is the foundational ingredient in passion.

• Passion - When you’re excited, doing something you love, adding fuel to your intrinsic fire.

• Purpose - Meaning and purpose require connecting our individual passions to a cause much bigger than ourselves.

• Autonomy - The freedom to pursue that purpose.

• Mastery - To continually improve the skills needed to serve that purpose.

It’s a tightly aligned stack.

When developed correctly, life will feel exciting, interesting, filled with possibility, and thick with meaning.

This uptick in energy is one of the reasons why stalking the impossible might be easier than you originally suspected.

With passion and purpose properly stacked on top of autonomy and mastery, we’re now positioned for maximum benefit from GOAL SETTING.

Kotler breaks GOALS down like this…

• MTP (👈 FLIGHT #028) - Defining your Massive Transformative Purpose to last a lifetime

  • Your overall mission statement to fulfill your dreams.

  • This is your first filter to bring alignment with your decisions and weed out the work that doesn’t matter.

• HIGH HARD GOALS - Can take years to achieve

  • These are the BIG goals along the path of fulfilling your MTP.

  • They need to be challenging, but attainable.

  • Keep these goals to yourself.

• CLEAR GOALS - Accomplished one minute at a time

  • These are the FLOW triggers.

  • They act as a priority list for the brain.

Passion + Perseverance = GRIT

Willpower involves maintaining concentration and postponing immediate rewards, but it tends to diminish throughout the day.

HIGH ACHIEVERS counter this decline by strategically planning their day.

Begin with the most challenging task and gradually work through the rest.

Our perspectives on learning, whether fixed or growth-oriented, play a crucial role in long-term persistence.

A GROWTH MINDSET is essential for sustained perseverance.

The initial key to adopting a growth mindset is cultivating curiosity through asking questions and engaging in continuous LEARNING. 🤓

Following this, it's important to assess your skills by uncovering hidden talents.

Deconstruct your abilities by questioning how you acquired each skill and identifying commonalities.

As belief in our capacity to learn grows, so does our curiosity about the vast possibilities for even further learning.

There’s no other way to persevere for years on end without PASSION.

Early stage passion doesn’t look like late stage passion.

This is the overlap of multiple curiosities coupled with a few wins.

Our journey begins with Get Curious, Stay Curious.

Passion makes us able to tolerate all negative emotions produced by GRIT.

• Passion produces little wins.

• Little wins produce dopamine.

• Dopamine repeatedly over time cements a GROWTH MINDSET into place.

This increase in dopamine amplifies focus and drives flow, which flow over time produces grit.

Excellence Requires Repetition.

Without the GRIT to control your thoughts, the boredom and frustration that come with every routine will eventually spiral downward.

We don’t rise to level of our expectations we sink to the level of our training.

Without a GROWTH MINDSET learning is impossible.

Learning helps you create a TRUTH FILTER.

You can’t get to impossible on bad information.

Being able to trust the info you’re working with lowers anxiety, doubt, and cognitive load, which lowers your focus and hampers your ability to get into FLOW.

A growth mindset puts the brain into the ready condition for LEARNING.

A truth filter allows you to evaluate what you’ve learned.

Kotler believes that books are the most radically condensed form of knowledge on the planet. 🌎

When reading a book, you give an author your time in exchange for ideas.

He says, “Books are where they keep all the secrets.”

The Five Books of Stupid Methodology

Pick five books on the subject without judging your learning along the way.

At first learning makes you feel stupid, which is a sign that you’re moving in the right direction.

Frustration level from stalled progress or anger is increasing the release of norepinephrine which it’s main function is to prime the brain for learning.

You need to feel this frustration to fuel this neurochemical and you need this neurochemical in order for learning to actually take place.

The main goal is to become familiar with terminology.

• BOOK 1 - For imagination and general terminology

• BOOK 2 - Fairly easy read, but informative

• BOOK 3 - Wide view of the subject

• BOOK 4 - Core text of the subject. Technical book

• BOOK 5 - Cutting edge/future of the subject

Okie Dokie…

If you made it this far CONGRATS!!

It shows that you’re dedicated to Forever Learning and Preparing for Opportunity.

I know it’s a lot to take in, and these principles I had to re-read more than a few times throughout the book.

Hopefully, it’s stirred up some things in that beautiful MIND 🧠 of yours and provided some great context around how HIGH PERFORMERS think.

Let’s pause here and save CREATIVITY and FLOW for Part 2 of this Mindset Rec Rundown on a later FLIGHT.

Until then, enjoy your YOUTUBE Music Video of the Week! 👇

Remember, Opportunity is Everywhere!!

Cheers! Steven

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