Share this page!

Enter URL or ID to Unroll

You can paste full URL like: https://x.com/threadreaderapp/status/1644127596119195649
or just the ID like: 1644127596119195649

How to get URL link on X (Twitter) App

  1. On the Twitter thread, click on or icon on the bottom
  2. Click again on or Share Via icon
  3. Click on Copy Link to Tweet
  4. Paste it above and click "Unroll Thread"!
  5. More info at Twitter Help
Brad Stulberg Profile picture
@BStulberg
Aug 13, 2019 • 11 tweets • 5 min read • Read on X
A bunch of people have asked me what essays and stories from my last few years @outsidemagazine taught me most.

I'm fortunate I get to explore so broadly. Topics include wellness, mental health, burnout, peak performance, and motivation.

Here are top 10, in no particular order.
This very personal and heartfelt essay on mental illness. Among lots of other things, I learned about vulnerability, the massive benefits⁠—and massive limits⁠—of exercise, how therapy works, and what it feels like to really suffer. outsideonline.com/2279856/anxiet…
I've learned so much from @ShalaneFlanagan over the years. This conversation explores important topics like the illusion of "balance" when you are pushing hard at something and also the vast importance of community and purpose if you want to be a champion. outsideonline.com/2281741/shalan…
Stress + Rest = Growth.

This is true for basically everyone and everything, from athletic growth to intellectual growth to emotional growth to career growth to relationship growth to even how communities grow.

Such a useful concept.

outsideonline.com/2327746/equati…
The key to being great is to stop trying so damn hard to be great and focus on being good enough over and over again. This requires some key skills that are often overlooked in today's culture:
-Acceptance
-Presence
-Vulnerability
-Community
-Patience
outsideonline.com/2348226/case-b…
The 24-hour news cycle is designed to prey on your attention, make you feel like crap, and keep you coming back for more. I had no idea the engineering behind this, or the strategies you can use to overcome it. outsideonline.com/2371546/break-…
Good vibes are contagious. In a huge way! Work with someone who is a high performer and your performance improves by up to 15%. Work with someone who is a low performer and it goes down by 30%.

The people with whom we surround ourselves shape us. outsideonline.com/2391572/send-g…
The mastery mindset: a series of practices to keep you on the path of continuous improvement and fulfillment.
-Drive from within
-Process > results
-Be the best at getting better
-Embrace acute failure for chronic gains
-Be here now
-Take a long view
outsideonline.com/2391341/passio…
In this essay on millennial burnout I learned that the problem isn't always the work itself. It’s the addiction to ego, relevance, and self-worth that gets linked to the work—and that our culture implicitly and explicitly promotes. outsideonline.com/2395138/millen…
My latest essay on the wellness industrial complex was eye opening. It taught me why pretty much everything it's selling, by design, doesn't work; and—most important—what you really need to be well.

(Hint: it's not buying any potions, lotions, or pills.) outsideonline.com/2399826/wellne…
Last but not least: I always thought that you had to be motivated and happy to get going. But it turns out the opposite is true. As @richroll first taught me, MOOD FOLLOWS ACTION.

Sometimes—often—the best thing to do is just get started. outsideonline.com/2274776/forget…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Brad Stulberg

Brad Stulberg Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @BStulberg

Brad Stulberg Profile picture
Apr 2
Struggling to read a book, sit through a meal without checking your phone, or resist the urge to scroll during a pause in conversation? You’re not alone.

Internet brain is making us all dumber.

Here’s why it’s happening—and what to do about it: Image
Our phones are like slot machines.

Every time you swipe to see if you received a notification, like, DM, or news ping you’re pulling that lever.

Sometimes you win—someone likes your post, sends you a funny reel, or you learn something super important.

But most times you don’t. And that’s the point.

Decades of research show that intermittent rewards are far more addictive than predictable ones.
The reward isn’t just digital—it’s existential.

It says: You matter. You exist. You're seen.

And so we check again.
And again. And again.

It fractures and fragments our attention, and our very sense of self.

We become less who we are—and more what the algorithm reflects back at us.
Read 8 tweets
Brad Stulberg Profile picture
Dec 26, 2024
Balance is overrated. Never apologize for caring deeply about something. The path to greatness—and to fulfillment, happiness, and satisfaction—requires it.

What follows are the most important ideas to help you on the path:
1. Outcomes matter—it’s normal to want to do well, but if you are to have meaningful longevity you’ve got to learn to enjoy the process. The only zen on mountaintops is the zen you bring up along the way.

2. Community is key. Nobody reaches the top alone.
3. Consistency is more important than intensity. Embrace the dull and mundane act of showing up every day. It is the path to greatness.

4. You can’t always control what happens but you can control how you respond. Focus there.
Read 13 tweets
Brad Stulberg Profile picture
Dec 22, 2024
In mid-life you define your path, forge your identity, and set the tone for what’s to come.

If you’re in your 30's or 40's, read this:
1. It’s a crazy world. It always has been and always will be. The best way to stay sane is to find the people and activities you love and give them your all. Full stop.

2. It’s tempting to sacrifice your health but you always regret it. Your health is the most important investment there is.

3. Consistency is more important than intensity. It’s true in work, craft, and relationships. Be the kind of person who shows up consistently, and good things will happen.
4. If you don’t define your own version of success someone else will for you; take time every year to reflect on your values; do everything you can to live in accordance with them.

5. There is no bigger trap than thinking the accomplishment of some goal will change your life. But what will change your life is the person you become in the process of going for it.

6. The people with whom you surround yourself shape you. We are all mirrors reflecting onto each other. Choose wisely. This is everything.
Read 9 tweets
Brad Stulberg Profile picture
Mar 17, 2024
Anyone can be consistent for a few days. It’s harder to be consistent for years upon years, through ups, downs, everything in between.

Here are 7 ideas from Master of Change that resonate with readers most.

On what it takes to stay steady amidst challenge and grow from change:
1. View life as a continuous cycle of order, disorder, reorder.

You may crave order and stability, but that stability is a moving target—it's always somewhere new. It doesn't come from resisting change. It comes from working with it.
You are always somewhere in the cycle of order, disorder, reorder.
Read 11 tweets
Brad Stulberg Profile picture
Feb 1, 2024
The average person undergoes more than 30 significant life changes.

Marriage. Divorce. Kids. School. Graduation. Moving. Illness. Recovery. Starting jobs. Leaving jobs. Promotions. The list goes on and on.

Yet our models for change are old and outdated. Here's a better way:
Old models represent change as a cycle of order, disorder, order.

Change is something that happens to you. The goal is to get back to where you were.

But this is neither accurate nor how change, which is to say life, actually works.
Change and disorder are not the exceptions. They are the rules.

Look closely and you'll see that everything is always changing, including you.

Life is flux. The only time something is static is when it's dead.
Read 9 tweets
Brad Stulberg Profile picture
Dec 26, 2023
As we round out this year and head into the next, here are some of the most powerful ideas on performance, excellence, and mastery to keep in mind:
1. Outcomes matter, but if you are to have any meaningful longevity you’ve got to learn to enjoy the process.

2. Community is key. Nobody reaches the top alone.

3. Consistency—the dull and mundane act of showing up every day—is way more important than intensity.
4. It’s easy when everything is clicking, but how you perform on your average and bad day is probably more important.

5. Work and craft can be a big part of your identity, but when they are the whole of it you become fragile.
Read 11 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

Send Email!

:(