THREAD: Research shows if you go for broke you often end up broke. If you swing for home-runs you often end up striking out.

But if you just put the ball in play—over and over again—good things tend to happen.

6 tips on consistency, peak performance, and career advice.

👇👇
Heroic efforts tend not to end well.

Pulling all-nighters, working out till you vomit, going on extreme diets, etc., may be fun to talk about and even feel good for a bit, but usually end in illness, injury, burnout.

Ignore people's social media posts on this stuff. It's dumb.
If you are addicted to visible progress you will not last long in what you do.

This is why so many people burnout after a big success. Because it's not forever.

Instead:
-Frame the work as an ongoing practice
-Measure and judge the process
-Let progress be a byproduct of that
No such thing as an overnight breakthrough.

Example: @MaraGay
1. Wrote for school paper
2. Wrote for small paper
3. Wrote for big paper
4. Wrote for bigger paper
5. Wrote for biggest paper
6. Now on editorial board

People don't see, forget about one thru five.

Always happens.
Progress is non-linear.

When you are brand new to an activity, you might get 100 percent better every day. As your skill level increases, the gains will become more incremental—ten percent, five percent, one percent, half a percent, a quarter of a percent, and so on. That's OK.
Sometimes it is easier for people to push forward than to hold back and show restraint.

The best recipe for sustainable progress is stopping one rep short almost every day. This is what allows you to come back the next.

It can be easy to go hard. It can be hard to go easy.
Community is key. We are all mirrors reflecting onto one another. Surround yourself wisely.

If you're reading the above and thinking, "Yeesh, that's hard," you're right. It is!

Progress is a slog. It's so important to find joy in the work itself and the people you do it with.
If you want more evidence-based content on peak performance, sustainable success, and career advice give me a follow.

I post similar ideas and insights daily and threads like this 2x/week.

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More from @BStulberg

6 Feb
As promised from my recent thread on deep reading, here are my 50 favorite nonfiction books. These books have had the most influence on how I think, write, coach, and live. They are wonderful teachers. I am grateful they exist.

In no particular order 👇👇
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Lila
To Have or To Be
Escape From Freedom
The Sane Society
Mastery (Leonard)
Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart
Full Catastrophe Living
The Recovering
Crossing the Unknown Sea
The Wisdom of Insecurity
Suicide (Durkheim)
Radical Acceptance
The True Believer
Tribe
Flow
The Hero with a Thousand Faces
A Liberated Mind
After the Ecstasy, the Laundry
Almost Everything: Notes on Hope
Deep Work
Digital Minimalism
Range
The Craving Mind
Irresistible
The Inner Game of Tennis
Rising Strong
Antifragile
Read 6 tweets
5 Feb
THREAD: deep reading is an absolute joy—good for mind and soul. It is also a competitive advantage for knowledge workers.

Here are 7 insights on nonfiction deep reading. All are based on the latest research and real-world practice.

On how to read more and read better.

👇👇
Use a hardcopy book 📚

Research shows you comprehend and connect information best when you read physical pages.

Two reasons:
1. No distractions, which e-reading and audiobooks invite (nothing wrong with them, but not the same as deep reading)
2. Brain likes tactile experience
No digital devices nearby.

Even if your phone is facedown on silent, or your laptop is closed and asleep, the mere sight of these devices and everything they represent—not to mention the willpower it takes not to check them—is a huge distraction.

Keep them in a separate room.
Read 10 tweets
3 Feb
Of all the analogies for getting through COVID-19, an endurance event seems to work best.

Emphasizes qualities:
-Expectation setting
-Acceptance
-Pacing
-Patience
-Process
-Fierce discipline
-Big compassion
-Purpose
-Playing long game
-Balancing future goals with present moment
"Planning for forever is essentially impossible, which can actually be freeing: It brings you back into the present...What matters is eating a nourishing meal, telling someone you love them, walking your dog, getting enough sleep." —@BlairBraverman nytimes.com/2020/09/23/spo…
"The brutal paradox in a marathon is that right when you can sniff the finish line, usually between mile 20 and mile 22, the race invariably feels the longest. It is utterly critical not to lose focus here. Restraint pays off. Just keep going." outsideonline.com/2420136/covid-…
Read 4 tweets
31 Jan
THREAD: Here are 8 principles to successfully navigate disorder (this is hard to do!) that I've observed over the last few years coaching executives, entrepreneurs, and athletes.

On sustainable success, performance, mental health, and career advice:

👇👇
Stop Resisting What Is Happening

Resisting change and disorder may feel good in the short-term but invariably leads to distress in the long-term. To work through a challenge you've got to engage with it. Not what you want. Not what you wish. But what is actually happening.
Focus On What You Can Control, Don't Worry About What You Can't

There's a difference between worrying about a situation and taking productive action to influence it. Whenever you catch yourself doing the former, use it as a cue to do the latter. Helps both you and the situation.
Read 10 tweets
25 Jan
THREAD: Here are 10 insights I've learned over the last 5 years coaching executives, entrepreneurs, and athletes.

On sustainable success, peak performance, and career advice:

👇👇
You've got to put yourself out there. You can't be the person who comes off as too cool to care but is actually just afraid.

Caring deeply makes you vulnerable. Why? Because there's a good chance things don't go exactly your way. But caring deeply is also the key to a rich life.
Trying to be "balanced" does not work.

When you care deeply about something it draws you in. That's the point. You don't need to force some kind of proportionate allocation of your life.

Aim for the self-awareness to PRIORITIZE and CHOOSE how you spend your time and energy.
Read 12 tweets
14 Jan
7 resilience factors:

1. Strong community
2. Ask for help when you need it
3. Rest when you're tired
4. Get going—mood follows action—when you're stuck
5. Patience—can't force turn-arounds
6. Self-compassion (hard to be human)
7. Tragic optimism (this sucks, but here's hope too)
1. Strong Community

The people around you shape you. We are all mirrors reflecting onto each other. Quality over quantity—think about having a few people who you really trust and know that can keep you grounded when you soar and provide a cushion when you fall.
2. Ask For Help When You Need It

There is this misnomer that resilient people are super strong on their own. But in reality, they are super strong because they understand when they need help and they are not hesitant to ask for it.
Read 8 tweets

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