I Spent 20 Years Studying Excellence, Here’s What The Best Have in Common | Brad Stulberg

Want to trust yourself under pressure? Take the free Inner Game Performance Profile: https://join.theinnergame.app/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=performance_profile&utm_content=ep03 Coaches: help shape the next version of The Inner Game with Tim Gallwey and Bob Bowman. The founding coaches cohort gets full access and a private community. Application only: https://theinnergame.app/founding-coaches?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=founding_coaches&utm_content=ep03 — Brad Stulberg was a triathlete with a power meter, a heart-rate monitor and a race-day problem: methodical in training, nothing on the day. Then a coach gave him The Inner Game of Tennis. He never turned pro. He became a writer instead, and he says he still writes the way that book taught him to race. Today he coaches pro athletes, surgeons and founders on the mental side of their craft, and his book The Way of Excellence is the closest thing I've read to a modern evolution of the Inner Game. In this episode he explains why AI will make you good but never great, why there's no gold medal for the most complex routine, the one equation behind all growth, how his own coach fixed the job he'd started to resent in a single sentence, and the day he told his wife his brain was broken. — Audio/Listen only: Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-inner-game/id6818346372 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0g48LMGmub7fZPSFC5RUqk — Follow The Inner Game: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theinnergame/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@the_inner_game YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theinnergame74 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-inner-game-app Website: https://www.theinnergame.app -- 00:00 Intro: Hustle Culture, Pseudo-Excellence and the 47-Step Routine 01:16 What Excellence Actually Means (Tim Gallwey + Brad Stulberg) 03:58 Great in Training, Bad on Race Day: How The Inner Game of Tennis Fixed His Performance 07:21 Flow State, Consistency and Creative Work: What Sport Teaches You 17:06 AI Is Ultra-Processed Food for Your Brain (How to Use AI Without Losing Your Edge) 27:41 Why Knowledge Work Burns You Out: Hard Work vs. Mindless Work 32:08 Stress + Rest = Growth: How to Train Hard Without Burning Out 34:11 Hustle Culture Is Pseudo-Excellence: Why Your Morning Routine Isn't Working 36:57 What a Mental Performance Coach Actually Does (and the One Sentence That Fixed His Burnout) 43:56 Work-Life Balance Doesn't Exist: The Minimum Effective Dose for Work and Family 46:50 Depression and OCD at 30: "Yesterday My Brain Was Fine" (and Tim Gallwey's Untold Story) 55:49 The Pursuit of Excellence: Result vs. Process (Excellence Is Not an Identity) 59:49 Overthinking, Self-Talk and Comparison: Performance = Potential + Interference 1:03:07 Youth Sports Are Broken: "Elite? Your Kid Is Eight" 1:07:07 Choose Excellence Over the Algorithm: Brad's Final Advice