THIS blog is a summary of Mindvalley quest for peak performance from Steven Kotler on achieving the difficult goals and demonstrating excellence.
I have grouped this into 3 themes and mostly my notes than full commentary. For impact and internalising I recommend taking the course OR reading one of Steven's book - "The Art of impossible"
A short summary of Art of Impossible in this podcast with Steven Kotler
Lets get started with the intro
We are living in the habit of inferiority, where we underperform our true potential. Habit of ferocity is that mode of living where continually optimise our human capacities and achieve the impossible. There is a systematic method to it and that is what Steven Kotler wants to teach. These are not for people who want to take things as it comes or wants to adopt the path of least resistance. These are for people who are willing to take it all what they have got and suffer in pain to achieve something they think is worthwhile for humanity. Overall my notes in 3 groups
Establishing the neurochemical basis of 'Flow'
Flow: A state in which we are no longer aware of our mundane existence and actually in true absorption into what we are doing, most cases some kind of a creative expression - writing, painting, designing, probing, reading, debating, brainstorming, singing, composing - whatever that could be.
Brain:
neuroanatomy: our brain's anatomy
neuroelectricity: 5 levels of brain activity measured by electricity inside the brain - beta, alpha, theta, delta, gamma
neurochemistry: 5 types of chemicals anadamide, serotin, dopomine, Norepinephrineand adrenaline
Flow will be created when: Motivation, Learning, and Creativity come together. Flow is expressed as that state when our frontal cortex comes to a hypo state (low level) of activity and brain descends into a state of effective meditation. At this stage the learning gets faster, sometimes 5 times, sometimes even more.
Goal setting: When you properly align all possible motivators you get your passion. In fact a journey of 1000 miles start with a single step, but there still is 1000mile minus 1 step to go. You need energy over time and sustain this. That is possible only with identifying your passion. Passion makes us gritty. Grit is intersection of perseverance and passion. Flow comes from focus. Focus comes from passion and passion comes from curiosity. So what are your curiosities?
Its important to understand that we want to use our curiosity and fear in a balanced way. Fear creates a different set of neurochemicals than curiosity will. We need flow state to battle this state of anxiety. Norepinephrine is the chemical we need and we dont want cortisole, adrenaline which reduces our ability to find brain patterns
Dopamine is produced when you can connect patterns. We want to know what excites us, meaning our passion. That passion will force us to seek more and find patterns. Finding those patterns produces Dopamine which is in a way a life enhancing drug which gets us going. From the list of curiosities what are the 3-4 things which are connected such that it will lead into a passion. My Passion turns out to be, What is life and how it manifested on this planet.
Play with Curiousity: Daily 10-20mins of exploration of ideas, literature, books, podcasts, conversations, slowly feeding into your subconscious mind. Be consistent. Make more and more connections. Thats the route to creativity.
Learn the language or lingo of the curiosity space you are working on - effectively your passion. The knowledge is embedded in the language. Next is history of the space, to understand the big picture so that your knowledge can be 'placed' and 'connected'. Brain want to create patters and connect and this is how it happens.
Develop your expertise: Thats what makes you dangerous. Slowly, one step a day, few notes a day. Remember consistency is the key. Small changes over a long periods of time, just that what one needs.
Take things public: One will do that when they can think inside the subject. Take your time. When you have something new to say, genuinely, dont wait, just take it out to your audience. The neurobiological effect is indescribable. The social connections induce Oxitocin, dopomine, endorphines, anandamide all generated - feel good chemicals. Pay attention to the reaction of your audience. Ideas in small chunks. Ideas with 3 different people. Start with strangers, then friends&family and the public. Dopamine with public success. But put a plan in place for this 'take things public' moment, and follow it. These little successes is what is going to reinforce your passion, further growth and success.
How do you develop your "Massively transformative purpose":
Curiosity -> Passion -> Purpose forms the train of intrisic motivators. Next step is to uplift this to an autonomous schedule where the striving is set in a pattern. Its a specific amount of time you commit to devote to your purpose. Google, 3M, Patagonia are some of the compnanies who provided the employees with 10-20% autonomy which eventually paved way to amaazing products and ideas for those organisations. Its the same idea, but could be drawn from your time outside work, because this is about your passion and purpose
Mastery is the ability to get better at what you want to do, your purpose, a little every day. There can not be any compromise, remember the journey of 1000 miles starts with one step, and then continues with one step at a time. You will improve your productivity, effectiveness, creativity whatever is the measure, by a small % every day. it could be 1% a week, but cumulative effect over 1 year will be substantial, imagine stretching this to a decade?
High hard goals: are set under the MTPs. These are specific goals that need to reach your MTPs. They are stretch, they are clear. If your MTP is to transform the world with thought provoking books; the High Hard Goal will be writing a book on performance pyschology for entreprenuers within the next 3 years. Each MTP will have 3-7 high hard goals. Its all down to ho hard you can go. Doing generates dopamine, which creates contentment of getting something done. At early stages its about doing and playing with the idea that you have your autonomy and mastery roadmap figured out. Until such point the goal remains with you.
Set clear goals: Objective and measurable goals brings autonomous focus and flow for the individual and therefore to be the critical infrastructure
Remind your success every night: Our brains need to be reminded of the progress we are making, and its important to reflect and right few lines
How do you develop develop GRIT to achieve MTPs
Developing GRIT: Grit is developed in several steps. I believe this is about becoming deliberate about your priorities and actions and continually pushing the limits
Grit 1: Willpower is at the highest when you are well rested. Use that time to really get ahead. Find ways to refresh your will power with activity, exercise and meditation
Grit 2: Do the hard tasks first. One, it gets things done; two, it increases your motivation.
Grit 3: Gratittude list to stop your mind from derailing you. There needs to be some distance between thought and emotion, so that emotionally we dont become a runaway train
Grit 4: Be your best when you are at your worst
Grit 5: Train on your weakness/es and work on it at least once a week
Grit 6: Use grit to master your fear
Grit 7: Deal with your downsides by de-risking
Grit 8: Use grit to recover - sleep, resting protocols like sauna, meditation, yoga, exercise etc
Grit 9: Habit of ferocity: 1) Set your vision 2) Bring your flow 3) Habit of ferocity
Habit of ferocity involves - Always do my goals for the working session, Meet every day to-do list, Daily gratitude practice, and a daily or few times week recovery protocols, relationship nurturing
Automate Grit:
Develop your daily routines and weekly routines
Develop your annual checkins and recovery protocols
Develop your list of 'YES'es and 'No's
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