"All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone." The French philosopher Blaise Pascal said this in 1654. A study published in 2014 found this to be true: many subjects chose to administer an electric shock to themselves rather than sit alone with their thoughts. It's a universal difficulty being with the discomfort that sometimes bubbles up out of our own brains, be it boredom or anxiety. But it's often on the other side of this difficulty that we find our most creative breakthroughs. Plus, achieving excellence in any craft requires an ability to negotiate with the negative voice in your head. So today, we go deep on strategies for mastering the art of solitude, detailing our own struggles with it and the tools we use when we feel the urge to short-circuit mental discomfort by reaching for a distraction.

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A couple of recent events—Elon Musk parading onstage with a chainsaw at the Conservative Political Action Conference and bragging about DOGE's 120-hour work weeks, and Timothée Chalamet saying he wanted to be one of "the greats" in an acceptance speech at the SAG Awards—ignited a conversation on the Growth Equation text thread about what role work should play in our lives. In a society that sometimes overly valorizes busyness or performative productivity, and also sometimes overly critiques the type of obsessive work that excellence demands (lauding "balance" instead), what does the actual hard work of greatness look like? For help, Brad and Clay tapped in Cal Newport, friend of FAREWELL and host of the podcast Deep Questions with Cal Newport, who writes and thinks (deeply, as you might've guessed) about productivity, work, and how they intersect with a meaningful life.

"Elon Musk Is the World's Richest Man. Why Is He Sleeping on an Office Floor?" (The New York Times)

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/27/opinion/elon-musk-billionaire.html

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Today we're sharing our all-time favorite quotes we've collected over the years. These are words about everything from performance to spirituality to decency that we keep coming back to when we need inspiration, a thought-provoking prompt, or a tidy bit of wisdom. Message us at [email protected] with a few you liked from today's episode, or some favorites of your own.

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From years of experience working with NBA players, CEOs, para jumpers, and Olympians, performance psychologist Alex Auerbach has learned about the most effective strategies for giving some of the world's most elite performers a mental edge. Today, he walks us through how to use those tools in our own life: how to manage pressure, performance anxiety, and impostor syndrome; how to think through setting goals (including the difference between outcome, performance, and process goals—and which you should focus on); how to master the art of self-regulated learning through deliberate practice; and how to stay present and focused despite not being at full capacity.

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Two topics for you today. On the back of the Super Bowl, Brad shares a message of resilience inspired by Eagles' quarterback Jalen Hurts. Then, a discussion, inspired in part by Hartmut Rosa's book "The Uncontrollability of the World," about the role of technology in helping us achieve peak performance and live a meaningful life. How can we use devices in such a way that they aid our objective performance without becoming so obsessed with control that we lose touch with our subjective experience? How do we know when the tools we're using are helping, and when they're hurting, the pursuit of our goals?

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When we think of "choking," we usually think of a field goal kicker missing a clutch kick, or someone freezing up during an important speech. In those moments, the mind is overcome with fear, doubt, and anxiety, and the body, sensing danger, shuts down, overriding ability and preparation. In his newest book Win the Inside Game, Steve Magness makes the case that many of the aspects of modern living make us feel similarly threatened and frozen. It can underlie why we feel burnt out at work, stuck in a creative rut, or unfulfilled in our relationships. On today's show, he discusses his newest book, providing a deeper understanding of how we got here and sharing his three-step framework for moving from surviving to thriving: figuring out who you are, why you do what you do, and how to belong.

Buy the book: https://www.stevemagness.com/win-the-inside-game/

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On today's episode, Steve breaks down his five foundational rules for building a training practice that he's used to coach world-class athletes to success. These five core principles provide a useful template for athletes of all experience levels, whether you're hoping to train in running, sport, or beyond (including outside the realm of physical exercise). We cover how to think about building a foundation, maintaining a broad base while sharpening specific skills, individualizing and customizing, and more.

Pre-order Steve's new book "Win the Inside Game" (out next week!) and receive free bonus content, including Steve's 99-page coaching bible:

https://www.stevemagness.com/win-the-inside-game/

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Last week we heard the ways in which our fractured attention was keeping us from connecting and negatively impacting our society. So this week we're turning to some solutions by discussing ways to improve our attentional health in an increasingly distracting digital world. We struggle with this as much as anyone else, so we're going through the strategies, practices, and tips we've found most helpful in helping us reclaim our attention back from our devices.

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Americans are spending more time alone than we have in a long, long time. That wouldn't be such a big deal if we weren't also reporting feelings of increased anxiety and unhappiness. This is why journalist Derek Thompson, in his recent cover story for The Atlantic, titled "The Anti-Social Century" (link below), writes, “Self-imposed solitude might just be the most important social fact of the 21st century in America." Today, Brad and Clay talk to Derek about how we got here, the consequences it's having on our society and culture, and why we might need to think about taking "social fitness" as seriously as we take physical fitness. We discuss the difference between loneliness (which isn't such a bad thing) and aloneness (which is), the role that technology and dopamine plays in all of this, how to think about the purpose of solitude in your life, and how we can improve America's social fitness, individually and collectively. Plus: Derek is one of the most prolific people we know and we spend some time at the end breaking down the habits, routines, and philosophies that help him get it all done.

"The Anti-Social Century" by Derek Thompson (The Atlantic)

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/02/american-loneliness-personality-politics/681091/

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Badwater 135 is a 135-mile race across Death Valley, where temperatures reach 125 degrees, runners cover an elevation gain of more than 20,000 feet, and where one of the primary injury concerns is organ failure. Today's guest, Kelaine Conochan, has completed it twice. Her most recent Badwater finish came this past July with Clay acting as one of the four members of her crew. She has also completed three 100-milers, nine 50-milers, and more than 20 marathons, with multiple Boston-qualifying finishes. Today, she talks about her training for Badwater—which included running 100+ mile weeks and heat training that require hour-long sits in a 160-degree sauna—as well as what her experience with endurance and performance has taught her about relinquishing control, vulnerability, problem-solving, and learning how to navigate extreme difficulty.

"Badwater ultramarathon: What I lost and found during 135 miles of the world's most impossible run" by Kelaine Conochan (ESPN):

https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/32691727/badwater-ultramarathon-lost-found-135-miles-world-most-impossible-run

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Happy New Year! To celebrate, we've put together a special edition of The Coach Up, looking and highlighting 25 of our favorite learnings from a year of FAREWELL. Plus: five questions to ask yourself to get closer to where you want to be in 2025.

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