Brad Stulberg

And then as an athlete, I try to train with this mindset most of the time, but certainly not all the time because it's secondary.

There are times when I'm in the gym and I'm checking my email in between sets because it's not my job and that's okay.

If I tried to do this when I was scrambling at Ag, I think I'd be miserable and burnt out all the time.

And then there are things in life that like we should just enjoy for their own sake.

You know, I'm not trying to be excellent at watching Netflix.

Sometimes I watch Netflix just because I like it.

So I am not arguing that we should be perfectionist and we should be these type A buttoned up pushers in every domain of life.

What I'm arguing is that we should pick one or two activities.

that we do enjoy and that we want to push ourselves in, not just because we're excited about the results, but because we think that the person we're going to become along the way is aligned with our values, and we should bring this orientation to those select activities.

I think that it is a connection to yourself and a feeling of deep satisfaction in fulfillment.

Without getting too philosophical, I think that one of the biggest challenges or problems of modern life is alienation.

Alienation is just a fancy way of saying we feel a disconnect from each other, we feel a disconnect from ourselves, and sometimes we feel a disconnect from our own lives.

We're going through the motions.

We're constantly distracted.

I think that when you pursue excellence, you get really close to a craft.

You get intimate with it.

It requires deep focus.

You get competence.

You get mastery.

And not only do you get to learn that craft in a deep way, but you also get to learn about yourself.