Passion Struck with John R. Miles
David Nurse on How to Unlock the Flow Code Formula | EP 709
30 Dec 2025
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Pehmeitä lahjoja, kovia lahjoja, pitkiä lahjoja, väriseviä lahjoja. Sinfulista löydät ne kaikki. Osta tämän vuoden joululahjat ja säästä jopa 50% laajoista. Tee joulusta syntisempi osoitteessa sinful.fi.
Coming up next on Passion Struck.
If there's only bad stress and think of that in your life as like the overwhelm or feeling like you have too much stuff on your plate, it's pointless stress that is going to keep you out of the ability to get in the zone because you have just too much like nonsense, the non-essentials really. But the eustress, the positive stress is the nerves that you feel before you walk on stage.
It's the pressure that you might feel before you go on to a sporting arena. Like those, that type of stress allows you to perform at a higher level if you have a relationship with it that you're accepting of it.
Welcome to Passion Struck. I'm your host, John Myles. This is the show where we explore the art of human flourishing and what it truly means to live like it matters.
Each week, I sit down with changemakers, creators, scientists, and everyday heroes to decode the human experience and uncover the tools that help us lead with meaning, heal what hurts, and pursue the fullest expression of who we're capable of becoming.
Whether you're designing your future, developing as a leader or seeking deeper alignment in your life, this show is your invitation to grow with purpose and act with intention. Because the secret to a life of deep purpose, connection and impact is choosing to live like you matter. Happy almost 2026, friends, and welcome back to episode 709 of Passion Struck.
I find that there's a moment at night that often goes unnoticed, especially in this quiet window after Christmas and before the new year truly begins. The energy of the past few days has passed. The wrapping paper is tucked away, the house is quieter, and the lights feel softer somehow. For a brief, sacred window, the world stops asking us to produce, improve, or perform.
Nothing new is being demanded of us.
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Chapter 2: What is The Flow Code Formula and how can it be trained?
That moment matters more than we think. It's a gentle pause. an invitation to notice what we're still carrying from 2025 and whether it truly belongs in the year ahead. We are in our final week of our series, The Season of Becoming. This hasn't been a year of neat resolutions.
It's been a year of noticing where we've been and intentionally choosing to engage life with a little more courage and agency. Last week, my friend Nirbhashan showed us how to transition from a creator mindset to a solution mindset, turning problems into invitations.
Then, New York Times bestselling author Mark Murphy broke down the five roles of high-performing teams, reminding us that we don't need to be everything to everyone. We just need to be exactly who we're meant to be. And today, we focus on the fuel for that transformation, flow. Because as we stand on the doorstep of 2026, the question isn't just what we want to do, but how we want to live.
And that right there is why i wanted this conversation for you my guest is a longtime friend of mine david nurse david is a former pro basketball player a two-time guinness world record holder and one of the world's most sought-after mindset coaches he's worked with over 150 nba players including superstars like shea gilgis alexander and top ceos to help them find what he calls the zone
But David didn't just stay on the court. He's climbed with Alex Hanold, cooked with Michelin star chefs, and studied the neuroscience of peak performance to unlock what he calls the flow code. He's here to show us that flow isn't some elusive accident. It's a repeatable system. In today's episode, we talk about the flow code formula.
the neuroscience-backed ways to trigger peak performance on demand. Optimal anxiety, why stress isn't the enemy, but actually the gateway to the zone. We go into the shift, how to move from trying to prove yourself to simply being yourself. And we discuss lessons from elite performers. what he's learned from sprinting with Usain Bolt and playing violin with virtuosis.
If you're looking for the perfect fuel to ease back into your routine with fresh energy and intention for 2026, this is it. Before we start, a quick favor. If today's episode helps you find your rhythm, share it with someone who needs a spark for the new year. Consider leaving a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It makes a massive difference as we head into 2026.
And catch the full visual experience on our YouTube channels at PassionStruckClips and John Miles. All right, let's dive into this masterclass on flow with my friend David Nurse. Thank you for choosing PassionStruck and choosing me to be your host and guide on your journey to creating an intentional life. Now, let that journey begin. I still remember the moment I realized something was off.
I was drinking more water, trying to be healthier, but I kept feeling off. Low energy, brain fog, strange skin flare-ups. First, I blamed stress until I dug deeper. Turns out three in four U.S. homes have tap water contaminated with things we'd never knowingly drink. Lead, forever chemicals, microplastics, even pesticide runoff. And my filters, they barely made a dent.
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Chapter 3: What role does optimal anxiety play in achieving flow?
Great. So they aren't defined by results. That's one of the biggest things that you have to be OK with failure to be able to succeed. So if you're worried about if you're going to lose, if you're worried about if you're going to miss shots, then you'll never be able to play free enough because you'll be aiming, you'll be pressing. So that freedom is a huge piece of it.
Chapter 4: How can we shift from proving ourselves to being ourselves?
But one of the biggest things that you know, that I've worked with athletes and that I see that they do, I call it tap. It's literally you tap your wrist because it is the signal of the physical cue with the mental and tying those together. The brain body connection is very powerful, but what tap stands for, it's just a reminder to the athlete or the person it's trust.
So the T is trust and trust is do you trust that the process you are on today, the work you're putting in today will lead to the results that you want tomorrow? So basically, do you feel like you have a plan and you feel like the plan, if you stick with that,
Chapter 5: What lessons can we learn from elite performers like Usain Bolt?
it will lead to where you want to get. And that's the first one. The second one is the A and that's acceptance. Are you willing to accept that God has you at the exact spot in life where you're supposed to be? You're not supposed to be any further ahead right now or any behind. He's got your feet at the right spot.
That's a big one because a lot of people want to think they should be further than they are when their time hasn't come yet. And then P is presence.
Chapter 6: How does the 10-Hertz alpha state work and why is it important?
Are you able to stay present in that moment without ruminating on the past or having anxiety about the future? And that right there allows them to take away like it's not about that game alone. It's trusting the process for the goals that they have in a bigger picture.
It's acceptance that no matter what happens, win or lose, made shot, missed shot, you know, that God's got them right where they're supposed to be. And then it's the presence that they're able to stay present without having to carry the baggage from the past or the future anxieties to come. So that's the best way. And just like an all encompassing way of if you want to tap into flow state,
If you can hit those three things and just keep that reminder, that cue of tapping your wrist for the tap in.
Chapter 7: What is the significance of identity in achieving flow?
Before we continue, I want to pause on something important. Every single week, people ask me, John, I want to live in the zone, but I'm overwhelmed. How do I start? That's exactly why we create companion workbooks for each episode. For this conversation with David, the workbook helps you identify your personal flow triggers and navigate the Yerkes-Dawson curve of optimal anxiety.
Because becoming isn't a destination, it's a practice. You can download all our free workbooks at my sub stack at theignitedlife.net. Now, a quick break for our sponsors. Thank you for supporting those who support the show. You're listening to Passion Struck on the Passion Struck Network. Now, back to my conversation with David Nurse.
In the book, the person who I profiled on this topic was an astronaut, turned out to be the chief astronaut, Chris Cassidy. And Chris is a former Navy SEAL. And he told me he learned this flow state practice when he was going through BUDS. And he told me for him, I love the tap analogy. He uses the analogy of a rubber band. He said, sometimes in life, you're a rubber band that's elastic.
And other times there are moments when you need to learn how to tighten that rubber band. And it can never be tightened all the time and it can never be loose all the time. And the real key is how do you trigger yourself, which you're just describing and not many people do of how to make it tight when you need it the most. And he said helped him when he was in combat.
It helped him when he was doing training exercises. It helped him when he was doing spacewalks because he was able to get into this zone of concentration that is trainable. And this is where I wanted to go with you, because as I was reading The work that you've been doing, what you are finding is that flow is trainable.
You've been working with neuroscientists mapping the 10 Hertz brainwave signature What broke this open for you? What made you go, man, we can actually teach people how to do this?
I love this. So I've always been a nerd for flow state and reading Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the father of flow, and his eight characteristics of flow, and then Steven Kotler's 22 cues of flow. I love it, but I've also thought that there's something more, because they just talked about it and when someone was in the state of it, but not how to actually formulaically train it.
And I'd interview these top athletes like Alison Felix, a track star. And I'd ask her, like, have you ever been in flow? And I can remember her saying, she's like, yeah, I've been there three times. Like, that's very specific. I'm like, how did you get there? She's like, I have no idea. And then talking with a friend, Michael Chandler was a big UFC fighter.
He was telling me about this fight where you could see the guy's feet moving before they moved and he knocked him out cold. I was like, man, that's amazing. How did you get to that state? He's like, yeah, I got no clue. So I was like, there's gotta be a way, right? So I went on this journey to find the top neuroscientists who have done this before, who have trained this flow state.
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