The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance

In flow, every action, each decision, leads effortlessly, fluidly, seamlessly to the next.

Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive. Because what the world needs most is more people who have come alive.

that it contains a whole oak. But the most interesting thing about a human—well, we’re not exactly sure. We do not know the full measure of what we might contain.

To put this in different terms, the most interesting thing about an acorn is

Baumgartner couldn’t regain control, as he once told reporters: “At a certain RPM there’s only one way for the blood to leave your body, and that’s through your eyeballs.”

Probably the biggest insight arrived a few years before Yue’s experiment, when neuroscientists found no difference between performing an action and merely imagining oneself performing that action—the same neuronal circuits fire in either case. This means that visualization impacts a slew of cognitive processes—motor control, memory, attention, perception, planning—essentially accelerating chunking by shortening the time it takes us to learn new patterns. Since the first stage of the flow cycle—the struggle stage—involves exactly this learning process, visualization is an essential flow hack: it shortens struggle.

When they confront the difficulty of the day to day, they’d rather reach for a pill or a new lover or another meditation retreat than get down to hard work. The idea being, if it was all so easy, clear, and effortless in flow, then why not wait for the next wave to hit? Not being in flow becomes an excuse to stay listless and undermotivated.”

Most people are so afraid of dying they never live.

Did I pick a cool line? Did it look stylish? Was I innovative? Did I add anything to the conversation? It’s why so many of these guys now see themselves as artists as much as athletes. Freeriding changed the culture.”

No longer was the fastest person down the mountain the best athlete on the mountain. To really win, you had be creative.