Steven Kotler is a New York Times bestselling author, executive director of the Flow Research Collective, and peak performance expert.

Steven first appeared on the podcast on episode #43 where we cover much of his backstory but on this episode Steven discusses his new book THE ART OF IMPOSSIBLE  which delves into how to decode motivation, learning, creativity, and flow—previously thought of as unteachable skills.

Drawing on his two decades of experience, cutting-edge neuroscience research, and interviews with elite performers, on this episode Kotler distills insights he uses to educate over a thousand people a month—including executives at Fortune 100 companies, Olympian athletes, and members of the US special forces.

Episode Notes

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What does it take to accomplish the impossible? What does it take to shatter our limitations, exceed our expectations, and turn our biggest dreams into reality? 

On today’s Broken Brain Podcast, our host Dhru talks to Steven Kotler, one of the world’s leading experts on peak performance. Steven is an author, an award-winning journalist, and the founder and executive director of the Flow Research Collective. He has written twelve books, including the national bestsellers The Future Is Faster Than You Think, The Rise of Superman, Stealing Fire, Abundance, and Bold. His work has been nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes, has been translated into more than forty languages, and has appeared in more than one hundred publications, including The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, WIRED, and TIME. 

In this episode, Dhru and Steven dive deep into the topic of peak performance, and how to take the impossible and make it possible. They discuss the quartet of cognitive abilities—motivation, learning, creativity, and flow—and why these skills are so crucial to peak performance, how they work in the brain and the body, and how to use them to significantly accelerate ourselves down the path toward the impossible. They also talk about the importance of a primary flow activity, how to become more productive, and how to get into the habit of living up to our own potential.

In this episode, we dive into:

-The difference between little “i” impossible and big “I” Impossible (3:54)

-Steven’s battle with Lyme disease and his process of working through it (11:47) 

-What it means to be in flow (16:57)

-The 4 skills needed for turning dreams into reality—motivation, learning, creativity, and flow (27:02) 

-The most common things that trip people up from getting started (31:30) 

-The 5 intrinsic motivators (33:36) 

-The 5-not-so-easy steps for learning almost anything (36:59) 

-The biggest mistake people make when learning (43:32)

-Why everything we have learned about creativity is wrong (45:50) 

-How to increase creativity (51:02) 

-Where listeners can learn more about Steven Kotler (1:08:13)

For more on Steven Kotler you can follow him on Instagram @kotler.steven, on Facebook @KotlerSteven, on Twitter steven_kotler, and through his websites https://www.stevenkotler.com/ and https://www.flowresearchcollective.com/. Get his book, The Art of Impossible at https://www.theartofimpossible.com.

For more on Dhru Purohit, be sure to follow him on Instagram @dhrupurohit, on Facebook @dhruxpurohit, on Twitter @dhrupurohit, and on YouTube @dhrupurohit. You can also text Dhru at (302) 200-5643 or click here https://my.community.com/dhrupurohit.

Interested in joining Dhru’s Broken Brain Podcast Facebook Community? Submit your request to join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2819627591487473/.

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Steven Kotler: “Peak performance is nothing more than getting our biology to work for us rather than against us.”

Kotler, a performance expert, New York Times bestselling author, and founder and executive director of the Flow Research Collective, joins mbg co-CEO, Jason Wachob, to discuss how to biohack your productivity so it lasts, plus:

*How to find your primary flow activity*

*How dopamine leads to narcissism*

*Why you get more pessimistic as you age*

*The link between intrinsic motivation and performance*

*The three tiers of goal setting & which one to focus on for productivity*

Enjoy this episode! Whether it's an article or podcast, we want to know what we can do to help here at mindbodygreen. Let us know at: podcast@mindbodygreen.com. Also be sure to check out Kotler's new book, The Art Of Impossible, which you can find at https://www.theartofimpossible.com. 

Flow expert and journalist Steven Kotler joins me to discuss what on earth “flow” is and is not, Nietzsche, optimal performance, how to trigger flow, the challenge -skill balance writing in flow, group flow, ADHD embodiment and his new book. An enjoyable, fascinating and fast one!

https://www.stevenkotler.com/

Join our flagship cognitive performance training.

👉 Zero to Dangerous helps you accomplish your wildest professional goals while reclaiming time, space, and freedom in your personal life.

This episode is a fun one because we turn the tables, you’re going to hear Steven Kotler, co-founder here at the Flow Research Collective, being interviewed by the guys—Charlie and Ben— behind the famous Youtube channel Charisma on Command. 

Charisma on Command has over four million subscribers on Youtube, and both Steven and Rian have been fans of the channel for years. 

About six months ago at a party in Venice Beach, Rian bumped into Ben, who knew of Steven’s stuff, so we set this up. 

Anyways; it’s a fun episode and a chance to hear Steven go into topics he doesn’t often delve into as much:

From futurism and Steven’s book, The Future is Faster Than You Think, to dopamine abuse, psychedelics, drugs, and the backstory Steven’s book Stealing Fire.

One of my favorite bites just in the beginning is Steven talking about Tune in, turn on, go to a bake sale - so make sure to catch that moment.

ABOUT THE EPISODE

In this episode, you will learn about:

• Shifts in perception (1:11)
• The hardball reaction (2:53)
• The Future is Faster Than You Think (6:06)
• The biggest migrations in human history (9:33)
• The transportation change (14:38)
• Dopamine in the sense of bonding (17:26)
• Altered states of consciousness (21:45)
• Psychedelics vs. Flow (24:26)
• What is Flow? (27:31)
• Flow Triggers (31:47)
• Risk and flow (37:55)
• Tech and morality (40:29)
• The history of evolution (55:56)
• Lean deeper into your craft (1:01:05)
• Quantum dynamics (1:03:40)
• Dealing with burnout (1:06:02)
• How to sustain flow (1:08:50)
• The passion recipe (1:11:08)
• The future of AI (1:16:55)

ABOUT THE HOSTS

Charisma on Command: Charlie and Ben help millions of people around the world to turn on their most confident, charismatic self in the moments that matter most.

OUR FLOW TRAINING

We are currently accepting new participants in our flagship flow training: 👉Zero to Dangerous.

Our science-backed peak performance training is for entrepreneurs and knowledge workers like you wanting to accomplish their wildest professional goals while reclaiming time, space, and freedom in their personal life.

In Zero to Dangerous,

• You’ll work one on one with our Ph.D. level peak performance coaches. They’ll help you implement flow practices and push you to where you want to go—and far beyond
• You’ll master the maps and models of peak performance through our online video course.
• You will get lifetime access to weekly calls with our community of peak performing business leaders who provide you with accountability, support, and feedback.

After the training, you will be able to access flow states on-demand, so you can spend your entire workday in that hyper-focused zone and say goodbye to the distractions of politics, colleagues, and trivial nonsense.

To apply for Zero to Dangerous, go to 👉 getmoreflow.com/ to book a call with our team who will help you assess if is a good fit for you.

Rooting for you!

Steven Kotler is the bestselling author of Stealing Fire and Founder of the Flow Research Collective.

Steven is a leading expert on human peak performance. His work has appeared in over 70 publications, including The New York Times, National Geographic, Wired, and Time.

This episode centers around the neuroscience and psychology of flow states, as well as the future of flow technology using machine learning.

FitMind Neuroscience-Based App: http://bit.ly/afitmind

Website: www.fitmind.co

Join our flagship cognitive performance training.

👉 Zero to Dangerous helps you accomplish your wildest professional goals while reclaiming time, space, and freedom in your personal life.

This episode is a section from one of Steven’s audiobooks, called ‘Mapping Cloud 9: Neuroscience, Flow and the upper possibility space of human experience’.

In Mapping Cloud 9 Steven goes far and wide. The overarching intention is to bridge science and spirituality to explore how our understanding of peak experiences has evolved over time.

He covers early inquiries into altered and mystical states; the birth of positive psychology and research on high performers; pioneering studies on meditation and near-death experiences; as well as current explorations of psychedelics, flow states, and technological breakthroughs.

Today, we’ve got the whole of chapter 1 of Mapping Cloud 9 as a special treat for you.  

You will learn about Friedrich Nietzsche and William James as the first peak performance philosophers. 

We will also talk about the fact that the history of flow research took a weird turn.

Hopefully, it inspires you to leverage the growing body of flow research to step into new realms of possibility.

In this episode, you will learn about:

• Exponential growth in human performance (6:20)
• What does it take to do the impossible (12:00)
• What is Flow (13:13)
• Where did Mapping Cloud 9 come from (17:45)
• The actualization of self-actualization(28:28)
• RAUSH (41:20)
• Flow is ethically neutral (42:19)
• Nietzche’s Superman (44:55)
• Principles of physiological psychology (47:53)
• Phenomenology (48:27)
• Sweet spot for attention (50:17)
• The science spiritually (51:29)
• The first study of near-death experience (56:05)
• William James and the timing of now (57:57)
• The foundation of the modern science of high performance (1:02:10)

‍

ABOUT THE GUEST

Steven Kotler is a New York Times bestselling author and an award-winning journalist. As the Executive Director of the Flow Research Collective, he is one of the world’s leading experts on high performance.

Steven’s work has been translated into over 40 languages and appeared in over 100 publications, including The New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Wired and TIME. 

He also appears frequently on television and radio, and lectures widely on human performance, disruptive technology and radical innovation.

OUR FLOW TRAINING

We are currently accepting new participants in our flagship flow training: 👉  Zero to Dangerous.

Our science-backed peak performance training is for entrepreneurs and knowledge workers like you wanting to accomplish their wildest professional goals while reclaiming time, space, and freedom in their personal life.

In Zero to Dangerous,

• You’ll work one on one with our Ph.D. level peak performance coaches. They’ll help you implement flow practices and push you to where you want to go—and far beyond
• You’ll master the maps and models of peak performance through our online video course.
• You will get lifetime access to weekly calls with our community of peak performing business leaders who provide you with accountability, support, and feedback.

After the training, you will be able to access flow states on-demand, so you can spend your entire workday in that hyper-focused zone and say goodbye to the distractions of politics, colleagues, and trivial nonsense.

To apply for Zero to Dangerous, go to 👉  getmoreflow.com/ to book a call with our team who will help you assess if is a good fit for you.

Rooting for you!

We are stoked to have Steven Kotler on today’s show as this is one of those episodes we are super curious as to what he’s doing and wanted to dive into the massive body of work he’s done. Most of Steven’s work deals with flow and peak performance as well as converging technologies and futurism. He also does a lot of work with Peter Diamandis and has a new book co-authored with Peter, called The Future Is Faster Than You Think. This book is part of their trilogy of books and will show how you can combine these exponential technologies and systems and stack them. He also dives into why flying cars, blockchain, and other cool things like that are changing at a super rapid pace. We even talk about how this all relates to COVID as well as some actual benefits of the current situation we find ourselves in.  

This is a fly on the wall conversation talking about futurism, how to get into flow, whether you can get into flow synthetically, and how to change our brain’s default from thinking negatively.  We also discuss your primary and secondary activities, which one you should focus on for fun and for work, plus Steven even told us which country is leading the charge in drone technology (and it’s not from where you think). We know you are going to love this show as much as we did, and when you are done be sure to check out our episodes with Craig Ballantyne and Dave Asprey for more discussion on living a high performing life.

“When you are talking about peak performance, there’s no such thing as a hack. There’s only one thing - there’s getting your biology to work for you rather than against you.” - Steven Kotler 

Some Topics We Discussed Include:

• Which country now leads the world in drone technology?
• What’s cool with COVID
• The hippie speedball recipe for a quick boost
• Your primary and secondary activities and which you should use for work
• Ways to tell if you are in flow
• What the future holds for the middle class
• The faster way that we know of, to calm yourself down
• Everything you ever wanted to learn about rocket science in just one sentence
• And much, much more!

Resources From Steven Kotler:

• Flow Research Collective
• Art of Impossible - you can pre-order your copy now

References and Links Mentioned:

• Flow Research Collective.com/Flowblocker
• Bold
• Authentic Happiness by Martin Seligman 
• The Future Is Faster Than You Think
• Are you ready to be EPIC with us?! Then grab our EGP Letter here!
• Join the Facebook Community - be sure to hop in our Facebook group to chat with us, our other amazing guests that we’ve had on the show, and fellow entrepreneurs!
• This episode is sponsored by Easy Webinar, be sure to check them out as well, with this special discount for our listeners.
• Time Is NOT Your Most Valuable Resource - Time Is NOT Your Most Valuable Resource                                                              
• How To Overcome Anxiety And Dominate In Business - Craig Ballantyne

How do we live a more enriched life? New York Times bestselling author Steven Kotler joins Sarah Grynberg to discuss the life-saving powers of the science of flow, the common traits of people who have achieved the extraordinary, and why having flow and purpose equals true happiness. If you want to learn the habits that will help you live a happier life, all you need to do is press play.

Follow Sarah:

Instagram: instagram.com/alifeofgreatnesspodcast

Website: https://sarahgrynberg.com/

Facebook: facebook.com/sarahgrynberg

Twitter: twitter.com/sarahgrynberg

YouTube: youtube.com/sarahgrynberg

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Join our flagship cognitive performance training.

👉 Zero to Dangerous helps you accomplish your wildest professional goals while reclaiming time, space, and freedom in your personal life.

This is the first episode of Flow Research Collective Radio where we introduce our organization as well as Executive Director, Steven Kotler.

In this episode, you will learn about:

• The mission of the Flow Research Collective: Decoding the neuroscience of flow (1:35) and understanding what makes people perform at their best (06:20)
• Why understanding the neurobiology made training flow much more practical (4:05)
• Why we don’t want to rely on technology or substances to drive us into flow (04:50)
• The difference between peak performance and flow (07:10)
• Why you want to train states and not skills (08:55)
• Flow is what happens when all of your trained up skills come together at once (11:15)
• How Steven got into action sports and flow (19:10)
• Why we use science to talk about flow (24:30)
• The feeling of oneness in flow (24:20)
• The mentors that inspired Steven (37:05)
• The lineage of peak performance researchers (40:00)
• Demystifying passion and purpose (42:00)
• Can we solve the greatest challenges of today’s world? (48:30)
• We are all capable of some much more than we know (52:10)

‍

The Flow Research Collective is a research and training organization. Our mission: understand the science behind ultimate human performance and use it to train up individuals and organizations.

Steven Kotler is a New York Times bestselling author and an award-winning journalist. As the Executive Director at the Flow Research Collective, he is one of the world’s leading experts on high performance.

His book, The Rise of Superman, was one of the most talked about books in 2013 and the first book in history to land on the New York Times bestseller lists in the sports, science, psychology, and business categories simultaneously. In Rise, Steven decodes the science of flow, an optimal state of consciousness where we feel our best and perform our best.

‍

OUR FLOW TRAINING

We are currently accepting new participants in our flagship flow training: 👉 Zero to Dangerous.

Our science-backed peak performance training is for entrepreneurs and knowledge workers like you wanting to accomplish their wildest professional goals while reclaiming time, space, and freedom in their personal life.

In Zero to Dangerous,

• You’ll work one on one with our Ph.D. level peak performance coaches. They’ll help you implement flow practices and push you to where you want to go—and far beyond
• You’ll master the maps and models of peak performance through our online video course.
• You will get lifetime access to weekly calls with our community of peak performing business leaders who provide you with accountability, support, and feedback.

After the training, you will be able to access flow states on-demand, so you can spend your entire workday in that hyper-focused zone and say goodbye to the distractions of politics, colleagues, and trivial nonsense.

To apply for Zero to Dangerous, go to 👉 getmoreflow.com/ to book a call with our team who will help you assess if is a good fit for you.

Rooting for you!