Episode #04 - "Staying Power"

When researching for this episode, one main area of focus was the book ‘Grit’ by Angela Duckworth. It is a fascinating read about why grit is important and how it can be a reliable indicator of future success. 

In writing this book, Angela worked with some of the toughest/roughest schools, cadets struggling through their first days at West Point, and young finalists in the National Spelling Bee. Add to this research from some major historical figures and modern day high achievers and CEOs.

For more information on this book and Angela herself, check out her website.

Carol Dweck is a psychologist from USA, currently working as Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. In 2006, she wrote the siminal book ‘Mindset: The New Psychology of Success’ which introduced the idea of a ‘Growth Mindset vs Fixed Mindset’. Mindset is one of the cornerstones of the Druid’s Exchange ethos, and Carol’s work lays the foundation for a lot of our work and ideas.

All too often, our beliefs of our abilities and limits are what determine our successes, rather than our abilities by themselves. Truely understanding this different can open a world of potential.

Carol did a talk as part of ‘Talks at Google’ – Watch it here.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter involved in reward, motivation, memory, attention and even regulating body movements. It motivates us to take action. 

You can build up a tolerance for dopamine so the more you get the more you need to get same effect. This makes it more difficult to get motivated to do difficult things like work/study/cleaning around house, etc compared to easy things like video games, mindlessly scrolling through facebook etc.

Check out this great video on YouTube explaining the premise and how you can “detox” from dopamine to make doing the tasks you always put off much easier.

“I don’t like cold showers, and that is why I take cold showers”

Cold showers are not fun, but if you can grit through them, you will feel much better afterwards. They are an easy way to train yourself mentally to do things you don’t like doing. Start your day off with a cold shower and everything else in your day will feel just a little easier and less intimidating.

Cold showers are the first step on the path led by the Wim Hoff Method. Check out his website for more great info on the topic.

David f**kin’ Goggins. What a beast of a man! If you haven’t heard of David Goggins yet, you will do yourself a disservice if you don’t check him out. His life story so far is inspirational to say the least.

From overweight ‘loser’ spending his evenings sitting on his couch shoving ice-cream down his throat, to joining the marines, going through Hell Week 3 times and completing back to back ultra marathons, there is no stopping what this man can achieve. If you ever doubt your limits, ask yourself “What would Goggins do?”.

Check out his website here and be sure to listen to his appearances on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast!