Good morning, friends!

Lauren Johnson is a mental performance coach who most recently worked with the New York Yankees, where she helped develop strategies for athletes and sports professionals to help them cultivate mental resilience.

In this conversation, Johnson and I deconstruct the strategies and tactics of seven mentally tough people and how they learned to perform under pressure.

Below is a summary of our conversation, but you can listen on Apple Podcasts or watch it below.

1. David Goggins, The Toughest Athlete on the Planet

David Goggins grew up living in fear. At school, he experienced incessant bullying and racism. At home, he suffered physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his own father.

By the time Goggins was in his early 20s, he had asthma, a learning disability, a stutter, and crushingly low self-esteem. He was earning less than $1,000 a month spraying for cockroaches.

One night, he came home with a 42-ounce shake from Steak and Shake and sat down in front of the TV. He stumbled upon a documentary on the U.S. Navy SEALs that changed the trajectory of his entire life.

Through a relentless determination and grit, Goggins went on to complete three Navy SEAL “hell weeks," more than 50 endurance races, and holds the Guinness World Record for most pull-ups (4,030) in 24 hours.

He used a number of mental strategies to help him become mentally unshakeable.

Create an alter ego: Goggins believes he was built, not born. He intentionally created a separate identity that separated him from his past of bullying, fear, and abuse. "I had to create 'Goggins,' because 'David Goggins' was a weak kid. So I created 'Goggins,'" he says. "I wanted to be proud of who I was."

Johnson says that self-distancing is a helpful strategy in helping us manage our emotions better. "When you create an alter ego, it actually feels like we have a choice, and we're not identifying with who we are in that very moment but that we have a choice to be who we want to be. When we distance slightly, we give ourselves the ability to choose."

Follow the 40% rule: There's a reason why even though most people hit a wall at mile 16 during a marathon, they’re still able to finish. Goggins explains it through his "40% rule: When your mind is telling you that you’re done, that you’re exhausted, that you cannot possibly go any further, you’re only actually 40% done.

"Your brain is wired to protect you," Johnson says. "Most of the time our brain will show up to protect us when we don't need protecting." If you do one difficult task per day, you can increase your threshold for discomfort.”

Face the accountability mirror: When Goggins decided to become a Navy SEAL, he looked at his reflection in the mirror and said, "You’re fat, you’re lazy, and you’re a liar.” This sounds harsh, but Goggins says that he needed to face his insecurities head on in order to overcome them. He created something he called the “Accountability Mirror.” He pasted sticky notes around the outside of the mirror outlining the practical steps he needed to take to achieve his goals. They would say things like, "Go one day without lying for external validation" and "Go on a 2-mile run." If you're not happy with your reflection, Goggins suggests asking yourself, "What am I going to do today to change what I see in the mirror?"

Johnson says this strategy is so powerful because you are the only person in the world you can't lie to and get away with it. "The same way we earn trust with others by doing the things we say we're going to do is the same way we earn trust with ourselves," Johnson says. "When you talk to yourself in the mirror, it opens up your blind spots and the things you may not want to admit to yourself. It may hurt, but it's so necessary to get to that next level."

Read the Full Article Here

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THE PROFILE DOSSIER: On Wednesday, premium members received The Profile Dossier, a comprehensive deep-dive on a prominent individual. It featured Brunello Cucinelli, the fashion mogul who believes in "humanistic capitalism." Become a premium member, and check it out here.

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PROFILES.

— The skiing champion who succumbed to the darkness [**HIGHLY RECOMMEND**]
— The founder who wants making creators rich
— The man who abandoned value
— America's original influencer
— The youngest American to go to space
— The outsider reinventing pop
— The billion-dollar sneaker brand
— The biggest winner of the streaming wars

PEOPLE TO KNOW.

The skiing champion who succumbed to the darkness: From the outside, things seemed perfect for Dean Cummings, the former world extreme skiing champion: he had a family, a successful guiding business, and unending adventure out his front door in Valdez, Alaska. He became one of the most well-known guides in skiing. Now, he faces a possible 19 and a half years in prison. Here's the tragic tale of how things spiraled out of control. (Outside Magazine)

“This isn’t a tale of savagery. This is a tale of mental illness.”

The founder making creators rich: As it stands today, 7,500 creators are making at least $100,000 per year on the Spotify platform. Now, Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek wants to grow those numbers — and fast. "Our job is to create as many possibilities as possible for these creators to create, to grow, to engage, and to monetize with their fans," he says. Here's how Ek wants his platform to help creatives build an independent future. (The Verge) (For more, check out Daniel Ek's Dossier here.)

"We’re no longer this kind of small startup from Sweden. We’re in fact a very, very important platform for a lot of these audio creators."

The man who abandoned value: When Arne Alsin, the founder of investment firm Worm Capital, wrote about investing in disruptive companies two years ago, one commentator called it “one of the dumbest articles ever written.” After a 274% year, Alsin isn’t the one who looks dumb. (Institutional Investor)

“You can figure everything out if you just spend enough time and break it down into its simplest component parts."

America's original influencer: Most people who tell you they’ve invented whole genres of things or were the “first” at anything are probably full of hot air. But with Martha Stewart, it’s generally true. She popularized beautifully photographed cookbooks and manuals for living well, of which she’s written 98, and created a lifestyle magazine centered around a single person and philosophy, which she then tied to an Emmy-winning TV show. Meet the woman who's successfully re-invented herself over and over and over again. (Bazaar) (For more, check out Martha Stewart's Dossier here.)

“I’ve said it so many times, but take your life into your own hands. Don’t let other people direct you. Know what you want."

The youngest American to go to space: Hayley Arceneaux, 29, had hoped this would be the year that she would complete her aim of visiting all seven continents before she turned 30. She will not have time to do that, though. She is going to space. Aceneaux, who beat cancer at 10 years old, will be one of four people on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Florida. What an incredible story. (The New York Times)

“I did ask, ‘Am I going to get a passport stamp for going to space?’”

The outsider reinventing pop: In the last year, artist Billie Eilish's pop-trap tune “Bad Guy” hit a billion views, she scored five Grammys, and she was forced to cancel a sold-out world tour. Then, she turned 19. It's nearly impossible to imagine how a teenager is able to navigate the insane world of fame, success, and public scrutiny. Here's how the pop superstar is trying to chart her own path at the beginning of an uncertain decade. (Vanity Fair)

“I don’t know what things cost because I’ve never been an adult before."

COMPANIES TO WATCH.

The billion-dollar sneaker brand: Allbirds is part of the boom in direct-to-consumer brands that act as maker and retailer, avoiding the low margins of selling wholesale. But now, more than half a decade after that initial enthusiasm, there are questions about how big these DTC brands can get. Ahead of its public market debut, here's how Allbirds plans to broaden its audience and its operation. Can it live up to the hype? (Bloomberg)

“People don’t even know about us yet. We have to continue to methodically build our brand, brick by brick.”

The biggest winner of the streaming wars: Chess.com dominates the world of online chess. Total registered users on the site grew from 20 million in 2017 to more than 57 million today. Now, Chess.com is dominating a very different world: streaming. Users on streaming platform Twitch watched 18.3 million hours of chess content in January, nearly as much as they consumed in all of 2019. Last week, chess even surpassed League of Legends, Fortnite, and Valorant as the most-watched gaming category. Here's how Chess.com found itself in the middle of this boom. (Protocol)

"Chess has been around for a very long time, and it will continue to exist long after the term esports has ceased to exist."

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AUDIO TO HEAR.

Graham Duncan on being a time billionaire: In our society, we worship dollar billionaires. But have you ever thought about the fact that you could be a time billionaire? In this episode, investor Graham Duncan explains the idea that one million seconds is 11 days. One billion seconds is about 31 years. Think about Warren Buffett, who's 90 years old. What would he pay if he could take the next five years of someone’s 20-year-old healthy body and mind? And if you're the 20-year-old, how would you price the next 5 years of your life? This episode may really change your perspective. (Link available to premium members.)

Anne-Laure Le Cunff on generating ideas on demand: Anne-Laure Le Cunff is the founder of Ness Labs, which publishes neuroscience-based content to help people become more productive and creative. This is an absolutely fascinating podcast episode in which Le Cunff explains the importance of engaging in "idea sex." "Lots of people still believe in this very old concept of 'the muse,' that will come and whisper new ideas into your ear," she says. "A healthier way to think about creativity is to realize that all creativity is combinational in nature, and any idea you had was probably a result of two ideas that had sex together to give you that one." (Link available to premium members.)

Dolly Parton on dealing with suffering: 2020 was a year that brought pain and suffering to the forefront, and if there's one thing Dolly Parton has learned over the years is that you can't ignore pain. Too many people, she says, are too scared to look directly at it. "I don’t know how to teach anybody how to deal with pain. I just go to pain," Parton says. "I just go to people that are suffering, and if I can’t do anything physically, I can write about it or donate something to the cause, but I don’t ignore it." (Link available to premium members.)

VIDEOS TO WATCH.

Lou Pearlman's life of deception: Lou Pearlman was a hitmaker. He is responsible for discovering a number of boy bands, including *NSYNC and The Backstreet Boys. He had it all — the respect of his peers, a sprawling empire, and a glitzy lifestyle. But in 2006, things began to unravel after he was accused of being the mastermind of one of the largest and longest-running Ponzi schemes in U.S. history. This documentary brings you back to the boy band glory days and lays it all out. (Link available to premium members.)

Bryan Stevenson on the bias of the modern death penalty:Bryan Stevenson is the founder of human rights organization, Equal Justice Initiative. This documentary shares Stevenson’s experience with a criminal justice system that “treats you better if you’re rich and guilty than if you’re poor and innocent.” Stevenson believes that justice lies in the ugly details because they are “what might allow us to one day claim something really beautiful.” (Link available to premium members.)

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