Invest Like the Best: Brad Stulberg

Link: http://investorfieldguide.com/brad/

About Brad: Performance coach and author of Peak Performance

Findings

• Studying brains we find that people can summon extreme abilities if they have core beliefs which override the fear responses in their brain (is lifting a car off of a person trapped underneath). The importance lies in having core beliefs or purpose.
• The Growth Equation: Stress + rest = growth
  • Need the right amount of stress/stimuli. Too much stress is overwhelming, too little leads to no adapting.
  • Just manageable challenges are those which are just outside your comfort zone. It’s self-defeating to onboard too many of these at once.
• Mechanics of creativity

1. 1. Immersion: this work is stress
   2. Incubation: stepping away (this is the rest)
   3. Creative insight…this tends to happen after a period of rest…end of a vacation, in the shower, taking a walk.

• Studies show deep work cycles are most effective in 45 to 90 min blocks followed by 15-20 min breaks.

Practical Tips

• Whether you perform better in the am or pm is largely biologically determined. Manage your energy not time. If you are better at focused work in the am, then reserve that time for that.
• Time in nature or outside is shown to improve stress, physical, cognitive markers.
• Study of air force cadet squadrons showed that group performance was more influenced by the lowest common denominator as opposed to the leading performer. The group has more to gain from eliminating bad attitudes than from enhancing leadership.
• Fatigue happens in the brain, not the body. Your central nervous system slows you down. How to overcome this? When interviewing peak performers you find that they are thinking about a larger purpose than what they are doing. So marathoner thinking of his family can override his brain’s fatigue signals.