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Join thousands of readers and learn about the foundations of sustainable excellence and concrete habits for peak performance and a more genuine kind of success.
“A thoughtful, actionable book for pursuing more excellence with less angst."
–Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again and host of the TED podcast WorkLife
"This book gets to the heart of the matter." –Ryan Holiday, New York Times bestselling author of Stillness Is the Key and Ego Is the Enemy
"This book taps into something that so many of us feel but can't articulate." –Arianna Huffington, Founder & CEO, Thrive Global
"Ambitious, far-reaching, and impactful. –David Epstein, New York Times bestselling author of Range and The Sports Gene
From the bestselling author of Peak Performance comes a powerful antidote to heroic individualism and the ensuing epidemic of burnout.
Achievement often comes at a cost. Angst, restlessness, frayed relationships, exhaustion, and even substance abuse can be the unwanted side effects of an obsession with outward performance. While the high of occasional wins can keep you going for a while, playing into the always-on, never enough hustle culture ultimately takes a serious toll.
In The Practice of Groundedness, bestselling author Brad Stulberg shares a healthier, more sustainable model for success. At the heart of this model is groundedness—a practice that values presence over rote productivity, accepts that progress is nonlinear, and prioritizes long-term values and fulfillment over short-term gain. To be grounded is to possess a firm and unwavering foundation, a resolute sense of self from which deep and enduring, not shallow and superficial, success can be found. Groundedness does not eliminate ambition and striving; rather, it situates these qualities and channels them in more meaningful ways.
Interweaving case studies, modern science, and time-honored lessons from ancient wisdom traditions such as Buddhism, Stoicism, and Taoism, Stulberg teaches readers how to cultivate the habits and practices of a more grounded life. Readers will learn:
- Why patience is the key to getting where you want to go faster—in work and life—and how to develop it, pushing back against the culture's misguided obsession with speed and "hacks."
- How to utilize the lens of the wise observer in order to overcome delusion and resistance to clearly see and accept where you are—which is the key to more effectively getting where you want to go
- Why embracing vulnerability is the key to genuine strength and confidence
- The critical importance of "deep community," or cultivating a sense of belonging and connection to people, places, and causes.
Provocative and practical, The Practice of Groundedness is the necessary corrective to the frenetic pace and endemic burnout resulting from contemporary definitions of success. It offers a new—and better—way.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published September 7, 2021
Signs You May Be Suffering from Heroic Individualism
These feelings can manifest in different ways, but the concerns I have heard most frequently include the following:
* Low-level anxiety and a sensation of always being rushed or in a hurry—if not physically, then mentally
* A sense that your life is swirling with frenetic energy, as if you’re being pushed and pulled from one thing to the next
* A recurring intuition that something isn’t quite right, but you’re unsure what that something is, let alone what to do about it
* Not always wanting to be on, but struggling to turn off and not feeling good when you do
* Feeling way too busy, but also restless when you have open time and space
* Being easily distractible and unable to focus, struggling to sit in silence without reaching for your phone
* Wanting to do better, be better, and feel better, but having no idea where to start
* Becoming utterly overwhelmed by the information, products, and competing claims on what leads to wellbeing, self-improvement, and performance
* Feeling lonely or empty inside
* Struggling to be content
* Being successful by conventional standards, yet feeling like you’re never enough
This cluster of characteristics represents a common mode of being in today’s world. It may even be the prevailing one. But as you’ll see in the coming pages, it doesn’t have to be..."
"Studies show that happiness is a function of reality minus expectations. In other words, the key to being happy isn’t to always want and strive for more. Instead, happiness is found in the present moment, in creating a meaningful life and being fully engaged in it, right here and right now.
There is no doubt that meeting one’s basic needs—such as shelter, food, and health care—is critical to any definition of happiness or well-being. Without those elements in place, little else is possible. While some studies show income is correlated with well-being and happiness, other research, such as that conducted by the Nobel Prize–winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman, shows that above a certain threshold, somewhere between $65,000 and $80,000 per year, perhaps with minor adjustments for geography, additional household income is not associated with additional happiness or well-being. Even if it may be a factor, it is not the driving force.
What’s more, we’re all affected by what behavioral scientists call hedonic adaptation, or the “set-point” theory of happiness: when we acquire or achieve something new, our happiness, well-being, and satisfaction rise, but only for a few months before returning to their prior levels. This is precisely why it is so hard, if not impossible, to outwardly achieve your way out of heroic individualism. If anything, thinking that you can is the crux of heroic individualism’s trap."
"What’s scary is how much of the average person’s life is spent under fragmented attention. It is increasingly becoming our default way of operating. Studies have found that, on average, people spend 47 percent of their waking hours thinking about something other than what is in front of them. We’ve been conditioned to believe that if we aren’t constantly scheming and strategizing, taking inventory of the past, or thinking ahead to the future, we’ll miss out on something and fall behind. But perhaps the opposite is true. If we’re constantly scheming and strategizing, always looking back or thinking ahead, we’ll miss out on everything..."