Actively explore and connect universal principles across different disciplines and life domains, rather than compartmentalizing knowledge. This approach fosters explosive growth by applying insights from one area to many others, as all arts are fundamentally connected at the highest levels.
View your most heartbreaking failures and devastating moments as catalysts for profound growth and transformation. These experiences, though painful, often lead to the most important lessons and insights, even if unconsciously, that can drive future success.
Be highly reflective and deliberate about your training process, constantly seeking to refine your approach. This involves cultivating a love for training, deconstructing skills, and developing the ability to change your physiological state at will.
Systematically use the ‘Most Important Question’ (MIQ) process to direct your unconscious mind. End your workday by intensely posing the most critical question you’re grappling with, then completely release it, and return to it first thing in the morning before external input to tap into fresh insights.
Learn to consciously control and transition between different states of autonomic arousal. Understand how narrowing your visual aperture increases frame rate and tunnel vision, while widening it promotes relaxation and panoramic vision, and practice deploying these states at will.
Deliberately spend time training in the ‘in-between’ spaces and transitions of any art or skill, rather than just focusing on static positions or outcomes. This practice increases your ‘frames’ of perception and allows you to operate in pockets others don’t see.
Cultivate the ability to learn from others’ intense experiences and mistakes with the same somatic intensity as if they were your own. Use intense visualization and physiological triggers to make intellectual study feel viscerally impactful, accelerating your learning curve.
Address your weaknesses not by abandoning your core style, but by taking them on through the lens of your strengths. For example, learn defensive strategies from aggressive players, integrating new skills in a way that aligns with your self-expression.
Approach every action, thought, and interaction with a commitment to quality, not sloppiness. Practicing quality in one area of life will thematically manifest and enhance quality across all other domains, fostering self-expression and excellence.
Continuously challenge and shed old successful mental models and patterns, even after achieving significant success. The world is dynamic, so strive for rediscovery and innovation rather than trying to replicate past achievements, which can lead to stagnation.
Actively hunt for and embrace adversity, discomfort, and challenges in your training and daily life. This mindset helps build resilience, exposes weaknesses for growth, and prevents complacency, fostering a dynamic approach to improvement.
Regularly engage in deliberate cold exposure to practice ’living on the other side of pain’ and cultivate mental resilience. Focus on interoception to feel and work through adrenaline surges, understanding how they impact cognition and frame rate, rather than just enduring the cold.
When working on a core weakness or bias, practice addressing it in less developed or less ‘calloused’ areas of your life first. This often leads to easier breakthroughs that then transfer and liberate you in your professional or highly skilled domains where the weakness is deeply ingrained.
Design your day by blocking out dedicated time for creative output and deep work, scheduling meetings and reactive tasks around these core periods. This ensures your day is driven by self-expression and intentionality, rather than constant reactivity.
Resist the urge to check your phone or engage with external input immediately upon waking. This preserves the precious period of access to your dream state and unconscious processing, allowing insights to surface and be captured before they are shut down by external stimuli.
Conclude your focused work sessions or creative endeavors by leaving a sentence or thought half-written or a question posed. This provides a clear sense of direction and allows your unconscious mind to continue processing, making it easier to resume work with momentum.
Dedicate 10-15 minutes daily to step out of stimulus-response mode and engage in deep reflection. This allows unconscious thoughts and insights to surface, or provides an opportunity for deliberate thought on critical issues, fostering mental clarity and creativity.
Cultivate a fusion of full presence in the moment with a long-term time horizon for your projects and life path. While having a sense of direction, avoid rigidly planning every detail, remaining open to evolving paths and discoveries.
As a leader, parent, or coach, lead by example by openly confronting your own weaknesses and ‘stains.’ This authentic vulnerability fosters deeper human connection and encourages others to take on their own challenges.
When coaching or assessing high performers, deeply understand the complex entanglement of their brilliance and their dysfunctions. Avoid trying to remove a ‘weakness’ without first understanding its potential connection to their genius, as this could inadvertently diminish their unique abilities.
In coaching, especially with high-level individuals, prioritize listening and observing over actively ‘doing’ or providing solutions. Over-coaching can stem from a need to prove value and often hinders the coachee’s natural growth process.
Develop an unbreakable will and steadfastness in your pursuits, allowing you to endure challenges and break opponents’ resolve in competitive settings. This involves being both adaptable like water and firm like a mountain.
Deliberately manipulate your visual focus to influence your autonomic arousal. Narrow your gaze for increased focus and fine time slicing (high arousal), or broaden your gaze to take in the panoramic view for relaxation (lower arousal).
Boost your morning levels of adrenaline, noradrenaline, dopamine, and cortisol through practices like bright light exposure, exercise, caffeine (if used), and cold exposure. This robust morning arousal helps set your circadian rhythm and improves subsequent sleep quality at night.
In the evening, engage in heat exposure practices like a sauna or hot shower. This moves blood to your periphery, which subsequently helps to drop your core body temperature, easing the transition into sleep.
In competition, always strive to make the best possible move based on your strategy, rather than hoping your opponent will make a mistake. Relying on blunders never works in real, high-level competition.
Integrate both classical, foundational study with practical, ‘street-smart’ learning. This blend provides a comprehensive understanding, combining theoretical principles with real-world application and tactical insights.
In competitive or interactive contexts, develop a multi-layered understanding of minds: your own, your opponent’s, and your opponent’s understanding of your mind. This complex awareness allows for deeper strategy and deception.
To ensure continuous improvement, consistently seek out and compete against opponents who are at or above your current skill level. Playing against stronger individuals exposes weaknesses and forces growth.
Integrate brief ‘Most Important Question’ (MIQ) moments throughout your day, such as before a workout, taking a walk, or during a bathroom break. Use these short periods to pose a critical question, release it, and allow insights to emerge, rather than defaulting to phone use.
For critical decisions, especially in complex situations, make your decision, then write it down, and only then execute the action. This ‘resurfacing’ step allows for a moment of common sense reflection and can prevent blunders.
In competitive environments, strategically use predictable ’tells’ or patterns of behavior to allow opponents to lean on them, only to then subvert those expectations at a critical moment. This is a form of advanced misdirection.