Michael Phelps journals to find the ‘best version’ of himself. When I tried it, the results surprised me

From the end of 1978 to the end of 2003, except for 12 of those days, I followed through on this daily practice, filling up journal after journal. I’ve never gone back and read anything I wrote down. It was just the activity of doing it that was important. If you looked at where I was in 1978 and where I was at the end of 2003, everything in my lif

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Daniel Chambliss , an American sociologist, on how top performers feel about hard work:

“At the higher levels of competitive swimming, something like an inversion of attitude takes place. The very features of the sport that the ‘C' swimmer finds unpleasant, the top level swimmer enjoys. What others see as boring—swimming back and forth over a black ... See more

He also gave Phelps a routine for what to think about as he went to sleep and first thing when he awoke. He called it “Watching the Videotape.”2 There was no actual tape, of course. The “tape” was a visualization of the perfect race. In exquisite detail and slow motion Phelps would visualize every moment from his starting position on top of the blo

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How can we come to know ourselves well enough to be able to live life with confidence, clarity, and purpose?

Journaling is great, but if you think you are going to truly understand yourself by simply writing whatever comes into your head every morning, you are wrong.

You need to be able to ask the right questions in order to go deeper into yourself.