The Art of Impossible

expanding capacity, teaching ourselves to remain psychologically stable and in control even in situations that feel unstable and uncontrollable.

working long hours under specific conditions: high risk, a lack of sense of control, a misalignment of passion and purpose, and long and uncertain gaps between effort and reward.

And that instruction occurs automatically. When we play, the brain releases dopamine and oxytocin, two of our most crucial “reward chemicals.”

In a study of nearly sixteen thousand subjects, Angela Duckworth and Yale psychologist Katherine Von Culin found a clear link between grit and what level of happiness people pursue.10 Less gritty people hunt happiness through pleasure, while grittier folks choose engagement.

if you devote your life to accomplishing lowercase i impossibles, you can sometimes end up accomplishing a capital I impossible along the way.

My personal preference is an infrared sauna. I try to do three sessions a week, forty-five minutes each. In the sauna, I split my time between reading a book and practicing mindfulness. Saunas lower cortisol. When coupled to the stress reduction produced by mindfulness, this one-two punch hyper-accelerates recovery.

And this leads us to the next question: What’s the biological formula for the impossible? The answer is flow.

Unfortunately, these are all conditions that arise during our pursuit of high, hard goals.

Curiosity into passion; passion into purpose; and purpose into patient profit—that’s the safest way to play this game. But how to make sure you stay in the game long enough to achieve your purpose—that’s exactly where we’re going next.