THE
ART OF IMPOSSIBLE
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Part I
Motivation
If this life not be a real fight, in which something is eternally
gained for the universe by success, it is no better than a game
of private theatrics from which one may withdraw at will. But it
feels like a real fight—­as if there were something really wild in
the universe which we . . . are needed to redeem.
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—­W ILLIAM JAMES
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Motivation Decoded
The central premise of this book is that impossible has a formula.
Whenever we see the impossible become possible, we are witnessing
the end result of a quartet of skills—­motivation, learning, creativity,
and flow—­expertly applied and significantly amplified.
The goal of this book is to use science to decipher these skills. We
want to get at the basic biological mechanisms that make each of them
run, then use what we learn to make them run better—­which is really
what I mean by getting our biology to work for us rather than against
us.
In practice, we are going to work our way through four main sections, exploring motivation, learning, creativity, and flow, in turn. In
each section, I’m going to break down what science can tell us about
how these skills work in the brain and body, then, through a series of
exercises, teach you the best ways to apply this information in your
own life.
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THE ART OF IMPOSSIBLE
The place to begin is with motivation, which is what starts us
down the path of peak performance. Yet, motivation, as psychologists
use the term, is actually a catch-­all for three subsets of skills: drive,
grit, and goals.
Drive, the subject of the next two chapters, refers to powerful emotional motivators such as curiosity, passion, and purpose. These are
feelings that drive behavior automatically.1 This is the big deal. When
most people think about motivation, they’re actually thinking about
persistence—­meaning the stuff we need to keep going once our drive
has left us. Consider the simplest drive: curiosity. When we’re curious
about a subject, doing the hard work to learn more about that subject
doesn’t feel like hard work. It requires effort, for certain, but it feels like
play. And when work becomes play, that’s one way to know for sure:
Now, you’re playing the infinite game.
Goals, the topic of Chapter Four, are about figuring out exactly
where we’re actually trying to go. For a host of neurobiological reasons
that will be explored later, when we know where we’re trying to go, we
get there much more quickly. Since the road to impossible is long by
definition, we’ll need this boost in acceleration to achieve our mission.
Grit, the subject of Chapter Five, is the what most people think
of when they think of motivation. It’s persistence, determination, and
fortitude—­the ability to continue with the journey no matter the difficulty involved.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
For now, our quest starts with drive. And the reason is simple:
there’s really no other option.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DRIVE
Stalking the impossible demands digging deep on a daily basis. Lao-­tzu
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Motivation Decoded
wasn’t wrong: the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.2
But it’s still a journey of a thousand miles. Uphill, in the dark, both
ways.
Since impossible is always an arduous trek, elite-­level performers
never rely on a single source of fuel to sustain them along the way. And
this is true for both physical fuel and psychological fuel.
On the physical side, even though this is not the point of this book,
elite performers always try to get enough sleep and exercise and maintain proper hydration and nutrition. They “stack”—­that is, cultivate,
amplify, and align—­
the foundational requirements for producing
physical energy.
Equally crucial, elite performers stack psychological fuel sources.
They cultivate and align drivers such as curiosity, passion, and purpose. By stacking these sources of mental energy, they ensure on-­
demand access to all of life’s most potent emotional fuels.
So what drives us?
One way to think about this question is from an evolutionary perspective. We know that scarcity drives evolution. Any problem regularly encountered on a quest to gather resources is a problem that
evolution already spent millions of years driving us to solve.
Think of evolution as a video game with two main levels. To win
on level one, a player must obtain more resources—­food, water, shelter, mates, and so on—­than the other players in the game. On level
two, the player must turn those resources into children and help those
children survive, either by having so many that there’s no way predators can eat them all (which is what fish do), or by keeping those children safe and teaching them how to obtain resources for themselves
(which is the human method).
At each level, resource acquisition is key.
As discussed, only two strategies are available. Either you fight
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THE ART OF IMPOSSIBLE
over dwindling resources, or you get creative and make more resources. Thus, when we talk about drive from an evolutionary perspective, what we’re really talking about are the psychological fuels
that energize behaviors that best solve resource scarcity: fight/flee and
explore/innovate.
Fear is a psychological driver because it drives us to fight over resources, to flee and avoid becoming someone else’s resources, or to
pack up the family and sail across an ocean in a quest to, you guessed
it, find more resources. Curiosity is another driver because it makes
us wonder if there might be more resources across that ocean. Passion
drives us to master the skills required to successfully sail that ocean.
Goals drive us because they tell us what resources we’re trying to find
on the other side of that ocean and the reason we’re trying to find
them.
And this list goes on.
To make things more manageable, scientists split our psychological drivers into two categories: extrinsic and intrinsic.3 Extrinsic drivers are rewards that are external to ourselves. These are things like
money, fame, or sex, and they’re definitely potent. Money translates
into food, clothing, and shelter, so the brain treats our desire for it
as a basic survival need. Fame might seem trivial, but famous people
often have significantly more access to resources—­food, water, shelter,
mates, and so on—­so we’re wired to want it. And sex is the only way
for humans to win evolution’s game of survival, which is why sex sells
and the bars are always packed on Friday night.
Intrinsic drivers are the opposite. These are psychological and
emotional forces such as curiosity, passion, meaning, and purpose. The
pleasure of mastery, which we feel as the sensation of a job well done,
is another potent example. Autonomy, the desire to be in charge of
one’s own life, is yet another.
For most of the last century, researchers believed that extrinsic
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drivers were the more powerful of the pair, but this shifted over the
past few decades, as intrinsic drivers have become better understood.
What we now know is that there’s a motivational hierarchy at work.
External drivers are fantastic, but only until we feel safe and secure—­
meaning that we have enough money to pay for food, clothing, and
shelter and have a little left over for fun. In US dollars and today’s
economy, the research shows that this is somewhere around $75,000 a
year.4 Measure happiness levels among Americans, as Nobel laureate
Daniel Kahneman discovered, and they rise in direct proportion to
income, but only until we earn about $75,000 a year. After that point,
they start to diverge wildly. Happiness becomes untethered to income
because, once we can meet our basic needs, the lure of all the stuff it
took to meet them begins to lose its luster.
Once extrinsic drivers start to fade, intrinsic drivers take over. In
business, we see this played out in how companies try to motivate employees. Once people feel fairly compensated for their time—­meaning
once that number starts to creep over $75,000 a year—­big raises and
annual bonuses won’t actually improve their productivity or performance. After that basic-­needs line is crossed, employees want intrinsic rewards. They want to be in control of their own time (autonomy),
they want to work on projects that interest them (curiosity/passion),
and they want to work on projects that matter (meaning and purpose).
This, too, is evolution at work. It’s not that evolution ever lets us stop
playing the “get more resources” game, it’s that our strategy evolves.
Once baseline needs are met, you can devote yourself to ways to get,
well, you guessed it, seriously more resources—­for yourself, for your
family, for your tribe, for your species. As high-­minded as something
like “meaning and purpose” might seem as a driver, this is actually
evolution’s way of saying: Okay, you’ve got enough resources for yourself
and your family. Now it’s time to help your tribe or your species get
more. This is also why, in the brain, there’s really not much difference
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between drivers. Intrinsic drivers, extrinsic drivers, it doesn’t matter.
In the end, like so much of life, it all comes down to neurochemistry.
THE NEUROCHEMISTRY OF REWARD
Motivation is message. It’s the brain saying: Hey, get off the couch, do
this thing, it’s super important to your survival. In order to send this
message, the brain relies on four basic components: neurochemistry
and neuroelectricity, which are the messages themselves, and neuroanatomy and networks, which are the places those messages are sent
from and received.
The messages themselves are basic.5 In the brain, electrical signals
have only one meaning: do more of what you’re doing.
If enough electricity pours into a neuron, that neuron fires, sending that electricity onward to the next neuron. If enough electricity
pours into that next neuron, it fires, too. It’s like water in a bucket on
a waterwheel. Pour enough water into a bucket, and sooner or later it
spills into the next bucket, and the next. It’s that mechanical.
Chemical signals are similarly simple, though they can have one of
two meanings: do more of what you’re doing, or do less of what you’re
been doing.
Yet, neurochemicals aren’t intelligent. When we say neurochemicals carry messages—­do more of this or do less of that—­they themselves are the messages. On the inside of synapses, which is the little
gap between neurons where neurochemicals do their jobs, there are
receptors. Each receptor has a particular geometric shape. Each neurochemical has a particular geometric shape. Either these shapes line
up—­so the round neurochemical blob fits inside the round neurochemical blob hole—­or they don’t. If the round key of the neurochemical dopamine fits inside the round lock of a dopamine receptor, then
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the message gets sent.
Neuroanatomy and networks, meanwhile, are the places those
messages are sent from and received, the where in the brain something
is taking place.6
Neuroanatomy describes specific brain structures: the insula or
the medial prefrontal cortex. But, in the brain, structures are designed
to perform specific functions. The medial prefrontal cortex, for example, aids in decision-­making and the retrieval of long-­term memories.7
So, if a particular “do more” message arrives in the medial prefrontal
cortex, the result is more, or sometimes more finely tuned, decision-­
making and long-­term memory retrieval.
Networks, meanwhile, refer to brain structures that are hardwired
together by direct connections or structures that tend to activate at
the same time.8 For example, the insula and the medial prefrontal
cortex are wired together and frequently do work at the same time,
making them important hubs in the so-­called default mode network.
When the brain wants to motivate us, it sends out a neurochemical
message via one of seven specific networks.9 These networks are ancient devices, found in all mammals, that correspond to the behavior
they’re designed to produce. There is a system for fear, another for anger/rage, and a third for grief or what’s technically known as “separation distress.” The lust system drives us to procreate, the care/nurture
system urges us to protect and educate our young. Yet, when we talk
about drive—­the psychological energy that pushes us forward—­we’re
really talking about the two final systems: play/social engagement and
seeking/desire.
The play/social engagement system is about all the fun stuff we
used to do as kids: running, jumping, chasing, wrestling, and, of
course, socializing. Scientists once assumed the point of play was
practice. We practice fight today because tomorrow could bring an
actual fight for survival. Now, we know that play is mostly designed to
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teach us about social rules and social interaction. When you’re playing
with your little brother and Mom screams, “Don’t pick on someone
smaller than you,” she’s exactly on message. The point of play is to
teach us lessons like: might doesn’t make right. It’s nature’s way of instructing us in morality.10
And that instruction occurs automatically. When we play, the
brain releases dopamine and oxytocin, two of our most crucial “reward chemicals.” These are pleasure drugs that make us feel good
when we accomplish, or try to accomplish, anything that fulfills a basic survival need.
Dopamine is the brain’s primary reward chemical, with oxytocin a close second.11 Yet serotonin, endorphins, norepinephrine, and
anandamide also play a role. The pleasurable feeling created by each
of these chemicals drives us to act and, if that action was successful,
reinforces the behavior in memory.
Moreover, neurochemicals are specialized. Dopamine specializes
in driving all the various manifestations of desire, from our sexual appetites to our quest for knowledge. We feel its presence as excitement,
enthusiasm, and the desire to make meaning from a situation. When
your phone dings, and you’re curious to check it out, that’s dopamine
at work. The urge to decipher black hole theory, the hunger to climb
Mount Everest, the desire to test your limits—­that’s dopamine, too.
Norepinephrine is similar but different. It’s the brain’s version of
adrenaline, sometimes called noradrenaline. This neurochemical produces a huge increase in energy and alertness, stimulating both hyperactivity and hypervigilance. When you’re obsessed with an idea, can’t
stop working on a project, or can’t stop thinking about the person you
just met, norepinephrine is responsible.
Oxytocin produces trust, love, and friendship.12 It’s the “pro-­
social” neurochemical that underpins everything from loving, long-­
term marital bliss to cooperative, well-­f unctioning companies. We feel
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its presence as joy and love. It promotes trust, underpins fidelity and
empathy, and heightens cooperation and communication.
Serotonin is a calming, peaceful chemical that provides a gentle
lift in mood.13 It’s that satiated feeling that comes after a good meal or
a great orgasm, and it’s partially responsible for that post-­meal/post-­
coital urge to take a nap. But it also appears to play a role in satisfaction and contentment, that feeling of a job well done.
Endorphins and anandamide, our final two pleasure chemicals,
are pain-­killing bliss producers. They’re both heavy-­duty stress relievers, replacing the weight of the everyday with a euphoric sense of
relaxed happiness. It’s that “all is right in the world” sensation that
shows up during experiences like runner’s high, or when we catch our
second wind.
Yet the neurochemistry of reward isn’t simply about how individual neurochemicals work, as we’re often motivated by combinations
of neurochemicals. Dopamine plus oxytocin is the blend beneath the
delight of play. Passion—­including everything from the passion of an
artist for their craft to the passion of romantic love—­is underpinned
by the pairing of norepinephrine and dopamine.14
Flow may be the biggest neurochemical cocktail of all. The state
blends all six of the brain’s major pleasure chemicals and appears to be
one of the only times you get all six at once. This potent mix explains
why people describe flow as their “favorite experience,” while psychologists refer to it as “the source code of intrinsic motivation.”
The seeking/desire system is the second system that plays an important role in drive. Sometimes called the “reward system,” this is
a general-­purpose network that helps animals acquire the resources
they need for survival. “In pure form, [the seeking system] provokes
intense and enthusiastic exploration and . . . anticipatory excitement
[and] learning,” writes Jaak Panksepp, the neuroscientist who discovered these seven systems.15 “When fully aroused, the seeking system
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fills the mind with interest and motivates organisms to effortlessly
search for the things they need”—­italics mine.
I put “effortlessly” into italics for a reason. If we can tune the system correctly, the results show up automatically. Consider passion.
When we’re passionate, we don’t have to work hard to stay on task. Because of dopamine and norepinephrine, that happens automatically.
Every day, I wake up at 4:00 a.m. and start writing. Does this demand grit? Occasionally. But mostly, grit takes care of itself because I
have curiosity, passion, and purpose. When I wake up, I’m excited to
see where the words will take me. Even on those crappy nights when I
wake up in a panic, I retaliate by writing. Writing is where I run when
I need to run. My craft is my salvation. And if you talk to anyone who
has tackled the impossible, you’ll hear a similar tale.
Consider the late, great skier and skydiver Shane McConkey.16 As
much as any athlete in history, McConkey extended the limits of human possibility, not just accomplishing the impossible but doing so
again and again. And if you asked McConkey how he pulled this off,
his answer frequently stressed the importance of intrinsic drive: “I’m
doing what I love. If you’re doing what you want to do all the time then
you’re happy. You’re not going to work every day wishing you were doing something else. I get up and I go to work every day and I’m stoked.
That does not suck.”
Yet, the same neurochemical drive that helped Shane McConkey
accomplish the impossible is available to all of us. It’s our basic biology
at work, the push of our most critical emotional fuels, expertly cocktailed for maximum thrust.
THE RECIPE FOR DRIVE
Over the next two chapters, we’re going to learn to stack—­that is,
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