1028. The Habit Of Ferocity |The Art of Impossible — Steven Kotler

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So let me ask you this. Have you ever found yourself ruminating, thinking about something that you you need to get done, and you just haven't done it? And this thing just like swirls over and over in your mind, and like day after day, you just don't get to it, and then something else pops up, and you need to get around to that too, and then something else pops up, and you didn't get around to that, and something else fires at you, and you like, yeah, I'm gonna get to that too. We use these theme days as Saturday, I'm gonna get around to that, only to get to Saturday, and then you like, bro, it has been a torturous week. I'm uh maybe next weekend, and then you just don't do any of it, and before you know it, you're a year or two down the road. I mean, hand the God's lips. I mean, I find myself many times doing this, and I'm just like, oh my god, and it's like I don't get anything done, and I'm just like mentally worn out, physically frustrated. All right, so I just dumped on you for that. Am I the only one who feels that way? This morning in my random reading, I opened up Stephen Cotler's book. I haven't read that book, The Art of Impossible, in a long time. And I've read it a couple of times. And it's funny because when you're in different seasons, you pick up on stuff that you didn't before. And I turned to the chapter of the habit of ferocity, and I was like, oh my god, what is this about? And apparently I've read it because I've underlined. Well, I know I read the book, but I there's all kinds of underlines in this short chapter. And I'm like, I don't remember any of this. But see, when you're in different seasons, there's there are other things that you gravitate to in the book and and other sections that you just don't fully remember, which is which is why I say that you should go back and re-rebooks. This is a reason why I like random reading, because you could pick up old books that you haven't read in a long time, you set your timer for 15 minutes, you read that section, and then it triggers you, and you're like, yes. And it seems to be life has a funny way of putting the right thing in your face at the right time, and it's exactly what you needed. And I needed this chapter today. The habit of ferocity, I keep wanting to say the it's the art of impossible book. The habit of ferocity is the name of the section. I keep wanting to say the art of ferocity. But the habit of ferocity, Stephen Cotler says there are characteristics, and and basically the theme of the book is how to how to basically do impossible things. Everything's impossible until the day before you do it. And there is, you know, you impossible is something that can be accomplished. But there's there are habits, there are characteristics that you have to take on. So that's what the book is all about. One of the characteristics that impossible stalkers, he calls them, have or have developed is the habit of ferocity. So Cotler describes the habit of ferocity as developing a response to challenges where you instinctively lean in. He says so much so that you're already in the mix before you even realize it. And it kind of makes me think of Mel Robbins' five-second rule. And this is very similar, but it don't have as much stank to it as the habit of ferocity. That we're just like, but the five-second rule is before you get, it's that it cuts out that internal negotiation. Should I, shouldn't I? We did an episode on that. And so the five-second rule is counting down mentally from five to one before you get to one, you bust a move. And that works really well if you're negotiating or having uh or need to have difficult conversations because see, it's all these layers that you put on top, and these are the things that that wear you at out. So the habit of ferocity is just that, where you develop a response to instinctively lean in to certain challenges. And sometimes the challenges are something that you may be familiar with, but other times you just you just get in there. And what happens is I think this is what wakes you up in life because you're you to Kotler's point, you increase your your challenge to skills ratio. So you get challenged and you develop new skills. That's what I like about the habit of ferocity. Because think about the when something pops up, normally we slow down or back off. Why? Because we're trying to figure out how this is going to result. Am I going to look stupid? Is this going to blow up in my face? Am I even skillful enough to do it? And before you know it, we start talking ourselves out of things, and we always revert back to the same as lame. I mean, we just revert back to it because, yes, there's some ego to it, and we don't want to look stupid. I don't want to look like a clown all day long. But that's the only way that you actually grow, is you got to lean into these situations. And so there's a ferocity to that, and this is how people just really excel in life is there's these little small gaps, micro pockets, I call them, of opportunity that you can actually get in there and do something before you internally negotiate your way out of it or mentally negotiate yourself out of it. It's regret minimalization. Let me put it like that. Because if you think about the things that you're frustrated about, it's not the things that you did, it's the things that you didn't do but should have. It's the things that you did not get around to but wish you would have. And you put your head down, you look up, and before you know it, you're 30 years down the road, you're like, what happened? I mean, I'm talking to people now, and they're talking to me about retiring. You know, we all went to school together, and I'm like, wait, what? What happened to the time? You know, these people are talking about retiring, and I'm like, oh my God. That's that's what happens. And you young people who are listening to this, you're like, oh yeah, I got time. I'm good. I'm 30. I'm 32. Bro, let me tell you something. 32 to 62 is gonna fly up on you in a second. What's really good about this is this is seizing the day. This is seizing these moments with that art of ferocity. Now, let's put some guardrails on this. Because when I first read this, I'm like, yeah, get in the mix, get shit done. Yeah, but you can't be everything and everywhere. So there is there is some prioritization that you have to have with this. And Cotler says that you have to have the motivational mix, which is drive, goals, and and grit. So the drive is okay, what's the thing that that just powers you? The goals are like, what are you gunning for? The grit is after all the newness and the motivation and the David Goggins wears off in your head and it's just mundane, or just doesn't feel like it's gonna work, will you stay to it? Will you stay with it? That's that grit where you're just like, mm-mm, I'm not giving up. I'm not giving up, I'm not giving in. I'm just gonna keep going at this at this thing. And so that is that art of ferocity. So the guardrails that I want to point out to you is it doesn't mean that you jump in on every single thing. You either do it because it's the next useful thing to you that aligns with your drive, or you delegate it. So do it or delegate it. Especially, this is really key in leadership. Delegate it means that you delegate the ferocity to someone else. So you give them the power, you give them the room to grow, you let them figure it out somewhat, you set the expectation. Hey, I need you to go handle this. This is your task, this is what I need you to do, and collectively it's good for the team. And what happens is then they develop their own ferocity because now you have set expectations for them. You have also set an empowered a belief on them, and then they go out there and do it. And sometimes, man, they just flounder around a little bit, but you don't beat them up for it. You you build them up, and so you critique it, you help them figure it out, and then you empower them to do that again. So you either do it for yourself, or it's something for you to do, or you delegate it. And you must delegate some ferocity and empower other people to be able to do that. You kind of want to be the Nick Sabin of ferocity, where basically the head coach has developed all of these other assistant coaches that are just powerhouses in their own. They were under this umbrella of fine coaching, and now they've gone out there to be head coaches themselves, and they have assistance, and then this tree gets bigger and bigger, bigger. That's how you become successful. So, the habit of ferocity, I'm telling you, man, when you really think about this, you narrow that gap, boom, I get in it and I get in the mix. This is going to increase your skill set. It's gonna help you think quicker, you're gonna think clearer, you're gonna be more trusting of yourself, you're gonna be more bold, you're gonna be more courageous, you're gonna be more collaborative, you're gonna be that go-to person because they're just like, oh my God, this guy just is not fearful of anything. It's not that I'm not, I just don't have time to internally negotiate. Okay, I'm not gonna, let's let's figure it out. Let's do it, let's do it. We can always make the adjustments. And most decisions, if you think about it, most decisions that you make, they're two-way doors. That's what they are. So you can go through the door, and if it don't work, you can always come back, reset, figure it out, go back in there again. It's what it is. Now he ends the chapter with this, and I want to make sure that I point this out. This is what's going to help you become successful, duh. But also it's going to reduce the cognitive load because sometimes the mental drain that you have is because you have these layers of things that you haven't gotten around to. So, what you'll be able to do is you'll be able to, you'll sp you'll develop this keen awareness and you jump in and do it, and you get it out of the way. If you think about this, there is no shelfing it for the weekend or I got to take a vacation to get caught up. There's none of that. It's like needs to be done. It's productive, it aligns with my goals, it's that drive. This is why I'm doing what I'm doing, and I'm gonna have that grid. I'm gonna stay with it. Okay. You're going to get more things done, and it's gonna compound. You could use this in every area of your life in your faith, your family, your fitness, your finances, your fulfillment, both creatively and professionally. So let me show you how the math maths. If you will capitalize on just three of these moments a day, even if they're 10 minutes apiece, that's 30 minutes a day that you have just freed up. Over the course of a year, you just freed up 182 hours. Over a five-year period, you just got back 38 days of your life with just these little 10-minute micro pockets of opportunity that I can I can do something and I don't I don't procrastinate. I don't let it build up. And this actually frees me up mentally, cognitively to apply myself to something else. This is just at the ground level. I'm not talking about the compounding factor that it has to it, too, because along the way, you're capitalizing with the with the habit of ferocity. You develop an awareness to instinctively lean in on something. Instead of waiting to get it done, you jump in and do it. You do this, it's just 10 minutes. That's 30 minutes a day. That's 182 hours a year, that's 38 days over a five-year period. I just freed up. And when you do that, you develop a skill set, you develop a know-how, you develop collaboration, a boldness, a curiosity, creativity, like all these kind of different things, and it's just 10 minutes at a time. See, it's all these big monumental things that we think we have to, oh my God, I've got all this to do. I'll never do it. No, you're not. But you can sure seize it. So you start it, you add to it along the way, and you get stuff done. You start to close these mental loops that need to be, that need to be closed. So I want to leave you with that. Like, think about what areas of your life are you just like not happy with right now? Faith, family, fitness, finances, fulfillment, and how can you apply the habit of ferocity? Go back and listen to this. I had to marinate on this all day long. I actually recorded an episode of this and had to go back and do it again because I was just like, I got more to add. And so figure out where you can apply this in different areas and see how this is gonna work. Now, it may not just work today. So, okay, 30 minutes don't seem like that. Just just stay with it, man. Try it for a month, see how it works over a six-month period, just do it for the rest of the year, okay? And and see where you're at with it. I mean, it can't get worse, it can only get better, truthfully. That's that's that that's the truth. And you're gonna find that you're going to stop ruminating and thinking about stuff. It's just like bruh, there are things that I've woken up and talked about and beat myself up for every morning while I'm walking the dogs. That's what I do. I have done that. And I realized this yesterday morning that I've been talking about this like for three years. I'm like, you're talking about the same thing, different variations, but ultimately the same thing over and over again. Like, what are we doing here? Like, all you're doing is is talking about how pissed off you are, how frustrated you are, how it's just you know, nothing seems to be working. Because you're not applying the habit of ferocity. So I'm gonna be doing this with you. And that way when I wake up in the morning, imagine thinking about something different the next morning, tomorrow morning, because you close the loop on the thing you've been uh on the thing that you've been carrying over for three years worth of yesterdays. Boom. All right, let's get it done. Keep it simple, keep it moving, never settle, stay tough, peace.