{"id":133174,"date":"2021-01-04T15:50:11","date_gmt":"2021-01-04T21:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=133174"},"modified":"2026-09-12T14:03:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T19:03:30","slug":"podcast-672-how-to-do-the-impossible-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-672-how-to-do-the-impossible-this-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #672: How to Do the Impossible This Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There are goals in life that seem very attainable. And then there are those which seem practically impossible &#8212; rising out of poverty and\/or a traumatic childhood, becoming&nbsp;a bestselling writer, deadlifting 500 pounds. With impossible goals the odds seem long, and it isn&#8217;t clear how to get from point A to point B.<\/p>\n<p>My guest today has spent decades figuring out the roadmap for making that journey. His name is Steven Kotler, he&#8217;s a peak performance expert, the Executive Director of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flowresearchcollective.com\/\">Flow Research Collective<\/a>, and the author of numerous books, including his latest: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0062977539\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0062977539&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=stucosuccess&amp;linkId=FSXA3GZUT5SFDAZ4\"><i>The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer<\/i><\/a>. Today on the show, Steven talks about how he defines an impossible&nbsp;goal and then unpacks the&nbsp;formula for making the impossible, possible. That formula begins with harnessing the five big intrinsic motivators that will give you focus for free and which you need to activate in a certain sequence, and then moves through the six levels of grit which should be trained in a particular order as well. We discuss the importance of creativity and continual learning, and how to assess the ROI of your reading. Steven also explains how flow amplifies the process of achieving peak performance, and why you need to rediscover the primary flow activity from your childhood. At the end of our conversation, Steven shares some things you can begin&nbsp;doing today to start tackling your impossible&nbsp;goals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are goals in life that seem very attainable. And then there are those which seem practically impossible &#8212; rising out of poverty and\/or a traumatic childhood, becoming&nbsp;a bestselling writer, deadlifting 500 pounds. With impossible goals the odds seem long, and it isn&#8217;t clear how to get from point A to point B. My guest [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":194998,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[502,156,42388],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-character","category-podcast","category-self-improvement"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/672-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/672-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/672-372x230.png","aom-large":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/672-1200x675.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/672-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/672-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to Do the Impossible This Year | Art of Manliness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There are goals in life that seem very attainable. And then there are those which seem practically impossible. Here&#039;s how to do them.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-672-how-to-do-the-impossible-this-year\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Podcast #672: How to Do the Impossible This Year | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are goals in life that seem very attainable. And then there are those which seem practically impossible. Here&#039;s how to do them.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-672-how-to-do-the-impossible-this-year\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-04T21:50:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-09-12T19:03:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/672.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"AoM Team\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"AoM Team\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-672-how-to-do-the-impossible-this-year\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-672-how-to-do-the-impossible-this-year\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"AoM Team\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/28ff38880a7c6995e23ac063aaaa81d4\"},\"headline\":\"Podcast #672: How to Do the Impossible This Year\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-04T21:50:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-12T19:03:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-672-how-to-do-the-impossible-this-year\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":251,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-672-how-to-do-the-impossible-this-year\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/01\\\/672.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Character\",\"Podcast\",\"Self-Improvement\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2021\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-672-how-to-do-the-impossible-this-year\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-672-how-to-do-the-impossible-this-year\\\/\",\"name\":\"How to Do the Impossible This Year | Art of Manliness\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-672-how-to-do-the-impossible-this-year\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-672-how-to-do-the-impossible-this-year\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/01\\\/672.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-04T21:50:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-12T19:03:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/28ff38880a7c6995e23ac063aaaa81d4\"},\"description\":\"There are goals in life that seem very attainable. 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