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Performance

Becoming a Brave Athlete with Simon Marshall and Lesley Paterson: PYP 262

Lesley Paterson, the “Scottish Rocket,” is a three-time world champion in off-road triathlon, an Ironman triathlon champ, a professional mountain biker, an athletic coach, and a world-class slinger of profanity.

Simon Marshall, her husband, is a sport and exercise psychologist at San Diego State, performance psychologist for BMC Racing, and a self-described “mid-pack endurance athlete.”

Together, Lesley and Simon comprise Braveheart Coaching, a service that gets athletes performing to their potential in spite of the “3-pound lump of crazy” that lives in their cranium.

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Mastering the Meditation Habit with Emily Fletcher: PYP 254

Emily Fletcher is one of the new faces of an ancient practice. Former Broadway star and founder of Ziva Meditation, she talks funny, dirty, relatable, and wise about one of the simplest, cheapest, and most profound of wellness practices: going within ourselves.

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Designing Your Life with Dave Evans and Bill Burnett: PYP 243

Dave Evans and Bill Burnett are co-authors of the New York Times bestselling Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life. You may not have heard of them, but their design work has almost certainly touched your life. You know Dave’s work if you’ve ever used an Apple mouse or laser printer. And Bill’s designs include the hinges on Apple’s Powerbooks and the original Hasbro Star Wars figures.

What do these guys have to teach us about being healthy and happy?

As it turns out, plenty. 

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Bernie Roth on Designing the Lives We Want: PYP 226

Bernie Roth is a co-founder and Academic Director of the incredibly influential d.school at Stanford University (officially known as the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design).

He’s also the author of a charming, unflinchingly honest, and hugely helpful book, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life.

Bernie’s great contribution to the world, aside from his numerous inventions and innovations in machine design, robotics, and engineering, is the insight that successful, happy, healthy people generally don’t achieve these nice things by accident.

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Doing Epic Sh-tuff and Having Fun with Aaron Stuber and Jackson Long: PYP 223

Aaron Stuber and Jackson Long are the irreverent, hilarious, and extremely fit duo behind the Thought For Food Podcast and nascent publishing empire.

Aaron is a cardiovascular nurse, and a long-time competitive climber. When he first started dating his vegetarian girlfriend, he initially dismissed that diet as “the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of.” Then he began to feel the effects of adding more plants to his diet, checked out the science, and was hooked.

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Living Life on Purpose with Vic Strecher: PYP 219

Vic Strecher was a stellar public health researcher and entrepreneur when his life lost all meaning. A professor at the University of Michigan, founder of the Center for Health Communication Research, and creator of an online health coaching company that was bought by Johnson & Johnson in 2008, Strecher was at the top of his game.

And then in 2010 his life fell apart when his daughter Julia died at the age of 21.

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Avoiding Burnout and Achieving Peak Performance with Bradley Stulberg: PYP 213

Bradley Stulberg and Steve Magness know a lot about burnout. They were up-and-comers in their respective fields – consulting and running – and neither managed to live up to their early promise. Both “burned out,” losing interest, passion, and the performance edge they had honed through years of hard work and deliberate practice.

As they rebuilt their lives, they both gravitated to the field of high performance. Wondering what happened, perhaps, and seeking a way to turn things around for themselves and others.

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