Book page: The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer

Barnes & Noble

Official description: Bestselling author and peak performance expert Steven Kotler decodes the secrets of those elite performers—athletes, artists, scientists, CEOs and more—who have changed our definition of the possible, teaching us how we too can stretch far beyond our capabilities, making impossible dreams much more attainable for all of us.

What does it take to accomplish the impossible? What does it take to shatter our limitations, exceed our expectations, and turn our biggest dreams into our most recent achievements?

We are capable of so much more than we know—that’s the message at the core of The Art of Impossible. Building upon cutting-edge neuroscience and over twenty years of research, bestselling author, peak performance expert and Executive Director of the Flow Research Collective, Steven Kotler lays out a neuroscience-backed blueprint for extreme performance improvement. If you want to aim high, this is the playbook to make it happen!

Inspirational and aspirational, pragmatic and accessible, The Art of Impossible is a life-changing experience disguised as a how-to manual for high achievement that anyone can use to shoot for the stars... space-suit, not included.

The Art of Impossible is a practical playbook that gives you the tools to accomplish your own lowercase “i” impossibles, teaching you how to:

• Master Motivation and Grit: Go beyond sheer willpower by stacking intrinsic drivers like passion and purpose to build the habit of ferocity needed to overcome any obstacle.
• Accelerate Your Learning: Discover the five essential steps for mastering new skills and information, allowing you to stay ahead of the curve and continuously improve.
• Unlock Creativity on Demand: Learn to harness the three key brain networks that drive innovation, turning novel ideas into world-changing solutions.
• Harness the Flow State: Tap into the neurobiological secret of peak performance to amplify focus, productivity, and creativity, cutting the time it takes to achieve mastery in half.

Book page: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

Amazon

Official description: Legendary psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's famous investigations of "optimal experience" have revealed that what makes an experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow. During flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life. In this new edition of his groundbreaking classic work on personal growth, Csikszentmihalyi ("the leading researcher into ‘flow states’" —Newsweek) demonstrates the ways this positive state can be controlled, not just left to chance. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience teaches how, by ordering the information that enters our consciousness, we can discover true happiness, learn to control consciousness, unlock our potential, and greatly improve the quality of our lives.

In this landmark work on the psychology of optimal experience, you will learn how to transform your life:

A State of Consciousness Called Flow: Discover flow, the state of total involvement where you experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and lose track of time.
Enjoyment and the Quality of Life: Learn how to go beyond simple pleasure to find true enjoyment by ordering the information that enters your consciousness.
Work as Flow: Transform your daily work into a more rewarding and enjoyable activity by structuring it to produce optimal experiences.
The Autotelic Experience: Find purpose and meaning not in external rewards, but in the process of living itself, turning any activity into an end in itself.

Book page: The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance

Amazon

Official description: THE RISE OF SUPERMAN unlocks the code of ultimate human performance—bridging the gap between the extreme and the mainstream.

Drawing on over 15 years of research, including first-hand reporting with dozens of top action and adventure athletes (Laird Hamilton, Travis Rice, Ian Walsh, Danny Way, Dean Potter, among many others), RISE explores the frontier science of “flow,” an optimal state of consciousness in which we perform and feel our best

By using “impossible” athletic feats as case studies, RISE deciphers what these athletes are doing to harness flow so successfully and shows us how to apply this knowledge across all domains in society.

In other words, despite the unusual “them” at the center of this book, this story is really about “us.” You and me. Who doesn’t want to know how to be their best when it matters most? To be more creative, more contented, more consumed? To soar and not to sink? As the deeds of these athletes prove, if we can master flow, there are no limits to what we can accomplish.

Book page: Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life

Amazon

Official description: What makes a good life? Is it money? An important job? Leisure time? Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi believes our obsessive focus on such measures has led us astray. Work fills our days with anxiety and pressure, so that during our free time, we tend to live in boredom, watching TV or absorbed by our phones.

What are we missing? To answer this question, Csikszentmihalyi studied thousands of people, and he found the key. People are happiest when they challenge themselves with tasks that demand a high degree of skill and commitment, and which are undertaken for their own sake. Instead of watching television, play the piano. Take a routine chore and figure out how to do it better, faster, more efficiently.

In short, learn the hidden power of complete engagement, a psychological state the author calls flow. Though they appear simple, the lessons in Finding Flow are life-changing.