Podcast Review: Art of Charm Episode 271 with Steven Kotler: The Rise of Superman

Podcast Review

Art of Charm Episode 271
Steven Kotler: The Rise of Superman

Podcast Review: First off, I am a huge Art of Charm fan. If you haven’t heard of Jordan Harbinger and the Art of Charm you are missing out on learning life skills that I don’t know where else to find. Listening to this podcast has helped me to discover fields of study that I didn’t even know existed. Check out Art of Charm I promise you won’t regret it. Now on to my favorite points from The Rise of Superman.

Don’t be deceived by the title. This isn’t about comic books or anything related to the DC Universe (I know that would be cool too!). A main topic of this podcast episode is flow. Steven describes flow as effortless effort. Some of the positive effects of flow are motivation increases, increased learning in the early stages, increased creativity, taking in more information per second, and a lower signal to noise ratio. I believe the exact number Steven said was people are 7x more creative in flow. Can you imagine an artist that is awesome normally, in flow? Maybe, they are a great because they are flowing all the time. There is evidence supporting an increase in your brains ability to think more creatively in flow. Sounds awesome right?! Unfortunately, there are some setbacks. Risk taking increases. That could be a recipe for disaster in certain situations. If you find yourself in flow on a regular basis and then all of a sudden you are cut off it is exactly like being denied an addictive drug. People who are regularly in high flow environments, such as stock brokers, can become addicted to the chemicals released by flow and end up partying like crazy to make up for the lack of flow at home. If only these people knew that the rest time enabled them to be able to achieve flow even better when you let yourself come down. I like the quote, “Write in flow, but edit sober” Steven says when describing optimizing the effects of flow. Flow can be an awesome tool if used correctly and responsibly. Unfortunately, just like with anything else to much of a good thing can be bad.

The author, Steven Kotler, has a unique and motivating story of his own. He was diagnosed with lime disease and bed ridden for a very long time. He was considering suicide because he didn’t want to be a burden to his family. Can you imagine being in that situation? Wanting to end your life so your family doesn’t have to take care of you anymore. Eventually some of his friends came by and drug him out of bed to take him surfing. They threw him on a board and into some very short waves. Somehow his muscle memory took over and he hopped up on the board to catch a wave. He described what he experienced as flow taking over. He believe that flow took him from what was normal to a whole other world. He kept pushing himself surfing and eventually overcame the debilitation of lime disease. He was forced to takes weeks off between sessions because of how worn out he would become. Eventually he won.

After telling his story, Steven discusses how you can use flow to your advantage in life. He suggests when you are feeling overwhelmed you need to distract yourself from the situation. Television is definitely bad! Low motor skilled activities are good. Anything with music or reading is a good way to distract yourself. (+1 for reading all the time!!) Steven says that your brain will solve the problem for you if you can take your mind off of it. He does warn that if you stress out the recovery process can be inhibited by the cortisol your body releases. Passion allows us to focus more on the task at hand. Another reason why you need to find out what you are passionate about! Listen to Steve on this one!

Quote from Art of Charm (not verbatim):

Take the pen and write your own story. If your life was a documentary would you watch it? What would you want to be in it?

What are you waiting for!? Get out there and write your story. Make your life the perfect documentary!