Newsletter

Greetings from Portland! I’m doing a bit of work, a bit of exploring the city, and quite a bit of reading. Ryan Holiday’s new book Perennial Seller was on a lot of people’s reading list in the last week, including mine. I finished it in two sittings.

Belief is a powerful thing. That said, the quote in the graphic from William James is taken out of context. We know that plenty of people believe things that aren’t true, and while it may be their truth, that doesn’t make it an actual fact.

Last week, we explored why perseverance is more important than talent or intelligence when it comes to success. And we also looked at how to expand our own perseverance if it doesn’t come naturally to us due to genetics or social conditioning. As I dug deeper into Angela Duckworth’s book Grit, however, I realized there’s …

When I came up with the idea for Further along with the tagline “Keep Going,” I was thinking of the human drive to constantly improve. No matter the fits and starts or how slowly change happens, the idea is to keep pushing to be the best version of ourselves. Within that big-picture drive are the …

We know goals can have a dark side, especially if we focus more on outcomes and not enough on developing underlying habits. But that doesn’t mean we throw goal setting out the window. There’s a smarter way to set meaningful goals. And that’s the topic of the newest Further Original from Claire Emerson.

At age 18, Steve Magness ran the Prefontaine Classic, and became the then fastest high school runner in the United States, the fifth fastest junior in the world, and the sixth fastest high school miler ever. His training regimen bordered on obsessive, leaving no room for the typical high school social life, or even hobbies. …

We all have goals, right? That’s what going further means, although it’s not always the right way to think about becoming your best you. Last year, we discussed the dark side of goal setting. Research shows that pursuing clearly defined goals sometimes motivates people to lie, cheat, and otherwise engage in short-term thinking to overcome …

They’re the three most famous words in mountaineering. When asked by the New York Times in 1924 why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, George Mallory responded: Because it’s there. Last weekend, Alex Honnold accomplished the greatest feat of rock climbing in history. He became the first person to “free solo” Yosemite’s iconic 3,000-foot El …

They’re the three most famous words in mountaineering. When asked by the New York Times in 1924 why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, George Mallory responded: Because it’s there. Last weekend, Alex Honnold accomplished the greatest feat of rock climbing in history. He became the first person to “free solo” Yosemite’s iconic 3,000-foot El …

Hi, my name is Brian … and I’m an introvert. Now, if you met me at a party or saw me give a presentation, you wouldn’t conclude that I’m the shy type. Of course, introversion isn’t about shyness necessarily — it’s about the effect that being around other people has on us.

Change takes hard work. Some would say, that means change is unlikely. For those with a fixed mindset, meaningful change simply doesn’t happen. That’s not true, but even those of us with a growth mindset struggle to make the changes in our lives that we desire. Research out of the University of Chicago shows, however, …

Over the course of my entrepreneurial journey, the biggest inflection point came when I stopped trying to do everything myself. In 2006, I resolved to only focus on my strengths, and work with others to do everything else that I wasn’t as strong at. My success accelerated dramatically from that point forward. And it’s just …