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how to perform at your best
(with zero effort)
written by dan goldfield 26th of May 2023
read time: 9 minutes
Millions of people squeeze a 20-minute meditation into their morning routine. Then they hope it’ll sustain their performance throughout the day.They may as well believe in magic.If you’ve ever tried the above, you know it doesn’t work.In this letter I’m going to tell you why.But most importantly I’ll tell you what to do instead. I’ll tell you how to guarantee elite performance in every moment (without wasting precious time away from your real goals).
The Problem With Most Meditation Teachings
Most meditation instructions—by design or mistranslation—leave practitioners believing there must be something magical about meditation…“If I sit cross-legged and pay attention to my breath long enough, something good will happen.”Will it though?How can you be sure?And don’t meditation teachings also say "there’s only the present moment?"
“Your entire life only happens in this moment. The present moment is life itself. Yet, people live as if the opposite were true and treat the present moment as a stepping stone to the next moment – a means to an end.–Eckhart Tolle (author of bestseller "The Power of Now")
So when exactly can “something good” happen if not now?the whole idea of sitting for long hours, racking up "enlightenment points" to cash in later always seemed off to me.So I searched years for alternatives, hoping to find a solution to my chronic stress that actually made sense. Eventually I found one. (More on that later.)As I was searching, I did what I could with what I had.I carved time out of my day (time I didn’t have).I did various meditation techniques as well as I could...And I waited for something good to happen.I hoped the practice would make a positive impact on what I really cared about (which, at the time, was becoming the best drummer in the world).But even if I did manage to generate some good feelings in meditation—some extra focus; peace; clarity—it was only a matter of time before they faded.Then I was back to being a distracted, gratification-seeking stress-head. Back to being unable to focus on my task; unable to perform at my best; unable to achieve my goals.This got so bad toward the end of my 20’s that I was facing the end of my career.I kept looking for different ways to meditate; different presentations of wisdom that might actually work.But I kept hearing the same advice from all the teachers I was following.They were all telling me something I didn’t want to hear…“If you want to realize your full potential, you’ll have to speak with a teacher directly.”I had to find someone who’d already ditched their emotional baggage so they could help me with mine.My first teacher was an American who’d lived as a monk in Thailand for 8 years.He’d been sent out of the monastery to teach the inner circle secrets online.One of the first things he told me was also the most powerful thing he ever would…
"You Don’t Have To Whip Yourself Into Shape"
You and me were raised on a damaging assumption—the assumption that we were born broken and must fix ourselves.This idea is central to many religions. And religions, of course, shaped culture for thousands of years.The adults in your life never considered this underlying assumption. So they forced you through school—where they told you all day, every day, that you had to change yourself. And that you had to prove yourself (if you wanted to be accepted by society).But what if you didn’t just want to be accepted… what if you wanted to be successful? Well, then you’d really have to punish yourself.Your schoolteachers repeated these ideas to you so many times that they successfully “installed” their voices in your head. (Freudian Psychology calls this your “superego”).So now—without feeling you have a choice—you routinely criticize yourself, suppress your emotions and feel you’re not good enough. And it no matter how much you achieve in life, that voice never stops talking.But that first mindfulness teacher of mine led me to that important hypothesis:What if I was never broken and so never needed fixing?What if the effectiveness, clarity and happiness we all seek is, in fact, our default mode?the first time I heard this it sounded way too good to be true.Turns out it wasn’t.
Education Or Inculcation?
Education means “to draw out”.Inculcation means “to stamp in”.Which word best represents your experience of school?You probably know that the modern education system was created in the 18th century. There were, of course, few types of work back then. So of course it was those types of work for which children were trained.This is why school treated you like a factory worker.To say this is outdated in the 21st-century is the understatement of the… century.Good news: you no longer have to do work that doesn’t align with your core values.Better news: when you do work that does align with your core values, you don’t need even an ounce of self-discipline.Nor do you need extra methods within your daily routine to try to “prop yourself up” (like meditation).Nor do you need that self-critical voice your schoolteachers installed in your head.I’m here to help you figure out what your core values are. And I’m here to help you align with those values to make your greatest contribution to humanity.But we won’t do this using discipline or esoteric practices.We’ll do it by relaxing.How could it be that easy?It’s that easy because the peak performance you’ve been trying to force is actually your default mode.Some folks have achieved incredible things with self-discipline. But they always burn out eventually.The only way to live a life of maximum contribution is to realize who you really are—in the deepest sense. And then perform all your deeds from that naturally peaceful, wise, effective condition.This is what mindfulness is really about.
The Easy Way to Sustain Effortless Peak Performance
Truth is you don’t have to “sustain” peak performance at all.Peak performance—when you’re working on something you deeply care about—is your default mode.And good news: what you deeply care about is naturally beneficial to others.Because you don’t need a reason to be kind! You don’t need a reason to make a wholesome contribution to humanity! You—and everyone else—actually need a reason to be unkind.When we take away reasons to be unkind, like:🔹 Insecurity
🔹 Frustration
🔹 Anxiety
🔹 FatigueAll that remains is natural beneficial intent—the cleanest fuel there is.We take away those reasons to be unkind by resting naturally without seeking or describing anything.Really, it’s that simple.
"but it can't be that simple!"
Every student I’ve worked with has had some degree of resistance to that simple instruction…Rest naturally without seeking or describing anything.If you were able to implement that instruction and live that way 24/7, you’d have no need of any further guidance.But you probably can’t.Not yet.I know I couldn’t when I heard it the first time (or the 100th).So here’s the next step, which will look more familiar to you.
Simple Mindfulness Instructions
This looks like a formal meditation, but the context here is different.In typical presentations of meditation, you practice to achieve something.But in this presentation, you practice to get free of practising.You use this distraction-free practice to get familiar with your naturally beneficial, wise, effective state…Then you drop it.In other words, this practice is a crutch.One of my great teachers, Ram Dass, said “do you want to be a meditator or do you want to be free?”I know which one I wanted.I’d wanted it since I was a little boy.This freedom enables me to work tirelessly to bring these teachings to you.And it will enable you to work tirelessly to do whatever represents your greatest contribution to humanity.I’m actually detoxing as I write this letter.I’m experiencing all kinds of symptoms: fatigue, fogginess, pain… But these don’t impact my effectiveness. And they don’t stop me wanting to do this work.Because a) these symptoms can’t harm awareness, which is where I’m writing from, and b) I’d talk about the content of this letter in any condition. It’s my joy, my passion.If this sounds as good to you as it does to me then we’re going to be good friends.experiment with the practice in the blue square graphic and let me know how you get on in a dm. (social links are at the top of this page.)dg 💙
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3 steps to realize ultimate wellbeing
hi, i'm dan goldfield.
i studied with a monk for 5 years, meditated for 29,366 hours then married a hot neuropsychologist. mission: normalize wellbeing for 1 billion & 1 people.
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Dan Koe
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