The Rise of Superman Summary

By Steven Kotler

Have you ever looked at another person and thought, 'Wow! What they're
doing is actually magic.' We often think talented people have superhuman
abilities. Whether they're athletes, tech gurus, authors, or musicians,
we've all been in awe of someone else's talent.

The Rise of Superman is a fascinating and inspiring culmination of fifteen

years of research, and first-hand reporting. Steven Kotler argues that at
the heart of human performance and true mastery is "flow," and he
guides us through its history and shows us how we can tap into it.

Steven Kotler is a true master of flow. He's a bestselling author, an award-

winning journalist, founder of the Flow Genome Project, and Executive
Director of the Flow Research Collective. Inspired by his work as a
journalist, he delves into the science behind optimal performance. In the
early 90s, action and adventure sports were a burgeoning industry, and
were becoming mainstream. Through his research, Kotler found that
extreme athletes are perfect case studies because they embody flow,
and exhibit new ways to achieve mastery.

When Kotler interviewed athletes like Laird Hamilton, Danny Way, and
Travis Rice, he found that extreme athletes push themselves, and
through doing this, they push the boundaries of their sport. Their feats of
impossibility and "superhuman" abilities are used to show how the
impossible can become possible. This snowball effect has a profound
impact on the human psyche, and therefore hacking flow is something
we can all benefit from.
We'll briefly explore that it's not just about becoming a top-performing
athlete; it's about how to apply the flow mindset of these extreme
athletes to our own lives. Based on neuroscience, Kotler shows how flow
manifests, and how chemicals in our brains allow us to push ourselves,
provided we have the bravery to take risks and face our fears. Finally, we
look at how harnessing the addiction of flow is one of the most powerful
motivators we have at our disposal.

A Brief History of Flow

Flow is a high that pushes us to extraordinary levels of performance.

William James coined the phrase "stream of consciousness," which is a

precursor to the idea of flow. Stream of consciousness is when we
experience an internal monologue with ourselves, and our thoughts flow
through our minds. Building from this, Abraham Maslow developed the
"peak experience," which occurs when we're self-actualized.

Have you ever experienced a high once you've achieved something you
didn't think possible? Have you ever felt wholly and utterly exhilarated by
knowing you've done the very best you can?

This is what's known as a peak experience. It's the rush we feel when we
succeed at something. It's knowing we've maximized our full potential.
While peak experiences result from actual events, flow is a little different.

Flow is a state of mind proposed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. It's the idea

that when we're entirely focused on a task, and using maximum
concentration, we lose track of everything around us, including time. This
state of immersion is described as the optimal state of consciousness
where we're so absorbed in a task that it's almost as if we're on autopilot.
Not only are we utterly absorbed, but we also feel at our very best. It's
during this state of consciousness where physical and mental
performance goes through the roof.

The Power of Flow

Did you know that according to one study, a whopping 83% of American
workers are disengaged at work? Given that we spend a significant
portion of our lives at work, it's extraordinary to think that 4 out of 5
people essentially hate what they're doing.

One of the most profound messages in this book is that if we face the
impossible, we'll raise the bar, and be able to serve the world and
ourselves a lot more profoundly. What if more of us engaged at work, and
found passion in what we do? What if we could consistently strive to
master our crafts, and accomplish things that we thought impossible?
Imagine the unbelievable effect this would have on society?

People who structure their lives around flow, consistently outperform

others. Furthermore, companies that focus their efforts on encouraging
flow, show a massive increase in productivity and output.

Findings show that if we prioritize flow, performance will go up by up to

500%. Studies run by the US military revealed that, snipers in a state of
flow learned to optimize their accuracy and target skills 500% faster than
usual. Furthermore, if we look at a company like Patagonia, they
developed a company culture that embodies the principles of flow. Yvon
Chouinard, the founder and owner of the company, believes that
employees should be allowed to surf whenever the surf comes up. He
argues that as long as the work gets done, he doesn't care how it gets
done. This spirit of independence is at the heart of flow. The flexibility at
the core of Patagonia's ethos, means immense job satisfaction and
complete freedom and trust. And the company performance speaks for
itself.

So we can see the power of flow, but how do we get into this state of
consciousness where we're optimized to capacity?

Kotler identifies eighteen internal and external triggers that allow us to

get into a state of flow. They're based on our evolutionary biology, and
our brains identify them as crucial to maximizing output.

From an evolutionary perspective, it's not difficult to see how risk is a

massive trigger in our behavior. Whether emotional or physical, risk is a
substantial motivating factor. We are all aware of "risk versus reward,"
but this concept is crucial to developing a state of flow. Creativity is also
a profound trigger.

Have you ever started a crossword puzzle somewhat slowly, and then hit
your groove?

Hitting our groove comes from pattern recognition, and linking ideas is a
massive part of the creative process. Furthermore, we get dopamine hits
from solving problems, or linking ideas together. All of this encourages
the process of flow. You may also notice this when you hit your stride in
writing. Sentences begin knitting together, argument flows, and the right
words appear as if by magic. You are in the zone.
Let's explore some other ideas.

The M’s in Mastery

There are three popular theories around mastery – the 3 M's.

The first M is that mastery comes from "mothers," or through nurturing. If

you've ever heard of the phrase "Tiger Mom," you'll know how effective
firm parenting can be for developing skills. The second M stands for
"musicians." This is the idea of the 10 thousand hour rule. You'll be
familiar with this if you've read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. The premise
is that mastery is achieved through 10 thousand hours of structured and
deliberate practice. Finally, there's "marshmallow." The marshmallow test
is a famous study on delayed gratification. The theory is that if you seek
instant gratification, you won't achieve mastery.

The 3 M's focus on grinding, and the underlying belief that misery
equates to mastery, and mastery comes from misery.

Kotler's research with extreme athletes shows that the 3 M's leave a lot
to be desired. For example, many extreme athletes come from
disadvantaged backgrounds, or backgrounds where parents were mostly
absent. When it comes to practicing, extreme athletes admitted to
practicing a lot, but that it was neither deliberate nor structured. And
then, when it comes to exhibiting delayed gratification, the majority of
extreme athletes are incredibly impulsive, gung-ho, and gravitate
towards thrill-seeking behavior.

Extreme athletes do what they love. Their ability to get into the state of
flow, and their attitude of pushing themselves makes mastery addictive.
This instant gratification makes these sports addictive, and this passion
means skill levels increase exponentially. All of these athletes showed
that the 3 M's were not part of their formula for success.

Kotler argues that misery shouldn't be part of mastery. So often, we

believe that work is work and play is play. Why shouldn't work be fun?
The extreme athletes demonstrate that the dichotomy between work and
play can be eradicated.

It Just Takes 4%

Imagine a graph where the y-axis represents challenge, and the x-axis
represents skill level. Flow is the midpoint between x and y. So, flow is
found exactly between challenge and skill level, i.e., flow occurs when
the challenge and skillset are evenly matched.

We experience anxiety when the challenge is greater than our skillset,

and boredom when we don't have the challenges to match our skills.
Hence, flow is also the sweet spot between boredom and anxiety.

Now imagine that you continue functioning in a state where your

challenges and skills are equally matched for your whole life. You won't
improve, will you? You'll coast and remain in your comfort zone. This is
where the 4% rule comes into play.

The idea here is that your challenge needs to be 4% higher than your
current skill level.

Think about something that you'd like to improve at. Do you think that
you're currently in your comfort zone? The challenge is to up your game
by just 4%. 4% is just enough to challenge you, without leading to undue
anxiety and stress. The cool thing is that if you constantly build on 4%,
this has a compound effect. And, over time, the impossible will become
possible. So remember, not 3%, not 5%, all it takes is 4%.

Frustration Means You're Doing It Right

Upping our game by 4% shouldn't feel easy, but it shouldn't be so difficult

that it makes us anxious and overwrought.

The first stage of flow requires us to struggle, and this is where our
emotions have a history of playing tricks on us. Kotler argues that often
our emotions mean the opposite to what we think they mean. We saw
this with the work paradox where we've been led to believe that work
should be work, and leisure time should be fun.

The struggle phase of flow is when we move from the conscious state of
mind, to the subconscious state of mind. Our subconscious has a much
bigger memory and works a lot faster, so we need to tap into our
subconscious for optimum performance. However, to tap into our
subconscious, it has to be loaded with information from our conscious.

Have you ever tried to learn a new language? It's not easy, is it? Perhaps
it took you ages to get into the swing of things, or maybe you gave up
altogether. There's a reason for this.

When we learn something for the first time, we often try to do too much
too quickly, and bombard ourselves. If we adopt the 4% rule, we'll still
feel like we're struggling, but it'll be the right kind of frustration. We've
been led to believe that frustration is a negative emotion, and we need to
reframe it. Frustration is a sign that we're outside of our comfort zone,
and we're pushing ourselves. Frustration reminds us that we're doing
exactly what we should be doing, at precisely the right intensity. So keep
at it, and you'll move onto the next step in the flow process.

Flow is a state of struggle and high concentration, where we release

numerous neurochemicals. Norepinephrine, dopamine, endorphins,
anandamide, and serotonin provide us with heightened levels of focus,
pain-blocking capabilities, and that feel-good state of mind. However,
these neurochemicals are in limited supply, so recovery is essential to the
flow cycle. It's unsustainable to be in a constant state of flow, so we need
to factor in rest and recovery.

Kotler suggests sleeping for at least eight hours per night, and to ride
both the highs and the lows associated with deep and concentrated
work. Never underestimate the power of sleep, and don't be fooled into
thinking that losing sleep makes you a more committed individual. If you
place flow at the center of your life, you also have to make sleep a
significant part of your life. Research shows that if a baseball team
travels through 3 time zones to get to a game, before the game even
begins, they have a 40% chance of winning. This example shows that
sleep literally gives you the winning edge.

Let Fear and Struggle Guide You

We've learned that struggle is an essential component of flow. Struggle,
frustration, and fear are states of mind that we can use as a compass.
Extreme athletes harness their fear in order to get out of their comfort
zone.

What are some of the fears that hold you back?

We need to reframe our perceptions of fear, because we have been

conditioned to believe that we should run away from it and avoid it.
However, Kotler argues that having some element of fear is good. Once
we cross over the threshold of pain and fear, this is where we'll find our
potential. We need to revisit our relationship with fear, and learn to face it
head-on.

But, remember the 4% rule?

We need to learn to cultivate a healthy relationship with fear, and if we

feel a rush of too much adrenaline, that means we should back off. So
push yourself to 4%, and soon you'll be doing things that you thought
were impossible.

The Bannister Effect

In 2019 Eliud Kipchoge ran a marathon in just under two hours. Many
people believed that to be impossible.

If we go further back in time to 1954, no one believed that anyone could

run a four-minute mile. For the previous 50 years, the time it took to run a
mile came down about a tenth of a second per year. The most brilliant
minds believed that it was physiologically impossible to run a mile in
under 4 minutes, and that it might even result in death.

Yet in 1954, Roger Bannister ran a mile in under 4 minutes. The snowball
effect of this event was remarkable, and within ten years, other people
followed suit, including a teenager. The physiology of the human body
didn't change, but the change in mindset allowed people to believe in the
impossible. The "Bannister Effect" shows how it's possible to reframe the
impossible.

Reframing the impossible is essential for anyone who is trying to

succeed. For those at the top of their game, finding out that someone
else has done something extraordinary has a knock-on effect. Many
things look impossible, and then after a while, people accomplish these
so-called impossible feats, which significantly raises the bar.

In Conclusion

This book's challenge is to examine our own lives and ask ourselves what
we think is impossible.

Whatever you challenge yourself to, reframe it from impossible to

possible, all the while remembering the 4% rule. And, while possible is an
achievable goal, this doesn't mean that it's an easy process. Flow is
difficult, there will be struggle, there will be fear, and there will be
frustration.
Gandhi famously said, 'Be the change you want to see in the world.'
Imagine if all of us rose to life's challenges and upped our game by 4%
every day. Imagine the compound effect this would have?

So make space for concentration and focus. Schedule your work and
block out all noises and distractions. What's more, know when to call it a
day. Stopping work when we're enthusiastic and excited is a good idea.
We usually reach peak excitement levels when we only have a bit more
fuel in our tanks. Therefore, it's worth conserving the excitement for
when we wake up. That way, we can begin each new day with fervor and
excitement. Remember to keep lists. Most people who are successful
have mastered some form of focus. However, even the most focused
people battle to move between tasks. Lists help with this. Don't get
tripped up by transitions. Create boundaries. And remember, it's about
consistency over intensity.

If we go back to the 10 thousand hour rule, studies show that flow cuts
this time in half, while also cutting down on misery. So, what are you
going to work 4% harder at, and how are you going to master the art of
"feverish compulsion?"