Authors:

Steven Kotler Quotes

When doing what we most love transforms us into the best possible version of ourselves and that version hints at even greater future possibilities, the urge to explore those possibilities becomes feverish compulsion.

When doing what we most love transforms us into the best possible version of ourselves and that version hints at even greater future possibilities, the urge to explore those possibilities becomes feverish compulsion. Intrinsic motivation goes through the roof. Thus flow becomes an alternative path to mastery, sans the misery.

Steven Kotler
Motivation, Mastery, Alternatives

Time slows down. Self vanishes. Action and Awareness merge. Welcome to Flow.

Steven Kotler
Self, Flow, Welcome

The reasons there are so many clichés about universes inside of dewdrops is because there are universes inside of dewdrops.

Steven Kotler
Reason, Universe
Steven Kotler (2014). “The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance”, p.104, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Creatives fail and the really good ones fail often.

Steven Kotler
Failing
"Einstein at the Beach: The Hidden Relationship Between Risk and Creativity" by Steven Kotler, www.forbes.com. October 11, 2012.

With our sense of self out of the the way we are liberated from doubt and insecurity.

Steven Kotler
Self, Insecurity, Doubt

...Suddenly normal wasn't good enough.

Steven Kotler
Awakening, Normal, Good Enough
Steven Kotler (2008). “West of Jesus: Surfing, Science, and the Origins of Belief”, p.183, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

That’s why people who seek out group flow often join startups or work for themselves. Serial entrepreneurs keep starting new business as much for the flow experience, as for the additional success.

Steven Kotler
People, Entrepreneur, Groups

It was even odds that the thing I was the most afraid of didn't actually exist at all.

Steven Kotler
Fear, Odds
Steven Kotler (2008). “West of Jesus: Surfing, Science, and the Origins of Belief”, p.33, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Instead, over the past thirty years, in the world of action and adventure sports, in situations where asses really were on the line, the bounds of the possible have been pushed further and faster than ever before in history. We've seen near-exponential growth in ultimate human performance, which is both hyperbolic paradox and considerable mystery. Somehow, a generation's worth of iconoclastic misfits have rewritten the rules of the feasible, not just raising the bar but often obliterating it altogether. And this brings up one final question: Where-if anywhere-do our actual limits lie?

Steven Kotler
Sports, Lying, Adventure
Steven Kotler (2014). “The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance”, p.18, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

When people say that animal rescuers are crazy, what they really mean is that animal rescuers share a number of fundamental beliefs that makes them easy to marginalize. Among those is the belief that Rene Descartes was a jackass.

Steven Kotler
Crazy, Mean, Animal
Steven Kotler (2011). “A Small Furry Hope: Dog Rescue and the Meaning of Life”, p.174, A&C Black

You May Also Like: