10% Happier with Dan Harris

How To Increase Performance By Working At Your Edge -- Plus A Quick Hack For When Panic or Anxiety Swells

February 22, 2026

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  • Developing self-awareness through mindfulness is foundational, as the practice of repeatedly noticing distraction and returning focus builds the muscle to see consciousness without being controlled by it. 
  • In moments of acute anxiety or panic, self-talk rooted in self-compassion, especially when using third-person self-reference, provides a powerful psychological and physiological benefit. 
  • Working at one's edge involves intentionally seeking acute stressors followed by intelligent recovery periods, creating a seismograph-like pattern of growth rather than allowing acute stress to degrade into chronic stress. 
  • Operating from a place of consistent, values-based energy, which can be termed 'love,' is more sustainable and productive for engaging in difficult times than engaging from blind rage. 
  • The Ideal Competitive Mindset (ICM) is a state that can be trained for and accessed through specific routines, such as morning mindset routines involving breath, gratitude, and imagery, to ensure peak functioning when needed. 
  • The ultimate purpose of personal growth and mindfulness practices is shifting from a self-focused approach ('me') to a 'we' focus, recognizing that usefulness and positive relationships are the most sustainable sources of happiness (enlightened self-interest). 

Segments

Dan Harris’s Origin Story
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(00:00:04)
  • Key Takeaway: Dan Harris’s career pivot was catalyzed by a panic attack on live television, leading him to explore meditation and write the book ‘10% Happier’.
  • Summary: Dan Harris is known for having a panic attack on Good Morning America, which followed a period of depression and self-medication with drugs after covering 9/11. This event propelled him toward meditation, leading to his book, podcast, and app focused on mental well-being. He retired from ABC News four years prior to this recording to focus on this work full-time.
Meditation’s Intellectual Start
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(00:10:10)
  • Key Takeaway: Initial engagement with meditation often begins intellectually, such as reading Eckhart Tolle, before realizing the need for actionable practices like those found in Buddhist-informed psychology.
  • Summary: Harris was initially drawn to Eckhart Tolle’s work, which diagnosed the problem of the incessant inner narrator owning one’s actions. Frustrated by the lack of actionable steps in Tolle’s work, he found direction through Dr. Mark Epstein, leading him to try meditation. The practice was initially approached with skepticism but was validated by the emerging science supporting mindfulness.
The Art of Starting Over
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(00:13:14)
  • Key Takeaway: The core mechanism of meditation is not achieving a special state but repeatedly noticing distraction and starting again, which builds the muscle of self-awareness.
  • Summary: Meditation is likened to a bicep curl for the brain, where the goal is to notice when the mind wanders (e.g., planning a homicide) and gently return focus to the breath. Feeling like a failure due to distraction is counterproductive; the act of noticing and restarting is the actual practice that develops self-awareness, allowing one to see consciousness without being controlled by it.
Self-Talk as an Anxiety Hack
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(00:16:28)
  • Key Takeaway: In the immediate moment before panic, self-talk and self-compassion, especially when using third-person reference, are more useful than meditation for calming the nervous system.
  • Summary: Harris suggests that in the split second before a panic attack, self-talk is the most useful tool, drawing on science showing that talking to oneself like a good friend provides psychological benefits. Referring to oneself in the third person (e.g., ‘Dan, you are not going to die’) is a technique that channels the same energy used when coaching a child. This self-compassion layers effectively on top of mindfulness, which first signals dysregulation.
Three Pillars of High Performance
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(00:21:20)
  • Key Takeaway: Psychological skills training for high-stress conditions rests on three foundational theories: self-efficacy, purpose, and psychological agility.
  • Summary: These three theories form the foundation for clients seeking to execute better under high stress. Self-efficacy is the felt sense of being powerful and making things happen, anchored by specific protocols developed from Albert Bandura’s work. Purpose anchors the individual to something bigger than themselves, while agility involves emotional intelligence to navigate the world effectively.
Agility vs. Avoidance in Stress
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(00:23:05)
  • Key Takeaway: Psychological agility requires facing down stress to strengthen resilience, as retreating from a stressor strengthens the response of avoidance.
  • Summary: Agility is linked to emotional agility, requiring the ability to work with emotions rather than retreat from them. The principle of stress inoculation dictates that standing toe-to-toe with a stressor, either in imagination or reality, familiarizes the body and reduces future fear. Retreating strengthens the avoidance response, though one must use discretion to pull back on one’s own terms when necessary.
Working at the Edge and Recovery
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(00:36:45)
  • Key Takeaway: Growth occurs by working at the edge of capacity with acute stressors, immediately followed by intelligent recovery to prevent acute stress from becoming chronic stress.
  • Summary: The ideal daily arc resembles a seismograph: a spike of acute stress followed by a large recovery period, which includes sleep and connection with loved ones. Most people fail by holding onto acute stress, which slides into moderate and then chronic stress, ultimately leading to poor health outcomes. Working at the edge means intentionally seeking stressors—physical, emotional, or relational—and then fully replenishing afterward.
Counterfactual of Unmanaged Anxiety
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(00:40:47)
  • Key Takeaway: Without finding mindfulness tools, Dan Harris believes his intense, irritable nature in the highly competitive and shrinking news industry would have led to a less happy life and potentially being an absent, unpredictable father.
  • Summary: Harris reflects that without his shift toward mindfulness, his pre-existing tendencies for overwork and irritability would have been amplified by the stress of competing for limited slots in a declining industry. He notes that his grandfather, Robert Johnson, exemplified uncontrolled irritability stemming from thwarted ambition, a trait Harris recognizes in himself without his current tools. The cost would have been a life consumed by self and prone to outbursts, impacting his family.
Civic Health and Engagement
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(00:48:28)
  • Key Takeaway: Combating societal division requires modeling relentless curiosity and engaging with ideas and people one disagrees with, as it is ‘hard to hate up close.’
  • Summary: The current media landscape is characterized by conflict entrepreneurship and motivated reasoning, making civil conversation rare. Individuals can improve civic health by modeling open-mindedness and engaging with difficult ideas, which eases personal rage by understanding the logic behind opposing viewpoints. Creating cooperative, non-hierarchical activities, like sports across gang lines, fosters superordinate goals that diminish tribalism.
Rage vs. Values-Based Energy
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(01:00:19)
  • Key Takeaway: Values-based energy, akin to love, provides clean, consistent motivation superior to counterproductive blind rage.
  • Summary: Blind rage quickly becomes counterproductive and leads to burnout. Engaging from a position of consistent, values-based energy burns clean and maintains clarity. This approach is identified as aligning with the concept of love.
Defining Ideal Competitive Mindset
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(01:01:20)
  • Key Takeaway: The Ideal Competitive Mindset (ICM) is a bullseye state trained for repeatedly, not just for game day.
  • Summary: The ICM is a target state, often utilized in athletics, that should be activated well before a high-stakes event. Being a great competitor means striving to be one’s very best, which is an interpersonal navigation, not a comparison to others. Training involves labeling the ICM and using mechanisms like meditation to bring it closer to the surface.
Morning Mindset Routine Mechanics
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(01:02:42)
  • Key Takeaway: A four-step morning mindset routine uses imagination to pre-load desired behavior into challenging moments.
  • Summary: The routine starts immediately upon waking with a quick hit of imagery to see oneself being brilliant in a difficult moment. This mechanical process leverages imagination to make the desired state more familiar. Elite athletes use nearly invisible pre-engagement practices to activate this state.
Dr. Gervais’ Four-Step Morning Practice
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(01:04:08)
  • Key Takeaway: Dr. Gervais’ morning routine prioritizes signaling calm, gratitude, visualization, and presence before engaging with the day.
  • Summary: The routine includes one breath (exhale signals calm to the brain), a segment of gratitude focusing on specific things like having two eyes, imagery of being at one’s best, and a final moment of presence before getting out of bed. This practice establishes a foundation for the day.
Love as a Skill Set Evolution
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(01:06:18)
  • Key Takeaway: Love, broadly understood, is a comprehensive skill set encompassing self-coaching, micro-interactions, and social fitness.
  • Summary: The concept of love has evolved beyond simple sentiment to include self-love, where one acts as a coach rather than a drill sergeant toward oneself. This extends outward to skills in interacting with strangers (micro-interactions) and maintaining relationships (social fitness). Addressing suffering on the planet starts with improving one’s actions within their immediate orbit.
Self-Improvement as ‘Me’ to ‘We’
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(01:10:25)
  • Key Takeaway: The goal of self-improvement is not self-focus but becoming a heavier pebble to create a greater positive impact on the collective (‘we’).
  • Summary: Being useful is the most sustainable source of happiness, illustrating enlightened self-interest. Distinctions between selfish and selfless actions become useless when recognizing that the self is an illusionary, constantly changing process. Harmony in relationships with the whole is the path to the happiest flow.
Lineage of Learning and Sharing
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(01:14:52)
  • Key Takeaway: True learning involves internalizing wisdom from teachers and re-articulating it in a way that connects with others.
  • Summary: Firm action against injustice does not require motivation by hatred; equanimity allows for better execution of chosen actions. The goal is not reinventing truth but finding a personal way to express inherited wisdom so others can connect to it. This process is described as being part of a ’lineage of thieves’ who share knowledge.
Post-10% Happier Ventures
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(01:16:01)
  • Key Takeaway: The speaker launched a Substack offering guided meditations and live sessions, aiming for a next-generation, community-focused meditation platform.
  • Summary: The new venture provides guided meditations tied to podcast episodes and weekly live sessions with teachers. This model emphasizes human connection, which is seen as increasingly necessary amidst technological saturation, including AI. The speaker also has a forthcoming book about love.