Good Life Project

A Different Take on Excellent That Changes Everything | Brad Stulberg

February 12, 2026

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  • True excellence, rooted in the ancient concept of *arete*, is defined as involved engagement in something worthwhile that aligns with one's values and goals, focusing on the process of becoming rather than just winning or perfection. 
  • The pursuit of excellence provides core human satisfaction through the dual experiences of mastery (developing skill and making progress) and mattering (feeling that one's work makes a difference). 
  • Growth, whether physical or intellectual, requires cycles of stress (challenge) followed by rest and renewal, directly contradicting the unsustainable nature of relentless hustle culture. 
  • True excellence, as discussed in the *Good Life Project* episode "A Different Take on Excellent That Changes Everything | Brad Stulberg," is deeply connected to community, love, and shared joy, exemplified by the Detroit Lions' locker room celebration. 
  • The path to genuine excellence is often characterized by joy, exemplified by athletes like Steph Curry and Courtney DeWalter, contrasting sharply with the hustle culture myth that greatness requires suffering, anger, or isolation. 
  • Finding joy in the process—learning to push the boulder up the hill with a smile, as suggested by the Camus interpretation of Sisyphus—is the essence of a good life and true excellence. 

Segments

Redefining Excellence and Its History
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(00:00:00)
  • Key Takeaway: Excellence has been wrongly appropriated to mean obsession and perfectionism, obscuring its original meaning of living into one’s full potential (arete).
  • Summary: The word excellence is often associated with pressure, perfection, and relentless hustle. Brad Stulberg defines it as deeply caring and giving oneself fully to what matters, allowing the process to shape character. This contrasts sharply with modern interpretations like ‘bro excellence,’ which involve elaborate, often superficial routines.
Craft and Personal Transformation
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(00:06:04)
  • Key Takeaway: The value of creation lies not just in the final product but in how the process of creation changes the creator.
  • Summary: The process of creation changes the individual, meaning we are working on ourselves while working on the task. True greatness is felt pre-cognitively when experienced, such as watching a master at work, rather than being an intellectual phenomenon.
Why Excellence Matters
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(00:08:48)
  • Key Takeaway: Pursuing excellence fulfills the core human needs for mastery and mattering, leading to deep satisfaction and aliveness.
  • Summary: A life without the pursuit of excellence risks falling into an epidemic of nonchalance, which protects against heartbreak but sacrifices life’s texture and meaning. Mastery provides progress, while mattering ensures the work aligns with values, leading to resonant, content states.
Joyful Pursuit vs. Mastery
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(00:12:30)
  • Key Takeaway: Activities done purely for joy, even without high-level mastery, are valuable and are supported by an underlying orientation toward excellence.
  • Summary: It is acceptable and beneficial to engage in activities purely for the enjoyment of the process, even if world-class mastery is unattainable. An orientation toward excellence allows one to appreciate beauty and joy in art without the pressure to perform.
Excellence as Process, Not Destination
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(00:14:29)
  • Key Takeaway: Excellence is an ongoing process of becoming, an aspiration that continuously shapes personal character rather than a fixed state to be attained.
  • Summary: Excellence is fundamentally a process, not a destination, as there is no such thing as attaining perfection. Aligning this ongoing aspiration with personal values ensures that the pursuit is ultimately working on the self.
Finding What to Care About
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(00:28:00)
  • Key Takeaway: Finding things to care about requires sampling widely (explore) before committing deeply (exploit), often by reconnecting with childhood passions.
  • Summary: To pursue excellence, one must first find what they genuinely care about, which is best discovered through exploration before applying grit. Reconnecting with activities that lit one up as a child can reveal intrinsic interests before external expectations took hold.
Trade-offs and Identity Seasons
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(00:30:27)
  • Key Takeaway: Instead of striving for constant balance, one should intentionally make trade-offs across different identity rooms over the course of a life.
  • Summary: Achieving deep focus requires saying no to many things, meaning balance is often a myth when viewed in a short-term snapshot. A better framework is viewing identity as a house with multiple rooms, allowing intense focus on one area while maintaining minimum effective doses in others to prevent them from decaying.
Rest, Renewal, and Growth Cycles
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(00:44:49)
  • Key Takeaway: Growth is achieved through the formula: Stress plus Rest equals Growth, requiring intentional cycles of intensity followed by stepping away.
  • Summary: Continuous pushing without rest leads to burnout and stagnation, as intellectual and emotional capacity grow similarly to muscle tissue through adaptation after stress. Great creatives often work in cycles of intense execution followed by periods of complete withdrawal to allow for necessary renewal and insight generation.
Community and Shared Experience
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(00:51:27)
  • Key Takeaway: Motivation is contagious, and the deepest fulfillment in excellence comes from forging relationships and sharing achievements within a community.
  • Summary: Surrounding oneself with highly motivated people positively impacts one’s own performance, even across different fields of endeavor. The most memorable aspects of achievement are often the people involved, including worthy rivals and collaborators, emphasizing that excellence is best experienced socially.
Excellence in Community and Love
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(00:53:35)
  • Key Takeaway: The expression of love and deep connection within a high-stakes team, like the Detroit Lions, is presented as a core component of true excellence.
  • Summary: The Detroit Lions’ post-playoff victory celebration featured the word ’love’ seven times in two minutes among the general manager, coach, and quarterback. This demonstration of love among high-performing individuals illustrates that community and connection amplify the rewards of creation and contribution. Sharing accomplishments in partnership makes the experience significantly more rewarding.
Joy vs. Hustle Culture Greatness
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(00:54:35)
  • Key Takeaway: Authentic excellence is fueled by joy, contrasting with the hustle culture narrative that mandates suffering, anger, and proving others wrong.
  • Summary: Hustle culture often portrays greatness as requiring suffering and anger, particularly in masculine contexts. However, the research suggests the majority of excellent achievers are wired for joy, citing examples like Steph Curry and Courtney DeWalter. Even figures like Michael Jordan, who appeared driven by a chip, expressed primal joy (e.g., sticking his tongue out while dunking) and benefited from a coach like Phil Jackson who emphasized compassion and joy.
Debunking the Lone Wolf Myth
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(00:56:11)
  • Key Takeaway: Internet narratives promoting isolation and anger as prerequisites for male success are dismissed as ‘bullshit’ designed to monetize loneliness.
  • Summary: Some online figures prey on lonely men by suggesting isolation and an ‘alpha lone wolf’ mentality are necessary for untapped greatness. Actual excellence encourages smiling, having fun, and working hard with joy. This perspective aligns with Camus’s view that a good life involves pushing the boulder (facing life’s challenges) with a smile, finding deep satisfaction in the process.