The Practice of Groundedness with Brad Stulberg

·1 hr 35 min·5 clips

ACT means accepting what is happening and committing to your values anyway.

Clint opens by introducing Brad Stolberg as someone who writes and researches the art and science of motivation, values-driven excellence, and sustainable success. Brad explains that his work sits in two places at once, since he writes about the principles and coaches people who are trying to live them. His coaching practice tends to focus on entrepreneurs and physicians, which gives the conversation a practical edge from the start. Clint keeps pulling the discussion toward what the ideas mean for ordinary people with busy minds and real responsibilities. The two of them spend time on thought loops and on the habit of letting the mind run away with itself. Clint talks about how a book on CBT changed the way he relates to his own thinking. That leads into a broader conversation about mental control and the hard but simple shift from being ruled by thoughts to noticing them and choosing what to do next. Brad stays close to the idea that the mind is not always a reliable narrator. The episode then turns to RAIN as a usable bridge between theory and practice. Clint lays out the framework as recognize, allow, and investigate, and he asks how people can use it in daily life. Brad ties it back to the second arrow idea, where pain is real but suffering often grows when self-judgment gets added on top of it. He walks through recognize as naming what is happening without pretending otherwise. He treats allow as making room for the moment instead of fighting it reflexively. Investigate becomes a way to look at the experience clearly rather than collapsing into it. The conversation also touches on how mindfulness language can shift over time, with different traditions using different final letters for the acronym. Even with that variation, the shared point stays steady: people need a repeatable way to respond when their internal life gets loud. Clint keeps framing the topic through listener use, not theory for theory's sake. Brad responds in a measured way that fits the show's practical tone. The result is a conversation about excellence that refuses to treat strain, doubt, or overthinking as side issues. Instead, those are the actual terrain. The episode keeps returning to the question of how to stay effective without becoming brittle. It ends with the sense that groundedness is not a retreat from ambition but a way to carry it better.

As heard by us

Grounded ambition, turned into usable practice.

Brad Stolberg treats success as something steadier than hustle: sustainable excellence, values-led practice, and doing work that feels decent while it lasts.

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Why you'd press play

You want growth advice that helps without turning into hustle theater.

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