David Nurse on How to Unlock the Flow Code Formula | EP 709

0:00Coming up next on PassionStruck. If there's only bad stress and think of that in your life as like the overwhelm or feeling like you have too much stuff on your plate, it's pointless stress that is going to keep you out of the ability to get in the zone because you have just too much nonsense, the non-essentials really. But the eustress, the positive stress is the nerves that you feel before you walk on stage. It's the pressure that you might feel before you go on to a sporting arena. Like those, that type of stress allows you to perform at a higher level if you have a relationship with it that you're accepting of it.

0:42Welcome to PassionStruck. I'm your host, John Miles. This is the show where we explore the art of human flourishing and what it truly means to live like it matters. Each week, I sit down with change makers, creators, scientists, and everyday heroes to decode the human experience and uncover the tools that help us lead with meaning, heal what hurts, and pursue the fullest expression of who we're capable of becoming. Whether you're designing your future, developing as a leader, or seeking deeper alignment in your life, this show is your invitation to grow with purpose and act with intention. Because the secret to a life of deep purpose, connection, and impact is choosing to live like you matter.

1:30Happy almost 2026, friends, and welcome back to episode 709 of Passion Struck. I find that there's a moment at night that often goes unnoticed, especially in this quiet window after Christmas and before the new year truly begins. The energy of the past few days has passed. The wrapping paper is tucked away, the house is quieter, and the lights feel softer somehow. Now, for a brief sacred window, the world stops asking us to produce, improve, or perform. Nothing new is being demanded of us. That moment matters more than we think. It's a gentle pause, an invitation to notice what we're still carrying from 2025 and whether it truly belongs in the year ahead.

2:10We are in our final week of our series, The Season of Becoming. This hasn't been a year of neat resolutions. It's been a year of noticing where we've been and intentionally choosing to engage life with a little more courage and agency. Last week, my friend Nirbhashan showed us how to transition from a creator mindset to a solution mindset, turning problems into invitations. Then, New York Times bestselling author Mark Murphy broke down the five roles of high-performing teams, reminding us that we don't need to be everything to everyone. We just need to be exactly who we're meant to be. And today, we focus on the fuel for that transformation, flow.

2:51Because as we stand on the doorstep of 2026, the question isn't just what we want to do, but how we want to live. And that, right there, is why I wanted this conversation for you. My guest is a longtime friend of mine, David Nurse. David is a former pro basketball player, a two-time Guinness World Record holder, and one of the world's most sought-after mindset coaches. He's worked with over 150 NBA players, including superstars like Shea Gilgis-Alexander and top CEOs to help them find what he calls the zone. But David didn't just stay on the court. He's climbed with Alex Hanold, cooked with Michelin star chefs, and studied the neuroscience of peak performance to unlock what he calls the flow code.

3:39He's here to show us that flow isn't some elusive accident. It's a repeatable system. In today's episode, we talk about the flow code formula, the neuroscience backed ways to trigger peak performance on demand, optimal anxiety, why stress isn't the enemy, but actually the gateway to the zone. We go into the shift, how to move from trying to prove yourself to simply being yourself. And we discuss lessons from elite performers, what he's learned from sprinting with Usain Bolt and playing violin with virtuosis. If you're looking for the perfect fuel to ease back into your routine with fresh energy and intention for 2026, this is it.

4:19Before we start, a quick favor. If today's episode helps you find your rhythm, share it with someone who needs a spark for the new year. Consider leaving a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It makes a massive difference as we head into 2026. And catch the full visual experience on our YouTube channels at PassionStruck Clips and John Miles. All right, let's dive into this masterclass on flow with my friend David Nurse. Thank you for choosing PassionStruck and choosing me to be your host and guide on your journey to creating an intentional life. Now, let that journey begin.

4:53Hey friends, it's the beginning of 2026 and if you're like me, you didn't come into the year to coast. You came to live with purpose, to show up with energy, clarity, and intention. That's why how you start your day matters. And for me, that starts with Huel. Every morning, I reach for two things. First, Huel Daily Greens Ready to Drink. The peach and hibiscus flavor is crisp and refreshing, with 42 superfoods, vitamins, and minerals, all in just 25 calories and one gram of sugar. Then, I turn to Huel Black Edition Ready to Drink, with 35 grams of protein, 27 essential nutrients and no junk, it's a full meal that fuels focus, not fatigue.

5:31I start with Huel because I want to be present, intentional, and ready. Not just today, but every day. Start 2026 likey minute. Grab Huel today with my exclusive offer of 15 % off online with my code PASSION15 at Huel.com slash PASSION15. New customers only. Thank you to Huel for partnering and supporting our show.

5:58I am so excited today to bring my good friend, David Nurse on PassionStruck. Dave, man, what is up? It's been a minute. How's life? Oh, it's good, John. It's crazy that it goes so fast. I feel like every year flies by faster and I don't even have kids yet. I really got no excuses there, but it's going good, man. Thank you. I can't believe it. Mine are now 21 and 27. I thought you were 27. I am so upset with my 21-year-old not coming home for Thanksgiving, but kids will be kids. Well, okay. You let them know. If you need me to lay down a hammer from an outside voice, I got you. Thank you, man. Well, dude, I love watching you on the socials and when we catch up because, dude, you are always climbing.

6:46You're sprinting. You're cooking with chefs. You're visiting. remote islands. What's the most recent experience, man, where you felt yourself growing again? You know what? The most experience of growth in this past three to six months has honestly been starting a company, a better for you CPG health and wellness company. I've actually got the first iteration that were protein gummies so this came by way john of my wife eating a chomps beef stick and me calling her bluff because i know she doesn't like beef jerky then she went on this thing of saying she needs to get her protein in i was like who are you i've never heard you say this by way of asking hundreds and thousands of people of what they do for healthy protein on the go it came to this conclusion there's no answer for it nobody really wants a glossy beef stick or a protein bar with too many ingredients and too many calories in it.

7:44So we created this protein gummy. I brought together some of my good friends who have all done this and scaled. So this all star team. So it's been a really growth process for me of two things, really learning this new space and also being part of a company that's building an actual product. Usually I just go talk. I go speak. I go coach. I use my voice. But now we've got this gummy that's two grams of protein per gummy. And it's got only 50 calories in a bag. So 10 grams of protein per bag and only 50 calories, all clean ingredients, no sugar. It's the best thing for on the go protein. So that's what's been juicing me up and what's been really challenging me for further growth.

8:32I love it. I have a sponsor of this show. It's collagen power powder. Yeah. And it's named after a seal who died in combat, which is why I'm so aligned with it being a military guy. But we drink this stuff. And I looked at the ingredients for the collagen power powder. My wife is looking at it the other day and she's, do you know, every time we take this, we're getting 20 grams of protein and we didn't even know. So see, there you go. And that's the craziest thing. Like the whole world's talking about getting more protein, the GLP Ozempic, like it's hard to get enough protein in and especially on the go.

9:09And with clean and healthy ingredients is me and my team, we're just, we're sick of being lied to of these other companies. They're like, Oh yeah, it's all clean. It's all good. It's all healthy. And then you come to find out there's things you can't even pronounce that rip and tear your gut apart. So we wanted to give people a healthy, clean option that's guilt-free and tastes good. Man, I love it. Dave, you are a man on the go. And across the company you're building, keynotes, clients you work with, professional athletes, people you're interviewing, is there anything that genuinely surprised you in the last few months you heard from one of them?

9:48That's a great question. I honestly think that it's a surprise and it's not a surprise of just how truly in people's own lives that they are. We often think and I often think of a text somebody or have a conversation with somebody. But really, everybody's living their own life at their own speed. And right now, it seems like a lot of people are living at hyper speed. So for someone to think of, oh, I remember this conversation I had with David or, oh, I should have got back to this text. We often assume that everybody knows what we know in terms of where we're at in that conversation dance with them.

10:30But people like they might think of us for five seconds. They might just think of that in that moment. But everybody's living their own lives. And I see this with athletes, with CEOs, with just people that I interact with on a daily basis. And I think it's one of the most important things. And I think one of the most beautiful things when people can just take that step back, reassess, realign, figure out where their essential is, figure out where their non-essential is. And ultimately, that's what I call the flow of life. And that's what I think from what I've seen. And people are seeking that and searching for just being, you know, a rhythm of life that doesn't feel ultra hurried.

11:10Nobody wants that hurried feeling. I know that to be the case with myself. And you and I have been talking about flow and optimal performance for years. And as we were talking about doing this conversation in my book, Passion Struck, I refer to this flow state as optimal anxiety, that sweet spot where anxiety sharpens you instead of crushing you. You call it flow code. Where do you see these two worlds meeting? Yeah, and that's like that too, man. I think it's the ability to operate in an attention, an attention state, right? It's high stress, but it's also complete clarity. So I think that those worlds do intermix.

11:55I don't think it's ever going to be the world where you just wake up and you can sip coffee on your patio and things are just going slow and everything. This is in perfect, euphoric, Pollyanna dimensions. it's dealing with the stress. It's dealing with the real life. It's dealing with the, you've got to be on, you've got to be focused, you've got to be locked in, but then how do you create that clarity? So I think it is exactly like you said, it's a dance and it's a rhythm, but it's also, it is attention. Yeah. And for the people who don't know you, you've coached over 175 NBA players, big basketball player yourself, brothers, big basketball name.

12:37But I wanted to ask you this directly. Out of all the people you've coached or observed, who was the biggest flow master you've ever worked with? Like the guy who could flip that switch the fastest and what did they do differently from everyone else? Man, so good. So let me tell you this story. All right. So it was 2018. I was doing NBA pre-draft. Now, this is where the college players, they come and prepare for the NBA. and it's just like heightened state of preparation where millions of dollars are on the line. They have to do great in their workouts, show the NBA teams that they're worth the money, they're worth the pick.

13:15And I've been doing this for years and I'd always ask the players that came in, I'd be like, hey, what are your goals? I want to see where they want to get to. And often the answers are, I want to be drafted in the first round or I want to be an NBA All-Star. I want to win a championship. And that's pretty normal. And I get that. But I had this player come in 2018. He was a freshman from Kentucky. He wasn't highly touted. Nobody was really talking about him. He was this gangly kid with just this big smile on his face, just this over exuberated smile on his face. And I asked him, hey, what are your goals?

13:48And he looked at me with a smile. He said, I want to be the best player in the world. And I was like, I didn't say anything. I was like, OK, no one really knows about you. Best player in the world. Like we've got some LeBron's Kevin Durant's like all right well we'll see so the very first workout we try to crush their souls basically to see what they're made of to see if they can take it and it's like a two and a half three hour workout and most guys at the end of it they're just passed out or going to the locker room and just it's exhausting it's like the equivalent like hell week it's like hell week obviously not as important as Navy SEALs but that's what we try to set it up like exactly So this kid that I alluded to, this Kentucky kid, after the workout, he comes up to me with that big smile on his face again.

14:32He says, when are we going tonight? He wanted to do another workout because he said there were certain things that he didn't master in that workout. There were certain footworks. There were certain in basketball. There's just like anything. There's so many details, but there's these intricate details in these moves he didn't master is I want to work on these. and I never had anybody say that they wanted to do those two a days especially how grueling of a workout these days are and there's only been one person that I'd ever heard of before do the same thing and a friend of mine had coached with also with the Nets years before and that player was a 17 year old Kobe Bryant that wanted more deep practice is what it's called deep practice is the one of the main steps of flow state.

15:20So as I come back to that story, and I'll tell you who this guy was, for example, if I'm shooting bow and arrows at a target, and I just keep shooting and shooting, that's fine. But that's just practice. I'm not learning from every rep. Deep practice, if I shot that bow and arrow, I'd go walk up to it, I'd see the angle it hit at, I checked the video, I'd see where my feet were at, my balance, the trajectory of it. Every single rep, I'm learning from and mastering. That's deep practice versus practice. And that's what helps you get into flow state faster and more regular. So we do these workouts day, morning, night, morning, night, working on this deep practice, deep focus.

16:00And this player last season won the MVP, won the NBA championship, won the scoring award, and he is known as the best player in the world. And it's Shea Gilgis Alexander. That's who that player was. So his ability to tap into flow, I saw from that first moment, one, because he understood deep practice. Two, he also had this vision of where he wanted to go. We call it meta visualization is where you, and it's a daily practice. We can dive deeper into that. But it's even on a daily basis of if you're just going through your day, letting your day happen to you, you're probably going to get caught up in emails or text messages or get overwhelmed because you don't have a plan for it.

16:46So this visionary plan for him to become the best player in the world. And then he's just, he's got this cool, calm confidence about him where he's just smiling all the time, having fun. And at the end of the day, the people that I see have this ability to tap into flow state. Steph Curry, I've been around a lot. He's the same kind of way. they're having fun and they're playing their sport or doing whatever they do with a free sense to them it's fun and free and i know that sounds so basic but one of my one of my favorite terms and i'll end this question with this and i think it's really important it's called simplicity on the far side of complexity and it sounds sciencey and everything but what it really means is when you start something call it basketball or whatever your passion is it's pretty simple right?

17:33You're just having fun. You're playing free. You don't really know everything that goes into it. But as you rise up the ranks, there's details, there's this, there's that. You got to think about this. And it can become overwhelming. But at the top of it, when you reach that top echelon, you're actually back to just having fun and playing free. And that's the beauty of when you know you're in your flow. I love that answer. I used to work at Lowe's Home Improvement. And Lowe's is headquartered in Mooresville, which is about 30 minutes north of Charlotte. And I used to go to Davidson College when I lived there to watch basketball games because they're not good in any other sport.

18:15And Steph Curry happened to be there. So I got to see him play. And he's another one where when I saw him in college, he was good, but never in a million years did I think he would turn into the player that he's become. using some of the attributes that you're just talking about. But whether it's Jeremy Lin or Brooke Lopez or Steph Curry, what's one specific thing those athletes do that helps them drop into the zone quickly, especially when the stakes are highest? And this is something like I even think Jalen Hurts does in the big games as well. Great. So they aren't defined by results. that's one of the biggest things that you have to be okay with failure to be able to succeed so if you're worried about if you're going to lose if you're worried about if you're going to miss shots then you'll never be able to play free enough because you'll be aiming you'll be pressing so that freedom is a huge piece of it but one of the biggest things that you know that I've worked with athletes and that I see that they do I call it tap it's literally you tap your wrist because it is the signal of the physical cue with the mental and tying those together the brain body connection is very powerful.

19:28But what TAP stands for, it's just a reminder to the athlete or the person. It's trust. So the T is trust. And trust is, do you trust that the process you are on today, the work you're putting in today will lead to the results that you want tomorrow? So basically, do you feel like you have a plan and you feel like the plan, if you stick with that, it will lead to where you want to get. And that's the first one. The second one is the A, and that's acceptance. Are you willing to accept that God has you at the exact spot in life where you're supposed to be? You're not supposed to be any further ahead right now or any behind.

20:02He's got your feet at the right spot. That's a big one because a lot of people want to think they should be further than they are when their time hasn't come yet. And then P is presence. Are you able to stay present in that moment without ruminating on the past or having anxiety about the future? and that right there allows them, they take away like, it's not about that game alone. It's trusting the process for the goals that they have in a bigger picture. It's acceptance that no matter what happens, win or lose, made shot, missed shot, that God's got them right where they're supposed to be. And then it's the presence that they're able to stay present without having to carry the baggage from the past or the future anxieties to come.

20:39So that's the best way and just like an all encompassing way of if you want to tap into flow state, if you can hit those three things and just keep that reminder, that cue of tapping your wrist for the tap-in. Before we continue, I want to pause on something important. Every single week, people ask me, John, I want to live in the zone, but I'm overwhelmed. How do I start? That's exactly why we create companion workbooks for each episode. For this conversation with David, the workbook helps you identify your personal flow triggers and navigate the York Stockson curve of optimal anxiety. Because becoming isn't a destination, it's a practice.

21:16You can download all our free workbooks at my sub stack at the ignitedlife.net. Now, a quick break for our sponsors. Thank you for supporting those who support the show.

21:32You're listening to PassionStruck on the PassionStruck Network. Now, back to my conversation with David Nurse. In the book, the person who I profiled on this topic was an astronaut, turned out to be the chief astronaut, Chris Cassidy. And Chris is a former Navy SEAL. And he told me he learned this flow state practice when he was going through BUDS. And he told me for him, I love the TAP analogy. He uses the analogy of a rubber band. He said, sometimes in life, you're a rubber band that's elastic. And other times there are moments when you need to learn how to tighten that rubber band. And it can never be tightened all the time and it can never be loose all the time.

22:18And the real key is how do you trigger yourself, which you're just describing and not many people do, of how to make it tight when you need it the most. And he said it helped him when he was in combat. It helped him when he was doing training exercises. It helped him when he was doing spacewalks because he was able to get into this zone of concentration that is trainable. And this is where I wanted to go with you because as I was reading the work that you've been doing, what you are finding is that flow is trainable. You've been working with neuroscientists mapping the 10 Hertz brainwave signature.

22:58What broke this open for you? What made you go, man, we can actually teach people how to do this? I love this. So I've always been a nerd for flow state and reading Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the father of flow, and his eight characteristics of flow, and then Steven Kotler's 22 cues of flow. I love it, but I've also thought that there's something more because they just talked about it and when someone was in the state of it, but not how to actually formulaically train it. and I'd interview these top athletes like Allison Felix, a track star. And I'd ask her, have you ever been in flow? I can remember her saying, she's like, yeah, I've been there three times.

23:37I got some very specific. I'm like, how did you get there? She's like, I have no idea. And then talking with a friend, Michael Chandler was a big UFC fighter. He was telling me about this fight where he could see the guy's feet moving before they moved and he knocked them out cold. I was like, man, that's amazing. How did you get to that state? He's like, yeah, I got no clue. So I was like, there's gotta be a way, right? So I went on this journey to, you know, find the top neuroscientists who have done this before and who have trained this flow state. And I found them there out of Denver, just phenomenal people.

24:09And I was like, Hey, can we do a study and get some participants and see if this code, this flow code that we've put together, and I'll go into what that flow code is, can train people to get closer to be able to get into flow state more on a regular basis and stay in that state longer. Obviously, it's a novel state where you can be kicked out and a lot of different situations can happen there. And they're like, yeah, we've seen it in these brain QEEGs. Now, the state of flow that is generally accepted of this is when the deepest focus and this flow, this freedom and fun rhythmic come together is what's known as 10 hertz.

24:45It's in the alpha state. So alpha is between eight and 12 Hertz of the brain. So you're trying to get into that state the most you can possible. So we got 60 participants. We did this whole IRB scientifically approved study. And let me tell you, that is a pulling teeth to get through, to get a scientific study approved. And we get 60 participants in, we get it funded. we have 20 of them in the up training of the brain. So when we QEEG them at the start, that scans their brain. That tells you if you're either in a slower brain. So think about as even more laid back and chill, or you're in a faster kind of type A brain like myself, and you need to calm and bring it down.

25:29So we had 20 and 20, and then we put 20 in the control group. In the control group, we gave them Stephen Kotler's 22 cues of flow, the highest flow state thing there was at the time and said, Hey, you know what, just pick whichever one you want. So we go through this study. And what we come to find is we're writing this white paper right now, is that the people who are up training their brain, they brought that presence of the we did a QEG at the end, their brain did get closer to overall in the delta, got closer to this 10 hertz, and bringing it from a downtrend situation, got closer to the 10 hertz.

26:08Now, not everybody was as high of a delta, which means a change in variance, as some of them were. But that's also like in any study that you do, you never know what everybody's doing every single day of their life. but we wanted to give it a CFO if this flow code formula, which we put together based on science and neuroscience of what can gets that brain closer to that state. So the first stage of it is meta visualization and box breathing. So box breathing, this is just a way to slow down the central nervous system is four seconds in four second, hold four second, breathing out and four second holding out.

26:50We had them do a minute rounds of box breathing. The meta visualization is what I was talking about earlier. It's mixing the meditation and the visualization together. So the meditation is on whatever word that you have or whatever picture is in your mind. And the visualization, we had them visualizing something. So if you're up training the brain, you're visualizing something that is more of a faster pace. If you're down training the brain, The visualization is more something of a calm, peaceful morning. So there's more details in this, but as the study goes, but it's a box breathing with meta visualization for one minute.