E149 - Rewire Your Mind For Success: The Psychology of the Top 1% Performers | Michael Gervais

36:47When he was four or five weeks into his job, and he called me in to talk about how to build a culture. And he says, I love what you've done at the Seattle Seahawks. you know that's that's awesome it's for like i don't know 175 people can you do that same thing at microsoft for 226 000 you know i i looked at him like are you kidding me and he goes he goes yeah that's my challenge and i go okay and he says let's start let's just start let's let's see how So I've been with him and Microsoft for 14 years. And it's awesome trying to create and cascade the change that you imagine in your head. I'm going to add one more nuance to all the psychology that we've been talking about.

37:40That if you're a head of a household, if you're the head of your own kind of being, or you're the head of 226 ,000, or you're the head of a nation state.

37:51athletes do something very specific is when they close their eyes they can see a compelling future and they play that movie we call it imagery mental imagery performance imagery and they're very good at it because this thing that they're going to do later matters to them so they want to run that movie they want to see it they want to adjust it they want to understand it intimately and I'll tell you a story in just a moment about that. You and I can do the same thing, but we don't. The reason we don't do mental imagery on a daily basis or even call it three times a week is because we don't live in an environment that is so public and so consequential that we got to get it right.

38:40We have the luxury of not necessarily creating a masterpiece today with our partner at home. We take it for granted. We don't have to create a living masterpiece in this conversation because it doesn't feel like it's consequential. But we don't rise to the occasion. We fall to the level of our training. So the training that I'm suggesting your community might want to investigate is when they close their eyes, can they see a compelling future? One that is so vivid and compelling that they'll do whatever it takes to make it true. And then when they play that movie, can they slow it down? Can they see it from different angles?

39:23Can they bring emotionality into it? And can they play the most amazing movie in their mind of something that could happen if they could just line up the right resources psychological emotional resources and then physical external resources that is how athletes do it that's one way that they do it that's available to all of us and so here's the story that i want to share with you really quickly is that are you familiar with um felix baumgartner and the red bull stratos project uh i know the name but i don't know the project okay so felix baumgartner one of the i know i know felix was he the guy that jumped out of the basically out of space yeah so so he jumped he had this idea that i want to go up 130 000 feet and jump from the edge of space and he brought me into that project about four years into it it was a probably a six or seven year project and about four years into that project he became claustrophobic of being in the spacesuit.

40:28And it looks like a NASA astronaut-type spacesuit. And he needed to be in it for five or six hours, and he was ripping it off of his head within five minutes. This is all public. There was a documentary on ESPN done about us about him. He had to do this six hours every day as part of the training? Yeah, it was part of the training. It wasn't necessarily every day, but he needed to have a command of himself inside of it, and he developed a claustrophobic experience. We have since lost Felix. He has passed away. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he was going to go to the edge of space, 130 ,000 feet up, where the brightest minds in aerospace weren't sure when he jumped, if he moved through a transonic experience, doing Mach 1, if his arms and his legs would stay intact.

41:20So there's real fear, real danger, real consequences. How many times do you think in his mind he saw himself navigating that experience with high excellence? None? Once? Thousands? Why would you not spend thousands of times running that movie when your life depends on it? And what I would suggest to you, Mike, is like, you and I, we're running out of time. I don't know when it's going to end. I don't know when my life ends. I don't know when your life ends. We are running out of time. so the the the preciousness of our time now is directly met by how compelling of a future we can see and how diligently we can develop the resources to make that thing true in this fleeting x number of minutes to years that we have left now is the time now's the time to get that shit right and so So it fires me up because I see the wasted potential in so many of us.

42:29And I see how the most extraordinary operators in the world use their psychology for a compelling future. Yeah, I think that's the biggest issue I have. Because I'm at this point now where a lot of people come up to me, they come with some advice or they're asking my opinion on what they should do. And a lot of the time, the funny thing is they actually have the answer. they kind of know what they're supposed to do but they're not they're not doing it like they're they're still asking other it's like a form of procrastination where they're still you know trying to get like as many different opinions as possible from people so that they can make this decision which they probably should have made months ago if not years ago.

43:16So the funny thing is, even the worst thing is when I tell them, this is what you should do. I've been there. I've done it. Like, trust me. I'm probably quite a good person to ask. And this is what I'm telling you to do. Mike, give me an example. Like, what are we talking about? I think a lot of it is people have seen how I have progressed over the past decade. So I, Like I've been, I uploaded my first YouTube video, 2016. So I went from this guy who was absolutely terrible on camera, didn't really have much of a personality. I think it was there, but it was just kind of, I was very much inside of my own shell.

43:57Like if you watch the first few videos of me being on camera, I was just petrified of being on camera. I was this really awkward guy who, I didn't really have much to offer the world, but I knew that I did. Okay. So what was that psychology? What was your psychology? in 2016 what were you actually saying to yourself i don't know because i i look at this person i i remember i was watching i was putting a video together about uh reviewing my first competition when i competed on stage 2014-15 and i think the the very first footage of me on camera is captured at that point when i was competing and it was the first time a camera had been put in my face and it was just like just almost like this this fear inside of me like i didn't even recognize the person it's a completely different person but he's just this very timid quiet shy person come on mike go back teach us what were you saying to yourself i don't know i was just like i was just scared well right i don't know why well no not why but what were you saying like don't look stupid don't blow it oh they're gonna think that you're i'm a fraud like what what were you saying it was more so somebody was just interviewing me on like oh how's introduce yourself where you're from what's your name what's going on today how did the competition go so it was more so just a general interview and and it was your heart your heart started to pound your breathing came up you started to kind of rattle a little bit right yeah so like that's fauxpo That's fear of people's opinions.

45:39Yeah. So FOPO is this clever little thing that, you know, the fear of people's opinions, call it FOPO. That's what it is. You were afraid that they were going to think that you're stupid or that you didn't know what you were doing or that you were a fraud or that, you know, you were going to be pushed out of the tribe if you said the wrong thing or like whatever the narrative is, that fear was not the fear that somebody was going to choke you out. It was not the fear that somebody was going to physically harm you. It was that they were going to think something that would be overwhelming emotionally to you and it would impact your psychology going forward.

46:18That's the most dangerous thing. But that's why, like, even the simplest things like, you know what? I don't know. Go back to like 2016 or 2012 when you're younger and you go around a table in an office setting or wherever. And someone says, just say your name and what division you represent and what you're working on right now. Yeah, I used to hate that. I would hate that. It's like the most basic of questions. I know my name. I know where my title is. And like, I could tell you exactly what I'm working on. But then quickly, there's this thing underneath that says, yeah, but if you don't say it just right, they're going to think something about me.

46:55And they're going to know. They're going to know I'm just making it up as I go. Shit, I got to look smart and perfect. Oh, my God, it's exhausting. It is so exhausting. So now how do you think about yourself? Sorry, go ahead. Now I'm so – I don't think I could be more comfortable in my own skin. I think it's a combination of getting older, I think has some part to play in it. Being actually good at something and having confidence in what it is that you're talking about. So if I'm speaking about a particular topic and I understand it, then obviously the way it comes out is just way more confident versus you speaking about something you don't really understand.

47:39Like I remembered when I did a presentation at university trying to talk about something I had absolutely zero understanding of and I just I must have looked absolutely terrible so that helps as well and I think it's just getting the repetitions in you know for a lot of people who are afraid of speaking on camera or whether it's the public speaking or it's usually something I've never done before like even for me when I started this podcast I had no fear of being in front of the camera but the fact that I'd never done a podcast before and like the very first guest was quite a big guest and I was thinking what the hell do I know about podcasting like I and this guy is like he's a very serious businessman and I had no idea what I was doing and I was just completely winging it so no matter how many times I'd prepared mentally foreseen how it would go or done the research it's just one of those things where you have to get the first couple episodes out the way and then it just becomes a little bit more normal and then you're like hey this is this is fine now you know it's a good point that you're making is that um so at finding mastery we only hire olympians and sports psychologists and they are forward deployed in large organizations to help train the psychology of the employee base right and to work with leadership.

49:05And one of our coaches, our mindset coaches is Kaya Tertsky. Kaya Tertsky is a Canadian Olympian and she's won, I think the number is eight or nine gold medals in the X Games. So she's a free skier. She does all of the flips and tricks in the air that we all watch and go, oh my God, that looks dangerous. And it is. And it was just last week that she was working with a senior leadership team and she's on a small stage and she says, look, I have fear just like you guys. I get activated just like you do. I just have a set of skills to work through it, maybe a little bit faster. And so when it happens for me, I've got things I can, like, no, how do you say it?

49:58When it happens for me, I know that I've got tools to manage myself and even back myself down from that level of fear or intensity. So I look forward now more often for those moments that are real challenges. Whereas most people, they think that I'm different. I'm speaking as if I'm Kaya. Most people think that I'm different, that I am fearless or that I'm better at fear. I'm better at managing myself in fear, but we all have it. And so that's where, look, we've danced around this a little bit. There's two basic camps in psychology. There's self-discovery, the process to know yourself. What is my purpose?

50:40What are my first principles? What is my personal philosophy? What is the vision that is so compelling that's going to drive me? There's a self-discovery process. What are my tripwires? What are my traumas? What are the things that get me sideways quickly? And then there's skills. How do I work to develop an agile mindset, an optimistic mindset, a confident mindset, a curious mindset, a relational mindset? Those are the five mindsets that we think are the foundation for people to be successful in modern times. skills just like the skills you build you put time under tension self-discovery is just exploring you know whether it's paper and pencil or it's with an ai bot or a person of wisdom or meditating or whatever you know you need both investment and you're right you got to get out there and try but when you're out there on the edge you're feeling the fear and you've already invested in a bunch of skills that will help you manage it it becomes way easier to do Yeah.

51:42I tell you, there's one thing which I've definitely not mastered yet, and I would like to really master it, because I feel as though it probably could be the next thing that may take my career to the next level. and it's also um i don't know something that i just i just want to naturally be good at so there's you know i'm sure you're aware a lot of people have this fear of public speaking i have no issue you know speaking in front of a group of people but then when you put it on a larger scale like i think i've spoken in front of people what has been like a hundred but when you're talking like thousands of people and I'm the only one on stage that one makes me think oh actually I don't think I've done that before and the idea of that gets me a bit like oh like that's pretty pretty nerve-wracking so I guess with something like that is it just you got to get the reps in the first time you do it it's probably going to be a little bit jittery and it will be scary.

52:55Do it more times, more times, and it just becomes completely normal. For example, like a comedian, I think, yeah, I always think about this, like a comedian, surely they must have the most pressure out of everyone because they're on a stage by themselves in front of thousands of people. Not only are they talking to all those faces that are staring at that person, but then they have the pressure on top of that to try and make those people laugh every 30 seconds. And if they don't, like, I don't think there can be any worse feeling than, I'm sure there are, but it's got to be up there. The feeling of bombing on stage where you make a joke, nobody laughs.

53:38You're like, okay. You make another joke, nobody laughs. And then the crowd it is turning against you everyone's booing like that has to be up there with one of the worst so it's a good vivid example um i've been fortunate to work across four olympic games and the olympics are definitely for big emotions and so there's a framing though that i want to just introduce to the conversation Three Super Bowls, four Olympic Games, a bunch of other world championship experiences with the folks I've worked with. And do you fundamentally see or believe that the Super Bowl or the world championship, or in this case, the stage of a thousand people, is a bigger moment than any other moment that you've had?

54:39So a lot of times people will see the Olympics as the biggest game ever, the biggest competition of my life. And in doing so, when they see and make it so, they feel small in comparison to it. As opposed to the psychology of the framing, which is, look, the stage is the same height. There's people in the audience, 1 to 1 ,000, what does it really matter? I know what I want to say. I'm clear on my delivery. For the athlete, it's like the ball is the same weight. The field is the same distance. The rules are the same. I know how to do this. I'm just going to go out and operate and do my very best.

55:20So I see it as another opportunity, another moment, or the biggest moment. There's not a right or wrong, Mike. You can see it either way. But depending on how you see it, you would build a certain set of capabilities to support that philosophy. I am biased to believe that it is a more powerful approach in life to treat each moment that is unique and precious. And one is not bigger than the other. One might have different consequences, but one is not bigger than the other. So my job is to show up fully to my very best in this moment and this moment and this moment and this moment and this moment, as opposed to, man, I got to do something magical and different because there's going to be a moment that's bigger than others.

56:03The Seattle Seahawks, when we won the Super Bowl, both times, we treated it exactly like it's another game. And you might say, that's unrealistic. But that's how we started our preseason practice. The message was, this is the most important practice today. Our third preseason game doesn't count to the record. We would say, this is the most important game that we have in front of us right now. our second game of the season this is the most important game be great the finals this is the most important you know game that we have today be great so um we treat all of them like the same which is an opportunity to go perform at our highest ability to be at home with yourself to to embrace the the things that we haven't planned for and to be incredibly agile during those moments.

56:57So I would suggest that you don't need a stage of a thousand people to have a belief system about that stage. But if you think that that stage is going to be different than a smaller stage, then you got to show up on that stage and make it up as you're going, as opposed to like, wait, hold on. Every stage I've been in, whether it's a smaller stage you can imagine or something that has, it's an arena size, I know what I want to say. At least I know my intro into what i want to say and then i kind of make some stuff up and then i know how i want to get out of it i don't know what your formula is that's how i do it but um i would suggest you just take a look at like how you want to think about it yeah it's funny you talk about this about like the teams and everything i don't know if you followed much of the the world cup but particularly i don't know did you see argentina come back from some of those uh like the performances before and after the halftime like so yes especially when they played england um obviously i'm an england fan we were winning one nil and it was like hey you know we got a real chance here and then after halftime argentina are a completely different team and england were just like where they were beforehand they were on the attack they were confident they were in control second half they were just timid defense and just looked like the far less superior team I wonder what the talks were during those halftime periods in the changing rooms for the Argentina team.

58:33Because whoever was speaking, it was working, at least until the final. Yeah, you know, I think those halftime speeches are pretty overrated. I do think that they can shift some thinking. But pretty overrated. you you you're not going to invent a new team psychology in that moment but you can remind people of the ways that we think and so let's just make up a story that in the argentinian locker room one of the coaches or maybe i don't know if it was messy or i don't know who it might have been might have said a couple things that reminded everybody about oh that's right that's how we we stay on our front foot.

59:16Oh, that's right. We are the savages or that's right. You know, we're the ones that people count out. Let's go. But it's already part of their DNA. So it's not like it's this magical moment. It's a reminder of a few things that are true and honest. And so I think they're a little overrated, but I think the collective psychology for England was don't blow this don't don't don't blow this and that was a psychology that's been part of them for hundreds of years yeah hundreds not not just that game and so yeah so yeah that's fun yeah so every time you know they they perform so well yet when it comes down to the pressure or they start getting into the final stages they're just like oh my god like we're so close let's not fuck this up let's not blow it yeah that's right let it go yeah so you can't win with that you can't have you can't win with that attitude doesn't work i mean you you might get away with it you know like the the conservative approach from a lead is a tactic but it that the data does not support it.

1:00:30And so you might get away with a few, but the data does not support it. And I think most coaches, they understand that we should stay aggressive, but that is a higher risk proposition. Playing it safe is a lower risk proposition. So under pressure, and I'm putting pressure in quotes for just a moment, under pressure, you can decide how you're going to behave well and in advance. You can make a decision how we're going to operate when we feel stress or pressure. and and if you don't get clear there you you become automatically kind of reflexively moving to one of or those two of those directions you just want to be clear so that you can line up your thoughts words and actions with some consistency and i don't think they did enough work there and i don't know any of the coaches and i don't know i don't want to be disparaging but like i just don't think they've done enough work there well i hope the england team hire you because that would be great yeah there's there's some work to do there isn't it yeah who do you think out of i mean first of all the the people anyone you've worked with is there someone that stands out where you just like wow the the pressure that they are under to perform is just on another level.

1:01:54Yeah. You know, I have great respect for what Felix Baumgartner did. And he lived life right at the edge. And Felix, again, was the athlete who jumped from the edge of space. And everybody, the world thought that he was quote-unquote crazy, that it was too dangerous, that the juice was not worth a squeeze. Why do it? You're fine. You've made your money. You've made your mark. You don't need to do this. but he kept pushing. And so I have great respect for those people that operate in dangerous environments. The person that comes to mind right now to answer your question is a woman named Carrie Walsh Jennings.

1:02:35She is a four-time Olympian. She has medaled at every games. She's a beach volleyball player for the Olympics. She's no longer competing. But what she taught me was that she was already the best in the world. She had two gold medals. Going into her third game, she says, look, I know how to operate at this level. I am clear of what it takes to be the best in the world, which my aim is to be my best. And my best, when I am my best, it ends up accidentally or on purpose becoming the best. She says, but the cost is too high. I don't like my relationship with my husband. I'm terrified that I'm not going to know my kids.

1:03:21And she says, Mike, can I become my best, which is the best in the world, and have a deep relationship with my loved ones? Is that possible to have a two-pronged approach? And at that time, I said, I don't know. I don't know anyone that's done it. I really don't know. And she said, will you run that experiment with me? Can we try? So we tried. It was the first in my career, and this was in 2012. It was the first of my career where somebody was going to actually honestly try to be the greatest lover, parent, partner, and to be the greatest athlete on the planet. It was not easy, but she broke the mold.

1:04:01It is possible. And it is really difficult to do. And so I have tremendous regard for the folks that are in your community, that are in our lives amongst us that are actually honestly trying to be their very best in every facet of their life. And it's a full-time job. It's exhausting. It is totally possible. But the base of your potential is directly related to the base of your health. So you can fly high for a little bit, okay? You can do some extraordinary things for 18 months, whatever. But if you don't get your mental health as a base, you don't get your physical health as a base, and you go make a bunch of money or have a bunch of fame or do some extraordinary things, you're going to have to repay that and replenish that physical health over time.

1:04:55Over time, wealth has to buy and repair the health that you've compromised. That's a bad game. You can have it all. You can have both. and so I have great respect for those folks that are leading the way and doing it publicly so they're not just doing it privately and keeping it like their secret but they're showing the rest of us how to do it yeah I've seen a lot of very successful wealthy businessmen who have I mean their sole focus for a decade or more has just been grow the business make money they've neglected their health, their family, and ultimately, you know, they've had to pay that cost.

1:05:34And now they're kind of like, oh crap, like now they're doing everything possible to try and, you know, get their health on point and maybe rekindle their family relationships or whatever situation they're in. I think, um, it's something I think about sometimes because I'm, I don't have any kids right now. I'm 35, but I do want to have kids and I do want to start a family and I'm trying to figure out right so how like how do you balance this goal of really trying to progress with your career but also be the best father you can be and also be the best partner you can be and I think as you said this there's there's definitely a way to do it I don't know if you could be the absolute best at one in particular but I think you can be very good at all simultaneously I mean there's a couple individuals who I follow who are they seem to be really great uh family guys and women who you know they they i guess it's the fortunate situation that they're in because they have their own business and they've been able to kind of run it from home that means they can spend more time when they're kids but then they also have time away from the family so they can lock in and travel and do everything they need to do um it's possible um but i know i think quite a lot of people maybe think that it isn't and that there's only you know one thing that they're good at and they have to go all in because if they don't go all in then it's not going to work yeah that the all-in mentality is accurate but it's a braided approach and in your case it would be a three braids right which is craft, partner, and father, in your case.

1:07:20And that braided approach is not an accurate representation of time. It is a representation of full presence. So when you're in the thing, whatever the thing is that you're doing, the relationship between how fully present you are with the activity or the person that you're with, that is the material investment for the express potential. So when you're really present, that's the unlock. So if you work your ass off at work and you come home and you're tired and agitated and you're under-fueled and under-recovered and you're kind of a jerk to your loved ones, that's a pretty average way of doing life.

1:08:05That's lame. That's so unacceptable to somebody that wants to live with some sort of vibrance. You know, those are the people that you've made a promise to. Those are the people that like, they've made a promise to you as well. You got to be great for them. So what I do, small practice that I do, one is I invest in an uncommonly high standard way to get my sleep right. I'm not perfect. You know, I'm trying my best though. It doesn't mean that Friday night or Saturday night, I might not have, you know, a glass of wine that kind of, or three that screws up my sleep from time to time. I'm traveling on planes across the planet that, you know, sleep is compromised.

1:08:43But what I do is small practice. I'm investing in my sleep in a world-class way, investing in nutrition to my best ability. You know, four to four and a half to five days a week, I'm trying to get in the gym to do something that's, you know, movement-based. And the moment before I get home, before I enter my sanctuary, I take a beat. I do not walk into my sanctuary on my phone talking business. I don't do it. I take a beat in my driveway and I just quiet down for a minute and I get settled. And sometimes that's like 60 seconds. Sometimes that's five seconds. Sometimes that's a little bit more.

1:09:21And I get right, just like if I was to enter a synagogue or a sanctuary or a church or whatever, I take a moment to get myself together. So when I walk into the home, I'm vibrant. I'm as vibrant as a human can be. And I'm not faking anything. I'll say, hey, folks, you know, I've got a son and a wife and I'll just say, hey, oh my God, it's great to see you. How are you? And then I'll say, I'm running on fumes. You know, I need a few minutes to go kind of lay down, take a nap or jump in the shower, whatever it might be. But that moment right before I enter the sanctuary is a really critical process for me.

1:09:59And so maybe that can help some of your folks. yeah i think um i think for sure that's something that is going to be beneficial for a lot of people who have families and they're thinking about having families in the future um do you think that i don't know i guess for those people who because i think this is a lot of my audience, those people who are looking to make a change, they want to try something different, they want to get away from this life which they currently have and venture on this new path, what are some of the basic steps that they need to take in order to have the most positive mindset and the highest degree of success?

1:10:52So I know you've mentioned sleep being one of them, which I think is I would agree it's probably up there with one of the most important things like it's crazy how you know I've had certain situations where I've just I've had like five hours sleep or even less than five hours sleep but everything just seems to be like a really mammoth task that I can't at that point in time either figure out the solution to or I have a very negative mindset about it and I'm like you know what I'm just going to leave that there for now I'm going to have a good night's sleep tonight and I'm going to tackle it tomorrow.

1:11:28And it's almost always the case. If I get a good night's sleep, seven hours, eight hours or more, I'm like, right. I don't know why I was thinking yesterday, but this is going to be, yeah, I'll, I'll figure it out. I'll make it work. Is there anything aside from the sleep, which you think is going to be really helpful for those people? Oh yeah. I mean, sleep, grandma, grandpa kind of got this thing, right. Sleep well, eat well, move well, think well, is what I would add to the mix. So I think there's a direct relationship to the quality of your life and the potential that you hold that is directly related to the quality of your thoughts.

1:12:12And so you could get eight hours sleep, you can eat fish and vegetables. You could go throw some weight around and do some stuff in the gym and then be an absolute disaster with the way that you're thinking because you're full of doubt. You are a cynic, pessimistic. You have a belief that people are going to find out about you, that you're a bit of a fraud. You can have a whole kind of swirl of psychology that is the absolute most ridiculous drainer of energy. And if you think about what eating, sleeping, and moving do is they regenerate your energy system. And it's not an infant thing. You have to replenish it every day.

1:13:00But when you wake up in the morning and you've got an awful operating system in your mind, it just opens the floodgates for the energy system to just pour right out. And you're exhausted by one o 'clock because you don't have a great thinking structure. So I would say the great unlock right now is if you're invested in sleep, da-da-da-da-da, is get your psychology dialed in. And I would go sleep psychology in that order. And I know that that's a bit controversial because people would say, no, you've got to get your moving right and you've got to get your eating right. And I say, yeah, but I think commensurate with how everything else is metabolized even.

1:13:44I don't know if you're familiar with Dr. Leah Crum's work on beliefs, but she had two shakes, one that was labeled sensible and one that was labeled indulgent. And she had people go through an experiment and she told them, you know, in trial one, this shake is really indulgent. It's tasty. It's amazing. You know, it's basically a high calorie shake. and then trial two she told that same person this shake is super sensible it's like it's going to be really healthy for you it was the same shape same calories in it and then she measured their physiology and how well they metabolized each one of those just the belief system allowed the body to metabolize them differently and so the way that you think and believe even shapes the way you metabolize calories.

1:14:35So why would we go downstream and eat a bunch of really healthy stuff when upstream our thinking is compromising the whole thing? So I go sleep and psychology as the barbell approach of the two things to invest in first and then get the other stuff right. So, and you know, Mike. It's so true because, you know, I come across some people and they have this kind of look on their face and you can almost imagine what their thoughts are before they open their mouth. Usually, these individuals who are extremely negative and have a lot of self-doubt, they don't like themselves, they don't like other people, the whole mindset is negative, they kind of visually represent what they think versus other types of people who are the opposite.

1:15:28They're glowing. and they're vibrant and it's just because of the thoughts and conversations they're having inside of their head and that's right i i feel like this is a almost it's not fully proven yet by science but i find that back in the day i used to be a personal trainer and online coach and my sole job was just to get people in shape build muscle lose body fat and i noticed that some of these individuals who had a really negative mindset and just complained about everything and liked to blame others and was they were just a cesspit of negativity i was like this person is really going to struggle to get anywhere and you know no surprise they never really achieved anything impressive in terms of a transformation because of this negative self thought and talk and this kind of hatred for themselves i'm like look if you want to visually look good you kind of have to love yourself in a way and love what you see in the mirror and be be positive and be kind to yourself otherwise you're it's not it's not really going to work out well for you like myself and my my my upbringing i don't know if this was i don't think anybody taught it to me i think it's just something I was quite lucky with this uh this self-talk I had to myself that everything's going to be okay quite positive about situations and I was always I felt like I was always kind to myself and I respected my body and I feel like that's had a big part to play with visually how I look but it's I don't think that's really talked about much in the fitness industry yeah I think I think you're on the front end of what I think is going to be a necessary investment as AI is dehumanizing, in some respects, the way that we work with each other.

1:17:25We're going to swing into a radical investment in psychology so that we can do something special, which is be great with our emotions and be great as connecting with other people. but we can't do that when we're stressed and we're overwhelmed and we're fatigued tired and agitated and irritated we we don't do that well at all so it's coming i don't know if you have um any mechanism to help your community train their mind um if not i'd love to share i'll share with you um a course that the head coach of the seattle seahawks and i built on how to train you know your psychology to be your best and i'll share it with you and if you like it you can share with your community.

1:18:05But I think it's a really worthwhile investment. That'd be great. Yeah, because I think maybe that's the disconnect I've had with my viewers and my audience. Because things which seem quite obvious and simple to me are clearly not for other people. And I'm trying to put myself in the shoes of other individuals who don't think the way I think and how I can try to rewire and reprogram their mind because the psychology side of it, I don't think I fully understand it. Like I understand the nutrition and the training, like the training programming and the protocol and the nutrition programming protocol.

1:18:53I know that quite well. The psychology, I think, okay, this is a little bit complicated because everybody's very different and my mindset like i'm just like just just go and do the thing like i've yeah i've told all of you guys this is what this is what you need to do i've made many videos on on what you should not do what you should do how you should eat how you shouldn't eat and then like little tips and tricks as to what i do whenever i'm tempted to go off track and i have i don't know uh situations where i want to indulge or cravings things like that yeah a lot of people they're either not listening to what i'm saying or what i'm saying isn't powerful enough to stop them doing the thing that they know they shouldn't be doing so that's the final thing i'm trying to crack because oh cool like i want to yeah i want to speak to them and then watch the video and be like, yes.

1:19:49Yeah, it's good. I mean, maybe there's a, maybe there's a fun collab we can do. Um, and, uh, I'll send it over and take a look at it. And, uh, I think it's really good. I think it's super concrete, very thoughtful. And we don't, we don't say anything in the video that doesn't one work in the laboratory of science and at the same time work in the environment of high pressure, high stress. And so, um, it's got to hold up for both for us. awesome well i've enjoyed uh talking to you today uh where can people find you on socials so michael gervais g-e-r-v-a-i-s um is on the socials and finding mastery podcast is a great place if you love podcasts and you like mike's maybe you'll like ours uh finding mastery and then um we've got a resource on there that i think is really cool it's a it's a morning mindset routine that takes about 90 seconds to switch on your brain to give yourself a chance to be your best.

1:20:48And you can find that at morningmindset.findingmastery.com. Awesome. Thank you, Michael. Thank you for your time and hopefully inspiring my audience. Appreciate you, Mike. Thank you.

1:21:16Thank you.