Purpose over profit with Joe Wicks

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0:45hey everyone welcome along to another episode of high performance where myself and professor damian hughes reflect on a previous guest who's joined us in the archives of the podcast and really just draw out some of the lessons that you might have heard months and months go and forgotten about or maybe you've never heard at all and I think it's really good this just to remind people of the value that exists not in the latest release that we've got but in something that maybe two or three years ago we recorded. Yeah we regularly use the phrase success leaves clues on this podcast and there's loads of clues of how we can all be successful in the archive and I love doing it because it forces us to go back and remember those lessons and maybe think about how we can incorporate them into our own lives.

1:28Great. Well, I've picked an episode. Go on, who is it? And it's someone that I think I learned a lot from, actually. Joe Wicks. Oh, yeah. We met him, didn't we, in episode 109? Mm. Top of the BT Tower. Yeah. It was like a slightly sort of rainy day outside, and he was having a few challenges. If you remember his documentary about his family and his mental health was coming out like a few days later, and he was sort of thinking a lot about that, but actually was so upbeat, so positive, so full of energy and life. And I think the whole team loved meeting him. He was the definition of, you know, when the Royal Marines talk about some people are energy sappers and some people are energizers, he was the living embodiment of an energizer, wasn't he?

2:09He came in and he lifted everybody. Yeah, and I tell you one of the reasons why I think he's like that is because he's found his purpose in life. And I think often people mistake purpose for like your salary or your job or whatever. those are just things that you do even being a parent is a thing you do you know the purpose is what kind of parent are you what sort of employee are you what type of boss are you and i think the clip that reminded me um how purpose can give you such clarity of thought was when he spoke about a big deal that he was offered and he turned it down let's have a listen i've only been in one of those big big like financial situations where like i got kind of tested when a supermarket chain in the uk wanting to do like a brand you know branded partnership with some food products and I was like really excited about the concept and the idea of it but then when I realized what it is they wanted me to sell it was ready meals and fast food and microwave dinners and frozen meals and and I said you know what I can't do that I've spent like 10 years bigging up leaning 15 saying you've got 15 minutes and you can cook healthy food so I it wasn't like a big decision really I just thought you know what I could never hold my hand up and be proud of that partnership and say the Joe Wicks ready meals are available now in this supermarket so I'm just purpose driven not profit driven I mean I could have made a lot more money if I'd taken all these brand deals you know energy drinks fast food chains all the but it just like you said it's not part of my mission it's I mean it would completely devalue everything I believe in and like I said I could have more money in the bank but I certainly wouldn't be happy or proud to be like oh mum look I have to sign this deal like I like celebrating what I do because it gets me close towards my goals so the reason why I love that is because I think that someone that doesn't understand your purpose doesn't understand your decision making but when you understand your purpose it gives you clarity and all you need to do is ask yourself one question every single day does that align to my purpose so when you met joe then jake did that remind you of other guests as well that are challenging on purpose yeah absolutely but I think more than that it gave me a reminder that it's really easy to lose your own personal purpose and it just becomes like high performance for example right i mean the purpose of high performance was always to try and understand people with empathy in a way that we've never understood them before but it's very easy to suddenly just for it just become another conversation with another person and ask the same question right so i think that it's a reminder before every single guest comes on high performance like what's our purpose for talking to Peter Attia.

4:40Well, it's to help people understand how they can be fit for their entire lives. What's the purpose of us having the entrepreneur Lord Billamoria on high performance? Well, it's to realise that you can look at something as simple as the alcohol that you're drinking in a curry house and turn it into a business that drives your entire life. You have to have that. You have to find that purpose and it actually is there for everybody. It's like, I think people think purpose is like this exclusive preserve of the founder or the entrepreneur or something, but it isn't. We should all be living with it.

5:15So what are the questions you think people listening to this could be asking themselves to discover their own purpose? Right. So the first thing you need to do, I think, is like, look at your week and think, when was I lit up? When did I feel energized? When was I buzzing? That's a first good indicator, I think. The second thing is making sure that you're not living a life that is selfish. living a life that is selfless I think gets you much closer to your purpose because it means that there's always more to do right there's always more people to impact there's always more lives to change and I love that phrase that a taker will eat well a giver will sleep well and I think it's such a lovely idea that if you can live a life of giving like that's that's a real purpose-driven life so how can you give to people you know our version of that is this podcast but everyone can give stuff to other people so what lights you up how can you give more back and then i think the final one is and i you know stole this from suzy ma who came on high performance as well the entrepreneur that created tropic skincare is this idea of an infinite purpose so your purpose is never to like let's say high performance the purpose was never to reach a hundred thousand people it was to reach more people every day around the world to get them closer to high performance well they can always get closer to high performance their own version there's always more people to reach do you see what i mean yeah yeah i like that so what lights you up how can your purpose be something that means you're giving back because trust me that is far more rewarding than taking and the final one is how can it have no end but i think you know you still can set those parameters and like it's still it still isn't always easy and i still think like you get lost but i think that the point of those is it kind of helps to keep you on a path and like honestly Damien I feel lost and confused about the direction my life's taking maybe weekly definitely monthly but actually I think society has taught us that that's a really bad thing like oh you better not have self-doubt and worry about the direction your life's going like as we were told on the high performance podcast by Rachel Botsman doubt is a place of longing like if you've got doubt in your life and you're not sure about what your purpose is then it's because you care and you want to find it so i think that always needs to be there because it's almost like the doubt is the thing keeping you on track rather than the thing derailing you and you know don't chase perfection because it's it just doesn't exist love that was there anything else that joe told you that really resonated i mean there was a lot but i would probably point towards this idea that he spoke about of these having a mini retirement every year you remember that yeah this was something like recently gary neville was parodied for saying something similar wasn't he about this Yeah, but I think that that sort of mickey-taking of Gary Neville was almost people purposefully trying to misunderstand what he was saying.

8:00And I think it's so easy to take a clip, stick it on Twitter. But actually, if you look at what Joe was saying, if you look at what Gary is saying, what they're actually saying is treat a holiday like it's the end of everything. In other words, put your phone away. Don't be checking your emails. Don't be checking in with your boss or checking in with your colleagues. Be present in the moment. like that i think we all have this vision that retirement is where finally you're with your partner finally you're doing the things that you love finally you can make decisions for you rather than for somebody else and all that joe and all that gary and all i'm saying is treat yourself like that regularly so you know gary spoke about doing it for a like a weekend and just shutting down joe wicks does something longer he goes to the states and he shuts down find your time to shut down should we hear joe talk about it yeah i think he'd be good i heard this phrase once which which is don't wait till you're older to retire.

8:53Have mini retirements every year. You know, like little moments like that. That's a rare moment where I get three months because Indy's starting school soon. It's not going to happen, but just to do that. And obviously when I'm away in the US, things slow down, you know, less books, less apps, less income, you know, less opportunities because I'm turning down work, right? But for me, like the sacrifice, it's not worth it. Like I need to have those moments where I'm with my family and with Rosie, I'm completely present. and you know I think it's so important because otherwise you look around and you obviously achieve so much in your career successfully but how much time have you been with your family and friends and like real time with them you know and what do you mean by real time like not you know not there on my phone doing emails like still working up there but not there because it's so easy to still run a business because it's all online I can still be like away and still keep things ticking over that is the thing like I can film anywhere and just upload videos to the app I can upload videos to YouTube so I'm really lucky I've got that flexibility but I really value the importance of family time and I think if I just worked worked worked into every opportunity I would sacrifice too much of the things I really love which is like family time you know little skis with my mates and you know Christmas time and holidays with my family I think it's easy to get caught up in success and when you start having you think is it gonna last forever and I've got to be hot all the time I need to be popping all the time but you know you can't be like that you can't be like that all the time and not expect something to be sacrificed.

10:14I think that's a really sort of valid and strong point for people. And I would recommend them to try and find that idea of a retirement, even for half a day. Like decide, right, on a Sunday morning, when my alarm goes off or maybe doesn't go off, there is no phone, there is no news, there is no emails. I am totally shut down and I'm just for my family, for my friends or for myself. And it doesn't have to be long, but I think we don't realize the amount of information that is constantly coming into our brains that is actually quite damaging and has a long-term sort of devastating effect i read somewhere that there's more information now in a daily online edition of the new york times than someone would consume in their entire life in the georgian era so how can our brains compute all that information and not be derailed so allow yourself that opportunity of a mini retirement weekly monthly yearly just to shut down brilliant so was there anything else that stood out from our chat with joe i mean there's a lot wasn't there there was like it was one of those ones where you and i left feeling like right i've learned loads from this guy i need to write it down and try and remember it um but i actually liked your question if i remember rightly i think you asked him was it what are the three what was it you said what are the sort of three tips for staying consistent was it with exercise yeah so not just starting but keeping going with an exercise regime yes you ever listen to his answer yeah go on i think the first one probably is shifting your mindset from it all being about like fat loss and inches and weight loss to being more about the mental health benefits so we call it the non-scale victory so if you think of your weight as a victory right if you lose weight you feel amazing but you can also be really demotivated if it stops but you could still stay the same way not change physically but you could be stronger you could be sleeping better you could be less stressed and happier you know so we try and really tap into it and I think the more testimonies I read the more I realize that they're the ones that stick to it the ones that aren't just about the weight loss secondly it's people that you know plan their week and get a bit organized so prepping their meals getting their recipes ready for the week getting their food you know in the kitchen in the fridge and also planning their workouts and schedule it into the week because if you don't excuses happen you kind of you don't meet that you know don't meet that time you don't find that time for yourself so I think those that plan and prep are the ones that are probably most successful and I say the third thing is probably the ones that truly stick to the long term the ones that have built community within themselves like made friends in the Facebook group or you know they all come to the events I see them together like groups of people that have met through the app or through Facebook and so I think having that accountability because they're they're gonna have days they want to quit but someone else might say I've had the same I feel the same but go and do your workout you know stick with it and I think that community sometimes from other people externally can really motivate you.

12:55So there you go look a guest who joined us a long time ago on High Performance but who we can all still learn from but if you've learned those lessons from Joe I think it's important to refresh them you know keep that purpose at the center of what you're doing be kind to yourself and have these shutdowns these mini retirements if you like and those tips at the end there about how you can see something through he's applying that to exercise and fitness but i'd encourage people to apply that to any part of their lives where they want to see the end goal you know how do you know if you don't stick at something quite what you can achieve with it yeah i think again it's a really good example of just how rich the information is out there in the archives that people can go and delve into whether it's Joe and listen to the whole episode or Matt Fraser, another super fit champion that we were lucky enough to speak to.

13:42They're all giving us similar messages, but all coming from different places. Yeah, it was great. So if you want to hear the whole conversation with Joe Wicks, it's valid today as it was the day that we recorded it. Episode 109 of High Performance. We speak to Joe Wicks about the power of finding your purpose. Cheers, Damo. Thanks, Jake.

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