PNTV: The Ultra Mindset by Travis Macy with John Hanc (#362)

hi this is Brian welcome back to another episode of philosophers notes TV today another great book the ultra mindset by Travis Macy the ultra mindset Travis Macy subtitle in endurance champions eight core principles for success in business sports and life team car Nasus wrote the foreword to this book who's one of the old-school ultra endurance athletes travis is kind of the next generation he is the champion of lead man set the world record or the record for lead man if you've heard of Ironman if you're doing an Ironman you are a very strong man or woman take iron then go to lead man and you get something even more crazy so imagine the ultra ultra version of Ironman where you're doing everything from mountain marathon runs 10k mountain sprints mountain biking and then ultra marathons at crazy elevation they call it the Grand Prix leadmon the Grand Prix of ultra endurance sports Travis Macy best in the world of that incredibly inspiring guy who's done some other great things in this book unpacks has eight principles for living with that ultra mindset I really enjoyed it if you're into that sort of thing I think you will enjoy it as well philosophers note bunch of my favorite big ideas five of them we were going to look at now so first big idea here if you want to cultivate an ultra mindset whether it's in sports or just in life to be able to show up and go the distance and reach your potential and see what you are actually capable of he says the first thing you want to do is train your mind and one good way to do that is to create a new mantra he says the great mantra is it's all good mental training whatever happens to you how about you make your response Travis tells us it's all good mental training it's all good mental training this happens you whether you get laid off or a challenging conversation at work or an injury or whatever it's all good mental training it's all good mental training how can I choose to step in between and stimulus at that event and my response right here there's a gap that's where our freedom lies Viktor Frankl says that's where our power lives stimulus response you want to get better at that if you want to optimize and actualize and give your gifts to the world therefore whatever happens it's all good mental training it's fun too because you can break that mantra into two different styles right you can say that it's all good mental training or you could say it's all good mental training either one works I highly recommend it I've had fun with that since I've read the book second big idea is 6040 Travis tells us when he's running a hundred miles just pause for a moment when he's running a hundred miles if you're into ultra sports that may not seem like a big deal if you're not injured ultra sports that feels like a really big deal right so this guy goes out and he runs a hundred miles now when he's sixty miles into that run how do you think he feels do you think he's loving running at that point he says look I love running but no 160 miles into a hundred mile run he's feeling particularly great and in love with running at that point right and he knows that and then what he does is he realizes that's gonna happen and then he runs the next 40 months we're gonna talk about how down here in another couple ideas but I just want to emphasize the fact that whether we've talked about this so many times but I love seeing someone like this who performs at the very peak of his domain ultra endurance sports he's not feeling like it you look at it and go well that guy's just a freak superhuman hundred mile run is just a small part of what he does in his competitions he's just different right not like me who gets a little bit tired of doing different things at different times but of course he gets tired and doesn't want to show up doesn't want to put the next foot forward and that's the whole point is it how he feels in that moment isn't what's dictating what he's doing he has his identity and then that's driving the behaviors that's driving the feelings rather than feelings driving the behaviors which drives the identity which we talk about all the time now I found this particularly refreshing because I'm sitting here looking at a thousand notes over 400 into it and I love to read just like he loves to run right but when you're doing this all the time and I'm 4,400 miles or notes into my thousand I'm not always feeling like it that's a good opportunity to revisit it's all good mental training show up do the work take the next baby step again we'll talk about some details on how to do that in a moment but just remember he's not feeling like it at mile 60 61 62 63 he does it anyway period in part because he's removed his option to quit which we're gonna talk about at the end the next big idea is what he calls the 4:30 a.m. rule the 4:30 a.m. rule I think he came up with this with his dad and the basic idea here is whether you get up at 4:30 in the morning or not I happen to get up in 3:27 this morning as you know if you follow my work going to bed early so I can get up early is a sport for me so I went to bed a couple hours after the Sun went down sunset at 4:45 read Harry Potter to my son I tucked him in I'm in bed at 6:45 get up at 3:27 I'm ready to hit it alright I need to think about it at this stage it's just what I do but if you're trying to get yourself to get up early first note your day begins the night before get to better or late so it's easy no alarm necessary etc but let's say that's challenging for you but you say look I'm getting up at 4:30 yeah that's my new game and again fill in the blank for whatever your game is right but when you've made the decision that you're gonna get up at 4:30 a.m. it doesn't matter how you feel again when you when that alarm goes off and it's 4:30 the next morning you do it period 100% all in you've decided and that's the heart of an ultra mind set you want to go to the distance you've got to discipline yourself to be able to honor your commitments each step of the way that's the 4:30 a.m. rule remember a hundred percent is paradoxically way easier than 98 percent if you're going to bed your single makeup before 30 tomorrow morning I'm 98% sure I am that's really hard relative to I'm just getting up period there's nothing that's gonna happen it's gonna prevent me from getting up because if you got that 2% gap that's where the voice comes in and it can start negotiating with you you want a super bright line you want to make what willpower scientists call a pre commitment you've burned your ships you're all in you've already decided then you save your willpower and you just do it and you make that a habit you do it long enough as we discussed in the last episode there's a honeymoon phase of getting up at 4:30 for example that might be not something you want to do who cares whatever your thing is there's the honeymoon phase then where it's just fun no this is so so great I'm getting up at 4:30 the morning however long that lasts then you hit the fight through phase and they say Jason Selk and Tom Bartow you need to win those fight throughs you need to be the type of person that honors your commitments to yourself win the fight throughs so you've become so it becomes second nature this is how everything works all the habits I've installed from meditation to training to getting up early to going to bed early to digital sunset whatever right it all goes through the same process honeymoon fight throughs and then second nature whatever you're 4:30 a.m. rule is think about that what's your keystone habit what's the habit that if you installed it would have the most positive impact in your life think about it making your 4:30 a.m. rule a hundred percent all-in non-negotiable just done and then honor it win the fight through each time you want to give up that brings us back to our hundred mile run so we're on the hundred mile run we already know that 60 miles and we're not feeling like killing the next 40 right then how do we get from the 60th mile to the hundredth mile well Travis says you better break it down if you're just thinking about the whole thing you're in trouble he says his approach is he just gets to the next aid station he's not worried about the whole distance get to the next aid station get to the next aid station get to the next aid station Joe descent a founder of Spartan Race another ultra endurance epic athlete he says he just gets to the next telephone pole next telephone pole next telephone pole Navy SEAL Mark Devine says in the chaos the fog of war you need to simplify the battlefield and have front sight focus what's the next most important thing that needs to get done and it was funny because as I was preparing for this I went it was super early in the morning as it always says I get up a hour to before the family gets up and Alexandra was up with our little baby girl and then our Sun came up super early as well so we're all hanging out and for whatever reason we were talking about their birth our son is five years old and and his birth came up right so we had both our five year old son and our ten month old almost ten month old daughter here at home and we were talking about it in Alexandra was talking about her contractions so you could you could say that a natural home birth is kind of like running a hundred miles I wouldn't know I just know I have an amazing amount of respect for her and her power and she said the way she got through it was she wasn't thinking about the whole thing she broke it down and she said and we weren't even talking about this she just happened to said she said to herself I can get through this contraction that's all I'm gonna think about this contraction then she'd have little break then she said I can get through this contraction I'm just gonna focus on this contraction a little break next construction and there we go same basic idea aid station telephone pole next contraction what is the the application of those metaphors to your life right what is your big goal how do you chunk it down just get through the next whatever it is for me it's deep work session right and then whatever PDF and then mp3 and then this episode one aid station at a time that's how you get through a hundred mile run you simplify the battlefield you're always to use another Navy SEAL metaphor that I love I'm forgetting who shared this at the moment but the basic idea is here's your big big goal right well you take it Alden Mills is who shares this he says an unstoppable he says here's your big rock of a goal take a sledgehammer to it and just hammer away on it and get a little piece that falls off and then take this piece and carry it wherever you need to take it today then the next day repeat the same exact thing the next thing repeat the same thing the next day repeat the same thing this is basically what we talked about with organized tomorrow today one of the three most important things you're gonna get done today and what's the number one most glow-in-the-dark thing boom get it done get it done get it done that's how you take what seems to be impossible and make it totally achievable break it down fifth big idea is quitting when do you quit is it okay to quit well yes and no and Travis walks through this I think it was the last principle is basically quit him he says there are a couple things you want to think about right there are different situations that call for different responses obviously it's nuanced it's gonna be personal etc but the basic idea is if you know if you just have a sense that the path you're on isn't quite the right path for you it's not what you're here to do it's not how you're gonna give your greatest gifts and greatest service to the world well then you need to check in and you might have a fear of not wanting to change course that stopping you the example he used and you do need to quit quitting is the right thing in that situation he uses the example of he was going to become a certified or become an actual school principal that was his thing he was teaching and he was thinking about becoming a principal and he realized you know what his path was to really focus on ultra endurance sports that wasn't his authentic path so he needed to quit that principal certification program in order to become a fully engaged ultra endurance athlete now he quit that so he can have grit in the other right you got to quit some things to be gritty at times I had a similar experience when I was in law school alright so I was in a law school and I knew before I went that it wasn't quite what I wanted to do but it was my my ticket out of what I knew I didn't want to be doing into something that I thought was slightly better but I knew I didn't want to do it I knew I wanted to drop out but I wasn't this is 20 years ago now I had none of these skills and perspectives and fundamentals etc I was a very very challenging time for me and everyone in my life basically was telling me I just take it out just stay there you know you get a degree from this school it's a top law school you can do whatever you want afterwards right but I bet no it's not kind of how I operate right and it took a lot of courage for me to quit that I didn't even know what I wanted to do other than a little Kindle of inspiration to coach a little league baseball team for free as a volunteer which led to my first business which led to my life unfolding in ways I never could have anticipated so in that scenario quitting when I knew it just wasn't quite my path was the right decision now juxtapose that with when Travis is committed to his path as an ultra endurance athlete now he's categorically removed the option to quit as a career in a profession and then specifically in any given event he starts an event he signs up for an event he's categorically removed I love this phrase categorically removed the option to quit quitting is simply not an option period throughout his training and then he starts the race he's finishing it aside from an injury that's gonna force him to stop you're gonna see him at the finish line doesn't matter how long it takes me as matter how slow he goes he's finishing he's categorically removed the option to quit I love the metaphor yet he had to quit something in order to get to a point where he can demonstrate that level of grit so there you go sometimes you need to quit something so you can have grit for the thing that really is worthy of your energies so for me it's this I've quite a number of different things and I've tested a number of things but the ultimate underlying thing of I'm dedicating my life to helping people optimize their lives so we can change the world together that's just the commitment I'm Angela Duckworth all in her four principles of grit do you remember those I talk about them all the time what are they number one you want to the science of how to cultivate grit one you need to be passionate not fireworks I'm super excited and I'm not but compass passion number two you need to practice if you're greedy about something you show up every day and you give effort to it you practice that what you're greedy about number three you have a purpose that's bigger than you if you want to have truly exemplary grit it can't just be about you you've got to have a compassion and love and see that you're serving something bigger than yourself to truly tap into the essence of grip the number four you need to have hope in those inevitable moments when you want to give up you've got to see that your commitment to something bigger than yourself and to mastery of your craft and your practice and this goal that you've set for yourself is worth it and it's gonna get better hope right so we have our passion we have our practice we have our purpose we have our hope the four aspects of grit and sometimes you only get there almost always actually you only get there after you quit some things it just aren't quite it so quit and grit think about it then when you figure out what you're here to do go all-in categorically remove the option to quit again unless you realize not from fear but from data that comes in that you need to make a slight change but then it's probably going to be more of a pivot than a quit right you haven't stopped you just chose in a little different direction I've done that a number of times now now I'm going to continue doing that there's our fifth big idea the fourth was a hundred mile journey right you want to get to the next aid station the next telephone pole through the next contraction whatever the metaphor is just take the next step and get to the next Vittel milestone or 4:30 a.m. rule what is your non-negotiable I'm all in this is what I'm gonna do whether it's getting up early or fill in the blank you've made the decision done non-negotiable 6040 remember we're not feeling like it at Mile 60 it doesn't matter do what you said you're gonna do as you use your mantra it's all good mental training or it's all good mental training there you go quick look at the ultra mindset Travis may see I really enjoyed it if you're into it I think you will for now what was your favorite big idea how can you make it a more integrated part of your life get on that and make today another awesome day see it isn't it a bit odd that we went from math to science to history but somehow missed the class on how to live for some whacky reason optimal living 101 never made this schedule of course it's too late to go back and change that and you're too busy to read full-time to catch up but if you're like us you're all about optimizing your life so you can actualize your potential so imagine this am having someone read the best books on how to optimize your life and pull out the big ideas they can really change your life you know those sections you underline and asterisks and mark all up then imagine that guy me connecting those awesome ideas to other great books and helping you actually apply the wisdom to your life today well that's what I do is something we call philosophers notes where I've distilled hundreds of great books into 20 minute super practical summaries then imagine me taking the absolute best big ideas from those great books and sharing them with you an hour long optimal living 101 classes on everything from productivity purpose and confidence to nutrition goal-setting and conquering procrastination helping you optimize every facet of your life so you can actualize your potential you've got a personal trainer I'm kind of like your personal philosopher ancient wisdom modern science and practical tools that's what our optimized membership program is all about if you're feeling it we'd love to have you join us

Channel: Brian Johnson

Views: 45,758

Keywords: Peak Performance, Spartan Training, Body, Energy, Sports, Ultra Marathon, Mindset, Ultra Mindset, Enudrance, Business, Life, Travis Macy, John Hanc, Brian Johnson, Optimize

Id: J2n5prfxw_U

Length: 19min 17sec (1157 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 08 2018