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Know What Drives You with Michael Gervais

We love you. So when I welcome you to, Ah, creative live TV here and I am Chase Jarvis's The Chase Jarvis Live Show, where I sit down with the world's top creators, entrepreneurs and thought leaders and I do everything I can't unpack their brain. And today's guest is going to do exactly that. Before I tell you who it is, I will share with you that he is the co founder of an amazing company called to compete to create, um, a joint venture between himself. Mr. Michael Survey is his name, and ah, and the old Seahawks head coach, Mr Pete Carroll. This is a framework for high performance culture and mindset training for individuals and companies. Um, now, doctors survey. I had had the good chance being on his podcast, which, if you haven't discovered it yet, it's called finding mastery. It's an exceptional show. Talks will beside from me, but he sits down with amazing array of performers, high performers from so many different walks. He's been featured by CNN, the Wall Street Journal, ESPN,...

NBC ah, and about 50 other. I'm looking at his by right now, and it is they would take me 45 minutes to get through all of the amazing places that he has appeared. What it made it a no brainer toe. Have Dr Michael on the show is that now, more than ever before, mindset is critical. And whether he's coaching the Seahawks, where he's the head psychologist, individual MVP's from all of the different sports that you would know Fortune CEOs, he has, Ah, a robust framework for thinking and talking about mindset like none other that I have ever experienced. And he's going to bring that and mawr to you today. So please, uh, welcome yourself. First of all, here to creativelive. But more importantly, please give me a big creativelive. Welcome. Four Dr. Michaels, survey in the House. Welcome, Dr Michael. Oh, what would have fun introduction? Thank you for including me that way and including me in your community so that you were very happy to have you and I had a great time on finding mastery again. Folks, if you're if you aren't already subscribed, please go check that out right now. Um, but for the next, I would say 45 to 60 minutes. Um, I am dying to hear your perspective. There's so many people right now facing uncertainty, facing challenges, um, at work at home, maybe more challenges in, you know, a one month period than a lot of people have faced in their life. And how important his mindset I can. I can only imagine Thea the amount of coaching that you've been doing to Fortune 500 CEOs in the MVP's of the sports that are playing right now. Um, but rather than me try and imagine I'm just gonna hand the ball to you metaphorically here, Uh, what's it been like in this crazy time of uncertainty? And, um and, of course, give us an update on you to Howard. How are you in yours doing? But just paint a picture for us. What's going on in your work world? Okay, So first order of business is that athletes at the elite level and coaches are practiced their skilled at uncertainty. Every game that they go into the outcome is an unknown. And so because of that, they have good skills at managing the unknown. So while the thing that they love doing has been ripped away from them right now, they also have a framework for that which is injury so that the world stage, I'd be hard pressed to find an athlete who didn't understand what it means to go through an injury. In psychological terms, one day everything's rolling the second, the next second. It's like, Oh, I can't do my body Can't do what it once did. So because of those two elements, I think there's a lot for us to learn from athletes in coach is about how to manage uncertainty. And so it's not what you might think. It's not like there's, Ah, the sky is falling doom and gloom. This is actually right square in their wheelhouse because they understand to explore their potential, to perform toward their upper limits. They need to manage uncertainty. They need to become incredibly skilled at it. And so this is a new way of doing just that. I love it and compete to create is an amazing framework. Again, I was introduced to it. Ah, through meeting you, um, learning a little bit about finding mastery, had the good chance of going to the Seahawks game with you and, ah, and meeting your president have a couple of in depth conversations what an amazing frame we're gonna have to say create to compete because my mind goes to creativity, but compete to create, uh, you talked about the athletes that you coach and the coach Is that you, coach? They have a framework for this. It's, you know, injury. And, you know, obviously high performance. Uh, what about compete to create or what made you start that as, ah, as a business and a discipline? Was it were you working with individual athletes and then wanted to create a framework or we did you have this framework and you were putting athletes under What was the hospice under which you you got that started? I've been fortunate to work with Coach Carroll for the last nine seasons, and prior to that, he had years in the elite football world, and I had had about 20 years working with a lead athletes across many different domains, including some of the entrepreneurs and artists that you mentioned. And so we came together. It was about a year to right in the middle of year, two so heading into our first Super Bowl, and he is the reason I wanted to work with him at the Seattle Seahawks is because I had been part of other pro sports and other franchises, but it didn't. It never felt like I thought it might feel at the Seattle Seahawks. So he's got an incredible skill, and he's got a very clear framework on how to build a culture where people come collectively can work towards their very best work right. And then you add the psychological skills that help people do their best work. Then it felt like one plus one was something far greater. And so we combine. So is it back to like that year and 1/ mark? And he says Mike, like, this is amazing. Can you feel the way it feels? And now we're heading into the Super Bowl, meaning that you know there's a natural energy when the team is working well, and what he meant is that the culture that he had orchestrated was on point. We had 60 some Alfa males that were pointing their nose in the same direction. We had 25 coaches Alfa competitors pointing their name, their nose in the same direction and it was working. So he, you know, in the hallways like, Let's write it down. Let's write what you're doing, what I'm doing, what we're doing together. Let's just write it down. So we did just that. We wrote it down. We scratch it on the back of a napkin, and that became the basis for quote unquote a curriculum. And we shared thou those best practices. And it's all anchored in good science and Onley the innovations that can take place on the frontier. But it's those two variables put together. We shared it with Microsoft there. See you at the time Satti Nadella, still a CEO now, And, um, it was like, Okay, let's go. And so to date, we've and fortune off the train 40,000 people at eight hours a person at Microsoft. And so they helped us really understand how to do mindset training at scale and how to train your mind to live in the present moment. How to enhance the culture that you're wanting to create, and it's been an absolute life's meaning on life's work coming together, it's been incredible. Well, I am. I am a, uh, I would say tangential beneficiaries. A longtime lifelong, if you will. Seattle Seahawk fan Um I was at that Super Bowl as well when we trounced the Denver Broncos in New York. Um, was one of the great highlights for me of my long sports. Ah, passion here in Seattle. And, of course, a passion for Seattle and having them struggle so much to the seventies, when seventies and eighties, when I was a young kid. My grandma had season tickets for every single game I went when I could, Um, but just thank you for bringing home some Super Bowls and helping to transform that organization. Ah, holding lunches. I want to be super like, thoughtful. There are so many smart, capable, strong, creative people. Um, at that organization, not one person does anything alone. Nobody does the extraordinary alone. We need each other. So you know, it is really something that were. Culture is a living, breathing, dynamic exchange between people. And so I appreciate the compliment. How I just want to make sure, like it's the best part of working with elite teens, whether sport or otherwise, is the connection between individuals and the mission minded approach together and the understanding that we need each other and we need each other to be great to do this extraordinary thing that we're trying to do. And so I want to thank you, but also just put a fine tuned on there. Nobody does anything alone here. Spoken like a true leader yourself. Um, that's a great point. And it brings me, very naturally toe something that I wanted to share, which is you're doing a lot with the team, right? We talk about the Seahawks and the team, and you just went through a nice explication of all of the the ways that people work together. But I've long believed and I know you feel the same, but I want to get your specific comment on this that nothing happens in a vacuum that even if you consider yourself a solo preneurs entrepreneur, I know you, coach, you know, Fortune 100 CEOs, Um and that is both a team, a team and spirit. You're connected to a community, and there's an individual aspect of that as well. But where none of us are in this journey alone. So how important to your framework and the method of coaching that you, you know, teach to these, um, these in these high stakes environments you know, talk to me about the relationship between the individual and their community. Oh, yeah. Cool. Okay, So first order of business is that our brain is designed to try to solve and survive, like, that's kind of what we're our brain is responsible for doing. And it's a very orthe ogle approach to say, How can we put ourselves in stressful environments and then still be connected to other people when under duress and understood stress? What happens is people work on saving their own ass, and so that but that's not gonna be part of the solution for, you know, world class organizations. So what does that mean? It means under stress. There's a very predictable cascade of events that take place for individuals, both from a psychological and physiological standpoint. End our brain is so powerful, it's at £3 of tissue that sits inside of our school. But to oversimplify our mind is what's driving the brain. Now I say that and I can hear all of my colleagues, you know, in the back of my mind. State mike. It's never that simple. It's not that simple, and it's not, you know, there's a much more dynamic interplay between mind and brain and body and environment. That being said, let's just kind of play this out for a minute is that if the software is un sophisticated, if it's not coated well, if it is not thoughtful in design, then the brain is gonna win because the brain is frickin, it is incredible. It's constantly scanning the world to find danger and to solve against it and find other danger and solve against it where we need our mind to be able to optimize that hardware, our brain. And so that's where psychology comes into play, specifically the psychology of elite performance or high performance for individuals. And there's five main factors in all of these factors I'm happy to share with you. All of these factors are designed to help people thrive, and it sounds so cliche when I say it. But that's really what it's about. Is under stress. Do you save your own ass or D B d. A double down on being present? And can you be present with other people that are trying to solve the same thing you're trying to solve together? And so an undisciplined mind it's It's fun because you know, everybody is wonderful in some cases, you know, and it's emotionally erratic. It's kind of all over the place. But a disciplined mind is rare and getting your mind to be in the present moment across conditions requires training. And that's the business that we're in. You framed that beautifully and toe. I guess the commonalities be beyond. Amongst elite performers, it seems to me that there is just a really common baseline whether you're talking about a Fortune 100 CEO on athlete. Amazing photographer. Um, what? What are some of those attributes that play across genre in, ah, healthy, um, world class mindset? That's question one. What are the common attributes? And then question two is what can the every day person like myself? What can I do to tap into some of that juice? Great question. Um, OK, so let's start with it's been one of the missions in my life. Just understand. Is there a golden thread that binds the best in the world? I haven't found one yet. Okay, So I'm not there yet. I don't know if there is, but I'm hunting and searching for that very attributes. Okay, that being said, there are core principles and these core principles seem to show up across most of world class. When I see a world class, I'm talking about the half percenters, the tip of the arrow, folks. And I just want to make sure I caveat this with just because their best in the world doesn't mean that you would want to have them over for dinner, it doesn't mean that you would want them in your ecosystem. You might want to, um, watch what they do and be up close and personal, but it doesn't mean that they are enjoyable to be around. Okay, that's not always the case. And the second caveat I wanna have is that those half percenters, those tip of their folks, they're more like you and I than not, and they're more like each other than they are. You and I. That's a complicated way of saying that we're right on the doorstep, OK, but they tend to be more similar to each other than then. They are to you and I, but they are a lot like us. They're not born necessarily different. That only take you so long being seven foot one in the n B. A. You gotta work pretty hard because the talent so high that, you know, being 6463 even 5 10 If you don't have the ability to keep up, then you know the game will pass you by. It's an asset, though, to be 71 that you know it's a good starting place. Okay, all right, Enough of the physics physical stuff on the psychology stuff. Um, they tend to have a clear purpose. That's one they tend. Teoh know themselves pretty well, and they're dedicated to getting to the truth of things. So that truth seeking is like the ground zero for getting better. Because you can't keep putting band AIDS on things. You want to get to the truth of something. It is not an easy path. This is the third element. It's not easy. The bridge over the rough waters of life on Lee the person can build themselves. And so it's not for the faint of heart to try to explore one's potential. This is not an easy way to go through life. It is much easier to be average. There are different types of suffering that comes with that though there are no shortcuts, no hacks, no tricks, no tips. There are no secrets that I would hold the share. But there are practices. There's fundamental decisions in life. That fundamental decision is to approach success, to approach potential, as opposed to avoid failure. Another fundamental decision is, Are you going to fundamentally orientate your life towards your potential as opposed to looking good, making money over making growth, you know? So there's some fundamental decisions that are made, and then if we drop down underneath of that, um, there are a handful of mental skills that keep showing up, which is they have the ability to be present. And they've trained their mind most of the time to be present under stressful conditions. They tend to have an optimistic framework, and I'd be hard pressed to find any individual that is a tip of the era world class, you know, on the frontier that doesn't believe that is gonna work out. They believe the fundamental believe that it is gonna work out. That's optimism. We believe that that's at the center of mental toughness, to have the discipline to hold the future in your mind. That could be good, even when you're getting feedback right now that it's not working well. And that's one of the reasons If you look at the Seattle Seahawks, why I think, um, were so good in the third and fourth quarter is because optimism is a learned and trained skill and Coach Carroll embodies it, and we teach it every day across the organization, inside the culture. Amazing, amazing. Well, first of all, I want to put a pin in this discussion and say, People are freaking out right now already taking notes We've got D. C. Los Angeles, we got Sydney, Australia. We've got London. I saw Morocco, um, to suffice to, say, people tuning in from all over the world for our live conversation here and just a good reminder if you are interested in me sharing your question from wherever it is that you are currently sitting, please go to creativelive dot com slash tv and then up in the upper right hand corner of that thing. Just click live chat. Ask a question that I will do what I can to bring that question to you. Ah, here, Dr. Michael. Um, Charlotte, Just timing in here. Charlotte we get the Philippines now? Of course, As soon as they say location, people shout their locations. But suffice to say, you've captured the, um the you have enticed us to go deeper right now, and a lot of people are asking Oh, professionally, is your job something that all of these teams and in these individual athletes and coaches is this Is this common or are you some sort of, ah, new archetype that's emerging here in the 2020 era? And and I just I think people who are looking like, Wow, I had no idea that so much time and energy and money and whatnot was was like, channelled towards mental toughness and ah, the psychology at this elite level. So, um, are you one of ah, are you one of few? Or is this a standard job? It's awesome. Question. Super thoughtful. So the discipline of psychology is relatively new, you know, compared Teoh other studies that have been around for other sciences that been around for a long time. But sports psychology and performance psychology is about ish years old and so maybe 50 years old. So it is, you know, on the newer side of science, if you will. And it's the science and the study of how the extraordinary organized their inner life and how they train their mind to pursue their potential. So now it's snap it into sport. Um, when we went to the Super Bowl, Wall Street Journal did an article and they really were digging to understand the stories inside the stories inside the stories and one of the things that we didn't know Coach Caroline I did not know is that he created the first opportunity for a sports psychologist across the season to be on the field. And it was our first year when we talked about it like, Hey, how do you think this best goes? And we just kind of created from there like, Yeah, OK, uh, let's be in the Amphitheatre. Let's be in the office. Let's be, you know, on the plane. Let's be in the field like the whole thing. Let's have a 3 65 or 360 degree approach to it, and he's an innovator, you know, he's a harbinger. He's one of those half percenters, and now fast forward. Every team in the NFL is required to have somebody on staff that services mental health and or sport performance needs. And so it's, That's, Ah, been about an eight year art to see that trans transpire. So that's been pretty cool. Wow, Wow. And I think as you you highlighted the age of sports psychology and that we should. This we've talked before. I shared that. My background was in soccer and I was on the 11 development team and ended up turning my back on a professional soccer career to pursue things that were of more interest to me at the time. But I remember the emergence of this. Or maybe it was the popularity because it had emerged a little bit before my time, but not too far. And I dabbled with it and it was transformative. In a single, I took a single class and read a single book and I felt my performance radically change so again, and I felt like early in life, I tapped into that that had actually brought me back to a meditation practice today and spending a lot of time with my own mental health and wellness. And so the question for you then is I just tapped into this as an athlete. How did you orient toward it as an athlete yourself, A za high performer? Or did you come at it from the academic side? And ah, I'm dying to know how you how How does one in your world go from? You know, the first exposure to the world class performers that you are in the area of psychology and top for top performers. Okay, Cool. Um, I'll tell you this that it was it was an accident, like a complete accident. And in not a surprise, though. And I'll tell you, why is that? When I grew up, I didn't know anyone that had a doctoral degree. I did. The only doctor I knew was like, you know, my pediatrician. And the reason I show this no one in my family graduated from college. So I was not this image that you might imagine, like, Okay, this was always going to be the case. He was going to go on and get his advanced degrees. And that was not the case. And what ends up happening is that I was a young athlete and I was struggling. I could do it was surfing was my sport. I could do this stuff I wanted to do in free surfing. And then as soon as competition time came on, I was a bit of a disaster. And I knew my skill didn't go away. I knew my technical, you know, parts didn't evaporate, and I knew my body was still fit. So what was left? It was my mind, but I didn't even know there was a field called psychology. I'm 15 years old, literally wet behind the ears. And I'm out there like, I feel like just struggling dislocated, you know, in the psychological physical space. And so a mentor of mine suggested like, Hey, there's this discipline of psychology might be interested in, you know, like, dude, you're kind of a wreck with it, you know? And so I was like, What is that? And so I got into So in the U. S. There's a test called the S a T. Right. And so the S a T is the entrance exam into colleges. I got a zero. How about it? I went surfing, so and eso I had no chance of getting into college. And then when it came time to like all the all my friends were going. Not all my friends, all my friends were surfers. And we were kind of like, you know, Well, that's great. Uh, you guys are going to universities. We're just gonna travel the world and surf. And my parents Look, my mom pulled me aside and she pulled. She pulled me into the kitchen. She's like, Hey, listen, we really tried. And, um, you know, you've got two choices now. Either get a job and move out like, you know, and you could do that. Or you can go to junior college, as we called it. And I thought Junior college what? Like what? What is that? And I was like, No way am I doing that. It's Either you go big or you go home. And so then she says, Well, we thought you might say that, but here's where the school is, and it was right in front of a world class surf break. I said, I hold on, I'm doing that. Sign me up. I had to do school and serve, okay? And so it completely chase. It completely happened by accident, where it was my first semester and I didn't. I was bored in high school. I did not study, you know, wasn't my thing. Teoh. I just was so interested in progression and getting better and figuring out the ocean and figuring out me and figure out the ocean and figure out, and I was obsessed with it. I would walk home from school because I didn't have a car and walk home from school and on the hedges. I would look up the hedge and I'd hit like it's a huge wave and I'm surfing these ways kind of walking and people, I'm sure saw me like this kid is not what is he doing? But I'm certain I'm tucking underneath these big trees like I'm getting barreled. And so I was obsessed with trying to figure out how to get better. All right, fast forward to my first semester hit junior college thes three professors come to find out their best friends. It sounds like a bad joke about to happen. It was a theologian, a psychologist and a philosopher, and Dr Khoo zero Doctor Zenko and Dr Perkins. I love you guys because they saw me coming and they like a kid. Come over here like we want to show you something. And it was like the world of the invisible. It was amazing. And so from there, I feel so fortunate because it was not by design, but it was This collision of my suffering as a 15 year old kid suffers, like my suffering there, um, and my deep commitment and interest to grow and get better in an innovative way. And then them happening Teoh be so good at their craft to recognize this kid and say, we want to show you how your mind and spirit and how philosophy works. They come over here and it was from there, just just set me on fire. Amazing. Um, lots of questions now pouring in. And again, if you're just joining us on one of the streaming services. I'm Chase sitting down here with Dr Michael. Drove a and psychologist for the Seattle Seahawks. Ah, and co founder of Compete to Create, um, a framework of learning platform framework focused specifically on mindset. And of course, we're in uncertain times right now, and no one in our lifetime has experienced anything like this. And so to say that it's ah, it's new and leaving people feeling different than they have at any other time is probably putting it mildly. Um, so wanted to welcome you all here if you're just joining. And I wanted to invite Dr Michael to share a little bit about, um we just We learned how you got into it and you were sucked in as a surfer. Um, walking on the sidewalk, picturing you talked. You said the word obsession so many times. Right there. Um, there are a lot of people who are listening and watching from all over the world. We see, you know, the Philippines and, Ah, Dallas, Texas, and Oslo, Norway, and Port Orchard, Washington, New Jersey. And I think there are people who are listening right now saying, Okay, great. I'm also obsessed with whatever it is that I'm focused on my career. Um, just let's just call it, uh, thriving. I'm obsessed with thriving at whatever area of focus I have, whether again, its creator and entrepreneur. Sure, the times are crazy right now, but can you please give me something something to hold onto that will take me from where I am right now to the next level? Because as you walk down the street is you connected with those professors and you got hooked. There is something that hooked you and probably that was your ability to do something to take some action. So for everybody at home, it's listening right now, what are some actions that you recommend for tapping into this mindset that we know today used to think? Now we know scientifically, that is critical to top performance in any field. Okay, so that's the big take away right there. I'll start with that last little hook that you offered is that and then I'll give a very practical suite of things that people can dio. And there is no one tactic, though. There's no one little thing that's gonna be the thing it really is a fundamental orientation to grow and to get better to progress. Now here's I was gonna say I want to grab that last hook. There's only three things as humans we can train, we can train our craft or technical skills. We can train our body, our frame. You know, our carriage, if you will, and we can train our mind the best in the world. They're not leaving one of those up the chance. Okay, so So what? Why Why should you? Why should you leave it up to chance? Because in 1980 psychology was a little weird. Okay, you know, it's a new field, and we didn't quite know how to deal with the invisible. And people that we didn't know better was born out of a medical model where, you know, we're focusing on what was broken. But there's a new emerging understanding of psychology, which is the science of what is amazing and how the best in the world organized their inner life. You have access to that now, too. It's not that complicated. It really isn't. I'm gonna put some handles on as many tools as I possibly can hear, but you have to do the work right. It's not easy work. It's not complicated. And there's two basic camps. There's the self discovery camp, which is really learning about who you are. What makes you work? What do you driven by? What, your purpose? What your philosophy. What is your mission in life? What is fulfillment look like? I can't give you those Nobody can. That's the classic note. Know thy self right. You have to be. Have to build a answer. Those for yourself before? Yeah, before you go any further and that's all foundational. How about it that builds the base. So? So you've got to start with Discovery. This is one of the reasons that mindfulness is so powerful because it's it's an examination. It's an observation. It's a watching and learning how thoughts and thought patterns work, how thoughts and emotions and emotional patterns work together, you know, And so it's really powerful. The other two are writing of all the words of your native tongue when you're going to try to describe the man or woman you want to be, or the man or woman that you are now, of all the words, what words to choose. Writing is a forcing function to sort to solve things, to sort out clarity. The third is conversations with wise men and wise women, and we all have availability to at least one of those. Okay, so I would start with what is your purpose in life? I would start with that big question what is? And if you don't know it because it feels too big, no problems. What is your purpose during Cove it? What do you want it to be? Make a declared of statement. My purpose during this time is going to be. And that's like a nice little thin slice of what it feels like to have purpose. And when people have clarity of purpose, they can endure much pain. And what happens to most people under pain is that they turn inward or they get a grip too aggressive outwardly and instead of like, compassionately, eloquently managing pain. We all suffer, Jace, you know that we all suffer. So how are we going to deal with your suffering? My suffering and are suffering together? Well, we need to understand ourself first. Okay, so that's the whole self discovery camp. I could go on and on about it, but I would say this one. No. Your purpose. Okay. If you already know your purpose Great. Help somebody else know their purpose. Okay. Second order of business is no. Your unwavering. Your, um your guiding principles. This is a fancy word for your philosophy. Know your philosophy of life, Not your purpose. It's different. But what is your philosophy? What are those? Give us an example. Well, I'll tell you mine, I'll tell you. Coach Carols, right? My business partner and the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. So his is always compete. Super simple, right? What does that mean when you double click? Always compete means compete, strive, strain. Work together to become your very best to be a great dad, to be a great coach, to be a great friend, to be a great father. Compete means strive and strain together, not celebrate somebody else's failure. But the Latin origin of the word is to compete to find your very best. So always compete is his philosophy. Okay, Uh, Jesus is philosophy. I'll get to mind in a second Jesuses philosophy where, you know, we're just on the heels of very spiritual week from a Judeo Christian standpoint, and Jesus is was hey, love each other. It's it's kind of that simple. Once you guys love each other, let me show you how that looks, what that looks like, right? And so another philosophy, like God's philosophy, kind of work out in the 10 Commandments, so to speak, right? Like, hey here, here's some unwavering principles to live by about it. Mother Teresa, This is what was hers. I don't know why I'm on the I mean, the holy thing is just because we're on the heels of last week Eastern and whatever, But hers was very simple. Dr. King, what was his tell us? What was it? Equality, you know, like, Come on, let's get this thing right. And so and then he ducked. Dr. King and Malcolm X actually had a very similar philosophy and guiding principle, but they had very different tactics against it. Yeah, right. So minus super simple, it's every day is an opportunity to create a living masterpiece. And so opportunity every day, meaning today opportunity meeting, optimistic, create meaning like I think that that's the highest form of humans is artistically create. And then a living masterpiece is exactly it's meant meant to be ambiguous for you to figure out maybe what you're living masterpieces, but mine I can I can double click under that and explain it, but that usually does go away. This is like people are losing their mind right now that someone just said, uh, Ellie just said note after note after note being taken. Thank you for hope. So much First, like just keep going. Michael, keep yeah, because I wanna make sure we get to, like, the handles of the ways that we can actually train our mind. Self discoveries, part of it. But there's also mental skills, which looks like we can shift gears to mental skills. Put, Let's put a bow on this, though. What you've just said is that you need to have a purpose and then no, your personal philosophy. The purpose is like how you like did give us a little bit more on the distinguishing characteristics of purpose versus philosophy. Okay, so let's say let's say you've got a goal to make a $1,000,000 or feed a 1,000,000 people you actually know. Let's do it something easier, Like the goal is to win a game. Let's just do sport for a minute because it's so concrete to win a game. For what reason? To make a lot of money. Well, that could be your purpose, but it ends up falling kind of short. You know, when we study it, it ends up falling short to make a lot of money to feed your family. That's purpose. To make money, to feed many families. That's purpose and there's no judgment or critique. But it is. There's three elements when we study the science of purpose one, nobody can give it to you. It has to matter to you. So it's personally meaningful to you. That's first order business. Second is that it has to be bigger than you. The scientists that study purpose say OK, it's bigger than oneself and the third is its future oriented, so I have to work toward it. So those are the three characteristics of purpose. And Simon sent a great psychologist, said, You know, your why cool. And so now what we're talking about is the science of purpose. Almost the same thing. Brilliant. Yeah, really? That's very different than your unwavering commitment and guiding principles. So the principles air like love. That's a principle. Compassion, um, creative expression, um, authenticity. You know, those air those air guiding principles. And so you gotta know your guiding principles and then know why you're working those so diligently is towards one's purpose. Amazing. Ah, one related before we shift gears to some of the actual tactics, let's maybe use this as a bridge because, for example, Eli's writing and right now she wants to know what are some steps for those of us who were trying to write down and articulate these things. You're presenting these things to us. You're blowing our minds. We need to get the down on paper. What do you recommend? And l e I think asks what? A lot of people down I see. Of course, a bunch of those questions coming into the feed here. Um, can you give us a tactic before we step to shift gears here to a bunch of tactics like, what do you would you advise to People who don't act, you know, cant accurately capture it in a moment like, How did they discover these things, or how did they uncover them to writing? Okay, that's awesome, because the first order of business is that you already have a personal philosophy. It's evidence by the car you bought or didn't buy the clothes that you wear the watch that you have or don't have. You know, you already have an operating system about how you make choices. So the guiding principles are are the evidence of the guiding principles are your thoughts the types of thoughts you have the types of words you choose and the types of actions that you take. Now, if it's if it's like a junk yard philosophy, then it's just kind of like, undisciplined. In that way, it's really hard to be crisp and clear and to be powerful, if you will. So how do you do it? One is, you gotta kind of examine yourself and the way that I advise people to dope. First, note that anyone that is a first responder and, um, to the cove ID crisis that we're in right now, all anything that I've just described we have for the rest of the year. It's free. It's our eight week online course, and it's completely free. It's a It's an amazing way to do all of this work in a condensed way in a community of like minded people. And so that's that compete to create .net ford slash Warriors Edge. And so this all free for everyone that saved our lives. Yeah, for the people that are working in chat rooms right now on the Creative Life site, let's please enter that you are also anyone can conceive that and have access to it. If yours first responder. Dr. Michaels just made his program available to you for free. So very, very, very generous were captured that in the thought in the notes here. Yeah. Okay, great. Now, if you're not a first responder and your first responder for your family, so to speak is the first thing is like, who are the people that do something to inspire you? Like when you think about these people, like, Wow, that person's amazing. Just write a list of who those people are and then right next to their names, like, what are the characteristics that they embody? That's probably going to be an important start for you. The next thing that you can do is write down the phrases that you find yourself saying often things that are like cornerstone statements, you know, that matter to you. And then from that, I would look at all of those words on that page, and I'd start circling the words that are most important. And then I would reduce that or call that down to 25 words. Some sort of sentence in 25 words. Now, this is not a description of who you are your best. This is a description capture of your guiding principles in life. And then from that I'd worked and see if I could get that down to, like, five or six or seven words. You know something that the litmus test for me is? Could you get it out in a dark alley under duress? Could you say your personal philosophy and you don't need to make up your own? You can use any one of the world religions. They've got some clarity there, the most dynamic political leaders across the globe. They have a clear philosophy, you know, met Nelson Mandela's philosophy because Nelson his thoughts, his words and his actions all lined up against the way he I thought humans could live. And so that's a powerful human. No, that's right. Orlan Castillo from Facebook just chimed in exactly that word, thoughts, words and actions lineup. So that is very helpful for orienting those of us who are are trying to make trying to capture our reason for being our purpose in our philosophy, I like the distinction there. Um, you promised Ah, you have minutes ago when I took us down a little bit of ah tangent to bring us back to some tactics. Now, we were just getting that stuff on paper. That's a great example of a tactic. But there again, so many people right now who are looking for ways to you might even be a positive thinker, like, Okay, Cove. It has, um, hit me with a curveball. But I'm you know, one of my core values and a belief that I have is that you know, when it's you know, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. I'm speaking, um, in a cliche fashion and for for a reason here. But t keep it simple. Like there are people who are gonna take two sides, the same coin there. People who are really worried right now, like this is the worst thing. My business is falling apart. So many in the Creator and the entrepreneur space are facing hardships they've never faced. And then there are also people who are like, OK, life gives me lemons. Let's make some lemonade. Here. Do you have is the advice for those two kinds of people the same advice? If so, what is it? What is the What is step 123 for bringing mindset a positive mindset or the right mindset. All even sadly, when these were positive. The right mindset to this time. Okay, couple, couple big notes first, is that what we're struggling with is a heightened uncertainty. Okay, So what uncertainty does is it creates a sense of anxiety not lost on anybody. But you know what? Eight weeks ago, you didn't know how the world was gonna unfold, but we just kept going. We kept putting into action the best way we knew how. That's not different right now, right? So if you're gonna allow your mind to be hijacked by a new uncertainty, not not not uncertainty is still uncertainty. But it's just a new uncertainty. Then that's problematic now because And here's another example Chases that evidence right now. Do you know what I'm about to say? No. No. You're uncertain. I'm on. I don't even know what I'm about to say. I didn't know I was gonna ask that question, you know, So it's like our life is unfolding right now and it's unpredictable. It's uncertain, and it's always unfolding in your whole life. You've been managing uncertainty, the unfolding unknown moment, and that's a really important thing to remember that you've done well so far. Okay. Could you do better? Maybe. Maybe you've just absolutely crushed it in life. What does that mean? It means that you've been in You've been present in most moments of your life. Think about that. So that's back to living. Masterpiece is that you have command of your mind that you're able to live in the present moment more often than not. Maybe most of your day, if you could really have a living masterpiece. And so why the president moment? Because that's where wisdom is revealed. It's where all things true, beautiful and good or experienced is where high performance is expressed. It is the conduit to being human. And so when we get ahead of ourselves and we're thinking about all the things that could go wrong in the future, it creates a constrictor both in our mind and our body. It constricts us, and we get to constricted. We can't were not free. You know, we can't unbind ourselves that way. So all that being said is what are some strategies here is It's a fundamental decision that you are going to, um, authentically work on growth. Okay, good. Now, when your mind starts to get to that panic state, you've got a choice to make. Are you going to think about a pessimistic future or an optimistic future? You have to decide. You don't get both, you choose, and there they are, learned behaviors, optimism and pessimism are learned. And so and there's only two options. It's either optimism or pessimism, that's it. And so you have to make a choice right now, Which is it gonna be? And if you find the weaker part of your mind being pessimistic and being doom and gloom, then it's a simple is like Wait a minute already made up my mind. Hold on, Let's flip this train of thought over to something optimistic, leading that they had on people. You. How do people are gonna push on this just a little bit? How do people who find themselves in that position right now, like I think of myself as positive? But I got fired from my job yesterday. I'm looking down the barrel of my rent, and sure, I really want to be positive. I said two weeks to mince like, you know, two days two hours ago that I was going to be positive, and here I'm finding myself and that's not so positive mindset. What are the words that we say to ourselves to get us back? Okay, so goes back to something fundamental. Do you believe you can do hard things? Have you earned the right to say I could do hard things in my life? And if you have, if you look down a double barrel shotgun before metaphorically, hopefully, if you've done hard things, you gotta own that because right now you're in the thick of it. If you haven't done hard things, then I hope you can hear this car car. I wanted the greatest volleyball players to ever play the game. Okay, so he's He's won gold medals as a coach, as an athlete, both in beach and indoor, amazing athlete, in American, valuable or us valuable. I was fortunate to work with his team in the last quad going into the Rio Games, and he says it was almost like a throw away. Comment. He says, Mike, I've never met anyone that's won a gold medal or even meddled period and hasn't faced down a double barrel shotgun. Let's get our team. Great at the double barreled shotgun. Yeah. Okay. So what does that mean for right now? If you haven't been tested cause you're new in life, let's say Well, okay, here it is. Here's your double barrel shotgun. What do you do about it? And I don't say that callously. I know. I've got anxiety moments that come up for me about my future. In my economics, in my business, you know, and and my loved ones health and the community at large. So So I have that as well. My awareness of those types of thinking is short lived because I know that they're taking me to down a track that is not where I need toe be. And so what do I do with great awareness? Course? Correct. And oftentimes it involves a deep breath. So we've got that ancient brain that sits on our skull. It's amazing. And when we send a long exhale back to our system, it says to our brain Hey, we're okay. The saber tooth tiger were free from it like there's no threat happening in this present moment and is as simple as that sounds. It is one of the more radical, disruptive things that you can do when you feel anxiety and that Extell let it be eight seconds or 10 seconds, four seconds up. You're always using your nose for breathing. For most of the part and then the excel, let it be double in length, 4 to 10 seconds. That is a biological trait, right? This deep breathing have has a calming effect on your biology. Is that is that Is that fair to say? Absolutely. This is one of the reasons it is so powerful to train breathing so that you're skilled at it when you need it. It's another reason we we train mindfulness and meditation because my the essence of mindfulness is not relax ation, right? That is not it. That's a gold dust. It's not the gold. The gold of mindfulness is awareness so that you can understand how to be in the present moment and so that you can adjust to the unfolding, unpredictable known So its that its that awareness training from mindfulness and the deep breath, work and breathing work that does allow us to pivot from a very biological framework. There standpoint, laser, that is an amazing, very, very simple um, I would say Remedy will use that word lately because there's probably a lot of stuff going on. Give us two or three other things that for people who right now this is a tough time and they're looking to whether they're pessimistic or optimistic. As you said, we've got two choices. You could be one of the other. Can you put a circle around another activity that is good, regardless of your approach. Like breathing is super key. It's a, you know, whatever A key to life. Um, what else? Give us. Give us a couple of other these. They're just candy. Were eating it up over here. A lot of notes being taken. I'll see in the comments. Yeah. Awesome. Okay, I would suggest that the breath work like there's two ways to go about it. Maybe it's in the 16 hours that you're awake. Maybe you're taking 200 deep breaths, right? Purposeful, deep breaths. But I would suggest something maybe even more dynamic. Which is you work. You establish like 6 to 8 minutes of doing that work on a daily basis. You've heard meditation and mindfulness. You know the science of it. It's been around 2600 years you want Now is the time. Okay, it's not too late. Now is the time to invest in that work. The science is ridiculous, and I could go on and on about the benefits of that. Now is a powerful time to do it. And, you know, there's lots of APS. You don't need a nap. But if you want to get a nap for some training, that's cool, too. For six minutes. Set your timer. Maybe it's two minutes. Maybe it's eight. Optimal sign. Optimal dose, according to science, is around 20 minutes. All you're doing is following one part of your breath at a time. Follow the inhale and then follow the exhale and do it again and again and again and your minds gonna wander and you just gently and quickly return it back. And so that would be the most simple way to think about mindfulness training. Now, what else can we do? Um, you gotta get your recovery right flat out. Get your recovery right. There's four main buckets of recovery. Right. So sleep well. Eat well, Move well and think well. And in the world stage of athletics, we talk more about recovery than we do working hard. Just about everybody works hard. You know, like there are freaks that, you know, eat a full pizza and then jumped inches. And, you know, I think there's just freeze, you know, every domain, you know, but for the most part, like everybody's working really hard. So recovery is us bolstering our immune system. It's bolstering our ability to be able to do it again. The hard thing that we're trying to do together to do it again day in and take out. And so getting your recovery systems right is massive right now. And so, you know, um, six weeks ago, I in six weeks, I've had probably three glasses of wine for a glass of wine. That's it. Now, that's not normal. Normally, like, you know, my wife and I are some friends will have a glass of wine here and there, but we put it away. We're like, Hey, listen, this war is going to be met at my immune system, and my immune system is going to be on point. Guarantee it. Okay, so that's another thing to dio. Um, last thing I would suggest to you is getting the service of other people the nearest same. What do you mean by that? Right now people need you. Then your kids need you to be strong. They need you to get down and you know, look at them eye to eye. Tell Listen to them. Hear what they have to say. Feel what it's like to be them. Don't try to solve anything, but be there to calibrate and then look him in the eye and remind them that your job is to take care of them and you're going to do everything you can to take care of them. Take that same spirit and do it with your community members. Right now, people are struggling. I'm concerned and scared for the mental health issues that are going to start happening. We've already seen an uptick in suicide. Ality. We've seen an uptick in depression anxiety. Call your people cinnamon note, reach out to him, pick up the phone and say, Hey, I'm thinking about you. I love you. You know, I hope you're doing well and following I mean, it's not just so trite that way, but follow on and have a meaningful conversation thereafter. So I know those are some of the big rocks to get in the container. Amazing. And speaking of giving back and supporting and showing up for your community, we've copped captured that in the notes. You're if you are a first responder. Ah, Mike just gave you a resource where you can have access to his training for free. You want to say that you are 11 more time here on the air, please? Yeah, so happy to do this. It's it's called Compete to create dot net Ford slash warriors Edge. And so for all first responders, we got you, we got your back. We want to say thank you. The courses. $500 free for the rest of the year. It's an eight week online course, and we're so stoked, you know, to introduce that to your community. And if you're not a first responder, um, there's I'm happy to give people a discount, you know, for the course. And so send an email to compete to create dot net and we'll take care of him as well. We want people's health to be on point and so we won't take care of first responders first and for everyone else who is taking care of first responders, whatever we want to have your back now. Amazing. Thank you so much for the generosity. Same thing at creativelive creativelive dot com slash wellness classes. We've made a bunch of classes free there as well. It won't have. Ah, the epic focus that Dr Mike has on mindful awareness, mindfulness and mindset. We've got all kinds of stuff there for you as well. Um, I think like showing up for your people is just It's a great piece of advice, not just in this moment, but it's just e. I think you said be of service that is goes back to purpose ago. There's so many things. Those air continuity is thread that I see across, you know, the hundreds of guests of top performers and I have had on this show, and I've listened to so many episodes of your podcast finding mastery. It just seems like such a a thread. Um, and that's something that's always been a part of your practice. Oh, yeah, it's actually good science to, you know, is that when folks have a purpose and the greater themselves, like we talked about, but they're doing acts of service for other people. It's an inoculation toe. Anxiety, depression, even addiction. And so, um, you know volunteers sometime. Do something for other people. Call them, do something kind For other people. Being service goes a long way, not only for them, but for you as well. And that last note that I'd want to say chase two things. One is thank you for including me in your community. And if folks haven't listened to our podcast on finding mastery like I loved it, it was so good. Such a good And I loved it. I loved every part of it. It was so enjoyable. And then you you do such a job. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks, mate. And then, uh, ditto. You gave me the runway here, toe Just riff and have some fun with it. So the other piece is, um, so back to like, the tactics. Yeah. Waking up in the morning. You know, it's two parts at least two parts. So there's the physical Wake up when you get out of bed and kind of stretch and kind of get your body moving. But why not finish the job and wake up your mind so I don't necessarily want to give, like a structure. But just that thought. If you wanna wake up your mind If you were to prime your mind to be great, what would you do? First thing you know, when your eyes opened up, what would you do? And I think that that type of commitment sets the tone for the rest of the day. And then that can become, ah, habit. Hopefully, eventually Awesome. Last question for me and where Ah, we promised to get you on the road here shortly, but I can't help but ask this one, and it's it's part of personal, but I think it will be in service of the community. Speaking of, we still have people coming from all over the world if you're joining us in the chat, thank you very much. I'm sorry we didn't get all of your questions, but, um, I'll Dubai can to follow up in the comments. But my question is this Mike. So I remember I went to the Hawks game of your guest at one. It was a game that we ended up going into overtime and remember having a conversation with you. Um, and we won. Of course. It was a great game. Um, but there are people who are under duress right now, and I remember having a conversation in a sideline. You know, cats. Not really about right now, because Russell Wilson, the quarterback for the Seahawks, like I'm it has to be extraordinary for me to be talking to him about this right now. Moment. So you did some coaching for us. You help people who are stuck right now in this cove it moment. But for people who want to be on elite performer and they're using this as a reminder, OK, Great. I realized I didn't do all the work. I met my first challenge here, Mid Koven. But I want to commit to a life of super high performance, and I want to commit to a strong mindset. Allah, Russell Wilson, his your vision and the vision for the team. And Russell vision is it's big and scope and its long and distance. What for people right now should they be thinking about Is it adopting a series of practices? What are three very, very basic things that you would recommend if someone's trying to change their life from this part forward with respect to their mindset. 12 or three things just give us something to hang their hat on. That's not dealing with this acute trauma right now that wants us to be great in 1359 years. Awesome question. OK, so we go from thoughts to thought patterns, toe habits of thought. So we want to invest in the that outcome, which is great habits, right? Great habits of thought. So here would be the three that I would talk about is one start with writing down and committing to your purpose. What are you doing as a human like, what is your purpose here on the planet? You know, for the x number of years that we have left, so I would sort that out. The second thing that I would do is I would make I would double down triple down in a mindfulness practice to learn more about to raise awareness. I should say about your inner life and the unfolding external life. Right? Raise that awareness so that you can pivot and adjust and beam or connected to the things that matter more. So those are two, and the third is that I would triple down on what we believe is at the center of mental toughness, which is optimism So many people, when getting punched in the stomach or kicked in the teeth or feel like they're, you know, down and out. They they fold and they don't fold in like a wimpy kind of way. But they give up on staying and being disciplined in the present moment. And how did they blame others? They they stopped wanting to, like, risk looking bad. They maybe they just get a little small and tighten tents, so I would triple down on optimism training. And there's lots of research on how you can do and develop an optimistic framework. But you got to get past this idea that it's week you got to get past this idea that you're gonna get taken advantage of because optimism training is a fundamental commitment that's born into mental toughness. It's a fundamental commitment that you have the discipline of mine to focus on what is good and what could be good. And then you start to trust yourself to work against that and trust others in your community that, you know, like I would never suggest trust other people that are just have a big word game, but don't really back it up. That's that's some naive thing that doesn't play out properly, but investing an optimistic framework. And because I tell you, I have not met a best in the world in anything, whether it's parenting or executives or arts or sport that fundamentally does not believe it's gonna work. And if you find yourself in moments of stress and pressure, constricting and tightening up and blaming and doing those things I mentioned, then you need a little training of optimism in there, and so does the three. So I mindfulness and optimism purpose, mindfulness optimism. Dr. Mike, thank you so much. I'm also going to say thank you from the people all over the world, from Rachel From. So if I from Lauren from Barbara, from Maryland, from Richard Orlin Marcus Ah, every corner of the globe where people lined up to say thank you for the last hour of your time, Um, and from one home to another, thanks left for showing up on this show. It was such a treat to be on finding master your podcast. I want to encourage people to check that out also, of course, compete to create dot net Anything, anywhere else, you'd like to steer people who are new to your work or want to get more. Yeah. No, that's it. Those were the two places, like socials. Fun. We're having a great time on social, so you can find us at Michael Jer Veii. G E R v A. I s finding master is a great, you know, community that we've built not as large as yours, but it's a community that we're building. And, like I'm so stoked to give anyone that's a front line. Um, warrior right now, you know, compete to create dot net for it slash warriors edge the eight week online course. I'm so stoked to do that with your community. So that's it, brother. Appreciate you. Thank you. And ah is a great conversation as well. I appreciate your time and I'll reach out to you offline here when we can have a follow up conversation. I'm glad to hear that you and the family you're well and thanks for being on the show. But