 he became one of the greatest people to ever play basketball is because he did that kind of thing. So if you want to become world class, that's exactly the kind of weird stuff that you're doing in your green zone. And then, you know, you're right. If you're doing that stuff in your red zone and your yellow zone, or if you don't apply these principles and everything feels like a red zone because you're always tired, you're always exhausted, you're always frustrated, it just feels like work. What's up everybody and welcome to the show today. We drop great content each and every week and we want to make sure that you guys get notified. And in order to do that, you're going to have to smash that subscribe button and hit that notification bell. And if you've gotten a lot of value out of this, make sure you give us a like and share our videos with your friends. Well, you guys interviewed Kobe Bryant before his untimely death. And I've gotten to know Rob Polenka, his former agent, now the VP basketball operations over at the Lakers. And Rob and I have talked about what players do. Like you think about it, at the most elite level, that group of top performers has the most coaches because LeBron is working on prehab, not just rehab. He's working on his sleep. It's estimated, and I didn't get this from Rob, but that LeBron will spend a million dollars a year on his development because you think, oh, he's just naturally gifted and he explodes onto the court for, you know, 60 minutes and does all this stuff. No, there is so much work that goes into preparation and rest and diet and focus and skills training. Rob told me this story. I think this is, yeah, this was with Kobe before Kobe died when he was his agent. Rob said, what are you gonna do next season? Because the thing is you get really, really good at your gift. And then the other team figures it out. They're just watching game film day in and day out and they're like, oh, we see his move. He's doing this. And I don't know a lot about basketball. But anyway, so Kobe, or yeah, Kobe decided that he was going to study Great White Sharks. So he gets into the Pacific with Rob. They're in scuba gear. They go down into a dive cage and they're watching Great White Sharks and they're there for an hour. They finally see one. And Rob's like, this is like a complete waste of time. Anyway, Great White Sharks move very, very slow, very fluidly and then at the very last minute, boom, they go in for the kill. Next season on the court, what did Kobe do? Very slow, very fluid, and then boom, goes in for the kill. And then it was another season until they figured it out. That is like an extreme example of developing your gift and you would think, well, Kobe doesn't need to do that, but that's why he became one of the greatest people to ever play basketball is because he did that kind of thing. So if you want to become world class, that's exactly the kind of weird stuff that you're doing in your green zone. And then, you know, you're right. If you're doing that stuff in your red zone and your yellow zone, or if you don't apply these principles and everything feels like a red zone because you're always tired, you're always exhausted, you're always frustrated, it just feels like work. You know, we had some off air chats with Kobe during that episode and I was fortunate enough to go to his last game. And at that point, you know, he was getting a lot of heat for taking all the helicopter rides and for, you know, basically being an expensive cost of the Lakers, but he understood that his prehab and his rehab was far more important than anything happening on the court, just for him to get on the court at that age. And that helicopter ride, if you live here in LA like me, that shaves hours off so you could actually be in your green zone when the time is there. And that's what top performers do. They understand this to such a high level. And, you know, I'd love to talk a little bit more about what you learned in your research for this book from top performers. We jokingly talked about hacks, but they understand themselves and how to leverage those gifts to the best of their ability. That's what makes them top performers while the rest of us feel like we're playing catch up. So here's a quality that always amazed me about the best leaders I've met. And like you, I have the privilege of interviewing some of the best leaders in the world for what I do. And again, it's one of those things that if you can get into that bad zone, that space where you do this repeatedly, you're like, how do I even get paid for this? Like, how is this my life? Like it's a good day most days, right? But what I've noticed, and you've probably seen this, like when they show up, they're not distracted. They have all the time in the world for you. They make you think like they've done all kinds of research which often they have done and they're never rushed and they're never hurried. I've never been to Necker Island, but apparently if you go, Richard Branson greets you there and I've had friends who have been and he just acts like he's not running hundreds of companies but like, oh, nice to see you. It's good, you want something to drink, you want to sit on the beach, what do you want to do? You want to go out for a jet ski? Like, let me know. And what that is, is they've learned how to say no. They know what's important so that when something, one of the things I encourage people to do with their time is reject the whole idea of living a balanced life. I think it's a waste of time because number one, I've tried it for many years and I've never succeeded. And secondly, you ever notice that balanced people never seem to change the world? Passionate people do. And so what I encourage people to do is give up on the idea of balance because balance feels like a retreat. Balance is like, I'm going to do less at work, I'm going to do less of this, I'm going to do less of that. I don't want to do less with my life but I want to carefully choose what I decide to do more of. And now what I want to do is whatever I allow on my calendar, I want to pursue with passion. So if I'm going to do a podcast, I'm going to prep well. If I'm going to write a book, I'm really going to go deep. If I'm going to meet with this key client, I am going to go in prepared. If I'm going to read my kid's bedtime stories, I'm not going to skip pages, okay? I'm not going to like do that little hack where you pretend there was no extra page and they won't notice because they're little. I'm going to be fully present. If I'm going to sleep, I'm going to sleep for seven or eight hours and not apologize for it and refuel my body because there was a quote from a 17th century, 18th century figure, John Wesley, who said, set a person on fire with passion and people will come from miles to watch him burn. And I think there's something very true to that. So what I want to do, what I allow on my calendar, whether that's social or work related or speaking engagement, I want to do passionately and then it's no to all the rest. As Greg McEwen says, and this is a paraphrase of his book from essentialism, but on a scale of one to 10, if it's not a nine, it's a zero. And I think a lot of us allow our lives to be filled with sixes, sevens and eights. We know what to do with the twos and threes. It's like, nah, I'm not going to do that. But we get so overwhelmed because our life, our calendar is a whole series of like six, sevens and eights. So as a filter for decision-making, if you're going to show up, it's a nine out of 10 and then you're going to be fully present. You're going to go all there. We drop great content each and every week and we want to make sure that you guys get notified. And in order to do that, you're going to have to smash that subscribe button and hit that notification bell. And if you've gotten a lot of value out of this, make sure you give us a like and share our videos with your friends. I love this and we're in this world where abundance now is what everyone has. We have it in every area of our lives where we had to fight from scarcity. And so in recognizing that, it's about subtracting out of our lives. All these things that we can have doesn't mean that you should have them and they're just distraction. And for a while, I considered myself and other people consider me a bit of a minimalist. I don't own a TV. I'm not interested in what's on it or any of these type of things. And I don't own a car and there's some other things in my life that I just had grown used to not having around and focus my life on other areas that where those things would take away from that. So with television, what am I taking away from? I'm taking away time that I could be playing music, that I could be reading, that I could be getting better. If I had a car, well, I'm taking away time from walking down the strip and seeing what's going on and feeling the atmosphere and being present in the city. Those things are important to me. So I don't see them as being a minimalist. I see them as being a maximizer because I'm maximizing the things that do enhance my life, that do bring me joy and that do make every day that much exciting. And I love that quote that you had mentioned. I never heard it before. Set them on fire or passion and people will come to watch and burn. I think it's just beautiful because when you are focusing on your priorities and the things that do fire you up, well then, yeah, you're going to be living with a lot of passion. Well, and that's attributed to John Wesley. Yeah, and attracting people. The quote is attributed to John Wesley. And you know, it's fascinating to me too because one of the other things in making choices, life is a series of choices. And a myth that I used to fall for all the time is that I didn't have the time to do things. And I think if you look inside and you start auditing your speech 15 years ago, when I burned out, I was filled with people all through my 30s were like, Carrie, you should write a book, you should write a book. And I would always say, I don't have time for that. I don't have time to write a book. And then one day I was reading this book. I think it was written for children. I don't know how I ended up with it, whether my kids got it or whatever. But it was what the president of the United States does with their time. And I thought, you know what, Carrie, if you became president of the United States, you'd be so overwhelmed like the free world would just disappear because you can't even decide what to have for breakfast. And it hit me. If I become president of the United States, nobody's giving me an extra hour. Like I have to manage, nobody's giving me an eighth day a week. I would have to manage the free world with the same 24 hours in a day. And that really haunted me because then I started to think, actually I had the time to write a book. I had the time to do a better job on this talk I'm delivering. I had the time to be present with my wife, who I love. I had the time to listen to my kids fully when they came home from school. I didn't take it. I had the time to get the project done. I didn't take it. So what I did, and this is a good hack if you wanna think about using your time more strategically, as you were saying, Johnny, you know, I don't have a TV. What does that allow me to do? What allows me to walk down the strip and be fully present, right? I would encourage you to say, stop saying you don't have the time and start admitting to yourself you didn't make it. I didn't make the time to write the book. I didn't make the time to call my mom. I didn't make the time to tuck my kids into bed tonight. I didn't make the time to finish that project like I promised AJ I would. I didn't do it. And then what happens is you start to be ruthlessly honest with yourself and it's like, well, am I ever gonna write a book or not? Well, in the last decade, I've written five and released five. So that is a real pivot point. Now, is it blood, sweat, and tears? You bet it is. Is it worth it? You bet it is, but I was fully present when I was writing the book. And you have the time to do whatever you want. What do you want to do? Launch a podcast? Fall in love? Do you want to travel? Yeah.