 I don't know if you know the reason that he did the workout at 4 a.m. But it parlays perfectly into your new book, you know, just do one more. The reason Kobe does that, he understands that even the most aggressive players in the NBA, they're going to get in two workouts a day during the offseason. First one is usually around nine or 10 a.m. And then they'll take a lunch break and then they'll come back at three or four. So his mindset was, if everyone else in the league is going to be doing two workouts a day, I'm going to do three because I'm going to do one more than they're doing. And the only way I can squeeze that in is if I get up and do it at four. So when he's coming home from his first workout, his competition is just waking up to go in for their first workout. So then he's doing his second workout while they're doing their first. And then it's the compounding interest effect of if I do this every single day in the offseason for not just years, but in his case, decades, he said, no one will ever catch me because every time I wake up, I'm going to do one more than you're doing. You'll never catch me. And I think that's part of what gave him that, you know, that mamba mentality. You asked him the day before, can I come watch this workout? And he goes, uh, yeah, four o'clock and it wasn't four p.m. It was four a.m. But you, I'll let you share this, but you're like, well, I'm going to impress this guy and get there early. So there's a four a.m. workout, but what happens? Tell them what happens when you get there and you get there early. Well, yeah. And I arrived today early because I believe you're making a good first impression and I believe that getting places early is a sign of respect to the person that you're going to meet. And, you know, as a young coach, I'm thinking what could be better than me leaving my mark and impressing Kobe. So if he thinks he's working out at four, I'm going to be waiting for him at the gym at, you know, 3 30 a.m. And he is going to be blown away. And instead I arrive at the gym and can see the lights already on. Can hear sneakers squeaking and a ball bouncing from the parking lot. I walk in at 3 30 in the morning. He's going through a warmup. He doesn't even count that as part of his workout. So he's doing that at 3 30 before his workout actually started with his trainer at four and bro, that's crazy. And he went on for a couple hours again, sticking to the basics and just drilling down. And, you know, he's one of those guys that really understands the concept. You know, if you want to perform well in front of millions, then you have to be willing to put in millions of reps when no one else is watching, which is how we define the unseen hours. I really believe that success in anything, even the success of your podcast is predicated on the due diligence and the research that you do on each guest before the mics go hot. Very true. And that's the unseen hours. And that's what a lot of people, they don't see that the standard is different. Right. So like this idea that a four a.m. workout, look, let's just be really honest. You and I, you know, the NBA a lot better than I do, but I know professional sports and most dudes are coming home around four a.m. in the NBA oftentimes, not starting, not having a workout at four a.m. And then to know that now it's not four a.m. He was, you're there at 3 30. He'd already been warming up for 25 or 30 minutes before there's just a different standard, I think with the elite performer. I think an elite mother has just a little bit different standard than an average mother. I think an elite executive, they just set a different culture of standards around that's got to be part of it. How does one do those things and then still not fry or burn out? What would be a couple of things that you would say? Burnout is the result of misalignment between the work that you're doing and your core values, your interest, your fascination and the meaning behind your work. I don't know your daily schedule, but I imagine it's pretty immense. You've been here today. I imagine you work a lot of hours. But the reason you're not approaching burnout is you find meaning and purpose in those hours. You're being of service to millions of people. So that's why you don't experience burnout. If those two things start to splinter, if you were working 60, 70, 80 hours a week for work that you didn't enjoy, work you didn't find fascinating, work you didn't feel was making a contribution to other people's lives, work that you didn't find meaningful, you would be on the cusp of burnout. And that's what a lot of people are experiencing. So it's not just the long hours. It's when long hours are not congruent with what it is that lights you up and fills your bucket. I'm holding myself to an even higher standard. I mean, I don't know that anything would make me more sick to my stomach than for someone to see me doing something that is not in alignment with what I preach from stage or what I put in my books. And I don't hold myself to a standard of perfection. I'm fallible. I make mistakes. I have lapses in judgment. But generally speaking, the fact that I'm putting this content out there, I want to hold myself to that. I've absolutely experienced stress, stagnation and burnout in my life several times. So I wanted to get to the root of it because I figure if it can help me, certainly somebody else out there is going through similar difficulties and challenges. So I want to offer that to them. And the last thing I'll say on that is with any of this stuff, I'm not speaking from a place of mastery. This is all stuff that I am still working on, but the book is what holds me to that standard. So when I find myself getting momentarily stressed, I actually smile, have a kind and compassionate conversation with myself and just say, Alan, remember, you write about this, you speak about this, now you need to live it. And that tongue-in-cheek kind of self-compassion actually gets me through those times. The most important part about focus, and I know, I've listened to every single one of your shows, and one of the common themes with most of your guests is everyone understands the importance of being in the present moment and understanding that if we're dragging stuff from the past or we're getting anxious about the future, then we're tending to lose focus in the present moment, and that's the first thing that's going to heighten stress. You know, of all the different definitions I've heard from stress, the one that resonates most with me is from Eckhart Tolle, you know, modern day philosopher, who basically says stress is the desire for things to be different than they are in this present moment. So the very first step to lowering stress is mere acceptance, is saying that what's going on around me right now is outside of my control, and I might not like it and it might not be my preference, but this is what is going on right now, and our stress doesn't come from events and circumstances, our stress comes from our response or our resistance to those events and circumstances. And when I heard that, it was like a light bulb went off, and I find that incredibly empowering and liberating, because that means we are no longer victims or puppets to the events and circumstances happening in the world. We get to choose our response. It's right, man. And that, to me, that means we always have the keys to the car. I often say that it's not the events of our life that define it, it's the meaning we attach to the event, and often that meaning comes from the question we ask ourself about it. What does this mean? So I feel like, you know, take a guy like Kobe or Durant, Steph, you, an executive who's at a perform at a high level, an entrepreneur, when there's, you know, in Kobe's case, there's six sections left and Jackson draws up a play that's going to come to Kobe. That event that's about to happen, he attaches a meaning that I have an opportunity to rise. I have an opportunity to win this game where someone else might attach a meaning to it of, what if I miss the shot, right? It's the meaning we attach to the event. You pointed at me when I said that, so I want to make sure you get a chance to comment on it. Oh, you nailed it perfectly. So much insight right there. It's the difference between being nervous about taking that shot and being excited because it is an opportunity to showcase all of the mornings you were in the gym at 4 a.m., making hundreds of thousands of shots every off season. He revels in those types of moments and, you know, I know you've said so many times on your previous episodes that life is happening for you. It's not happening to you. And that's really what this is talking about. It's saying that, yeah, things are going to happen in the world that we don't necessarily like and they're not our preference, but they're not, the universe that isn't conspiring against you or me, that no one's trying to put these roadblocks in your way intentionally to slow you down. These things are just happening and how you choose to look at those things ultimately determines your stress level. Wherever you are in the physical, make sure that's where you are in the mental and the emotional and the spiritual as well. And that's how I define being present and it's so easy to get, you know, distracted from the past or anxious about the future. So what I like to say is we need to shrink our window. We need to, like even right now, right now you and I are making eye contact while we're recording this and I can see a little bit of a frame in my peripheral. That's all that I can see in my vision right now. I cannot see what's outside of this studio. I can't see what's going on in the rest of LA. I have shrunk my vision to the point where you are my focal point because you deservedly so have my full undivided attention right now. And we need to be able to shrink that window in other areas of life. So think about six seconds left in the game, Phil Jackson draws up a play for Kobe Bryant. He needs to shrink that window. The only thing he needs to be worried about is executing that play to the best of his ability in order to score. He can't be worried about what's going on in the stands, what's going on with the opponents, what the referees may do. He can't be worried about what else is happening outside of the Staple Center. He has to shrink that window so that he can have razor sharp focus in that moment. And when we can learn to do that basically on cue, then we improve our ability to focus and stress decreases accordingly. Shrink your focus and it allows you to be hyper present. And also for me when that happens, I feel like things slow down rather than speed up. Is there a mechanism in that with high performers were under dress things begin to slow down for them as they shrink their focus. Whereas someone who performs maybe at a not great level things speed up somehow for them. Yeah. And the speed up comes from distractions. It's being it's being worried about everything else that's going on. And that's you know, in basketball vernacular, my goal when I was working with players was to get them to play present, which is play in the present moment. And there's there's three components to being in the present. First is just focus on the next play. Don't worry about the play that just happened. Ed, you just missed the layup. Don't worry about it next play. Ed, you just turn the ball over. It's OK. Next play. Ed, I know the referee missed the call. It's over next play. See, if you're worried and you're you're wasting your emotional currency into the plays that just happened, then you're not able to put them into the current moment, which in basketball at a playing at that type of pace means that if if you're still pouting and dejected about the turnover, your man probably just scored two points now on the other end. So you just turned a two point mistake into a four point mistake. We all know we're going to make mistakes, but we cannot be in the business of compounding them. We have to we have to stop them after the first one. The second component is just to focus on what you have control over, control the controllables, which I believe if you break everything else down is just our own attitude and effort. So just focus on the effort you're giving and the attitude that you're having to everything going on, in this case, during a basketball game. And then the last part of that is to focus on the process. Don't worry about the outcomes. Focus on the process. If it's the first quarter of the game, you can't be worried whether or not you're going to win or lose the game. All you need to worry about is winning or losing this possession. If we're on offense, can we get the best shot that we, the five of us are capable of getting the highest percentage shot? Or if we're on defense, can we collectively do everything we can to make you take the lowest percentage shot possible? And of course, the beautiful part is if you do that consistently enough, as legendary coach Bill Walsh said of the 49ers, the scoreboard takes care of itself. And that's ultimately what the process is all about. So one other thing that the athletes I work with struggle with, and I think people do in business and in life and in relationships, is also projecting into the future. And then they have this conversation with themselves about, I'll give you an example, a golfer who's got a putt they should make three foot putt to win a golf tournament. Where's the nerves come from? I believe oftentimes the nerves come from, believe it or not, this bizarre conversation of projection of if I miss this putt, what will they say about me? If I miss this shot at the end of the game, what will they say about me? If my guy hits this shot on me in basketball, what will they say? And it's literally projecting into the future, the negative emotions or feelings about what other people will actually say or think about this mistake you may potentially make. What they're 100% consumed with is merely the outcome. See, they've left the process. They're just worried about the outcome. Does the ball go in or not go in? Does the ball go in the cup or not go in the cup? Does she say yes when I ask her out or does she say no? When we can learn, and this is something that I've worked really hard on in my own life over the last couple of years, is learning how to detach from outcomes and just love the process and the work. And where we really have an issue is if outcomes and results actually define our self-worth, then we have a problem. You know, I know you're big on setting goals and we want to set, you know, really big and aggressive goals. I'm a believer that if you set your goals appropriately, maybe you hit them 30, 40, 50% of the time, you don't hit them every time. If you're hitting your goal every time, then I could make a compelling argument that you've set the bar too low. Well, if your entire identity and self-worth and confidence and self-belief is wrapped up in outcomes and reaching goals and achievement, then that means half the time you feel good about yourself, half the time you feel lousy about yourself. And I don't know about you, but life's too short to feel lousy half of the time. If I was tasked with building a brick wall, which I most likely won't be because I'm not very handy. I'm not very good with building stuff. I'm not very good with tools, but I have confidence that I could build a brick wall. And the reason is I've trained myself to not worry about the end result, not worry about the wall and put all of my focus into laying each and every brick with care and precision. If I can take one brick and set it exactly where it needs to go and then I pick up the next brick and set it exactly where it needs to go. If I do that consistently over time, the wall just takes care of itself. I don't have to be worried about the wall. I have to focus on laying bricks. And that's also what I have control over is laying bricks. Now, from a basketball analogy, I had an opportunity to work with Queens University as one of the top division to men's basketball programs in the United States. And their previous coach, Bart Lundy, is a good friend of mine and he has broken it down at Queens University, but there are four key stats in the game of basketball that heavily impact whether or not they win the game. And the first stat is turnover differential. If we can have more possessions than our opponent gives us a better chance to win. Second is offensive rebound differential. If we can rebound our own misses and take more shots than our opponent gives us a better chance to win. Third is free throws attempted. It's the highest percentage shot per possession. If we can take more of those than our opponent, better chance to win. And last is three pointers attempted. The three pointer in the college game is a massive weapon. If we can take more clean looks from three than our opponent gives us a better chance to win. When Queens University comes out on top in those four stats, they win 97% of their games, which means statistically, they're almost unbeatable. So my my rhetorical question for your millions of listeners is, what do you think Coach Lundy and his staff talk about remind and emphasize before every workout, every practice, every film session and before every game. It's just those four things. He never talks about winning championships, banners or trophies. Why? If they do those four things, winning championship trophies and banners take care of themselves. You don't have to focus on them. So it's focusing on the things that we have the control over. And that goes back to again, shrinking that window. I may use basketball examples because that's where I've spent most of my life. Folks need to take these and figure out how they can, you know, apply them to their situation. So step number one is figure out what what does winning look like to you or what does success look like to you. Again, this could be in your marriage, this could be, you know, in your business, this could be for something you're doing in your community. But figure out what does winning look like. Now, of course, in the game of basketball, which Simon Sinek has said is a finite game and I'm a big fan of Simon's work. Is a finite game. We have unanimously around the globe agreed that the team with the most points on the scoreboard when the final buzzer goes off is the winner. Life, relationships, business, it's a little more acoteric. It's not as clear how you might define winning in business might be slightly different than maybe one of your friends or colleagues. But that doesn't matter. You just have to get crystal clear on what winning looks like to you. And then you need to figure out what are the measurable building blocks, the bricks, if you will, that will allow me to reach that goal. And then once you have that North Star, take your eyes off of it and just focus on the bricks. Think about a GPS, which most people need to navigate the world these days. I don't know how I survived without one beforehand. But you need to know two things. You need to know where you are in the moment, not where you were five minutes ago, five days ago or five weeks ago. You need to know where you are right now. And you need to have an end address. Where am I going? Those are the only two points you need. And then once you have those two points, you don't need to worry about either one of them. What you need to do now is pay attention to the directions. And listen to every turn that you're supposed to make. And of course, the beauty with this analogy is, if you're like me and kind of directionally dysfunctional, you're probably going to take a wrong turn. And then what happens? It reroutes. It just reroutes. So the GPS doesn't get angry at you. It doesn't call you an idiot. It just simply reroutes. And it puts you back on that course. And that's ultimately what all of us should be trying to do is pursue our North Star by focusing on the steps and directions it takes to get there. And when you misstep or you make a wrong turn, don't get upset over it. Just move to the next play and take the next direction to reroute. I think people are tired. I don't think they manage their energy very well. I watch this, even a basketball analogy. I've watched certain teams that, you know, I think they're tired and I watch friends of mine in business and life. They just seem tired to me. So what is energy management and what are some of your keys for it? Well, we need to make sure we're protecting both time and energy. And as we know, I know you've said this on many previous shows, you know, obviously time is our most precious resource, because that is finite. Whenever that's done, that's done. We don't have any more of it. Energy is something, though, that we can actually replenish. And a lot of that has to do with with our routines and our self care. Are we making the time to fill our own buckets mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually so that we can keep that that battery, that internal battery of our lives is close to 100 percent as possible. You know, most people would freak out if they look down at their iPhone and saw their iPhone had three or four percent juice left in it. They'd immediately start looking for a plug or a mophie or something, but they allow themselves to go down to three or four percent and they don't seem to do anything about it. And then you're just running on fumes and there's no way that you can be your best self or make a maximum contribution to the things that are important to you if you're doing that. So part of it comes down to our discernment of what are we going to invest our time and energy into. And this goes back to just two simple words. Yes and no. What are you saying yes to and what are you saying no to, you know, as a self diagnosed people, please are this was one that was really challenging for me most of my life because I love saying yes. It feels good to say yes. I want to help as many people as I can. But I've learned that when I say yes to one thing, I am by default saying no to something else. If I'm going to say yes to investing this hour with you, that means this hour in time cannot be invested anywhere else. Now, this happens to be a wonderful investment of my time when I'm very happy to make. But we have to be very careful of what we say yes and what we say no to. So we have to have some discernment. And for me, I've learned to be able to say no respectfully with tact and to be polite. If something is not a good fit and how do we know if it's a good fit? Is it an alignment with the North Star that you're pursuing? If you're asking me to do something that is taking me away from that North Star, then it's most likely not the wisest investment of my time or energy and I'll politely decline. If what you're asking me to do is an alignment, then it's probably a great investment of my time and energy. So being able to step back and use our core values and use that North Star to design our lives and design our schedules and design what we're going to say yes to is incredibly helpful. We can't we can't rely on feelings and emotions. If you're just saying yes and no to things based on your mood or how you're feeling, there's no consistency in that. You know what surprises me is how little people talk about visualization and how much of it I do and how much of it happy and successful people, both happy and successful people that I know spend in doing so. And so you talk about it's not a lot, but you talk about in the book visualization. One of the words that comes up in a lot of your shows and a lot of your work is intention. So we have to make sure we're very intentional with what we're visualized. There were a few different research studies and I reference them in the book. The one that I like the most from a visualization standpoint was they took three different groups and they were going to have them shoot free throws and these weren't professional players by any means. These were just regular weekend warriors and in the three groups, the first group, they got tested on the first day and then they practiced for 21 consecutive days and then they took the retest 21 days later. Second group took the test on the first day, did not touch a basketball, but only visualized making free throws for the next 21 days and then took the retest. And then the third group tested on the first day, didn't practice and didn't visualize and then retested on the 21st day. I think most people would realize the group that didn't practice or visualize there was there was no improvement. In fact, they had a slight decline in their ability. But the part that blew my mind was the group that visualized was only a couple of percentage points less than the group that actually practice. So by actually sitting with your eyes closed and visualizing making free throws, it's almost as good as as being able to practice. And that that blows my mind. Now, I think we can also agree that the best thing to do is to do both is to get in repetition, you know, purposeful repetition as well as visualized. I visualize before every single speaking engagement, every engagement I do, I always arrive the day before and I request to see the room the day before I'm going to speak. I want to get a feel for what it's going to look like. I visualize before I came in here with you today. I watched several of your other guests on YouTube who were in this studio. I knew what this room looked like before I set foot in here, which gave me a certain level of comfort that I wasn't going to walk into anything that I hadn't hadn't prepared myself for. And one of my favorite quotes that I learned from a mentor of mine is make preparation your separation and that I want to be as prepared as possible for everything that I do. I got hurt myself when we were in college and I couldn't play. And we had a team psychologist at the time. He ended up being killed and I use a lot of his work to this day was in a car accident. I use a lot of his work and I get a lot of credit for because he was so cutting edge even back in those days. And he said, Ed, here's what we're going to do. And I hit 215 my freshman year. Terrible year. That's terrible. And then I sat out because I was hurt. The next year I hit almost 380 and I wasn't any better of a hitter. What happened was he taught me to visualize and we'd sit behind the batting cage where the other guys were popping some up, grounding into double plays, missing a few. He said, Ed, you're going to line drive up the middle thousands of times. And he made me focus on my visualization. So he goes, Ed, all right, visualize you hitting the line drive. And I go, I got it. And he'd go, OK, really? Do you? And he would make me hyper visualize. He'd say, Ed, where's the camera? I go, what do you mean? He goes, well, how are you seeing it from what angle? Is the camera in the center field, like on TV, over the pitchers head shooting in or is it from the batter's box your view out? And I go, I don't know. And he goes, well, then you kind of should know. And I go, OK, actually, turns out the camera's on me. I'm looking out at the pitch or he goes, great, not everybody has it that way. He goes, can you see the release point? Can you see the stitches on the ball? Can you see the rotating? And it got to the point where he go, what is it? And I say, it's a curveball. He goes, how do you know? I could see the dot on the stitches, right? And then I could see. I got to the point where he'd make me work. I could see then the stitches coming in. I could see the ball hit the bat and the stitches re-rotating backwards the other way, right back over the guy's left shoulder. I just got to share this with you. So I come back. I'm a 2-15 hitter, the first day in VP. First pitch, though, to me is up and away. And I swat at it and hit a line drive up the middle. Next ball down and away. Line drive up the middle. And I think it was 28 straight hits. My teammates are like, what's going on with my lead? Line drive up the middle every single time. Then I popped one up and I hit like 16 more up the middle. I had not swung a bat in six months. But the upside to that was I didn't have any negative experiences from actually swinging the bat. And the subconscious mind really doesn't know the difference between what's real and what's imagined. I share this because your work is so good, bro. And the people that are listening to this, if you would start to visualize and then get better at it, refine it, see it more clearly. Can you slow it down? Can you speed it up? Can you add color? Can you add sound? And the more you get good at visualizing, you're going to change your damn life the better you get at this. So I just wanted to add second it and add to it that I have a real life experience. And to this day, things like getting to the studio and visualizing it, I do that crazy stuff too because it's not crazy. All right, chapter five. Never heard it said this way. Using stress. So usually people are taught avoid stress, minimize stress. And you have strategies for that in the book as well. But sometimes you're almost like, hey, dance with it. Use this stress. What does that mean? That goes back to something we said earlier. It's kind of the difference between viewing something that's making you nervous versus viewing something that gets you really, really excited. I mean, I've I said to you before off hair. I'm a huge fan of your work. You've had a massive impact on my life. I could have been nervous coming in here and to meet you for the first time and sit. But instead, I was excited for this opportunity. And those they can have very similar feelings. They can have you can have the butterflies in your stomach. You know, and I don't remember who said that originally. But if you ever feel butterflies in your stomach, just get them all lined up in the same direction so that they can work can work for you. But we do we need we need to have some stress in our life. If the stress is overwhelming, then you'll be completely debilitated. If I was completely overwhelmed with stress right now, this wouldn't be much of an interview. However, if there was zero stress, I'd probably be bored and there wouldn't be much of an interview. So we want just enough to keep us sharp. It's very similar to fear. You know, fear in and of itself keeps us safe. We want to have some fear. If not, we just walk in the middle of traffic or we just juggle knives or do something foolish. But if we have too much fear, then we become paralyzed and we can't actually do anything. So, yeah, these things help. They help keep us sharp. So we want to have a little bit be on a little bit of edge for the things that mean the most to us. And you have in the book three steps to changing and their basic. I'll read them to you. And then I want you to elaborate on these. OK, awareness, understanding and reconditioning. What does all that mean? We're never going to improve something we're unaware of and we're never going to improve something we're oblivious to. So the first step is having an awareness and acknowledgement that something actually needs to change, that whatever I'm doing, I need to make a change too. You know, if you keep doing what you've been doing, you will keep getting what you've been getting. If you don't like what you've been getting, you need to change what you've been doing. I mean, that's as simple as it gets. You know, another one of my favorite quotes, arguably my favorite is if nothing changes, nothing changes. So we have to lean into change. And there's two types of change. There's change that's imposed on us. Perfect example would be a two-year global pandemic. Right. But then there's change that's initiated and that's what we're talking about here. We need to be the ones to drive that change. So first is awareness. What do I need to change? Second is I need to have an understanding of what's at risk if I don't make this change. Leverage, you're getting leverage. Absolutely. And I need to have an understanding. So what am I risking by not changing this behavior? If I continue to do this for the rest of my life, what's at risk? And many times the answer to that is happiness, fulfillment, maxing out your potential, all those types of things. And then lastly, we just need to be able to recondition the behavior or the process, the system that will allow that to happen. So we don't want to just go in and start swinging in the dark. We want to actually map out an actual plan of how we can make change. What's reconditioning mean though? How do you back up the plan is reconditioning this some form of reinforcement when you do it correctly? How do you condition something in yourself? So let's just use a relationship, for example. You say your relationship is getting a little bit stale with your significant other. And you take a look at, well, here are the things I've been doing, which has led to a stale relationship. So I've conditioned myself to these being my default habits, you know, whatever they may be. I don't look at my significant other when she's talking to me. I'm staring at my phone. I used to leave her little notes around the house, but I no longer do that. Like I fall into these these lesser habits and that's what's producing a stale relationship. If I want to have a better relationship then I need to recondition my habits. I need to go back to doing the things that I know I need to do to get to that. And I also have a three-step formula for how someone can do that. Absolutely. And I got to continue to make the disclaimer that this is incredibly basic. But none of the stuff you and I have been talking about is easy. Not a single thing we've said is easy to actually do. If it was easy, people wouldn't even need to listen to this because they're already doing it. Yeah, so we know through our own experiences these things are hard. The first thing you need to do is you need to have razor sharp focus and isolate it down to one behavior that you want to focus on changing. One of the problems many people make is they try to change a bunch of things at once. And as human beings we're wired to have singular type focus. I don't know if you're familiar with John Berardi. He started Precision Nutrition, really smart guy in the fitness world. And he did an expansive research study similar to the one with free throws. But he found that when folks isolated their focus into one behavior to change they actually successfully changed that behavior 85% of the time. The moment they split it and tried to change two behaviors at the same time success rate went down to 40%. And if they tried to chase three behaviors at the same time it went down to about 4% or 5%. So I know that a lot of people that listen to your show are high achievers they're driven they're ambitious absolutely. And I'm saying it's in your best interest to just focus on one thing that you're going to change. Then the next step is make a commitment to yourself to do that for 66 straight days. Now I know the research is all over the place on how long it takes to form the habit. You know it could be anywhere from 21 days to nine months. But I like 66 days because one it's easy to remember. Two it's enough of a stretch but it's also doable. It's a hair over two months. But make a commitment to doing that for 66 straight days. And then the third is you want to keep the spotlight of accountability on yourself. And you do that by recruiting people that care about you and ask them to hold you accountable. So let's put this into a practical scenario. You've got someone listening right now that wants to get into a little bit better physical health. They haven't been working out very much. Instead of changing everything instead of upending their diet buying a Peloton bike signing up for a yoga membership you know just pick one thing and let's say they say I'm going to go for a walk for 30 minutes every morning. That's it. I'm not changing anything else in my life I'm going to walk for 30 minutes. I'm going to then commit to doing that for 66 straight days. I'm old school. I like to print out paper calendars and take a red Sharpie and every day you go for that walk I want you to put a big red X and I want you to go until you got 66 Xs in a row. And if you miss a day because you're human move to the next play just start that streak again the next day. And then I want you to reach out to three or four people that you know love you and care about you and want to see you happy and successful and you tell them I'm going to go for a walk every day for 30 minutes and I'm asking you Ed I want you to check in with me. I want you to send me a text every day at lunch and ask if I went for a walk ask me what I'm listening to or ask me what route I took but I want you to hold me accountable and if three or four people do that you know what one of the emotions that that really hurts most of us is feeling like we disappoint someone that that we care about and if you can do those things you pick one thing you do it for 66 days and you get people holding you accountable I'm not a gambler Ed but I'll put my money I'll put all my chips on the middle of the table saying you will improve that habit and then the beautiful thing is at the end of 66 days then you just stack another habit on top of that. Yeah and then you say okay if we're sticking with this theme now for the next 66 days I'm gonna reduce sugar or I'm gonna reduce you know sweets or soda whatever it may be so you don't stop doing the first one so now for the next 66 days you keep walking for 30 minutes and you're gonna eliminate say junk food and then 66 days later you add something else so by the end of the calendar year you've changed four or five things in your life you'll be a completely different person at the end of that year 100% and the only difference is instead of deciding to do all five of those things on January 1st you're gonna pick them off one at a time and then they're going to stick. Yeah because you've increased your execution rate from 80% down to less than 4% especially if you're doing five. You know I'm watching you I watch people very closely in every aspect of my life but it also happens certainly when I interview them because it's just you and I in the room and I said this earlier you own your content it's reflexive there's not even hesitation when I ask you a question you own this you live this stuff and I like authentic people I like people who live the things that they teach because I can feel a different energy from them when they teach it. I can feel what is different with that one millionth of a 1% tile compared to really good people in anything do you think? What's the separator? I'll give you an example with KD and I'll give you an example with Curry. KD does a masterful job of blending humility with confidence. You won't find a more confident offensive player. Why is he confident? He's earned the right to be arguably the best score in the game because of the time he's put in during the unseen hours. However he blends that with humility which means he is open to feedback and he's open to coaching. He doesn't think that he's reached the ceiling of what he's capable of. So if you have something a coach or someone or a trainer has something that can actually make him better he is all ears. He is open to that. So he's a killer from a confident standpoint he believes he's going to score he believes he's the best player on the court but he never lets that override his humility he stays open to coaching and open to feedback which is why every step along the way he continues to get better. So blending confidence with humility is one. My favorite people have that nuance by the way. Absolutely. Absolutely. And Curry, Curry does not let what happened previously affect what happens presently. I say this in the book and I find this both comical but an powerful lesson. If I had a quarter right now and I flipped it and seven times in a row it was heads. What's the percentage chance it'll be heads on the eighth flip? It should be 50%. Of course it is. But most people don't think that most people think, oh, it's got to be a higher percentage to be tails because he just did it. No, the quarter has no idea. The quarter doesn't know what the first seven flips were. Every time you flip a coin it is 50-50. Why do I say that? Because it happens very rarely because he is the greatest shooter of all time. But Steph and Curry, statistically you can look it up has missed the first seven shots he's taken in a game. What makes him Steph and Curry is he shoots the eighth shot with the confidence as if he had made the previous seven. I love that. He does not let the previous seven misses. He doesn't bring that baggage with him and affect the current shot. And that is so hard to do though. I mean, it's easy for you and I to sit here and talk about it is hard because the tendency is to flash back and go, oh my gosh, I've missed seven in a row. What happens if I miss this? What are people going to think about me? Am I going to let my team down? He wipes all of that clear. Every single shot is its own shot. And it's the difference when you take a player like Kobe. I would say this all the time to young players I've worked with. Mediocre players, they go to the gym to take 500 shots a day. Okay. Good players go to the gym to make 500 shots a day. There's a difference. We don't need more shot takers. We need shot makers. Great players, elite players like Steph and Curry, they go into the gym to make one shot 500 separate times. And that nuance difference, this is not verbal semantics. There is a difference between that. Steph's not in the gym thinking, oh man, I still got 419 shots left. No, all I care about in the world is this one shot right now. Perfect footwork, perfect form. And then he moves to the next shot. And then that's the only one that matters. And that's, again, these are lessons that all of us can apply to what we do. What about Kobe? What separated him? Preparation. Preparation, I think, words like relentless, words like obsessed. I mean, he made no bones about the fact that he wanted to be considered the greatest player to ever play the game. And some people are wired that way. I mean, I'll be the first to tell you, I'm not wired that way. I'm not concerned with being the best. I'm concerned with being my best. And if I'm my best, just let the chips fall where they may. That's that part of self-awareness, though. And maybe that's why I hold him in higher regard than the LeBron, who's clearly incredible. Or Kareem or Will. Maybe just because I just, there's something noble about the just relentless pursuit of the greatness that he had in the work ethic. This has been an outstanding, Alan. Outstanding. Equally for me. One of my favorite baseball players is a Red Sox fan, is Wade Boggs. And so Wade was famous for a lot of things, which is a great hitter, but one of the things he's famous for is Dude 8 Chicken before every single game. He sure did. He had this routine that he did before every single game. But you mentioned him under the category of the role of belief. And in my life, I really believe that belief drives almost everything. In my book, I talk about the chapter of my book called The Matrix, which is belief that what you believe most strongly, the world reveals to you. You'll begin to see things and hear things that always existed, but will confirm the beliefs that you have. And so what is the role of belief in being a peak or elite performer? Well, it's irrelevant whether or not Chicken is the best thing to eat before you play baseball. He believed that it was, and he believed that it contributed to his ability to hit the baseball. So that's all that matters. That's how powerful belief is. I mean, you could probably interview 10 nutritionists, and they would all say that Fried Chicken is not the best thing to eat before athletic performance, but it doesn't matter because he believed that it was. And he also understood the power of consistency, the power of routine, power of structure, and same thing. I mean, if LeBron was gonna have a game tonight, three hours before tip off, he would not be walking around the streets of LA wondering what he was going to eat. This is all premeditated. These are things that these peak performers have honed through trial and error and have figured out, when I eat this at this time, I perform it my best. And that routine will change over time. I promise you, LeBron's pregame routine now is not the same it was when he was a rookie with the Cleveland Cavaliers. It's matured, it's evolved, it's grown, and all of us need to have routines. I have a pre-speaking routine that I follow relentlessly. It's slightly different whether I'm giving an 8 AM keynote or an 8 PM keynote, but I have structure and routine, and that gives me comfort, and then that allows me to go out and perform my best. Everyone, follow Alan, go get sustain your game, go buy the power of one more, my great book. Candle Loses Nothing by Lighting Another Candle. So if you like this episode and you love Ed's show as much as I do, share it with somebody else. It doesn't take anything away from you. All you're doing is lighting other people's candles, which is what we should all be in the business of doing. So thank you Ed, this was amazing.