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How To BREAK THE ADDICTION To Negative Thoughts & Emotions In 31 MINUTES | Trevor Moawad

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In this episode of Impact Theory, host Tom Bilyeu interviews Trevor Moawad, a renowned performance coach and author who challenges the conventional wisdom that positive thinking is the primary driver of success. Drawing on data from researchers at Georgetown and Harvard, including Christine Porath, Moawad reveals that negativity is four to seven times more powerful than positivity in influencing outcomes. Furthermore, verbalizing negative thoughts amplifies their impact tenfold compared to internal thought alone. This concept was tested during his tenure with elite programs like the University of Alabama under Nick Saban, where coaches realized they could not simply tell athletes to "be positive" when facing adversity; instead, they focused on eliminating externalized negativity such as complaining about circumstances or teammates. By stopping players from saying stupid things out loud—such as predicting failure before a game—the teams significantly reduced the probability of those negative events occurring, effectively neutralizing self-sabotage without relying on toxic positivity. The conversation delves into several historical and anecdotal examples illustrating how verbalized negativity can manifest in reality through subconscious programming. Moawad cites Bill Buckner's infamous error during the 1986 World Series, where he had previously stated his nightmare was letting a run score through his legs; by saying it out loud, he planted that specific fear in his subconscious, increasing its likelihood of happening. Similarly, basketball legend Pete Maravich predicted dying at age forty from a heart attack and subsequently died exactly as described. Another harrowing story involves a man who froze to death inside a refrigerated boxcar despite the temperature being only 56 degrees; by repeatedly writing "I'm becoming colder" in his panic, he psychologically convinced himself of an inevitable outcome that physical reality did not support. These cases underscore Moawad's argument that what we say out loud acts as a command to our subconscious mind, making it crucial to control one's language rather than hoping for positive results through mere affirmation. Moawad introduces the concept of "neutral thinking" and behavior modification over emotional regulation alone, arguing that change begins with shifting actions before feelings catch up. He shares an inspiring story about his father hearing a magazine entrepreneur who scored 1480 on the SATs despite failing out of high school; years later, it was revealed he had actually received incorrect scores and only got a 740. The entrepreneur's life changed not because of the test score itself, but because acting like someone with that intelligence—going to class, engaging with teachers, and changing his environment—created new opportunities. This aligns with Moawad's philosophy that behavior dictates success rather than feelings or past failures predicting future outcomes. He emphasizes that athletes achieve greatness by deciding what they are willing not to do: avoiding certain foods, skipping distractions like television during travel, and refusing to engage in negative conversations. These disciplined choices create the necessary conditions for high performance, proving that finite resources require focused commitment rather than an illusion of infinite choice. The discussion also addresses the "illusion of choice," a concept Moawad developed with NBA legend Vince Carter after observing how elite athletes maintain longevity through strict behavioral limits. Carter explained at age 37 that while he could technically slam dunk or eat fast food, doing so would compromise his knees and defense; therefore, to remain in the league, he had to limit those options entirely. Moawad applies this logic to relationships, noting statistics suggesting married couples talk only twenty-seven minutes a week on average—a figure far too low for healthy connection unless individuals intentionally make time through behaviors like turning off TVs during commutes or engaging directly with children. He argues that hope is not passive but an active habit cultivated by believing one can influence their future regardless of past trauma, such as divorce or health crises. Ultimately, Moawad advocates demystifying mental performance for everyone, asserting that success comes from controlling inputs like media consumption and speech while committing to behaviors that align with desired outcomes rather than waiting for motivation or luck.
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If somebody says something out loud, it's 10 times more [music] powerful than if they think it. And then as we started to study the data, particularly data that was just [music] reinforced by Christine Porath from Georgetown and Harvard, that negativity is a multiple of four to seven times [music] more powerful than positivity. So, think about that. If I say something out loud, it's 10x. [music] If it's negative, it's four to seven times more powerful. Just if you follow the data and you say stupid out loud, ultimately you're predicting and perpetuating exactly what you don't want to have happen. And who's always in control of what Tom Bilyeu says? Hey everybody, welcome to Impact Theory. Today's guest is a former all-conference two-sport college athlete who has turned himself into one of the most sought-after performance coaches on the planet. He's worked with 11 number one draft picks and helped roughly 700 world-class athletes prepare for the NFL draft. He's worked closely with some of the most prestigious NCAA football programs and coaches, including Nick Saban, one of the most heralded coaches college football has ever seen. Proving that his methods work in real life, he's been part of eight national championship games and worked with top performers across virtually every major sport there is. He's helped train tennis players, golfers, Major League Baseball players, NBA players, UFC fighters, US Special Forces personnel, and even some of the highest-achieving CEOs in business today. Sports Illustrated named him the sports world's best brain trainer, and he co-starred with future Hall of Fame quarterback Russell Wilson on ESPN's QB to QB, as well as appearing in ESPN's hit show Draft Academy. He's been featured by countless major media outlets, including USA Today, NPR, Sports Illustrated, Fox Sports, and many others. So, please help me in welcoming the man the highest performing people and organizations around the globe bring in when they need that winning edge, the CEO of Limitless Minds and the author of It Takes What It Takes, Trevor Moawad. [applause] Trevor, how are Hey, man. Welcome. Great to be here. Yeah, it's great to have you. What a privilege. Anybody that is deep into the world of the fundamentals of thinking has me at hello. And I love that that's basically the thrust of your book is there is a way to think that will be useful for you, and there's a way to think that won't be. Yes. All right. So, now diving into um there's really two concepts that I think set you apart. You've got just how powerful negative thinking is and some of the stats around that, which are pretty terrifying, and some of the stories that you have on that, which are I think will really shake people out. Yeah. Um and then, of course, there's neutral thinking. So, I think that's sort of uh the next one two that we should walk through. Yeah. And and and then, I think probably the third part of that would be sort of the impact of behavior, you know, of identifying behavior. But, what I learned ultimately, my dad was the president of the National Association for Self-Esteem. Most people probably don't even know there is that. And he was one of the first authors of Chicken Soup for the Soul. So, for anybody that's probably above 35, they would know that. But, the power of positive thinking never resonated with me. And when I was young, and I was 18 years old, and I dropped out of college, and I was diagnosed with an initial diagnosis of cancer, and it turned out to be shingles and a number of other things, I did start to understand quickly that, while I don't know if positive thinking works all the time, and that the data is anecdotal, I do know that negative thinking does work and it works negatively. And one of the things as I would start at Alabama and I'd start with the Jacksonville Jaguars and I'd start with the Miami Dolphins. I started to realize and even looking back to a young age that nobody wants to be told to be positive. The positive thinking is probably the number one reason this industry has not grown in my 44 years of living. Positive thinking in many cases repulses people. You're telling me to be positive and I'm going through a divorce. You're telling me to be positive and I threw three interceptions. You're telling me to be positive and I got to deal with this president. You're telling me to be positive and I got this current situation. You're telling me to be positive and I got this health situation. So then what's the alternative? Well, the alternative has always been negative. So when we would get to the University of Alabama, you have a this finite window of time. How long could you influence Um everything comes down to influence. Would you agree? Yeah. Whether you're it's your family, your kids, whatever the circumstances or the situations. So the NCAA gives you 22 hours to influence your players over a week. And so when you look at the human performance, you look at nutrition, you look at strength and conditioning, you look at fatigue signs, you look at all these different things. Coach Saban believed that there had to be some emphasis on psychological education. And so how are we going to do that and how is it going to be efficient? Well, most people think of sports psychology as treating somebody who has a problem. Mhm. Nick Saban didn't look at it that way. He looked at how do we make our best players better? How do we take great players and make them greater and then how do we have an educational platform for all 120 players? And a college football team is a business. It's 120 employees and you lose 35% of the is employees every year and it's an EBITDA driven business where when you succeed, you get more sponsorship and as you get more sponsorship, you make more money and as you make more money, the school makes more money, and everybody benefits. And it all happens from winning. But if your best players leave every year in that 35% and they take their great behaviors and their great habits and their great mindset with them, then you're in trouble. So, you have to develop programmatics. You have to develop a system. I mean, you look at Quest and what you guys did that ultimately when you were going to sell it or you're going to evolve, that there had to be if we're going to create the ultimate metabolic type of food or we're going to limit like the recipe has to be the same so you're not the only one that can cook it. So, ultimately psychologically, we had to come up with a plan for everybody. I think that learning how to meditate and regulate your breath is important, but to me I think that's AP chemistry. And we need an eighth grade version. Where we just know, okay, that there's a a a a a table of elements. And we need the basics. And And so, that's what we did. When we started to study, what we learned was that negative thinking was the most powerful element that our players were combating. That negative thinking was weaponized weaponizing them against them. So, how's negativity carried? Well, is it your internal thoughts? Well, if you're dealing with trying to change internal thoughts, then you got to go to affirmations and you got to go to imagery, you got to go to visualize it. Very difficult skills. Well, we started to look at the externalization. Well, if somebody says something out loud, it's 10 times more powerful than if they think it. And then as we started to study the data, particularly data that was just reinforced by Christine Porath from Georgetown and Harvard, that negativity is a multiple of four to seven [snorts] times more powerful than positivity. So, think about that. If I say something out loud, it's 10x. If it's negative, it's four to seven times more powerful. So, when I say negative things out loud, it's 40 to 70 times more likely that that will happen or cause a result that won't be good for me than if I just didn't say anything. So, as we were going into our second year at Alabama and we were going into our first year at Florida State and we were ultimately going into our second year at the University of Georgia, we made a bet. What if we could just get our players to not say stupid things out loud? What if we could just do that? Not teach any element of positive thinking, but eliminate conversations about the heat, complaining about coaches, complaining about circumstances, complaining about situations, verbalizing negativity. But, we weren't going to lie to them and say, "Hey, be positive." We just taught them the data. And then what we did was some of the things that you you notice in the book. The stories in and around negativity are incredible. Tell us some. Bill Buckner was one that took my breath away. So, so Billy Buckner, who just passed away recently, was an incredible eight-time Gold Glove, a great baseball player for the Boston Red Sox. Well, he made a mistake in sports that would be one of the biggest sport bloopers in history. And in 1986, he let the game-winning run score on a ground ball through his legs that ultimately would give the Mets the World Series. Mhm. Now, I was just watching an ESPN E:60 Jeremy Schaap story and I saw an interview that was done in 1990 that resurfaced in 1995 where Buckner was interviewed 12 days before the World Series and he said, "You know, the dreams are to win, you know, to win the World Series. And the nightmare would be for me to let the game-winning run score on a ground ball through my legs." You know, and then ultimately that's exactly what would happen. Now, by saying that out loud, what did he do? He didn't make it happen, but he increased the probability. And this is what I want people to understand. Your internal thoughts are all over the place. I I want to push on that. Do you think that he makes it more likely because it's going to subtly influence his behavior or because you're talking to some magical deity that then says, "Well, you said it and so I'm going to make it happen." I think that what he did is a subconscious plant. By verbalizing it and knowing that it's 10 times more powerful, he's planting it in his subconscious. He's not He doesn't want it to happen, but it becomes something that's ultimately on his mind and he gave it more power by verbalizing it. And then wasn't there somebody that said, "Oh, I I worry that I'm going to retire and die at 40 of a heart attack"? Right. So, so Pistol Pete Maravich, a basketball player. I'll give you two other examples, but but he was interviewed at 26 years old and he said, "You know, I don't want to play 10 years of pro basketball and die at the age of 40 of a heart attack." Well, he played 10 years of pro basketball and in Pasadena, California, died of a heart attack at 40. There's another great story that I saw um from a magazine called Success Unlimited 1973. A guy is hired to fix a refrigerated boxcar in back of a train. He goes into the train. He panics, gets himself locked inside the boxcar. So, now he's pounding on the door. There's nothing to do. He starts to panic and thinks he's going to freeze to death. He finds a pen, he starts writing down Tom what's going through his mind and he writes down, "I'm becoming colder." As people, one of the things we do to ourselves is observe and report. "I'm not playing well. I'm having a bad day. We're having a bad quarter. My marriage isn't going well." We observe and report. "Still colder now," he writes. "Nothing to do but wait. Half asleep, I can hardly write. Finally," he says, "these might be my last words." And I'll show you the article he They open up the boxcar many hours later and they find him and he's dead. But the temperature inside the boxcar was 56°. That's so crazy. The freezing apparatus was broken. There was plenty of air in the boxcar. There was no physical reason for his death. The best they could say is somehow he talked himself into dying and as you know, the book covers the psychogenic death in and around the Korean War. When the Korean War, 1/3 of all American POWs died and they said that one of the things that was done in the POW camps was the negativity. They manufactured articles about the United States being bombed. They withheld all positivity. They didn't give them any mail. Believe it or not, there are like uh regulations for POW camps throughout the world. And ultimately, they filled up these healthy American soldiers with all this doubt. Uh uh a priest would end up calling it give-up-itis. And healthy American soldiers over a period of days would walk over to a corner, sit down, and die of broken hearts. So, negativity is the most powerful thing we're combating. Look at our politics today. A positive message versus a negative message. It's no no no chance. Have you ever read Man's Search for Meaning? I haven't read that. Tell me about it. going to love it. So, Man's Search for Meaning, Victor Frankl's in a concentration camp. Actually in multiple If I remember right, he was in five different concentration camps. Yes. And ultimately, um he says that he you could tell within 72 hours when someone was going to die because they would give up. Yep. And he said, "Once they gave up, then it was a 72-hour clock. They no longer knew why they were fighting and and they would just die." Right. And he was like, "But the people that kept a mental image of what they were suffering for, like what it was that we're going to do once they got out, for their family, for whatever, he said that they would push through. And it just I mean, look, there's obviously a million and one reasons to die in a concentration camp. But the fact that even in the concentration camp, they could go I 72 hours, we can peg it Right. because we've seen that person give up. Like, that's just crazy to me. Well, and and and I just think when when I think about being 7 years old in the Tacoma Golf and Country Club, and walking off the golf course, and my dad, you know, everybody call Mr. Positive and this and that. But in fairness to my dad, when he was raised and he was teaching, the only thing was positive and negative. So, if you weren't negative, you had to be positive. But that just never made sense to me. And if we could just learn how to not be negative, how to not externalize negative, then ultimately that would help them more than ever trying to be told to be positive. I love what you say, "Just shut your mouth." I thought that was You've said it even more aggressively than that. More aggressively. I I I think it's super powerful. So, what do you mean by that? Why is that so critical? Well, if if just if you follow the data and you say stupid out loud, ultimately you're predicting and perpetuating exactly what you don't want to have happen. And who's always in control of what Tom Billy you says? You're always in control of what you say. People say, "Yeah, but I can't" The thinking everybody's up in the thoughts. I've been with people the night before Super Bowl, the night before national championships, eight different times, where the doubt's there, but we're not externalizing it. And then I'll have people say, "Well, what? You want me to lie?" I'm not telling you to lie. I'm telling you that if you look at the information and you say, "I don't want to be here today. I hate this job. God damn, they" Or or you look at Muhammad Sanu, they're down they're up 28-3 in the Super Bowl playing against Tom Brady, and he looks at his friend and says, "Hey, man, they still got Tom Brady on their side. There is no lead that's safe." Well, why are you saying that? You know, and and you're almost predicting that that's what's going to happen. Now, ultimately, not saying stupid things out loud is you have to create an alternative. So, I started thinking about a car. If a car's going backwards, it can't automatically go forward. So, it has to to shift into neutral, and then it stops. Then at that point, you can either go forward by changing your behavior, or you can go backwards by doing the same stupid you were just doing. Neutral is truth-based thinking. What's the truth? Okay? In 2010, you're running a a a data loss company, right? You've been doing it for 8 years. You graduated from USC film. You're That's not what you want to do. You're 60 lb overweight. You lose your weight. You find two buddies, and you say, "Hey, man, uh we're going to go into my kitchen. We're going to find a way to to create a product that's going to be different than anything anybody knows." Well, I'm educated in this because I partnered with Gatorade Sports Science Institute at IMG, and I you know, and you created a value proposition that ultimately, you know, based upon you didn't let your past predict your future. You used your past was real, but I want to be do something different. This is This is a business. This is This is a really interesting part of what you say, that the past isn't predictive. Correct. So, talk to me more about that cuz I would say most people would say that the past is definitely predictive. Right, which is great, but they'd be wrong. Right? So, they would be wrong, and the simple fact of the matter is the past is real. Okay? So, the only thing that makes it predictive is if my behavior stays the same. So, I'll give you a great story. Um so, we both grew up in Tacoma, and there used to be a a thing called Toastmasters. I don't know if you remember Toastmasters, but Toastmasters was a local, regional, and a national speaking group for anybody that wanted to get better at speaking. Well, my dad [clears throat] had gone to a Toastmasters early on and heard one of the most successful magazine entrepreneurs in the world speak. He comes back and tells me, "I just had a chance to hear one of the most successful magazine entrepreneurs in the world uh speak." And he said, "When are you taking your SATs?" I'm taking it next year. He said, "Well, this guy was failing out of high school. He was struggling. He was raised by a single mom in the Midwest, but he promised his mother he would take a test called the SAT." So, he takes the SAT in May of his junior year, doesn't expect anything, gets the score back in June. Now, the SAT, which I don't know how many your population know, but it's it's a standardized test with a math part and a verbal part. Both are scored out of 800 points. Well, this guy takes it. He's He's bombing. He's failing out of school. He doesn't expect anything as he's telling the story at Toastmasters. Well, he gets a 1480 out of 1600. So, he's stunned, right? That would be for the smart people that listen to your podcast. yeah. Right, cognitive dissonance, right? a 900 on my SATs just to give people a frame of Right, and I got a 10 A 990, excuse me. And I got a 1010, right? I was just, hey, four digits, it was a miracle, right? And and but it's a hard test and it you you know, it's a variety of different things. So, he gets the score and his mother, doing what any mother would do knowing her kid, says, "Did you cheat?" Right? She knows her son and he says, "I swear to God I tried to cheat, but the way the numbers were in the scantrons and the bubbles, you couldn't cheat." So, she says, "You mean to tell me you really got that score?" He said, "Yeah, I got the score." So, he's stunned, Tom. So, as my dad is telling me this story, I'm like, "Okay." So, he says, "All right." So, what he decides is because he realizes he's smart and he's going into his senior year, he says, "I'm going to go to class." Now, he starts to go to class, he doesn't hang out with who he did when he didn't go to class. All right? Teachers see him in class and they said, "Hey, maybe Franklin Pierce, maybe we missed the boat on this kid." So, they start to treat him differently. Well, as the guy would tell the story, he graduates, goes to a community college, goes on to Wichita State, goes on to the Ivy League and becomes this massively successful magazine entrepreneur. So, I said, "Okay. Well, the guy was always smart, he just needed a standardized test to unlock it." My dad said, "No, that's not the story and this is what I want you to understand." He said, "12 years after all this guy's success, he gets a letter in the mail from Princeton, New Jersey." Doesn't think anything about it. The next day his wife says, "You're going to open it?" He opens it. True story, turns out the SAT board will periodically review their test-taking procedures and the policies. The year he took the test, he was one of 13 people sent the wrong SAT score. His actual score was a 740 out of 1600. And he said, "People think my whole life changed when I got the 1480. But what happened? My whole life changed when I started acting like a 1480. And what does a 1480 do? He goes to class." Well, this is one of the first stories I would share when I had my opportunity at Alabama, Florida State, or Georgia. So, A, your language is powerful, but number two, your behavior is way ahead of your success. And so many people let their feelings dictate what they do as opposed to throw your behavior out there. Russell Wilson's 5'10. He shouldn't be playing pro football, but he behaves like the best quarterback in the country and he's done that since before he was at that level and then his feelings and emotions and his skill caught up to that behavior. I think the lesson my dad was trying to teach me um ultimately was in addition to my language, what I do, not how I feel about my past, is going to determine who I am in the future. And that's what I think neutral thinking is and I think neutral thinking isn't just thinking, I think it's behavior and I think it's language. And so, your behavior is what's going to change you. But you also have to start by asking yourself, what do I want and why do I want it? Why don't I have it? You know, what am I willing to do to get it? And I do think in in terms of listening to to one of your earlier podcast, I do think there's value in writing things down. But in a really simple way. Um I've learned probably the most things through the best athletes in the world and Michael Johnson, who had the gold shoes. I'll never forget Drew Brees, we're we're training for the NFL combine in 2001. There's 18 guys. Michael just finished winning his fourth gold medal and he comes in and he's just just a badass dude. Fastest man alive at that Fastest man alive at that point. Um he had just run uh the 4318. Um you know, and then when he ran the 19.3, it was uh 26 mph, the fastest the fastest 50 to 150, he ran 9.1 flat. So, all these athletes were in awe of Michael. [snorts] And I I think Drew at the time says, "Hey man, do you set goals?" He said, "Yeah." He said, "Where do you learn?" He said, "What do you mean where do I learn?" He said, "Where do you learn? Like do you learn in college?" He said, "I didn't learn in college." He said, "Did you learn like smart goals?" Like what the are smart goals? You know, and smart goals are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and with the time frame. Michael said, "When I would go into Safeway, I recognize that if I walked into Safeway and I wrote eight things down, I would walk into Safeway and I'd walk out of Safeway in 5 minutes. If I walked into Safeway and had nothing written down, I would be in there for 20 minutes and I'd find myself on aisle eight and I'd be anxious and I'd be nervous and I'd be, 'Why am I looking at the Wheat Thins and the Ho Hos when I know I don't need any of those things?'" And he said, "So, because I wrote it down in Safeway and it worked, I figured why would I be any different about my athletic career?" And I think that that's the level that we need to educate people. I hope it takes what it takes. Basically, is an introduction to self-help. That when I look at mindfulness being the brand and and Headspace being a billion-dollar valuation, and I sit there and think, at you know, 44 years old and growing up in this my whole life, the only time I can meditate is at the end of church. It's such a challenging skill. And is it important? Absolutely, it's important. Do our affirmations important? Absolutely, they're important. Are changing from the inside out important? Yes, but they're not the starting points. Don't say stupid out loud. Be mindful of what you consume. If I watch 3 minutes of news that increases my probability by 27%, I'm going to say I had a shitty day. That's crazy. Right? When I was going through and you know, when I was going through uh divorce, had a lawsuit, had some health challenges, all these different types of things, if I'm listening to Jake Owen or Sam Hunt, I love new country, but new country makes me just want to go run and jump off a cliff. You know, it makes me think I'm never going to meet another girl ever again in my life, which I hope is not true. You know, and and so, what are the things that are in our control? What we watch when we get home. What we listen to when we're in our car. Who we talk to when we get on our cell phone, and what we say out loud always as we speak. And I think that those are the powerful things, and ultimately our behavior is what's going to define our success. Yeah, I love that, man. It really does all come down to behavior, and that all of this boils down to what you do on a day-to-day basis, which brings me to a concept that you got from your dad about hope and how powerful that is. How can people use hope? Why does it matter? How does that fit into this equation? Yeah, I I I think my dad's belief was when you become helpless, you become hopeless. And when I feel like I can control my behavior, when I feel like I'm in control of even if I'm going through cancer, even if I'm going through a difficult challenge, even if I'm going through a reorgan a business, you know, if if I still feel like, okay, this is not optimal, but there's something I can do, then I'm helpful to myself. And when I'm helpful, I'm hopeful. And when I'm helpless, I'm hopeless. So, my dad's belief always was to make hope a habit. And and that hope is the most powerful medicine that we all have. And then I think we have to believe that we can influence our future. You know, we've got to believe. I believe that no matter what I'm facing, I can influence my future. That just because my first marriage didn't work, that doesn't mean my second marriage won't. But it's incumbent upon me to be better. Right? And that's where if I'm spending time, well, she didn't do this, she didn't do There's nothing I can do about that. Right? But that's true, and that's where you're talking about, well, the past feels predictive. Right? Well, I thought, you know, hey, what what are you going to do to be different going forward? But so many people think the self-help industry is about things you do. I think one of the things that makes athletes so incredible is what they're willing not to do. What they're willing not to say. What they're willing not to eat. What they're what what they're willing not to consume. What they're willing not to watch. That's what makes Think about it's January 2020, what are five things you cannot do right now that will instantly make your life better. Talk to me about the illusion of choice. Like that's so powerful. You know, it was it was really fascinating. So, um I was um you know, obviously I've worked in the sports world for a long time and I was my first NBA team was the Memphis Grizzlies. And guys love college football and Vince Carter, uh who's 42 now, same age as Tom Brady and still playing in the NBA, plays for Atlanta. Vince was about 37 at the time. And we had just had three players arrested at one of the programs I was headed to in one night. Like we hit our quota for her like for a night and Vince and I were talking, he loved college football and he said said he said how many of those guys travel and play in the NBA or in the NFL? And I said probably seven out of 10 and he said and isn't it crazy they think they can do whatever they want and still make it to that level? I said, what do you mean? He said He said, well, I'm 37, I'm still playing in the NBA, you think I can do whatever I want? I said, what do you mean? Yeah, I do think you can. He said, no, my choices are finite. I said, what do you mean? Like choice is an illusion? He said, choice is absolutely an illusion. There's a set of behaviors that I do that allow me to play at 37. I can't slam dunk the ball now. Yes, I can still slam dunk, but if I slam dunk, it takes its toll on my knees and I can't get back and play defense fast enough. So, when I get down, I lay the ball up more times than not. I don't eat fast food after games. I lift weight every day of games. And I said, so choice is an illusion. He said, yeah. And I ended up going at that point, I was heading over to the University of Alabama and we sort of coined the idea of the illusion of choice. There are no choices. When you decide when you decided you wanted to build, you didn't decide you wanted to build a billion-dollar empire, but you decided you wanted to make a different type of uh nutritional bar, correct? Or did you start with the bar? Yeah. And so, there was there was either going to be a way that you did it, or there was going to be the way and there was going to be the way that tasted just like Muscle Milk, or there was going to be a way that was going to be different. And you either did it or you didn't, correct? Yeah. And you were either going to commit the time, and I'm just using you as an example, but if I want to have a good relationship, I saw a statistic that said the average married couple talks 27 minutes a week. I talk to some of my buddies about that and they're like, "That much? Where do I find all the time?" But uh that's obviously not a good statistic. Well, are you born with the gift to make time for people? No, it's a behavior. So, to me, the illusion of choice is thinking you can have a good marriage and talk 27 minutes a week. So, you have to make time in order to talk. And maybe you're on the road, you travel a lot, turning your TV off when you're on the road, doing simple better, turning the TV off, turning the light off, and just engaging in a conversation. You know, if you're engaging with your kids, there's a way to do it and there's a way not to do it. Thinking you have an infinite amount of choices is idiotic. And this generation right now, Generation Z and Generation Y, both think they can do whatever the they want to do. And and still achieve things. You can achieve whatever you want to do in many cases if you're willing to get behind the behaviors that drive that success, but it won't be anything. Pete Carroll for the Seahawks, he'll let you go to bed at 5:00 in the morning if you want, as long as you can perform to uh 9.5 standard when you get there. Okay? Well, what you're going to figure out is you can't go to bed at 5:00 in the morning. Okay? So, you're going to have to adapt your behavior to get in alignment with winning behaviors. So, the illusion of choice is this fact that there are not an infinite amount of choices. There may be options. Yeah, I can get uh pasta instead of a cheeseburger. But even if I want to maintain a diet or maintain optimal health, then I have to limit how much calorie intake, uh what type of foods. When I When I first lost weight, I I didn't understand that Gatorade had 800 calories in it. You know, when you drink those four Gatorades, even though all you're eating is Lunchables, you're actually like driving all these calories, and it's just am I doing simple better? And if you want to lose weight, there's a way to do it. Yeah, I love that. That's super powerful that your choices are limited by what you're trying to achieve. Right, there's a finite amount. Yeah, that's really smart. Where can people connect with you, find out more about what you're up to, get the book? Yeah. So, the book right now is that thinkbig-gofar.com/book. But they can get it on Audible, they can get it on Harper Collins, they can get it on really any different environment. Um I've kind of only had Twitter for a couple years, so I'm just learning how to do social media. So, um they can follow @trevormowad, t r e v o r m o a w a d. I think we've done a nice job. Um and then uh um in the sports world, I have the Mowad Group, which kind of works with athletes, and then Limitless Minds is our business that works with corporations and executives. Nice. All right, what is the impact you want to have on the world with all these things that you're doing? I want to demystify thinking. I just I want to demystify it. I don't want people to feel like it's only for people that are really, really bright. I want to demystify the idea that that change is a challenge. Nice, I like that. Well, guys, I love that he is taking a new approach to thinking, whether it's just understanding the difference between positive and negative and understanding that there's something else in the middle, or all of the nuanced stuff that he goes into the book. I think they are incredibly powerful tactics that you will find immeasurably useful in your life. Check out the book, engage with him on social, it will definitely allow you to get to that next level. And speaking of next level, if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe. And until next time, my friends, be legendary. Take care. My man, Trevor. Thank you, dude. That was wonderful. The greatest fear in modern times is what other people think. So, our job is to love others and not give a what they think of us. Cuz we only get one emotion at a time. That's how our brain works. One emotion. So, our job