The SECRET to Mastering Mental Toughness Is THIS

According to my parents, family, or the community I grew up in, I'm a failure. You know, insecurities, I'm not good at this, I suck. Most people think that life's about avoiding the pain. I'm here to tell you right now, it is about really experiencing the pain. When we want something, our brain only shows us the good side of it. It doesn't show the sacrifice required for it. It's not a quick fix. It's not going to be a bullet. It actually takes work. Most people think that life's about avoiding the pain. I'm here to tell you right now, in a very controlled fashion, it is about really experiencing the pain, learning from it. So, Ray Dalio, the most successful hedge fund manager of all time, has a perfect math equation. Pain plus reflection equals progress. Mhm. If you don't feel the pain, you never reflect on it. So, my thing is, I spend 80% of my time focused on the beautiful things in my life, the things I'm grateful for, the beautiful things that I want to bring into existence, all of it. 20% of the time though, I'm in the darkness, man. I'm in that Tim Grover, relentless, I'm going to make this happen if I have to break myself, and I'm not afraid to lean into that, because I know how powerful it is. Now, if you really want to put numbers how powerful this is, this is, they did a study, and they wanted to find out what happens, how can we get people to endure more pain? And the punchline is hilarious. So, they would take people and they would submerge their arm in a bucket of ice, and they would just hold it there as long as you can. Now, at first, it's just cold, but after a while, it really starts to hurt. And so, people would end up yanking their arms out. They found that people could hold their um arm in the bucket 35% longer if you let them display anger. So, put it in, they get to that point where they're about to pull it out, and you tell them, "Yell, cuss, do whatever you need to." And they'd be able to do it. Mhm. They're the expression of intensity. Even what I'm doing right now, I can feel myself ready, right? I'm ready to strike, my muscles are tense, I've got a different posture, I bring my chin down, there's intensity in my eyes. Like, dude, I'm now feeling that because I'm I'm embodying it, right? So, it makes me really feel that. And so, I I actually started to tell the story earlier. I hate the gym. But, what I would do to make myself work out is I would My wife would be on the opposite side of the gym, and I would stare at her, and I would imagine her being attacked. And I would imagine her being attacked by people bigger than me, and that the only way that I could fight them off is to get stronger. There was nothing beautiful in it. I was not worried about aesthetics. I was worried about saving my wife. And by stepping into that dark cuz people are like, "What are you doing?" Yeah. But, dude, that was I needed that motivation to push past what I want, to push past pain, boredom, all of it, and just to really get into it and get a result. But, I find that people shy away from that. Look, to me, it's an 80/20 split. If you're spending more than 20% of your time there, it will be corrosive. It will start to erode your sense of self because you're going to feel badly, right? Cuz I would be saying to myself, "You're weak. Come on. Like, you've got to get stronger." If you spend 80% of your time doing that, that sucks. I don't want to live like that. Right. But, not being able to dip into both, you'll just never hit the level of extraordinary. You may be fine. You may be even be good, but you're never going to be great. According to my parents, family, or the community I grew up in, I'm a failure. That's crazy. And how did I buck the trend? I was really really fortunate that very early on, I started to experiment with what mattered to me. Sometimes it got me in a lot of trouble. What people don't know about me is that I was suspended from school three times for trying out all sorts of things. Like, things that people would never imagine of someone who goes on to be a monk. I was experimenting with all the drugs in the world. I had multiple relationships. I was really trying to search for some sort of meaning, fulfillment, and as far as long as I've known, I've been chasing thrill. I really value thrill. And feeling like my see that coming. Yeah, I know. Not many people do. It's It's very different. From 14 to 18, I was like this kid who just wanted to try new things out. And my parents' rhetoric would always be, "Well, make sure you get good grades." And I used to think, "Well, if I can be bad and get good grades, then then it all works, right? Everyone's happy." So, that's that's kind of what I did. And at 18, I was really fortunate when I met a monk. And this monk was invited to speak, and I kind of just went because one of my friends forced me to. At that time, I was listening to CEOs and entrepreneurs and business people and marketers who who I thought that's what I was aspiring to be like. And then I hear this monk. And he captivated me like no one had ever captivated me before. It was like staring at the most beautiful woman on the planet. You know, I was completely fixated on him and his message. And that is the beginning with without me going into too much detail before we probe, that was the beginning of what changed me. Because I went from being someone who did only want all those things to become successful and trying to, but I started hearing my own inner voice much more in all that noise that I had around me. I remember one of my my parents had a maths tutor for me because they wanted to be amazing at maths. And I was I was pretty good at numbers, and I'd have this tutor and he'd tell me that he goes, "The reason that you're struggling with the next question is because you're always worried about what your parents think." And and that really stayed in my head. I was just like, "Wow, so as long as I'm trapped by what my parents think, I can actually never find the answers to the real questions of life." And there were all these little things happening. I lost two great friends when I was 16. One girl died in a car accident, one guy died because he was involved in drugs and violence. That that made me rethink everything. I just thought to myself, "Wait a minute, these were beautiful people, people that I loved, people that in my opinion were good people. And I just lost them in a moment. And it was kind of like this collation of little things that just made me think wait a minute, having money, having fame, this that just doesn't seem to add up. And then and then meeting the monk kind of made that shift possible. Yeah, I used to have a lot of negative self-talk about you know, insecurities, I'm not good at this, I suck. I mean, if we really want to go down the rabbit hole, you know, my older sibling exposed me to drugs and alcohol when I was nine. Wow. And so yeah, and so that really And you liked it or Well, I took to it. Yeah, so I mean, it's crazy for people listening, you know, I got arrested twice before I at the age of 15. Wow. Arrested at 12 and 15. Shoplifting and then for drugs at 15. So, the reason why I bring that up is I felt really dumb, right? Because, you know, remember D.A.R.E., don't do drugs, all this stuff in the '80s, you know, if you do alcohol before this or if you drink or smoke, your brain's going to be stunted. You're you're going to have learning disabilities. And so I started to like believe that stuff and I literally I remember my freshman year of high school after I I got arrested, clean my life up, my dad kicked me out. You're not You're not kicking me out, but had me go to rehab, outpatient rehab, the best decision ever. Changed my life, got into fitness and all that. But I really struggled in school. And I really believed that I was dumb. I was like, I'm just I'm not like these other kids. And back then, my brain wasn't because of my my prior 5-6 years. So I had a lot of catching up to do. But that mindset that I'm dumb and I'm not able to learn, I'm not able to talk with people still lingered with me. And it wasn't until college that I started to like kind of slowly change it, but this aha moment that what if I do have cancer made me realize that I can't hang on to that crap because my time, like we always think we're going to have time, I may not have the time that I think I do to impact the world that I want to and leave a legacy. And I was like, dude, I can't be nervous for interviews, I can't be nervous for video. I got to create content, I got to write, I got to research because I realized it like if I have 10 years, 5 years, 3 years, whatever, yeah, it's finite, like and we get wrapped up in our insecurities and making money or doing this, but I think you know, if we can find our the best expression of serving other people, that can be an associate, that that can be a whatever, everyone has different gifts and I think that's what's so beautiful about the earth. So, it was just a mindset shift and it was really subtle and I think it's important for people to hear that because you know, I don't have necessarily weight issues. I don't have blood sugar issues. Most people, you know, searching for health related topics are trying to lose body fat, trying to balance their blood sugar. But, I have other issues that I'm dealing with and I we need to have a positive mindset that our body and our mind are malleable. I think the things that we tend to be passionate about, we don't even realize we're passionate about them because they seem so normal and obvious to us. I remember when I was in in music school, I was practicing I played guitar. So, I was practicing like 6 hours a day, just beating my head against the wall trying to learn all these different songs and stuff and I just I hated it was a grind and it felt like a a job I was supposed to do. And I remember actually right before I quit, I there was a there was a kid in the program who was like, you know, he was an all-star. Like he everybody knew he was going to make it, you know? Um and it's funny today I think he has two or three Grammys, but um so, like I found him in the cafeteria and I sat down with him and I'm like, "Oh man, like I don't know, like how do you can you give me some advice, man?" He's like, "Yeah, sure, what's going on?" I'm like, "Just how do you practice this much? Like I'm practicing like 6 hours a day, you know, how much are you practicing?" He's like, "Yeah, 6 hours a day." And I'm like, "But yeah, but how do you like stay motivated? How do you like what's your warm-up like, you know? Like how do you how do you schedule your practice time? And he's just looking at me like I'm speaking Klingon. Like he's he's like what are you talking about? Like I just practice. Like I always practice. Like what? It didn't even compute for him. And then I was like, okay, I I should probably quit. Um So jump ahead like 5, 6 years, I'd started blogging. And I would go to these like internet marketing conferences and stuff. And people would start coming up to me and they're like, "Oh man, I love your blog, man. Like your articles, they're they're like 10, 20 pages long. You're posting like multiple each week." And I'm like, "Yeah, thanks." They're like, "Man, it's incredible." So uh you know, what's your writing regimen like? Like how how do you get yourself motivated?" You know, he starts asking me all these questions and I'm like looking at him like "What are you talking about? Like I just write." You know, I just sit down and write. You know, I don't even have to think about it. And uh and it kind of like rung a bell in my head of like, wait a second. Like that's that's that's something. That's like a that's a signal that there's something special about this. Because for whatever reason what seems to cause other people a lot of stress and pain comes easily to me. And what causes me a lot of stress and pain, you know came easily to to the guy who did make it through music school. Um and so I realized that it's it's not about like grit or willpower or just like wanting it enough. It it's a lot of it too is just we're all masochists a little bit. You know, like we all there's some pain in the world that we all it gets us off a little bit. And I found mine. And uh and so yeah, I just you just you just keep hitting that Like you just keep going. And um I think people when they're when you're so focused on pleasure and and pleasant rewards, you don't actually get to that question. You don't actually get to like, "Yeah, what's what's that pain that like actually kind of gets me going, you know?" And cuz we all have it. And that that's that's the sweet spot when you can find it. guys. If you're going to unlock your potential and achieve everything you've ever wanted, you are going to have to constantly be making progress towards your goals. So, what do you do when you get stuck? The bad news is getting stuck happens to everyone at some point. It's pretty much unavoidable. But, the good news is that if you're willing to take action, there is a framework that you can follow to get back on track. If that sounds familiar, or if you're stuck in a rut and not achieving your goals as fast as you want, I've pulled a class out of Impact Theory University that you need to watch right now. It's called Six Steps to Getting Unstuck, and you can watch it for free at unstuck.impacttheory.com. Inside, I'll teach you about how to use cognitive re-frames, my four-level value stack to becoming unstoppable, as well as the single most important thing to start doing today to regain momentum. To watch this free preview for Impact Theory University, go to unstuck .impacttheory.com. I'll see you on the inside, guys. All right, take care, and now back to the episode. I know she's old school, so I need to go to her dad. Yeah. And I go to her dad and I say, you know, I'm I want your blessing to ask your daughter to marry me. And in the nicest way possible, he says, "No." And my wife, Lisa, had always warned me, "My dad's going to quiz you. When I introduce you, my dad's going to quiz you." Introduces me, he almost doesn't look at me, okay? No quizzing. Gets to know him a little bit, no quizzing. Seems kind of disinterested. He'd ask me a question and then wouldn't even listen for the answer. So, but when I say I want your blessing, do do do just like starts going through all these questions. And the the final question was, "How do you plan to take care of my daughter?" Because he was very successful. Okay. And he said, "My daughter's become used to accustomed to a certain lifestyle. Mhm. And how are you going to provide that for Mhm. And I said, "Sir, I know what you see right now is a broke unemployed kid. Wow. But, I'm the most ambitious person you've ever met, and I will one day make your daughter rich." Mhm. And he said, "Thank you. I hear that. I still don't want you to marry my daughter." Now, important to acknowledge he's always been incredibly kind to me. He was just very clear that he did not want me to marry his daughter. Yeah. And so, that was like, "Whoa, like the gauntlet has been laid down. I'm going to rise up to this." And so, in my soul I'm like, "I've got this, man. I'm going to do this. I'm committed. There is no way I will not get rich now because I'm going to take care of that woman. I'm going to show him that I'm right." Ooh. And then the next morning I lay in bed for 3 hours, maybe four. And the day after that, 3 4 hours again. Why? Because it was cold, and I didn't want to get up and put a sweatshirt on, and literally walk the eight paces. And so, I would sweat it because she was working, and my job was to make her lunch. And she would come home and we'd eat lunch together. And when we get to the punchline of what I'm like today, even I have a hard time believing that was really me. So then, these two successful entrepreneurs walk into my class. And up to that point I'd promised myself two things. So, I grew up chubby in a morbidly obese family, and with no money. And I said, "One day I'm going to be rich, and one day I'm going to have six-pack abs." Mhm. And that was my promise. And these guys walked in and they were rich and they had six-pack abs. And they said, "Look, we're starting a technology company. Why don't you come be a copywriter?" And I was like, "Absolutely." And it's one of those where people are like, "What are you doing? Like you're leaving the secure job?" For me I was like, "They're like unicorns to me. They are literally the thing I'm looking for. They are rich and they have six-pack abs. They're They're to let me into their company?" Yeah. And so, their whole pitch was, "Look man, this is a startup. You can have any job in this company you want. You just have to become the right person for the job." Mhm. So it was a tech company. It was in this beautiful office overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Every single person in that company had a floor-to-ceiling window Nice. overlooking the Pacific Ocean, except me. And they put me in the server room, which had no windows and a bunch of computers all whirring and making noise. And I remember one of the guys was like, "Who's the kid in the server room?" And so that's how I became known. I was the kid in the server room. I didn't know anything about business. I would bring my wife Jeez. to visit me in the office and I'm like, "Look how beautiful the office is and this is where I'm at." You know, and like literally like those makeshift desks that are like really like a table that you would use on a picnic, but you've got computers stacked on it. That's where I worked all day. Come on, brother. And so that just being around other people now who had that same kind of drive. Yeah. And I remember Now people are really going to enjoy this one. We used to race to see who could relax our bladder the fastest and finish peeing sooner. And that like that got me thinking at tempo, right? Like you're snapping. And that literally I could feel it make my brain speed up. What? It was It's one of the most real things. Now, since then I've read studies, you can the number of patents filed in a city is directly correlated to the speed at which the average citizen walks 20 yards on the sidewalk. Come on. Let that sink in. So that little like and I'm obsessed with the chills now. I'm obsessed with the physiological hooks that can help you develop your mind and moving fast and being made fun of by the way when I move slowly. When we want something, our our our brain only shows us the good side of it. It doesn't show the sacri- the sacrifice required for it. Um in everything, every experience you have in life, there is a sandwich part of it. You know, there's a there's everything has its associated problems. Um but our brain doesn't think about that when we're pursuing it. And so uh for me like one of the most powerful heuristics is to simply instead of thinking about what benefits I want in my life, I I try to think about what problems do I want in my life. You know, something as simple as like, you know, people might see this show and they're like, "Oh, damn, I wish I had a badass show like that on YouTube." You know, it's like they don't understand like there's a whole crew here, there's logistics, there's like waivers you got to get like clear through lawyers and all all sorts of crap. And it's like those are the problems you chose. You know, those are the problems that you wanted to have. Um and that's why it's a successful show. It's not just because it's like, "Oh, damn, having a show would be awesome." You know, like it's easy to just want something. You know, if you go to the gym, it's like challenge yourself to do something new. Take a class that you know, like my wife just at the age of 37 decided she want to learn how to swim. And she's like mortified of it, you know? But I'm like, "Hell yeah, go do it." You know, like that's because it's not just about swimming. It it's it's about just developing that consistent habit of like stepping into your discomfort. And as I said, he was completely captivating. And then I found out that he'd given up jobs in Google and Microsoft to be a monk. And I thought to myself, who does that? You know, he's given up everything that I'm chasing and that all my friends are chasing, but he seems happier than anyone I've ever met before. And he spoke about this incredible principle where he said that we should plant trees under whose shade we do not plan to sit. And he was speaking about this principle of selfless sacrifice. And that kind of just penetrated me right there. When he said the words selfless sacrifice, for the first time in my life, I felt a thrill about something that I'd never felt before. I thought, "Wow, giving up everything you have for the service of others sounds like the best thing you could possibly do." And I don't know why I had that thought because I wasn't a spiritual kid growing up. I wasn't a religious kid growing up. I wasn't even a good kid growing up. I was just a rebel, a misfit, trying things out, an experimenter, which I still consider myself. And so, what I started to do is I was interning at companies and firms and corporates thinking I was getting a grad job afterwards, and then I'd spend the rest of my summer holidays interning in India living with him as a monk. So, I'd use all my summer and Christmas holidays to just be out there with the monks. And he introduced me to another 200 to 500 monks that were just like him, just as smart, just as bright, giving up everything they had and using all their skills to make the world a better place. Uh some people actually have uh aberrant robust, you know, lighting up with some of these structures, the amygdala ones people usually think of, but in these subcortical structures, some people it actually correlates that they light up more and they have a greater addiction in that group. So, there's a structural element, there's a life context uh element, and then there's also the uh the frontal lobe element, and that thinking of creating new habits and creating new values uh creating less triggers in your life. That's the opportunity that we all have, and I think that's the project you're working on. What's the stuff we can control without zapping ourselves and without putting pills in us? Those things set the boundaries, but the frontal lobe regulation of how we feel is in your own command. And you've seen it in Buddhist monks, you've seen the mind-body connection in deep divers. There's actually two nerves that come down and wrap around the heart. They can think down there pulse. They can think down how fast their heart beats. This is not like baloney. This is You can put a ultrasound We can You can look it up online. You see videos of it. That shows that thinking can change thought can change how fast your heart beats. Why wouldn't we believe that thought can change those subcortical structures about anxiety and depression. If you get depressed, you're sort of you know, you can get stuck. But people who aren't having those mental health issues, but just want to be better and live a more rich life in the sense of personal experience, we can think about our lives and our habits and triggers and create effects inside us. The mind-body connection is is mind down to body, and many people feel, you know, body back up to mind, and that's where meditation and and and meditative breathing come in. But those connections are real. You see examples around you. If your frontal lobe can only help you 5% and somebody else's all dialed in and helps them 50%, it doesn't matter. That's your best. And that's an avenue available to you, but it's not a it it's not a simple one. It's not a quick fix. It's not going to be a bullet. It actually takes work. And you mentioned repetition, it takes work, it takes effort. Uh and there's no shortcut to it, but it's a glacial change that can happen over a few months to a few years. And I think once, you know, like people go to the gym, they can't not go to the gym anymore. I think people who find these rituals and habits that make them feel better, they become addicted to that, and they're constructive and they're not pharmacological. I began to discover brain plasticity. Yeah. So, I'm laying on the floor of my apartment. I'm flirting with depression. I just don't know how I'm going to make anything of my life, feel hopeless and lost. And so, I start reading about the brain. Mhm. And reading in college revealed itself to me as as the way to gain knowledge. And so, I start reading reading about the brain. I see there's this debate going on. This is like late um '90s, early 2000, and there's a camp of people saying, "No, no, no, you can learn even like to your last day on this planet." But it was highly debated. It's not anymore, but it was then. And I said, "I choose to believe that. I choose to believe that I can grow and change." And so I start reading voraciously. I start thinking about brain plasticity and getting better. I take a job as a teacher and realize in teaching them I'm able to make their films better. And if I can make their films better, why can't I make my own films better? So that starts to rebuild me and I start thinking of myself as someone that needs to grow and learn and get better. So it's now called a growth mindset. You can now get a book on it. You can watch a thousand YouTube videos. None of this existed back then, which is why all the stumbling around. And but I start reading and I start reading voraciously and it starts to build my belief system. And that belief system ultimately is what completely changes my life. But first I need some more pain and suffering. I didn't think I had a problem. I didn't think that that my parents didn't understand me or whatever. This is what kids do. I mean, come on. You know, people smoke pot and drink all the time. You guys probably did it, too. And I didn't realize how behind in school I was. I didn't realize how stunted emotionally I was. I didn't realize that I couldn't effectively communicate with people. Like literally verbally and look people in the eyes. All that because I hid behind the substances. You know, the little relationships that I had back then were all under the influence. And so it forced me to get outside of my comfort zone and learn new skill sets. Learn how to approach women. Learn how to read. I had to relearn read alphabet, multiplication tables, literally. And how did I get into to weight lifting is my stepmother introduced me to a chiropractor. And he said, "You know what? To get stronger and everything, you need to to do these compound movements, squats, deadlifts, presses." And they're just like you like you have potential, Mike. You need to just course correct here. And yeah, so that's how I got into it. And you know, I realized that if I can change my body, I could probably do the same thing to my mind. The weights gave me a lot of self-confidence, and then eventually that gave me the self-confidence that I can learn in in school. And then I did the pre-med route and everything like that. And so, uh without the weights, I don't think I would have had the in the ability to change my physique. Probably would not have had the the self-confidence that I can learn biology, and that I could actually study and and do the MCAT, the medical school aptitude test, and things like that, right? So, I I think a lot of people look at people that lift weights and think meathead, or you're just doing this for looks, but there's so many so much carryover mentally that occur. And so, that's why I love to have all my clients do some sort of resistance training or some exercise that's quantifiable. A lot of people go to the gym and just do the elliptical for 20 minutes, but you can't really quantify if you're gaining, you know, if you're improving or not, cuz you're just doing time, or you're looking at heart rate. So, if you're going to do cardio, I recommend training with watts or power. Um if you're doing yoga, it's a little bit easier to quantify cuz you can see if you're getting into a position better, you can hold it for longer. And weights and even CrossFit or powerlifting offer that feedback, so we know if we're improving. I'm a huge fan of the book Thinking Fast and Slow. I don't know how if you've read it. Yeah, it's a great book because for me it's got a really close pattern connection again to what I studied. So, just understanding system one and system two, if anyone watching hasn't read it, I highly recommend it. Just being able to differentiate between system one and system two, as Daniel Kahneman calls it, in the Vedic philosophy we call differentiating between the mind and the intelligence. Knowing how to differentiate the voices in your head is the first level of self-awareness. So, break down what system one and system two are. Absolutely. So, system one is your initial response to anything that happens. It's It's a stop that I can't really say. So, if you say something I don't like, my system one naturally would be a face that I pull that I'm like, I don't agree with that. That's that's the understanding of what system one is. It's your initial default reaction in the moment. That can be positive often. For example, if someone pulled out a knife, you feel scared and you run. That's system one. That's a good thing. It's it's safe for you. But also system one is someone says something that hurts your ego and you start defending yourself immediately. That's also that's a negative of system one. That we would refer to as the mind. It's built up of conditioning. Those responses are conditioned. Those default elements are all there because of habit and continuous practice. The system two is more like the intelligence. What I would say is more like the parent. If you can consider system one to be more like a child, system two is more like a parent. It looks more at the long term. It looks more at the bigger picture. It processes that default reaction through a set of checking and metrics to decide whether that's true. The child is the the one that wants everything right away. Impatient, quickly responding, straight away reacting when it doesn't get what it wants. The intelligent parent, a good one, knows what the child wants and needs and what's better for it in the long term. Just starting there and being able to reflect and observe the different voices inside of us is a great place to start your self-awareness. Because the biggest challenge is that most of us don't know what we're listening to. And we don't most of us don't even know that there are more than one voice inside of us. Just getting over that line is a huge win. Because now at least you're trying to differentiate between what you're hearing. And that's going to help you make better decisions in the future. Emotions should never stop you from achieving your goals. So, if you feel stuck, overwhelmed, low on confidence, you're beating yourself up, or you feel like you're not deserving of the things you want in life, I have something to tell you. Emotions are not facts, and you should never let them hold you back. And yet, I find that people do this all the time. They mistake that feeling for objective truth, and it sends them in this downward spiral. Reaching greater levels of success in life means knowing how to use your brain. And if you're in a rut right now, or if you've been struggling for a while to achieve your goals, then I've pulled a class from Impact Theory University to help you get back on track. It's called Six Steps to Getting Unstuck, and it's for anyone who wants to know the exact steps to achieving big goals when life puts challenges in your way. If you want to check it out, go to unstuck.impacttheory.com to get access. It's a free preview. All right, guys. I'll see you on the inside. Now, let's get back to today's episode. It's the way the brain prefers to get its fuel source, and it's based on a diet um lessons about dieting learned through uh controlling epilepsy and seizures in kids in areas where there's no medicine. So, I was in Ukraine, and when they don't have medicine or a type of seizure seizure is abnormal electrical activity of the brain, just like an arrhythmia would be an abnormal electrical activity of the heart. Uh they would just feed them all fat diet. You could smell it in the hospitals. There's something about an all fat diet forcing you into just using ketones. Now, intermittent fasting is back and forth, glucose and then ketones, glucose and then ketones. But, for kids, if you just get them almost nearly all ketone as the source that goes up to the brain through an all fat diet, their seizure rate go down. You know, so that's proof that food changes mind. Because the mind is the electricity sparking through that flesh. Food will change the electricity detectable measurable electricity in your brain. Food affects mind. Food affects brain. With that premise we can talk about, okay, mind diet will hold off dementia and intermittent fasting might make you feel like you've had a cup of coffee once you get in a rhythm of it. It's not going to make you smarter, but it'll bring you to your most focused to bring you to your most attentive. It's not going to Oh, I'm intermittent fasting and now I can do physics. It's It's It's not like that. It's your personal best. And then the habits you demonstrate to your family by trying to be at your personal best. And then your kids see that and your friends see that. And I think that's how you impact generation change is to have uh capable people demonstrate, "Hey, it's not hard. And this is the best we can do for ourselves." If somebody's struggling mentally, the first thing that I would recommend to them is to go work out. And the reason is the self-respect, self-belief are I think some of the biggest things that people struggle from. And sitting there and looking in the mirror and telling yourself that you love yourself is it's probably not a bad start, but it's never going to get you there. Because if you don't do something that you actually respect, you're not going to develop the self-respect. Working out, lifting, it's hard, it's difficult. You have to sustain effort, but you do see that loop of I did this thing, I stayed focused, I was disciplined, I pushed beyond my comfort zone, and I got a result, and I look better, which triggers that intrinsic like when you look better, you feel better. As you're getting stronger, you feel better. You have that more confidence. But it's fascinating to me how few people are able to apply that to the rest of their life. Like you'll see a lot of people they crush it in the gym. They obviously understand that you put in that effort and you get this tremendous reward, but they don't make the leap of if I can do it to my body, I can do it to my brain. So, it's not that you know, body fat can have problems and challenges and is linked with inflammation and where your body fat sits is a big deal, but that's where I think it gives people power because it's not just about your diet, it's about your sleep, your relationships, your stress management, you know, your mindset, exercise, circadian rhythms. There's all these things and if you you know, just relegate food to just calories, you miss all that. But, it brings back to what you were saying, it's not about being right, you know, and I think people and I've learned this myself, I've had to have an open mind like cuz I read negative ketogenic diet studies because I want to challenge my own beliefs so I don't I'm not in this echo chamber. I talk about those negative ketogenic diet studies and when I'm reading it, I'm trying to have remove my bias. It's very hard. As human beings are our mind is wired to be very biased. We're constantly when we watch videos like this or read books, we're trying to confirm what we already believe. You know what I mean? And so, we need to kind of remove ourselves from that a little bit and and realize that's how we're wired and we're set up that way, but it doesn't mean we have to be that way. To keep the flesh healthy, uh you have to irrigate it. And that has to do with your brain arteries. And since we already said it's not a it's not a ball, you know, it's these uh you know, these uh jellyfish and they're moving and they're throbbing and they're pulsating and their tentacles are reaching out. There's a lot of space in between. And that extracellular space, outside of the actual cells, outside of the neurons, outside of the jellyfish, if you will, it's not just water. There's chemicals floating around in there. Now, dopamine might be just from tentacle to tentacle, you know, serotonin might be this way, but what's it what's in all the stuff around all those billions and billions of neurons? They're growth factors and minerals and chemicals that the brain naturally has. But, there's also a soup that these billions and billions of neurons are floating in. BDNF is a key component of that soup that helps regulate the health of each of those jellyfish or neurons. And we can trigger more of that through exercise. when you exercise, then it releases it off It showers itself. It's not like the thighs thigh muscle sends it up to the brain. The brain says, "Hey, I'm feeling good. This is good. I like this. I'm going to create a new rut. I'm going to remind you you feel good when you run." The brain will shower itself with growth factors. They are growth factors. Brain says, "Hey, you know, the electrochemical balance is better with those." So, I think that's where you get the runner's high. You know, it's not just adrenaline. It's not Dopamine is a happy chemical. I'm jacked up. I'm on adrenaline. It's just such a complex ecosystem. And rather than feeling um intimidated by that, to me, I just see opportunities on how people can, you know, improve their lives. When I think exercise is too easy, um too easy and too hard, actually, the way we live. To me, with my kids, I've been trying to drag them to the gym. I mean, we got that a new membership and all that. But, changing what shows up on the counter is powerful. And if we ate less, and if we ate efficiently, and we did, you know, it's less carbon imprint. I think all of those things, it's good for the planet, it's good for us. It's mind and body. And And then it's also communal. You know, then then it goes to the next generation. It's not just something I did at Equinox and with my yoga mat in Malibu. And then I think it can perpetuate, so it's not just an individual thing.