Video summary
In this episode of Impact Theory, host Tom Bilyeu interviews ultra-endurance athlete and best-selling author Rich Roll about leveraging pain for personal transformation. Roll recounts his journey from being an insecure child who was bullied to becoming a world-class swimmer by embracing discomfort rather than avoiding it. He explains that while many people endure pain passively, he learned early on that suffering could be leveraged as a growth accelerator and a reminder when one has gone astray. This philosophy culminated in his dramatic life changes after decades of alcohol addiction; at age 43, following a medical scare and two years of sobriety, Roll won stage one of the Ultraman triathlon by ten minutes, proving that extreme physical feats are achievable through sheer will and adaptation to pain rather than innate talent. Roll details how he navigated periods of profound financial struggle after publishing his book *Finding Ultra*, including a time when they could not afford trash removal services. Despite these humiliating circumstances, which tested him to his core, Roll maintained integrity by working tirelessly for free speaking gigs and refusing to compromise on his values or mission. He attributes this resilience to the concept of being "spiritual beings having a human experience," suggesting that there is more to life than meets the eye if one opens their perspective with curiosity and awe. This spiritual dimension complements his physical achievements, illustrating how he used these low points not as failures but as opportunities for deep self-reflection and redefining what success meant beyond traditional metrics like wealth or status. A central theme of the conversation is the importance of integration, which Roll defines as aligning one's actions with core values to avoid living a life of "quiet desperation." He argues that many people pursue goals disconnected from their true selves because they are afraid of vulnerability or judgment. To counter this, Roll advocates for an inward-looking process involving meditation, therapy, or yoga to reconnect with one's internal muse and unique purpose—metaphorically described as the "unique song" every individual is meant to sing on Earth. He emphasizes that clarity arises when individuals clear away distractions like poor nutrition, lack of sleep, and chronic stress through honest self-inquiry about their fears, resentments, and deepest desires. Ultimately, Roll's message challenges listeners to recognize that human potential is malleable and that everyone possesses a massive reservoir of untapped ability waiting to be unlocked. He encourages the audience to move beyond comfort zones where society tells them happiness can only be found in ease and luxury, urging instead to push against their pain thresholds to experience heightened awareness and aliveness. By adopting an operating system based on surrender rather than rigid self-reliance, individuals become more open to help and capable of achieving greater success. The episode concludes with Roll's vision to catalyze a shift in how people approach food, fitness, and lifestyle while inspiring them to manifest their own unique potential without fear or limitation.
Read the full video transcript
love trying to push the outer
edges of the envelope of
what the pain experience is in a
physical sense. Pain is truly the only
thing that's ever
gotten me to change. So, it's been
my growth accelerator as well as my
reminder of when I'VE GONE ASTRAY.
EVERYBODY, WELCOME TO IMPACT THEORY. Our
goal with this show and company is to
introduce you to the people and ideas
that will help you actually execute on
your dreams.
All right, today's guest is an extremely
accomplished ultra endurance athlete,
best-selling author, and host of one of
the biggest podcasts on the planet. And
proving that age is really just a
number, he began his athletic career in
earnest in his 40s after a medical scare
that made him realize the importance of
living a healthy lifestyle. And what
began as an attempt to simply not die
became an obsession that saw him
completely transform his life. In 2009,
after decades of alcohol addiction and
just two years after being 50 lb
overweight and sitting on the couch for
exercise, at the age of 43, he won stage
one of the Ultraman by 10 minutes. A
seemingly impossible feat when you
realize that the Ultraman is a
three-day, 320-mi
double Ironman distance triathlon. To
top that accomplishment, he raced the
Epic 5, which is five Ironmans on five
Hawaiian Islands in just over 5 days.
And not long after turning 50, he and
his partner were the number one
finishing American team in the Ötillö
Swimrun World Championships, which is a
race where you run on land and then swim
in the 50-some degree Baltic Sea,
transitioning from running to swimming
52
times. And did I mention that he did it
when he was 50 years old? Not
surprisingly, Men's Health named him one
of the 25 fittest men in the world, and
he is regularly named to other
high-profile annual lists of the most
influential people in the health and
fitness space. He's been featured on
CNN, The New York Times, Forbes, and
countless other media outlets for his
laundry list of insane accomplishments.
So, please help me in welcoming the man
whose podcast has been downloaded more
than 30 million times, the best-selling
author of Finding Ultra, RICH ROLL.
WELCOME, MAN.
GOOD TO BE HERE. DUDE, IT'S SO GOOD TO
have you on the show.
Excited to talk to you. Man, we met
through a mutual friend, Ryan Holiday.
Researching you was really a lot of fun,
and that's one of the ways that I judge
who to bring on the show is am I really
going to enjoy researching them? And
I'll admit my bias was I thought that
you were going to be primarily talking
about fitness and nutrition, which
obviously is a huge part of it, but
there's just so much more there. And the
thing that I really found interesting
was your relationship to pain. Mhm. So,
I wanted to start there. What is your
relationship to pain?
My relationship with pain runs deep, uh
and and it's complicated.
That sounds fair.
On the one hand,
uh
I love pain. I love
trying to push the outer
edges of the envelope of
what the pain experience is in a
physical sense.
Um and it's also been my greatest
teacher in terms of things that I've
accomplished, but also um
my errant ways, as well. Pain is truly
the only thing that's ever
gotten me to change. Uh so, it's been
my growth accelerator, as well as my
reminder of when I've gone astray.
That's what I found so interesting about
it is in the one hand you talk about how
you you have to get really comfortable
with pain if you want to be able to push
yourself to the kinds of extremes that
you do, but then that pain is this also
really powerful thing that can force you
to change. So, I want to talk more about
that. How have you been able to leverage
that? I find that pain often causes
people to they go into endurance mode
and they just like endure the pain, but
they never actually you use the word
leverage. You said I I knew if I could
leverage this pain I could really make
change. What is that mechanism of really
grabbing a hold of it and making it into
something usable?
I think it's learning to embrace it and
not being afraid of it. And you know,
for me it goes all the way back to when
I was a young child. I mean, I was a
very
awkward, insecure kid who had a lot of
difficulty
making friends and and figuring out what
the rules for for life were. And I was
also somebody who was not athletically
inclined at all. I was the kid with the
eye patch and the headgear, picked last
for kickball and all of that. But the
one thing that I was actually fairly
okay at with swimming. And when you're
good at something when you're a kid and
and you're having difficulty in other
areas, that's what you're going to
gravitate towards and
and that's what I did.
And I learned
quickly that I was not the most talented
swimmer.
But in my early teens, I realized
that if I was willing to put in the work
and do certain things that other people
weren't willing to do
that I could bridge that talent gap and
pick up a lot of white space. And that
meant getting comfortable with pain to
bring it back to your question. So,
throughout my teens, I would I would
routinely throw down crazy sets in the
pool that no one was willing to do. And
I was doing it because I knew I wasn't
the most talented and if I wanted to
compete at the highest level, that's
what would be required. I love that. And
by the way, it was so cool that you
shared the photos of you with the eye
patch and stuff in your book. I thought
that was really neat. Um
how did you go in school? You're being
bullied at one point. Um you see this
opportunity to get better. What do you
start telling yourself or doing to be
able to make pain your friend, to push
past it so that you could begin to, you
know, beat other people at something?
It's almost like a deep meditative state
and it's a very one, you know,
one-to-one relationship between the pain
that you're willing to suffer and the
progress that you're going to make. And
I saw swimming as my way forward and my
way out.
Uh and so what that meant was
the more that I was willing to suffer,
the more likely it would be that I was
going to create a positive trajectory
out of this painful scenario that I
found myself in. And were you vision
boarding things? I mean, how were you
staying so tenaciously under your goals
that you pushed that hard? Well,
swimming is is
uh
is a sport in which it's so
individualistic and it lends itself to
setting very concrete goals.
Uh and those goals for me were time
standards. Oh, I want to qualify for US
Nationals. Oh, I want to qualify for
Olympic trials. So, I would have a
vision board where I I'd literally write
those times out in very large block
letters with a magic marker and put them
above my bed or on my mirror uh in my
bathroom and constantly reminding myself
and reinforcing myself about why I was
doing what I was doing. So, I don't know
that I would have called it a vision
board at that time. It was more um but
it was it was more of a practice of of
um engaging in in in aspiration. Like I
had pictures of all my heroes and all of
that and I think
uh, intuitively I was looking towards a
better life for myself.
Um,
when you went through getting sober, the
amount of change that was staring you in
the face was obviously just Herculean.
Um,
how did you leverage the pain in that
moment to make such profound change?
Fear.
You know, I was somebody who who
um, by the time I was 18 years old uh,
was an individual had a lot of promise
and there was a lot of people very
invested in my future. I was graduate I
graduated top of my class in high
school. I got into all the colleges I
applied to, all the Ivy Leagues. I was a
top-ranked swimmer, um, competing at the
very highest level, world-ranked, the
whole deal. Uh, and so my future looked
very bright and then alcohol got
introduced to my life and it was a very
progressive uh, decline in my
aspirations. And at the very end I was a
daily drinker. I was drinking vodka
tonics in the shower in the morning and
hiding drinks throughout the day and you
know, ending up in blackouts and more
than, you know, my fair share of
incomprehensible, you know, demoralizing
situations. Uh, and I burned every
bridge that I had. Uh, I was virtually
unemployable at the end. I was sleeping
on a bare mattress in a crappy apartment
with no furniture in it. Uh, my options
were had been eliminated. My life was
eviscerated. My family didn't want
anything to do with me. I'd lost my
friendships. I had no way forward. Uh,
and I just continued to dig that hole
deeper and deeper and deeper until one
day I had that moment that you hear with
people who are in recovery, that that
moment of clarity where I realized I
just couldn't live this way any longer.
My elevator had, you know, gone down to
the bottom floor.
And uh, and the and and I met my pain
threshold, you know, back to the the the
this thesis around pain. Like I had um
reached a point where I could no longer
tolerate the pain of my current
situation. And the fear, the pain
associated with the fear of change, was
eclipsed by the pain that I was feeling
in that moment. And that's what
motivated me to change. I went to a
treatment center uh where I lived for
100 days, which is pretty long time to
be in a rehab center. And I did that
because I knew if I didn't get this
right, that my life was done, you know.
And so I took that opportunity
seriously. I recognized that despite the
fact that I think I'm a smart guy, my
best thinking had me uh literally
institutionalized. And that if I
couldn't get a grasp on how to live and
develop some new skills and and a new
toolbox for how to approach my life,
that um that I was going to end up in
jail or I was going to kill somebody
else or myself.
Yeah. So few people make it to the other
side of that. The really interesting
part for me is the lessons that you
learn in that about pain, because they
come to your aid again in the next phase
of your life where now you're post um
the drinking and you're overweight and
you're walking up the flight of stairs
and you think you're having the heart
attack. And you said that was the moment
where you said, and I remember you using
your hands like I knew if I could You
didn't say grab a hold, but if I could
leverage this pain that I could make the
same kind of change that I had made in
um going through rehab. What What is
that like the thinking process or the
the machinations that you go through
when you have a big change in front of
you? Now you've done it multiple times.
Is it goal setting? Is it um imagining
the world that you'll have if you don't
do it? Like what is that process for
you?
That's a great question.
Um I think for me, it's really anchored
in awareness and
presence. You know, on that staircase,
I was able to really understand that I
was having an important moment in my
life. And the reason I was able to
recognize that was because
I had that moment
so many years prior when I decided to
get sober. It was a very specific moment
in time where I made a decision and that
decision set in motion a series of
events that changed my life so
completely that I couldn't imagine my
life had I not made that decision.
Um and I was able to see and understand
and recognize that once again I was
being visited by just such an
opportunity. It was something that I
could feel inside of me. And and I think
it's because I'd learned to be present,
to be aware of myself and my
environment. Um and one thing I always
talk about is the fact that
you know, I I'm not anything special
with this. I think we're all visited
with moments like this in our life that
if we can develop that uh the
wherewithal to have the awareness around
the circumstances surrounding whatever
event it is, that you can leverage that
crack, you know, in the door to make
some significant changes. Um and I'm
somebody who and I've heard you talk
about this before, I'm somebody who
who when I make a decision, like that's
it, you know, I can I can step over that
line or walk through that door and not
look back. Like I can be determined, be
focused enough, and diligent enough, and
dedicated enough to leverage those
moments when I make that decision to
really make significant changes that
that stick and stand the test of time.
Now, I have techniques and tactics that
I use to be able to pull that off. Do
you have similar things? Like how do you
make sure that in those moments of
weakness that you actually keep going?
I mean, for me, I try to keep it as
simple as possible. Um
it's about making a decision. And when I
make a decision, that decision is done.
I've done it with diet, I've done it
with fitness, I've done it with my
profession. And the more simple I can
make it, then the easier it is to
adhere.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
Um now, going into
um leveraging the pain and making it
something that allows you to do these
extraordinary
um things physically, how do you shift
your thinking about what the the pain
is? And I know that you've said you
agree with Goggins that when your brain
taps out, you're really only about 40%
of the way there. How do you tap into
that other 60%?
Experience.
Uh
you know, we're so conditioned, Tom, to
avoid pain.
Every message that we see, every
billboard we see, every advertisement
that we're exposed to, is telling us
that happiness can be can be purchased
through comfort, through luxury, through
ease. Um
and that's sort of implicit in that is
that that's how we find happiness. And I
can tell you that I'm happiest and most
alive when I'm budding up against the
outer edges of my pain threshold. And
I'm not afraid of it. Uh and so, when I
start to feel that sensation, rather
than shirk away from it, I realize
that's an opportunity to um experience
uh a heightened sense of myself and my
environment, to to really um be in a
position where everything else falls
away, and it's just you and your ability
to take one step forward.
There's a purity to that that again is
another great teacher. And so, in terms
of techniques,
um I've just learned through experience
that just like David Goggins says, when
the signals that you're receiving are
telling you to stop, that you don't
necessarily have to pay attention to
that, that that you are capable of so
much more. Uh, if you can develop the
acuity, the presence of mind, and the
wherewithal to then take that next step.
And when you're on the other side of it,
to realize
you're still okay, and you can take
another step, and a whole your your
horizon extends, and you realize that
there's a whole world of potential and
possibility available to you that you
weren't previously aware of. All right,
so I know what's happening in the mind
of the viewer-listener right now.
They're discounting you because you're
extraordinary. They forget that you
said, "Remember I was the kid with the
eye patch. I did not take to anything
naturally athletically." That, you know,
swimming was something I had to outwork.
People they're forgetting all of that
already. And they're just saying, "Well,
it's Rich Roll. He's lean, he's
shredded, he's been doing this for a
long time. Of course, he can do it."
But, what I want to talk about is take
it out of the realm of the physical. The
most interesting thing that I've heard
about you, from you, is
what happened when you wrote Finding
Ultra, and you thought, "All right, this
is it. Done being a lawyer. Here we go.
Universe, give me some good stuff." And
then, it didn't quite play out like
that.
Yeah, no, it definitely didn't. I'd been
a corporate lawyer for many years. I was
a corporate lawyer during the period of
time that I wrote that book. Uh, and the
book was successful, and yet in the wake
of that book being published and doing
well, um, the phone didn't ring. And I
had, uh, let my bar bar membership
lapse, and here I was, you know, ready
and available to speak to the world and
and, uh, be of service, and the
opportunities just weren't flowing. It
was a very difficult time, and it it
tested me um, to my core. I mean, we
almost lost our house. I had cars
repossessed. We couldn't pay our bills.
It was very emasculating.
But, I think the
the alchemy of going through that has
been something that now allows me to
speak from a place of of of greater
truth and and depth with what I do. So,
I'm I'm grateful for the experience.
I love that, man. And And hearing you
say that, I can tell that you really
mean that. But, I want to um paint a
picture a little bit more for people.
The part that really hit me was when you
said that you guys couldn't even pay for
your trash taken away. And they could
That's when I realized, okay, wait, this
wasn't like a oh, things are tight.
Mhm.
Uh this was like, we can't pay $60 for
our garbage to be picked up. And then
they come and like take the trash cans
away? It was the worst.
It was so embarrassing. I It It It It
was so incredibly emasculating. Yeah, we
went through periods where we literally
barely had enough money to put food on
the table. And we couldn't
We couldn't pay to have our our trash
removed. And they did, they came and
they took the bins.
And then we were compelled to then put
our trash in the back of our crappy
uh beat-up minivan and find an empty
dumpster to do to to dump the to dump
the garbage. It was It was not easy,
man.
What do you teach your kids? So, like
bringing this all back to looking at you
as like this insanely empowering example
of how to use pain in all of its forms.
Like, what do you teach your kids about
pain? Cuz they watched that happen,
right? And they watched you push
through. And obviously, everybody knows
you on the other side of this already.
So, what do you teach them? Like, how do
you help them assign meaning to that
hard time that, you know, not being
broken and continuing to push? Yeah,
it's a great question. So, I have four
kids. And it's something that was very
challenging as a parent. And again, I
keep using the word emasculating as
somebody who who, you know, is supposed
to be the head of household and and take
care of these sorts of things to be
unable to do that
was incredibly difficult. Uh I've spoken
to
my boys at length about this. And as
difficult as it was, it was an
incredible learning experience for them
to understand that the world doesn't
know you anything. Uh it quashed any
sense of Gen Z entitlement or
anything like that. And um I think it
taught them
the value
of
of really
what it means to pursue a dream and what
is required to see it through. I think
it would have split up a lot of
marriages or families. Um but we treated
it like a board game. We're like, "Okay,
how are we going to do this? Like what's
the plan? Let's do it and let's try to
have fun with it." And sort of deplete
all of the or sort of drain all of the
anxiety and tension and fear that can
surround it. And when you do that, you
realize like
we're going to be okay.
That's really extraordinary. And knowing
how stressful that must have been, it
yeah, it's there are so many powerful
lessons to be learned in there. One
thing I'd love for you to give to
listeners right now is
what did you do? Like what does And I'm
now I'm going to conflate a couple
things that maybe you're better um
separate, but you've talked about this
God of your own making.
And then so you said your faith was
being tested in this time. So you didn't
sell out, you didn't like do some cheap
thing. And this is what year is it?
We're back in like what? 2000?
Like 2000 This was like 2012 through
2014-15.
Yeah, so it's not like going into
podcasting was like an obvious answer to
your problems back then. So, how did you
stay true to the vision when it it just
I mean you're literally getting picked
apart down to not being able to pay for
your garbage?
I worked my ass off and exploited every
opportunity that presented itself. I did
a ton of speaking gigs for free. I did
anything that was asked of me, anyone
who would want to talk to me, but it was
really just a function of showing up,
working my ass off, saying yes, and
having a strong core belief that I was
on the right path. Mhm.
Yeah, I love it. And being able to keep
pushing, and that's the part that I
really hope people hear is that it's not
just sitting back and waiting for
something to happen. It's
No, definitely not.
it's trying everything you can to like
really make something, but being true to
that mission and knowing what you're
trying to bring to the world. Um I think
that's really extraordinary. You
mentioned really early on this notion of
self-awareness. And I want to talk more
about that. So, one to have the kind of
faith that you had and to keep pushing
obviously you have to have a lot of
awareness around who you are, who you
want to be, what you want to bring to
the world. But, in going and getting
sober and then chasing that with the
kinds of physical activities that you
do, which are
I always want to say the loneliness of
the long distance runner, which is a
great film all about sort of the way
that you can get lost in your head as a
runner. What are some things going
through sobriety,
doing the distance that you've learned
about yourself that are like
encapsulatable?
That's a great question.
I think to answer that I would preface
it by saying that
I was somebody who who for as long as I
could remember
was pursuing the traditional notion of
the American dream. Get into the best
college,
study hard, get into the best grad
school, get the best job, show up early,
stay late, partnership track, all of
that, right? But that I'd never really
stopped to think what is important to
me? Like, who am I? And like, what am I
here to express? And I didn't have
answers for those questions. All I knew
was that I felt like I was living
someone else's life. And so, my
exploration in sobriety and ultimately
then in ultra-endurance sports was
really
my personal method of trying to resolve
these issues for myself, to try to learn
who I am. I love that. What advice do
you have for people that are living
somebody else's life?
How do you help them get awareness of
that? And then B, once they realize,
okay, I'm living somebody else's life
and this is why, how do you help them
figure out what they really want for
themselves?
It's an inside job. You know, one thing
you talk about all the time is goals,
setting goals, and being very clear
about what those goals are. I think that
that most people set the wrong goals for
themselves and it's because they're
disconnected from who they are. They are
living someone else's life or they're
living a life that's so disconnected
from who they are that becomes very
difficult to set the right goal. So, I
think
in order to reconcile that, you have to
look inward. You know, and that can be
different for everybody. That can mean a
consistent meditation practice, that can
mean therapy, that can mean uh you know,
starting to do yoga. It can mean many,
many things, but I think there's no
uh
end run around
the very difficult, long process of
really trying to be honest with yourself
about who you are, what's important to
you,
what you care about, and then beginning
to breathe life into those things, as
frivolous as they may seem
to bring expression to the things that
that you do care about, that that that
get you excited in the morning. And that
doesn't mean you quit your job tomorrow.
But the more you can
foster something that has personal
importance to you, I think that's the
first step in trying to um
move past whatever it is that's holding
you back, whether it's professionally or
or personally, uh to being a more
integrated, authentic version of
yourself.
Yeah, even hearing you talk about that,
it really sounds like that inward
reflection has a spiritual edge to it. I
don't know if you'd agree with that. Um
you talked about in when you were first
going through rehab that the counselor
asked you, "Are you a spiritual being
having a human experience or a human
having a spiritual experience?" And I
literally was like, "What? I don't
understand." And then you said, "And I
said, 'What? I don't understand.'" So,
walk us through cuz I'm like I get some
context from having, you know, seen you
talk about this a lot, but like
help me make that like something I can
internalize.
So, yeah, when I was in rehab, I was
asked that very question. I had the same
reaction that that you had. I I I I
don't understand what the question
means, let alone have any ability to
answer it. But I've I've since come to
believe and and truly believe that we're
all spiritual beings having a human
experience. And I don't mean that in any
specific dogmatic sense, certainly not
in any specific religious sense.
But I do what I do mean by that is that
uh
there's more to this experience of being
human than meets the eye. There's more
to it than we can possibly comprehend.
Uh
and I think there are energies available
to us if we open our perspective
and become more curious about the world,
than I think we're programmed to be. So,
for me that doesn't
I don't define that by any particular
specific spiritual approach
other than that it provides my
experience as a human being with a
little bit more awe and wonder than I
used to have.
That's awesome.
Talk to me about letting go.
That's like this really important
through line in your life that's
resulted in this just incredibly
beautiful stuff happening to you.
How like as a type A control freak
Yeah.
how does one go about letting go? It's
scary, right? Terrifying. Yeah.
Actually, wait. I I don't experience it
as fear.
I experience it as sub-optimal. So, now
maybe you can really help me because
that's the truth. I fear if I let go, it
just won't be done well.
It's an assault It's an assault to your
worldview. Definitely. Right? And I
relate to that. You know, as somebody
who as I explained earlier, as a young
person, I did the math and I realized if
I outwork everybody in the pool
I can be as good as anyone else. If I
outwork everyone in the classroom, I can
graduate at the top of my class and get
into Stanford and Harvard. And so, my
worldview was informed through the prism
of those experiences which taught me
self-reliance is everything. Don't Don't
expect anybody to do anything for you.
I'm the only one who can get it done and
if you just buckle down and go the extra
mile you will solve the problem and you
will make your way in the world. Every
success that I had had in my life was a
result of my self-will.
Why won't my self-will solve this
problem? And that hole got deeper and
deeper and deeper until I was a
completely broken human being and I had
to raise my hand and ask for help for
the first time. And that forced me to
start to think about letting go and
surrender in a new way.
And I've come to believe and understand
that surrender is a very powerful,
courageous thing to do. It's okay to say
you don't know. It's okay to ask for
help. I had to let go of this operating
system and step into
uh a sense that
perhaps there's a better way, a greater
way that involves me saying, "I can't
control this."
Which was terrifying for me.
But it is in that process that I allowed
people to help me.
That I became open to a new way of
approaching my life that has made me
stronger, more powerful, more capable,
and more successful than I ever thought
that I ever would be.
If you had to define in a single
sentence what it means to be integrated,
how would you define it?
When you're When you're When you're
clear on your values and your actions
align with your values.
That's very clear.
That That's something that's really
interesting. As you were talking about
it, I had an intuitive understanding of
like what that would be in my language.
Um which I would say for me it's what
are the things that you want and then
are you actually acting in accordance
with that? So like here are the things
that are my goals, but they're my goals
because it's something that I
intrinsically
But why do you want what you want?
And if you can't answer that question,
then you're not integrated. Mhm. That's
interesting. Tell me more.
It goes back to what I was saying before
about people picking the wrong goals for
themselves because they're not
integrated. They don't know what their
values are. They're not clear on what's
important to them. They're not really in
contact with their internal muse.
You know, one of the examples I always
give is this idea that
we all have some unique song here to
sing on planet Earth. Like I I believe
that. And that doesn't mean that
everybody can be LeBron James
or that you have some insane talent,
but I believe that there is a unique
blueprint to every individual, and our
job here,
you know, in our short time on this
planet, I know you're going to live
forever, but like,
for everybody else,
is to discover what that is, and to work
towards expressing that to the best of
your ability. You know, we all have a
unique song, and I think most people, to
echo the words of Henry David Thoreau,
are are are leading lives of quiet
desperation, and go to the grave with
the song still in them, and I find that
tragic. And so, if there's anything that
um
that that my work is about, it's about
helping people become cognizant of that,
and to take action so that they don't
become
that person leading a life of quiet
desperation, which I think
uh I don't know, I wouldn't want to say
most people, but a lot of people are,
and and I find that heartbreaking.
I love that you opened your book with
that quote.
Uh
that's one of the quotes that I've
probably repeated to myself more times
than just about anything else, because
I've had moments in my life that have
been just quiet agonizing desperation,
and so, I know what that feels like. I I
love that notion of
there's like interference, and that you
have to clear it out to be able to hear
your intuition. Like, what when you're
clearing that out, what is the um the
thing that will then happen for that
person that will allow them to be and to
get integrated like that.
Clarity.
Right? If you're If you're eating
garbage food, if you're eating fast
food, and you're not sleeping, and
you're you know, drinking five cups of
coffee a day, or whatever it is you're
doing, and you're stressed out about
your job, and you're just living moment
to moment to get through the day,
do you think that you're going to be in
touch with whatever is really important
to you? You're just trying to like, you
know, hit hit pillow at night and pay
the bills, And that's most people.
And if you give people a minute to pause
and reflect,
and you can clear all of that out and
feed them healthy food and give them a
good night's rest, and ask them
questions that most people aren't asking
them, and they're certainly not asking
them themselves, I think that's the
process that begins or sets in motion
the the gears in the mind and in the
emotional body to begin to bring all of
that to the surface. What are those
questions?
Now, like I'm
pins and needles over here.
Do you have like anything that you start
people on to get that the juices flowing
to get the ball rolling?
Well, it can be as easy as you know,
what's your major malfunction right now?
What's the thing that keeps you up at
night?
Who do you resent the most? What are you
afraid of?
What do you want to achieve? What's in
What's in What do you think is in your
way? You know, I think just by asking
people questions and and and
and then holding a vision
for that better life for them to say, "I
believe in you."
I'm not here to tell you what to do or
how to live your life, but I believe in
your greatest expression,
and I'm going to hold space for you.
To give people permission to be honest,
to be vulnerable. We're so afraid of
being vulnerable.
We're terrified of being honest.
We're so used to being judged and being
held to a standard that society sets for
us,
that we don't give ourselves permission
to even ask these questions, let alone
answer them.
Dude, you should create like a
downloadable PDF or something like that.
Like that
simple questions, but for somebody that
doesn't have like a place to start,
that's really, really powerful.
All right, before I ask my last
question, tell these guys where they can
find you online.
Um, I'm easy to find online.
richroll.com, the Rich Roll podcast,
wherever you listen to podcasts, and
@richroll on Twitter and Instagram.
All right. My last question. What is the
impact that you want to have on the
world?
It's a great question.
Um,
I
would like to
move the needle in a substantial
and long-lasting way for as many people
as possible with respect to not only how
they think about and practice habits
around food and fitness and lifestyle,
but to really catalyze people to
understand that
like I said earlier,
all of us, every single one of us,
is capable of so much more than we allow
ourselves to believe. And I know that's
a theme on your show. David Goggins
talked about it. James Lawrence talked
about it. These are friends of mine who
have touched the outer realms of
endurance, and ultra-endurance teaches
you that. It's easy to say I'm an
outlier, but I'm not. I really am not
anything special. I had the courage and
the audacity to pursue these things, and
in so doing, I have realized that human
potential is malleable. We're all
sitting atop massive reservoirs of
untapped
potential and ability.
And my dream and my goal and everything
that I do is oriented around getting
people to not only understand that, but
connect with that and begin to practice
that to manifest that in their own
specific way.
I love that more than you could know,
Rich. Thank you so much for coming on
the show. That was awesome. Cool. Guys,
when I say that you are going to want to
dive into this man's world, you will not
regret it. This is one of the most
extraordinary transformation artists
I've ever come across. There is
something about people that fall into
the ultra endurance category. They've
tapped into something in their mind.
It's not like they start out as
incredible athletes. In fact, I think of
all the people that we've had on, none
of them have started as extraordinary
athletes. All of them have found it
later. All of them have found it through
hard work. All of them have had to
realize that if they want to become
something extraordinary, then they've
got to put in the work. They've got to
just get in there and hustle. But what I
love about Rich is that sense of
spiritual transformation as well as just
the physical of really using that time
to figure out who he is, what he wants,
and the values.
The fact that he lives by a code, I'm
telling you, rewind this, play it again.
He talks about values. You have to know
your values. What are your values? What
do you really want? And his
understanding that those things that you
want, they have to be tied to your
values. Okay? That to me, once you
understand that, once you understand
that that has to be at the core of your
existence, then everything else gets
easier. But first you have to know who
you are. You have to know what you want.
You have to know what you believe, and
what you're going to live in accordance
with.
That's so huge. It drips all over
everything that he talks about.
Subscribe to his podcast. It's
absolutely amazing. But even more
amazing than that are the interviews
that he gives. So make sure you track
those down as well. You will be blown
away. Let them change you, please. Take
action on the stuff that he's talking
about. It really will change you, and it
will change you forever.
All right, guys. If you haven't already,
be sure to subscribe. And until next
time, my friends, be legendary. Take
care.
Rich, thank you again.
Thank you, man. It was amazing.
Everybody, thank you so much for
watching and being a part of this
community. If you haven't already, be
sure to subscribe. You're going to get
weekly videos on building a growth
mindset, cultivating grit, and unlocking
your full potential.