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Borrowed Motivation to Push Limits with Suzy Goodwin · Wired For More - ADHD & Self Mastery

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Hey everyone, Ian May here with the Wired for More ADHD and Self Mastery podcast.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: I have my good friend, Suzy Goodwin, on the line.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: Susie and I connected, as do all of my connections on LinkedIn, where I live, where I play, where literally everything that I do surfaces.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: Susie came to my attention because of the fact that she is not only a marathon runner, but she is the marathon runner.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the things that is a pen in her or a feather in her cap of trophies and accolades is that in 2016 she actually ran a half marathon, the fastest half marathon ever run while pushing a stroller.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: Susie, for the other mothers out there who are wondering how to handle becoming a new mother, you have a seventh grader and fifth grader triplets.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it's uh it's something to be said for all the other mothers out there uh that you should absolutely tune in and listen in.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: And hear from the master on how to navigate the your house being taken over by small humans and you just being subservient.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Susie, thank you so much for joining.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: Really looking forward to this conversation.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for very much for having me, Ian.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, point of clarification, they're fifth and seventh grade now, but that that record was 10 years ago when they were babies and they could fit in a triple stroller.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you did not push 100-pound fifth graders in a stroller.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: Just 300 pounds of human being and you just slogging behind.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that that's not a time record.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's uh just did you finish or not?
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Seriousie, as they say.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, thank you for clarifying.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: Because yeah, pushing a stroller with uh pretty much two man babies would would be pretty atrocious.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: Even so, them being toddlers did not make that any easier.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: I would very much ask you, how do you decide to even take on a challenge like that?
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: Because that that sounds like some impulsivity that me and my audience would absolutely appreciate.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: But where do you get the gumption to just decide I'm gonna set this record or I'm even going to tell?
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, prior to having kids, even, um, I had done over 50 marathons and a handful of ultra marathons.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I was a runner, like I would label myself as a runner.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: So when I had children, I knew that, okay, it might not look exactly the same, but I still want to weave this into being part of a healthy lifestyle.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: With my older son, I ran with him often in strollers, and the running community knew me as that mom that would always show up in the stroller.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: And my friends would let me know, hey, these are the races that allow strollers and that don't.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I showed up with the triple stroller after the triplets were, they were probably about 10 months old at the time.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: And we went just to do a 5K.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I ended up winning that race.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: It was not a hugely impressive time, just niche enough to win it, and I guess small enough race to win it.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: But that made me think, huh, I wonder if there's like a record for things like this, like how this, and one of my personal friends had just done an ultra-marathon Guinness World Record.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I did kind of have that parallel site into his journey and um looked it up.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: It would be a record that I was setting.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: And it happened to be around the time that the triplets were celebrating their NICU anniversary, i.e., we had had them home for over a year, their NICU homecoming.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: So we did it as we, the four of us, myself and the triplets, ran this half marathon as um part of a fundraising effort for the NICU that they lived in the first few months of their life.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: So definitely not an impulse, Ian, at all.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: There were a lot of kind of steps that went into it, but did I race a 5K and then say, okay, cool, now I'm gonna prepare for 13.1 miles?
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, that jump did happen.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, for one, there's a couple things that jumped out at me and just that that progression.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: One, that you were in a community that celebrated you showing up, messy, mom shirt on, kids in the strollers.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like you, you had community who's already just celebrating you.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like, hey, just show up.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: We don't need you to be the fastest person here.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: We just want you present.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: Like that, that by itself is beautiful.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: And and honestly, something I think a lot of people are missing to be able to have that type of acceptance and belonging, especially when you make that transition into parenthood, that and it kind of feels like all of your old life has has gone by the wayside.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I think for the parents who acknowledge that, like, no, this is still important, and it might look different, like you said, it might be different, like you said, but I I just love the fact that you already had planned for I don't need it to be the exact same as it used to, and screw it.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna I'm gonna figure this out.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna play around with it and I'm gonna have fun doing it.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: And then okay, I found out that actually I might be elite at this thing, which is uh amazing.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: So you you had a friend who had achieved some type of accolade within the space.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: You they were able to kind of help you to say, hey, like it's worth throwing your hat in the ring.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, what did that feel like having that conversation?
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: Was there trepidation?
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: Was there really just like this this heck yeah feeling that you were having?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, to your point, Ian, I think sometimes I I've heard it called like bodily body doubling before.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we borrow other people's confidence.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: So if I'm being the real real with you, yeah, there's maybe an imposter syndrome thing going on, like, okay, I'm asking you who have achieved a Guinness World Record about this thing that I think I have a hair of a maybe a hair of evidence that I could do.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: But when you, to your point, are with community or borrowing that confidence from community and just putting one step in front of the other and moving toward a goal, it can really, really go a long way.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: This was wise counsel in my um circumstance.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I knew it was realistic.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And when I tell you, I'll back up, I didn't just run 5K with them and then say, all right, kids, get in the stroller, we're going for 13.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: We did do some um training in controlled environments in our neighborhood.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: My neighbors thought I was a little bit bonkers.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: We we did a lot of training between those two races.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: But yes, being in the community and around people that allowed me to borrow confidence and say, this is awesome, go for it, was really, really helpful.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm sure there are a lot of parents who are wondering how you train uh small humans to be willing to sit still for that long.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm sure they're just assuming that it was a lot of drugs and sedatives and extra serving of antihistamines.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: I won't throw Benadryl into the bus, but something like it.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so the fact that you did also have to train them of being able to have the association with the stroller, with the running, do you is was there a need to have to entertain them while they're in the stroller during all this training leading up to it?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I will say um a lot of crackers, a lot of finger foods.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: They were about one at the time that we did this race.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: But once you contact Guinness World Records and say, hey, I'm gonna go after this record.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: In my case, it was something that there wasn't a previous record for Fastest Female while pushing a triple, triple pram.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: So they gave me a standard.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Two hours and 10 minutes is what I needed to do it in.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: So they kind of gave me a cap.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: As long as you can run it faster than this, you can secure the record.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: But from there, I had a GoPro or a video recorder on my personal self as well as the stroller.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I had to get a lot of affidavits signed, witness statements.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody could help me with the kids.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: So there was a moment on the course where one of the triplets, hey, he gave a cry, and every mother knows the difference between a I am uncomfortable or a I'm just crying to use my voice kind of cry.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: I'm bored versus no, I'm genuinely upset.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so did we have to pull over for a diaper change?
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, absolutely we did.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: My run ended up being at two hours and one minute, and my husband jokes with me, like, ah, if you hadn't changed that diaper, maybe it would have been sub too.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: But to your point in the beginning, uh giving yourself permission for it to look different.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, Guinness gave me a time standard, but also a louder voice for me than you have this time standard, is hey, you're gonna finish this in under 210 and it is gonna be fun for all of you.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so I made a point to during the race, just like when we were training, if we saw something interesting, it was along like a wooded kind of forest river trail.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: If you see a squirrel, you're gonna point it out for your kid because yes, that's what you normally do on runs.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: If the kid's crying like he needs a diaper change, you're gonna do that.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: And there's very much this, I'm gonna give myself permission to take it easy to a degree, right?
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there's that, okay, I have a time pressure, but also I want this to be miserable for no one.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: This should be a fun celebration.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think to that point of kind of planning for it to be hard.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of people really think when they're going through some kind of struggle, right?
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: We manufacture the struggle when we go for a run or we're working out and we're putting weight on the bar or we're putting distance on the shoes.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: That we we're manufacturing that suffering, but also we allow it of, hey, it's okay that this is hard.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have to judge myself that this should be easier.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: Kid throws a tantrum, they absolutely have a blowout in their diaper.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I can't control that.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: So this isn't this sort of useless suffering that I'm putting myself through.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's okay that it's hard.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I think more people who are in some kind of suffering that's not in their control, they need to have that encouragement of it's okay that it's hard.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: And also, this can still be a beautiful experience.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: Just enjoying the suck of it.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: Man, remember that time that we had to pull over and all three of them had a blowout at the exact same time.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: And now all of a sudden the two of us are outnumbered, and you know, the the older child is still frustrated because it smells and they're complaining.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now my kids work out with me, so alongside me.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not necessarily pushing them all the time.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Something our family does together every year is the Murph.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: And the Murph is one mile run, a hundred pull-ups, um, two hundred push-ups, three hundred squats, followed by another mile run.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: Our kids do this with us.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Inevitably, there is a point somewhere in that mix of uh pull-ups, push-ups, and squats that the kids say, This is awful.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is hard.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it does us well as parents or peers if we've got some to say, you are halfway through the Murph.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: It is supposed to be hard right now.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: To your point, it is how did you think you were gonna feel?
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is a hard workout.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: This is about doing something hard on purpose.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um they don't know it because they're kids, but we know it because we're adults.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: When we put ourselves in the position to do those hard things on purpose, it makes us better on the other side.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's where grit is born.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: I I think that's something where a lot of people would be like, that's child labor laws and you know, like unjust punishment.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: But in all seriousness, it it is that idea that there's no discipline that feels good in the moment, right?
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: There is none.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: And this is something that somebody prayed over me recently is that nothing in the moment ever feels good.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's only afterwards when you've gotten to experience the beauty of it, this new milestone, this new viewpoint, this new mountain that you've climbed, that then you cannot look back at what you used to consider suffering is just it was all necessary and it's all beautiful and it's all just part of this process.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: And being surrounded by people who are just continuing to encourage you to be able to say, it's okay that it's hard, and also we're not stopping.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: And and I will clarify for um for any child protective services like no, we we allow the kids to modify.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: One of the beauties of exercise in general, okay.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm not even putting the label on any exercise can be modified.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: Anything.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: So those pull-ups, those might be ring rows, the push-ups, those could be on the wall.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: There have been years when they were younger that we split the work, right?
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: So one person does a half mile, the other person does a mile, and then we divide those body weight movements.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: So for anyone listening that that is like, huh, I have kids.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: I wonder if they'd come out in the gym with me.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: I would encourage you because kids want to model that behavior that they're seeing.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: No kid's gonna want to go back if you just blow it out and make, you know, they're they're in pain after a workout.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: But no matter what age they are or ability level they are, anything can be modified.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Always treat the gym, be it in your backyard, in a physical building, wherever, if you can walk in the door, you can modify your way into doing a workout.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think that that part is important of, hey, we're gonna just figure out what is the smallest, most meaningful version of this that is still going to challenge us.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: And and I think more people need to hear that.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: Because they would say, hey, if I'm not, you know, if for people who aren't in the CrossFit space, we call it RXing, right?
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: I say we, you guys call it RXing.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'm still broy bodybuilder and stringer tanks and lots of oils.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: But for my CrossFit friends, they call it RXing, right?
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: When you there's a prescribed weight that you use, there's a prescribed time that you have to be under, but there is a healthy version of scaling it to meet your needs, like to challenge you just enough that it's hard, but not so hard that you're now broken.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: And hey, now I'm navigating joint issues, tendon tears, all sorts of those types of problems, and learning how to celebrate that.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like having community family parents around you who are able to say, Hey, you didn't hit the number that you planned, but celebrating the fact that you still showed up.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe we only did 50 push-ups on the ground, and then the other 50 we end up doing on the wall or you know, modified in some way to make them slightly easier.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: Great.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: If that's where what your capacity was for today, that's your capacity for today.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: And and I think not enough people know how to celebrate that.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: And we have to show them how to celebrate that.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: And our kids included, right?
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: And that's I was teaching my daughter how to roller skate recently, something that she was really motivated to learn.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: She had seen it, she wanted to do it.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: We go to the the there's literally a roller skating rink up the street from us, and we go, and she does not realize how scary and uncomfortable roller skates are the first time you put them on.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: Terrifying, right?
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: And she, for one, you know, she's five years old, so obviously already her her skill and ability is negative zero and balance just on her feet, let alone on roller skates.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: But being able to simplify what good looks like, and then even being able to look around and say, hey, look at all these adults.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: Like there are adults around you who are falling on their butts, they're getting back up, they're laughing at the silliness of it all.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I made sure that she saw me fall more than a few times.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'm actually pretty decent at roller skating.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm practicing going backwards and doing that and just allowing myself, my big hundred and two hundred and twenty-five pound self falling on my butt, which hurts a lot.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's painful.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: But also for her to be able to say, Hey, and it was just like a really tearful moment, even for the two of us, where I said, Hey, we can leave if you want.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: We absolutely can.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like she was really having a hard time regulating.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: And she said, If I don't stay, I won't get better.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, okay, well, for one, I can't.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: I can't make this shit up.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: But but really, like out of a five-year-old to hear her say that, I won't get better if I don't stay.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: And then just being able to say, I am with you to help you with what what whatever is needed.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, within within two sessions, she's going completely by herself, doesn't want to hold my hand, doesn't even want me to be around.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: Like, she's just like, you go do your thing, I'm gonna skate, you do your own thing.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: And in less than a month, she's literally skating, not even holding on to anything.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: She sold a bunch of brownies to have to pay for her own skate, so she has the light up wheels and just all that stuff, right?
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's celebrating the fact of like, hey, remember when you still were following it doing this thing?
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, this other thing is kind of like that.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like, we're gonna fall a little bit.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be hard at first.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: We're probably gonna cry a bit.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a good lesson too that you know, progress, be it in running or crossfit workouts or roller skating, progress is not gonna be linear, right?
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like the win is not a perfect streak.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: The win is showing up and to your daughter's point, putting in the work so you can get better.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think we could get into like the science of adaptation, and there's always gonna be some amount of progressive overload, and you're actually gonna get worse before you get better.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: And it's cyclical that, yeah, it's never linear, but if you look at it on average over the longest time horizon, you're trending up into the right.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: But only if you take a broader view.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: And when you only look at what is exactly in front of you, and you over-celebrate the new relative peat and then don't know how to celebrate the relative low, you're gonna keep getting stuck, not taking any action, not progressing at all.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's where most people stay stuck.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: And in all seriousness, why so many people, when they finally do get into training, not exercising, but training, that's when all of a sudden they're like, oh, this literally applies to everything.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: And every one of their analogies that they use is some kind of fitness analogy.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: As much as people use B2B sales analogies, fitness analogies trumps that uh tenfold.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: They do.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: And and this is too the the gift of having been in something for a long time, right?
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because um, you know, I'm talking to you about my running adventures today.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: I've been running for running marathons for about 25 years, yes.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: I have that much time to look back, and when I feel discouraged, there are multiple places I can point and say, you know, I felt discouraged then and I got through it.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: I felt discouraged then and I got through it.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: When we're new at something, let's say I take up roller skating tomorrow, have not roller skated in probably 20 years.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: I will be new at it.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: I won't have as many of those tangible times to look back at and say, I got really frustrated here, but I got through it.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's something too for the beginner to embrace.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's just, it's just gonna be weird for a little bit.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: The hardest part is when you're new at something and it's just weird for a little bit.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: But when we've been in something a minute, we really can look back and motivate ourselves with ourselves.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think that's something one of the practices that I often use is a type of gratitude practice, but receiving gratitude from my future self for me having stuck with the thing that's in front of me, that's hard.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I think for some people, that's like one, it's a hard concept, it's very woo-woo uh sounding, but having this experience of like, no, there's gonna be a point where there's a future version of me who's celebrating me and thanking me for sticking with it.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: And they are getting to experience the joy of what I helped them build.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: And if you can receive that in the mo in the moment when it's hard, when it's literally more painful and more difficult than you've ever felt, people will call that discipline.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I just call it borrowed motivation, right?
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: And you borrow motivation from your friends who've been there, from your family who's been there, from peers who've been there.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: But sometimes when you're even in that lonely, isolated place where there's no one around, and it's literally just you and yourself of what does it look like to receive that even from your future self?
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: When my um one of my early jobs, I was managing college sales interns.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: And these interns, when I say sales, I mean they were on the street 30 businesses a day, knocking on doors.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: This was tough, tough work.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things we would do in the sales training for them, when they were done brushing up their skills and they're ready to go out there and, you know, get their territory, we would have them write a letter to their future self.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: Write a letter to yourself at the end of this internship.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: And we would encourage them to get smart with the goals.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have a sales goal or do you, you know, what types of things do you just describe it?
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: Describe how you feel.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: Describe the pride that you feel, describe the hard time that you had to get through, describe the the mountain that you that you scaled.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you can then work backward and set goals to to try to get to these things.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: But even I think having that intentional moment where you say, How does it feel to succeed?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: And let me sit with that.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because a lot of us we're we're not courageous enough to do that.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: How would success feel?
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: And let me really feel it for a minute.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I like the idea of that celebration and how success feels.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: I think for a lot of the people that I work with, they only know how to push themselves from pressure, stress, and anxiety.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: And why they end up going through burnout is they don't know how to celebrate even their successes.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: Because they finally get to whatever that relative mountaintop is and they feel some emptiness because I did this just to impress this person.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: I did this just to make somebody else happy.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: I did this to meet somebody else's expectations for my life, and not the no, this is deeply resonant and important to me.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: And here are the ways that like this aligns with me personally, that no one can give or take away from me.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: So that, yeah, I do have a future version of me who's celebrating this.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: I do have gratitude that I'm receiving from somebody.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the mechanics of that though, right?
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: Like we did this even before we got on this call of how do I slow down the anxiety and the pressure and the stress and that part of my brain that's just ruminating and catastrophizing.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: How do I slow it down enough for me to even receive that gratitude?
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the the mechanics of that is something that I've obsessed about.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate you letting me get in my soapbox about it.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: And being willing to join me in that.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I know some people are just kind of like, okay, all right, let him do some breath work.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: He makes it weird.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: No, I I I love it.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's we so rarely take that time to be quiet, to be still with our breath or with our thoughts or with what success might look like.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um and and we're really we're doing ourselves a disservice when we don't take that intentional time.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: No, that's so good.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: So, in terms of where you're at now with projects that you're working on, marathons that you're doing, um, I I mean, you're doing keynote speaking, motivational speaking.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: I'm assuming that there's some additional projects though that you have to be excited about.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: Let's hear about it.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I um I have a goal to run a marathon or ultra in each of the 50 states.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: And currently I'm three away from that.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: So this time next year, I hope I'm already celebrating all 50 states.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I have three states to go for that.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'm also really passionate right now, Ian, about the next generation and just helping people move as part of a healthy lifestyle.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Does not need to be marathon running, does it doesn't need to be running, but just moving with intention as part of your day.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that can look like a lot of different things.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: In my professional space, that's encouraging people to do walk and talks.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: If we're gonna do a one-on-one or brainstorming, obviously, right within if we need to be looking at the same thing, cool, we'll walk and talk next time.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: But when we're just checking in, that can be a walk and talk.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: And that's intentional movement on both sides.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: I love a good, hey, let's meet up with friends that maybe I meet on LinkedIn or old college friends or wherever, doesn't always have to be lunch.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: It can also be, I really love walking because it does not require a lot of skill and it can be shared.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: So really just um helping in that way.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: Kids are in sports and so have a lot of audience to do that there.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: But um, wrapping up my 50 states and then just encouraging others to move.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's something where people need to hear time in the chair does not mean better outcomes or even for that matter, better focus.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: And to your point, moving and connection really does help our brains light up that you actually be more effective, get more done in less time if you move your body in this way.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: And no, it does not have to be again the all-out, all in marathon.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: It can literally be like, hey, just go for a walk for the next 30 to 45 minutes.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, it can be time away from the screen.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, like, let's just talk and not have our screens on, like just like allow our eyes to roam and wander.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's the thing for me where I believe AI can be a really useful tool, is that if I can have AI join the call and essentially give me context for the Excel spreadsheet, for the PowerPoint presentation, for all of those things.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know what?
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: I can just go for a walk while I have this third-party tool who's providing me with context and insights based on what I would need to look at a screen for, but now I don't.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: Like now I can go move around and be more effective in that.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's the part where if we look at AI from that perspective, like there's a lot of potential for us to go focus on being more human again instead of being these kind of computer hybrid, humanoid hybrids who are still just so stuck to and attached to our computers, our desks, our chairs.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I honestly, this is for me right now.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: Of I know for me personally, when I'm in deep focus mode, I often am actually doing a better job of getting more steps in throughout the day.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: I'm actually not spending as many hours sitting in front of the computer.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_01: My creativity goes up, my ability to think goes up, and all of that mobilizing stable levels of dopamine, narpinephrine, and blood flow in the frontal lobe, like that's a superpower.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's that's what most people are missing because they just think going for a walk is trivial.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and we need we need leaders and we need advocates to make sure that this is the lens that we look at AI through currently in day-to-day, right?
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because we all know, yes, it does allow you to be more productive.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what are you gonna do with that?
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm in client success.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: Do I get five more clients on top of my 25?
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: Or do I have room to be my best self and be proactive and strategic, right?
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: Every organization is going to have to choose which path.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: But we got to get loud about it.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: We got it.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: This is a good thing, provided that we can not just use AI to take on more work.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do better work.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I like that.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, better work, and even as ambiguous as that might be of our best work.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_01: What does it look like for me to do my best work?
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: Well, in order for me to do my best work for the longest time horizon, these applicable steps of going for the walk, more deep, meaningful connection with the people that I'm doing the work with, yeah, actually increases the intensity of the output that I'm able to do.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: It actually makes me feel more connected with my clients because, hey, now I feel like I'm representing a company who cares about me as an individual, cares about psychological safety in the work environment, and cares about the longevity of the relationships that I'm building, not just this.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, we've got to grind this out for the next six months to hit this next tier of accounting so we can go public or we can get our unicorn status.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like all of that is so frivolous.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_01: And it's good for a moment, but it won't last.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the companies you and I have both seen, witnessed, and potentially been in are the ones who don't quite understand the marathon game.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's not a sprint.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: I see what you did there.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes, sometimes I I drop drop in a couple dad punts.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Susie, I appreciate you so much.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, thank you for the time today.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: I hope the people listening are are encouraged to take some messy action and even for that matter, set some really audacious goals, like some goals that they can't help but be lit on fire for.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: Like doing a marathon in all 50 states.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_01: Like that is impressive.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: Us like it's aspirational, but also inspiring, right?
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's the part for me that I care about that I hope all of the audience leans into, is it's not enough for us to watch the Olympics and just, you know, hey, they're all aspirational.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like we definitely aspire to that, but be inspired.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: I want to go take action now.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm I'm excited to go put on my running shoes and pound some pavement for a little bit, just knowing that hey, there I have a friend, Susie Goodwin from the LinkedIn, who's going to celebrate me doing a 5K today and just celebrating that.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I appreciate you for that.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for the time today.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks a bunch, Ian.