Latest / King Dems Podcast | Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights / Wealth and Growth Mindset: Ademola Odewade & Luka Starcevic on Mental Jiu-Jitsu AI Leadership
Transcript
- 0:00Difference between my emotion. I feel anger, I'm angry, I'm not
- 0:06angry. I can feel anger, I can feel
- 0:10sadness. That is something like a wave
- 0:12going through us. We are, we are able to sense
- 0:16that, but we are not becoming defined by that.
- 0:19And many problems could be resolved just by knowing self.
- 0:23A lot of depressions, a lot of lot of stuff which are just
- 0:27maybe a lack of knowledge about self.
- 0:30And that's it. You know, you talk about these
- 0:32as a structured identity work, you know, but what does that
- 0:36mean in practical, everyday terms for someone listening to
- 0:40us or watching us right now? Welcome to The Kingdom's
- 0:48podcast, where we share the stories of extraordinary people
- 0:51and dissect hot, relevant topics that shape our world.
- 0:55From visionary leaders to trailblazing creatives, we
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- 1:17You're live, ladies and gentlemen, you once again
- 1:19welcome to the King James Podcast and today I have a be a
- 1:23very, very special guest. Welcome fighting out of Belgrade
- 1:28Saviour Lukor, the mental jiu jitsu practitioner, Starchevich.
- 1:37How are you, Lukor? How about Bruce Butter
- 1:42announcement? Yeah, Bruce Butter announcement,
- 1:46man. Thank you so much.
- 1:49I appreciate it from the. Heart and you're welcome bad
- 1:52you're welcome bad. It's high how we brought Bruce
- 1:54Buffer, you know, to the podcast and keep Bruce Buffer, Bruce
- 1:57Buffer announcement. Amazing.
- 2:01Amazing, to be honest. Amazing.
- 2:03I'm glad to have you here. To be honest.
- 2:05Oh, wow. I'm really happy to to, to have
- 2:07you on here. You know, before before I met
- 2:09you, the only Luker I knew was Luca Madrich.
- 2:12But now I know the star boy. Luca.
- 2:15Luca. We are switching from soccer.
- 2:18We are switching from soccer to fighting.
- 2:21I am telling you, yeah, You know, life.
- 2:23Life is a fight basically, you know.
- 2:27You're growing a bit so, so in a way about the fighting itself.
- 2:32Sorry, sorry for the for the traffic.
- 2:35I enjoy being in in let's say, a nature connected to.
- 2:40To civilization, I know because you are a philosopher just like
- 2:44myself, you know, and philosophers get inspiration
- 2:48from nature. I know, I know.
- 2:51Did you want to talk about how, how we got to meet each other?
- 2:54You know, it's quite it was quite a spontaneous moment.
- 2:57Like you, you, you connected with me on LinkedIn and you,
- 3:02your kind nature just offered to provide help to me on anything.
- 3:07And you sent me your Calendly link and I really appreciated
- 3:12it. Like kind people are difficult
- 3:15to to come by at this age of time.
- 3:18And you started talking about mental jiu jitsu and I'm like,
- 3:21excuse me, do you know who you're talking?
- 3:24To and you, you mentioned and you mentioned that that that day
- 3:29jiu Jitsu was your topic. And in the end we did not even
- 3:32talk about that. So could you please now answer
- 3:35to me what was going on at that moment?
- 3:38You know, I, yeah, I was telling somebody earlier in the day
- 3:42about verbal jiu jitsu. You know, I am, I'm, I'm an MMA
- 3:47enthusiast. And also I used to train before.
- 3:52So I'm an MMA pundit. I contribute to the African
- 3:54Fighters podcast. I've had guys in the UFC on this
- 3:58podcast from every major MMA promotion in the world.
- 4:02I've had guys from UFC, from PFL, from Bellator.
- 4:07Recently I interviewed the banter with champion at brief CF
- 4:13just before his title defence. Unfortunately he he lost that
- 4:17one by way of jiu jitsu. You know, a guillotine choke.
- 4:22From from Boris of Nicolich. Yeah, Boris of Nicolich.
- 4:26Yeah, that guy, that's what privilege.
- 4:35You're. Nice, my guy.
- 4:37You trained. You trained your guy to beat my
- 4:39guy. You're in trouble, Luca.
- 4:42I, I, I, I was like, I was like a repeating right now because I
- 4:46know that that our guy was fighting at the brave for the
- 4:50for the title. Yeah, for the title.
- 4:51When you when you mentioned by so so we are now now recognised
- 4:56as a serious grappling players here in Serbia.
- 4:59You guys are dangerous, man. You guys are dangerous.
- 5:02That jiu jitsu it's dangerous because let's let's face the
- 5:07fact you know my boy beat your boy in the striking hands down
- 5:11like your boy don't have an answer for him in the striking,
- 5:14but styles make fights. You know styles make fights, Yes
- 5:18and yes, his jiu jitsu was outstanding.
- 5:21I'm not gonna me. I'm very objective.
- 5:24I see what I see is what I see. You know boys, lab Nicole each
- 5:29right that's his name. He's an excellent, he's an
- 5:32excellent jiu jitsu practitioner.
- 5:34I don't know that guy has to be a black belt because he's guilty
- 5:37and is tight. You know, he's his scrappiness.
- 5:42Not, not just the death I, I, I believe people overseas in the
- 5:47modern MMA that's part of combination of that like
- 5:51scrimmage or scramble wrestling, something between wrestling and
- 5:56jujitsu on the ground itself. And, and people are, are
- 6:00definitely not respecting that segment so much because those
- 6:04fighters are creating the, the, the real difference because we
- 6:07can be a thrown down. But if you're able to get back
- 6:10up with less energy expenditure, you are winning that fight
- 6:15because of 4456 of those exchanges.
- 6:19Exactly. Opponent going to be tired and
- 6:21you won't be and then you can start hitting a button for as
- 6:26soon as the bottom or or or child bottom however you call
- 6:30it. And you know, it's, it's, it's
- 6:31really crazy when, when you're dangerous on the ground, it's
- 6:35really crazy. But but one person that really
- 6:37made me get to respect Jiu Jitsu, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, is
- 6:41Charles Olivera. OK.
- 6:45What are your thoughts on Charles Olivera?
- 6:49So I, I believe you are you are cheating for him against uh.
- 6:55Yeah, I'm rooting for him against Superior, to be very
- 6:57honest. Like Superior is, is he's
- 7:00excellent, but I feel like he's he's quite cocky.
- 7:04You know, the the successes kind of get into his head and he
- 7:07needs a reality check. I don't know what you think.
- 7:09He's from Georgia and close, close to you.
- 7:12So probably you might have some bias, you know, in favour of him
- 7:15because he's a European like yourself.
- 7:17But what are your thoughts on on that fight?
- 7:20Yeah, Spanish. And so that's the strong base
- 7:23posture. That's a strong base, yeah.
- 7:26I'm I'm really respecting hockey people because they're betting
- 7:31on themselves and and when they when they fall down, they are at
- 7:37the at the attack of everyone, which is also for their respect
- 7:41because you need to get back up. You, you, you see what happened
- 7:45to Connor? He ruined yes, he ruined his
- 7:49fourth career in a way like that, but or money wise, he made
- 7:54a lot so so not everyone can have a boldness to be cocky
- 7:58enough for the whole world world to to to be mocking him, for
- 8:04example. So I, I, I would give that fight
- 8:08or let's say 5050 by the fighter side, anyone could, could win
- 8:14definitely in if you ask me, both of them are amazing and and
- 8:18it can happen, but marketing wise it it, it's even more
- 8:23interesting that that's for sure.
- 8:26I think. I think.
- 8:26Because Ilya is not a big guy at all.
- 8:29Yeah. He's not a big guy.
- 8:30Yeah, he's not, he's not very big, but he's thick.
- 8:32That that's what people don't realise, you know, he's he's not
- 8:35tall. I I guess it's probably like
- 8:36around 5/8. Yeah, 5 foot.
- 8:39In May. Something like that.
- 8:40Tall. But they're extremely explosive.
- 8:42Yeah, very closely. His his body and bio mechanic is
- 8:47extremely good because he's sitting on every punch and he's
- 8:51he's really managing to to go with the flow, which a lot of
- 8:55force, which is amazing. Of course, his jiu jitsu is also
- 8:59very good and he has a well balanced centre of gravity so
- 9:07that enables him to be able to pack those power punches very
- 9:10well. That's about that dynamics and
- 9:14who understand John Jones is sharing that in amazing sense
- 9:18utilisation of whole body angles and and playfulness of weight
- 9:23and etcetera. So, so, so it's also different
- 9:26kind of game. You know, you know, you know,
- 9:28what a lot of people do not realise is that, you know, when
- 9:31it comes to fighting, fighting is as much a mental sport as it
- 9:35is a physical sport, right? And you need that fight IQ to be
- 9:40able to distribute your body weight in an efficient way,
- 9:47right? Everybody has a frame that is
- 9:50given to them by God, right? But you need to be able to
- 9:54manipulate your body in such a way that you make yourself
- 9:59heavier or lighter depending on where the fight goes to.
- 10:05Definitely. And that is body physics.
- 10:08And when you add to that even a character, it's even more
- 10:13interesting because we are we are all first emotional
- 10:18creatures and, and everyone are responding totally in a totally
- 10:25different ways to the pretty similar stuff, kind of a stress
- 10:29to competition to their mental modelling of world, etcetera.
- 10:33So it's even important how to manage all those physical
- 10:37attributes with the mental attributes, how you manage your
- 10:42emotions, how you manage your perspective, tower fighting and
- 10:48wild fighting. You're, you're, you're having
- 10:50some like a sensitive fighters, you're having some thoughtful
- 10:54fighters. You are having totally different
- 10:57type of of of of people in a cage trying to express in a best
- 11:04possible way. As Bruce Lee said, the most
- 11:08honest. We water, my friend.
- 11:09Yes, we water my friend Bruce Lee.
- 11:12You know that. That guy is, you know, a highly,
- 11:15highly respected combat philosopher of mine.
- 11:21Have you? Have you?
- 11:22When we are talking about philosophy, have you heard about
- 11:26John Danaher? Uh huh.
- 11:29Yes he is best most express the highest possible knowledge based
- 11:44coach in in Marshall especially. John Kavanagh of SBG.
- 11:50No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. John.
- 11:52John Danaher. Oh, Danaher.
- 11:55He's from, Yeah, he's from Australia.
- 11:57I need some research. Came to Colombia to to finish
- 12:02his PhD in philosophy. Wow.
- 12:04He was he, he was working as a bouncer at at at nightclubs in
- 12:09New York. And afterwards he became a coach
- 12:12in Brazilian Jiu jitsu because he had problems with his hip and
- 12:16knee. And later he become best
- 12:18possible coach. He was like one of the coaches
- 12:21for George Saint Pierre regarding wrestling and ground
- 12:26game and the best, the grappler, the best Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
- 12:30Nogue fighter of all times, Gordon Ryan and the guy.
- 12:34So yes, he's going to, yes, yes, she's amazing.
- 12:40Like for the last six or seven years, I'm watching his
- 12:45instructional tape and everything and Gordon Ryan's
- 12:48instructional tapes beside a couple more fighters.
- 12:52But definitely nowaday and knowledge is accessible to
- 12:55everyone. And maybe that's the reason why
- 12:58we from Serbia are so good with the with because we are loving
- 13:02Internet and we are loving what is provided with it.
- 13:05So, so maybe that's the reason why we're good.
- 13:07I'm currently preparing for the European trials, wow, ADCC
- 13:11trials in September in Poland. So so mixing a lot of the
- 13:16different different things. So I think, I think Nikolich
- 13:22needs to see this. Have you ever trained with
- 13:24Nikolich before? To be honest, yes, even we had
- 13:29some MMA inspiring, like it was five or six years ago, because I
- 13:35was doing a little bit of striking etcetera.
- 13:37But then I realised that that ground and pound it, it was
- 13:42nice. We were throwing each each other
- 13:44around, was punching a bit. It was funny.
- 13:46But then I realised because he's a lot lighter than me, that that
- 13:50ground and pound from the person who is like 20 kilos lighter
- 13:55could be equally unpleasant like a heavyweight ground and pound,
- 14:01so. He's a punch of weight.
- 14:04Yes, that's realisation when someone know knows how to sit on
- 14:09punch and and to to to to to throws it, it's amazing.
- 14:12So definitely body and bio mechanics is important.
- 14:16Very, very important. You know, my man, I guess you're
- 14:19probably like a welterweight, are you?
- 14:23No, you're mid weight. Yes, you're mid weight. 9090
- 14:28kilos, 190 centimetres. While you're you're a big boy.
- 14:34You're a big boy, yes. I I was, I was, I was building
- 14:40up to last like last year while I was compounding that Chevy
- 14:46weight weightlifting, I was almost to 100 and 10115 and now
- 14:53I cut because of the cardio. Cardio.
- 14:58Yeah, it does affect your cardio.
- 14:59It's totally different. Yeah, it affects your cardio
- 15:01peak time. The explosive work and the
- 15:05cardiovascular work a lot now that's becoming my strength and
- 15:09the strength is it's already there.
- 15:12So I'm now trying to managing all the balls at the same time.
- 15:18I know that feeling. You know, for me, I'm a
- 15:21lightweight. My walk around weight is
- 15:23something between 75 and 77 KGS, so you know that speed.
- 15:30So the the beauty of being in between is you have that speed
- 15:33advantage over the bigger boys. So the bigger boys have the the
- 15:37punching power. But if you know how to work your
- 15:41way around with the speed, you make a bigger boy look very,
- 15:44very stupid. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,
- 15:49and, and, and, and we should respect that a lot because when
- 15:55you're really a martial artist, if you ask me, you should really
- 16:02respect art itself and you should really evolve with
- 16:05everyone, no matter the, the size, P level attitude.
- 16:10When I say attitude, when someone is healthy for the, for
- 16:14the training, etcetera. But definitely you are always,
- 16:17you're always learning. Yeah.
- 16:19Even from the totally different guys and that's maybe when we we
- 16:24are learning the most because we are adapting and that's the
- 16:28speed of adaptations. Like like you, you told to me
- 16:31about the questions and I was like, just shoot, man, Just
- 16:34shoot. And you, you, you know
- 16:37something, the, the fly weights and the Bantam weights, they
- 16:39can't always make you look very, very silly.
- 16:41Of course, they work for nice cardio and speed.
- 16:45Those guys will make you look like you don't know what you're
- 16:48doing in the gym. Yes, yes, and and and and I'm I,
- 16:53I'm now I'm infinite believer in cardio.
- 16:57Definitely. Infinite believer in my brother.
- 17:00Definitely, definitely totally agree with you.
- 17:03Like whatever you do, and of course, for those guys listening
- 17:05to us out there, you know, make sure that you work out.
- 17:08Fitness is very, very important, you know, and, and the very,
- 17:12very base of fitness is, is cardio.
- 17:15Like it's just like mixed martial arts.
- 17:17If you get your wrestling right, yeah, you can start building
- 17:19your striking on your jiu jitsu, right?
- 17:22In terms of fitness, I think cardio is, is the base.
- 17:26And a lot of people do not realise that cardio is something
- 17:30that you build gradually. You know, the very first day you
- 17:34can just do a 5 minute jog, next day, move it to 7 minutes.
- 17:39The very next day you can move it to to 9 minutes.
- 17:42You know, just have those two minutes variations over time and
- 17:45it will shock you. In about two weeks you're able
- 17:48to jog for one hour, but people just want to jog for 30 minutes,
- 17:52one hour on the very first day and they gas out and they are
- 17:55unable to continue the next day. So it's a gradual thing and
- 17:59consistency is key. You know, you don't, you know,
- 18:02do it today and say, oh, I'm not doing it tomorrow.
- 18:05But little, little, you know, steps actually help you to build
- 18:10up. I don't know if you want to talk
- 18:11about, you know, building cardio, Luca.
- 18:15To to, to, to be to be precise, my cardio due to everything last
- 18:23year was sorry because of because of traffic.
- 18:26So my cardio due to everything regarding weightlifting during
- 18:30last last year was was pretty terrible.
- 18:34I was like at VO two months like at 34 and I should have 38 if I
- 18:45would not train anything. And it was pretty, it was pretty
- 18:50disastrous. And I started something similar
- 18:53to, to, to, to, to your way, but a little bit more nurtured and
- 19:01with my doctor etcetera. And like for the two to three
- 19:04times per week, I was aiming for that threshold below the below
- 19:10the red zone or zone 5. At the end of zone four, people
- 19:14will understand that it's around 8080 to 85% of your biggest
- 19:19heart rate. And while I was practising that
- 19:21zone for like 3 months, in those three months I got an increase
- 19:26of to become, let's say, a solid sportsman.
- 19:33And now I am becoming extremely eager about all that.
- 19:39And now aiming to double the my my, my first number till the
- 19:43September to go at like 60667869 or whatever, which is elite.
- 19:50I'm now above the 60. Those are just the numbers.
- 19:54But in the end, the idea is to be able to work.
- 20:00At your almost the highest possible heart rate for 10
- 20:07minutes and if another guy is not able to do that, you're
- 20:13going to be leftover. And that's the idea about
- 20:16fighting, but about health. If we put aside just physical
- 20:23health benefits and we and we look only mental clarity while
- 20:28you're doing something like zone 5 or or that about 85% of of
- 20:34your maximum. And you're going to face
- 20:36everything negative, everything blocking you and everything bad
- 20:42within your mind while you're doing that.
- 20:44And that's that's the for me, amazing practise to to just
- 20:50establish even more. And I realise that how just
- 20:55stuff showing up within your mind are not you in the end.
- 21:00Those are just thoughts. Those are those are just
- 21:03emotions. Those are just some memories,
- 21:06some pictures and anything and whatever you voice are having
- 21:11whispering you to, it's enough. It's hard, This is painful.
- 21:16Why do I do this, Sasha? It's just amazing mental game.
- 21:21And I was fascinated with mental games throughout my full life
- 21:25because I found the immense power of mental itself from the
- 21:32early childhood and I was experimenting with a lot of
- 21:35stuff. And definitely one of the stuff
- 21:37I would recommend to everyone would be let's say that higher
- 21:42intensity cardio or cardiovascular endurance and
- 21:46playing with that because when when hearts start pumping,
- 21:50everything changes and then then you're gonna you're gonna meet
- 21:55yourself on it all through a totally different lands.
- 21:58Diversity introduces a man to himself and you know, when you
- 22:01practise a hardware, you go into some very, very dark tunnels and
- 22:06it's both mental and physical pain.
- 22:09But I always talk about, you know, the mental and physical
- 22:15sync for human beings, you know, on this podcast.
- 22:21And I believe very much in in fitness.
- 22:24So my philosophy is that for you to be a well-rounded person, you
- 22:29need to achieve fitness and fitness has four quadrants.
- 22:33You know, physical fitness, our financial fitness, you know,
- 22:38mental, you know, slash emotional or mindset fitness and
- 22:43a spiritual fitness. So basically, if you're feet in
- 22:47this 4, you know, aspects of life, then you are a
- 22:51well-rounded, successful person. But, you know, we are talking
- 22:56more on the mental and physical side of fitness.
- 23:00So when you do your cardio exercises, I understand that
- 23:06I've been there, done that, right?
- 23:08I've pushed myself, you know, beyond, you know, certain
- 23:10limits. When you do those high intensity
- 23:14exercises, I do, I do track, you know, with, you know, the Apple
- 23:18Watch. And the good thing about the
- 23:22Apple Watch is it gives you the, the level of intensity by the
- 23:27time you're done with that, you know, with that workout, for
- 23:30most people, they don't go beyond that level 5 or when you
- 23:35get to level 6, level 7, level 8, you know, your body and your
- 23:42mind will know that you've actually done something.
- 23:45And I know you, you, you, you, you know, you know very well
- 23:50how, how that feels. I want you to talk about that
- 23:54mental barrier. You know that you face the
- 23:58mental hurdles you have to face, especially when you're going
- 24:02beyond level 5. OK, 7 and.
- 24:08Not not knowing about the exact exact levels you're talking
- 24:13about with the with the measurement itself, I'm only
- 24:17watching that percentage of your maximum heart rate.
- 24:22It's up to a zone 5. It's like a red zone.
- 24:25That is how we call it red and I'm loving to play with that
- 24:32one. For example, to increasing the
- 24:35amount of time to mental and to increase amount of time I'm
- 24:41being in red and like resting slightly above red for a 15 to
- 24:4820 seconds and then getting back into red zone for 40 seconds.
- 24:53And I'm mimicking that one minute and I'm getting prepare
- 24:59for that minute of intensity, which is an infinite minute
- 25:03because after that first minute is going to come a second one.
- 25:07It's always one minute. And it's infinitely important
- 25:11lesson for people nowaday because when they're talking
- 25:15about hardship, about the struggle, about pain, about fear
- 25:19about anything, guilt, shame, no matter sadness, we are feeling
- 25:27things like they're going to last infinitely because our mind
- 25:34is set that way. But that infinite feeling does
- 25:40not last because only this moment is existing moment.
- 25:45And when we are giving exact commands to our mind and tell
- 25:52him, for example, we created the personality of our mind and we
- 25:57are giving him like a structure. And now we're doing only one
- 26:02minute and that's one minute. We're going to run hard for 40
- 26:05seconds. We're going to increase them
- 26:08extremely well in the, in the, in the red zone in, in close as
- 26:15close as possible to maximum. And then we're going to have our
- 26:18recovery. And our recovery is 20 seconds
- 26:22of a little lighter or even we can stand aside or anything.
- 26:28But after those 20 seconds, we have accomplished our goal, our
- 26:32small goal. And imagine now that minute
- 26:35being repeated 40 times and you are having in a training of 40
- 26:43minutes without any pause at the beginning and in the middle of
- 26:51hardest possible zone with the short bursts of recovery and
- 26:54your average beats per per minute are in the red zone in
- 26:59the zone file. And that is kind of combination
- 27:03of mental and physical endurance.
- 27:05We are really needing to be fully present and the line
- 27:10because the core of my work with people besides sport and that
- 27:16what I'm trying to translate that that's how we we, we, we
- 27:20started with mental jiu jitsu is about let's go behind all the,
- 27:26as I like to call it, cognitive noise.
- 27:29Like our thoughts are everything going on in this moment because
- 27:33we are living in modern society. We are having a lot of
- 27:35informations and it is all messy and all that emotions and
- 27:41everything. We are not even being able to
- 27:45really feel and to really go through throughout our life.
- 27:50And like that, cardio is cleaning.
- 27:54You need to let go of the garbage from the internal in
- 27:58order to be fully present and in order to be there and run,
- 28:03really run for those 40 seconds so you are able to really,
- 28:09really be present and rest in those 20 seconds.
- 28:13And that's the main logic we are practising, qualities we are
- 28:20willing to possess. That's the ultimate way as I see
- 28:27it at this moment, because we clear what's in our way.
- 28:31We make the ground healthy. And in that ground we we, we, we
- 28:38post the seeds and those seeds are able to flourish only if
- 28:44ground. This is healthy.
- 28:46You know mental jiu jitsu what's makes it different from therapy?
- 28:52Like what what would you classify mental jiu jitsu as?
- 28:57You know, you or mental jiu jitsu coach, but also I would
- 29:02say you are a philosopher like myself because you know, judging
- 29:06from our very first conversation, your, your, your
- 29:10thoughts were very structured, right?
- 29:12And you actually believe in hardcore principles like myself.
- 29:18And that was what really drew me into speaking with you.
- 29:21You know, life is principle based and if you are a person
- 29:25that has coherent logical principles, I like to understand
- 29:31the the basis behind those principles and that that's why
- 29:35I'm speaking with you today. So just tell me, how would you
- 29:39classify mental jiu jitsu? It's amazing that you're already
- 29:44given an answer for your question through that question.
- 29:50So you mentioned the therapy at the beginning and you mentioned
- 29:56the principles and for me, I am like dividing all the stuff
- 30:05happening to us and within us to like some kind of a content.
- 30:11It's like to audience, you know, for audience to be easier to
- 30:19understand. It's like we are born somewhere,
- 30:22we are doing something, we're hanging on with someone or
- 30:26whatever, anything which is happening to us and it's just
- 30:30like a content. And on the other side, we are
- 30:33having something more deeper. And those are connections,
- 30:37relations between stuff that are making some systems structures
- 30:42and between behind those systems and structures.
- 30:46They're even deeper layers and even deeper, deeper, like, for
- 30:51example, duality of our own universe.
- 30:56When we are having opposites and everything plus and minus, light
- 31:01and darkness, sadness and joy, ambition and laziness and and we
- 31:11we are creatures that are tending to be unified within.
- 31:19When we are unified with all parts of our self, we can
- 31:24express ourselves in this, the real present moment in the best
- 31:28possible way. When all parts of myself with
- 31:31when every part of me being named Luca is working aligned
- 31:39with another. My identities.
- 31:41Me as a father, me as a trainer, me as a husband, me as a
- 31:45businessman, me, me as a friend. When every of my identity is
- 31:53working aligned together, can be able to be turned on and off on
- 32:00a switch and behind all that they are just deeper layers and
- 32:06deeper structures That that's why, for example, what what I
- 32:13needed to coaching or therapy. Therapy is mostly firstly, I
- 32:20have enormous respect for every anyone who is helping people
- 32:25develop and grow. And when I say develop and grow,
- 32:29I don't even believe in personal development that way.
- 32:34I'm like believer of knowing self rather than developing
- 32:40self. Because self-awareness.
- 32:41Always. Yeah, yes, we are.
- 32:44Always, always. And we have already Ever.
- 32:49Forever have been enough and that's the most important
- 32:53realisation. We are just we just are.
- 32:57And when we are we can just clear a path for in order for us
- 33:06to express and for example, therapy is amazing.
- 33:13I'm a fan of it, but something sometimes it gets stuck because
- 33:17it is correlated to a mind of a therapist and we are trying to
- 33:21cognitively understand what the what just happened to a person.
- 33:25That's that content part. And I'm not interested in the
- 33:29what just happened to a person. I'm interested in structures and
- 33:34layers which may person feel suboptimal or feel that guilt,
- 33:41feel that feeling. I'm not enough.
- 33:43So I'm trying to prove for the next 30 years to my father that
- 33:48I deserve that love. And those are the real stuff.
- 33:53Because in 90% of our first conversations and sessions we
- 33:59come to some experience, which is 25 or 3540.
- 34:03It depends of our age of a client or where we are
- 34:07processing something so vivid. Some we are penetrating some
- 34:14memories so vivid, so alive, which is having so much energy
- 34:21there, so much emotion there with which that child who was
- 34:27living that experience was not able to resolve at that moment,
- 34:33at that the moment that was happening to them.
- 34:36And that's the main thing we are processing what what that's the
- 34:42baggage I'm talking about. And on another side, sometimes
- 34:45you can feel a split between me as ambition, ambitious person
- 34:52wants to grind and execute as as you're having here.
- 34:56And on the other side, I want to be loving and gentle and do to,
- 35:00to, to, to, to give best to my to, to, to my wife, to my son,
- 35:07to, to everyone and to be as gentle and, and possible.
- 35:11And those integrations, when I managed to to make them, those
- 35:15are the best possible tools I can give to myself because I'm
- 35:20not going to sabotage myself. I'm going to work in alignment.
- 35:24When everything is goes through the philtres, I'm going with
- 35:27100% with everything. And that's the way we can share
- 35:32many different playgrounds and segments of our life.
- 35:38And we are just following those principles with ourselves deeply
- 35:44within. We are knowing how we are
- 35:47dealing with self. And when we are knowing how
- 35:49we're dealing with self, we know how to deal with others and with
- 35:52our job, with tasks, with emotions, with thoughts, with
- 35:57anything, because we are setting a standard for ourselves.
- 35:59And that's the main, main thing about mental jiu jitsu, the
- 36:04depths on which it operates. We are aiming for the deepest
- 36:10roots and deepest scores. And when we align that, then any
- 36:16layer on top of that is going to become even better for us.
- 36:22That's that's the main topic. You know the legendary ancient
- 36:28Greek philosopher Socrates? He did say man know thyself and
- 36:37I think that is a very fundamental principle and
- 36:41philosophy behind the concept of mental jiu jitsu.
- 36:46From what you've been able to explain, my understanding is
- 36:51that mental jiu jitsu is a body of knowledge that is premised or
- 37:00porn. Self identity and
- 37:03self-awareness. I stand to be corrected.
- 37:08I like to call it a journey within, the only journey that
- 37:15exists because we are the only place for ourself we're going to
- 37:21spend our life in. You understand that the depth
- 37:26because we are only here and for me there is a God and that's
- 37:39that's everything. And I give the faith to God and
- 37:45for me there is only a way to be best I can be in this real
- 37:53moment on moment that exists and that's it.
- 37:57And when we are discovering ourself, that's the most
- 38:01important work to be done if you ask me, Because when death is on
- 38:07its way, everything around us starts to align and makes
- 38:13perfect sense because we are on our path.
- 38:16And it is definitely scary because we are alone on that
- 38:22path. But we are starting to build
- 38:26confidence when we go through our through our stomach, not
- 38:31only through our mind, because our mind going to judge, going
- 38:35to make many obstacles to, to, to raise many questions.
- 38:40And that's the idea of our mind. It is created to protect us.
- 38:45And it is amazing too. But you know what they say,
- 38:48that's amazing slave but worst possible master.
- 38:55And that's the idea. That's the idea about thoughts.
- 38:59Emotions are amazing, but try to to difference between my
- 39:05emotion. I feel anger, I'm angry, I'm not
- 39:11angry. I can feel anger, I can feel
- 39:14sadness. That is something like a wave
- 39:17going through us. We are.
- 39:19We are able to sense that, but we are not becoming defined by
- 39:25that. And many problems could be
- 39:28resolved just by knowing self. A lot of depressions, a lot of a
- 39:34lot of stuff which are just maybe a lack of knowledge about
- 39:40self and that's. It, you know, you talk about
- 39:42these as a structured identity work, you know, but what does
- 39:46that mean in practical everyday terms for someone listening to
- 39:51us or watching us right now? Like how do they apply it in
- 39:54their everyday life? OK best example you are having
- 40:00some. Senior executive with a lot of
- 40:04business experience and willingness to make a leap of
- 40:11faith and to go into entrepreneurship.
- 40:15His previous identity is useless at that moment you understand
- 40:20that he will need totally different set of beliefs,
- 40:25totally different view of himself, totally different way
- 40:29he talks, he breathes, he resolves, anything in the
- 40:34internal. He going to enjoy life and be
- 40:40present with a totally different behaviour, energy, totally
- 40:47different skill set and totally different identity.
- 40:52In the end he going to become a different person and with that
- 40:57people, people are becoming extremely stuck because the
- 41:01previous identity is leading with self a lot of memory and
- 41:04not a lot of emotions. And people are feeling like they
- 41:07are dying when they're going through some life
- 41:10transformations that they are having the problem to let go
- 41:14because they think their life going to be for real over.
- 41:18And you know what they say like a man is is dying many times in
- 41:25his life in order to live once like or.
- 41:29Or Howard died many times before their death.
- 41:33I've heard that one before. It's idea to really let go
- 41:40everything and go to that positive empathy.
- 41:44Yes, it's a scary proposition, you know, But sometimes for
- 41:47those of us who have had the privilege to do it, you know,
- 41:50multiple times, you know, maximal force doing different
- 41:55things, I think the first time is scary, but the next time is
- 41:59less scary. Less scary.
- 42:04You know what they say? Like fear is very wide, but it's
- 42:12not deep. When you step into it, it goes
- 42:16away and that's the main trick. Fear is like a just like any
- 42:22emotional safety does a trick, which is connecting this current
- 42:28situation with something familiar and we are doing
- 42:33something for the first time. Definitely we can be afraid
- 42:37because that uncertainty is a problem, but when we try to
- 42:41connect that to something built from before, sometimes we are
- 42:45not able. I have never been before like
- 42:48European champion in in Nog Jiu Jitsu.
- 42:52I have never been on on on world stage.
- 42:55But that does not mean that I won't prepare myself in a way to
- 43:03feel, act, strain the same like I have done that multiple times.
- 43:08And that's the most important thing for me to be done.
- 43:12And for example, you're having entrepreneur, which is now like
- 43:18life cycle of a company. You need to delegate, you need
- 43:22to start building a system. Those are just changes into
- 43:26internal emotional and and mental state and structure of a
- 43:31founder to be able to delegate to, to give his trust to system
- 43:37to something, not to someone, to something which is higher than
- 43:41himself, to replicate his brain, to make some structure which
- 43:46will behave instead of him or her.
- 43:50And for those changes, they are. They could be scary.
- 43:55They could be, they could be terrible.
- 44:00They are so demanding, they are tiring, they are they could be
- 44:07everything bad and literally I'm just helping people to go
- 44:12through those. You know, it's quite
- 44:15interesting. You're talking about the, the
- 44:17life cycle of business, you know, and of course the
- 44:20founder's journey. I did interview a guy called
- 44:23Scott Ritzheimer. He's skilled architect and of
- 44:27course he's the author of the book The Founders Evolution.
- 44:30I think that is a book you should read.
- 44:33I will send you that is Scott Ruizamo's book.
- 44:36I will send a copy of his book to you.
- 44:40Scott Ruizamo is a really fantastic guy.
- 44:42And of course, you know, he talks about the the various
- 44:44stages in a founders journey. So he talks about the stage one
- 44:49that is the dissatisfied employee, stage 2, the startup
- 44:52entrepreneur, stage 3 the reluctance manager, stage 4, the
- 44:56dissolution leader, stage 5, the chief executive, stage 6, the
- 45:00true owner, and of course stage 7, the visionary founder.
- 45:04I think you were just, you know, addressing the, the movement
- 45:08between stage 2 and stage 3. That is the reluctant manager.
- 45:12You know, it's, it's, it's quite interesting that you're touching
- 45:15on, on these things, you know. But it could be any of those, it
- 45:22could be any of those stages because we don't know which
- 45:25stage could be most challenging to someone.
- 45:28It is. But are the structure of persons
- 45:33the same? It's like a lot of talking about
- 45:37being like ego driven, ego driven and purpose driven, ego
- 45:42driven, driven by something. I need to prove I'm driven from
- 45:48something, from something hurt within me and I'm coming from a
- 45:53leg. That's why I don't like personal
- 45:56development. You're already developed, you
- 46:00already are everything. We are just uncovering your,
- 46:03your, your resources and, and giving them a work to do.
- 46:09And on another side, you're having like there is some idea,
- 46:14there is some purpose, there is something which is important,
- 46:19which is beautiful, which is inspiring, which is which I
- 46:23would like to do while I'm talking this, I'm having like
- 46:26here energy flowing. And when we're coming from that
- 46:30place, in that place, everything is already set and done and all
- 46:35the efforts we're going to do, it's going to be from ease.
- 46:38You know, it's amazing story about Arnold Schwarzenegger
- 46:42preparing for for Mr Olympia. And she's like, I'm shaving like
- 46:46next 22120 kilos. Bench press or squash, it says.
- 46:52And I'm so delighted to have those, those reps because they
- 46:57are going to make me biggest and greatest Mr Olympia of all time.
- 47:02And my and my competitors are like drained.
- 47:08And we are doing the same job and we are doing the same
- 47:11workout, the same, the same stuff, but they are drained and
- 47:15I'm delighted. And that's that's he's coming
- 47:20from the space of resourcefulness he has already
- 47:25is that state and the difference between I'm manifesting
- 47:30something which is amazing. We are able to manifest when
- 47:35there is no baggage in our internal system which will
- 47:41sabotage us, which was, which will split us and which which
- 47:45will make us be extremely frustrated, not to say go insane
- 47:49with ourselves. And that's the key, the key
- 47:52point. You know.
- 47:54We are. We are preparing for just be and
- 47:59not. I'm thinking I'm, I am, I'm
- 48:03being, I am, I'm enough, I'm good, I'm not good.
- 48:08I'm everything and anything. And that is the starting point.
- 48:12I, I, my purpose is to anyone to whom I'm able to, to, to, to, to
- 48:24stay in touch with, to, to reach to or, or or whatever to unlock
- 48:31that cage of thoughts, emotions and all those stuff within in
- 48:40order for people to really live here and now and then it all
- 48:46starts when you are here, when you're connected with with
- 48:50yourself. There is a million roads and,
- 48:53and there is one for you. You're going to steal every
- 48:59turn, you're going to know every next step and everything.
- 49:03You are safe. You are not safe.
- 49:05You're great with yourself because you're being yourself.
- 49:08And that's the biggest wish I could wish to anyone in the in
- 49:12this world and and I could all my lifespan only doing that to
- 49:19following my path and doing that to others to, to, to just get
- 49:25back to self. And that's it.
- 49:27Just just get back to self. Self identity, self-awareness,
- 49:32positive affirmations, self belief, you know, are things
- 49:35that you've actually touched on. But I, I would like to take you
- 49:38up on two things. The aspect of personal
- 49:41development, you disagreeing with the concept of personal
- 49:45development will touch on that. But I want to talk about, you
- 49:49know, positive affirmations and how they align with faith.
- 49:56You talked about the fact that you believe in God.
- 49:58I also believe in God very much. I am a Christian and I was
- 50:03privileged to have studied the Bible at a very young age.
- 50:08I did go to Bible school and I had a very, very strong
- 50:15background in in the faith. But growing up, you know, one
- 50:19Bible verse that really stuck with me and I think it's still
- 50:23my favourite till today is Philippians chapter 4 verse 13.
- 50:28And it says I can do all things through crisis strengthens me.
- 50:32Let's go, go, go, say threatens me.
- 50:35John Johnson's that too. I love that.
- 50:37I can do all things through crisis strengthens me.
- 50:40It, it, it keeps me going, you know, it has always made me
- 50:43believe in myself and in possibilities.
- 50:48You know, impossible is nothing to me.
- 50:51You, you doubt me at your own peril, you know, if you doubt
- 50:54me, that serves as fuel to me. You know, if you believe in me,
- 50:58he might not maybe encourage me too much, but doubt me and I'll
- 51:03let you know that you're doubting the power of God, you
- 51:06know, So what? What role does faith play, you
- 51:09know, in self identity and self belief?
- 51:18I'm going to give you this if I tell you through some kind of a
- 51:23metaphor, it would be this. On a fad to self I found self
- 51:32but that self is nothing without a God who created me.
- 51:44It's like a meal without a salt in it without salt or pepper or
- 51:53anything. It's like amazing like a stoic
- 51:57life with a lot of virtue and everything but without a faith
- 52:02without for me, faith came back into I was extremely sceptical.
- 52:08I am my, my mind was playing everything with me.
- 52:11But for a long time a lot of events happened to me in an
- 52:18extremely unexplainable way and just click.
- 52:26I totally surrender. I, I, I could not resist it.
- 52:32And when I say this now, confidence in in identity or in
- 52:40me is not important. I'm just perceiving sense of
- 52:49that faith and that faith in, in create creator in God.
- 52:56And that that is giving me everything that that is the root
- 53:03of all sources. How can you really believe in
- 53:06yourself if you're not believing in someone who created you?
- 53:10You understand that? Like it's similar with your
- 53:12parents. How can you really flourish into
- 53:17your life if you are not in at peace with someone who gave you
- 53:21life in a physical domain, in a biological domain?
- 53:26How can you, if it leads to that self-sufficiency through your
- 53:33becoming in a way self-sufficient but detached
- 53:38from the source and the living in God's for me is surrender,
- 53:46surrendering to source and that's it.
- 53:50I cannot predict the future. Who can predict the future?
- 53:53We can try to think of it, try to plan.
- 53:57So we are making plans and God is laughing to us.
- 54:02And it is it's. Funny what God disposes.
- 54:08Yes, and then the, the, the, that's the stuff.
- 54:13We are here. This is a gift.
- 54:15We are living this one and who know what's?
- 54:18Next, you know something crazy. The battle of the mind is very,
- 54:22very wild. The battle of the mind is wild.
- 54:25There are many people that are successful but still feel
- 54:29unfulfilled. Like I think you should see this
- 54:32a lot in your work. That's the, that's the stuff.
- 54:37How? How do you how do you help this?
- 54:39Because, because they are, Because explain to them like you
- 54:46started from anger, from sadness, from guilt, from I'm
- 54:51not enough, from shame, from whatever it is.
- 54:57You are using your model, your structure to getting success and
- 55:03you are digging yourself deeper and deeper and deeper to grave
- 55:10in which you you will put yourself sooner or later, you're
- 55:16going to need to let that emotion go.
- 55:20And that's that transformation. You need to let everything go
- 55:26and reset your life, your game. That's that's the more success
- 55:31you're having. You're you're, you're, that's
- 55:33greed. You're wanting more and more you
- 55:37have you're less satisfied with it because you're not able to
- 55:40enjoy yourself. You're coming from a lack.
- 55:44That's the most important concept.
- 55:47If you're coming from a lack, if you're coming from a negative,
- 55:51you're going to multiply negative.
- 55:53If you're coming from a peace, from joy, from faith, from
- 55:57calmness, going to create from death and it's more important
- 56:02the motif we are creating from then the process itself.
- 56:06You, you can have two person, 2 persons doing the same stuff.
- 56:12I had that with fighting. I was fighting to prepare myself
- 56:17for fear of losing my parents because I'm a child of second
- 56:22parent, second marriage of both of them.
- 56:25And I was living in fear of that loss from my from my.
- 56:35I was like 9, yes, nine. I was 9 and so.
- 56:39How did you navigate that on a personal basis?
- 56:45On a personal, I was going into fear and everything which could
- 56:51martial arts was the one of the first tricks I actually done.
- 56:55I went training, started training martial arts.
- 56:59I started doing a lot of challenges for myself.
- 57:04I don't know why one of those challenges was not fasting for
- 57:07seven days. I don't know what decide not to
- 57:11do in order to challenge myself and to face any kind of fear
- 57:16that existed, but it I could go that way and I could create a
- 57:21lot and I could come to any place in that life, but only
- 57:25when my mom died, I really faced that fear and it it exploded
- 57:31like a balloon. It was no more reason for that.
- 57:37I felt it. My worst nightmare was alive at
- 57:40that moment. And then I started creating
- 57:43totally different system to operate and now fear fear of
- 57:50fear of what fear you can, you can sense it biologically you
- 57:57can feel it. OK, I could follow, but that's
- 58:00just any kind of emotion that's not a motivator anymore.
- 58:03In that way, now it's like a a purpose of enjoying this, this
- 58:10gift, a totally different point of view.
- 58:13And when people are becoming stuck with their path and
- 58:18leaving it again now not able to receive your future self.
- 58:25And that's the thing which is making this game empty.
- 58:34Not a new car, not new location, not new business, not new wife.
- 58:42You got that one. The problem is in.
- 58:45Your. Maybe problem is in you, not in
- 58:49you. We don't need that.
- 58:52Oh, you, you got me laughing at that one.
- 58:54You know, it's kind of interesting.
- 58:56Do you know I have an acronym for FEAR?
- 59:00Do you want to hear it? False evidence is appearing
- 59:04real. I I thought that I'm going to
- 59:09share something different, but this one is even better to.
- 59:12Be honest. Evidence is up here and beyond.
- 59:16Evidence is 0. Yeah.
- 59:17So a lot of times we we are scared of the unknown and the
- 59:24unknown really is not, as you know, terrible as we think it
- 59:28would actually be, you know, and often and not fear is due to
- 59:34false evidences. Whoa, I know you have to leave
- 59:39in about 5 minutes. This is this is amazing and my
- 59:44my. Definitely.
- 59:47So I'm not going to connect inside.
- 59:49I know, I know, I know. You have to leave now.
- 59:52We need to to to finish. Fast push you through the quick
- 59:55fire round. So 5 questions answer very very
- 1:00:00fast. In 2.
- 1:00:01Minutes so #1 what's your one sentence definition of mental
- 1:00:05jiu jitsu? Mental jiu jitsu way to sell
- 1:00:13for. Case so #2 What's your most
- 1:00:18unexpected teacher or influence? Hey #3 What's a phrase or mantra
- 1:00:23that instantly centres you? In Serbian it's a Christicina
- 1:00:27Boji formula Managrashta. How do you how do you translate
- 1:00:31that to English? Yeah, you can't translate it.
- 1:00:37Jesus Christ, Son of God, bless me.
- 1:00:42Oh wow I love that before. What's your emotional tell?
- 1:00:46That is the cue that says I need to check in with myself.
- 1:00:48What is that emotional tell or the hint that tells you I need
- 1:00:53to check in with myself? OK to get back to base when I
- 1:01:00start challenging stuff, maybe twice.
- 1:01:07In a row. I love that that is your
- 1:01:10instinct, yeah. Apologise.
- 1:01:13Then I starting to apologise. Sorry I'm I'm in my movie at the
- 1:01:17moment. Something is being triggered.
- 1:01:18I need to know that I feel it. So it's on me.
- 1:01:21It's on me. OK, so the very last question
- 1:01:24for today. So what's the one believe you
- 1:01:26would delete from collective consciousness if you could
- 1:01:30possibly do that? I love that.
- 1:01:32I love that. So from me to you.
- 1:01:34Thank you very much for being on the show today.
- 1:01:37I always say that an attitude of gratitude is good attitude.
- 1:01:40And if somebody says a time with you, they said their life with
- 1:01:42you. So love and respect to you my
- 1:01:44brother, I appreciate. You.
- 1:01:46Very. Very much, of course, I enjoyed
- 1:01:48that. Tell the people in Serbia, I am
- 1:01:51very grateful to them. I am currently ranked in the top
- 1:01:54100 shows on Apple Podcast in Serbia and please help me tell
- 1:01:59them let's shoot for #1 #1 number one or nothing.
- 1:02:03You're going to grow. More or nothing, my Serbian
- 1:02:07people, I appreciate you. Tell me something in Serbia to
- 1:02:10tell. How do you say thank you in
- 1:02:11Serbia, right? Wow, I appreciate it.
- 1:02:18That is. Thank you very much guys.
- 1:02:22Thank you, I love you. Guys, I love you guys.
- 1:02:29Maybe you give me a new a new Serbian wife.
- 1:02:33I did not say that. I did.
- 1:02:35I did not say that. Scratch that.
- 1:02:40Whoa, do you want? To only one life, only one, only
- 1:02:44only one life and 11. Life.
- 1:02:46Yeah, I heard that. I heard that.
- 1:02:51No, I, I hope that today that they're going to watch it at
- 1:02:54this moment. So they're going to hear
- 1:02:56everything from us, No addition stories.
- 1:03:01They're gonna be more. I hope for more of them to
- 1:03:06happen in the future so we can record.
- 1:03:08Okay, okay, absolutely. And of course, my guys are
- 1:03:10people. Please subscribe, share, and of
- 1:03:14course, show love to the podcast.
- 1:03:16I am working very hard to bring in fantastic individuals like
- 1:03:19Luker, not much Rich Luker, Stachevic, the stars.
- 1:03:24I'm bringing in the stars. And of course, please, you know,
- 1:03:27share this podcast and let us keep growing in leaps and
- 1:03:30bounds. I appreciate you guys.
- 1:03:31And of course, you know every week you still get Win your 50
- 1:03:34lbs guys, engage meaningfully and win bountifully.
- 1:03:41Till you see me next time. It's love and respect, guys.
- 1:03:44Bye.