Latest / The You Project / #1755 What’s Your ‘Peak Performance’ Time? - Harps

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#1755 What’s Your ‘Peak Performance’ Time? - Harps · The You Project

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  Speaker 1: Good. I everyone, Craig Anthony Harper, I hope you're great.
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  Speaker 1: I hope your days just bloody terrific. I want to
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  Speaker 1: talk to you today about peak performance as specifically, I
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  Speaker 1: want to talk to you about when you are at
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  Speaker 1: your peak. I want to talk about your peak performance time. Now,
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  Speaker 1: there's a whole lot of science behind this, with genetic
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  Speaker 1: stuff and epigenetics and bi rhythms and circadian rhythms and
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  Speaker 1: all kinds of stuff. I just want to talk to
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  Speaker 1: you about what your body tells you, what your results
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  Speaker 1: tell you, and what you can learn about you experientially
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  Speaker 1: with a bit of awareness, with a bit of perhaps
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  Speaker 1: with a bit of n equals one experimenting. That is
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  Speaker 1: you being the experimenter and you being the subject, you
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  Speaker 1: being the researcher, and you being the researched. What you
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  Speaker 1: can learn about you, like, for example, when does your
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  Speaker 1: brain work best? When are you cognitively optimal? Is it
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  Speaker 1: the morning, is in the middle of the day, is
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  Speaker 1: it late, is it early? Does it depend? Does it vary?
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  Speaker 1: So for example, with me, I know that typically my
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  Speaker 1: brain Now obviously it's different for different people, but my
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  Speaker 1: brain seems to work better. And when I say better,
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  Speaker 1: I'm more focused, I'm sharper, I'm I can solve problems better,
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  Speaker 1: I can remember things better. I seem to perform better
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  Speaker 1: creatively in the morning. So I get up generally around
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  Speaker 1: six and generally between six and twelve. I am premium me.
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  Speaker 1: I can still do stuff at night and in the afternoon,
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  Speaker 1: of course, but I feel like it's hard to work.
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  Speaker 1: You know. It's like after you've been for a ten
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  Speaker 1: k run. You can still run, but you're tired. You're
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  Speaker 1: still running, but it's not the same. And so for me,
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  Speaker 1: it's kind of like that. I feel like there's a
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  Speaker 1: window for me, and it's about probably three or four
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  Speaker 1: hours where I'm flying, but maybe six hours overall where
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  Speaker 1: I'm pretty good. And so my window won't necessarily probably
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  Speaker 1: won't be your window. But so think about and your
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  Speaker 1: body will tell you, and your mind, your ability to focus,
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  Speaker 1: your ability to train, your ability to be productive will
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  Speaker 1: tell you, like when are you the most productive? When
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  Speaker 1: are you the most effective? When are you the most efficient?
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  Speaker 1: When do you train best? Like our body and our
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  Speaker 1: results and the world around us, and our conversation and
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  Speaker 1: our relationships, our output, it's always telling us something. We're
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  Speaker 1: always getting data. We're always getting information when it's from
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  Speaker 1: our body. We call it biofeedback. More broadly, we might
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  Speaker 1: just call it work feedback or productivity or efficiency when
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  Speaker 1: we're talking about all the external stuff. But we're always
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  Speaker 1: getting information, and it's our job. It's your job, your responsibility,
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  Speaker 1: and my responsibility to be able to analyze that and go,
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  Speaker 1: here's what I know when I do this in the
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  Speaker 1: like for example, when I lift weights in the morning,
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  Speaker 1: when I do strength training in the morning, I'm stronger body,
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  Speaker 1: same bloke doing the same things. I'm stronger. Now, that's
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  Speaker 1: probably because I have more testosterone in the morning. I
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  Speaker 1: think most people do. I think generally we do. Maybe
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  Speaker 1: it's just because I'm less fatigued. Maybe that's on top
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  Speaker 1: of it. Maybe I've got a better attitude in the morning.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe I don't know, But here's what I know. Consistently,
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  Speaker 1: I can still do strength training at night. But if
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  Speaker 1: let's just make up the scale, the Craig awesomeness scale.
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  Speaker 1: If in the morning i'm my awesomeness, let's call the
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  Speaker 1: productivity scale or the performance scale for me in the morning,
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  Speaker 1: I might be ten, I might be nine, but relatively
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  Speaker 1: at night, I'm going to be a seven or eight
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  Speaker 1: same bloke doing the same things with the same physiology.
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  Speaker 1: I'm just not quite there. So as much as I can,
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  Speaker 1: I do my strength training in the morning. Conversely, comma,
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  Speaker 1: I seem to do cardio better at night. I don't
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  Speaker 1: even know why. I'm an excise physio I'm an excise scientist.
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  Speaker 1: Can't even tell you why. But here's what I know.
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  Speaker 1: My body is always telling me something. My results are
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  Speaker 1: always telling me something, and you are the same, Okay,
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  Speaker 1: Like I know, for example, my peak performance has something
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  Speaker 1: to do me functioning physically, mentally, emotionally, and in terms
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  Speaker 1: of productivity. There's a relationship with meals and many of
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  Speaker 1: you know this. When I eat lunch. For example, if
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  Speaker 1: I have lunch in the middle of the day, as
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  Speaker 1: obviously most people have lunch, I have some serious cognitive
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  Speaker 1: decline after that depending on what I eat for an
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  Speaker 1: hour or two. So I've figured out for me in
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  Speaker 1: terms of peak performance, I breakfast, I ate dinner, I
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  Speaker 1: ate nothing pretty much for about twelve hours. I might
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  Speaker 1: have a coffee or two maybe, But it's always about
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  Speaker 1: for me and hopefully for you, it's always about recognizing
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  Speaker 1: how do I get the most out of my body
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  Speaker 1: and my mind and my skill and my talent what
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  Speaker 1: works best for me. So there is no set window,
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  Speaker 1: there is no set time, There is no three step
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  Speaker 1: operating system for optimal performance that works for everybody. And
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  Speaker 1: this is obviously because psychologically, physiologically, emotionally, we are all different.
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  Speaker 1: And so the challenge is to find the right program
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  Speaker 1: from some generic external source, but rather to listen to
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  Speaker 1: the data and to act on that awareness, and to
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  Speaker 1: act on that information that we are constantly being given,
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  Speaker 1: and then to develop our own system via that. I
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  Speaker 1: know that for me when I study in the morning,
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  Speaker 1: when I study, when I'm doing my PhD stuff, and
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  Speaker 1: I've got to read papers, and it's heavy going and
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  Speaker 1: it's very, very cerebral and very it's not fun, right,
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  Speaker 1: It's kind of sucks a lot of it. But I
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  Speaker 1: know that I absorb more, I'm more present, I can
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  Speaker 1: concentrate better, and I can get through what might take
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  Speaker 1: me ninety minutes in the afternoon will take me sixty
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  Speaker 1: minutes in the morning. I also know that, for example,
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  Speaker 1: as a presenter, as somebody who stands in front of audiences,
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  Speaker 1: and we're not just talking about peak performance time. Now
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  Speaker 1: we're talking about peak performance habits here, but I know
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  Speaker 1: that if I'm speaking at nine o'clock in the morning,
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  Speaker 1: even though I normally eat breakfast, I won't eat breakfast
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  Speaker 1: because even after breakfast there's a little bit of a
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  Speaker 1: cognitive lull. Not massive, but I know. And again this
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  Speaker 1: is not a recommendation. This is a personal revelation that
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  Speaker 1: I've had an awareness that I have when I am
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  Speaker 1: a little bit hungry, I present better, my brain works better,
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  Speaker 1: I'm more present, I'm more switched on, and I tend
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  Speaker 1: to perform at a higher level. So what's the bottom line.
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  Speaker 1: The bottom line is you are constantly getting feedback from
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  Speaker 1: your body and from your results, and from all the
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  Speaker 1: things happening to you and around you because of you
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  Speaker 1: and despite you. And the challenge is to think about,
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  Speaker 1: how do I get the most out of my genetics,
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  Speaker 1: What is the thing that works best? How do I
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  Speaker 1: get the most out of my mind? How do I
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  Speaker 1: get the most out of my time and my talent
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  Speaker 1: and my resources. What are the peak performance times for
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  Speaker 1: me to get stuff done, to do stuff to be
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  Speaker 1: most effective? What are the piece of the peak performance
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  Speaker 1: habits and behaviors that work optimally for me, and when
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  Speaker 1: we start to pay rather than just being in this
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  Speaker 1: groundhog dayus of repetition. I train at six pm every
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  Speaker 1: night because I always train at six pm. And I
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  Speaker 1: know there are lots of variables that mean we can't
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  Speaker 1: always train or do things at the best time because
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  Speaker 1: of practical commitments. But there are some things over time
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  Speaker 1: where we say, you know what, maybe I could get
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  Speaker 1: up and go for a run at five point thirty
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  Speaker 1: because when I run at five thirty AM, I feel
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  Speaker 1: way better than five point thirty pm. But it's about awareness,
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  Speaker 1: it's about trying stuff. It's about an equals one. It's
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  Speaker 1: about you being able to do a bit of research
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  Speaker 1: on you. You don't need to be a scientist to
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  Speaker 1: do scientific stuff so that you can figure out what
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  Speaker 1: works optimally for you on planet you. We'll be back
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  Speaker 1: in a minute. So here's my suggestion for this week,
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  Speaker 1: not a or yeah for the coming week, not a question,
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  Speaker 1: more a suggestion. Maybe if you feel compelled, if what
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  Speaker 1: I said kind of makes sense and you want to
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  Speaker 1: do something about that, identify an area or a couple
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  Speaker 1: of areas that for you you would really like to
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  Speaker 1: do better, or you would like to become more of
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  Speaker 1: a peak performer in that place. Well, rather than just
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  Speaker 1: doing what you've always done, try something new. Start to
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  Speaker 1: record like one of the things that I used to
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  Speaker 1: do for years and years and years. I'm not suggesting
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  Speaker 1: you do this, and of course it's about much more
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  Speaker 1: than your body and food, but I'm just giving you
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  Speaker 1: a practical example. I recorded all of my workouts. I
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  Speaker 1: recorded sets, reps, volume, intensity, workload. I recorded food. I
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  Speaker 1: recorded Micro's macros meals, I recorded sleep, I recorded I
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  Speaker 1: recorded all of the things, all of the variables that
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  Speaker 1: would get me in shape and give me peak physical performance.
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  Speaker 1: I recorded all of that for fifteen years, and somewhere
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  Speaker 1: I've got fifteen years worth of data, but me me
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  Speaker 1: tracking my behavior and diorizing my behavior so that I
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  Speaker 1: could recognize where peak performance, where optimal performance came from
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  Speaker 1: for me. So maybe an idea for you is to
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  Speaker 1: start tracking things so that you can see what works.
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  Speaker 1: Trying things and don't try it for two days ago
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  Speaker 1: it didn't work. Maybe you're going to go, you know what,
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  Speaker 1: I'm gonna work out, or I'm going to do a
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  Speaker 1: cold shower every day for the next twenty eight days.
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  Speaker 1: See what happens, or you might go, I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: switch my workouts from this time to that time, see
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  Speaker 1: what happens. Or I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: stop eating at six o'clock at night, and I'm not
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  Speaker 1: going to eat till eight the next morning, so I've
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  Speaker 1: got a fourteen hour window when nothing's gone, i might
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  Speaker 1: sleep better. Or I'm gonna, well, I'm not going to
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  Speaker 1: look at a screen, any kind of screen, a fine,
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  Speaker 1: a tablet, a television, a computer. I'm not going to
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  Speaker 1: look at a screen from seven pm on any night.
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  Speaker 1: Or I'm not going to turn on my phone till
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  Speaker 1: ten o'clock every day, or whatever it is. Figure out
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  Speaker 1: what the thing is for you that might be relevant,
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  Speaker 1: Try stuff, change stuff. You're not going to accidentally figure
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  Speaker 1: it out. It needs to be a conscious process where
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  Speaker 1: you are starting to figure out what works optimally for you.
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  Speaker 1: See tomorrow,