Lets Enterprise - Agile Life Session 2 with Mark Luckey

Hey Muhammad. How you doing? Big dive.

Hi. What's up? Good afternoon this afternoon.

And slowly but surely everyone comes in. Shajil, Anna. Although I know it's not Anna.

Needy.

How are we all today? No one's talking to me. Dave's 10xing it. Someone can take off their audio and talk to me. Make me feel less lonely.

Come on, Muhammad.

Tell us how you are.

Everyone, just so you know, this is my friend Dave. He's also a coach and he's coming to sit in. Well, he might learn a little bit. Maybe not as much as everyone else, but he'll have plenty to offer, no doubt. How's everything in Pune today at let's Enterprise?

Wonderful.

Wonderful.

At least for the facilitators. I'm not sure about the students.

I'm noticing the students are a little bit slower to get online today. As that indicative charge earlier. Breaking them a little bit at the moment or.

Yep. So we on the bag end of this. At least for the year twos. Then they're going to go on a study break. Muhammad starts his exams next week. His exams are just coming up around the corner and the others are starting the week after. So.

Yeah, fair enough. Fair enough. We have Dr. Cheryl has joined us. How are you today, Tripti? That I'm good, thank you. But I couldn't hear her. But I did read the lips I think pretty well there.

Just a quick before we get started, if you could make me the co host so I can manage the wait list.

I will try my very best to make you the co host I have. How about I just make you the host? Actually, if I make you the host, that's problematic, isn't it? All right, tell me, how do I make you a co host?

There should be an option there itself where it will tell you. Make co host.

I can see make you a host. Hang on, here we go. I can see host.

There's no co host option.

You go to participants and then you click on next to Sharjil's name. You'll see an option to make him co host. I think that's what I usually do.

I can see make host. Let's just try make host and see what happens there.

Okay, I'm post.

Would you be able to enable me to share please, Shajill, now that I've made you the host.

Damn. All right.

I thought it was the same as well there, Miller, but it's the joy of technology. We'll put that one down too. And so how did everyone go in the chats with the clone Amila. I know you were having a bit of fun with it from our chat the other day. How did you find it?

I quite enjoyed it, I must say. And I kept it open on my laptop and kept going back to it and asking and answering another question. They always. Barcus always ends with a question.

There's all of these tweaks. And because it's. The technology is really new. I think this company has only been funded a bit over a year. And so literally every week we get quite major updates about, you can now do this and do that. And the questions are. I think they built that in to try and keep interaction going, but now it's changed a little bit where they've wound it back where you can sort of modify it and make it work to your own parameters. But it's a real.

It.

It just feels organic the whole time that I'll fix one part. And it's a bit like a kid that doesn't want to behave or like I say, you know, a puppy running around. It'll just do something else instead. Right, Very amusing.

But.

But it was fun and it was helpful. It was helpful too.

It's.

It's amazing for. For what it is. It's really good. And I wonder if part of our perception is because we kind of start expecting it to be human. You know, like, we start off going, oh, that's weird. That's a bit odd. You know, and then it kind of works. And then you're like, oh, I don't like. And you'll even hear me saying, I don't like his voice. Yeah, I don't like the way he spoke to me. So we're obviously humanizing it now. Shajil, where are all these students? What's going on?

Yeah, so a bunch of them were also sick. So I think we should get started. I'm gonna send a message across just in case, but I think because it's already five minutes past eight.

Yeah, sure. All right, well, how about we get going? I'm pretty sure I have begun recording this one. I will do that. So just while I'm bringing everything up to date. And you'll just let people in as we go along? Yes, all too kind. All right, we'll. We'll try our little friend Barcus. We'll see how Barkis goes today. I won't get him to talk in Hindi this time. And if anyone's been using the video function, I've turned off the video function because I'm finding it just a little bit too odd. At the moment it was misbehaving a touch. All right, just one. Okay, so you can all see my screen there.

Yes, Ex.

Excellent. And let's see if our little friend Barcus is going to join us. He's always a bit amusing and if you'd be kind.

Hi, I'm Barcus, your 247 resilience coach. What's your name?

Hey Barcas, it's Mark here. How you doing?

Hey Mark, I'm doing just Dan, actually.

I just realized I've got the wrong instance of Barcus and that one sometimes swears so we won't use him.

There we go.

All righty. So, okay, well, I'll leave it to you to handle all the incoming folk, if that's.

Hi Mark, what are we presenting today?

Hey there, Bakus. We are presenting session two of the Agile Life for our friends in India. Would you mind helping me out today?

Absolutely, Mark. I'm here to help you. Rock. Session two of the Agile Life. It's always a thrill to connect with our friends in India. Let's dive into the world of agility and make this session as engaging and insightful as possible. What's the focus for today?

I'll let you know as we go along. But everyone, welcome to session two of the Agile Life. It's fantastic to have you all here. Once again I'll entrust you all to update our friends who haven't made it along later on. But excellent that you all did make it. So as we were quickly saying before, did anyone else have any conversations with the clone that they would like to give me a quick update on? Nidhi, I think you had a bit of a crack in a conversation. How did you go?

Yeah, so we were working on a project recently, so I asked it the same question, like literally after the meeting because it was stuck. And it actually did give me some valuable insights which we thought as our implement, we implemented a bit in the apps. It was very interesting. Then I was asking those random prompts which were there about sleep hygiene and other things. It was really good.

It should have done quite well for sleep hygiene, is that correct? Yeah, it's got a bit of that.

I was also trying to prove a point to another friend of mine, so I was like, yes, sleep hygiene.

Excellent work, very good. And did anyone have the conversations about the Agile Manifesto or the Reticular Activation System?

Ah, the Agile Manifesto.

Well, what did you want to say about the Agile Manifesto, Barcus?

Ah, the Agile Manifesto. It's like the secret source for adaptability. Imagine a world where Individuals and interactions trump processes and tools. It's about working together, not in isolation. Agile is all about responding to change with a considered response, not just reacting. Think. Think of it as a dance where you adjust your steps to the rhythm of feedback and change. It's not about having a perfect plan, but about making small functional pieces work and showing them off. So are you ready to embrace agility in your life and projects?

I think we are and we'll keep going. Alrighty. So quick review. Last week we did the introduction. Today, as per Shah Jill's request was we're focusing on planning backwards for success. And I've specifically made this a bit about homework assignments for the guys at let's Enterprise, but for anyone else who is working on time dependent tasks, particularly presentations, getting reports in all those longer daunting pieces of work where they feel like they're a long way in the future but we know they will race up. We're going to go through that planning methodology today. And next week we look at Life Cadence, which is a bit about applying the information we put in place today and how that fits within the different days and the different cadences that those different days bring to our existence. So as we've just covered off outline for session two, quick recap of last week. Today's about success, what it is enabling it, the neuroscience behind it, some of the planning examples. So I'm going to give three planning examples. One of them is one that worked eventually. The second is a planning example that failed miserably. Fortunately it wasn't mine. And the third one is we're going to collaboratively do the homework and the assignment planning work. And that'll give you guys something to hopefully work with and to put into practice through the exams. And as I constantly tell my daughter, the whole point of these processes is to make it as easy as possible in as little time as possible to get good results in whatever we're doing. But it's funny, the moment you say to someone, oh, we're going to plan your homework, it instantly feels like we're adding more work onto them for the person hearing it. So it's a, it's an interesting lesson for both teachers, bosses and parents that that is what people hear when we say let's talk about the task you have to do. The instant assumption is we're making it bad. So we'll go through a bit of the process, a bit of Pomodoro, and plenty of time for questions again at the end. So just a quick recap of last week. Muhammad can you remember for me any of the 10 Commandments of the Agile Life? If you give me three, I'll give you a gold star. Better be quick. Or Bakus.

Ah, the ten Commandments.

See, I told you. You got to beat Barcus to it or you don't get your gold star. Muhammad, do you remember any of the ten Commandments from last week?

I do not. I have a very bad memory. I forgot. I don't mind telling. That's right.

Does anyone else remember any of them? Zainab, have you got any for me?

Finish strong. Realistic optimism should happen.

Alrighty folks, let's jog those memory muscles. Remember the first commandment is all about playing the.

Marcus, couldn't hear. Barcus, shush. Very good. That's pretty good. Keep going. Zainab, what else do you remember? She's got them written down in front of her.

Look at it. Yeah.

Zaina, you clever cookie. Got the notes right there, eh? That's the way to stay ahead of the game. It's like having a cheat sheet for life. Now let's see if you can pull out another gem from those commandments. What's next on your list? Remember, it's not just about ticking boxes. It's about.

No, I'm going to cut him off for the moment. Keep going Xanan, because I want to hear you've got them all. You can remind everyone for me.

Play the long game. Rest before you get tired. Reduce distraction and increase focus. Better work is more than more hours. Balance the streams and Kaizen.

Nice. Very good indeed. Does anyone else. Was there anything else that stood out for everyone last week? I can tell you what the most important one is. So the most important thing for any of this, planning for any of the stuff we do, for anything that we are pushing ourselves through in particular, is to remember what our why is. Because the why we do something is attached to the emotion. The emotion is ultimately what is what fuels us through particularly the more challenging times that we are working on. So it's a. It's a really good reminder to keep in place for there. Alrighty. So with that in mind, let us talk.

Hi, Mark. What are we presenting today?

Success is so success is a really fascinating one. Sometimes we talk about success in terms of outcome, sometimes we talk about success in terms of process. And nowadays a lot of people are actually saying that it's more important to focus on the process as opposed to focusing on the goal. Because goals are often outcomes. And as you can see, success. There's lots of different definitions of success over the years Winston Churchill during war. For him, success was not failure. When you look at Antoine de Saint Exuberie there, it's a goal without a plan is just a wish. So success without, you know, any planning behind it won't happen. My coach, Craig Harper has a great saying, which is the chance of life turning out the way you want without a vision. Plan and a design is about zero. And the real challenge around success is how do we define it? Is it an outcome? Is it a feeling? Is it a goal? I put up on the screen there some of my sort of favorite comments with regarding success. But one of my other ones in terms of success or planning, and this is one of my favorites, is that luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. And literally a lot of success planning is being ready for the opportunity that will eventually present itself. But the opportunity doesn't come around every day. Barcus, what do you have around defining success for the crew at home?

Ah, success. That elusive beast. It's like trying to catch a shadow sometimes, isn't it? But here's the kicker. Success isn't just a destination. It's the journey, the sweat, the grit and the grind. It's about setting those goal posts and knowing that every step you take is a brushstroke on your life's canvas. Now think of success as a dance between preparation and opportunity. You can't control when the music starts, but you can be ready to groove when it does. So how do you define success? Is it crossing the finish line or the strides you take to get there? Remember, the masterpiece of your life isn't painted in a day. It's crafted with every decision, every plan, and every moment of preparation. What's your next brushstroke?

Nice one, Emila. I see you nodding a lot there. What are your thoughts around planning, success as an outcome or a process? Ah, the age old debate.

Outcome versus process.

It's like he's not listening today. I think there might be an audio issue, so I think I might kill him off. Keep going, please.

Yeah, my whole mindset is in a different world alog. So for me it's really super organic. And for me, every moment of my day is a successful moment. And that just builds and builds and builds and so I just never not see success. It's, it's, it's something like that. I don't know if it's easy to understand, but that's how it is.

No, that's. So is that more about looking for the positivity or the lesson or not seeing anything as a failure, but more as an opportunity to learn. Is that where you're coming with that one?

Kind of. It's more about so much focus on the moment than on a future goal. That every moment is so full that whatever it leads to, it's a success. So without even having that, it's more an intuitive process about honing the person. I think let's Enterprise has that also as a value that first the person is ready and then the business person is ready. So for me, first I am ready and then my success is just there.

Okay, pretty cool. Thank you very much for that. Shajill, how do you feel? Does that encapsulate the way you go about preparing the students at let's Enterprise? Does that align with what your thoughts?

Absolutely. I mean, ur summed it up. Common mantra is that the person should be ready before anything else happens. I mean we can get into you can be. So before you become a good doctor, good engineer, good da da da da. You need to be first a good human because at the end of the day, we all are human beings, right? And once that happens, then everything else to define an amazing.

Excellent. Okay, good to know. It's really interesting how education, I know let's Enterprise are many, many steps ahead of the average educational organization in that regard. And that is the joy of being, I think, agile, smaller and startup. And you know, of course Adi is not exactly a conformist on these matters. So we know that he plays to the tune of his own drum, which is why let's Enterprise exists. But I, you know, I reflect back to my own educational process and it was all get good marks, get a bad mark, you get grounded and you study more. You know, there was never anything about how are you feeling today? How do we work for you, for your learning style or where you're at in your life or whatever it is, never mind. First of all become a good person and then everything else flows from that. But that is also at the cornerstone of success. Because if we feel like we are a good person, we are probably also in a positive mindset, empathetic understanding of the world, connected to the world and so on. So, and this is one of the great things about presenting to people in another country is the answers to the questions are never what you expect. Even though I know India pretty well. So very cool indeed. Thank you. So, talking about success and I was wondering if I can throw this one over to Shajil. Who do you think we should get to answer this one? But the question is, what is the problem with Focusing on outcomes instead of process when it comes to success. Who are we going to nominate for this one?

Nidhi, certainly.

Oh, we're just going to keep getting Nidhi to answer questions because she's, we know that she'll give a good answer. Great.

No, no, no, because I know she's, she needs that.

Ah.

One second.

So what is the answer then? Nidhi.

Question was that why do we, why we focus on the outcome rather than the process? Right.

So the specific question was what's the problem with focusing on outcomes instead of processing?

I think at times we get caught up with the outcome in the sense, okay, we need to. Maybe the perfectionism aspect of it too. I need to get this done at like this particular time. It needs to be perfect. So sometimes we get caught up in that. And personally that could also stop you to actually, you know, be present in the process or also just take those small steps to get to the process. So instead of even maybe moving the needle little by little, you just get stuck and it doesn't really go forward. Possibly also then you, you could also glorify the outcome a lot and get lost in the process. And yeah, on those lines, maybe.

Look, there is no right or wrong to the answer, but I think you've given me a probably a better answer than I would have expected. Particularly I like your comments around glorifying the outcome. And there's two parts I think that are great that you've picked up in that comment. Both I think the stoics reading through the Bhagavad Gita, and I know there is a bit also in Japanese martial arts stuff about it says that when things go badly, we shouldn't get caught up in the, in the moment of the world's gone bad and getting caught up in the grief of the moment. That yes, something bad can happen and yes, from when that bad thing happens to when we get back on our seat is sometimes, you know, we need to sometimes recover. But ultimately that time in between where the thing happens and where we get back on the bike is actually wasted time. The reason I say that one is so the stoics say it happens. You look at it, you move on and you learn and you move on. Like maybe Amela was touching on just before. But similarly, it also says when you win, don't get caught up in three weeks of celebrations and a cocaine binge because that means that we're getting too focused on the outcomes. Because that time from when we win the match and we're partying or over celebrating, we're also not getting anything done. And it's not to say that we don't need that time to bounce forward again, but it just basically says don't get caught up too much in the over glorification or the overpitting of success and failure. So very well done, very well done. So what we're talking about here is optimizing the chances of success and looking at what's done, whether it is an outcome or a process, which we'll come to in a moment. And the first thing is with anything that is success is we need to define it, what is it? And one of my favorite emphasis on this is that if you're playing sport, whether it's rugby, soccer, anything with a goal, a goal is another way of saying that's the direction I've got to go in. If you don't know where the goals are, you can be the greatest kick or the greatest hitter, or if you don't know where the flag is on the golf course, where do you hit the ball, where do you aim? If you don't know where to aim, how do you correct. So if we never define what success is for us, we'll never actually achieve it because we won't know when we get there or we won't know how to get there because a bit like a destination. If you said, well, we're going on a holiday and someone said, well, how are we getting there? And you said, well, I don't know, I don't know where we're going yet. We might go to, you know, mwa. So we'll go by car. We might go to Bali, so we have to drive to Mumbai and then, you know, fly to Jakarta and then fly to Bali. Or we might be going to Nepal, we might choose to catch a train. So if we don't know what we're doing or what the end point is, we can't work out what needs to be done to get there. Once you start looking at what do I want, what needs to be done, then we can start saying, well, how does this part need to be done? How does this part need to be done? You know, if this was my goal, Mr. Write all of these books, it first of all feels very daunting. But the first thing is, well, we've got to do this book. Now, how do we do this book? We open the front page and we begin writing on the front page. And it's a very small step in 64 pages in seven books. But it basically says this is what's got to be done. At each stage, when it needs to be done by to have that successful outcome that we are moving our way towards. So, simple example. I want to get an A in a test. Okay, so what do I need to do to get an A? When do I need to get the A by? Well, the exam is on this day and that sort of stuff. And so it's really about defining what success means for us. Then we can focus our energies forward a bit like something and another one. And here's something we spoke about briefly, I think, last week, and maybe when I was in let's Enterprise earlier in the year, was talking about distractions and focus. So distractions and focus, they kind of work hand in hand in destroying one another. The more distracted we are, the less we're able to focus. So the more our distraction raises, the more our focus drops. The more that we are able to focus, the less susceptible we are to distractions. So, for example, if you were to look at my desk at the moment, it's pretty clear. And that tells me that when I sit down and work today, I'll probably work quite productively later on. But if my desk is full of crap, my eyes are literally devoting part of my brain to every bit of crap in front of me. So literally, having a phone on the desk takes about 11% of our mental horsepower. And so by removing the distractions that can possibly take our mind in other directions, we can improve our ability to focus. And this is what I believe is one of the biggest problems that gets in the way of success, is when we are ready for a distraction and there is one there, we will take it if we are ready for a distraction. It's like feeling hungry but there's nothing to eat. And you go, oh, well, I won't bother eating for the moment because there's nothing here to eat. And distraction and focus are much the same thing. Is there any questions there at the moment? Ah, Miller, there was nothing missing in your answer. Your answer was very complete. There is no incomplete answer. Was there any other questions before we move along about defining success and enabling it? Whether you want to chat it or ask any other. Anything else?

No.

All right, we'll keep moving along. All right, so these are, if you like, what I believe is some of the very basic elements of success. And there's a couple here that I've only learned this year being coached. So I've got horrifying news for all of the students at let's Enterprise, and that is that learning doesn't end once we finish university and what's even more horrible is we actually start enjoying it. I know that's terrifying to think about that. Why would we actually choose to keep studying? But eventually we work out that life is a lesson. And in fact we are our happiest when we are doing new things, which is learning. Learning by default is a new thing. So Success 101, one of the most important things is the detail of defining what needs to be done. The more specific the detail around the practice, the process and the outcomes of success, the greater the chance of getting them because our mind has to really devote itself to what success is about. The second one around success, and we touched on this a little bit last week, is that notion of realistic optimism. Now, if you've only ever gotten Ds in maths, you might be setting yourself up for a failure, hoping to get an A for that test next week for exam. But maybe C or A B is great if you think you've developed the right sorts of outcomes. When I was younger, I used to feel that if I was aiming for anything less than perfect, then I was letting myself down. But there were some subjects that I would get A's in because I was good at. For example, biology. I wasn't so good at politics. I really enjoyed it, but I just never understood the nuance of politics. So if I hoped for an A in an exam, all that would happen is I'd be disappointed. If I went into a biology exam and had a great experience, I would do really well in my next examination. If I went into maths and I thought, you know what, I find this hard, but I'm going to give it a great go. And it was hard, but I gave it a great go. I still felt good. But if I expected an A in something that I knew I didn't have a chance of getting A. Does anyone want to tell me what the first mental reaction is after we fail at something that we expected to fail? Anyone want to jump in? No. I can see that Nidhi wants to because this is really chewing at her this week. If we set ourselves up for failure and we know that we are going to fail when we do, our mind says to us, I told you that you were no good at this. And it reinforces a failure mechanism. Unfortunately, if we're realistic, we go, well, I would like to have done better, then the next thing our mind does is, what can I do better? And it's a different train of thought from the same outcome. It's a really interesting one. Brick by brick, success doesn't happen overnight. A house is not built in one day. Cities aren't built in one day. A house is a daunting thing to build, but like a marathon is step by step. A house is brick by brick. And the great thing about acknowledging brick by brick, as we'll come to later on, is that a house has a million bricks, for example. And if I know that today I just need to lay 100 bricks and eventually my house will be finished. Today's goal is 100 bricks. And I can feel good about today even though the house isn't finished. And that's important because feeling good success breeds success. We rest well, we sleep well, we plan well, we lift our efforts again for the next day, which is really important. One of the other things, achieving success, which I'll touch on quickly, is the notion of planning under our capacity. Does anyone want to jump into this one before we go along? Any questions, comments on this one? Shajil, what would you say that under capacity could be about? Why would we plan to be under capacity? I'll give you a hint. Zainab touched on it in one of her first three Agile Life principles, and she giggled.

Huh. So I think under capacity is basically not burning ourselves out because we know we need to have that mental capacity when things go south. Because if I would have already given, you know, all out, and then when things go south, then I don't have any more to give.

Yeah. Yeah. And that's we learned this in a software we did two big development projects back to back. Actually, we did two different phases of a project. And the first one, we gave everyone eight hours of work a day. Now, I could have given them 100 hours of work a day or one hour of work a day, but they still would have gotten the same amount of work done per day. Because some days there were power cuts, they get halfway into the day and there's a problem that couldn't be solved. And I wasn't available because of time zone. So what we did was we said, okay, every day we are only going to allocate six hours of work per person because as Zeb said earlier, when shit happens, that means we're still on track. If it doesn't happen, we work ahead a little bit and we go, what can I do today that I had scheduled for tomorrow? And that makes us feel like we're progressing more as opposed to feeling like we're falling behind. Same work gets done, but then if we feel like we're doing more, we actually try and succeed a little bit more. The next day. So planning under capacity is just leaving buffer for shit happening. Zone one, focus. This is really simple one. Zone one is what I can control. If I focus on what I can control, I've got a greater chance of influencing outcomes. If I focus on the weather and allow the weather. Although it is a beautiful day here Today, just quietly 21 degrees, pure blue skies, it's delightful. But if I allow the weather to be the source of my happiness, then I'm focusing on things outside of my control and I'm giving up my ability to satisfy myself to things that are outside of my sphere of influence. The final one, and this is one that I've only recently learned that is really resonating. And it's this notion of an escape clause. Another word for escape clause is self sabotage. And an escape clause is if we are setting ourselves a goal for something that if we are planning something, it might be something like, I'm never going to eat a McDonald's burger again unless I walk past a McDonald's. I will get an A in this test if I study every night. But I already know that four nights this week we've got family coming over for dinner. Why didn't you get an A? Well, you kept bringing people over for dinner, Mum. How am I supposed to study? It's an escape clause. When we take away the escape clause, all that is left is the purity of our effort and we stop looking for excuses and we start looking for solutions. It's a really fascinating one and it's a really sharp lesson that I've learned recently.

Alrighty.

So a little bit of the neuroscience before I start showing you photographs of me getting beaten up. People really like watching the videos of me getting beaten up in martial arts tournaments. I've learned over the years. I think it's a bit of satisfaction for them. So there's a few bits around the science of planning that are great to know about. Prefrontal cortex is the part of our brain that's around strategic decision making and goal evaluation. It works really well when we aren't being emotional. So one of the actions we focus on is what can take the emotion or the emotional overload out of our decision making around success. You'll hear a lot about dopamine. And dopamine is basically the chemical that when we do something that feels good, says, do it again. That felt good. Do it again. And it's built into our mechanism for survival as a species, that if we ate something that tasted good and had nutrition, our body would go, oh, that's exactly what we needed. So dopamine was built to respond to exercise, sunlight, the right sorts of foods, salty, fatty protein, whatever it was, sex, fluid and anything companionship that made us feel good, that was part of our survival as a species. Unfortunately. Now, Krispy Kreme doughnuts are one of the biggest sources of dopamine because as soon as we see it, we go, oh, crunchy exterior, soft interior, it melts in my mouth. It's amazing. And some people it's alcohol, cigarettes, gambling, it can be anything. But dopamine. And motivation needs to be part of our planning cycle. Really interesting part around success is the difference between working memory and focus. And what it is, is working memory is we do something, we learn it, we have to remember it because that then enables us to learn the next thing. It's like when you start doing maths, you've got to learn addition, then subtraction, then division, then multiplication, natural logarithms, base 10 logarithms. The more crazy stuff around maths, but it's all a series of steps. We have to remember the steps before neuroplasticity. Our brain changes with skill improvement. If we don't plan well or we don't plan for success in terms of, what's the word I'm looking for? In terms of realistic expectations, we feel stressed. When we feel stressed, our prefrontal cortex goes backwards and we stop planning. And of course there's all these different behavioral impacts around visualization. Reinforcement of positivity, healthy lifestyle in terms of food, drink, diet, sleep, exercise are all part of the planning ecosystem. And if you get a chance, and we come back to this at the end, chat to the clone about what are my chances of optimizing success. It's a really great way to look at it. So let's get on to photographs of me getting beaten up, which, like I said, really amuses a lot of people. So this, if you like, is first of all, several years of failure and eventually success. So I call this one chasing a national title. 2013, I was about, I was 39, 38. Turning 39, I realized I'd stopped doing new things and I was getting middle aged and boring. So I thought, you know what? I'm going to go do a competition in karate. Just one, see how I go. That whole first year, all I did was get beaten up. I had no idea really what I was doing in competitions. There's nothing like fighting in the dojo. But I got third at the national titles. I literally won three fights for the year. And two of them happened to be at the national title fight day, which was awesome. 2014, it's a little bit embarrassing. I got injured quite badly at the start of the year putting on a shoe. The shoe that I was putting on was really tight. Have you ever tried to get your foot into a shoe that's too tight and you wobble it and you're trying to get your foot. And I went bang as my foot slipped into the shoe and I jammed my foot into the ground and it split my patella underneath my kneecap. And I had to have surgery. Putting on a shoe. One of my favorite moments ever, that imagine going to the coach and going, oh, dude, I won't be competing this year. Why not? Mark hurt my knee. How'd you do that? Putting on a shoe? Senseis don't like hearing that. They think that's a bit weird. So I was ready to go again. 2015 wasn't quite getting it, but I got third again. 2016, I got third again. And 2016 was quite interesting because I actually turned up feeling good, ready, awesome, Perfectly tuned, no injuries. And then the first fight started. And as we began fighting, as you'll see in a second, I was losing my breath really badly and I couldn't work out what was going on. And in all these fights, from being the ultra fit athlete, I couldn't breathe, had an asthma attack, didn't know what was going on. Later to find out, I actually had pneumonia. And because I'd been training so hard, the training had masked all the symptoms of as soon as I stopped training in preparation for the tournament, the pneumonia began flooding my lungs. And I turned up on tournament day basically with lungs full of fluids and only about half my lung capacity. It's quite bizarre. So as you will see here, this is what a tournament fight looks like. So this is 2016. So when we got to 2018, I was really focused on winning the national title. And that was all about training faster, getting stronger, putting myself in different techniques. And you can see how big everyone is in these tournaments, you know, fighting people that are always about this much taller because in the veterans, you know, it's just challenging. But my fitness wasn't quite there. My skills sort of needed improving a bit. And as you can see with this guy, you know, he's slowly but surely taking me apart. And once again, in 2016, I got third in. It really hurts when you get hit in the face. There is nothing like making you focus when you get belted in the head and then the person beats you. So I really went back to the training track. So this guy here, this is a Cuban national champion. This is. This is maybe five or I. Yeah, this is eight years ago. And he would just punish me over and over and over. He just had me doing these things I couldn't do because he said, to win, these are the things you'll need to be able to do. So I was focusing on winning. But, Nidhi, can you tell me what was wrong with my plan.

Again? Maybe that you were just so focused with the outcome of the winning aspect of it, you couldn't really maybe pick up on, like, the small details. The small, small. Like the changes that you could make that would implement, like, could, like, implement majorly that would help in the later part because you were so focused. Okay, I need to get this. But these small things that changes that you could have done in the moment, in the present. In the present could have helped.

Yeah.

And it ties actually back to what Emila was saying earlier on, is that when I was thinking about winning, winning was either later in that fight or in three months time. And it was taking me away from what I needed to do in that moment. And so instead of being entirely focused on the here and now, which is the only time I could improve, I was always thinking about winning, and winning drove me. So, of course, that year I eventually came second. And second is even worse than coming third because you're this far away. So I'll just play this one again because this one at the dojo was the favorite clip. So I'll play that again because all my mates at the dojo love this one. Watch how hard this guy clocks me in the nose in just a second. Yeah, so when you get hit in the nose like that, you go numb on about this much of your face and it slowly spreads out across your face. Interestingly, in that fight, I got so annoyed and so angry, I actually came back from quite a big deficit and won the fight. So that was my biggest problem for that year. As Nidhi touched on. And what Emilia was touching on before was I'd spent five years focused on winning, which was the outcome. And so the big difference that I put in place for 2019 was not to focus on the goal, but to focus on giving myself the best chance of being my best. So my. I'd learned from neuroplasticity. I'd had more fights, I'd had more practice, so my working memory was now engaged. I remembered that if I did this thing, it wouldn't necessarily work. I got really good at Planning tomorrow, You know, it'd be on Friday. I've got a selection for a tournament on Sunday. So on Thursday, I need to do light training. And the training would be slow motion practice where I'd literally just walk my way through strategy and fights. I learned that I had to practice all of the scenarios because I'd been hit in the head. I realized I need to learn how to keep my cool when I've been knocked emotionally off guard. I needed to have good punches. I needed to have good kicks. I needed to have good defense. I needed to defend elite. And as Zainab said before, I needed to be able to finish strong. Because if you don't finish strong in fights, doesn't go well. You're all going to love this bit of footage coming up in a second. I think it's this bit. I know this is the final. You missed the good one, but they were the three. They were the really big things. I actually started focusing on the process. So my focus actually became, I need to get there on the first morning of the tournament, relaxed. How will I feel relaxed? I'll feel relaxed if I know I've done everything I need to. How would I do that? I've slept well the night before. If I've slept well the night before, that's because I've let my body recover. Not had caffeine too late, not had any alcohol. How will I feel relaxed in the morning if I've done all the training, if I did everything possible? And there was three really big things that happened in that year, which brought a lot of stuff together. First one was my dad had died at the start of 2019. And as I was training for the first time with the Australian team, I was super emotional. It, you know, it was. I think I was training with the Australian team and then flying to India only three weeks after he died. So it was just so raw in my mind. And I. I'm not sure why, but I felt like his presence was there with me. So I talked to him and. And I'd use that to bring myself down into focus. So I really learned to harness that emotion. I had a very strong why that this was the year that there'd be no excuses. As I said before, I didn't plan to win. I planned to get to every tournament relaxed. I knew that if I spent three hours warming up, I'd be exhausted. I knew that I needed to time my warmup. So it was just before a fight. I was ready to go. But the final one was I took away every Excuse. I threw away my get out of jail card and I threw away my fear of failure. And what happened, as opposed to focusing on getting an A, as opposed to turning up at the exam going, I've given it absolutely everything I could. We actually feel really calm. It's entirely different because all the expectation goes. By relaxing, our prefrontal cortex can bring all of that information together. If we're not stressed, then our amygdala is not emotionally trying to hijack us and send us into fight or flight. But we have our very, very best chance performing well. And so for me, there was a couple of symbolic things I did. There was no alcohol for a month before the fight. There was no carbohydrates for about six weeks before. So I had a really clean diet, realized that made all my knees and my ankles and my elbows feel better. And by throwing away my fear, I just felt so much better about what I went around doing. What was fascinating was that was also the best year ever in my career because the way we do one things is all thing. And I found that I just, everything I was doing, I gave myself the very best opportunity and I was lucky enough to win that year, which is really awesome. And it just felt, yeah, it was an amazing thing all coming together. Now I'm going to talk to you very quickly about something that went wrong. So this is, this is my house. And we recently, literally recently just completed final part of turning the front of our garden from an absolute heap into what it looks like there at the top. Right, picture. So we had a plan, we had pictures, we had plants, we had materials, chosen all of these things to the builders and said, hey, this is what we're going to do. And they looked at it and they went, yeah, we understand this. And they said, yep, this is cool. Then they started doing it, but they didn't actually think about what was involved in getting to success. So on the first day they turned up, they had all their materials. They started with the bulldozer tire went flat, they weren't prepared, so there was no tire repair kit for the tractor. So they lost three days because it was a Friday. And so on Sunday, it rained for four days, took two days until the mud dried enough that you could put a heavy vehicle on it. So before even starting, though, one week behind. Then when they came back, they just worked half days. Well, we only work half days on Fridays, Mark. Whereas we were sort of going, wouldn't you be making up for the lost time at this point? That'll be fine. They didn't plan the materials properly. They looked at how long it would. They looked at what needed to be done, but they didn't think about how long it would take to be done. They started turning up on the wrong days. They were sending people with the tiles before the tiling was ready to be done because no one had told them. We fell behind schedule for five days. So basically what I'm saying is they'd said where their end point for success needed to be, the final picture. But they didn't plan how to get there. They ran. Should have been a six week job. It took 11. It only got finished because I was the one who helped and lay the grass and do some of the stuff on the final days. And when he finished, the guy said, oh, we made no money on this job, actually we lost money. And it's sort of. Well, you never planned how to get there. You never actually worked out how do I get to that place? The client told me. And then in talking to them, they said, we've had our busiest year ever, but we've made the less profit we've ever made. And it's because every job they're not planning properly. So if you want to have success, not only do you need the pretty picture of what it looks like, but it's really important to define how to get there. Is there any more questions or comments that anyone would like to add as we go along? Harnessing emotion. It is so important, isn't it Amila? It is literally one of the greatest things when we know how to do it. Is there any other any comments or questions, particularly from non video participants? Shajill, do you want to pick someone out who's trying to hide and get them to throw a comment for us?

Yep. 100.

Oh, troopty shown up. She turned on her camera just then. So she's trying to pretend.

Oh no, no.

I've been here the whole time, I promise.

Then maybe Tripti should take it.

Tripty, do you have any comments or questions? And now she's going to pretend. Oh, my microphone's not working. You can't hear me. She's just. She. She's set up really nicely for this, hasn't she? She's now making me fail. Damn, I hadn't counted this. While Tripty works out how to enable the right microphone for commentary. Anyone else? Shajill, you want to dump in at short notice? We'll give Troop to you. We'll give her a leave pass for the moment.

Yep. I'm just going to Z. Why not?

Zoom.

Hey, Hi, Zed. Yeah, hi, Mark.

What are we presenting today?

Nope.

Tripty. Have you got your. You got your microphone sorted? That's a no. She's just avoiding me.

Shilp is joining in from one more account now. I'm just letting her in, so. Yeah, I think she's in now.

All right, you can hear me now, right?

Yes, we can hear you now. Thank you very much. Richie, do you have any questions or comments you'd like to offer us? Well, you don't have a choice. You have to make one. Now, because we've built it up so much, we're getting fixated on this massive, important and exciting question you're about to give us.

Like, so I don't have a question, but then I really like what you said about not being attached to the outcome and focusing on the detailing and the process. Yeah. Because, you know, usually we are so fixated on the goal that also kind of, I think, makes us not wanting to adapt or, you know, pivot towards. I mean, you know, pivot towards the outcome or, you know, the goal could also shift a little, maybe, you know.

Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I really like the fact, you know, that we could just focus on the process and the detailing and. Yeah, sooner or later, we're getting there.

Excellent. And I. I like. You've raised a really good point, which is one of the things that I think has been learned a lot about planning particularly successful projects and how far ahead we can plan, and that is that goals do shift sometimes because the world changes, but sometimes because we start on a work program and we sort of go, oh, maybe we can do better, or actually, that idea is not quite as good as I thought.

Yeah.

And we. We sort of talk about it a bit like, okay, we've got. In Agile, we work in sprints of two or three weeks, and so it's okay, work program for two weeks. This is what we're doing, this is what we're sticking at. Go for it. And we talk about head down, bum up, or, you know, focus on the task. And then at the end of the two weeks, we do two things when it comes to the direction or the goal that we're going to. And the first one is, am I going in the direction that I was meant to be going in? So if I've been going this way, I need to shift it back to where my target area was. The second one, is that still the target I want? Because maybe I've learned something that says that that actually isn't quite the target. It is actually a Little bit over this way as opposed to here or here. And that flexibility is really important because more often than not that secondary goal is better than the primary one we're focusing on might be more realistic, more achievable or in fact give a better outcome than what we're focusing on. So that's really cool. So, Shajil, I'm just going to enable Barkis again. So can I get you to line up questions because I've got quite a few little bits and pieces of input.

Hi, Mark.

What are we presenting today, Barkis? We are talking about planning for exams. So I just need you to chill out because I'll get to you some questions in a moment. Alrighty. So when we are looking at doing exams and work preparation, whether it's an exam, whether it's a proposal, whether it's a report, whether it's a financial end of year sales target, they tend to be fixed date and desired outcomes. But what we're going to talk about for this one, and particularly for you guys and I actually did this question when we get off the call, ask the clone. I've got an exam in three weeks time. How do I plan for it? And the answers are pretty awesome. But when it comes down to putting together the work, first of all, you've got to write down what you've got to do. You got the exam in three weeks. Either you want the A or you want to be focused. But you've got to define what it is you want and what you need to do to get there. The more detailed you are, the more, the better your plan will be every time. And it's not obsessing over perfection as you were touching on before, Nidhi. It's basically actually about giving ourselves lots of little tasks that we can tick off because the ticking off is very powerful. And if you look at this one, when it comes to, sorry, Nidhi, you're.

Going to say something is like, sort of like a breakdown of all of the tasks. Like you have one goal but then the detailed breakdown so you exactly know what to do and you don't like face time in that. And then use small, small tick, tick, tick. And it also kind of motivates you.

To get that task done 100% well done, well done. So if we look from the top, we've got both either a work on, work job on the right, an exam on the left. So what I've done is, I've said in this case, we're defining success as turning up on the morning of the exam and Almost looking forward to the exam starting. You know, you're halfway between nervous and going, I actually think I'm going to do well in this exam. That's how you want to feel for any exam, isn't it? We can't control the outcome because it might be the hardest test possible, it could be the easiest test possible. And Therefore everyone gets 97% and they do a grade curve. And because you got 95%, suddenly that's a C. So we focus on that really good outcome. We've got a date for the test, two weeks time. And as we'll talk about in a moment, the sorts of things that we focus on is we've got to do practice tests, we've got to study, we've got to research, we've got to look at the topics, we've got to establish the subjects that we need to know so that we can study, so that we can research test ourselves on, so then we can turn up feeling relaxed on the day. Does that make sense to everyone in terms of working backwards from success for a good exam experience? Does anyone have any questions they want to type in there? And Dave Montgomery, do not encourage my clone to go rogue. Barkis, will you go rogue if I let you go rogue?

Ah, Mark, you know me too well. I promise to keep my digital feet firmly planted on the ground. Now, when it comes to planning for exams, it's all about that sweet spot between preparation and relaxation. Imagine you're gearing up for a marathon, right? You wouldn't just sprint the whole way, you'd pace yourself. Train smart and make sure you're in peak condition come race day. Same goes for exams. Break down your study material into bite sized chunks. Tackle each one with focus and give yourself time to breathe. Remember, it's not just about cramming, it's about understanding and applying. And hey, if you ever need a laugh or a bit of motivation, you know where to find me. Ready to tackle those questions when you are?

Excellent. Thank you, Barkis. So you remember last week that we spoke about putting together those swim lanes? So these are the things that would appear as your swim lanes in preparing for exams. So this could be three or four exams you're preparing for at once and it's about aligning them together. And when it comes to exams, this is literally what a study plan looks like. Now, you might have seen in WhatsApp that I pasted the Andrew Huberman podcast about what is the best for success. It is literally one of the most concise and accurate things that I've heard of everything around learning I might not have mentioned to you guys before. The reason that I became quite obsessed with all things learning and absorbing information is because my daughter has adhd. And ADHD is a great way of saying that distractions always overcome focus. And so with a kid with adhd, it's really important to focus on process instead of outcomes. So when we talk about process, it literally is get home from school. Talk to me about your homework. What did you do today? Okay, have there been any new assignments set? Have there been any tests put in your calendar? Have you been told of any events in any subjects that you know are coming up in the future? So, for example, if she then sort of says, oh, well, I've got a biology test in three weeks time. This is the process that we put in place. And Andrew Huberman actually goes on and emphasizes that. A bit of a takeaway from that podcast. They did all these different studies around, how do you optimize learning? So you have students who go to a subject and they learn what's in the subject for the day. One group then goes and revisits the material three or four times and then has a test. Another group goes and studies only twice and has a test. And they had a few different methodologies around learning. And actually the best methodology from learning was that every day when I come home from that biology exam, a parent says something to me like, what was in the class today? And it might be meiosis, mitosis, haploid and diploid. Any science nerds out there, Tripty remembers that. You see the smile appear on her face there, the nightmares that come with remembering those things. Yes, yes, look at that. The slow eye closing is the remembering of that horrible test that she once had in biology around those things. But then what we do is when someone says, these are the subjects, instantly test ourselves on them. Tell me about haploid. Explain the difference between haploid and diploid. Tell me about chromosomes. Tell me about this. Now, more than likely, the answers that come back will be wrong. Then we look at the wrong answers, we write down the right answers. The best learning outcomes were achieved by those students on day one who came home and tested themselves, didn't study the material again after that day. So they came home from school, did the test on themselves, did badly, wrote down the right answers. Even if they never studied again, statistically speaking, they would outperform the kids who spent endless hours studying. Which does not sound right. Does sounds bizarre. Now, Barkis, I'm going to ask you a question here. If A student is failing a test, is this something that would be probably triggering their reticular activation system if they were looking for the right answers?

Absolutely, Mark. When a student is failing a test, it can indeed trigger the reticular activation system. This system acts like a filter, helping us focus on what's important. So when a student is actively searching for the right answers, their brain becomes more attuned and to spotting relevant information. It's like when you buy a new car and suddenly you see that model everywhere. The brain is wired to notice what you focus on. This heightened awareness can lead to better learning outcomes as the brain prioritizes and processes information more effectively. It's a fascinating bit of neuroscience that underscores the power of focus and intention in learning. Have you noticed this effect in your own experiences?

I have. Thank you, Bakis. Now, Shahjeel, next question or comment from anyone in the crowd for me, please. Line them up. They've got to answer fast or Barkis will do it again.

Any questions from the examination perspective. So, Angad, Andrew. I think we have Angad, Andrew and Shadul right now whose exams are approaching.

Alrighty, folks, let's dive into those exam questions. Andrew and Shavdu, if you're gearing up for exams, think of it like prepping for a big game. You got your playbook, your strategies, and now it's time to execute.

What?

I'm going to turn him off because I haven't worked out how to stop him asking more questions yet. Miller. He'll just talk all week. Did those guys want to have any comments about that as a practice idea?

I'm good. You're there.

Oops.

No, lawson. Okay.

Okay. Then we have shadal, andrew. Are they sleeping?

Do you know what they've done? They. They've signed in, they've turned off their camera and they've gone for breakfast here.

I just don't have any other questions.

Oh, come on, dude. My. My content is not that good. We all know that.

That's great. Just everything just makes sense.

Oh, God, really? God, I wish things made sense to me when I was 18. Nothing did. Ah, it's an. Sorry, Umila, you've raised a really interesting question there around. The exams are traumatic or you made. Emila's made a comment there about the exam can be traumatic. That feeling of coming into an exam and that's because the mind associates the whole process with probably the failure outcome because they felt terrible on exam day. And so it's a bit like walking in going, oh, I'm going to do really badly. I hate exams and so on, and it, it becomes traumatic. The great thing about the practice test is that once people get past the first time they do those 10 questions and they get them all wrong, it's cool, you don't know it yet. So let's study again. Those ten things. Meiosis, mitosis, haploid and diploid. And maybe when they do the questions tomorrow, they get three rights. Then when you do the practice test, it's not just, okay, sit here for 10 minutes and answer questions quietly. We'll do things like put my daughter at the kitchen table and she'll be doing an exam and I'll throw a sock at her just to upset her. Or I'll make a loud noise and distract her. Because an exam day, there always some kid who's got a cough sneezing, you can see them cheating on their phone, whatever it is. So simulating the exam conditions for them. Okay, you've got 20 minutes to do these questions. Dad, I can't do 10 questions in 20 minutes. Do them, do them. And I'll deliberately stress her and then go, well, that's not going to happen exam day, is it? So that when she gets to exam day, she goes, oh, God, dad made me do all these things and I know they won't have. And she smiles, and if she's smiling, there's not as much stress. So it's all about what we relate. And if we get through the practice test questions and even if it's okay, let's try again in 10 minutes. Again in 10 minutes. Until eventually she's getting eight or nine of them right. Then we're simulating gradual learning and that sort of stuff, which hopefully gets them a little bit more relaxed.

Yeah.

And a why, you're right, a why is really important. Always the why. The why gets us through. The why is really important in the studying. Because the why keeps them focused. When they would rather go and binge watch on Netflix instead of finish off the biology questions. That's when the why kicks in the most. Because it's having that Y engage then so that on exam day they've done the work. But if they didn't have the Y engaged earlier on, apparently that's going to make them feel stressed out. Oh, even though I want to do well, I can't because I haven't done the work. It's fascinating. Exams are traumatic, though. People's immune systems suffer, cortisol levels go up. I remember being super sick for the last three weeks of my year 12 or my final year at school because I was just petrified the whole time of my stepdad yelling at me for getting bad results. So my why was a negative, not a very good reason. My why was worrying that I was going to be yelled at for not fulfilling the promise of my academic potential to my parents. Quite fascinating stuff. So any questions about the three weeks until success planning that's up there? No, we'll just keep moving on. All right, so the next part around all of this is you work out. Once you've worked out what you've got to do, what this schedule looks like is it's then just popping them into the diary. So if you've got an exam coming up in four weeks time and you've got all that work to do. No, there's actually nothing too controversial on the, on the diary. There is around slotting in the work each day and being realistic about what can be done each day. And we do get a little bit more into that next week. This is the one where I talk about learning attention and absorption threshold. So this is actually something I learned from reading about adhd. And this is actually the same mechanisms around maintaining focus and attention. So if you imagine the black line there at the top is that's our attention and our focus. And when our attention and our focus is above the blue line, we're engaged, we're learning, we're absorbing information. And if you imagine like when a plane takes off, there's all that energy required to get our altitude up. And then actually when a plane flies, it slowly glides down until it lands. We slowly lose altitude. And this is the same with attention. We slowly get tired until we need a break. Someone with ADHD has the pattern below that they are actively seeking distractions without learning. And every time their attention falls below the blue line, they've got to get back up above the blue line. And so if we need to get to the end of that timeline, obviously that line on the bottom is longer because we're going up and down, up and down, up and down and indirect. What most people refuse to acknowledge, and I say refuse to acknowledge because it's a hard truth, is that having your phone next to you simulates this same ADHD experience. Having your outlook notifications on beeps, squeaks, noises, anything else around you will take our attentional focus away from that altitude. We require to absorb and perform at our best. So when you're studying for exams or all you need to do Nidhi, to feel good about it is for 30 minutes I'm doing this Task, nothing else. I'm not going to touch this. Do this, do this, do this. 30 minutes of biology and then 15 minutes off, and I will enjoy my 15 minutes, then I will do 30 minutes of chemistry, then I will enjoy my 15 minutes, Then I will do 30 minutes of accounting. Resting before we get tired, giving ourselves a chance to get back up to altitude. And then all you need to do is go, wow, Great study plan. The plan for today is 10 bricks or those three elements of study I need to do so I can let it go for today and sleep well. And you will always get better marks. So it's really good one to do, good to keep going. Any other questions popping up? Nothing else there in the chat window. So eventually what happens is you create this sort of really detailed study plan where the swim lanes gets textured. And on this day I'll do questions 7 to 14, or on this day I will do a quick pop quiz test, or on this day I'll listen to that podcast. It goes from here to here. And when I've done all of these items, then I'll do my next practice test. And once you have a plan like this, it feels so satisfying because the planning gives us a really good understanding that this is the roadmap to get to the place we want to. That I've called success. Any comments or questions on that for anyone?

No.

Let'S keep going. All righty.

Yeah, I just had a question that I wanted to ask is that, you know, in exams, I have this particular. It might not be very relevant to what we're talking about, but is that I don't take on, like, too much stress at all, and that costs me my ability to perform sometimes. So, like, what do you think is.

The thin line between actually stressing and.

Not stressing at all or the exam?

I. The audio was just a little bit bad there. Could you just as. Yeah, yeah.

So he said, in my exams, I don't take stress, any stress at all, and that affects my ability to perform. He's asking, is there a thin line where, you know, you don't take stress or you take stress or something like that?

Absolutely. Excellent question. I'm also going to get a Miller to cover me off on this one a bit because she obviously has put a lot of thought into this. If we weren't stressed about anything, we wouldn't get up in the morning. You know, if you aren't nervous before the wedding day or that important thing that is happening, then it actually probably isn't as important as we think About. So it's actually good to feel a little bit of nerves and teeter on that fine line of having some stress, because the stress will, to a degree, get us through. Emila, can you think what my next part's going to be and why he's not so stressed on exam day?

It's not a one. Could be that he's as prepared as he wants to be. Because it doesn't.

Sorry.

Doesn't. It's not so important to him as other priorities, perhaps in his life. That's how it is for me.

Yeah. My, my. The one I was getting to was. Well, where's the why? Because if it mattered or it felt like it mattered, there would be a degree of stress because there'd be that desire to achieve and to improve and so on. Maybe you're not stressed because you're not doing something that feels meaningful to you. Is what you're studying important to you?

What I am studying.

Can you hear me much better now? Yes.

Okay. So what I am studying is not.

That important, but the outcome is pretty important.

Like my 12 board exams, what I.

Was studying, I did not care about.

It at all because I knew I was gonna forget it, like, the next day.

But my 12th results mattered a lot.

To me because I wouldn't be anywhere without it. Right. So that.

And I did fail in one of.

My exams because of this. Because I was too overconfident, maybe.

Overconfident or just not stressed about it.

As much as I should have. I don't know what really played in that.

Yeah, maybe you just. Yeah, please.

Yeah, I was just gonna ask about. Because I had a very similar question. Like when we had recently studied for the past few exams that have happened. I'm.

I'm really struggling with your audio. It's very. I can not quite hear you.

Can you hear me now?

Oh, much better. Thank you.

Yeah. So I'm just saying that in the past two exams that have happened for us, me and Shah have been studying together. And we always study just one day for. And we get quite good grades. And the thing is that I don't think we are very interested. Like what you were talking about that I might not be interested in maths, but I was interested in biology. So I work hard for it. So how do you. And then Urmila Ma'. Am's.

Why.

That you need to have like a why specified for you so you get that motivation. But I don't think we have that because you're not interested in it, Right?

Very.

Yeah.

And that's Sorry, Shajil.

I. I just wanted to set the context for you. When they're talking about the exams, what exams are they talking about? So we at a. At our institute level, we don't have any exams. Right. For let's enterprise, there's no exam but just for the degrees they need to appear for an exam parallelly for university. So that's what in. And that's exam. Those are the exams that they're talking about.

Yeah.

While they. Here. That's the exam.

Yeah. Gotcha, gotcha. Okay, so back to the question, which is a really good one, is we don't always get to do just things we want to do, unfortunately. And in fact, we don't learn a great deal from doing the things we want to do that come easily to us. The real challenge and the real learning and the real development is finding the way to make those things matter. And in that context, it's maybe worth looking at. Well, if I need to get good grades in this entire course of study, and that includes five subjects of which I love, three of them, then it's about finding the discipline and the drive to say, well, it matters that I get a good degree overall and therefore I need to find the way to do the things I need to do. And then for those ones, it's literally looking at the plan and using the same plan for each subject. As far as studying the day before, that can be great if you're both comfortable with the content. But there's nothing worse than sitting down the day before an exam to study with someone or a work presentation or whatever it is. And someone says, anyway, here's what I know about that thing. And you go, oh, I don't know that. And it ruins your confidence. But if you were to find that out a week before that self test scenario of someone asking questions and discussing, you can go, I don't know, seven things and you've still got time to fix it. So a great thing could be actually test yourself on the subjects you hate earlier, knowing that you'll do well in the stuff that you like putting the effort in later on. Similarly, when you're planning a hard day's work, you do the hardest jobs that you hate the most at the start of the day. Then you do the fun jobs later on. Yeah, very good. Did I answer your question? Okay to keep going?

Yep.

Cool.

Alrighty.

Thank you very much. Alrighty. So some of the essentials around planning, in particular around execution, is it's really important to build momentum early. Do as much as possible on the first few days because inevitably things will go wrong and will get in the way. So if you're going to go to a movie, plan to go to a movie in week three of exams so that in week one, you get uninterrupted studying. Second point, no excuses. Remove excuses. Remove your get out of jail free card. Don't give yourself ways out of not doing the work. Just do the work. Third one, simulate exam conditions. We talk about this a lot in sport and particularly when we're training athletes for the Victorian team in the Australian team is we'd say to them, you will not rise to your your expectations. You will fall to the level of your preparation. And the reason we say that is under pressure, we never go as well. We seldom do as well. So by simulating the conditions that we need to perform in, we can work out what is required to achieve that really good goal. In those moments as we touched on before giggling Zainab at the start of the thing will happen. Things will go wrong. Just expect it. Don't worry about it. Just go six hours a day, not eight. Get the work done early, because who knows what will happen in week three. And final part around execution is just work out the things you need to do and the things that will give you the maximum chance of success in achieving each of those steps as you go along. So, any other questions or comments before we move on to closing up for next week?

Hi, Mark. I have a question.

Yes? Who am I talking to? It's Angad here. How are you doing?

I'm good. How are you?

Wonderful.

So in the start of the meeting, you said focusing on the process is more important since the goal is just an outcome.

Yeah.

So I wanted to ask, how can we do that? As Shardal also emphasized, when the goal is really important and you know, the process isn't enjoyable, how do we make it, you know, you know, emphasize it more, you know, focus on it more and make it more enjoyable.

Excellent. Does anyone want to have a go at answering that for me before we go along? No. Okay. The answer was actually in your question. If you don't enjoy the process, what can you do to make the process enjoyable if you have to get to here? Well, how do you make that something that's interesting to do for you and interesting and challenging is normally the way to do it? So we can look at different ways of making the process more enjoyable. Process we can control. We can control our actions in this space here, but the outcome lies outside of our entire control, focusing on what we can do gives us a really good sense of being able to achieve because we can control that the outcome, we can't. So in your case, it would come down to, well, let's find ways to make it really enjoyable to get there. And in turn that will give us a greater chance. That's the best answer I can offer you. So you might, you might do something like, you know what? I've got four subjects. Two of them I don't like. So I'm going to study hard for those two in the morning because I hate them. And I'll get them out of the way because then the enjoyable stuff is later on. And you might then do something like plan something cool straight after you do that work. So you might say, you know what? I. It's okay to catch up with a friend for lunch this week. It's just around the corner, won't interrupt. So I'll catch up for lunch once I've done two hours of this subject. If I haven't done this subject, I'm not going to lunch. So what you do is you tie the pleasure of the lunch to the pain of the study. It's literally that sort of association. And we covered this off a bit more in habit loots, habits, loops in a couple of weeks time.

All right.

Unfortunately though, if you don't like study, it's really hard to find enjoyment.

Fair enough. All right, thank you so much.

My pleasure. Anyone else? Shajil, is there anyone else we need to poke? Have we heard from Dorian yet today? I don't think we have.

Dorian and Ibrahim. I think.

Dorian, Ibrahim, turn on your cameras or we're. We're just going to mercilessly poke fun at you. Neither of them are actually here anymore, are they?

Something's happening.

Ah, there you are, Dorian. Do you have any questions or comments for us? My question will be like, on my.

Personal note, I really don't know how to balance things. So I think I woke up a schedule, but I can't balance it for some reason.

It's kind of hard for me to.

Balance time and everything. Like time management is a challenge.

Ah, okay. So that can be your question, to chat in detail with the clone in between. Because he is so full of that sort of conversation. It's not funny. So when you talk about balance, is it. What does balance mean to you?

Like having everything in a perfect order.

Oh, Nidhi, what do you have to say about having everything in a perfect order?

How much ever you try to do that, it's not gonna happen.

Yeah.

So you raise a really good point, Dorian. So the things that come into that is, first of all, realistic planning. So what do I need to do? What is each step involved? And if you're struggling, just go for 80, 20. We normally achieve 80% of the outcome with the first 20% of effort. And what's really annoying is this seems to apply to just about everything in life all the time. It's just one of these weird things that happens in life is that 8020 seems to hold true. Two out of three ain't bad is also true because two steps forward, one step back is still one step forward. Forward, if you look at it that.

Way.

I think what you might be talking about is this notion of morning me and evening me. When I wake up tomorrow morning, am I going to be happy with the decisions that I made last night? Now, tomorrow I've got some pretty heavy meetings coming up. It would not be a good idea to allow evening me to open this extremely fine bottle of scotch, because if I have one evening me Scotch, I will have four evening me Scotches. Because as soon as I've had one, I go, oh, the second one's always better. By the time I've had two, I'm thinking, well, man, there's no problem about tomorrow. I feel great, then I've had four, and then I don't sleep well, then I wake up and I'm getting ready for the meeting, going, I hate myself from last night. It becomes a discipline question. And so what it's about, it's about considering how will I feel about that decision later. When it comes to study, it's setting the plan the night before and then sticking to the plan that you said in the morning without question. Just getting into it. Then balance comes down to things such as exercise, drink well, eat well, do the other things that will balance you as a person to optimize your chance of succeeding and stuff. But explore that one with the coach because it's a long conversation and I think you'll find some interesting outputs come from it. But thank you for the question. Did I give you an answer of value? Yeah, you. Excellent.

Very good.

Now, Ibrahim, I noticed that you've run away and turn off your camera again. So I need you back again.

I am there, Mark.

Oh, but I need to. I need to see your beautiful smile, though, dude.

There you go.

What have you get? What have you got to tell me? Ibrahim?

I'm just sometimes confused of. I'm. I get distracted. Even if we need to use devices or we need to use Internet for work, I tend to get distracted towards the other side of the Internet and I can't balance that.

That's the bit where you've got to say to yourself, today I'm doing this. Or as was saying to nitty before for 20 minutes, I'm just doing this task one browser window open, email not open or. One of my favorite things used to be at nighttime I would write out my, my work plan for the day ahead in one of these books. And so, you know, I'd literally have a, a work plan looking something like that. All the jobs I need to do and when I was going to do them. If I was feeling the way you were feeling. And it would more happen when I was tired doing a job I hated doing, or I was maybe not feeling very happy about it. I would do things like unplug the Internet from the back of my computer and then I would put a sticky note on the back of my computer that said do not plug this in until you finish that document. Or I would do things like block my Internet browser through my firewall and then put a message on it would come up and say, have you done the accounting yet? And it sounds stupid, but I made myself accountable to myself. And like Amelia was saying, so that was me getting creative. So Emila's writing all these awesome stuff in the chat window you are want to see there for me. But I would get creative with it. I would laugh at myself about stuff and by laughing at it and making it fun and trying different things, that could work. So if you're getting distracted at your desk, what you might choose to do instead, if you're trying to learn something, is record it and then go and listen to it while you're walking around the park. You try and find different things that mostly make you laugh at yourself and that will actually give you the chance to refocus because it's quite relaxing. Discipline, focus. Distraction is tough because you're coming from. You are part of the most distracted generation that's ever existed in the world because there is so much going on in the world. You've got multiple devices, entertainment options. We have more disposable income than before. We can eat out of home instead of just eating the family cooked meals at home.

Home.

20 years ago, you probably wouldn't have been allowed to talk to girls and girls probably wouldn't have been allowed to talk to you because Indian culture has come, you know, that far in that period of time. So there's a lot more distraction in life. Shajil Trupti would You agree that the world today feels a little bit more distracting than maybe it did when we were kids. Neither of you are anywhere near as old as I am. I know that. So I'm not trying to go. You're both approaching 50, but I'll assume you're both over 25.

Yeah, about 26. Ish.

Nice.

Do you think it's a more distracting world?

I. I don't think it's a little distracting. I think it's a lot distracting.

Yeah.

When we. When I remember when I was a kid, I mean, I. That goes through for Tripty, too, because we are born literally on the same day, right?

Yeah.

Yes.

Well, back in 1999. Am I scoring, like, bonus points here now?

Tripti 85. Right. So we just had one channel on the television, the national channel. There was no cable tv. There was. Of course, there was no cell phones in existence. So most of our times, we'll play outdoor games and stuff like that. And there was not a lot to do. If you. If you wanted, your source of information was books.

Yeah, yeah.

Nothing. Yeah, yeah.

Tripty. Do you have anything to add to that?

Well, I think, you know, it also gave us time and space to get a little bored, figure out things by ourselves.

Yeah, yeah.

Now it's like, you know, constantly you're doing something or the other, you know, back to back, where you really don't have the time to sit back and think or even get a little bored or think what to do next. You have something or the other all the time going on.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's. It is a real. I think a real challenge for today is there's so much distraction.

Yeah. I mean, my son, he just, you know, he just doesn't realize that it's okay. You can just sit doing nothing. I mean, you know, it's something that he cannot fathom, you know, like, how can I just sit and not do anything? I have to keep doing something. You know, he just go pick up Lego and try and do something. He. But I never find him, like, just sitting idle doing nothing.

Yeah. So I'm 50, and I still can't sit doing nothing very often. But do you know what I find it is. I find it's when I'll be waiting for a plane, and then it suddenly says, delayed two hours. And initially I'll go, oh, man, that sucks. And then I'll go, there's nothing to do. And then I'll kind of go, how cool. There's nothing I can do now. And I just. And I'll really Enjoy it. Now, for anyone who's young, like I said, I'm 50 and I hate having nothing to do. But it's a habit, isn't it? Being busy becomes a habit.

Yeah, it's.

And it is a challenge. So what I will say for you though, Ibrahim, is that almost every. First of all, Trukti and Shah. Jill, thanks for the input. Ibrahim, what I will say for you, though, is. Is that nearly everyone your age lives in the same world and they are feeling the same notion of distraction. So if you would like to have a competitive advantage in life, find ways to overcome that distraction because that will supercharge your productivity.

Yes, thank you so much.

Sorry. So. But it's hard work, dude, so just work at it. Ask the clone. He has way better answers on it that way. Keeps coming up with this cool stuff. Moving the body. Totally. Yeah. I haven't stood still yet, have I? It allows. It allows me to exist in my natural habitat.

As.

As I think I've told you all, I stand up to present because I move and I, you know, I work better when I am moving. So, yeah, it's quite fascinating stuff that we've covered. Was there any other questions before we wrap up? Because we've gone a little bit over. Well, we've got a lot over time, but they're a good question. Questions. Anything else from anyone?

No.

Nope.

All righty, let me do one last bit of sharing. So we got this bit here. So, conversations for the week to chat with the clone. How do I optimize my environment? How is what I eat, drink and consume going to affect my study and my exams? And how do I set goals? And if you've all got individual questions, pop those in as well. Be really good. Well, next week we talk about cadence. And cadence is all about finding the balance of maximum output for the different days and times that we experience. And we'll expand more on that next week. Alrighty. Shajil. Apologies that we ran a bit longer today, but we had some good questions and the questions are normally worth exploring, so hope I'll keep it in mind for next week.

Sure.

Cool.

Fantastic.

Thank you so much, everyone.

Thank you. Well, thank you first of all, for all of your time and your energy. Can I ask one little favor? Pop on your screens.

And give me.

A wave, because that way I can tell everyone I've actually done my work for the day. Come on, put your screens on, guys. There we go. Shadow has been outside the whole time. No wonder he didn't have his screen on, man. Awesome. Studying outside can be really effective. All right, give me a wave. Waving their Dorian. There you go. You got to put your face on the camera. It makes the wave much more enjoyable. Guys, thank you enormously for your time. Any questions, pop them in the chat. Ask the clone. And I look forward to seeing you same time next week. Oh, and Nitty, book the meeting to talk about your app. Thanks, guys. See you soon.

Bye.