Mark's Marvels - Stream of Consciousness Dump

Greetings everyone. Mark here, captain of Team Mark's Marvels. Very cool having a team named after you by the way. Hope you are either having a good weekend or had a good weekend depending on when you saw this video. A very quick base touch just to share with you some of my perception and experience from these quests, programs and resilient mind quests and the research project you're involved in with Paul Taylor at the moment. So, having spoken to a few of you, seen a few other objectives from others, I just thought I'd give you a sense of what people's aims and objectives are. Not only in your group or your cohort, but what other people come into these programs and what they bring with them that they hope to achieve. Some people, it's just a desire to learn a bit more, whether it's knowledge about the science, their body, or a bit more about themselves. There's an element there about wanting to inspire others, whether it's our kids or our workplace, or to drive better performance in the workplace, elevating the experience of those around us. Being able to manage stress better, to be less stressed, to be happier, or to manage high stress situations a bit better. There is often a desire to get fitter, to shift a few pounds, to look better, and often underlying all of this is, is a common thread of just wanting to get my shit together and challenge myself. So from my experience and all things with the app, so I've got experience as a CIO, 20 years in technology and to be totally honest, I'm a bit sick of technology. I'm sick of my mobile phone. I like more of an analog experience and people where the role of the app is in this program is it's basically the, the connection to the science and everything you're doing and the connection back to what you've already learned in the workshops and the rest of your life. Now the aim of the app isn't to be there forever, but it's a way of helping develop patterns and processes and if you like the habits that day to day is what lifts our performance. I hate, or I hated rather the language around better version of myself. What does better version of ourselves actually mean? Better version of ourselves is when piece by piece across the different aspects of our life, we just get a little bit better one day or one step at a time. So that might be that we're fitter, healthier, sleeping better, nicer to be around, a bit calmer, a better boss, a better partner, more aware of the world, less grumpy, whatever it is but the better version of ourselves actually comes from updating or upgrading our baseline habits. So interacting with the app, sleeping more, being more mindful, exercising more random acts of kindness, whatever it is that's built into your program is how you build the habits that elevates your performance in your life. Paul and everyone around him are hardcore neuroscientists. They know this stuff. The more points you get, the better the habits you will build that will have a positive impact on your life. And it is just that simple. In terms of my own personal benefit or experience, I guess I could give you some of the intangibles if you like, that I know more about myself, I feel better in my body, I. I'm definitely better at managing my stress in the moments. But if I give you some of the tangible aspects of what that means is I've just turned 50, I've qualified to represent Australia as a veteran Spartan racer. At the same time that I was completing my studies, at the same time that I was building a new business. So I'm able to get more done because I've learned how to be more focused. I take significantly less medication now. I no longer need my preventative asthma medications. I no longer need the stuff to help manage the arthritis in my joints. That's because I eat better, I sleep better. Ice bath and saunas and all of those lower the impact of day to day life on my body and I just feel better for it. So in turn, I've brought quite a few people into the program. I've introduced people to doing resilient mindquests with Paul. And I've also been coaching people around the science of all the things you guys are experiencing at the moment. I've seen two of my friends resolve their midlife crisis. I've seen one of my friends have the confidence through the pandemic to say to their partner, we've got to sort this out. And they sorted out their marriage, they sorted out their relationships. One of my very best friends I've seen, from having PTSD as an alcoholic to now being sober, 15kg lighter and recently remarried and a whole new guy. I've seen people build their belief in both their career and their life and motivating and inspiring their family by building their practices day to day. More recently, my mum can't believe this. So she's approaching 70, gotten into stoicism. She complains less because she has developed more empathy for the world and approaching that age, she wants to keep evolving. That's my mum whose mum wants to keep changing, isn't that when we get boring. At the other end of the spectrum is my daughter. She gets this stuff. She's using it to drive herself better at school. She struggles academically. She's using this knowledge to make her rowing training better. She likes having saunas and ice baths. These things are toughening her up and are building her strength. And because she can have an ice bath, she's much more able to stay in the moment of the maelstrom of teenage girls, hormones and those friendship networks with someone which someone like me will never understand. So I'll keep it simple for you. Scoring points in the app from doing the activities that get you to the points will lead you towards achieving one and all of the collective objectives that you guys have raised in the conversations we've had so far. That's the truth of it. And in summary, I've got a few simple takeaways for you to ponder with all of this, and that is that nothing changes if nothing changes. If you want to get something done, you've got to inspire yourself. And your inspiration follows your own action. That the older we get, the chance to change and do new things comes along less and less and less. And how many times have you heard people older than yourself wishing that they had just done that thing? There's two types of pain. There is the pain of effort and there is the pain of regret. This one is measured in kilograms. This one is measured in tons. You get to choose your pain. If you do the work, it works. And we're only talking about a few minutes a day here. We're only talking about a few minutes a day, over a course of a few weeks, your life to potentially make meaningful changes that will last and continue to drive your own performance and fulfillment as you go along in life, whether it's performance as an author, an athlete, a worker, a parent or a partner. And I ask you, and this is the question you've really got to ask yourself, what might happen for you if you are willing to put yourself out there and give this a crack. And that's what I'd like you to take away from this. In many respects, it doesn't really impact me. If you get into the program, score lots of points or our team wins. That's not important. What is awesome and what is amazing about being involved in all of this is hearing when people put in the work and feel the results and take them forward in their lives and the option remains open for you to be one of those people. Look forward to seeing you all soon. Bye.