EP 48 Kari and Paul - New Seasons

Welcome to episode 48 of the Empowered Athlete Podcast.

Welcome to the Empowered Athlete Podcast, created to support athletes in their pursuit of excellence and inspire others toward their best lives. Hosted by Kari Schneider, coach to top performers in sport and life. And Paul Durden, former national and professional volleyball player.

Foreign. It's the most wonderful time of the year. You know why I'm singing that song, baby? It is September. It's back to school time. Welcome, everyone, to the Empowered Athlete Podcast. I'm Paul Durden. The person you hear giggling in the background is Kari Schneider, my one and only strength coach, life coach extraordinaire, my confidant partner in crime. And we are here today to welcome you to a new season, a new beginning in September. And as some of you probably know, we have been doing a 12:30 challenge. That's a entire year of 30 day challenges throughout this year of 2019. Still. 2019, right?

Yeah.

And great. Okay. Got the right year. And the challenge for September is a doozy. So, Kari, please, please tell everyone who's anxiously listening, what is our challenge for this month?

Well, first, I'm a little bit awestruck. I didn't know you were going to be singing to lead us in, so thanks for that.

Yeah, we probably lost a few of those.

Thanks for that.

It's the risk we take.

That's right. Okay. Yeah. No sugar. So we've done this before. We've done this a few times. One of the hardest ones was when we did no flour, no sugar, no caffeine, all in the same month. And we literally had Maeve cheering us on because she knew what a struggle it was. And this time it's no sugar. People will often ask, well, what does that mean? Do you have no fruit or.

No, there's sugar and fruit.

There is.

Can I eat fruit?

There's sugar and fruit, but fruit is allowed. It's a whole food. So we're going to err on whole foods and cutting out any processed or refined sugars. So the questions like, is like barbecue sauce. That's a no go. There's sugar in there. Certain salad dressings. No go.

Cereal even.

Yeah, cereal. No go. So even, Even my homemade granola, which, you know, I know exactly how much sugar is in there, but it's got sugar in it. So no go. Anything that's got added sugar in, and that added sugar could be in the form of fructose glucose, cane sugar, honey syrup, any of those things. All. There's, there's about 50 different names for sugar. But the other thing that's kind of important is. And this is where the, the rules are just a little looser. We've, we've used some stevia a little bit before in the past. But you know, I'm usually suggesting for people not to have say Diet Cokes or say your Frappuccino, but with the sugar free sweetener because it's still giving you that sweet hit, which is tricking the brain into thinking, oh, that was sugar, but then leaves you still craving sugar and still perpetuates that sugar craving. So part of this is really about doing that reset for the sugar cravings. But also if you have a sugar addiction, it's a huge, a huge deal to get off of that. You'll feel so, so much better.

Yeah, I think, I think it's really important you clarify that again that this is about. I mean we want, there's health reasons that we don't have too much sugar, but it's to break that, that need or that craving of sugar. Really, that's what we always come out of this feeling so much better with more control that you can just have that. So much more willpower to say no to something that is sweet that's put in front of you.

Yeah. So in our email that goes out to people who are doing the 1230 challenges, I've included a list of how you know if you have a sugar addiction. I've also included different, 50 different names for sugar. So you're clear as to whether you're consuming sugar or not.

If you're buying it on the street corner at late at night. Is that an addiction?

Are you my dealer? Then coming home with treats for me? Are you my dealer? You know how to, you know how to push my buttons? No. So there's all kinds of ways that we can have you have clarity around this. And yes, it is for health. We're not trying to lose weight with this or anything like that. So I'll be replacing any of the treats I might have with things like nuts or fruit or maybe like some steel cut oats with some yogurt. As long as it's not sweetened yogurt. But it preps you. This is. I was strategic in picking this month for no sugar. Do you have any idea why?

No, I don't.

It's the big three. The big three. Do you know what the big three are that are hitting pretty close in proximity and they all tend to revolve around all sorts of treats. And it's Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas and they come so close together and all the parties leading up to Christmas, that from Halloween. So I find that you're making me.

Think of the food groups in the movie.

Elf candy, corn syrup, corn syrup, maple syrup.

But the big three.

So the big three. That's how I think of it as. Because when I get hit with the big three, you know, I have my normal routines in the summer, but then the big three throw me completely out of whack because there's all kinds of treats that I love in all of those. So if I can reset now, I have much more discipline and my palate is reset, and I feel so much better going into. I can skip Halloween, not have any of the treats there. Be relatively in control around Thanksgiving, really choose what I want to have. And then Christmas comes, and maybe the wheels come off a little bit, but it's not. It's not as bad as if I wasn't reset ahead of time.

Yeah. So everyone has to do this, especially if you're conscious about your weight and not able to control your cravings during the those festive times. So think of this month as a, you know, turning into a sugar ninja where you can just defend against any sugar onslaught in the coming months.

And you're the boss.

This is your arm.

You're the boss of sugar.

Yeah.

Take the control back. And who's the boss? Is sugar the boss of you, or are you the boss of sugar?

Right on.

Yeah. So what's the topic today? Oh, by the way. Sorry, one more second. If people want support in this and they want to do this challenge in the show notes, there will be a link. Scroll down. Yeah, you'll find in the show notes. So we'll help you out that way. You'll do that, right, hon?

Absolutely. Check below.

Okay.

They will be there. I promise. So onto today's topic, and it obviously relates to September and new school year, new this, new that, new season. It's getting colder out already here in London, Ontario. So we wanted to talk about our top three. Karinae each have kind of made a quick list of our top three things or activities or something that we might be doing to kick off a new season. And this can be a new season. It could be a new relationship that you're in. It could be a new job. It could be your regular job. It could be a sports season, training, what have you. Exactly. So we'll run down our list here. Debate whose is better? Mine. And then wow.

Yeah.

Kind of wrap it up for you guys. So do you want to start it off or shall I? Or are we going to alternate what do you feel?

I would rock, paper, scissors for it, but we're in different rooms. We can't even, like, point at each other or something.

Okay, I'm going first. I have, obviously. And then this one is a big one. It's an easy one. You'll be mad that I'm taking it.

You just want to go first. So you take the ones and. Yeah. Anyway, we're doing this blinded, in case.

You can't see, strategy.

Not only are we blinded in the fact that we're in different rooms, but we're also blinded in that I don't know what his list is for best ways to start a season, and he doesn't know mine. So if we come up with the exact same list, then I don't know.

If that's something, then they're the right things.

Yeah, I don't know if that's something to apologize for. Say, yay, great job. But so, yeah, where you go.

So I'm off here. The first one is what I think the most obvious one. Goal setting.

Wow.

Is that on your list?

I'm not. I'm not telling you.

Oh, okay. I have goal setting as number one because it's a really important task to go through when you're starting. Really, anything new in my mind. And this, for me, I'm going to speak as an athlete first here. This is something that going into any new season, I would have, you know, some goals that I'd be setting for myself, both personally and then kind of within our team setting. It's something that, you know, the team needs to be on the same page as the direction of where they want this season to go. So everyone has heard of at this point, I'm sure. Smart goals. S stands for stupid. M stands for meaningless. No, wait, it's specific. Measurable.

I wanted to know where the rest of that went. Stupid.

Yeah. So a smart. Smart goal is.

Okay. Asinine. Can we put asinine for a.

Love it. I love that word.

Asinine.

I've been called that.

So stupid. Meaningless. Asinine. Repetitive. Tripe.

Tripe.

Okay.

Word of the day. Seriously, a smart goal. A smart goal is there because writing down some goals, they just aren't as effective if you don't kind of meet this criteria. So the smart criteria just helps you make sure that the goal that you're setting is something that's going to get a result. And so the S stands for make it specific. M stands for make it measurable. Ace makes it achievable. R is relevant. So it's going to be, you know, something that relates to what you're doing, obviously. And the final one t is time bound. So a goal is great, but if you don't have some kind of a deadline or a other goal when it's going to happen, it's not probably going to happen. So, yeah, my first tip for any new season is setting goals. So, you know, I thought back to times as a volleyball player and when I was in Turkey. At that point in my career, I had to get pretty granular on things that I wanted to improve on. The great thing about volleyball is there's tons of stats. So I have number two covered there, the m measurable. And one thing that I worked on, I recall one season was that I wanted to have a better ACE to area error ratio than 1 to 1. So for every serving error I had, I wanted to have at least an ace but hopefully, you know, be at 1.2 to 1 or something above that kind of mean. And so I set that goal for the season. It was very specific, very measurable. It was achievable. If I, you know, achievable in this sense really was about risk management. So that it means I can't just step up to the serving line and blindly swing away because that's absolutely not going to meet my goal. So it caused me to do some work around risk management to make sure that it was achievable, relevant. Obviously, I'm a volleyball player. I need to serve the ball and time bound within the season. So it's going to happen by the end of the season. I wanted that ratio and could check in at different points in the season on that stat because the coaches had it for me after every single game and I could see it. So that's an example of a personal goal I set up. And then obviously you can do this in any aspect of your life. Kari, was this on your list or do you have something to say?

I'm not telling you. I have a question. So you're talking about you did this for years. You maybe didn't start with this, but you did this for years. And it was so ingrained as part of what you wanted. And you could write this down, you had it in your mind, you knew what you needed to do to work towards it.

Yep.

What do you do now?

What do I do now for goals? Yeah, actually we have a great kind of system in place at my work. We have what's called our monthly action plan meetings. So for the year I set some goals in my role as director of sales in terms of gross revenue, performance, and a few other things that, again, can be tracked and measured. So I have those overarching goals I set for the year. And then each month I'm checking in with a CEO and sitting down and doing what we call just our monthly map meeting, where it's that monthly action plan which is breaking down steps that I've set and looking at those overarching goals for the year. So it's awesome because I'm checking in every four weeks roughly, on what steps have I done this month? How did it go last month? Reviewing that and then saying, okay, what do I need to do the next month to take progression and steps towards these overarching goals that set for the year? So that's probably the thing that's top of mind for me in the work world right now, doing it that way.

Awesome.

Yeah.

What's your next ones?

Oh, I'm going on. Okay. All right. So I'm going to, again, speak as an athlete here, because I season, I just think game time, volleyball. Let's go. So start of a new season. Something that was crucial for me was establishing a routine. And I put here air quotes, going pro mode. And what that means is getting all the things into my daily routine that I know are required to perform my best. And this touches on almost everything. So it's thinking about bolting down some basics in my routine that are going to ensure that good things are happening. So obviously eating well. So that's. That's not really a specific goal. It's, you know, something that's fluid and changing, not really measurable, but making time every single night for stretching, for example, is something that would be in a part of that routine. The amount of sleep, measuring that, making sure I'm getting naps, all those sorts of things. So really taking what I've learned in past seasons, thinking about what's worked and what hasn't, and building that routine of, okay, here's how I want my day in and day out to go. Here's what I'm doing, you know, per week in terms of the number of lifts and how I'm feeling. And that's obviously going to work with the coaches and the strength coach to make sure that plan's on point, but really just having that view of everything that's going on, the ingredients that need to go into the recipe to have a fantastic season. So that is my number two, establishing that routine. And for the work world, if I'm going to spin it back to life now, this is making sure. You know, playing. What time do I need to be up in the morning to do breakfast, get a workout in, potentially get somebody on the bus and, you know, get out the door, get the dogs, walked, all those sorts of things. And that's obviously where our partnership and our communication comes into play, Kari. And that establishing that routine when you're married and you've got kids, it's not a solo effort. So this takes some communication.

Right. Well, you. I'm gonna get a little personal here.

Let's do it.

You are the king of routine as a benefit and a fault. And the reason I say that is. Well, first of all, as a benefit, as an athlete, and having worked with you as an athlete, it's amazing that you were doing all the little things that pay massive dividends. And it was why you were able to perform so much more intensely than so many athletes for so long. And so you were doing the, you know, I'd see you do the cold bath, I'd see you do the hot bath, I'd see you do the stretching, make sure your food was all planned out. You'd pre make.

You're watching me in the bath.

You'd pre make your Shakespeare. What?

Hang on.

Whatever. You did all those things that a lot of athletes just kind of, once they get home, it's hard to keep doing the behind the scenes small stuff that really make a bigger difference. So, you know, you got in those habits and were really, really good at that. And. And you do the same thing. Like in. In our morning routine, you know, you're prepping breakfast or lunch or things like that. I'm usually doing dinner, and you usually have breakfast or lunch or both, and you're in that routine. But let's say that routine isn't serving a new goal. So say, for instance, you want to train for fill in the blank, but you haven't been working that into your morning routine, and you're prioritizing with the food. Then maybe because your routine is so set and you like that consistency of that routine, it just feels good to kind of keep going with that routine. And then mixing up your routine is like the sore point in changing it. Okay, I have to get up earlier to add in this extra part of a workout for this other thing I'm going for. And it's not that you won't get into that new routine. It's that you don't like changing the routine. And I think that's true for most people, that it's just creating a new routine. There's that Messy part of not wanting to get into that new routine.

Yeah. And that's an awesome point. And really a waving flag for me to take my own medicine here and do this step. It's a new season. It's the fall. I need to establish a routine. And that doesn't mean pull. Yeah. So I got to look at what was going on in the last three to six months, what worked, what didn't.

Yeah.

And make those tweaks as opposed to like you're saying my, you know, fall back is autopilot and just roll through certain things and not put that extra thought into the routine of what's really going to be best for goal X, Y and Z I want to hit.

And that's what most people are facing right now. They're either facing with kids, the transition from summer schedule to all of a sudden a school schedule or even if they don't have kids, they're transitioning from the time of day that was lighter for longer or being on vacation and then going to, you know, maybe not having vacation until Christmas time again. So just a difference in or even knowing from a work standpoint that it's a different feel or a different push when it comes to the more laid back attitude from the summer.

Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

What's next?

That is all I had on routine. Yeah. So my last one here is something I would never have written even maybe a year or two ago, but I have down here for number three. It's a new season. I can take a look at a new way of being so that can be around, you know, how I'm showing up in various places or my attitudes. And something that kind of popped into my head is that I've been doing some leadership courses and training and really taking a look at the type of leader I am. And this is a great time to, you know, new season. How do I want to show up as a leader for my sales team? How can I best support them in their job and connect with them and what actions could I take? You know, who do I want to be and how do I want to show up? So I'm taking this challenge on of, you know, thinking of what actions can I get into. And this kind of goes back to point number two, to my routine that ensure I can better connect with the guys and the staff that we have and make sure that I'm approachable. I'm, you know, supporting them, making them feel needed and just helping the entire team succeed that way. And, you know, just being a good friend and a good Co worker. So I think it's a great time to. Yeah, I. It's something I would honestly, you know, I'm kind of oblivious to the soft skills.

You are a master of being a human doing where, yeah, tasks, numbers, get.

The job done, lift the weight, hit the ball. But so many guys taking care of relationships and things. Yeah, that's definitely not my forte. But I think this is a great time, a new season to take a look at that and think, okay, how do I want to, you know, show up in some way to make this scenario a little bit better? So that's number three.

That's amazing. That's awesome. I think, I think for guys especially being results based and action based, that a question that helps a lot might be who do I need to be to make that happen? Because the catalyst or the motivator is the result for. For most of us who are action based or task oriented. And if you're asking yourself, who do I need to be to make that happen, but understanding that, you know, you could be a total jerk and yeah, the thing will still get done, but you're going to feel like crap and everybody around you is going to feel like crap. But who do I need to be to make that happen and have this amazing result that everybody feels good. Well, I could be a real person of action, a go getter, really supportive and enthusiastic. Those ways of being still get you your results, but it feels a hell of a lot better than getting the results when you are being a jerk, you know, I'm not saying you're being a jerk, honey.

Right. Well, it may have happened in the past. That's up for argument. We'll see.

But as a. As a married couple, the past is the past. It doesn't exist anymore.

It doesn't.

No. It's gone. Yeah. Okay. Is that your last.

So that's. Yeah. So that's my list. I think it's a pretty strong start. I've set the bar pretty high.

Yeah.

So thanks, listeners. You know, hang on here if you can. We're going to now see what crosses over onto Kari's secretive list here. What do you got for your number one?

You. You know, I like high standards. So thank you for setting the bar high. That's all I'll say about that. The first one is. And I. I kind of might have done a little more than three. I might have done four, but with some little dash marks with it.

Overachiever.

Yeah, whatever. I just had to outdo yours. So the first one is know your results, which is very similar. It's the same type of thing as your goal setting. So it's know your.

I feel like it's even but it's. It's awesome. That's an awesome one. It's in my mind that's slightly different than the goal setting.

That's different.

That's a little bit of vision there. But go.

It is, it's goal setting is. Is kind of what we've always done, especially in sport. And it's still good and it still is a big driver. But really having a bigger picture. Understanding of your results is important in knowing your results from the past, knowing your results that you want to see happen. And when I say know your results, it part of what encompasses knowing your results, that's key. Whether you're calling, whether you're goal setting or knowing your results, what's key is knowing where you are now. You can't get to that goal, you can't get to that future result, you can't get to that future way of being unless you know exactly where you are now. If you don't acknowledge that you're not game ready shape, or you don't acknowledge that your house is a mess leading into the start of school, or you don't acknowledge that your work team just isn't quite connecting the way it needs to to get to the results that you want, if you don't know where you are now, you're never going to get to where you want to go. So knowing your results currently know what's happened in the past and know exactly what your results you want them to be in the future, you also have to know where you currently are.

Yeah, that's strong. And I think the serving example I gave, if I was oblivious to the fact that I'm missing five out of ten serves, to think that I'm gonna have five aces for those other serves is insane. Like if I didn't know that the goal that I've set of a one to one ratio is next to impossible. So that's a huge point to.

Well, it points to see ahead but.

Know where you're standing.

Well, it points to the achievable because we. How can you possibly make it achievable? And then when you know your results, there's some results that you might know for your far off distant future that you are confident that you want in your life. But they might be the bhags, like the big hairy, audacious goals that just seem so crazy that you don't even know how it's going to happen. But if you're looking at a season, you're looking at this, say a quarter, say the next three months, that, that season or four months, that span of time that you can really make the needle move in the direction you want to go. But it's going to be that step to getting to maybe one of those bigger, bigger goals. So for instance, if you're looking at your, at your serving goal, it's that thing that you know that's going to contribute to a championship or contribute to more wins, if you need X number of wins or specific wins to lead to qualifying or making it to finals or for instance, right now, it's from a sport perspective, it's a time of year where there's a lot of sports that are looking to qualify for the Olympics. So this fall season is really important. There's going to be a lot of, when it comes to business or quarters, this is a time of year that is, you know, it's, it's the, the reason it's called Black Friday for, it's getting any business back in the black. So if they were in the red and they were at a loss, it's, this is the season for business to get them back in the black. So from a growth perspective or a real kind of key time, this is a big time of year for most people, Whether it's from a family standpoint and kind of getting the whole family on board together for back to school or whatever that looks like from a business standpoint, real growth, real change in what things look like from that laid back summer. And then at the same time for sports, it's huge this time of year. Just really getting things rolling in from a high performance Olympic qualification type of team time. So knowing your results is key. The next part is so funny how we just kind of see it differently. The next part I said was get organized. And for you, that's creating your routine. For me? Yeah, whatever.

I heard you writing as I was talking. Yeah, keep going.

Yeah, I wrote down your stuff.

Another word for routine?

No.

Yeah, go ahead.

So, no, get organized. But where this is key is your own environment. So your personal environment, is it your room, the area you wake up in? Is it your.

Yeah. Are you talking about physical organization here with that?

Yes, I was, I was thinking environmental organization because it's a function of efficiency. So what I was looking for, similar to routines, but everything runs more smoothly once environments are organized. And for me, right now I'm doing a little push and feeling it when it comes to even my Technology, spaces. So, you know, here's the thing about what we're saying here. Everybody's like, oh, that's awesome. Set goals, awesome. Get a routine, get organized. What does that look like? How. What are you saying? What does that mean in real life? What it means for me in real life is that my desk is too messy for me to have the season I want to have. And knowing that I'm going to be traveling, my desk needs to be cleaner. That sounds like the simplest, stupidest thing, but my desk needs to be cleaner. And if I go further into technology, my Google Drive is a gong show. So I need that cleaned up because I have 50 videos that I need to create. And if my Google Drive is a gong show, well, then nothing is going to. I won't be able to put the. The output of production. That needs to happen. And if that.

Yeah, like you're. You're saying that the lack of organization, wherever it creeps in, either on your hard drive, on your desk, is a barrier to efficiency, which is then a barrier to reaching all those goals.

So when it comes to that physical environment, whether it be. Whether it is your home space, your office space, or the clutter that builds up, it could be even be your car if you know that you are going to be on the road for sports or for work, travel or whatever it is, get things organized so that. And then, then it's easier to keep organized so that you can stay efficient. But then as you're going along and things get really crazy, it doesn't take a lot to just go in five minutes, two seconds, whatever it is, grab a couple things because it won't be a big deal to keep it organized. So now in terms of a.

And really. And we got to. We know our listeners have got that bolted down. I mean, a few months ago with the 12:30 challenge, it was, you know, the purge at home and organization. So I think everybody should have their place perfect. But in case you don't definitely take.

That advice, you're such a jerk because. But that's the thing. Like, say the spring looked awesome and everybody purged. Like, we got rid of a whole bunch of stuff. But then summer happened, you know, like things. Maybe we're away, maybe things get dirty or whatever. Because a season's gone by, you almost have to consciously reset because it's. That it's the law of chaos, the constant buildup of. Of things going. And unless you're taking intentional action with that, it's not going to get any better. That's for sure. So getting organized your personal. Your environment around you, after you know what you want and after you kind of set the stage so that you can be more efficient, then you're going to start then. My third main one is scheduling what's important. So if I look out at a season and I work backwards in everything, so I work from results, if I'm planning for an athlete, or I'm planning for a client, or I'm planning for myself, what is that big important thing? And then I work backwards from there. So if I look at this past season and I look at the summer, there's some big important things. We were going away for a couple weeks. We were traveling to do that. That was a big important thing. There's a child in camp. That was a big important thing. There were a couple work things that were big important things, and those are scheduled in. And then what does it look like in between that? For the less. Slightly less important things? It's kind of like talking about your rocks, your pebbles and your sand. Same type of thing. Get those rocks in the schedule first. And for us, that looks like coming up in this next season, I have about four different trips that are already scheduled that are big things, and some of them are bigger than others. For instance, we're going to a big personal development and professional development event in December. And that's a really big thing. It's one of the most important things because it's. For us, it's a longer event, it's traveling, it's all of that. So that's in there, that's in the schedule. So schedule the biggest things, the trips, the making sure that it aligns with your values. So, for instance, if your priority and your values are your sport performance or progressing in your career or developing a more deep relationship with your family, if you know that those are your highest values and you don't see something big scheduled in your next season, then you're clearly not living in the life that you want to live in. So scheduling those big things, you're waiting.

For it to happen.

Yeah.

And it won't book it to make it. Yeah.

Right. Yeah. So I know that there's about five big scheduled things that have to do with the direction of my business, that have to do with our relationship and our personal progress, that have to do with family. Like, there's a lot that is big in there already. And then you're also scheduling in there after those big things are there. You're scheduling in some of the actions or whatever actions that are the most important Actions to get to the results that you saw in the previous step. So if you know that number one was your goals or I said your results, knowing your results, what actions have to happen to get to your results. And you should be clear on your results already that you know where you are. So you know that there's got to be some serious actions to get to the result that you want, let's say.

And I think like it's. This is, this isn't earth shattering information but the really important, the difference maker here is what you're talking about in this step of getting it down.

Right.

So many people have these ideas. I'm guilty of this forever of ideas in my head of things I want to do. But if I don't like schedule it, make time to research question X that's holding me up from moving forward and taking that action of booking it in to make it happen. It sits there in my mind and rolls around and gets bumped by something else that I think is more important like making lunches for the kids or.

Something really mundane because you fall back into. You feel really good getting those little tasks done.

Yeah. Get the quick dopamine hit. Oh, that felt good. Look at all this stuff I got ready. But oh, hey, I haven't done anything about fixing the roof which has a hole in it.

So do you mind if I use you as an example here?

You're really asking that? Just go, come on.

Okay, so you're going to do a test today. This is happening today. And so what happened in this scenario? If we kind of look at the bigger picture on this, you've been going for your, your pilot's license and this was something that if we flash back a year ago, you were talking about having it done around the September of last year. But not. I know this is hard to hear.

Some bad weather out there, guys. It's been pretty windy and can't believe those storms.

I'm not throwing you under the bus. No, no, I know I'm showing how this happens for people so easily. But I'm going to, I'm going to point out with what, what works and what doesn't work. What work? What doesn't work? Is that okay in, in your mind, what was rolling around in your mind is that. Oh yeah, like I think I would have enough flight hours and I think I would have, you know, whatever to have happen to get it by September of 2018. And you, you were looking say six months out. So you weren't. It's not like you were saying this in July, you were saying, you were saying this in March or April, you know, the idea was we could fly to North Bay. There was awesome cool things. But what happened in the meantime is that instead of always scheduling a regular, instead of scheduling a flight, you try to get one flight a week. But then like you said, weather would happen and, and you'd miss the one flight trip or.

Yep.

Yeah. Or we'd, you know, something would go on. So with best intentions, that one flight a week to get your hours in and flying and then every other flight was missed because there was cloud cover or a thunderstorm or something like that. Then it turned into, instead of four flights in a month, it ended up turning into maybe two flights in a month or budgeting for those flights going, okay, like what's the budget like for that? Because it wasn't actually scheduled ahead of time and it wasn't actually pre planned. Even though you knew what the result was that you wanted and you knew where you currently were. So you knew how many hours you needed to take.

Oh yeah.

What was missing in between were the rocks of scheduling and what you changed, which was huge in that I came from. I kept saying things like you have to schedule your test. Once you schedule your test, the pressure will be on to do all the things because that's how I operate. But that's not necessarily how you operate. And so you kind of heard me for a while. Heard me for a while. And then eventually you flipped how you were doing things, you took a look at it and you mapped out exactly.

What you booked, about 10 lessons in a row.

But you scheduled it. You actually put it in the calendar, but you almost doubled up what you knew. Instead of scheduling what you needed, you scheduled almost double what you needed, knowing there was going to be weather and there were going to be things that came up. And then you did the thing I was suggesting as well. You scheduled the tests and you put those in and even those got a little bumped because of weather, because of things like that. But in terms of your cross country or whatever, but now it's actually happening and you can feel the progress and once you feel the progress, you get the momentum. But the only way, so true. And then you don't want to stop, you don't want to give up and then you're hungry that if something got lost because of weather, you are on getting that rescheduled like, you know, white on rice. It's just happening just like that. And that would be the example of not only did you know where you were and know where you wanted to go, but then you filled in. But also planning for failure, which is the weather in this case. So planning for failed actual events and then doubling up, taking massive action so you took more action than you thought was necessary and putting a result based action, which is scheduling the test. So all of those things ended up leading you to where you are now, which is, you know, you write a test this afternoon, which puts you on to the next next step, which is very close to completing your license.

Right.

Yay.

So what you're saying there, that long winded explanation, is that your list is better than mine because it's working for me. Darn it, you win again.

I stopped listening when you said long winded. Okay, so.

No, no, that's absolutely. But no, seriously, you're absolutely right. The, the thing you're explaining there is the difference between it rolling around in your mind and it actually happening. And it's your third point there. Scheduling it. That's what makes it so important. So that's an awesome list.

But this is the, this is the exact same for. Doesn't matter whether it's somebody's weight loss. It doesn't matter whether it's a core quarterly financial goal for a corporate entity.

Your relationship.

Yeah, our dates. You know, we've, we've talked making sure.

We are scheduling time for you and me.

We have dropped the ball so many times on our dates and, and then, you know, then it, then we build resentment because we're not creating the boundaries around protecting our time together or protecting our dates together. And it's so much better otherwise.

And that's another episode. All right, thanks.

I know, I know. I'm not going down there. I'm not going down that date rabbit hole.

All right.

Scheduling other duties are just the little things, the sand that comes in there because those, those are the things that if there is time left after those big things, then you're putting in the small things along the way. But one of those big things that's in there that people tend to miss and you were so good at as a professional athlete and not as good at as a not professional athlete. One of those big things to schedule are the things that really fill your own individual cup. And this is one of the hardest things I think for men to do. But now, so scheduling those. One of those things that are really important is the self care. That's especially for women, female athletes, moms for men. When you were a professional athlete, you made sure you had the massage, you got the treatment, and you took the nap you scheduled those things into your life because it was so important and you saw it as part of your duty to be the best athlete you could be. But then when you stopped being an athlete, you didn't schedule anything like that in. You wouldn't even go to the doctor. And then the self care goes down and down and down. And right now one of the things that is really having you achieve your results so much is say those flight lessons alone, because that's double. It's like hitting this double whammy of awesome. I'm going towards a result and a goal, which we call it resol now that you really want. But at the same time it's like self care because you're doing something that really fills your cup. It's adventurous, it's just for you, it's not about anybody else. And that is making you, if you go back to the final number three that you did, it's making you be a person that's like the best version of yourself. Because who the hell cares?

The happier person.

Yeah, like who the hell cares if you schedule all these big things but they're only work related and they only go for your goal, but then you turn into a miserable hag on the way or, you know, or like if you look back at being an athlete, who cares if you schedule all these things all around being a professional athlete but you've lost your relationships along the way or, you know, so if we take a look at what the diversity of what it takes and schedule that in to fill our cup, to connect with our people, to make sure we're still going for our results and revisit that each season, then we understand whether or not we're going in the direction we want to go and whether we've lost our way by only going for one result and forgetting about the other things that are really important to us. I swear I didn't write any of that down. It just all bleh out of my mouth.

Do you have anything else written down?

I have one more. One more thing written down.

Bonus item.

Yeah, one more thing. And it's creating intention. So something that signifies or express, expresses the transition. And what I would say for this is for instance, if it was a sport in a season change or a transition, which is a transitional time to do something like a team bonding event. Same thing for corporate. This is typically at a season change or a key time. That's when there are retreats that happen. For corporate or can we call this.

Setting the culture or set the tone?

I just called it intention, which would be exactly that. Setting the tone, setting the intention, creating culture of those things. Same type of thing where it's something that you do that is signifying so you remember that, hey, this is a transitional time and I'm gonna create it how I want it, not just let it happen to me or be, you know, just get caught up with a busyness of back to school or whatever. I'm going to create intention around each season. So one of the things from a personal standpoint, we're doing this, no sugar this particular month for a 30 day challenge. But at some time in the month of September, around the change to autumn will be a 48 hour juice cleanse. And that's something I've decided that each season change, I would like to do a juice cleanse because it's something that will signify the transition of the season. It will be very intentional around my health and decide what that looks like, like and. And go from there. For a corporate, it might be a retreat or it might be a quarterly review. Those don't sound nearly as fun as a retreat. A quarterly review might be a team bonding event. It might be a group like I know one. There's a group of health professionals that one of my clients runs and they have like a wellness, a wellness club or something like that. And so they'll do different things at different seasonal changes. It could be for some people a solstice. They a spring solstice or a summer solstice. They'll celebrate that. Just change in season for an environmental or a nature connection, that kind of thing, but an intentional activity or something that happens at the change of season to really honor the fact that there's transition happening. It's probably going to get a bit messy because transition happens and that's okay. And we're choosing to do it. It's not something we're just going to be dragged through because the seasons change because time goes by. We're going to realize this is happening, know that it might be a bit messy and choose how we want it to look and choose how we're going to go about it.

That's awesome. Owning it.

Yeah. Own the season.

So.

So we're wrapping it up.

So, yeah. So to help everyone, you know, key takeaways here, what you really want to have just jotted down if you remember anything and do this is number one from my side was goal setting and Kari was, you know, bolstering that with know your results and know where you are now so that you can figure out what Your results are going to be that are realistic and from my side again, establishing the routine, going pro mode, doing whatever it takes to ensure the results for top performance. And Kari, you know, you again came in strong with organization, physically having things in place, the workout clothes ready to go, the desk clean so that there's no barriers to your top performance. And then schedule what's important, get it written down, get it on there and it will happen. If it's in your head, meh, we know that can go. For me, my final one was take on a new way of being. You know, that's attitude. That's how you want to show up. And again aligns with your last point. Kari of intention of, you know, this is going to be happening for me. The world isn't happening to me. I'm going into this with this attitude and looking for this result and bringing everyone with me in positivity. So I think it's a really strong list, a great way to kick off a new season. And we do have a little treat for you here at the end of the show. But before we get to that, I want to remind all of you to please, please give us a glorious review on Apple Podcasts. Pump our ratings. Share this podcast with people you know so that we can get it out to more and more people, grow the community, get involved in the 12:30 challenge. The links below you have no excuses. My email is pd powerconditioning.com so hit me up with questions you're gonna regret. People you like to interview. Bring it on, bring it on. So I want to hear from you. Okay, so that is our request. And now finally to wrap things up, we're bringing back the book of questions. And Curry, it is your turn to choose a number and get a really weird question from the book of questions written by Gregory Stock, PhD.

I don't know if I've picked 73 before. If I picked 73. Try that.

Okay, let me find it. Yeah, okay.

I figured I might have weird. No, no, it's not weird. It's my birth year. How about how many does it that.

Personal information go on?

How about 101?

Oh, okay. Get the 101 back to school.

Well, it's the time, right?

An eccentric millionaire.

Uh huh.

This is gonna be a decent proposal. An eccentric millionaire offers to donate a large sum to charity if you will step completely naked from a car onto a busy downtown street, walk not one, not two, not three, but four blocks and climb back into the car knowing that there would be no danger of physical Abuse. Would you do it? So, and this is, again, a millionaire donating a large sum to charity. If you will do this.

Okay, well, I'm sorry. Here, but a large sum. Some. Okay.

And yeah, we need a number. Let's say it's. He's a millionaire. It's a million dollars. It's a million dollars.

Somebody said it was, it was like 10,000. Absolutely not. Not a chance. But if somebody said you care about.

Charity, do you not like your community? Wow. Okay. Well, it's. Let's say it's a million dollars. It's a million dollars. Four blocks, totally naked, busy downtown street. Well, I'm thinking of physical harm or danger.

I'm thinking of Richmond or Oxford. So, of course, yeah. Then I'm thinking, then I'm thinking, oh, man.

Like, you know, and see, and here's the thing. The little words in here. Walk. See, I would want to sprint it. You know, like streaker stuff, right? Then people will be, like, going through the quad.

And, you know, here's the thing.

If everybody's doing it, if it was.

You, if it was a guy and it was like a you guy, like, you're big.

We're going streaking.

I'm serious. Like, you're, I can't believe. This is the question. Oh, my gosh. Okay, so you're big. You're, you know, if it was you, I think it's a.

No, it's not me.

It's just.

You ask the question.

I'm just, I'm struggling here. Just back away from the naked woman.

Let me help. Let me help. Let me help. Because you love animals. You love dogs. This is a million dollar donation to the Humane Society. A million dollars.

You know what? The Humane Society gets lots of donations, and I know they need lots of donations, and we've been a fundraiser for the Humane Society. Society. But I'm still.

Think of the puppers.

No, I just.

Okay, so, so you're saying no.

So I could. No, you know what? No, no, no. I, I, I could put one arm across my chest, I could put a hand across my crotch, and I could walk really quickly, really quickly for four blocks. I think I could do it for, for. If I.

Lady Gaga walks around with meat on. I think you could.

If I knew that. If I knew that money was going to something that, like, I really, really cared because there's lots of things I really care about. There's. Okay, there's homeless things. There's animal stuff. There's. There's environmental. Environment.

There's me.

Environmental.

There's me. Yeah.

You are not. All right, Charity cause.

Okay, so we got your answer. We got your answer. You do it.

Think I could do it?

Would try to cover it.

It would have to be at least a million. And all of that money would have to go, like, directly to, you know. You know, how it gets caught up in.

Oh, yeah. Anyway, yeah, everyone's got their hands in the coffers. All right. That's awesome.

I'm traumatized right now.

You're fully clothed.

I know, but it's the vision. It's the vision. I'm walking down Richmond naked. God. Okay.

Anyway, I got the vision. We gotta go. All right, everyone, thank you for joining us. It's been a pleasure.

Welcome.

Your feedback hit us up. Yep. Huge guests coming up this year. Lots of exciting things coming. Keep listening, keep sharing. Thank you so much for listening on behalf of me and Kari.

Love you.

Bye for now.