224. Andrew D. Thompson | A High-Performing Mind: Strengthen Your Mind and Live Your Best Life

Hello, Book Thinkers family, and welcome to our personal development podcast, Book Thinkers Life-Changing Books. During each episode, we interview one of the world's top authors, and as a listener, you can expect to discover new books, new mentors, and new resources that you can use to achieve more and live better. In today's episode, we have the pleasure to interview Andrew Thompson, author of A High Performing Mind: Strengthen Your Mind and Live Your Best Life. Andrew is an expert in empowering people to overcome adversity, build resilience, and consistently bring their best to everything they do. For over 25 years, he has worked with elite athletes, business leaders, and individuals from all walks of life to help them achieve their goals and create lasting success. Andrew combines insights from his career as a professional athlete, hospitality industry executive, and high performance coach with his personal experiences of overcoming life's toughest challenges. His book offers powerful habits, mindsets, and mental tools to improve focus, clarity, and performance. In this episode, Andrew shares invaluable advice on delaying gratification, embracing setbacks as opportunities for growth, and cultivating the habits of high performers. Whether you're striving for success in sports, business, or personal life, this episode is packed with insights to help you live with purpose and perform at your best. Now get ready to learn and enjoy this incredible conversation with Andrew Huberman. Andrew Thompson.

Andrew Thompson, welcome to the Book Thinkers Life-Changing Books Podcast. We are going to dive right in. I'd like to start today's conversation by highlighting you something that you said on page 26, and I'm gonna read it here. One of the core lessons in A High-Performing Mind is that anything worthwhile usually takes time and effort to achieve. And there will likely be challenging moments along the way. So here's my question. In today's world, with a lot of young professionals leaning into instant gratification, right? We can pull out our cell phone, we can start scrolling, we can get a dopamine hit instantly. How do we combat that and start focusing on delaying gratification and focusing on things that require a long time to achieve that are more valuable?

I mean, it's a great question. It's the number one challenge people face. these days with their devices and everything. You know, it's so easy to get distracted. It's so easy to look for instant gratification. But really, like, if you want long-lasting success and long-lasting improvements to your life, then it's about keeping your eye on that and trying not to let those distractions slow you down and knock you off course. So it is all about— it's about the long game. You want to have a great life. In not just one area of your life. You don't want to have just quick wins. You want to have long-term sustained success. And, you know, and that happens by following certain principles that they're just, it's unavoidable. Like, you know, we look on social media and we see people that look like they've achieved success really quickly, but like the truth is for something that's going to last, it takes, there's a process and it takes time and effort to pursue that process.

I know one of the ways that I've tried to implement this idea of delaying gratification is by thinking about my future self. So, as I'm making decisions, I'll think, okay, what is Nick tomorrow going to be more proud of today? You know, is it eating the popcorn or going on the run? Or what is Nick in 5 years going to be more proud of? Or what will set him up for more success? So, what are some of the ways— I mean, you mentioned some principles. What are some of the ways that you think about serving your future self?

I mean, it all starts with like having that passion for what you want to have happen to you in the future, right? So when you have that, everything else comes naturally. The willingness to put the time and the effort in, uh, the willingness to like go that extra mile, make that extra effort, all that comes together, uh, when you have that, you know, starting point where you really want something. So if you do want it, you kind of put that on the horizon. You're not there yet, but you're willing to take the steps that are necessary to get yourself there. Of course, there's some planning. You have to have clarity about what you want. You got to be willing to do it on a daily basis. If you make those efforts and you're consistent, and then you will get there. I mean, I certainly have done that many times in my life. You know, started off with my life as an athlete. You know, I was so passionate, mad passionate about the sport I was playing, or this, you know, not just that sport, but any sport I was playing that I was, you know, loving at the time. And it was really easy to put that time in and the effort and want to do it on a daily basis to try to. To get to where I wanted to go, and you know all of us are different. You know we have different ambitions and goals with what our kind of long-term results should be all about. But I always kind of was really keen on performing at the highest level. That's sort of my passion, and even in my coaching, those are the people that I tend to work with—people who have kind of ambitious goals. They want to they want to succeed to a very high degree. They're very capable, and so. That's sort of my thinking a lot of times. But people are different. Not everybody has that ideal that is super challenging to achieve. But it is the same process all the way through. You gotta be consistent. You gotta have a little discipline. You gotta be clear about what you wanna do. And, you know, not just that, there's all kinds of things that can come along to knock you off course. And you've gotta be resilient enough mentally and emotionally to get through that in order to still achieve your goals. And that's really where 99% of the people fail. It's, it's not knowing what they want to do. We're pretty good about that, but it's about not giving up too soon or not taking the appropriate steps to get to where you want to go. It's got to be a realistic approach if you want long-term lasting success.

Yeah, you had some great thoughts on failure, which I definitely want to unpack in a few minutes, but you just said something that I thought was interesting, which is that not everybody has some type of big goal that they're focused on. Do you think that it is important to have some type of like really big ambition in life? I mean, I know you work with a lot of professional athletes and high-performing people, and that's the focus of this book is how do you create a high-performing mind? Is a prerequisite or a requirement for a high-performing mind some type of large ambitious goal?

Absolutely not. Like, it's, uh, it's about what you want in your life, not other people's goals, not other people's ideas of what you should have. It's about what you want to have. You got to be true to yourself. If you're not true to yourself, you don't follow that kind of that heart, you know, that's reminding you, you know, what you really truly want, then it's a recipe for not really finding the success you want. The steps for success are the same whether you're a high performer, uh, or a medium performer. Like, you have to perform well to achieve things in life. Like, You're not gonna, you know, get that promotion if you're not, you know, working to the to a degree that your colleagues feel is high performing. You're not going to be tapped for that $200,000 a year job unless you're high performing in some way. You know, you want to be successful in your marriage. Same idea. You know, so there's always a degree of performance and results in the things that we do if we want to be successful. And so. What A High Performing Mind's all about, it's not exclusively for people who are trying to be, you know, top in the country CEO or as an athlete, but it's for everybody. And if you, you have those kind of mental tools and principles and mindsets and habits in your life, then you can be successful at whatever it is that you're aspiring to.

Yeah, I think a good example of that in my own life, I mean, if I look back about 10 years ago, I started to learn about emotional intelligence and I wanted to be a little bit more logical as I processed things and a little bit less emotionally reactive. And so, I started meditating. And in the present moment, you don't really feel too much excitement while you're meditating. It's kind of difficult. But I was thinking about Nick in 5 to 10 years. I said, you know what? I read all of the data. If you consistently practice this form of meditation, you'll gain more emotional intelligence. And Nick in the future will be able to have more of a high-performing mind.

Wow.

And so, I would put in the work day in and day out. I meditated every day for a year at one point, and I've kept up with it for about 10 years. And here I am on the other side of that thanking Nick in the past for putting in the work. Now, this idea of emotional intelligence isn't like I'm not trying to be a CEO or a top athlete. I just wanted a little bit more control of my own brain and kind of strengthen it a little bit. So, are there any daily practices that you have today that are focused around— Strengthening your mind?

100%. Like, first of all, I love that you made that commitment to yourself and you invested in yourself. I do feel like the concept of self-development is a little bit lost these days, and we all need to get back to that. As you develop yourself, like you took that time to do, success is on the horizon. You know, that's how you get there because you have the mental strength and fortitude to do something like meditate every day. The High Performance Mind, it takes it, that meditation concept, which I've done a lot in my life as well. to the next level. It's not just about setting that time aside, it's about being present in the moment. And in chapter 11, we talk about a lot about like, how do you get your best performance when you need it most? You know, in that interview, uh, in the middle of that, uh, that game or that match where your team's playing or whatever, you want to perform at your best. How do you do that? And you kind of nailed it. It's about being present, and I call it present moment focus. And if you bring that present moment focus to what you're doing, like right now in this interview, for example, The more fully engaged I am, you know, the better hopefully I'll communicate and, and answer your questions and all those things. If I'm distracted, if I had the, a bad idea to get on my phone right now, my answers are certainly not gonna be as good. So it's all about bringing that present moment focus to what you're doing. Um, and when you do, you know, that's where you perform at your best. And when you're performing at your best, that's where you get the best results. And the best results lead to that success that we want to have in our lives no matter what we're doing.

Yeah, the present moment focus piece, I feel like a lot of people are struggling with that today, maybe because of virtual communication. But a lot of times I'll be on a call with somebody and I'll notice they're kind of fumbling around behind the scenes or looking at a different monitor. And that's something that I even struggle with. I mean, I'm, I'm definitely imperfect just like everybody else. And so I'll get a notification here and there. Before we press record today, you Minimize some other windows. And I could tell you wanted to be fully immersed in this conversation.

For sure. Yeah, absolutely. I think it's the best approach. Like, for whatever reason, I was born with wanting to— well, we're all born with wanting to have a great life. That's nothing new. But so I kind of identified that if I performed well in certain areas of my life, then I would be happier. I would be— I'd be more fulfilled. So the things I just identified, what was important to me. So like, what's important to you, Nick? Like, for me, it was, you know, certain sports that I was competing at. I was playing one sport professionally and another sport at a national level and wanted to perform well at those. It was my career. I wanted to perform well in that. I wanted to be, uh, high performing in my relationships. It's not an athletic thing or a business thing. It's, it's simply that I wanted to do well in the relationship cuz I knew that if whatever relationships I had, whether with friends or, or loved ones or whatever, that the better those went, the happier I was. So I quickly correlated, like, if I really devoted myself to kind of getting good results. It sounds kind of numerical when I say it that way, but, you know, doing as well as I could and, and giving my all to those things that, you know, I was happier for that experience. So that's why I had that mindset from the very beginning.

Yeah, I resonate with that in a really big way. I think that we're, we're only given one opportunity to live, and so we might as well use it to the best of our ability, like really test ourselves. I oftentimes do these deathbed meditations. It sounds a little dark up front, but the idea is you meet some, some version of yourself that didn't live with any regrets, that really went for it, that took the risks, that went all out, that was the best partner in their relationship, that was the best business person professionally, that was the healthiest version of themselves. And, you know, I think to my future self, meeting that version of myself, and I want to make sure that We kind of stand toe to toe, like, I want to give it my all. So I think about that a lot. I want to be high performing in every area of my life.

Yeah, I mean, I couldn't agree more. And, you know, you have your specific goals that were what make you happy, and somebody else listening here might have their specific goals. So like, that's where the book starts for a reason. Like, I'm not going to tell you what you should want or what I wanted. Like, what do you want? So that's where we start. And people sit down, they get clear, and clarity is a really important thing, particularly today when it's so easy to be distracted. So we get clear about what people want and they write that down. They stick it like on a sticky note and put it on their computer screen somewhere that they can see it on a regular basis just to remind them, oh yeah, that's why I'm here. That's why I'm doing this. That's why I'm making this extra effort. That's why I'm putting all this time in. You know, there are sacrifices for sure, but it's all worth it. It's the long game. You know, you said it upfront, your future self. Like, I love that the way you put it. So we're thinking about the long game and we're thinking about long-term success. And, and we build that today, we build that in the now. And by making that daily effort, that's how we get there. So, you know, from setting those goals, then the reason I go into, uh, the second chapter about expectations and not thinking it's going to be easy— because if I don't help people become resilient right away, they're going to never get there. So you have to get resilience in right away. It's like, it's very calculated the way the book kind of evolves, uh, because I Having coached so many people through this process so many times in my life, I know where people kind of get hung up or stop, or where they can block themselves from the success that they have the ability to achieve. So, you know, you gotta be mentally resilient, you gotta be emotionally resilient. And when you are, you eliminate a huge amount of the obstacles that are gonna knock you off course and prevent you from getting the success. And so instead of you sitting there going, hey, why didn't I kind of make that $100,000 or, or, you know, finish top of my class or, you know, finish number one in the country in your sport or whatever it was, you know, you get clarity about that and you're able to achieve your goals.

Yeah, I talked a little bit about this chapter on the Book Thinker social media because I loved your thoughts on expectations. And you said in the book, expect there will always be unforeseen challenges. And then you go on to say, rather than getting blindsided by a setback, And seeing it as proof we're doomed to fail or won't ever bounce back, we instead see it as a learning experience and an indication that it may be time to rethink our approach.

Yeah.

And I loved this thought in the book because when I was younger, I wanted to go out and win every single situation in my life. And when something didn't go my way, I did get blindsided and it was tough. I had a lot of big failures that kind of put me in a hole for a little while, but As I realized over time through trial and error that there would always be failure. It didn't blindside me, and I was able to respond much more efficiently, much quicker in every one of those situations. And so I think it's an incredibly important piece to resilience that you expect difficulty.

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Absolutely. Yeah, you said it so well. I mean, setbacks are going to happen. I mean, they happen to me all the time. They're going to happen to me with this book process. And by expecting that that will happen, it makes me more resilient because I, I'm not going to quit prematurely. I'm going to think, okay, what am I learning here? You know, what message am I not getting across? Or, or what do I need to adjust in the way I'm doing things in order to kind of hit this a little bit more on the bullseye? You know, I mean, It happens every day. So I mean, sometimes, you know, you know about social media, put something on social media, kind of falls a little flat and you're like, okay, that didn't go over so well. What do I need to kind of adjust here to kind of get this to resonate with people a bit more? Because like, I'm super passionate about my message, right? Like, I, I know it helps people. I've been through this process countless times with many, many people over many years, and I know it leads to success. So I want to kind of dispel a lot of myths that are in the world about like that you can kind of get around this stuff. Like, I can tell you, no great person has gotten around it. They've done it, and it's so rewarding. And like, you can feel that rewarding feeling all through the process. It doesn't need to be just when you get there at the end, but those little successes you have on the way, you know, uh, that's what makes it all worthwhile.

What are some of the myths around success and around building a great life for yourself?

Uh, it's a great question. I think one of the big ones that comes to mind is people like to think about it a lot more than do something about it, you know. So I talk a lot about the process, uh, rather than the, um, what are the words I use, the process instead of basically thinking about the, the end game. So the visualization of that process and knowing what you want at the end and having clarity is super important, but it's in the doing, not the thinking about it. So we want to get back to kind of the process and what are the steps that are going to take me to success. So in that, those first steps of kind of identifying what you want to do and what it's going to take to get there, you, you outline those steps, you know. So, um, if I want to be an athlete, well, practice is going to be one of those steps. There's no way around it, okay? And in business Network is networking is probably going to be one of those steps. So by focusing on the process, we do ourselves so many favors in so many ways. We stay focused for one, and we actually start acting instead of thinking about it. And so I think one of the biggest pitfalls is getting into like visualization, and visualization is not a bad thing at all. Don't get me wrong, but it can never replace action. Action is number one, and doing is number one. So keeping that firmly at the forefront of your mind is going to do you a lot of favors in you know succeeding the way you want.

It reminds me of a quote that Napoleon Hill says. He says, "Action is the real measure of intelligence," and I love that because you could read a book like Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and you get caught in this idea that you're just supposed to say affirmations in the mirror and visualize. The outcome. And what you are encouraging people to do is focus on the process. And in the world of sales, I was always taught lead versus lag. So a lead indicator is something that you have direct influence over, like the number of calls or networking events you attend. The lag indicator might be the KPI that you're tracking, the key performance indicator, like X dollars of revenue or something like that. And salespeople, they get excited like, oh, my goal this month is X dollars of revenue. But instead, if you focus on the lead, on the process, oh, what if your goal is 200 sales calls? That's influenceable. So it's a really important distinction, the process versus the outcome. And at the end of the day, after reading hundreds of personal development books, I've realized that successful people, they're never done anyway. Once you achieve one milestone, you're onto the next one because you love the process of what you do. It's a very big distinction.

That's such a great point, and thank you for reminding me the word I couldn't retrieve earlier, which is outcome. But, uh, yeah, you don't— can't stay too focused on the outcomes, about the process. And if you do that, you get, uh, those little wins along the way, and they build into kind of lasting success. So, and you got to enjoy the process too. Like, if I were to say I want to be a dentist tomorrow, no offense to dentists out there, but I'm not going to enjoy that process. So you got to be, again, true to who you are. And, and I do Kind of try to remind people along the way, like, what does your heart tell you? You know, I have 2 examples in the book, one at the first chapter, one at the very end, the last chapter, about following your heart. And that's just to make sure that you're staying true to your process, not someone else's. It's really easy to be influenced by, like, parents or siblings or friends or what you see on social media and think you want that too. But, like, look in, in, in your heart. If your heart's telling you, like, all I wanna do is draw, then draw. You know, and see where that takes you. You know, so that's the best thing I can tell you is that be true to your heart, be true to who you are, and let that guide you. And then when you do that, you'll also have the passion. It's not like you're going to have to like toil away and it's going to feel like work. You know that old expression, love what you do, love your work if you can. I mean, it's obviously a great way to go. We don't always love our work all the time. I can tell you the further I climb the corporate ladder, the less I love it sometimes. Sometimes I think back to my coaching, you know, high performance coaching. which I still do a little bit of. But, you know, thinking about how that was really the sweet spot for me. So you got to be true to your, your process. And, you know, and that means adjustments. And, um, one big reason this book obviously was on my mind for a long time, and I wanted to do it for a long time, but that, uh, being true to that calling, kind of that, that heart feeling to want to move forward with it, is really what drove this whole process.

Well, at the time of this recording, we're about to walk into 2025, and I'd say that right now there's never been a better time in history than today as far as turning your passion into some type of profession, because we have access to social media. I mean, if you were to tell me, Nick, Nick in 2017, Nick, you're going to be able to read personal development information and interview authors and help them build their businesses as your full-time job, I would've said, no way. There's no industry for that. But I just started sharing the books I was reading on social media, and here we are a number of years later. There's an audience for just about anything that you're passionate about. And so I think that, yeah, even if the step related to your passion is just start sharing it on social media, like you gave the example of drawing, build a social media account where you display your artwork and collect feedback and see what people resonate with. And over time, something might reveal itself as far as how you might be able to monetize that or take your skillset to the next level.

It's so true. I mean, and my, example from my life, and which is in my book, is a great one because nobody's ever heard of the sport of squash. Like, very few people have. I mean, it's definitely not a high-profile sport, but for whatever reason, that sport grabbed my love of a game and focus and concentration and passion. So I followed it. I had no idea where it could possibly have led me, you know, to playing professionally, to moving to a different city, to starting a career in the hospitality industry. To meeting my wife, you know, you just can never imagine the direction something will take you in. So yeah, I mean, following your passion is key. We're all here for different reasons. It all adds up to a great full, you know, complement of each other. So yeah, you got to kind of do what you got to do. Obviously, there's a there's a degree of realism in it. You know, sometimes life responsibilities call, and you got to kind of make some decisions along the way that are realistic, so you can you know make ends meet and meet your responsibilities, whatever they may be. But you always try. Try to bring that together with your passion as much as you can. And maybe you do something temporarily for a little while while knowing you're just waiting for that opportunity to kind of follow your passion more closely again. And, and, and sometimes, sorry to go on a little bit long here, but, you know, my, you know, I'm in the hospitality industry for a long time and something I obviously love doing, but there's also now this calling to kind of pursue this, you know, the book and promote it and see if I can get my ideas out there in the world and see if people kind of connect with them and think that they're worth hearing.

Yeah, my favorite books are books like yours that condense decades of your lived experience into days of reading and action. And you've worked through this process with so many people, it's a credible message. So anyway, I resonate with it. Now, for those in the audience that are scratching their head, what is the sport of squash?

Yeah, it's funny. Okay, so think tennis instead of a net dividing you. You're in a 4-walled room, right? So racquetball— some people are familiar with racquetball. Maybe it's kind of a sport that I don't think is prevalent as squash is today. So squash has kind of come on, particularly in the US, in the college scene. It's a very healthy, dynamic sport. I think there's well north of 80 colleges and universities that have teams. So it's played in a room about 600 square feet, you know, 2 people with racquets and a ball. And the, the thing about squash though, it's an incredible workout. Like, it, it really gets you in shape. And I think that's what the big allure of it is. It's when you first start it, you're like, wow, you have these really long rallies. Even if you're a beginner, it gives you this incredible workout. You're so sore when you come off the court, you know, you've had this amazing muscular and, and cardiovascular workout. So that's what drew me to it. Yeah. So a little plug for squash there, but if there's a court nearby, give it a try. See if you like it.

When I was in college, the gym at my college had a racquetball court. Maybe it is a squash court, I don't know, but we played a lot of racquetball and that can get pretty dangerous. I got hit in the head a few times by a hard rubber ball, but I really enjoyed it. And just like you talk about, I'm an athlete. I wrestled, played football, and I'd walk out of a racquetball court covered in sweat. So, definitely a good workout.

Yeah, too funny. Yeah, for whatever reason in my life, I, the fringe sports have seemed to be attractive to me. The other one I play and I talk about a little bit in the book just for the, some of the life lessons I learned from it was Ultimate Frisbee. Now I don't know if that's more or less popular than squash, I'm not sure, but yeah, so fringe sports for whatever reason. I did play more mainstream sports when I was younger. I did a lot of soccer and hockey growing up and I still actually coach both, currently coaching ice hockey. So maybe not as popular in the US, but certainly very popular here in, in Canada where I am.

You know what's so funny, Andrew, is that when I was in high school, one of the best athletes in my school, his name was Jeff, is Jeff. He was one of the best kids on our football team. We had a great football team, American football. We went to the Super Bowl, got to play in Gillette Stadium where the Patriots play and everything like that. But he quit our team senior year so that when he turned 18, he signed with a professional Ultimate Frisbee team.

Oh, wow.

And we were always like, what the heck? But he was such an amazing athlete and he was very competitive with all Ultimate Frisbee. So I have a lot of respect for that sport. I played a lot of it in college as well. I love that.

Oh, it's a great game. Yeah, I— the diving, I loved it, but it was also the end of me in Ultimate Frisbee. Great game though, for sure.

To pivot back to your book a little bit, I wanted to highlight another one of the lessons that I thought was really interesting, at least the way that you articulated this. And this isn't maybe another one of those myths. Oftentimes you hear, hey, avoid working on your weaknesses, just delegate that to somebody else and focus on your strengths. But you actually talk about how if you embrace our weaknesses, you have an opportunity for accelerated growth. So can you talk a little bit about that? Maybe the math behind it a little bit?

Yeah, absolutely. So I'll start with sports as an example. So a lot of athletes like to work on their greatest strengths, but a smart athlete will quickly identify what your strengths are and what your weaknesses are, avoid your strengths and go after your weaknesses. So it is a pretty basic lesson that a lot of us who've competed in sport and coached sport learn. Don't go up against your opponent in their, in their greatest strength. You're not going to succeed. And in your regular life, if you have something that's holding you back, let's say a fear of public speaking, it's going to really impact your ability to excel and succeed in life. So by addressing this biggest weakness or this thing that the biggest thing that's holding you back, And, and finding ways to get past it, you will realize that success that you haven't until that moment, because that thing has been holding you back. And it can be a lot of different things. It can be a vice. So in chapter 10, I talk about fear and how can you work with your fear and have a better relationship with your fear so that you can get past some of the things that are holding you back. And I think it's a really important message. for people who want to excel and kind of realize their goals and achieve the things in their life that are important to them. So yeah. Yep.

Hmm. What— when was the last time you felt like genuine fear? Do you remember?

Like, fear is part of every day. So I don't like the idea that we should be fearless. It's popular in kind of spiritual circles. And I'm not gonna say that never happens, but for 99.9% of people, I don't recommend pursuing that. Like, use your fear. Your fear is an incredible tool. It's an incredible motivator. Why wouldn't you want your fear? So when was the last time I felt fear? Well, I feel nervous from time to time when I have to get up in front of audiences, but I recognize that as something that's going to empower me to perform at a higher level. So Like, I think it's part of everyday life. You know, I have had some pretty substantial health challenges, as you know, from reading the book. So I've visited death's door a number of times, and it's never not scary. So I've definitely had, you know, some terrifying moments in my life where I've really had to come face to face with, you know, mortality and things like that. And that certainly comes to mind as one of the things that has shook my foundations, shall we say.

Yeah. Yeah. Why don't you share that experience that you opened the book with? Just so everybody can kind of get a flavor for what that experience was like for you.

Uh, yeah, so in 2016, um, I was doing a fast. So fasting was kind of something I felt that was healthy to do. And I, uh, had the— I was fasting. In the middle of the fast, I could kind of sense that something wasn't right. I had done it a few times before, and I'd never— I'd always— you don't feel great when you're fasting, but this was different. This was like medical. So, um, I— long story short, I essentially, um, ended up going to the hospital because I was feeling like I was going to die. And turns out I was right. I was— I had, uh, blood phosphate levels— a pretty technical term— but my blood phosphate level was at a very, very low level, the lowest the emergency doctor had ever seen in his career, actually. And, uh, you are risk of respiratory and heart failure and all these terrible things when that happens. So basically, this health challenge meant that, um, I was in for a long recovery process. So I spent the next 4 and a half months bedridden for 22 hours a day, um, trying to find a way to get past this horrible kind of situation I found myself in. And, um, I slowly but surely did walk out of it. Obviously, I wouldn't be here talking to you today if I hadn't found a way out. But I basically did it through diet and nutrition, and I kind of approached the whole thing like a computer programmer approaches it. I ate, you know, the same 12 things a day, and I changed one thing a day to see how that impacted me. And slowly but surely, over a long time, I built a diet where I was able to get myself so I had energy levels enough to, to live normally. So one thing I didn't mention is in those 4 and a half months, I was so weak I couldn't leave bed. You know, even my son's birthday, my 3-year-old son's birthday, I was too weak to get out of bed to go down the stairs. When I got home from the hospital, I climbed the stairs and it took me like 40 minutes to recover at the top of the stairs before I could make my final trek to the bedroom. So it was a really challenging time and I was able to get through it, um, by using a lot of the same tools that I use as a, as an athlete and as a professional coach. Uh, and those tools are really what got me through that— the resilience, the, the mental fortitude, the focusing on goals, the focusing on process, you know, the staying present to manage pain and, and all the discomforts that I went through. Unfortunately, there was some debilitating pain along the way as well. So, and that was a big motivator for writing the book so that people could understand that it's not just about achieving your goals, but it's about being happy with whoever you are, wherever you are in your life, no matter what your challenges. If you're like I was and just getting outta bed is your goal for the day, this book will help you. If you are a professional athlete and you wanna know how to maximize your performance, the book will help you, um, because it helped me and I've been all those things in my life. Um, so, and it's Hopefully been helping other people as well. So yeah, it's, uh, it was a long road back. It took me several years, and then even to this day, I still need to be careful with exertion. Um, it's something you can't feel, so I don't really know when it's a good day or a bad day. I kind of have to just be careful. So I can exercise now, I can live normally now, but the kind of exertion that I was doing when I was playing both Ultimate Frisbee and squash, those days are kind of behind me for now. You never know, like the healing process continues and it may continue to get better as I go along. it's certainly come a huge distance over the last 5 years. So yeah, that's kind of a bit of a short version of it. But yeah, and I do talk about it in the book and like I said, it's, it was a catalyst for what I wrote about. And I'll tell you one last thing about that is that I don't think this book would be nearly as valuable to people if I hadn't been through that. So I mean, it was an incredible learning experience and I think that more people can benefit from A High Performing Mind because I went through that. And if I had just ever lived that life of working with privileged, high-performing athletes and business people and all that kind of stuff, it wouldn't connect with nearly as many people. But this makes it much more, uh, in a much better position to help a broader range of people.

Yeah, I think so too. As you say in the book, what you learn in your hardest moment is the foundation for your best results. And so without that hard moment, you wouldn't have, uh, you know, you wouldn't be impacting as many people maybe, um, or telling that story from stage. And who knows where you'll be over the next decade as far as this kind of content is concerned. Real quick, what is, what are your thoughts on fasting today? Do you have to eat in order to maintain the blood phosphate levels or can you still fast?

I just don't risk it anymore. So I guess it comes down to risk reward and there's more important things to me maintaining a consistent energy level and, you know, being able to fulfill my responsibilities in life. I have a family. I've got a career, and I don't want to take any risks with that. So those days are behind me. You know, they benefited me to a certain point in my life, and maybe it was all meant to be. I don't know. But like you said, it made me able to have insights like the one you just mentioned, and it was a great learning experience, something I wouldn't want to repeat necessarily. But you know, we move forward with the strengths that we gain along the way, and we try to make the most of them.

Yeah, I, um, I love that. I, I play around with a lot of fasting, which is why I asked, um, but that'll be for our next conversation. So listen, we're getting towards the end of the conversation here. I've got a couple of last questions for you. Uh, the first is this: if somebody is on the fence, they've like, oh, I really like this guy's message, but I'm not quite sure if the book is for me, what's your final word for that person?

Um, it's certainly not going to be for everybody. Uh, I can't ever promise that it would be. If you're on the fence, I recommend reading the introduction, which I have for free on the website. And actually, I think chapter 1's in there too. So like, you don't really have to take a big risk there. You can go over to the website, andrewdthompson.com, and download the book for free by putting in your email address. And if you don't want me to email you, just let me know. I won't email you. So you can download the book, have a read through, see if it kind of resonates with you, if there's anything there that you kind of— you can see the table of contents and kind of see what's coming and see if those topic matters are appealing or interesting to you at all. And so, there's no giant commitment that way, and that's where you can make your decision. I think that's probably the best approach.

Yeah, I love it. I always love it when authors offer a couple of chapters for free. All right, great. Well, we'll make sure that those links are in the show notes below. My next question was going to be for people that want to learn more about you or check out the book, where should they go? You already highlighted your website. Are there any other places that people should check out?

Yeah, like, so it's a funny thing with me and social media because I was a person who didn't want to do that and avoided it for many years. But now I'm kind of relying on social media to get my message out there. So I have a pretty pathetic following in all the different areas, with the exception of probably LinkedIn, a little bit on Twitter, which nobody— or I shouldn't say nobody's using, fewer people are using. But I do have a lot of videos up on the YouTube, on my YouTube channel right now. Which is obviously in its infancy as this book launches. It's still in its infancy, and maybe that'll be different a couple years from now. But there's some content there from previous interviews, and if you're kind enough to send over, uh, this video too, I'd love to post it there as well. So I would— YouTube is a great place to get some, uh, you know, some little sound bites of some of the things that, um, I'm talking about. Obviously the book is the number one resource, and, uh, you know, I am putting content up on, on my social media accounts, all The, the, the go-tos, the Instagrams, and, uh, where else? A little bit on Twitter, uh, Threads, uh, Facebook, and that kind of thing. Uh, but the website, um, I'm definitely putting up some videos there. So if you're interested in some, some of the longer interviews and stuff I've like, I've done, you'll definitely find them on the website.

Well, as you already know, social media can be a great place to connect with your target customer, and, uh, it is a little bit of a necessary evil, but As everybody in the audience knows from listening to me say this so many times, if you audit your social media accounts and you only follow positive, constructive personalities, then social media can be a stepping stone to an amazing life. You just need to weed out all the craziness, the negative comparison, the divisive content, etc. But anyway, I'll get off my soapbox here. Final question for you. If The book was deleted, but you could leave the world with just one message from it. What would that be?

It's a great question and it's not an easy question, but one message is try to be willing to make that effort and commitment to your future success. It's, I feel like it's a bit of a lost message that, you know, people understand you have to work hard and grind, but like, when it comes down to it, I think very few people who are really willing to make that commitment to themselves. So I mean, the number one core message is make that commitment to yourself. Invest in your future by investing yourself now, by putting in the time, by putting in the effort, by finding that thing you're passionate about. And as you do that, you're going to build that future that you're looking for. So the number one message is devote yourself to that process Be willing to put the time and effort in, and if you are, you'll you'll you won't just be successful, but you'll have lasting success. And that's really the differentiating thing that I I think my message is a little bit different than some of the other ones. People talk a lot about success, not that they're not suggesting lasting, but I'm going to be really underscoring that lasting message because lasting success takes that full gambit of effort. So if you do it. Then you're going to be a lot happier in many facets of your life.

Yeah, I love it. Great way to end, to, uh, end the podcast today. Thank you, Andrew.

My pleasure. And thanks so much, Nick, for having me on Book Thinkers Podcast. I really appreciate the opportunity to be here, and I wish you all the best in, uh, your future things. You're doing great things out there.

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