What it really takes to have a successful wellness practice

Hello, my friends, and welcome to Perfect Practice. As you probably recognize, we've got a very special guest today, my son, Devin. Say hi, Devin. So today we're going to be talking about what it really takes to be successful in practice. And Aaron, of course, is joining me today. Aaron, good morning to you. How are you today?

I'm doing excellent. Feeling good after the long weekend. Excited to be here again.

Yeah, it's always great to be back. I'm super excited. One of the things that I've been doing lately is following Andrew Huberman's morning routine and daily routine, and I'm starting to see how much better I feel within just a couple of days. And in my home, I've adopted a new identity known as Super Sachin and rewrote my identity yesterday as an exercise we'll be doing in our mentorship group later this week. So I'm super pumped because I feel like I've upgraded in so many different ways. And one of the ways that I feel like I've really upgraded is learning some new skills. So that's why Devin is joining me today, because he's actually teaching me how to solve a Rubik's Cube. And I know before we hit record, I had asked you if you had learned how to solve one, and you jokingly said the same thing that I would have said, which is only by rearranging the stickers. So many of us are probably very familiar with a Rubik's Cube, and maybe we've tried to solve one. However, it seems like a futile attempt unless we actually know how to solve it. And usually that comes from learning from somebody who knows how to solve it. So Devin actually is an autodidact. He taught himself how to solve the Rubik's Cube by simply watching YouTube videos. So us practitioners, including myself, can take a page out of his book. He's picking up all these skills and learning all these cool things that he can do, and it's because he's curious. It's because he realizes that if somebody else can do it, there's certainly a way that I can do it. And there must be an algorithm or a way to solve this problem. And so that's what he's been doing. So he literally taught himself how to do this within three or four days, and then now he's going for a speed, so he's going to demo this to us. And the reason I think this is relevant to us practitioners is because many times we're trying to solve our Rubik's Cube, and it might be our practice, it might be our relationship, it might be, you know, our health. And it can seem like a Rubik's cube because we don't have the algorithms and we don't know what order to perform these algorithms in. So this morning I learned how to. Yesterday in the evening, I learned how to solve the first layer of the cube. So that's the first level. And then today, right between our meetings, he taught me how to solve the second one. And by the end of today, it's my goal to be able to solve this completely on my own. So what I'm going to do is as I'm speaking, I'm going to start mixing this thing up because I've become a professional. Research Rubik's Cube mixer upper. Because of Devin's Rubik's Cube practice schedule, he'll throw the cube at me and say, mix it up for me. So here we have a completely random mixed up cube and I'm going to let Devin kind of take it away and solve this bad boy, if you will, and show us, you don't have to teach us, but just go ahead and show us. As we're speaking in the background, Aaron and I are having a conversation. Go ahead and solve this for us because I think we're going to learn a very valuable lesson. You're going to see somebody who's done this quite a few times solve this for us. Let me lower this over for you. Okay, go ahead. You can, you can get started. So you know, it doesn't always start off this fast and it doesn't always, when we are building something, when we're creating something, it doesn't always start off as seeming easy, but once you know how to do it, you could do it over and over and over again. So one of the exercises that, that we do is he'll be solving the cube and he'll ask me to hold my breath. So I'll be practicing my breath holds while he's solving the cube. And it just makes for great father son time. It makes for great entertainment as well because I'm gasping for air by the end of it. And it's his goal to solve it within less than a minute. And he's had a few sub minute solves. So pretty fun to see him getting better and better at the skill. So as practitioners, I think that. Oh, there we go. He's done.

Done, verified. If you're listening to this, I saw that in real time it was less than what? Definitely less than a minute.

Yeah. So he's, he's gotten great at it. Now he's, you know, learning how to do it in. In as fast a time as he possibly can. So, Devin, I'd love to invite you to share some of your thoughts on this, if you would. What was. What inspired you to learn how to solve the cube?

Well, at school, a lot of my friends were doing it, and I kind of wanted to do that as well.

Okay. So surrounding yourself with the right people, that makes a difference, right? So if your friends are, you know, into certain things, then likely the likelihood is that you're going to be into certain things. So that's, that's important. I think that's also important for practitioners to surround yourself with people who are on a similar journey as you, who are trying to solve a similar problem. Right. If you joined a group of your friends who were trying to not solve a Rubik's Cube, but maybe solve a different problem, different puzzle, different challenge, then you wouldn't acquire the skills that's required to solve this. So, you know, for practitioners that are watching or listening, I think that's an important, valuable thing for us to know is to really surround ourselves with not just people, but people who are on a similar quest or a similar journey as we are, because then we're collaboratively trying to solve for the same issue. And the skills that we're learning or the challenges that we're encountering can be, once you overcome them, can be helpful for everyone in the group, not just for ourselves. And that makes it even more exciting. Right? It's awesome to win where other people are excited for you to win. So in terms of being successful as a practitioner, I think one of the first things we need to do is find people who are on a similar journey as us. And I think that's one of the reasons we get so attracted to events. That's so one of the reasons we get so attracted to going to conferences or, you know, even taking online courses, because we know that everyone there is there because they're interested in learning the same thing that I'm interested in learning or solving the same problem that I'm trying to solve. So when it comes to the clinical side of things, there's. There's a lot of opportunities for us to dive deep and go down the rabbit hole of things that we enjoy doing. But when it comes to the practice building side of things, then I feel like there's very limited options for people. So it's wonderful that we help people do this in our mentorship program, in our accelerator programs, but I also feel a sense that many practitioners are unfortunately struggling on their own unnecessarily, and perhaps don't have the ability to, or awareness to surround themselves with people who are trying to solve for a similar problem. So that's one thing that I've noticed is people behind the scenes will oftentimes have a community, or they'll have coaches, or they'll have guides or mentors that are helping and supporting them in their success. What are your thoughts on that, Aaron?

I was imagining when I. When I see Devin solve this, and. And then there must be people out there where it seems like they were told, like, the Tooth Fairy doesn't exist, because I've been trying to solve the Rubik's cube since, what, 1990. The first time I encountered a Rubik's Cube was like, my cousin's Rubik's Cube. I was like, what is this thing? And, you know, I'd sit there for a while and couldn't quite solve it. So I actually, I didn't remove the stickers. I took it apart. I figured you could. You can remove each square and reassemble it. So they didn't say how I had to get there, but I solved it. And I, I imagine there's. Like you said, there's a lot of practitioners out there trying to figure it out by themselves. Like, any, Any success or any learning that I've had. The most success I've had is when I'm around people who are doing it already. So, like, what does success actually look like? So whether, you know, you. Or like, clinical mentors, When I was learning how to do visceral manipulation, I went to all the classes, but once I started actually sitting next to my mentor and, like, watching his hands work triggered, you know, my mirror neurons, right?

The. The.

The neurons that help us learn just by observation. I realized what I was learning in theory was so different than what I like, what it actually looked like in practice.

Right?

Then I realized, like, teachers can teach things in a way that doesn't necessarily directly apply instead of in action all the time. Right. It's hard to condense intuition into teaching. So that's where, like, just being around people and observing and seeing it helps you accelerate your learning. And sometimes you don't even know what success is until you're around someone who has done it before. You imagine what success is, and it's just completely wrong. Yeah, that's my experience.

People can really show us what's possible. Right. So to think that, okay, it's taken me like, 44 years to figure this out. He did it in a few days, but he can then teach it to me in less time than it took him to learn it. Right. Because he could be sitting there literally next to me, coaching me and guiding me. I think another important thing for practitioners is to, you know, is to realize that sometimes it's going to look like you're messing things up in the process. And so if you're putting this cube together and sometimes it's going to look like, oh my God, no, what are you doing? You're screwing it up. And you start doubting yourself and second guessing yourself, not realizing perhaps that if you follow the algorithm, you're going to get there. So, Devin, what was it like the first time you picked up a cube, like, without knowing the formula? Was it overwhelming? Confusing? And so, you know, when you were watching your friends do it was. How did that make you feel? When they were solving it so fast and it was like, it seemed like impossible to you, how'd it make you feel?

Nervous. Yeah, kind of.

Yeah. Intimidated, maybe.

Yeah.

Right. Or maybe you felt, and I don't want to put words into your mouth, but maybe you felt like you were inadequate or incapable of doing it until you figured it out. Right. And then you realized, oh, that's how they do it. And you're just as capable of doing it now as they are.

Right.

So. And you. And one of the best ways to increase capability is to teach it to others. So you're actually doing what daddy does and teaching what he's learned over the years. Solving the Rubik's Cube of being in practice and teaching it to other people. So thank you, buddy. Anything you want to share before you jump off? No. Okay, well, thanks.

Thanks, Devin, for joining us. Thank you. All right, love you. Love you too. Gonna have to hire Devin to be my Rubik's Cube coach.

Well, you know what? Maybe I should hire him to be my YouTube coach because he actually has. He's approaching a hundred thousand views on his channel. And he's consistent. He loves recording little short videos. He's doing it. He's been doing it consistently. He actually did a 30 day artwork challenge where he would draw something, one thing for 30 days and post the shorts of it, and that built up his channel. So it's. Yeah, I'm pretty proud of him because once he puts his mind to something, he's so committed to finding a solution and he's got this like, patience and persistence. So a lot of what I teach my clients is things I learned from my own Son.

That, that, that's so important that, that consistency part, like, I'm not consistent. I'm consistent in some things. I was just, I took a walk. I. After hearing you share about Andrew Huberman's routine, I remember like we had our team meeting and I'm like, I, I haven't been outside. It's like we started kind of early my time. So I was like, I'm just go out, get a reset and was just thinking about the consistency of just that simple walking, like trying to think of what the motivation, how to, how to build that habit. It's often that desire that's there innately that leads us down that rabbit hole that we want to engage in. And so sometimes in building a practice, it can seem we don't make it fun. Uh, it's, it doesn't, it doesn't trigger that same excitement of like, oh, I want to solve this Rubik's Cube. So if someone's not reaching that success point, like you've always said, how do you make it fun? It doesn't have to be all serious. And sometimes just by making it fun, you can make it consistent. Like I've played video games in the past and there were times like I just couldn't stop because it was so engaging. And you feel the progress and you feel that excitement of wanting to solve it or wanting to get to that next level. Yeah, and we don't gamify success in a practice that way.

Well, we certainly don't. Like, we don't learn that.

Yeah, we don't learn it.

And we're. Sometimes we, you know, one of the things that, you know, is required for us to be successful is, is not comparing ourselves to where other people are. And instead of, I invite people to take comparison and turn that into curiosity. So instead of asking, you know, instead of comparing yourself and saying, oh, I could never do that, or you know, they, they're light years ahead of me, I could never be there. Instead, if you were curious, then that will completely change the questions that you ask. It will completely change what's possible for you. Because odds are somebody who has achieved any level of success that you desire in really not just one area of life, but in all areas of life, they're more than happy to teach you because usually those people have an understanding that this isn't a zero sum game, that Aaron being successful or Dr. Smith being successful takes nothing away from me being successful. In fact, it only adds to my own personal legacy and contribution and it accelerates the same goal that I have and you, Aaron, we love sharing this information with people because our ultimate objective is to help people get healthier faster. And we realized a long time ago that the fastest way to do that is to help more practitioners do just that, right? And whether that's people seeing more people seeing us or more people seeing, you know, more practitioners that we coach and train or provide influence to, then so be it, right? We're all doing the same thing. So I can be just as happy at somebody else's success as my own success because my success isn't tied up in how much money I make. It's. Or how big my business gets. It's tied up in the impact and the result that we're creating for the world at large. Right? Healthier people require is going to require more than us being a prominent practice or one or two people. It's going to require thousands of practices being successful. And that's what really drives me. And I'm waiting for that day where we run out of people to help, right? I'm waiting for that day where everyone's healthy, happy and whole that they don't need our services anymore. But it's going to be a long time until that happens. Wishful thinking for now, but I think that it's important that we recognize that people are always there, willing and ready and happy to help us in any way that we can. As long as we approach from a place of curiosity instead of comparison, and as long as we recognize that it's not a zero sum game, that there is enough, unfortunately, there's enough sick people for all of us, there won't be a shortage of that. And as long as we're coachable and teachable. So that's what I found are some of the characteristics of somebody who's highly successful is they're coachable, they're teachable, they surround themselves with the right people, like Devin demonstrated. They identify a formula or an algorithm and they follow it, right? Sometimes questioning it, sometimes even kicking and screaming. Like me, he's like, dad, just follow the algorithm. Just trust me. And here I am wanting to know, like, every nuance and understand how every piece is repositioned because I'm trying to mess with it in my head. I'm like, no, there's people that have done this for thousands of times. He solved the cube hundreds of times. So I should probably listen to him instead of questioning him. And sometimes it's going to feel like things are going backwards or we're messing things up or we're scrambling the cube up. Even More. But that's often what's required to get the pieces in the right place. And so when it feels like things are falling apart, if you're following a process or following a proven path or algorithm, you have to trust the process and trust your intuition, trust your guides, your sages, your mentors, trust the community that's done this and is a few steps ahead of you. So that you're not constantly living in this state of you're curious, but you're not questioning all the time.

It reminds me that success is defined, can be defined in so many different ways. And you know, let's say you do you. If you link success to a specific result, like how many patients you're seeing, how much money you're making, it's always this until I get there before I feel successful. So whether it's, you know, probably from, from you, from mentors like Jim Rohn, listening to like you are successful or like that once, it took me a long time to accept that, oh, I'm excess, I'm successful as I am now. And if you're listening to this, you're successful as you are now and it doesn't. And that can continue to grow. We can continue to grow and achieve things, but just be realizing that we aren't tied to the result as defined as success. So if someone's starting, they don't feel successful. But I'm thinking, I see a lot of people say like, I'm just starting my practice and associated with that is like, I'm not successful yet. But you're one of those first, you, you're one of those people who are actually brave enough and courageous enough to start your practice. Right. That is a form of success and I think that's easy to forget in the journey. And I, I'm reminding myself like I am successful as I am now and, and I'm still growing and learning and trying to win this infinite game of, you know, healing the world and making the world whole. Right. I love long video games, not ones that end after two hours. Right. I want, I want an expansive world with lots of complexity. And that's the fun part, not to be overwhelmed. So like, that comes up for me when you're in our conversation, like what success actually looks like.

Yeah, you know, I love that. And we're referencing Simon Sinek's book, the Infinite Game and he's got some great presentations about this as well. It's a never ending journey, right. We're always, you know, there isn't a finite amount of time this Journey ends. I mean, in some ways, when our life ends, the journey ends. But when we're building a business, we want to think of it as an infinite game. Right? How does this look forever? Not just in for the next quarter or for the next year or for the next few months. How does it look forever? And you start asking yourself a different set of questions. You start operating a little bit differently. You're not so focused on short term profits, you're focused on long term impact. And so the vision starts to shape into something that is more fun and more likely to get alignment from other people. I think another big thing about starting fresh in practice is that it's easier now than ever before if we're willing to ask for help. So when I was starting out or when other people were starting out maybe 15, 20 years ago, they didn't have, they had to figure it out all themselves, trial and error, and lose money. You know, some things would work, some things wouldn't work. Some, you know, things that they would try or experiment would work and some things would fail miserably. However, now there's a proven pathway, there's a proven process that others have implemented themselves and they're willing to teach and train others. So I do think that being able to ask for help and being vulnerable is another superpower that we must acquire. And it's part of what it really takes. The people that we see again, that are measurably successful in their practices, in their businesses, ask for help. And when they ask for help, people pour into them. And you would be shocked at how willing people are to help you because they know or that, you know, either they've experienced that somebody has helped them when they were down, or they understand the struggle and the challenge and wish somebody had helped them at that juncture that you're in. And they know the pain of not having that. So they're more than happy many times to help and, you know, keep moving people in the right direction. Another thing too is like when people are starting out, they can, they can think that, oh my God, I'm just starting out. I, I really don't know much. But here's the thing. When you're just starting out, you also don't have bad habits that many seasoned practitioners do, or you don't have like old processes that you have to completely, you know, archive and reinvent from scratch so many ways. And many times it's easier to just start from scratch. Kind of like an older home, right? Sometimes it's a lot more work to renovate a home than it is to just start and build a new one from scratch. Right. So if we just look at the home building process as the practice building process. Yeah, sometimes it's easy to just rearrange the furniture or paint a color or maybe add an extension. But if you going to gut the place, it's oftentimes way faster, cheaper, and easier to start from scratch than it is to gut your whole house and do it all over again. So keep that in mind as a practitioner as well. And one thing that we also talked about in our previous conversations is courage and resiliency. So I know you talk to a lot of practitioners. I'd love to hear your thoughts on courage and resiliency. And if you see that as something that maybe people lack or they don't really take into consideration when they're building their practice.

Yeah, there's a lot of fear around doing it wrong. You know, what if my. What if I don't choose the right avatar that comes up all the time? And I, I know I've, I've been there. You know, I need to identify the perfect niche before I build my website or before I put something out there and it comes up again and again. And those that make the most progress say, I don't know if this will work. I don't know if, you know, women's struggling with menopause is the right one, Right, right avatar. But they start doing stuff like, regardless of how they feel, just keeping, continuing to take that next step. One of our mentees, she said one of her mantra is like, forward. I thought that was a great one. Like, in her mind, she's thinking forward, as in, how can I continue to move forward regardless of how I feel? And that's something I know I've worked on in my own mind. Like, how do I just take that next step? And I always like the marathon analogy because having run some of these longer races, it's not about feeling good the whole time. I don't think anyone feels good during a marathon the whole time. That's like an impossibility. You know, I know my feet will hurt. I know my lungs will hurt. And at mile 16 is when most people crash. But I just started thinking, what if I think every step is like, what if I'm grateful for every. The next step? Like, I'm so grateful for this next step. And this mantra just. I just try to keep a mantra in my head. I learned it actually from. Was it Mark? Is his name Mark Devine. Mark Devine. He's a Navy SEAL. And he said, often the Navy SEALs, they teach their, like the, the SEALs that you just need to get to the next milestone. So however you define it, like, how do you just keep getting to that next point that you can see and not thinking, how do I finish? So in terms of courage is encouraged to just keep going in despite discomfort.

Yeah. You know, speaking of Navy SEALs, you, you, this jogs my memory from a story I heard just yesterday. And it was the two things this. Eric Thomas was teaching this and he's a motivational speaker. Check out his work. If you like somebody yelling at you to motivate you, I need that once in a while. So he talks about in Navy SEAL training, the first two things that they teach you is how to unjam your gun if it's jammed and how to carry a dead body. Those are the first two things that they teach you. And so, you know, in practice, sometimes maybe we should teach that, like, what's the worst case scenario that can happen? Let's prepare you for that so that everything else seems so much easier. Right. For most of us, like the worst thing that can happen is you do a webinar and a technology and technology doesn't cooperate, right? That's the, that's like nobody, nobody dies. Nobody dies of embarrassment, nobody dies of a technological failure like this. Most people are understanding. The majority of people, statistically that register don't even show up. They watch the replay. So it's not the end of the world. Although it can feel like that sometimes for us. Right? So maybe we should do some like Navy SEAL style training, right. Where we prepare people for the worst that can possibly happen. And here's what you do in a situation like that. Once you get past that, you're like, oh, that wasn't so bad. Right. So a lot of times it's, it's mentally kind of preparing for what is the worst case scenario, even asking yourself that. And you know, another exercise that I personally did over the weekend was adopting a new identity. And so I have my Satchin Patel identity. And then I came up with an, I came up with an alter ego identity, who I am right now, which is Super Sachin. And so Super Sachin has certain things that he does. He operates a certain way. He wakes up at 6am Even if he doesn't feel like it. Right. He sleeps in only if his body requires him to do that, not if his mind requires it, but if his body requires it. Right. Because sometimes we stay up a little too late or we're traveling, we're in different time zones, stuff like that can happen. So I wrote a manifesto of this identity and I started adopting it yesterday. And so Today is day two, and I realize I'm doing like 80 to 90% of these things. There's certain things that I was doing that my alter ego wouldn't do, right? Like he wouldn't leave, even if it's just the smallest thing, he wouldn't leave it behind. He would clean up after himself. Every room he walks into, he leaves it a little bit cleaner and neater than when he walked in. Every person he meets, he leaves him a little bit better. Right? Any chance he has to express gratitude, he expresses that gratitude. So really simple things that you know, that we can do and start adopting. And then ask myself, then I ask myself in every situation, what would Super Sachin do? And then the answer becomes super clear, right? Would he answer this email now or would he mark it as unread and put it off till tomorrow? Right. Well, the old Sachin might do that, but Super Sachin would answer the email right now. You would take whatever action is required, assuming that he has the time to do it. So. So, yeah, So I think for us, many of us, we have to adopt a new identity if we're going to create a new level of growth and success for ourselves. We have to identify as that person who's already accomplished whatever goal we have set out for ourselves and start living that right now. That's one of the first exercises we do, is we have people identify their dream day. But I would upgrade that exercise to actually creating your dream identity because that's something you take with you every single day, no matter where you are. And I even put in like little stipulations in there because there's certain times I don't feel like getting up. Right. And why is that? Well, maybe because I was up a little bit later than normal or maybe I'm traveling. So that screws up my time zone. Right. And so you can add those in there. So there are opportunities for you not to be perfect when life isn't perfect. But creating that new identity I found was super helpful for me and for anyone who's trying to be successful in their practice. Let's adopt that identity of success right now. What time would you wake up if you had success? What time do you think you would have to get up to have the level of success that you desire? Jim Rohn has a great quote. He says somebody asked him, why do you wake up so early? And he says, if you were doing What I'm doing today, you would be up early as well.

Right?

Like, I just thought that was such a captivating, you know, statement. If you were doing what I'm doing today, you would be up early as well, right? Think of Christmas morning, right? When you're a kid, you're up early because this is like the highlight of the year for many kids, right? They're going to open their gifts, they're going to be with their family, they're going to drink some hot chocolate or something nice like that and they're going to celebrate, right? So you know what? If every day could be like that because of your identity and because of what your business is going to do for people and how it's going to serve people and humanity every single day now, there's going to be days that you don't like doing things. So I put in mind that Satchin shares valuable information every single day, even when he doesn't feel like it. Because I'm not always going to feel like it. And it's easy for us not to do something when we don't feel like it. And one of the other things I realized is that sometimes it's easy if we don't. Like. One of my other things that I wrote is I don't let the opinion of others change my opinion of myself. And that's one of the things that can hold many people back because they're so afraid of what other people are going to think that they don't even do the things that they know that they need to do. They don't put themselves out there and serve humanity in the capacity that they can. So it does take courage, right? It does take consistency. It does take in many cases adopting that alter ego identity of yourself, writing it down. It does take trusting the process. It does take surrounding yourself with the right people. And of course it's gonna take us taking the best care of ourselves that we possibly can as well. Like, you've gotta be healthy, you gotta think sharp, you gotta, you gotta look the part, right? Or at least act the part. And when you act the part long enough, you look the part. You've got to do all the things that you would tell your clients to do. And I almost imagine my clients sitting there next to me, watching me and asking themselves, or just visually observing me and paying attention to what I'm doing. And if my clients were sitting here next to me, is this the behavior and the thought process that I want to model to them? Right? And then it becomes so clear what I should be doing and what I should not be doing. Have you ever done the ex. Have you ever done that exercise of writing, writing a new alter ego for yourself?

No, I was just kind of thinking it's a little bit different than. I like how you are Super Sachin. That is your alter ego. I don't know if I shared it, actually. Yeah, in Puerto Rico, I think Sophie shared it. Like, one of the, One of my alter egos that I identify with is John Wick. Like his, his demeanor, his attitude. Not necessarily the violence, but he uses it only when he's pushed. Right. But like, how can I, how can I make me the superhero version not to, you know, I'm not going to become John Wick. That's not my goal to be John Wick. Along those lines, I, I learned from Mel Robbins. She said that you should ex. How can you start to expect the obstacle? So along the same lines, the identities help identify who you need to become, how you want to identify what habits you. You do. And I've actually wrote where I am, where I want to go, and the things I expect to go wrong. Because going back to the boot camp for practitioners, like when you do a webinar and your mom's the only one who shows up, that can be a little discouraging. Or when you plan your first workshop, you're like, who's going to be here? And you've, you know, I've done smaller workshops, some of that are bigger. But just learning how to show up regardless of who's there, is a habit. And just knowing that that's a possibility and it's still a success. Successful because I did it. That. That keeps me going so that I think that ties into identity as well. Like, how do you show up? Like, how would the next version of you show up when things don't go right? Because they will. There. There will be times where things don't go right. Things will break. You know, your emails don't go out when you think they're supposed to or there's a typo. All those things will happen. And I find that that actually helps calm my nerves. And you just get used to that feeling, like, well, I mean, Murphy's Law, it's. Things are bound to not go right all the time, but I'm prepared to deal with it when it does show up. So I think that's built. That's. I'm starting to build that into my identity over the last few years. And that really helps because then I'm not discouraged if things don't Go. Right?

Yeah. You know. You know, I think, like, one of the things that comes up for me as you're saying that is, you know, awesome. Aaron, let's just call him that for now. You know, faces adversity, you know, and with curiosity. Right. And doesn't allow adversity for it, you know, to occur and have him quit his mission or his vision. Right. And he uses it as a learning opportunity. Right. So when we. When we just kind of flip that script and we give ourselves that level of permission, it's almost like, yeah, I was expecting this to happen. And this is. I knew exactly how I would respond when I didn't. Right. But when we don't know, or when it did happen, but when we don't know how to respond or we don't know how this character shows up in this situation, then oftentimes we just quit. We feel frustrated, we blame ourselves, and we take it personal. And that's one of the things that we want to stop doing, especially when it comes to building our business. Right. Because we are the most important asset that we have. And so if our, you know, if. If mentally or emotionally we become disconnected, then it's almost impossible to build your business.

Exactly. Like the mantra. I learned a great book. That was it. Sivers, Derek Sivers. Recommended, I think was the Art of Possibility by the author is like Benjamin Zander. He's a composer, really talented. And the thing that stood out for me from that book was if you encounter a problem, instead of, like, swearing under your breath or complaining, what if you just said, that's fascinating. I dropped my dinner on the floor after cooking it. Oh, that's fascinating. Like, it just diffuses the pain of that and the frustration. And I just started doing that. You know, the cat knocked something off the table. I'm like, oh, that's fascinating. Litters all over the floor. Oh, that's fascinating. She ate the curtains. You know, whatever it might be.

It.

Works with pets and it works with people. So that's fascinating is what I've programmed myself to respond. Just work on that habit. No, that's fascinating. That's fascinating.

I love that. You know, my. My breath work mentor, Giovanni, he's got a great mantra that he lives. I don't even think he realizes it, but I. I shared this with him. I'm like, I love your attitude because it's a we'll see attitude and probably heard, I'll butcher this story. Maybe you've heard the story already, but it's. It's a gentleman, and he's got a son, and his son ends up breaking his leg. I don't know if you heard this story, but he's got a son, his son ends up breaking his leg. And all the villagers are like, oh, my God, that's terrible. We're so sorry that he broke his leg. Can't believe this happened. So tragic. And the father's like, we'll see. And then the very next day, the army came to recruit people, and they couldn't recruit his son because his leg was broken. And then all the villagers would say, oh, my God, you're, like, so lucky. Like, your son broke his leg. He doesn't have to go to war. And the dad's like, we'll see, right? So it's like. It's just having that attitude of. It's not. It's almost like it's the opposite of certainty, right. Sometimes we just don't know, right. If things are happening for us because, well, things are always happening for us, but we don't know what the downstream ripple effect of it it's going to be. So I think it's important for us to have ways to diffuse situations so that we're not overly excited and we're also not overly upset by a situation and maintain something that we call equanimity. Equanimity is where, if you think about water, you drop even the tiniest pebble and the water gets rippled. So we almost want to be water that when you drop a pebble and nothing ripples, the pebble just drops in and then there's no transfer of energy that takes place as close as we can get to that. I think the better off we are in, not just in our practices, but in life. Sometimes you'll have a situation that a patient sends you an email and it derails your whole week.

Right?

And it's because we were. So. We didn't do the work on ourselves to stay equanimitous in that situation. Right. We attached way too much emotion to something that probably had nothing to do with us in the first place. So to be successful that it's going to require us to have that resilience. Right. And have that emotional resilience along with the physical and spiritual resilience that it's going to take to build our business.

The way I think about it, like, we're gonna have those moments where we're not feeling equanimity or we're not feeling equanimous. What's the right word?

The.

The adjective there. Adverb. But my. My Goal in my mind is to shorten those windows where I feel knocked off. It's not that I will never feel the pain of things not working with, like, a patient or, you know, sale falling through, for example, but how can I minimize the time it. It knocks me off or, you know, how do I recover quickly? It's just like working out, right? Just because you feel sore for a week doesn't mean you stop working out forever. It's just, how do you. Next time, how do I work out to a point maybe where I can walk after doing squats? You learn very quickly where you. That the recovery, the fast recovery is the goal to reaching success in that point. So those windows.

Another thing to keep in mind for everyone is the people that we admire the most are the people that have probably made the most mistakes, they've learned the most lessons along the way. They've done many things that they would probably look back and say incorrectly. And that's part of it, right? So if we can surround ourselves with the right people that can coach us, then we're much less likely to make those mistakes. But that's part of it, right? It's only failure if we don't learn anything. The failure to learn from a mistake, it's just a take, right? It's not a life. It's not a person. It's just one situation where things could have gone a little bit differently. And so it's important for us to dissect that, learn from it, so that it doesn't happen again, if at all possible. In many cases, that is possible. So, you know, just kind of wrapping things up here. You know, we talked about a lot of things, different metaphors, different ways of looking at our health. You know, if you missed the beginning, my son solved a Rubik's Cube within less than 60 seconds a few weeks ago. He didn't even know how, taught himself. Now he's teaching my. He taught my wife, so my wife can solve a Rubik's Cube. He's teaching me now so I can solve it. And it's really about trusting, following the algorithm, being coachable, being teachable, trusting, trusting, trusting. It's so important that we trust. And it's also important that we surround ourselves with the right people who are on a similar journey and quest as we are, because that gives us courage, that gives us resilience. It gives us the ability to learn from one another. We have these mirror neurons that are so beautifully embedded in our brain that allow us to learn really quickly from other people. It also allows Us to learn from other people's mistakes, right? So I always tell people to learn from other people's time and dime, right? So let them spend the time and make a mistake and let them spend the money and make a mistake, but you learn from them, right? And most people, I find, are willing to teach you how not to make the same mistakes. And the other thing we talked about was adopting that new identity, right? Sit down, spend 15 minutes and write down what is that identity and share it with somebody. So it's one thing to, to write it down and to keep it a secret, but it's another thing to actually write it down and share it. So I. So then other people can hold you accountable to it. So I actually did that with my wife and son. I said, these are the characteristics of Super Sachin, so you need to hold me accountable to it, but you also need to be prepared for this. So like, one of the things I wrote down is when Sachin super chats and says yes, he means yes. And when he says no, he means no. Because sometimes I'll say yes to something when I really wanted to say no. Right. My son, he's an only child and I consider him my best friend. I hope he feels the same way so he doesn't have a sibling to spend time with. So I end up being his big dad and his bigger brother kind of all at the same time. And when he wants to go and play basketball, sometimes I'll say yes out of guilt, even though deep down inside I want to say no. Right. I'd rather do something else to spend that time with him. So I'm not saying no to him, but I'm saying no to that activity. And so he's prepared for that now. So he's not going to take personal offense to it. He's not going to be upset about it. He's just going to know. Okay, well, I know he wants to spend time with me, so what's a different way that we could spend time together that's compatible with my schedule? Right. That's compatible with, you know, his schedule and then works out for everyone. Any. Anything else you want to share, Aaron, before we jump off?

I, I love the, that it kind of boils down to. I can't boil it down, but one of the biggest components I think is missing from a lot of people's lives is like identity, identity and reevaluating identity. So I'm, I'm going to write down what awesome Aaron would do and, and I'll share it with you and so you can hold me to it. And it's so important to constantly reevaluate if you're not getting to where you're going. Maybe that identity, the identity needs to be reborn. I think that happens all the time. It's not your identity is not set in stone. It's just there's a new identity for every step in the journey. I used to identify not as a runner actually in college I also said I'm never going to be a doctor. So I was like, how do you end up in this point, years later never wanting to take general chemistry because it started too early. That was the reason why I didn't want to take general chem is because my friends were waking up at 7 to go to chemistry class and I was like, nah, I'm not going to do that. But I think, you know, somewhere along the line my identity change and that happens at every level and I think we can be very intentional about it.

Yeah, I love that. I remember our chemistry class started at 8 in the morning. It was like the first class Monday, Wednesday, Friday. So it was like brutal. And I never, you know, don't tell, don't tell my parents. I didn't really attend chemistry. But the interesting fun fact was, was that my wife attended every single class I attended. Maybe like three or four of them. And in the end I beat her in the course. I ended up getting an A in the course.

You are that guy.

I am that guy.

And you, did you meet Deepa that way or did you.

No, no, no, I met, I met her, I met her prior to that. But we studied, we did study together. We're the final exam and I ended up somehow beating her. So it's get, we get a good laugh out of it to this day still.

And the rest is history. That's.

There it is. The rest is history. So if it wasn't for chemistry, who knows, right?

Exactly. We'll see, we'll see, we'll see, we'll see.

Exactly. I love it. Well, thanks, Aaron. This is awesome and I really enjoyed our time today. If you're somebody who's listening to this and interested in learning how to, you know, build your perfect practice, surround yourself with the right people, build some accountability into your growth. Also, you're coachable, you're teachable, and you're somebody who wants to, you know, make the biggest impact that you possibly can without wasting as much time and money as you possibly can, then I invite you to join us in our mentorship program or join us for our upcoming event. Called Perfect Practice Live. We'll share the links in the notes. You can set up a call to speak with someone like Aaron from our team who is happy to assess and evaluate you, your goals, your vision, your journey, to see if we can actually support you and help you in it, or at a worst case scenario, point you in the right direction. We've helped hundreds of practitioners build their practices by attracting the right clients, creating transformational programs for them, and also by creating more personal freedom for themselves. And it's such a joy for me and Aaron to be able to work with practitioners who are looking to make the biggest impact that they can and help as many people as they can using systems and processes that work. And as my son showed us, you got to trust the algorithm. Even though it looks like the cube is. Is. Is not moving in the right direction, when you trust the process, you'll quickly see that it does. So set up a time to speak with somebody. You can also get a copy of my book. It's called Perfect Practice, and you can get it@getperfectpractice.com we'll ship it out to you for free so you can learn some of the tools and strategies and methodologies that we use and coach our clients with so that they can build their practices. All right, well, have an awesome rest of your day, everyone. Lots of love to you, and here's to continued growth and success and happiness to each and every one of you. We'll talk to you soon, and bye for now.