Kind: captions
Language: en
hey everybody Welcome to impact Theory
you're here my friends because you
believe that human potential is nearly
Limitless but you know that having
potential is not the same thing as
actually doing something with it so our
goal with this show and Company is to
introduce you to the people and ideas
that will help you actually execute on
your dreams all right today's guest is a
globally recognized super stud in the
world of elite human performance for
more than 20 years he's been hellbent to
demystify and democratize talent via
boundary smashing experimentation and
scientific rigor and his results are
astonishing he spent nine years as a
director of high performance with the
Olympic snowboarding and skiing teams
and when he took the job America was in
seventh by the time he left they were
competing for first his secret was
developing custom programs that take
people way way outside of their comfort
zones and showing them just how much
they're capable of
whether he's having Elite athletes
parachute into the Australian Outback
with Navy Seals forcing them to crawl
blindfolded through a box of snakes or
surprising them with a real life
charging grizzly bear he doesn't promise
that it will be easy only that it will
work he believes we should treat our
entrepreneurs researchers and scientists
the same way that we treat Elite
athletes and as such he's worked with a
Litany of people and organizations
ranging from Fortune 500 clients to
DARPA and everyone in between and in his
current role of director of high
performance at Red Bull his work has
branched aggressively into the realm of
optimized creativity through
collaborations with some of the world's
biggest artists musicians and cultural
influencers in 2013 his very unique work
garnered him the outstanding
contribution to Performance Innovation
award at the prestigious leaders and
performance conference please help me in
welcoming the man who led the
performance team for Red Bull Stratus
the group that helped Felix bomgardner
with his record-breaking jump to Earth
from the stratosphere the man who thinks
it would be revelatory to push someone
out of a helicopter and into the ocean
without telling them first Dr Andy
Walsh thank you man thank you very much
absolutely a pleasure to have uh a man
of your possible like Madness level on
the show I think what you do and the way
that you look at optimizing performance
is really awesome how do you come up
with stuff like crawling through a box
of snakes or having people charge that
by a grizzly bear which I mean that that
was pretty freaky seeing the the images
of that where people don't expect a a
full size grizzly bear to be charging at
them what's uh what's the thinking
behind that well the thinking we always
try and draw back on the science of
what's going on and the and the
fundamental principle there was designed
around managing the flight of fire
response which is in many highrisk high
stress situations ultim Ely that's what
you're trying to do you're trying to get
people to make a right decision in the
right time no matter what the stakes are
and move directionally towards their
goal so if you think about how do you
create a a state of high risk or high
anxiety high high high arousal you can
do it you know in the classic sense by
pushing people in the field they're
trained in or you can bring a very
obtuse uh sort of stimulus to the system
and working with people like Eric Potter
in that case who uh recently retired
sort of head of psychology for Special
Operations and Naval special Warfare
he'd used similar approaches so he he
thought about it and there's an innate
fear of snakes especially if you're not
from my home country in Australia you
don't grow up with them there's this way
we package the training Evolution so we
kind of give you a little information
but you you're left to fill in the gaps
and then naturally in that state you'll
you'll see the snake you'll fill in
worst case scenario cuz you'll make that
story up which is sort of inherent human
tra as well and those two things combin
raise that fear if you like or that
anxiety and then you're trained during
the program to sort of manage that and
bring it back down and the more you do
it and the more differently you approach
that problem the better you get at the
at the at that skill then ultimately you
translate that into whatever it is
you're trying to achieve so you know the
other part of that is it can be fun it
can be it doesn't always has to be
serious well it is for us it's not so
much fun if you're driving through but
more importantly those very Unique Kind
of challenges create a moment in time
that anchor you and we hear over and
over again the community say God
whenever they face another high stakes
high risk situation they get remember
the bear or remember the snakes and they
recall and so it's sort of like an
anchor memory you if you like tell me
about project acaron mhm where did you
come up with that where' the name come
from which I found pretty fascinating
and what what do you hope that people
get out of it in um Dante's Inferno the
the river that separates hell from
Heaven is lined with Souls of people who
never committed and the name of that
river is acaron so we thought that's a
perfect name for a program where we're
going to put people in a very uncommon
environment we're going to stress them
in very obtuse ways and working with
Pete nasek who was more former Naval
Warfare he uh designed sort of some very
um strategic and sort of military
focused events that we would push them
through in that in that week of
and we basically took uh four young men
who uh who had sort of come from very
warm and sort of backgrounds in sort of
comfortable environments with respect to
their their Sports and we dropped them
in the middle of Patagonia unknown to
them and then they had to March their
way through the mountains through the
cold through the up and over the hills
and and this all comes together in a
project called acaron which was really
about putting yourself out there pushing
yourself in an uncommon way and
basically learning something about
yourself and that's so that concept of
God I'm going to see if I can get the
exact quote right um the better you are
at who you are the better you are at
what you do was that the notion behind
that's one of the fundamental premises
it sort of goes way back even to
programs we've been doing earlier than
that but the idea that at the very top
of a game most people are obviously very
skilled at the craft they've mastered
the craft and they've mastered the
everything around that craft and so for
us it's about getting them to understand
at a deeper level who they are and what
they stand for is really their way
forward and again that draws back from
ancient Eastern philosophies you know of
sort of mastering of yourself versus
Mastery of The Craft and and we found
over the years that if we explore your
edges with you in a supportive but
challenging way right you will bring
your expertise to Bear because you are
the master and you'll bring that to bear
in a manner we probably haven't even
thought of and you'll take that
opportunity to grow and evolve and and
that's how we came up with that phice
I'd love that you guys in try I mean
you're dealing with the best of the best
and you talked about you know the people
that we're dealing with they're already
placing like third in the world and our
goal is to get them into first and to
really get the perspective that's going
to allow you to do more than eek out
just one or two% we had to go back to
the ancient texts and look at like the
Bushido code Samurai what they were
doing and what is it about like going
through suffering that helps people
understand themselves better it's a
great question and you're right we did
look deeply we call it like the wisdom
of the Ancients where you think about
all those people in history who've had a
had it's been in their best interest to
make sure that everybody's performing at
a high level whether it was just
survival of your community or whether it
was in the battlefield or whether it was
for a religious tangent so we we
reflected heavily on all that that had
passed before us and knew that there was
a lot of insight to be gained there and
for us it's a question over and over
again is it is it suffering necessary or
is it a a a quick path towards this
Enlightenment and we'd like to figure
out a way where you didn't have to sort
of go through a little bit of uh sort of
self-discovery which seems to happen in
the quickly in the suffering environment
but we figured the only other answer
would be to figure out how to get you on
stage in front of a million people and
you're rocking and rolling uh but that's
even harder to create so we we we kind
of sit back but we we try and think
about it like you it's not so much the
suffering but you're going to be pushed
just Beyond Your Capacity we put
programs and systems around you to
ensure that when you do get a little bit
beyond where you're comfortable we have
you back now we'll let you probably
explore that space a little so you both
both you and I understand where you want
to work to improve but I think that sort
of if it's done in the right way it's
not so much it can be tough but it's not
so much the suffering I think if you do
if if you consider in that light it's
it's not as daunting as it is to just go
out there and punish yourself right I'm
actually a big believer in the suffering
and in one of the videos that I saw of
you um I I don't think you worked with
David gogin but he's the guy in the Navy
Recruiting video who was talking about
like I don't stop until something gets
uncomfortable we actually had him on the
show did an interview with him utterly
fascinating dude and one of the things
that he's really tapped into is
what you find out about yourself through
suffering specifically through suffering
and I I'm gonna I'll just put it out
there you can't discover that about
yourself without the level of suffering
I think yeah and that could be fair and
I think when we talk about it again it's
in the context of is it suffering for
the sake of suffering is it suffering to
learn and I think there's two sort of
levels to that and if we're fortunate
enough and create the right training
environment you do have a hard time but
we pull you back through so it's not
this ongoing thing and of course again
with Elite people who have to compete
and all the rest of it there's also a
high risk of injury in those States so
we have to balance that piece out as
well so but I I agree I think in
suffering there seems to be a moment
where you just strip it everything falls
away and you just focus on the here and
now and all you're trying to do is be
present and look at it directly what's
in front of you and I think that's a
skill that's very much part of growth
and I think that's one angle that the
suffering impacts you that's interesting
and that may be a much better way of
looking at it than the way that I look
at it which
is the thing that I find so interesting
about suffering is you come face to face
with the gap between who you are and who
you want to be the art for us is how do
we get you there without putting you
through hell cuz it's actually to your
point if you have to really struggle and
we put you put it put you to the sticks
and you have to really go through hell
first and foremost it is is miserable
and it and and it's and it's not
comfortable and and for many people I
think that level of suffering just out
of the blue is it's almost detrimental
some will some people will eventually
hopefully get through it but if they
don't they have a negative uh sort of
reaction to it then you're dealing with
that aftermath so for us over the years
yes we can run you up and down and keep
you awake for hours and days at a time
until you break and you know hopefully
come out of that with a different
perspective we've been really focused on
how do we get you to explore that edge
uncomfortably but
without potentially the physical risk of
stress all the you know the potential
negative outcomes of it and how do you
balance that like when you're working
with an Olympic Athlete and you know
okay I need to push them but not to the
point of injury how do you get them
Beyond Comfort but stop shy of injury
well the beauty of that is if I pick you
as a as a talent we're working with and
we say okay to put you in an
uncomfortable situation say in an
interview on camera which is very
uncomfortable for some people who
obviously you know used to it practiced
at it it would be hard for me to
generate a scenario in this situation
that would challenge you maybe you know
if you were interviewing the president
or we put you in front of the Academy
Awards and you had to host it maybe then
you get a little bit of a the heart rate
starts to kick in a little bit so that's
also very hard to do and obviously
expensive for us if I say if you're not
used to uh something so I put you in a
in a room standup comedy or something
and say okay make these people laugh or
we put you in a situation where uh
potentially like our survival breathhold
where you're you're having to be
underwater and things like that if we
come at you in an uncommon way you'll
ramp very quickly the anxiety the
arousal the stress everything will Peak
and we can get you to a place where you
can practice your skills and behaviors
and explore your edge with a high level
of risk that you're perceiving but for
us in the background we're like yeah
there's no real challenge to you so we
can with our training evolutions for our
best talent we try to build
opportunities where we stress you
emotionally spiritually sort of you know
psychologically and not so much
physically because the the sort of risk
of injury and the physical challenge is
high that's so interesting like people
complain more about that than
parachuting into the Australian Outback
especially if you're an athlete yes wow
that's so interesting and are you trying
to put people in that position
specifically so they can practice like
um getting out of the sympathetic
nervous system tapping into the
parasympathetic like lowering their
heart rate reducing anxiety like is that
the game to just practice that's one of
the games so any chance we can get you
in a situation where you are sort of an
elevated heart rate stress and anxiety's
high and you can then either learn to
manage it or manifest tools and
techniques which we train you in to
bring it back the better you get at it
and the more we can do it in very uh
obtuse ways so the more diversity we
have in the approaches to get you to
that level the more practice you get at
it in uncommon ways which makes you also
more adaptable so you can deal with the
unknown much more easily so you kind of
the analogy would be if you practice it
across all these different scenarios
then even something even more Uncommon
comes to you you're like all right I've
done this a dozen times in different
ways it's an easier step than I've only
ever practiced in my craft how can
people do this like cuz you say that
this stuff should apply and does apply
for entrepreneur or scientist how can
people do this in their own life uh it
does apply first and foremost these
things transfer very very well cuz he's
a fundamental you sort of human nature
if you like flight or fight uh I think
think about your personal response is
going to be specific to you and the
situation so the simple way of saying
that is one person's Heavens another
person hell and you know and that's very
true where you feel comfortable and and
sort of happy in that space other people
will find very uncomfortable can and
vice versa so for us it's first and
foremost identify what is in your world
that's outside of your sort of level of
comfort or is a bit of a challenge that
slightly exceeds your capacity and then
take that on now it can be very subtle
at first like introducing the concept
say to a table of entrepreneurs say SE
Suite um don't give them an agenda and
they start to get a little anxious you
know and it's a and it's a funny
mechanism it's a it's a teaching point
to say hey I just did a very simple
thing I didn't plan the day very well I
I maybe I booked the wrong room and
we're kind of disorganized and we we act
that out and if you see sweet you know
time is precious and there's this idiot
in front of you who's kind of not
organized or seems unorganized which
both are actually true but um then you
get to uh you know there's no agenda so
they don't know what coming and and
straight away they'll react and if they
react in sort of in in a way that's not
appropriate to where they want to go you
can bring it up and say look this is one
little tiny disruption I just put in
your world and what's your behavior
what's a big disruption going to cause
now again I'm I'm gaming the system in
our favor to make a point to be very
clear but it can be simple little things
it can be picking uh you know uh
something that you've always wanted to
do and setting that goal and pushing
yourself towards it it can be uh
challenge yourself with something that
does scare you uh some people I know
have taken this to heart and they pick
one thing a year that they've always
wanted to do but never had the courage
or you patience or time to do and they
say I'm going to do this I think classic
things like jumping out of planes but
all of them work if you put in the
context this is about stretching and
learning and and if You observe your own
behaviors as you say in that space and
how you turn up you can learn something
about yourself and there's not right or
wrong there's no judgment it's just did
it help me or did it maybe hurt me and
you move and change it accordingly and
is that like what's the optimal response
look like is it Universal like you're
trying to get people calm and creative
or what should be the if if I'm doing
that for me jumping out of a plane would
be one of those things I just can't make
it make sense from a risk and reward
perspective but like if I were going to
do that what would I be trying to
accomplish just going through with it or
is there like an optimal cognitive
response I think the going through with
it sort of shows that you can overcome
barriers and things like that but for me
it's far more interesting to just watch
yourself and watch your thoughts as you
approach that task and if you can learn
something about that and are the is it
just if you've done the math and say
look I've done the math and the odds of
me getting hurt just doesn't make sense
and that's fine that there's no right or
wrong but if you watch yourself
approaching it and you see all right you
start to make excuses or you start to
beat yourself up and I'm not really all
those things that you could turn around
in your with respect to your mindset is
a learning opportunity now it may not be
that you take that on forever but it's
just a reflection point and again I
think to your earlier conversation about
you have an idea of how you want to turn
up and how you want to be seen and who
you want people to see you as and then
you probably have the real
you and there's no right or wrong with
that that's natural human behavior but
if you're trying to Aspire to be
sort of a better version of yourself in
those moments where things don't go well
or challenges are slightly Beyond Your
Capacity or you feel just like you're
faking it there have opportunities to
watch and learn about yourself and just
tweak things and improve little bit by
little bit and are there commonalities
among the mindset of the like most elite
performers in the world one thing I do
notice across them the passion to do
what they love and for me that seems to
squash a lot of the other challenges
that creep into the system if you really
really love what you do then you'll
first and foremost do all the work
necessary you'll go out every day and do
that fundamentally because you love it
if you don't love it if you know as an
athlete you'll probably find an excuse
not to go train or whatever but I also
think in that passion resides sort of a
a true love of understanding of what
you're about and again what you can do
in that space I think those things
together seem to allow people to kind of
do the necessary work put up with the
years of potentially non-reward like not
making any money or any career some of
the sports we've dealt with in the past
there was nothing in there when they
started and ultimately they just managed
to make money at the end but that was
never part of the plan so I think all
those things are overcome by a real love
of what you're doing and can play
anchors in on your own value system as
well and beyond that are there um like
belief systems or uh style of selft talk
or anything that you found like is there
any of that that you try to bake in like
if you're trying to take somebody from
third to first like beyond what feels to
me like the physiological response that
you're trying to optimize to pressure is
there anything like a belief or selft
talk or whatever that you try to
optimize I think that's comes down to a
little bit you know sort of the bigger
version again of who who are you what
what do you stand for a lot of the times
we sort of say start with the basics
like just be kind to yourself
be take take be a little bit easy on
yourself so you're going to be your
world seems so counterintuitive it does
but you're going to be your world's
worst critic too you know you'll you you
have that internal dialogue to your
point and if you give yourself room and
space to say look I'm I've got a lot to
bring to the table I have you know PL
much to learn but I also I'm not I'm not
here to do any harm I'm here to just try
and work through this on my own you
start to get a framework around learning
and learning from your mistakes learning
from your successes and I think then the
sort of being very open to lifelong
learning is another thing that we see
that many of these top performers bring
to the table they consistently just
what's next what can I do a little bit
better they're open to new ideas they as
we've learned over the years to explore
every opportunity to understand what it
takes to be uh improve Human Performance
just everybody has something to offer
and I think if you bring those two
things together and you start to get to
this space where people you know the
training for someone starts with that
fundamental notion of um look every
opportunity you have as a person who's
pushing the edge of what you're trying
to master is a is an opportunity to
learn about yourself as much as it is
about getting better at what you're
doing then you can kind start to build
that sort of framework and mind set up
wow that is not what I expected you to
say that's really interesting and that
leads me to like creativity has become
such a big thing for you um why is
creativity important and how do you help
people really optimize
that so creativity for
us became very important fundamentally
as we started to move into the culture
and arts community and people from those
communities were saying we want to
improve and we needed some framework so
obviously we defaulted in an unknowing
manner to all right creativity is an
essential part of what you do it dawned
on us very quickly that no matter what
you're trying to achieve if you're Best
in Class you redefine that space for
everybody else so whether you're an
athlete figuring out a new move or
you're playing professional basketball
and you show the world the new version
of the game or of course if you're an
artist and you're you know exploring the
edges of your
talent that creativity the idea of
thinking about things differently and
and more importantly Having the courage
to back yourself in that space we found
was a profoundly uh uh uh in profound
insight for us and also led to an
opportunity we felt because most people
weren't especially in the non uh
cultural sphere looking at that as a
training space so having said that we
then embarked on a journey to try and
just get a framework around the
creativity as a construct and we built a
platform called hacking creativity.com
which was just a a mix of research and
personal and private opinions and sort
of uh a masters sharing their stories
and just trying to shed light on the
conversation and then in the greater
context of what we're trying to achieve
it also set us on the Journey of trying
to put a uh a training and development
framework around measuring what can't be
measured so to speak I love that if we
think about those characteristics and
skills and qualities that everyone
really aspires to be and you see on all
the ethoses and the locker room walls
and the and the and and the sort of
value statements of companies it's the
things like integrity and character and
values and compassion and empathy and
Grace those are the areas of human
performance that we really feel have the
greatest to offer but are the hardest to
conceptualize and also then train to so
what do you do like if it's that
important and yet that hard to measure
and I mean this is somebody who measures
blood and I mean like the detail that
you guys go into brain scans
um looking at the microbiome I mean like
you guys really getting nitty-gritty so
how did you become obsessed with
measuring what can't be measured and
where have your winds been like what do
you look at to know like if it's working
on the cre well it's a these are great
questions I think we measure a lot of
stuff first and foremost because we can
sure and that's neither right nor wrong
but it definitely gives us a Baseline
and for many years the physiology and
the biochemistry and the mechanics and
and the things that we can document
either through blood or film or you know
brain scans whatever it may be allows us
to get put our fingers into something
and then if you think about it though
you know these other areas of human
endeavor and if you you talk to people
who reflect on great talent they've
worked with invariably say yeah whatever
they did on the field was fantastic but
they were a great person you always get
this sort of insight and so that was the
driver for us to say this is a white
space now to train to it to prepare
people for it to um say we have any
sense on how to do that would be
absolutely wrong
but again I think we know it when we see
it so we can select for it so building
any team selecting for character first
amongst the elite programs is where we
all
agree interesting so how do you test for
that like is it just a verbal interview
I think the easy way to think about it
is that when you see someone who's
extraordinary in a particular facet of
their career or their life um that tends
to have a shadow the rest and we tend to
put them on a pedestal because it is
it's extraordinary what they've achieved
but at the end of the day the humans
like the rest of us and there is in many
cases an in an equally Dark Side to that
success and it may be not in all cases
but it may be the fundamental simple
things that challenge you and I dayto
day maybe they're not paying enough
attention to their family or their life
they they may be suffering you know a
lot of them suffer in security a lot
it's it's it doesn't look any different
to the average sort of person if you
like in many respects and so I think
there in and you in the Press many
examples of when that side breaks
through and people then seem to have
very little Compassion or forgiveness
for these individuals CU they were
putting them on such a pedestal they
don't like it when they fall from grace
so I think uh I think that's something
that people need to understand that it's
these aren't sort of super people that
do this they're not super human they're
they're normal people who've obviously
either been passionate or had an
inherent talent and they've manifested
itself but in many cases they struggle
just like everybody else all right so
let's go back to training to um
character how do you are there like sort
of set standard things that you guys do
to try to help somebody develop that
well I think it would be wrong for us to
say there's an ideal character again it
comes back to that just who are you what
do you stand for and we step aside from
the Judgment we're not here to say this
is right or wrong so our training is if
we do it well in those cases sort of
allows you to self-reflect you are give
a a training opportunity and training
Evolution you go into it you perform
successfully unsuccessfully moderately
it doesn't really matter the debrief
will reflect on your sort of uh
progression through the training
Evolution and in that in that
conversation it can be very tactical all
right you pressed the wrong button or
you you hit the ball the wrong way or
you didn't hit the note or it could be
very much um around you and character
like when things went wrong you lost
your temper with the rest of the team or
it could be you uh you didn't own up to
the fact that you didn't bring that
piece of equipment that you should you
were supposed to bring to the you know
all those little things and and they get
to more of the the character side of it
so it's more of a an awareness a
personal awareness that we look at and
hopefully in if you're in the right
training environment and the TR Comm the
right community and people around you
are all trying to hold up a high level
or high standard of values you kind of R
to that occasion and if you just can't
then most of the time in those places
they they T tend not to last now what's
the end game for you in human
optimization and where do you see us as
being on the cycle are we like all the
way at the edge and there's only you
know a couple percentage points more
that we can eek out of The Human
Experience or we at the very beginning
that's a good question I
think if I look at it with the lens of
some of the uh programs I see sort of on
the edge of this space uh I think we're
really just at the
beginning now there's a time stamp to
that so evolutionally speaking you could
say in 100,00 years we will be very
different but I think just because of
what we're seeing the Technologies the
the sort of interest in this space as
much as anything that that time frame
will compress very quickly and then you
get into pure human optimization which
we we talk about in the context of
making you better with the Natural Born
gifts you've been given and then we get
into augmentation which is adding things
to you and those two conversations have
very different timelines as well so what
is the current state of like brain
computer
interface I think
um well I think Elon in his latest
announcement with his his new startup
shows you that there's enough science
there to to make it a worthwhile
investment and he's going to Pioneer the
space I think it gets very interesting
when C while in the group up north at
Singularity start talking about being
connected to the web 24/7 and things
like that honestly I don't know how
that's all going to manifest itself but
uh my hope would be that we understand
and we can explore the edges of what you
can do profoundly as an individual human
and then we're layering on top of that I
think I don't know if it makes a lot of
sense to start to explore all these
additions if you haven't had at least
some sort of opportunity to develop who
you are in the first instance that's a
really interesting response and do you
mean going back to like the notion of
character and building that sort of
ephemeral vision of who you are yeah I
think as we've talked about this sort of
NextGen of the sort of human 2.0
conversation we're in deeply right now
the idea that with machines and and
cyborgs and Robotics all coming together
in a rate of progression that's sort of
unparalleled in our
history for me the fundamental question
that belies all of these conversations
is what are humans good
at what are we inherently profoundly
uniquely designed for if we can isolate
that and start to explore that as the
machine does take off more and more of
the mundane and and potentially even
more of the complex which it will we're
left with this is the thing to focus on
and I think when we get back to again
the wisdom of the Ancients compassion
empathy character virt you gra and
that's your answer to this I think
creativity I think that's where we're
going to end up that would be my gut um
I'd love to hear if there's other things
um but I I I'm not sure and it's
interesting to me to if we're trying to
truly be build machines that could do
what humans could do we also need to
answer that question just so we can
replicate if we do build a machine that
is capable of replicating everything we
are we need to know what we're trying to
replicate all right so let's take it
back human again what are some of the um
the metrics that you look at when you're
studying people that are in uh training
Evolution they're trying to get better
maybe acaron like what are you guys
looking at when you take someone through
an acaron evolution I know you guys do
brain scans a lot of blood work
microbiome what are you looking for and
then how do you judge sort of success
from
that we are fundament trying to answer
two questions the first question is just
in a cross-sectional sense who have we
got the people have we already obviously
undergoing this protocol
training are usually best in class or at
the top of their game so we're looking
to see is there just something we can
distinguish across them so we look
across both physical metrics
psychological metrics hopefully some
insight into creativity and spirituality
but that's a tougher nut and then so if
we just take that on its own that gives
us an Insight in potentially that
community and what makes successful
people successful then we go in okay
we're about to do something to you we're
putting you through an experience we
need to understand exactly what it is
we've turned and dialed and switched and
changed in you so a lot of that
assessment up front is also trying to
allow us to figure out if something
shifts and changes during that training
at week and Aaron's about two weeks what
is it and can we do it more accurately
with less you know you know resources
can we fine-tune that experience and are
you starting to see patterns emerge uh
to take one of those things and try and
drop it Downstream and say everyone
should do that is where most of the
information around human performance on
the online places like that is widely
inaccurate for most people because it
was just wasn't you so if I'm uh sort of
weekend performance
Optimizer um knowing that it's really
specific to me but needing something
like to Benchmark like where would you
encourage me to look I would look I mean
depending on what you're trying to do
remember people have been doing it for a
long time so no matter what you're
trying to achieve there's someone who's
done it before you and someone already
at that level prob Elite I mean I would
use their training or their processes
and systems as guidelines I would say
all right if I'm going to climb Everest
there's probably a generic template out
there to do in fact there is but I would
be very careful about copying wrote
someone else's program I would say all
right I'll use that as my sort of
boundaries and then I'll learn about
myself and if I find that this works
really well I'll continue to do that if
I find that that doesn't seem quite
right it doesn't feel right or I'm
getting too tired I'll I'll take a risk
of all the stuff that you've done in
human performance what have you learned
and put to use in your own
life well I think um it's the
conversations that we started with
earlier around being a little bit more
patient with yourself giving yourself
room and space being Kinder on your on
your framework getting that mindset
around failure that look I made a
mistake it just shows me what I need to
either improve if I want to continue or
or in my case hire someone else to do it
if that's if that's the if I'm not good
enough at it um for me being more aware
of the present moment in time and being
learning to sort of not
get too hung up on anticipating a a
false Narrative of whatever future you
have in inside your head not getting too
caught up in the past and sort of bring
it back to the present and not always
but knowing that I have those skills
allows me to if I get in a tough spot I
can draw on all these other experiences
now I'd love to say I get it right all
the time but just like everyone there's
moments when I think we get it and other
moments where it's like ah I just got to
reset and and I think nowadays one of
the biggest things is if we think about
those values and characteristics across
all the elite performers there's there's
a sort of indication coming through some
of our research that doing it for a
bigger purpose having a bigger purpose
this sort of falls under the
spirituality narrative but again my uh
uh apologies to the real spiritual
Masters we work with but the idea that
you are doing things for something
bigger than you is something that I I've
started as I've got older to sort of
anchor in as well so maybe again for
your military it's going to be your
mates you don't want to leave them lying
uh it may be in a religious capacity may
be for a god of your choosing uh it may
be just for the betterment of humankind
whatever that narrative is we see a lot
of that popping in our Elite performers
and I never plan on it but naturally as
I've gotten old i' like all right what
what can we do to make a difference and
for me and a lot of the people I work
with it seems to be a place that allows
you to continue to explore with greater
purpose it's very interesting um so
bringing it back to like high
practicality what's uh the role that you
see as nutrition playing in all of this
just like everything else in the
performance framework you need to be
locked and loaded in every area if you
are missing fundamental nutrition then
that's going to be a massive detriment
to your outcome and it has both the
physical component and also more
importantly as we're seeing it has a
neurocognitive component so you know how
quick you're thinking and decision
making all that what have you seen play
into the
neurocognitive from a dietary
perspective well you know um as precise
as we are with our the the sorts of
testing we can do we typically it comes
back to hey I'm just thinking more clear
I've corrected my diet i' I've filled in
some blanks in all sorts of systems and
and nutrients that are missing and we we
hear the general framework of hey I'm
I'm I'm sleeping better I'm thinking
more clearly of the fog's gone all these
comments which we can't tie directly any
one change we made but when we look at
we've made the nutrition would say
substandard lacking and it's now not
lacking you know we filled in the gaps
and we see that change but we haven't
got the Precision to know which pathway
we're affected but I think there's still
in in sort of summary so much to be
learned in this sphere and so many
pieces that we don't understand and the
the human as an entity is one of the
most complex systems in the planet in
fact the universe if you talk to the the
scientists and uh I think only now today
with again the the progression we're
making in the in the AI and the Deep
learning models we can start to
aggregate all the data on humans in such
a way that we can start to recreate a
digital sort of prototype which will
allow us to explore these things yeah it
gets pretty interesting pretty fast all
right before I ask my final question
where can these guys find you
online uh online um I'm very bad at any
of the social things um but uh um I do
have a Twitter account which I get to
once a month so to speak uh but I'm on
LinkedIn if people want to connect there
I'm usually very open and uh and and if
you are we are open with our platform we
we do like to share what's going on
because the more the Mera it's going to
take a village to solve this sort of
human performance construct and so we're
very open with our systems and data so
we're we're always sharing down our lab
very cool all right what's the impact
that you want to have on the world
the impact for me would
be fundamentally if we could make 1%
difference across a lot of people I
think that would be profound if to make
it more real if
people people I think all have a dream
they have a vision they no matter what
it is it may be very simple it may be
sort of groundbreaking stuff if we could
have a part to play in terms of
understanding how to get them towards
their dream uh I think it would be a
pretty amazing step to take if everyone
could realize what they always wanted to
achieve and get there uh I think the
place would be the world would be an
interesting place I think if we can
contribute to that by sharing what we've
learned and making it actionable and
effective which it can be uh I think
that's a possibility that would be uh an
exciting moment for me awesome Dr Walsh
thank you so much for coming on the show
absolutely
fantastic guys you're going to want to
dig in into his world it is utterly
fascinating what he's doing the way that
he shares so openly with the things that
they have learned and trying to get more
people in this as he said it's going to
take a village and he's very much taken
a leadership role in that to make sure
that there's a whole community of people
putting forth all the things that are
the bricks that are adding up to real
human evolution and taking control of
the evolution of evolution it's utterly
fascinating to dive into his work it is
hopefully we can encourage him to be
more social because I think that he has
just a tremendous tremendous amount to
offer for anybody who wants to optimize
themselves and going from that all the
way to truly becoming one of the
greatest on the planet at anything that
you choose to be and just the Cycles the
evolutions the physiological things that
you can look at from neurotransmitters
to nutrition all of it they're trying to
go in find out what makes us tick what
allows us to grow and get better and
what the the training Evolutions are
that any of us could deploy in our lives
to find out that highly
customized strategy for self-improvement
so dive into his world see what you can
put to use in your own life you will
thank him for it I promise again Dr WS
thank you so much for coming on the show
everybody if you haven't already be sure
to subscribe and until next time my
friends be legendary take
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care hey everybody thanks so much for
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