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The Impossible Podcast
Welcome to The Impossible, the official podcast of Impossible Performance, where we explore humanity in the Face of Impossible challenge. Our hosts Matt Hill and Austin Douglas are both cancer survivors who have faced The Impossible through near death experience, disease, PTSD, and addiction. Since overcoming these challenges, they now use the principles they learned from these difficult experiences to Be Impossible and Do the Impossible in business and athletics. Join us as we hear stories of those who have Faced the Impossible and learn how you can Be Impossible, building a version of yourself who is capable of overcoming any challenge you face...capable of Doing the Impossible!
At Impossible Performance, we strive to build a global culture of strength, fostering a spirit of growth in constant pursuit of The Impossible.
Thank you for listening and as always... Be Impossible
The Impossible Podcast
"You're Throwing Darts at No Dartboard"; Why You Can't Hit a Target You Never Set - Paul Oneid
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
He knew before his chest hit the floor that he was going to be alright.
Paul Oneid has built a life out of walking into rooms where he does not belong yet. A Canadian kid with no football background trying to coach Division I athletes; a lifter stepping into a gym holding four of the strongest men on earth; a coach who saved twelve thousand dollars to work three months for free. In this conversation he traces the whole arc: the burnout that ended his collegiate career, the mother's line that convinced him to bet on himself, and the meet where a third-attempt squat tore both quads and fractured both kneecaps.
But the recovery is where the real teaching lives. Six weeks unable to care for himself; an ego dismantled entirely; and the lesson underneath it, that he was deserving of the love he was being given. From there the conversation opens into the questions Paul builds his coaching on: who are you if you cannot use your work, your hobbies, your faith, or your family to answer; why an identity attached to anything external is fragile; how self-efficacy is actually built, one manufactured win at a time; and the moment he asks Matt to objectively define success, and the silence that follows.
Stop looking for answers. Start learning to ask better questions.
🎧 The Impossible Podcast | Impossible Performance
0:00 Robert Greene on vocation, and why this conversation
2:12 From basketball to football to a torn meniscus
3:44 Saving $12,000 to intern for free in Florida
6:38 15 teams, 600 athletes, and 120 hours of overtime
7:43 Burnout, and quitting coaching for a "real job"
8:04 Learning to talk to people, not just athletes
9:01 "Bet on yourself"; the call to his mother
11:20 "Why would they listen to a guy who never played?"
13:23 Walking into a gym with four world number ones
17:28 The third attempt that tore both quads
18:33 Rehab, and a bodybuilding win 13 months later
20:48 The arc of identity, from parents to friends to work
22:16 Who are you without your job, faith, or family?
23:20 "Doing hard things is easy"; so what's underneath it?
25:13 Hardship you choose vs. hardship that chooses you
26:39 A GI bleed at 1 AM, and driving himself to the ER
31:34 Uncompromised acceptance
35:08 Being a burden, and losing every bit of ego
36:16 "You are deserving of the love you're getting"
46:37 Sliding vs. deciding, in relationships and in life
54:46 Chasing achievement because it felt like love
56:06 Identity versus outcome, and full effort
59:15 Sisyphus is smiling; the next mountain
1:03:06 Bandura, micro wins, and building self-efficacy
1:04:19 The runway of progression, applied to nutrition
1:10:16 Becoming someone who could beat cancer
1:12:19 Curtis, the 500lb squat, and the message that made him mad
1:20:45 Priorities you can never invert
1:22:58 Satisficing: optimize, don't maximize
1:37:01 "Throwing darts at no dartboard"
1:42:41 Defining success, and going to bed saying yes
1:43:46 Raising the bar; asking better questions