F*ck, I'm Nearly 50
"F*ck, I’m Nearly 50” is a no-filter dive into the messy, brilliant chaos of midlife. From career pivots to sagging eyelids, I’m here to share the wins, the WTF moments, and everything in between because whoever has the most fun, wins. Fuck, I’m nearly 50… and isn’t it amazing?”
F*ck, I'm Nearly 50
F*ck, I've still got it! with Shane Watson
EPISODE 14: F*ck, I’ve Still Got It! with Shane Watson
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In this episode of F*ck, I’m Nearly 50!, I sit down with cricketing legend turned mindset coach Shane Watson, or Watsy, as I know him.
From smashing sixes in front of packed stadiums to coaching in the IPL, from slow-cooked brisket marathons to school sport sidelines, Watsy’s story is about more than cricket. It’s about pressure, perfectionism, failure, freedom, and why the second act might just be the best one yet.
We dive into what it really takes to walk away from a career that defined you, how he built BEON Performance to help others master the inner game, and the surprising parallels between a World Cup final and cooking meat for a pack of hungry kids.
This isn’t just for sports fans. It’s for anyone standing on the edge of change, asking “what now?”
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This episode gets into:
🏏 The mindset spirals of elite sport and how Watsy learned to shut them down
🔥 Walking away from cricket (and rebuilding identity without the scoreboard)
💭 Why perfectionism nearly broke him and how he finally let it go
🥩 The life lessons of BBQ smoking, brisket fails, and hungry kids
🎙 How BEON Performance is changing the game for athletes, execs & everyday people
👨👩👧 Fatherhood, resilience, and teaching kids to bounce back from failure
🌅 Why Uluru is on his “Try This Before 50” list and should be on yours too
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Watsy brings honesty, discipline, and plenty of laughs to a conversation that will make you rethink pressure, purpose, and what it means to start again.
Whether you’re battling burnout, building your next chapter, or just love a good story about tacos, junkets, and the lessons hidden in failure, this one’s for you.
Hit play, back yourself, and remember: you’ve still bloody got it. 💥
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🌐 Learn more about BEON Performance: https://www.beonperformance.com/
📖 Read Shane’s book Winning the Inner Battle: https://www.shanewatson.au/
🌐 Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanewatson33/
📲 Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/srwatson33/
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Let me know what you'd love to hear about next.
🔥 Let’s keep the conversation going! 🔥
📺 Watch the episodes on YouTube – Subscribe here!
💬 Join the community – Follow me on Instagram @fckimnearlyfifty and share your thoughts on this episode. Or connect with me on LinkedIn.
🎧 Never miss an episode – Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
📢 Spread the word – If you loved this episode, share it with a friend (or 10). Because midlife is better when we figure it out together.
Because f*ck, we’re nearly 50, and isn’t that amazing? 🚀
Hi, I'm Dom Hind and fuck, I'm nearly 50. Actually, I'm 47 and three quarters, and the closer I get, the more I'm learning about myself, Not just about who I've been, but about who I want to be in the second half of my life. This stage, it's going to be about getting clear, going deeper and setting myself up for the best chapter yet Today's guest. He's been in my orbit for years, but not from back in our Ipswich days. I went to Ipswich Girls Grammar, he went to Ipswich Grammar. We didn't know each other then, probably for the best, because while he was doing the full academic and sporting honours, I was getting politely asked to leave after a couple of years. Fast forward to now and life's been full of fun collisions, watching our kids create chaos when they were young, last minute water taxi escapes, hearing all about the junkets and walking five kilometres a day while in COVID quarantine and a lot of laughs. And, yes, those legendary taco and margarita nights at To Kill a Mockingbird when our health actually allowed it.
Dom Hind:Because Shane Watson, or Wotsy, to me isn't just a cricket legend. He's a mindset-obsessed barbecue pit master with scientific precision, slow-cooking devotee and someone who's ridiculously disciplined when he puts his mind to something, whether it's smashing a World Cup final innings, smoking a brisket for 12 hours or building his business, he goes all in these days. He's co-founder of Beyond Performance, a platform helping people master the mental game, whether they're chasing athletic greatness, business success or just trying to level up in life. But to get here, he's had to unlearn professionalism, rebuild his identity and start again without the roar of the crowd. This episode is about pressure pivots, pulled pork and proving there's still a chance even when the rules change. Because, fuck, I'm nearly 50. And isn't it amazing?
Dom Hind:Most people know Watsi for his cricketing career smashing sixes, taking wickets, wearing the baggy green with pride and having great tussles on the pitch and sometimes off the pitch with his own teammates. What they don't know, he's the guy who'll wake up early and walk around the block, turn a casual picnic into a full production without cutlery. Can you remember that? Happily spend all day on the barbecue perfecting low and slow brisket and jump in a water taxi without hesitation if it means getting off a boat when it matters, he can switch on his discipline like a light, but he's just as happy kicking back and talking about anything but cricket. We go beyond the game today into the mindset struggles behind the stats, the challenges of walking away from a sport that defined him, and surprising freedom that comes when you back yourself into your next chapter. Watsi, welcome to Fuck. I'm Nearly 50.
Shane Watsons:It's a lovely intro. We've got plenty to go have a deep dive, don't we? Yeah?
Dom Hind:How would you introduce yourself if you couldn't use a cricket reference?
Shane Watsons:Oh gosh, that's a tough one, because cricket's been my life and I'm unbelievably proud of it and it's given me an amazing life. Um, so it'd be hard. I'd probably just define myself and my characteristics of sort of being built in and around me, being the best cricketer that I could be.
Dom Hind:Okay, and what are those characteristics?
Shane Watsons:Um, desperation, to be the best I can be, uh, honest, caring To be the best I can be. Honest, caring Probably just hard work.
Dom Hind:Yeah, you are definitely hard work, and I will also put loyal in there as well.
Shane Watsons:Yes, I am.
Dom Hind:Yeah.
Shane Watsons:Yes, I am, and that's what happens when you go up into team sport. You have to be. That's one of the skills that you develop. Yeah, okay, good, yeah, I am, and that's what happens when you go up into team sport you have to be.
Dom Hind:That's one of the skills that you develop. Yeah, okay, good, yeah, I like that definition. And it is hard because cricket definitely has been your life and it still is. You know, a large part of your life Saying that, what are you doing now, like with cricket? How are you still involved in cricket?
Shane Watsons:So I'm very fortunate I'm still involved in a number of different ways, yeah, which is what I love. So I'm doing commentating whenever the opportunity arises, more so over in the subcontinent, over in India in particular for the Indian Premier League, doing like ICC events, so like T20 World Cups or World Cups Not so much here in Australia, unfortunately and coaching-wise mainly over I've done the IPL assistant coach to Ricky Ponting for Delhi Capitals for a few years now. Major league cricket in the US. Head coach of the San Francisco Unicorns. Yeah, that's cool.
Shane Watsons:Yeah, that's been a really cool ride and journey so far, and the amazing people I've met in and around that franchise have been something that I normally wouldn't get access to. So that and Do you?
Dom Hind:know what, Sorry. The thing that I think is really interesting about cricket in the US is what Beckham did for soccer and how it literally has changed it. And if cricket can do similar. What an amazing journey.
Shane Watsons:Oh, there's a huge opportunity there and World Cricket's seen it for the last 10 or 15 years, but they've really now started to get it all in place. So some super wealthy, successful Indian heritage people mainly guys have moved to the US, have done incredibly well, especially in the tech space, and now they've invested into cricket in the US, so they're really making it happen. So there's a massive opportunity.
Shane Watsons:As long as there's a massive opportunity as long as there's always been a little bit of shenanigans around US cricket. So hopefully they just get out of the way to make sure that it happens. But politics do get in the way of a lot of different sports and things in general, don't they?
Shane Watsons:they sure do. And I'm still mentoring one on one, mentoring some cricketers here in Australia, around the around the world as well. So, um, I'm still heavily involved with my, with my son, Will um, helping him on his cricket journey that he that he loves, and helping him when he needs help. Yeah. I'm not pushing help when he needs help when he wants help. Um, so I'm still heavily involved in it because I still absolutely love the game as much as I did as a kid.
Dom Hind:I can remember, even when Will was growing up, you didn't push him into cricket and he didn't get interested in cricket until what like seven.
Shane Watsons:Yeah, about seven, seven or eight.
Dom Hind:yeah, and it was just interesting that you were just letting him be and not pushing it, and you know, I think that's an amazing thing.
Shane Watsons:I was never going to do it and never going to push my kids into any sort of direction that I wanted them to go. It's whatever they whatever sparked their interest and whatever they really got into and loved. So really picked up cricket and the love of cricket from being on tour with me With the last year that Lee Will and Matilda came over. My wife and two kids came over when I was playing the Chennai Super. Kings yeah.
Shane Watsons:And that was the time where he just like, saw, like what. How good it was, yeah, how cool it was, and and being around a team environment with other kids his age and they love cricket. So from then on it's just been for him, something that he's just obsessed about.
Dom Hind:Yeah, that's awesome for him something that he's just obsessed about. Yeah, that's awesome. Okay, all right, you've played in front of hundreds of thousands of people. That's just scary, even thinking about it. What's something that's tripped you up mentally that no one would expect?
Shane Watsons:I think the main thing that always would trip me up at other people is when you really take in the enormity of the situation and go. What happens if I once I make a mistake here in front of like a hundred thousand people and 90,000 people and the millions of people watching at home, and that's especially the start of my career? Yeah, I was like too aware. I thought of that too much. Yeah.
Shane Watsons:Once if I make a mistake and it actually means that it could be a critical moment in the game and it means that my team potentially loses because of one mistake that I make. Yeah.
Shane Watsons:And that was always like. At times that would be a thought that would come in like a World Cup final yeah, a lot riding on it. But that's where, just through experience, I had to realize you had to shut that off and just think about the right thing, because otherwise you would get in your own way and there was more chance of actually doing something wrong or embarrassing that. Then you won't live it down for the rest of your life.
Dom Hind:Well, and I think that's so true, isn't it? When you're? I mean, it's part of what we'll talk about. But if you're focused on the wrong thing, the wrong thing normally does happen.
Shane Watsons:Or more chance of happening.
Dom Hind:Yeah, so you need to change it. Change it, get into something else. Yeah, was there a moment when you thought this is the best gig in the world and another where you thought I can't do this anymore?
Shane Watsons:I suppose there was one moment and this was right at the start of my Aussie career I was in the test squad of my first tour in South Africa and I was in the squad. I was never going to play, but I was just there as like a young guy to sort of learn the ropes in a way. And the second test match of that series the Aussies won and dominated and as a celebration which would happen after a test match win it's, it was like a bucks night, you know, in a way yeah yeah, where it was like it was huge celebrations.
Shane Watsons:I really like mateship and everything that goes with playing for australia, but it was like not fully unhinged but like sort of as much as you could like it it was. It was like I was like so we ended up like seeing the team song up on the top of Table Mountain. Cape Town, oh wow. Yep. And you got up there in the dark.
Shane Watsons:Yeah, in the dark. Yep. After the test match yeah, we're up in the dark and and I remember, as we sort of had sung the song, and again, I didn't play in the test match, but I was like part of Phil, I was part of it and I was like this, honestly, this has to be the best gig in the world.
Shane Watsons:This is outrageous. And that was before I even played a test match or a one day game. So I knew I've got a lot of hard work to be able to try and keep this make this my life for a while. But that was the time where, yeah, I was like this has to be the best gig in the world. Yeah, yeah, I certainly it's never been. I hate the game because I always love the game. It's like I hate this situation I'm in and how am I going to get out of. It Was like it was.
Shane Watsons:After the test match. It ended up being my last test match in Cardiff in 2015. I hadn't scored, hadn't scored runs. I was going through a pretty tough time across the board and especially with my performances runs. As I was going through a pretty tough time across the board and especially with my performances. And I remember, like the outside of the hotel at that time so that's 2015 we had Will and Matilda uh, the press were just every like everywhere trying to get comment are you going to play in the next test match? And and that was the time where and yeah, that was the time I was like this isn't. This is not enjoyable at all.
Dom Hind:Yeah, um, and I'm sure you were probably already like in your own mindset going what am I like, how do I get out, what do I do? And that was the internal struggles. And then you had all of these external factors coming at you as well.
Shane Watsons:Yeah, absolutely, and I and I at that time I had no answers for what was going on in my mind as well. Yeah, so, and then, like a day later, it got leaked that I was going to be, I was dropped, even though I hadn't been told Right. And then the next then it was the next day, where you know, the late great Rod Marsh is the chairman of selectors came up to me at Lords in the lead up to the second test match and said look, I've got no idea how that got out, but it actually is right and you are, but you are dropped. So those couple of days were like this Get me home.
Shane Watsons:Yeah, this is not. This is not great. And again at that time, cause I had no answers for my performance and where I was at in my mind I was like, yeah, how I'm not sure how I'm going to get out of this.
Dom Hind:Do you think teams back then actually did enough to help you mentally prepare for that, or how you could mentally get yourself into the zone?
Shane Watsons:No.
Dom Hind:Do you think it's changed now?
Shane Watsons:Not, not really Really Not enough now. Not not really Really Not enough. Um, like at that time, like within, like in Australian cricket, we just about over that time, we had for probably three or four years and maybe five years, had a sports psychologist on tour. Yeah.
Shane Watsons:Right, but that sports psychologist was more there for the captain and coach to sort of like, navigate their way through being leaders.
Shane Watsons:Or if your life, not performance, if your life outside of cricket was starting to spiral a bit, yeah right, like he was there for that, not there to really work with individuals and as a group on your mental skills, your performance-based mindset, that was just not there and it's still not there much at all, which is just.
Shane Watsons:It blows me away, knowing by all performance, a huge part of it is mental. You need to have the skills, you need to have the technical prowess to be able to, as a starting point, as a baseline, but then on top of that you need the mental skills to compound that skill that you've worked so hard to be able to as a starting point, as a baseline, but then on top of that you need the mental skills to compound that skill that you've worked so hard to be able to develop and it's just not done anywhere near enough. And now that that's sort of the direction that I've moved into with a big part of my life. Now I just get blown away that it's just not done at all and everyone's just got to navigate their way themselves.
Dom Hind:It's so interesting. I think it is interesting not only in sport, but just also in life as well Like we spend all this money trying to get fit, trying to get like on your physical, on you know just the doctors, the health, everything but mentally sometimes you need to get out of your brain and get someone to actually give you the guidance to make sure that you are being shaped or thinking about things in the right way and we're not doing it in any part of our life.
Shane Watsons:You think about the kids going through school? They learn all the. They develop these skills and knowledge and everything like that, and they become so proficient at it if they work hard enough, but then if they need to apply it in a real pressurized situation where if they get it wrong they don't want to know the consequences of it. Yeah.
Shane Watsons:But there's nothing in the curriculum, there's no nothing out there at the moment where it actually helps understand the mental side. So you've got more chance of being able to access all those skills and especially when you don't want to know what's on the other side of a bad performance.
Dom Hind:Yeah, or how you can try and get yourself out of that bad performance.
Shane Watsons:Yeah, and absolutely. If you do have a bad performance, which is always going to happen, how do I navigate my way out of that to be able to learn from it and not continue to dig a really deep hole and then take a long time to be able to get out of it?
Dom Hind:I even think I was thinking about this the other day, even with kids nowadays, even with bullying, and how you get yourself out of that mental, that mindset, because in that place where the kids are being bullied, they're already having those discussions in their mind, thinking I'm not good enough, what can I be doing and what am I doing wrong, and I mean that sets themselves up for that. You know that lifelong journey of a little bit of. You know the negativity and the mindset creep that you don't want them to have.
Shane Watsons:That's it. One of the most powerful things that anyone can understand is that internal dialogue, that mind show that's going on, that you are actually in control of that script of what's being said. If you are in, if you're starting to have the wrong thoughts, to be able to catch it and what the right thoughts are for you or what's a default thought, to be able to just make sure you've moved your thoughts away from the wrong thoughts, Because if you don't, then that just it spirals and before you know it you're in a pretty dark place. Even like for bullying, even though it's got it's not your fault at all, it's got nothing to do with you, apart from someone who's their own power trip. They've found a weakness in someone else and they're just trying to make themselves feel better about making someone feel penetrating their weakness.
Dom Hind:They're all got their own insecurities and they're playing it out on someone else. I do love the default, like the default thing, and I know that I've been through the beyond performance mindset but the default and making sure you have a default. It helps so much because as soon as your mind starts to wander, you can just bring it back.
Shane Watsons:One of the most important things out of the mental skills information that I teach is what is your default, what is your anchor? Yeah. That if stuff's going down and there's always going to in life, always wrong things that you don't want are going to be thrown at you, yeah, what is the default thought for you to anchor yourself to?
Shane Watsons:so then you don't allow yourself to go into a deep hole yeah, and, and that's and that's different for different people, but you have to define exactly what it is for you and for me. It's putting a song into my head and it was during my career days yeah, yeah, the back end of my cricketing days, yeah, yeah, and it still is. Now, when you know something occurs that you just you know how the hell, why has that happened? What's that going to mean? Yeah, and all the different like.
Dom Hind:What if what?
Shane Watsons:if like no, I've got to stop that. Put a song into my head and that's a way to be able to just get your mind away from it.
Dom Hind:What's your go-to song, or does it just change it?
Shane Watsons:changes the music I'm listening to at that moment in time. Yeah, it just shifts, but I always have like a couple of songs ready to go though you love country, though too don't you, I do love country. I Do you mean in the States too long now? Oh, I love country. Yeah, heartfelt lyrics and that Do love it Soulful voices.
Dom Hind:We've spoken about perfectionism, or you have spoken about it particularly.
Shane Watsons:When did you realize it was holding you back rather than helping you. It was probably at a time where, because of my injuries that I had throughout my career, it got to a stage where I had to totally change my whole training regime, and more so I'd say more so from a skill-based perspective, because I was chasing perfectionism. I was chasing being perfect with all my skills batting, bowling and fielding and that would mean I would overtrain in a huge way because I was just if I didn't get it right. I kept going, even like the day before a test match, day before a one day game, if I didn't feel like I got it right. I'd just keep going and going until I felt like I got it right, which meant that I was fatigued and I actually didn't really get it right. So that would mean that I'd go into a game, I'd be physically fatigued and then I'd get an injury. Yeah.
Shane Watsons:So things shifted when I had a physio looking after me Victor Popov, who was just one of the best physios in the world physiotherapist and his amazing experiences and he talked to me about having like making sure that I did just enough, just enough, just enough, just enough, and that was all around like being able to stay on the field to reduce the chance of getting injured. Yeah, right. So as soon as I moved to that, then I realised that I couldn't be perfect at training yeah.
Shane Watsons:Because there would be a week, for example, where I'd have a full recovery week where I'd do like half the amount of what I'd do previously for the previous three weeks, and that meant that I had to trust my skills and trust what I actually had inside of me. And then I had some good performances and I realized what the hell have I been doing? So that was it was. It wasn't me going perfection, trying to chase perfectionism. It certainly did help me develop my skills quicker than other people.
Shane Watsons:Yeah, right, because you put the time in, because I put because I just pushed the limit and I wanted to be perfect. Yeah, yeah. But it also meant, during that period of time, though one I went into games fatigued but, two, I wasn't necessarily at my best, consistently as well, because I didn't think I was good enough yeah, yeah instead of going, and, and the perfect sort of balance of that is chasing, being perfect, knowing that it's actually not possible yeah but chasing it. So you do, you.
Shane Watsons:You work your absolute butt off and find the right people to get as close to being perfect, but then letting yourself go, not over training, as you're not going to games, fatigued mentally and physically yeah but then also, um, knowing that what you've got right there, and then you've got to bring the best you've got right there, and then, whether you're 21 or whether you're 35, yeah so it's and that's where.
Shane Watsons:Now. That's what I, what I coach now, whether it's whether it's with my son Will, whether it's with the cricketers that I work with it's. It's a great thing to chase that, because it means you've got the fire in your belly to be as good as you can, but then you've got to then move away from and go well, there's no, you can't be perfect yeah but you've got to get as close as you can to it it's interesting, the recovery piece.
Dom Hind:I just I didn't realize how important it actually is because I like I will just keep going, going and train, train, train, but you don't realize that you do actually need to take a break and that's. That's where that like just enough. That's actually really good advice.
Shane Watsons:And that's where I would just. I didn't turn it off either, so I would like the pattern throughout my, throughout a period of time in my career was I would just be going so hard. Yeah. For like six weeks bang injured. Yeah. And then I'd be like rehab, recovering from injury, and then I'm back Probably six weeks. Yeah.
Dom Hind:Like six weeks on, six weeks on, six weeks on.
Shane Watsons:Yeah, because I'd just be pushing the limit all the time and then get injured, and then it'd be like then it'd be the same pattern over and over again.
Dom Hind:So your consistency is that's right.
Shane Watsons:And then as soon as Victor Popov came in and just like just deconstructed and pulled apart my whole everything that I was doing, like that thing was like like we've got to stop that.
Dom Hind:But isn't that interesting as well, though, with like trying to seek perfection, that's all about in your mind too. Imagine if you'd been taught that earlier on.
Shane Watsons:Because people would see me at training beating myself up If I dropped a catch. In practice I would like I'd be like going hard at myself If I bowled a bad ball. I'd be going hard at myself Like I'd be nailing myself.
Dom Hind:But not only in training. You would do it when you played as well.
Shane Watsons:In game as well.
Dom Hind:And you know people could see that you were pissed off because you were like like you wore the expression everywhere. Everywhere, because you beat yourself up to try and be perfect.
Shane Watsons:Yep no-transcript. Yeah, but it was just meant to be.
Dom Hind:Yeah, you know what it is. Everything happens for a reason.
Shane Watsons:If I didn't have that, I wouldn't, the light wouldn't have turned, would have been as bright. When I was like, oh my gosh, I've been, that's been the missing link and I was lucky enough that it was still while I was still playing. Even though I'd got dropped, retired from Test Cricket and one day cricket, dropped, retired, I still was able to put, like, actually put those skills, those new mental skills, into play and troubleshoot them in game, instead of retrospectively go. Look. If I had my time again, I would have done this.
Shane Watsons:But I actually implemented it for like five or six, five years of me playing these mental skills. So now, anytime someone asks a question around the mental side of performance, I'm not inside out, because I've actually lived and breathed it. So you know I wouldn't have it any other way, even though and that's why now I'm trying to get this information out to as many people as possible, so their journey isn't they can start implementing these skills from a younger age, instead of having to go through 14 years of professional cricket.
Dom Hind:Getting to that next, the next stage after retirement. Did you plan or did you plan, the next chapter or did you? Were you a bit shocked and a bit lost when your proper like playing days ended?
Shane Watsons:so I was, I was very I'd say I was very scared yes about that end date.
Shane Watsons:I was. I was really I. I overthought it a lot, right, probably like three or four years out, right, so I was. So I would. When, if I had any downtime, I would be like, what am I going to do in the next phase of my life? And and be really chasing that? So I didn't, because I'd seen so many of my mates whether that was the first class cricketers who just played state cricket or Aussie players and some just like fall off a cliff, and so I was very concerned about it.
Shane Watsons:So I was looking into the future. What, potentially, am I going to move to? Is it going to be coaching? Is it going to be commentary? Is there something else that I can do that I really love? And that's where it started out. Well, I wanted to get, I want to get into coaching because I do love the game, I want to be able to help people. But then it was, like I know, like the missing piece for me to be able to have a advantage over the other coaches is the mindset. And that was even before I met Jacques Dallaire around the, who taught me up in the like mental performance. So, but then, even when and I had a longer career. I finished playing at 39 professionally, like my last IPL season was 39. So I was one of the lucky ones as well. I was able to play. During COVID.
Shane Watsons:During COVID. Yeah, I was able to play up until I was 39, whereas not that many people have that chance, so I know I was lucky. But then, when it turned off, I then set up a cricket equipment business and chased that so hard, even though, yeah, and it didn't end up working out, and I learned a lot. Do you know what?
Dom Hind:It gave you something to focus on it did. And I think that's the best thing about that was you had something else to focus on.
Shane Watsons:I needed to repurpose my energy, absolutely yeah, and that certainly was, even though, again, it didn't work out.
Shane Watsons:But I learned a ridiculous amount of lessons from it about business, about the e-commerce, about the tech world and that sort of stuff that I wouldn't have. No, I wouldn't have learned, especially the hard way. That's what we learned the most so. So that was a way, and Lee, my wife like she could see that like I had to redirect my, like my energy, yeah, and that I was chasing it so hard because I was, I was, I was worried about, because I'd seen a number of my mates who had really struggled.
Dom Hind:Yeah, and it's with all professional sports as well. It's the you're out of that daily routine or the competition and it's like what do I do now?
Shane Watsons:Yeah.
Dom Hind:But I think it's also even when you know a lot of men retire as well. They have invested so much of themselves in work that they don't have, you know, a lot of the connections or the interests or whatever to actually help them bridge the gap into retirement.
Shane Watsons:And that's like for athletes, it happens earlier in your life. Yes. Whereas across the board you know men and women when they either about to retire or there's a transition phase in their life because of the work opportunities that have arisen. Like it's a cliff. You've got to find out the best way to be able to like, try and reduce how high that cliff is, and it's so daunting. It is, but just for athletes, and it's, and it's so daunting it is, and but just for athletes, it's just, it's earlier in your life but it's still the same thought process, it's the same transition that you're like what, what's, where can I?
Shane Watsons:how can I repurpose my energy? Do I need to repurpose my energy and like and support my family? Financially or is it repurpose my energy, because I'm set up financially like fine, but I need still. I can't just like sit on the couch. No, that's not going to last that long, maybe for three days and you're like stop this.
Dom Hind:Exactly. Then it's like the downward spiral would start to. Where's my purpose? What am I doing? How do I get out of here? Yeah, For people who don't know what is Beyond or Beyond Performance, and why did you create it.
Shane Watsons:So Beyond Performance is a mental performance coaching business that I set up, initially with Dr Jacques Delay, who's a mental performance coach from the US, initially with Dr Jacques Dallaire, who's a mental performance coach from the US. His background's in Formula One, nascar, indycar, fighter pilots, special forces, corporate coaching, whatever it is. I got introduced to Jacques Dallaire from Willpower Aussie IndyCar driver. He's still driving now. He's won two IndyCar championships in the last 10 years so I got introduced to him. I was at a random awards Dalliams which I've only been there once at that time and never been there since. Wow yeah.
Shane Watsons:And met Will Power, who's going through a similar time in his career around the fear of performing and the fear of what might happen if you make a mistake. He connected me up with Jacques Dallaire and that was the time it was 2015, where I got dropped from Test Cricket, retired, retired from Test Cricket, and I had no answer to that time of what was going on with my performances because I was performing nowhere near my best. Then I met Jacques Dallaire he I flew over to Charlotte because I was desperate Lee my wife was desperate as well to like you need some, you need to get some help, you'll know. Yeah, you know where what are you doing so.
Shane Watsons:I flew over, spent two days with Jacques and he taught me this information that oh, it was just, it was so profound, yeah. And yeah, oh it was just, it was so profound, yeah. And then, from that moment on then applying it and seeing the benefits immediately. I knew straight away, before I even tried to apply it. Yeah. Just like, oh, I know how I'm going to apply it, but then actually applying it and performing out in the field. That's where I was like this information is not readily available. Yeah.
Shane Watsons:I know it's definitely not in Australia, not in the cricket world. Yeah definitely not in Australia, not in the cricket world. So set up a business, be on performance with Jacques and sort of ended up morphing into because of COVID and mainly, where Jacques would come out and teach the information and I'd sort of provide the context around how I applied it. Now I've been taught up how to teach this information. I've got a licensing agreement with Jacques and now I'm just trying to educate as many people as possible. I released a book.
Shane Watsons:Hang on, you self-published that one Self-published initially, yeah, and I wouldn't have self-published if I didn't have the learnings from T20 Stars. So I self-published the first version of the book Winning the Inner Battle, and then to be able to-.
Dom Hind:Was that hard writing that book?
Shane Watsons:No.
Dom Hind:Well, because you yeah, okay no.
Shane Watsons:Oh, because it was just. It was the information that I got taught, the framework of the information, and then just my way that I used it or didn't use it. And I had an amazing writer, Alex Malcolm, who's a cricket writer, who really, who did play a lot of cricket, second level cricket and grade cricket. So his ability to be able to put the speaking word into a written word to make it really engaging.
Dom Hind:Hang on the Watsi word into written word.
Shane Watsons:Exactly To make sure that it's coherent. And I had Gideon Haigig, who's an amazing writer, cricket writer and writer in general, who, um, edited it for me as well. So so that was um and then self-publishing it. That was a great experience, like sending the books out yeah, see the books out from home, fulfilling the orders, um, and but then knowing for distribution, how to get it out to more people getting it to the bookstores, had HarperCollins publish the next version, which was the Winner's Mindset, so that was a way, and released that in India as well.
Shane Watsons:Yeah perfect. So, yeah, Beyond Performance, it's an education. It's a way to be able to try and educate as many people, whether it's a written book, whether it's an online course, which I released about 12 months ago and also right now finding other ways to be able to get this information out, whether it's in university schools. Just so many different ways to be able to get it out of the corporate world. Yeah.
Shane Watsons:Because it's something that's, very sadly, it's not readily available to make people understand. In really simple, layman's terms, how can I have the right thoughts at the right time to be able to perform at my?
Dom Hind:best, I think, because I have been through it and I think one of the things that Justin still uses with me is the A factors and B factors and because I and the other thing is those don't connect, things that aren't meant to be connected, and I'm like no, no, no, there's got to be some conspiracy here. No, but you know even the B factors and can you explain a bit around the A and the B factors, because I think that's really interesting.
Shane Watsons:It is.
Dom Hind:Yeah.
Shane Watsons:I think it is for sure. I do it is. Yeah, I think it is for sure. So the performance equation is an equation that Jacques sort of put together when he was working through what are the things that get in your way of getting the best results possible? And trying to really simplify it. And the performance equation is A times B equals results, times B equals results. And so the A's are everything that's in your control, like the skills that you've got right there, and then Not what you might have in like a two days time, in a month's time. It's what you have right there, and then it's how well prepared you are. How have you ticked every box? Are you physically, mentally, fresh or tired? How committed you are, because you're in control of whether you're really engaged or not, but then also whether you are correctly focused as well, because you're in control of your thoughts.
Shane Watsons:If you want to take control and, if you have to be, have the right thoughts at the right time and you're in control of those. So that plays an important part as something that you're in control in as well. Control of. So the A's are everything you are in control of, the B factors, all the things that are out of your control.
Dom Hind:Yeah, the noise.
Shane Watsons:Yeah, the noise, the things that might come up that are just you're not expecting at all. I put this in like the um in the business world. The negative B is you are in and around COVID is you are in and around COVID. A negative B is you are a bricks and mortar store and you rely on foot traffic and people coming into your store to be able to and it's been a super successful business. But that's what you rely on.
Shane Watsons:Covid hits totally out of your control. Everything gets shut down and then all of a sudden you go from a lot of revenue to zero. Just about it's out of your control. The positive B is you could be a business that mainly had an online presence. You're an e-commerce business. Covid hits and it just supercharges your business because people can't get out and about and you've got your supply chain, everything set up like not thinking that that was going to happen, but then your business gets supercharged and you shoot the lights out. So there's always to every B factor there's two sides. There's a positive one and a negative one, but again, it's out of your control.
Shane Watsons:So for me, growing up, I just believed and obsessed over A equals results If I work hard enough and I train my butt off in the lead up to the weekend to that game. That should guarantee me results. And then when I didn't get the results that I wanted because it's going to happen then I was like, well, I'm obviously not working hard enough. Yeah, you blamed yourself. I'd beat myself up, let's go, I've got to get back in the nets. I've got to train hard. I beat myself up, let's go, I've got to get back in the nets. I've got to train hard. I'm obviously not working hard enough.
Shane Watsons:And I never put into my own internal computer that there are actually B factors that do get in the way, positive and negative, whether it's for me, whether the conditions, the opposition I'm up against, whether it's a good opposition, whether it's a not so good, whether my skills match up really well to that opposition, all these different positive and negative Bs that I just never really took into consideration at all and by understanding, or deeply understanding, that these B factors that are out of my control, understanding that they're out of my control. So that means and the equation is correct A times B equals results. Then if I can't control the Bs, that means I can't control results. And that, for me, was so profound because I was like well, I'm worrying about results, but when is worrying about results made results? Better Well, never.
Shane Watsons:So why am I spending so much time worrying about results that it's something that's out of my control? If I'm going to worry about something, I have to worry about bringing the very best A's that I've got the things I'm in control of. Yeah. And that just lifted this huge weight that I'd been, that had been compounding on me since I was born.
Dom Hind:Where do you think it actually came from initially? Was it just your desire that you wanted to be the best?
Shane Watsons:Oh yeah, I think. So that definitely was inside of me, since I can, since I can remember, but also that was the environment that I grew up in with my family as well.
Shane Watsons:Yeah, it's like you've got to Put in the work, You've got to work your butt off. My mum was a very good swimmer through her teens and, yeah, through her late teens. She was one of Australia's best freestyles for a period of time and then just missed out on the Olympics. Um, by one place in freestyle and also, uh, it's backstroke or butterfly. I should know. Yeah, Um, sorry, I'm not Sorry.
Dom Hind:Barb.
Shane Watsons:She just, she just missed out, and that was sort of like um, that's what I sort of grew up with, is you got to work hard but you, like our family sort of built around, just missing out as well. Yeah. So that was me sort of like well I'm not going to miss out. Yeah, well, I'm going to have to break through. I'm going to have to push through that ceiling.
Dom Hind:Yeah right.
Shane Watsons:And am I going to be able to?
Dom Hind:Yeah, so you put that pressure on yourself.
Shane Watsons:So that's the pressure that just I compounded on myself, and there was a way to be able to get past my opposition. Individual opposition that I was fighting against to get a place in the team, but then that also meant that I put so much pressure on myself to perform as well, and I look back at times where I didn't perform as a teenager as well. It's because I just suffocated myself with fear of making a mistake.
Dom Hind:But also doing too much.
Shane Watsons:Oh yeah.
Dom Hind:That also. What's one beyond principle that you use in your own life, whether you're speaking on stage or tending to your smoker?
Shane Watsons:Yeah, there's probably two that stand out the most. One is what are the right thoughts for me to be able to best? And understand that you are in control of your thoughts. Yeah, and if your performance is really important to you, then you have to take control of what your thoughts are, to make sure they're the right ones. Yeah.
Shane Watsons:And then when the wrong ones come in and they're always going to come in, Always the fear of once I get this wrong, once I make a mistake, then you have to catch those thoughts to know if I've got those the wrong thoughts, then I'm moving further away from my chance to perform my best. Yeah.
Shane Watsons:So catching that thought and redirecting it and that's the complimentary part of that is what is my anchor, what is the thing that I need to jam into my head when the wrong thoughts start to come in, and that's the song in my head how do you catch yourself, and how often do you not catch yourself? Yeah, Look, there's something recently over, like a week or two ago, that came out of the blue that I wasn't expecting and it was actually.
Shane Watsons:and this is like, and I know this information inside out used to perform at my best, but I also I had a time where I didn't catch those thoughts. Yeah.
Shane Watsons:I started to sort of get in a bit of a spiral. Yeah, and it was actually Lee, my wife, who was just like what? Like what are you doing? Yeah, you know, like, but you know that you're overthinking this. Just stop it. You know what the techniques are to be able to stop it. Yeah, Right, and that was the that was the, the, the jolt to go. What are you doing? Yeah, it's like what are the things I'm in control?
Dom Hind:of that's right.
Shane Watsons:Jam a song in my head. So even by knowing this information inside out, teaching it and using it to perform there was still because we're human. There's still a moment where, like Lee, had to remind me to go what are? You doing yeah, so.
Dom Hind:But it is. At least you do have someone to go. Hey, what are you doing? Like you know, there is that person that can be reminding you. Yeah. What happens if you don't have someone to go pull yourself out of it?
Shane Watsons:Yeah, like that's where Exactly, and that's why I'm developing a product to do that.
Dom Hind:Right, yeah, I can understand that. What's more stressful? A World Cup final or cooking meat which you love to slow cook for a group of hungry mates who've been?
Shane Watsons:drinking margaritas all day. Oh gosh, see, I would say a World Cup final is easier because I've got more understanding of what the hell I'm doing. Yeah, whereas the meat side, and I would say the hungry mates who've been drinking margaritas all day, I'd say hungry kids.
Shane Watsons:Oh, yeah, that have a meltdown, oh yeah, yeah. And my brisket hasn't gone through the stall and it's been stationary, the temperature, for like two or three hours and it's the sun has got well down and the kids and I'm getting massive heat to go. What's happening? I'm like, well, if I pull it off now, it's going to be like trying to eat through a leather boot, or I get it right and push through another hour or two and it's going to be like heaven in a mouthful.
Dom Hind:I can remember that one I don't know, this is probably the time we're talking about we would have been cooking for 12 hours or something and the kids were starving and in the end, you just got Uber Eats because it was just too hard, yep.
Shane Watsons:You had to get Uber Eats to get out of the chicken shop and get some chicken because it just it was not, it was bad. That's so cool. It's happened. Well, it's a thing trial and error. How do you learn, how do you get better? Yep, by making some big, big errors.
Dom Hind:Like I think people get so hung up on failure and but I actually think it's like, as people say, it's you've actually had a crack, so failing is actually not a bad thing, because you can actually learn from those failures as well.
Shane Watsons:I'd say failure, even though at the time it doesn't feel like it at all.
Shane Watsons:Yeah, it's actually a gift yeah, I agree because it's a way to be able to go. Well, that didn't work. What can I do? What can I, what can I learn from it to be able to reduce the chance of that happening again? Or what can I learn from it? So then, it's only going to make me better? Yeah, so failure is, but so many people see failure as I'm a failure and that's. I don't want that to happen and then and then sort of just end up falling into a heap and staying there. Yeah, instead of and look, there's no doubt, depending how bad failure is and how much of an impact it has on your life, it can take a little bit of time.
Shane Watsons:It can take a couple of days. It can take a couple of weeks to be able to go. What can I learn from this situation, even though it is not a great situation I find myself in? What can I learn from this situation? Even though it is not a great situation I find myself in? What can I learn from it? Because then, if you learn from the situation, it's amazing how, every time, you look back and go. If it wasn't for that and if I didn't learn from that, then I wouldn't have the skills now to be able to really make hay while the sun shines.
Dom Hind:Yeah, I agree, and I also think the biggest failure is not having a failure, because it means you've been playing too safe.
Shane Watsons:Absolutely 100%. Yeah, Life is a successful life is not in your comfort zone.
Dom Hind:Yeah, yeah, on a junket which is what we affectionately call one of your tours. Yeah, are you the guy who's first to bed? Okay, let's do this like like pre and post 2015. Are you the guy who's first to bed, first to breakfast, or the one in the corner who's having a last drink?
Shane Watsons:oh no, I was the yeah, I was one I'm not sure about first to bed. Yeah, as in, I wasn't like I didn't go to bed really early, but I was normally um, yeah, I was, just, I was every doing everything I possibly could. So, like even I think about like my time when I was playing test cricket in the last sort of year a couple of years because my body was such a challenge to be able to sort of stay fit. Years because my body was such a challenge to be able to sort of stay fit like a night of a test match.
Shane Watsons:I'd be getting dry needling done, like every night, in different parts of my body to be able to try and just release my muscles, and then I'll be waking up first thing in the morning doing my yoga, meditating, um, and doing what I needed to do to get ready for a day of of cricket. So, yeah, I was doing, yeah, everything I could. I would say, though, I and this used to drive some people nuts I was normally the last person on the bus which would drive some people nuts especially like early birds. Yeah, yeah.
Shane Watsons:I would get there like if the leave say, the leave time was 7.30. Oh, okay, that's the leave time. So I'd get there at like 7.29 and like 55 seconds, right, so I'd be.
Dom Hind:And why? What were you preparing?
Shane Watsons:Because I'm like well either I was either preparing or I'm like I'm not going to just going to go down and sit on the bus for like 15 minutes when I could be up here, wake up a little bit later, but wake up 15 minutes later, or I could be, I don't know, doing what I need to do, not doing like not just Just being annoying, yeah, or listening to music, just chilling in my room or whatever it is, so it's like that's a leave time.
Shane Watsons:So if you want me to be there earlier, set the leave time earlier. But it used to drive some people nuts. Is he going to be late again?
Dom Hind:No, he's on time, right on time, like right on time. One of the things that I thought was fascinating from your discipline was during COVID, when you were in quarantine, you walking five kilometres a day in your hotel room just literally around the bed, because I've tried to do that at the end of the day, when I don't have enough steps and I need like another 200 steps to get to my limit and I'm like how can Watsi have done five kilometers in a hotel room over COVID?
Shane Watsons:Can you just talk about that? Well, you do what you have to do to stay sane. That quarantine, I only did it once locked in your hotel room and honestly I'm very comfortable and I enjoy my own time. But two weeks on your own that honestly was like that was torture For people who aren't that comfortable like don't like being on their own. Yeah. How that would have been so unbelievably difficult. Yeah.
Shane Watsons:So for me that was just a way I needed to exercise every day, yeah, and I need, like, walking. So I just put a podcast on a business podcast because I'm just launching my T20 Stars Cricket Equipment brand. So I was just listening to a podcast and just walking around in circles really Not just circles, but it was like there's probably like I don't know five, seven meters to sort of go around that's a lot of time.
Dom Hind:How long did it take you to do that?
Shane Watsons:Oh the same time as normal. I just had to make sure that I didn't go around the same direction, Otherwise I'd sort of load up the carpet. Yeah, I'd load up. My sort of one side of my legs Did you move the bed.
Dom Hind:No, oh my God, no you do what you have to do. How do you talk to your kids about pressure resilience and bouncing back from mistakes?
Shane Watsons:It's one of the most important things that I do as a parent is and I parent very differently now to what I would have before I learned this mental skills information. Yeah, I would definitely parent very differently, Um, and, and now it's all about me just talking to them about did you give it? Did you give your best, or in the lead up to your performance? Yeah.
Shane Watsons:Um, are you doing everything you can to be able to perform well, whether it's in exams, whether it's in a sport? Um, and then, most importantly, after the performance, especially when it wasn't a good performance, and as you're developing your skills, you're going to have a lot more not great performances than good performances. It's like, well, what was your preparation like, and? But then, like, did you give it? Did you actually give it your best? Like, did you bring the best version of you, whatever it is, and simplify it for your kids? But then and then, what did you learn from it? What are the things? What? What didn't go well? So, what are the things that we can work on?
Shane Watsons:Whether it's an exam like do we like? Okay, you didn't. That didn't go so well. What can we work on? Is it? Do we need to you know? Do you need to go and talk to your teacher to be able to learn this, like this skill? Or do we need with my son, will with his cricket? Okay, this didn't go exactly right. Yeah, so let's go to the nets and just work on these one or two little things.
Dom Hind:Does he carry the same thoughts that you carry, that you have to do and be perfect?
Shane Watsons:No.
Dom Hind:Or are you just helping him reshape that?
Shane Watsons:Yeah, yeah, but at training and even games he wants to be perfect. Yeah. But he doesn't have that suffocating his performance. He's even like now when he performs he's free. Yeah right, he's free.
Dom Hind:And that's when I'm coaching him. That's amazing isn't it. Like just having that feeling of free and that freedom rather than going, fuck, I've got to do this, got to do, I've got to do this. Yeah.
Shane Watsons:And that's everything that I, that I teach him from a cricket perspective, is even when we have like training sessions is don't make, we're going to put some game pressure, so don't not making mistakes, not getting out, but still scoring. Yeah, yeah. Still like being free but being free and trying to reduce your mistakes, because most of the time it would be like for me growing up it was don't make a mistake, so that would mean I wouldn't be free. Yeah, yeah.
Shane Watsons:And that's when you suffocate your own performance. So Will's, yeah, but he had that even. He's got that freedom and he had that sort of freedom in his mind a little bit. Anyway, before then I started to really work with him to be able to have that, have that freedom.
Dom Hind:Yeah, I think I really do like the um, after the kids have done something, asking them what was your preparation, what did you learn, what could we do differently? Like I mean, those three things are what we should be asking after, even just for us reflecting on anything.
Shane Watsons:It's one of the most important things that any individual can do, whether it's as an adult, and especially facilitating those conversations with the kids. Yeah. Because then it just you're learning, you're stimulating, like your child to be able to go what happened, why did it happen, and learn from it every single time, and that just becomes their default process after a performance.
Dom Hind:Do you know? I think it also helps build resilience, because I think our kids are so just not resilient nowadays because we do too much for them. But by getting them to own a performance and thinking about what they can do differently, it just helps with their resilience. Of course it does.
Shane Watsons:Yeah, that's. One of the most powerful things any human being can develop is resilience, their ability to be able to bounce back from setbacks, and they're always going to be setbacks from setbacks and they're always going to be setbacks. And the craziest thing about how society has changed and parenting has changed is around cotton wooling your kids to oh, I don't want them to feel pain.
Shane Watsons:I don't want them to fail, but then you're setting them up for failure because they never develop the skills of learning how to bounce back from a failure. So then when failure arises and it's always going to arise they do not have the skills, are not equipped to be able to deal with it and they will fall into a heap. And their ability to be able to bounce back? They might, but it's going to take a lot longer because they haven't developed those skills. And it is a skill skill you need to develop, and the earlier you set them on that path, the better they'll be been able to deal with failure, because it's always going to happen yeah, I, I still joke that I think I should set up a school called the school of hard knocks, just so that those less resilient people can come can of cement.
Shane Watsons:Yeah, we're talking about can of cement, but the can of cement is to, is giving your kids, facilitating those conversations so they, in the end, they'll just do it themselves. What happened? Yeah, what happened? Why did it happen? Yeah. Was it my preparation? Was it actually just during my performance where I just I was a bit off? Yeah. My thoughts were the wrong thoughts. And then what can I do in the lead up to my next, next performance or during my next performance to be able to reduce the chance of that happening again?
Dom Hind:I think talking about the thoughts as well. That's really important, because not many people do like what were you thinking, Like what were you, what was going through your mind? How can we change that as well?
Shane Watsons:It's not just did you learn? Did you learn this math equation? Did you like it's okay, you might've had that, but you were worrying about failing. So you, by worrying about failing and the anxiety builds, then it feels like you can actually you do lose that knowledge that you have. Yeah. Because you've suppressed it. Yeah, so you're like oh my God, I know that, but I'm too worried about my results.
Dom Hind:Yeah, what's one thing you hope your kids take from your career and the one thing you hope they avoid completely?
Shane Watsons:The one thing that I would love them to take from my career is definitely around hard work. Yeah, that like to be as good as you can. There are no shortcuts. Yeah.
Shane Watsons:You have to go to the ends of the earth to be able to work your butt off. But with that and that's not just the technical skill, the knowledge that you gain it's also in parallel working and understanding the mental skills and working on them all the time, because it is a skill the more you work on it, the more you integrate it into your technical skill and knowledge. Then it's a perfect storm. So that's absolutely everything that I'm working to be able to instill in my kids, because then you help them become bulletproof in a way, because if other things come in, it just bounces off them because, I've built this understanding of performance, so that, um, and the one thing that, oh, oh, geez, oh, honestly, the one thing that I probably would say is never, never, get, never be comfortable.
Shane Watsons:And I'm going to be honest, there was one time in my career where I was doing things that I dreamed of performance wise I it was, um, it was around 2010, 2011, where I'd been through a lot of injuries and just everything. It just became a perfect storm and I was just performing, batting and bowling, like how I dreamed of being able to do it, but then I got comfortable enough to go, I've got this and just sort of didn't continue to really.
Dom Hind:Hang on. Is that comfortable equal to cocky? Or was it comfortable that you didn't push yourself?
Shane Watsons:enough Comfortable that I didn't continue just to look with little ways to get better. Not, yeah, look like I. Sort of like now I just got to maintain what I've got instead of continuing to, yeah, continue just to. And if, look, if everything was set up like I was bulletproof, then just it is maintaining that and that's a challenge. But I just probably, probably I got a tiny bit comfortable and then, over a couple of years, then I got exposed enough and I had to sort of try and catch up again.
Dom Hind:Yeah, right, okay. And the thing that I find like really tough in thinking about how you can keep mentally preparing yourself and doing that work what does that actually look like? Is it just sitting there and journaling? Is it then just thinking about what you actually want? Like what is it?
Shane Watsons:Yeah, well, a couple of things. One is journaling for sure around like how did it go today? And being able to put it down on paper, not just like the thoughts swirling around your mind, finalising your thoughts by writing them down and debriefing all your performances and what your preparation looked like. So that's definitely one, but one of the most important things that you can do is also a goal setting.
Shane Watsons:It's taking some time. It doesn't take that long to sit down and go. Okay, if I could dream up the next 12 months. What does that actually look like that's achievable not just like a fairy tale, but actually something that's like it's a dream if it happens, but it's potentially.
Shane Watsons:It is achievable if everything goes well and setting that, but then, once you set that, then stripping it back to like day to day. What is my what is? What do I have to do day to day? And that's not just work all the time that can be. I need a recovery day to be able to freshen up mentally and physically. I need to actually get away for a week, or I need to.
Shane Watsons:really I need to source this person or this type of person because I need to develop this skill. So it's really stripping back every day. What does it look like and if I do that every day, and also defining what are the potential distractions?
Shane Watsons:what are the things that could get in my way, and is it too much socializing? Is it getting a bit like in my comfort zone or is it and this is not in a bad way is it family that could pull me away? But how can I then balance that so I don't just go all in with this and then I don't have a family in a year's time.
Dom Hind:It's finding that balance and working it out. How often do you look at your goals?
Shane Watsons:Oh yeah, like often. Well, I set where I want to go every 12 months and what the dream outcome looks like. Yeah. And then it's like what are the things that I need to do to get as close as I can to that? And again, these are the B factors that could come in your way. There might be some negative Bs that just hit hard and it means you get nowhere near that goal that you set. But there could be some positives that just fall on your lap and you shoot past those dream goals.
Dom Hind:Yeah, if you could wave a cricket bat and change how we teach people to handle pressure or failure, what's the first thing you'd smash?
Shane Watsons:It really is as simple as the one question that is so profound when you ask it to people and it's when is worrying about the results made the results better? So stop worrying about results. Worry about the things you are in control of, because as soon as people really deeply understand that, you can see that just that pressure is just removed immediately they go okay. Well, if I'm going to worry about something, I'm going to worry about the things I'm actually in control of and bringing the best that I possibly can, preparing for what the potential negative Bs that could get in the way. So when one arises, I can step through that a little bit easier without having a profound get in the way. So when one arises, I could step through that a little bit easier without having a profound impact on the result.
Speaker 2:But I just need to focus on the things that I'm actually in control of and I know it's a.
Shane Watsons:It's a cliche that's used in sport in general is like control the controllables. And look, my coach for the start of my career was John Buchanan, and that's the one thing that everyone used to take the piss out of, and I didn't deeply understand what he meant by it. So I controlled the controllables. Everyone was like come on, john, but it really is well, what am I in control of? And I need to take control of that, and if I do that, then I've given myself the best chance of getting the best results possible.
Dom Hind:And that's all I can ever ask of myself. So if the control, the controllables, were then coupled up with A times B, equals results, it actually gives you that context and I do think, like even in just general life we get so caught up in giving a shit about what other people think, where it is such a B factor that if you just focus on you and what you think and what you can control, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. Like that's it, that's all you need to do.
Shane Watsons:Simple, simple, well said. Yeah, it's exactly right.
Dom Hind:Okay, rapid fire. Oh here we go, go to barbecue meat.
Shane Watsons:Wagyu rum cup.
Dom Hind:Oh, okay, great.
Shane Watsons:Tips for it. It's slow, oh yeah, like slow with smoke and then a sear at the end.
Dom Hind:Make sure you get the temp right with your thermometer. Yeah, your thermometer.
Shane Watsons:Most elite athlete habit you still have.
Dom Hind:Desperate to be the best I can be. Good, secret junket, indulgence, golf, golf, yeah.
Shane Watsons:But that's not secret. Yeah, I do love golf, but also, on a junket, a cricket tour, yep, it's probably. I feel like it's taking the piss if you're there and playing golf when you're actually getting paid to either coach or play. So I'm very hesitant. I'll wait until I'm at home.
Dom Hind:Okay, so what is it then?
Shane Watsons:Yeah.
Dom Hind:What's the indulgent then?
Shane Watsons:Oh gosh. To be honest, going out to dinner every night, yeah, especially if there's some amazing restaurants around.
Dom Hind:Oh, yeah, okay, time to take yeah.
Shane Watsons:Your midlife mood in one word Excitement.
Dom Hind:Why?
Shane Watsons:Because I feel so lucky to have gained the knowledge and insight that I have at the age of 44. Now to be able to then make the most of that knowledge that I have, but also then my network and connections, to be able to really try and make a difference. Good, it makes me jump out of bed.
Dom Hind:Yeah and yeah. Mindset is just. It's such we know we've got to do it, but it's just so untapped because making it simple or trying to understand it, it's hard, and that's the thing.
Shane Watsons:I've got a few things that I don't. They're still like semi in the pipeline, they're like towards the top of the pipeline, but there's some things, because it is so untapped that there's some things that it's opportunities that wouldn't have been there if it wasn't untapped.
Dom Hind:Yeah. So, that's good. Can't wait to hear about that. If your mindset had a theme song right now, what would it be?
Shane Watsons:There's actually a Luke Combs song from his most recent album that he released. It's around like being a parent and being proud of who they turn out to be. Whichever direction you go, whether you want to be like he talks about being a musician, or whether you just want to do and go fishing or do something else, something you really love it's like I'm proud of who you want to be. So I'd say that's probably where I'm at right now as a parent.
Dom Hind:Amazing Okay, good.
Shane Watsons:So it's going to be a country song.
Dom Hind:Always going to be. What's one truth about mindset reinvention or life after being in the public eye that more people need to hear and actually believe?
Shane Watsons:Understanding what the best version of you looks like.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so then you best version of you looks like yeah.
Shane Watsons:So then you know which version you're chasing every time you go out to perform. We're talking about body language before. Yeah, yeah. And I think about, like if I really understood I didn't understand that, through like a huge part of my career, for me to be at my best, my body language and my thoughts, which then turned into body language, would have been so different to what they were which meant that I was so desperate to perform and get the best results I possibly could, but what I was doing was pulling myself in the opposite direction to actually me being at my very, very best.
Shane Watsons:So, by deeply defining, you're the best version of you. Yeah, then you know, like you really know which version you're chasing so then, when you start to go the other way, you just catch it and go nah, this I really want to perform my best, so I have to be this.
Dom Hind:I think that's a great thing. I don't think many people know what the even just every day. What is the best version of yourself? Exactly, and not yelling at your kids. It's's the you know, having fun, it's the exercise and being fit Like I think so many more people need to define that. Yep and it's not a big thing. It's just what are the behaviors, what are the actions, what are the way you think? Yep, how can you actually be that best version of yourself?
Shane Watsons:That's right. Uh, as a in my pursuits, with my career. What does that version of me look like? Um, as a, as a friend, like as a partner. What does that best version of me look like? And we're human beings. We're not going to be perfect, we're certainly not going to be at our best all the time, but by defining it, then you know what you're chasing and then you know how to what you're critiquing after a bad performance. Yeah, that's going to happen.
Dom Hind:I love a reflection Like I just think it's so good because you just go oh shit, I should have done that so differently, or I'm glad I did, or handled it like that, yeah, and sometimes it takes a few times where you go.
Shane Watsons:I've got to critique that better because I've done it again.
Dom Hind:Yeah, what was the figure that got me to that point? Who said what? Yeah. Um final question Okay, what's he? This has been a half sports doco. You've done well, Dom.
Dom Hind:Half mindset masterclass and a little bit of a barbecue band to put in. But before we wrap, what's one thing that you dare me to push me out of my comfort zone? Or, for everyone that's listening, that before I turned 50, which is still in two and a bit years something that gets me out of autopilot and pushes me, gets me out of my comfort zone that I should be trying.
Shane Watsons:Look, I'm not going to say try and cook a 12-hour brisket.
Dom Hind:Yeah, because that's not going to happen, like no way, that's what you're there for, but this is not.
Shane Watsons:Yeah, I've got a couple of spare. This is not really pushing yourself out of the comfort zone, but one of the most amazing things that I'm not sure if you have done this yet with Justin and the kids. One of the most special things that I've done in my life, to be honest, was I went out to Uluru. Yeah right. And have you been to Uluru? No.
Dom Hind:Hallie wants to do it for her 13th birthday.
Shane Watsons:And have you been to Uluru? No, hallie wants to do it for her 13th birthday, so I went out there a couple of years ago and I only took Will because of the opportunity that I had to go out there. Yeah. And it was as a very proud Australian. It was one of the most incredible experiences I've had in my life. Yeah, Wow.
Shane Watsons:It was the, and the experience we had as well was a real, like cultural experience around the elders of the Uluru. Elders, yes, I always thought the Uluru was just the name of the rock. Yeah, as rock yeah.
Shane Watsons:I just thought it was that. But, it's actually and look, I stand to be corrected if I get this slightly wrong, so please for the people listening, but this is what I took away from it is the Uluru is actually the mob, the family of that's their area. So one of the elders who was there was Uluru. That was his like. That was his like, his last name. Yeah, right.
Shane Watsons:So it was one of the most special experiences as an Australian and really starting to deeply understand the history of the lands that we were so fortunate to live. Yeah. And having Will there as well. He was. I think he was 10 at the time. I was 42 at the time when I went out there, so I had 42 years of not deeply understanding how lucky we are and how special our First Peoples of Australia are. It was.
Shane Watsons:Yeah, okay, all right, I like that one An amazing experience, and I'm going to be taking lee and matilda out there as well to experience it, because it's yeah, it was a yeah one of the most special moments of my, of my life okay, all right, that's, I like that one so sort out of your comfort zone. You can maybe camp under the stars or something get jazzy yeah yeah let's be honest.
Dom Hind:Okay, all right, watsi, thank you for sharing your journey, your honesty, your passion for helping people master their mindset, because I do think it is a skill we are not taught and we need to know more about.
Dom Hind:Even after having learnt so much about it, I still need the reminder that what's your best version of yourself, like all of those things, and even just getting caught up on the B factors, because I think we spend so much time on those B factors when we really just need to be focused on the stuff that we can control and think about it properly so that we can put our best into those factors that we can control, and I feel like we've only just scratched the surface of what's possible when we start training our mindset and also the same way with our bodies, and even just thinking that we need to train our mindset in the same way that we do train our bodies, because we haven't put the same time, effort and preference into doing it in tandem.
Dom Hind:The one thing I haven't mentioned before now is a massive thank you again for sending the note to my pop just before the cast, because you know it meant the world to me and my family and it's so funny. I still, when I go down to see Nan, which I do all the time she always asks about you and I'm like, oh, can we just get over him? Like seriously, but it's not only him, it's also the doctor. So because the doctor was showing the video from you, saying you know, you know such an amazing message. So thank you again for being amazing. And if you do want to learn about anything more about Beyond, about Mindset, around Beyond Performance, I'll put all the links in the show notes, and I'm sure there are some interesting announcements that are coming up soon. Yep, I'll put them in there too.
Shane Watsons:Yeah, they're back into the pipeline.
Dom Hind:They're just your best version of yourself. Yeah, and if you have enjoyed this episode, hit, subscribe, share it with anyone who is into sport, who has kids to try and get their mindsets right, or just anyone. And before you go I do think the you know try this before you're 50, going to Uluru like that is an amazing thing to try and do. So, yes, it's on our list for two years' time when Hallie turns 13. Give it a go. So get your mindset in shift or in that whole learning and adaptive mode. And if you want to connect, just make sure you do, because, fuck, I'm nearly 50 and isn't it amazing? Woo-hoo, yes, I do.