The Good Intentions Podcast
Good Intentions connects with experts and storytellers around social impact, psychology, mindfulness, personal growth, and health.
Each conversation unpacks the beliefs and rituals that drive and ground each guest. You will hear about achievements that go beyond the conventional and tangible to a deeper level, finding the meaning and intention behind what we do.
I believe that there is a deep longing in our culture and society for something more: something higher, something deeper. Material possessions and technology do not satisfy our souls. As human beings we long for connection.
I'm on a mission to spread positivity, drive connectivity and to inspire others to live a more meaningful life.
The Good Intentions Podcast
Ep 17 - Achieving the Ultra Mindset - Marcus Smith
Marcus Smith is a phenomenon..I’d go as far as to say he’s almost superhuman!
He’s an extreme athlete who ran 30 marathons in 30 days and he did this just 9 months after being hit by a truck when he was out cycling. I told you - he’s superhuman!
Marcus has an Ultra mindset - and he’s full of great advice for how people can live their best lives and end every day better than they were yesterday.
If you’ve been feeling a bit flat lately (and I don’t mind admitting that I have) then this episode is for you.
We talked about grit, determination, not giving up, even when things seem hopeless and his energy and desire to grab life by the neck each and every day was just the boost I needed.
Marcus has a mantra: Work hard, have fun, be mentally strong. isn’t that what we all need right now? Buckle up and get ready for a truly energising, brilliant conversation.
Follow me, and the Good Intentions podcast:
https://www.instagram.com/kellyharvarde/
Find Marcus Smith here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusjdsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/mjd_smith/
Immerse yourself in some of the books we discussed:
Legacy - James Kerr
https://magrudy.com/book/legacy-15-lessons-in-leadership-what-the-all-blacks-can-teach-us-about-the-business-of-life-9781472103536/
Finding my Virginity - Richard Branson
https://magrudy.com/book/finding-my-virginity-the-new-autobiography-9780753556139/
Welcome to good intentions, the podcast where we explore the world around us to find meaning and intention in what we do. I'm Kelly Harvard, and I'm on a mission to spread positive stories that will inspire you to live a more meaningful and connected life.
Speaker 2:Smith is a phenomenon. I'd go. As far as to say, he's almost superhuman. He's an extreme athlete who run 30 marathons in 30 days. And he did this just nine months after being hit by a truck. When he was out cycling. I told you he's superhuman. Marcus has an ultra mindset and he's full of great advice for how people can live their best lives and everyday better than they were yesterday. If you've been feeling a bit flat lately, and I don't mind missing that I have, then this episode is for you. We talked about grit, determination, not giving up, even when things seem hopeless and his energy and his desire to grab life by the neck each and every day was just the boost that I needed. Marcus has a mantra, work hard, have fun, be mentally strong. Isn't that what we all need right now, buckle up and get ready for a truly energizing, brilliant conversation.
Speaker 3:Thanks so much for joining me this morning, Marcus. It's great morning. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to talk Kelly, somebody from like the sporting world, and I've been wanting to do this for ages. So this is fantastic. Absolutely why I started my podcast just out of absolute sort of selfishness. I just wanted to ask people questions for my own benefit. And then I realized it got a little bit that I think a lot of people start that way. It works. Right? Why do people come to you for coaching? What's their motivation? You know, when they come, do you see a similar pattern with people? What's the reason I guess, to sort of create a little context around it. I sort of started coaching probably about 15 to 20 years ago where I guess people came. I think as human beings, we gravitate towards people that we see similarities, or we see a quality that we want for ourselves. So people just sort of started asking me, you know, I've got this goal. Can you help me? And I've done a couple of things and obviously I've sort of played professional rugby and stuff. So from a sports background, people saw some qualities and I was always, again, it was a little bit selfish. I was always just intrigued. People would come and I'd be super open. I have no clue about your goal, but I'm willing to learn. And are you ready to do this together? And I think that resonated with a lot of my early clients. And I just remember one female client coming to me and she was going to run an ultra marathon. And I really had no idea what they were, um, which is quite ironic festival at 15 years or so. I hadn't told her, I said, I don't know anything, but I'm willing to learn and I'm willing to go on this journey with you. So that's really of how it started. And you know, people come for all different things. Now, Kelly, it's, it's quite interesting. Like some days the phone rings and friend will be like, I got a call the other day and I've got a client in Ireland and he said, can you speak to my friend in Ireland? He's just gone through X, Y, and Zed. And I'm like, wow, this is so different from what I set out. But the principles are the same, that humans need connection. And so much of what we do is so transferrable. So that's kind of how it all started and it keeps it very like everyone thinks working with like top CEOs and top athletes is like, I dunno, the pinnacle, the cream of the crop. And, but actually I've had some of the best times with just, I feel it's almost insulting to them, but just like normal people that just want to live at a lives. And, and to me that's really exciting, you know, just the guy in the street that just wants to get better and I'm like, yeah, I can help you. So yeah, that's kind of how it all sort of pieces together. It's interesting. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's interesting. I've run sort of slowly and not as frequently as I could or should, but, um, I use the Nike training app and coach Bennett. Who's the global trainer for Nike. He says that it's about just trying to be investor version of yourself every day. And I think that's great for like the person on the street. Right. You know, we're not all going to be like leading a multinational company or like coming up from flying the world's next Tesla it's, you know, half an normal person.
Speaker 3:And I think that's important. Like we massively, and I know this has been spoken about by a lot of people. So, but you know, we massively compare ourselves to others through the way that we communicate these days, which is obviously a lot of social media. And, you know, we look at a snapshot of someone's life. That's touched up to the 10th degree or whatever you'd say. And we compare ourselves to that. And I think a lot of people, we need to dial it back a little bit and just go, am I living a great life? Like, you know, I could have been something totally different. I spent a lot of time in Addie DAS as a sales director and, you know, I could have gone higher, you know, and continued to climb that and worked all around the world for a big multinational like that. And I was just like, Oh, you know, and, and that would have been, I'll be honest, Kelly, when it comes financially, that would have probably been a lot more lucrative. I wouldn't have had loads of money, but no time to enjoy it. You just have to figure out what makes us happy within and then go and do more of that. And I think it's super important. I think it's really lost these days as well, which is a little bit sad.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I feel that as well. I mean, I sometimes struggle myself with it. I see other people around me, you know, it's like, we're kind of on this treadmill right. Of, you know, no pun intended of, you know, you've got to work to get the money, to buy the things, and then you got the things and then you just work a bit more. And then it's like, okay, well give each point like, is this really fulfilling me? And I wonder if that's why the point that some people sort of get to when they come to you for training, is that sort of, part of that thought process?
Speaker 3:You know, I worked with a lot of people that are sort of at the top of the corporate ladder as well, and it's totally true. And, and they sorta just crave, like, let's go for a run. And it's these tools that obviously, because I come from, you know, we come at it from the fitness side, it's these tools that are just so almost like undervalued these days, like, you know, saying to someone, just go and have a walk on the beach, like they'll just look at you and go, you know,
Speaker 2:It's human performance.
Speaker 3:We are complicated. We really are. But a lot of the things are super basic. And someone asked me for a challenge the other day, and I was like, I'll challenge you to drink 500 mils of water every day. When you wake up for the next, they wanted a hundred day challenge and you look at it and you think about it. And you're like, well, that's easy. It's just a glass of water. Try it. So it's such basic stuff. But these things that walk on the beach, these basic habits lead to great things in people and fulfillment as well. It really is. And we've seen this a lot over the last year. Obviously, you know, like people are losing their mind, then I'll give you the bad news. It's only going to get worse. Like, yeah, we've just started suffering because there's a couple of different things going on here with, with the actual human body. And, and one of them is our response to stress. It's all fight or flight system, and we're having to respond we're in this fight or flight state the whole time. You're literally picking up your phone for want of a better word, crapping yourself that, you know, Trump's done something stupid. All my in the UK is just doesn't know what's going on. And then he hands over the Hancock and, and then condos, what happens, you know? So we constantly in this period of stress. And so picking up your phone, which we have to do is causing our cortisol to shoot through the roof. And we're in this heightened state the whole time, you know, and then people are saying it's okay, let's not make the whole talk about COVID, but it's, you know, it's okay. The vaccines coming it's okay. It'll be summer soon. It's okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah. You're always delighting and yeah. Yeah, I'll be, yeah,
Speaker 3:Exactly. Mate. So anyway, that's a little bit of a
Speaker 2:No, no, I think covering COVID is important. It's shaping so much of how we live at the moment and our thought processes.
Speaker 3:That's, what's interesting as well, when it comes to performance setting goals, whether they're physical goals or career goals, it's like, how do you do it in such an uncertain environment? And that's where a lot of this stuff, I believe it comes back to this basics of what I was saying that walk on the beach and stuff. It's like, how can one take care of oneself in the very best way to create this amazing inner peace if you want, which sounds a little bit deep. And when I stopped thinking about this stuff, people were like, this doesn't fit with this guy, but I think it actually, it all fits really well. It's like, what can you do to create peace within yourself? And I read a pretty cool, I don't know if people subscribe to Seth Godin, he sends an email out every day.
Speaker 2:I saw that you posted that yesterday. It looked fascinating. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly. And, and we always say in one of my mates, always like we read them every day. I read like, like he goes through these purple patches of like two or three days and it's like, bang, I've got three days is not very injured. And what are we prioritizing? How, and, and the example you used was great. Like checking the windows and the doors before you go to bed at night. And it's like, we know, okay, I'm just going to put my phone down, but let me check Instagram, let me check this. And it's like, it's going to be there later on your email, whether you get through it at nine or six in the morning, it's going to be there at nine. So what are you doing? And six that protects and develops your inner being and really helps you to cope with what's going on, brings your cortisol down and puts you in this really nice state. If you want to live your life in a proactive way, rather than reacting because of what's happening. And, you know, I was talking to someone about this the other day. Just think about the number of WhatsApps that you get in a day or the number of emails that you get, that you just have to react to. They're not proactive. They're just so we're spending our life reacting to other people's sometimes problems instead of sort of living and going. This is what I want to do. And this is my time. And this is for me. And it is where like a lot of people would be like, eh, but I have to do that because of work. And, you know, I've coached a lot of sort of people on a corporate level. So we say, and you don't have to do that because of work. But like you say, we get stuck on this treadmill on this, on this rat race, almost that have to do this, do that, have to do this, do that, have to do this, do that. And it becomes totally. Did you want to do any of that? And they are difficult conversations, Kelly and that's, I think that's one of the biggest things is, you know, it's never the right time, you know, to, to talk about money with your partner or to just sit down with one of your kids and go listen, my, but we need to be having, like, I think we need to be having almost conversations like this, you know, that are okay. We're, we're recording a show. It's something for someone it's great and stuff, but like just questioning different parts of, of how we behave or call it humanity, just try. And it's gotta be a little bit deeper than, Oh yeah. It's foggy here this morning in Dubai.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree. I agree. And I think to your point about sort of how we can of manage and find inner peace, I've been kind of really a bit disappointed, you know, the whole COVID and the media and the messages around it. And look, don't get me wrong. I'm wearing a mask. I'm sanitizing, I'm social distancing, but why are the messages about, you know, move your body, do some exercise, take responsibility for your personal health, your mental health, your physical health, you know, it's like, I know I'm not a coach like you, but it's like my personal view is I, you know, I'm trying to do all those things. Me and my husband are like, okay, so are we going to eat more healthily? What we're going to try and do this, this, this it's like, okay, I'll just go and get the vaccine. Don't worry about like getting off smoking or losing weight or using my health later. It's got the vaccine and the vaccine will fix everything. And don't let me where the vaccine is really behind all these things. But I just think the messaging is kind of outside rather than inside when there's still a lot of that.
Speaker 3:Isn't that the way that we're going as humans though, because we have an ability to get immediate gratification in a number of different ways that we're all the ways that you just spoke, that we perhaps should be addressing this or the hard ways. And we're not going down the hard ways I was listening to one really geeky podcast and half of the add-on understand, trust me, I bet there's a stat. If we really addressed research within heart disease and obesity and put a lot of effort and energy into that, we actually reduced deaths on the world by like 20%.
Speaker 2:Wow. Yeah. I can imagine
Speaker 3:Talking about a tablet that you take that blocks something in the gut that does, you know, it's hard, it's hard to wake up every morning, have that moment on your own, make a decision, you know, 3000 decisions a day about food when it's pumped in your face, you drive down the beach road. And it's just like, uh, you know, I often try and describe demeanor a beach road to people with a number of burger joints and the number of adverts advertising. It's hard to make those decisions because we're forced marketing wise. And with tech now immediate gratification, which human beings like we like immediate gratification. We're incredibly resilient. We're currently adaptive, but we're also super smart. And we like to go the shortcut you're right. Like, yeah, the vaccine's great. Super good. But what about all the other things as well? And that's one thing that Boris did pretty well in the first lockdown. Wasn't it? He was like, you must go outside every day for 30 minutes.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. I'd forgotten that. So when it comes to coaching, I mean, like you've got a pretty good CV. If someone comes to you, I mean, you ran 30 marathons in 30 days. Why Marcus? Why, how Tesla street, this is like completely unbelievable. So what prompted you to do this crazy feat? This incredible feat.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much. That's very kind. It's uh, yeah, it was crazy. I don't know. It's still, it's still ha honestly, it still hasn't really sunken in what happened in that year, but it's quite incredible because where it started was this day that we're we're recording. This is was three years ago when I had quite a bad crash on my bike. Um, which left me basically fighting for my life
Speaker 2:Is that there I'm all, was it
Speaker 3:There in Dubai? It was between, uh, Shazia and Calvin in the mountains. And that's why it was pretty complicated. And I ended up, they took like three hours to get to Kalba hospital. And I was in ICU there for a couple of days before I was transferred to Dubai. And when that happened, I was training, trying to set a world record in ultra cycling, which are about a thousand kilometer races, nonstop races. Yeah. I nearly lost my life. I got hit by a truck. I hit a wall and broke all of the left side of my body and which is fine. Bones are fine, but I punctured my left lung, which makes breathing really challenging. And especially cause I was three hours to hospital.
Speaker 2:My husband brought as much of my house in caliber on a Friday. And sometimes I'm left people crash. He's familiar with the hospital. It's not no offense, but it's not the height of, you know, where you would wish to be taken in a serious.
Speaker 3:They literally saved my life though. I'm sat there. And when I got released from ICU and there's, there's a whole story is actually a documentary. Uh, one of my friends made a documentary about it, but I'm sat there. I get released from ICU and I just sat and I thought to myself, I was like, well, if I can't ride my bike, I hopefully can still run. And I haven't moved from my hospital bed for four days. Like I haven't walked yet. And I sort of, I got on my phone and the ultra community and extreme sport community, like is a bit weird. People just send funny articles on, not funny, funny, but like things that people have done. And one of my friends I remembered a few weeks ago had sent me a, an article about a route in Corsica, which is 195 kilometers crossing the Island of Corsica, which Costco's a small Island South of France, West of Italy. And it's has zero flat in it. It was one and a half times the height of Everest. So you basically going up, down, up, down, up, down. And I sent it to one of my friends from my hospital bed. I'm like in summer, we're going to run across Corsica and he's like, mate, you haven't gotten out of the
Speaker 2:Bed yet. Yeah. Just like
Speaker 3:Just relax. But the way that my mind works and not have to be honest lo you know, getting out of bed and all those small steps were huge. And, and I learned a lot through that. I needed like this big goal. And so the focus changed from cycling to running and I'd run a lot when I was a kid and my family had run a lot. Absolutely loved it. And sorta started ultra running in about 2013. So, you know, I knew what I was in for. It's not like I suddenly started running. And as I do when I've sort of heading to a challenge, um, Holly, I'll just say it too. Like, I'm just all in, like, everything I do is about it. I'm reading books, articles, you know, I'm just constantly thinking about it. And that's what I love about these goals is because the process is just like, it's addictive. It's like, I'm worse than the stereotypical female shopper. When it comes to these events, I'm worse. I'm like geeking out on websites. What does this do? How does that, you know, and then I'll be getting packages. Holly's like, what are you
Speaker 2:Testing, testing?
Speaker 3:And do you complain when I buy makeup? I'm like, yeah, but that's different. And of course it's all in Spanish. So I'm reading these books and I pick up one book by a guy called Dean Conesys and he brought on 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 States. And I was like, yeah, it was like, wow, this is really interesting. And sort of, I think I audio book tit, and one thing that jumped out at me was like that in each state, he tried to tap into local communities. So schools, charities, and he had people running with him
Speaker 2:Probably nine,
Speaker 3:Really, really cool. And I thought, well, Dubai has the 30, 30 challenge every November. And I'd done a little bit of work with the guys that organize it sort of in previous years. And I just thought, I wonder if I could do that. I wonder if I could run the math and every day for 30 days. And I wonder how it would go. And I wonder if I could do what he did in America, because he had such a big impact. But if I did it in a small city, we could really do something good. And you know, I've, I've lived in Dubai since 1983. So it's kind of like my home, you know, and I was like, this initiative is really good. And the leadership of the country is massively behind it. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's nice. You see, everybody gets involved right. Old, young, every, it is incredible. That really is so beautiful. Everyone gets really great.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I get the number of the guy that's sort of in charge of it and we get on the phone and I can just, I'm glad it wasn't a zoom call because I can just imagine he's just on the phone going. Wow. Yeah. I said it was sort of brought my ID sales days back and I was like, listen, don't give me an answer right now.
Speaker 2:I'll come back to you.
Speaker 3:No, no looking back at it now, it's like the most tacky sales pitch ever. Well, I went away and we actually went to Costa Rica and we ran across Corsica and I came back and meanwhile, he watch something or something on YouTube or Netflix, which was quite similar. So he'd literally gone from mate, what you're talking about to, yeah. I can see how this will work. And I was like, what? You know? And because it was part of something, you know, part of 30, 30, which is organized by Dubai tourism. I sorta got home from this and he said, come in and have a meeting. And I got home and I said to Holly, I said, I've been with the guys from 30 30. And she could tell I was a bit nervous. And she said, what happened? And I said, we're going to do it. And she was like, It's literally like, this is actually going to happen.
Speaker 2:And what time of year was it that it was confirmed before November
Speaker 3:The sort of typical divide that it was quite last minute, um,
Speaker 2:Physically ready to run this marathon. So did you then have to switch into like ultra training?
Speaker 3:Well, it kind of happened. It was due to start on the 25th or 26th of October and they sort of confirmed it in about July. So I basically had two or three months, but because I'd done all this running into Corsica from my recovery, from my accident into Corsica, I just had to step things up. And it's amazing how life goes because in September we had to go back to the UK because Holly was having knee surgery. And so we're in the UK for three weeks, which was just like so incredible because I could run in good temperatures.
Speaker 2:You had the worst possible timing in terms of training, 50 degree, 90 degree humid to say my God,
Speaker 3:But it was beautiful because Holly was having this knee surgery, which was like, yeah, I probably shouldn't have been out for four hours every day, but the school would stuff and that's all good. Somehow I got to do all this running in the UK. So I'd done a lot of running. He, uh, August, it was hot as hell, awful. Couldn't run for long and then got this great training in. And then we started in October and I knew I could do it, but there were some questions like, how's your body going to react? You know, 42 kilometers every single day is,
Speaker 2:Gosh, I think I'm doing one. If I do five, like three times a week.
Speaker 3:And then because we'd activated so many schools. So
Speaker 4:During the week I generally finished of the five days during the week, I'd finished four of the days at schools, which was amazing. They were so kind to me, they welcomed me, we'd run around the school together and were able to inspire lots of kids. And, but I was treated so, so nicely by everyone, it was really cool. And you know, so I'd be like, okay, what about week four? When I have to go to that school on that day? And this was a massive learning me. And that's why when I talk about sort of COVID times that we're in now, I wouldn't say I had a break down two weeks before it was going to stop, but I came to a point where there was something not sitting right in my gut. And I'm massive on gut feelings. Like, it's just, if it sits right here, we're all good. Like people say, what's your decision making process. And like, it feels good here. We're going to do it. And I'm literally, people will give me an idea. I'm like, yes or no. Like sometimes Holly's like, why don't you think about things a bit long? I'm like, no, I'll feel it. And then, then I'll go into it anyway. This strong. Sometimes it's not right though. So two weeks out, I'm like, Oh, something doesn't feel right here. And I call one of my, sort of my, one of my mentors and had a long chat and long story short. When I got on the phone, I told them all, I'm running 30 math things in 30 days. And as all good mentors and listeners, do you just ask questions, ask questions, listen, and ask more questions. And 15 minutes later he turned around and he said, just tell me what you're going to do. And I'm like, have you not been listening? I'm like, man, I told you, I'm going to run one marathon for 30 days. And he's like, exactly. And I was like, wait, I told you that he goes, no, you didn't. He said, I thought you said 30 in 30 days. And now you're saying one math and 30 times. And it was just like a light bulb moment. I was like, Oh my God. He goes, see how simple it is. And it goes back to what we were saying earlier. Like, it's the low lying fruit. It's so simple. I've got in my mind, 30, 30, 30, 30. And you know, and I'm worried about the school on week four. And it's just like, it doesn't matter. You know, that's not important right now. What's important right now is what's happening right now. You know, this conversation that we're having right now is where I'm at. And I started to think about it and I'm like, that's exactly what I learned in my crash. I'm like, we have to stop worrying about what's coming. We have to stop living where we were. We have to understand those great times and reflection on I'm huge on, but right now is where life is. And I was like, wow, that's just an every day. Like the guys would have the schools listed out and I would plan a route. I plan it the day before I'd finished, today's run, come home, eat whatever, blah, blah, blah, get on my laptop and then plan the route for tomorrow. And I did that for 30 days and it's kind of almost against my personality because I'm quite sort of structured and OCD. And on this day it should be this. And on that day it should be that. And I'm just like, wow, if we can just live in the moment I can get through this. And that's really how I got through the marathons. I think I just wake up every morning, just get by and just go for a run and not worry about tomorrow. There were really tough days.
Speaker 2:Well, I wanted to ask you, I mean, not, not just about the mountains, but also just in general, like you're in a human, right. You must have days where you wake up and think, nah, I can't do this. I mean, it's just natural in what we do. I mean, how do you overcome that? What do you do on days like that? Are you just like, so well-trained now, you know, Tony Robbins is like, I don't negotiate with myself. I thought I was strong that you can just push through that. Or do you sometimes have to coach yourself to do it?
Speaker 4:I think the answer is both. I'd love to sit here and say, yeah, I'm so strong and I can do it.
Speaker 2:Tony Robbins is great, but I'm like, come on, just tell me, don't do it. And tell me that one day you got the Cheetos out and you're like, okay, I'm just not.
Speaker 4:I talk to people a lot about this. And I'd like to say that most of the time, I'm extremely excited to wake up and do stuff. And this sounds like I'm in like a 12 year old kid, but like so many days I'm excited to go to bed because I'm so excited about what I'm doing tomorrow. And I genuinely am. And I know that contradicts slightly what I was saying earlier about living in the moment, but I can't wait to get up tomorrow. Like I was genuinely super excited this morning. 6:00 AM all of our team. Everyone's on zoom. We're riding our turbos at home. I couldn't wait to get up. And I think if you are having motivational issues around waking up, I think you have the question, like, why are you not excited about what you're going to do that day? And that really is the starting point. Now I run two of my own businesses. I have to sit with my accountants. I hate that stuff. Like it's not, I'm not always fired up for it. And I think there's a sort of acceptance that we're not going to love absolutely everything. I hate admin, like emails. Like I don't want email in my life. You know what I mean? But it's almost like you have to train hard if you want to compete at a top level, no matter what you are, no matter if you're running 5k or math and it doesn't matter, you have to push your body a little bit. And those days, the days that talking about the tough days, you just have to know that that's part of the process. And if your goal, which is doesn't have to be a big goal, it could be just a goal for that day. And your purpose is so clear and defined. You wake up and this is what everyone should do. Or does you wake up, go to the bathroom, empty your bladder. You should always do that first thing in the morning. And you look in front of the mirror and you brush your teeth and you should all do this as well. Just look at yourself, look straight into your eyes. And then you make a decision. And I know that sounds a little bit like, uh, come on, motivational guy, just calm down. But if you do that, you don't you're right, mate. Some mornings I wake up and my body hurts. Like it hurts a lot and we've had tough times. They shut my business six months, no income employee issues, cashflow issues. You know, we moved our whole gym during the pandemic, took on a whole new investment, more capital expenditure. I woke up some days and I looked and I was like, this is going to be tough, mate. You're going to need your special gifts, but what's
Speaker 2:What is the alternative? What's the alternative?
Speaker 4:What do you want to do? Do you just want to go and lay down and give up? And that's not really my nature. Like, I don't really want some, I'm going to do something. I'm almost going to do it. And I think that's something that really links back to the goal and how important that goal is for you and, and how that goal resonates. And whether that goal has been set by what we're talking about earlier by slant, you've seen on Instagram or by what you want in your heart. And that's a tough conversation. Like it's difficult to rip everything out of people. It's so hard because what we have to understand is that who we are is a product of our subconscious, which has been programmed for us over a number of years, good or bad, whether you've been told that something's bad by your parents or someone over and over and over that's what's happening in your subconscious. So we almost have to take the body and the mind, and we have to just open this whole thing up and it is painful. It's deep. And it can really almost mess with people's minds because it's like, you know, people will come and see me and they think they want bicep pills. But what I send them away with is a conversation to have with their partner. And they're like, what?
Speaker 2:But it's not about running. I've written
Speaker 4:A lot of articles about it. Like my running is not about running. It's something so much deeper. And my motivation is not about I'm feeling it today. Not feeling it today. It's something so much deeper. It's this ability and I've not got it, nailed Kelly. I want to help. And I'm trying to put it over in the best way that I know how, and it's this ability to have this incredible amount of self-awareness that is willing to address how I feel and what behavior causes me to feel that way and why I'm executing that behavior on a ongoing basis. Lots of people will wake up and go. I don't feel good today. And they'll go about their day. I'd wake up and I go, I'm not feeling good today. Why not? What happened? Is it because I didn't sleep? Is it because I don't know, I had a tough conversation with Holly. Is it because I was up all night, last night, thinking about how I pay my employees. At the end of the month, we have to start to connect the feeling with the behavior. And once we connect these two, if we start to make, take action against that behavior, then we impact that outcome and that feeling, and some people have already turned us off right now, mate. Some people are not listening anymore because they're like, Holy, this guy's speaking directly into my heart. And it hurts. And some people are sat there going, actually, that makes sense. And that's how you overcome it. No one wakes up every day, 10 out of 10, not every day, five days a week. And you can set goals. I have clients, they say, I set goals with them. We don't go to 10. We go one, two and three. One is I'm going to run through walls. Two is I feel pretty good. Three is I don't want this. And I get them to give me their score every day. But when they give me their school, even if it's a Wong, I can run through walls. Why? And it's normally, I've got few years of kind of experience on it. It's normally I slept super well. And I'm incredibly excited about what I'm going to do today. Interesting. So it's that combination of the physical, but also the mindset. Exactly. That's one thing that I think we need to be in tune with. We often go physical, mental, and we split these two components of the human being. But actually we're one being, this is all connected. Yes. There's the physical side and yes, there's the mental side, but we can't keep them apart. They live together. They're a couples sort of thing. And we have to, at times separate them and deal with them in an individual ways. But we have to bring it together and, and understand that we're actually one being and we have to look, it's like performance. We have to look holistically, you know, and that's why I'll send people away. Or, you know, if I see people are too stressed out and it doesn't do good for my business model because we're trying to get people in through the door at the gym, but I'll send some people away. So you're too tired to try my, I had it the other day, a client showed up the other day. I still train a few people. One-on-one because I love it. I learned so much and it's great fun. And you know, a guy came for a session and we just chatted for half an hour and I sent him home. You're not good to try. And today night, I'm not going to charge you just go home, you know, because you're just not in that right space. So yeah, it's very interesting how it all comes together. But I think if people are looking for real actionable points on that, it's like, wake up, ask yourself how I feel like scan your body, have a look in front of the mirror, look straight into your eyes. If you don't feel good, ask yourself why, and then make a commitment to trying to figure it out during that day. Because I don't really think you've got many days to waste. And I don't want that to sound too, sort of horrible, but you're going to look back on. You might be looking back now. I mean, I'm 42 and I look back, I reflect on stuff and I would just hate to feel that, you know, I spent the last 12 months on build up in my house and I just wasted it. You know, a lot of people are saying, Oh, it's just been a waste. I'm like, how's it been a waste? It's been the most incredible time ever. You're never going to get a time like this again. Is it ideal? Does it enable me to take all my travel and adventure boxes, but that's okay. Nature's going to be there soon for me, you know, but I've been able to do other stuff this year. I've done more podcasts this year. I've done more online talks this year. I've been able to have more good conversations with people. I've written a lot.
Speaker 2:Well, it's a pivot. It wasn't what we thought it would be. But this is all about acceptance and acceptance and you know, kind of like being able to just not fight it that much. It is what it is and how can we accept and adapt to it.
Speaker 4:It's a really good point. And I do a talk called the ultra mindset. And one of the major points, or the first point is admitting that you have a problem. And if you look at it every second person, let's say there's a bit of a random stat, but there's a lot of people that are just in denial of the fact that there's a problem in a number of different areas of their life. It's okay. If your relationship is not going super well, that's okay. It's okay. If you gained a little bit of weight, it's okay. If you didn't go out running this morning, but don't say to me that your relationship is beautiful when it's not, don't tell me you're not putting on weight when your hand is in the bloody biscuit tin every day, you know, and don't say that you went out, don't just admit yeah, just be authentic and cool. You know, it's okay because, and this is where I bring it from, from my sort of adventure. So my challenges, if I keep saying to myself, there's not a problem, then I actually, we can get to a point where my life's at risk in extreme challenges and extreme scenarios. We're doing a challenge here in Dubai in a, at the end of July. And it was like 54 degrees. And we'd been out for about seven hours in it.
Speaker 2:I have an hours. How are you even alive?
Speaker 4:This is where it's interesting. We cycled 50 kilometers, we'd run 50 kilometers and we're on our last cycle. It was 50 50, and then 50 cycle. And we got about 10 kilometers into the last bike. And the only way I can try and put this into words is it was like, I had a hairdryer here, like right up in my face and my heart rate just shot through the roof. Now, if I don't admit in that scenario, that I've got a problem as it was, I was seeing stars. And it was weird. I mean, it was obvious what was going on, but we had to admit that as a problem, and a couple of the other guys that I was with were having the same issue. You can't continue on the same trap at the same speed. All of that. We had to sort of just gather and say, yeah, it's hot. There's a problem we admit. And then we're like, okay, you know, we stay relaxed and, and these are the different components is that, you know, just stay relapsed. We reject the fact that it's going to stop us from getting to the end. We're still going to get to the end. And then we just ask us a really simple question, which is what can I do now? What can I do now to make this a little bit better? And in that scenario, we had to slow right down, pour a load of water. One of the shelters came Raul Kadra here in Dubai. One of the shelters came up, we sat under it for like 10 minutes, just laughing at each other. But if we hadn't have pulled back in that scenario, one of us could have ended up in, in an ambulance. And, you know, that's something that I'm super sort of conscious of. I, I asked to put in my family through what I put in through from my accident. I, for me, I'm obviously for all of my clients, I'm going to take them to extreme scenarios, but their health and their safety is going to be number one. Because when I crashed, one of my friends had to call Holly and tell her that I was in an ambulance. You know, I think that must've been an awful thing for both of them. And I don't want to have to do that, but we need to go back to the point. We need to just, if something's not going cool, it's fine. It's really okay. Just admit that it's not going
Speaker 2:No. So it smells like you kind of, I mean, in that situation, I think maybe myself included, lot of people would have had a tendency to sort of go, Oh, well, it's a huge failure. That's it got the whole thing wasn't worth it. We're not going to complete complete it. It's like, how do you stop yourself? Kind of getting over that ledge and sort of being like, Oh, well it's all a complete waste of time.
Speaker 4:It's quite simple. When I got hit by the truck. And I think this is where it really comes from, and this is quite crazy. I'll pre-warn everyone. I got hit the truck driver walk towards me and I was in a lot of pain. But when I saw him come towards me, I saw through him,
Speaker 2:This is not, I'm telling you
Speaker 4:At that moment. All of my pain stopped. And I actually were sitting on the other side of the road in my mind. Wow. And I was, didn't hear any of the noise that was going on. They were shouting screaming. He's bleeding is there, sees that it was hand. I was on the other side of the road and I was in complete peace. I wasn't in any pain. And I just have this almost this moment. And I thought to myself, what's going to happen here. And it's almost like when people say you're in a crash in your life flashes before you mind didn't. But what happened was, I thought to myself, I'm actually, I really enjoy my life. I love my wife. I love my family. I love all the people I work with. I don't want that to end. And then I said to myself, well, what are you going to do? And there was only one thing I could do. And that's where the thought came out. I was like, I'll just fight for every single breath because I obviously knew I couldn't breathe. And once I said that, once I made that commitment, everything came back on. I was back on the other side of the road. I couldn't breathe. Blood was coming out of my mouth. There was noise. There was absolutely everything. And this weird mindset, I think that just says, I want it to live more than I want it to die. And whilst I hope no one goes through people will go through tragedy. I hope no one goes through what I went through, but in doing so, nothing was that hard and everything can be solved. And that's really the answer to the question is that we give up too easily. But when it something as powerful as life, I learned this amazing lesson that no, I want to continue. It was in Octa peace on the other side of the road, did my body leave my soul? I don't know. I'm not crazy about that. And some stuff you're going to have to come back to, you know, trying to keep this as, as border context for people as possible. You know, some stuff, it, it means to shutting the laptop, like the relaxed part of the ultra mindset. And this happens in races. Like if I'm overheating or I'm having a stomach issue from food or something, I might have to just go and sit under a tree for 10, 15 minutes. And all my competition runs straight by me, but I started out to do something and I'm going to do it unless it's going to threaten my safety or my life, or cause what I call bad pain is that, you know, I'm going to get an injury that is going to prolong and be an issue in my life. Like there's a certain amount of safety there. Then I'm just going to figure out a way to get through it. And if you think about it, Kelly, that's kind of what's happening right now for a lot of people, which we're kind of, we are, I don't like the word pivot, but we are kind of pivoting and we are kind of figuring out and I'll go back to what I said earlier as humans, we're incredibly adaptable. And if we want to be, we're incredibly resilient. Like my story is my story. There's people that have been one of my friends was, was in a coma for like three months. You know, they didn't move, didn't talk nothing for three months and he's alive because he chose to fight. And I don't want anyone to go through pain and go through her. So just trust me on my stories sort of thing. But why is it? And I think I know why it is. Why is it that giving up is an option for us? Why do we have that? And I think it goes back a lot too. We get way too much choice in the world. When think about our ancestors, when they set off to explore the world, they weren't thinking what if we don't get there? And I know it's funny comparison. Wasn't that different contexts. It's very different. But as humans are we the same humans, we've changed a lot. I'm getting it wrong, but we've got a lot of the same things. It's just the modern era somehow makes us have this option to give up. And it doesn't sit well with me. I'm like, Oh, that that's not why we were put here. And when you commit to doing something it's and I think of it from my childhood as well. You know, when we were younger and you know, mom and dad saying, you'll finish your dinner. It's the same thing. Yeah, it's laughable, isn't it. But it's the same thing. We've put your food on your there's no giving up. And I went to a boarding school in the North of England and you know, when I was nine and it was called and it was, and I didn't want says, like, what do you remember? And I just remember discipline discipline. And that's, that's kinda what it comes down to. So you are going to have tough days and we're going through some incredible times. We really are. But I think if there's just this, this drive and this desire to just keep going and stopping is not an option and we can't keep programming each other and children are our little Johnny. If you feel tired, mate, just sit down. No Johnny came running. You know what I mean? Some people are listening, God, this guy's a bit of a psychopath, but let's keep going and keep edging forward. And that's kind of how I, I really try and think about it. Like just have this desire to live every day. And that's where reflection really comes in strong. It's like, you know, every single night Holly and I sit down and we have dinner and we just, we don't watch TV. Like we just look at each other and the plate and some days Kelly, I'll be honest and it's not being a great day. There ain't much today. We talk about the day and I just hope that people look back on their day and go, yeah, that was a day. And although it wasn't perfect and not every day is, you know, some days, all I just talk about is just like Sunday, you just have to get stuff off your chest. Right. But it's like, we lived that day. And I think that's what we were really put here for. And we're all sort of traveling in different vehicles, whether we're on this beautiful corporate bus, which, you know, it's a nice bus. It's not for everyone. It's a beautiful boss. Whether we're driving this entrepreneur life, whether we're driving this family life, whether we're driving a few different buses, I don't know. You know, this journey is just beautiful because I really think that's what we were put here for. You know, I think we're put here to do amazing things. I mean, go back to what we're saying. Isabelle was on your show. And she rocks up in Dubai in the late sixties, the English donkeys going past her window, but this passion and this desire and this drive, whether it was children's toys, the literature, it's just like, it's so strong. Her purpose is so strong how old she is now. It's not, it's not my business to know, but there's no surprise that you can just feel this passion coming through in what she's done and she's lived. And it's amazing. And I think when you look at it, and one of the things that I used to love doing, and I think we did this as an exercise in English literature one day was, um, they used to give us the obituaries from the times. And it's a super powerful tool. When I used to read about these people, I didn't even know them and I'd be having goosebumps. And then they made us write our a
Speaker 2:Watching your own a battery. I've heard this as a tool before and how powerful it can be Muslim. I've never done it, but it is fantastic. Powerful.
Speaker 4:It really is. What's even more amazing is when I stood up in a company and in front of a sales team in a big corporate and said, this is what we're going to do. Guys look on their faces is like, but you know, this is a great tool. It's what I've been talking about, resonates with people. And you're like, okay, so how do I get moving? How do I get started? You need to know what you're all about. And you know, that's a great way of doing it because it is sort of like, it's your last day what's going through your mind. And again, this as we've through our whole conversation is that is a deep, deep exercise and you might laugh and you might cry and you might do them both at the same time, but you also might find out a little bit about yourself, you know, and you don't have to run 30 math in 30 days. You don't like, please don't do that. Everybody. It's not.
Speaker 2:Cause I don't think I'm going to be, but I mean, so much of what you've been saying is so inspirational and so helpful. I've I've loved it. Thank you. Before I let you go to carry on with your incredibly motivated and energized day, I love to ask people about books. You mentioned a book by Dean Kinesis earlier about that specific to marathon running. Is there anything else you recommend to people that is good in this space?
Speaker 4:Yeah. As a couple, I remember two books. I think there's too many books being recommended. And I have a page on my website and J D smith.com/books, which has every book that I've read for the last three or four years. And there's a lot there. I remember when I was younger, I read Richard Branson's first book losing my virginity. I thought it was amazing. And it's some of the things that I think we've spoken about today, come through in that is that there's just this passion to live. And also just be curious, take a risk.
Speaker 2:Yeah. His curiosity is amazing. I'm very inspired by curiosity. I recently read a Boba, I guess book, you know, Baba is the guy from Walt Disney. He hires people based on this. It's like, it's all about a curiosity.
Speaker 4:I think that's a great book. And I know it's been rewritten and he's obviously done other ones, but that was sort of the original law that comes out as my FA one of my favorites. And I think another book that I would mention is a book called legacy by a gentleman called James Turner, which is all about the old blacks and the New Zealand, all blacks rugby team and why they're the most successful sports team in history. And it looks through someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I think there's seven very distinctive behaviors. And when I read it, they all just really resonated with me because I think it's okay to have drive desire. All of those things that you need as a person. And this is vision and values. Your values are the rules you live your life by. And it links back to what you were saying about Tony Robbins. Non-negotiables, you're not going to press news. You'll get an all of these things. And the all blacks have basically it's evolved, but they've got a set of rules that they live by that James Kerr sort of put together based on watching what they do. And I think everyone needs their, their legacy, basically their rules for life. So that's a great legacy by James Kerr and losing my virginity by Richard Branson. Well, I'll put them in the show notes and I'll put your website there as well. So people can go in and see what I bet. It's a great lens. There's a lot on there for such a fascinating conversation. I feel super energized now. I'm not going to go and run a marathon, but I will go, Oh, that's good as well. There really good questions. And I appreciate you listening to me. So I, sometimes I talk a lot and jump around and stuff, but I get quite excited. As you can see, we're all about energy and understanding what drives people. And, um, it was great to get more insights into sort of what makes you into this super successful energize person. I love it. Thank you so much and well done for what you're doing with the show. And I hope it gets bigger and bigger and bigger. Thank you so much. Have a great day. Bye-bye
Speaker 1:Thanks so much for listening to the good intentions podcast. You can find links to issues and to books that were discussed in the show notes. And you can look for the podcast on Instagram. It's good intentions, UAE. Please do make sure you subscribe to the podcast. And if you enjoyed this conversation, I so appreciate a review on whatever platform you're using. It helps more people find out about the podcast. See you next time.