Jan. 16, 2026
#101 Corey Vaughn: His 1000 Day Quest to Find His Edge
After a short break after my 100th episode, the podcast is back with a returning guest. Corey Vaughn is here for his 4th episode. In 2024, we spoke both in the Spring and in the Fall as he shared his 1000 day plan to see how far he could take his water ski goals if he chose to really go for it. The plan culminated with the World Waterski Championship held in late August of 2025 in Italy.
Corey has been both brutally honest and deeply courageous in sharing his journey to uncover his full potential. As he said more than once, he wanted to find that edge. If you are someone who has wondered for yourself: what if?, this conversation is for you.
We do get to the “results” of his 1000 day plan in this conversation, and his season ended with an unexpected twist. We get into how he is handling that twist, and what happens next for him, which is really inspiring. And there is even more gold in this conversation as we explored the behind-the-scenes thoughts, feelings and beliefs that Corey navigated as he balanced multiples pressures: the declaration he made to go for it, his training, both mental and physical, his family obligations, his business running a vibrant ski school and even what it is to turn a passion into both a quest and a business.
Here’s what Corey has to say about himself: Sometimes I still pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming. I have been living my life’s dream since 2009, and it just keeps unfolding in surprising, fulfilling and exciting ways. From my daily activities at the Bum Pass Water Ski Club to my interactions with people all over the world, while coaching or skiing on the pro tour, I aim to stay rooted in the mission that animates my entire career: to spread, foster and promote the three things I hold dear - Peace, Love & Waterskiing.
I hope you enjoy this conversation with Corey Vaughn.
WEBVTT
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.320
Welcome to Creative spirits unleashed, where we talk about the dilemmas of balancing under pressure. And now here's your host, Lynn Carnes,
00:00:13.859 --> 00:01:12.421
Welcome to the Creative Spirits Unleashed podcast. I am Lynn Carnes, your host, after a short break following my 100th episode, the podcast is back with a returning guest. Corey Vaughn is here for his fourth episode in 2024 we spoke both in the spring and in the fall, as he shared his 1000 day plan to see how far he could take his water ski goals if he chose to really go for it, the plan culminated with the World Water Ski championships, which were held in late August of 2025 in Italy. Now, Corey has been both brutally honest and deeply courageous in sharing his journey to uncover his full potential. As he said more than once, he wanted to find that edge if you are someone who has wondered for yourself, what if this conversation is for you? We do get to the results of his 1000 day plan in this conversation, and his season ended with an unexpected twist.
00:01:08.430 --> 00:02:40.099
We get into how he's handling that twist and what happens next for him, which I found really inspiring, but there's even more gold in this conversation as we explored the behind the scenes, thoughts, feelings and beliefs that Corey navigated as he balanced multiple pressures, the declaration he made to go for it. His training, both mental and physical, his family obligations, his business, running a vibrant ski school, and even what it is to turn a passion into both a quest and a business. Here's what Corey has to say about himself. This is Corey speaking as I read sometimes I still pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming. I have been living my life's dream since 2009 and it just keeps unfolding in surprising, fulfilling and exciting ways, from my daily activities at the Bumpus Water Ski Club to my interactions with people all over the world while coaching or skiing on the pro tour, I aim to stay rooted in the mission that animates my entire career, to spread, foster and promote the three things I hold here, peace, love and water ski You. In fact, you can find Corey at his website, at peace, love and water skiing.com, so I hope you enjoy this conversation with Corey Vaughn, I know I did, and I will be listening to it more than once. Corey Vaughn, welcome back to the creative spirits unleashed podcast. For Is this the fourth time? I think, yeah.
00:02:40.099 --> 00:02:51.039
I mean, we can almost be losing count at this point, but honored to be back every time we every time we do this, I always walk away feeling lighter and clearer, and so I'm really excited. Thank you.
00:02:51.699 --> 00:03:04.620
Thank you. I do too. The podcast does something. There's something about being in this, in this kind of space, that just makes the rest of my day go better because I've gotten to have an amazing conversation, which I know this one will be.
00:03:05.699 --> 00:03:33.020
And as we were talking before I hit record, I realized that the opening question I want to ask you is, this is our fourth episode, but in the I think it was our second episode, and then we had a follow up in the third you made a declaration. You had 1000 day plan, and you did something that I often work with my clients about, which is making making bold declarations.
00:03:33.680 --> 00:04:10.800
Because there's something like a lot of times the great things we do words come first. And actually, even before the words come, thought comes. This is somehow how, in a metaphysical way, thought becomes, you know, thought creates energy and brings things into being. So you made a declaration. And so would you just describe, especially for anybody that's picking up this podcast for the first time, what was that declaration? And then let's explore, because we're on the other side of that 1000 day journey that you set out to do three years ago. Yeah.
00:04:10.800 --> 00:05:02.879
I mean, the essence of it was that I found myself, I guess, 37 years old, which, by pro athlete standards, is no spring chicken and and also a father. And I came off of a year of water skiing. That's my that's my athletics. Is water skiing where I feel like I didn't perform that well. I was kind of struggling with the management of time and energy, being a new dad, trying to compete, trying to run my business, and it all just felt scattered. And I thought about stepping away and saying, maybe this is time to hang it up and enjoy the other parts of life, but I couldn't quite square with that. And so instead, I formulated this idea that I would, you know, basically make.
00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:49.540
Push for three years and try to really the essence of it was to uncover my full potential and just unlock my best water skiing. I did tabulate some goals for myself in terms of, you know, like I wanted to win a pro event, and I wanted to run 41 off, and I wanted to get a medal at the World Championships and so on. So I had some kind of stated goals to chase, but the essence of it was I just felt that I'd been on this path my whole life, you know, and I've been progressing and trying and figuring out ways, technique, equipment, blah, blah. And I think really what, what struck me that year was every year prior to that, I could point to something to say, well, I improved in this area, or here's some better results, you know?
00:05:46.180 --> 00:06:15.420
So it spurred me on to say, Okay, there's hope that next year I can do better. That one year, I think it was 2022 I just looked across the summer season and I couldn't really find evidence of improvement. And that was kind of a slap in the face. It was like, well, that's the first time that that's happened where I can't really find any evidence that I made a stride this year. And you know, that's what gave me the pause to then reflect and come up with this plan.
00:06:17.279 --> 00:06:45.100
So it's interesting because you said something so important, which was, I want to unlock my full potential. And there's something about going for things that we we want to get the thing like you had some specific goals, including podium, being on the podium and so forth at Worlds. But mostly it was like, to see what you're made of. Exactly.
00:06:45.100 --> 00:08:03.240
Yeah, I feel, I felt like, you know, one of those things, like, you're gonna shoot for the stars. And then if those particulars that I came up with, if they don't work out, because you can't control that, all you can do is, is try your best. But if I say, like, you know, one time is running out. Like there is an age factor at play here, and there is the rest of life kind of beckoning to me, and I can only hold it off and for so long in some regards. So if there's any time where I can try to make a push, I'm going to do it. And at least that way, no matter what happens, you know, if I, if I walk away and feel like I did, tap into that deepest part of myself and unlock the best that I could do, at least at that point you can, you can't go back in time. It's easy for someone to be like, oh, you know, if I'd made a different a left turn when I was 20 and then done this when I was 25 okay, well, you know, I feel like that's just intellectually dishonest, because you didn't do those things. And so what? So here you are, and so that's what I wanted. It was just the peace of mind. And if I'd walked away at that point, I just wouldn't have had that. And I think later on, there would have been the possibility for regret to say, You know what, if I doubled down and just tried to squeeze all the juice out, and, you know, I didn't do it, and why didn't I do that?
00:08:04.019 --> 00:08:16.199
And when you think about like, what you what you've experienced through that, what, what say a little bit about what you have found, about what, what you're made of.
00:08:18.720 --> 00:08:32.539
Well, I I think that I may be cursed with ambition, because once, once you make that bold proclamation, like you talked about, you kind of throw it out there, and you start telling people, or even say it publicly,
00:08:33.798 --> 00:08:46.298
then you sort of have to follow through, and at least, you know you don't want to embarrass yourself and just come nowhere Close. You know, that's, it's not my personality to be like a Muhammad Ali type.
00:08:43.298 --> 00:08:51.938
Obviously, he used that very effectively, and was very public and talking about what round he was going to knock somebody out.
00:08:49.178 --> 00:09:34.038
And he was able to follow through, because he was the greatest, as he said, You know, I don't have the bravado to take it that far, but, you know, right here in what feels like more of an intimate setting, talking to you or talking to a dear friend or someone in my family, I can kind of let that part of myself, that inner belief, I can speak it to them and to where other people can hear and then it's like, okay, you know, you've said it, because you must believe it, you know, or believe something along those lines. Now, you got a show for it, and so, you know, I think it to what to your point, sort of about speaking things into existence, or whatever follow through comes from bringing these thoughts to life.
00:09:36.139 --> 00:10:16.679
You know, in this domain, you know, I guess I put so much time over a lifetime of skiing, and gotten so much joy from the sport and the people in it and so on, that it's like, well, gosh, you're so close, you know, in our prior podcast, we kind of talked about it like climbing a mountain. It's like, you're so close to the summit, you know, you got to try to make that push and see if you can get up on top. And. Plant the flag, and if not, at least, you know, you did everything and got the view from as high as you could get. I think sometimes, you know, I kind of carry this ambition. I look at other things in life and and because I've developed that
00:10:17.940 --> 00:11:14.879
virtue in skiing, I'll look at something else and throw ambition at that, and then I can get myself spread a little bit thin, because all of a sudden everything looks like a passable mountain top. And, you know, I've had to learn sometimes, you know, you need to focus on the one descent, you know, and then the others. And that's not to say there's not multitasking involved. You know, there's no, you know, I just watched, there's a thing on Netflix about John Elway. I just watched it the other night, and it talked, yeah, it's a good one, you know, talked about at the end, you know, he in his last two seasons, he was 37 and 38 when he finally won two back to back Super Bowls. He had been there and it had eluded him. And that was always the thing. It's, he's, you know, one of the greatest of all times, but he can't win the big one. And then he did, but what he sacrificed was his marriage. And, you know, his relationship to his kids.
00:11:11.700 --> 00:12:42.639
They interviewed the kids, and you know, that was strained, and there was a feeling in the household where dad was preoccupied entirely with his sport and, you know, and other athletes were interviewed, like Shannon Sharpe, he said, You know, that's, that's what's required for greatness in athletes, you can't be great from nine to five. It's around the clock obsession. And I can certainly relate to that feeling, because it, you know, you never can let it down. On the other hand, though I was not willing to compromise family life. And you know, I was very fortunate to have a strong family circle around me growing up, so I know what that is and the importance of that, and I'm not like a young dad where I got started, and was easy to overlook that. I mean, I'm 40, and I was like, no, no, we're not going to compromise that. So it was like, a lot of these no compromise parts. It's like, I'm not going to compromise everything I can do for skiing and my pursuit, but I'm also not going to compromise my family life, and I also have a business to run. I can't really let that fall down either. So I would say, as I was climbing, making that climb the best I could, you know, I was kind of carrying a heavy pack, so to speak. But that's just, that's my path, you know, and, and I knew that those would be the stipulations. And it's like, okay, well, where is the peak that you can reach, given this scenario? And, yeah, yep,
00:12:43.659 --> 00:12:54.940
so, so, as a result of all of this, what would you say you now believe that you didn't believe before?
00:12:54.938 --> 00:13:29.539
Okay, that's an interesting question. I definitely have a restored belief. I think I kind of superficially believed in the old truism, like, you know, whatever you put your mind to, you can achieve it. All these things that we kind of hear motivational speakers say and whatnot. I didn't disbelieve them, but I also I never sank my teeth into them all the way.
00:13:27.379 --> 00:14:41.980
It's like I heard him and I nodded, and I said, Yeah, okay, sounds right, you know, and but I guess it takes, you know, kind of putting that out in front of yourself, and that true test of, okay, I've said that. I believe that I can do this. I've said it out loud. Other people have heard me say it, and now we gotta find out. And there is a level of, I guess, you know, self belief required in the follow through that I guess now I have the evidence of where I'd say before it was vague, and I believe that if I trusted myself more, I would probably get better results. But like, it was a chicken and the egg, I couldn't trust myself. I wasn't getting the results. To have the confidence to trust myself more to get those results. And through this journey, this process, I've somehow, or whatever, got to the starting line of that and got some traction. And I'd say, Now I know, I know what that feeling is, and I I can say those words in a truer way, or I know what they mean to me in a completely different way.
00:14:44.019 --> 00:16:11.639
It's interesting that you say I now know what that feeling is, because in my conversations, more with athletes than business people, but business people are starting to get to this is there is a feeling. When you're in the space of self belief that fuels you. And I remember watching, I've watched golfers. There was a moment where I heard Tiger Woods actually say, I'm just trying to get back to the feeling. And a lot of times, we're taught not to pay attention to our feelings, that they're, you know, because they're, like, emotional and somehow ungrounded, but the kind of feeling I think you're talking about, and the kind of feeling I know I'm talking about that, I think athletes are talking about that feeling. I don't, I think we sometimes call it flow, but it's a, it's, it's a sensation that is harmony, in a way, like it's harmony even when things aren't going right and when things are uncertain. I mean, you're not in your head, as I'm saying these things. But could you describe what that's like? Because I feel like, to some degree, a lot of and there I go, using that word I feel like, but that is what we are sometimes chasing, is that, is that sense of harmony, harmony in the midst of almost a vacuum and uncertainty, what? What's that? What's that? What was that like?
00:16:12.419 --> 00:16:59.679
Yeah, that's right. So I'd say that year that I was rather dissatisfied with my results. I felt the complete disharmony. You know, everything felt like a tug of war with everything else, my my time and energy, between training to compete and competing, running a business, being a family man, it just all felt pulled in different directions. And I was kind of losing my mind just trying to figure out which base to cover when, and that was part of the plan too. Is like, Okay, I need to integrate these parts of my life and create a synergy where I'm feeling good about, you know, each part, so that they feed each other, and it's more collaborative, rather than sort of tearing me down. And I mean, I guess
00:17:01.240 --> 00:18:11.279
the thing that is required is somehow the proper intrinsic motivation, like, I think, to get that feeling like you have to care, like you're not going to reach that, that ultimate state, because you're not going to push yourself far enough, deep, enough, long enough, to uncover that, that bedrock of what you're made of, unlike for me, for whatever reason you know, and some people you know, they couldn't care less about water skiing. They probably don't even think about it. They've never done it. They don't do this. Don't care like for me and running my business, I care about it because it's my creation, and it's, it's a place that it's become a real community, and the people that come i value and it supports my family. But I'm, you know, I'm not motivated in my business, like it's never going to be a million dollar business, and that's just fine with me. Like I, I don't have that motivation to just see, you know, maybe there's some way that some genius CEO could take my operation and turn it into a million dollar enterprise.
00:18:08.700 --> 00:19:18.720
That's just not me, and I don't care to to make it that. And so it's not a goal, and that's never going to happen, and that's fine. And if I think, if I stated that as my goal, I would just have frustration and discord and disharmony all along the way, because it's just not really in line with with who I am. So I think an important part there is, you know, something about being a water skier, for me, it's been basically a whole lifetime. It's it's in the fabric of who I am. And I think I realized that there's only so much time before I'm never going to have the chance to see what's all there in me. And and I kind of, I mean, in a in a heavy way, I I felt that clock ticking all these last 1000 days, you know, over the last three years, you know, and I there have been the thoughts of self doubt, of of aging, and I'm kind of trying to hold that hand of the clock still and not keep ticking on me in some regard, you know, which is ultimately non realistic. But that's, that's where the effort comes in.
00:19:20.339 --> 00:20:19.200
But in the process of, sort of, I'd say, I would say going all out. But that's not right, because it was a little more targeted, and I was trying to apply some wisdom to the process, instead of, I'd say, maybe before, it was just kind of going all out, but in various directions, and then I'd end up exhausted with no better results. So it's, it's having the intrinsic motivation to put forward as much effort as is required, but also putting that effort in a direction that gives has a feedback loop, you know, that spurs you on because it means something to you, because you do care. You. And that that has to be somehow intrinsic, or you just it gets hard and it gets scary, or it gets, you know, you have doubt, and at some point, one of those roadblocks could stop you if you don't decide just to kind of keep hammering through, or look for another way around, or what have you.
00:20:20.279 --> 00:20:43.539
Yeah, well, you what you just described was a classic description in business terms, Jim. Jim Collins made it famous on the in Good to Great called the the the doom loop. So businesses that all of a sudden start grasping for, well, that didn't work, and so they're sort of filled with doubt. And so they start just reaching out for anything. They're not strategic.
00:20:43.539 --> 00:20:45.940
They don't say no to anything.
00:20:43.539 --> 00:20:54.940
They just try everything. It's like we're going to throw everything against the wall. And in the end, as you found, when you do that, because we all do that, we all have a doom loop.
00:20:51.339 --> 00:21:45.460
It's we end up with no better results. But by golly, we put a lot of effort in, and nobody can tell us we weren't trying. You know, I call that the cheeks and seats. Method of getting things done. It's like, Yeah, but I showed up at work every day. I had my butt in that chair. You saw me. I was working hard, yeah. But then he talked about the alternative, which is a flywheel, which is, you described, has a feedback loop, that means each step actually creates it. A flywheel is inherently an energy storage device creates more and more energy with less and less effort. So it sounds like you found some set of critical in fact. We talked about this in one of our podcasts about your sort of recipe of three to five things that just matter that you sort of if I do these consistently, I will actually gain ground is that? Yeah, find that?
00:21:46.180 --> 00:22:15.299
Well, I would say that it was a part of the process to realize that I do need to trim some things out, you know. I mean, today's world is full of hacks and advice that's like, Oh, if you take this supplement, you know, you're gonna feel like a million bucks if you, you know, do this protocol in the gym or whatever. I mean, there's all of this obsession with optimization, and I've definitely been guilty of, you know, having the big the big eyes at the next shiny object.
00:22:16.559 --> 00:24:55.420
But you can't do all those things. There's only so many hours in a day, and you kind of have to, you know, it's maybe great to experiment see what suits your internal makeup, what does move the needle for you and make you feel different, or if it, if it moves you towards your goals, maybe it's something worth keeping. But it's like you've got your toolkits only so big, and maybe you have kind of your reserve tool shed that you can keep some things in and, you know, you just go out there and pull them out occasionally when that needs to be done. And I think before, I was just trying to lug around an enormous toolbox, you know, it's like, Oh, I've learned all these modalities that, you know, there's cold exposure and sauna and breathing techniques and yoga and gym and this, that meditation, everything. And it's like, okay, well, you're just dragging around this huge toolbox is slowing you down, so you got to figure out those, those few things that really do work and be okay with, you know, even if you're curious about something else, you may uncover that at a different stage of life that may be the right tool, and something that's currently, you know, essential in your kit may not be the tool for the job anymore, and you let that go, and that's that's part of life too, I guess, is figuring out which are the critical tools at the moment. And I would be the first to say, by no means did I execute on my vision and my plan perfectly. You know, still plenty of moments of frustration, plenty of lack of mental flexibility to realize when I was applying the wrong tools, or, you know, kind of doggishly sticking with something that I this, this has to work, you know, where maybe I could have swapped that out, or maybe I could have taken some rest, you know, I think that's when you're sort of obsessed with something that can be the hardest. One is not always trying to lunge forward into that next whatever. The next thing that you can accomplish or achieve or push towards your goal. It's like if you're if you're climbing a mountain, sometimes you better just sit down and set up your tent and get some sleep and take off your boots or whatever. And that's going to be the thing that gives you the energy to do it tomorrow. And, you know, I certainly was not perfect in any of that. And in hindsight, it's, it's fairly easy for me to see, but in the moment when you're kind of making these decisions, and it's between, Well, should I set aside some time for myself here and take it easier, or should I just keep swinging? You know, I pretty much always defaulted towards the just keep swinging option. And you know, hopefully that lesson can serve me somewhere else in life, as as it rolls along.
00:24:56.680 --> 00:24:59.920
And what would that What did you end up concluding on that?
00:25:02.160 --> 00:25:03.960
Yeah, well, what do you mean,
00:25:03.960 --> 00:25:37.880
concluding like what you said? I hope that lesson, and I'll just let me frame it this way, because I was thinking about the paradox of skiing, it is one of the most difficult sports possible to learn, because you have so little actual practice time. And you also don't really have anything you can do off the water that mirrors what you're doing on the water. It's not like you can go to the driving range in golf and hit a bucket of balls. You just can't go do a bucket of one balls. If that's your problem.
00:25:34.700 --> 00:26:28.220
You have to keep and, you know, if you do a one ball, then you're going to do the all the rest of them, you know. And they there could, they kind of fit together in a unique pattern. So the paradox of skiing is, to me, it's probably the least time of practice possible for a sport. I don't know of anything that has less practice time to it and and yet, I have found that the less I ski, the better I ski, because of the damn recovery part. And yes, you know that's that's the weird thing. It's like there's this ideal point where, if I will ski really hard for, say, two or three days and then give myself three to four days off, and then come back and ski two to three more days hard and then three to five, but I don't want to give up that much practice time. So yeah, so I get this question because that's that balance, right?
00:26:28.220 --> 00:28:13.619
I get this question a lot from skiers and folks that come to ski school because, I mean, we're doing this because we love it and it's so enjoyable, and so people, they want to treat it like they're at the all you can eat buffet, it's like, the more times I can go back and load up my plate with, you know, another good taste, you know, just get me back out there. Get me back out there. That's fine. If your goal is to get full and indulge, if your goal is to get better and to perform at your best, that's probably not the best approach. That part I was able to change because I did recognize, I'd say, especially, you know, as I was kind of aging in the sport, that my interest even in practice, to your point about it being so precious, you're so limited in your practice time there, really, even throughout the course of a seven month season, I realized, Like, there are no I can't have any throwaway sets where I just go out there for practice and it's like, oh, that was no good today. I didn't really take anything away from it, or I was unfocused and, whoops. Oh, well, you know that that happened to me a lot in my 20s. There was, I mean, that might have been the majority of the sets, because I didn't have an intention going in. I just love doing it. I thought more time on the water, I'll be getting some practice, and this is going to be good where I ultimately came to the point where it's like, every time I touch the water, I want to be at a peak level, because that's really the only way that it's fun for me anymore. You know, practicing and going out there and having a marginal, you know, six out of 10, seven out of 10. Feeling of how I was able to do it just feels terrible.
00:28:09.240 --> 00:29:31.220
And, you know, it's just became mentally unacceptable, you know, and I'd say, probably all through this past summer, maybe even the one before. I don't, I don't think I had any of those because it was just so intolerable. Even if I'm looking at a glassy Lake, you know, the boats in my wife, Amelia, is my driver. She's there. There's nothing else to do. We've got the time. I could go for a set if my body was not recovered or not at 100% didn't have even the energy, like if it's late in the day versus earlier in the day, if I just didn't have the if my meter wasn't at the top, then it became easier for me just to say, Nope, I'm just going to save it for tomorrow. I know that's going to feel better, whereas in the past, I never would have done that, and that was an effective strategy. And it just it came about because I wanted those good feelings every time I left the water. And they could only come. I mean, basically, I would do six training sessions a week on average, which, I mean, there are seven days in a week, and that means, you know, it would vary, I guess, week by week, but, you know, I might ski twice on a Saturday, once on a Sunday, have Monday off, get back to it on Tuesday, something like that.
00:29:31.220 --> 00:30:16.079
But, and that's a that's a stage of your skiing like for what I'm doing, it's extremely physical. Every time I'm going to be touching 41 it's going to be putting just an incredible amount of load on and there needs to be recovery. And when you add the the weeks and months of a season together, the toll that's taking on your body by September or October, later in the season, is, you know. You gotta, you gotta sort of have your eye on that already in May, and be thinking about that along the way, and not be surprised when you know your back goes out in August or July, or your shoulder goes out in September, because you've just been going at it like a maniac.
00:30:16.079 --> 00:30:21.680
So I don't know what the analog is to other endeavors.
00:30:21.859 --> 00:30:32.299
But in this one for me, that was kind of became the motto is, like, I'm only gonna ski if I'm at 100% and really that's the only way that it's fun for me.
00:30:30.680 --> 00:30:32.299
Now fun
00:30:33.019 --> 00:30:36.440
for you, and probably productive. So do you follow?
00:30:36.500 --> 00:30:58.059
Like, typically, a ski set is six passes for, you know, like in ski school, or what, like that, but, but generally, like, for most people, at six passes, because if you're as intense as you are, and you're touching 41 you know, running 39 touching 41 your body's gonna really be giving it at all. You're all, do you typically do six passes? Or do you sometimes do 810, what?
00:30:58.119 --> 00:31:01.920
What's your normal number of passes? Yeah.
00:31:01.919 --> 00:31:38.959
I mean, the part that I came through my mind, and the prior question that I didn't touch on was also just the mental focus. I mean, there's times maybe where my body was ready to go, but I could just tell it's like my head is elsewhere. It's tied up with something that I've got to do later, all the things that I feel like I need to do today, and I I got better at the skill of like, when it's time to ski, typically, that was pre prescribed, so the day kind of oriented and built to like, Okay, I know I'm going to ski at about 1230 and that was cleared and set, which was also important. I didn't used to have that. I used to just kind of slip it in whenever I could.
00:31:39.740 --> 00:31:43.599
I work my set in with everybody else's Yeah, I know that. Yeah, no, that that
00:31:43.599 --> 00:32:32.180
had to go. And so, yeah, I mean being 100% on the mental game is also, you know, completely paramount, and something that I decided was a non negotiable. So, you know, it's both of those things, you know. And so on days that I'm going to ski, I was typically, I'd wake up early in the morning, I do kind of my whole physical warm up routine, uh, before breakfast. And it's like, oh, that's, that's what happens on a ski day. That's just part of what it means to be ready to ski at 1230 you know. I try to go through a little bit of visualization, which is basically the, the only thing that skiers can do off of the water to mimic, you know, to sort of get some practice without practicing for for real.
00:32:32.539 --> 00:33:19.500
And, and, you know, I kind of came up with these little rituals that's like, Okay, this is what it takes to be ready to ski at 1230 and, you know? And then that's, that's the time and, and whatever there may be, there probably were a couple times where I got to that stage of the day and I just, I could tell internally, like I didn't have it all together. And then it's a pass, you know, and that's disappointing. I didn't like that, yeah. But that's also discipline, though. Yes, it's sticking to, you know, I just couldn't bear the thought of coming off the water with a bad set and it's like tomorrow will be 24 hours away. We can try to set this up better and get after it tomorrow, but we're not doing a half baked, you know, training today,
00:33:21.119 --> 00:33:50.920
and that just has become, you know, it's become part of it. And as we go forward into the this next year, I feel like my my circumstances are are changing quite a bit, and I'm going to have to reconfigure what it means to get ready to ski my I think my time commitments are going to be all very different, and I'm a little nervous about having the mental agility to make all those changes and figure out what that new routine is, but I imagine that will come in good time.
00:33:52.240 --> 00:34:00.099
Well, I what you're talking about, and I think this is another mental balancing act that we don't talk about enough.
00:34:00.279 --> 00:34:28.280
I think of it as the shift, and it is the ability to get into performance mindset, either through ritual and practices and setting up your day, or when all hell breaks loose, just through intention and having a practice to be able to make that mental shift. You know, in in business, a lot of times we're talking about, you know, conversations.
00:34:25.039 --> 00:35:33.139
There's a lot of times the different kinds of conversations get mixed up. But, you know, many times it's a conversation for action. We're trying to get things done. We're trying to make things happen together. And then other times we're doing something more creative, which is a totally different part of the brain, a totally different kind of thinking, which is possibility. What? What about this? Have we thought about that? Should we should we create a new product, whatever that might be? And I liken it to when I'm doing business in my office versus doing art in my art studio. And I used to think of the walk down the stairs like I would. Literally feel my brain shifting from left brain to right brain. And early on in the process, it would take me, sometimes hours to shift to make that shift. So I'd go into my art studio and I'd organize, because that's left brained and I'm still left brained right and I'd be organizing, organizing, organizing. And somewhere along the line, I began to learn how to make the shift more quickly, so that and what happened then is I could fit more things in my life so I can almost instantly shift between left and right, right now,
00:35:34.039 --> 00:36:02.579
yeah, my with my sports psychologist, we've been calling that changing hats. You know, he pointed out to me one day, he's like, he's like, you wear a lot of different hats throughout any given day. He's like, you wear the dad hat, the husband hat, the business owner hat, the coach's hat, the the athlete hat, you know. And even in your business, sometimes you know, you're you're in the shop and that's kind of a hat. Sometimes you're at the computer doing administrative things. That's a different sort of task.
00:35:59.559 --> 00:36:44.739
Sometimes you're taking out the trash, you know, or cleaning the bathroom, or, you know, these are different types of tasks, and you can't, it's just this fact you can't always, kind of have the day set up. I would try to do that too often, and things don't go to plan. And I think I'm putting on this hat, and then something comes up, and you got to switch. So we talked about that ability to shift. And ultimately, what it sort of came down to the one that I did get good at, which was sort of the goal, is that, you know, when it's time to ski, it's like putting on that hat and everything else drops away, like, leave it, pick it up later, come back. Thankfully.
00:36:40.179 --> 00:37:13.260
You know, that was the intention, and I did develop that particular skill better than I have ever had it. And that's back to, like, finding a new level of something that totally changed from what I could experience before, like, I just didn't know how to focus on demand. It's like, like, in a tournament, you can't say, Well, I think I'd rather do it in about an hour. I'll feel better an hour from now, my nervous system will be more ready. So just give me something like, No, you go when it's your turn.
00:37:13.679 --> 00:37:20.880
Yeah, that's it. And so, you know, in part in training, I didn't have very many of those.
00:37:18.300 --> 00:37:37.219
Like, you know what? I'm just not going to do it today because it's like, you also you also have to develop the skill of well, whether or not you you know mentally, you better be able to get yourself there. If you're not quite there, maybe take five or 10 minutes, like, you know your time's coming, and make that shift, put on that hat
00:37:38.539 --> 00:38:13.500
I got. I'd say I did get good at that. With performance in athletics, where I'd say I'm still very weak at that, is everything else in the changing hats. You know, it's like, sometimes I'm holding on to a few different ones in my hand. I'm like, which one of these things is supposed to go on my head right now? You know, in that moment of being flustered. It's a pain point in life, and I'd say it happens to me all too often. I kind of get that feeling of overwhelmed, like, which direction am I going to take next? These things all seem like they need to happen.
00:38:10.860 --> 00:38:51.699
You know, which one's really the priority? And probably sometimes the ant The correct answer is, why don't you set your hats down for a minute and take five, you know, clear your head, you know, really, just five minutes, but just calm down for a sec, and maybe they'll come to you. I need to develop that skill. I'm very poor at that, and as a result, I think I suffer quite a lot because I'll just kind of whatever randomly, I'll throw out one of the hats, like, all right, we're doing this now full speed ahead. You know, maybe that wasn't the thing. And then I'm knee deep in something, and, you know, something comes up and I realized, oh, I should have been already doing this other thing, you know, and that's aggravating.
00:38:51.699 --> 00:38:59.739
And, I mean, that's the classic, that's the classic game of pressure that I am constantly trying to sort of improve on.
00:38:59.739 --> 00:39:51.039
And, you know, and I want to, I have to touch on something on skiing, and then we'll go back to this. But you you hit on something else about skiing that is rarely also discussed, about it being unique. But if you think about almost any other sport, if I'm a football player, I know what time the game starts. Kickoff is a certain time. That's the time I'm it's very certain when I'm going to have to be ready. Tennis match, generally, same thing almost every other sport. You know, when you're going to perform in skiing, you can be five minutes away from your turn and it rains, or the boat breaks down, or you're at Mumba and they have to do the water pass. You know, where they have to let everybody through and so, or the just the conditions change, like I'm ready and, and, and the water's glass, and all of a sudden a wind storm blows in or something. And now that's a whole different kind of scheme.
00:39:51.760 --> 00:40:20.659
So you're nodding again. This is one of the unique things, is being able to make that shift maybe three times in a day, because. Return never came at the time it was supposed to. And you've managed your eating, and you've managed your mindset, and you've managed all those things, and you still have to be able to turn on a dime and perform, or the skier in front of you falls on the first pass, and you thought you had five minutes, and now you You better get your, you know, your your butt in the water, because they're going to throw that handle at you?
00:40:21.980 --> 00:41:38.780
Yeah, I'd say, you know, that's one of those things when they talk about, in any sport, but in water skiing too, they talk about, oh, you know, that person's showing their experience. This is one of those things that I feel like, you know, it's taken me a 16 year career to, I'd say maybe this year for the first time, maybe last year too. I could, I could handle those things coming, because they do. For instance, this year at the World Championships, the skier right before me, we're skiing in Italy at the World Championships. The skier right before me is Thomas De Gasperi, hometown hero, or champion to boot. Yeah, former world champion. He goes out there. He skis well. And then spectators, you know, who knew this was going to happen? They all shoot fireworks all over and then the lake is covered in a cloud of smoke, and they have to pause the tournament. They, I've got my ski on already, you know, they pause the tournament. The boats got to run a simulation pass. By this point, I'm able to just kind of laugh, and it's like these things have happened to me. I'm sure they've happened to everybody else the same amount. You just realize it in the first person. But I feel like I've had these things happen so much. I'm like, okay, here I am in the world championship finals, and there's goddamn fireworks, you know, when I got my
00:41:39.139 --> 00:41:40.719
never happened. I've never heard,
00:41:42.159 --> 00:42:10.440
you know, and so I just had a chuckle on the dock, because it's like, of course, you know, and like it was, I was able to keep it light, and I feel like it didn't. By the time I was getting pulled up and going in for my first pass, it didn't, it hadn't made any difference, you know, it'd have been the same if I started five minutes sooner or when I started. But that type of thing, oh, I used to throw me for a loop, because all of a sudden it's I didn't expect this, and then you get those wheels turning of well, what's going to happen another Should I take my ski off? Should I keep it on?
00:42:10.559 --> 00:43:23.059
Should i How long is this going to last? In a way, it just doesn't matter. When you get down to it, I guess that's the confidence and the belief in yourself. And what you said about I used to obsess about, oh, I ate it this time so that my digestion would be here, and I did my stretches and my warm ups at this time to make it all perfect. And it's like, well, in the end, it doesn't matter exactly when I look at, when you look at the great skiers, the great champions, whatever sport you know, and water skiing, with the Regina jaquesses and the Freddy Kruegers, you know, I had it dawned on me. It's like, do you think Freddy Krueger, you know, if he ate his sandwich 10 minutes later? Do you think he cares? Or do you think he's just going to go out there and jump to 35 because he knows how to go out there and jump to 35 he just knows how to do it. Eventually, I learned it's like, oh, you know, water skiing is the thing that I've practiced the most you know, it's the skill that I'm best at. Of anything. There's no reason that, you know, waiting five minutes because of fireworks changes my ability to run this opening Pass, which I do all the time. And really, that's the task at hand right now. And then the other passes will come and they'll have their place. And by then, this will be irrelevant. And so, by
00:43:23.059 --> 00:43:33.199
the way, I have to, I have to interrupt, because I want to capture that moment. That is your self belief, that is you have staked in your mind that says, I know how to do this.
00:43:33.980 --> 00:43:37.460
It took a long time to get there. I can, I can promise you, that's
00:43:37.460 --> 00:43:43.539
why I wanted to call it out, because most, most people, have a kernel of it and they don't know how to find it.
00:43:43.539 --> 00:43:45.639
I can relate to that.
00:43:43.539 --> 00:44:01.980
That's been there a long time. I was running around every which way looking for that kernel for a very long time. So, yeah, that that's been a positive. And I'm hoping, you know, I haven't put a lot of thought into, you know, in what way are some of these?
00:43:57.519 --> 00:44:20.579
You know this, I've dived so deep into this endeavor of skiing and been able to harness some of these abilities in this particular domain, it will be nice, over the course of a lifetime, if I can learn how to apply them elsewhere. I'd say so far, the evidence for that is limited, because I've been so focused on this one thing only.
00:44:20.579 --> 00:44:23.900
Okay, so can I put my coach's hat on for a minute?
00:44:24.079 --> 00:44:48.340
Yeah, please, because I actually saw you do that as we started this program, right before we started the podcast. So you, you had son coming in, and what, what was happening, you would say, possibly, you said the sun was coming in. I don't want it to distract me. Something was off right before we get started.
00:44:48.340 --> 00:44:52.119
Let me just put something on.
00:44:48.340 --> 00:45:36.260
Well, there's, there's a tool I teach people. I wrote about this extensively in dancing the tightrope, and I'm going to write about it in a guidebook about that. But it was taught to me. As the negative positive pole. So the negative positive pole is like a car battery, right? You know, a car battery has like a little electrical charge, and you can physically feel like a little electrical charge run through your body when something's off. I bet you felt that as you were getting ready to speak, and when I when you were putting the the cover on the window to help make it better, you would have possibly said I was putting a cover on a window, but what I saw was, well, he's just balancing his polls, meaning Something's off.
00:45:30.739 --> 00:45:54.880
And so I'm going to go, I'm going to go take care of that thing, and then I can come and bring my attention to this moment. So, like, when you're facing five different things that you could do, you can actually give it a number. Like, how if you had to give it a number one to 10 for the sun coming in, what was it? Was it a three, a, five and eight?
00:45:55.478 --> 00:45:57.518
As far as how irritating it was going
00:45:57.519 --> 00:46:05.159
to be? Yeah, how much? How much? How much was it to get you to move and wait to start the podcast, to go put the cover on the window?
00:46:06.599 --> 00:46:13.079
I mean, it was probably a moderate annoyance, like a four or five. It was still a pretty low bar, but, yeah, perfect.
00:46:13.139 --> 00:46:37.159
And by the way, we don't, we actually wanted to start balancing it at point five, right? Instead of having, you know, multiple, it's like, go to the try to be as sensitive as possible. In other words, which is opposite of what we're taught. It's like, well, we generally, we try to tough it out, which is what causes all the problems? So at a four or five, you got up and you put the window, you know, the thing on.
00:46:37.280 --> 00:46:58.420
So when you're facing 10 things or five things, or whatever. One of the ways, if you're trying to figure out your priorities, there's other ways, but using that tool is just to look at, alright, what which one is, where's my number the highest, and then don't even wonder about why, because some part of your body knows why. Or it wouldn't be, it wouldn't be at a 10.
00:47:00.579 --> 00:47:06.000
Yeah, that's right. I feel like that's, that's the skill. I'm glad you found some evidence that's good. Thank you
00:47:06.000 --> 00:47:08.699
for pointing that out, and you are doing it right.
00:47:09.960 --> 00:49:26.780
I think that throughout the day, things like that, I hope, right now, I feel close to you know, maximum calm and presence, I'd say, like in the calendar year, because it's, it's the off season, you know, as business and all of these things are basically kind of at their slowest. And I can pick my pace a little more. Yet still, I often, you know, get myself running around this way and that quite a bit, and I'm like, a month away from having a daughter join the family, savoring like, Okay, I kind of know how to do the life balance of a family of Three, yet I still, I'd say often, don't get myself calm and present enough to be sensitive to those things until they kind of dial themselves up to like an eight or something like that. And then I've got three or four things that are yelling at me at a level of a 789, and I'm just like, Ah, I've I got to address all of you now. And so, you know, where I have some self doubt is like, I know that the Earth is about to shift under my feet again, and I'm going to have to, you know, be more sensitive, and they're going to be more priorities to take care of. I need to put in the training. Like, like, now the focus is, how can I use this, this skill of being able to zero in on the moment, you know, not just perform in athletics, but to to make Sacred Family time, you know, where the phone's not a part of it, or my mind is not just somewhere else, and I'm actually, yeah, exactly, just there playing with with my son, or holding my daughter, and, you know, feeling the all that is a brand new life in my arms that I need to I don't know that I need a plan, but I have some intention of improving, because I feel like it's, it's maybe a weak spot for me, just getting it done in one area has not yet felt like I can transfer that everywhere else i Well,
00:49:27.019 --> 00:49:52.119
I can 100% understand that, but, you know, a lot of it is that it's two different games. And I would say skiing may be about high performance, but parenting is just about presence, and you're not going to be perfect. You probably have already figured out that you can take the pacifier, no matter where it is, and wipe it off on your pants and stick it and they're not gonna die, you know.
00:49:47.500 --> 00:50:18.840
And there's just so many things, in fact, the thing, and when I look back, when I look back on my own raising of my daughter, the moments that were actually you. Usually the most memorable and in some ways joyful were the ones where it was just nothing was going right, like the the icing was all over her face, and the cake was on the floor and the phone was ringing. And, you know, you're like, This is life, yay. And you know, there's no grade, there's no grade, there's no podium.
00:50:20.219 --> 00:51:56.800
Yeah, I'm at the moment trying to remind myself in those moments, like, the big thing right now is my son loves for me to put him to bed and tell him Batman stories, and I've got to come up with an original story every night. And, you know, the bar kind of keeps, keeps raising. Oh, yeah, you know, and so just, just like, coming to this podcast, I didn't know exactly what I was going to talk about. We get in that bed and I'm like, oh boy, you know, we got to come up with something on the fly and keep it moving. And it's, it's at the end of the day. And, you know, mentally, there's, there's not a lot of reserves left, but I got to come through with the story. And even though it's it's kind of hard, I'm like, you know, I've learned in four years that all of these stages which they feel like they're going to go on forever, it's like they all come to an end. And I know that, you know, it won't be too long, you know, and he's not going to want me in the bed with him anymore. And when I finish the Batman story, and he wants me to cuddle him up for a few minutes, to settle down to sleep, you know. And I could feel his little hand holding my hand like I just try to imprint that. It's like, you know, to feel that little body and the little hand like, you know, someday, this is going to be a man that's probably bigger, going to be bigger than me, but we've got this moment now, so sometimes I can have the wherewithal to get there, but like, in the course of the day, when it's like, you know, five other things are going on, and he's like, Dad, let's play like, Let's race the the Hot Wheels cars. I'm just like, I'm thinking, I can't do this right now. Are you kidding?
00:51:59.079 --> 00:52:26.000
But you know what, look how many you're capturing, because that's what banks and then we'll, we'll, you know, we'll take my coach hat off now, after I say this, but the interesting thing I've discovered is that what banks capacity is recognizing those moments, and what takes capacity away is beating yourself up over the moments You missed. And so yeah, if your cat, you're already capturing them. So that's all that really matters.
00:52:26.900 --> 00:52:42.699
No, I do. I do feel very good about that. I feel like, in his experience, I'm always there because I can, I can race Hot Wheels cars with my mind on something completely different, like, you know what?
00:52:39.679 --> 00:53:34.099
What orders I need to put in for the shop, or what I need to ask the my guys to do later, to cut the grass or whatever. He's not suffering from that, because I'm still playing the game. I mean, arguably I could be more present and maybe making it more exciting, but I feel like I also kind of just know how to play the part of making it fun and funny and exciting. Who's suffering in that moment is me for lack of presence. And that's what I feel. I've, you know, my mind somewhere, my body somewhere else, trying to multitask what's going on. And I think that's what you know, somewhat drives me crazy. And I hope to get better at and now I feel like, okay, now the bar is being raised because there are going to be two kids in the house and all the needs of a baby once again. So it's like, I guess it's time to dig into that ambition and channel it at kind of a new target.
00:53:34.639 --> 00:54:31.159
Yeah, well, it sounds to me like you're already having some moments, so just keep remembering that. And like you said, you're right. You're the one who suffers when you're split and absolutely, you know, and that's and we all do that, and some of it is just our quest for perfection. But back to that, the recalibration. The interesting thing is, when that's happening, I guarantee you that tool, I just told you that negative, positive pole is going up, and you're feeling it, and then you're making meaning of it. And the more you calibrate it to just, I think of it as just going around the world, going recalibrating, recalibrating, recalibrating. In other words, let that thing guide you on what to correct, like you put the cover on the window, as opposed to having it say, Damn, I can't believe we built a house that has this window. And why didn't we think about it? Window shades in, and I can't believe we like, why did I choose here and this? Like, when Lynn said 930 I should have said another time, because I know the sun's coming in. You see how our brains can do that?
00:54:31.579 --> 00:54:33.320
Oh, I'm very familiar with that voice.
00:54:35.119 --> 00:55:42.760
I bet you're not the only one. But if you can begin to just go, oh, okay, wait, I can just put a cover on it. Oh, just wait. I can like, I'm going to write down, well, we're going to go play Hot Wheels. I'm going to write down the three things on decisions I need to make in a minute. I'm going to write those down now I'm going to go play Hot Wheels. We'll do that for five minutes. Then I'll go make these decisions. You know, whatever you have to do. But you can begin to use that, that negative, positive poll, as a guide instead. Of a stick to beat you up with. And that, I think, is how the the all of the Facebook memes and all of the marketing and all the power games get paid in corporate America, all of those are using that negative, that vibration against us. They put a story on the vibration, instead of instead of us being able to say, well, that vibration means something else off, and here's how I'm going to correct it. And if you could begin, I mean, if you do nothing else but you learn to use that as a tool for yourself, it will change your life. It's changed mine. I mean, it's dramatically changed how I handle pressure in everything.
00:55:44.380 --> 00:56:14.039
Well, that's that's a great takeaway from today. As like I said, I'm at that point where I need to be swapping some tools in and out of the toolbox, and which is hard, because, you know, you get really good at swinging a hammer, and you just want to swing a hammer because you switch over to the pliers, and your hands are, are, you know, clumsy, and don't have that, that muscle, that fine motor skill, developed yet. So that's, that's part of what's at hand here. And so take
00:56:14.039 --> 00:56:33.440
that we are, I'm doing, I'm doing a program with a team next week, and we're calling the exercise where we teach this very thing, the discomfort simulator. And, you know, I read the book The comfort crisis, which I just loved, and I feel like we are on this humongous quest for comfort in everything.
00:56:33.440 --> 00:57:02.099
And I do it. I mean, by golly, I do it the temperatures right in my house right now. And, you know, I do, I do take ice baths and stuff like that, to, like, sort of bring it up, but by God, you know, I still am doing like, 90% comfort seeking. But even just moving 10% into the discomfort begins to show you how much power you can take back with yourself when you're willing to be a little bit uncomfortable and make different choices, rather than the ones that were prescribed for you.
00:57:02.940 --> 00:57:12.360
Well, I think, I think you're right, because I definitely recognize the power of deliberate discomfort, like cold exposure, things like that.
00:57:08.159 --> 00:57:28.280
I think part of you know, I've almost programmed myself too much to say the discomfort is the thing that's going to bring you closer to where you need to be. So I think I will often default to
00:57:29.780 --> 00:58:14.760
something, you know, that's just going to be difficult next because then, you know, that's that tech ticks a box, box in my mind that just says, okay, you know, you you made the right move because you did the next hard thing, and kind of moving in a sequence from one to another to another, of things that I am telling myself I don't want to do. I mean, some of them maybe aren't even that bad, and I could do them quite well if I I think that's it. I've almost geared my thought process to like, oh, well, now I've gotta do this, but I'm I'm setting up that posture and that attitude so that I can take the reward of, oh, okay, I did the next hard thing, and that's sort of conditioned myself that way where I needed. I want to break that all apart and reframe it.
00:58:14.760 --> 00:58:18.179
So I'll give you a good example.
00:58:14.760 --> 00:58:34.280
Is that I was just having this conversation with my sports psychologist. I've been, you know, doing Off season training, like the using the flow point method, which is an amazing program for water skiing. And I've been doing that for, you know, like, eight years.
00:58:34.280 --> 00:58:46.960
However, it's been a long plus a couple of years where I was kind of like their guinea pig to get it started. And this year, in the off season, I came into the off season limping on a broken ankle and had surgery. So we're
00:58:46.960 --> 00:58:49.539
gonna get into that story in a minute. Yeah, so,
00:58:50.079 --> 00:59:20.099
right, that that kind of, in a, maybe in a good way, disrupted All my patterns. You know, I can't these are very intense workouts. They involve sprinting and, you know, skaters and jumping and, you know, squats and all kinds of things that I couldn't do, and then slowly, as I progressed, at least, you know, now I'm walking, and I'm still PT ing three days a week, you know, in physical therapy, and have a long way to go. But I was like, Okay, let's, you know, let's get to these flow point workouts.
00:59:17.099 --> 01:00:26.599
But I was doing them, you know, I had to modify, I had to kind of throttle a lot of things back. And the the mental impression that that was given me, it was like, like, oh, like, you know, I'm used to always trying to push, push, push, and do it at this, you know, top performance level, kind of chasing that perfectionism and almost like, the more suffering that comes from the workout, the stronger you're going to be, which also was misguided, because sometimes you can overdo it, and then you can't recover, and then you can't work out as hard as you should. So there's a balance there too. But, you know, I started, you know, doing the workouts a lot in the program, but having to, you know, pull back on a number of moves and the intensity with which. I was doing some of it, and that made me feel kind of bad. I was like, oh, like, Oh, you're 40 now, like, you can't do this stuff. You're gimping around a bit. And I had a negative framing about that. And then just recently I began, the place where I'm doing physical therapy is amazing. They have, you know, they primarily have athletes in there. They've got a bunch of pro baseball players.
01:00:22.280 --> 01:00:55.239
They got pro golfer and they collegiate athletes. They're kind of a high performance PT, which has been great. And also they've got a full of really beautiful gym that you can sign up to train, have semi private training in the gym. So I'm over there on the PT table, watching all these folks go through their workouts and using all these really nice toys. Like I've kind of got a home gym that I built, and I do all the workouts here, sometimes with my wife, or sometimes we do them, you know, independently, based on the day.
01:00:55.599 --> 01:01:20.900
But you know, that kind of leaves me in my own head as the coach. And guess what the answer is, you know, more you're never doing enough until you're basically dead. And the program is an aggressive program, which, you know, you can ramp it up to a pretty extreme level. Whereas, you know, I started training at this gym, they wrote me up a private, a personalized program.
01:01:20.900 --> 01:01:53.860
And of course, the physical therapists are aware that I'm building back strength from a leg that or ankle that underwent surgery and a leg that has atrophied and so on. And you know, all of a sudden, now I'm going in the gym. It's a new environment with, you know, new implements and a different program. And all of a sudden, you know, I can exceed, you know, the rep count or the amount of weight that they recommended, and I feel like I'm surpassing those benchmarks and kind of crushing these workouts.
01:01:49.780 --> 01:02:18.480
And all of a sudden, my workouts have this great feeling where it's like, you know, just reframing. That's where we started reframing what it meant, and kind of finding a new locale and just a, you know, there are a lot of the same moves, you know, and having all this training from the flow point method, I really, I kind of knew the mechanics and the form and so on, to bring to what they're giving me in this new gym.
01:02:15.059 --> 01:03:14.460
They're very transferable. But it's kind of having a tailored program. Now, the feeling coming out of the gym is I feel stronger and I feel uplifted, and I feel great about it, and I feel very accomplished, and I don't know that, you know, I've changed dramatically the amount of effort or input that I'm giving, but the outcome, the feeling that I'm walking away with is 180 degrees to your point about the polls, I'm walking away feeling like a million bucks. And so I was, I was just been chewing on that, and because it was weighing on me before, I was like, Oh man, you know, I'm looking into the future like, Oh, I'm never going to be able to do these workouts as good as before, or it's going to take me so long, and then ski season is going to be here, and I'm kind of forecasting in a negative manner. And, you know, now, all of a sudden I walk out like, Oh yeah, and I'm going to be stronger, you know, on Wednesday, and then I stronger on Friday. And I could tell the difference of this Monday versus last Monday, you know, of going through a lot of these things.
01:03:14.579 --> 01:03:40.219
So all of a sudden, very positive, like, Okay, I need to figure out how to take, do use this sort of reframing, you know, in other parts of life too, yes, because then the effort is the same and the feeling is 180 degrees different, you know. So I do take those negatives and and bring them to the positives. And I guess it's to be determined if I have the wisdom and the wherewithal to be able to do that.
01:03:41.000 --> 01:04:06.840
Well, that's a great analogy of how you can do that, though, and it's just taking the same practices into sometimes the mundane. And one of the distinctions that I've seen around performance is that you can have really high performance and and have your mind still be your worst enemy, or you can have really high performance and have your mind be your friend.
01:04:07.920 --> 01:04:28.519
And what you just described was a shift where your mind could have kept saying, Yeah, but yeah, but yeah, but. And instead you saw, look at that, look at that, look at that I'm getting stronger and same effort, same results, same body, but a totally different experience between the ears.
01:04:29.480 --> 01:04:39.019
Well, I almost wonder too, like over a while, that negative voice, if you keep hearing it, I'm guessing my results would have been lesser.
01:04:36.500 --> 01:05:21.860
You know you're because you're giving that negative feedback to your body, and you're kind of telling yourself, I'm not doing this very well. I can't do it enough. And, you know, event you whatever, you tone the weight down, or you say, Ah, I'm just going to skip this part, because I already I can't do it, and you have a defeatist mentality about it, whereas now I'm kind of looking for, I mean, also. So I got all these other pro athletes in the gym, and I've, you know, I want to honor water skiing. I want to show all these guys that we're not messing around like us. Water skiers are serious, and you might be in the Major League Baseball, but, like, check this out we get after, you know, even just the new environment has been, a huge thing.
01:05:22.579 --> 01:06:51.460
Well, that's, I think who you surround yourself with matters so much. And, you know, there's a, there's a saying that says you kind of are the blend of the five people you hang around with the most. And I do feel like being around inspiring people is a major factor, especially, you know, for an athlete. So I do want to talk about what's coming up for the season, because we've talked a little bit about the birth of your daughter and you coming back and getting ready on the water. But you know, what we haven't talked about is, could we just talk a little bit about what did happen at Worlds? You know, tell people kind of how you did, who won? We talked a little bit about the fireworks, which I didn't even know about, because it happened in the middle of the night. So I did not get to watch the whole thing. I watched some of it online, as you know. I mean, I ski with Austin Abel and train with him. He was there, and we'll be having another summer of training coming up, because he's feeling that he's not quite 40 yet. He I think he's coming up on 35 maybe, but I can tell he's having those same conversations with himself about the old man. Time is marching on So, but tell us so that people can just feel because I'm going to guess most of the audience did not watch the worlds, but it's probably very curious, because your 1000 days did sort of lead up to that event in Italy. So just a few minutes on, tell me about worlds. What happened, how you did? Who won all that?
01:06:52.179 --> 01:07:03.239
Yes, so the worlds were in Italy, which I've skied in Italy before, but not at this location, but it was a, you know, wonderful venue for the world's three man made ski legs.
01:07:03.239 --> 01:07:13.800
They were beautiful. They skied really nicely. They had an amazing panel of drivers. They had the boat styled in so, you know, everything was fair.
01:07:10.559 --> 01:07:30.019
You're gonna get the best skiing from everybody. And in menslam in particular, the level of competition is just astronomical. The depth of the field and the caliber of the skiers is like something that's never been seen in the sport.
01:07:26.659 --> 01:10:48.939
So, you know, I go over to Italy, I don't know, something like four or five days in advance to get some training. I ski that San Gervasio at Matteo Lutzer is Ski School, which was, was great. I had an Airbnb nearby. And, I mean, my days were very simple, because, again, they're all all oriented around going out to the lake for one, maybe two training sessions, you know, just trying to get that balance just right in my body and mentally. And so, you know, I left, I took off to there, doing this this whole summer. And I guess we can kind of go back to the beginning and just pick up that tab. I will say, I do feel like whatever happens from here, we'll see. We can talk about that a little bit, but I do feel like I'm satisfied that I uncovered my greatest potential, or something pretty close to it, as far as in a day in, day out, season long basis. So I'm going off to the world championships with some pretty lofty expectations. I put out there. You know that I wanted to be on the podium. And then I get over there, and the days are ticking down, and it's like, oh, this is getting very real now, and I don't even know that I'll be able to put words to, let's say those, you know, four or five days that I was in Italy prior to the preliminaries. You know, I be focused on the training. Do my warm ups mentally, go rehearse my my run, get out there, put in the training. But there's still a good amount of day you know, on on either side of that, or say particularly after that, where you know the feeling, the emotional gravity of anticipation that this event is coming, you know, and time is just moving marching towards that it was just inescapable, you know, I try to distract myself. I would watch some things on, you know, Netflix. I would, you know, go to a night a nice restaurant and enjoy the great Italian food. You know, I could, I could try to temporarily pull my mind away from it, but it just, it was kind of impossible. It was just, you know, staring me face to face, you know, from from inches away. It felt like the whole time. And so, the way that it works, the prelim. Aries. I mean, there were about 100 male contestants. Some of those, you know, each country is able to bring a handful of, I think, their top six skiers to the world. Some of them are not, those countries are not as advanced in their skiing, and so some aren't going to be super competitive. But, I mean, there are a pocket of, you know, say, 40 men who are all capable of some pretty incredible skiing, and they're going to take 12 guys into the final. And so knowing that there's just no room for error, and the nature of the sport is such that you have one chance, you got one preliminary round, any Hiccup is going to be disqualifying.
01:10:48.939 --> 01:12:51.039
You're going to be out. You can't make a mistake, you can't miss a gate, you can't have a bad turn somewhere. And so, you know, I've definitely never been as nervous or felt a sense of pressure as great. I mean, I've skied in I don't have many world championships at this point, but I think maybe my expectations, my hopes were high before, but expectations, true expectations may have been more tempered, whereas this time, my hopes were high, my expectations were also right there to match and but it's do or die, and somehow, like that whole week, if it felt like what I was facing was like a death sentence, it felt like this thing is coming and you're going to or you live or die, it's like, either make it out of the the gladiator arena or the lion eats you, like, you know, it sounds silly because it's just a sport. And I try to tell myself that, but ultimately, that's how it feels. And in some ways that's, that's why we do it. You know, it's to get that profound feeling and and that was the most I'd ever felt into that. So anyway, getting to the point the preliminary day comes, you can I had a high seed, so I could kind of see what it was going to take. It looked like it was going to take at least a three at 41 which is, I think, you know, I thought about this, I think prior to this world or if you go back before 2021, three at 41 would have won every single world championship in history prior to this one, this one, that's what was required to get in. Nine people, including myself, ran three at 41 and three people ran four at 41 so there's just a bottleneck right there to qualify in. So I mean, that's it was just a narrow band. And then the last person out got two and a half. So right on the doorstep of three. That was Joel Poland. You know, skied amazing two and a half at 41 is lights out, and he's left to watch on the day of the finals.
01:12:51.880 --> 01:13:05.039
That's got to be maybe the highest score that didn't make the finals ever. Yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah, I remember, yeah. I remember that time when that would have won. It's unbelievable how much easily.
01:13:06.300 --> 01:13:17.220
So, so that's, that's the level, that's what, you know, yeah, I kind of knew all week it's going to be something like that. Sure enough, it was.
01:13:11.640 --> 01:14:20.939
And then, you know, moving along to the finals themselves, you know, people started taking to the water. Everyone is skiing great again. I guess before me Will, Asher goes out there runs a five at 41 that's huge. So all of a sudden you can see, you know, you're going to basically have to get all the way through that pass to, you know, likely be on the podium. And in my part, we mentioned the fireworks. I went out there right after that. I decided for a 35 off start because one direction of the lake seemed like a more optimal gate start situation. Went through the passes, you know, ran 39 pretty well, which felt good. So I'm I can remember still. I have very clear, vivid memory of, I'm in the water. We're about to go at 41 this is kind of everything on the line. And I felt very clear.
01:14:14.039 --> 01:15:17.100
I felt in within myself, you know, I was pepping myself up, but just had a good sense of focus, you know, and carried that into, you know, the gate. I pulled out for the gate with the intention and with the energy that I was hoping to bring as I turned in for the gate, I realized, you know, we're talking about a razor's edge that you have to ride on here, I could sense that it was not perfect, perfect. But, you know, you let that go. Sometimes you overcome that. I had a rather average. One ball, which puts a lot of pressure on two, which is for me, not traditionally a strong turn. My strongest turn, I had, again, a rather average two. So I'm heading over to three, somewhat fast and late.
01:15:18.720 --> 01:17:26.420
You're trying to make the split second decision about, you know, do I try to turn this buoy? And what are the odds that that's going to work? And they seemed very, very slim to make a turn there and go on to the rest of the pass. It certainly seemed like a situation where, you know, maybe, maybe I could scrape to the outside of four ball in a low probability scenario, but almost impossible that I would get further down the pass than that. I think at the time, taking the full three put me in a tie for second or third, something like that. And that's, that's what I came away with. Anyway, long story, third short came with the three immediately, kind of, know, there's still, you know, I think four skiers to go, all of whom obviously are incredibly talented. And, you know, you're not controlling your destiny at that point. So, you know, I came off the water, and it was a, it was a mixed bag of emotions. On the one hand, running three at 41 twice in the world, in the prelims and the finals. You know, historically, that's great. In this tournament, the writing seemed to be on the wall that it was not going to be enough for my goal of being on the podium, which was was the case. You know, ultimately, you know, the highlight was that Nate Smith and Charlie Ross tied with one at 43 they both ran the entire 41 pass. They had to have a runoff. First time that a runoff had ever happened at Worlds, with the skiers going out at 41 Nate Smith ultimately prevailed in the runoff and won, and I kind of fell down the list into a tie for seventh. And, you know, reflecting on that, I'd say, you know, that was maybe a true test of not getting the metric that I'd set I didn't get to bring home that knick knack, that hardware, which would have been very meaningful, would have been very great and exciting.
01:17:20.420 --> 01:18:29.300
But also, when I look at it, as far as the way I trained all season to go to Italy, the training and intention and effort that I gave in the training there and brought into the tournament itself. I mean, I don't find any points that I can argue with, I think what would have been disappointing. They're maximally disappointing. Would have been, you know, I get to that 41 off pass, and then, you know, my I get distracted. I'm not in my focus, yeah, feeling the pressure of the moment and everything, kind of, you know, I start the self talk ramps up and kind of that racing way. And I'm not within myself. That wasn't the case. You know, I felt good about what I did and how I approached it. And I mean, at 41 off, yeah, some the difference between three and the back half of the pass, in one way, is huge, because it takes something really special to get further down the path. But in another way, it's just millimeters, you know, and fractions of miles per hour at the gate, turn in and so on that make that difference.
01:18:29.659 --> 01:19:06.239
And despite, you know, my best effort to get that, that ideal, that perfect razor's edge, you know, I fell off of one side of it and and I can, but I can accept that result, you know, like I can accept it because it's, it's reflective of my skiing. It's not some outlier. I didn't succumb to the pressure mentally. I didn't have some, you know, God, awful thing that just, you know, I've had some just random misfortune in the world in the past that just kind of seems out of the blue, unlucky that didn't happen. And that's part of sports, you know.
01:19:06.239 --> 01:19:30.319
So I'm grateful for that, and I can, I can stand behind those scores and say, you know, that's the best that I could do on those two days. And you know, tying for seventh doesn't sound nearly as fun as bronze medal, silver medal, gold medal, world champion, whatever. But given the competition on on display, I feel pretty good about it.
01:19:30.859 --> 01:20:26.479
You, you are in amazing company to, first of all, just to have made the finals, because let's go back the top 100 in the world. And there's 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of water skiers, so you're in the top 100 in the world that even shows up at Worlds, and then you're in the top 12 to make it to the final so you're already in such rarefied air, and it is microscopically different, but, but what I keep hearing and what I'd love to I think you may have articulated it already, but I'm going to ask it a different. Way is just to say at that point in time, and then we'll get to what happened afterwards, because you came back and we're in a tournament a couple of weeks later, and that's when the ankle thing happened. We'll talk about that, but tell me at that point in time, how were you changed as a result of making a declaration and sort of navigating the journey. How did the journey change you?
01:20:32.119 --> 01:21:12.239
Yeah, I mean, it's, it was a long process, and as it was reaching that point of worlds, you know, I could kind of feel where the season wasn't over. As you mentioned, there were a couple more tournaments to go, but that felt like but that felt like the big one. You know, everyone, I think, had a big emotional release and let down after Worlds. And going back to, you know, I think I joked with a couple of my you know, competitors who are also friends, it's just like we're standing there getting ready for the prelims at Worlds, and I'm like, man, just give me a pro tour stop any day. Like, that's that feels like, you know, it's not once in a lifetime, which is kind of how this sort of felt.
01:21:04.439 --> 01:21:45.159
And so coming out the other side of that, you know, I would say in this situation, I felt a measure of satisfaction just that, as I said, I didn't execute the plan perfectly. With hindsight, I can identify areas that could have been improved, and there could have been greater presence along the way, greater wisdom along the way, but ultimately, you know, and that's just what you learn.
01:21:45.159 --> 01:23:57.460
That's part of life. You gain that wisdom by trying, by the trials and errors. But at no point did I let my intention or commitment or effort waver over that 1000 days. And I can stand behind that statement very firmly. I feel very clear. And I think that there was some relief to, you know, I saw this whole thing through some of the other benchmarks that I had set for myself. They did happen. And, you know, there was some I got to experience the magic of those things, and those will be lifelong memories that I'll get to have. Okay, this one didn't work out the way that you drew it up in your mind, in the ultimate sense, you know, however, like I said, I can fully accept the outcome, because I, you know, I can't judge what I brought to that, and say that I wish that I had done this or that or the other different I can say that maybe with hindsight, there would be a better way to do this or the other thing, and that, you know, I maybe don't have a very long future to make in the sport, just with age, to make all these changes and life circumstance, you Know, to make all these adaptations. But I won't second guess myself, that I was doing the best that I could with the tools and resources, you know, and myself personally, you know, I didn't falter there and and therefore I can, I can accept the the outcome and of the of the whole thing, you know, not just the World Championships themselves, but of the whole process. And be thankful that that idea came to me, that I kind of laid it out, and that, you know, navigated, you know, to go back to the climbing a mountain analogy, it's like, okay, you know what? This was a worthy endeavor. There were, oh, my goodness, hold on. One second. We have a Bluetooth issue. I'm getting music in my ears. Oh, I don't know why.
01:23:50.979 --> 01:24:02.699
That's never our phones do something. This might be an edit situation. I'm thinking it's my wife's music.
01:24:04.920 --> 01:24:07.859
I actually like these little live moments. We may not edit it out.
01:24:09.180 --> 01:24:21.500
It's loud. It's loud too. Let me find my okay. Oh, look, I got it to stop. That was That was interesting. Bob started coming in very loud here.
01:24:21.739 --> 01:24:30.020
That is so classic, because isn't that what happened? It's like the fireworks, you know, right before you ski, or the it's just the unexpected. And look how well
01:24:30.020 --> 01:24:33.560
what I mean people, this is my life all the time.
01:24:33.979 --> 01:24:45.880
But that's the thing. So your negative poll went up. You balanced your pole. You balance your polls. You said what was going on. You could have also, by the way, tried to hide it from me. Said, Oh, I don't want him to have to edit or whatever.
01:24:45.880 --> 01:24:48.039
And then I'm over here going, what's going on with his ear?
01:24:48.039 --> 01:24:55.180
Does he have a like, is it? Did a moth get in there? And is he trying to scratch it out? What's going on? See, I love it. You're you're using your tools.
01:24:56.859 --> 01:25:07.380
But, yeah, you know, I'm glad. Add that from where I stood, I decided to take on the rest of the climb. I'm happy.
01:25:07.500 --> 01:25:39.500
You know, there are, there are maybe other summits. Other people may have looked off of those ones and gotten the view that they got. But for me, I'm, I am fully satisfied that I I reached the peak that was laid out before me to the best that I could, I got the one and only view that I was meant to get that, you know, meshes with my experience. I'm grateful for that. It was an amazing journey.
01:25:33.560 --> 01:26:06.960
It was an amazing chance to look out from that point, and, you know, it's, it's a little bit to be determined what, what the future holds. And this is a very, very open question in my mind at this point. But I think I'm in a different place. I guess, to yourself, like, what has changed? It's that I don't I think before, I kind of felt this compulsive need that's like, I've got to see something.
01:26:06.960 --> 01:26:13.739
I got to see this thing all the way through and just find out what, what that view might be.
01:26:09.479 --> 01:26:52.239
Because I'm not satisfied with the kind of this, this peering through the clouds, or, you know, sometimes they part and I see something, I needed to get up there above that and see what that looks like. I feel like, okay, I've done that now to a satisfying extent. And you know, from here, any other VISTAs will be a bonus and and the amount of effort and energy and priority that will go into those things will have to take their own measure, but that will be a completely different scenario and a completely different journey. This one has has come to its conclusion.
01:26:52.960 --> 01:27:56.439
Well, that's, I think that's so important, because, you know, the funny thing about pyramids, which everything, like everything has a peak. All sports have the, you know, we're about, we're in the run up to the Super Bowl. There's only going to be one Super Bowl winner. But every team that's in the playoffs has achieved something great this year, and many teams that didn't make the playoffs. And you know, when I'm working with people, I have had a couple of clients recently, both who I've coached that were named CEO. So they did make the pinnacle, but I have just as many who didn't or won't and don't want to, you know, because there's only one person at the top of an organization that has that lovely role, which I always say is the one that X marks the spot, because everybody thinks they're going to be in charge, and then they find out, instead of having one boss, they have 20 or more. So, you know, it's like shit rolls downhill. You may not want to be the CEO, but the but the point is, at the top of everything, there's usually only one team, one person, one thing.
01:27:52.000 --> 01:28:07.619
Does that mean the rest of us have waste our lives if we don't get to the top? And what was behind my question, in a way, is recognizing that, really, the goal is the reason for the journey, but the journey is what makes us who we are.
01:28:08.699 --> 01:28:49.539
Yeah, and at least, you know, some of those other goals that I set, like, you know, like winning a pro tour stop, you know, prior to that, you tee that up as a peak, and it's like, well, you know, should I get there somehow that solves all of life's problems, and from here on, like everything is a piece of cake and it's gravy and happily ever after right off into the sunset. And like, that wasn't true, you know? Like, I don't know if it was being cursed with ambition. It's like, okay, cool. Now I can raise my expectations some more and come up with some other grand ideas.
01:28:41.920 --> 01:29:34.279
And so, you know, it's, I know that it's the case that had things even gone differently there, and I got the goal that I set for myself, or whatever it's it's not the end of the road of life either. That doesn't solve all of life's problems. It's not that everything is easy street from here on out, like I probably would have just made me raise an expectation somewhere else and set up a new benchmark to chase after. So you know, in the final analysis, being able to take a look at the whole thing and and and be satisfied that, you know, it had its it had its full arc, it reached where it was supposed to reach, and I can accept it in entirety, like, that's, that's the best thing that I can ask for.
01:29:34.939 --> 01:29:52.420
And you did some really damn fine skiing all all the way leading up to it, like, way beyond what some kid that didn't grow up in the water ski pro world should have ever expected for yourself. I mean, honestly, think about it, it's like you really have done some amazing skiing.
01:29:53.199 --> 01:29:59.920
Yeah, I take a lot of heart in that. And I think some some of that, I'm still a little bit close to it, and even close.
01:30:00.000 --> 01:30:30.800
To in the sense that I'm the future looks like a question mark, like I did. I hurt my ankle at the end of September and and I turned 40 the second of October. So these are kind of like, boom, boom. You know, I've, can't. I went from, you know, kind of being at the top of the world in some ways, to like, I'm limping into age 40, like, Oh, shoot. But I kind of lost a little bit of where I was going with that. But, well, it was
01:30:33.140 --> 01:30:36.439
way beyond. We were just talking about how it was more than you could have expected.
01:30:36.859 --> 01:30:50.319
Oh, I think some of those, I think some of that appreciation, you know, will continue over time, or like, you know, as I'm, you know, my daughter will, more or less, I don't know if she'll ever really see me competing as a pro skier.
01:30:50.319 --> 01:30:53.739
It'll be more in in stories, or certainly my grandchildren.
01:30:53.979 --> 01:31:55.000
It'll be something that, you know, it's a thing of the past, and then I can maybe settle into being proud of. You know that whole thing as it was, whereas right now, I'm still kind of in it, and I still feel that, that fire of ambition that says, like I don't have to in the same compulsive way as before, go make these things happen. But maybe there are still some other fun little peaks along the way that that will feel more like cherries on top and and maybe there won't be, I don't know, but I'm still kind of in living in that space, whereas I feel like there will come a time where, you know, that's clearly moved into the past, and upon reflection, it'll be easier to take in that whole, you know, decades long evolution, and say, like, okay, you know that, yeah, that went a lot further than ever was expected at most of the way through so cool
01:31:55.000 --> 01:32:10.260
well, and there's a lot of people who ski really, really well in their 40s. And I remember, you know, April kobold did, she was on a quest to run 41 at 41 and that's when she did finally run 39 in a tournament and got into 41 which is kind of the equivalent for women,
01:32:12.479 --> 01:32:19.680
April and April. Kobel and Karen, true love both had two kids and then proceeded to do their best skiing afterwards.
01:32:19.680 --> 01:32:58.060
So they they give me a lot of inspiration. I I know enough now by having one child to know that there's a complete seismic shift in everything that happens, to know that I just don't know the shape of things coming. So I'm going to try to take a rather humble approach, and I am not interested in using the stick to beat myself along towards goals anymore, because that's not going to be a positive part of like, my whole life circumstance. But if whatever magic April and Karen found as a parent of two, if I can harness a little bit of that occasionally, well, I'll take it.
01:32:58.420 --> 01:33:03.600
Yeah, absolutely. And mom, you know, moms, moms have their hands full with kids, just like dads do.
01:33:03.600 --> 01:33:07.079
So they even more. So, probably even more. So, yeah,
01:33:07.319 --> 01:33:26.659
so, so tell me what happened at the at the it was at the traverse Grand Prix, and with the, yeah, well, I actually watched some of that, but I came in and I saw you in a boot, and I said, What the hell? And haven't really ever been able to fully piece what happened? So what? What happened to your ankle?
01:33:27.079 --> 01:33:51.279
Yes, it was actually my last practice set before the Travers Grand Prix. The tournament was going to be Saturday, Sunday. I was getting my last training set on Thursday. I was skiing with Andrew Bergman over at Drew Ross's place. I was there for the full week. We were coming out of the master craft pro, you know, I skied. Well, there I got fourth place. Had a Ford 41 I was feeling good about things.
01:33:51.460 --> 01:34:30.199
Had a, you know, a week of skiing. You know, Drew, for those who don't know, Drew, Ross's Lake is, it's like one of those magic lakes. Everything's just got the boat, the driver the lake. Everything's perfect all the time. So I had my motor home right there. My days again were very simple. It was, you know, everything's oriented around training. And, you know, as it happened, I kind of like, okay, this is the traverse Grand Prix, the last event of the season. This is my last chance to make a mark on kind of the end of this 1000 day plan I was I was kind of hitting my stride of skiing, my very, very best.
01:34:30.560 --> 01:34:53.079
And let's make something special happen here. And the training was going great that week. The first day of training, I ran a 41 not up the rope, but ran the second try set next time, ran it right up the rope. You know, now it's the last training day, and so my mind is fully in gear.
01:34:50.680 --> 01:35:04.500
It's like, okay, you know this is what we're going to do. We're going to go right up the rope through 41 because clearly, that's what it's going to take in the traverse Grand Prix.
01:34:58.420 --> 01:36:54.760
Yeah, and was proceeding to go about that got to 41 had the gate one, two for me, and probably for most of my competitors, that's coming off the backside of two is kind of when I really know that either, you know, this pass could go all the way, or, you know, sometimes it's like, oh, you're just skiing for three. Or, you know, you're kind of somewhere in between. This is maybe going to be a four, whatever had that great movement off the backside of two coming into three, which is a, traditionally, my very best turn in the past, kind of thinking, okay, here we go, like we're taking this on again. And, you know, back to back to riding that Razor's Edge, I'm approaching three. I'm kind of getting to my full extension, and just out of my lower vision, I could kind of sense, I mean, we're talking about, in fraction of a second, that the spacing of my ski on the buoy, you know, it suddenly appeared tighter than what my mind anticipated. Like you kind of have a visual expectation of what it's going to look like, and I can still the picture was was tighter. But you know that happens sometimes I was kind of already in full commit mode, so I'm moving through this turn as if to run the pass and my ski, I'm not sure exactly what point, somewhere up on the front or maybe right around the toe of the boot, something like that, you know, ran into the buoy and hit the buoy just enough, you know, and you're going fast, so the skis riding very high in the water, and you don't have a lot of weight on the ski at that's kind of the most weightless point of the pass and of the turn. So it kind of lifted the ski up, and as the ski proceeded to move through its kind of directional rotation and face cross course, now the body of the skis facing down the lake.
01:36:51.159 --> 01:37:04.619
That's when it re engaged with the water. So it's kind of perpendicular to my direction of travel and speed. I actually, I didn't know it at the time, but I actually came through the ski.
01:37:01.439 --> 01:38:32.000
The skis completely snapped in two pieces right in the middle, right between the bindings, and I felt kind of a flash of I felt a flash through my ankle, but it was very sudden, and Maneely, I was concerned with keeping the handle away from my head, so I've kind of keeping the handle up until the boat takes it, you know, and I kind of flipped over, and I'm a little disoriented, and I come up to the surface and get a breath of air, and I'm starting to, I'm trying to collect my bearings, and, you know, determine assess the damages. And so then I all of a sudden see the tail of my ski with the fin float up next to me, and I look over, you know you're not you're not supposed to see your fin floating up by your head. No, that's that's not right. And so I realized my ski was broken at a minimum. And in that moment, I guess a lot of adrenaline, I almost reached to the front of the ski to kind of pull it towards me and and pull it off of my foot. But luckily, at the last minute, thought better of that, because I had sent something in my ankle. I said, Well, just, let's give this a second, you know, boat came back very quick, you know, expert driving got right there platform right to me, kind of said, Hey, are you okay? And I was like, Ah, I felt something in my ankle. Let's just kind of assess, you know, trying to stay calm, I pulled myself up on the platform, and with the front half of my ski, and I just kind of went to shift a little bit of weight onto my right foot in the boot. And the way my ankle moved inside the boot was just very,
01:38:32.600 --> 01:38:36.140
yeah, very and what kind of range, what kind of boot Are you in?
01:38:36.500 --> 01:39:13.079
Well, it was a, it was a D, 3t factor, which is a very high and tight boot. And I also, I lace it up, you know, I realized that with what I was doing, I was running a risk. I'd never had an injury in my career and but I was running that thing as tight. And, in fact, this was my very first set on a brand new boot. So kind of a real coincidence. So they're ultimately tight. And I'm, you know, in my mind, I'm going out there to run 41 I'm snugging myself all the way in. It need not be that way for everyone.
01:39:07.560 --> 01:39:37.399
And so, you know, once I felt that kind of mushy, just very wrong. It was just a very wrong feeling. I realized, okay, you know, something's not right here. We need to go back. And we proceeded to, you know, I had they were very helpful on the dock. There was, you know, Charlie Ross and Neely Ross and Andrew Bergman. And then Lee Ross came over, and they're all unscrewing my boot from the ski, and then we're cutting the boot off of my foot to get out of it.
01:39:38.960 --> 01:40:31.640
Yeah, well, at that point, somewhat the least of my worries. And it's just about at that point, you know, up till then I was, you know, I knew my season was over. I had a lot of adrenaline running through me. I was trying to make jokes and keep calm, and the adrenaline was kind of masking the pain, until my foot kind of came out of that boot, and then, in pretty short order. Yeah, those throbs, those throngs of pain, started coming, and I was like, Alright, guys, we're gonna have to take some action. So then the one person I have to thank just went above and beyond. Lee Ross spent the entire rest of the day taking me to the hospital for X rays, and then we went to a special clinic to get they have a super high tech MRI machine that apparently gets some of the best imaging in the world. We got that done the same day, you know, got it all forwarded, or got it in my chart or whatever.
01:40:28.460 --> 01:40:42.279
But, I mean, and then got my prescriptions filled. She took the entire day, you know, just Yep, just given me encouragement and encourage. Like, I was like, Oh, I was like, Oh, I don't want to take your time to do the Mr.
01:40:42.279 --> 01:41:27.319
She's like, you you need to do this like, you need to knock this out. Get ahead of it. And I'm so thankful, you know, because that moved things along, when I was able to get home and move towards surgery and all that stuff. So, so that's what happened. Yeah, I ended up watching the traverse Grand Prix from the sideline, and got to be in the booth a little bit for commentary. But, you know, in that, in that big old boot, yeah, yeah. And, of course, just a little bit of irony, Freddie winter, who I had had a perfect tie with for five straight rounds going all the way back through preliminaries at the world, world, he won running 41 and I was kind of like, you know, I couldn't help have that.
01:41:24.800 --> 01:42:47.020
I mean, of course, I'm not saying that would have been different, should I have been there, but like, we were kind of on this neck and neck pace, and then he pulled it out and and I couldn't help but think, like, oh, to be there. But on the other, on the other side of that is, I've been trying to reflect on it and like, should I have been there, and either way, had it gone very well for me, or had it gone very not well. I'm not sure how that would have left me to really kind of put this chapter to a close and push it behind. Had it gone, had I won or tied with Freddie and lost in a runoff or or whatever, made made the podium a good result, I would have kind of had that like, oh, you still got it. But like, maybe, you know, if, and the recipe you've been using all this kind of full on effort, you know, maybe if you can find a way to apply that even with your new balance in life, you know, that's, it's going to be tempting, or had it gone somehow, just, you know, completely the wrong way. And I, you know, had a, just a really off performance and not made the finals, it would have left me with this hunger, like, well, that's, I can't believe that happened. I gotta go get redemption, in a way, maybe this one, you know, it was so my first ever injury, serious injury from water skiing at all.
01:42:48.279 --> 01:44:06.779
You know, first ever ankle injury of any magnitude on the last set before the last pro tournament. It's like, you know, it's kind of written in the stars there. It's like, okay, you know, this is just how it was supposed to be for you and and it by breaking up all of my routines and shifting me out of my normal modes of being. You know, it's given me this some more space to reprioritize. And, you know, have I say I still have the momentum and the current of the last few years pushing on me like I kind of know that mode of being, and I do feel like I want to break free of that groove that I've carved because I need to be in a new mode of being. But if anything, that injury is going to have helped that, and it may not mean the best things for skiing, or it may, I guess immediately afterwards, that was the other thing. It's like, and also I got to leave off skiing my best. I had a few of the even through the master craft Pro, I had a few of the best sets of the season. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, all in a row, and then hurt. And it's like, well, if I had to leave off, I'd rather it be at skiing my best versus I got hurt on a random Wednesday in the middle of July at home on a 38 off pass.
01:44:06.779 --> 01:44:20.420
Because, you know, something, anything can happen anytime, apparently. So this was like, okay, I can accept this. And I've been trying to see it as maybe the best thing that could have happened, rather than a negative.
01:44:21.079 --> 01:44:59.859
Well, it did give you a it gave you a transition moment. It gave you like a catalyst for transitioning, like you said, to a different mode of being out of that rut. But what can't what I can't help but mention, is that Freddie, winter come is coming back, or came back from a devastating injury where he broke his femur after hitting a dock two years ago, and like he got the experience of his leg floating unusually in the water after he hit that dog, and he didn't die. Thank God that could have killed him, but then his leg wasn't even in the same place, like I remember him saying his foot didn't land.
01:45:00.576 --> 01:45:13.595
After they did surgery on his leg in the same way, so his body rearranged, and yet he came back. And, you know, had a stellar season this year, amazing season, amazing season.
01:45:13.595 --> 01:45:17.015
And again, that that gave him a reason for the journey, I think.
01:45:17.015 --> 01:45:45.100
And so who knows this injury it sounds like? And this is the next question, of course, you're teeing up, of course, to be a dad of two. And I did what the little bit I got to see if Trevor's Grand Prix, I remember you saying, I've got to get this ankle working by the time my daughter is born, or my new child, I don't remember if you knew it was a daughter then, but my daughter, my child, was born in the in the winter, because I'm going to have to have to be able to help familiar with this child, which I saw you moving.
01:45:42.640 --> 01:45:54.279
You are moving, and you're in rehab and all that. So I've got that. But then it looks like you are at least going to be doing some skiing this year. Is that what I'm putting together? Yeah.
01:45:54.340 --> 01:46:05.460
I mean, we'll open ski school here on April 1, and that's kind of, you know, the target date I have in my mind to be able to start skiing with, with the baby coming next month.
01:46:05.460 --> 01:47:16.199
We kind of didn't, I didn't plan on having any, you know, winter ski trips anyway. We just going to need to be home and and getting our feet on the ground, getting ourselves into a routine. And so, you know, it doesn't, doesn't change that dramatically. And then, I mean, look, I love skiing. I imagine that I'll be doing this for a lifetime, even when, you know, doing it at the elite level is a thing of the past. And I love it. And it's, you know, part of, part of it's in my blood and, and, yeah, this year in particular, as I remember from being a father of a newborn the first time. And you know, it was always kind of part of this three year plan, like, I'm gonna be taking a step back. I'm not going to be taking off chasing the tour around Europe. And you know, for me, it's very hard to be ready to go the first of May, when some of the the tournaments really kick off here in the United States. So I'm taking, kind of taking all the pressure off of that. But, you know, I do love I love this, and I'm going to miss the feelings of being on the dock. I'm going to miss being out there with the guys.
01:47:16.560 --> 01:48:33.199
And, you know, I'm hoping that with a summer of skiing under my belt that as the tour makes its way back to the US in the latter half of the season that I may be able to, you know, get out there and jump into a few, I'd say, at a very minimum, you know, lifestyle depending we're going to be at home with the Baby the two that I would love to do, they usually have the master craft Pro and the traverse Grand Prix in sequence back to back weekends. That's usually in, you know, September, sort of time frame. You know, that's right where I left off last year. I had the master craft Pro and then, and in fact, I had my family knew that this was kind of, you know, the end of an era for me. My two of my aunts and uncles came down, my mom and stepdad and booked a place at Swiss. People were all coming down to cheer me on in this last one. And we ended up hanging out together, you know. And we had a nice weekend of watching the tournament and just enjoying some family time. But I'd like to do at least those two as a bit of redemption tour, like come back Master I love the master craft pro because I ski on a master craft every day.
01:48:30.739 --> 01:48:35.960
It's always one of my favorite events. And then I'd love to get back in the traverse Grand Prix.
01:48:35.960 --> 01:49:10.439
Is an amazing event. And I'd like to kind of see if I can pick up where last year, you know, was and and we'll see, like it's, I don't have any, you know, particular plans for how that's going to go. I just know I'll enjoy being a part of it, and it'll give me a reason and a motivation to train through the season. And if I can find my way into a couple of other ones, you know, California Pro Am, or something like that, then you know, that'll be great. And if I can't, then we'll see what the years beyond this year hold,
01:49:11.219 --> 01:49:53.019
yeah, well, you'll still be home, you'll be a dad, you'll be skiing, you'll be running ski school. And I know the people who come ski with you at Ski School are super happy that this is your dedication and that you create this because for people like us, that I'm in this, I'm in this club of sort of that needing to ski mostly for the feeling of it and not for the accomplishment of it, but but just having a place, having a community, having, you know, a good coach, having good driving, all that stuff, just being able to go show up and get that stuff. There's 1000s of us out there doing this, and we love it. And so I know the people at your ski club are super heavy.
01:49:53.019 --> 01:49:54.158
You're still going to be around,
01:49:55.060 --> 01:50:33.619
yeah, well, I should be around more. And I'm, I'm excited. I'm looking forward to having a. It more bandwidth on the home front and focus on ways that I can add value to that experience for the people that are coming, rather than, you know, kind of being packing a bag and taking off, you know, frequently throughout the summer, including, you know, even training my my staff and making sure that they are, you know, providing their the best experience for everyone that comes, hoping that as the years go along, we can continue to enhance the experience out here for everybody.
01:50:34.880 --> 01:51:18.180
Yeah, it's and you hit a key point, which is training staff to, you know, give the great experience and be as good as you are. You know, that's always the trick in any kind of business. Is, I was just talking to somebody who, who is in business, doing something a little different, but it's similar. It's like one of my other passions, running with horses. And, you know, they just, it's like finding the right people to help you. It matters a lot. They have to be competent at the sport, but they have to want to do it the way you do. And I have no doubt, because I've heard nothing but good things about everybody at your place, that you're doing that as well. But that's where we have to use our words as leaders. You know, you can't go do it for them.
01:51:18.779 --> 01:52:10.020
Well, that's been the part for me, that's been the greatest learning is I have had really great people, and I'm excited about the ones I have coming this year. I think I'm going to have the right type of personnel, and it's going to be a really good crew. But for me, I never set out to be a business owner. I never set out to to be the boss, and that's been a gradual learning process that's kind of evolved, you know, on its own trajectory. And it I was already the boss for a long time before I realized that I was the boss and that, you know, it's my job to communicate well and to train the people on my staff to do what I want them to do, they're not going to just know or vague instructions are not going to lead to the type of results that I'm looking for.
01:52:06.899 --> 01:53:34.939
And that's that's been a learning process for me, one that I'm still very much in, and that's definitely a big goal for me this summer, to to allow myself the space, the time, for present family time and some training time, and to be present with the many things that have to happen to keep the machinery of the business running and not, you know, rabbiting around, picking up loose ends and whatever, actually instilling the ideals of this is how we want To do things. And these are your roles. I'd say, you know, I've had a lot of learning to do on that front, and I'm hoping to to be at my best in that way, because whereas it'll be an upfront investment in time to spend a bit more face to face time and explain the ins and outs of of how we want to run things, there will be a time, save on the back end, where it won't be me seeing it and being like, Okay, well, let me just address that, because I know how I want it done, or not even putting it forward as a suggestion. Because I think to myself, I I know how I want this done in the first place, and it may not get done, right? So I'll just do it. It's like, well, that's that whole way of being has run its course. And like, that's, I know how I feel when I get into doing that, and that can't be the way of this summer.
01:53:30.500 --> 01:53:40.100
So that'll be a new process for me as well, to try to be a better leader. Yes, that's the goal.
01:53:41.180 --> 01:54:16.739
Delegation is a whole thing. I mean, you know, I know people who just have not been able to advance because they have such a hard time doing that, that math of I'll spend an hour with you, which is going to give me eight hours of quality work. They don't want to spend the hour. They don't there. It's like it's faster for me to do it. Well, it's actually not, because you're going to go spend the eight hours now. But, you know, it is back to that discomfort we talked about earlier. Sometimes having those conversations can be more uncomfortable than almost any conversations we have. And so yeah, delegation is the thing, but it's how we grow a business and make a business great.
01:54:16.859 --> 01:56:23.479
So if there's one advantage to getting older, it's that I can see myself a little bit more as the boss and my this year in particular, my staff, the age difference is greater between me and the staff, whereas before, it's like, you know, this is somebody who's also a friend, and we're buddy buddy. But then I also need to say, hey, you need to clean the bathroom. And those were very hard words for me to find, and look somebody and say like, this is part of your duty now, and it needs to get done today, by the way, whereas you know now there's gonna be some fresh blood so we can kind of establish this rapport at the beginning. And with. A with a greater age difference. I think we can be buddy buddies, and we can be friends. And I'm looking forward to that too. That's definitely a part of it. That's just kind of my nature. I want to, you know, I want to be friends. I want to be a nice, nice, caring boss. But also, what I've noticed, too, as time has gone on, is that I've had a great the folks who have come through here have all moved on, obviously, to bigger and better things there, you know, and though it seems that being here has been an important part of their development, and so it's like, oh, okay, you know, my obligation and my role is also as a mentor, and I'm doing someone a disservice if I don't adequately prepare them for the expectations of being in the workplace, because they they have a nice, nice boss who will just kind of run around and do stuff and, you know, not just kind of say, hey, look, these are the expectations. And actually, you know what, you didn't do this exactly the way we wanted to this time. I'm not criticizing your effort, just telling you that next time, this is how we want to try to do it, and that's going to lead to a brighter future and for them to mesh into an organization or to become a mentor and a leader in their own right, somewhere else in life. So that's, that's
01:56:23.479 --> 01:56:27.859
great way to look at it.
01:56:23.479 --> 01:56:51.520
Yeah, that's good. Well, is there anything, as we wrap up, that you would want to say to my audience, like, I always like to close by saying, hey, what would your message be? What would you want them to know? Or is there a request you would have of them, you know, just given what your journey has been, what would you want to pass on that like, in that's almost in that mentoring role that we just talked about, for them to take away, for for today, or for their for their journey?
01:56:52.899 --> 01:57:22.100
Yeah, what I mean trying to stay in the spirit of the conversation. You know, I've been very fortunate that some of those truisms, like, you know, follow your dream and believe in yourself, and all those things, they've sort of lined up with what I've had the opportunity to do. And, you know, I hear it talked about, people kind of say, well, I don't, I don't know what my passion is, or, you know, I want to follow my dreams, but I don't really know how to get from here to there.
01:57:22.699 --> 01:57:26.539
And I think that these things can just take a lot of shapes.
01:57:26.539 --> 01:57:29.960
And I would just point back to rewinding the clock,
01:57:31.220 --> 01:58:12.600
1617, years at that turning point in the road where this, this journey, sort of began for me, or it's it spun off in this new direction that caught traction and went I didn't I knew what my passion was. I knew my passion was skiing. So I know that that's not always the case for everybody. And I'd say that's not to say that that won't come later in life, like I've got at least enough season in me now to know that, you know, even now, I'm taking on new interest, and I'm feeling passion rise in my curiosity and my eagerness to pursue something arise in other areas, aside from water skiing.
01:58:12.779 --> 01:59:00.720
You know, maybe the sun is setting there and and something new will emerge. I don't even know exactly what that is yet, but I'll kind of wait for that call. And so you might be in your 20s, or you might be in your 30s or 40 or whatever, and maybe not have had that full loud like screaming at you. This is what your passion is. But that could still be coming. So I'd say, you know, maybe remain open that that strong force of passion and where you want to get aligned and go after something, it could still be in your future. Don't panic if it's not there yet. And by the same measure, if you kind of do see that and you know where it is. I mean, I guess some things, they have a time horizon, and they can't be put off indefinitely.
01:59:00.840 --> 01:59:14.699
Being an elite athlete would be one of those things. And they kind of came down to that. For me, it's like, you're either going to jump now, you're going to take that leap, or you're never going to take the leap.
01:59:10.619 --> 01:59:17.699
And it was, it was a very open question, and it felt like a very big risk to take the leap.
01:59:17.699 --> 02:04:15.239
So I leap. So I'd say, if you're getting that strong calling, and you find yourself coming to that crossroads. I mean, the only advice that I could give there is take the leap like just even if it doesn't work the way that you expect. It's worth taking that leap. And I can only imagine the regret that could come from, from not doing it, but starting off on that journey, taking it, it may take you an unexpected place, not where your your mind is at the moment, but sounds like, you know, that's the journey that you're meant to go on. If it's showing up in your mind every day, will not quit. And then if you kind of have that vision, and you have a. A known passion, but that time horizon is not so pressing, then I'd say, okay, that's also a really good situation. You know, give yourself the grace that it does not have to come all in one large leap. You know, keep keep dabbling. Just keep that passion in the forefront and see when you'll find yourself at that crossroads, when it's supposed to come. You know, we, I think we just can't always manufacture these things in the way that we want to and also be open to the possibility that working in your field of passion doesn't always have to be the answer, because I can also say from a long enough go at this 1617, years, whatever it's been that I've looked on the other side of the fence and seen the grass greener, thinking to myself, sometimes, Gosh, I wish I could separate my passion field from my work field. And maybe, wouldn't I be happier going and, you know, working for someone else in an unrelated or working for myself even in an unrelated place, but then using this other domain, the passion as an outlet where I just go into my full expression of my own being, and that's a place to channel all of that energy, where, when those two are put together, that could be your ideal scenario, and it has worked out for me, and I found my way through. And I wouldn't change it for anything, that's for sure, but it's not the one and only way. And if you can find a nice harmony where you have sufficient space to pursue that passion, and you'll only know what that sufficient space looks like if you need to carve out more. Maybe you can go at that slowly and keep carving away more to the point where you feel like you've reached the right balance. But I mean, there's no one and only way to maximize that passion and to I feel like what we all want, and what this journey was about, for me is, is kind of finding a full expression of myself. And in water skiing, it's the it's the place where, when I'm on the ski, and, you know, it's a nice, calm summer day, and I can go out there and apply my full mind, body energy, effort to that fleeting moment when things are happening so fast that's in some ways, that's me and my full expression, you know, I can't do anything else the way that I can do that, and it gets there is nothing else existing mentally in that moment. There's nothing else existing physically in that moment. That's that's just a full expression. I feel like we're all wanting ways to find and get to that, and it's going to look different for everybody, and it's going to come at different times and stages of life. But if you, if you start feeling that pull toward something, follow that curiosity and and keep sinking your teeth into it, and, and most of all, man, that's terrible. I was just about to say, make sure you enjoy the journey. And then I realized how absolutely cliche that is. But if you're in that journey somewhere, it is important to try to punctuate some moments with with joy, because I'd say that I'm a firsthand case of going through a lot of the journey, lacking the joy that I think could have come along with it, and keeping the wall between me and that joy, and that's maybe the biggest thing that I want to change in This next season of life is you don't have to to wall off the joy in the pursuit of perfection. I think probably your better results will come when that joy is allowed in to spur you along.
02:04:16.140 --> 02:04:32.359
And as I picture the word journey, all of a sudden, I realize the word joy is embedded within you. Just take the u, r, n, e out, and you've got Joy so And ironically, you are in a spells earn, which is ironic.
02:04:27.380 --> 02:04:34.220
So, yeah, let the joy happen in your journey so it doesn't become your urn
02:04:36.380 --> 02:04:38.659
Exactly. Yeah,
02:04:38.720 --> 02:04:59.020
that's what you've made me do. What you've made me want to do right now is go ski. It's me too, and I am going to wait along with you for the mid we sometimes get skiing by mid March, not for ski school, but Austin and I will pull the boat out as soon as it's warm enough.
02:04:55.600 --> 02:04:59.020
But yeah, we'll be doing that.
02:04:59.020 --> 02:05:03.720
He's down in Florida. Florida right now, and it's pretty, pretty dang chilly down there at the moment. So I'm
02:05:03.779 --> 02:05:06.720
everybody's down in Florida, it's making me jealous.
02:05:07.560 --> 02:05:48.939
Yeah, I know, but I'm gonna go ride a horse instead. I have actually found the feeling of of galloping a horse in a circle, or cantering, or whatever gate we're at that's almost the same feeling as skiing that. And there are these just little moments of joy, which I now have started thinking, you know, I'm just banking little moments of joy, and it's amazing what those little moments of joy do to move me along. Where I used to think being dissatisfied was what was moving me along. And I do think but, but but I think there's back to that dancing the tightrope. There's there's knowing how much to bank on the joy and how much to stay dissatisfied. So you keep coming back for more.
02:05:49.539 --> 02:06:21.439
I think that's the deeper truth that I was wanting to point to when I realized it was going to be very cliche, is that I'm so familiar with having that dissatisfaction be the motivator, and you could just keep teeing that up over and over, even when things are going really great, even when you're having great success, you can just want more, and then it's not enough, and or there's the next thing, and you're not satisfied. So you're dissatisfied until you go there.
02:06:21.859 --> 02:06:43.899
And I've had that also kind of cliche, as some of these goals were happening along my journey. And it everything looks like the picture of like, beautiful wife, beautiful son, thriving business, you know, winning tournaments. You know, Shouldn't that be? Like, this has got to be the best thing.
02:06:43.899 --> 02:08:00.840
Like, in some ways, I was at some of my most inner friction was happening at that time. I wasn't allowing it's almost I maybe was afraid if I let this joy in, like, I'm gonna take my eye off the ball and I'm gonna lose my edge. I gotta keep my edge. And then it was just like, then I'm just edgy. It's all edges everywhere. You know, it's just like, that's all I've got, is edges. And I think now I want to move into a time of life where I'm a bit more round, like, maybe my body can keep some of its edges and not get super round. That would be cool, but, but my mind, I feel like always wanting to be on edge for thinking that that is the recipe for success, is no way of letting the joy and satisfaction really seep in, and I've been very guilty of that through my journey. So it's a cautionary note to say that's a real thing and and maybe rather than saying, enjoy the journey that everyone says it's, don't let your your journey fueled with unbridled passion also make you totally dissatisfied, because it can be so watch out for the warning signs of that. Get your rest. Maybe take the pause you know, back up for a second. Try to find the broader perspective.
02:08:01.619 --> 02:08:38.359
Because it's, I'd say it's too easy. And maybe even when you're closest to your mark, to your peak, it may also be the time where you're somewhat edgiest yourself, like I I don't want to be John Elway getting a Super Bowl, but losing my marriage, you know, it's, I want to keep this this round picture, and I want to live much more, enjoy and and kind of stop smacking myself with a stick of dissatisfaction, you know. And I encourage those. If that resonates with you, we're in it together. Let's figure out how to do this.
02:08:39.139 --> 02:09:41.378
I well, I feel like most everybody in my life, myself, friends, coaching, clients, fellow athletes, all of us, all of us are on that burden. And I've just come to believe that that part of us that is never enough, that feels like we have to have that edge, most of that is not us anyway. It's the voices in our head, self created or created by other people and expectations and just a belief from the outside in that. You know, when we watch people at the you know, staying in the athletic realm, you know, you stay in, you watch them at the press conferences, and you they're explaining what happened. What happened on the golf course, what happened on the you know, we do it in water skiing. What happened after that set? Blah, blah, blah, after the game. And I don't know if you saw this, but the this is just coming to me, the jack Jackson, I think it was the Jacksonville Jaguars team. He was up there explaining why they didn't win.
02:09:38.779 --> 02:10:35.779
And it was close. It's close game. I watched. It was good game. And this woman sports caster came, raised her hand for a question. He called on her, and she said, I'm going to cry thinking about this. And she's a black woman who's older and had that black mama voice going that said, I just want you to be proud of yourself for what you guys have done. And I there I go, getting teary. It's like, we need to hear more voices like that, yeah. And then she had to get on TV and defend herself as if she was a real some people said she wasn't even a real journalist. She goes, I've been a journalist for 25 years, and he just needed to hear they done good, yeah. And so that's a really cool I think, kind of closing message for this podcast, for people is, you know, the arc of the story is you can make a declaration to go on a journey and allow the journey to give you some joy, no matter what happens, right?
02:10:35.899 --> 02:10:56.739
And should we? Should we do this a fifth time? Maybe we can circle up on this point and you can test me to see whether I've been able to move the needle in that way, you know, if I'm letting that, that small me, negative voice, be the driver of the of the bus, or allowing myself to live in in the joy
02:10:57.099 --> 02:11:51.578
I can't imagine us not doing this a fifth time, because it dawned on me. I'm five years into this podcast, and I realized that the podcast, in some ways, is a little bit mirroring the way my banking career went, which was I did not I was the person that had the long, deep client relationships, not the 1000s of shallow client relationships. I was not your one and done banker. When I was your banker. We stayed together and and it's been that way because you are one of several guests that I've had more than once and that I can't imagine not having again, you know. So I think we're just going to probably keep staying in this conversation, and I think there's something really cool to be said for that. So we'll just have to put a bookmark in on coming back and seeing what the season, the season, I'm going to call it, the season of family and roundness looks like for you. Yeah.
02:11:51.639 --> 02:12:01.798
Well, thank you. No, it's going to be an exciting 2026, and I hope that to great one at Mystic waters, and you get a lot of great skiing in and that I see on the trail somewhere. Hello.
02:12:01.800 --> 02:13:19.680
We got to find a way. We haven't skied together in a long time, so we have to find a way to make that happen too. So Well, with that, I'm going to close up this podcast, and for those of you listening, if you would, if you love this podcast, please share it with others, because this word needs to get out. And this is a this was a very special one, so I want the word to get out around this one if you want to continue following me, I am not on the socials much right now, but I am continuing to put good work out in the world on my coaching digest. And you can go to Lynn at Lynn, or, wait, that's not my email. Let's go to my website, Lynn carnes.com and you can sign up for my coaching digest right there. With that, we'll see you on the next podcast. Thank you for listening to the creative spirits unleash podcast. I started this podcast because I was having these great conversations, and I wanted to share them with others. I'm always learning in these conversations, and I wanted to share that kind of learning with you. Now what I need to hear from you is what you want more of and what you want less of. I really want these podcasts to be a value for the listeners. Also, if you happen to know someone who you think might love them, please share the podcast and, of course, subscribe and rate it on the different apps that you're using, because that's how others will find it. Now, I hope you go and do something very fun today.
02:13:17.399 --> 02:13:19.680
You.
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.320
00:00:13.859 --> 00:01:12.421
00:01:08.430 --> 00:02:40.099
00:02:40.099 --> 00:02:51.039
00:02:51.699 --> 00:03:04.620
00:03:05.699 --> 00:03:33.020
00:03:33.680 --> 00:04:10.800
00:04:10.800 --> 00:05:02.879
00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:49.540
00:05:46.180 --> 00:06:15.420
00:06:17.279 --> 00:06:45.100
00:06:45.100 --> 00:08:03.240
00:08:04.019 --> 00:08:16.199
00:08:18.720 --> 00:08:32.539
00:08:33.798 --> 00:08:46.298
00:08:43.298 --> 00:08:51.938
00:08:49.178 --> 00:09:34.038
00:09:36.139 --> 00:10:16.679
00:10:17.940 --> 00:11:14.879
00:11:11.700 --> 00:12:42.639
00:12:43.659 --> 00:12:54.940
00:12:54.938 --> 00:13:29.539
00:13:27.379 --> 00:14:41.980
00:14:44.019 --> 00:16:11.639
00:16:12.419 --> 00:16:59.679
00:17:01.240 --> 00:18:11.279
00:18:08.700 --> 00:19:18.720
00:19:20.339 --> 00:20:19.200
00:20:20.279 --> 00:20:43.539
00:20:43.539 --> 00:20:45.940
00:20:43.539 --> 00:20:54.940
00:20:51.339 --> 00:21:45.460
00:21:46.180 --> 00:22:15.299
00:22:16.559 --> 00:24:55.420
00:24:56.680 --> 00:24:59.920
00:25:02.160 --> 00:25:03.960
00:25:03.960 --> 00:25:37.880
00:25:34.700 --> 00:26:28.220
00:26:28.220 --> 00:28:13.619
00:28:09.240 --> 00:29:31.220
00:29:31.220 --> 00:30:16.079
00:30:16.079 --> 00:30:21.680
00:30:21.859 --> 00:30:32.299
00:30:30.680 --> 00:30:32.299
00:30:33.019 --> 00:30:36.440
00:30:36.500 --> 00:30:58.059
00:30:58.119 --> 00:31:01.920
00:31:01.919 --> 00:31:38.959
00:31:39.740 --> 00:31:43.599
00:31:43.599 --> 00:32:32.180
00:32:32.539 --> 00:33:19.500
00:33:21.119 --> 00:33:50.920
00:33:52.240 --> 00:34:00.099
00:34:00.279 --> 00:34:28.280
00:34:25.039 --> 00:35:33.139
00:35:34.039 --> 00:36:02.579
00:35:59.559 --> 00:36:44.739
00:36:40.179 --> 00:37:13.260
00:37:13.679 --> 00:37:20.880
00:37:18.300 --> 00:37:37.219
00:37:38.539 --> 00:38:13.500
00:38:10.860 --> 00:38:51.699
00:38:51.699 --> 00:38:59.739
00:38:59.739 --> 00:39:51.039
00:39:51.760 --> 00:40:20.659
00:40:21.980 --> 00:41:38.780
00:41:39.139 --> 00:41:40.719
00:41:42.159 --> 00:42:10.440
00:42:10.559 --> 00:43:23.059
00:43:23.059 --> 00:43:33.199
00:43:33.980 --> 00:43:37.460
00:43:37.460 --> 00:43:43.539
00:43:43.539 --> 00:43:45.639
00:43:43.539 --> 00:44:01.980
00:43:57.519 --> 00:44:20.579
00:44:20.579 --> 00:44:23.900
00:44:24.079 --> 00:44:48.340
00:44:48.340 --> 00:44:52.119
00:44:48.340 --> 00:45:36.260
00:45:30.739 --> 00:45:54.880
00:45:55.478 --> 00:45:57.518
00:45:57.519 --> 00:46:05.159
00:46:06.599 --> 00:46:13.079
00:46:13.139 --> 00:46:37.159
00:46:37.280 --> 00:46:58.420
00:47:00.579 --> 00:47:06.000
00:47:06.000 --> 00:47:08.699
00:47:09.960 --> 00:49:26.780
00:49:27.019 --> 00:49:52.119
00:49:47.500 --> 00:50:18.840
00:50:20.219 --> 00:51:56.800
00:51:59.079 --> 00:52:26.000
00:52:26.900 --> 00:52:42.699
00:52:39.679 --> 00:53:34.099
00:53:34.639 --> 00:54:31.159
00:54:31.579 --> 00:54:33.320
00:54:35.119 --> 00:55:42.760
00:55:44.380 --> 00:56:14.039
00:56:14.039 --> 00:56:33.440
00:56:33.440 --> 00:57:02.099
00:57:02.940 --> 00:57:12.360
00:57:08.159 --> 00:57:28.280
00:57:29.780 --> 00:58:14.760
00:58:14.760 --> 00:58:18.179
00:58:14.760 --> 00:58:34.280
00:58:34.280 --> 00:58:46.960
00:58:46.960 --> 00:58:49.539
00:58:50.079 --> 00:59:20.099
00:59:17.099 --> 01:00:26.599
01:00:22.280 --> 01:00:55.239
01:00:55.599 --> 01:01:20.900
01:01:20.900 --> 01:01:53.860
01:01:49.780 --> 01:02:18.480
01:02:15.059 --> 01:03:14.460
01:03:14.579 --> 01:03:40.219
01:03:41.000 --> 01:04:06.840
01:04:07.920 --> 01:04:28.519
01:04:29.480 --> 01:04:39.019
01:04:36.500 --> 01:05:21.860
01:05:22.579 --> 01:06:51.460
01:06:52.179 --> 01:07:03.239
01:07:03.239 --> 01:07:13.800
01:07:10.559 --> 01:07:30.019
01:07:26.659 --> 01:10:48.939
01:10:48.939 --> 01:12:51.039
01:12:51.880 --> 01:13:05.039
01:13:06.300 --> 01:13:17.220
01:13:11.640 --> 01:14:20.939
01:14:14.039 --> 01:15:17.100
01:15:18.720 --> 01:17:26.420
01:17:20.420 --> 01:18:29.300
01:18:29.659 --> 01:19:06.239
01:19:06.239 --> 01:19:30.319
01:19:30.859 --> 01:20:26.479
01:20:32.119 --> 01:21:12.239
01:21:04.439 --> 01:21:45.159
01:21:45.159 --> 01:23:57.460
01:23:50.979 --> 01:24:02.699
01:24:04.920 --> 01:24:07.859
01:24:09.180 --> 01:24:21.500
01:24:21.739 --> 01:24:30.020
01:24:30.020 --> 01:24:33.560
01:24:33.979 --> 01:24:45.880
01:24:45.880 --> 01:24:48.039
01:24:48.039 --> 01:24:55.180
01:24:56.859 --> 01:25:07.380
01:25:07.500 --> 01:25:39.500
01:25:33.560 --> 01:26:06.960
01:26:06.960 --> 01:26:13.739
01:26:09.479 --> 01:26:52.239
01:26:52.960 --> 01:27:56.439
01:27:52.000 --> 01:28:07.619
01:28:08.699 --> 01:28:49.539
01:28:41.920 --> 01:29:34.279
01:29:34.939 --> 01:29:52.420
01:29:53.199 --> 01:29:59.920
01:30:00.000 --> 01:30:30.800
01:30:33.140 --> 01:30:36.439
01:30:36.859 --> 01:30:50.319
01:30:50.319 --> 01:30:53.739
01:30:53.979 --> 01:31:55.000
01:31:55.000 --> 01:32:10.260
01:32:12.479 --> 01:32:19.680
01:32:19.680 --> 01:32:58.060
01:32:58.420 --> 01:33:03.600
01:33:03.600 --> 01:33:07.079
01:33:07.319 --> 01:33:26.659
01:33:27.079 --> 01:33:51.279
01:33:51.460 --> 01:34:30.199
01:34:30.560 --> 01:34:53.079
01:34:50.680 --> 01:35:04.500
01:34:58.420 --> 01:36:54.760
01:36:51.159 --> 01:37:04.619
01:37:01.439 --> 01:38:32.000
01:38:32.600 --> 01:38:36.140
01:38:36.500 --> 01:39:13.079
01:39:07.560 --> 01:39:37.399
01:39:38.960 --> 01:40:31.640
01:40:28.460 --> 01:40:42.279
01:40:42.279 --> 01:41:27.319
01:41:24.800 --> 01:42:47.020
01:42:48.279 --> 01:44:06.779
01:44:06.779 --> 01:44:20.420
01:44:21.079 --> 01:44:59.859
01:45:00.576 --> 01:45:13.595
01:45:13.595 --> 01:45:17.015
01:45:17.015 --> 01:45:45.100
01:45:42.640 --> 01:45:54.279
01:45:54.340 --> 01:46:05.460
01:46:05.460 --> 01:47:16.199
01:47:16.560 --> 01:48:33.199
01:48:30.739 --> 01:48:35.960
01:48:35.960 --> 01:49:10.439
01:49:11.219 --> 01:49:53.019
01:49:53.019 --> 01:49:54.158
01:49:55.060 --> 01:50:33.619
01:50:34.880 --> 01:51:18.180
01:51:18.779 --> 01:52:10.020
01:52:06.899 --> 01:53:34.939
01:53:30.500 --> 01:53:40.100
01:53:41.180 --> 01:54:16.739
01:54:16.859 --> 01:56:23.479
01:56:23.479 --> 01:56:27.859
01:56:23.479 --> 01:56:51.520
01:56:52.899 --> 01:57:22.100
01:57:22.699 --> 01:57:26.539
01:57:26.539 --> 01:57:29.960
01:57:31.220 --> 01:58:12.600
01:58:12.779 --> 01:59:00.720
01:59:00.840 --> 01:59:14.699
01:59:10.619 --> 01:59:17.699
01:59:17.699 --> 02:04:15.239
02:04:16.140 --> 02:04:32.359
02:04:27.380 --> 02:04:34.220
02:04:36.380 --> 02:04:38.659
02:04:38.720 --> 02:04:59.020
02:04:55.600 --> 02:04:59.020
02:04:59.020 --> 02:05:03.720
02:05:03.779 --> 02:05:06.720
02:05:07.560 --> 02:05:48.939
02:05:49.539 --> 02:06:21.439
02:06:21.859 --> 02:06:43.899
02:06:43.899 --> 02:08:00.840
02:08:01.619 --> 02:08:38.359
02:08:39.139 --> 02:09:41.378
02:09:38.779 --> 02:10:35.779
02:10:35.899 --> 02:10:56.739
02:10:57.099 --> 02:11:51.578
02:11:51.639 --> 02:12:01.798
02:12:01.800 --> 02:13:19.680
02:13:17.399 --> 02:13:19.680
