Progress and Prosper

Welcome back to: SHUFFLE SUNDAY
Great for those who enjoy cycling, stoicism or physical endurance.

Have an incredible day filled with progression and prosperity,
Seve and Carla💙☺️

Podcast: “The Daily Stoic” with Ryan Holiday (10/11/21 - 1hr11mins)
Olympian Kate Courtney on Optimisation, and Embracing the Process
Kate is a world champion BMX rider and aspiring stoic. She and Ryan discuss the role of stoicism in sport, loving what you do, winning v losing, the olympics, peaking at the right times, recovery, balancing rituals within routines and making progress. Enjoy :) :)
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/olympian-kate-courtney-on-optimization-and-embracing/id1430315931?i=1000541373286

3 Main Takeaways:
- OUTCOME: We are often so outcome dependent, our joy, sense of self-worth and commitments should not be based on what is outside of our control; the result and instead on our love of the process. That’s how Kate knows she’s chosen the right career path, SHE WOULD DO IT FOR FREE. Of course the outcome is still important and winning feels far better than losing. However no one wins all the time, teams may win a few championships in a row but still lose multiple games during the season. Ryan believes the aim is to get to a point of indifference between winning and losing, not that you don’t prefer winning but love the process so much that you are also happy losing. ACTION ITEM #1: Find a career that inspires you to put in the hard yards day in and day out, your performance and satisfaction will be greatly improved.

- PEAKING: Competing, writing, exercising, analysing at the highest level can be tiresome, RECOVERY IS A NON-NEGOTIABLE. Kate particularly struggles with taking time out for recovery as she always wants to be go-go-go. However you can’t operate at your peak for overly extended periods of time, at some stage, the overtraining will catch up with you. Her coach frames it “Do you want to be fast now or fast later?” Recovery prepares you for peak performance for when it matters. The misplaced belief of “resting when I’m dead” will only bring down long-term performance. Life is a sprint not a marathon. ACTION ITEM #2: Come up with a plan that incorporates recovery and prioritises long-term performance with correct peak times.

- UNCOOL: Kate and Ryan also mention the opportunities often overlooked by world class athletes because they’re uncool. This includes recovering properly, saying no lots, not committing to sponsors you don’t completely believe in… A perfect example is the ‘granny throw’ from the free-throw line in basketball. It has been shown to be more effective but is not embraced because of how uncool it is. Embrace the uncool if it brings better performance.

Best Quotes:
“I’ve lost far more races than I’ve won”
“Being devastated by the olympics shows how much I care and how hard I worked to get there”
“Do you want to be fast now or fast later?”
“Perfection is the enemy of good”
“We don't like sitting with uncertainty, so we make stuff up that allows us to feel more certain”

Other Episodes Like This:
- Kate Courtney, Mountain Bike World Champion, shares everything she’s done to reach the pinnacle of her sport, “Whoop Podcast” with Will Ahmed (17/4/19 - 1hr21mins)
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/kate-courtney-mountain-bike-world-champion-shares-everything/id1445509665?i=1000435113169

- Kate Courtney, “Just Women’s Sports” with Kelley O’Hara (1/7/21 - 1hr10mins)
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/kate-courtney/id1522055041?i=1000527389282

- MTB World Champion Kate Courtney, “Ask A Cycling Coach” with Nate Pearson, Jonathan Lee and Chad Timmerman (21/8/20 - 1hr45mins)
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/mtb-world-champion-kate-courtney/id1035433041?i=1000488693882

Kate Courtney Ryan Holiday Daily Stoic

Welcome back to: FAST 4 FRIDAY
This week’s topic: BUILDING A BUSINESS

Have an incredible day filled with progression and prosperity,
Seve and Carla💙☺️

- Podcast: “Founder’s Journal” with Alex Lieberman (25/10/21 - 14mins)
How to Start Building #1: Overcome Builder’s Block
Builder’s Block is a spin on the old ‘Writer’s Block’; something many of you will probably have experienced before. BB is the feeling of overwhelm or feeling stuck when trying to build a business or expressing your creative ideas in business format. It’s the fear of the unknown and the comfortability with what you’re already good at. In this mini series of How to Start Building your own business, Alex recommends sitting as much as possible in the discomfort of BB. Changing your environment will also help to spark a breakthrough and push past the block. Another important aspect is simply taking a break from your business’ startup work, doing something else and then coming back to it. Alex also recommends reaching out to people you trust or even the audience that your business will target - there is valuable information and advice within there!! These tips will help you to push past your own BB and into a space of business idea creation and development.
“It’s like jumpstarting a car: building up this intellectual momentum through other work puts you in a better position to break through the Builder’s Block once you return to the work that was causing it”
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/founders-journal/id1509276485?i=1000539604445

- Podcast: “Founder’s Journal” with Alex Lieberman (27/10/21 - 17mins)
How to Start Building #4: How Entrepreneurs Think
There are 3 ways of thinking when it comes to entrepreneurs. 1. Being an Obsessive Thinker - they think about their business morning and night. Time you spend thinking about your business, especially in the early days, is so important. Improve your quality of thinking by the quantity of your thinking. You can cultivate obsessive entrepreneur thinking through creating momentum on something you find interesting. Osmosis will also help you as we mimic the behaviours of those we spend the most time with. 2. Someone Who Is a Mature Thinker - these entrepreneurs are independent thinkers and seek the truth, not seeking to be right. They also understand their circle of competence and it’s boundaries. 3. Momentum Thinking - this is for the entrepreneurs who default to action rather than waiting for someone else to create their idea. They are a force of nature and aggressively map out their business. They make things happen, NOW.
“Everything is an opportunity to learn”
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/founders-journal/id1509276485?i=1000539861967

- Podcast: “The Playbook” with David Meltzer (5/8/21 - 19mins)
Building a Business That’s Never Been Done Before with Jim McKelvey: Co-Founder of Square & Founder of Invisibly
In building a business, Jim believes we should combine hubris with humility and push forward with our ideas despite not knowing what you may be doing. Starting your own business from scratch is a learning process and you have to push past the discomfort of not knowing to be able to keep pushing the needle forward. Reach out to people who are in a position that you want to be in and ask for their advice. Listen to their ideas. Most of your time will be spent on an already solved problem, but see if there is a way where your business can tackle said problem better than others. How will you differentiate? Be honest with your business and remain vulnerable with your audience. People value honesty, not a quick fix product that has warts all over it.
“People tend to overemphasise the past and underweight the future”
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-playbook/id1271087930?i=1000531066531

- Podcast: “The GaryVee Audio Experience” with Gary Vaynerchuk (15/11/21 - 13mins)
How to Get Your First 1,000 Followers on any Social Media Platform
In building your business, Gary points out that the majority of people are all about ‘I’ - if your filter is 100% selfish in creating profit and business success - you will not be successful. Anyone can become a creator nowadays, it is a simple game of supply and demand. Who can get people’s attention? If you speak the truth, are vulnerable and don’t inflate the backstory of your business, what you’re capable of and why you’re doing it, then you will gain traction. Context is what drives a lot of business success - listen to your audience to see where the next place is for you to go. Understand the global economy and contextualise now. What can YOU DO for your audience? Simply start with the person next to you. Don’t be selfish, tap into vulnerability and help whoever is there. Always reply to your DM’s and become religious about your audience - they are the ones that will become free word-of-mouth advertising for you. Stay on your course. Look at what your business spending is like - can you spend more humbly? The market ultimately decides the success of your startup, not your self esteem.
“Kindness and being a human always wins in the end”
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-garyvee-audio-experience/id928159684?i=1000541954969

Morning Brew David Meltzer Gary Vaynerchuk

Welcome back to: WELLNESS WEDNESDAY
Must listen for those struggling with their sleep!

Have an incredible day filled with progression and prosperity,
Seve and Carla💙☺️

Podcast: “The Doctor’s Farmacy” with Dr. Mark Hyman (8/11/21 - 1hr27mins)
Eliminate Toxins, Reduce Stress And Exercise For Better Sleep: Part III
This compilation episode features guests Dr. Mark Burhenne, Dr. Mary Pardee, Dr, Judy Hinojosa, Dr. Afrouz Demeri and Mike Mutzel on the impacts of stress, exercise and toxins on our sleep. We learn just how important consistent exercise is and how certain breathing techniques are crucial for a great night’s sleep. Enjoy :) :)
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-doctors-farmacy-with-mark-hyman-m-d/id1382804627?i=1000541097273

3 Main Takeaways:
- EXERCISE: Everyone knows that exercise is great for sleep, physical exertion encourages us to go to sleep earlier to recharge. It also plays a critical role in core temperature regulation. When we exercise blood rushes to the surface, which causes the rosey red skin associated with working up a sweat and excessively warm skin. With better regulation we can trigger a decrease in core body temperature before bed which triggers sleep onset. It has also been linked with increased restorative deep sleep. The experts recommend aerobic exercise as it does not stress the body quite as much as resistance training, so if you’re in need of particularly good sleep, opt for a walk, jog or run over heavy weights. They also advise exercising earlier in the day if possible. Consistency is more important than when, however if it can work with your schedule sometime in the morning will provide the best benefit for sleep. ACTION ITEM #1: Incorporate daily exercise into your mornings (brownie points for aerobic exercise and whilst in a fasted state).

- TOXINS: Humans are entirely made up of bacteria. Therefore anything harmful to bacterial species is almost definitely harmful to us, the most common of which, fungal toxins. These toxins can be ingested through food, liquids, air and our skin. It is critical we minimise our intake of these toxins at all costs, less we feel groggy and irritable all day despite other life factors going our way. Firstly, improve your sleeping environment. We spend a third of our lives (possibly half) in bed. It is critical that we have an environment that is conducive to high sleep quality. A common hiding place for toxins is your mattress. Various chemicals are used in all products to reduce other risks such as flammable materials, unfortunately these chemicals have nasty side effects. So what can you do? ACTION ITEM #2: Buy an organic mattress or one that is more than 7 years old. 7 years is thought to be the amount of time to off gas a mattress. The same applies to new cars. Ideally we want to remove the toxins through sunlight or high temperatures so the chemicals can be off-gassed. Lastly, we want to improve our ability to detox by increasing Glutathione; the king of detoxification. Your best bet, cruciferous vegetables like avocado and broccoli. An air filter and lots of outdoor airflow is also highly recommended.

- BREATHING: A major barrier to a good night's sleep is stress. Anyone who has a particularly challenging day coming up can attest to the inability to fall asleep while your brain is running at 100 mile an hour. Our bodies natural de-stressor is the breath. The experts recommend 2 options however there are hundreds of effective techniques. The first is the 4-7-8. Breathe in for 4, hold for 7 and out for 8. On the way out focus on the diaphragm and exhaling completely. The longer exhale helps engage our parasympathetic nervous system which reduces stress. The second option is alternate nostril breathing. Breathe in through one nostril, then out the other, alternating each time. This engages both hemispheres of the brain. ACTION ITEM #3: Try either technique whenever you feel stressed or wake up in the middle of the night. If you do wake up in the middle of the night, use it as the perfect opportunity to practise your breathing.

Best Quotes:
“If you’re living in toxins, you can’t really detox”
“Children are much more susceptible to the side effects of blue light exposure”
“Sleep onset is thought to be triggered by a decrease in core body temperature”
“You need to have a fitness level to have really good sleep quality”
“With exercise, consistency is king”

Other Episodes Like This:
- How To Eat And Optimise Your Hormones For Quality Sleep: Part II, “The Doctor’s Farmacy” with Dr. Mark Hyman (1/11/21 - 1hr28mins)
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-doctors-farmacy-with-mark-hyman-m-d/id1382804627?i=1000540365661

- Why Routine Is Key For Sleep: Part I, “The Doctor’s Farmacy” with Dr. Mark Hyman (25/10/21 - 1hr9mins)
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-doctors-farmacy-with-mark-hyman-m-d/id1382804627?i=1000539569878

Welcome back to: PEOPLE SKILLS SATURDAY

Have an incredible day filled with progression and prosperity,
Seve and Carla💙☺️

Podcast: “Move Your Mind” with Nick Bracks (19/7/21 - 58mins)
Keyen Lage - Emotional Intelligence Coach
Keyen is a former NFL athlete turned emotional intelligence coach after a career ending injury. He and Nick discuss his career change, balancing out motivation, finding/not finding your purpose, living a meaningful life, encouraging service, gaining confidence and not comparing your life to others. Enjoy :) :)
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/move-your-mind-with-nick-bracks/id1524245038?i=1000529259825

4 Main Takeaways:
- MOTIVATIONAL BALANCE: Keyen has found in his experience that most people move towards the extremes of approaching life especially around motivation; laissez-faire or ultra achiever. The key is finding the balance, ensuring enough downtime to avoid burnout and concentrating on the specific tasks that are most important but having enough drive to reach your potential. It’s also critical to get out of survival mode, you can’t keep pushing yourself to breaking point and not expect it to take a toll on your performance (particularly long-term.) Rest is important, schedule it in consistently, rather than waiting for ‘when this happens.’ There will always be another goal to achieve which will put rest on the back-burner. ACTION ITEM #1: Schedule in rest and avoid waiting for you to achieve a goal to be happy or do things you enjoy, life is too precious.

- CONFIDENCE: Confidence comes from small wins, compounding together to create a stronger sense of self and belief in your own capabilities. ACTION ITEM #2: Look for any small way to step out of your comfort zone and into your peak self, especially when you’re afraid of what others may think. One of the cruxes of human nature is our dependence on others. We are often slaves to the behaviour we think others expect from us. More often than not though, people just aren’t that interested in what you’re doing. Keyen encourages his clients to develop the courage required to overcome this fear of rejection and be yourself. If your environment is inhibiting your growth, consider moving cities or even countries to change your perspective on what you should and shouldn't accept from those around you.

- CAREER PATH: As unique as every individual, the typical career path is no longer typical and therefore it is crucial for all young adults or even adults to take inventory of their values, skills as well as passions and consider how well their career path matches up. If you’re not making these decisions for you, then YOU will never be happy even if the path turns out ‘well.’ For example, many people have mentioned to Nick that they wanted a career in speaking. But speaking about what? Being a speaker is only a viable career if you have something to talk about. ACTION ITEM #3: Are you making that decision because it feels right for your values or because you like the sound of it? There’s a big difference.

- BE SELFISH: Keyen and Nick advocate for being selfish. In the long-run everyone will always put their interests first, humans are hardwired to do so for survival. However there is a great overlap between service and selfishness. It feels wonderful to give and serve so encourage yourself and others to serve by doing it for the purpose of feeling better about yourself, it's magical that you can feel so good and be helping others at the same time. Often this gets discouraged by society, expecting people to be faultless and only contribute for selfless reasons, but if this can encourage more people to help, then it's a strategy worth considering.

Best Quotes:
“It’s going to be terribly difficult to make substantial changes if you’re in an environment that is keeping you in your previous role”
“Give yourself permission to emotionally align with the thing you want before it shows up”
“You don’t get balance through consciously trying to get balance”
“Everyone wants power but nobody wants to put in the time and energy to actually earn it”
“If anything that you’re doing for that external reason, even if you achieve it, you’re still not going to be happy”

Other Episodes Like This:
Living An Epic Life - Keyen Lage, “Self Love Podcast” with Kim Morrison (30/3/21 - 1hr2mins)
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/slp-57-living-an-epic-life-with-keyen-lage/id1529976524?i=1000513156831
From NFL/Dream Life to Rock Bottom: How to Rise Through Adversity and Find Purpose Again, “Pursuit Of Bliss” with kristen Jenna (28/5/20 - 1hr4mins)
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/from-nfl-dream-life-to-rockbottom-how-to-rise-through/id1456196922?i=1000476004273
Tapping into your inspiration with Keyen Lage, “Align By Design” with Amy Elizabeth and Liz Coyles (9/2/21 - 42mins)
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/from-nfl-dream-life-to-rockbottom-how-to-rise-through/id1456196922?i=1000476004273

Nick Bracks

Welcome back to: FINANCE THURSDAY
An interesting episode that investors would enjoy, or anyone with a love for creativity and writing!

Have an incredible day filled with progression and prosperity,
Seve and Carla💙☺️

Podcast: “Invest Like the Best” with Patrick O’Shaughnessy (22/6/21 - 58mins)
Howard Marks - Embracing the Psychology of Investing
Howard Marks is the Co-Founder of Oaktree Capital and a leading investment manager. He is also the Trustee and Chairman of the Investment Committee at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In this episode, Patrick and Howard discuss his love for writing, creativity, equity investments, learning from doing and daring to be great. Enjoy :) :)
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/howard-marks-embracing-the-psychology-of-investing/id1154105909?i=1000526371628

3 Main Takeaways:
- LEARNING: Howard Marks has been writing memos since the first published one back in 1990. He shared with Patrick that writing for him was a means to learn. Writing was and still is a creative outlet and Howard’s memos gave him the enjoyment to freely write and think deeply. He believes anyone can write if you feel you have something interesting to share. It could be extremely niche, to very well known, but anybody can write! Howard also believes that writing can make complex things simple if you can think them through in a way to communicate them clearly. ACTION ITEM #1: What could you write about? What could you learn more about through writing? This is not about writing an essay, but just simply letting the pen flow with ideas.

- DARE TO BE GREAT: Investing is made up of people, the markets are made up of people and they don’t always behave the way they’re supposed to. We have to be able to understand what’s going on when the market doesn’t work. Daring to be Great is being able to have the investing discipline to not follow the crowd. It’s doing the opposite of what everyone seems to be doing. Daring to be Great correlates to Howard’s price psychology - behaving differently at certain junctures. If someone tells you to buy a certain stock on a high and sell if it drops low, DARE TO BE GREAT and do the opposite. Buy low and hold. If you want great performance, you have to do something different. ACTION ITEM #2: Do you dare to be different? Do you dare to be wrong? Do you dare to be looked at wrong before being known as right all along? Your success comes from outperforming others, not the end result of numbers. You’ll never get fired or criticised for following the crowd…what do you choose to do?

- RISK: There will always be risk when it comes to investing, but you have to be willing to invest an amount of money that you are willing to part with if something goes wrong. The goal for an investment portfolio in Howard’s mind is to have a high return portfolio, not a high risk one. In saying this, you cannot quantify risk in advance as that’ll end in a bad outcome. You can’t tell risk after an investment is made because you don’t have the probability distribution - you just have what happened eg: buying a stock at $100 and selling for $200 - where is the risk? For more information about risk and investing, we suggest reading a few of Howard’s memos to get a better understanding!!

Best Quotes:
“Family and friends are the greatest value”
“Nothing in investing works all the time because the environment is multi-variant and changing”
“Dare to be great”
“It’s important to deviate away from the crowd”
“You don’t have to be right, but the person who makes the best judgments will have the best investment results”

Other Episodes Like This:
- Howard Marks - How to Invest with Clear Thinking, “The Tim Ferriss Show” with Tim Ferriss (25/9/18 - 1hr59mins)
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-tim-ferriss-show/id863897795?i=1000420420376
- Howard Marks: Luck, Risk and Avoiding Losers, “The Knowledge Project” with Shane Parrish (5/3/19 - 1hr32mins)
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/53-howard-marks-luck-risk-and-avoiding-losers/id990149481?i=1000431129770
- The Rewind: Dare to Be Great, “The Memo” with Howard Marks (29/4/21 - 55mins)
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-rewind-dare-to-be-great/id1521551570?i=1000519232289

Howard Marks Patrick O'Shaughnessy