Habits and Hustle - Episode 69: Eric Byrnes – 11-Year MLB Outfielder, 11x Ironman Triathlete, and Entrepreneur

Episode Date: June 23, 2020

Eric Byrnes is an 11-Year MLB Outfielder, 11x Ironman Triathlete, and Entrepreneur. Funnily he isn’t one for labels but is defined by what you do. Still, it’s hard to ignore his laundry list of accomplishments. Jen and Eric discuss the nature of his tactics for achieving his success, the wisdom of his late father, his experience with the MLB, as a marathon runner, a triathlete, and even the books he loves. Wanting a gaze into the mind of someone who truly sees no limits for the human body? Whether it’s just doing that one thing to get you started, or running 44 miles for your 44th Birthday Eric has the intensity, the drive, the experience, and a remarkably positive outlook to show what potential every person has wherever they are in life. Don’t worry. You don’t have to run 20 miles every day in quarantine like he is. You can do your one thing to get started by just listening to this episode. Youtube Link to this Episode Eric Byrnes’ Website Eric Byrnes’ Instagram ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Did you learn something from tuning in today? Please pay it forward and write us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts. 📧If you have feedback for the show, please email [e-mail]  📙Get yourself a copy of Jennifer Cohen’s newest book from Habit Nest, Badass Body Goals Journal. ℹ️Habits & Hustle Website 📚Habit Nest Website 📱Follow Jennifer – Instagram – Facebook – Twitter – Jennifer’s Website Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Welcome to the Habits and Hustle Podcast. A podcast that uncovers the rituals, unspoken habits, and mindsets of extraordinary people. A podcast powered by habit nest. Now here's your host, Jennifer Cohen. So this is my inspiration. You're my inspiration, by the way, as you know. Eric, we have Eric Bernstein on the podcast,

Habits and Hussle, thank you for coming, Eric. Thank you for having me, Jen. It's just so seamless to get on to this thing. And this is set up. It is very professional though. Listen, we don't like to do second rate around here. Normally, this is how we would normally have it, right, with the treadmill spacing each other. This is what I'm talking about. So I was on the treadmill thinking I'm going on your podcast and I'm like, Chad, this is perfect. Yeah, no problem. I'll see you there. And apparently, here we go. I told you, I got to have a headset, I got to have a laptop,

have to have a Chrome browser as well. I know. Well, I thought you knew that. That was in the notes. But it's because we value your information so much that we didn't want to take it lightly and put it on an inferior platform. So that's why we're using this platform. Have you heard that basically they've

done a study on people in the browsers that they use. And so if you use the Safari browser, then you're just basically what the phone and the computer is usually default to, then you're less likely to have success in life because if you're willing to challenge the status quo and get into the chrome or the Firefox, then obviously the potential that you have is limitless. Now, I'm not sure how much I buy into that. I will say I use a chrome on this and I typically would do safari on my laptop, but my life, and I don't know how your life is, apparently a little different, but everything in my life

is on the phone. Everything is mobile. And it is from my calculations in research, 80% of the people basically do everything mobile. You're absolutely right. And I love the fact that you started this podcast with a piece of research that Adam granted because number one, he did that in his TED Talk, which I was like obsessed with. And then I use that piece of information in my TED Talk because I liked it so much,

because it does give you a very, very simplified explanation of people who are gonna be successful or not, and you use it, and this is why I love you, Eric, because you retain so much information. So if you guys don't know who Eric Burns is, I mean, he is a professional baseball player, right? He was, not anymore.

He was. He's an endurance athlete. He's a broadcaster for the MLB network. He started a charity. He also holds a world record in speed golf or two world records, right? For 12 holes and 24 holes, right? Right? Two to twelve hours and 24 hours.

If it was only 12 holes and 24 holes, I don't think it'd be any kind of record. But yeah, it was, most holes of golf played in a 12 hour period, which was 245 that most holes played in a 24 hour period, which was 420. So a couple long days, to say the least. This is probably the only, you're probably is probably the only people in the world where I have to actually, I really say this and I believe it. I don't think 24 hours in a day is even enough for you because you basically take every second of your day and make it count with productivity. You really are the poster child for anything productivity.

You've literally pivoted so many times. Most people in life, like they're a baseball player and then they retire and that's what they are and that's how they're known. But like, I also didn't even know this until I just saw this in like when I was like going on your website because Eric and I are actually really, we're good friends and we never talk about baseball. I don't even know about your baseball career, but you were actually drafted to the Dodgers and you opted out to go to UCLA. Jen, I got drafted three times. I mean, baseball is kind of funny because obviously when you get

drafted, it's not like you go directly to the big leagues. So, my options was basically to sign with the Dodger, in which case I would have gone to a low level A ball or a rookie ball to start my career off. And then option B, actually it was great false Montana, is where I would have gone. And then option B was to go to UCLA. And it really wasn't much of a decision process for me. It was kind of a no-brainer. I've always valued education. You know, even more than the education, I think.

And I feel like I realized it back then too was the experience that college was going to give me for the rest of my life. And ironically, as I guess, total fast forward here, but you know, you talk about productivity and how we live our lives. It was at UCLA in which we created, that's my roommates and I created a list. And we had a big whiteboard and we called it the effort list. And each day we would have our little slots and we would chart everything that we would do that day. And basically what it was was a pissing contest for four dudes with way too much testosterone.

But we had a blast doing it. And so it was like wake up, whole shower, yawks awake training, art history class, 100 swings before practice, 100 extra throws, practice, 100 swings after practice, you know, watch video, boom, study, study group, Melonies pint night, like whatever, all the way until the very end. And so we would list all these things. And after I got done playing baseball, I went on, I played, she's fall four years at UCLA, and signed with the A's and made my way up from the minor leech to the big leagues. It's five different levels like I talked about,

but got to the big leagues and played 11 seasons there. And then when I got done, I felt like I had, cheese, all these great accumulated experiences that I wanted to document. And so over the course, let's just say like the next seven years, I spent a lot of time writing. Writing was always my passion, especially in college. That was a history major, so a lot of writing. So it was a good thing. I liked it.

But I had all these things, right? And all these experiences. And essentially what I did is I figured, I'm like, man, they're all really cool stories. But what sort of value am I going to give you? Or anybody else else if you decide that I'm going to pick up and read this thing. And so it ended up becoming what we came known as the Effet List. Life Lessons from a human crash chest dummy, which was my nickname when I was played baseball. And it was just kind of funny how the whole thing came full circle from, you know, figuring out really kind of how to be productive in college and how to regiment

my days. And then having that carry on through my entire baseball career and then being able to acquire the wisdom, say through those experiences to later even, this is well after I wrote it, right? To be able to draw out those life lessons. And it's just, I know, and that's obviously something that, you know, I'm really proud of not more so than anything. It's obviously was an opportunity to share some really cool, fun stories, but there's value in it, right? And it's, there's's something that and it's

funny because one of my friends read the book just recently and as it's Ryan Tolner and he was our quarterback at St. Francis. He's probably if not the number one football NFL agent right now at this point. He is definitely one of them. Jared Goff is one of his clients amongst many other people. But Ryan's like, hey, man, he's like, I just got to tell you. He's like, I don't know if I really liked the book and was laughing out loud because I know you and I knew half of the stories. Or if I really liked it because You were giving me something each chapter and it's not anything that's like groundbreaking, right? It's it's not something that we haven't heard before and this goes back to all the modern-day self-help people You got your act of like the shit's new the shit is not new the shit are back thousands of years

I mean we could go back to the show, it's an epic tedious and Marcus really is, Sennaka, I mean, there are so many, you know, people who have championed say this way of living in this grander perspective that we can all take. And so Ryan was saying, he's like, look, man, he goes, none of this just revolutionary, he goes, but damn, we need this stuff on a daily basis.

And that's where we talk about routine. He's talking about hustle and habits. That's what's so important is the fact that we're gonna be able to get up day in and day out and consistently go through our day because we're a fucking wreck. Like we're emotional human creatures that are like this all the time. And so no matter what, we're always going to be that way.

And the only way to stabilize that is through routine. I mean, and how, but you're like an exceptional force. I mean, I mean, it takes, you do things. I mean, you do things, for example, I don't think I've ever spoken to you with you not running a marathon daily. You're doing something now that you're running during quarantine 20 miles a day. You're in extreme. How do you tell people, how do you tell people, like how do you tell people, and I'm sure people ask you this all the time,

for someone who wants to be productive, they wanna create more healthy habits and routine, how do people start? Like how do they start doing it? I know I wanna, you have been started with their kids, that you're doing a daily, a kids daily hustle, right? Which I think is brilliant, and I'm actually gonna start that with my kids.

People aren't often to start writing 20 miles, but what, were you always just like this, or did you have to like build up to it? Did you have someone that kind of, kind of, shaft, like kind of like mentor you? Well, that's a process, right? You build up to something like that. So of course, as far as everybody else, you know, my message, whether it's through the daily hustle, which is basically an extension of the effort list, which is a blog that I do each morning and a podcast five days a week, my message is not to go do some of the crazy and stream shit that I do unless you want to build up to it then we can discuss it and we can become training partners but

the idea and concept is to just do something and the problem is the start that stops us and so everybody is as every issue in the book why they're not doing this and why they're not doing that but he has every issue in the book, why they're not doing this and why they're not doing that. And we just fail to get going, but if we can establish a routine, establish common core things that no matter what, we do on a daily basis, I'll give you an example for me. So I wake up in the morning, whatever time it is, I mean, it could be anywhere from four to seven o'clock

in the morning. And a lot of times, I'll just, especially now during the quarantine, and I'm not traveling across a country for work or anything, it's real easy. And I just kind of listen to my body, and when I'm ready to get up, I get up. But as soon as I get up it's just like you know big thing of water by my bed, chug that down, go and brush my teeth, take my bulldog

to me, put them on my shoulder, I walk down, I let them outside. The coffee pot is already set the night before, boom. So I hit that, I take my butter, I melted it, it put in the coffee, I melted in the microwave, so I have a hot cup, melted butter. By the time that's done, the dog comes in, I feed it some cheese, I pour my coffee, I'm ready to go, now I got my bulletproof coffee, which is a fuel for the day.

You wanna put fat in your body if you're gonna be going all day because it teaches our body. First thing we put in our body, if it's carbohydrates, it's going to want carbohydrates for the course of the whole day. If it's fat, your body's going to continue to burn off fat. So, quick little nutrition lesson is basically our body has the ability to run off of carbohydrates for two hours.

Our body has the ability to run off of fat for two days. So think about that when you're putting shit in your body because ultimately if you're shoving it with sugar and carbohydrates, you're gonna run out of your fuel source. Now, once you're going, and cruising, and then you're in the middle of the workout or the middle of your day, if you wanna have sugar, if you wanna have carbohydrates,

great, that's fine, we're rolling. But when you kick that off, you want to have sugar, if you want to have carbohydrates, great. That's fine. We're rolling. But when you kick that off, you're teaching your body. It's the whole concept and idea of the intermittent fasting, right? I think that's actually it. You do that. You're doing intermittent fasting? No, I just, look, I eat a gigantic dinner. I'll drink at least a couple glasses of wine every night, maybe have two tequila and go

to bed and wake up every night. If you look at, there's Blue Zone regions of the world, a fantastic book I just recently read. They talk about the centenarians, the people that live to be a hundred years old, and blue zones are areas of the world where there's an unusual percentage of centenarians living in that area. I mean, they talked about some of the common themes, be it diet, be it, you know, say mentality towards life, and also, you know also little things, like a sort of drinking alcohol or whatever else. There's a pretty calm and whether it's Sardinia,

I believe it's an island off of Northern Italy, two glasses of wine every single night. There's one I believe in Costa Rica, same sort of thing, they love their liquor, they love their cocktails. And more, if you could do it within moderation, and if you think about that nice, light, mental buzz that you have, that alleviates distress, anxiety,

I mean, that's what ultimately kills us. Now, the other thing, and the reason, you lose own reason of the world, are so much of these outliers, is that these older people, this older generation, as you get to be 90, 100 years old, they're celebrated. Where we here, for the most part of the United States of America,

we wanna shove them in a home and go away and go die in peace. Get out of here where everywhere else, it's like, nah, like these people are heroes. So then the other thing is they all work. They all have an icky guy. Aoki Nawa, Japan was a blue zone area. And whether it's going to work in the rice fields or doing something, whatever

it is around home, they all had a purpose in Costa Rica, they call it the Planda Vida, a purpose of being able to, you know, when they get up in the morning and get after it, and we take our heads off that pillow, we got to have an idea of what we want to do. The other thing, they're all very routine oriented, right? They're just boom, boom, boom, it's the same concept of the effort list, the daily hustle. And it was just fascinating to hear all of these things. And it just, it makes a lot of sense.

They all live with family. Here's another fun fact that I learned. I believe it was from that book, if not, it was from something else. But for every daughter that you have, you can add 18 months to your average lifespan. Really? Think about that. Yeah.

For what, what's the reason behind it? Like, was there your daughter's gonna take care of you? Your daughter's gonna be there for you. Your son doesn't give a shit. Your son's gone. He's off making his own life. It's just natural sort of thing where your daughter will sit there and give you the love

and attention and care that you need and make you feel warm and important that it's, it makes a lot of sense to me. It makes a lot of sense to me. It makes a lot of sense. I've never heard that. Give me some more facts that you've, I mean, you're like, you're like,

you're like, full of them. I have like a list of them. Every day, you're a newsletter. I tell you this all the time and I was not just full shitting you. It's like the best newsletter I've ever seen because it literally you learn like your friend said, Ryan, you don't just send out nonsense.

It's always, you always learn a good fact or a nugget of information that you otherwise would never have known. You know what I mean? That's the kind of newsletter and that's the kind of information that I appreciate, because it doesn't happen often, right? People are usually just wanting to sell you something, and it's amazing. I mean, the only thing that you

sell right now, I think is your foot, your foot, reflectology board, which I love, not really. But, you know, we still, we sold out of those two. So, they're right. Yeah, right. Three weeks gone. Yeah. Wow. That, no, that's a part of my daily routine is a foot reflexology board. And the reason why they sold so quickly, there's the part of my daily routine is the reflexology board. And the reason why they sold so quickly, there's no doubt in my mind. We only ordered a thousand. But in my mind, it's like,

when you can live what you sell, when you do. Yeah, yeah, like if you live, you live what you like, that's, and it's kind of the idea of the daily hustle stuff. Like, don't listen to me because I'm going to sit here and spew bullshit from my mouth, telling you guys how to live your life. Listen to me only because I show you how to do it.

If I'm not showing you how to do it, immediately, whoever that person is, I take inventory and be like, dude, should I really be hanging on every word that's saying? Should I really be buying into it? Unless he's living it. Unless he's doing it. What you do is who you are, Jen. And if you're not living that lifestyle, you're a fucking fraud. I'm not trying to, look, I'm not throwing daggers at anybody. If anything, if there really in the self-help motivational world,

great, I would rather just inspire whoever that is that has a nice, broad audience that relays and conveys a very nice message. I'd rather now it's like, all right, time for that person to take their own inventory of their own lives and figure out if they're authentically living it. Because if they're not, their words ring a hollow to me. But their words ring a hollow to me. Bravo with love today! Vitamin water's zero sugar, nourish every U. Vitamin water is a registered trademark of glass O. Switch to Boost Mobile and get the Ultra Smooth, Ultra Powerful iPhone 11 for $49.99. See every angle with dual cameras. All on America's largest 5G networks. Large and in charge, baby.

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Right. I mean, so let's go back to your daily routine because it's like fascinating to me. Okay, you wake up, you have your fat in your coffee. By the way, how long have you been doing that? Is it because you started to do that while you become an endurance athlete or is it just because when did you start and you see a difference really? I learned about it with the whole endurance thing because I was, all I knew was I'd get up in the morning and it was sugar and carbohydrates.

So however it was, even if I was drinking coffee, it was usually a lot of tea, maybe not sweetener in there. And whatever else. And I noticed like I'd get an hour into my workouts and I would feel like I'm crashing. And I'm like, that's weird. And then I would go out and I actually read something. Then I would go out and I actually read something. This went first down to triathlon. And I was training for, I believe it was my first iron,

I mean, my first ultra marathon. But basically it was like, hey, look, do, it was like this week, it was like, do three 30 minute pre-breakfast runs. And their concept was like the whole thing of the intermittent fasting, right? It's like, teach your body that you don't have anything in you. And it's like, instead of relying on a carbohydrate source

or sugar, I wanna rely on fat for fuel. Because when I go do an iron man and I'm out there for 10 hours, then basically what happens, at some point, I'm going to have to rely on burning that fat. And so that's when I bought into the bulletproof coffee and started doing some research on it

and figured out that was a thing. And this is a while ago, right? I mean, it's become bad, but this is, I don't know, this is a lot of stuff. I feel like it's come up and it's come down. There are people who still really believe in it and then there's been a lot of research saying it doesn't really do anything, but I do like the fact, I mean, that's something, right? Right.

Save the research. Listen to your body. How does your body feel? And I don't care if it's just placebo effect, whatever. Our whole goal in life should be to have consistent energy. To have that energy glass from the time we get up in the morning to the time we go to bed at night, the peaks and the valleys we want to eliminate.

And so how do we best put ourself in a position to achieve that? So. Great. Can I ask you a question? You said two hours for carbohydrates that you have a two hour span. Fat, you have a two day span.

What's protein? If you have like, you know, just eggs with like veggies or something, what's a protein? How long do you have? Really fat? That's a fat. Yeah. So that would be more on the fat. Although it's not like a stick of butter and you use, you use

grass fan and all the other stuff, right? Like you do the real course. Yeah. Now that was another big to me other stuff that you do. Well, that was another big thing within the blue zones area. So everyone ate it wasn't necessarily. were plant-based diets. They're heavy plant-based diets. Most of the regions did eat meat. Pork was actually the number one meat that people ate in those regions. I don't know if it was coincidence or what, but they ate more pork than anything else. or what, but they eat more pork than anything else. As far as my routine and what I try to do,

of course, focus on organic local, it's the process foods, right? The ones that can, if your foods can preserve for a year, you shouldn't be eating it. So, yeah, the best way to look at it is like, let's find an expiration date, like, quickly here. And you know, that was, but again, that was a real big thing in the blue zone regions. It's like they all ate locally, all of them, and a lot of them farmed their own foods

and whatnot. of them farm their own foods and what not. So it just eliminates all the chemicals that are used to preserve the food. So yeah. Okay, that's besides the food. Like you have, tell us the other because you do so many extraordinary things during the day. So you have the butter and you have the butter in your coffee, you have that. Give me a couple others. Okay, the food reflexology. So a lot of time. What a couple of others. Okay, the foot reflexology. So a lot of time, what I'll do. Okay, so the foot reflexology, it stimulates the blood flow in the body.

And if you think about, and people ask about it all the time, like, dude, how do you run 20 miles a day? Now, when I did the Try Across America for the Let Them Play Foundation, I was doing 30 to 20 miles a day. Now, you know, when I did the try across America, for the left and play foundation, I was doing 30 to 40 miles a day. I was biking 100 to 150 a day. And what I learned from that is that the only way that we're able to get up and go the next day is by getting the blood circulating. And so each day I would start, it was very difficult. And this the reason why you don't see people run 30, 40 miles a day, and they get up and do it again because what happens is the blood flows down to the legs, muscles, tendons, ligaments, and inflammation happens in this natural. It's part of the healing process. But naturally as well is us going fuck man this hurts. I'm sore.

I don't want to move. So we become sedative. We don't move. And the inflammation continues to set in. It takes a while to get out of there. No bueno. So if we can get up and move, it's almost like the same concept as PRP, which is when they take your blood, they re-inject it, circulate it around,

it gives you fresh blood, and that's what we're doing on a daily basis. So the foot reflexology stimulates that immediately in the morning. I do it for, I've got in a routine right now, is that I'm doing it for 12 minutes, you know, how badly it hurts. I already encouraged me to get to that seven.

But your feet get used to it over time. And I will do it while I listen to my calm meditation app. And so that's right. So you're like basically like multitasking, of course, of course you would. Wait, so is it similar to grounding when you put your feet into the earth or is it a different idea? I thought you were big into grounding too, right?

So is it different? Yeah, at least once a day. Well, yes, it is different in New York City when I'm there. It's just tough to get the grounding in at times. I've stopped a couple times mid-run on the wet side highway because I see a plot of grass and I'll take my shoes off and put my feet into the grass. Now the concept and idea of grounding is that our bodies are electrically charged and so the same way where you have two positive charge on a prong and you stick them into, you know, the electrical outlet, the third outlet is the grounding,

right? And so that keeps it from total combustion. And so our bodies work the same way. So it's like go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, through the course of our insiding, our stress and all these, you know, electronics that we have on us in the entire day. I have a feeling that just continues to electrically stimulate us in so many different areas.

And so put your feet in the grass, your bare feet in the grass. And you literally can feel the electricity dissipate. Now I look, I'm not a scientist. I'm not a doctor, I'm not a certified nutritionist, they're strength coach or any other thing. I am just speaking to you guys through my experience and what has worked for me. And I noticed, especially when I was doing radio, and I first kind of read about this grounding thing and then start doing it every day is that I mean I come home like midnight after doing you know post game warriors or San Francisco giants or whatever it was it can be our 680 and it was just saying a million things going on right I was going back and forth with the MLB network I'm working this

this late night radio you know Tara my wife was was pregnant back and forth to the MLB network. I'm working this this this late-night radio, you know, Tara, my wife was pregnant. We already had kid on the way, which is mass chaos in my life. My dad passed away suddenly. It's just this kind of weird time. And I remember that was that was it when when I started the grounding. And I just felt like when I started the grounding, and I just felt like, and it really had an effect on me. So essentially, I'd say just about every day since then, I've gone back to it. And it's just a huge stress reliever for me. If you think about the best way to envision

what it is and what it feels like and to try to relate and to see if you can take yourself back to that time, but when we were kids and we were playing in the grass and we were running around and we were barefoot. Think about like that It's almost like you just smell it and feel it And that like super special time And it's not coincidence It was actually really working And you know, we as adults

We just, we get away from these things So that's, yeah, that's definitely a Daily routine that I'll do. And it doesn't, you know, it could be the grass, it could stick it to the mud. I have rocks here with a stream in my backyard. That I'll go ahead and put my feet in there as well. Whatever, whatever can provide that feeling,

I'd say go for it. So it's not just grass, then you could do it in mud, you could do it in sand. It's at the same, you get the same benefit though by doing and all those other places. Yeah, it feels for you, right? Okay. So the same thing with food is like, I could tell you what to eat. Look, and this comes to food allergies and everything. The best thing that you, whenever we're talking about anything health wise, how do you feel after you, how do you feel after you have a big stake? How do you feel after you have sushi? How do you feel after you have a big thing apostah? How do you feel after you eat talking? I don't know. I just think about whatever it is that you have a big sandwich.

How do you feel with, if you have massive carbohydrates or you just eat meat and fats? How do you feel after you just, is it vegetables and fruit? It's the same thing with the grounding. How do you feel when you put them in the sand? How do you feel when you put them in the ocean? How do you feel when you put them into a creek? How do you feel when you put them in the ocean? How do you feel when you put them into a creek? How do you feel when you put them on a rock? Wait, whatever it is, when you, whatever makes you feel good, that's the stuff we need to be focusing on. And the best way to put

it to, I mean, shit, we all feel good. Like, you know, there's certain things that can be really good for us. And it's, it's fleeting, right? That's not the sustained high that I'm talking about. I'm talking about the thing that gives us energy for the rest of the day. That's what we need to focus on. That's the most important thing. And that's what I try to think about when it comes to nutrition or anything else really that I do with my life. How do you like, but where does it come from? Like, what is it inside of you that pushes so hard to do all of this?

Like, do you ever just want to just like chill and like, do you ever watch Netflix? Do you ever just relax? Like, what is it about, like, what is it? Like, why are you, not why are you like this, but kind of like, how, why are you like this to this level? Like it's not just routine. It's the drive to constantly challenge

to like everything you do, it's like to the extreme. It's not like I'm just gonna go for a job today. I'm just gonna do, I'm just gonna drink a cup of coffee. Everything is like over the top. Why? Is there a reason in there or is it just because you just like it? Well, my boy Kowalski says anything worth doing is worth overdoing. Moderation for buses. Now, my boy Kowa's, he's a little twisted. So I wouldn't go as far to say.

Just a frog feed, either. Just a friend of yours, just a brand of guy. Okay. It's my boy, it's my brother from another mother. He's just one of the, one of the few guys that is into all this stuff that I'm into. And, you know, when you, we talk talking about, you know, the ultra endurance world, you get a bunch of

unique characters. And so when you can find one that, you know, becomes like, you're dude, training partner, guy, girl, whatever, it doesn't matter. It's pretty cool. So, Kualaelski was with me on the Triacross America just about the entire way. Yeah, it's my wingman. He was the guy when I broke the world record for the 24 hours of golf. He was by my side.

I ended up, I ran 106 miles while playing the 420 holes. He was, he was by my side, start to finish the entire time and actually ran next to me as a pacer for 80 miles of the 106. So yeah, that's the wingman. So I just, you know what, Chad, I don't know. I know it seems extreme to the normal person, what's extreme in one person's world, it's relative to how you prepare. And do I chill? Yeah, I chill. I tell my kids my favorite time of the day, like by far and away, is sitting down at the

dinner table with them, especially during this quarantine time. And that's what I do my phone detox. So I'll have no electronics with me at all. And from there on till the rest of the night, and I'm just done. It's like finally we get to dinner, we sit down at the table during this quarantine time. We've been calling my mom every night.

We put her up there. Now we use my wife's phone because I refuse to have my phone anywhere near me. Yeah. Even through the course of the day, what's cool is that through all of the extreme training that I do and the running the 20 miles and everything, I'm able to remain efficient and effective through the course of communications. I could talk on the phone while running. It's not a big deal Whether it's a podcast that I know it's right writing the daily hustles. I write those when I run You do yeah, how you're right. You're how do you write?

right yeah Just are you serious? Yeah, that's here's it's just Yeah. Yeah. Just serious. That's serious. It's crazy. But it's, I've learned how to do it. It's not a problem. I have all these great thoughts because what happens is extra exercise stimulates the mind. And so we're getting. That's why I do it on these because I think that's very important for focus and for cognitive ability.

I agree with almost everything you say by the way, that's why I love you. It's just that I can't, I mean, it seems like so extra to be like I read five miles today and I was very proud of myself. And I'm like, oh my god, I have Eric coming on who just rent five miles is not even like a warm up for you. Yeah, so. What did you and I do when I was in LA a couple of years ago? I know. So the first time I think I ever met you in Pernoto, maybe it's a second time, I don't remember.

You're like, let's go for a run and I ran what, 13 miles, like no big deal. That was pretty. You hadn't been running either. No. I wasn't. I know. Here's one of the things. We're capable of so much more than we believe we are. Since we put limits on ourselves as to what we're able to accomplish. And it's amazing to me how we become fixated on these distances that are preordained by the society that we live in, be it the mile,

the 5K, the 10K, you know, the half marathon or the marathon. And it's funny because I had a buddy of mine recently as an Arizona. And I'm 44 years old and on my 44th birthday, I ended up, I've done this ever since 40s. I run 44 miles. I ran 44 miles on my 44th birthday. And so I had a buddy of mine and I was down there actually coaching my kids baseball team too. And one of my buddies had not run more than five miles in 10 years way back when

He ran a half marathon and he was in as like young twins kids guys about my age so He's like hey man. He goes Can I can I run some of those miles with you tomorrow because you knew I was gonna run 44 miles and I'm so bro of course. I you tomorrow because you knew I was going to run 44 miles. And I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I did half marathon, you know, back when, you know, long time ago, I said, okay, cool. I'm like, we'll go 15. And he's like, did you fucking nuts?

No way. I go, bro, we're going 15. And sure, shit, showed up the next day. I'd say no problem, but he was great until 13. And then 13 to 15. He was struggling, but to break that barrier of, hey, man, like, and he's, he's a shape. It's not like he's completely added. You know, he's just, he does other things, right? He's a big roar. He's South African dude, RTL. Very successful guy. We're, we're Strasdora, a software company, what public recently. So anyway,

it's just we get caught in our little worlds and then we obviously we have these limits that we adhere to. But what I learned through the Iron Man slash ultra marathon slash ultra endurance world in general is that there are no limits. Like, the limits are our our solely what our mind puts on there. And so, you know, so long as we're willing to continue to put one foot in front of the other, we'll shock ourselves at how much we're able to accomplish. But the problem is, is that everybody is, is number one, they have a limited mindset.

Number two, nobody likes the pain. Nobody likes to suffer. Nobody likes to hurt. But, you know, when you think back to some of the times in your life, where you you know, let's just say have these revelations, it's only when you've suffered and it's only when you've broken barriers. Those are the ones that hold the most meaning and value for all of us. Look, someone else can might try to argue, that's not true. There's no, the concept of just having this eternal lasting success is just, it's just, it's bullshit.

There is no success without failure. There is no hot without cold. We will not know what, what greatness will feel like without experiencing the other end. And you will never get here without earning your way there, and it's a process, but so many people are scared of the process, and what's amazing is that if you just simply put together a routine of doing something each and every single day, you shock yourself at

the productivity that you'll find in your life. And again, it doesn't, it doesn't about running a hundred miles or, you know, playing a bunch of holes at golf or doing a shrapnel on a cross the country or any other, like I, that's not it. But it's about, it's about living your life and leading by example and whether it's showing your coworker, your friends, your classmates or whoever it is, but you need to be out front. And I think our world just would be much better off if if we had people willing to push those envelopes. And I mean, I just, that's what's always, And I mean, I just, that's what's always, I'd say, obsessed me to do that. And it's the impact that we're able to have through action.

And that's, that's important to me. Hey, it's Jesse Kelly. Ronald Reagan famously once said the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, I'm from the government and I'm here to help. Americans are losing faith in the banking system and at the same time, the US government could soon be headed toward a centralized banking system. How scary is that?

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Go to www.oxfordgoldgroup.com to learn more. Again, that's www.oxfordgoldgroup.com. Yeah, so I think one of your daily hustles, which is what you call the newsletter, is you wrote something. I think you called it the uncomfortable value or something. Like, be uncomfortable, the whole idea about getting comfortable, being uncomfortable to push through that threshold, right? Like, that's basically, and it's true. I mean, it's very true. And it's, I think that people are

so much more capable, but people are scared. They're like, mired in fear that they can't do it, or they're going to fail. So that's great. I's great. What was that one I'd like that you were talking about? Like the thermostat versus the thermometer. Immometer. Yeah, so the thermometer is the one that, you're the thermometer. You're gonna go up or down based on everything else that's going on around you, right? Where the thermostat is the one that's consistent.

You're setting the temperature. So we as a society, especially in today's world, is we react with everything that we hear. And so it's like, if you're watching the news every single night and you're having these emotional reactions and it's, you know, you're watching the news every single night and you're having these emotional reactions and and You know you're happy one day you're sad one day because they're saying they're opening this county They're closing this county and it's this and this and this and that it's just like Look, you know light

Life's not fair But our reaction to life is. So we're all gonna deal with different shit through the course of our entire lives. But the question is, how are you going to react? Because what is fair is our ability to respond to whatever is thrown at us.

And so long as we understand that, like our peace and our happiness and our joy, it's all up to us. These are all subjective things that are internal, that we get to decide upon. The outside world is a fucking yo-yo trying to pull us up and down and up and down and up and down. trying to pull us up and down and up and down and up and down. And the amazing thing is, is that the majority of us fall victim to it. And we let that dictate our mood in our being. And it should never touch that. It's not everything that we control in life is it's goal. It's the most important thing. And so when you can distinguish what you can control and what you cannot control,

ultimately that's when I don't want to say we've achieved this peace, joy, happiness, whatever else because that's a daily thing that continues to go on and on and on. But at least we're in the right place to consume whatever the world has to offer us. And so how do you do that though, right? Is there like how do you work on your mindset? Besides, or is it like the fact that you're so active, you're saying something when I was like showing you my little treadmill situation,

that exercise keeps you focused, gives you the, it kind of elevates the ability. So is it kind of like momentum, right? Like once you start, it's easier to keep going, right? Versus, because you're already like doing it, it's an object that's in motion, stays in motion. Type of thing, you know what I mean? Yeah, I like that.

It's, thank you. Yeah, but you gotta get going. You know, you have to, one of the things that my dad said was, it's just fucking brilliant. And I never understood it when he was alive. He would say, don't take your feelings too personally. And I'm like, what are you talking about? My feelings are my feelings. My feelings are everything. Like, I, you know, when I played baseball, I was an emotional player. And I reacted to my feelings all the time. I felt that's what drove me and got me to the big leagues and kept me in the big leagues

for 11 seasons. And, godly, if I would have been able to apply that to my baseball career, I would have been able to apply that to my baseball career. I would have been so much of a better player and it like not even close because my issue was that I would emotionally react to my feelings. And if I went into a little bit of a hitting slump, it was like, because I mean, this thing turned you to our drought. It would spiral downhill badly. And it was just, I was so, and the funny thing on the flip end of that was that if things were going well, they went really well.

And so I was, to be the best player in baseball for, you know, one week and then, you know, the next two weeks, I was the worst. So, um, but I was, I got caught, I got caught up in my feelings and I took them personal. When we, when we were able to step back and take almost like a third party observation of what's going on, you have to understand like, you know, things for things, you know, especially when it comes to other people, almost everything is not personal. And even if it is for whatever reason, it's like they have underlying issues that they're dealing with, that they're just taking out on you. And so when you're able to really understand that it's a liberation in life that, man, I mean, I couldn't even tell you. So it's tough to understand. I still have people

constantly asking me like, so like explain to me that don't take your feelings too personal. And like, so like explain to me, that don't take your feelings to personal. And I'm like, it's almost, it's, it's almost like you got to live it. It's almost like you have to really kind of go through it, um, to understand and, and go through what I went through in a, in a baseball career. Go through the endurance endeavors that I've gone through. And when you're hurting and you're emotionally crushed, you know, fucking, you know, 30 miles to go

in a hundred mile race, you know, it's like, I don't even feel like I could take one foot, take one foot and put it in front of the other. How am I gonna continue to do this? And then you start, again, you're taking your feelings personally, you're like, dude, just step out of it and go. And, you know, I think I've learned through those experiences, what that actually means. What would you have done if baseball didn't work out for you?

What would you have, what would be your other career, the profession? I kind of like... Well, I mean, it's interesting because when I was a kid, I wanted to play for professional sports and I wanted to talk about professional sports. So, my passion was it was was broadcasting. My passion was debating. You know, I loved I loved a good I won't say argument, but a good just a good debate. And it's funny because I like playing both sides and I grew up listening to talk radio in San Francisco Bay area, K&B R680. And that's why when I first got done playing baseball, even when I still played baseball,

I was really heavy in the media, because that's what I wanted to do. Now, you know, what I actually would have done, I don't know. My parents were both in real estate estate my mom still is in real estate I definitely think I'm good chance I would have you know taken more and active on that But you know, it's not it's funny because we I just recently rode a daily hustle on this and it's like You know all get questions all the time, you know, especially when I do a podcast like this and People don't really know who I am and so it's like okay, there's just baseball guy, you know endurance sports athlete

He's a broadcaster like how do you identify yourself and the answer to that is You are in I am what I do and so one of the problems in life is that we over identify ourselves with a specific thing where it's like fuck that I like I don't need labels. I don't If somebody else wants to label you need labels. I don't, if somebody else wants to label you, let them do it. But when you look at yourself and who you are, just understand that you are what you do. That's it. Every single day, you have a choice of how you're going to get up and live your life. And guess

who you are. You are what you do so You're gonna get out what you put in You know you want to be a baseball player play baseball you want to be a broadcaster broadcast You want to be a real estate agent study the market you want to be a lawyer study law you want to be a doctor Same sort of thing like it's just you know if you want it if you want it whatever it is you want to be a doctor, same sort of thing. Like it's just, you know, if you want it, if you want it, whatever it is, you want to do it. Um, but don't over, I don't ever, ever over identify yourself with whatever it is that you're doing. Because that's what was one of my issues as a baseball player that I struggle with was that if I had a great game,

I'd go home and, hey, life's straight, that, yeah, yeah, I'm friends, everything else, if I had a shitty game, I'm coming home, it's like I don't wanna talk to anybody. I feel like I'm walking down the street, that everyone realized everyone's like, oh, there it burns, he's in an over 10 slung. Nobody gives a fuck, nobody cares about your problems.

And the amazing thing is, and even as a public figure that went through it, 99.9% of those people had no idea if I went over for or I went over for for for. Yet I think everybody's looking at me like, they all, they all know, quit being so gossy and fucking egotistical to think that everybody cares about our problems because they don't.

Right. I agree with that. I know you're going to wrap it up with you, so I want to ask you something because you're an avid reader and very knowledgeable and you retain everything, which I can't believe. But what are you reading right now? And what's your favorite book about? Oh, geez, favorite book of all time. Well, the all time thing, it's a really tough question. I've read a lot of Ralph Waldo Emerson that I really like.

Self-reliance is just an iconic essay. So there's a collection of his writings that if you want to get to the root of it, I would classify him as he's by far and away our greatest modern day philosopher, John Woodens, actually a close second. Yeah, I thought you'd say that too. Yeah, I mean, I would do UCLA at an opportunity to meet John Wooden, have breakfast with him, handing me a card at the end of breakfast that I think was kind of a standard card that he would hand out so he wouldn't have to, you know, sign all these things.

And on the card was an owl. And it said, the wise old owl sat in the oak, the more he heard, the less he spoke, the less he spoke, the more he heard. Now, it wasn't that a wise old Al sat in the oak the more he heard the less he spoke the less he spoke the more he heard now Wasn't that a wise old bird and John wouldn't this was like Wow heavy so Right now I'm actually I'm reading a very

Interesting one. I just finished Lynch pins. Seth Godin, I think it's how you say his name. Oh, Seth Godin, yeah, you liked it. I did. It's how to make yourself indispensable in a dispensable world. Yeah, there was, there was two things, two things in there. I just wrote a daily hustle on it. When, I didn't get it. No, it'll come out in a couple of weeks. I spent a couple of weeks to head on.

I literally, I wrote it today. Okay. And it talks, basically, he talks about, I mean, I'll get it right here. It's fascinating, but he had two, what I tell you, I write these right here. I'm very impressed. Very impressed. In my notes, so yeah, there's two things that Lynch pins do that make them vital to an organization, right? So the first is to exert emotional labor.

And the second is to make a map. And the funny thing is, I titled it like passion with purpose. And my dad used to say this and a lot of shit that I So my dad was a 4-3 black belt and kebkel karate would read all the far eastern sports psychology stuff crazy like really into that Tony like as a kid like you know how drive around with your mom or dad in the car and they you know mom would listen to easy Soft rock or whatever my dad will listen to Tony Robbins. Like this is way back when right right right 80s early 90s so yeah so I got started yeah and I got so I got a lot of a lot of this stuff is like stuff my dad kind of fed me but when he was alive it was.

is like stuff my dad kind of fed me, but when he was alive, it was, you know, I just kind of brush over to whatever else. But one of the things he used to say, passion and purpose, passion, purpose, passion, purpose. And I realized that in this book, it's like exert emotional labor, right? So what is that? That's fucking passion. It's like, it's going beyond anything. It's going well beyond like, we all have a job to do. But when you exert emotional labor and you put your emotion into it, now you're exerting your passion. Now the other thing

is make a map. We'll make a map. You know, I mean, that's purpose, right? That's it. That's it. Leading you to a direction Like where are we going? Cause passion without fucking purpose is all over the place. It's messy. We don't know. That was me as a baseball player. It was passion without purpose. Right, right, right.

I was all over the place. Hey, it's a good day. It's a bad day. It's a good day. And who knows what you're gonna get? Passion with purpose. And when he talked to with the Linchpin, that was, I don't know, get, but passion with purpose. And when he talked about the Linchpin, that was, I don't know, that really hit home with me.

So I wrote about that. The next one that I started, geez, I started a couple days ago, I think the happiness advantage, written by a kid that went to Harvard and kind of made it his mission in life to figure out how happiness affects all of us and is it something like is it are we working?

To have success and then we'll be happy or we happy first and I think most people in today's world would be able to answer like look like you have to be happy first before like if you're chasing happiness, you're fucked. You're not like, no, yeah, happiness first has got to happen first. And then everything else, you know, will follow after that. But the question is how do you become happy? And you know, it starts with, it starts with loving what you do. It starts with

getting up. I would take this back to the blue zone, and you're an eaky guy, your blonde avida, your purpose for life. You got to be able to have that one little thing, because I'm going to have my kids do it tomorrow morning, that I wrote down. And what I do is I'll stick little notes, and I'll listen to it. And if it hits, then I'll take notes and put them down whether it's for a future daily hustle just for something else. But he was saying that the author was saying

that there's three good things. That if you could find three good things to write down that happened in the last 24 hours, and you do that every single day. It's automatically like he went into like four or five different like studies and tests like this group that did it, you know, and everyone, oh, everyone's equal, right?

So this group that did it for a week, for a month, for six months, for a year, even after they stopped it, their happiness continued. Right down three things that good things that happened. They just to be little things like, hey, I really enjoyed my podcast with gender day. Well, put it down. Um, I, it shit damn that that something about those tacos tonight. We're fantastic. Boom. Put it down. Uh, you know, I loved how my my, no, 11 year old, I just morning woke up and as I wake up, like I hear the door shut and I see her running off in the distance, taking off to get her, her mild daily hustle run in.

Made me happy, right? So just three things. Now over the course, if you know you're gonna do the next day too, you're constantly searching out things, things that make you happy. And so if you close your eyes and I, and this is the example he used in the book, he said, close your eyes and picture the color red. And now open your eyes and you're going to find something. And immediately I found without without thinking about it. Let's see if you guys should see it. Might have just found this focus right here. Right?

Wow. Yeah. So did you find something? Yeah, I did I found This thing here. Yeah, exactly. It could be the littlest thing So today I did it and there's a big red barn on the on this property of this Area that I live and I literally close and I didn't think about it like as I'm listening to the book He's like close your eyes. I'm a close. I just like think about red and I'm't think about it. Like as I'm listening to the book, he's like close your eyes. I'm a close guy is just like think about red. And I'm like think about the color red. He's like now open your eyes.

And right in front of you was a big red bar. It's like holy shit. That is amazing. Why red? I mean, that's not the thing. It doesn't matter. It's just it goes to show you how powerful our minds are. Yeah, I am.

It goes to show you that we see what we seek. So if we're seeking happiness, we're gonna find happiness. If you're a miserable fucking, you're seeking, you know, misery, you're gonna find misery. I love you, Jen. I love you. I love you. I love that book.

Okay, what's that book called? I want to get it. Happiness and bad. I think it's called the happiness of it. I'll. I love you. I love you. I love that book. Okay. What's that book called? I want to get it. Happiness and bad. I think it's called the happiness and bad. I'll send it to you. Okay. I know you've got to run out.

We'll do this again. You're the best. I love you. You're amazing. That's amazing. That's amazing. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I'm Heather Monahan, host of Creating Confidence, a part of the YAP Media Network,

the number one business and self-improvement podcast network. Okay, so I want to tell you a little bit about my show. We are all about elevating your confidence to its highest level ever and taking your business right there with you. Don't believe me, I'm gonna go ahead and share some of the reviews of the show, so you can believe my listeners.

I have been a longtime fan of Heather's, no matter what phase of life I find myself in, Heather seems to always have the perfect gems of wisdom that not only inspire, but motivate me into action. Her experience and personality are unmatched, and I love her go getter attitude. This show has become a staple in my life. I recommend it to anyone looking to elevate their confidence

and reach that next level. Thank you. I recently got to hear Heather at a live podcast taping with her and Tracy Hayes and I immediately subscribe to this podcast. It has not disappointed and I cannot wait to listen to as many as I can as quick as I can. Thank you Heather for helping us build confidence

and bring so much value to the space. If you are looking to up your confidence level, click creating confidence now. Wendy's is open till midnight or later, so you can give in to the craving and go night mode. Now all of your favorite menu items just got their bedtime extended. You can get what you want even later,

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