Mark Bell's Power Project - How To Build Courage || MBSS Ep. 45

Episode Date: May 6, 2023

In this edition of Mark Bell's Saturday School, Mark Bell teaches us how to build courage by giving real life examples of how he built courage of his own.    New Power Project Website: https://powerproject.live Join The Power Project Discord: https://discord.gg/yYzthQX5qN Subscribe to the new Power Project Clips Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UC5Df31rlDXm0EJAcKsq1SUw   Special perks for our listeners below! ➢ https://goodlifeproteins.com/ Code PowerProject to save up to 25% off your Build a Box ➢ Better Fed Beef: https://betterfedbeef.com/pages/powerproject   ➢ https://hostagetape.com/powerproject Free shipping and free bedside tin!   ➢ https://thecoldplunge.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save $150!!   ➢ Enlarging Pumps (This really works): https://bit.ly/powerproject1 Pumps explained: https://youtu.be/qPG9JXjlhpM   ➢ https://www.vivobarefoot.com/us/powerproject to save 15% off Vivo Barefoot shoes!   ➢ https://markbellslingshot.com/ Code POWERPROJECT10 for 10% off site wide including Within You supplements!   ➢ https://mindbullet.com/ Code POWERPROJECT for 20% off!   ➢ https://bubsnaturals.com Use code POWERPROJECT for 20% of your next order!   ➢ https://vuoriclothing.com/powerproject to automatically save 20% off your first order at Vuori!   ➢ https://www.eightsleep.com/powerproject to automatically save $150 off the Pod Pro at 8 Sleep!   ➢ https://marekhealth.com Use code POWERPROJECT10 for 10% off ALL LABS at Marek Health! Also check out the Power Project Panel: https://marekhealth.com/powerproject Use code POWERPROJECT for $101 off!   ➢ Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code POWER at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $150   Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ https://www.PowerProject.live ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject   FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢https://www.tiktok.com/@marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell   Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ https://www.breakthebar.com/learn-more ➢YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NsimaInyang ➢Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/?hl=en ➢TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nsimayinyang?lang=en    Follow Andrew Zaragoza on all platforms ➢ https://direct.me/iamandrewz   #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell #FitnessPodcast #markbellspowerproject

Can you have a body of work that shows that you're resilient, that you're strong, that you're tough, that you can handle it? Is thinking about it kind of like the biggest stopper in your opinion? If you already told yourself it's going to be tough, it's going to be difficult, then it's going to be that much easier to talk yourself out of it. There's a lot of questions to answer around that. What's the thing that you really want? And then you got to kind of figure out why do you want that? I think as you build up strength in one area, it just made me more confident. I think people are kind of nervous about getting away from what's normal. When you do that over and over and over again, well, then it's easier to leap into something and look like the most courageous guy in the room or the bravest guy in the room.

So funny, I have in here, I don't ever know what to do with it anymore i haven't had hair oh man since like the 90s that's a joke i'm trying to think yeah i'm like how old is andrew not that old i'm pretty old but not that old it's weird the 90s they're a long time ago but they weren't though right they're still 10 years ago right okay yeah good okay it was not just me no no they're 10 years ago yeah somebody told me something the other day like that's 35 years old that's 35 years ago i'm like what somebody said something about clinton i think it's like i was a little bill clinton thing i was like well that's not long ago they're like yeah well it was from pretty long time ago i i read this thing the other day and it was like

if you really want to blow like a kid's mind be like hey guess what i'm older than google and they'll be like no way google's been around forever it's like no i've been around longer because i think it came around like 98 or something like that so google's not that old google's only like two years old my brother won a music video award from yahoo in like 1998 or something yeah and we were like what the fuck's that yeah do you remember the uh like the the old battle it's like hey do you use google or yahoo right like now nobody even fuck if you see a at yahoo like email you're like, damn, you're old. Well, you know what saved Google is YouTube. And you know what saved YouTube is us.

Super training, the Power Project. I mean, look, we're not saying anything that's false. This is the truth. People have watched millions and millions and millions of hours of the Power Project and all the other content that we have. And we've been keeping Google afloat the whole time so everybody can just thank us. That makes sense. Send us five bucks.

Yeah. And a picture of your mom. She could be dressed. It doesn't have to be too crude. We like a little mystery. Yeah, right? Oh my goodness. That was a good run, Mark.

Thank you so much. Yeah, it was, right? Yeah, the last Saturday school we had talked about it. Oh, I thought you meant like the show's over. Oh, we had a good run? Yeah. On that note. Yeah, it made it kind of alarming.

I was like, yeah, you too kind of alarming I was like yeah you too Andrew it was great it was a literal run that we went on we were moving our feet around yeah you're like what are we going to do with all this equipment yeah that was close I was getting fired again yeah

it was a good run it was great yeah we did a little bit of sprints in between or surges rather it felt really good I think we did a little bit of sprints in between or surges rather it felt really good i think we did like nine total we did three 30 second surges and then three one minute surges and in between that we were running we were trying to like jog at a slow pace but we were going pretty good overall it was a 10 minute mile pace for about three miles that's some work yeah and i

started my watch when we were still kind of warming up. So yeah, it was, we were, I mean, we went over three miles probably. Yeah. Yeah.

We were close to close to four, but you know, of course the, it was like run walk in the beginning. Yeah. But no, I felt, felt pretty good.

We'll see how I feel when I get up out of this kneeling chair. My legs will probably be a little beat up, but no, it was good. You'll feel a little, a little drained. Mm-hmm. Cause it's a little bit like a lifting session in a way because that one kind of taxes your nervous system a little bit. So you'll definitely feel it, but it'll be good for you.

It'd be good for you to train fatigued. You go into Jiu-Jitsu tomorrow, the next day, it'd actually be good for you. You have to kind of like suck it up and still be able to like fight people. Yeah. So I guess, I mean, we can roll right into what we were talking about yes sir you know thinking about that i'm already like hmm like man that's gonna be pretty hard you know i'm thinking like uh did you i have to go in tomorrow i wasn't planning on it because tomorrow is the day that i plan on lifting. But like after what you just said, I'm like, well, actually would be a good idea to lean further into it. But man, that's going to be difficult. You know, right now I'm like, do I have enough in me to like actually get out there and do it?

So what I was kind of wanting to talk about today is like, yeah, like how do you face the hard thing? How do you have the courage to go out and do something that's difficult? Because sometimes, man, it just seems like it's not even there, you know? Yeah, I think there's a lot of different ways to go about doing this. But I think probably the main way that I go about doing a lot of things is just really not overthinking stuff and just trying to make it to the next thing. You know, what's the next pillar that I can make it to? If you're swimming and you're in the ocean, like where's the next buoy? You know, fuck, man, I don't know if I can make it all the way back to the land and be safe, but can I make it to the next buoy?

Can I figure that out? And I think in life, we want to try to think about what we can kind of make it to next, what we can kind of almost rest on and like catch a little bit of a breather. At the same time, it's not great to always be looking into the future because you need to be paying attention to like what's going on right now. And I think you can also do this like sensibly. It doesn't, you don't always have to be like marching forward. You don't always have to be the strongest one in the room day in and day out, but hopefully over time, you're the strongest one around. That's what I look at. It's like, can you have a body of work that shows that you're resilient, that you're strong, that you're tough, that you can handle it?

So as far as tomorrow goes, I don't see anything wrong with like being like, I'm not going tomorrow, to be honest with you, because you're going to, you're going to be able to rest, recover, maybe get the proper nutrition in. Hopefully you get a little extra sleep. And then when you go in for what the hell state, when you go in like for Friday session or something like that, you'll be ready to, you'll be ready to roll again and you'll be, and you'll be strong and you'll be ready to, you'll be ready to roll again and you'll be, and you'll be strong and you'll be fresh. And so sometimes some of the stuff that we talk about with like

courage or resilience, sometimes it's just like, you're just up against it. Like you're just tired, bro. Sometimes people need a meal. Sometimes people need to sit the fuck down. Every once in a while, people need to chill. And we talk about that so much on this show. Of course, there's going to be times where you actually have to diet. Of course, there's going to be times where you actually have to put out large amounts of energy. But how are you going to put out a large amount of energy with a diet that's not sufficiently supplying you with enough energy? You can't make something out of nothing. supplying you with enough energy. You can't make something out of nothing. And so the human body and the human being period needs enough resources to be able to mitigate life stresses that come

at us. We need to be able to sprawl. We need to be able to not allow life to grab your ankle or life to do a double leg or single leg on you. You need to figure out a way. You need to have a strategy on how to keep things at bay at some times. And sometimes it's also just a knowledge thing. Like sometimes the smarter, not the smarter, but the more information that you have about particular things, the easier it is to have less stress about it

and to have more courage be more appear to be more courageous than someone else uh somebody that goes into a burning building like wow that seems really courageous right that is courageous like holy shit you know thank god that there's somebody like that that's going to go and save somebody um but there's also firemen that do that all the time and they're and they're trained, right? And they understand, oh shit, the fire probably came from there. Maybe they got a call and they're by the description of the fire and by the smell, they could tell what kind of fire it is. It's a gas fire. It's this, it's that. And they know the safest way to get someone out of there.

So that person might seem like a genius and they might seem really courageous and I'm sure it still takes courage even when you have knowledge. However, they have enough knowledge and they have the supplies with them to take care of the fire in an appropriate way so that they can still save the person and not hurt themselves. Yeah, you got to have the courage to also not do it, right? So I I'm gonna go roll Friday and then I have wrestling training Saturday so that's gonna take a lot out of me so I'll be thinking about it but is thinking about it kind of like the biggest stopper in your opinion because sometimes uh if if I have a an afternoon session I can easily talk myself out of that my morning sessions it's like's like, dude, I just, I woke up on the mat.

You know, like, I don't even know how I got here, but I'm here, so let's go. Do you think that thinking is like one of the biggest reasons why people don't kind of build up the courage to go and do whatever it is that they're trying to do? Yeah, you want to try to really build in a habit or an unflinching discipline, you know, something that you just, like, you're going. Like, you're just, you're doing it no matter what. Remember your dad when you were a kid, and he's like, sorry, son, like, this is not an option. Like, you're going with me.

We're going to the hardware store or whatever they didn't, whatever thing they felt like they needed to make you do. And I think we need to do that with ourselves sometimes. Sometimes you have to tell yourself, you know, this is something that we're going to do. I know in the military, when they have hell week, where they train all hours of the day and night, and they even will be sleep deprived and everything, I guess one of the like laws not just a rule but a law is that they're supposed to feed you every like six hours so some guys will just say

next meal you know they'll tell each other next meal make the next meal hey bro just make it to the next meal and i think that's the mindset that you want to have sometimes like i'm just i'm going to make it to the gym I'm going to make it to the gym. I'm going to make it to the place where we're doing jujitsu. I'm going to make it to the place where we're wrestling. And I'm going to be there no matter what. How well it goes, I don't know. I might be really tired and I might have a pissy,

you know, I might not do great. But even with that, you don't want to overthink that. You just want to get yourself there. Once you get yourself there, give yourself the best opportunity to do the best that you possibly can. And this is where we have to knock down like a series of lies. You know, it's easy to get somewhere. It's easy to show up somewhere late and it's easy to show up somewhere unprepared and go, man, I'm exhausted. That's really easy to do. What's difficult to do is to show up somewhere prepared and show up somewhere on time and maybe even a little early-ish. Maybe for you in this particular case, maybe you got to get there 15 minutes early.

maybe for you in this particular case, maybe you got to get there 15 minutes early. You know, maybe you have to, maybe the gym is locked and you can't even get in at the time that you're supposed to be there or whatever. Maybe you got to go on like a light jog or maybe you got to warm up at home and stretch and roll out and do some things and, or be up early, have a cup of coffee, hang out for a little bit, take a dump and start to mentally prepare your mind for what it is you're about to do but it's so easy like if you already told yourself that um it's going to be tough it's going to be difficult then it's going to be that much easier to talk yourself out of it and again i i realize what i just said earlier is like sometimes you just shouldn't go and that's important because we do need rest.

You need to be able to like reload. If you can't reload and like recoil, you're not going to have any spring. You're not going to be able to really punch back the way that you need to. And a lot of times that's exactly what we need in life. So it's hard to pick and choose when we do that and when we don't do that. But another example of that is like how you train even like, how, how are you, what are you doing in training? Uh, for many, many years I would use very similar weights on squats and my training

partners were always like, why aren't you using more weight? Like, why don't you go on heavier? And I just didn't need a heavier weight to give me the same stimulus. I'm like, why would I go heavier? I don't need more weight. And even now that's like kind of my main mantra now is like, I don't need a bunch of weight. I could actually go in the gym and do some squats with 50 pound kettlebell and get tremendous work out of it. I don't really need to load the back with 700 pounds or anything like that anymore. And even when I was doing that, even when I was lifting very heavy, even when I was squatting over a thousand pounds in competition,

my training weights were, were light. And again, the training partners were like, well, I don't understand. Like, well, you know, they thought I was like probably slacking off. But no, that wasn't the case at all. I knew that's all I needed. I don't need any more than this. This is perfect. And I also felt confident enough that I was going to be able to make it work when it mattered most. And I saw a lot of other people overtraining, lifting too heavy too often. And when it mattered most, they weren't able to

perform. So, uh, when would it be appropriate? Cause you were just talking about the same way, uh, getting to the next meal, when would it be appropriate to look up and then kind of take a, take a glance at the goal and like the longterm, you know, goal instead of just the next meal, the long-term, you know, goal instead of just the next meal, the next set, whatever it may be? For me, you know, I just spent many, many years with my head down, just working, working, working, dragging, you know, kind of compare it to like a sled drag, drag a sled behind you, and you just keep dragging it and dragging it and dragging it and dragging it for as long as you can. And eventually people are like, wow, man, you're really doing a great job. And you kind of look up and you're like, what? Oh, all these people are here for me, cheering me on?

Like what happened? And they're cheering you on because you just broke the all-time sled pulling record. You pulled it further than anybody in history. But really all you were doing is putting one foot in front of the other for a really long time. Um, you know, when is it okay to kind of like look up and, you know, I do think it's important that you have an aim. So you want to set a goal and you want to think about that goal. But I like to do a lot of this stuff almost like in reverse. So what is the thing that you want to get? that goal. But I like to do a lot of this stuff almost like in reverse.

So what is the thing that you want to get? What's the thing that you, there's a lot of questions to answer around that. What's the thing that you really want? And then you got to kind of figure out why do you want that? What's this for? Because if it's like for other people and it's kind of wishy-washy on what it is and what's it for, then maybe you're not even ready to receive that yet. When you have better answers and stronger answers, then I think you'll already have everything that you need on the inside to get whatever it is that you're looking for. And these things, they just, they take time to, it takes time to build them up. But again, they take time to, it takes time to, to build them up. But again, back to, you know, the skill sets and stuff. I don't think there's a ton of reason to worry about the thing that's ahead.

You know, I did say get to the next meal and I, and I am talking about being able sometimes just to survive, to get yourself to certain places. Like I do that daily when I come to the gym, like the mission for the day is like, I don't really know exactly what I'm doing, but I know that in the past going to the gym has worked for me. Uh, it's worked for me aesthetically. It's worked for me strength wise. I've been able to build myself up. I've been able to lose weight. I've been able to, uh, make myself, uh, look better aesthetically. And, and I've been able to make advancements in these things. And I was also able to make a career out of some of it. So just, you know, just get yourself

to the gym. For somebody else, maybe their version is just get yourself to work, get yourself to your job, and then you'll figure out the next steps from there something i did a long time ago when i didn't have as much vision and i didn't know what was going on i would just go to starbucks i would just drive to starbucks and sit there on my uh my ipad and i would just like look shit up um podcasts weren't real hot back then. So I wasn't really doing much of that, but I would just look stuff up and I would, I don't know, read articles about like lifting and stuff like that. But Starbucks is literally where I started to come up with ideas on not just the slingshot itself, but even like where I was going to get it, get it made and,

slingshot itself but even like where I was going to get it uh get it made and and all these other things um now I wouldn't have had the strength of the courage or wouldn't have felt like I was enough had I not gotten myself to the gym to be able to lift the weights that I did because who the fuck am I to make some invention that uh helps people bench more well Well, I have a story behind me. I think it's pretty good. Like I tore my pec three times. I benched over 500 pounds raw. I benched nearly 900 pounds in a bench shirt. And then it's like that's something that people can kind of get behind.

That's something that people can look for, you know, and something people can admire. But for me, I was never really looking up at that necessarily. I just, I just kept working and I just kept doing the things that I knew that were productive and that were going to keep moving me forward. So can you kind of go deeper on like why your accomplishments in the gym meant anything as far as like making good business decisions? Yeah, you have to build yourself up somehow. And for young men in this day and age, especially, I think, um, I don't know where else you'd build yourself up and I don't know how else you'd build

yourself up other than like a lot of physical activity. I, I believe just because we don't have so much physical activity anymore. And so I think it's even more important now than ever for people to run or lift, bodybuild, powerlift, do jujitsu, cycle, climb rocks, whatever. I think our young men especially really need that. I think as you build up strength in one area, like I did, as I built up some strength in the gym, it just made me more confident. It made all the other decisions that I made easier.

Is it helpful to have more courage or is it helpful to have less courage when it comes to business or when it comes to life in general? It's always going to matter. It's always going to be important. It's important to have more courage. So how do you, you know, how do you build that? How do you get momentum with that? Well, for some people, I mean, it could be a variety of things. It could be that they start playing the guitar and they get better at that. But where all courage I think stems from is improvement. When you start making improvements, it's going to be easier to kind of put yourself on the line in that particular thing, in that particular field.

Think about like who grabs a microphone during karaoke? You know, sometimes it's people that are entertaining, that are just fun. They're there to have some fun. Or sometimes people are hammered, right? Yeah. But being hammered gives you courage, liquid courage, they call it, right? Yes. But a lot of times you go to these things and it's very clear.

You're like, all right, well, yeah, yeah, we get it. You just dunked on everybody. You're trying to get signed tonight. Yeah. And they just rip out this beautiful song you're like that's cool right but do they have way more courage than you or or do they just have a skill set right you know and i would say maybe it's a small combination of both you know or large combination of both um and then same thing with, I mean, literally anything else you can

think of, because courage is something that you do, but you're afraid to do. It's something that you do anyway, regardless of the fear that you might have inside. And it would be ridiculous to not have some fears about what it is you're going to do. I think that's the way the human brain is wired to help protect us. Like, oh, if I, if I go too far over that way, I think there's like lions and tigers and bears and I'm going to get eaten, you know? So I'm not going to get too far away from my tribe. And I think even in, even in, you know, just kind of more modern day, I think people are kind of nervous about getting away from what's normal, getting away from like what's typical. And a lot of the stuff that's typical, again, it's easy to be unprepared. It's easy to be out of shape.

It's easy to just sit there and order DoorDash and watch TV. Like that's not anything we ought to work on. We don't need to work on that. Like that's taken care of. You're going to probably end up doing some of those bad habits anyway. Bad habits are something that you're not like, man, I got to really start going to bed later. You know, I got to watch more porn. Like I got to watch more porn.

Porn needs to be on everything, on my iPad, on my iPhone. It's got to be, you know, it's not like you're, man, I've only been drinking three times a week. I got to bump that way up. And it's only three drinks. I got to double that at least. a week. I got to bump that way up. And it's only three drinks. I got to double that at least. So the bad habits and the little devil on your shoulder, it's going to be there. It's going to win a lot. But when you lean into doing the things that are in your best interest, the things that are good for you, the things that you enjoy, that are going to move you forward, when you do that over and over and over again,

well, then it's easier to leap into something and look like the most courageous guy in the room or the bravest guy in the room. Like, how does that guy always do that? Or how's that guy, how's it that everything that guy does seem to turn to gold you know and it's not it's not necessarily just because the guy's courageous it's also like a knowledge base the guy figured out like an algorithm there's an algorithm to business there's an algorithm to everything there's an algorithm to jujitsu and as soon as you think you have the algorithm figured out someone else probably shows you like hey you're not really there. But that's great. Like, it's good to be, it's good to be humbled and stuff because again, you do need to be aware.

You do need to be aware. There's like, there's many levels to how courageous you can get and how powerful you can feel within a certain realm. I've mentioned this before, but mental toughness is almost like a myth in some ways. I do believe that you do need to work on some mental toughness and you can callous your mind the way that David Goggins talks about, and you can make your mind a little tougher. However, take some of the toughest people that you think are really tough and just put them in a situation that they're unfamiliar with, completely unfamiliar with. Take, you know, take your best fighter and put them on the Today Show randomly. And he's got to, he's got to, he's got to take over the job of a normal anchor on the Today Show and he's got to do over the job of a normal anchor on the Today Show, and he's got to do all the normal, like, you're going to be like,

oh, my God, this is like killing my brain, or put them in a movie. And now they got to be Tom Cruise, and they got to hit all their lines. They got to remember everything. They're going to be most likely, sometimes there's some crossover between these things, but most likely the person's going to be pretty nervous or you take the uh the army ranger who's gotten parachuted many times in the middle of the night with night vision and weapons and shit and it's taken out the enemy and so forth take that guy and put him in a ufc cage that's not his, maybe he doesn't have a good skill set

when it comes to that. Maybe even just the crowd, like just the, you know, being in front of five or 10,000 people and being live on pay-per-view, maybe that, you know, petrifies him. And then take the UFC guy who probably doesn't have a skill set in the military and drop him off in Afghanistan or whatever in the middle of the night with night vision. Maybe he doesn't even know how to use the weapons he's got, you know? And so you can see quickly that you can be as mentally as tough as you want. And maybe that might help a little bit in those situations. But what's going to help you even more is to have a particular skill set, not just a mindset. The mindset is cool. That's helpful, especially if

you're able to fend off some of the negative stuff. But the skill set is going to make it so much easier for you to fend off the negativity because you're like, you know what? I'm really fucking good at this. I got this. I'm going to be fine. I'm not even going to worry about the negative. Neotropics. Every single biohacker and their mother talks about the benefits of lion's mane or alpha GPC, blah, blah, blah. We have this mix of supplement, but no one really tells you how to analyze what you actually should be trying to take or what problems you may have. That's why Andy Triana has made the Neutropics ebook now on our website at powerproject.live. Now we've had Andy on our podcast multiple times, and he's educated us on so many different things along with nootropics. But in this e-book, he goes in depth

on how to analyze what your problems may be specifically and how to utilize nootropics to help fix those issues or to help progress in certain areas, like if you're wanting to speak better, think faster, communicate better. There are so many things he goes in depth on in this ebook and you can get it now on our website at powerproject.live. The link's in the description along with the podcast show notes. Yeah. So then how do you think, like, how do people know when they are ready though? They've been keeping their head down for a long time. They haven't been looking up. Yeah. When will people know when they are ready to jump into that? I think you have to develop some wins.

You got to put up some points on the scoreboard. And you also need to be aware that things are going to be difficult. Every time you notch yourself up a little bit, things are going to progressively get a little more complicated. You know, with every pound I lifted, the next pound was just sitting there, you know, waiting for me to try to lift it. And it wasn't really just strength. It was like a combination of a lot of things. But it was also a combination, again, back to the skill set thing.

There's somebody somewhere that knows more about this. How do I just lift a little bit more? You know, can I lift a little bit more? Just on that topic, I mean, my, so my best total, my best total was like 2630 or something or 2620. But I think if you added up all the numbers that I did between bench squat and deadlift, I think it was like 2700 or I might be misspeaking, maybe 2500, 2600. But my point is, is that I just didn't hit all those numbers on the same day. I already proved to myself that I was capable of some of those numbers, but the combination didn't happen on the same day. Is there somebody around that knows how to help me not only just hit those same numbers on the same day, but maybe increase each lift by an extra 10 pounds?

And there is. And that's why you go to Ed Cohn. And that's why you go to Westside Barbell. And that's why you try to seek out the best people. you try to seek out the best people. And so when you start to seek out some people that are amazing, that are awesome at what they do, if you're not so sure about what you're going to be able to do, you start to talk to other people around you. Say, hey, how can I improve? What's going on? How do you think I'm going to? They're going to let you know. They're going to guide you the best that you can, the best way that they can. But to really, you know, to really know

that you are like ready for that kind of next level stuff, no one can actually really tell you that. And you're not really ever going to know until you test yourself. You have to test yourself. Like, so if you don't test yourself with the thing that's difficult, with the thing that's haunting you, we could sit here all day long and talk about how you're going to give this great speech in front of everybody when you've been petrified about public speaking for most of your life. We can talk about how you're just going to go out there and you're going to knock them dead and we could talk all the strategy and stuff. But if we haven't really done it yet, then we haven't done it yet. could talk all the strategy and stuff, but if we haven't really done it yet, then we haven't done it yet. And, and we can read books about it and you can be like, this is what Tony Robbins does. And you can get all fired up and pumped up, do all the same stretches and activities that he does,

do some of the things that Chris Williamson mentioned on our show about how he prepares for podcasts and speaking engagements. But then you get out there and it's mom's spaghetti, right? It's the M&M thing where you go to talk and you can't put any words together at all. So you're not really ever going to know, but you do have to test yourself. And when you test yourself, you go out there and most likely, I'm sure there's cases every once in a while, most likely it's not gonna be anything nearly as bad as what you made it out to be. And you're going to say, you know, like after I got done with the Boston marathon, some people started to kind of ask, uh, Hey, you can do another one. And immediately when I was done, um, it took me hours and hours to kind of recover from it. I'm not used to running that far. The recovery process of that was not fun, was not enjoyable. Um, and there was some like suffering going on basically. Uh, I was in a world of hurt for a while, threw up, um, couldn't really

eat. Just doing that, like grab your head, like, Oh, like mo moan and i didn't even know i was moaning kind of thing like you just you're humming to yourself too like you're like like a really really bad hangover yeah he's like you're just making this weird noise the whole time so i was like that for six hours but you know what the answer to the question is yes i am going to do another marathon because to some degree I love some of that. You know, I love the energy that we just put out for the run that we just did. I love that we did a couple of them and Andrew probably wasn't sure of the pace and tempo. But a couple of times I see Andrew, he's right with me and it's like this is fucking great.

And this is like the middle of the workout when it's at the suckiest point and i can't even imagine what i i do have some degree of of what it feels like being in professional wrestling and and uh i use the box and stuff like that so like when you get in the middle of something and you're getting your ass beat there's something very fight club ish about it there's something very fight club-ish about it. There's something very therapeutic about it. And I think you probably, in jujitsu, you probably need to be kind of careful with it because you could just end up like tapping out to everybody all the time because you can end up kind of enjoying, you know, the person putting pressure

on you and like, you know, to some extent, I mean, someone like Nsema is going to make you not enjoy it, but to some extent you can kind of like getting roughed up and you get done with class and you look and you're like i got a shiner and you're like me today yeah you're pretty pumped and your nose is like i remember that with boxing you know like just actually being pissed i remember i got jabbed hard and i was like whoa it just rocked me this is gonna look cool. I go to look in the mirror. I'm like, my nose got to be gushing blood. There was nothing there. I guess it sucks.

Nothing got swollen or nothing. That's a bummer. But a couple times I've gotten hit in certain spots so hard that I ended up with like double black eye, which is fucking weird. You know, just getting punched on the side of the head weird. But I remember like after after a lot of boxing practice and sparring and stuff i remember um and rocky says this in uh i think in rocky one he says it he talks about how everything hurts after you box he's like your your hands hurt your face hurts and he says your hair hurts which is a funny comment but it does especially like when

i was boxing we would use headgear here and there and like the headgear getting rattled around made it like worse but it almost feels like a sunburn on your head okay yeah but you don't know what's wrong with you either you're like like you're it's not like your head's like ringing it's not like you feel like concussed necessarily but like the muscular stuff in your head, just, just your scalp hurts. You're like, oh, fuck. And everything is like, just, um, like just super sore in a weird, in a way that I'm imagining is probably a way that you probably experienced something similar with jujitsu. Where it's just like, just this overall achy achy just shitty this shitty ass like soreness you just you sit there drenched in sweat just kind of staring you don't you're not looking at

anything but i'm just like i'm there and if somebody gets my attention sure i'll snap out of it but i'm just sitting there like taking inventory like yep that's i'm probably gonna fill that one later like i did feel like like because because when you're in the moment and i'm sure boxing was exactly like this you you kind of feel like oh i heard something into my neck but let's go and you feel so good just like i'm good and then you kind of get in your car all right i felt a little something drive home get out of the car oh we Oh, we got something. We got something brewing in here. And then what happens for me is like, you know, I'll get out of the shower. I'm

getting dressed to come here. And then like, I'll look and be like, oh shit. Like I didn't, like, I don't feel it. But then my wife will point it out. Like, what's that? And like, she, you know, she jokes around and she's like, who, who's, who I have to beat up. Cause like, I'll be, I'll have bruises all over and I wouldn't even recognize it. And it's kind of like, oh, shit, my bad. But that's pretty cool. Yeah, definitely fight clubby. Those guys don't want your wife coming over there.

They'll start kicking everybody's ass. Yeah, for sure. I'm curious, when you were powerlifting, did anybody think you were crazy for what you were working towards? And how many people actually knew? Did anybody think you were crazy for like what you were working towards? And how many people actually knew? You know, in the sport of powerlifting, the cool thing is, you know, you surround yourself with like-minded people. I say all the time, you walk with the lame, you develop a limp. That's something I got from my mentor, Louie Simmons. And so the powerlifters understood it. You know, the other power lifters, they got it.

Um, it was really rare, really rare for someone to be like, nah, bro, you're never going to get there. Uh, you know, that, that was somebody that was in the sport. Um, as far as like family members and friends and stuff, um, I don't think they just had any understanding. Yeah. It doesn't make any sense. If I said I'm going to do jujitsu and if I said I'm a white belt and brown belt and stuff, I can explain the belt system a little bit. Some people have probably some exposure to jujitsu as do some people have some exposure to weights. But it's just at like such a weird level you know yeah i want to squat a thousand pounds or like like that reaction i got

from david goggins like telling him what i squatted and he just just started dying laughing you know um and he said you know people just they have no idea like what that means or what that is. People don't know how many like 45s, you know, that is. They did lift and they did like bench press a plate or something at some point. But, yeah, I mean, it's you're going to feel weird about it, but it's your own. It's your own weirdness. It's not really, no one really cares that much about what you do. I think it's common to think about the way that other people think about you and view you

as if that's all they think about all the time. Even something as simple as like, you're kind of uncomfortable, you're eating with some people that you don't know that well and you're worried about like how am i going to get up when am i going to get up what if i turn this way what if they see that my back is sweaty or what if they see that i kind of move weird because i'm i'm in this weird bench thing you know and you know i don't think anyone's really watching or observing unless it's me i'm gonna make fun of

you probably they're not gonna be like mark this is your fifth plate yeah like really yeah or man that's so strange andrew went to the bathroom twice you know like he went to the bathroom twice in 90 minutes or whatever it's like i don't think anyone's really you know paying that much attention or cares that much um it is cool though when you do tell people about what it is you're trying to do and they do get excited about it i mean that's nice you know somebody's like you know family member a friend gets fired up or maybe they go to the competition itself uh that's really cool but there wasn't a lot of like there wasn't a lot of like family members or friends that really went to any of this stuff because like again, they just – it doesn't really register.

It doesn't – if I was an actor and I was in like Hamilton or something, that would register. But everyone would be like, I'm fucking going. Right? Everybody would be pumped. And then when I went and did the Boston Marathon, I had lot of family there too, because that's like more relatable. Like, Oh, the, I've heard of the Boston marathon before. Oh shit. You're going to run 26 miles. Like most people know, at least have some idea that a marathon is like 20 something miles, you know, and they definitely have heard of the Boston marathon. Uh, but yeah, for lifting, you know, my dad would go, um, and and and my wife and my brother and stuff like that

here and there but like it wasn't like it wasn't like every family member it wouldn't it's not like what you would think it would be you know i just think like if you had a family member that was like really high level like broke world records and something you would probably be like fuck man i don't even care or what it is i'm'm going to go. Right. And so it just, for me, it just, it wasn't that way just because powerlifting is a little weird offshoot thing. But again, I think the weirdness of it, I think is cool. I think people should lean into that. It's okay. It's okay to be a little different, a weird don't bother trying to make people understand it don't bother trying to make people go to it i'm not even saying i wanted them there i'm just saying

it's like it's just so weird like i'm on all these fucking steroids and i'm massive and shit like that too i'm big and i'm fat and uh you see person after person miss a lift because they got the bench shirts on and the squat suits and people are falling and people are bleeding and it's just it's an extreme it would be like early days ufc type stuff like who wants to go watch that like oh yeah my my uh my buddy he's a he's a cage fighter now people want to watch it but back then people didn't have a skill set it was just like barbaric and people would beat the shit out of each other you You're like, I'm not going to that. Yeah, we do have the, like, I think it's like the last shot of Bigger, Stronger, Faster

where the whole family's like jumping, you know, because you hit, I don't know if it was a bench or a squat. The 705 bench, yeah. There you go. Yeah, no, I bring that up because, you know, there's like a lot of like Instagram posts, like, you know, what was it? Something about tell people your, your goals so big that it like makes them laugh or makes scares them or some, something

like that. So, you know, just trying to, uh, to kind of, I guess, uh, clear that up because I don't, I think it's kind of silly, but at the same time, like, like I want to accomplish something, something dope, but I don't want you to laugh at me for it you know like i want it to be somewhat realistic um do you think building up courage to do something difficult can be a shortcut to happiness uh i asked that because i've seen a clip speaking of instagram um stylebender uh oh my gosh the ufc fighter stylebender yeah his name just escaped me uh where he's real on israel adesanya thank you he grabs the microphone from from joe rogan he's like is it cool if i talk for a second here and he's like yeah do whatever you want and he's like you know people like earth

i want you to you know i wish you could experience this because i am so freaking happy right now i need you to go out and do something and make, and you know, basically saying like, you got to do something hard. And I was just like, wow, like, I wonder if Mark would think that like doing something quote courageous can be a shortcut to happiness. That's really well said. Uh, yeah, I think it, I think it helps because you just proved to yourself that you did something that you were scared of you you know going in that something's dangerous and then you go and you do it anyway that's pretty cool you know and i'm not talking about something that's foolish like just hitting the gas on your car and going like 150 miles an hour something wild where you could really get

hurt or hurt somebody else kill somebody else else or yourself. Not really like that. But something that you knew was going to be difficult, losing weight, increasing your bench press, doing some MMA, doing some jujitsu, going to a boxing class, finally walking into that yoga gym and signing up for the yoga class or the power lifter guy that like would love to try Pilates or something but just

doesn't think he can do it or the girl that needs to, you know, walk through the doors of the local strength gym or power lifting gym and start power powerlifting like that does take, it makes you think all these thoughts. It makes you think, man, they're not going to want to help me. I'm all skinny and stuff. That's not, you know, but what you'll quickly realize once you do step foot in there and once you do the thing that's difficult is someone's going to say, Hey, I started out, I was actually way, even I was way skinnier than you are right now when I started. And then you see them pick up like 315 pounds on a deadlift, and you're like, holy shit.

Like, okay, that's how this place works? Same thing with when you stepped into your first day of jiu-jitsu. Someone's not like, dude, you're a fucking nerd. What are you doing here? You're a loser. Are you kidding? You don't know how to fight. You're never going to know how to fight. Actually, gonna know how to fight actually here watch this and they just choke you

out and then they wake you up and they're like bro you need to just go you are fucking awful right it's like no one treats you that i think we think that right oh absolutely but by going to do the hard thing uh you're like man at least i there's a a thing, you're like, man, at least I, there's a thing from Jordan Peterson where he talks about, he's like, basically kind of saying something like this. He's saying like, you know, your own faults, you know, your own shortcomings. But if you pick something up and move it over there and you move it somewhere, then at the very least you could say is I picked that thing up and I moved it over there. Like I might be a piece of crap. I might be this.

I might be that. So when you do pick up 225 pounds or you squat 315 or something like that, you could say I might not treat people that well all the time. I might do this. I might do that. But I do know how to make improvement. And if I know how to make improvement there, maybe I can improve my anger issue. Maybe I can improve my ability to communicate with people. Maybe I can improve my financial situation. Because to me, again, is the skill sets and the improvement are the two huge factors. And those are a key element to being happy. Because if you have great skill and you

still believe that you have an ability to improve, why wouldn't you be happy? Like, what would you be bummed out about? I guess sometimes some people can have maybe some expectations of themselves that are not realistic because you can lie to yourself. You can get yourself in a position where you are spouting off stuff that just doesn't make sense yet. And that can happen from time to time. And I do know some people that are, they're so obsessed with improvement. They're so obsessed with skillset that they're not really that happy. But most of those people, most of those people, it's very rare to like run into like a Michael Jordan or a Kobe Bryant

or Tiger Woods or anybody like that. But most of the time, the people that I see that are really like fanatical about improvement and getting better. And then they're also like pissed that they're not where they need to be. They're not really, they're just not being honest with themselves. They're not really doing the stuff that they need. Like, I just know that they're not doing it. And we all know people like that. It's like, man, I don't understand, man. I, you know, I'm trying this diet. I'm doing everything I can. Um, Oh, how long have you been doing it for? Well, you know, I've been doing it for three months. I haven't lost any weight. And you're like, that just doesn't make any sense at all. Because if, even if you were on a diet for a month and there was no weight loss results, wouldn't you think to change something slightly?

You know, just a small, you know, just maybe read another book or reread what you read about the diet that you're supposed to be on. I mean, we do run into plateaus. I'm not saying that that doesn't happen, but you should be able to acquire some more knowledge somewhere and you should be able to figure that out, like especially for somebody that has a lot of weight to lose. Someone who's much thinner, obviously, it's going to be more difficult. But doing the difficult thing, doing the hard thing, I think most of the time you're going to find that it's going to eventually lead to happiness. to eventually lead to happiness. At first it could lead to you being like kind of pissed or disappointed because maybe the thing that you're trying to do, maybe the hard thing that you're trying to do, maybe you're already doing it. Maybe you're already putting in a good effort and maybe it just doesn't work out the way that you want it to. And that's pretty common. Like that happens, but that's part of it. That's part part of the whole thing that's part of how you learn i think uh for the last two years in a row i think in sema's finished in second place at worlds uh i think one time was a purple belt and this time was brown belt and that's got to be

frustrating we know what kind of athlete he is we know how obsessed we you and i were laughing yesterday about uh we had some we had a coach here that was taking him through some drills and it seems like, why is my foot moving that way? What's happening? He's like, tell me what, tell me what, you know, tell me what's going on because he wants to know everything so he can, uh, you know, be able to kind of perfect these things. But I think in SEMA is a person that has good perspective. but I think in SEMA is a person that has good perspective he does have high expectations of himself but he also just understands that this whole process is going to take time everything's going to take time and if it's going to take time for an athlete like that that means it's going to take time for everybody yeah I just so similar to you know, we talk about the feet. I know this is going to, I'll bring it around, I promise.

If someone's feet, foot, feet, if someone's feet hurt, what do they want to do? They want to reach for the cushy, this bigger, squishier shoe to protect their feet. And we're like, no, like, try to go for the one that's wide, the one that has less. Don't do it forever, but lean more into that. Because if you keep chasing the comfortable stuff it's only going to get worse and i think with you know because i see it firsthand with kids um i'll just say society most people they're going the opposite way than going into the hard thing thinking that they're going to find happiness in the more comfortable

couch the the bigger tv to so they can watch netflix the the better video games or whatever it is because like no i want to get go this route to be happy i want to i want it to be as comfortable as possible that's going to make me happy when i get X item as opposed to like, oh man, this, that hard thing, that jujitsu thing, that lifting thing, that running thing, that's hard. The diet thing, that's hard. I'm going to go get pizza and play some video games because that's going to make me happy. But I think just like we were saying with the shoes, it's just going to make things worse because it's just going to set you back even further. It's going to be, you know, it's just going to make things worse because it's just going to set you back even further. It's going to be, you know, it's going to not feel so great to be 35 or 40 years old and not have a strong skillset and not be able to handle some stuff that's hard. You're not even going to

be an attractive person in that manner. Like you, I know that's harsh, a little bit, but something that's attractive for people to partner up with somebody else is someone's ability to cope with stuff, is someone's ability to handle a challenge. It doesn't matter if it's male-female or male-and-male or female-and-female. It doesn't make any difference. The thing that is going to attract you to somebody else is going to be that they are displaying courage or they're displaying that they don't mind to stand up to a challenge here and there in certain things. And we all have our weaknesses. And a lot of times a couple will fill in each other's weaknesses, but you're also, you most likely aren't going to have a skillset that is monetizable in any way. You can't, I don't know if that's a word, but you're most likely not going to have a skill set that's strong either if you haven't challenged yourself. And so you have to challenge yourself. What's the

new thing? What's the, you want to learn how to podcast, you want to learn how to film, you want to learn how to write scripts. Well, you're going to have to ask, you're going to have to go around and ask some questions. You're going to have to say, you you're gonna have to go around and ask some questions you're gonna have to say you're gonna have to go up to somebody and say hey you need a photographer you know sound familiar and you sure do um you know and back to your point about the cushiness like you know why does the ground feel so harsh to somebody because they haven't really laid down on it they lay down down on their bed or their couch or their recliner, and they're used to the softness of those things. But then even if they were to

sit in the grass, they would be uncomfortable. Meanwhile, somebody that has been on some hardwood floors or has been on some tile, maybe it's somebody that in stores flooring. That person would be in heaven being on the grass. They'd be like, this is great. This is nice and plush and soft. And they would, you know, fall asleep in the grass. So I do agree. I think it's a really important thing that, you know, you hear people, you know, talk a lot about doing the uncomfortable thing and, um, there's, there's no shortcut to it. You know, there's no, uh, there's not really a sweatless version of improvement. Like you're going to have to sweat, you're going to have to work. There's, you're not going to be able to improve on any. It doesn't matter what, it could be the smallest thing. It could be a puzzle. It could be you coloring a book. It could be anything.

It's going to take time for you to get better and to level up at that and to be able to do more puzzle pieces or be able to, you know, color something more complex. It's just, it's just the way that it is. And it's that way for a reason. I think that one thing that is really interesting about courage is as soon as you start to build some of it, then you're encouraged to continue further down that path. You're like, yeah, this is the right way. Or this is the way you kind of repeatedly start thinking to yourself, yeah, this is the way this is the right way thinking to yourself yeah this is the way this is the right way i'm i'm on the right i'm on the right path because the movement itself is going to

promote more movement that's where the do more be more stuff comes from it's uh over time we could do the same thing in the opposite direction right everyone knows that oh yeah everyone knows we can say fuck it i'm just chilling for today watching some playoff games and i ain't moving from the couch because yesterday was hard blah blah blah this week sucked at work i asked for a raise and they fucking suck bleep that out they suck pepperoni and uh you know you could think all those things and you can kind of just talk yourself into, you know, not only just laying on the couch and not exercising, but here you are not exercising and you're overeating and you are just not getting outside, getting sunlight. I mean,

the negatives just, they pile up quick. And then maybe you're sitting in your own negativity. You have a couple of drinks, you start talking about your brother that pisses you off or your aunt or whatever. And you're just being all negative about everything. You go on social media, you're all negative there. And so we know that that's easy just to talk yourself into completely heading in the wrong direction negatively. But the cool thing is, is once you start to make a right decision and you start to go down that path, more and more paths will open up along the way for you to continue to do the right thing. And you are going to feel fatigued. You are going to be like, man, fuck, I'm tired. You know, I'm really, I'm really working, but also I think it's important

to realize and understand most of us are at like 40, 50, 60% of our capacity. You know, again, if you're really being honest with yourself, you know, that you can handle, you know, that you can do better in every aspect of your life. You know, that you know that you can ratchet everything up at least a little tiny bit in every single aspect, whether it's going to sleep, whether it's the time that you wake up, whether it's the food that you consume when you wake up, the food that you consume as you're getting closer to bedtime. I mean, we know that if you can stop eating two to four hours before you go to bed, how beneficial it can be for your sleep. Maybe it doesn't work exactly that way for everybody, but most of the tracking and most

of the stuff that we've heard, sometimes people won't do that. So there's so many different areas where you can lean in to the thing that's difficult, even something like cold plunging, which is just fantastic. And you see everyone doing it on the internet and you're like, I just don't want to see one more person. Cold plunge, I can't handle it. The cold therapy. Again, if you don't want to get one, you don't want to be into it. Totally understandable. But every once in a while, make your shower uncomfortable.

Just turn the thing to be cold. See if you can bear it for 30 seconds. And then you can be done with it. But did it cause any sort of response? Did you notice anything? Did it, you know, did it get you kind of revved up or fired up for the day? Maybe it did. And if it did, then it can be a habit that you cling to for a while to help build some skill sets of resilience. Pat Project family, we love beef on this podcast.

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Links are in the description box below, as well as the podcast show notes. Momentum goes both ways. You know, you can, it's a slippery slope and you just fall right off that whole damn ledge. Maybe I'm getting too far ahead of myself, but for people listening that are, they're about to embark on something that's going to call up, they're going to need to call

upon some courage to accomplish. Maybe they're in the middle of it and they're currently listening to this on like their marathon training or something. How should people appreciate the thing that they accomplished or they overcame? So that way, you know, like you, like, I don't know. I'm just thinking, you know, cause I know, cause I've heard this from a couple of people that competed, you know, they're like, Oh, my first competition, I wish I just stopped and looked up and looked around, but I'll so zoned in on my match. I wish I could just like take it all in,

you know, that sort of thing. Like how do you get the most juice out of the squeeze when it comes to accomplishing something? And you can take whichever accomplishments of yours, whether it be the powerlifting, marathon, business, whatever it may be, how do people appreciate it? I think that you do get honed in on the goal and you kind of, you know, you forget how awesome it is just to be there. And I think for somebody that may have already competed in

some stuff, I think now is the time to reflect and be proud of yourself about the fact that you did set foot into that gym or you did that thing. I think it's really important to kind of give yourself a little bit of a pat on the back and to recognize there's no reason why you can't take that into whatever new thing that you're about to go do. And so for people that are struggling and that haven't had an opportunity to really put up points on the scoreboard yet, there's probably places you put up points on the scoreboard, but you're just not really being kind enough to yourself to think about it. There's so many different examples of how good people are at certain things that they just don't even think about. You know, some people are really organized.

Some people are really good at keeping their room clean or their closet clean. And it's like, I know I get it. You're like, man, that's fucking pathetic, but it's still, it's still a skillset to be organized. Um, are you on time for your job? Like we can just start anywhere. I can meet you anywhere. Um, you know, are you good at cooking? Are you good at hunting? How did you acquire this particular skill set? And so like as you go into whatever new thing it is, you should have confidence because you have proved to yourself before and you've improved yourself before. And this new thing that you're

about to go into, there is really nothing that you can change or do on game day. Everything that you did is already done. And it's just a byproduct of your training. It's a byproduct. It's like we're going to go skill set to skill set and we're going to see what happens here on this particular day if it's a sporting competition or something like that. like that and to be able to try to take it in and absorb it it probably takes like a little bit of maturity of uh of being you know being someone that's comfortable enough that probably has most likely done something similar otherwise it's going to be really hard to try to take anything in it's going to be some of it's going to be like a blur and then you'll have that thought of like yeah i wish i

was able to do that but you only really that's another capacity i think it's another spot that you get to uh after you've been doing something for a while and being in professional wrestling really teaches you that a lot because professional wrestling is acting and entertaining um it's like sports entertainment all rolled into one and uh you can't just like you can't just do the movements you can't just like hit somebody with an elbow and you can't just like push somebody in the ropes like you got to be theatrical about it you got to have big motions and you got to be kind of loud with your your movement of your arms and and uh your head when you get hit and stuff like that. You have to be like theatrical.

And so that automatically draws you to look at the crowd and to pay attention to everything that's around you. But for those of you that don't have those experiences, I mean, yeah, like the easiest thing in the world to do, I think, is just to look up. Just literally just look up. Bring your head up. You know, a lot of times we're on our phones and stuff nowadays, but if you're in a sport and you are trained and you are thinking about being the best

or beating somebody else across from you, the odds that you're just going to bring your chin up and look around and look in the stands or look up at the ceiling are probably pretty low. But being a runner and being someone that goes outside, I love or look up at the ceiling are probably pretty low. But being a runner and being someone that goes outside, I love to look up. I love to look at the trees in Davis, California, where we're unfortunately having this crazy person stabbing some people. It really sucks. But in Davis, when I look up, I'll be running sometime and there'll be turkeys in the trees. And I just don't know anything about turkeys.

I had no idea they can get their fat little bodies up there. And they make all kinds of crazy noises up there. So you would be surprised if you just stop and pay attention every once in a while and just look up and look around. That makes me feel really good. I don't know why, but just looking up and seeing these beautiful trees and stuff. Yeah, it makes me grateful. It makes me grateful for the body that I'm in. Makes me grateful. It makes me think back to like, dude, this, this body is like lifted all these weights and done a bunch of things. And like, it's still here and it's still taking me around town. Uh, I'm still able to run and breathe well. And like, this is, this is really neat. So I think when you get into these

moments, I think that, uh, I think that if you can look up, it would be magical because you'll be so grateful. And you probably think of something that will almost make you cry. You probably think of your mom or your dad, or you'll think of like, man, this is just so awesome to be here. Like, fuck the, all these other goals I had. Like this is just sick being here. And as soon as you feel that way, as soon as you feel about, as soon as you feel that way about how awesome it is to be there, you'll be going to be so excited and you're going to do so well that it's not, you're probably, you're probably going to kind of let go of the anxiety and you're probably going to perform way better if you can do that. But again, if you've never done it before, it's, uh, it can be, it can be

really difficult because even in powerlifting, it took me a long time to be able to, to, to get to that point. You know, I remember, uh, doing a meet in, um, at Jesse Burdick's gym. Uh, it was one of his Reebok record breakers. And I remember Chad Wesley Smith helped me for that meet. And yeah, I was getting ready to like bench press and stuff. And I remember seeing, I think my dad was there and like a couple other people were there I was friends with.

There was a lot of people there I was friends with. But I remember Charlie Zamora was there. And and charlie you know like i'm talking to charlie in between like attempts you know because i've been doing it for a long time and charlie's like or in between warm-ups rather and uh charlie's like well i'm gonna grab your son and i'm gonna bring him up to the front when you know because charlie he's like that right he's the greatest guy in the world Charlie uh grabs Jake and he brings him up and they're like on the side and you know I go up and I'm fired up and everything but it's also an opening attempt and I know it's like not gonna be that hard but yeah I like I take a moment I look at Jake and I look at Charlie Charlie you know is recording it and everything and I get down on my on the bench and I do my thing, which I never even asked my son about.

I never asked him if he remembers that or whatever. But what was really cool about it is I took, it was 500 pounds. I took it down to my chest. They tell you to have a little bit of a pause in there at the bottom at a powerlifting meet. And then they say, press. And I said, press. And boom, just blasted it up. And the crowd went, whoa.

Yeah, that's the best went oh yeah that's the best oh that's the best yeah it was super cool and so to do that in front of my son I don't think my daughter was there she might have been too young or whatever I can't remember but I do remember seeing them there and my wife there and

it's like yeah just makes the moment that's like a really fun moment that was a really cool moment for me. Incredible. That's all I have in regarding this topic. I just want to thank everybody that's been following Saturday School. It's been really cool seeing the comments, you know, because it seems like it's a different breed. I'm not saying that like there's no crossover from our everyday podcast, but the Saturday morning crew seems to be extra special. And I just want to say thank you guys for all the comments that you guys have

been leaving. It's been really, really cool. Sometimes, like I've told people, I'm like, I feel sometimes like we talk into a brick wall. Like,

are people actually listening to this thing? Hello. And, and I, I'm not saying that to be like, Oh, I'm super humble. It's just like,

you know, like what you were talking about earlier. Uh, if we said like, Oh, our podcast gets downloaded a million times, like what does that even mean? But like, I'm sure when you and Jen Widerstrom were on TV, I'm sure like your parents went nuts for that, right? You know, it's like, well, hey, like a couple thousand people might watch this today, but like we have millions of people watching the YouTube channel. That's different, right? So like what I'm getting at is like, I'm just super grateful for everybody that checks out Saturday school.

And hopefully people are aware that it's Saturday 5 a.m. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Saturday 5 a.m. Make sure you put it on 5 a.m. If you're not putting it on at 5 a.m., then you know, I don't even know. I don't know where to begin with you. Yeah, you're sleeping in. You're off the team. Take us on out of here, Andrew. Again, thank you, everybody, for being here today.

I appreciate you guys. Drop those comments down below. Let us know what you guys think about today's conversation. And if you want some more stuff like this, we did an episode on manifesting, which I think fits right perfectly in line with this. So that will pop up on the screen. Make sure you guys go check that out if you haven't already. Let us know what you want to hear from us. And then, yeah, drop the comments.

Let us know what you guys want to hear us talk about next. Follow the podcast at MBPowerProject all over the place. My Instagram is at IamAndrewZ. Mark Bale, where you at? I'm at Mark Smelly Bale. Strength is never weak. This week, there's never strength. Catch you guys later.

Bye.