The One You Feed - Tony Horton
Episode Date: September 14, 2015[powerpress] This week we talk to Tony Horton about the law of consistencyTony Horton is the master behind the best-selling fitness series: P90X®, P90X2®, 10-Minute Trainer®, his latest 30-min...ute dynamo P90X3® and the brand new “X” series prequel; P90. Tony is a world-class motivational speaker and author of the top selling books “Bring It,” “Crush It,” and the incredibly motivating “The Big Picture.” He has appeared on countless television and radio programs as a fitness and lifestyle expert and is sought after to appear at Fortune 500 corporate events, health and wellness expos, universities and over 40 military bases throughout the world.For the past 25 years, Tony has used his unique brand of humor to change the lives of over 8 million people through his powerful fusion of motivation, physical exercise, nutrition and discipline. From world class athletes, pro sports teams, congressmen, celebrities and the U.S Military, to corporate executives, couch potatoes and busy moms and dads alike, Tony has what it takes to reach and teach them all.Our Sponsor this Week is Emeals. Try eMeals risk free for 14 days. Head to EMEALS.COM to sign up today—it only takes a few minutes to solve your dinnertime dilemma. Simply choose a food style and you’ll be ready to experience the power of planning with your 14-day free trial.With eMeals, you’ll never again have to ask yourself, “what’s for dinner.” That’s EMEALS.COM (Remember to tell them you heard about them from us when you check out.) In This Interview Tony and I Discuss...The One You Feed parableHow Tony used to feed his bad wolfHow we all need different approaches to changing our livesThe importance of the right teacherStarting with the physical aspect of changeWorking on the things we can controlThe mental benefits of physical actionThe downside of shortcuts to feeling betterDoing your best and forgetting the restFor more show notes and links to Tony visit us at our websiteSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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Everybody knows they're supposed to do their best, but what prevents them from doing their best is the fact that they're thinking about everything else.
Welcome to The One You Feed.
Throughout time, great thinkers have recognized the importance of the thoughts we have.
Quotes like, garbage in, garbage out, or you are what you think ring true.
And yet, for many of us, our thoughts don't strengthen or empower us.
We tend toward negativity, self-pity, jealousy, or fear.
We see what we don't have instead of what we do.
We think things that hold us back and dampen our spirit.
But it's not just about thinking.
Our actions matter.
It takes conscious, consistent,
and creative effort to make a life worth living. This podcast is about how other people keep
themselves moving in the right direction, how they feed their good wolf.
I'm Jason Alexander.
And I'm Peter Tilden.
And together, our mission on the Really Know Really podcast is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions like
why the bathroom door doesn't go all the way to the floor,
what's in the museum of failure, and does your dog truly love you?
We have the answer.
Go to reallyknowreally.com
and register to win $500, a guest spot on our podcast
or a limited edition signed Jason bobblehead.
The Really No Really podcast.
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Thanks for joining us.
Our guest on this episode is Tony Horton,
the master behind the best-selling fitness series,
P90X, P90X2,
10-Minute Trainer, and his latest 30-minute dynamo, P90X3. He also has a brand new X-series
prequel called P90. Tony is a world-class motivational speaker and author of the top
selling books Bring It, Crush It, and the incredibly motivating The Big Picture. Tony
believes that real and lasting
change can happen when we commit to health as a lifestyle. And here's the interview with Tony
Horton. Hi, Tony. Welcome to the show. Eric, pleasure, my man. I am excited to have you on.
I appreciate you taking the time. I have jokingly talked before about having done some of your workouts, and I've taken your name in vain a couple times, but in the best of ways, as I've watched those workouts.
You wouldn't be the first, Eric, that's for sure.
My ears are constantly ringing because of it.
I would imagine.
But I've gotten used to it.
So our show is called The One You Feed, and it's based on the parable of two wolves,
where there's a grandfather who's talking with his grandson, and it's based on the parable of two wolves where there's a grandfather who's
talking with his grandson, and he says, in life there are two wolves inside of us that are always
at battle. One is a good wolf, which represents things like kindness and bravery and love,
and the other is a bad wolf, which represents things like greed and hatred and fear.
And the grandson stops, and he thinks about it for a second and he looks up at his grandfather and he says, well, grandfather, which one wins? And the grandfather says, the one you feed. So I'd like
to start off by asking you what that parable means to you in your life and in the work that you do.
Well, I love that parable because it has a lot to do with some of the things that I used to
struggle with when I was a wee lad. I used to feed all the wrong things, including my stomach.
And I would feed my brain filled with sadness and depression and anxiety and fear.
And I would use all the words that would really give those types of things all the fuel it needed to sort of overwhelm me.
would really give those types of things all the fuel it needed to sort of overwhelm me.
But obviously the reason why I've been able to achieve the success that I have to this point is because at some point I was fortunate enough to find the right books and seminars and mentors
to begin to feed the better of the two.
And now I just continue to make sure that
I do that. And, you know, the one thing is, is that it's an ever-changing world. Right. Um,
you know, my industry, along with other types of industries that help, that help, you know,
help me grow and improve, whether it be social media or building website or doing a YouTube
channel or a podcast or developing new programs,
it's not like you can repeat the same techniques and practices and philosophies over and over and over again
hoping they're going to work out.
You have to constantly re-educate yourself.
So it's not like things haven't changed all that much.
The challenges are still there.
It's just that I have to keep feeding the good wolf to be able to
be able to get what I want to get out of life so that there's more laughter and humor and patience
and joy and altruism and happiness in my life. And sometimes I think a lot of people who struggle,
Sometimes I think a lot of people who struggle, who are feeding the negative,
are really to some degree just don't have the right information yet.
Now, obviously, some people can change easier than others.
They get the intel and they're good to go and they just make that 180-degree shift.
But others kind of need a hammer over the head or they need, you know, a different form of rhetoric to be able to create the change that they want to change.
You know, sometimes folks, you know, they need the tough love.
Sometimes people need more understanding and more patience and a more gentle approach.
And it really depends on the individual. So, you know, it really comes down to what books, seminars, friends, family,
co-workers, mentors, teachers, and coaches you have in your life.
Right.
And if you've got the kind that resonate with you, that make you feel good,
that help you learn better, then you're good to go. But if you've got the wrong ones, then you're going to really feel bad
because you think, wow, here are some people that on some level I respect, but I'm not getting better.
It feels like what they're saying makes sense, but it doesn't resonate with me.
And so that's the tricky part sometimes.
You know, you can walk into a yoga class,
and you can hear all kinds of things about how great yoga is
and how important it is for balance and range of motion and inner peace and whatever,
and you just get the wrong,
you walk into the wrong instructor and you get hurt or there,
there's nothing about it that seems like it should be yoga.
And it feels like something else.
Then chances are you'll never go to a yoga class again.
So you never get to have that great experience.
And so then, you know, most people would say, forget it, I'm out.
And others would rarely say, well, let me try it again with somebody else,
or let me try it again with somebody else.
And that's all important.
So that's what that means to me.
I mean, it's a long-winded answer, but it really does feel like if you don't like the company you keep,
it's time to make new friends.
People who are living large and taking charge and feeling good and exercising on a regular basis
or eating great healthy food that have a sense of adventure, and you've just got to search them out.
And if they're not in your family, if you don't have those kind of coworkers, if those aren't your friends,
that's a big, scary thing to do to start looking for new friends,
especially when you're not in high school or college
and you've kind of settled into your lifestyle.
It's very difficult, but, you know, if you don't like where you live,
then you've got to make a change, and that's what I did.
I just started signing up for things,
and I started reading books that I'd heard about that had helped people,
and I started exercising and eating better,
and so I created a chemical change, not only a physiological one,
but also a mental and emotional change as a result of new behaviors
that were pumping norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin, brain-derived neurotrophic factor,
all these things that I didn't even know existed that were happening inside of my brain
that were changing my outlook about life,
my willingness to sort of open up to new things, new adventures,
and that's what exercising and eating right did for me.
So there you go.
It's definitely interesting how different people resonate with different things,
and it certainly would be nice if it was as easy as, you know,
all of us just had to hear one thing one time and make the change,
but obviously it takes
more for certain people at different points. You've written a new book called The Big Picture,
11 Laws That Will Change Your Life. And this book is based on a lot of the work that you've done
before, but it's a little bit broader than just a book about fitness. And you say that there's a physical, a mental, and an emotional component of each of your
11 laws, but that it's a good idea to start with the physical in each of them.
Why do you recommend that?
Well, you know, it's one of the things that we control.
You know, I mean, it's the same thing with food, that we control those two things.
We control what we eat and what we do physically.
And there's a lot of things that are outside of our control that create a lot of our problems,
you know? And so if you're physically out of shape and you're nutritionally in big trouble,
then you're just making life more complicated for yourself and you don't't have to so why not go after the things that
you can control why not go after the physical and so the crazy thing is purely based on the
on the on the science behind physical movement and what it does to the human brain john rady
wrote a great book called spark and uh you know a lot of this is just right out straight out of
john's book and uh you know he's a harvard professor and he's done a lot of this is just straight out of John's book. And, you know, he's a Harvard professor,
and he's done a lot of study about the effects of physical activity on the human brain
and how it changes your outlook purely by moving.
And, you know, you don't have to run a half marathon or do a mud run
or, you know, do a P90X chest and back routine or a plyometric routine,
but you do need to do something for about 20 minutes with a relative amount of intensity so that you get your heart rate up to pump
more oxygen into your brain so you get the brain chemicals that literally create something called
neurogenesis inside of the brain. It's molecules and proteins kind of vibrating and finding
themselves inside of your brain. It's what most of us do when we're trying to do a cheek version of that through
drugs and alcohol. Drugs and alcohol will change your state immediately. You do a couple shots of
tequila and your personality is different. Your outlook is different. The way you perceive a
moment is different. You feel like you just feel good. You feel like you're having a good time.
You just feel good.
You feel like you're having a good time.
But then you're sort of loading dopamine into your head,
and then the next day reveals a completely different situation.
There's always a downside to that kind of behavior,
but there is no downside with the chemical barrage that you get from exercise.
It's just a healthier, cleaner, more natural version of getting it. You don't get it in the huge quantities. You get it in just the right
quantities. So the next day you don't feel like, you know, you've been run over by a train. And,
and, uh, and so, you know, every single law in the book work together, you know, and they can,
they work individually, but really it's a collection of different things that I think that people could do and follow
so that the struggle is diminished and the pleasure factor goes up and the sense of adventure goes up
and your state of happiness goes up.
And, you know, it basically turns, this is for me, and this is the reason why I wrote them,
it turned a C-minus student with a speech impediment and a very negative outlook on life into somebody who was the opposite of that.
And it happened through a better diet and regular movement.
And I've been at this stuff for 35 years, and I still believe in that today.
And I've heard some amazing feedback. I got a note on my website from a young kid whose mother was an alcoholic
and having some real issues.
You know, I mean, just stuck to drinking.
And, I mean, I don't know what level.
I don't know if she was a functioning alcoholic,
but she apparently was not a good mother.
And it was kind of embarrassing for this kid to have a mom who was, you know,
drunk a lot of the time.
And she read the book, and she just stopped drinking and started exercising,
and he has a completely different mother now.
I mean, I never met this woman.
I never met him.
All I got was this email that said, your book saved my mother's life.
She's a completely different person.
She's a motivator.
She's a teacher.
She's great company.
She doesn't want to drink at all
anymore. Didn't have to go through AA, didn't have to go through counseling, didn't have to do any of
those things. She got that from my book. Holy smokes. I mean, you know, I'm not here to endorse
my book as a means for you to stop drinking and taking drugs. But if you follow what it is,
drinking and taking drugs just don't fit into the 11 laws. It's just virtually
impossible. So you can read it and then you can kind of break it down in your head and say, well,
this makes sense. Now I have to figure out a way to sort of stop doing what I was doing and begin
to do what Tony tells me to do. Because, you know, he was in a bad way. You know, I wasn't an
alcoholic. I mean, I drank a lot, you know, when I didn't know better, because that's what everybody
else was doing in the 70s and early 80s.
And then I just thought, ah, this doesn't serve me anymore.
I can't do these things and be the person I want to be.
So I just stopped.
I just stopped and haven't ever looked back.
I've never had any cravings for drugs or alcohol of any kind because it just goes against the grain of everything I believe
in.
So if you believe in what's in the book, if you believe in those 11 laws, then you'll
begin to make those physical and nutritional changes that will automatically change you. Two worlds can't coexist. And now, speaking of the show, back to the interview with Tony Horton.
Let's talk about a couple of the love and the laws.
The first one will be familiar to anybody who has watched any of your videos, and it's one that I love.
I think it's such a succinct and powerful statement,
which is do your best and forget the rest.
Yeah, I just like it.
I'm Jason Alexander.
And I'm Peter Tilden.
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How are you, too?
Hello, my friend.
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Wayne Knight, welcome to Really, No Really, sir.
Bless you all.
Hello, Newman.
And you never know when Howie Mandel might just stop by to talk about judging.
Really?
That's the opening?
Really, No Really.
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Any kind of a statement that rhymes, I don't know why.
Me too.
I'm like Muhammad Ali, you know what I mean?
That was something he used to be pretty good at.
Yeah, I mean, when you break that down,
everybody knows they're supposed to do their best.
But what prevents them from doing their best
is the fact that they're thinking about everything else.
You know, they're comparing themselves to the past.
They're comparing themselves to other people.
They're just judging it.
And the rest is the judgment that you attach to whatever, public speaking,
you know, achieving a certain amount of success during a sports event,
you know, hoping that you can do as many pull-ups and push-ups as you could do
10 years ago when you were exercising on a regular basis when you were in high school.
You know, there's all this noise in our head that prevents us from doing our best.
And so if you understand that your best, even if you're somebody who's in great shape and eating right, changes on a daily basis.
It changes daily.
Forget about weekly, monthly.
It just changes all the time.
And there are things that are out of our control.
I mean, there might be a certain amount of stress that you're dealing with.
That's the rest.
There might be a certain lack of sleep as a result of, you know, whatever.
You had too much to eat, and now you're not sleeping well.
That's something else that's going to affect it.
Things like barometric pressure, temperature in the room,
biorhythms, you know, getting over a cold.
There's just so many other things that affect our ability to be able to perform on a very high level.
Sometimes LeBron James scores 45 points.
Sometimes he doesn't.
You know, sometimes he wins games and sometimes he outright loses, you know,
and that's just the nature of the very best in the world have their good days and bad,
but they show up, you know what I mean?
And then you get into one of the other laws when show up, you know, and then you get into
one of the other laws when it's, you know, about consistency. Consistency is another one, or having
a plan, that's another one. They all kind of work together so that, you know, you're achieving the
main goal, which is just doing your best in the moment, not judging what's happening, and being
okay with the outcome, and then coming back the next day. So let's talk about that law,
the outcome and then coming back the next day. So let's talk about that law, consistency reigns supreme. Give me some examples of what you're talking about there.
The more you do, the better you get. The more you do, the better you get. So if you're struggling
with pull-ups and P90X or X3 only has pull-ups once or twice in the week in that cycle,
then you have to be creative and you have to figure out when you can create other opportunities to work on your pull-ups.
And for me, it's handstands.
I love trying to work on handstands, but I really don't.
I'm not able to hold them consistently, partly because I don't work on them enough.
Handstands aren't involved in too many of my weekly workouts, so I have to
find some side time in the morning, at the end of the day, just to get upside down and see how long
I can hold three or four handstands. Now, I'm not consistent with that, and so that's the reason why
I'm not getting better. You've got to be consistent with your diet. You've got to be consistent with
your sleep. You've got to be consistent with all the other things that you need to do in your life so that you can survive. I mean, it's funny. We're really consistent
with the types of things that we know that we have to do so that we can be a normal human being in
this country. So we get a certain amount of sleep, hopefully enough to be able to function the next
day. And most of us are probably short on that, you know, and that's another chapter. But, and so that's one. Number two, geez, I'd better go to work if I want to have stuff and I
want to be able to eat and I want to have shelter and I want to be able to go out once in a while
and go to a movie or go to dinner, you know. So obviously a job is super important to have,
but, you know, eating, breathing, work, these are are this is standard fare that everybody
most people obviously most folks who you know aren't in real trouble maybe with
not being able to find a job or somebody who's homeless or something we're talking
about the average person who at least has a job and and can feed themselves
and have a car or have a form of transportation but most of those folks
are in survival mode.
They're just in pure survival mode.
There really isn't the level of joy and enthusiasm and adventure in their life
that I think a lot of them would like to have.
So if you're consistent and you're willing to work hard to get better,
because consistency, if I'm working out three days a week, that's not
consistency. Even if you think working three days a week every week, consistently it's going to do
something. It's not. It means that you're taking four days off. And the four days away from
exercising and good diet are going to certainly win over the three days that are on. So consistency
is more days on than off. And I'm even talking more than four days a week. So I'm talking about five and six days a week.
I plan workouts seven days a week.
I have a workout planned out seven days a week, and I know I'm not going to hit it all seven days.
I'm going to miss three or four, sometimes five in the course of a month.
But if I have seven planned, my odds go way up.
And so that way I can be consistent.
I'll only miss maybe one or two at the most during the course of a week,
and then that means I'm going to get about 22 days in at the end of the month.
If I get my 22 to 25 days in of exercise in the course of a 30-day month average,
I'm going to see gains.
I'm going to feel good.
I'm going to stay flexible and get more flexible.
I'm going to stay strong.
My endurance is going to be great.
And the years are going to keep clicking by,
but that level of consistency without judgment,
doing your best and forgetting to rest,
will mean that you're going to improve.
And most people, after their mid-20s, do the opposite of that.
They don't improve.
They start to go into decline because they're not generating enough new muscles
and cells and soft tissue and ligaments and, you know, stimulating the blood and the oxygen
and through fitness. They're just going to work and they're just driving their car and they're
going to the movies and having dinner. And then their posture starts to get bad. And then, you
know, and then the arteries around their heart start to, you know, fill up with cholesterol.
And then they're vulnerable in their, who knows, as early as their late 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s
to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's and cancer and heart attack and hypertension and diabetes and blah, blah, blah.
And why is there a health care crisis in this country?
It's not because of gunshot wounds, broken bones, and car accidents.
It's because we do not move and we do not eat right.
That is plain and simple.
That is the number one reason why there's a health care crisis.
And the two things that we can control, how we move and what we eat, would fix it in half a year.
If everybody signed on, that's it.
I'm over it.
I'm part of the problem.
I'm going to do what Tony says.
I'm not going to judge it. I'm just going to do my best and forget the rest. And for the first month,
I'm going to walk around the block because before I would just sit in my butt and watch TV.
And I'm also going to be consistent with that. I'm going to do that not once or twice a week.
I'm going to do some kind of movement five to seven days a week. And then all of a sudden,
the health care crisis goes away. Yep. That's a great point you make there, which is about that, you know, I'm going to start by walking around the block.
Because that consistency is so important.
You know, I always say a little bit of something is better than a lot of nothing.
So it's better to do something than to continue to do nothing.
And what you're pointing out there is it's okay to start smaller, start we don't all have to start at at the same point what's important is
to start absolutely right I think what happens to a lot of people and the
reason why their greatest intentions in the world turn out to be a failed
attempt is because they get caught up in some sort of a trend or some something
that's beyond their ability, beyond their physical ability.
And so, you know, your friends are all doing a spinning class or a soul cycle class,
and you get in there and you're 10 minutes in and you feel like your heart's going to burst.
You weren't ready.
You know what I mean?
So you have two options.
A, be discouraged and not do anything, or B, try something else or try something else.
And it's really that simple.
And so everybody else is like, hey, man, why are you doing a 10-minute workout that doesn't work?
Well, it's beating the living crap out of the zero-minute workout that I used to do before.
You're right.
A whole lot of a little beats the crap out of a whole lot of nothing.
And so your only job is to say yes to something.
And if it doesn't work, you say yes to something else. If it doesn't work, you say yes to something else.
If that doesn't work, you say yes to something else. And you just keep saying yes. I mean,
the fact that whatever you've tried maybe didn't resonate with you, was too hard, overwhelmed you,
got you injured, that just means that you picked the wrong thing. It doesn't mean you're a failure.
It doesn't mean you don't try again. I mean, that's just crazy. And that's all I'm telling
people to do. So I have P90X, X2, X3. And I also have 10-Minute Trainer. And I have P90. And that's all I'm telling people to do. So I have P90X, X2, and I also have 10-minute
trainer. And I have P90 and I have Power 90. I mean, I've created enough programs. And let's
say you're a Tony Horton fan and you like my stuff. It's not like you don't have options.
You've got tons of options. And so if walking around the block and maybe getting off the donuts,
just I'm going to eat everything except for the donut thing that I'm hooked on to five or six a day.
Or maybe I'll go from five cups of coffee down to three.
These aren't massive changes.
We're not telling people that we need to quit smoking, go vegan,
and do P90X six days a week for the next two years.
We just overwhelm ourselves with techniques that are beyond us,
and we don't have to.
I didn't start that way.
I remember the first time I went to the gym when I moved out to California,
and I hadn't really been in the gym.
I mean, I played tennis and golf, and I skied,
and I would do push-ups in my basement.
But I didn't really know about all these machines and all these classes.
And I remember the first time going in there and just following somebody I, you know, somebody I met and goes, Oh, let me run you through
this routine. And I went into the locker room and threw up because I didn't, I didn't know his pace.
I didn't know I couldn't lift his weight. And here I am. I'm lucky I didn't, you know, tear the
labrum in my shoulder or, or Jack my lower back or something. I just, I was working too fast and
too furious for the state of fitness I was in,
and I went into the locker room and threw up. And so I was, you know, wise enough to come back and
say, hey, let's not do that again. Can we slow things down and lift less weight and ease our
way into it? And he was a cool guy, and he said, yeah, sure, absolutely. I said, sorry about that.
And that's why when you look at my programs, there's three versions. There's three gears that you can put your body through.
There's an extreme gear and a modified gear and one in between.
And so if you're smart enough and you're not trying to compete with the people who have been through the program, you know, three times and through test groups and are, you know, athletes and you're just, you know, you're a mother of four who's 35 years old and hasn't worked out since high school and you use the modified version of whatever exercise I'm showing you,
you're going to be fine.
You're not going to go into your bathroom and throw up.
You're going to come back and want to do it the next day.
Yep, that's that forgetting the rest part is all that comparison
with how everybody else is, how I should be.
Just be mellow.
I had a conversation with my sister the other day.
She said, yeah, I just can't run anymore. I know you're 50, but you don't run consistently enough so that your
body is used to the pounding. A, you probably want to switch out your shoes because I know
you're running the same shoes all the time. So just switch the shoes out, create a new cushion,
try to keep off the sidewalk and the cement, run on grass or go to a track,
and just don't run as far or as fast as you used to.
You can't compare your run today, having not run in three years or consistently in the last three years,
to how you ran three years ago.
It just doesn't make sense.
You know, I've been running at the UCLA track on and off for a couple of years,
and only just now, two years in, am I feeling like
I've got the technique and the stride and the stamina and the endurance to be able to get
through these track workouts without feeling like both my hamstrings are going to explode.
It's just taking it slow and taking it easy and not comparing myself to everybody else who's there.
I'm just doing my best, forgetting the rest,
and showing up to that track consistently without being attached
to whatever outcome I hope happens.
That's just, you know.
I mean, you know, if you've got some kind of belligerent coach
who's screaming and yelling at you on the football team,
you're going to end up in one of three places.
You're going to end up on the first string, second string,
or the special teams, not based on your fitness or your athleticism,
based on where the coach thinks you should go based on your performance during practice.
And that's why I ended up on the practice squad because my coaches, you know,
they would find the best athletes, the best coach once prior to our arrival at the high school level.
And, you know, I just came in too late. I wasn't very big. I wasn't terribly athletic. athletes, the best coach once prior to our arrival at the high school level.
I just came in too late. I wasn't very big. I wasn't terribly athletic. It's a miracle that I made
the team. I think I played five downs an entire season.
It was a great lesson for me. It taught me how not to train
people because that doesn't get the best out of people. That just categorizes
folks based on some arbitrary thing. And that's why I do it differently. That's why I wrote
the book. What lesson do you think it has taken you the longest to learn in your life?
Oh, this question.
It's back.
Oh, not to freak out.
Not to freak out about things.
You know, I am my father's son.
My father was, God bless him, you know, he would really let things spin him around, you know what I mean?
And I just need to let things move in a very organic, natural way and be okay with the outcome.
And I'm not talking about the physical so much, the fitness thing I have down.
okay with the outcome. And I'm not talking about the physical so much, the fitness thing I have down. I'm talking about building businesses or dealing with certain personalities or being
involved in maybe a project that seems to sort of overwhelm me. And just making sure that I'm
prepared for things more. That's a lesson I still need to learn, to be a better listener, to be more patient, and to be okay with reality.
I mean, that's why that's in the book.
Reality is that thing that's actually happening to you as opposed to your convoluted perception of it.
And so what is actually happening?
Well, what's happening right now?
You and I are on a call, right, Eric?
And we're having a conversation.
So it's up to me to just listen to the question, be as authentic and honest as I can be,
and not try to enhance it or perform or be anything other than I am.
I mean, if you have my fitness DVDs, I'm a bit of a fitness clown. I'm a little bit animated. But I have more than I am. You know, I mean, if you have my fitness DVDs, you know, I'm a bit of
a fitness clown. I'm a little bit animated, but I have more than one gear, you know, I mean, I,
and this conversation with you is a more serious one based on my experiences, my beliefs and what's
in the book. And so, um, I think a lot of people are, you know, there's the person that we are and
the person that we want to be quite often.
And it's very rare that the person that you are is the person that you want to be.
And so the 11 laws that will change your life from the big picture are designed to bring those two things together.
So that the person that you want to be is the person that you are to everyone around you, you know, instead of the
smoke and mirrors version of you. You know, I can't tell you how many people that you look at
them on the surface and you think, man, they really got their act together. But with just a
little bit of investigation, you learn that, man, their life is chaos. They're out of control.
It's going bad at work. Their relationship with their wife or husband is bad. The kids hate them.
going bad at work. Their relationship with their wife or husband is bad. Their kids hate them.
They're eating and drinking in ways they shouldn't be. There's no exercise in their life whatsoever.
But man, on the surface, they seem great. I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden.
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And so, you know that they don't want to be that shadow version of themselves.
They want to be the person, you know, that they've always wanted to be.
They want to have their act together.
They want to feel good.
They want to have, you know, some hobby that really inspires and excites them.
They want to have a great relationship with their spouse.
They want to be able to relate to their kids on a level so that their kids are more their friend than their enemy.
You know, and that all takes work.
It all takes effort.
It all takes, you know, re-educating yourself.
And quite often, you know, most of us just stop learning after high school and college.
And we take all these, you know, thoughts that are aging.
Our thoughts and concepts and philosophies are aging as quickly as our mind and our body.
And, you know, there's new phones out.
You keep your old one and you figure out, you know,
you either get a smart phone or you keep the flip phone,
but the flip phone ain't going to work for you very well
and you're not going to be able to communicate
and do the things everybody else is doing.
And so you either buy the new phone and figure it out
or you live in the past.
And it's that way with diet. It's that way with exercise.
It's that way with everything, you know.
And the world's evolving, and if you're not willing to evolve with it,
then you are going to be at two extreme levels as to who you are,
the person you are and the one you want to be,
and they'll never come together unless you're willing to learn how to be better,
how to grow, and how to change.
Excellent.
Well, Tony, thanks so much for taking the time to talk with us today. I've really enjoyed the conversation, and I enjoyed
the new book, and I appreciate you being willing to do this again. Well, Eric, my pleasure. I know
we had some technical difficulties. Yes. But the first time we chatted, all my answers were wrong.
I made them all up, No truth in any of them.
I would hide the kite.
No, you're not kidding.
That would have been fun, but no, I don't think that was the... That would have been a pretty different interview.
But no, I'm glad we were able to redo it, and I hope folks enjoy it.
I enjoy talking with you.
I like your questions.
Quite often you get sort of the same, you know, ten questions all the time, and you
had some really unique ones.
Make me think. You know, you keep me on my toes, time, and you have some really unique ones. Make me think.
You know, you keep me on my toes, and that's a good thing.
All right.
Well, thanks so much, Tony.
I appreciate it.
Have a great afternoon.
You too, Eric.
Bye-bye.
Bye.
Bye.
you can learn more about Tony Horton and this podcast at one you feed.net slash Horton