The Resilient Mind - Burnout Expert: Is Work Quietly Sabotaging You? - Martin Sharp

Episode Date: October 15, 2025

Watch the full video interview on the new Resilient Mind YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSAHgEaqNQQHave you ever felt like you’ve lost control of your health while chasing success? Today’s guest, Martin Shah, a global business consultant and founder of Sharp Sweat, shares his powerful story of transformation. In 2014, Martin was running a seven-figure business and living a jet-set life, but he was also deeply unhappy with his physical health. The turning point came during a family trip to Florida when he was told he was “too big” to ride a roller coaster with his children. That moment of embarrassment, followed by a shocking holiday photo, sparked a five-year journey to reclaim his well-being.Take action and strengthen your mind with The Resilient Mind Journal. Get your free digital copy today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/Download_Journal🌍 The Resilient Mind Podcast is a proud member of 1% for the Planet — building resilient minds and a resilient planet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Resilient Mind podcast. In this episode, you'll be listening to, could work be quietly sabotaging you with Martin Sharp. This episode is also available in video. Watch it on YouTube by clicking the link in the show notes. Enjoy. Literally, I had moves because my wife's boobs. And at that point, I was thinking,

how have I let myself get to this point? Today's guest, Martin Sharp, is a global business consultant and founder of Sharp Fit. known for bringing clarity to complex transformations. In 2014, while running a seven-figure business and leaving the jet set life, Martin found itself unable to ride roller coaster with his kids. The guy just said, I'm sorry, sir, but he's just too big to fit in the seat.

Just something's got to change. That's not who I am. I did that for about five years. Various different types of exercise. I did karate. I did kickboxing. He went from couch to completing three marathons in 14 months. No matter what I was trying, nothing seemed to work.

Only pounds I'm losing to pounds out my wallet, not the pounds off my stomach. And something needs to change. It's a brilliant problem to have. Let me just let you know. Today we talk about what it really means to prioritize your wellbeing, build mental resilience, and live a life with purpose. Welcome, Martin. Thank you very much.

It's great to be here. So take us to that time when you were running a business, you were gaining weight or you're not in a healthy weight. What was kind of going on through that time before you had that experience with the roller coaster? At the time, I didn't actually realize anything was wrong. So my business was busy. We had lots of great clients. People were always asking for us to do work.

My family was happy. They were enjoying life. We were doing things together. And a nice circle of friends. So as far as any kind of warning signals went, there wasn't anything, there wasn't like a big, by the way, you've just dropped into being becoming obese and everything's going a bit wrong. It was, everything just seemed to be quite good. And in fact, the reason why we ended up in Florida was, I'm from a, my mom and dad

a divorce when I was quite young, my brother. My mom always wanted to take me and my brother away to Disneyland, but she could never afford it. So one of the things I thought, well, my business is doing okay, I could actually afford to take her. I thought she could have that experience with her grandchildren rather than with her children. So that was driving force for taking us to Florida, really. That's fascinating. And I'm just thinking about like that experience. And so take us to the time where you were going to go to that roller coaster, what happened.

And kind of your initial reaction from the results of what happened. Yeah. So we were in the, in Universal Studios. We were like queuing up at my two children with me. So my youngest son, he was. would have been about nine, my daughter was about four, and we're just shuffling towards the front of the queue. And as we got to the front of the queue,

they've been queuing for about 30 minutes here. That's like an eternity for kids. Well, I got to the front of the queue and then the guy just said, I'm sorry, sir, but you're just too big to fit in the seat. And at that point, I was thinking, oh, God, what we're going to do, they've been queuing to come on to this ride. They've been wanting to do it for such a long time. And I was really worried that they were going to be upset,

more than more than I was. But then a friend of mine came with us and he said, don't worry about it, Martin, I'll take them on the ride. So they went on the ride and I went to stand by the side really. And that was the start of it. And what was like going on in your mind? Because I think a lot of people, if they were to experience, something similar will have different thoughts.

But what was bringing on in your mind during that time? So in my mind, I was quite embarrassed. I thought, okay, how I've got to this point. And especially for example, being in America, because, you know, they even by their own standards, they say that they are the land of the bigger people. So not to be able to fit on a ride there felt quite damning. And I really wish I could have told you, though,

that that was the only incident that that happened, but it did happen on a few. And I wish I could say that that was the moment where I decided I was going to change. But it wasn't until a little bit later in the holiday where we were looking back at the photos. My mum had managed to get a photograph of me and my wife, Sarah, on the monorail between the Magic Kingdom and the car park.

And literally, I had moves bigger than my wife's moves. And at that point, I was thinking, how have I let myself get to this point? Because I think obviously the barriers had started to be eroded by then. There's several kind of rides where I couldn't take the kids on. And then just seeing that photograph, I thought, just something's got to change. That's not who I am.

A lot of people might be getting information about things that maybe they're not happy with their life or, for maybe there are certain areas in their life that they've gotten experiences that has provided them with that feedback, but they do not change. But you took a different path. You actually did decide to make the change. What motivated you to make the change as opposed to saying, well, I know what I've got. He has spooked bigger than my wife, but everything else is good.

You can't be perfect. And then remained as is. Well, I think at that point, I went and just did exactly what everyone else does. So you went to the gym. I got myself a PT. I downloaded a diet plan and things. And I was going through the motions like most of the people would do. And I did that for about five years.

Various different types of exercise. I did karate. I did kickboxing. Even if my daughter, she thought was great. She could beat Dad up and things. It gave us a really lovely time to be together. But even things like trying different diets and things,

we tried the South Beach diet, the Weight Watchers diet. We tried the keto diets and things. And no matter what I was trying, nothing seemed to work. The only thing that seemed to work is I was just spending more time trying and less time actually seeing results. And that continued for about five years when we were literally on holiday in Lanzarotti. It was over the new year. So it went up for a hike onto the top of Mount Roger, one of the old Gilderas.

And Sarah and I was just looking out over the bay and just watching kind of the sun setting. and I just said, look, I'm just tired. I don't want to do this anymore. The only kind of weight, the only pounds I'm losing is the pounds out of my wallet and not the pounds off my stomach. And something needs to change because I'm just tired. I'm getting fed up with it. I'm tired of not having enough time with you and the kids and not enjoying life anymore.

And then Sarah said, well, you know, he's done bad being, really. He says, you've got lots of good friends and you go on all sorts of adventures and you spend time with the family. They love you and you do so much for them. And you've always got a load of great clients. And I thought, well, yeah, you're right. Absolutely right. He says, well, but at that point, we just lost my uncle to pancreatic cancer.

My father, which was his twin brother, he's had thyroid cancer. So he says thyroid out. He's had skin cancer. We just had the notice back that he's not a got bowel cancer, thank God. But he did have a big scare there. And then my cousin's daughter, she had Hodgkin's lymphoma. And anyway, she beat it for a little while, but then five years later, it came back and unfortunately she could survive. So there's been a fair few things in my family that don't work.

And I just reminded Sarah of that. I said, so, you know, if I don't do something about it, then maybe we don't have enough time left. She said, well, actually, why don't we just enjoy the life we can now and we'll worry about it later? So in 2019, we came back off that holiday. I literally just ditched being at the gym and got rid of all the diets. I'll tell you one thing, it's the best way of getting rid of stress out of your life is suddenly going on the blinking diets. And I just went back to doing what I was doing before. And it wasn't, I was then at an event over in Town Plaza, Felbridge, which is near Gatwick Airport.

And one of the chaps there, a chap called Pete, he was. was a really successful businessman. He looked the part. You know, somebody, when you look at them, he's got that really sharp suit on. It's cut really well. He's looking incredibly chiseled and tanned and things. And you're thinking that is an image of success if anywhere it was.

And I've learned a bit about him and about the several businesses that I was running. And he asked if he could just come out breakfast with us. I said, yeah, sure, no worries. Why do you come up some breakfast with us? And we sat down and we just started talking. And I turned the conversation to health and fitness as well, okay, you're really busy. you do all these things, how do you manage to keep yourself looking so sharp, so fit? And he said, well, I don't do what the fitness business tells us to do anymore.

And he says, I used to be quite a chunky chap. And he must have seen the look of disbelief on my face because he gets his phone now. He's suddenly showing me all these photographs of where he was like a couple of years beforehand. And he was quite a chunky chap. And I says, okay, well, you've got me hooked. What was it that you did? What was the difference? And he said, well, I just got myself an online coach.

and started to work with an online coach. And then that way, it didn't matter where I was. I was no longer tied to back me in the same place at the same time, doing the same things in the same way all the time. And I thought this sounds like music to my ears because I couldn't guarantee to be in the same city, county or country alone getting to the gym every week. And that's probably why I wasn't getting the results that one day. So he introduced me to his coach, which was great.

And we started kind of working together. And one of the first questions he asked me was, what do I really value in life? And it took a little bit of time to think, actually, what do I really value in life? And I don't mean, you know, you hear about what you should value, don't you? You hear from all these motivational speakers

and all these personal development kind of courses that, you know, you should be up at 4 o'clock every morning, you should do 3,000 burpees, read 12 books, have 15 minutes of affirmations, and God and as well, so that kind of come out with. And that, that to me, wasn't value. That's not why I value in life. It's kind of what somebody else values,

and then we'll they get the results with. But what is it that I truly valued in life? Because I kind of recognize the fact that you, when you get into a stressful state, you will always default back to your default behavior. And that always is based on what you truly absolutely value in life. So if you don't know what you truly value in life, you've never done that piece of analysis,

then when you surprise yourself and you do all these things that you weren't expecting, like so, for example, if you are going on a diet and you know you have those stressful times and suddenly you turn back to the cakes and the biscuits and the donuts and whatever else or the big back and then suddenly you're kicking yourself because you're like, I know I shouldn't have done that, but why did I do it? Or maybe that you're trying to get yourself a little bit fitter and you decide it's a rainy gloomy day you don't want to go for that room. Or maybe it's something else. Maybe for example, you're looking at how you can save for a house or for a deposit or something or maybe you're looking at how it can set up a business and you don't want to

want to pick up that phone to call the clients and things. And you go back to your default behavior, you, you almost go to the point with saying, well, actually, I don't want to pick up the phone because I might get a no. And then all of a sudden, you're in this position where your, your default behavior holds you back. He's trying to keep you safe effectively. So if you don't do the homework and work out what it is your truly value, then you've

got always going to go back to that way that you've done before in the past. And the thing is all the actions that you've done in the past have led you to this point in time to where you are right now. So if you want to have something different going forward, you've got to change it. So I sat down and I put the thoughts in and I thought, well, actually, the things I really truly value in life are my clients, you know, they are like my beloved adversary. They always want, you know, something more. There's always that extra little bit, that moon on a stick twice mainly. And then they're never satisfied. But, you know, they have their own challenges, hence the reason why they're always looking for that little bit extra. And that's what

keeps me sharp. It keeps me interested. I want to learn that a little bit more. I want to do that a little bit better for them. I want to help them get their success that they need. And that I kind of recognize that, I thought, great, that's one thing I value. And then I kind of realize another thing that I value is my friends. I have a beautiful circle of friends and the most zanious, craziest people you can ever imagine. And the kind of people who think it's perfectly okay to put an outboard motor onto a K, I can give it a trial. Or we go to build a seven and 10 metre high snow sculptures around the world in competitions and things. Things that aren't normal.

But it's fun and we have a bit of laugh with it and we support each other, you know, whenever things are a bit tough or we just need a bit of a hand or even if you just want to celebrate something that's gone amazingly, we're all there for one another. And, you know, I thought, actually, that's something else. I really value, I value that friendship circle. And also I value my family. I mean, I would literally do anything for them. I want my kids to use me as a springboard today.

their greatness. So they can do fabulous things going forward. And then when I sat back and thought, actually, if I don't sort out my own health, my own fitness, the trajectory that my life was taking, maybe similar to my dad's. So it might be, for example, I end up with fibromyalgia, diabetes, several bouts of cancer, whatever else comes out. And the fact that my brother, who's two years younger than me, he's already started with diabetes and fibromyalgia and all those things, really kind of was a shock to me. I thought, actually, if that happens, then I'm not going to have the energy to be able to help my clients,

which means they're not going to get the results that they need. I'm not going to be able to spend as much time having the crazy adventures of my friends because I'm not going to be in a physical state to be able to do that or be able to physically help them the way that they may need it. But the biggest hit for me, the thing that actually really impacted me, was there when I thought of actually what would happen with my kids and realize that I would become a burden to them. So rather than them using me as a springboard to their greatness,

I would suddenly become a millstone around the neck. They would be trying to help me and make sure I'm okay. And I thought, this isn't right. I had to do something different. And as soon as I kind of recognize that, then it became a lot easier. As I started them put together, the understanding of things like, you know,

what do I need to do for exercise, what I need to do for eating well, even things like learning more about how the body works. So then bringing into it things like, you know, how to sleep better, so you get better quality sleep. How do you take things in moderation so you can reduce your stress level? Because it's only when you actually calm, that things actually start to really change. And then how do you kind of build that kind of lifestyle that kind of fits for you and only kind of change it when you know you've got the metrics by monitoring it correctly to say what it is

that you should be changing. And by building and understanding this, that's kind of where things started to change and slowly out first. I mean, don't get me wrong, this isn't like an overnight success. It's not like you take the blue pill and all of a sudden, you're out of it. But it does take time. But I've got to realize, you know, it took me 10 years to get to the point where I had put on so much weight. It might take me 10 years to come back off. Now, thankfully, that wasn't the case. After three months, I dropped 10 kilos, which is the same as what I dropped in the previous five years of trying. And I felt fantastic for it. I really did feel so much more energy. I felt more enthused with life. And I just felt it really in my car. It was like, this is great. And I was

chasing now that feeling. I wanted to continue to feel this good. And the following month, what, four in the three months, even though I was kind of, I was traveling to the US. I traveled to the Middle East, around Europe, et cetera, for work and things. I still managed to drop in over seven and a half kilos, which was absolutely fantastic. And when I kind of looked at myself in the mirror, I realized that things like my suits no longer fitted. It literally looked like I was playing dress up with my dad's clothes when I was like five. So I had to go out and get a new wardrobe. It's a brilliant problem to have.

Let me just let you know. It's great. And then from there, continued to progress, etc. But by this point, COVID had kind of hit. And everyone was kind of in lockdown. So we weren't allowed to go to gyms, etc. But for me, it didn't matter because I'd already learned so much about how my body works and I was able to adapt it no matter where I was.

So when I was working away, it didn't matter if I was in a rooftop gym in Prague or a luxury gym in Dubai or this basement gym with an interesting basement and gym in Bucharest. It didn't really matter because I learned how to become flexible and understand how my body worked while I need to do with it. So I just continued to progress even through the lockdown. So by time we got to 18 months later, I'd gone from 154 kilos, which like you say, is 340 pounds with a 54 inch waist, down to 94 kilos, which is 207 pounds with a 32 inch waste. And I just felt fantastic. So we went under a muscle photo shoot in that November, which was, I was absolutely petrified of having my photograph taken before.

and this was really pushing all the buttons to push me out of my comfort zone. It was a challenge a friend of mine gave me, again, to try and keep me motivated. He said if you managed to drop it down to 88 kilos were 80. He said we'd go for a muscle photo shoot. So we did that. And that was a phenomenal experience. Definitely pushed me into a new way. I ended up to get in a modeling contract off the back of that,

which I would never, ever, dreamed of being impossible. So it's amazing, for example, once you start to change, you once you start to move things forwards, how things can kind of move for you. But that wasn't, for me, the biggest change. The biggest change was actually how I felt and how I was actually dealing with other things. So, for example, I just felt more bitter, more youthful, more invigorated. I was able to make decisions quicker. I was sharper at doing things again. I was no longer having things like the brain fog and the fatigue that I was feeling only about a year before. Everything just felt like it was just so much better.

I mean, and that just translates into being better with your clients, better in business, better at work. You show up better even with your family. I mean, nowadays, I can bench press my own body weight, which I've got no idea how that would work in a bedroom, but one day I'm going to find out. So, yeah, it's interesting when you say, you know, how can that single change and what can you do to kind of keep yourself that momentum going? It's all about coming back to what are those core things you value in life and then realize,

you know, what's the benefits you can have when you kind of reflect on them and actually really concentrate yourself because it's yourself that can change. But also then also reflect back on, you know, what's the impact if you don't change? And I think a lot of people don't look at it in that kind of way. They kind of always look at setting a goal and thinking, okay, I want to. to achieve this in the future. But then the, after that kind of initial inspiration's gone, they've not really set up those foundations for sustainable motivation,

then it kind of becomes more of a wish as opposed to being something with action. Amazing story. And one of the things that I'm thinking about is whenever one is what a goal, right? Or whether it's like getting to a healthy way, going into business, hitting a financial goal, we like set up that goal and then jump right into figuring it up. But it sounds like it is a very important step is to reflect what is important to me. What do I value? And it's not just, it sounds like it's not just why I value this and that.

It's like there's a little bit more things. And it does take time to actually determine what it is. You value. How long did that process take you when you are reflecting on the things that you value? Was it a 15 minute thing or did you take a few days? It took a few weeks. I'm not the fastest. I mean, I really, I knew how important this was.

I mean, when I've done big transformational changes for business, et cetera, one of the key things is it's whole about hearts and minds, it's about communication, and it's about how do you bring people along on that journey. So these are things that require a considerable amount of effort and thought to be able to get into the right place. So kind of after I'd failed doing it myself and after I had that simple, kind of question being asked by the coach, I kind of thought, actually, let's put some real effort behind it.

And I sat and I thought about it and I really examined and wrote things down and I questioned myself and I was testing things as was going through that process. So I think it took me a good couple of weeks to come to just that realization that there is only just those three core items. And everything else doesn't really matter. You know, it really doesn't. And that can all disappear. You know, if people would say,

Oh, you're only doing it because you want to write a book. You're only doing it because you want to win clients. You're only doing it for whatever reason because you want to look like you've got a six-pack on the beach or something. None of that kind of interests me, really. That's kind of a byproduct if it happens. But when it fundamentally comes down to, you know, can I help other people? Yes or no. And if what I'm doing helps me help more people, right?

If it impacts me helping more people doing something or not doing something, then I know I need to change. if it impacts, you know, the fun that I have my friends. And having fun is really important to me. I have a friend of mine, Chris, and he says, having fun is the only thing he takes seriously. And I appreciate that kind of viewpoint and absolutely agree with him. So if things that kind of affect that are going to be something that I need to address as well, or, for example, anything that's going to hold me back from supporting and helping my family.

again, I want to make sure that I'm there for them. I want them to, you know, it's not like I don't want to do everything for them because I think that's wrong. I think every member of your family has to have that capability of standing on their own two feet and doing the things for themselves. I don't think you can do that. But in the moments where they need you and they need to ask those questions or they need that support, I want to be there.

I want to be there to be the one that kind of helps them, that moves them forward, no matter what it is. So when my youngest laddie decided you want to travel the work. world. He's become a bit of a world traveler. So he went off to Southeast Asia, he went around Cambodia and Vietnam and Lao and I forgot the other places. Island, that was it. And when he came back, he managed to get a flight to literally the other side of the country. And there was a train strike happening that day when he flew back in, so he couldn't get home. So he rang me about 2 o'clock in the morning. It's like, God, what am I going to do?

I said, okay, I got it. I'm going to come pick you up. So that was it. I was like six hours in the car to go pick him up and then six hours to drive back. But if I was in a position where I couldn't do that because my health had deteriorated so much, then that really would have impacted me. I would have felt like I've not helped or supported him in that moment when he needed me. And I think that's the kind of key things for me. He's finding you've got to stack that kind of value. you and it'll come in different ways as well. And there's different ways. Once you've kind of thought, okay, I want to do a certain thing,

you might want to stack the value even more. So for example, you mentioned about having a goal earlier and what you would do to try and achieve that goal. So if you kind of think of, I think of goals as two things. You've got goals and you've got outcomes. So goals can be very process-oriented sometimes. A lot of people think of that way, you know,

my goal is to eat healthy. So they eat healthy every day. But actually, what's the outcome that they're driving? or why do they want to eat healthy? Oh, my goal is to go to the gym every day. Well, why do you want to go to the gym every day? What's the outcome you're looking for? And then if you share what that goal and that outcome is with people that you trust, first of all,

then you're going to find that you are more likely to achieve that goal because you've suddenly become accountable to it. Even if they never, ever hold you accountable to it, you personally feel accountable to it. And there's been loads of studies done on this, which is a really nice little tool that you can use. but not only that, but then think about, okay, well, can I do this and help even more people? Can you make like a big public declaration to make it happen? Or for example, like for example with the running that you mentioned earlier. So I was not a runner last year.

In fact, if you'd see me in January last year, I was the least personal person you'd ever think about running. I had asthma and I have had that since I was a child. I don't know by you, but when I went to secondary school, okay, it was a very long time ago, but when I went to secondary school, running was given as a punishment to those children that were not that sporty, and I wasn't that sporty.

We had the same age. We had the same experience. Oh, no way. So you've got the two laps around the rugby pitch every time. Yeah, okay, yeah. I feel for you. I really do. And so there was that.

And then, and I just really just didn't like running. I mean, I have been hospitalized a few times to stay with asthma, so that was not on my agenda. So when my wife turned around and said, oh, she's always wanted to run a 10-K race, and she was at all right, for which she would do it this year. And I said, well, let's do it together. And then I kind of remembered all this that I don't like running. So how could I do that?

Now, actually, it's helping to support my wife. That's straightway. It's a big commitment for me because I will do something for her, probably more than what I would do for itself. So that was a good motivator to get me moving. But then I met everybody aware that that's what I was trying to do, which meant that suddenly I had a bigger community of people that were holding me to account. And then I thought, well, actually, how can I make this even bigger? So I thought, well, let's use it as a way of raising money for charity.

So that first 10K that we did in York, I was raising money for the R&LI, the Lifeboat Institute, to help people that have had problems at sea. And they also do lots of other things. So, for example, they teach children how to swim and how to life savings skills. they do all of the training for the lifeguards and pools and things in the UK. So they're amazing organisation. But by doing that and then all of a sudden that got noticed. So I had a few radio interviews and podcast interviews and things.

And all of a sudden, this thing has become a lot bigger than me. So it means that for me to fail, I've got to fail all of these people, not just myself. And I'm thinking about the own idea about stacking, like those are stacking your wife's. Maybe I use that. And why you're doing something as opposed to just finding one reason, having more and more and more reasons to give yourself momentum so that you can actually engage in the behavior that you want to engage in. One of the things that I loved about what you said is that it took you 10 years to get to

that weight. And then you had the expectation that it might take another 10 years, but it didn't. And I'm reminded of a quote by Jachal Willink, who's like a Navy seal and his like Roma's not built in one day, but also Rome didn't fall in one day. So that idea about those decisions and those behaviors coupled with the wise to make sure that we are motivated to move in that direction, it sounds like that's what has literally provided you of success. Absolutely. And it kind of ties in a lot with, you know, as an animal that we are, the human species, how we adapt and how we kind of change because nothing happens instantaneously.

And a lot of people, they want that to be the case. They want to be able to take a pill. They want to be able to jump on a machine and 15 minutes later, everything's okay. But actually it takes time. Our bodies respond over a period of time, the kind of stimulus that we give it, then adapts. So, for example, with the running that I've been doing this year around the barrisons and stuff, we had to change how I was fueling myself, fueling the strategy and for endurance run type of exercise as opposed to being strengthened in excise.

and it's a different way to get your body to work. So it took like 16 weeks. So most people's bodies, when you want to retrain your gut, your gastrointestinal system to take in fuel in a different way, you'll take around about 12 to 16 weeks. And it did. For mine, we started it in January this year. And it wasn't until end of March that actually we'd manage to get the balance right

and to actually get something that worked for my body. And it had its own little quirks, just like everyone's body is. But it took that amount of time to adapt. Same, for example, with going from not running to running. I mean, last year when I started running, we got back from snow sculpting in Japan in February. I went running literally the last week of February.

And it was awful. I mean, I was running walking that first kilometer. And it was dreadful. Then my accountant, Mark, he turns around and he says, because he's an avid runner, by the way. He says, you want to go to Parkroom. He says it's a brilliant event. You're going to love it.

It's only a 5K run, but it's a really friendly atmosphere. There's lots of other people running there, and there's lots of events happening across the country, and in fact, around the world. So he says, you just go to it, you'll enjoy it. So went to our first park run, I think it was the day before my birthday in March. And it literally took me about 40 minutes to run, all the way around the course.

And then we got back, and it took me another 35 minutes to be able to drive the car. My legs were so dead. So it was not easy starting that running journey, but after the space of like three months, everything just started to work a lot easier. My body was more used to it. And I was able to do 5K quite easily. I was even able to do like 10K, not easily at that time, but I could do it. So straight away, you can just see how your body can adapt, but it's about having that

consistency, that repetition, that kind of resilience, that perseverance to keep going through it. And it's not always a straight line either. So some days it's going to be dead easy. You know, you're thinking, why did I worry about this? Other days, it is hell. And some of that is going to be environmental, some of it's going to be social, some of it's going to just going to be in your own head. But it's realizing and being okay with the fact that you're not okay. And it's okay to not be okay. So you're just going to say, okay, that's fine. And what we're looking for then is the trends that are happening over a longer period of time. So it's a bit like, for example, when people are looking to lose weight,

what's the one thing they always do? They always stand on the scales, right? And they're looking at the number on the scales. And what happens then is two things. And both answers are wrong, by the way. One is the number goes down and thinking, great, I'm a kind of exercise master here. I've got this weight loss.

So this week, I can afford to have a cheat meal or something. things. So they go out and they do that. And then the following week, what happens? The standard on the scales, the weights have gone up. And he's gone, yeah, last week they went down. How come will they've gone up this week? Or the alternative happens. They stand on the scales and the weight goes up. They're going, I don't know why I bothered. I spent all that time trying to lose why it and eaten right, et cetera. It's just not worked for me. I don't know why I care about it. And then they start to give up. So either way, whatever happens on that scale, the number's wrong. So you've got to kind of think of the different ways of being able to measure.

things. And the scale's a good number to have. It's not like you don't use it, but don't look at that number and compare it to last week or the next week. You're looking at trying to compare it over a six-week period. Is it trending up? If you're looking to put weight on, that's great. So, for example, people are looking to build muscle. That might be what they're looking for. If it's trending down, for example, over a six-week period and you're looking to lose weight, brilliant. You can't move in the right direction, but you are looking for those trends. And over that six-week period, you will have weeks where it will spike up, some weeks where all spike down, but you can't get it.

And then same, for example, with all the other kind of measurements, how you're kind of feeling, et cetera. So another kind of trick I use with my clients is we talk about doing things over a 12-week period. So a bit like, for example, when you're in business, you do 90-day plans, right? So you'll do a 90-day plan. You exercise that plan. That first 30 days is how you kind of get yourself into the process.

So the second of 30 days is you're synthesizing it. The last 30 days you're trying to optimize it. And then you look at the end of 90 days and your business is. essentially, how far has this taken us forward? And you then do the next one and the next one. So you end up having four periods in a year, rather than just be one reporting period, which is at the end of the year

where you have to tell your accountant, how much you've made or how much you've lost, or your accountant tells you one way or the other way. But by doing the similar thing with your body and what you're doing there, if you set up a plan for 90 days, it ends up being about 13 weeks. But if you only schedule things in for 12,

you can almost guarantee somewhere in that, 12-week period, you're going to have an oops moment. You know, something's going to go wrong. The car's going to break down. The kids are going to be ill or something's going to go missing in the house. You're going to have a client that's demanding emergency kind of this, and the other happens. Or you've met you're winning a new piece of work, so you have to be there to create the tender and go out to actually respond to them.

So there's always something that's going to derail you. So if you actually schedule things for 12 weeks, but give yourself a 13-week period, you don't derail yourself. you've always got the period of way you can actually still make things happen. And what is the biggest challenge your face when you're going through that transformation? Oh, crumbs, the biggest challenge. Wow, there's so many challenges. I think it all comes down to just keeping yourself focused on it because let's just take, for example, the running one.

I mean, it's taken 14 months to be able to run three marathons. So the biggest challenge is then how do you keep yourself, motivated for 14 months because it's a long period of time for a lot of people. It's a long period time for me, I learn a lot of people. So you end up playing little games with yourself and trying to find different ways of keeping yourself motivated so little challenges along the way. For example, instead of the beginning, the first part was to get to 10 kilometers, then it was to do a 10 mile race, then it was to do half a marathon, and it was to do a full marathon,

then it was to do like three marathons in a row. And that kind of gear be a little bit. extra I needed to do. I mean, I couldn't let my guard down. I couldn't like say, okay, I'm not going to do it for this bump because I don't want to. I had to find ways of working around it. So even, for example, when we're away snow sculpting, when we're in Austria in the mountains, I couldn't necessarily go there and do the running. So I knew I was going to have to take a week off of doing the running training. But it did mean that I could still do a lot of other exercise that would still keep my body in that place where it needs to be from a fitness

perspective and a fitness level. I could still eat well. I could still, you know, not drink and things like that. So there's a lot of things you can do. And it's been recognized sometimes that, okay, you might not be snow school. You might be doing work or something. You might be asked to go work away for business or something. Or it might be that you're got family coming over for some reason. You've got an event that's happening. It's not saying that you can't work away to business, or you can't have family over, whereas then working out, you know, how can you marry the two things Steve, so you get the best outcome for both. And when you started, one of the things we're talking about is when you started on this

journey, you started having a lot of energy, better decision making. What has been your perspective in health, fitness and mental wellness or mental resilience player? Wow, that was a really good question about fitness and mental resilience. So I think it really does fit hand in glove very much now. And I'm seeing so many benefits. and not just from myself, but also from a lot of clients who are doing very similar things as well. So, for example, one chap, Phil, he's a program manager.

He deals with multi-million pound programs all the way around the world. And because of that simple thing, he literally said when he first started working together, that he felt like he'd switched his nine to five Mondays a Friday job for a five till nine, seven days a week, because literally anybody would call him. And it would give me examples. He said he'd be trying to arrange a meeting. And because he's trying to get people in from the US, from Singapore, from Europe and from the Middle East, it was always guaranteed somebody would have to be in the meeting in the pajamas, just simply

because you can't get a time zone that works for everybody, but you had to have everybody in these meetings. But that meant that his life was constantly being eroded and he was giving so much to the business to keep things going. And it was almost feel like it was being demanded all the time that he had to kind of do that and had to make it work that way. And I just said to him, OK, well, let's work out how we can fit you back into your life because, you know, you are the most important person in your life. And when we started looking at what he was doing, a lot of the time, he was spending time just being there. And it was taking longer to do things than it should have done.

Certainly longer than what it was when he was spending less time in the actual business, when he was. doing like a 9 to 5 job. And I think it's a bit like, you've heard of Robinson's law, you know, the one that says whatever amount of time you give something, that's the amount of time it will take to do it. Yeah. Ben Elton says it in a much less elegant way, but it's more impactful. I will not repeat it here. It has several swear words in it.

But when we started to examine that and showed him exactly what was going on with his work. I said, well, so let's work out how we can take some of the time back for you. So yes, you might have to be on a phone call or five o'clock in the morning. You might be on another phone call or a conference call. That's like 9 o'clock at night. But that doesn't mean that you have to be working every single hour in between those. So take time for yourself. Take time to go to the gym.

Take time to do things with your kids. Because at the point that his kids hated being with him. It was such a grouch. And even his missus wasn't too keen not being with him. Which meant, as it sounds like he then overcompensated because he would be in a grouch by taking them out for lavish meals or or bringing takeaways in, which meant not only was his health being impacted,

but actually the health of his family was. So, yeah, just getting him to basically say, okay, let's find some time where you can take some of it back, go to the gym, work out a little bit better, and it meant that he had to become more efficient

with the kind of work they was dealing with. But also, because he took a break at several times in the day, all of a sudden he found that that gave him like a mental resay, able to clear things out. And it's a bit, like, for example, when people have a lunch break and they go outside and they kind of look at the horizon, suddenly realize that there is life beyond the half meter in front of them to the screen. And so many people say they get the best ideas when they're not in a meeting or they're not side of the computer, when they're actually out there in the world.

And that's exactly what's happened to Phil. He suddenly found he was getting much more clarity of focus. He was getting a lot more done because he had to schedule things in better. And he was felt much better as a person because he hadn't, he found he had freedom. He was no longer tired to being in work for like 18 hours a day. He found actually he could carve out pieces of the day that he needed. Tony, he no longer cancelled on himself. So we got him to put time in the diary for doing these things. So he blocked out time. And I knew the moment, I knew the exact moment that he'd got it because he sent me a text message that literally said, I've just done the monkey bars with a boy. And then I still get messages from it every now and again saying, I've just taken the

kids off here or I've just been cycling with them there. And they're no longer having takeaways in the family. So he actually cooks more in the family as well. So the meals will come around. And the kids are enjoying spending time with him. The business is enjoying spending time with him. So it does. It makes such a big difference when you start to put yourself first. And it doesn't mean that everything else has to fall by the wayside. It doesn't mean that you're being selfish. But sometimes, you have to be that little bit selfish so they become selfless so that you can help other people so that you can be better at work so you can be sure up for your family and things. And what do you think a big or some of the misconceptions or barriers people might have

when they want to take that time to be more health? There's loads. One of the key ones I tend to find with a lot of people is there's this, it almost feels like guilt. Like all of a sudden, oh, I can't take time for me to be able to do this. So what then happens is when they try it for themselves, they'll go out and they'll think, okay, I will take that half an hour and I'll go do this really high intensive kind of class at the gym. And they do that and they maybe keep it up for a week and they feel like death and they don't

ever do it again because they feel exhausted and beaten up and things. When they actually do take that time out for themselves and they kind of get over that kind of guilt and then they start to feel better and they start to feel more relaxed and they start to see the benefits of how it's improving their health, then it has that kind of knock on effect to what's happening inside the family and also what's happening inside their business, inside the work that they're doing,

that they bring that kind of more calmness to the business. So it's kind of amazing. When you look at, for example, inside most businesses, they're looking for employees that are engaged, that are happy, that are healthy, that bring ideas to the table and are creative and problem solvers. But when you're stressed, when you're tired,

when you're fatigued, when you're being worked ragged and you're being dragged from pillar to post because no one can give you the right kind of directions, you're not going to be that employee or that business owner that can give the best of the business. So by taking that time out for yourself to reset and almost then come back to the business, come back into your work with that kind of clarity of focus,

and straight away you can have greater benefits there. Amazing. Like my type A personality is like, but I don't have the time, But they're saying make the time because it's important to be able to have that reset and be more productive, happier and more care. Yeah. I mean, it's a bit like, for example, if you had a car and you were told that if you maintained

your car, for example, you had it serviced every 10,000 miles, then that car will last year for 150, 200,000 miles and you'll have great motoring with it. If you decide not to service it at 10,000 miles, then it starts to develop a fault by 12,000 or 15,000 miles and that becomes even worse. So it breaks down by 20,000 miles and you're thinking, my God, this thing's supposed to have lasted me for so long, then you'd be disappointed, right? You'd be really upset with the manufacturer of the car, but your body is exactly the same thing. And I can't remember who actually said it, but I think this is an amazing kind of quote when the guy said, if you don't find time for your fitness, then you have to make time for your illness.

Yeah, that's exactly the same sound I made with. I thought, my God, you've hit the nail on the head there. But a lot of people don't join those two dots together. And talking about a person who's like, okay, I want to take my first step. I've been listening to this. I feel inspired. Now I need to take step number one. What would that step be?

So step, step number one is a small step. Yeah. You know, I remember someone turning around saying that the hardest step to take is the one through the door. Because, you know, you've got to, that really is committing to something. And that doesn't matter whether it's going to be for health related, whether it's fitness, whether you're looking to build muscle, building endurance, whether it's about taking on a new job, whether it's about moving house, maybe it's moving country, whatever it is, that first step, and always take that small step towards it rather than trying to take that giant leap.

Because taking a giant leap, so going from being, for example, if, let's say fitness has been one thing, if you're going from being never worked out before and you want to run a marathon, and you think you're going to do it in a week, then you will fail. And as soon as you fail, that's it. Your mind then plays overtime. That's the reason why you shouldn't have done this. He knew you were going to fail in the first place.

And all those kind of negative thoughts kind of come out just because your brain's trying to protect you. It's trying to protect your ego, trying to protect who you are. It's trying to protect your body and things. So it's replayed all those kind of reasons. It's like the worst version of Google you can ever imagine. But with the best version of Google,

but the worst possible answers, maybe. That's the way we should look at it. so it's going to feed you all this lot. So take those small steps to get you there. And the best part is, and especially with things like fitness, is if you can make it a really small step, then you've got more small steps in front of you. And remember we said earlier in this conversation about

you're looking at how you can constantly adapt your body and each time you give it a new stimulus, it's going to adapt that a little bit more. So there's no such thing as maintenance that doesn't really exist. your body's either growing or is dying. It's one way or the other. You've got to show you to which one you're going to make it happen. So you've always got to be adapting.

You've always got to be changing. So one of the things that I get my clients to do paradoxically is I get them to push their calories way, way, way up. And I get them to start really low on the amount of exercise. And usually they go look at me and say, hang on, I'm eating like four times the amount that I've ever had before in my life. And that's when I was putting weight on. You're asking me to eat more.

And you're asking me to do nix and no exercise. this doesn't make any sense. Why are you doing this? And I'm saying, well, you've got a bigger potential difference there. So it's a bit like having a battery, effectively, or if you've rolled a big rock to the top of the hill, you've got much more distance now to go down. So as you start off, you're eating in the right kind of way that's fueling your body now, if you find that it's not going the right way, so you're not building muscle, for example, or you're not losing weight, whichever it's that you're looking to do, then you can reduce the calories down a bit more. You can increase the amount of exercise a little bit more. And you created a, a, a,

still created a bit of stimulus. And then that might work for a little bit of time. You might find four weeks, six weeks, eight weeks, and you'll hit another plateau. So you can reduce the calories a little bit more. Increase the exercise a little bit more. Go for it. Go for it again.

You'll hit another plateau and keep doing that until you've got some both on par. And then you go, okay, let's do a reset. We start again. So increase the calories back up, decrease the amount of exercise, and then keep doing that because then what you're doing is you're constantly changing the environment that your body's in. So it's always trying to adapt.

it's a bad kind of quote but one of the interviews that Arnold Schwarzenegger gave when he was doing his training is he said you have to shock the muscle and that's it isn't a conscious thing by the way so it's not a true kind of statement but I love the kind of visualization of doing that and when you can look at how the body adapts and there's loads and loads of evidence now you can go and read tons of scientific journals on this, it does work by just adapting, constantly adapting. So it's just the change that you need to do. So it's not like, you know, one day you're going to do running the next day, you're going to do weight training or something. That might not be the right combination.

But that got constant adaption. So you're not just doing the same thing in the same place in the same time. That's where you just won't make any changes. And it sounds like this process is pretty personalized depending on where the person is. Are people able to do this by the or is it better if they're doing it with PT? So you're right. I mean, everybody's body is different. Everybody's body's different. And so again, coming back to the more recent changes I was making to do the three

marathons, one of the questions that most people ask me, because I tell them about what I was eating the, the 1,500 calories worth of energy gels and the jelly babies and that now I say, I have two packets of Walker's Crisps. Why not have you walkers crisps? And I'd say, well, because they're not not. not healthy right nobody thinks crisps are healthy um but what it does is it actually evens out a little dip that we found in my performance um so because it takes a little bit longer to digest than the energy gels and the jelly babies and it adds that little bit of sodium in there as well

it actually worked for that endurance training that was doing and that's personalized to my body that doesn't mean it will work for anybody else might do well um it's just how my body works so everybody's body's different um could you do this by yourself? Yes, I think it's like with anything, it just takes you longer. That's all it is. It's about learning. I mean, I spent, what, five years without getting results, but I learned a lot of things that didn't work, a bit like Edison when it was doing

the light bulb. What it was? It did 5,000 ways of being able to not make a light bulb. 10,000 depending with the start. Yeah. Yeah, something like that. So I had five years of learning ways that didn't work for me and my body. And then it was then learning that, you know, the things that did.

work me and my body. So when you're working with a PT or a coach, and then again, I would definitely recommend speaking to some professionals. It's a shortcut. It basically will save you the five, 10, 15 years of you having to go away and do the research and find things out. It doesn't mean that you're going to be able to do it in a day or a week or a month. But what you should start to see is you should start to see within 12 to 16 weeks, some significant changes. And for those who want to learn more about you, your website, the content that you provide, where can people find you? So it's a sharp fit for life on all the socials.

So if you just search for Sharp Fit for Life, you'll definitely find you there. And same with the website as well, so sharpfitforlife.com. So try to make it as easy as I possibly can. And yeah, just get involved, have a conversation. You can DM me or anything. There's no problems there. And we've got tons of material there that you can read through as well. So lots of blog articles, lots of videos, etc.

So different ways that people consume the information. And all those links are going to include them in the description. Last question. If there is one key takeover, you are hoping that everyone who listens to this gets out of this session. What will that? The one thing I'd like people to take away is that you've got to be good to yourself today so that you can be the good for others tomorrow. Perfect.

I think that is an amazing way to end today's episode. Thank you, Martin. It was such a pleasure to have you here. It's been a pleasure to be here. Nice conversation. Thank you for the great questions. Thank you for tuning in. Continue strengthening your mind by listening to our other episodes.