The School of Greatness - 515 Face Your Biggest Fears and Bounce Back with Pro Surfer Mark Mathews

Episode Date: July 26, 2017

"Greatness is being better than who you were yesterday." - Mark Mathews If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video, and more at http://lewishowes.com/515

This is episode number 515 with big wave surfer Mark Matthews. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. He who does not every day conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said that. And today we're going to be talking about conquering fear in order to reach ultimate human potential and reach the highest level of performance under the biggest waves in the world, and he's obsessed with the relationship between personal growth, high performance, and fulfillment. And Matthews is on a mission to offer game-changing ways to adapt to stress and increase wonder in the lives of others. Now, he's deconstructed, fine-tuned, and personalized emotion and resilience techniques to successfully strengthen one's mindset and sustain long-term performance. He exposes practical and tangible solutions on how to overcome our primal need for control and security and embrace the feelings of fear. And in this interview,

we talk about how he chooses to heal his body with his mind after a major injury. The two different types of fear we all face, what creates excitement versus fear, why no one is actually fearless in the world, and the keys to overcoming fear of public speaking or any big obstacle in our way. Guys, I really enjoyed this one. Super nice guy, humble guy. And the funny thing is he was terrified of surfing and his mom used to have to rescue him when he was a teenager because he was terrified of the ocean. And now he's going after 60, 80 foot waves and risking his life every time he goes out there. So if you're facing a fear in anything in your life, if you feel like you're not moving forward

in your business, your career, your relationships, your health, you're not chasing something big enough, or the big thing you want is so fearful for you that you haven't taken the necessary steps because you're making that excuse of failure, then this is an episode you're definitely gonna wanna learn about. And if you are a peak performer

and you wanna learn how to take things to a whole nother level, then this is definitely episode you're definitely going to want to learn about. And if you are a peak performer and you want to learn how to take things to a whole nother level, then this is definitely for you as well because we always have new levels we can reach. All right, guys, this is a powerful one and one that I think you're really going to enjoy. So make sure you're sharing it out with your friends, lewishouse.com slash 515. Tag me on Instagram, Twitter, anywhere on social media that you like to hang out. Let's have a conversation about this one. And without further ado, let me introduce to you the one, the only, big wave surfer, Mark Matthews. Welcome back, everyone, to the School of Greatness podcast.

We've got Mark Matthews in the house. Good to see you, man. How are you doing? Thanks for having me, Lewis. I'm great. I just heard about you recently from the person who connected us and said you have an amazing story. You're this big wave surfer. And I started watching some of your videos and I saw some of the biggest crashes ever. And I was like, how does this guy first do it? And how does he have the

courage to continue to get up after these like, it looks like 40 foot waves. I don't know how big are some of these waves you've been on? I'd say the biggest ones in the 40 to 60 foot range yeah and then anywhere from sort of 20 20 feet up is what we consider big waves big wave 20 feet up how often do you hit those waves because it's not happening like every day this kind of comes and goes like when the weather's changing right or how does that work exactly and originally it was probably three to four swells a year but since swell forecasting has got so amazing the internet opened up like a whole new world of forecasting we can hit probably 15 to 20 big swells a year so which is awesome for my career but then all of a sudden i got a whole lot more dangerous

surfing yeah so many big waves yeah more risk yeah now is that all in one um beach or is that like around the country in australia or is that all around the world and you're just like you can predict in two days it's going to be huge so you fly there how does that work all over the world and and if we get a seven day forecast and i'll know that at the end of the week i'll be surfing monster waves and it might be off the bottom of South Africa, the bottom of Australia, Tahiti, here in America on the West Coast. So you'll get advanced, and you'll fly there, and you'll just go. Fly there, and sort of about two days out, we make the decision to get there as late as possible

because then we know what the winds and the weather's doing. We know the swell's already on the way, but we need perfect winds and weather conditions as well. So two days out, we jump on the the plane land usually the night before this well get everything ready jet skis other surfers photographers videographers and uh head out there and take it on early morning usually is when it's like the best time or what yeah more often than not early morning because it's the light winds are good but uh yeah occasionally we can get a an entire day and and sometimes back to back days but more often than not we get one huge day as well and then it starts to drop didn't

you have like a record for like one of the biggest waves or something or i've uh i had a record where i've won consecutive awards for the biggest wave of the year and i won really back to back three times so at the time over the year yeah and at the time I was kind of – I didn't realize how amazing goal it was, but then I went sort of five years without winning one. I was like, wow, it's kind of special that I did that. It's hard to do that. Yeah, because there's a lot of hard work, a lot of preparation,

but there's a lot of luck involved because you're out there in the surf. You do everything to prepare to get out there and surf, but then while you're out there, there's other surfers. You don't know exactly when the biggest wave on that day is going to come through. You took one too soon and then it happened after you were gone. It's like, oh, okay. So I feel like someone was shining down on me at that point.

I was like really lucky. So you hit those waves. Now, I mean, how many people are going to these big waves every time they happen? Is there like a group of like 20 of you in the clan, like the brotherhood or the sisterhood, I don't know, that goes there and it's like every time there's a big wave, you guys all go together.

Do you try to do it secretively so you can like hit those opportunities? What's that like? It's a combination. On one hand, we have to be kind of secretive because you want to be the one on the big wave, but everyone's watching the same forecast. So usually we'd have sort of a minimum of two or three teams that turn up to swirls and then a max,

sometimes in the crowded spots like of Hawaii, off Maui, at Jaws. We could have 20 teams out there and a combination of majority guys, but also some amazing female big wave surfers. Yeah. So it's a pretty cool vibe out of the water while we're on one hand kind of competing to get the biggest wave, but everyone's there looking after each other.

Yeah, because bad stuff happens every time. Every time. When you have that many people in huge waves, there's big wipeouts all the time. And there's not a lot of sort of rescue teams in the water it's more up to the surfers who are out there to rescue each other that's crazy yeah it's pretty crazy so you got to keep an eye out for the other people because you want them to keep an eye out for you of course at the same time so when you get a crash in a 40 foot wave how long does it take for you to actually get out and breathe?

Because it looks like one of the videos I saw was just like you're just down. You can't even see it for like – it seems like minutes. I don't know. But you're just like tumbling in this huge wave. I mean, how do you get out of that? It's crazy because it looks so spectacular. But more often than not, you're up before 20 seconds. Really?

Yeah, which isn't a long time. The worst-case scenario is you wipe out on one big wave and you're down and you can't get up and the next wave breaks so you're down for two waves and then you're looking at sort of 45 seconds to a minute but um i mean we do breath hold training yeah and i can hold my breath up to sort of four or five minutes when i'm relaxed but when you got got the chaos to flip around, it's probably not the end. So when you wipe out on these waves and you take impact and you get winded and the adrenaline's rushing, you don't know if you're going to make it back up. It's 20 seconds feels like a lifetime underwater.

Feels like forever. Forever. Was there ever a time where you felt like, I'm not going to get out? There's been a couple of bad ones. For me, the scariest part is hitting the reef below. And if you take impact in the reef and you know you've done a bad injury so a couple years ago i dislocated my shoulder and i felt it on the first impact of the wipeout and then i had to kind of nurse my arm because it was popped out no underwater yeah and i was rolling around like i was on the

craziest sort of roller coaster ride ever underwater and and holding on dealing with the pain trying not to pass out popped up and and what happens is the jet ski will come in quick on the next wave to try and pull you out before the next one breaks on you unluckily he came missed on on my uh left side so I couldn't grab because that's the shoulder that was out tried to grab right side, slipped off the ski and next way break straight on my head, another 40-foot wave on top of my head with the shoulder out. Because he had to get out of the way.

He had to get out of the way, yeah. So I had to take two more waves before he was able to come back and get me. That was one of the scariest sort of moments I've had to face. And then was it a year ago when you had this pretty bad leg accident, right? Yeah. What happened to that one? I've had a bad run. I was recovering from the shoulder injury.

I was out for about nine months, just starting to surf again. I could barely paddle properly, but desperate to get into some good waves. And at the same time, I've got a career. I'm getting paid money to surf big waves. Yeah, that's sponsored. You've got to do it. And for me, I felt like I need to do something this year. I've got to do it. And for me, I felt like, you know, I need to do something this year. You know, I've got contracts coming up.

Probably pushed a little bit too soon, went out and surfed. Not huge waves, but what we describe as a slabbing wave. What's that? Sort of like a head high to sort of 10-foot wave, breaking really thick, powerful wave, breaking super shallow water. So to me, these are the really scary waves. Went out there too early, was nervous about my shoulder, just made an error, judgment, wrong wave, dove off the wave too early.

The wave picked me up and slammed me into the reef. What happened was I luckily landed on my feet, took all the impact on my feet, but my knee dislocated. So it popped tore through my arteries tore through my major nerves um thankfully amazing jet ski drivers and rescue guys picked me up out of the water got me to the beach uh ambulance officers met me and made the right call they they called the helicopter to come and pick me up and get me to the er as fast as possible because they could

have very easily said we'll take you you know you're not in too serious of damage you might have broken your leg but he realized that my leg was swelling really quickly and that was the broken artery yeah my leg was filling up with blood so got me there got surgery and and the surgeon came out and said you know an hour later your leg would have had to be amputated. And it was kind of a three-day wait. He was like, I've fixed it. We have to wait for the next three days to see if your pulse comes back in your foot, which means the artery is working.

So for the next three days. He was way up praying. Oh, man, it was terrifying. I was like looking at my foot the whole time. You couldn't move your foot, right? Yeah. And my girlfriend was there with me. She'd be like checking every hour to see if the pulse had come back and uh because you didn't have a pulse in

your foot no so the blood wasn't pumping yeah couldn't move it it was like paralyzed essentially completely paralyzed and then um oh my god around the third day it started pulling a real weak light pulse and my girlfriend's like wow i can feel something i can feel it and i was like are you sure and then got the doctors in and they checked it out and and luckily i've still got my leg yeah crazy it's not as good as a perfectly functioning leg but it's a gnarly scar can you can you lift it up can we see it aside a little bit are you sure yeah if you're eating at home yeah you might want to oh my gosh i mean this is crazy can i touch it or no yeah Yeah, you can touch it. It's all numb. I have no feeling in my legs. Oh, man.

It's just like straight to the bone. It's gross. Oh, my gosh. So that's from the surgery or that's from the- This is from the surgery. Not from hitting the reef. No. So there was no actual break in the skin from the injury.

But what they had to do with the surgery was when they took some artery from the top of my leg and put it down here. And then they had to take the pressure off my leg so they cut both sides of my leg open. And they had to keep it open for a month. Yeah, a vacuum bag stuck on it. No. Yeah, and then they relieve all the swelling

while that artery heals. Oh my gosh. It was a rough period. So your leg was cut open on both sides, like a foot long. Yeah. You can't walk there, can you? No, I was laid up in hospital.

For a month? For a month and then another two months after that. Is it safe to be exposed when it's cut open like that? Actually, the most dangerous part is the infections in the hospital. They had a girl in there who was a rugby player, a really good rugby player. She had the same sort of injury and she got really bad infections. And for six months, she was stuck in hospital trying to heal the infections.

Wow. Because you can then, it really is illusory. They kill you. Yeah. Or they kill you. I was super lucky I didn't get the infections. I mean, I've learned so much sort of up until this period in my career about sort of managing health and emotion and, and not letting myself get run down in that moment.

I think that played a big part in the way my nervous system and my immune system was functioning while I was in, in hospital. And, and I think that that's a big reason I didn't get the, um, what were you doing emotionally or mentally to prepare yourself daily to not, I guess,

stress out constantly. Yeah, because it was a really tough time. The doctors were telling me, you're not going to walk properly ever again. You're not going to surf ever again. And it was tough to hear. So how do you like have this dream, these hopes and this belief? And you're like, well.

I've always had this, like I've learned over time, this amazing technique of just practicing gratitude, right? It's so powerful powerful and it was tough to do at the start i'm not gonna lie i was like imagine i'm lying in hospital i was in the worst pain all day every day i could barely sleep not much to be grateful about at that point in time yeah well that's the thing what happened was what is there a young kid came he had seen that i was in hospital and he was actually in hospital downstairs and he comes into my room he's complete quadriplegic oh yeah and like electric chair

wheels into my room comes up he just wanted to chat because he was a surfer and he saw on my social media that i was in there way comes into chat to me and like it straight away complete change in the way i perceived my situation because all of a sudden i was the luckiest man on earth yeah that i wasn't in his chair he was a server he was a surfer yeah like not not a professional surfer but a surfer yeah he had actually did it um mountain bike riding that's how he got yeah broke his neck and um yeah and and just seeing that completely changed my mindset so from that day on i was happy every day in that um yeah and and just seeing that completely changed my mindset so from that day on i was happy every day in that hospital yeah and and the times where i drift back i would just

think about that like he he really helped me it was crazy i remember a couple years ago i was i trained with the usa national handball team and play handball we were down at training camp for a week in alabama and we were going through like two, three days training, but doing some stuff that I didn't feel like – we had a specific trainer that was leading us through workouts. It wasn't our coach. It was like a hired trainer. And for me, playing sports my whole life, playing at a professional level,

I just knew the things that he was doing were not professional. Like he was hurting us more than helping us. We were all getting, like, injured. Such a hard part of the sport. He was like, you got to keep pushing. I was like, no, I'm getting hurt now. Yeah. And everyone else is getting hurt, and everyone's like.

But you don't want to be that one to say, like, So you got to, like, push it through. And you're like, okay, whatever. And I remember just being like, what am I doing here? This is stupid. Like, I'm exhausted. And then literally, like, at the other end of the court, there were these guys and girls that came in on wheelchairs

playing wheelchair basketball. And I was just like, put me in that perspective as well. It's like they're all playing. They can't walk and they're having fun playing basketball. Even though this sucks and I don't think it's right, like at least I can walk and run through the pain. It's crazy. So I think it's all about perspective.

Yeah, perspective is unbelievable. And there's, I feel like no matter how bad you got it, there's always someone who got it worse. And if you can sort of condition yourself to think that way with that positive perspective and a bit of gratitude, like you can train yourself to be, that's your new state of mind consistently, right? It's like going to the gym.

You just got to do it over and over and over again and then it becomes habitual that's it man yeah to me i think action taken from that sort of mind frame like it's like it creates energy and then action taken from there is is propelling you know that gives you so much extra motivation to sort of chase your dream absolutely now why did you get into big wave surfing in the first place because it's been 15 years you've been doing this yeah weren't you afraid of the ocean when you're terrified when i was young which is strange i mean i show people footage and photos what i do for a living and they're certain that i must have been kind of born with some sort of brain defect that stops me from feeling fear but um couldn't be further from the truth like i uh young boy terrified the ocean

to the point where my mom used to have to rescue me over and over again in the surf and i i grew up in a pretty rough neighborhood in sydney and uh when your mom paddles out on her bodyboard to rescue in front of all these guys oh man it's so embarrassing but But my parents split when I was about 15 and I lived with my mum and we moved right next door to another professional surfer whose name was Kobe Abner. And at the time, I mean, I was 15, he was probably 20, and I was looking at his lifestyle. He was like, coolest cars, hottest girlfriends,

getting paid to travel around the world, go surfing. And I was just like all i want is that i'm gonna copy everything he does to get that you know and uh but i was terrified of the ocean at the time the team yeah yeah still then so i i wanted to be the professional surfer but not specifically big waves i like there's a competitive tour that you can go and do and become the world champion and it's super luc competitive tour that you can go and do and become the world champion. It's super lucrative. You can kind of avoid surfing the huge waves.

They're like eight-foot waves. Yes, it's standard. It's more performance. Who's the top guy? Kelly Slater. Kelly Slater, yes. One of the most amazing athletes in the planet. That was my goal. I got to the point where I left school.

It was about 2001. I wasn't to the point where I left school. It was about 2001. And I wasn't doing that well in the competitive tour. I was in that sort of transition period where I'm chasing my dream, but I don't know if it's going to work out. I've got to go back and study or start a new career. And I get a call from the editor of a surfing magazine in Australia, Trax Magazine. It's like, it's back when magazines existed, right?

And it was the biggest publication in Australia. And I'm working bars as a barista sort of slash bartender. And I get this call from him and I can't believe he's called me because I'm a no one, right? At this point in surfing. And he rings me up and he says, Mark, you know, we want you to come and surf

this new wave that's been found off the bottom of tasmania like at that time there was this rumor going around the surf industry new wave monster new wave that fishermen and avalonis had had found wow yeah no one had surfed yet and it sounded terrifying no part of me wanted to deal with it mythological creature that like no one's seen and uh so the surf editors rang me up and invited me on the why did they ring you up yeah this is what i didn't understand i found out later that he had rung 30 other surfers oh my name was at the bottom of the list like maybe this kid's desperate everyone had turned it down i wanted to turn it down too but i was like if i if I say no to this, my career is done.

This is kind of my final shot. And he was like, we'll put it on the cover of the magazine. This is before websites were big and stuff. This was big. Yeah, cover of magazines. Huge. So I said yes. Went to Tasmania.

We were taken out by an abalone diver, like fishermen, in his boat, super remote corner of Tasmania. Monster swell. And we pulled up alongside this wave and it was so big and scary looking and i'm sitting in the boat never surfed anything like this like i was terrified i remember i'm sitting there just thinking like the photographers are like you know this is your big chance your career can maybe i'll die yeah but i was like i don't know how much i want this career right now like to to go and surf this at the time i was living with my mom and my mom was really sick she had uh it's not a serious illness it's called vertigo but when it's undiagnosed like back then it's you can't get out

of bed you can't walk you can't do anything of bed. You can't walk. You can't do anything. She had been in bed for three months and hadn't been able to work. And the doctors couldn't tell what was wrong with her. And at that time, I was like, if that doesn't get better, I'm the only one to look after her. And I had this in my head, I have to look after my mom. And that was like the urgency to do that was the only thing that got me out of the boat to surf that day because i was like if i get this career then there's the goal

right there yeah i went out and surfed by far the biggest waves i've ever surfed and stayed up and fell in love with it it was like the best feeling in the world. Like standing inside, barreling waves as big as this room. And there's this thing with surfing that every moment before you get into the barrel is terrifying. Like you've got to pick the right wave, you've got to position yourself, and then you've got to make this crazy drop down the wave. And then you get inside the barrel, and if you do everything right, you know you're going to come out. Like that's the hard part starting done the next bit's easy and for sort of two three seconds you get to stand

back just surrounded by the ocean all the energy and is unbelievable best feeling i'd ever felt in my life wow and i was i was hooked i was hooked the the um photos from that trip went all around the world covers of magazines mainstream media everything got my first surfing sponsorship like signed on the dotted line probably a month later like it took a long time for the photos to come out and get signed on the dotted line all of a sudden i was getting paid to surf really yeah and i had from one photo what or like photos from that trip but all over the world like everywhere all a sudden, I was a huge name in surfing and the sponsors came straight away.

Right away? Yeah. From one trip, you can make tons of money. It just changed everything. Because now they're watching you. Yeah, that's how important it is. That's why we try and surf every big swell because then you can get that career-defining wave.

You have to be there every time just in case that wave comes through. It's crazy. And then hopefully someone takes the photo. Exactly. Because then you're like, did you get that? No. defining wave like you have to be there every time just in case that wave comes through it's and then hopefully someone takes the photo exactly because then you're like did you get that yeah no and back in those days it was like film cameras like so guys would be changing film while you get the best way of your life and they'd miss it so oh my god at least that part of technology has made what we do way easier yeah just snap your phone now yeah wow man and then i i mean i had the blueprint of how to how to be a professional surfer now big wave surfers chase the biggest waves get the get

the photos get the exposure and get bigger sponsorships were people doing big wave surfing back then as a main thing was it like it had had kind of just started as a career like the one who kind of pioneered he was the pioneer and he was yeah i've watched his episode yeah he was the the pioneer of not only surfing a lot of the major big waves around but making a career out of it right like he he was a visionary in that part because he sort of stepped away from the the way the traditional industry worked and created this amazing career at a big wave surfing. He realized that broad audiences would love what he's doing, not just the sort of small niche surf community. So yeah, he was one of my heroes and I kind of followed everything he was

doing in his career. And I thought, if he can do it, I can do it. But it was tough with him because he's just like built like this huge, big Greek God or something. So I was kind of like, if he can do it, I can do it. But it was tough with him because he's just like built like this huge. He's a man. Yeah. Big Greek god or something. So I was kind of like, if he can do that, maybe I can do a little bit underneath. But yeah, it was awesome.

What's the biggest wave recorded that someone's surfed? Do we know? I think they debate over it all the time because everyone wants that 100-foot wave. 100 feet? Yeah. I'm pretty sure it's kind of in the 80 to 100 foot range really yeah what's the highest you've done it'd be 70 feet like 70 80 feet there's kind of two

different parts there's parts where you get towed in by a jet ski and put onto huge waves so there's that side of surfing but then there's also the paddle side of surfing and then that's sort of in the 30 to foot range but a whole lot harder do yeah and kind of you can get really really smashed when you're towing in the jet ski because you put in positions that are not sort of you can't get there humanly possible no it's impossible you have to deal with the wipeouts there but it's a lot easier to do yeah and then there's the paddle side of surfing that's sort of 30 foot range there's two spots in the world um Off Jaws, Jaws in Maui. The reef off Maui is one of the main spots and has been for a long time where sort of Laird launched his career.

And then now recently in Portugal, a wave called Nazare, which has this crazy deep water canyon that runs out from the beach and seems to magnify swells. And they've been riding now waves down there sort of in the 80 foot range that's crazy dude maybe a bit bigger just watching those waves with no one on them is probably oh it's terrifying it's almost worse with someone on them because then you get the scale of actually how big it is they're just so tiny huh terrifying wow yeah so let's talk about fear then because how do you embrace the concept of fear, especially before you got injured, after you got injured, anytime.

When you're going out, how do you, I guess, get yourself ready, prepared for a big moment when you're terrified of the ocean? It's tough. I'm not going to lie. What's your process like and how could people think about fear in their own way? I think you've got to break down fear first. There's two kind of specific types. There's physical fear, physical damage, injury, and dying, of course. And then there's that sort of egoic fear, you know, like failure,

embarrassment, like all these things. And the surprising thing, they feel exactly the same. There's sort of no difference difference the way your body reacts. And being a, I might not come across like it, but I'm a full-blown introvert, right? So the embarrassment and all those types of fear. It's just as bad, right? It's terrifying for me.

It feels like I'm dying. So I tried because I made this career out of two things, speaking and surfing that I'm both terrified of. I thought possibly there was an answer to being successful here without having to go through all the fear. Read every piece of literature ever written about fear. Every psychologist, psychiatrist, successful businessman, athletes, everyone. And all the books say the same thing. Experience is the only way you get through

fear and they're spot on like you have to do something over and over and over again to become comfortable to get the skill set and then in that once terrifying environment you feel good you feel comfortable and you enjoy it right but getting the experience is scary in itself so to me the fundamental part of it is just motivation like you have to want it more than you fear it you got to want to succeed more than you fear doing what it takes to get there like that's the fundamental part so for me it's creating enough motivation first and foremost desire understanding what you're chasing and why you're chasing it. You've got to create it, then of course go out and find out how to do it. I listen to your podcast and that tip of just

finding the person who's the best at what you want to do and learning from them. You've created the desire and then you take the steps to do what that person's doing they're going to be scary on the way but if the desire is there you figure it out and being as prepared as you can be is so important that's because there's that if you're not prepared you're going to be fearful of like oh i'm not ready for this yeah and and there's that kind of i always notice it with myself the head in the sand approach is when you've got to do something scary you know it's coming up but you don't want to think about it so it's like everything else i'm going to do something scary you know it's coming up but you don't want to think about it so it's like everything else i'm gonna do everything else i'm gonna deal with that on the day like i'm just gonna wing it you know and that doesn't work i mean it saves you

from having to think about it in the moment but it doesn't work when you turn up on the day they're the days you're gonna freeze up and you know like not succeed basically so yeah the preparation's key and the preparation's hard like you know what it's like to speak i mean you're extroverted so it's a little more natural for you but for me learning to speak was was harder than big wave surfing like to be a public speaker standing on stage i had bigger audience so much anxiety in the lead up to doing that it's terrifying yeah but you have to do it to get good at it and to get comfortable and finally sort of after 10 15 years i'm a whole lot more

comfortable at it thankfully right it took a long time and i was like am i ever going to get comfortable at this i don't know like completely no fear but yeah i'm a lot more comfortable and i enjoy it a lot more now too because i'm comfortable yeah i remember when i started speaking 10 years ago i was terrified to speak in front of a group of four people just because I didn't believe in myself and I didn't think I was smart enough and I didn't think I was funny enough or whatever.

I remember it was just like I'm sick and tired of feeling this fear. A friend who was already a professional speaker recommended going to Toastmasters. He was like, you just need to go every single week for a year and it's going to suck for the first few months. You're going to be miserable. You're going to be horrible there,

but just continue to go and you'll get better. And I did that every single week. I went, practiced, stood in front of the room, like, and just felt the pain of embarrassment over and over again. It feels like you're dying. It's horrible, man. I would practice for weeks a five-minute speech,

write it out word for word, look down at the paper when I was reading it just constantly. But every time I would gain a little bit more ownership of that fear. I was like, okay, it wasn't that bad. I made it through. Exactly. I can go back and try it again and get a little bit better. I think it's, again, I had the desire that I didn't want to feel embarrassed anymore or just afraid of speaking in front of people. And I want to be able to have some type of way of delivering a message

that people took action on. So I think that's where you got to have that desire first for sure. Otherwise, you're not going to do it because it's freaking miserable to go through that fear. It's a miserable experience. Yeah, and then, I mean, so what does success look like for you? Like why did you go and do that?, so what does success look like for you? Like, why did you go and do that? You know what that moment looks like, right? Yeah. For me, I knew that, you know,

I was broke. I just got done playing professional football. I got injured, broke my wrist. And I was like, I can't sit here on my sister's couch anymore. You know, I was there for a year and a half and I was like, I need to learn some skills to make some money, to figure out how to get a job, to figure out something. And so I was just like, okay, this is one area of my life where I know that if I become an effective communicator, I can use it in a lot of different areas of my life. Whether I have a job or start something or whatever. And I saw it as an opportunity to really just transform the rest of my life. The capacity to stand in front of an audience and persuade them in taking action something in an idea a thought and just believing in you

whatever it may be and um you know i'm 10 years in now practice a lot i still feel like i have a lot more to learn about it but i don't fear it as much yeah sometimes i still get nervous but it's not really as much it's more fun yeah i feel like there's a transition that happens it's like because it's so closely related right nervous and excited is almost the exact same thing it's like i feel like excited is when you're prepared so it's like preparation meets nerves but then it's excitement if you're under prepared it goes nervous and then frees up so it's kind of that that transition then all of a sudden you i i start to chase that feeling because now like the nerves are excitement and i know on the other side of that i'm gonna feel amazing so it's almost like

you i did it in surfing and now i want to find that feeling in something else right so i kind of chase it everywhere now sure which is it's hard the hard part about it is when you're doing things that are scary over and over again you break down right like there has to be some sort of aspect where you take care of yourself on that road to pushing yourself like kind of growth on one level but then you have to support on the other level otherwise you're going to crash and burn. Yeah. This is what happens. I'm kind of like the genius in hindsight on this topic because this is where all my injuries come from

because I didn't look after myself when I was sort of pushing myself. Sure, sure. How do you stay focused, whether it be in your speaking career or on a big wave when there's so many distractions around you, when you've got the cameras the guy pulling you out you've got whatever other surfers around and you're just

trying to get one wave without dying how do you stay focused present and at a peak level with all that happening yeah i it's the prep to get everyone and everything set up perfectly and then my role is a single role and I know exactly what that is. It's kind of, I need to get myself on the biggest wave or inside the biggest barrel, right? And if I do that, the rest of my team, they're going to do what they're there for and we're all going to be successful, right?

So for me, I spend the time leading up to those moments focusing more on the outcome not as much the process but i i'd like to sit and visualize like the feeling of what it's going to feel like either like sort of in that barrel or or right after it when i come out and and i just like all that relief comes off you from the fear of riding that way. And I feel like if I visualize that part over and over again, then I'll naturally make the right decisions in the moment. Sometimes because I'm quite negative, like pessimistic when I think about things in the future. So if I let that sort of mind rattle off,

I'll think about all the things that could possibly go wrong in this surf. I'll think about wiping out. I'll think about the sharks that are swimming around all the dangers and i'll stress myself out but before i even put a foot in the water i'll be exhausted so if i make sure i just focus on the after facts and how good it's going to feel i think i'll make the right decisions in that moment then you just got to sort of let your instinct take over everything in surfing happens so fast yeah there's got to be it happens so fast and most decisions they're all subconscious like you're not you don't have time to sort of break anything down that's why yeah it's a lot more of a reactive sport yeah super reactive like on the other hand i've been trying to learn how

to play golf which is the opposite. It's all complete thought. Nothing's reactive and it's so much harder than surfing. Yeah. What does resilience mean to you? And is it the same thing as fearless? Definitely not. I think resilient is feeling the fear, doing it anyway, getting knocked down by the fear, but getting back up, learning from when you get knocked down and doing it anyway getting knocked down by the fear but getting back up learning from when

you get knocked down and doing it again and again and again until you feel comfortable and overcome that fear that's resilience like there is i don't believe anyone's fearless i honestly can't imagine like you get these phenomenal people that are amazing in their world and they're good at that thing. But if you take them to a foreign environment, they're nervous because if it's foreign, it's different, it's changed and no one's like that special where they're not nervous in every environment. I saw Wim Hof on your podcast, for example. He's amazing.

How amazing is that guy, right? He's phenomenal. The stuff that he's done is like it's not it's barely humanly possible right like he's an anomaly amongst humans basically and then i so i follow him a lot as well and do a lot of his breathing techniques and then i saw him give a ted talk and he was like got the nervous waltz going like not saying the talk wasn't amazing it was phenomenal but you can see that he's nervous on that stage so it's just it's a new world yeah so it's just to me it's you just got to be comfortable in that world and it takes resilience

to keep pushing to get there that's why like it's kind of you want to like self comparisons good like compare yourself to who you were yesterday i think it works a lot and that growth mindset but comparing yourself to other people and saying oh i'm a scaredy cat compared to that person because he does that stuff but he might have grown up doing that stuff it's easy for him you know so you just go it's better to it's more motivating to just compare him, you know? So you just go, it's better to, it's more motivating to just compare to who you were yesterday and you get better and better and better and better.

And eventually everyone will be looking at you thinking you're phenomenal. Right. How do we capture these opportunities and moments during high risk situations? How do we make the most of those opportunities? I think it is that preparation that we've been talking about, setting up everything to be agile in that moment.

I think even in business, it's the same. People think that that company or that person or that athlete or that team are just so talented and they can pull anything off in that moment. But in reality, they're so prepared and they can pull anything off in that moment but in reality they're so prepared and so open to change and they've tested all these different things and they've taught themselves to react in a certain way that when the moment comes around they react correctly you know and if it doesn't they make the best out of what happens if it goes pear-shaped and then it seems like they succeed. And that's why for me a lot of what I did in surfing was a numbers game.

I figured if I surfed more big swells than everyone else, like I didn't just go to one or two or three that year, I went to 20 big swells, then at the end of the day when the companies look at who's the best big wave surfer in the world i'd be winning just based on a numbers game you know there might have been way more talented surfers or guys that were on that day better than me but overall when they looked at the exposure i'd be the one that they thought was the best yeah because you were everywhere yeah a bunch of big waves so it's kind of creating the moments and then you know if it's a numbers thing then you'll take advantage yeah enough to be successful yeah i like that it's kind of like finding a way that you can be the best at something yeah even though you're not the best at it exactly like you're probably definitely yeah you haven't done the biggest wave in the world you're probably

100 someone's got better technique maybe someone doesn't crash as much someone might have got lucky on that day and got the biggest wave. Yeah, and they're more genetically gifted. I'm the opposite from genetically gifted to be a surfer. I went recently and did a – they do body measurements as part of a physical assessment to make a really specified training program. And I went in and the trainer was taking measurements and he got down on my legs and my quads and he took a measurement and he burst out laughing. was like you're an average human being he's like you have the exact same size legs as miss universe oh wow jennifer hawkins australian miss you i have the exact

same size layer i was born to be a female supermodel not not not a professional surfer like surfing you need to be low center of gravity big stocky legs balance so i just figured i'd learn everything else to add to what i was doing kind of surround myself with amazingly talented people like the best photographers the best world forecasts the best pr people best communication like and then what i was story yeah they were taking what i was doing from here to here and then I was above all the super talented surfers. Right. I think branding and storytelling goes a long way as well.

100%. If no one else is branding themselves as like the elite big wave surfer and have the best photos and getting the covers, it's like a lot of it's perception. Yeah. I learned a lot of that from Laird. Laird was amazing at that. And I've heard you talk about it,

like the branding is so important. It's kind of tough to do like to self do it yeah as an introvert feels so awkward but um you just then i just surround myself with a really good pr person who can give me feedback or someone at the top of the game in the industry and they like i i was on my way here and uh spoke to lisa who i do some branding stuff and and she's like make sure you wear a collared shirt you're a professional speaker now you know or make sure like to make sure i'm doing the right thing don't be a bum yeah to me like it feels more normal to be a bum so yeah exactly yeah wow interesting yeah amazing people like make what you do a whole lot easier yeah what's some of the biggest lessons you learned from being a surfer that you've applied to life?

Dealing with fear is the main one. Being able to handle change and diversity because surfing is just nonstop change. And like a swell, you're trying to forecast it, you might forecast it wrong. On the day, it's bigger than you thought or smaller than you thought. You got to make the most of the situation didn't go your way you got to get ready to go next way and you just like everything we do is super fluid from riding the wave like

you have to be agile enough to change with what the wave's going to do you can't know exactly what it's going to do every time and then everything about it is just constantly changing. So, yeah, being agile enough and not rigid in the way you do what you do is super important. Hard to do because naturally like habitual creatures that want to do everything the way we did it yesterday. I heard a funny quote that people have 60,000 thoughts a day and 90% of those thoughts are exactly the same as yesterday.

Really? Yeah. So you have nonstop that you think the same way unless you forcefully change it, you know, and then create a sort of new thinking pattern. So I think being fluid

and being able to adapt to change, which has helped me in business as well as surfing and speaking and everything. Is there anything that speaking has taught you about how to be a better surfer? Dealing with the stress, definitely. Yeah, the lead up to speaking is terrifying for me. And taking techniques that I learned from not getting really stuck in that negative thought chatter in your head in the lead up to speaking.

So I can think nonstop for 24 hours a day stuck in that negative thought chatter in your head in the lead up to speaking so you can i can think non-stop for 24 hours a day about how i'm going to stuff up on stage freeze up no one's going to like it and your career is going to go down the show i can just think about that all the time but learning to switch off from that you can't stop the thoughts but do things that take enough focus and you enjoy enough to not get caught up thinking about that there's that moment where if you dwell on those thoughts long enough they create the physical reaction in your body and then your body becomes stressed heart rate goes up tight you get the shoulders lifted can't get in the flow yeah and eventually you break down like it's a

big part of that managing the long-term sort of sustainability of your performance and so i've found all the the techniques that are out there are really good but you got to find the ones that work for you so like yoga is amazing meditation is amazing but they might not suit you so find your hobby or something that you love doing that's not super taxing, but takes you out of that negative thought process so that you get a break from that. Because it's really hard to just stop that.

It's kind of really ingrained. Right. And do you have a ritual or routine in the morning when you go after a big wave, when it's like we flew to Tasmania or here? Is there a process you do in that morning? Yeah. Or the first hour?

And what is that? I mean, the lead up in the week, I'm playing golf or doing something to not think too much about it. I'm preparing for a couple hours a morning, getting everything sorted, but then doing stuff to not think too much about it. Relax, exactly.

The hour of the morning, I'll sit probably for over an hour, 10 minutes and remind myself why I'm doing it. Like I actually built an app for my phone that's an alarm clock. So it wakes me up in the morning and plays a slideshow with my favorite song of all the reasons I'm doing this for. Like a video or image slideshow? Yeah, a video slideshow. And I sit, I watch it and it reminds me to do it because on the morning like of a huge swell i'm tired i'm jet lagged you don't want

to do it i don't want to do it 100 don't want to do it i would love to stay in bed don't get injured risk your life yeah i don't want to bob around in water where there's great white swimming around below me like i'm terrified of this stuff but I know that when I do go out and do it, when I ride that wave, it's going to feel the best feeling in the world. It's going to be successful for my career. It's going to make me be able to support my family. Like all these things I look at and focus on consistently.

People say motivation doesn't work and it's taxing, but you just got to force yourself to do it. It's like training. The hour in the lead up in the mornings before I go and surf, that's what I have to do. You watch that video. Get myself out of bed,

eat relatively light. Like I can't have super full stomach when you're rolling around underwater. Never eat fish too. I've got this paranoid thing. I'm like, if I eat fish, there's going to be fish in me. It's something that's not fish but um yeah and then some breathing techniques really good like to energize myself get me in that sort of positive frame of mind and it gets you in the zone

you know with wim hof's breathing it's pretty amazing lead does it and uh just get myself to that point where i'm feeling really good and excited about surfing. And then we get out there, assess the situation for a couple of hours, probably about an hour. I go around, see what the sets are doing, what direction the waves are coming from, where we've got to position ourselves, where the photographers should be to capture the best stuff,

do all of that and then go and surf. And then at that point, it's less thinking and just what happens happens. Get out there and enjoy it. Yeah, enjoy it in that moment. So I found that if I'm out in the surf and thinking too much about, I need to be the biggest one on the, like if I need to get a photo to get the sponsors happy,

if I'm thinking about that while I'm actually surfing, the performance is not good. In that moment, it's just, wow, this is amazing you know so excited i can feel the ocean i know what's happening and it's more of that flow state you know yeah don't think too much just react no is there anything else about fear that you think we should hear about your process or how you think about it or how we can overcome it or embrace it or any other thing that you have to include about it i think uh just for people like don't try and find that one thing that's going to help you like find you there's i think performance and performance is a whole

part of dealing with you it's like it's like an amazing song right has multiple pieces to it to make an amazing song you need a really good drum beat you need a really good bass you need an amazing hook or lead guitar and you need vocals you need multiple factors to make an amazing performing song right it's exactly the same in human performance you need to look at the different areas of your life whether it's the the physical aspect diet and exercise you need to look at the emotional side like how well do you work emotionally do you understand the way you react the way other people react you take time on that you got to take time on your network and your relationships and you need to do something in each of these quadrants and and of course the iq side of what you do how are

you going to be successful do one little thing in each of those quadrants then the snowball happens do one thing it sounds like a real average song you just listen to drop beats kind of cool but do all of them you got an amazing song yeah so that's i think don't look for the one thing just make a few small changes. Eat good. Eat a little bit better. Do a little bit here, a little bit there, a little bit there, and then the performance comes. To optimize your performance.

Exactly. Yeah. Wow. Anything else you want to share? Anything else on your mind? I'm in rehab at the moment. The doctors have said I won't surf big waves again. I'm telling them I will. And I told them if you don't think I can, then chop my leg off.

I'll surf on a pole because I've seen surfers ride with amputees. Really? Yeah. I said, if you don't think it's going to get better, chop it off at the knee and I can surf on a pole. Shut up. Yeah. But they said it's going to be better than that.

And I said, well, then I can surf. So I'm in the process of rehabbing that. I'm hoping I'm back this time next year, if not late season, November in Hawaii, surfing decent-sized waves. This year? Yeah. Next year.

November next year. It's like a year and a few months. One more operation and then a year and a few months. Yeah, I should probably rest it. If you want to follow the journey on Instagram or my site, markmatthews.com. markmatthews.com. Follow the journey.

It'll be interesting and see if I can make it back. On Instagram as well? At markmatthews.com. markmatthews.com. Follow the journey. It'll be interesting and see if I can make it back. On Instagram as well? At markmatthewsurf on Instagram. Okay, cool. Awesome. Cool. Well, you have any questions for me before I ask the final few questions? Well, why don't we break down?

I mean, this is that performance model for me. So why don't you give some, because I watch all the podcasts. I want to know how you got to the point that you are, where you get to that successful. So if you can give us what's something that you do in the IQ space, like the mental side of what you do to know how to be successful. Like a tip there, a tip on the relationship front, the networking, a tip on physical, what do you do physically to stay in good shape,

and then so mental physical and emotionally like gratitude or yeah I think the some tips from you would be amazing for me I mean I don't think it's much different and I think a lot of people are always looking for the secret weapon or something but I think it's like the more simplified you can be the more effective you can be I'm always looking for ways to be more aware of what's working for me and what's not working. Yeah. So it's just more of like awareness. Yeah.

First off. Self-assessment. Being aware of like, oh, my ego is flaring up in this situation. I wasn't listening here. I'm not patient here. Okay. I'm aware. So it's first step is to be aware.

That's emotional intelligence. Yeah. Being aware and then being like okay what can i improve in my you know my reactions or my my ego or whatever may be in that situation maybe i was triggered in something in business or personal relationship or intimate relationship so how can i be patient in that and moving forward so that i don't feel this negative reaction and don't cause this argument or whatever it may be. So first step is being aware and then figuring out, okay, what can I work on moving forward in that situation?

In terms of mental, I would say it's preparing myself every single day for what's to come. So visualizing through meditation in the morning of the perfect day that I want to create. And it's thinking about what do I want to have happen today? What are the experiences? What are the relationship conversations? What are the feelings I want to have?

Kind of like when you drop in that wave. What do I want to experience in my business? When I go to that meeting later, what's going to happen? What's the outcome? What do I like? That's where it's transitioning, right? Because you're setting yourself. It's like going to the gym in the morning,

but for your mind. You're setting your day up. My gym, man. It's huge. And then being self-aware, creating that emotional intelligence. Exactly. Physically, what diet, exercise? I think also thinking about the dream

that I have for the day and then setting the intention, saying, okay, this is what I'm intending to create. And really being intentional and grounded in why I want to create that. There's direction. Exactly. And always coming back to like my bigger vision and purpose, my why. So while you do this like little video in the morning, I'm thinking about, okay, I want to impact 100 million people.

Why do I want to do that? And just kind of leaning into that. How amazing is it when it's something external, how much more motivating it is or how much easier it is to push through that bit of fear? You can help a hundred thousand people today by making yourself a little bit uncomfortable. That's it. Yeah. When I do something that's bigger than myself, I feel like it's much more rewarding. If it's just for me, then it's not as fulfilling. The physical side, I mix it up all the time, but I try to do something to put myself through pain every day. It could be a yoga, it could be a HIIT workout, it could be a run for three miles, it could be anything. It could be something in my bedroom where I'm just

doing a bunch of pushups until a failure. Whatever it is, I'm trying to put myself through pain, even just for a few moments, because that's going to train my mind to be able to take on more pain throughout the day or any type of aggressive thoughts situations fear i've taken on a little bit so i've trained my body and my heart to experience it when it comes and not be affected by it as much so i do something every single day i try to every day to do that it definitely transitions when you do that physically feel the pain push through it you're going to be the exactly same way mentally yeah and then so all

these things for me build up uh the amount of energy that you have to assess situations and experiences every single moment and to be able to perform at a high level and the last thing network where like how are you sitting on the plane with tony robbins yeah yeah before i get to network let's talk about the relationship let's talk about food because yeah diet exercise i think uh our body is you know made up of these cells and if we're feeding our body uh poison then we're we're developing this toxic, cancerous experience in our energy, in our physiology, in our body. And when we do that, it's really hard to have full engagement throughout the day. A hundred percent.

And get in the zone. Because our body is drained to a level where we're performing at 70% as opposed to potentially 100%. So it's how can we capitalize on each area with the food. And recently I cut out all sugar, refined sugar, all dairy, all gluten. And it's like I just feel different. Everywhere in my body I just feel different. And I feel also like emotionally good because I'm doing something positive for my body. 100%.

I'm not perfect. I'm sure I'm going to cheat every now and then. But it's like, what would happen if I actually eliminated that for the rest of my life? Like, how much younger would I feel? How much more energy would I have?

100% you just added 20 years to your life for one thing. Exactly. On the relationship side of things, it's always about how can I, how can I come from such a place of giving and love

and support first as opposed to ever asking anything first? So I'm always thinking of like, you know, I think we're always in a relationship for selfish reasons because we like the person, because we want to be friends with them, because we like who they are, because they make us feel a certain way, because maybe it's a business relationship where you make money together.

Every relationship is for selfish reasons. But I think if we can come to the relationship and saying I'm not trying to do this to gain but I'm trying to do this to give first and maybe one day something good will come in return if it's a business relationship that's the way I think about it I've been building relationships for eight nine ten years that haven't really paid off and like benefiting me in a big way. And I didn't go into them trying to think of like, I'm going to do something for them and then they're going to give me something in return. It always seems to work its way out. Like the more that I give year after year after year without ever asking for things, people just want to give back. They're

just like, how can I support you? Like you've helped me so much. What can I do? And when it makes sense, I'm like, you know, well, here's my book. It's coming out or here's something else. But I never try to just ask all the time. I try to really give a lot. That's such an interesting side. When we come from that mindset of like I'm building this relationship for life as opposed to what can I gain from this person right now, it changes the game for you. So come from that place. So those are some of the things

that I try to do that I think have helped me get to the level I'm at. And I am going to continue to develop new things to get to higher levels. I love it. And you can see how they all cross over. Like you eat well, you feel better, and then you're nicer to people and you're nicer to people and the relationships happen and they teach you more and it all just like snowballs if you do something little yeah that's it love that you know i'm not perfect i make a lot of mistakes every day but it's always trying to be aware of like okay all right how can i get better tomorrow and i think if we look at that uh point of view of how can i just get a little bit better tomorrow be aware of the things that worked and that didn't work then it's all going to work out yeah so um let's go to a final couple of questions for you.

This is called the three truths. So if it was your last day many years from now, you got to achieve everything you ever wanted to achieve. You got to have the life you dreamed of. It all happened. But it's your last day and you have a piece of paper and a pen to write down three things you know to be true about every lesson you've ever had, from big way of serving to relationships to speaking to

anything you want to do in the future but it all boils down to three lessons three truths and this is what you'd be remembered by what would you give you one what would be three um life short that's and and i'm plagued by this but i feel like it's so motivating it happens non-stop to me i'm like whoa that 10 years just went really quick i don't want to die full of regret so i just think life short we've got a limited amount of time on this planet make the most out of it yeah uh life short don't take everything too seriously. I mean, because life's short, don't worry about stupid things, especially in the fear realm of the egoic fear. You've got to take the serious stuff when it's about getting injured or dying.

But the egoic side, don't take everything seriously. You're going to one day, lying on your deathbed, and you're going to be like, I can't believe I was so worried about that or I can't believe I didn't try to do that because I was embarrassed or scared in that way. So life's short. Don't take everything too seriously and eat well, like you said. Eat well.

I did the exact same thing you did. And I've never been one to be super focused on diet. I kind of like, I can get away with it. I do lots do lots of exercise i can eat whatever but you start to break down and when you start to break down physically that's where everything else falls apart and that's why i get all the injuries and stuff and i've learned is there's one thing you can do diet wise it's sugar get rid of it and it's surprising how amazing it makes you feel. It feels so much better. Those three things I wouldn't leave out family in. Be good to your family and friends is super important too.

So I got four. Cheated. That's cool. It's all good. It's all good. I want to acknowledge you for a moment, Mark, for your courage, man. You've got this amazing story, and you could have gone down a negative path when you were younger. You went down a positive path to inspire others, to be there for your family, and to do things that bring inspiration to so many young kids, probably growing up, who want to do what you're doing. in the world, but still being this humble person that's grateful for all the things

that you've achieved and the people that have supported you, your team, and your ability to smile and be grateful through all the pain and the discomfort and the challenges you've faced. For me, it's a great example of how to live a good life. So I want to acknowledge you for those things. Man, thank you so much. Yeah. It feels great. Good, want to acknowledge you for those things. Man, thank you so much. It feels great.

Good, good. Final question for you. And people can connect with you at markmatthews.com. Is that right? Matthews 1T. Matthews 1T. Mark Matthews Surf on Instagram. You speak.

So if people want to hire you to speak, they can learn more at your site. No book yet, right? It's coming. I feel like i'm more i learned so much of amazing people i'd rather just direct them sure sure so when people want to know about this thing i say lewis house man go to he's saying join the school of greatness there you go you can learn or this dude for diet or this dude i'll just pass it on sure sure cool um well final

question is what's your definition of greatness? Being better than who you were yesterday is for me greatness because that feels amazing. Less external comparison, just compare yourself to who you were yesterday and be better than that person. There you go.

That's greatness. Mark Matthews, thanks, man. Thank you so much. It's been fun. It's great. There you have it, guys guys if you enjoyed this episode let me know about it tag me on instagram stories on your page on twitter at lewishouse anywhere and put the link in there lewishouse.com slash 515 to get the full video overview the show notes notes, the behind the scenes, go back to our show notes at lewishouse.com. You're going to see a video of Mark's leg, which is just crazy what he's been through from this accident and how he's recovering.

So you're going to see it in the video. We show it in the first few minutes. If you want to watch that, go check it out. And make sure to let your friends know about this. Again, he who is not every day conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life, said Ralph Waldo Emerson. And I'm telling you guys, if you want to live a happier life, learn to embrace and start overcoming fears to the best of your ability every single day. The more you do this, the more confident you feel, the more at peace you feel. You'll feel less worried and stressed because you're not living in this anxiety and this fear every single day when something comes up that

you're afraid of because you start embracing it and learning to become a master of it. All right, guys, I hope you enjoyed this one. And remember that you're here for a reason. You're here for a reason you're here for a reason and it's to discover what your dreams are it's to discover how much love you have within your heart it's to connect with people in the world that bring you joy and that you can give support back to as well you've been given so much support throughout your life whether you know it or not so many people have been a part of your story big people that came before you the people that are here now who have helped you get to where you're at even if

you're frustrated with so many people in your life a lot of them have been a building block for you to get here now so express the gratitude to the people in your life make sure you're giving back to the best of your ability and continue to pursue your dreams. I love you. And you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Outro Music