Devon Harris on Supreme Confidence

When I was first introduced to Chris Waddell for this podcast, I was super excited. His bio is absolutely inspiring. He was Dalai Lama’s Unsung Hero for Compassion. He’s won 13 Paralympic medals. He’s in the Paralympic Hall of Fame. He’s in the US Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame. NPR credited him with one of the best graduation speeches ever for his keynote at Middlebury College in 2011. He has won more medals than any male monoskier in Paralympic history. He is somebody who has been recognized for being one of the 50 most beautiful people by People Magazine, which we talk about in today’s conversation. The accolades are endless, they’re inspiring, they’re impressive, they’re almost outer worldly. In our conversation, we talk about the downside that comes with people who view Chris as a hero. I watched a documentary that he was featured in, and the documentary was beautiful, it was all about his ascent to Mount Kilimanjaro as an unassisted paraplegic. That documentary was a fascinating watch and it is the focal point of a lot of our conversation today, as Chris challenges the notion that others sometimes think that he’s outer worldly and that he’s some sort of hero because of some of the challenges he’s faced as far as with his ability to walk. That is what makes this conversation so real, so unique, so vulnerable: even though Chris is paralyzed and doing things that most able-bodied people would think is beyond the realm of possibility for them, Chris is a human and you’re going to love him in today’s conversation because he’s open, honest, and vulnerable. Chris had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “If you don’t tell the story, it didn’t happen” (6:25). “In climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, I wanted to confirm I was a superhero” (7:50). “I wanted to free myself of this burden of being the superhero” (8:00). “If you’re a human being, you’re part of the team” (8:30). “The victim thing is the thing that I want to avoid at all costs” (12:20). “If I continued to be a victim of circumstance, then my life ended at 20 years old effectively” (12:40). “We often see our greatest strength in crisis” (16:25). “The vulnerability is where we ultimately connect as human beings” (18:05). “The only way that we really connect with other people is through being honest” (18:50). “I wanted to stretch people’s imaginations and do things that were never possible” (24:25). “I want to create and be able to convey whatever is in me” (26:05). “I find heroes everywhere I go” (28:00). “We’re always capable of more than we think we’re capable of” (28:25). “Simplicity is the ultimate goal, but it takes a lot of work to actually get to the point where we achieve simplicity” (32:35). “Ease can be the real root of our genius, too” (33:40). “[Busyness] draws us away from efficiency” (38:25). “If we’re occupied, then we have no time for thought” (38:50). “I don’t get there on my own” (45:55). “If we’re not aware of what other people are doing, we’re doing ourselves a huge disservice” (46:10). “The key to communication… is ultimately about being direct” (47:05). “The biggest struggle for me is conflict” (51:15). “There’s the way I see myself, the way that people see me, and then there’s the way I think that people see me” (54:10). “You don’t want to be seen for that surface level stuff” (57:45). “The struggle is where we connect as human beings” (58:00). “If we’re perfecting our craft, we’re never growing old” (58:20). “It’s the getting better part that’s the most addictive part of being a human being” (58:55). “Fear is my greatest motivator” (1:01:50). Additionally, you can find the website for the One Revolution Foundation here and Chris’s personal website here, where you can find his books and much more. I’d also highly encourage you to check out the One Revolution documentary on Amazon Prime. Thank you so much to Chris for coming on the podcast! I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers. Thanks for listening.

Devon Harris is an original member of the 1988 Jamaican bobsled team and captain of the 1992 and 1998 teams. He’s a 3-time Olympian, and he achieved something that he could only have dreamed of having been brought up in Kingston, Jamaica. And yes, Devon and his teammates were the inspiration for the movie Cool Runnings, which if you’re like me, you probably grew up watching on loop over and over and over again. We talk about that a little bit in today’s conversation. Most of today’s conversation is about Devon’s perspective on the culture in Jamaica and how that leads to great performers and great athletes. We talk about Devon’s own perspective and how he had naivete, and his teammates probably had naivete, to achieve something that they could have only dreamt of where they were going to compete in the Olympics. He is someone who is philosophical, he is thoughtful, and he has a military background which he’s going to share greatly served him and helped him when it came time for the Olympics. And so, this is conversation that gets deep into themes like confidence and themes like greatness. Devon is a motivational speaker, he thinks deeply and thinks in ways that might be new to you and I think will be helpful to you. Devon had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “There is nothing glamorous about a bobsled” (5:35). “Other people have done it before so I should be able to figure out how to do it” (6:00). “If I die, I die. But I’m going” (7:25). “Every time we set out to do something amazing, great, different, there is a certain amount of fear with it” (7:40). “Courage is being scared to death but doing the thing anyway” (8:15). “I could not allow that fear to stop me, so I went for it” (9:05). “Anyone who has achieved something great and out of the box experiences some level of delusion” (13:15). “There’s a certain level of delusion, but it’s founded on the experience and the knowledge and the work that you did before” (14:55). “You can always learn new skills” (16:10). “You have to be willing to acknowledge that you don’t know so you can learn” (17:50). “We [Jamaicans] feed off the success of our compatriots” (23:20). “There’s a kind of defiance that’s embedded in us as Jamaicans” (26:25). “No task is too difficult; no obstacle is too great” (29:35). “It was the army experience that I relied on to get through those early days” (31:50). “Adversity allows you to grow. Adversity allows you to be inventive and be creative” (35:05). “Once you learn to deal with adversity in one area of your life, it translates into another area” (35:50). “I never could have imagined, coming from where I’m coming from, that you could have a movie made about a part of my life” (42:35). “I don’t know if they really captured the hardships we experienced trying to get to the Olympic games” (44:05). Additionally, you can find everything you need to know about Devon on his website. You can also find the link to his foundation, Keep on Pushing, here. Thank you so much to Devon for coming on the podcast! I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers. Thanks for listening.

Dhani Jones is someone who I did not grow up with, I think he’s about 6 years older than me, but we went to the same high school and his name was a name that we heard over and over again growing up. He helped our high school get to the state championship, he went on to play football at the University of Michigan where he earned All-Big Ten Honors. You’re going to hear him mention the University of Michigan experience quite a bit in today’s conversation; he is quite proud of his time at the University of Michigan and being an alum is something that he likes to talk quite a bit about. He was selected in the 6th round of the NFL draft and he ended up playing 11 seasons, playing for the Philadelphia Eagles, the New York Giants, and finally for the Cincinnati Bengals where he really had a transformative experience in his own career and he really took off in some of his later years and performed some of his best ball at the end of his career, which is not necessarily typically the case in professional football. But I think what makes Dhani so unique and why I was so excited to have him on the podcast is that he has range. He’s not just a football player, he’s actually more of an artist; he’s an explorer, he has been a tv host with VH1 and with The Travel Channel and with CNBC, he is a venture capitalist and loves to make investments, he’s an entrepreneur, he loves to tinker and try new things. He is a unique guy, he is an N of 1, and I hope that comes across in today’s conversation. So certainly we talk about mindset, we talk about his experience playing football, leadership, we talk about strategy and exploration, and really this conversation is about philosophy and about life as much as it is about performance. Dhani had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “You’re taught that if you’re a jack of all trades you’re a master of none” (6:00). “It’s okay to have a range of beliefs, it’s okay to have a range of curiosity, as a matter of fact it’s even been proven that it’s better; it creates a better level of elasticity and it creates a better level of understanding where you are in this world” (7:30). “It’s always important to ask more people more questions, to ask them what they see in you” (8:55). “In the end, I loved the game (football) that gave me the tools necessary to move into the real world” (10:20). “I see how things align through the chaos” (11:40). “A lot of times what might look like confusion is just a misunderstanding” (12:20). “Conviction is sometimes more of an easy route [than curiosity]” (16:45). “On Sunday I would turn it all off because I had reached my conviction, and I would go play” (21:35). “What I needed to survive was actually how to better control some of the curiosity and the questions that I had” (26:30). “My real passion is art. I always wanted to be an artist… The waves of creativity have always struck me in so many different ways” (28:45). “The last 4 years of my career, I came to love and appreciate the game because those that were around me appreciated me” (38:20). “[Golf] is the ultimate lesson” (42:00). “You want to learn about yourself, you want to learn about other people, you want to learn about life, you go to the golf course” (42:25). “I go into a different frame of mind when I’m cycling” (45:30). “No one should be given permission to learn. Everybody should be given an opportunity to learn as much as possible” (51:35). “The world of curiosity gets narrower and narrower as you get older” (52:25). “How do you arrive at your greatest gift if you didn’t even know that it existed?” (52:50). “I’m curious about what people really care about” (54:00). “I would go to outer space tomorrow” (56:20). “We should never limit our curiosity. We should never limit our brain’s opportunity to see and to experience more light” (57:50). “The game of football has provided me the opportunity to be creative and to learn this world of discipline” (58:50). Thank you so much to Dhani for coming on the podcast! I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers. Thanks for listening.

Dr. Bob Lefkowitz is currently the Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Professor of Biochemistry and Chemistry at the Duke University Medical Center. He’s been an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 1976, and he began his research career in the late 1960s and early 1970s when there was not a clear consensus that specific receptors for drugs and hormones even existed. He’s a trailblazer. He’s a ground breaker. He’s a Nobel Prize winner. He’s an author; his memoir, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Stockholm, recounts his early career as a cardiologist and his transition to biochemistry. He is a researcher, he’s a teacher, and he’s just very very wise. And sometimes you meet knowledgeable people, smart people, who lack wisdom and emotional intelligence; that’s not what you’re going to find in this conversation. We talk as much about philosophy as we do about his groundbreaking research. This conversation was inspiring, it made me think, and it made me question how I think, which is the sign of a great conversation. He has won numerous awards as well; he’s been acknowledged by his field in a multitude of ways and at Duke University. The work that he’s done finding these receptors and working on proteins has led to a discovery that impacts 30-50% of all medications that we take. He is someone who cares deeply about making an impact and influencing our society for the better. Bob had several amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “Tell me your strongest asset and it will also be your biggest deficiency” (6:30). “The most important characteristic necessary for success at anything is focus” (7:05). “A totally fulfilling life needs to be one that embraces not just whatever your passion and obsession is, but a host of other things” (7:30). “I’ll continue to be a work in progress” (9:00). “I have found as I’m aging that friendships have become more and more important to me” (13:10). “Life is so filled with surprises and twists and turns” (16:20). “Nobody’s smart enough to make truly amazing discoveries because they’re so far outside the frame of how we currently understand things that nobody’s that smart” (19:50). “What I loved the most when I was younger and was at the peak of my power was making discoveries” (25:50). “The more you know, the less able you are to make discoveries” (29:30). “Each of us has a unique personality which is shaped in varying extents by the nature and the nurture” (30:50). “Education is a double-edged sword. On one hand we need education to get certain facts and ways of thinking, but also it constrains us” (31:25). “This inherent skepticism I’ve always had led to burning curiosity” (34:10). “What drives me the most and gives me the most satisfaction is mentoring young people” (34:50). “It is an interesting and a life-changing experience to win the Nobel Prize” (40:55). “Winning awards was not a factor. I was just driven because I was driven [to discover]” (41:15). “The whole nature of science is that whatever it is, you have to do it first. You don’t get any credit for doing something second” (46:45). “Questions are a reflection of curiosity” (56:35). “Every experiment is a question. The better framed the experiment, the more likely you are to get an informative answer” (56:45). “The best outcomes in medicine are when the patient and doctor form an alliance” (57:40). “I thought [when I was younger] the most heroic thing you could do was become a physician because you could alleviate human suffering” (1:04:40). “I’m so focused in what I’m doing or who I’m interacting with that the time just disappears” (1:16:45). Additionally, you can learn more about Bob and his work here. Thank you so much to Bob for coming on the podcast! I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers. Thanks for listening.

Dr. Emma Seppala is a bestselling author, she’s a Yale lecturer, and international keynote speaker. She teaches executives at the Yale School of Management and is Faculty Director of the Yale School of Management’s Women’s Leadership Program. She’s a psychologist, she’s a researcher, she is somebody who is constantly thinking and wondering about the science of happiness, emotional intelligence, and social connection. She is also an author, as I mentioned earlier, and her books are what we focus on in today’s conversation. The two we focus on are The Happiness Track, which has been translated into dozens of languages and was published in 2016, and her new book which we really dive into in today’s conversation which is called Sovereign. Dr. Seppala is also the Science Director of Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. Emma has been featured in just about every publication you can imagine, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and NPR, and she also has done TED Talks all over the country. Her contributions and writings have been featured in places like The Harvard Business Review, The Washington Post, Psychology Today, and Time. She’s been fortunate to also consult and speak to organizations like Google and Facebook/Meta. Her research on breathing is also something that we talk about today. She has done amazing work with our military and their experience with trauma, so we bring that into today’s conversation. Emma had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “It really doesn’t make any sense to sweat the small stuff” (7:10). “There is an inner wealth that is more precious than any external wealth you can have and any material good you can have” (8:00). “This idea of the ability that we have to have sovereignty over our mind; it is there, it is something we can have, but we forget about it” (10:20). “Through the breath you can actually shift which emotions you’re experiencing” (11:25). “Suppression [of our emotions] actually makes them stronger” (12:25). “Emotion is energy in motion. You need to learn how to move it” (14:35). “Vulnerability and authority can coexist. Vulnerability and strength can coexist” (21:50). “When you suppress the negative, you’re also suppressing the positive” (26:15). “We’ve bought into this idea of high stress all the time, and all it’s doing is burning us out” (31:00). “It’s good to question how we always do things, even if everyone’s doing it, because it may not always be the best thing we can be doing with ourselves” (33:25). “Self-criticism is different from self-awareness” (37:00). “It doesn’t make sense to have an antagonistic relationship with yourself” (38:10). “Our mind is like a mirror; it’s going to reflect whatever we put in it” (40:15). “For sovereignty, the key is discernment” (42:35). “Having the attitude of kindness is one of the greatest secrets to happiness and fulfillment over the length of your life” (46:20). “The happiest people, who also live the longest most fulfilled lives, are the ones who live lives characterized by compassion, balanced with compassion for themselves” (47:40). “The most successful leaders out there are leaders that are compassionate” (50:35). “Happiness is a very individual experience” (52:20). “Everybody, to some extent, has an addiction” (56:50). “We can get stronger and better at everything if we just force ourselves to do it over and over” (1:07:25). Additionally, you can purchase Emma’s new book Sovereign anywhere you buy books. You can also check out her website and connect with her on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter.   Thank you so much to Emma for coming on the podcast! I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers. Thanks for listening.

Simon Mundie is on a mission to have discussions that reveal something important about life and how best to live it. He’s the host of the Life Lessons Podcast, and that’s where he uses that vehicle to learn from some of the best performers in the world about how they are not just successful at their craft, but what they’ve learned along the way, and even some of the dark sides that come with high achievement. And he really is someone who has used sport as a metaphor for life. His podcast doesn’t just interview some of the best athletes in the world, but it also is a platform where he gets to sit with some of the best thinkers, philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists to try to unpack and discover what living a truly meaningful, successful life is all about. He has spent time in the sports world as a journalist. He worked for BBC Radio, where he covered sporting events like the World Cup and the Olympics. So, he’s been around some of the highest achievers in the world, and he often found that our obsession and focus on results was actually quite shallow. His interest in sport as he became older was actually around the metaphors that exist within the games. So, this conversation gets into a lot of wisdom, a lot of ideas around enlightenment, a lot of ideas around meaning and purpose and what will cause us to truly feel like we’re living our best lives. So, it’s a deep conversation, it’s a rich conversation. Simon had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “I am actually not a big fan of the word [champion]” (4:55). “I think it becomes problematic when we look at people who are described as champions and consider them to be special or different, and therefore consider ourselves or others to be less than” (6:10). “We are all unique with our own skills and value” (6:45). “We are not better or no worse than anyone else” (7:00). “So often people are incredibly identified with their thoughts, the voice in their head, they think that’s who they are” (9:30). “Thoughts and thinking are coming and going, but this ‘aware’ mind is always there and is aware of any thoughts that come and go” (10:10). “A thought… has a beginning and an end” (10:35). “I’ve always been interested in the deeper questions” (18:10). “There’s nothing that anyone needs to fix. It’s just the belief that there is” (19:15). “Sport is a metaphor for life” (21:00). “Sport is just a way to illustrate these deeper truths and deeper implications” (21:40). “We are not separate. We are connected” (22:45). “On the human level we are individual, unique, and discrete, but on the being level we are one and the same” (24:50). “We are different expressions of one life” (25:40). “Spirituality is the recognition that at the deepest level we are not actually separate” (25:45). “Anytime [“problematic”] feelings come up, it’s an opportunity to allow them to be there and then they lose their strength” (31:30). “A lot of trauma can stay in the body” (41:20). “That capacity to be able to cry is a really important way of actually releasing stress and tension from the body” (42:55). “Attention is like the stretching of awareness towards an object” (45:55). “What we all really want is peace of mind, is contentment, is fulfillment” (49:25). “Peace and fulfillment and contentment are not things that come from outside ourselves; they are already at our source and then they can be revealed by, for example, being in flow when your sense of self disappears” (49:40). “Culturally, we tend to think of success as achievement” (50:15). “Don’t be too quick to judge other people” (1:02:45). “We have to take responsibility for ourselves and our actions” (1:07:40). “I’m going to take risks. I’m going to put myself in situations that are uncomfortable. I’m going to ask people for stuff until they say no” (1:12:20). “I’m going to put myself out there and really try and create opportunities, and then see what life throws my way” (1:13:30). Additionally, I’d encourage you to check out Simon’s podcast, The Life Lessons Podcast, on any platform. I’d also highly encourage you to purchase Simon’s book, Champion Thinking. Lastly, you can find Simon’s website here and connect with him on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and LinkedIn. Thank you so much to Simon for coming on the podcast! I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers. Thanks for listening.

Dr. Gloria Mark is Chancellor’s Professor Emerita at the University of California, Irvine, and has spent ten years as a visiting senior researcher at Microsoft Research. She received her PhD from Columbia University in psychology. For over two decades, she has researched the impact of digital media on people's lives, studying how using our devices affects our multitasking, distractions, mood, and behavior. She has published over 200 papers in the top journals and conferences in the field of human-computer interaction, has received numerous paper awards, and was inducted into the ACM SIGCHI Academy in 2017 in recognition of her contribution to the field. She has also been a Fulbright scholar and has received the prestigious NSF Career Grant. Her work has been widely recognized outside of academia: she has appeared on The Ezra Klein show, NPR’s Hidden Brain, Sanjay Gupta’s CNN Chasing Life, CBS Sunday Morning, Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert, among many others. Her work has been featured in the popular media, e.g. New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR, The Atlantic, BBC, and others. She has been invited to present her work at SXSW and the Aspen Ideas Festival. Her recent book Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity, was named by The Globe and Mail as the #1 Best Business and Management book of 2023, and chosen as the Season 20 selection of the Next Big Idea Book Club. Gloria had several amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “You have to be agile to put your attention to where it’s important” (6:50). “Multitasking is not possible for us humans unless one of those tasks is automatic” (7:50). “It’s not humanly possible to do 2 challenging, difficult things in parallel” (8:25). “It takes longer to do 2 or more tasks when we multitask compared to if we do the tasks sequentially one after the other” (11:20). “[Multitasking] creates stress” (12:35). “There’s a myth that when people multitask, they’ll be more productive” (14:15). “There’s a blurriness between our work and personal lives” (18:20). “Our motivation changes when we work from home” (19:30). “So often we might be with other people, but we have this lure of the internet still there” (25:30). “When something becomes a habit, it really prevents us from using our conscious attention” (28:30). “It’s really about becoming more intentional and conscious about what we’re doing when we’re on our devices” (32:15). “Distractions are natural. It’s part of our human experience” (33:30). “People mind-wander about 47% of the time” (33:40). “Attention spans have declined [over the last 20 years]” (39:05). “[New technology] has created a lot of pressure to think about performance at the expense of our wellbeing” (43:00). “60% of global respondents reported some symptoms of burnout” (44:15). “When people have positive wellbeing, they actually perform better” (44:55). “Being an artist taught me that I could think out of the box” (46:30). “The way I talk with scientists is very different from the way I talk with artists” (48:05). “Boredom is associated with negative affect. When people are bored, they tend to be in a bad mood” (56:45). “20 minutes in nature can help people destress” (58:40). “We can practice forethought” (1:04:00). “Goals are very powerful but they’re very slippery” (1:05:00). Additionally, you can connect with Gloria on Twitter and LinkedIn, check out her website (where you can purchase her book, Attention Span, and find much more), and also subscribe to her Substack. Thank you so much to Gloria for coming on the podcast! I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers. Thanks for listening.

Steve Clagett is the Director of Learning and Development with the Baltimore Ravens. Prior to arriving with the Ravens, he’s had quite a journey and quite an experience and a pretty incredible resume, which includes serving as a White House Fellow, where he got to interact with the President of the United States and a lot of other dignitaries and people that are making decisions that influence our daily lives. He also worked within the US Navy, rising to becoming a Lieutenant Commander where he also worked with the Navy SEAL Teams. We talk about mission, we talk about values in today’s conversation, and we talk about what is applicable and what may not be when it comes from the military to the sports world. We also talk about politics in today’s conversation. He also was a Pat Tillman Scholar. He is someone who cares about the work that he’s doing and is looking to make an impact certainly within the NFL, but beyond the NFL and in the community that he helps serve in Baltimore as well. So, this is a rich conversation where we really zoom in and think about character and how you assess for character and how you think about putting together the best possible team to compete, to contend, and ultimately to win. Steve had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “The power of the year [2020] means more now than it did then” (8:00). “We don’t say he’s a [Navy} SEAL. We say he’s a team guy” (11:50). “Part of the competition is who you are as a teammate” (12:20). “I believe in having a hypercompetitive organization” (12:30). “You have to make sure that competition reinforces selflessness” (12:40). “For me, accountability comes in phases” (14:15). “Both [the military and the NFL] exist in some ways to inspire others” (16:40). “When I look back at my career, I think of times I could have been more of a glue guy” (19:15). “As a leader, there’s that constant balance between the mission and the man” (19:25). “You need people [on the team] who get people out of their comfort zones and push the team in different directions” (21:05). “I really enjoyed leading teams and solving complex problems” (22:10). “I would define effective leadership as working with the team on establishing a vision, giving them clear roles and responsibilities, the resources they need to get the job done, and then getting out of the way” (27:50). “Ideally you want a culture of disagree and commit” (30:50). “What I’ve learned over the years is the value of diverse perspectives” (36:20). “When you can improve the morale, when you can improve the culture of an organization, it just makes coming to work every day better” (39:05). “The toughest decision I ever made was leaving the SEAL teams” (41:35). “Sometimes loyalty is just [to] your teammates” (44:35). “I think intrinsic motivation isn’t as important as external motivation” (52:50). “I wonder sometimes if we’re too hard on people for their honesty” (53:20). “One of our biggest reasons for success is we know who we are” (58:50). Additionally, I’d encourage you to check out Farming 4 Hunger and The Taylor Anne Foundation. You can also connect with Steve on LinkedIn. Thank you so much to Steve for coming on the podcast! I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers. Thanks for listening.

Dr. Ruth Gotian has studied extensively what it takes to be successful. That is, at the end of the day, what she’s obsessed with, interested in, and curious about. She also has spent a lot of time thinking about mentorship and mentoring. She is currently the Chief Learning Officer, Associate Professor of Education in Anesthesiology, and former Assistant Dean of Mentoring and Executive Director of The Mentoring Academy at Cornell Medicine. And so, today we focus more on her focus on success and less on mentoring. She has a book coming up in the future about mentoring, but today this conversation is really about her research and dedication and, to be honest, an obsession with success. In 2021, she was one of 30 people worldwide to be named to the Thinkers50 Radar List, which is dubbed the Oscars of Management Thinking, and is a semi-finalist for the Forbes 50 over 50 list. During her extensive career, she’s personally coached and mentored thousands of people, ranging from faculty members to undergraduates, and as an Assistant Dean for mentoring, she oversaw the success of nearly 1800 faculty members at Cornell. Currently, she researches the most successful people of our generation, including Nobel Laureates, astronauts, CEOs, Olympic champions, and more. We get into that in today’s conversation. Dr. Gotian received her BS and an MS in Business Management from The University at Stony Brook in New York, and certificates in Executive Leadership and Managing for Execution from Cornell. She earned her doctorate at teacher’s college at Columbia University. So, she’s well educated, she plays in the lab, but she also plays in the field. She works with athletes, she works as an executive coach, and she regularly publishes in journals such as Nature, Scientific American, Academic Medicines, Psychology Today, Forbes, and The Harvard Business Review. So, this conversation really focuses on her book, The Success Factor, which is all about developing the mindset and skillset for peak performance, and if you know anything about me you know that is a topic I am quite interested in. Ruth had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “If I want to be better, I need to know what the best of the best are doing and then I reverse engineer their path” (7:50). “I knew if I leverage my peak performance hours I will write better and I will be more effective” (12:40). “I need to be able to rest” (15:25). “I work really hard to be around people who jazz me up and don’t drain me” (15:30). “Very often people get overlooked, misunderstood, because they’re different” (20:00). “Sometimes it’s the people who carve out a different path that have the greatest learning journey” (20:15). “[Success] is very personal” (21:55). “I have interviewed hundreds of people who are at the top of their game. Not one has gotten there alone” (25:15). “Any person who has achieved anything has done it with the support of other people” (25:50). “The extrinsic motivation is fleeting” (28:55). “If you really want to maximize everything that’s going forward, take a break” (34:00). “Having a positive impact and leaving this world better than I found it, to me, that’s my way of doing something important and not just interesting” (39:15). “Do something important and not just interesting” (42:05). “When our situations change, our passions can change” (43:25). “Mindsets trump habits because we can take the idea of the habit but customize it to our life” (46:10). “Just because you’re moving up doesn’t mean you know more. You actually know less” (53:25). “A leader is someone who can inspire other people to be the best versions of themselves” (55:00). Additionally, you can find all of Ruth’s information and connect with her via her website. Thank you so much to Ruth for coming on the podcast! I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers. Thanks for listening.

Stephen Panus is somebody that my path may have crossed with, and at some point led him to coming on this podcast professionally. He’s worked in the sports world, he’s worked as a marketer, as a lawyer, and as an agent. So, it would make sense that at some point he would be someone that I would interview. But the real reason and the impetus for today’s conversation is based, in part, off of adversity, tragedy, and trauma. Stephen’s son, Jake, was killed in a drunk driving accident when Jake was 16 years old. Jake’s girlfriend at the time was actually the one driving the car. We don’t get into the specifics as far as how Stephen feels about Jake’s girlfriend, and we really don’t get into all of the details around the accident per se. But this conversation gives us a window into the grief, the trauma, and also some of the inspiring work that Stephen has done since then. Make no mistake, this is an experience that Stephen went through that was a watershed moment for him in the worst of ways. He doesn’t mince words about how much he misses his son and how much he dreads the day that he was taken from their family. And this is also a story about what Stephen has done since, his perspective on life since the accident, his thoughts on his son and around what it means to be a father, what it means to be a husband, what it means to be a professional, and Stephen also wrote a wonderful book called Walk On which we feature in today’s conversation. I think you’re going to find Stephen to be a philosopher, a spiritual animal, somebody who thinks deeply about psychology and how we can show up as our best. So, this is a difficult conversation, this is a tough conversation, but it’s also an inspiring one. Stephen had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “It sometimes is hard to remember what I was like before August 9th. My life was split into a two-act play” (6:25). “[I define success as] happiness” (9:00). “Happiness comes from within. If you can be happy with who you are and what you’re doing, then I think you’ll be a success at whatever that is that you’re doing” (9:10). “When you become a parent, it’s so similar to being on a [sports] team; you take on a responsibility much greater than yourself and your own interests” (11:40). “Being spiritual is just being open. Being open to things you feel, things you see… and I think in being open you experience a lot more” (14:00). “Everyone’s quest is their own” (17:10). “I think it’s super important to have faith in something” (17:15). “We’re all carrying invisible backpacks with some form of suffering or hardship or grief” (21:20). “Our vulnerability is our strength” (21:50). “All of the answers reside right within ourselves, we just have to source them. They’re all there” (22:10). “Practice vigilant mercy... Be easy on yourself, be easy on others, set healthy boundaries, know what you’re capable of and what you’re not capable of” (22:45). “There’s something about nature that brings some peace” (23:40). “You need to lean into the sharp point if you want to be able to get through it” (25:10). “Grief is your shadow now. It is always there. You have to deal with it” (25:35). “The closer you stand to death the more it makes you want to feel alive” (33:00). “Grief is love with nowhere to go” (37:10). “There’s so few things we control on this planet, but what we do control… is what we feel and what we do about what happens to us” (44:50). “We discipline our children to teach them” (47:10). “I don’t make a big deal about so many little things now” (50:00). “I connect with people’s pain. That’s a good thing because it connects us as human beings” (52:10). “Grace is really just the inner light within all of us” (57:30). “The most important relationship you’ll have on this planet is with yourself. And if you can learn to love yourself, accept yourself, agree to work on yourself, then the world opens up to you” (58:00). “Grief isn’t linear” (1:05:40). Additionally, you can check out Stephen’s website here, where you can pre-order his book, read about his scholarships, make a donation, book him as a speaker, and more. Thank you so much to Stephen for coming on the podcast! I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers. Thanks for listening.