Hacks, Fails & Lessons From 2019 - Christmas Special
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Because it's Christmas and I can use whatever [ __ ] words I want, all right? So, today we're going to go through some of our favorite hacks, lessons, fails from 2019, do a year-end review. So, I dropped med school. Became a doctor? Became a doctor. Not proper doctor. Otherwise, it's been probably the hardest year of my life. The main thing that didn't go well was I started the year snapping my underneath 255 kilos. As you're moving
into the new year, if I could give you one piece of advice, one piece of advice would be go sober. Second piece of advice would be sleep with your phone outside of your room. But third piece of advice would be get a morning routine. I spoke to someone this week who said to me that they got a dog because I said to get a dog. So, we should be careful.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back. A very merry Christmas from us here at Modern Wisdom. Johnny and Yusef have joined me. Uh anyway, it's Christmas. Merry Hope that you've had a fantastic year. We're going to be going through that now.
What are you doing? Oh, there we go. Dean, just cut this. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back. A very merry Christmas to you. I'm joined by Johnny and Yusef from Propane Welcome back to us. Welcome back indeed. This is actually take two cuz we were being naughty. They were being naughty. They were being Christmas elves. Um as you can see, Johnny's wearing a familiar jumper except for the fact it's broken.
You've got an indicator. I don't think it's broken fully. Better. Some would say better. Better. Anyway, if you are only listening, I suggest that you head to YouTube to check out Christmas jumpers in all of their Really nice, isn't it? Yusef's far too small for him. You can't really see that cuz he's That's your girlfriend's jumper, isn't it? Take it slow in the snow and it's a sloth earmuffs on. It's like a cautionary
notice, isn't it? Yeah, it is. It's You could stand by the side of the road just waving. It's festive, very sensible. Yeah. So, today we're going to go through some of our favorite hacks, lessons, fails from 2019, do a year-end What it is that we've been getting up hot lump of coal for Christmas. Lump of There you go. What would you like to know? Well, what have you Okay, here's one. What have you dropped within the
last year in terms of sort of routine or product consistency? That's a great question. That is a surprise to you. Uh Maneuvers you're totally And how do you feel having Uh so, no different. I would say. Why have you dropped romwod specifically? So, Chris went to see Mr. came back and was like, "Don't do romwod, Johnny. Otherwise, you'll snap yourself." So, um I think I probably didn't cuz I was doing it and it was taking a
long time and I was still getting And I was still feeling tight and I was still feeling um you know, pain, discomfort like that as you would normally expect from from training. So, tried dropping it. Also noticed no no change really. So, I do miss it but not for the right reasons. Why? Yeah, no, I I agree. I agree completely. So, my my reasons, romwod I still think is a a fantastically useful tool and it's a
beautiful way to start your morning. Um there's just certain physiologies, mine being one of them the um changes that the stretches elicit, it doesn't agree with. Um so, romwod's gone. Yusef, what have you added or taken away this year that's been surprising? do like water down romwod, don't you? Like all the gymnastics stuff. Yeah. Like all the Yeah. Yeah, you do like that. It's not As in the sport
the sport of gymnastics. The sport of romwod. It's competitive romwod, isn't it? Cuz it's they don't have seated straddle, they have like other Yeah. They have like proper proper names for the things, the positions. Um so, I dropped med school. Became a doctor? Became Proper doctor. in as far as habits, like I think there's quite a big shift with having to go from like pressurizing yourself for a certain
point on assessment to just doing the job. So, that's been quite a big shift and I think quite a lot of challenges with time management and juggling a lot more in terms of energy, time, sleep. You've entered you after you're like finally in the real world after 10 years of being for a bit. It's not for me. Wrong bit, wrong bit and then back in again. Yeah. [ __ ] trading. Well, there's there's just
loads of blood and poo, isn't there? Quite a lot. How much body fluid do you see? so we were saying this before that um you're kind of insulated from it a little bit, whereas nurses, God bless them. They're on the front line. They just get Taking fire. Oh, they like they get punched. Um one one nurse got punched last week by someone and uh and they'll it's always like the first port of call for like, "Nurse, I've [ __ ] myself.
Could you And like sometimes it's it's absolutely excusable, you know, someone who can't help it, but sometimes you just get people who are just lazy or a bit just vindictive and like there's a there can be a sense of I've I've paid for this, so I'm going to Who has? You shouldn't you don't [ __ ] yourself because You can you pay taxes, you're like, "Well, I'm in the hospital now. I'm going to make a mess of this."
Um well, I mean, it's not common, but you can What was it? What's it I can't remember who the comedian is who says um it's like it's like making a dirty protest against the standards in a hotel by [ __ ] the bed, then realizing that you've got to wake up in a [ __ ] bed. Yeah. Except for the fact that someone comes and don't shits the bed for you in in hospital, don't they? You'd have to [ __ ] in the bed like as you leave the
They take They take the poo away. The poo The poo it comes and then it goes. Um so, you've changed a lot to do with that and I guess that your sleep's going to be a bit of a challenge and stuff now as I think I've learned a lot about myself with doing night shifts. Um What have you learned? Switching between So, just how much it affects how stupid you are. So, I In fact, there we go. The The big lesson has been it Have Has anyone seen
the Shane Parrish Stupidity podcast? Yes. Where he talks about the seven factors of stupidity, which are being in a group outside of your normal group, being outside of your domain of competence, being in the presence of an expert or being at an expert yourself, um being in a crowd, having sensory overload or being tired. I think those are the seven. It was like And And are you saying that you So, it must be at least six of seven.
The first couple of months, you are just you're like I'm so aware that I'm operating on 10% brain because everything is just is designed to make you stupid. Like And And he defines stupid not as a lack of intelligence, missing what is conspicuously obvious because of these factors. And so, slowly as you begin to mitigate those, you use more of your brain, you can think more clearly. Um but yeah, very very interesting
experience. Cuz in corporate world, like the way that people rationalize something of like, "Don't worry, it's not that bad. It's not life and death." You know, that's the thing that everyone And Z always says, "Yeah, you're right." Are you trading life and death, aren't a spreadsheet. Whereas you are in the only scenario really where It is life and death. only ever is life and death. And poo. Sometimes it's just poo.
But poo is is just on the spectrum, isn't it, of life and death? Like poo will happen at specific points on the way to death. On the spectrum of life and death. I understand. Cool. What about you, Chris? Hold on, you didn't ask him answer the I did. What have you dropped? Stop being a student. All right, okay. Dropped his medical degree. Are there any habits or routines that you sort of volunteered like that
wouldn't have happened anyway that you stopped doing? So, things like Anki, using all of the surrounding habits that you have around that. And I think it opens up a huge amount of RAM in one sense because you're not like trying to just stuff your brain with as For people who don't know what Anki is, it's a spaced repetition flashcard software that helps medical students remember what they need to learn. Yeah,
strong summary. Very yeah, very very good bit of software actually. Like it's You create your own deck of flashcards except if you're making 10,000 like me, um then How many did you finish on? Uh 10,000. So, Really? If you are a medical student or any student and you have uh Anki flashcard deck with more than 10,000 flashcards in it and you send me a screenshot at Chris Will X on Instagram, I will send you a case of knockoff free.
Wow. How are you going to protect against people fudging that? It's a long process to Fine. Fine. I'm I'm happy with that. Are you still No, but you will be pleased to know that I unwrapped my 6-minute diary. I've started reading through the preamble, which is long. Yeah, it is. There's a big buy-in. I thought it would be like a couple of pages. No, it's [ __ ] legit. So, I've not started the actual journal
process, but Will you intend on maybe doing it for the new year? Yeah. Wow. I Do you know what it is? I was going to ask for it back. Really? I was going to say I was just going to say I'll just give it to someone who's going to use it. Who's going to actually appreciate So, hold on. Why have you stopped Is it cuz you used you don't want to? No, I as in like I've never really journaled as a consistent thing. I just
do it as and when things come up and I just type them up. Right. But I'm convinced now to try sitting in a diary. I think pen to paper and having a physical like everything away and just sit. I think there's something to be said for just doing a like I mean you're you're a huge like you you're the one that got me onto it which is like doing a a long form brain dump that's just Hands off. rather than just like a partial one cuz
that's like having a partial poo, isn't it? Like you might just relieve the pressure a little bit but then All the good stuff still there. Oh, yeah. Still inside. Um I'm man I'm really really happy to hear that you're going to use it. I I I'm genuinely excited for the fact that it you might not think it's [ __ ] Yeah, I'm not going to lie like when I first saw it I was like oh, it's just this like trendy little
thing that's It's month So, Dominic Spencer, the guy that's the German dude that's written it, um you can see by the number of um like references that's in it and how thorough the start is. Anyone who doesn't know what we're talking about, 6-Minute Diary, daily journaling, 3 minutes in the morning, 3 minutes in the evening, three questions that you get asked. I've just filled in my fifth. So, that's like nearly a thousand pages
of writing, nearly a thousand days of journaling. Um and I don't know how long you've had it for. What do I I I keep on getting more. I keep on getting more. I keep on getting more. 2 years. 2 years of like consistent Sorry, 2 and 1/2 years of consistent use. You're so consistent with our stuff. It's just my morning routine, man. Just like my morning routine is Was it not 6 hours at one point? Your morning routine. There was a point
last year where you said like your total morning routine was 6 hours. If I went for it full like dick and balls and included I was including my training time in that. So, like training plus training time was like 3 and 1/2. Cuz if it's 6 hours, that's just your your day. But that's So, this is what I've been something I've been thinking about recently. I love the fact that a morning routine is this hermetically
sealed petri dish for self-development unencumbered and unmolested by everyone else, everything else. sentence I've ever heard. Why? Just to say it What was it? A a hermetically sealed petri dish of saying that I'm just being like verbose for the for no reason? Because it's Christmas and I can use whatever [ __ ] words I want, all right? Chris, this tastes caffeinated. I know it isn't. No, I I I believe you. New sponsor. We
got a new sponsor, everybody. Nocco. Shout-out to Nocco. Thank you. Johnny's terrified of the fact that the one that has in big capital letters caffeine-free, sugar-free, carbonated. What's What's a bit alarming is if you just glance at it, you see 5,000 mg.
So, so I tasted it and I was like cuz it's just a BCAA. Yeah. And then I looked at it and I saw 5,000 Oh, it's okay. It's okay. You're totally correct. This is made in a factory which contains contain, yeah. I mean, you were terrified it would have nuts in it, wouldn't you? No, those are those are okay. Uh so No carbs company, isn't it? On the on the morning time, you get your morning routine. It's no one's getting in your
way doing stopping you from doing your What I've realized is if you become very very anal about how you do your morning routine, you can work out exact precisely how long everything's going to Yeah. It especially when you're doing things that are quite discreet. So, um the state app takes 8 minutes. The meditation of a 20-minute session takes 20 minutes. Reading takes 20 minutes. The countdown timer da da da da How long
does 6-Minute Diary actually take? So, I tend to take a little bit longer cuz it's the first thing I do. So, I'll be drinking water, probably settling into wherever I'm sat. I would say 5 minutes at most. Okay, so it's not just like a time limit. You know, there's the evening bit as well. The evening one tends to be quicker. It's supposed to be 3 minutes in the morning, 3 minutes in the evening. Yeah. Um
But I'm a bit worried that you'll just cuz I've seen you sort of try lots of different things and typically you aren't brought in by like Chris and I would read something or like hear something or try something new and be really kind of sold on it cuz it's a bit fun and nice. I worry that you'll read the preamble and just be like and then you'll try it for a while and you'll be like I joined a cult for I
don't So, I know you'll do it for a long time. But yeah, but I So, I suppose like I was bought into it or is it FOMO wanting to Even the the fact that you were sufficiently concerned about potential gains to open it and read 60 whatever it is 60, 70 pages that's the buying at the start, I think. But anyway, so you you you know exactly how long everything's going to take on your morning, right? And this is like as
you're moving into the new year, if I could give you one piece of advice, one piece of advice would be go sober. Second piece of advice would be sleep with your phone outside of your room. But third piece of advice would be get a morning routine. Um and as you see this is how long everything's going to take, blah blah blah. Um what you realize is if I was able to run my day forward like that, if I was able to do 12 hours of this at the
same fidelity morning routine Imagine how much you'd get done. Every single essentially every minute to every could live your life as if it was a morning routine? Yeah, just that it's And by that, what I mean is like every minute is accounted for and is and during that minute you're doing precisely what you're supposed to be doing. So, so that's what I That's something I try and do in my morning routine. So, that's a Cal
Newport thing of like try and plan out as much of your day as you possibly can on a bit of paper or like in your journal or whatever. in 15-minute blocks. I do it in 30-minute blocks. So, you know, how long does it take to get there? How long am I going to be doing on this task? there's something that Cal says which is like he's convinced that a 9:00 to 5:00 window perfectly planned or like planned
out the minute, that person gets way more done than the 60-hour workweek person who's just like but you can you can much more easily control the intensity of your work than you can control the passage of time. Yeah. I mean, you know, we get to we get to do the second one. So, um So, yeah, I guess for me uh doubling down on morning routine probably one of them has been um focus on rest, the meditation technique
from uh Shinzen Young's five ways which is both of our meditation coaches Brian's doing. So, the people who don't know what I'm talking about, it's just a particular type of meditation focus. You're focusing on the absence of a visual, uh auditory, or somatic experience in your head which sounds a bit woo. Um but bottom line is I've now managed to ingrain that and I did it for so long that it feels like
getting a squeegee and wiping a window clean. And if there's something that arises, it must be similar to your releasing technique or it must have a similar sort of effect. I can drill it I've drilled it so much now that I can do see rest, hear rest, feel rest. And after that, it genuinely feels like my mind's cleaner after that little thing. I bought a good old I did it for 6 months. Yeah, like you're
getting one of those like Brush your brain. You don't forget to brush your brain. Uh okay, so That's what That's one of them. What else? What have you done this year that you failed at, Johnny? Other than you just hurt your wrist at CrossFit. That was a fail. Yeah, so I've written down on my on a notes document what went well and what what didn't go well. Um the main thing that didn't go well was I started the year
snapping my hamstring underneath 255 kilos. Was it not IT band? It well, I mean, it was like it was something here but I call it I I refer to it as my hamstring. I don't think some people thought it was my sartorial sartorial It's like My sartorius sounds like a Roman guard, doesn't it? And then there was the phalanx. So, they call it sartorius because, you know, you say this is a sartorial piece of work like it's a tailor.
Cuz it's the tailor's muscle cuz it attaches No. inside seam Yeah, so it's basically is the inside seam. It's so it it's what allows you to bring your heel up and in like that. Right. Which would make Which is in the position that you're in. Started the year by snapping yourself. Snap. Yeah. Um stop powerlifting. The worst thing that happened on that evening was So, that's just happened. I'm in the garage,
right? So, get the bottom and there's like a and I hear it over see it on the Yeah. Um so, done that forward. Um and then like limp back into the house. Don't even unload the 255. Still there? No. I'm joking. Um took Dexter So, like Dexter was was just a puppy at the time. Took him for a walk and he slipped out of his harness. So, we're like on a roundabout, okay? Big roundabout. And back is picking up
his poo and he had just like bolted in this other direction like slips out of his harness. I'm like So, I then had to run. Like cuz I'm he's running towards the the So, for this roundabout and I just just big adrenaline dump. No pain for a couple of seconds. Just went full gas pedal after Dexter, caught him, picked him up and I was like oh my god and then just this area was just like red hot. Wow. So, try to recover through that, try to
compete, didn't compete. Was like I've had it with powerlifting. Did 6 months of CrossFit and then hit my wrist. And you're now considering going back to powerlifting. Well, I'm doing what I can. So, like what I can do is basically the power lifts. Like I can't even do a chin-up. I can't do an overhead press. Bench is Um but that was just from catching a power clean on this side and missing it on my right and then the bar just
jamming down. unfortunate But so, injuries, I think. But like I just I mean, that's always So, what went well this year? What did you put down as going well? Um so, the flip side of that was I experimented a lot in fitness. The the most I have done probably since I was like 16. Most since I've known you. Yeah. So, like did some 5K runs, timed them. Did obviously 6 months of CrossFit. did a I feel like I
it's the probably the most amount of time I've taken away from barbell strength. Yeah. Like traditional barbell work. So, it's been really good. It's been fun. What about looking forward? What did it So, you've got those two things which are like kind of two sides of the same What does that mean for 2020? I don't know. I think I know this probably doesn't apply to everybody, but I think the thing that
keeps pulling me back to powerlifting is I feel like I'm I feel like I have unfinished business in powerlifting. Like I really want a 700 lb deadlift. That was my goal for so long. And what's that? 320? 317.5 [ __ ] you're so close. So, I know what exactly. So, like Powerlifting So annoying because of If all that you want is that you want it in competition or just in training? So, So, there's there's two things. So,
one I still hold the 93 kilo deadlift record. And there's a guy who's just pulled 300 in training who's right on the heels of it. So, I quite like to bump it a little bit. to get back out of the 93s. I would. I would. So, these are the These are the decisions I'm thinking I'm so keen for you to get his 93s. Man, you would be Yeah. So, I am just thinking about just getting really lean. Jacked and just come whatever whatever
may, but it's interesting cuz um I don't have the same like desire for that anymore. I don't know why. Aesthetically? Yeah. I just Fitness menopause, man. Well, yeah. I think like we've all been through the fitness probably the past you maybe from the first podcast. The CrossFit when I started CrossFit CrossFit There There's no better feeling even across everything in CrossFit. So, like doing the open was class. Like doing
those workouts was class. But pulling a deadlift record in competition is the single most like buzz. Yeah. Like could have cried. Easily could have cried every time I've done it. That's quite want that again. I was watching um a vlog. There's a blonde freak from the north of England called Dylan Nelson. Dylan, if you're watching, you know I love you. Um but watching him get ready for a lift is the most electric thing I think I've ever
seen in competition. Yeah. And he was talking on a vlog uh where he was saying about how he he gets to the point where he feels like every hair like on his body is just standing up. Mhm. And you can see he's one of those guys who he's not chill at all. No. He's like a bull. He's like someone's just taken You know like when they're in the when they they're doing corralling or whatever it is in like Texas and it's just in the thing and
then they lift the gate up and it just Yeah. Um We competed with him, didn't we? Like a few He competed when I watched when we went to go watch you in Ashington when you met him. Smelling salts. Oh, yeah. Yeah. There's another So, there's two other guys that are have So, Owen Hubbard, watching him about a bunch like record level stuff. He just gets his like I watched him take AirPods out, just throw them. Cuz he's in such a
I've watched him throw his iPhone just off the floor. Yeah. Cuz he's in such a such a like a state. So, ready to drive hard. Drive Drive Didn't he just break another record? The thing that blows my mind about that is to have a a 200 kilo bench press and then still year after year get a better bench press is mental. I feel like Americans that are listening, they'll be more than 50% of people listening that
are American. Okay. That's 2 440. Yeah. Yes, 440 exactly. Yeah. But it's more It's It's It's 270 like 218 or something, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's 218. a world record, wasn't it? So, And I know What was the best thing about it was he just tagged tagged Brett Gibbs in the post. I don't know whether you've seen that. Brett Gibbs is a very small New Zealand who is just We've met him. He's just as strong as Owen and they like back and
forth back and forth Is it amicable or really Yeah, it's amicable. Okay, yeah. But like most people would be like, "I'm so humbled and grateful." And he just went like, "Where you at?" Yeah, Brett. You all right, mate? Uh another shout out, Reggie Fasha, who is uh a CrossFit athlete from uh Sunderland who competed at Filthy 150 in Ireland the other week and came one place but down Bailey. Wow. Um and before he before he
started, there's this really like it went round famous. It went round like the CrossFit community in the UK of uh Reggie being interviewed. And uh him saying like, "So, who do you want to beat this weekend?" And he's like, "Oh, well, that Dan Bailey looks a bit past it, doesn't he? He's like a bag of [ __ ] spanners now." And then sure enough he places one one place above him. But someone managed to
get this little video clip of both of them. So, Reggie said this thing. He's like called him out only like to people like he hasn't done it to him. And everyone's like, "Oh, let's see how you get on up against him." And then they're walking off the floor. They're in the same heat together walking off the floor. And then someone managed to capture this video of them fist bumping and Reggie going like that. And the
number of Oh, friend.
Like the number of memes that were made of that was It was worth it. Totally worth it. So, Scobes, what's gone What's a win apart from passing? When you're passing medicine, that's a pretty significant win. I suppose that's Yeah. That That has to be the win. Um otherwise it's been probably the hardest year of my life. Just Just because of it's such a bottleneck of Just the total enormity of it all. Yeah. Like from from day one cuz
I remember December 2018, I was like, "Oh, things are starting to like get a little bit out of control." And I fell into 2019 and I still feel like I'm I'm like scrambling. What happened at the start of the cuz this because I listened to it and I did my homework. So, what we discussed a lot was how we started the year. Mhm. How did everyone start this year? I don't In fact, I do remember what I did.
You'll You'll like it. What did you Well, let Owen hear this first. I did the the protein goals process. Um on a mind no cheat. And I have actually achieved a lot of that. So, like it's good to know that that that has moved forward. But the whole time it's felt just like You know when you Controlled falling. Yeah. Not even controlled. You You know You know you just trip in the street and then you pretend to go for a little jog. And then
that jog turns into a sprint and then your arms start flailing. You do what that guy does on the video of the Oh, you're a cat where he like tries to kick and then stacks his head on the curb. And he wrote spikes over his head like that. Horrible. Um so, what went bad this year then? Did you Did you have any I think the whole the whole lesson was just not creating a bit of space between tasks and rather
than just like diving into everything and just kind of frantically being behind Trying to keep all the plates spinning. It's so It's uh two things. First one is I think massive respect for you for this year, man. It's been like watching it happen's been painful. Like seeing someone I don't can't convey to the listeners just how much stuff you try and do. But trying to do a job which is essentially more than
a full-time business. Like a business that would bury most people whilst trying to do a degree which buries most students whilst trying to have life, girlfriend. Um But bought two But like one house managed, another house sorted, your Like You know what I mean? Yeah, well, yeah. Bought bought three houses in kind of Yeah. And And like all the So, I think that's that's a that's a good point. And like we always hold ourselves
to a higher as such a high standard, but I look at doctors now that have no other commitments and I think, "Oh, it looks so easy." Like It's what I say to the guys that work for us at Voodoo. I'm like And some of the boys will start to say, "Hey, man. Like my motivation for work might be waning a little. I mean, second year, third year uni starting to get really serious." I'm like, "All right, man. But I'm telling you now
Tell you what. You want to [ __ ] her? You're a [ __ ] bastard. Um I'm telling you, if you just do university university after having tasted what it's like to run a business whilst doing university, you are going to be bored out of your mind. Mhm. Because you're going to free up all of this space which sucks in nothing as opposed to freeing up all of this space to suck in something. Well, this is like
we were saying last time that if we were if all of us were to do university again, like we'd just absolutely smash it. And not because we're any more smart competent or anything, but it's just like you would just know how to You'd be able to task manage. Yeah. Um I did end up like post finals with a twitch in my eyelid for about 3 months, 2 3 months. Like just ongoing twitch in my eyelid. What does that
happen? Do you know why that manifests? Fatigue. Like just being like in a very I get that. I get twitchy. Me, too. I just wondered if you knew Oh, it's actually the endotheal functions of this gland in your head. Yeah. So, it's the glands. The The head glands. The head gland. Possible. And so, I think the big lesson like both of you saw me go it like hospitalize myself essentially a couple of years ago from just not paying
attention to fatigue management. Well, no. That was the That was meningitis. But the the meningitis was precipitated by being a [ __ ] Like Icelandic weather. Oh, yeah. And making us walk through Start standing in a in a taxi queue just Which is hilarious because the only person out of that group who wore a coat was you. And me and Johnny went out in Iceland in Iceland. You were both like 25 kilos heavier than me as well. I
nearly passed away. I'm pretty I'm pretty sure that I came pretty close to just ending dying. You're actually in heaven now. I was quite honest with you about it at the time. I was like, "Yusuf, I think this is the end. I'm not joking when I say I'm I'm concerned about this, my welfare. Yeah. Um so the the second thing is um for me, I've absolutely been reminded this year that self-care and continuing to ensure your
your well-being is not a It's not a luxury. It's It's not a luxury, but it's also not like a a savings account. It's a current account and you need to continue to deposit into it every single day and the times when Something that a quote from Paul Moore is, "Self-care sooner or later becomes your number one priority." Which I I just think is so complete. Like either sort your [ __ ] out or you'll have to take It's like the
like I'll do it on Monday. I'll do it on Monday, but with your health. It's so weird that health is just the most like when it's good, you don't even notice it and then when it's bad, you all you want to do And even less so than the health thing cuz I think all of us have even even your worst time you'd have trained once a week, probably. You'd have gotten and moved once a week, which is more than some people do. Not during the diet
phase, but yeah, like Yeah, during like the Yeah, training's just been on maintenance, luckily. It's been two to three times a week, but like nothing special, just background. But it's not just the what most people would consider like the headlines like are you having enough water? Are you drinking? Are you doing You did what? What are you going to do?
It's classy. It's just It's just because the other day I was looking through our YouTube channel and I saw uh one of Yusuf's training logs of him deadlifting in a gym he used to train at and it's just face. I just when I when I thought of when I pictured Yusuf training, I just imagined that face. I think the first podcast we did with Chris with the with the coffee and the Yeah. Um It's what I want It's a face that I
don't think you could do now, is it? No. It's It's only comes out under strain. Cuz you zoomed in on the squat face. Video guy Dean will be able to make that face appear. And just loop it up. Just here. Um it's the one when you also try and do like a double backflip or whatever, isn't it? In gymnastics, it's the Mr. Bean face. Oh, yeah.
So yeah, my point is that um it's not just about the headlines, it's not just about like sleeping, eating, training, doing that stuff. It's like if I wasn't if I There was periods extended periods where I wasn't meditating, extended periods where I wasn't journaling, wasn't doing the morning routine. And it comes back to bite you in the ass. It's like the first time that all of us learned that 8 hours of sleep is
quite a priority. Yeah. And then when you go back to 6 and 1/2, you're like, "Oh my god, this is This is where I used to be. This is what life used to be like." And that's what life's always like. Well, if you were to say If you were to say like imagine what it's like when it's dark mornings and dark nights and you're only getting 6 hours of sleep, but you're like medicating with loads of caffeine. How do you think
you'd feel at like 1:00 in the Like the thought of that's just this fabricated environment like this is for very very anxious. But yeah, it's something I've One of my takeaways was um you you create the good day or the bad day. So like if you If you're going through a day feeling [ __ ] feeling tired, feeling angry, demotivated, whatever, like you are just you're responsible for that. And you're also responsible for the days
where you're super productive or it's just the consistency with things that like the on-ramp that creates that situation. It's just that it's on loan or there's like there's a delay, isn't there? The sleep thing like because midnight you is like doesn't care. It's like, "Oh, I'll be fine in the morning." And then 6:00 a.m. you is like, "Oh, I'm a dick." Yeah. So yeah, I think that's such a good point. Like I'm I'm
getting getting a handle much more on that now and I think through the bottle neck things are All of us have swam in and out of the deep the deep part of this ocean, right? Some of us like you There was a period this year where you hadn't meditated for ages or like you weren't meditating consistently enough and you felt that and then there was the same for me and But you get the the the phenomenon that
you mentioned, which is like meditation then becomes not like a thing that's meant to improve your life and quote It's you're a [ __ ] if you don't If you haven't done 10 minutes a day because then you you're lying in bed, you're getting flashbacks of like when you were like eating a pack of crisps or doing something that that wasn't waste my behavior minutes and you're like Why am I doing it? And so one of the
things definitely that I've focused on this year or that's been a big realization for me this year is uh learning where the controllables and the uncontrollables are and allowing those uncontrollables to sort of let go and it is such a liberating feeling. So uh good example, we um do everything right with a particular club night launch and it goes really well, great. We do everything right with a particular club club night
launch and it goes bad. Like that's a shame, but what can we maybe look at doing? The effort doesn't change. Mhm. Um and the same thing with the podcast. There's some episodes that I put this year that I was like, "Oh, that that That's an all right episode." and it's absolutely flown. And then there's some that I've poured my heart and soul into and thought it was amazing and it's just like done okay. That's That's
absolutely Yeah, and the same with us as well. There's videos that fly and you're like, "Oh, no." Sleeping on the floor. Yeah, like why is that? I made a 531 review like a couple years ago. Very little effort in the video. And it's like 44,000 views, gets comments most days. Is it why you like so long? Yeah. Why is it so long? Yeah. Oh. just wish you could go back and remake the video. Yeah. But it's too late now.
It's too late. And you're like, "Well, I'm I'm messing with alchemy." Like what if I remake it doesn't do as well. Mhm. Or But yeah, like that was something that um Brian, meditation teacher, was said to me cuz I was saying like I'll sit down to meditate in the morning and allocate 30 minutes to it and it's just a [ __ ] [ __ ] session. So you're like, "Well, I could have just done some work in that
time. Like what have I actually gained from that?" And his thing was "Don't judge the session. Judge your approach to the session." So I like So like you made the time, did you Did you deal with what was there with the the right attitude as best you could? If so, box ticked. So that That's the beautiful thing about Shinzen's approach to meditation. For the people who don't know what we're talking about,
Shinzen Young is a meditation teacher {slash} master {slash} probably one of the best known on the planet now, I suppose. Um both me and Johnny are being coached by one of his students, guy called Brian. And um the three elements of awareness uh clarity, concentration, and equanimity. Um the equanimity thing is so crucial. Just allowing stuff It's like I had a [ __ ] session, whatever. As he quotes it,
there are no bad sits. Mhm. Um is what he says. Essentially, there's no wasted meditation session. no good sits. Yeah, I don't like thinking about that. Well, that that is equanimity though, isn't it? Yeah, but I don't think you know. You weren't I don't want to slip towards positive. I don't want to slip towards negative. Um but yeah, so that What else? I'm trying to think about something that's a little bit more
immediate and gratifying that I've done this year.
What do you mean? Just things you've done? Stopped taking caffeine within the first 90 minutes of my day. Nice. And really really got a taste for uh pint of water, two big squirts of lemon juice, and teaspoon of salt. Really? A pint of water? You maniac. Why? Just so it's salty. Well, I I've when I've done it I've done I've done like a like a like a teaspoon. 5 g of That's a lot of salt. 5 g. Is that what a teaspoon is? A teaspoon of
salt is a lot of salt. That's a lot of salt. I have it every day. I don't think it's a lot of salt. So like I've done I used to have So I read I read You can say how much salt it is. I read the Aubrey Marcus 5 g. That's a lot of salt. It's only 5 g. I read the Aubrey Marcus book. Yep. And I was like Yeah, what a load of bollocks. No, not really. I was So he talks about the He's not listening. He might be. He's
been on. He talks about the the salt water lemon in the morning. So as we all would when a claim is made, I was like, "Well, I can't knock it till I try it." So I did it for a while. But I would have I would do it in like that much water. I enjoy the taste. I said Wow. I really enjoy the taste of it now. Um but anyway table salt or sea salt? It's table salt. It's just super cheap. Shite. You should get the what If you're
doing it every day, treat yourself. Do you know that Himalayan sea pink Himalayan sea salt isn't even from the Himalayas? It's from Pakistan. Doesn't matter. And It's iron enriched, isn't it? Yeah. Um anyway Maldon sea salt. I'll give it a Maldon. Well, you know, the flakes. It's in the box. It's really Yeah, it's good on steak, right? Cuz it's Beautiful, yeah. Um so anyway it cold water? Yeah, so it's from the
fridge um filtered. So apparently, and this is you're getting another step towards more woo-woo planet woo-woo. It It's warmer water in the morning is better. I'm not doing that. Okay. I prefer the Cuz that would be ridiculous. Well, that's how you make yourself sick if you if warm salt water warm lemon water It's an interesting thing. If you've had something you should you need to throw If I put glove woolen glove in the tip
of the finger of a woolen glove in my mouth, I feel sick. woolen glove What do you mean? Like like a like a normal like Like a glove. Pick a picture of a glove. Yeah. That. That was an early experience that you had. Like that's how like fetishes and phobias those kind of things develop, but how you just go to sleep and you're Cuz if when I'm walking outside, I'm wearing gloves, pick up the [ __ ] I don't want
to take the glove off. So I go like that. And then just immediately and it's like Is it the feeling of it going through the teeth? No, it's just there. It's just like and I'm just I don't know what the [ __ ] I don't know what the [ __ ] IS THAT. CUZ THERE'S NOTHING mechanical about the experience that would make me feel sick. It's barely even in my mouth. accidentally deep-throating You're going, "Yeah, the whole glove's down my
neck, but no, it's it is literally between the tip of my teeth. And I have to if someone were to see me do it, I go like this. Your vomit stories are like the best. The one of the guy who was had the sympathy vomit in the Oh, yeah, when you were all throwing up and he walked past and he threw up as well. Yeah, that was so funny. You know when you just wish you had a moment recorded. Yeah. It was the way he just like went
and then was like angry about it.
Oh. So good. Yeah, tip of a glove. Try it. If you try See if See if you get the same thing. Take your gloves off. It's something about like the texture of it something minging dry and like And then I'm going to guess that it'll leave a couple of fi- fibers on the end on you. The teeth thing for me, a horrible like feeling down the back of your head where you like you bite onto a bit of fiber and pull it away from your teeth. Yeah,
What sort of What sort of fabric? Any like I think cotton's quite bad. You bite onto it and then pull it through your teeth. I don't think so. All right, Polystyrene, like you know, the white stuff that like My mom My mom's got a thing about like filing her nails, so I'll just be like sat with her and she'll start filing her nails and I'm like It's weird, isn't it? Yeah, so bizarre. Such an unhelpful thing. I'm going to
[ __ ] off. Yeah. Um what else from this year? So I'm just thinking about about sort of what's gone well this year. So I successful project. Yeah. And Modern Wisdom has absolutely flown. Well, the podcast podcast done good. You you um broke the Was it the 2 million 1.3 mil now, so we broke a 1 million downloads, which is great. Um we set me and VMD set a a target for plays and for subs. Uh smashed the target for plays.
Subs is lagging a little, um but matter? No. So the reason that it mattered or the reason that I considered it as a metric to be bothered about was just that having subs on YouTube allows you to then further push more content that is going to get more of a head start. Right. Um but it would appear that the audio platform this year has absolutely banged. So again, thanks to over video? Um yeah, I mean
yeah, we we've got some really big shout-outs on audio like Aubrey shouted out the audio version of the podcast. Uh Jordan Peterson shouted out Michaela on Jordan's podcast shouted out the the iTunes. Um so that really drove a lot of traffic, which was great. Um but the the YouTube stuff still flying, man, so we'll do some special stuff in the new year, which will be exciting. Um About this time last year we were
doing the first Modern Wisdom live. Maybe a bit earlier than this. [ __ ] yeah, we were. When we did it for um Oh, Communicorp. Big radio station. All right, it's fine. Don't worry. All right. The it'll be listening and they'll be listening. Okay. Um and yeah, and then we told a roomful of people that whose income relies on radio that radio's dead. Sorry. I wonder whether they've started a podcast.
He was worried about the cost, wasn't he, last year? I I mean, you know, for for a national radio show with lots of funding, obviously the the hosting fee is a is a real concern of, you know, Well, that's $30 a year. Yeah. That's That's like That'd be like 25 quid. Oh, 25 Serious, yeah. Bloody serious. It's like a pound every every single day. Um where have you traveled to this year? That'd be cool to hear
where you've gone. Uh so I spent my So this is the other thing I was thinking about. This is the last one of these I'll do in my 20s. Oh, [ __ ] man. Me, too. So I spent my 29th birthday in [ __ ] you did, yeah. Yeah, pretty morbid. Yeah, but Cool as [ __ ] Krakow is brilliant. Auschwitz and I mean, obviously I feels wrong saying they're brilliant, but it's a it's a hell of an experience. So is the salt
mines in in Krakow. Uh so I went to Krakow. I went to You did You went You waited in a line to get a photo, didn't you, for your yeah, for my yeah, hashtag blessed. Uh yeah. Best life. I'm so [ __ ] sick of that [ __ ] The Instagram stuff. yeah, like I I'm quite pleased that Instagram are di- are like moving in the direction where it feels like they've kind of clocked it and they're making some changes. I was discussing this with
someone the other day, the fact that likes are now no longer being shown. It's just single person and others like this post. Right. Is that's getting rolled out quite heavily across the UK now. Um I think if someone has something to share, like something that's interesting or funny or valuable, fine. But like when it's just photos of people in Santorini and the and the the photo gets loads of traction because it's like a certain
angle, right? Did we talk about this last time with like people that will a meal for two in a restaurant and then take a photo of the table and leave and not eat Really? Not eat the meal. This was happening. So in Thailand like the and we were in this pool top of a in out in like a secluded place, nice hotel, outside outdoor pool with you know, where the edge just drops off to the Infinity pool. Yeah,
and like a forest behind it, you can see temples in the background. And me and my girlfriend were just enjoying the pool like just having a swim and stuff, drinking a coconut with a thing. And and we we saw couple after couple come into the pool. Boyfriend fully dressed but with like a big DSLR thing and girlfriend like they'd be full makeup, hair done, heels, um like a what looks like a really expensive swimsuit with little like
shoulder pads and and they'd come over and sit on the side of the pool and like and like pose and stuff like and do like an hour's photo shoot and then leave. And you'd be like, are you guys going to get into the pool or enjoy Still around And it would just happen so consistently. Uh on the south coast of Sorry, on the um west coast of Gili T, sun setting, one of the most beautiful picturesque islands on the planet probably just
outside of Bali. Um and there is You'll have seen those swings, those sunset swings. They're in the middle of the ocean. Like and people sit on them and it's usually got like it's like a kind of a rustic wooden swing type thing. so I'm there and uh I'm watching hashtag boyfriends of Instagram get down. There's this uh Chinese guy who's there who's taking photos for his girlfriend who wants a good photo. And
what she wants is as much reflection off the water as is possible. So what he's had to do is get down. He's lowering himself down further and further and the water's this high, but the phone needs to be up, but he can be lower. So every so often he's taking this wave in the face like as he's trying to get this photo. I was just thinking the sacrifices that he makes. And it was like everyone was trying to out-extra
everyone else. I mean, this is coming from the guy who um did like a legless rope climb to get to the top of it so that I was like at the very very top. That was my photo. Um but then a guy Everyone was taking photos. Everyone was looking cool and a local guy just rode past on a horse, took the horse out into the middle of the water and stood on the horse.
next to everyone. And I was just thinking like, what a way to [ __ ] on everyone's parade. You think You think that you're on a swing, huh? I got a horse. That is class. Well, I I have I went up to a couple of a few of the couples like when we were out cuz they'd they'd be the boyfriend taking photos of the girls and stuff and I'd go over and be like, do you want me to get a shot of you both? And they'd always be like, oh,
no, no, it's okay. It's like, oh, okay. Obviously you don't want a You shine a light on the weird weird situation. You know, you're not interested in having a photo to commemorate the fact that you went to this place together. Just for the gram. You just want individual photos. So where did you go this year? So Budapest on I think on Johnny's recommendation or like went to the place that, just to mention, I spoke to
someone this week who said to me that they got a dog because I said to get a So we should be careful with things that we suggest. Budapest So yeah, Budapest. It's average. I thought it was all right. It's the like standard issue European city. Has it got direct flights from the UK? Yeah. That's why it is. And as soon as anywhere gets direct flights from the UK to [ __ ] It already has. There's some cool stuff there. But it's just
stag dos. It's just immediately as soon as you can go to anywhere If you need to do a connecting flight If it's less than 100 quid, stag dos. Yeah, I mean, Budapest wasn't very staggy. It was quite um cultural. You're a bit like The one thing I did find, and this is like it's the equivalent of Iceland, everything is 9 and a half thousand pounds, is that everything in Budapest is 10 minute walk away on Google Maps,
but feels like 40 minute walk. Really? Like any distance between any two points in the city is like it's a miracle. It's 10 minute walk, but it's really far. Yeah. So that that's quite good. Similar kind of sobering experience going to the Jewish Museum. Yeah. And the synagogue where you you just see mass graves and Did you go in the baths? Yeah. Did you get your dick out? Absolutely great baths. Uh it wasn't a
naked one, just a But did you get your dick out? Just in general. At some point during the holiday I had to, yeah, too. I have loads of times. Twice a day, probably at least twice a day. At least twice a day. Always indoors, always um Legal. Legal situation. the baths were awful. Did you? Did you get your dick out? I will have done, yeah. In the baths? Not in the baths. Not not where other people Did you just go to one bath?
Yeah. Uh I went to a few. Some were some better than others, definitely, but You know, you know when you get in change in a swimming pool and there's the the sort of the cold stagnant water in the center that you sort of curl your toes up and try not to step in. The baths the whole baths just felt like Yeah, that's bad. Just a bit. Just a bit like And it smelled of egg. Large parts of it smell of egg. Like
I just came back from Barcelona which is beautiful. Did you go to the Sagrada Familia? Yeah. Gaudi is a monster. Like he So for anyone that doesn't know, he's the architect and artist designer of a lot of buildings around Barcelona and it seems like he's designed so many of them and each one is so intricate looks like at least like a decade of work. You're just thinking how has he pumped out so much output? And then
all the designs are very fluid and asymmetrical and kind of flowing looking buildings that just look so out of out of context with anything else. He's done the major cathedral which is bigger than you think on from the pictures. You imagine him like giving the plan to the builders and they're just like Gaudi man. [ __ ] hell mate. Couldn't it just been a bit 2 by 4 could it? How am I supposed to make this? No no Rob Rob
we're going to have to Rob Rob no everything everything's going to have to be knocked on the head. He's brought the he's brought the plans. Yeah you're not going to you're not going to believe this. Do not I repeat do not ring me. No Gaudi mate honestly I'm [ __ ] sick of you. He rang me can you believe he rang me when I said not to? So Barcelona there's a lot of mugging there isn't there? Yeah so there's a lot of pickpockets
mugging. So actually it's transitioned. It used to be very pickpocket-y and now it's gone to it used to be it used to be very much like pick if you have your phone on a table in a restaurant someone would come along with a newspaper. Excuse me I'm looking for this okay never mind thank you. Or like stuff like that. Now it's just gone to full on just like and like so a friend of mine who I went to visit got beaten up so she got like a
black eye and she bruised head for like a rubbish phone. And so it's just become It's interesting that Someone got murdered on the street we were staying on the night we were there. What the [ __ ] Jesus Christ. So I mean there was a murder on the night that we While you were there? Yeah. Where you were? Yeah. On the on the street. It wasn't even me. And you didn't do the murder. I didn't Oh no I didn't do the
murder or receive the murder. You didn't receive the murder. So but it didn't make news cuz it was it was a gang thing and like they were like oh well they probably were. First person on the list is the Arab that was staying just around the corner. Oh the best the best thing was in the airport they kept releasing this announcement that was like will Muhammad Abu Jaber please go to security immediately.
For the 10th time.
[ __ ] hell. So I went to Barcelona for a wedding this the start of this summer and one of the guys who there was doesn't usually drink had a little bit too much to drink at the wedding walking through the center of Barcelona after we'd been up to this beautiful castle had this wonderful day got the bus back the bus dropped us off and he just went for a bit of a wander he was staying at an Airbnb. He woke up a few hours later 7:00 in the
morning with in Barcelona train station actually to find that his phone wallet and shoes had been stolen. They'd taken his shoes. And then so he then walked around for the next few hours in his brand new pair of Ralph Lauren socks just walking around and he's a beady guy wearing like a kind of like obviously disheveled wedding suit which is just in Barcelona which has got a lot of homeless just the
quintessential homeless man look like long beard really odd outfit like with full suit and tie no shoes like Ralph Lauren socks now with holes in them so people like give him a couple of coins or something. But he was desperately trying to say can I borrow your phone but in the mugging the mugging and robbery capital of Europe like that was never going to happen and then because he wasn't staying in a hotel he didn't
know he couldn't ask where the hotel was cuz he didn't know the address of the Airbnb off by heart. So he's just walking around Barcelona with none of his possessions as hangover and sort of existential crisis slowly begins to set in. The thief really goosed him there And it makes you realize how how hopeless we are when we don't have It's literally what he said phone. It's this oracle that connects us to
everything else. I always feel whenever I go somewhere if I have my wallet and my phone I can just deal with anything. Like anything could happen and you can buy your way out of it depending on the currency or like where you've been robbed. This was the first holiday I've I've done with a new phone and therefore I don't have my little black book so I decided not to bring any cards no cash just everything was Apple Pay and
it felt lovely to just tap around. It's a bit it feels a bit if it goes wrong cuz then you've just got no means of hinged all of your risk on I've had I've had scenarios where I've gone to use Apple Pay and it's not it's just not worked. Yeah interesting. And then the police come after you. You've had a running with Spanish you've both had runnings with Spanish police. I feel like mine wasn't my fault.
It was your lawyer friend who Yeah. But I feel like you Mine mine was actually your fault. I was asleep on the central reservation of Tenerife's largest motorway. Yeah. I don't have a phone I don't have an accident on You didn't mean to. It was just a bad day. It was bad it was very very bad So I've done this is probably the year I've done the single most amount of traveling I've ever done. So I did America.
So I'll try and I'll try and I'll try and go through it. So I did Rome for my birthday which was one of the best trips I've ever done. Like just so amazing in three no four days in Rome and just overwhelmed with Colosseum and Roman Forum day one Vatican and Sistine Chapel day two and Pompeii day three. What a way to just Did you spill an espresso or something? I've got this story so the first the first thing I did I was
looking like just totally befuddled by the romance that is Rome looking out of the window as I put a sugar into my espresso and was just stirring it and looking at like just how beautiful everything was stirring it stirring it stirring it and looked back to see there was no espresso left in the cup barely any espresso on the saucer and the glass counter upon which it was resting where all of the pastries and
stuff were behind it it had just smeared itself over that and the owner was just looking at me like this. Oh no. And I was like Can I have another espresso please? Like that was that was all I could think. But the while I did that in the time it took me to stir that and have all of it come out a man came in bought a glass of red wine finished it and went back to work. And I was like Italy's brilliant. So
yeah Rome They just drink in such a paced way don't they? I can't believe the first thing you said was can I have another espresso? I think I probably said like sorry but I also said like can I It was his face. What the [ __ ] do you [ __ ] mean to me? You didn't come in and start throwing it around. I mean your feces on the wall. You ruined our town.
Anyway so Rome great LA and Boston so David's Dr. David Sinclair awesome then went back and went to New York Elon Musk air. It it's Oh yeah. breathe some of the air where Elon Musk breathed. Went to New York for a stag do awesome. Went to Ibiza for another stag do that was good. Went to where else Barcelona for that wedding then did road trip across America did 2000 miles in 10 days that was cool. Roma mod?
Didn't do Roma mod that time did Roma mod in February didn't do Roma mod. And then Stu Miguel Canada for the first time and then went to Bali most recently. Stayed with Stu Miguel. Stayed with Stu Miguel for a night yeah. Of all the things you've done Yeah that was pretty crazy. Went on his yacht. Well I I it was a boat. It can still be a yacht. Yeah like yachts don't have to be big. But yeah I think you know
in trying to create some sort of a sense of what people that are listening who maybe aren't doing any formal gratitude or aren't doing end of year reviews I think what we're trying to do here is just take stock of what's happened within the last year. You know like what's gone well what's gone bad. Cuz if you're not careful life does just be this treadmill of task arises you get the mallet out you whack it it goes away next task arises
mallet whack and you just keep on going and then before you know it yeah you just ruthlessly index these experiences and never actually enjoyed reflecting on It's like just endlessly painting but then never stepping back to look at the painting isn't it? Like you spend all your life trying to achieve things and then you just die. But if you just you never like go oh [ __ ] the thing that I spent years trying to achieve I did
that. Isn't that cool? Right next thing. Um Right just next thing next thing oh my god [ __ ] I'm dead. Yeah. Have you have you had any mind shifts or any sort of lessons this year or any concepts that you've learned that have been a big sort of frame shift for you? Um if you don't I've got my one which I think is probably one of the biggest from this year. So I've written down five here. They're quick some of them are completely
irrelevant. You can you you create good days and bad days. If it doesn't happen first thing it very rarely happens. So that applies to like the days you wake up and you're like I really should meditate like wake up and I opened my phone to try and look at some myself and the first thing that came up was feed your bum hole sent from Chris. So Eat spinach. Eat spinach. You win the mo- win the morning, win the
day is mastered. Yeah. So, like that applies to thing like so, I'm back to training in the morning cuz I've realized that like when I tell myself, "Oh, it's all right. I'll train at 6:00 p.m. promise." She never do. Um unless there's massive accountability. That's a great thing about CrossFit instantly. or work. So, like just do the thing that has to be done today. Just do that first. Get it done. Yeah.
This is a marketing thing. Sales is a process not an event. People think that it's an event or like a thing that they've did did thing they've done that caused the sale. It's what happened prior to that that caused the sale. Um who not how to solve a problem. So, this year I've invested myself not under the propane umbrella cuz those numbers are making more sick than putting your glove in your mouth. Um the most money
personally in coaching. So, I've worked with the most coaches in my from my own so, like if you're trying to get better at something or trying to achieve stuff which is the next thing, model consistent examples of where you want to be. So, not someone who's like where you're wanting to be and has been there for a bit but someone who's like consistently doing the thing that you're trying to get to. Just pay them to learn
So, always asking instead of just grinding away in like what book can I read, what course can I do, how can I figure this out myself. Just who's doing it and I'll just work with them. Life is short. Just Just get the answers. Yeah. I think that's that's such a [ __ ] good heuristic and that was one that came to me kind of last year I think although I still haven't fully implemented it that um being able to shortcut all of the
self-direction, self-accountability, questioning is this the right should I XYZ? So, I just just ask the person. Yeah. Like if you want to know the best way to fix your back drive to Canada and and go see Stuart McGill. Yeah. So many people man like and I I think we've all been guilty of this like you spend so long trying to figure something out yourself. Like in your own whatever it is and you might not even be necessarily that aware
of it but like people read books on things and do courses on things rather than just paying a bit more and getting someone who's really experienced in that area to give you some customized help on that thing. So, I with med- I tried with meditation for years to figure it out myself and just chatting to someone who and I know there's no like qualification level of expertise necessarily but just paying for some
formal help. So, I think there's two things that for me have have struck this year. There's a lesson that I'll get on to in a second but two of the big things is what I'm missing most and what many people that are in this kind of knowledge work world of personal development might be struggling with. The two things that I think are most important are direction and accountability. It's like if you know what you need to do and you have
someone who'll tell you off if you don't do it and encourage you if you do. 90% of the work's done for you. What do I need to do and why do I need to do it essentially or what's the what's the pain of Certainly on the reason. Yeah. Yeah. It's a great point. That's the value of a coach, isn't it? Rather than just the information. I think most people if they're just given the information, they won't execute unless there is
accountability, objectivity, and personalization for that. Yeah. And so this huge untapped potential of just getting a book on something like as Tim Ferriss says like most of the time if you want to become a relative expert in this in a certain field compared to everyone else, you just read a book on it or read like two or three books on it and suddenly you know more than um 99.1% Yeah. Um and that is usually very
helpful but if you're trying to solve a specific problem, it may be more useful or quicker to get a coach to diagnose and identify your specific issues. Even if at the end of the day they just recommend you a book it'll be a book that is relevant to your Well, the problem is no longer lack of information. The problem today is which information? Oh, I see. Like which information should you listen to and should you not listen to?
There's a disgusting amount of Yeah. Naval's Naval's synopsis on the Joe Rogan podcast was all of the problems that we have now are problems of abundance not of scarcity. Yeah. Everything. Cuz cuz Too much food. Too much stimulus. Too much information. heartbreaking to think like you have this thing you're desperately trying to do and you spend a year just following the wrong advice. The wrong advice is
Can you please give me the right Schwarzenegger was right all along. Like on the day of the competition I'll give them the wrong advice. Has everyone seen that quote? Yeah. Yeah, of course I have. Um so, I want to do your lesson of the year and then mine and then I want to do like top three books each, top three podcasts each, top three YouTube videos each. Just whatever whatever does come to mind. So, I'll
give you a little bit of time to have a think. But um your any lesson from this year, any sort of frame shift or new concept that you've brought in I I think you like it's all very similar like the the coaching thing. I've also just spent a lot on just investing in myself but I think also just taking time to periodize the things that you want to improve in your life and take space between each one. So,
um trying to achieve everything all at once. So, I heard something today it was from Sim Evan's actually where he says Sim Evan? refers to some neuroscience research. I feel like he may have been kind of approximate but but basically said like when you have goal A and action A, you sit and you do goal A with action A until you achieve it. When you have goal A and goal B and you have action A and action B, your brain
dedicates more resource to the switching between the tasks than it does to following either of those tasks. And we're just not very good at trying to do two things at once whether that's on a micro or a macro scale. So, we know on a micro scale like it's why we're all such a big fan of Pomodoros, isn't it? Like it's it's the it's the best way to just say like, "Okay, I'm just going to do this one thing to the exclusion of everything
else." rather than like feel the background guilt of like, "Oh, but I'm not doing that other thing. So, I'm going to just do a little bit of that other one while I'm and like I still always fall into the the trap of not doing that but um so, there's there's that and then on a larger scale over the year I think like imagine if 20 2020 was 12 new habits rather done each month rather than start of day one 2020 to try and do all
12 habits at once rather than nailing habit one for January and then running it in the background blasting cruise. I think the thing attached to that is when you don't So, the problem I I have with with doing like a yearly review is remembering all the things that have happened. Like there'll be stuff that I've done and achieved that I don't even didn't even really mention. Like what I was going to
say before was I did been painting the wall. Painting the picture, yeah. Yeah. Um I did three months of not drinking at the start of the year. Completely completely forgotten about it. Massive achievement. So, like the 12 habits thing, just keep a record of it somewhere. Plan it out at the start of the year. Yeah. Especially people with like our view. Like you're always pushing to achieve things, aren't you? So,
if you just forget that you've done them, then what was the what was the point? in doing them. Yeah. Um yeah, I think so for next year one of the things jumped ahead but next year one of the things I'm going to have to learn to do is to say no to a lot more. Um I've spread myself too thin this year and having spent a little bit of time with Chris Sparks that I did that podcast with guy about the forcing
Uh top 20 online poker players on the planet and a absolute [ __ ] of a productivity expert. Um I'm I'm spread so thin. I'm never going to become amazing at any one thing and unless there's some sort of synergistic relationship between much of the stuff that I'm doing which there isn't sufficiently to warrant it I need to make a decision on what it is that I want to do. What is it What What is it that I want to do? Um so,
2020 for me I think will be the year of saying no to a lot more. Saying yes to a lot more stuff that I need to like social engagements which will be enabled by saying no to more work engagements and stuff like that. Um I think one of the big concepts that I've learned this year which I've really really appreciated was Laura Vanderkam's time management thing which is talking about how memories are made. And I think this is so fundamental
that everybody everyone should be taught it. Everyone should know it. Um that everyone's experience of the passage of time happens at precise the same speed. Even if you're traveling at close to the speed of light, your experience of the passage of time is exactly the same as mine now or if you're a child or if you're 80 years old or whatever it is, the passage of time is one of the constants that's not going to change for
you. So, when people say, "I wish I had more time." because they complain that the year's Where's the year gone? Do you know it's nearly 2020. Wow, I made it. Um can you believe it? Like it feels like it was only Christmas yesterday. And the reason that that happens is got nothing to do with the passage of time and everything to do with your memory of the passage of time. So, if you think about the way you have the
the future self which is the person who anticipates about what's going to go on, you have the remembering self which is the person that remembers what's happened and you have the present self which is the experiencer, the person that's experiencing the thing right now. The experiencing self is the most fleeting of those. The anticipating self tends to be the next longest because you only know so far into the future and the remembering
self is essentially infinite. So, when people say I wish I had more time, what they mean is I wish I had more memories because memories are like little um lines, little individual blocks that allow you to expand out that experience the passage of time. So, to the people that are listening, if you think about the route that you take to work or your drive to work, ask you to remember your drive to work this year, it's condensed
down perhaps several hundred hours of travel into one memory. single memory of you doing that or your drive to the gym unless there was one time where something specifically different happened Mhm. car crash, uh particular phone call, like you were elated for some reason, your brain just condenses it down and the rule to use is that your brain works well with novelty or intensity. Those are two of the things that you can do to
ensure that your memories are are increased and that's why I can't remember barely any of my drives to the work to work or the gym this year, but I can remember the name of the guy who put us on the boat in Africa over a year and a half ago and I can remember the book that he was reading and I can remember the shoes that he had on because there was both novelty and intensity in that. So, if you want to make time in the
passage of your life feel like it is moving more slowly then you need to first off try and uh vary what you are doing. You need to allow yourself to become invested emotionally to actually indulge yourself in the present moment and then once it's happened, you need to remember it. You need to think about it cuz the bizarre thing is when you're experiencing the experiencing self is such a prick. Like
not only do they take the easiest route, so they'll say, "Ah, I don't want to go and do that that adventurous thing because it's cold and our bed's warm and I'm tired and I'm this and I'm that and the other which totally [ __ ] over the remembering self and the anticipating self cuz they wanted to happen, but the present self is [ __ ] like [ __ ] it. The other thing as well is the present self always picks out the
discomfort. It's such So, let's say that I'm watching this beautiful sunset on Gili T. I've got a little bit of sand between my toes and it's slightly irritating and it just takes the edge off, but when I remember, I don't remember the sand between my toes, but I do remember the beauty. So, it's like you try you need to kind of almost use your experiences as an investment for yourself in the future. So, like look,
I'm going to do this thing because in the future when I think about me doing it, I'm going to enjoy it and I'm going to be proud of it and I'm going to do this and that frame shift for me this year has been been real big. So, seek variety and intense experiences. Yep, Without taking the piss. So, like don't like drive to the gym dressed as Mr. Yeah. Well, don't take it There's certain There's certain things
You could stick that in If you stuck your EpiPen in you'd [ __ ] remember How many Would that Is that a problem? Would it if I did that would I have to go to the hospital? Um I bet you'd lift up You'd pull that 317 deadlift with your EpiPen. on the day of the competition Can't use What about the day before? Can't use EpiPen. Fine the day before. But I'm not sure it would help. Yeah, not the day before, but
I don't know. If you If you just took it, probably. Yeah. But just to be safe. I mean, if if you had a reaction, you have to go to the hospital because the EpiPen wears off and then Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just mean now just for fun. Yeah. Have you got it on you? What if you had that? peanut Well, I just don't. That's the Fair enough. That's the lesson. Um Yeah, there's The final point on that is there
is a trade-off that you need to make between efficiency and novelty. So, for instance, one of the things that Gretchen Rubin suggests to increase novelty is to every so often um walk a different route to work or drive a different route to work, but there's only so far you can take that. I'm not going to drive out to the coast to go to Jesmond. Like so, you know, there are there's a trade-off that you
need to make between the the Egyptian government are after you as well to take different routes to work. if you do this when you're walking past the cameras Yeah.
Because it's because it's haram. It's just going to be manifested. If you do that when you want to buy bleach. 12 12 bottles of bleach, please.
MI5 come after you. Top few anythings that you've either read, article, podcast, book, YouTube video, anything come to mind. You know what I struggle with this is getting it in the year. Do you know what I mean? Well, if it's last year If it's anything that just comes to mind because it can't be next year because it hasn't happened. That's true. It can't be in the future. That's the one thing we can be sure of.
video Anton Kreil's uh five principles behind the 10 rules for financial success. That I've watched that for the third time round this year. New things come out of it each time. Um lesson, something from both of you kind of merged which was Johnny's suggestion, I think at the end of last year's review was have more dinners with friends. Um and yours of just checking with friends. I think I've realized this year when
I've been in a mad um whirlwind that you end up taking friends and family for granted or not checking in with them or not being in touch with And um I was kind of woken up by this just yesterday because uh my mom was going past the hospital popped in came down to see her for a cup of tea and she was tearful that I didn't send her a picture of my trip to Barcelona and I realized like how much that matters to her because she'd got a
picture from like my girlfriend's mom you know, and I think just like yeah, I was like, "Oh, damn it." Um cuz and that was a real like oh man, I really need to just like that obviously that matters a lot more to her and thinking those those terms a bit more. So, Yeah, that's good. Johnny, you've just been scrolling. What have you got? Uh so, I looked through all my audiobooks, couldn't find any. I I listened to some terrible books this
Yeah, I listened to some average ones. Um So, my I've got I've got Give me the Avicii documentary. All right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The reason for that is So, I I don't think you don't like Avicii, do you? Music-wise I was not really like his music. Um Samsung have just put on YouTube a like a tribute concert in 4K live, brilliant. Like 2 hours long. Pretty intense. Um but anyway, so the documentary is like
leading Also, they publicly say he didn't commit suicide, but the concert is donated to mental health awareness. I think it was an overdose. I think it was a drugs overdose. Was it? Like accidental and he meant to kill himself. All right, okay. I read something that he slit his wrists with a with a wine Anyway, big shame to say it's not suicide if he did that. It was There's only like really vague statement by his
family. But anyway, the documentary is about him and him managing his mental success. So, like he has what probably any like mid-20s guy is is in some way aspiring to in like abundance across the board of the stuff that he has. And in the documentary, he's pretty intensely unhappy about it. Um What's his problem then? I think it all just is a bit too much for him. Like he gets pancreatitis from drinking.
He doesn't like the the the performing cuz it's too stressful and there's too much going on, too many things to The pressure from the fans and all that sort of stuff. Um and he's a perfectionist with the music. So, it's just this I watched it and I was like really moved by watching it because if you think about the things that you're doing most of the time, it's the pursuit of one of the things that he has
in excess. And he's there and hated it because and it's the self-care thing. Like it's the self-care thing and also realizing that like probably all he wants is to be someone who isn't him. Like all he wants is to be someone who is designed to be So, just an interesting like I think because like because he's like similar age um he's a bit introverted it was just what I was like, "Fuck." What did you in the feels?
I don't know. I think he doesn't doesn't say a lot. I just really want I think for some of it seems like he just wants to be like left alone and normal. Yeah, and like he's there because he's really good at a craft and then Isn't it bizarre that you can have someone who is like super overqualified in terms of talent to be able to get themselves to a particular but doesn't have the character to keep
themselves there. There was a documentary about that a year ages ago like some genetically um is like either genetically engineered or like a genetically selected um world's smartest boy. Okay. And he was born with he was born to be selected for the highest IQ and they were interviewing him and he was like, "I'm not really interested in doing any I just want to have a nice life and like and everyone was like,
"Oh, come on like you should like memory competitions and blah blah physics. Yeah, and Um podcasts, Johnny, any podcasts come to mind other than of course Propane Fitness, How to Start Your Online Business and Modern Wisdom. That was a really good one. The how to be an online coach. Bang it. Um No, none come to mind. I'm going to drop I'm going to drop in Naval Ravikant on Joe Rogan. Very good. [ __ ] Did he have two appearances?
Just one. He said he's not doing any guest appearances for the foreseeable future now. If you haven't listened to it, it might not be up your street, but if you want two and a bit hours of probably the densest wisdom that you're going to get from someone, Naval Ravikant on Joe Rogan was great. Sam Harris on Joe Rogan at the start of the year was also fantastic. Um I'm trying to think about what I've gone
back and listened to. It's so You know what all this is making me think is I I need to to keep a a a a log of this stuff like any of things that happen that are great. And little things that I watch or listen to or whatever that are that are great. Three three great things that happened to me today bottom of the sixth month. they condensed like that I could just scroll through now. Do you use day one?
I do but not for this. Yeah, for like momentous things or like Man I'm being serious cuz it's password protected. I don't need to password I don't need to password protect my my podcast recommendation. Uh but that yeah that was good. Uh I can't remember much of the Chasing Excellence is a good book. Chasing Excellence was Digital Minimalism was this year. Atomic Habits book of the year That was last year.
I read it this year.
Digital Minimalism I wasn't so I wasn't a great it's a it's a an important message. It's cuz cuz none of us did it. Like we we all read it and we're like oh that's that's nice and then Cal Cal when he writes just comes across a tiny bit whiny. Do you not think? It's just a little he's he's such a contrarian when it comes to it's a perfect world of you should just be able to do this. And I'm aware that
there are contingencies in some of the things that he puts across but there's it feels to me like there's not enough of a realistic understanding of how challenging this is going to be in the that yeah so like it's a it's an important message and some good concepts but I think the unfortunate truth of it is like a lot of us are are so hard wired emotionally to these things that just going all right
I'll just drop it now anymore is very hard to do. Um I know one guy who did and it's changed his life. Yeah. Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins really struggled with that. Did you listen or he read? So I'm halfway through but it's 13 hours long. [ __ ] so you got podcasts in between it right? Yeah so it's like a And you got the book as well you've got the book. I have no It's just Like David Goggins is is
obviously a a monster but just the the the message is a bit repetitive. Which is like one of those books that's one thing that doesn't need to be a book and they've just like added I think you need like exposure to the idea cuz the idea is like testing limits of you of like what you think your limit is and all sorts of The best thing actually which is like two minutes long is a video by on Jocko Willink's channel. If you go on his
Good. That's a brilliant video. Good good great video. Um Skill of Life He may be sealed you can't argue with him can you? True. Cuz he'll [ __ ] you up. Good. Um Reload. Have you read his book? Jocko? Extreme Ownership. I've read again half similar thing. Okay. Alchemy by Rory Sutherland came out this year that was a good fairly good write up. Did he read it? Yeah of course I did. That's it. I'm I'm in I'm in.
This was last year but The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli that was fairly good. Waking Up by Sam Harris I must have listened to it two another two times this year which was great. The Great Mental Models by Shane Parrish that was fantastic. Um Mindfulness in Plain English that was your suggestion that's a really good book. Um what else? What was that noise there? That was this Audible. All right accidentally pressed
on Superintelligence. [ __ ] million million million million years. Um I think that's that's probably my I've got bags and bags of um credits left on Audible cuz I've just not I listened to The Power of Now again by Eckhart Tolle. Very good. [ __ ] man. Yeah. He's ahead of his time wasn't he? Really ahead of his time. Yeah super super [ __ ] like He's just cuttingly clear with his message and he's legit as well. Like I
feel like if he was in this room now we'd all be asleep. Yeah he is very legit. Anyway final thoughts anything that you want to get across to the the humans of the interwebs before we round off this year and this Christmas. You know what I would like to know what everyone's plans are for 2020. What do you mean by plans? So what for the people watching what are their wins fails and goals for the new year in 2020. Yeah.
There we go. So on YouTube put below what your best win was what your biggest fail was and one goal that you want to achieve for next year that'd be really really cool. A good question to consider is in December of 2020 what would have to have happened for you to have to have been content with your year? Rather than thinking like what are my goals just think what would be a nice scenario for me? Like
what would I look back I don't know don't know you can't ask that question. That is the biggest hot potato possible. He said that well round off the year with a large hot jacket potato like saying the thing What's the answer? Buttered it cheese a little bit of tuna beans as well hot bean sauce all over my hand. everywhere and a just a nut garnish and a sausage for the Um I think better at everything.
Good heuristic. Obviously. Good good good answer. Good. Good answer. Um final thing to round the year out is I posted a video on LinkedIn a trailer and of all of the things someone could have commented with you know this work that we've put in and we've tried to upload this this explanatory video and someone just commented and said Is that the guy that was on POINTLESS LAST NIGHT?
REALLY? I PUT THE SCREENSHOT IN THE GROUP CHAT. I'll tell you something. So I did a I did a sales call with a guy who's just joined one of my programs. Um and he got off the sales call with me um signed up for the program and then I had his first coaching call the next day and he was like mate the weirdest thing I we had the call and I was like sat in the evening thinking about it and I turn on the TV and I was like
[ __ ] hell that's the that's the guy. That's the guy I SPOKE WITH TODAY. AND HE WAS LIKE I nearly didn't sign up cuz your answers were so [ __ ] but I thought I'll let him off. [ __ ] imagine that if you'd lost a big a big name client because Because of because of my pointless answers from a an episode recorded two years ago. It's weird that the first time it was aired which was like last year not a single person gave a [ __ ]
Now it's caused a ripple and I don't know why. I think it's just cuz of this podcast. Is it seasonal? Was it played in December last time? Are people watching more TV now? That was a lot of questions in a short space of time. You're like you know is the price of oil changed between like What what's your mom's favorite color? Are you wearing socks? When did you get Uh about a year ago. Been November last year. Okay. Wow.
It was about the same time when Pointless was aired for the first time. [ __ ] man I think dog like is just I'm just seeing the the profit repaid massively for you like It well like it's there's there's a lot of clutter on. Probably the most intense period of admin in my year Admin? Admin was when I had to take take Dexter have his bollocks chopped off. The like firstly I felt horrendous about it I felt really bad and guilty about it
which is like I never thought would But like as we're going into the vets there was like I was like holding him like [ __ ] off you know like and then he like ripped his stitches so I had to like take him back with in the morning you know like you you do your morning routine you come downstairs and ready for like the most important task of the day come out of your time and you're like oh you ripped your
stitches mate I'll just ring the vets come in back with me now yeah no problem laptop shut all right day knackered Got there and that was like oh he's fine but that will be 40 pound can Of course it is. So like that but apart from that massive value add. Everyone should get a dog. Cannot wait to get a little head. Yeah a little head. Yeah. Do not get a whippet with psychomotor retardation. Oh no I'll I'll get like because the
smaller they are the more You should get an Italian greyhound. Yeah I'm so In in Dexter's puppy class there was a a greyhound that was this big you know tiny thing that like it's it's um They're operating on double speed aren't they? Yeah so there's a there's a show de France warm up where he gets you to do hip circles where you go like That's how this Italian greyhound called ran. So it was like all around this and it was like going up
like head to head against this like quite a big cockapoo and it was just like run away. And I just looked at it and thought that's great for you sir cuz you could like you could hold it it could sit in your hand but it's a greyhound it's got all the features that you want but it's very manageable. Very manageable. Yeah. Cannot wait. I you pick it up and move it but with a greyhound it's like You've got to properly like If someone
has actually this is we I'm going to finish it on this note. If someone has a docile dog that we can have for a Modern Wisdom episode I would quite like to just have one here. That would be great. super chill cuz it's an hour and 40 minutes. Yeah. Quite old just probably like a golden retriever. Golden retriever would be nice. Do they do poof poofs though? All all dogs do poof poofs. Like if they if their digestion
is poof poofs. There are some dogs that do like proper heavy going poof poofs and you're like You just don't squeeze it. If you squeeze it like a like a bagpipe then it it does it. You know like when you And on that note Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Thank you everyone for tuning in this year I really do appreciate the support. Get in touch at Chris Willix wherever you follow us or at Propane Fitness.
Give them that's my phone. Give them some Christmas my phone. Did you? I did. It's all What a way to end the year. Anyway, Merry Christmas everyone.
Yeah, all the way. Yeah, all the way.