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"The conditioning is great and you're getting more fit, and the reps of 200s are valuable. But what's most valuable is what's going on in your mind."
The Infinite Game Podcast exists to capture yesterday's and today's wisdom to help us all play life at a higher level. With topics of mental health, spiritual health, and physical health being the focus for pursuing mastery in the game that matters the most: life. There will be two styles of shows, one, with Henry and Harrison talking, the other, hosting guests to glean insights from them!
The Infinite Game is a project that believes the expansion of our capacity and the shouldering of personal responsibility is the key to changing culture.
Henry how we doing? Doing well. It's hot. It's a warm one. Yesterday we were, we had
some conditioning. Conditioning is always on Tuesdays and one of our players made a
funny comment after like round three or four which was Henry what do I think
about when I'm running? And it's such a good, it's such a good question. It's like
you talk to yourself, like you talk to yourself and then in the talking you
will encounter different versions of yourself which you either have to like
talk back to or encourage and continue to flame and it's the classic like you
hear in your line man you hear in your mind man you're crazy and you have to
reply you're not crazy enough like you need to have all those responses to
those conversations you have in your head during times that are really
difficult. Yeah even talk to yourself is a tough, it needs to be specified even
even further. I think I heard that conversation. I'm, I read a lot about
prayer, contemplation, studied a lot about three years ago, tons of Eastern
traditions because they, it's so different than our Western perspective on
the mind and talking to yourself. What do you mean by yourself? You know what, what
genuinely what do you mean by yourself? You know you're wrestling with these
biochemical and psychophysic, like this, this, it's just especially when you're in
the pain cave. Yeah. Describe to me what you mean by yourself. Is it the burn in
your quads? Is it your heart rate? Is it your lungs? Is it just the narrative that
is trying to abort you out of it? Yeah that's that thing there is a constant
feedback loop between how you're thinking, feeling, feeling, thinking,
thinking, feeling, feeling, thinking and to where when you're fatigued those
thoughts are not you. They're hijacking you, they're trying to get you out and so
one thing I love and this is something you learn from prayer, meditation and
then apply it to. It's why working out is so meditative. It's why some of the
wisest people are ultramarathon runners. You know they've been with themselves
for so long and it's the use of a mantra and it's a use of something when the
mind starts to sink or be hijacked. You bring something in and for me you know
in college we'd always have these Monday miles and on a mile if you're running it
very hard you're going to that place where you're going to face a decision. Do
I make a weak decision and take my foot off the the gas or do I smash the pedal
and see if I have something more in me and it's completely mental there. That is
truly where in any sort of physical test it does get mental right at the wall. You
know do you turn back or do you smash through and I would always have a saying
offer it up, offer it up, offer the suffering up. You have to get outside
yourself. The ego cannot hijack the moment of pain. It's going to run away
from pain. Our default mode is not excellence. You have to train that. That's
why we even say with you project default mode excellence but that's trained.
That's trained excellence. Default mode for most human beings is aversion,
protection, energy conservation. Yeah it is it is oh this is getting hard. I need
to leave. No you have to train that and you train that through these cognitive
triggers that when my ego wants to run there's something transcendent that I'm
in pursuit of that I've attached some sort of line so like it sometimes would
be offered up one time when I was in high school it'd be here it is super
simple here it is this is the moment this is where I get to decide who am I
yeah right you're revealed in those hard hard moments you don't you there's this
coupling between creating yourself and revealing yourself okay I can project in
a sense what I want to become but in the hard moments when the brick wall comes
when the decision of oh my goodness my legs are on fire my lungs are hyper
hyperventilating I'm not comfortable in this uncomfortable moment in that moment
that's who you are in that moment you you want to start to say get comfortable
here yeah settle in I forget what stoic said it but it was along the lines of
take an entire empire from a man and as long as you haven't broken his nine
Seneca he still has the empire and I've always loved that you are building in
your mind that which transcends all you do to the point where if something was
taken away if you're injured or you have to pivot and what you're currently
working on you haven't lost anything because you still have your mind and I
after they did that conditioning before we started a train I explained that to
them which was the conditioning is great and you're getting more fit and the
reps of 200s are valuable but what's most valuable is what's going on in your
mind like something needs to be molded that is lethal at times when it's make
or break yeah it's so that the identity that you're forging I said that same
thing in training as well which is we were fortunate enough to play at North
Carolina our dream school I had the dream we had the dream from a very young
age that was the North Star but it wasn't something that I recited as an
affirmation it was something that I proved at 440 in the morning 515 in the
morning when it's snowing out and I got to go on a run and it was just me
nothing else didn't even seem like the birds were awake yet that's when that
feedback loop or it that identity was like cattle the birds wake up around like
530 yeah I thought that's when you that's when you know someone's a morning
warrior you go have you ran in complete silence yet yeah when even the birds are
asleep yeah I mean driving you'll see some you'll see some deer you're scare
some deer very early in morning I wonder I was asleep yeah I was on a walk
yesterday early I don't run too much in the morning anymore but I go and I start
my day with a nice walk I think I would like to say by this point in my life I'm
a master of the mornings I think your morning is your first masterpiece to
create and so it has to be intentional and the first principle that helped me
is got to get out of your mind your mind is going to want to pull you back to
anything that's been resolved from the fat past you have any loose ends things
that you're kind of ruminate and not ruminating on but haven't been really
tidied up and so the first thing you do is close your mind into your body get
moving and then once the body is elevated and you can start to prime the
mind direct the mind get into the soul I call it three to thrive so mind-body soul
priming and the first thing I'm gonna do I'm not first thing you do is not try to
solve all the world's problems yeah you just get moving make your bed walk find
yourself before the world finds you that's that's what I posted this morning
and it's so important the whole entire day sits on top of the morning and also
the morning is something you will have forever whether you're at school whether
you're in your family life you have a morning every day that should be a
primary focus for the youth for anyone who's in college you want to weather the
storm you want to make sure momentum continues crush those mornings one after
another I will say too and I'm biased because obviously the builder of the U
project they're important tile on their routines right we're the results of our
rituals we are what we do every single day on my morning routine I have make
bed hydrate walk read prayer okay you could say why do you still have make your
bed because if I miss that small little detail I know I'm in self-sabotage I
know I'm sliding on the details something getting sloppy I still to this
day make my bed first thing and then check it off and I love to check it off
you're like bro you've been doing that for seven years do you really need to
check that off in the morning say yes there's something about that go study
neuroscience if you want some sort of underpinnings to why there's not even
incentive reward that's the wrong technology there robots will never take
no the robots will never check that off for me and I will never have a robot
make my bed because that is pure laziness yeah there's something to
decay crispness of you start first ones under your belt then go hydrate get
movement and then all of a sudden my mind is ready to absorb some great
water to your environment it's the classic Maximilian Colby keep order and
order will keep you if you start letting things kind of fall then you're gonna
start to wobble - yeah lots of gems in this I love my topic yeah do you want to
go first no I'm gonna just say hey if you guys get something out of the show
you're gonna start to feel and see we're putting a lot more priority towards the
show impacting through sharing ideas because we get a lot of value from shows
yeah absolutely oh my gosh my life has changed from hearing how people think
and not so much trusting portions of my time and attention to people that I see
as a great synthesis of information but this truly is it's been a decade of very
hard reading an application you know Henry and I are continued we're constant
relentless students started an awesome book this morning about biological
elegance you know I look forward to sharing sharing that and so we're
absolute students and the infinite game this podcast where this is going to start
to be positioned in what we're doing it's gonna be in a much bigger place and
so if you get something out of the show we just ask share with a friend share it
with someone it helps the show grow you know there's algorithms but you can't
just rely on that there's something to sending it to a friend having that value
exchange if if you get something out of it do something for us and share the
show but yeah Henry uh let's get into it Emerson never misses no he goes life is
a series of surprises we do not guess today the mood the pleasure the power of
tomorrow when we were building up our being direction being our lower states
our acts of routine sense we can tell somewhat but the masterpieces of God the
total gross of universal movement of the soul he hides they're incalculable I can
know that truth is divine and helpful but how it shall help me I can have no
guess for so to be is the sole inlet of so to know the new position of the
advancing man has all the powers of the old it has them all new it carries in
his heart all the energy of the past yet it is itself an exhalation of the
morning I cast away in this new moment all my once hoarded knowledge as vacant
in vain now for the first time seen I know anything rightly the simplest words
we do not know what they mean except we love and aspire the end is not as
important at the beginning is amazing the beginning is incredible I should have
marked where I wanted to stop but I do like the end I think it's good but the
beginning is aligned with this statement we tell the players all the time put no
limitations on what's possible okay when you're building yourself up like you're
aiming upwards you cannot predict what God has in store for the results of
those actions but on the flip side what he beautifully said is what's really
predictable is the results of the bad meaning if you lazily let your health
go you're gonna get fat that's obvious that stuff's predictable yeah if you eat
bad food it's predictable you're gonna start to feel like you're gonna start to
feel horrible but you start taking your health incredibly serious you start
investing time reading and diligently studying and being curious about what
are these words leading to you can't predict where they're heading yeah and I
think that idea of we all know God's truth is powerful but how powerful you
cannot predict yeah yeah I love that I agree it's similar to the Bible of
greater than you can ask or imagine well you know we set a direction I always
like to use the analogy we set the North Star something you're running towards
freedom like in its pursuit but you really don't know how the earth is going
to manifest itself when you're underneath it like when you've gotten to
the destination that is now the thing I picked up from that and listening to it
I've said before in the show I for easily eight years read James Allen and
Ralph Waldo Emerson every single day 20 minutes 20 10 minutes a day I mean they
were friends of mine in very tough times the level of I love my cat I can't even
put into words out listening to that it's like I miss a friend I've been
reading Emerson I've been reading Emerson I'd say in two months I've been
just doing bottle Bible catechism gotta get in by day reading just some
different things studying some different things but man listening to that is
genuinely like an old friend and one thing that is an incredible is
incredible there is he is almost John Piaget before there was that kind of
child child development understanding where the personality we don't want to
ever think linear linear really that's a tough word to say in lines we don't want
to think in line here yeah you want to think in almost these nested like
expansive circles circle in a sense comes from I was gonna say is this the essay
circles it but it's it's fears another weird word a sphere yeah okay
personality I encapsulate the old and expand the capacity within the new when
we just think about linear progress and this is pretty I don't mean to bring
this example up to be crass and I almost don't say it cuz who knows about YouTube
algorithms but when the early Epstein interview stuff came out there's a great
interview with Steve Bannon and Jeffrey Epstein unreal interesting and how smart
he was he's very well studied in physics and obviously funded a lot of very
powerful physicists and he said you really don't want to write many things
down you don't want to think in lines because this universe operates in energy
you know it's Einsteinian or Newtonian physics and those are completely
different paradigms to live from and if we think if all progress if we think it
as linear we're not truly processing this what Emerson is pointing to the
expansion of being it's not gonna be this kind of cause and effect this move
next move next move next move no there's gonna be ripples it's gonna ripple out
in ways that some things are gonna surprise you from behind and the sides
and all of a sudden you're big whoa I did not even see this as possible read
something this morning from my main favorite now someone I absolutely read
every morning he's stayed I gotta bring back Emerson but it's Maharaji and he
was having a conversation and the guy basically said it feels like the the
cosmos is structured on order but then chaos and Maharaji's like no no there's
laws that the human mind understands and then there's higher laws that are still
absolutely like law bound but they're not within our current understanding but
as you expand not so much in self-realization but kind of in this like
spiritual view of things those start to merge together and you see this
beautiful order to everything yeah I think that's why this is one incredible
well two points he says this old age ought not to creep on a human mind in
nature every moment is new the past is always swallowed and forgotten the
coming only is sacred and he begins the paragraph talking about how as someone
becomes 70 80 they kind of raised their hand as if knowing truth yeah but in
reality there just needs to be these circles of every single morning and I
love that the simplest line of this sentence is truth is divine and helpful
but how it shall help me I can have no guess yeah that is incredible that is
incredible that is the posture at which we try to get our players to adopt you
show up if you put a limit on what is possible you're limiting what this place
is gonna do you may think Harrison our good coaches don't put a limit on the
inspiration or the direction or the place that you were gonna go yeah you may
think your friends are incredible role models don't put a limit on like the
value they're gonna add to your life yeah I always it's just I think - it the
problem is we don't think in long enough time horizons or we don't think we think
we know what it's gonna feel like on day 37 yeah day 42 - hey wake up and run and
do wall ball we'll just continue on the lacrosse metaphor or any sport wake up
and put the work in when it's dark nobody's around nobody's cheering and
you know it don't even think about day 1 to 21 just do it and wait for the
miracle to hit it like 42 when you are you feel completely different your
identity has changed in a way that you're have a confidence that is
surprising you're smiling more the moment starts to resonate like there's
this idea of you hit one morning think of a guitar string and you got that one
you feel it goes once and then the next morning you come back it starts to
resonate again you hear that same thing yeah and then you come back again and it
starts to play a better melody and I mean day 30 day 40 you just hear the the
music of the morning the music of whatever you're doing and it's just you
come back to it starts to resonate with your whole body of who you are and then
you know you're completely changed yep yep you touch the touch the present
moment for the first time and it's like and it's it's not what anything you've
ever felt because what you feel and I put this little thing on my Instagram
story last night and it's not even the truth of it's not even fully kind of the
indictment of what is out there for children or what is out there for the
youth or just what is out there in general general there's gonna be a
serious indictment on anyone who has the influence of the masses and where
they've been leading people you will be a held account for that if you were
leading people nowhere that is again just saying because I have the
attention I need to keep on doing what I've done in the past that's not good
enough now there are people that look up to you and you need like you need to be
one always responsible and sharing things that are valuable but there's so
many fake fake things out there that are leading people nowhere it's frustrating
yeah yeah I mean as leaders we say all the time of course we're teaching people
how to play a sport but more so you're trying to teach somebody how to
prioritize of their life yeah like what to properly prioritize what needs to be
cut away I love what is worthy of your time and attention yeah in studying
biographies there's a pretty cool parallel between a lot of incredibly
smart people which is they start to pick up the importance of the etymology of
words you know they get fascinated by one single word you you go from loving
quotes to then you go to loving the power of a word like how did the English
language develop how does this word how is this word kind of woven its way
through history and evolved well decision is is a powerful one day seer to cut
from to cut from when you make a true decision there is no other opera there's
no other option you've burned your boats most people they actually never make
decisions and never make decisions you know they're still entertaining that
maybe I'll go back when it gets a little bit hard but dude you haven't resolved
yet you have not cut yourself from the plan B C and D that you've kind of held
as figments of outlets potential yeah where no no you've got to go all in on
this until kind of like Emerson is saying here your being has expanded
itself like those nested Russian dolls you just continue to have these past
versions of you as almost old friends now they're young friends but like
friends that you look back and you I got us I got us now right I'm gonna step
forward as the adult execute on a dream we've had forever okay and then you just
continue continue continue to do that yeah it's very powerful yeah my topics
very good if I'm gonna move into it yeah we can go to that I'm reading the next
paragraph that I haven't got to yet cuz I chew one paragraph at a time and I'm
saying you have to slip on this is the last thing I'll say before we move to
your thing I've been doing this exercise and one of our players who's doing an
internship I've kind of tasked her with hey take this one page take this one
page of a book I'm giving you and make that page a masterpiece meaning in
underlining and circling and writing in the margins and making it beautiful I've
I did it a couple times it is unbelievable the exercise of just like oh
yeah reading reading that sentence over and over again and circling the one word
that gives that is kind of transformational it's I encourage people
to do it absolutely no I encourage any young athletes on you project that don't
see themselves as a reader someone who reads I all the way up until I was
basically a senior in high school I never read a book never read a book in
school once then I read a book that actually finally it applied to me it
wasn't some bullshit that I was told to read like the scarlet letter that had
nothing to do with my life at the time and maybe a great book it may be a great
book if I read it now but at the time it felt like it was useless read a book
that was helpful to me here's the thing though start small you don't need to read
for 40 minutes your attention is not ready for that that's why I used the
line sip on a great book if Henry says right here Emerson he comes from a time
in a period and oh and a weight of thought that you you shouldn't even read
more than three sentences like you should read a paragraph you should read
two paragraphs right if I read five minutes here five minutes here five
minutes here all of a sudden well I've just read 20 minutes today or I've read
ten minutes of a great book okay is enough to change and elevate your mind
to harmonize at a complete or for you to just go through your day at a completely
different frequency yeah it is so powerful now we're pointing to kind of
these 1800 like 19th century thinkers that they have a purity of thought that's
super inspiring as someone who's taken and consumed too much just well I've
even consumed that much brain rot but I know the impurity of how a lot of us
speak nowadays and it's tough to even get back to that level of eloquence but
the point is you get into some of these pop psych books and sports psych books
easier to read fun to read yeah you can broken down chapter yeah you can read
chapters pretty well but there's no bigger there's no bigger hack we're say
we'll say it all the time I'm gonna be someone who continues to pass along the
quote that changed my life which is you can skip a meal but never skip your
reading time okay both of them are nourishing your body needs one what's
amazing is we're starting to see it needs with you project yeah players are
logging really and it's amazing yeah and it's great to see them what feels to be
the elevation of maturity in each one of them obviously time does that but you're
investing your time in something that pays back later someone is someone who
reads you can feel the grace on them yeah because they start to count it's
encountered something much larger than them yeah they start to process the
world less egocentrically and more realizing there's information outside of
me that I don't know and as I start to grapple with it I then lay a new mental
frame down but I start to understand the world more reading is I cannot obviously
it's not I can't encourage the world can't encourage you more yeah to have a
really remind you enough yeah have a relationship with the information that
is out there in formation put yourself in formation okay if not you're a little
ego with the world big bag big bad world all around you and you're either
arrogantly delusional that everything's going to up like go well for you somehow
or you're gonna play the victim and think we're gonna be about to destroy you
and it's just not exactly or you're gonna be a victim I don't even know if I
need to use my topic today we've talked I'm not even gonna use it we've talked
about so many great things I'm gonna save this for the next one because it's
really really good actually I you know I'm gonna say no I'm gonna save it I'm
gonna save it the news is gonna go long enough I was gonna bring mine in cuz it
has something to do with something that's happened right now and today but
this is still gonna be relevant yeah I think the last thing I'll say is the
very first line of this paragraph from Emerson which is life is a series of
surprises yeah that's we went past that but keep the idea we always share is
when you're on fire life is an adventure because you really don't even know where
you're gonna be at the end of this week when you're really climbing yeah I mean
this morning the since August 24th I've been committed to doing handstand
pirouettes and I kicked up this morning did four really quick and I I just felt
okay local maximum I'm gonna do now what scares me next and that's just the free
standing handstand push-up and just like dropping down on the head like that's a
series of surprises yeah and when you're just moving climbing you can't really see
the next peak but life is a series of surprises when you're really getting
after it yeah somebody I studied for a year I studied him and then the kind of
lineage of thought he was coming from he said you know I get paid millions of
dollars to tell very smart people you have no idea what's gonna happen you know
that is our ego likes to jump to conclusions we have the line death by a
thousand conclusions it's not gonna work out for me I'm not good enough you have
no idea that's not true you don't know right I always try to start a lot of my
days with that openness to the unexpected but then I'm obviously
bringing in the vision that I'm here to create or what I'm here to execute yeah
for the day I often text it's gonna be a great day maybe best one of the year
yeah maybe best one of the year like you have this one of the year big fire to
put out and be really fun or it's gonna be a disaster no or we had a disaster to
put in order yeah to bring order to there really is no disaster no things to
things to learn places of strength in yourself and weaknesses to overcome all
opportunity yeah all upside baby don't be short in any you can short some stocks
but don't be don't be shorten yourself stay long you got to be long on yourself
stay long all right God bless my friend we're gonna get to work see you next
time