Mastering Passion feat. Moustafa Hamwi (Dubai)

Have trouble discovering what your passions are? In this episode you’ll be inspired to start finding out what you’re good at, enjoy doing and how it can bring value to the world. Passion can create a life of fulfilment, rather than fleeting happiness.

The Passionpreneur: Moustafa Hamwi (Dubai)

Moustafa Hamwi started his career in Dubai as a telesales operator, eventually working his way up starting several entrepreneurial ventures that became businesses worth US$15 million in less than 4 years.

He was also heavily involved in the nightlife scene, which lead to him becoming stressed, depressed and anxious. Moustafa then consulted for the government of Abu Dhabi, yet even with his career booming, he still felt empty. That was the beginning of his personal development journey.

This yearning triggered a one-way trip to India where he spent time in the Himalayas with a Swami who had lived in caves for 13 years. His trip changed his life and woke him up to answer the questions:

• If this was it…did my life matter?

• What difference have I made to this world?

• Did I fully live what was truly meaningful to me?

• Did I do the best I can with all what I had?

Episode Transcription:

Nathan: I have a shaky relationship with the word passion…

Moustafa: Most people do.

Nathan: Most people do quite right and, so, this is one of the reasons why I thought It to be so great to get you on the show. It’s because we, as a generation, and generations prior as well, are being told, “you can do anything”. And I was brought up by parents who put an asterisk on that, and said you can do anything, but be specific on how you choose to do it, and then commit yourself to do it. Because you're not a jedi that can just do anything you want, anytime you want.

So, enter the word passion. I would define passion perhaps differently to you, and as we discussed in the pre-interview chat, that this is where we need to start. We need to first define passion, so we can have a discussion. So, for yourself, how do you describe and define passion?

Moustafa: Thank you very much, that’s definitely a good start, because I realised when I was working on spreading more passion around the world; after my journey on a one way ticket to India, that different people have different definitions to passion.

And there's no way we're going to be able to be on the same page if we don't agree a common language and a common definition to the word passion. So, the first place I started was the dictionary. And the dictionary defined passion as any compelling feeling, which naturally translates into doing what you love. And this is pretty much where most people are they're like, okay, if I love it so much, then that's my passion.

And when I had called companies to say I want to come and talk to employees about being passionate and doing what they love, they were like really, no, we're not going to pay money to do that. And I realise that that's pretty shallow definition of passion. So, as I'm doing interviews on my talk show which is called passion Sundays, (I’ve interviewed about a hundred international authors, speakers, experts, and so on probably going on about a hundred fifty now) I was interviewing Brian Tracy and he said “You will never be passionate about something unless you are good at it”. Which makes a lot of sense, because (makes a lot of sense) I might be passionate about singing but if I sound like a goat and I don't improve myself, I'm going to get booed off stage so eventually, I'm going to quit on it.

So, the definition became doing what you love and what you're good at. I kept with that definition for a while until I was interviewing an international author speaker and expert, and he said to me, “be careful, because the wrong kind of passion can hurt the world”, and I was like, wrong kind of passion? What mean by wrong kind of passion? there is no wrong kind of passion because, really? Think about Hitler, he was passionate about what he's doing and it was good for him but it wasn't good for the world.

And it was then that I realised that the quality of your passion comes from the quality of your purpose. And the definition became,” passion is doing what you love, what you are good at and is a value to the world. So, that has to be good for the world too and has to be in demand. And if you think about it from a business context when you are offering something that's in demand, people would pay you money for it, so you can create a business around it…

Nathan: Supply and demand.

Moustafa: Supply and demand. And if you think of the second part of the definition which is, ‘good at’, that means you get professional at it, and only then you can turn it into a profession. So, another definition became doing what you love, what you are good at, and is of value to the world.

And I stayed with that definition for a while, I'm working with people and coaching them, I know that they're really good at this stuff, they really love it, I can see it in their eyes when I'm talking about it. And it adds value to the world so if they stick to it, they would become really phenomenally successful but they wouldn't stick to it. They would do it for two to three months and then they would look for the next passion and then the next passion and then the next passion - it’s what I call the shiny object syndrome. Every time something is shiny they drop what they've got you know, when you're kids you see another toy and you throw it and you want the other toy and then you want the other toy.

Nathan: And as adults, we don't stop doing that, we just change the things that we do with.

Moustafa: We just want one different thought type of shine. So, you know, when we were little boys we wanted to toy car, when we get big we want the real thing. Little girls want a Barbie and now they want diamonds. But we are all boys and girls even when we grow up.

So, I realised that the key success factor and the key differentiating factor in the definition of passion is the word consistency. So the definition became in my book which took me a couple of years to distill that learning was, consistently doing what you love, what you're good at, and is of value to the world. What differentiates true passion is not the first three; it's actually the word consistency. If you're consistent at it, then that's your passion. If you're not consistent at it, that's not a passion; it could be a hobby, it could be a fling, it could be a thing which you change.

Only when you stay at it long enough, you're going to love it even more, you're going to get better at it even more, and then people will start paying you more money for it and even if they don't pay you money for it you will have a lot of fans appreciating what you're doing.

So, now we have a common language of what this passion mean so any discussion I'm having moving forward now is in the context of this word passion as I just defined it.

Nathan: That's great and so now, I guess what we're seeing now is a bit of a formula. So if you want to be able to, this is something that everybody says but if, if you can't measure it, then you can't manage it. So, now that we're able to measure what you're saying and putting it into this formula-like approach. It makes a lot of sense to people like me who like to have things with a bit of shape and a bit of form and so it's not this big amorphous idea that people just have this concept of passion.

It's actually a very straightforward process in a formula. What you said before is consistency. So how do we know, at what point do we say to ourselves; okay, I'm in this job and I've got the safety. How then can we give these guys who are listening to us today, the drive to go and follow this passion to start their new thing? How do they go from where we are now, to where our passion lies? We've got this awkward adolescence in between, so how do we move through that?

Moustafa: So I would like to always start with, why is it important to pursue passion in the first place,  because now that we're clear on the definition at least we debunk the myth of what is passion. And let me be clear, passion for me is not happiness, if anything, the pursuit of happiness is making you sad. Because happiness is correlated to desires and desires are endless. You see, you want a chocolate it makes you happy for a moment and then that goes down.

Nathan: And makes you unhappy because of the result!

Moustafa: Because of the result, yeah. And then let's say you want a partner, you want a girl, or you want a guy, whoever it is that you feel is going to bring that happiness to you. Well, look back and look at any bad relationship you had and then you would realise the same reason that made you happy makes you sad.

So the pursuit of happiness is dependent on polarity, positive and negative, and that's the nature of life. You get an up you get a down, you had a good night out, you drink a lot, you get a hangover the next day, you eat a lot, you get a impact on your body and that's the nature of life. So if you're pursuing happiness, you're pursuing desires and desires are endless, how much wood is enough to feed the fire? You'll never be happy.

Passion brings you fulfillment, and this is really what we should be seeking. So in that context, number one, when you, when you are passionate about what you do, you get energy, and energy is a crucial element in success. Things usually never go according to plan, things never go according to your expectations and you would probably not get the desired results as soon as you wish they would and I know from my personal journey more than once and I'm sure you did the same and if you're an entrepreneur you know that better than anybody else. So, passion is energy and energy means fuel and fuel can keep you going throughout the journey no matter how tough it is.

Now, second thing is passion gives you what I call a joyful competitive advantage.

Nathan: That's interesting that you mention that. Because we don't often put joy, competition or business terms together. Unpack that for us today.

Moustafa: So think of it this way. Two people are on a race line, one of them is running the race purely for the money, one of them is running the race because they enjoy it. We know the world economic situation keeps changing, it's never been the same. If you look at a long span there's always ups and downs, it's never going to keep going up, it's going to go up and down, up and down settle all across the right. So, the person who's in it for the money, they're going to keep going till the money runs dry, then they're going to dip.

Now if they're persistent, they will keep chasing that for a while but there's a point where they are going to go, nah!!, I don't want this anymore let me jump to the next thing. So, what’s going to happen is they're going to quit, while the person was enjoying it, even if they're not making money yet, they're like well I love it, you know maybe there's no money now but I know I'm going to make money later.

So, that's what I call a joyful competitive advantage because you're able to stay longer just because you're enjoying it. And if you don't believe me think of children. How many times have you had to force a child to play? You pull them away and they go back into play, vice versa, how many times have you pulled a child away from doing homework, you have to push them to homework because it's work it's work.

Nathan: It’s not a natural disposition to want to go straight to homework compared to if you want to go to play!

Moustafa: You want to have fun, that's our nature we all have that child inside of us. So when you're feeding that child, that child becomes alive and children, look at adults versus children, adults are always like, I'm exhausted, these children are full of energy. Guess what, we're all full of energy is just that we lost our childhood and if we bring that joy back into our childhood through passion we have that joyful competitive advantage.

The third thing is, passion gives you clarity and clarity means certainty, and certainty means confidence, and confidence means action. And the more you do that, the same loop is going more because you get more clarity you get more certainty you get more focus and you keep going at it and that, more clarity means more focus. And if there's one thing from all the interviews that I've done that is common between all these people is, they are very focused and very consistent. And one feeds the other, the more focused you are, the more consistent you stay at it and then you stay at it.

And there's an interview that I watched with Jack Welch and he said that him and the guy from Microsoft, Bill Gates. They were sitting and Jack Welch’s Dad asked, I think it was either Bill Gates or Jack Welch's Dad asked him a question. He said both of you write on a separate piece of paper what is the one thing that made you successful. They both wrote separately the word ‘focus’ and that focus came from being clear on what their passion was.

And so these are the key reasons why I pursued the passion. So if those are not reasons good enough, let me just ask you a question. Can you guarantee living another day? No. Another hour? No. So if you know that you don't have guarantees that you're going to be here tomorrow or the day after or the next year; tomorrow never comes, it's always about today so just start pursuing your passion now because you only got one life.

Whether you believe in reincarnation or not doesn't matter, because all I know is what I have on the table today, and that's today. And if I'm reincarnated, let me live twice as happy! But I want to do the best that I can do in this life now.

Nathan: And here lies another discussion where we talk about passion, with the idea of “when I'm ready”. I like the phrase ‘today was yesterday's tomorrow.’ So then, at what point do we find that we need to be patient? They’re kind of juxtaposed, like they don't play together.

You mentioned fulfilment doesn't necessarily mean the same thing as happiness. If we are doing our passion, we can still be fulfilled even though we are on the low-end of the [happiness] curve. Can you tell us about your story, and your one-way ticket to India? And how that kind of met with your need to find out your passion and your purpose?

Moustafa: Sure, so I've been living in Dubai since 2000 and right about 2007, 2008, which were the peak years of Dubai, I've been running a successful events agency. I had a modelling agency, I was a partner in these agencies that I started and I was part of a big group that probably at the time got evaluated at about two hundred million dollars.

I did a lot of the business development within the group, so I was responsible for the new projects. I got exposed to a lot of nightlife events, a lot of entertainment events, a lot of clubbing events. So you can imagine how my lifestyle was; on the outside it was the dream come true for any guy. A lot of the guys wanted to hang out, a lot of the girls wanted to hang out, you had access to the clubs, the tables of every clubs of VVIP tables of the of the clubs.

Along with that, I felt empty on the inside. So that was very challenging, because the more shiny my life became on the outside, the more empty I felt on the inside. It felt like a pretty much like a balloon, the bigger the balloon was getting, the bigger the vacuum of air inside. That’s how I felt. So eventually, one day, I just woke up and I'm like “I can't do this anymore”.

Nathan: Kind of reaching a wall.

Moustafa: I'm like I can't do it anymore, it's just the emptiness is killing me and I had to shift my perception about life and take drastic measures to put my life together. My health was deteriorating, I was drinking, a lot of smoking, a lot. I smoked a pack a night when I go out, I drink about a bottle at night when I go out and one day I just stopped smoking, stopped drinking, got into yoga, got into meditation and stayed on that for a couple of years. And around 2012, I had heard before about a meditation called ‘Vipassana.’ Which is ten days of silence.

Nathan: It’s kind of funny now that you're a speaker.

Moustafa: Yeah exactly, well I think you need both balances; you need the in and yang. And you need to be able to, go inwards before you can go outwards. Otherwise you're just a mouthpiece. Everybody can regurgitate, especially today. It’s a totally different level of speaking when you're congruent about what you're delivering.

So you're no longer a speaker in principle, you are a messenger and I differentiate that a lot. Anybody can get up on stage and just regurgitate words, but to be a true speaker, you have to speak from heart. You have to have a message and, after I’ve done that ten days of silence and when I say silence, it means absolute silence. 10 days, 16 hours a day, you do nothing, no reading, no writing, no journaling, no Facebook, no Snapchat, no social media, no mobile phone, you do nothing but sit down and observe your breathing and just go inwards.

Nathan: So this was in India?

Moustafa: It's an Indian concept, Vipassana is the Indian concept that Buddha used to get enlightened and so he actually did a lot more than ten days. But ten days is the induction course where you truly get a first hand feel of what's going inside you.

By the end of those 10 days, I realised that, I needed to go inwards a lot more. I had not known myself, I mean the 10 days did not make me know myself, it made me realise how much I do not know myself and later that year I bought a one way ticket to India, just left everything behind and went into the Himalayas.

Nathan: Wow, there's an incredible thought, especially from someone with a business background and you need certainty, financial reserves, and to know that there's going to be a result for this. When you went to the Himalayas with that one-way ticket, where did you start once you arrived?

Moustafa: Well, I'll tell you where I started. Sometimes when you're so lost, you don't know which way is up, it's better to even get a bit more lost before you can find your way. It was a good feeling, but I'm just going to put an asterisk to whatever I'm saying here; I'm not recommending to anyone to just buy a one-way ticket! It’s funny because after I started telling my story, a lot of people started buying this one-way ticket, they went to India, they came back, they're like “I hated it”! I didn't tell you to buy a one-way ticket!

Nathan: Just meant for you.

Moustafa: That was my sign and maybe, maybe your one way ticket is, is somewhere else - it's in the journey. So my story, my book is called ‘Cavalli to Manali’. So Cavalli is a representation of the Cavalli Club and the nightlife and the whole style of crazy life was, and Manali is where I met my Swami in India. But the sub header of the book is ‘on a journey within’.

So, after I went to India, I realised the trip to India was not it. It was what I had to do to go inside. So, in my case, I was in such a crazy environment that I needed to disconnect, but maybe other people are in different situations and they can find that journey within and that's truly about meditation. So on my journey to India, I came across a swami who's been in caves for thirteen years.

Nathan: In caves?

Moustafa: I didn’t meet him in the caves, he had just come out a couple of years before, and it was a coincidence. Again they say when the student is ready the teacher appears.

We just met each other coincidentally in the Himalayas, I don't know how I would have even found him! The whole journey is going to be written in that Cavalli to Manalli book.

Nathan: So is this book already out?

Moustafa: The Cavalli to Manali is still being written. There's a lot of details, it’s an emotional journey for me again to go through that experience and write the book. So it's something that's planned to come out in the coming years. There's a lot of little details I need to be very specific and particular about. So am not rushing writing that.

Nathan: We'll share that with our people when we know it's ready.

Moustafa: So what he asked me on one of our interactions, he has a long beard as you'd imagine and then he'd be playing with his beard. And I was asking me a lot about life and he says, “do you what you are thirsty for? Because if you do not know what you are thirsty for, you cannot quench your thirst”.

Nathan: And so how did you respond to that?

Moustafa: Well I didn't because that was the shock of my life! It was like hold on, I just bought a one-way ticket to India on a search for an answer, and I realised I did not even have the question. I didn't know what I was looking for, I knew I was lost and I was looking for directions, but I didn't even know directions to where [I was going].

The quality of your life is defined by the quality of your questions, because the question determines the answer. And it was that question that he asked me that made me realise that I don't know what I'm thirsty for.

So in a way maybe I was not clear on the answer but I was definitely clear on what's the question I need to answer now. So I kept on pursuing my journey in India, while contemplating on what am I thirsty for, what am I thirsty for, what am I thirsty for. And by coincidence I discovered I had a medical condition and I walked into hospital, get myself checked up and I discovered I had a medical condition. Luckily I healed from that condition naturally but that incident brought the understanding that we don't have a guarantee on our life. It's what I asked you earlier, can you guarantee living another day?

Nathan: And it's almost an arrogant assumption to assume that there's more time coming

Moustafa: It is when we take things for granted in life because we wake up every day, and the logic says well I’m forty now, the probability is I’ll be 41. But the thing is, it's also as random as a lottery so as well as you could be picked up to win a lottery you could be picked up to just depart.

So that realisation hit me hard, and I was like, what if this was it for me? What if this was a cancer, what if it was a cancer and I didn't discover it and I could have died? The questions were so real, they were not just mental. They were staring me in the face

Nathan: They were a physical representation of some of those questions.

Moustafa: And I'm like okay, well if this is it, what would I regret not doing if today was the last day of my life? And this is when I realised that I was thirsty for impact. I had been living a life full of pleasure, full of fun, full of joy. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we shouldn't, but I don't think this is why we're here.

Nathan: That's not it.

Moustafa: This is a byproduct of doing things that are fulfilling, happiness is not the result. People say “I want to be happy”, I’ve spent years in the pursuit of happiness, then I realised it’s the pursuit of fulfilment.

When you are fulfilled as a byproduct, you become happy and sometimes you're not going to be happy. You’re not going to be happy if you have a family member die, if we lose all your money; but those are facts of life. But you will be fulfilled to know that you are doing that which you were born on this planet to do.

Because they say the two most important days of your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why...

Nathan: Mark Twain.

Moustafa: Mark Twain, beautiful. And it was that when I realised that okay, my purpose is to be able to inspire the world; but I didn't know how exactly, I don't know what I'm going to do. So I just want to impact.

So I bought another one-way ticket back, that was 2013…

Nathan: You have a habit of buying one way tickets!

Moustafa: Well here's the thing about one-way tickets; there's an advantage and a disadvantage. And the advantage of burning bridges and buying one way tickets; there's no way to fail. Failure is not on the menu.

Nathan: There's no plan B.

Moustafa: There is no Plan B. The Plan B is plan A, and you've got to make that plan A work, and you bet your life on it. And trust me, it is going to work, it’s going to be tough but you're going to you know, if you have the will to survive, you're going to really survive.

Nathan: You make it work.

Moustafa: You make it work, you have no option but to do it. I'm a skydiver, when you jump out of a plane, you've got to make that thing work! You plan as much as you can beforehand. All my life was preparation for me to come back and do what I'm now doing.

Nathan: To open that door of the plane.

Moustafa: I got back to Dubai and I started doing different things trying to cause that impact. I probably tried 10, 15, 20 ventures in relation to impact. Anything from a yoga festival, to taking people on retreats to India to, nothing worked. Nothing was working so I was getting frustrated again and I was still doing my Cavalli to Manali talks in 2013.

This is when it started and it was somewhere towards the end of 2013, I'm sitting in a hotel in Dubai, on a terrace and a random person passing by turns around, looks at me, and walks up straight to me. And he goes “hey, you’re that speaker guy”, I said “Yeah”. He goes, “you did your talk about India?” I said “Yeah”. He goes, “you changed my life”.

Nathan: So in that moment, what did you think?

Moustafa: It was my eyes went like a large, and I was like, present, I remember the moment vividly and it was like suddenly light bulbs were going off all over the place - it was just like the jackpot.

I found that this is what I wanted to do. And this is when I knew that my impact comes through me speaking; because I didn't know how I was going to cause that impact. So I realised that my impact was going to come through speaking and from the moment I started getting random emails, literally from random people saying I’ve been traveling the world; I've been taking courses nothing has been working with me. It's just for some reason when you shared your story, something worked for me; or at least it triggered me to do something, it inspired me to do something.

And then January 2014, I left and I cancelled the contract that I was working on and I said this is what I'm going to be doing. Well here's the learning, I don't have a clear plan and I just jumped, on a leap of faith. Well again back into another one way ticket, I started calling companies saying I'm going to come and deliver the Cavalli to Manali talk to you. And they go, hold on, so you want to tell how you bought a one-way ticket to India?

Nathan: That's not good for business

Moustafa: Not good for business and I'm like oh, oh, I should have thought about that a little bit more. So 2014, 2015 was fairly rough ride for me. Because I was trying to figure out how can I deliver that impact into the world because in Dubai, it's more B to B (business to business) market not to B to C (business to consumer) markets. So I wasn't able to deliver, it's not like the U.S. where you do all these big events, you get thousands of people showing up.

Nathan: Who [in the audiences] are a mix of consumer and business.

Moustafa: So, companies were not willing to pay me; so here I am, having to juggle a million things again, trying to keep my passion alive. And this is where the challenge was for me; it was how can I stay true to that mission, true to that passion without losing it or going stuck in the rat race again.

So it was a bit of a foot here and foot there and, I was juggling a lot of stuff. I moved from discovering your calling, to discovering your purpose, to discovering your passion. I had to pivot and change a lot. And at the end of 2015, a person, on a Saturday evening sitting with friends of friends, introduces me as this guy who's doing these ‘passion talks’. And one of the people sitting on the table was oh man I've got to go back to work, I need some of your passion!

Nathan: That was just a throwaway comment.

Moustafa: A throwaway comment and I go, oh passions Sundays! And this is how the whole idea for my talk show ‘passion Sundays’ happened. And in 2016, I started passions Sundays, somewhere around mid 2016, I interviewed the inventor of Mind mapping, Professor Tony Buzan, who is a Nobel Prize nominee. And after the talk we go to an event and I'm not there, I just go backstage and somebody says passion. And he goes, passion! I know who you have to talk to, where is he, where is he? The passion guy, the passion guy! He couldn’t remember my name, so he just, where is he, the passion guy! And then I come on stage and everybody goes oh, you’re the passion guy. And I picked up the name the ‘passion guy’ and I so became globally known as the ‘passion guy’

Nathan: Which is obviously evidence for your key message. And that comes back to your whole idea of purpose and, being able to measure and to define that passion. That would have been a massive compliment for you. “I’m being understood, people know what I stand for”!

Moustafa: True, that being said. If you rewind, because now we're looking at the end of the movie where the hero wins and everything is looking great. But if you’d rewind to how rough those years were for me; when I was not fulfilled with my life. When I had to buy one-way ticket, when I had a medical condition, when I came back almost broke because I've lost most of my money either because it's been a couple of years of self-discovery and through the crisis in Dubai.

Then I had to come back, and then I had to leave the consulting contract that I hadn't realised that what I was trying to do was not going to work. So there's a lot of up and down and bumpy rides before I got to a point where I was kind of okay, finally, somebody acknowledged.

But it wasn't that I was waiting for the acknowledgement, that acknowledgment came as a byproduct of my consistency in doing what I love - investing hours and days and, hours and days which is, they say, you need ten thousand hours for mastery. I’ve spent a lot more time than the ten thousand hours. And doing what I love, what I'm good at and, that is adding value to the world.

By then I had figured out a way to bring passion back into the business. So now companies are paying me money to go and speak to employees about finding passion where they are. So that took a lot of refinement and a lot of persistence and consistency because nothing went according to plan. So yes, eventually things picked up and now I'm being acknowledged as one of the world's top experts on the topic of passion which is beautiful. And I'm spinning off several products in certain industries like passion for speaking, passion for presentation, passion for pitching, but that only came when I’ve mastered being the passion guy first.

Nathan: And I like the idea of the footprint, or the value to the world, from what you do. Because I think some of the time that we have this external, like you would say with the balloon analogy, we have the external-self looking for satisfaction but our inner-self is looking for fulfilment. And to me, that's great, but how is that focused on other people?

So how did you start to be more conscious about; “I‘ve got this passion, but what does it mean for everybody else?” - your value to the world. So how did you start to clear on  doing that?

Moustafa: So there's a shift that started to happen, because at the beginning, I was only giving my talks. Remember I was, I was not the passion guy; 2013, 2014; 2015. I was the Cavalli to Manali guy.

Nathan: You were a guy with passion.

Moustafa: I was a guy that had passion but I didn't even know the word passion back then. I was truly just talking about finding your purpose and finding your calling and I was doing it by sharing my story. And after one of my talks a guy walked up to me and he goes, “this is amazing, your story is beautiful. But hey, I'm a family guy; I have kids, I have a family. I cannot buy a one-way ticket to India, I cannot even spend as much time and money as you did, on exploring myself. I don't have that luxury, what can I do?”

And I was like oh, I didn't think about that. And from then, I spent a couple of years developing the frameworks and I started going on the search of what does passion mean. Because my initial idea was to inspire people to come on retreats to India, to discover themselves. And I realised not everybody has the luxury of doing that. So I said, if they can't come to India I'm going to bring India to them.

So you see, I was very determined on my original purpose that I discovered, which was changing people's lives. I didn't succeed on the first and the second, and the tenth and the twentieth try. I did not change the goal of the target, I changed the plan.

Nathan: And you changed the method.

Moustafa: A lot of people change, start changing the goal when the goal doesn't work. So we keep shifting goals rather than shifting plans. What I'm saying is no, you stick to the goal that you've defined, and you adopt the plan depending on the context, because you don't know what you don't know, and you only know it when you find it. But when you're focused on the purpose of the service that you're doing, then you're going to find ways to make it work.

Nathan: And that's great, I think that's a really nice way to wrap up this interview and put a bow on it, and saying like to people, you know, you've heard all these amazing things and you've heard the more dramatic approach to one-way tickets to foreign nations - so when you are in your own car and you're sitting in the commute to work or you're home with the kids and there's mess everywhere and you're living in the ‘everyday’, what you going to need is some really great questions to extract that passion from yourself and to pull yourself up. To even start thinking about it.

So, what are some good questions that we can ask ourselves when we're in the humdrum every day setting that we find ourselves in? What are some key questions?

Moustafa: Beautiful question about questions! Let me give you one of my strongest questions in the passion discovery process. I have something called the passion journey and this is an online program that I'm launching soon (it might be launched by the time we upload this interview), that helps people discover and live; because the discovery is one part, but making it happen is another part.

There's one of the questions that I asked there, I call it the ‘Billion dollar question’ would you like to know that?

Nathan: I’m pretty curious, it sounds very expensive!

Moustafa: It is kind of expensive, but your life is worth it. So I’d like everybody who’s listening (unless you’re driving), and if you’re at home, go grab your cheque book. If you’re out somewhere, just close your eyes, take a deep breath. And I want you to look at that cheque book, whether it’s real or imagined. And see your name being written on that cheque book. Write your name, write today’s date, and then in the numbers space, write $1,000,000,000. And now in the words space, I’d like you to write one billion dollars. Go ahead and sign that cheque. And now tear it out of the cheque book, and look at it.

You’ve got a cheque for one billion dollars in your hands, in your name, with today’s date. Feels good right?! Now fold that cheque and put it in your pocket. Take a deep breath, knowing you’ve got a billion dollars in your pocket. Anything you want in life is yours now. You can buy anything, you try anything, any business, there’s no risk. Your family’s taken care of, your loved one’s are taken care of.

Nathan: So what have we removed? We’ve removed money as an object.

Moustafa: So now the question is, with a billion dollars in your pocket, what would you want to do with your life now that money is no longer an object? What would you want to do with your life? I know you might say “I want to travel the world, I want to buy everything, cars, houses!” But once you get over all that stuff, what next? Fast forward. What do you want to do with your life? It’s the first answer and direction that comes, that will point you toward what your passion is.

Nathan: It’s a very deep way to externalise what is deep within us. Once people do this exercise, and they write that out, what are you hoping that people might find?

Moustafa: When you take money out of the equation, you realise that most of us are living the rat-race out of a fear of money. But there’s never enough money. I’ve coached, worked with and interviewed billionaires (the last person I interviewed was a self-made billionaire who had $1.4 billion). Those people as much concern about money as any of us do. When you’ve got $100, you have hundred-dollar problems. When you a billion dollars, you have billion-dollar problems.

Nathan: It’s a scale isn’t it.

Moustafa: It’s proportional to what you’ve got. Once you take money out of the equation, you’re going to start realising what it is that you truly want from this life, from this limited time that you have on this planet. Now, once you’ve found that out, it’s definitely the starting point. The next thing is to go and develop a plan. Because if you don’t have a plan, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail” - Winston Churchill.

So once you create a plan, you have to go a build a passion tribe. A passion tribe are like minded people that will support you and cheer you on your journey. They’re usually not your old-time friends or family, because a lot of the time, these people they project their fears onto you - out of love, not because they hate you. But they don’t know what you know inside you.

Nathan: And they genuinely want to keep you safe.

Moustafa: And in their own pursuit of safety that want to keep you with them, because they love you. Now, once you’ve developed a passion tribe that support you on the journey, and you’ve got an action plan, you’ve now got to believe in yourself at the end of the day - because then you don’t listen the outside world. It takes faith to know that you’re going to get there sooner or later. Without self belief, you’re not going to get anywhere. And now that you’ve got that self belief, guess what’s missing? Take action now!  

Nathan: And that’s the part we find difficult, isn’t it. Because passion isn’t something we necessarily equate with a tangible plan. But, now that we’ve got that plan, it’s “ok, what’s next”! Because if nothing changes, nothing changes!

4 Keys to Optimise Physical Performance at Work

Increase your physical performance at work with these 4 keys, with Australian expert physiotherapist Jack O'Brien. 

Episode Transcript

Nathan Shooter: 
I really believe that overwhelm and overthinking leads to underachievement. Today's guest is going to, really help us to unpack and demystify some of the areas that are causing us great pain.

In the workplace, we're experiencing epidemic levels of pain and really suffering from things which are, I would say, pretty much preventable. Today, I'd like you to welcome Jack O'Brien.

Jack O'Brien: 
Hi, Nathan. Excited to be here.

Nathan Shooter:
Awesome. So glad you said yes to coming on today's episode to talk about four key ways that we can optimise our performance at work. I'm not only talking about our mindset, as discussed in other episodes, but I'm really getting down to the physical things that we can do from a health standpoint.

Your background as a physiotherapist and a football player, makes you the man to talk to about this. Just fill in some blanks and tell us about yourself, both professional and personally.

About the guest

Jack O'Brien:
Yeah, sure. I'm a physiotherapist by trade, and so now, I lead Terrace Physio Plus Physiotherapy Clinic and Massage Therapy Clinic, across five locations throughout the Hunter region of New South Wales Australia.

As a physiotherapist, we see all sorts of people and all sorts of pain. I'm really passionate as a physio, but also as a business owner, as a professional now who spends a whole lot more time on a computer and less time face-to-face with people on optimising performance, both myself and my clients.

Pain is such an inhibitor, such a limiter, for both our clients and for myself. To be able to maximise that and work on tips, tricks to get on top of pain is really exciting. I have a whole lot of fun with it.

Digital culture

Nathan Shooter:
That's really great to hear because one of the impetuses behind me wanting to invite you onto the show is that we are increasingly living in a digital culture, a visual culture. It's fantastic, the more visual we get, the more creative and the more effective in our workloads we become. However, we also spend more and more time sedentary. Like you were saying yesterday, we drive to work in a seated position. We go to work, maybe have a stand-up meeting for about 10 minutes, and then what do we do? We go and sit down again. Then, we drive home in our cars, seated, to come home to Netflix in a seat.

Jack O'Brien:
It's a double-edged sword in a lot of ways. We get so much more done. It's such a great environment for creativity, being on a computer and all the tools that are at our disposal. And yet, we spend so much time in these postures that are repetitive and we're stuck in these same shapes all the time, and we're not designed to be the shape of a chair!

Nathan Shooter:
Exactly. I think that if we're going to do better at life, we need to be able to come home having, yes, toiled and having invested our effort wisely in our day at work, but come home refreshed to be able to spend time in our next investment, which is our family or our home life.

 A lot of us don't come home excited about, yeah, I've worked all day, and I'm ready to come home and love and hang out with the people who are next up, which is my family. Why is it that we think we just put all our focus on our 9:00 to 5:00 and then just kind of end up giving out crumbs to people after 5:00?

Jack O'Brien:
Yeah, it's funny. I think we end up pouring everything we have and everything inside of us into what we do. That's where we find our identity, and that's where we find who we are. Bringing a whole-of-life approach to work, to health, to pain management is really important. There's a whole bunch of different aspects to life, and if we just focus on two or three at the neglect of one or two others, we don't have this well-rounded circle of life, so to speak.

Nathan Shooter:
Exactly. Obviously, this is a growing area, and I really like how you mentioned how technology and the workplace moves and changes at different speeds. I think that's one of the reasons why we've ended up in a world where we're super, uber efficient digitally, but physically, we're lagging behind.

In the same way you've moved your technology forward and your methods forward, we need to keep also doing that with the non-technology things, meaning our bodies and our physical routines.

And so, in a future episode, I'm going to be speaking with a CEO on agility and having an agile approach to things. Today, which is not a pun on the word for this episode, but I guess what I wanted to find out for us who are listening all around the world ... Because we've got people in all sorts of different cultures who join us on this podcast, but we all have the same issue of we all intrinsically want to do better at work and we just sometimes don't know how to get there.

So what are the big four problems, physically speaking, that are facing workplaces all around the world?

4 Keys to Optimise Physical Performance

Jack O'Brien:

1. Know thyself: Knowing yourself, knowing what works for you and what doesn't work for you in order to get the best out of yourself.
2. Correct fuel: Hydration, nutrition, and supplementation. Not just for physical, but mental and intellectual performance.
3. Exercise and rest: They're inextricably linked, getting the right type of exercise and the right rest.
4. Manage pain: Knowing how to prevent pain, knowing who to see, when to see, and having the right people around you to be able to manage things when they come up.

Nathan Shooter:
Great. These are the four really major things that you see a lot when they walk in, literally, to your clinic every day. So do think these big four things only just for western cultures, or do they apply to every workplace in the world, do you think?

Jack O'Brien:
Every workplace, absolutely. When it comes to knowing yourself, one size does not fit all. It just don't work that way. There's a lot of gurus, there's a lot of hacks out there, and not everything will work for you regardless of culture, environment, nationality. And so knowing yourself, knowing your environment that you're in, the culture that you're in, and what's going to work best is the first place to start from its foundation principles.

Nathan Shooter:
That's a good point. Let's go and unpack all of these four big issues or each individually, just so we can give them proper attention they need.

Key 1: Know thyself

So you've just beautifully led into issue one, which is knowing yourself. And I'm not a baby anymore, I'm 33! But in a lot of ways, I still feel like I'm discovering how I work best and I think that will never change. I think I'll always be thinking of, "Oh, wow. I didn't realise I could improve that." Or, "I did that well." So when it comes to, as you say, knowing thyself, this is really like a fluid thing, isn't it? In relation to doing an audit of ourselves, how do we do that? How do we do an audit and ‘know ourselves’?

Jack O'Brien:
Self-awareness really is the game. I think it's what sets apart the crème de la crème, is that they know who they are, they know what works and what doesn't. The biggest thing would be to test and measure each different little hack that you might try, whether it's what we talk about today or somewhere else through your other guests. But trying certain things for a test period, assessing whether they work or whether they didn't, then keeping them or scrapping them.

So often we have this massive big line-up of routines or rituals or hacks, and we're not sure what's working and what's not. And you wouldn't do that ... you wouldn't expect a doctor to be trialling certain things on you not knowing whether they work or not!

So knowing what works for you and what doesn't for your body, your personality type. What works for your emotional state is super important.

Nathan Shooter:
So in our quest to knowing ourselves, which we've discussed is important, a lot of us are going to start, as a bit of a shock to you, on the internet.

Jack O'Brien: 
Dr. Google!

Nathan Shooter:
There’s medical websites that send people into a spin thinking they’ve got cancer when it's actually just a stubbed toe! But I just want to empower our listeners to say, "You know what? I'm going to take some critical-thinking approaches to internet advice."

What can you say to people when they're reading advice on the internet? And not seeing in the shape of one size fits all. How do we know whether this is solid advice?

Jack O'Brien:
Good question. And that word is really important, critical thinking. As a health professional, we look at evidence or we look at claims through the lens of different levels of evidence. And so the first thing you want to look at is the fruit around someone's life. Has it worked for someone else before? Or are they just trying to sell you a really cheap and easy gimmick?

Different levels of evidence in a health sense, we look at case studies as being a really low level of evidence. You want to look at something that's been tested in a controlled environment against a placebo, and that is going to tell you whether something works or not.

Nathan Shooter:
Can you explain what a placebo might be to some people?

Jack O'Brien:
Sure. A placebo is something like taking a sugar pill for cancer. It's something that has no effect, but ...

Nathan Shooter:
Psychological effect, though.

Jack O'Brien:
That's right. Exactly. Which is important. Placebos can be a good thing. But if we're talking about different techniques or tools or methods, you want to know that they've been tested against something else and that they're better than the alternative.

So looking at things critically, and then looking at the other people who have used. So testimonials are really good. You want to look at things that have been funded by independent parties that don't have a vested interest in the outcome. You want as pure result as you can and so unfunded testimonials, unfunded reviews, studies that have been independently looked at are really important.

And having those forums to discuss things, so whether it's your network, your circle of connections, or you can ask questions in a different environment from someone who doesn't have a vested interest in the outcome, getting some advice, that's really helpful.

Having a network of trusted advisors will be really helpful in sifting the wheat from the chaff, so to speak.

Nathan Shooter:
That’s an important thing to note, like having like a board of directors in your life just for issues of health.

Jack O'Brien:
Absolutely. We've all got blind spots, Nathan. We've all got areas in our life where either we can't see or we look at ourselves through rose coloured glasses. You might think you're healthy, you might think you're doing something in a healthy and efficient way, but those around you, whether physically or virtually, can see those areas of your life that you can't see yourself.

So I would say knowing thyself and having trusted people in your life that you can lean on for accountability, for encouragement, and for critical thinking is really important.

Nathan Shooter:
I think you’ve got to rely on others. Whether we think we can do it on our own or not, there comes a point when we do need to acknowledge our interdependence on others. Not dependence on others, but interdependence, which is more healthy.

Health is very holistic. Health is done in community.

Jack O'Brien:
Absolutely. And health is very holistic. Health is done in community. To be isolated, in and of itself, is unhealthy. And so, leaning on each other is super important.

Key 2: Correct Fuel

Nathan Shooter:
So let's move on to issue number two. This is the second biggest thing that faces workplaces and the effectiveness of people at work, and that's incorrect fuel. But before you answer, can I just say that you brought me a double shot latte before walked in into this interview on a very cold Monday morning! So tell us, Jack, unpack the idea of this incorrect fuel.

Jack O'Brien:
All right. So as performers in our workplace, we want to treat ourselves like athletes. I look at athletes as a really good example of peak performance. They do their sport, or their chosen endeavour as professionals.

And if we're in our workplaces and we want to exceed, we want to win, we want to dominate our industry, whatever that look like for you, you need to think of yourself like an athlete. And if you ask any elite athlete, we see plenty of them coming through our clinics.

And so fuel, hydration, nutrition supplementation really are those that give us exponential rewards. If you're looking at the 1% as the thing that give you an edge over your competition, it's the stuff that you put in that will determine what you get out.

Nathan Shooter:
Fuel is a really complicated thing, right? So in the more meta sense, it kind of seems insane that I would go and spend thousands of dollars on fuelling my mind. I go to conferences, seminars, webinars, put money into courses - but then when it comes to the physiological side of things, we neglect the quality fuel that we need.

So even just from a very small perspective, are there small things that we can do this week? And what's one thing that people can do to get the right fuel into them this week?

Jack O'Brien:
All right. So let's talk about hydration first. That's a really easy win for a lot of people. So, we know that we all need about two and half litres of water a day to keep us alive, really, or at least keep us functioning optimally.

1% decrease in hydration can often mean a 10% decrease in performance

A 1% decrease in hydration can often mean a 10% decrease in performance. But when we talk about hydration, again the quality of water is really important.

Nathan Shooter:
Now this is getting complicated!

Jack O'Brien:
Well, it doesn't have to be super complicated. I think hydration has been bastardised in a lot of ways. Sport drink brands lead us to believe we need their particular product to be hydrated. The truth is, they haven't sold us a lie, but they've sold us a half-truth. A lot of these products that supplement our hydration often have some of the nutrients we need, but not all.

So when it comes to hydration, what you need to think about is your blood. Hydration is adding water to our blood, but blood isn't purely water. Blood is made up of water and electrolytes. And so just giving ourselves three, four, five litres a day of water isn't proper hydration. It's actually dilution.

True hydration involves the extra nutrients and electrolytes that come along. Electrolytes is just a fancy word for salts, things like magnesium, sodium, chloride, calcium, and potassium. They're the big five.

And what these well-known sport drink companies do, create products that have sodium and chloride and calcium in them, but they neglect two of the biggest hydration electrolytes that we need: magnesium and potassium.

Nathan Shooter:
Magnesium, in my understanding, is really great for muscles.

Jack O'Brien:
Correct. So magnesium is brilliant for muscles, it helps avoid cramping. Long-term endurance and performance. And potassium, in a similar way, potassium and magnesium work hand in hand together on a cellular level. And we don't need to get into the cellular level, but what you do need to know is that you need an effective balance of those five electrolytes: magnesium, potassium, sodium, chloride, and calcium.

Some sport drinks focus on sodium and chloride, which is essentially table salt. Sodium and chloride. To just have those three at the expense of the other two is going to dilute your blood and therefore decrease your performance, or at least give you an imbalance, and you're not going to perform optimally.

Nathan Shooter:
So I guess it's kind of a situation where we need to drink a bit more, but then also if we do go and by a supplement drink, reading the label is a good place to start.

Jack O'Brien:
Absolutely. And again, seek out the right information. Find a product that has magnesium and potassium in it. On the label, it's going to be Mg or K. They're the periodic table symbols for those products.

Make sure that you've got something that is a well-rounded product, that is going to give you the hydration that you need, but also the electrolyte balance.

Nathan Shooter:
That’s really important, and I think we need to be smart about hydration, not just think we're doing the right thing by chugging litres and litres of water from the water cooler.

Jack O'Brien:
Think of hydration like pumping up your tyres. When we sleep, we sweat. We get dehydrated. And so, when we wake up in the morning, the last thing you want to do is roll your car out of the garage on flat tyres.

Think of hydration as constantly pumping up your tyres, keeping you inflated for the day. And we know our tyres perform best when they're inflated properly. Our bodies and minds, we function best when we're hydrated properly.

Nathan Shooter:
And we sometimes get to the point when it's too late with hydration and we only hydrate when we're feeling dehydrated.

Jack O'Brien:
It's too late.

Nathan Shooter:
Exactly. So, let's maybe skip that and go and get hydrated before we end up with the slump.

Jack O'Brien:
Absolutely. The first thing in the morning is the best time to get hydrated. Drink a cup or two of water the first thing when you wake up, and you'll be amazed. It'll probably give you more of a kick than that double shot latte that you've got sitting next to you!

Key 3: Exercise & Sleep

Jack O'Brien:
It's important to get the right amount of sleep for you, and the right type of sleep. Having a dark room, eliminating screen time or putting night mode on your screens before you go to sleep, and getting the right volume of sleep. So for me, I know that any more than seven hours is too much. So I limit myself to only seven hours or less.

Key 4: Manage Pain

Nathan Shooter:
Well, I'm not going to give up that latte! Let's just do both, hey? Let's now have a bit of a look at the next biggest challenge in the workplace, which is number four, managing pain.

So you talk about it being a situation where we can create prevention, but also we can do some things to also cradle some pains that people already have as existing conditions. But let's first of all look at prevention. So where do we start? It's costing workplaces billions in back pain alone. How can we start by preventing pain?

Jack O'Brien:
Prevention of pain. Back pain is the number one burden of disease globally and in a number of developed countries. Preventing things like back pain is, from an economic standpoint alone, a really good investment.

If you're going to be limited with sick days throughout the year because of pain, you're limiting your efficiency. So prevention is huge. We know that exercise is the number one best prevention tool for back pain specifically. And so the right type of exercise is really important.

I want to bust a couple of myths really quickly, if that's all right? We talk about having a core - those abs and that six pack. And I want to say that having a six pack isn't the only way to prevent back pain.

Nathan Shooter:
Can I just say that that's a really big relief for me!? I feel like I don't have to have a six pack now!

Jack O'Brien:
You and me both! And so, looking for the right types of exercise that teach us to move in a functional way. I don't remember the last time I had to do a crunch and get up at work from the floor. So for me, a crunch or a sit up isn't an effective functional exercise, but squatting - getting up and down out of that chair a lot or lifting and carrying, putting things up over our head, bending down, picking stuff up off the floor, they're the functional exercises that we need to be doing in order to build strength that is functional and relative to the workplace.

Nathan Shooter:
What I'm hearing, is that we're sometimes doing the exercises which are not relevant to the ergonomic situations we find ourselves in.

Jack O'Brien:
Absolutely. You’ve got to find something that's relative to what you do. So if you spend a lot of time sitting at a desk or a computer, then you want to do things that are relative to those postures.

Just like someone who's a worker out on a roads wants to do things like digging, and lifting, and carrying.

Nathan Shooter:
Exactly. So just on this issue of posture, what are some simple things that we can do this week? Like maybe even today? What can we do in terms of small things like the layout out of our office, or just posture with our sitting in a chair. What can we do now?

Movement is medicine. Motion is lotion.

Jack O'Brien:
There's so much to be done. This gets me really excited! The first thing, the mantra that I want you to take away from today would be that, movement is medicine. Motion is lotion. And so movement is the key. Let me just say that standing desks are not a magic bullet. Actually, in all things, there's no magic bullet.

And so you want to incorporate a whole lot of elements. So move. Having a standing desk or a desk that is modifiable is a really good investment. But to stand for two or three hours on end, if you haven't stood in a long time, is a sure fire way to end up with a sore back.

What I would suggest is changing really regularly. So you want to change postures every 20 minutes. Go from sitting to standing. Stand for 20 minutes, then sit for 20 minutes. Sitting isn't of itself a bad thing. Sitting for long periods is.

Nathan Shooter:
Some people demonise sitting, and I think these days, people are saying sitting in the office place is now the ‘new smoking’. I've heard that repeatedly, and I think it's unfair. And particularly to employers who are listening to this and thinking, "How do I serve my employees better? Everyone's at workstations where they can't always stand while working”.

Jack O'Brien:
Yeah, that's right. We do have to sit. And sitting is okay done in small bursts. The truth is, we're not designed to sit for long periods. But when we do sit, and if we have to sit, let's do it well.

Posture of Performance

A couple of things around your posture at work, I would say that having your chair at the right height is a big key. Have your chair low enough or too low is a problem. So to fix that, lift your chair up so that your hip crease is above your knees. That would be one of the first things I would suggest to look at. And you might need to therefore change the height of your desk.

A lot of these things are cumulative. Fixing one problem may lead to another problem, etc. So let's get our chair up first. So your hip crease is higher than your knees, and your feet are flat on the floor below your knees. That's the first place to start. Tucking your feet underneath your chair, is not great. Just like resting your feet out in front and sort of propping yourself up on your heels isn't ideal either.

So from there, we want to sit on the edge of our chair, if we can, like you and I are doing here today. You're doing better than I am, by the way! But we want to sit on the edge of our chair. And what this does is it gets us to roll forward so we're not sitting on our tail bone. We're trying to roll forward so that we're not sitting on our tail bone.

A bit of a lumbar curve and helps. You'll probably notice it if you're doing it in your work chair or car as you drive now. It gets you sit up a bit more upright. So we want hips nice and high, sitting on the edge of our chair.

And then we want a little bit of tension in our shoulder blades. What we see is a problem where people let their shoulder blades relax and round forward, and you get that typical rounded posture.

By the same token, I don't want people squeezing their shoulder blades so tight they end up cramping between their shoulder blades or in their upper back. We want just a little bit of tension. In the gym, we talk about matching tension to task. And so, if you're going to pick up something that's 100 kilos, which is a really heavy task, you need 100% tension. So it's 100% effort, 100% tension. If we're sitting at a desk and we're not doing a lot, it might only be a 10 or 20% physical effort. What I'm suggesting is a 10 to 20% tension between your shoulder blades. Just pull them back a little bit.

Nathan Shooter:
And I would say that's also influenced by the position of the computer keyboard relative to how close it is to our bodies. So should it be a position where our forearms, are kind of like ... I guess, adjacent to our body? How should that be placed?

Jack O'Brien:
So we want our elbows just a little bit higher than our wrists. Just a little bit higher. So again, you might need to work on the combination of the height of your desk and the height of your chair to get the optimal position.

We want to make sure that our elbows are in and tucked into our ribs. So we often see what is commonly known as RSI (repetitive strain injuries) in shoulders and elbows from desks that are not optimised properly. So elbows a little bit higher than your wrists, and you want your elbows tucked in.

And this goes for anything, Nathan, whether it's sitting at a desk or carrying the groceries in from your car, lifting something in the backyard. Always think about keeping your elbows in and you'll find as you tense your shoulder blades up a little bit, your elbows naturally come in. Elbows inside your wrists is the optimal position for your shoulders.

Nathan Shooter:
And because when we're carrying a load, the leverage compounds further away it is from our centre of gravity.

Jack O'Brien:
That's right. So the closer you are to your centre of gravity, and also the more external rotation we have. So what that means is when you're carrying the groceries for instance, you don't want to drag your knuckles forward like a monkey, because we're not monkeys! We want to bring our elbows in and palms up is always a better way move.

So that's why you might find things like an upright mouse is more comfortable because palms down isn't always an optimal posture. Moving towards a palm up posture is much better for elbows and shoulders.

Nathan Shooter:
That's great. And that's also relative to travel. So a lot of our listeners are people who find themselves in planes a lot. And something that I was taught a while ago was that when I carry or pull a suitcase along, I was told to just flip my wrists so that the palm faces up. And then, for example, if the suitcase wheels goes over something, it'll release out of my hand rather than pulling my wrist.

Jack O'Brien:
Exactly right.

Nathan Shooter:
So we've just covered pain prevention. We've talked about how we can get ahead of ourselves and prevent pain from occurring. What about those of us who have a pre-existing condition? Or there's something that's happened and we need to ... Not just nurse it, but we need to find a way to work in a way that is going to heal and protect that injury.

Jack O'Brien:
We're talking about triggers here. When to do something. When is something going from right to not right? So, the first thing I would suggest is that discomfort is not always a bad thing. Pain is. And so discomfort is something that's three to five out of 10 uncomfortable is normally a good thing.

So standing, for instance, could be a little bit uncomfortable if you initially get a standing desk. Or having a walking meeting might feel a little bit uncomfortable, three, four out of 10 uncomfortable is a good thing.

Leaning into discomfort is a really good thing. When something becomes painful, five, six, seven out of 10, and stays painful for more than three days, that's when it's time to do something.

Something that is painful but gets better within a day or two – the body's really good at healing itself within a couple of days. But if it is prolonged more than three days, it's time to do something about it.

Nathan Shooter:
It's really important to take notice of red flags. It's really good to be able to, like you say, get to that threshold of discomfort before it becomes pain. But also then revisit this issue number one, which is know thyself.

So if you're going to get into a situation at work where you're doing things that create discomfort or pain, write a note so you don't end up re-inventing that same wheel next week!

Jack O'Brien:
Yeah, great. And it's an important distinction between acute pain or new pain versus long standing chronic pain. So something that's new should get better within two or three days. If it doesn't, time to see someone. If we talk about people who have dealt with pain for long periods of time, back pain is a long standing issue.

And a really important thing around the evidence of pain at the moment is not just the physical aspects, but the psychological and emotional impacts on pain. If you have a really stressful day, if things at home aren't going well for you, if you're emotionally down, your pain is going to be amplified.

And so it's really important to be conscious of that and be mindful and present when you're thinking about your pain. You might have a really sore back, but when you take a chance to step back from it, it's actually just because things at home aren't going well and the bank balance is screaming at you and the kids aren't sleeping. And that can really compound the effect of pain.

Nathan Shooter:
Those are very important and influential factors on pain. And the other thing that we discussed a little bit earlier, was acknowledging that pain itself is not a bad thing provided we pay attention to it.

So I think pain is really something that we need to partner with and be a friend with, and as bizarre as that sounds. If I've done something that causes pain, I almost say to myself, "Okay, thanks for that. I've received that message." So I now have a choice. I can either:

A: Change something because I've received this pain signal.
B: Be angry at it, and not actually do anything about correcting it.

Jack O'Brien:
Pain is the warning signal of our body. And so, let's talk about chronic pain, long standing pain that people have had for a long time. Just because something hurts, doesn't necessarily mean there's something physically wrong. Just because your back hurts might not mean that you've got a torn muscle or a blown.

Just a side note, discs don't ‘blow’. We can talk about lumbar discs if you'd like. Think of them like fluid sacks. They're very sturdy things and they actually heal more often than not. So having long standing back pain isn't necessarily a sign of tissue damage, and this is where going to see someone who's going to give you effective advice is really helpful.

So when you go and see someone, if you've had long standing pain, we know that the most effective treatments are those that help deal with your emotional and mental state, believe it or not, and are active. So that is you physically doing something.

Managing systems might mean going to get a massage or passive treatments where you go and you do nothing, you lie on a couch for half an hour, and someone manipulates you. That feels good at the time, Nathan, but it doesn't fix anything. It doesn't solve the underlying cause of the pain. It might give you symptomatic relief, but it's probably more cost efficient just to pop a couple of paracetamol.

Passive treatment doesn't work for long standing back pain. If anything, it perpetuates the pain cycle and creates a dependency on others to solve something that you need to deal with yourself.

We know that the best solutions for long standing pain are active. That is you being involved actively in the process. Things like the right type of exercise, the right volume of exercise, and the right advice around your thought patterns when you have a pain episode.

How you respond to that is really important. I would suggest that if you've got a long standing problem, finding a health professional that could be your trusted advisor (not a ‘guru’) is one of the most important keys.

Nathan Shooter:
And that's a really good distinction to make, someone who's actually a trusted advisor. Because they've got runs on the board and they're accredited, and not just trying to sell you something.

Jack O'Brien:
Correct. In this day and age, the evidence suggests that when you go and see someone with a chronic issue, they shouldn't actually lay hands on you. It's going to perpetuate your problem.

You need to find someone who can sift through the advice - it comes back to knowing thyself. The adviser should be able to find the right approach, right treatment for you and give you advice you on the right exercise, right postures for your particular condition.

Nathan Shooter:
There's so much great advice in this session here that we've heard from you. Let's just finish off by recapping and then looking at some things that we can implement today.

So the big four challenges facing workplaces are:

1. People not knowing themselves properly.
2. Using the incorrect fuel.
3. Not exercising and resting enough.
4. Managing pain properly.

Nathan Shooter:
So, Jack, you mentioned in a pre-interview chat that you want to be able to help people get started. You've been generous enough to offer a free video consult. Can you just tell us what that is?

Jack O'Brien:
It's essentially a physiotherapy consult over the internet. We've got the technology now to be able to do some one-on-one consulting to help you work out what your main problem is, give you some quick tips and tricks to solve the problem relative to you, and then a plan to get on top of it.

Nathan Shooter:
Great. So if you want to do that, listeners, just go ahead to terracephysioplus.com.au and get in touch with Jack and the team there and mention this podcast for a free video consult.

It’s been an absolute pleasure to have you on the show today, and I know that a lot of people are going to be helped by this episode and we really do look forward to seeing people improve. I also hope that people will connect with you online. So thanks very much, Jack.

Jack O'Brien:
Thanks for having me.

The Communicator's Mindset

Before you hit the stage, develop the mindset of a communicator, and watch your effectiveness soar.

We need to establish the mindset of who we are as communicators, before we work on how we communicate. In future episodes we'll look at the technical aspects of speaking like a pro, but for now, let's look at what it takes to make the person behind the podium.

Featuring international speaker Rob Salisbury

As an international key-note speaker, Certified Speaking Professional, sales trainer and event MC, Rob Salisbury has been involved with over 600 clients and over 2,100 organisational events. He is also an accomplished author, mentor and trusted advisor focused on optimising the communication culture within companies around the world. 

View fullsize

Nathan Shooter with Rob Salisbury CSP in Singapore, attending the Asia Professional Speakers Singapore Convention 2017.

Episode Highlights

Your worldview:

• Be curious.

• Travel broadly and experience different cultures.

• Seek to understand the major areas of life; relationships, business, education, spirituality, politics etc.

• Begin to work out the vision for your life.

• New experiences are where new ideas are born.

• You have a valuable contribution to make to the world.

Your priorities:

• A major key to effective communication is to set your ego aside.

• Communication is a 2-way street.

• Step beyond insecurity and bring value to others when you speak.

• Everyone has an opportunity to communicate, look for them around you.

• Be a person who is always trainable and teachable.

• Communication relies on everyone in your environment being ‘on the same plan’.

Your motivations:

• Extract your ’why’ by discovering what drives you most.

• Look at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, develop empathy for what motivates others.

• When you communicate, what outcomes are you looking for?

• Are you improving people’s lives when you share your ideas?

• Are you clear on what your ‘message’ truly is?

• There are many communication mediums/channels, choose the ones that match your motivation.

Your mind:

• Search for role models and mentors that are good examples of effective communicators.

• You can find ‘virtual mentors’ on TED, YouTube etc.

• Start small, offer to do a short speech at an event you otherwise wouldn’t have.

• Fantastic communicators aren’t always the professional speakers, they’re the ones that know their message inside out.

• Visualise the audience and put them first. Put your fears in second place.

• Watch/read/listen to biographical stories about great communicators (eg: The King’s Speech).

Your ideas:

• Develop a mindset that actively seeks inspiration in everyday-life.

• Use your digital notepad and camera to capture ideas.

• Create an archive of visual prompts from which you can develop ideas.

• Collect anecdotes as they arise, for use in future presentations.

• Expose yourself to other people's views, even if they differ from your own ideology.

Your preparation:

• Consider how audience size affects your preparation, eg: small (birthday parties), medium (board meetings), large (conferences).

• Keep PowerPoint slides simple.

• Arrive at the engagement early.

• Be aware of the cultural context (when overseas, speak slower where appropriate).

• Will you be using notes in your hand or on screen?

• Know how much time you have, plan your content accordingly.

Your body:

• Relax.

• The night before, go to bed early and avoid caffeine.

• Slow your breathing down.

• Do exercises that warm your muscles.

• Invest in vocal training.

Your environment:

• Would a podium be a help or hinderance?

• Look audience members in the eye (individually if possible).

• What distractions are there? (Background, live music etc.)

• Is the event indoors or outdoors? How will that affect your audience's receptiveness?

• Prior to the event, talk with PA crew (about microphones, screens, stage etc.)

• Know the layout of the room.

Your delivery:

• Don’t get stuck looking in one spot.

• The audience is giving your their time, treat it as a value commodity.

• Find different ways to acknowledge people in the room.

• Consider how empathy can create a sense of belonging.

• **Find more specifics on this in a future episode**

FREE eBook Download 

The eBook Motivating your Mind, Inspiring your Spirit 2017 by Rob Salisbury and 80 contributing authors from around the world, is yours to download FREE! Simply fill out the form below, and click the link that appears afterward.

Connect with Rob

Website: www.strategicresources.com.au 
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/robsalisbury
 

Share!

Know someone who would be helped by this episode? Be a friend, and share it on your favourite social channel!

Commit to Fit: Top 5 Roadblocks to Fitness

Ever said “I'll get fit tomorrow”? Now is the time. Today, is yesterday’s ‘tomorrow’!

None of us are exempt from the need to stay in good shape. Similarly, we all need encouragement and motivation to stay committed to our fitness goals.  

This is where this article's guest comes in. Andrew Bassett is not only a long-time friend, but also a person that continues to motivate people like us, to conquer new fitness summits - despite hearing every possible excuse known to man.

Some time ago, I was in a motel room getting ready for a friend’s wedding, and as I was attempting to button up my pants, the button popped off and bounced off the bathroom mirror and around the bathroom! A slap in the face indeed. 

Perhaps you’ve experienced a slap-in-the-face moment that has reminded you to ‘commit to fit’. But it’s what we do after these moments that matters most. In the podcast interview with Andrew, I asked him to share the 5 top roadblocks people experience on the journey to getting into shape. Let’s be honest with ourselves, and explore these together.

Roadblock 1: Belief

When unpacking the idea of belief, there are a number of components to consider: self-belief, the belief of others, and the ‘why’ that fuels our belief.

Self-Belief

Firstly, it’s about us. Through the recent years of health challenges, I’ve often thought to myself “I can never be well again”. Do we genuinely believe we have what it takes to get into shape? Do we have the belief that we are able to maintain our desired level of fitness?

Our internal dialogue has a tremendous affect on our outward performance. We need to do some introspective thinking, and do a health check on our willpower.

Belief of Others

Secondly, it’s about others. In order to develop a healthy sense of self-belief, we need to surround ourselves with people who also believe in our ability. When we make time to talk to friends and family about our health and fitness goals, we open ourselves up to being accountable.

Be wise and choose people who genuinely want the best for you; they may even feel encouraged to set new fitness goals of their own.

A ‘Why’ that Fuels Our Belief

Thirdly, it’s about our “why”. Rather than simply dismissing this as a cliché, use it to clearly identify your motivation for getting fit. For me, that meant flipping the story (in my mind) from a negative (“I’ll never be well again”) to a positive (“I want to be vital, able to travel and play with my niece and nephew”). What do you believe about yourself? Do you need to flip it?

Roadblock 2: Environment

Is your environment helping you to stay healthy? All of us are motivated by different things, and in different ways. I used to love walking around my neighbourhood in the evenings, but now I enjoy being indoors in the gym. 

When you find the environmental mode that suits you best, you’ll find it easier to commit to your fitness plan. Some environmental modes include:

• Home: outdoors, indoors
• Gym: indoors or outdoor park fitness
• People: Large Classes, Small Groups or Personal Training

Vision boards are another great tool for providing visual prompts, giving you the motivation you need to work toward to your goals. Consider putting together a board that contains photos/text/images of the things you desire (more on this in a future article). 

Roadblock 3: Education

Ever been overwhelmed by the wide range of health and fitness advice? Welcome to the club. Information overload (and misinformation), can create paralysis by analysis, to the point that we don’t start anything.

Seeking advice from a trainer or health professional will help you to develop a plan that suits you, rather that using a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Periodically, I need to remind myself that it’s not a race, and that starting small is better than not starting at all.

Roadblock 4: Money

Debt and rising living expenses are a reality that none of us can escape. Because of this, we can be tempted to view fitness expenses as a luxury, rather than an investment.

A weekly gym membership is usually equivalent to the cost of 3-4 coffees; not a huge sacrifice in the grand scheme of things. Consider ways that you can start for free: walking around the neighbourhood, bodyweight training in the garage etc. Building exercise habits for free, is a great way to test your resolve, before committing to a paid gym membership. 

Recommended: 7 Money Lessons from the Book “The Richest Man in Babylon”

Roadblock 5: Time 

There’s never the right time to start anything new, especially when habits are involved. If you have to 'start' several times to make a healthy habit to stick, take heart and be encouraged that you're in the game!

Between the demands of our careers, family and other commitments, it can seem like there isn't time to work on you. However, if we view flip the perspective around, we'll discover that it's vital that we schedule time to improving us. Why? So that we can serve others better - by being the best and brightest version of ourselves.

Recommended: 7 Time Management Tips + FREE chapter download

Let's Recap

The 5 most common roadblocks to fitness are:

1. Belief (self, others, and 'why')
2. Environment
3. Education
4. Money
5. Time

Let's Act

• What 2 things can you take action on today?
• What is your 'why' for committing to fitness?
• Which people are encouraging you to reach new fitness goals?
• Look at your budget, what does it reflect about what you value?

Let's share

Found this article encouraging? Share it on your favourite social media channel today. #LivetoAccomplish

© 2017 Nathan Shooter™ Distributed by Thrive Media®

Contributors vs Critics, PART 2: Character

Wish you were better at giving feedback? Move from being a Critic to a Contributor, with these 4 simple approaches.

7 Money Lessons from The Richest Man in Babylon

Think it's too late to take control of your money? Think again. Here's 7 simple lessons you can apply to your life today.

Now and then, along comes a book that changes the way you think. For me, The Richest Man in Babylon, was one such book. So you that are inspired into action, this podcast/video/blog edition will share the biggest lessons that I learnt from this classic finance book.

You'll be surprised at how approachable the author's ideas are; financial common sense divided into 7 simple parts. From my experience, I found that the key to applying the principles was to keep it simple, so that I could be consistent. Significant financial change begins with simple steps. Let's dive in!

1. Pay yourself first - “Start thy purse to fattening”

• Learn to see the value of your work, and place a priority on paying yourself first.
• Create a simple system to allocate where your money gets spent. Here's a quick look at how I aim to divide it:
  • 10% = Pay yourself first.
  • 10% = Pay debts (start with most small, expensive, high interest debts first).
  • 10% = Future savings.
  • 10% = Generosity (charity, church tithe, non-profit organisations etc.)
  • 60% = Living expenses, including mortgage. 

2. Live within your means - “Control thy expenditures”

• Don't spend more than you make.
• Either spend less, or earn more.
• Be clear on the difference between a desire and an expense (especially for those of us in business).
• Resist the habit of spending more as we earn more. Just because our income might increase, doesn't mean our spending should.

3. Make money work for you - “Make thy gold multiply”

• Understand compound interest, and how you can benefit from it.
• Bank interest: Consider opening an online high interest account, that you can't access with a ATM card.
• Investments: Only invest after you have saved a reserve of 6-8 months worth of living expenses.
• There are many investment vehicles, choose the one you understand the most (I experimented with Forex, but pursued other things instead).

4. Safeguard your wealth - “Guard thy treasures from loss”

• Have a variety of insurance policies, income protections etc..
• Create financial reserves (emergency funds).
• Avoid investments that sound 'too good to be true' (they probably are).
• Remember "it costs nothing to ask a good friend for counsel".
• Seek advice from people who are experts in their particular field, people who have actually experienced what you’re attempting.

5. Own your own home - “Make of they dwelling a profitable investment”

• Where possible, own your home.
• Be smart about your biggest expense/investment, if it isn’t home ownership.
• Buy a home that is below the maximum you can afford, yet one that you can still enjoy.

6. Have a retirement plan - “Insure a future income”

• It is a reality that all of us will become old, and eventually stop work (eek!!).
• Plan for the day that you do stop working.
• Look at ways to maximise the earning potential of your superannuation (Aus), 401k (USA) or similar.
• Make sure your income will continue work without you having to physically work.
• Consider those who are financially dependent on you.
• Create safety through investment diversity.

7. Invest in your personal development - “Increase thy ability to earn”

• Strive to become wiser and more knowledgeable.
• We live in a very exciting time: the Information and Innovation Age.
• Knowledge is literally at your fingertips, thanks to the Internet.
• This is my approach to running my business: LEARN > EARN > GET > GIVE.

Bonus tips:

• Our ability to handle money successfully, will influence whether our dreams and desires are realised.
• “It costs nothing to ask wise advice from a good friend.”
• Saving money is important, but so is fulfilment. Learnt to enjoy life, without feeling the overbearing pressure to save.
• Paying your debts is a sign that you have respect for yourself (aaw snap!).
• My favourite tip: “The soul of a free man looks at the world as a series of problems to be solved. Meanwhile, the soul of a slave whines, “What can I do?””

Your turn:

• What 2 simple steps can you take, to create sustainable, significant financial change?
• Have you thought to yourself, "it's too late to improve my financial position"? If so, what are 2 attitudes about money, you could change this week?

Disclaimer: This blog/podcast/video book review does not contain financial advice.

Contributors vs Critics, PART 1: Troy Grant (NSW Government)

When it comes to voicing our ideas, we have a choice to be a Contributor or a Critic. Which are you?

In this episode, we take a sneak peek behind the political scenes with NSW state politician, Troy Grant. We look at how we can be involved in public debate, voice our ideas and defend truths, all without leaving a trail of emotional destruction behind us.

Episode Highlights:

• Understand the value of giving back to your community.
• Realise that your life experiences will shape the way you respond to others.
• Everyone has varying levels of resilience to criticism, politicians aren't immune.
• Social Media is a wonderful tool, but can also cause hurt through anonymity.
• "We get the government we deserve" - Thomas Jefferson.
• Public issues should be awarded attention based on merit, not on volume.
• Everyone has a responsibility to fact-check what we read in news channels.
• Read news articles in their entirety, rather than just scanning the headlines.
• Separate the content of an argument, from the character of the person.
• Before writing-off relationships due to a disagreement, pursue common ground and look at the 'scorecard' of the person's history with you.
• When voicing opinions, rather than simply repeating the problem, bring a solution or at least a solution-focused attitude to the exchange. 
• It's in our self-interest to be collaborative, both at work and in our personal lives.
• There's many opportunities to become involved in government, seek out how you can contribute to a local organisation.

• If you've experienced criticism as a leader, be encouraged. Recall moments when your investment has impacted others, then allow memory to motivate you to keep going.

About the guest, Troy Grant

Former Deputy Premier of New South Wales, Troy Grant is a former police inspector with 22 years front line service protecting the community. He has been decorated with the Commissioner’s Commendations for Courage on two occasions. 

His career highlights include serving as the Minister for Trade and Investment, Minister for Regional Infrastructure and Services, Minister for Tourism and Major Events, Minister for Hospitality, Gaming and Racing, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Justice and Police, Minister for the Arts and Minister for Racing. Troy was also awarded the National Police Service Medal in 2015.

You can find his full biography here.

Decision-making Simplified: Intuition & Intention

Blog: 12min  |  Podcast: 20min|  Video: 7min

They can take milliseconds or years to make, and can result in hope or heartache. Welcome to decision-making.

There’s already thousands of articles on the subject, so why publish another one? Here’s why.

Maybe you’re like me. Perhaps you’ve felt the obligation to make the right decision, every time. It’s never going to happen. Period.

However, in more recent times, I’ve figured out how to reduce the pressure I often self-impose. By simplifying my approach and managing expectations, decision-making now requires less mental energy.

“Successful people make decisions quickly, and change them rarely. Unsuccessful people make decisions slowly, and change them often.” - Peter J. Daniels.

By now, you’ve no doubt picked up that all my articles, podcasts and videos all centre on this single idea; unearthing simple ways to create significant outcomes. So, how can this be applied to decision-making?

What are 5 questions you could use to make better decisions?

You don’t need crazy, ugly, complicated matrixes.

I’ve bought a great deal of business books, attended seminars and listened to podcasts, many of which include tools to master decision-making. Yet many of them left me feeling a little confused - ok, very confused; I was nodding and smiling, but my were eyes glazed over... inside the matrix...

Image credit: Tumblr.

Many of those systems relied on you living a linear life, void of the randomness that a fulfilling life usually invites. Some of the systems presumed that you’d have a comprehensive checklist on hand, should a life-altering decision suddenly pop up.

“Making a decision takes a moment, living a decision takes a life-time” - Sherif A. El-Mawardy.

While it’s true that for our jobs/businesses, structured decision-making structures should be embraced, chances are your personal life isn’t quite as concrete.

You need a simple, intuitive approach.

Just because the clothes fit, doesn’t mean they look good on you (aww snap!). And that’s exactly how I felt about the methods I researched. So, I spent some time thinking about the problem of why they didn’t fit. And what I found, was, well, a bit embarrassing.

When I create client projects using design, photography or film, balancing the tension of form and function comes naturally to me. However, it seems that when it comes to my personal decision-making, it’s a different deal - emotional intuition plays a greater role (something you can’t find in a flowchart).

Solution: Intuition with Intention.

If we don’t use complex ‘systems’, then what do we use? If life is a combination of curves and straight lines, then the way we approach decision-making should be exactly the same.

I skipped the complicated matrixes and ugly flow charts, and instead taught myself to allow intuition (subjectivity) to coexist with intention (objectivity). By simply looking at decisions through both of these lenses, the answer eventually becomes self-evident.

Image credit: Pexels.

Putting it into action.

About 5 years ago, I bought a piece of land and built my first home. Needless to say, it’s a process that involves making a huge amount of choices; some small, some significant. Most of these are based on hard data, such as budgets, timeframes and product options.

However, it also involved making choices on the emotional side of the fence - soft data. The plot of land was located in an area of our city, which had a troubled history, but was undergoing a renewal. People were originally fearful of buying in the area, given its past.

For some reason, I knew that it was exactly what I needed to do. It turned out to be one of the best choices I've made. (Full disclosure: banks honestly don’t care about your intuition when it comes to loans!)

After sharing the idea with family and friends, I felt it was the right move. No doubt you’ve experienced the same thing. Moments when you just simply, well, knew. Listening to our God-given intuition and instinct is one the most powerful skills we can cultivate.

Your parents may have taught you to listen to that voice, and to trust your gut when it comes to reading people, choosing friends and making important decisions. There’s no hard data for that; but intuition does improve with practice.

The process.

Resist the urge to overcomplicate. Seriously! Let me share you how I deal with the influx of thoughts as they arise.

1. Write out the decision as a sentence.
2. Re-write it until you've created a more economical version, while still including the key ideas.
3. Underline the key actions/objects that the decision involves.
4. Look though the list of 'simplifiers' (below).
5. Hold your sentence up against your top 5 'simplifiers'.
6. Answer the questions that emerge.
7. If needed, repeat using different simplifiers, and more closer to your final decision being made.

Using 'simplifiers'.

Below you’ll find two lists of thoughts that I've used to analyse my decision-making over the years - 1) Intuition (subjective) and 2) Intention (objective).

From these two lists, I've chosen a handful to use as 'simplifiers', or key questions, that get used to process decisions when they come up.

Explore the two lists below, and choose for yourself five that resonate with you. When a decision arises, you'll then have five go-to 'simplifiers' to prevent you from overthinking it (something I've very good at!).

Here’s the top 5 ‘simplifiers’ that I've chosen:

• Could I be making a start while listening for a “No”, rather than doing nothing while waiting for a “Yes”?

• Am I making permanent decisions from a temporary emotional state?

• Will my choice be congruent with other areas of my life?

• Am I being more loyal to my past or my future?

---

Intuition

• Am I imitating other people’s decisions?
• Am I putting too much expectation onto this decision?
• Have I made time to listen to the small, quiet voice within me?
• What is my instinctive response?
• Will my choice be congruent with other areas of my life?
• Do I know my values? If I do, then the answer will be more obvious.
• Am I confident about making a choice? If yes, then insecurity won’t choose the easy way out.
• Will the outcome serve the bigger picture for my life?
• Do I acknowledge that decision-making will cause me to experience inner-conflict? 
• What’s my plan to deal with this inner-conflict?
• Have I considered the cost of regret?
• Am I listening for a “Yes” or a “No”?
• Could I be making a start while listening for a “No”, rather than doing nothing while waiting for a “Yes”?
• How do my choices demonstrate generosity toward the others involved?
• How do my closest family/friends feel about the options?
• After my choice is made, will I feel the need for other’s approval?
• Do I know the difference between a ‘good’ and a ‘great’ option?
• Is my choice a reflection of what I need or what I want?
• How can I attain perspective?

Intention

• I accept that significant decisions can be hard to make, and I shouldn't be surprised when they are.
• Do I have a track record for making good choices? If yes, be encouraged. 
• Am I making permanent decisions from a temporary emotional state?
• Is my physical state influencing my decisions?
• I know when to not make a decision.
• I know when to let others make a decision for me.
• I know that indecision is the most dangerous decision of all.
• Am I ready for change? If nothing changes, nothing changes.
• I am prepared to be either right, wrong or surprised.
• How will I collate the counsel I receive from my family/friends?
• I accept that sometimes the right thing is not the popular thing.
• Once I make a choice, I am committed to pursuing it.
• How will I balance hard data (objective) with soft data (subjective)?
• Is there a way to validate or stress-test a potential option?
• Am I being more loyal to my past or future?
• Am I being pressured into making a decision immediately, or can I have time?

Over to you.

• What 'simplifiers' did you choose? And why?
• What other tactics do you use to streamline your decision-making?
• Consider how the following is true for you: "May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears” - Nelson Mandela.