Episode #13: Developing the Ideal Mindset and Disposition for Peak Performance with Brad Kearns
The Primal Kitchen Podcast
Mark Sisson & Morgan Zanotti
4.4 • 717 Ratings
🗓️ 2 April 2014
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Brad's message emphasizes three themes that counter the narrowly-focused rat race mentality that equates dogged hard work with success without considering the big picture. In the presentation, Brad gives examples from his nine-year career as a professional triathlete (coached by Mark Sisson!), where he learned the lessons of success and failure in an intense and dramatic manner. In the athletic arena, personal frailties and flawed perspectives are exposed for all to see with sub-par performances or difficulty functioning in real life despite material success. Brad explains that to truly experience peak performance, you must:
1. Balance Stress and Rest: This includes all forms of stress in life, as even pleasurable events such as workouts are a form of stress to the body
2. Release Attachment to the Outcome: Don't attach your happiness or self-esteem to the results of your endeavors. Pursue peak performance goals in the workplace, in fitness/athletics, and even with body composition for the right reasons - for the love of the journey, the appreciation of a healthy, balanced lifestyle, and the thrill of the challenge.
3. Cultivate an Intuitive Approach: Reject the obsession with consistency promoted by conventional wisdom when it comes to fitness, diet and even career goals. Listen to the little voice inside of you that knows the right thing to do, whether it's back off on your exercise schedule to get more rest, move to a new city for a career change or pursue an interesting relationship. Your mind and body are not robotic and will thrive with a more fluctuating and open-ended approach to peak performance.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | And I went through these cycles. |
| 0:03.7 | Welcome to the Primal Blueprint Podcast, where I would struggle from our studios in Malibu, California. |
| 0:10.1 | And get too serious and push myself too hard and make bad decisions and training. |
| 0:15.8 | Welcome to the Primal Blueprint Podcast. |
| 0:18.9 | I'm your host, Brad Kearns. |
| 0:20.8 | And this week we're going to give |
| 0:22.7 | Mark Sisson a break from the in-studio recordings. We'll be back with you next week with some |
| 0:27.0 | Q&A and some hot topics in the primal scene. But this week, we thought we would play a recording |
| 0:33.0 | of my presentation at PrimalCon down at Dreams to Loom earlier in March. And what I spoke about |
| 0:40.4 | was cultivating an ideal mindset and disposition for peak performance. And I gave examples from |
| 0:48.2 | my nine-year career as a professional triathlete when I was coached by Marxistin because I feel |
| 0:53.7 | the athletic |
| 0:54.3 | forum gives you an opportunity to learn the lessons of life and success and failure in a very |
| 1:00.7 | intense and dramatic manner and it carries over into all the other challenges and goals that you |
| 1:05.5 | face in life. So I told some stories and showed some funny slides of guys dressed up in old school competitive racing uniforms. |
| 1:13.6 | I hope you enjoy the show and look forward to talking to you next week with Mark Siss and this is Brad Kearns. |
| 1:18.6 | I was a professional triathlete for nine years, competed on the circuit all over the world. |
| 1:25.6 | It was a long time ago. So, |
| 1:28.3 | like, the older I get, the faster I used to be back then. And I feel very comfortable, just, |
| 1:34.2 | you know, marveling at my performances and all that since the years passed. And it's like, wow, |
| 1:40.0 | that was me. I don't even recognize that guy. But I did go to work in a Speedo every day, as you could see. |
| 1:45.4 | So, you know, as an athlete, you're very exposed. You learn the lessons of success and failure very intensely and dramatically for everyone to see. |
... |
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