Joe Rogan: Rising star

episode 134

SHOW TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to the moonshots podcast. It's episode 134. I'm your co-host Mike Parsons. And as always I'm joined by the man who embraces discomfort, like none other it's Mr. Mark Pearson. Freeland. Good morning, mark. Hey, good morning, Mike. How are you doing today? I am ready to embrace discomfort. I'm ready to get myself a moonshots turbo boost.

Where are we going for that turbo boost today, mark today, it really is a turbo boost. It's a very, very passionate chap that we're digging back into today because this is our last episode, Mike of the second rising star series. And today listeners, we have an absolute gem. We have Mr. Joe Rogan. Now, Joe, quite the accomplished chap.

I would say that he's the Renaissance man. He has created his own media empire. He's been a comedian. He's a pretty fit strong dude who you wouldn't want to meet [00:01:00] in the octagon of MMA.  But where you would like to meet him is some of his thinking on how we might be the best version of ourselves when you say yeah.

Yeah. He's been one of our. Individuals that we've revisited at least verbally throughout the last 50 Mike. And there's been 50 episodes.  He, his, his, his way of thinking and expressing it has really stuck with me. And I think there's a lot of themes and DNA strands and molecules that have been peppered throughout a lot of the individuals and the work that we've done ever since.

Actually, I, I would say he's definitely right up there. I think because of the things that I mentioned, he's done a lot of different things. I think he's actually done the reflection. He's done the work. He can talk about what it takes and I think he gives it into such a relatable way. I mean, I think [00:02:00] there's probably three themes that we're about to listen to.

That have stood the test of time. We are constantly cross-referencing whether we're when it was, when we were doing the Ryan Holiday show, when we're doing Adam Grant, Jordan Peterson, what Joe's thinking represents is some really powerful themes.  I mean, where should we start? My, what are the big three?

You think when we talk about Joe Rogan, Well, you've referenced something just then, which was around discomfort. Do you remember this idea of embracing discomfort, really seeking it out and finding that the obstacle is the way that is spot on with all of the run holiday series and actually a lot of the stoic elements that have come up in a number of the shows that we've done ever since the Joe Rogan episode.

Yeah. I mean, we even touched on that in that, just in that recent Jordan Peterson series, he was a lot about like get used to it. Life is hard. You'll even have some suffering in there, so just get used to it, get used to it, chaos. And that will take [00:03:00] you through to beyond order. Absolutely. And I think another build I'd go from the, the Peterson series was his idea of character stability and ownership.

And this was again, spot on with what Joe Rogan was really saying. Yeah. I mean, he used this great example. He says in the show coming up, he talks about, imagine if a documentary crew is following you. And watching your every move. I mean, you're almost, you're like, oh geez, I better be on my best behavior.

Now I, to be honest, that's been one of my favorite class since then, because it's so easy to actually do first of all, but it is a bit of a challenge, right? How am I reacting to challenges? How would my family like what I'm doing right now?  If they were watching me on TV  it's a bit of a challenge.

It is, but, but it's another great  it's, it's it really cuts through. It gets to you. It's like [00:04:00] embracing the discomfort, you know, being self accountable. I think if you, if you're going to be the best version of yourself, you need to be able to keep yourself honest. You can't rely on, you know, the teacher, the rule makers, you can't.

Expect others will police you, you have to police yourself, right? No, exactly. And I think that's the third  theme that really stood out to us that this idea of earning it, the idea of putting in the time I'm climbing that mountain, maybe bracing that discomfort being accountable and taking ownership of what you do and earning your success.

That was a huge call out. The Joe was, was revealing to us. Wasn't it? Yeah. And, and  I think it's really good advice. Not only to hear, you know, so-called when you're young that you want to earn it because it's going to feel good.  It really is backed up by facts. You know, so many people that win the lottery and no happier than the rest of us.

 What's also [00:05:00] statistically proven is once you earn $75,000 a year, there's really no difference between those people in the zillionaires of the world in terms of happiness. So money doesn't bring happiness. And I think we're all.  We all deserve  to be reminded of that. And if we want to feel a deep satisfaction, you know, sense of fulfillment in the work that we do, earning your achievements, earning the outcomes, you know, having the grit, having almost the ability to do the previous two thoughts, be accountable to yourself and embracing the, to kind of moment when you really get there and earn it, it feels pretty good.

Doesn't it? Yeah, it feels good. And you can sit back with the knowledge that you've put in all that hard work and now you can almost embrace whatever comes next. Exactly. So I think on that part, we should embrace the discomfort. We should earn it and dive in to the world of Joe Rogan. [00:06:00] What, what is the best way to live your life?

What is the, you know, there, there's gotta be ways where you can be putting forward the most positive energy. I mean, we know objectives, what's causing pollution. We know objectively what's causing birth defects and you know, and we're taking you too much chemicals and not enough vitamins. We know objectively, yeah.

All this stuff. We know how to organize our world. And yet we don't do it. We know how to organize our health. And yet very few people do it the right path to like being. Like a happy, healthy person is to do all the shit that we already know. You're supposed to do. Take care of your body, take care of your health, take care of your mind, your stress, meditate.

Be kind to people. We all know that. I mean, you ask anybody, they know how to get by and to beef. The, the, the. The most evolved version of you that you can be. I mean, it's not like a magical checklist and we talk to people about it. You said, okay, here, you got a person you want to improve them. What are the things you're going to do to?

Okay, well, if I was a life coach, the first thing I would say is this. Guy's got to get on a diet that makes it healthy. I don't mean a diet just to lose weight. I [00:07:00] mean, just healthy foods in your body. Many, many vegetables, vegetables, a lot of good quality protein, a lot of water stopped the sodas. Stop the bullshit, start working out your body and get a better sense of like how this machine feels.

When it's moving, it's flowing better. There's less tension in it. Your mind feels like relaxed and you enjoy every single moment of the day. Better step one. Everybody knows that step, right? Step to be cool to people. Be nice to as many people as you can smile at as many people as you can have them smile back at you tip.

Well, when you go to restaurants, just do the most. You can be as nice as you can, you know, and just still manage to not have people walk all over. You just get through this life and as nice as you can, what else do what you want to do with your life? Right? Don't don't go be doing something you don't enjoy.

Don't do something that's, don't get locked into, you know, a car that you can't afford and doing something crazy because you need the money. Don't don't do that. Do what you want to do. Cause if someone else is doing it, you can do it. [00:08:00] I did. I really, I really like what he sets up here. I heard a couple of things there, mark.

First one is, what are you open with this, this though, we all kind of know the right things to do and what, what he means by that. We all know we gotta like eat good, take care of ourselves.  You know, And  follow the right path. The trouble is the challenge comes in actually doing it. Yes. To me. That is so, so true.

And then he goes on to challenges, like you got to take ownership for that stuff.  I thought that that was like such a great opener for Joe.  It's really set us on the right course. He's like this mind, body soul thing. He has got a down doesn't he? Yeah. And then that's, that's why I liked it too. It's very, very, these tips.

[00:09:00] Aren't. Difficult, you know, as, as Joe himself calls out, we all know it. We know you're going to need, right. We know you've got to take care of yourself. We know that we should try and be nice to one another and, you know, be sensible about what we commit ourselves to. But like you say, the difficult thing, and I think what we're going to go and explore in the next few clips is, okay, well, how do we actually go and do it?

How do we take ownership for ourselves? And how do we take ownership for the actions that we do? And that's what I think Joe is. He's a good, a good individual to cover. I think he's got a lot of tips we can learn from what I also relate to a lot in that mark was this idea of like he talks about eating, right?

And as a practical reflection, the biggest change I've had in my career is in placing diet and exercise as core to my performance. [00:10:00]  As a professional at home to being a good, happy, positive person. To me, it all starts with sleeping well, eating well, and exercising. And isn't it. Isn't it fascinating how, before you get in the octagon to do some MMA or shoot hoops or the office, isn't it funny how these simple things become so fundamental to our performance?

I think actually what's, what's interesting looking at all of our sports innovative series, it's such a fundamental essence and core the idea of eating right, sleeping, well, exercising, putting in the practice and so on. And it seems so simple, but for some reason, it's so hard for many of us to do. It's very easy to not eat right.

Or exercise or sleep very well. It's very easy to stay up all night, bingeing on Netflix or whatever it might be. It is so [00:11:00] easy. Isn't it? And the worst one isn't the worst one Sunday night, you're all chilled. And you're like, oh, I've got into this series. I could just like. I could smash like a ton of episodes.

And then you're like looking at the clock and you're like, oh, I've got to go to bed. Like that is where the rubber hits the road. It totally is totally is pause it, pause it and get to bed. But that leaves, there are such easy tips and fundamental truths that we all know about. Again, this, this struggle of actually going to do it.

Yes, yes. That's where it is. That's where the rubber hits the road. And Joe is about to unleash on us how we address this. And the core thing is if you want to be great on the basketball court, if you want to be great in the office, it starts with your mental models. This is one of the biggest insights of the show.

And this next mental model that we've got is actually training yourself to [00:12:00] find happiness. In the discomfort, it's a hunt, it's a pursuit. It's a constant thing. That's going on all the time. And when you're in the middle of it in motion, that's when you feel your best. But the discomfort of that motion makes people so uneasy that they feel like, well, I'm going to go through this discomfort.

And then I'm going to get to a place of stillness where it's all gonna make sense. Finally, I made it. I'm here to tell you that fucking place doesn't exist. It doesn't exist. It's not a real place. It's a place that people look to as an inspirational goal, a destination. And that's going to be the thing that you work hard for.

You're going to, you're going to push until you get to this place, and then it's all gonna be worth it. That place is not real. If you have a million dollars, you want a billion. If you have a big house, you want a bigger house, you have to find out what actually makes you happy. And it's not, it's not having all your ducks in a row on paper, it's an improvement, it's improvement in the way you manage [00:13:00] your mind, it's improvement in the way you manage your emotions.

It's understanding how you've made mistakes and how to improve upon them, and also understanding what you've done. Right? And building upon that, all of those things are what make people happy, including love and friendship, and being good at that. Being a good friend, being a good lover, being a good neighbor, all those things, those aren't distractions.

Those are part of the big overall. So this, this is pretty. Pretty big clip because he, Joe is actually pushing against something that I think we all assume is the way to feel, you know, satisfied and comfortable are putting in the hard work. Eventually, it will take place and something will happen. We don't know what it is.

Maybe the idea comes to life or my product gets to the market, whatever it is. We just assume that we'll spend hours, days, weeks, maybe years [00:14:00] until a point where we'll just suddenly feel happy. And actually what Joe's saying here is it's not as black and white as that instead. It's all about the journey.

So you don't just wake up and say, Hey, good news. I feel really happy and content right now, instead of just calling out is improve the way that you manage the stresses that you experienced along the way. Maybe it is going back to what you were saying, like what you eat, how you sleep, how you practice or train during the days and gradually.

Identify those areas where you need to improve. That's when you start to feel happy. It doesn't necessarily about that final destination. Is it? It's the journey. Yeah. And I think there are some practical things that came to mind as Joe was speaking like there's this mantra, you know, if it hurts, you're doing the right thing.

Right.  And I think there's something here that he's like saying like enjoy the fact that you're continuously working [00:15:00] on yourself, continuously improving and when it's a bit tough and it's a bit ugly like just know that you're doing the right thing. And part of it is that this will never change this cycle.

This process of continually growing and challenging yourself. There is no Nirvana where the world is effortless because. That's just a false sword. I think what he's saying is to enjoy the hardship. Now here's how I do it. And I'm really interested to know how you do how you kind of kind of decode this map.

But for me, whether I run 10 Ks or five Ks, whether I do a hundred pushups or 10, the one thing I know is that I can be immensely proud that I got up early. I stretched, [00:16:00] I worked out and I'm ready to start my day and I might not be running the fastest in the world. I might not be pushing the biggest weights in the world, but I know I got up when I could have stayed in bed when it was really cold.

Like when I ran today, it was nine degrees Celsius outside. It was a little, a little chilly mark, but I almost. As I felt that chill there were very few people out at this time. I knew that despite the conditions on the outside, I still got out there and made it happen. That's a win. And to just enjoy hard work, I think there's a big message here.

So question for you, Matt, how do you kind of become your very best Joe Rogan? How do you find happiness inside of that discomfort? How do you, how do you remind yourself? Cause it's, it's a total mental model. How do you do it? Totally is. I just want to call out [00:17:00] the mantra that you just, you just said, Mike, which I really, really like enjoy hard work.

I think it's so easy to, you know, move on or forget about that essence, but it's something that we keep on visiting. Isn't it is that you're putting in the time? And actually, I think for me, the reason why I'm attracted to that as an idea is because I think that's where I get my satisfaction. You know, what you're saying is you got out there, you feel satisfied that you made the choice yourself.

You got out there, you, you ran, even though everybody who might've been out was wearing, you know, Willie hats or whatever it might be. You put on, you put on the liker and the shirt and you got out there. I think, yeah, for me, the satisfaction comes from knowing that I've taken that ownership and that I've gone out there.

But I think when I look at it, when I compare my training from an exercise perspective to my training, from a career perspective, that idea of difficulty exists in both spaces. You know, [00:18:00] it's difficult to get up when it's cold and go and exercise, or it's difficult to. Know how to respond to challenges at work.

I think the satisfaction comes from working really, really hard and getting to the end of the day or the week and sitting back, going home. I got through it and I did the best I can do. Yes. And for me, that I think is my motivator. I don't want to look back whether it's a week or a month or maybe 10 years in the future.

I don't wanna look back and think, ah, I could have tried that a little bit harder and our emotions are just like muscles. Like when we push them hard. They stretch and sometimes that stretching can hurt. But what we're about to hear from Joe Rogan is this idea that adversity itself is what makes you, and that is very similar to the hard work philosophies.

The challenge philosophies that we have from Serena and from [00:19:00] Michael Jordan. So we know this is a really big idea. So let's have a listen now to Joe Rogan talking about how adversity is, what makes you. I completely agree with you and we're going to get attacked for this by people who are unhappy with their choices in life.

And that's a fact, you know, there's, there's a, a bunch of people that will say, yeah, well I've a family. So, you know, it's all a great idea for you to just go out there and go crazy. I have people to support. You need to listen, stop saying that. Stop saying any of those things, every single person who has ever done anything worthwhile or exceptional or difficult or extraordinary anyone, whether it's great artists or authors or mathematicians or whatever the fuck it is, everyone encounters difficulties.

There is no easy road. It does not exist. It is impossible. Everyone has issues. If you [00:20:00] have time to pursue a hobby, if you have time to do anything in your life, you can better yourself. And here's one way you never better yourself. When you come up with excuses for why other people are successful. And you're not, that shit is fucking dangerous when you give yourself an escape.

Yeah. Well, that's easy for you too. You know, you do, do you need to trust me? Every buddy has a hard road. I wanted to jump out a window several times during my young life, I wanted to jump in front of a fucking train. Just ended because of too much pressure.

through hard times. We all go through depression. We all do go through doubt and then moments in your life where it's really fucking difficult. And you're trying to figure out what the fuck your path is going to be. It's hard as shit, but that is what makes you a person. And those difficult moments are what build your character.

Show me a great man. Who's the son of a great man. That's what we're saying. These kids that are born billionaires, you're fucked. You're fucked. You're [00:21:00] never going to be a self-made person. I think everyone looks forward to this utopian time where whatever motivates them, drives them, freaks them out right now can be set aside.

The work is done and you can just sort of. Watch the sunset over the pond. And the problem is this YouTube utopian vision of the future that we have is probably a carrot that's on a stick that we'll just never reach. And we keep working hard to improve our society and our life and ourselves and our families and our relationships.

Hoping that one day we'll achieve this ultimate peace. It's a big clip. You know, it's clay it's delivered in classic Joe's style.  You know, his passion just comes through everything that he does. Doesn't he, when he's a commentator or doing YouTube heavy, heavy clip.  But I think it has some really practical advice about how to build character and how to better yourself.

I love this idea of [00:22:00] don't go down the path of making excuses, identify when you're making an excuse. You know, whether that excuse is art too cold to go for a run or, or it's too difficult to have this conversation with a colleague or a client. And if you don't, if you recognize when you're trying to make those excuses, you can then turn yourself into a different direction.

And I think that's what Joe's really calling out here, which is don't take, take ownership. Don't go down the path of making excuses for yourself because everybody encounters difficulties, and no matter where you are, whether you're a sportsmanlike Michael Jordan or Serena, or whether it's me in Sydney learning what I'm going to do and my career and so on, these are all moments too, to sort of learning from don't you think I do.

And I think he sets us up really well and says everybody has adversity. Everybody faces do not think that anyone has the easier in the end. [00:23:00] If you look at successful people. There is always this self-made characteristic about them. And it's through overcoming adversity, which is really interesting because it's exactly what Serena said.

The things she likes the most are those who ascend for, and then ascend again which is really powerful stuff. And I think the, you were absolutely caught at the tip for yourself here is when you do not take ownership, when you want to blame others or make excuses, why you shouldn't do something, you know, is right, like eating well, sleeping well exercising, putting in the work to rehearse a speech, putting in the work to make a great document.

If you're if you find yourself making those excuses. The strongest people are those that can call themselves out. And this is, this is a really big idea, isn't [00:24:00] it? Yeah, because if you have the capacity to call your own BS and say, whoa, whoa, whoa. I always said I would run on a Tuesday. Why am I even entertaining the idea of running on a Tuesday?

It's raining lately. So worried I'm going to be running. I'm going to be hot anyway, like this is to me, the takeout, the reminder, like the best form of inner strength is the capacity to call BS on yourself. And it's such big. Challenge. I think you can almost imagine the little mental conversation in your head.

Oh, it's really cold. Another half-hour would be great in the bed. You know, then I didn't have to run, but I did run yesterday, so I don't really need to run today, even though I said, absolutely not. I'm sitting here with a smile on my face as we record this because I [00:25:00] know I do that. I know I call, I often, you know, we'll try and make an excuse and that discipline, I think it is.

Yeah, the ownership. That's where we've got to go and focus on, you know, identify those excuses and, yeah, like you say, call yourself out. Yeah. Yeah, because if you can call yourself out that inner accountability will be massive because not only will you be better because you're not relying on others to trigger your accountability.

But what will happen is you, your leadership? And making yourself accountable will only inspire others to make themselves accountable too. And I think that's, that's a huge takeout on, on that. Now, before we get into the next clip, we've got a few we've got, we should give our parental warning right now, Joe, he drops a few bombs, doesn't [00:26:00] he?

He does. He does. And by the time that the show goes live, you know, all of our listeners we would have, as you would have seen in the show description, you'll notice that we do put a little bit of a parental warning, a little black and white sticker into our description because you're right. Joe gets so passionate in a lot of these clips.

And if you've ever listened to the Jr on the, you know, Spotify or YouTube, he does drop a lot of bombs.  So yeah, we wanna, we want to call that out and apologize if anybody's, you know, finding it.  Upsetting. We try to limit our own language. We do, we do where we're wholesome young gens. So let's quickly recap what we've got.

I mean, we've got this north star of this that Joe is challenging and inspiring us to reach was a happy and healthier life. And it starts with knowing that discomfort is good [00:27:00] and adversity. If you can learn to embrace it if you can call BS on yourself, it is what really forges you at what it's, what makes you, it binds you together because your capacity to get over those little voices in your head is so damn important.

If you want to be the best version of yourself. So now we take a little bit of a turn because we're starting to frame, okay. The obstacle is the way (By Ryan Holiday: Buy on Amazon) we've got our inner stoic going. Joe's got us there, but what's to come now is the world can really open up. And this is a great clip. What we've got coming up.

It really is centering around our mindset and thinking about our future, thinking about our destiny and let's have a listen to what Joe Rogan called, the best advice he's ever heard. I think that a lot of people say, oh, I just want to sorta, they're kind of dabbling in the idea of improving themselves and the real way to do it is [00:28:00] you got to write down what the fuck you want and then go after it.

Because otherwise, you live in a sort of a wishy-washy world. You know, if you decide I'm going to get down to the bank, I'm going to do this. I'm going to run a marathon in less than five hours. I'm going to, you know, whatever the fuck it is. You gotta write that shit down and go for it. What I tell people is the best advice I've ever heard.

Is it live your life? Like you're the hero in your movie. And right now is when the fucking movie stars and your life is a shitbag disaster. Like every fucking Arnold sports nigger move, where he wakes up and makes a blender full of pizza and ice cream. And those guys were there, like on the break, they put the gun in their mouth and they put it down.

As you see a photo of their daughter, pretend that's you pretend you are right now, you're in the part of the movie that starts, and it shows you like a fucking loser and just decides not to be a loser anymore. Live your life. Like there's a documentary crew following you around and you are analyzing your own behavior, do what you would want to do so that your kids one day would look back at it.

See that documentary and look at it with pride, like, wow, my dad [00:29:00] was a bad motherfucker. He really did what he had to do. Wow. My mom really got her shit together. I love a success story, but even more than a success story, I like a dude who fucks his life up and then gets it back together. Again, story.

Those are my favorite stories and the way to do that. You gotta write shit down. You gotta think that you are the hero in your own fucking movie. And then you get to sit down and you've got to write shit down and write down what you need to do. Yeah. This life is fucking me over, man. I could have had this and I should have had that.

And why does this guy get that? And why does that guy get this and all things that are completely unrelated to you, all things that you find other people's successes, a downfall in your own existence, instead of being inspired, instead of choosing to be positive, instead of like improving constantly on the direction of trying to achieve whatever the fuck you have written down, you just sit around and spiral.

There's nothing more miserable than sitting around someone who's fucking complaining all the time was one of the most annoying things ever. Everybody hates it. When someone just sits around and they [00:30:00] complain about their life and they don't do Jack shit about it and you tiptoe around it, you don't know what to say.

Well, she gets upset when you bring that up. I don't want to bring that up and you want to go, you fucking crazy bitch. You know, what's wrong with your life. Stop, stop, announce it to everybody else and go out and fix that shit

timely warning. Don't you, man. That was good. Good timing. Like I say, well, we'll put a little warning in the description. Of course.  For all of our listeners, you'll, you'll already be aware, of Joe and his passion that comes through. So I still believe it's a great, great clip because it's full of quite practical advice and I'll come and say his, his the movie idea in a minute, but I just wanted to, to touch on the advice that he sort of gives right at the very end of that clip.

This is very, very similar to what Serina was saying last week, when you can come back from adversity or failure or real [00:31:00] challenges. That's when you're really, really interesting, or that's when you're already really rich, you know, you've, you've gone down into the valley of darkness and you've come back stronger.

You've come back more informed. And throughout our series of innovators, I think this as a, as a concept, this idea of failure is the idea of trying a product and then not quite working. That, to me is what being an innovator is all about. You go through that challenge and you see the challenges as opportunities, and you just keep on improving.

Totally agree. And I love the practical nature of writing it down because personally I have found journaling and writing your own FMH patients and repeating your own mantras are. Just the most powerful thing. Like even the most I'll get even more practical, even having an intention [00:32:00] the night before that you're going to run in the morning.

So what do you do? You put all your running gear out, ready to go, you know, setting that intention. You know what? It's actually really easy to get out of bed because you set the intention just the same as writing down your dreams, writing down your hopes, and repeating them. Like, to me, that is part of the thought becoming manifest inside of you.

That is part of it be, you know, the making it an inevitable truth comes from, write it down, like manifest it, put it in an asset. Repeat it, listen to it. Say it, celebrate it. Th that to me is, is that winning mindset that we're seeing from all of these athletes in the sports here, you're totally right. And taking a leaf out of Joe's advice in the previous clip.

I'm [00:33:00] going to, I'm going to take a moment. Dear listeners and Mike, I'm going to be accountable. I have always said that I would start writing down intentions, affirmations and keeping some kind of journal. I know Mike you've, you've spoken about it many times and I know you're very good at it. And I've listened and, and spoken on this podcast about it before, but I've always made excuses to not do it.

And that's obviously something that I can take ownership of. So from now on, this is something that taking a leaf out of Joe's recommendation here. That's what I'm going to try and do. That's awesome. That's awesome. Let me hit you with a couple. I've got my little mantra, at least open. Let me hit you with a couple of faves just to get you inspired and going.

Okay.  Some of these will sound familiar, some good wellbeing. You make your bed every morning (William H McCraven), active body active mind. Do [00:34:00] your most important work. The first reflection is the source of awareness. Focus on the things that matter stress relief starts. Breath. That was great, I love them. I, I, I actually have it to do is to, to actually read those once a day, once a day, I.

Do my very best to read one of my matches. Oh, that's great. It's funny you say to do this actually, because I also have a to-do list column of my own mini mantras, and I'd actually been populating them as you and I have been recording over the last few weeks. And let me just call out a couple because we're cause we're sharing stay focused, work as hard as you can.

What's your [00:35:00] ultimate goal? What do I feel good about from yesterday? I like that one. That seems nice. And that's something I think we've covered in a previous episode, you know, the idea of reflecting back on what I experienced yesterday, what was good, because I think that's nice to ground yourself in and something.

I think it must've been from MJ. Did you do everything you could to win the game?

I like that one just before we move on from, this clip though, Mike, I think we should, we owe it to our listeners to just revisit this idea that Joe is telling us about being the star or the hero of your own movie. Yeah. Good point where I was almost ready to move on, but there are actually two ideas in a clip.

You're absolutely right. What's your take on it? I, I love it. I've never actually, I've heard him talk about it. I've never actually heard anybody else talk about it before. I feel as though it's reiterating the sentiment of [00:36:00] a couple of the other clips that we've already heard from Joe, which is ownership.

When you can look at yourself, turn that like your own mantra, mic, turn their reflection on yourself for a second. And if I was to you know, unpack what Joe's talking about with this movie, Do I want to be older. Do I want to be a grandfather or a father of having kids? And then look back at what I'm doing now or in the past and have a sort of regret.

Is there an embarrassment that maybe I'd feel, or is there actually something where I can look back and say, oh yeah, you know what, if this was a movie I would be on the front cover of a magazine or there'll be lots of people queuing around the block to go and see this movie. I like this as a sort of thought, what'd you, what did you, what do you think I had a slightly different take.

I really like how you were presenting it, then it reminded me immediately of a, of little saying that you should only [00:37:00] do things today.  That would be reported in a newspaper that your grandmother reads tomorrow. Oh, I like that. And so the basic thing is like if your grandma knew what you were doing, would you still be doing it to upset their grandma?

Right. So I really like this idea of, if everything you did was viewable to those that matter to you, would you still be proud of yourself? And it's just another way of kind of awakening. You're like, hang on, am I on track? Am I doing the right things? And I think the other thing too, he's a little mental model here.

Imagine you're an actor in a movie it's also like you can overcome, you can beat the odds, right? So it's, [00:38:00] it's a very powerful setup because it's like, yeah, everyone has tough things. You too can get over it, but you have to choose to be the hero of your own film. And you can write the story. You're, you're not a victim, you can drive things.

And I think that's so important because I would characterize anybody who gets off track and yes, some people face great adversity greater than others. I know that, but anyone who gets off track inherently has forgotten that the human state has an infinite capacity to overcome challenges. And we just have to, it's easy to forget.

It's easy to have a fight or flight response, take a breath and remember that if you think differently. And if you own your thinking, you can truly be the hero of your own film. How good mark, how good is Joe [00:39:00] Rogan? So good. These are practical tips, you know, similar to what we were saying at the beginning of the show, a lot of the advice that we've been learning in this particular series of sports series, it's pretty practical.

There's a lot of eloquent and direct advice on how to go out and be the best version of yourself. But particularly in this Joe episode, he's calling us out. He's challenging. He's sound. Don't make those excuses. I'm excited by that. Yeah. Now we've obviously talked a lot about the sports series that we've done.

 Of recent shows.  What's, what's been some of your, your favorite shows or series that we've been doing? Well, I really enjoyed our media innovators series, so we covered Reed Hastings, Mark Cuban, and Bob Iger. And for me, that was a really, really interesting set of individuals to [00:40:00] delve into, again, very, very different from one another all very well very is probably an understatement all incredibly successful in their own fields and their own sectors full of a lot of practice and you know, pleasant advice to listen to.

Well, I liked that. I also liked the women in innovation series. And my question for you, the mark is where should one go? If one wants to hit the back catalog of the moonshots podcast? Well, We, you can go and visit our archive shows all on www.moonshots.io, but similar to where you're probably listening to our dulcet tones coming through your ears today, you can find us on Spotify, on apple podcasts, overcast, all sorts, all of your favorite podcasting platforms.

We also upload our [00:41:00] shows to YouTube.  And we can't quite say that, you know, we, we, haven't got to the level of recording you and me, Mike, from a video perspective, but you know, maybe we'll tease that in the future. That, that, that could be just that into, to the last few clips of Joe Rogan.  I feel like this is the perfect clip to hear right now because we know that we've got to work hard.

Embrace the discomfort adversity is gonna make us have the right mental model. To go forward and to be the hero in your own film. Now, this sort of presents us to a moment in time where we might be getting out and about in the world, trying to make things in the sports field, in the business field, at your home, with family, with friends.

And what happens is you start to become aware of other people's expectations of you. And now we're going to hear  Joe [00:42:00] Rogan calling us out and making sure that we don't get stuck. When you're alone with your thoughts, you get an idea of what your thoughts actually are. If you live your life, just acting constantly on the momentum of other people's expectations of you wanting to be liked by these other people, you can run into you a trap and you, you, you set up a life that you didn't really want.

You're fucked. You're, you're, you're trapped in this situation where you have a mortgage, you've got credit card bills, you've got student loans, you have to pay, you have a bunch of shit going on. Do you have to continue to feed and all that? And especially if you have a family and you have to feed them, oh my goodness.

Then you're fully locked in. You can't take any chances whatsoever. And oftentimes people make the mistake of getting stuck. And it is just a tactical mistake, just like it would be a mistake. If you got stuck on a video game, just like it would be a mistake. If you followed a map incorrectly and you get stuck in the woods, your life is certainly some sort of a journey.

It's certainly [00:43:00] some sort of a journey. And we have to all be aware that when we're making journeys, we're not going to always make the right steps. And sometimes you have to back up and try again. And if you're in a position where you can't back up and try again, You've trapped herself and the system will set out honeypots for people to get trapped in the system.

We'll set out the ideas of retirement, the ideas of the golden years, providing you benefits, providing you a healthy work environment. Why? Well, because they want people to work for them. They don't want people to realize their own dreams and escape. Those that's the fucking pain in the ass. You gotta hire more people and train them and they want to set it up so that you stick around.

Stick around in some sort of an unsatisfying world. It's up to you to see that video game problem, to see that issue as it comes up on the map. No, and I think this is a right turn to see all the problems that could potentially lay in front of you and calculate your future. And then also look around all the people that didn't do it and look at the misery that they're in and learn that you don't want to be like them.

And then look at the people that have kind of [00:44:00] taken chances and navigated their way. What did they do differently than you? What, what objectivity do they have that maybe you lack what insight into their own mistakes are they willing to delve into that? You're not, they, you step back and you go, you know, I don't just don't.

I just don't want to look at myself that closely, but the person who's able to look at themselves, the closest is going to get them more rational results. The, you know, cause you're your own architect, you know what I mean? It turned out. How you sort of, I want to be like Shaquille O'Neal, shit's not going to happen.

You know, if you want it to be like tall black guy, really the odds are slim. The, the piece of that clip that I want to call out and unpack, I think, is having the awareness that sometimes you will make a step that's wrong. You know, whether it's on a map or a video game or career, whatever it might be.

There are times when you might go down the wrong route or path, you might not make the right [00:45:00] steps. So make sure you've got this ability. And I don't necessarily, I know Joe's talking very practically around jobs and mortgages and so on, but just to take a step back from that as well, I'm thinking more from a mental awareness and an agility perspective, know that if you take that step back, You can reflect on it.

You can learn from it and you can get better because of it rather than thinking, oh no, it's hit the fan and this is it.  I'm done. My, my all my hard work is for nothing instead of having that awareness of okay. Right. It hasn't quite worked. Okay. But Y let's revisit this, let's unpack this let's work on it as a team, or let me, you know, go to my journal and write it down because then I can continue getting better.

Yeah. He is challenging us right here [00:46:00] and saying, if you're off track it's invariably, because you're not reflecting yourself. You've been taken off track by other people's expectations. So to bring this 360 to one of his earlier points is. Cool BS on yourself, know where you truly are, make yourself accountable to your hopes, your dreams, not those of others.

And you can stay on track. And we've talked about journaling. We've talked about mantras, whatever it is that you can use, use it as a forcing factor to bring you back into reality, to self-awareness and to be mindful of where you are. And to ask the question, am I on track to be the best version of myself, or am I sort of cheating here?

Am I stuck in the video game analogy, mark? I think that is. I mean, it's pretty, Perusall loosely. [00:47:00] It's pretty brutal. Again is  I think  it was clicked three. This idea of don't make excuses. I think, again, this is, you know, demonstrating that, so don't make excuse about, oh, I've gone off track or I'm distracted because of, you know, unreal expectations and have that, as you say, reflect, take a moment to reflect upon yourself and yeah.

Cool. BS. Cause when you do you, you can only get stronger and better. Yeah. And I think that becomes a springboard to positive thinking. It becomes a springboard to imagining the possibilities. And we got a really tasty clip now to really launch you out of the doldrums, out of the tough, hard yards of Joe Rogan, let's listen to the man himself talking about happiness and a positive mindset.

Look, I I've had moments in my life when I haven't been happy when I felt like shit. [00:48:00] And then I have now, or I could not be happier. And when I look at my life, what has changed physically in my body will actually, I've gotten older. So thinking about my past and my, you know, my, my history of martial arts and all that, my fault, my body should be a mess.

It should be in pain all the time. I should be. You know, you know what I mean? Like I shouldn't feel better and more happy and vibrant today than before. So why do I, well, one of the reasons why is because I don't have any negative shit in my life anymore, I don't have any bad people in my life. I don't have a bad job.

I don't have any negative thing. I don't have any things that I'm trying to avoid. And when you don't have anything, you you're trying to avoid, you have happiness and it takes a while for people to recognize that your there's a direct correlation between your state of mind and your state of existence.

And if you get both of them in line, You get both of them in line. You can have a good fucking life. You don't have to be rich. Rich is bullshit. That's not, what's important. You know what you have to do. You have to have enough money, so you don't have to worry to have enough money so [00:49:00] that you can feed yourself so that you can take care of your family.

And that's what you need when you get crazy. And you want to, you know, stacks of money and big, that's just another form of obsession. The keyed, all this shit is balanced. You know, the key to the whole thing is balanced and it's a constant struggle. If I, if I slip for a couple of weeks, if I don't go in the tank for a couple of weeks, if I don't write for a couple of weeks, if I, I can go a week without working out, anytime I do anything where I throw off the balance and I don't do the work that I'm supposed to put in, I feel the difference.

I feel I feel less capable when I sit down and write again, I feel less, less vibrant.  When I train, I don't feel as good when I go on stage, I feel like I'm wasting something. I feel like. I feel like I have been gifted with an incredible opportunity and incredible moment in time and incredible, just very, just an incredibly fortunate [00:50:00] and fortuitous roll the dice.

And I feel like it's an insult to the gods. If you enjoy, you know, you enjoy that, but then you neglect it and you let it rot away when you got it right there. That's what I, when I say that, I think it's, then all of us do the work. Have I liked? I'd like this, this is again, something that Joe's revisit a couple of times in some of our, the eclipse, once you put in that hard work, you're going to feel great because.

It's the, it's the reflection or the challenge that you give yourself that you're going to get the most satisfaction from? I think that's, I think that's where he's going with that. When you challenge yourself with exercise or stretching the abilities of your mind. So, you know, learning some new when you are removing those things around you, that might cause you discomfort or negativity.

Once that awareness, you know, that's when you're going to be happy, productive, and be the best [00:51:00] version of yourself. I mean, what, what are you getting from it?  Totally just get rid of negative things and negative people so that you can be looking forward rather than fighting behind you. And you're right.

It's just get the negative things out and keep your balance. Good sleep. Good exercise, good diet, great work, good friends. Like all of that stuff. It's a balancing act and just. Make sure it's a net positive. I think that's, that's really what he's encouraging us to do.  How do you, how do you know when you've got good people around you, mark?

What's your checklist? It's, it's a good question. And actually to maybe even expand it a little bit not only is it a challenge to understand whether you've got the right people around you. I think it's also whether you think you've got the right [00:52:00] balance around you, you know, balance exercise food. And so for me, I think when I, when I approach people, I think that there's, it's a very, very easy to navigate to individuals or people who are really, really relaxed.

It's very, very easy to find people or, or, you know, Maybe it's behaviors or maybe it's just moments in your life that are very, very relaxing. And I think that's good. I think there's a part to play for being relaxed and not doing anything at the same time though. The danger that I think, and the awareness that Joe is obviously talking about here is that it's very easy to go for the easy things.

It's very easy to fall into a habit of it. Okay. Well, I'm going to hang out with so-and-so because they are, you know, totally relaxed. Nothing happens versus, okay, well, I want to go and [00:53:00] do something. What's the productivity piece, whereas the exercise of my mind, as well as my body, you know, I think there's a balance, which is exactly what Joe's talking about in that Clint, just then.

Well, you've got to have a little bit of lots of people in your life. You know, you've got to have the productive and proactive ones. You've got to have relaxed ones who know how to get up, have a good time. You've got to have the stable ones, the ones who are, you know, maybe a bit crazy  because once you've got that good mixture, that's where I think that balance comes from.

Yeah, absolutely. And what's so great is this all comes together in this idea of a pathway to success. This all comes together, that through this hard work you can really get what you deserve. And if you can thrive in the discomfort and the hard work and have an idea [00:54:00] about what the best version of yourself can be, just go for it and make yourself accountable, being incredibly positive, surround yourself with positivity and great things can happen.

So let's have a listen now to the last and final thoughts of the man himself, Joe Rogan, and you got the money and that funny, like that's one of the worst things you can do is like win the lottery or get a big inheritance. You would think getting a big, big inheritance would be amazing for you. It's one of the worst things that can happen terms of like your ambition.

If you're in the middle of doing something, you got some ideas or maybe you don't know what you want to do, and you need to find something you're hungry. And all of a sudden you just get a giant chunk of money, and now you're buying things and your ambitions gone and know what to do. I don't mind giving somebody startup money.

You know, you have to give you a child, some type of startup money. You know what I'm saying, wrong with that, but I'm still, I'm talking about like winning the lottery. [00:55:00] Like people win the lottery. It's like there's a giant percentage of them that ruined their life giant. I feel like they've done all these studies on people winning the lottery.

So what is it because I'm giving you a bunch of money. You didn't earn it. Like I'm giving you a bunch of money, for sure. Like, think about you and all the money that you've earned in your life. You've earned it. You do all these shows. You've, you've built up a successful standup career. You built up a successful podcast.

You've done a lot of film TV. You've worked, you've worked right. And you've gathered up and you make a good living now, you know, but this is all from work, right? There's a buildup to it. It makes sense in your head. There's an effort. There's a reward for that effort. There's a motivation. There's disciplined his focus.

And then there's a payoff for all that. If you just get the payoff with no discipline, no focus, no lessons learned. It's just not a healthy way to exist. It's terrible. That's why rich kids are so fucked up. Rich kids that grow up with trust funds are [00:56:00] all fucked. Not all of them. A giant percentage of them are.

I knew a guy who was a rich guy and his parents were fucking billionaires. And he grew up with two trust funds. He burned through his first trust fund, fucked that up. And then they had a backup trust fund for him. He was buying houses and flipping them and losing money and investing in businesses. And they all went under.

He had no discipline, no understanding of what money really was and no hunger, because he never had a time in his life when he was poor. He never had a time in his life where he was worried about paying the bills. And if you don't have that and you don't have that real motivation, I just don't think you ever really appreciate success.

The people, I think that appreciate success are the people that worked for it. You know what? You can remember. Back when you were poor, like I've had people say to me, like, why do you do so many jobs? Why do you have so many things you do? Like what, what, why do you keep moving? Why do you do so much?

Because I remember being scared. I remember being broke. I remember having no idea where the fuck the money was coming from or what my future was going to be. And I [00:57:00] was always terrified of being a loser. That's that feeling of not succeeding? Is what motivates you that knowing that you've failed in the past and that, you know, there's been many times where like how many times are you bombed and you get off stage.

You're like, I can't do this. I'm not a comedian. I'm fucking terrible. I got to figure out what the fuck I'm doing with my life. If you don't go through those things, if you don't have those experiences, if you don't have those moments in your life where you're unsure of the future, you're not going to have the real resolve that it takes to make it the grit and determination that it takes to move forward.

And if you don't have that, any success that you do have, you're not gonna appreciate nothing comes easy. And if it does come easy, it's not, you don't have it. You don't, for me, that's that clips a really good summation of the show so far and all these, all these clips that we've listened to from Joe  you know, giving monologues as well as interviewing some [00:58:00] of his guests, like in that final clip, just then it's.

Bringing it all home in that final thought, which is you've got to have that awareness that we were talking about earlier and accountability, the ability to not make excuses, but instead to work hard and earn in advance where that motivation comes from. Because if you know that you are accountable and that where you're going to end up is all down to the balance that you keep, whether it's friends or work in life or healthy, healthy eating exercising.

When you know that you are going up against the discomfort, when you are viewing challenges as opportunities, and you're seeing ways to improve yourself, that's where that, that ultimate motivation comes from and where you finally earn that success that, you know, we're all working towards. I think that's, that's a nice [00:59:00] meaty clip to kind of bring us home.

It is nice. Nice. I like the thoughts and look, the takeout here for all the previous clips is if you do all of those, what Joe is really telling us is if you've worked hard, if you've really earned your success, their success feels so good. It's deeply gratifying when you've worked hard and something that didn't always look like a home run that took a lot of cold mornings and late nights, when you finally get the achievement that the deep sense of satisfaction and fulfillment, it just permeates through your entire body.

And I know when I haven't put in the work, I just don't get that feeling. And when I do put in [01:00:00] the work. How good does it feel, mark?  There's, there's been plenty of times that you and I have collaborated and done work together. And that final moment when either you deliver it or you've got the results back from something, and you just look at your colleague or look at your own reflection and you think, yes, I did everything I could like MJ would say I went onto the, onto the court and I played as hard as I could Serina.

I am embracing adversity and I'm coming back up from that failure. I am making it a success again, when I can look back and be a, the front page of a magazine that, you know, maybe my grandkids or even my grandma is looking at, am I going to be proud? You know, that's, that's what I think motivates all of our sports innovators as well as I think all of the innovators that we've covered in the past.

[01:01:00] I totally agree. And it was a fitting final clip. It's been a, just action packed show that has really taken the essence of Joe Rogan. This idea that adversity is what makes you embrace the discomfort. Great lesson. What a great way to round out the final approval. Three parts sports innovator series, mark.

It has been so action. Packed, but my question would be is where do we go next? It's been action packed. I think you and I, we need to go and get some sports massages, you know, work out some of the exhaustion that we've had from playing basketball, into tennis, into a bit of MMA.  Next we're going to shoot for the stars and actually we're going to go for an individual and entrepreneur that we have covered on the [01:02:00] moonshots before, but his career and his work is, it just never ends.

And it just gets bigger, bigger and better, I think over time. So what we're going to be covering in our next episode, big episode 81 is going to be Elan Musk. Yeah, Ilan is back and he's done so much. He's so prolific that he deserves his own show every six to 12 months. And I think you know, launching a rocket into space with astronauts that makes the cut for me.

So I'm really looking forward to that, mark.  It's going to be action packed and I wanted to say, thank you to you for helping  us all dive into the world of these sports heroes. Really.  It's been so full of learning. I mean, they are just so sharp on these mantras for success, aren't they, they really are.

And like you say, they're very, very [01:03:00] articulate and proactive in having formulas that I think we can all go and replicate. Yes. I think that's the big, that's the big tagout I've found. Yep. So there you have it, everyone that is Joe Rogan, that is our sports series brought to an end, a very fitting into, I must say.

And it has been all about hard work in whatever flavor you like it. Start with the hard work, start with the positive mindset and stay the course and good things will happen. What a great series. And just when you thought there was no gas in the tank, we're going to return to the man himself, Mr. Elan Musk in the next show.

So mark, thank you to you to all of our listeners are the countries. They just keep joining. It's so exciting to see the moonshots family to grow, to put in the hard work, to learn from innovators. So a big thank you to you all. We've come to the end of [01:04:00] this book series, but there's plenty of more to come on the Mintos podcast.