In the last episode I talked with neuroscientist Alexis Fernandez-Prieksa, author of the new audio book, How To Chase Change: 30 Days to Master Your Mindset. We hit on the concept made popular by Malcolm Gladwell in his book, Outliers, of how the world’s masters generally put in 10,000 hours. Now, I really appreciate Malcolm and the concept. And, Alexis brought up a point I not only agree with, but I’ve experienced. Simply putting in the hours does not a master make. It’s the kind of hours...

A 30-Day Guide To Changing Your Mindset. In my search for relevant messages on human potential, I have the top publishers send me their lists of new books. In a list from Simon & Schuster I saw, How To Chase Change: 30 Days to Master Your Mindset, and the title alone was worth a look. What I found intrigued me, starting with the author’s story. If you see Alexis Fernandez-Prieksa on social media, to me she looks more like an actress or social media starlet than a mindset expert. And...

As I wrap up our current discussion on purpose, calling, and destiny, I want to discuss a perspective I see derailing many people. The idea that you need to forge on alone. And be a leader calling others to you. In our social media culture it can feel like everyone is chasing the spotlight. Everyone wants to be, or feels they need to be, the superstar, in order to succeed. To have a platform and followers and an audience. Write a book, star in social media, start a podcast, and get enough...

I feel it can be very daunting to feel that finding your destiny is this epic, solo quest. In some ways I’d say much of the discovery is, as the answer is ultimately somewhere within you, not “out there” somewhere. But the living it out in your day to day world does not need to be a solo venture. You may not to be the leader of the quest of your life. It may be part of a group or organization you get to be a part of. I continue this week’s discussion on purpose, calling, interests and destiny...

In looking at our interests, another way of considering our purpose and calling, a key resource is connecting with other people. So we look at conferences, seminars and many types of networking events. Which are geared towards…extroverts. That’s who often hosts them and I find that’s who they tend to benefit most. Which leaves us introverts out in the wind. So what do you do? I feel it’s best to suck it up and you’ll need to make some social efforts, but you can do some things to lessen the...

I think at the end of the day we’d all give up anything, happiness, acclaim, status, just about anything, just to have purpose. Something we cared to wake up to and pursue that had any meaning to us. And I’m going to take that beyond family, which I’ll speak to in a moment. But I find we often handicap our thoughts towards purpose and calling by feeling it must be huge. It must be super altruistic. It must be saving the world. In the last episode I talked with Scott Harrison, celebrity...

I bring you a great story of…drive. And the fruition I find most people experience, where we start off in life driven by our base desires and find the shallowness and meaninglessness of it and wonder if this is all life has to offer. I’ve known of Scott Harrison for many years, but never got the chance to dig into his story and drive myself. Scott is founder of charity:Water and has literally put a dent in the global clean water crisis. He’s been so successful, not only do celebrities want to...

We live in a world led by personas. It’s interesting as the public outcry is for authenticity while we feast on the curated and highly edited images and videos on social media. At the core I feel we fear being authentic as we think we’ll be exposed and lose all credibility as we have relationship challenges, health challenges, mental challenges, financial challenges and more. So in this episode I have a story of someone with the perfect picture, who finally let it go and found not only...

My muse this week has been celebrity sports coach George Mumford who worked with the likes of NBA superstar Kobe Bryant. A key concept he worked with Kobe on was to “do the activity for the activity itself, not the result.” Friends, this has not been the guiding light of my life. I’ve historically looked at all I do as a means to an end. As a pro cyclist I often felt I was enduring 99 miles of racing just to get to the last mile where we went full tilt for the finish line. I unfortunately did...

Vacation is generally about pleasure and fun and feeding your senses with whatever flavor of happiness you like. So let me begin by stating I’m not giving a Pollyanna look at everyday life and making it equal the happiness of vacation. But the joy underneath vacation time is something different. It’s not the waves or rides or food or drink but the expectation of good things. This is what I see in the most successful. Truly successful. People. In my recent show with celebrity sports coach...

In the last show I had on celebrity athletic coach George Mumford who worked with the literal legends of the NBA, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal. His message in his book, Unlocked: Embrace Your Greatness, Find the Flow, Discover Success, is much about finding your true greatness. But are we all destined for greatness? Is it possible for all of us? Do we even want that? And then, what exactly is greatness? How do we define it? I’m not looking for a message that just makes you...

I grew up focused on performing. I’m an introvert who doesn’t care for the stage. The performing I’m talking about is being able and capable and winning and achieving and being limitless with no weaknesses. I found a lot of achievement, and heartache, by treating myself as a tool to achieve things. And I missed my potential. Being the fullness of me. In my quest, I’ve found George Mumford. George has worked with basketball legends Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, and countless...

I keep finding people wrapped up in feeling they must find this elusive, one-thing, holy grail calling on their life. I wanted to relieve the tension and pressure and showcase that our ultimate calling or purpose is not so confined. It’s something everyone has and it’s something you fuflil in all the roles of your life. This frees you up from thinking you have one, special application to apply this calling to. And what is a true calling anyway? I bring you on one of the world’s premier...

What is driving many people. Most of us. Is a lack of resolving. It’s politically correct to validate everyone’s pain and call it trauma. So on one hand you have an adult who suffered from severe abuse as a child, and on the other hand an adult who is still suffering from not making the football team. One was life threatening and the other was ego threatening. Making that statement will sound minimizing and likely gain me some criticism, but my point is to elevate the issue of resolution. The...

“Don’t be controlled by your emotions.” Think about that statement. It says to not be controlled by your emotions. As a culture and specifically with men over the span of history, I believe we misinterpreted it in two ways; 1) don’t show your emotions, and 2) let’s go further and label it manly and masculine and strong to just not have emotions. So we disdain showing and being emotional. And women we’ve deemed are more emotional and we’ve used their propensity to express emotions as weakness....

I spent most of my life ignorant of my emotions. Only to find that they were there, and in abundance. And I wasn’t ignoring them, I had just become a pro athlete in avoiding them. And I contorted and distorted my life and psyche around them as a result. As I found more emotional intelligence however, I just became aware of how terrified I was of my emotions.. It made no sense, but I couldn’t escape my irrational fear of emotions that, while they were not life threatening to me...

It seems everyone these days is anxious. On edge. Stressed. Even the seemingly chill guy is simmering under his skin with an overworked nervous system. That would be me. We medicate the symptoms and have just culturally accepted an anxious life. I’m not ok with it. Being at peace to me is power. It’s wisdom. And those at peace are who I want to be around. I don’t want to numb my nervous system, I want to master it. So I’ve brought you two masters. Karden Rabin is a nervous system medicine...

Following is a story that is far more common than we realize. A childhood trauma that directs our lives, for better and/or worse. When I first started focusing on drive and researching for my book, this is one of the earlier conversations I had with an influential person, digging into their personal story of drive. Ashley got a Master’s degree from King’s College London’s Department of War Studies, as well as a Master’s in Psychology from University of Santa Monica. She started her career in...

A popular topic when I’m being interviewed is my stance on drive. I believe every human has as much drive in them as anyone else. And further, that we are all driven. We are driven to be where we are and who we are. I’ve become known for stating that drug addicts are some of the most driven people on earth. But they are not driving forward, toward something positive and productive and fulfilling. All of us have all the drive we need and we are driven. But at any time, or in certain areas of...

In my continual research into human potential it’s ever more revealed to me that we are inherently most driven to protect ourselves. So when we look to our general behavior, this is what we find. Efforts to feel secure. I feel this is the root to our cynical nature, which was the focus of the previous episode featuring Stanford professor of psychology, Dr Jamil Zaki. His new book is Hope For Cynics and as I ponder our discussion I’m looking at our core beliefs and and making an effort to...

If you look at social media influencers, news headlines and commentary, late night TV hosts and a high percentage of the so called informed public, you find a consistent thread of cynicism. Cynicism is a general distrust and lack of faith or hope in humanity and it’s gotten to be viewed as clever and intelligent to take a cynical view of life, and naive to be hopeful and optimistic. My guest today has found opposing data. Dr. Jamil Zaki is a professor of psychology at Stanford University and...

I really appreciate taking a topic where we think we know what drives us, and discovering the motives are actually coming from somewhere else. It allows us to come into better alignment and realize more benefit. In this case, the concept is kindness. We think we should be kind because it’s the right thing to do. And if we’re kind, then others will reciprocate and be kind to us in return. It’s usually under the “should” category of life. We “should” be kind. Especially to those we perceive as...

We spend our childhood being labeled as to who we are. Then we continue into adulthood thinking of ourselves as who we are, like we are a fixed object. And yet when we look back to ourselves five or ten or 15 years ago, we often hardly recognize or remember that person. We have this concept of finding and figuring ourselves out. Anything that is growing, changes. While there may be some continuity in how you look and how you tend to think, who you are today will be incredibly different in the...

This show is called What Drives You. My book is called What Drives You. Because what drives you becomes your life. If we’re not getting what we want out of life, we are unaware of what is really driving us. Happiness, for instance. As a podcast host I am inundated with self-improvement books and personalities. There have been more books with “happiness” in the title than I can count in recent years. Why? It sells. We all think we just want to be happy. But I don’t see our cultural decisions...