Jerzy Gregorek | Hard Choices, Easy Life: A World Champion's Philosophy on Living Well

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We cannot be completely satisfied because if we are, then
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we'll never create anything better or more. Okay, if we
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are in a place that we want only satisfaction and
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not getting better, being satisfied means also the living that
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doesn't have any meaning, that doesn't fight for anything better,
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for more, for society, for yourself.
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What's the key to living a better, longer, and more
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meaningful life isn't more exercise, more will power or endless planning,
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but understanding how to make the hard choices, embrace this
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comfort and take full responsibility for your body, mind, and relationships. Today,
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I'm talking with Jersey Grigork, a four time world weightlifting champion,
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poet and creator of the Happy Body program, about discipline, joy, longevity,
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and the art of living well. All right, welcome to
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another episode of the rackal Responsibility Podcast. My name is
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doctor Fleetball, your host for the Rack of Responsibility podcast,
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and I'm really happy to be here today with Jersey Gregork.
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Welcome Jersey, Yeah, thank you, thank you for invising me.
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Has it Yeah, I've been looking forward to those conversations. Well,
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I really like your credo that hard choices, easy life,
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easy choices, hard life, that is certainly played out to
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be true in my life in spage decade after decade,
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So Jersey, You've lived quite an extraordinary life, being an olympian,
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a world class powerlifter, and a philosopher, a discipline and
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now president of the Happy Body. I'm wondering if, looking back,
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if there was a defining moment when you realize that
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strength alone without responsibility to self, you know, doesn't really
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lead anywhere, that the real power had to be internal,
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and how that relates to you know, the basic background
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of our Radical Responsibility podcast is the power in living
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a choice and taking full ownership for the circumstances we
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find ourselves in moment to moment and the choices we
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make in response to those circumstances. So I wonder if
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there was a moment when this kind of became apparently
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clear to you and then that kind of set the
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trajectory for your life and career.
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Well, at certain point in my life I realized that
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I had choices that I didn't live the life without them,
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And I think that the biggest one was that solidarit
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when I was in warsaw and studying at the Fire
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Protection Academy and there was a choice to do this
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strike because the government wanted us to fight against demonstrations
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and color water and arrest demonstrants after solidarity demonstrants after demonstrations,
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recognized them and arrest so we began to strike. We
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didn't want to do that, and that was our choice,
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and the choice was moral responsibility for ourselves and the
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way we were going to live life. So we began
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to strike and the strike was put down a ten days,
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and then we lost their careers and then some of
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us were underground, and after four years I had to
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live our country. So there is a even in the
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darkest moment, we have our choice and maybe we don't
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see it, but it's there and to be aware of
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it is very important. And when we are free, there
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is no freedom without the choice right. So the freedom
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comes with a choice. But when we have a choice,
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we have responsibility for that choice. And it showed up
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really how we live our life. So if we want
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to see whether we were responsible for our choices, we
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can look at our past. So where is my past?
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And Poland and Solidarity, we disagree with the government risk
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our lives because of moral choice, and I'm glad that
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we did it, because the Poland today is free Poland,
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and we contributed little to that the wholeness, and every
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one of us contributed something. If we didn't fight, then
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possibility of Poland today free maybe wouldn't be there. So
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when the President of Poland was giving me the medal,
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he said, I was nine years old when you risk
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your life and fought for the free Poland that I
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live in, And he said, I'm very thankful for that.
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So that some kind of collaboration in life is that
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every one of us adds to the wholeness that eventually
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becomes free.
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Well, it's amazing a story in history. How were you
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when that began, when you started striking and refused to
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arrest the demonstrators in that way, I.
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Was twenty seven years old and I was ready to
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finish ish my study, to graduate with engineering diploma and
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start my life with Vanilla and be a chief somewhere
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at a fire department. Then my life would be awesome
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and great and I love in environment.
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You grew up and came of age under the communist
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era in Poland And where there were still choices, and
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you chose to be a fireman. You probably could have
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had a good careers requirement, but there was certainly less
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choice than what we think of as a freer society
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as Poland is now, as the US is now in
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most western countries.
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Yeah, we were living in a place where we could
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lose our life and a day. So even though I
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was a fireman, but I had to be careful how
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I interacted with the chief right so, and anybody around
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that would be from the communistic party. So if I
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didn't smile the right way or be antagonistic to, you know,
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people that were in power, I could lose my life
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and then about it. So we had some choices, extremely limited.
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We were not as limited as slaves, right that had
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only one choice live or die. You know, we hit
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a little bit more and definitely, like you said, people
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in the West have a lot of more.
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Yeah, yeah, this is very poignant for me. I've been
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going to Poland every year for almost twenty probably twenty
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five twenty six years now as part of as Them Peacemakers.
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We hold a what's called a Bearing Witness retreat at
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the former Nazi concentration camp els with Berkernaw and Ociansum
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every year and I've developed many, many friendships in Poland
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and when we first started going things, you know, it
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was it was post Communists era, but things were still pretty.
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Drab there, you know.
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And then Polish has become a flourishing society and it's
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just such an incredible artistic aesthetic and technology. It's really
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an amazing country. And I love the Polish people so much,
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and I have a lot of friends, and I among
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my friends are some who are involved in the Solidary
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movement and it's been really interesting to ours in that
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and have a relationship to Poland in its history and
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its present course of events. So I really appreciate you
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Storing being able to interview you. So, you know interesting,
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I had one friend who was younger and her parents
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had that's all they ever knew, had been the Communist era,
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and they kind of they were working class people, and
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they kind of appreciated the predictability and the security of
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their lives. I guess they weren't particularly entrepreneurially minded, right,
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And of course she was so grateful to live in
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free Poland, right, and she's you know, artistic and entrepreneurial,
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but you know, her parents kind of longed for that
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more predictable, seemingly secure where you had a job you
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just had to show up for, you know where the
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length of your and you know, that's kind of a
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it's interesting to whatever degree, even here in the West.
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And I think it's part of the message of this podcast.
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We may find ourselves, you know, sort of drifting between
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looking for the security and the non challenging life and
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the illusion that that could be somehow an easier path,
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as opposed to leaning into a little more risk and
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entrepreneurial kind of spirit and be willing to really embrace
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our choices and see that we have so much possibility
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in life. Right, And so you obviously embrace that and
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decide to immigrate to the US. And again I want
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to focus on that statement that you're somewhat famous for
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that easy choices, hard life, hard choices, easy life.
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So how did that unfold?
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You couldn't have been easy coming here and starting all
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over and having to establish yourself.
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When you think about easy choices and hard choices. Is
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anything that requires effort and progress and improvement and challenges,
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you know, is hard. So to create goodness is hard,
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to create improvement is hard, And to be responsible it's
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hard too. It's easy to give up your freedom for security, right,
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So why I love America is that I know I'm
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left alone to live my life. And it means also
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that I am responsible for my life. And you know,
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I didn't have it much in Poland. So I really
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love to be independent and I love to live my
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life the way I created. I decide and I have
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choices about how to spend my money, and I have
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responsibility for taxes and contributing to the wholeness to the country.
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But I am left alone with the way I want
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to distribute it where I want to put it. And
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I love to be in a country like that. Socialistic
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country has more like I was in Sweden, and the
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Sweden was more so solistic country. They would give you
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a lot, but also they would take a lot from you.
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And supposedly it would be okay with everything what you
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were given, but what if not, so then it didn't
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work for you, right, So they were you know, these
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gymnasiums open and free riding and medicine and everything else,
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but it was not really much of you there.
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Yeah, I think that's an ongoing dialogue and cultural phenomenal people.
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You know, where do we want to be.
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An aspectrum from you know, a completely free enterprise system
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and to a more social democratic and somewhere or maybe
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a sweet spot in there somewhere. But yeah, I certainly
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appreciate the freedom that we have here in the US
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and in terms of making the hard choices and the
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notion of discipline altogether, I think depending on our upbringing.
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You know, those of us have grown up in the
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West off and have a lot of internal self criticism
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and self shaming, and as we've kind of inherited it
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from the culture in many ways, and so we can
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turn discipline into a should or further way to kind
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of beat up on ourselves.
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And I know one little I do a lot.
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I'm very disciplined person, and I spend two and a
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half hours on training my mind every morning before my
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day starts. But one of the things, one of the
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small things I do is after I take my hot
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shower every morning, I then step into the cold shower.
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And my body does not want to do that, and
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I do it for a number of reasons that cold
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immersion has health benefits, but also right there at the
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beginning of my day, I'm letting myself know I'm in charge, right,
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but it's not punishing myself I could easily if my
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you know, my old patterns of self criticism whatever, could
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flip that and know I'm punishing myself, But I'm not.
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I'm actually I try to get under there and actual
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experience the.
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Exhilarating quality of the cold water, and.
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You know, experience it is something really positive, even though
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part of me does not want to do it. Right, So,
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how do we embrace discipline, especially physical discipline, without you know,
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turning in a way, you know, kind of trying to
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beat ourselves towards success, right, you know, how do we
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do it in a way that's really you know, in
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my Buddhist training, we say that that actually discipline leads
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to joy and freedom as opposed to discipline being a burden.
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But that's a switch that I think we have to
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learn to make.
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Yeah, well, you know what is at stake here is
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you're talking about to live the life to improve. And
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once we want to improve, then the challenge is presented
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and how to do it, and when the effort is
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needed to actually do it, then we give that apport
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sometimes and we fail. And then when we fail, that's
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the beginning of how we believe and how we think.
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If we are hostile to ourselves. Then we you know,
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don't think about ourselves as we are good or we
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are capable, in that has an extremely negative effect on
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what we're actually doing. So the wisdom here is to
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fail and focusing on what we are doing and not
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whether we failed or not. So we're thinking shifts. If
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we are negative about what we do, we're thinking shifts backward,
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and we are studied being judgmental about that we are
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not good enough and we'll never be able to do it. Instead,
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in a healthy way, if we failed, we go to
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another lift right, another effort, and try to fix it
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and keep working on it until we find a way
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without any expectations, expectations comparisons the reasons why we live
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the life that is very hard for us because we
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pick up the easy choices of blaming complaint and then
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the effect of it is really hard on us.
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Absolutely, And you make a really important distinction there, which
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I think has to do it all the ways in
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which we maybe are wanting to, you know, evolve and
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move our life forward. And in that, you know, if
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we started thinking, well, I can't do it, or I failed,
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or I'm bad or I'm insufficient, you know, we're identifying
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with it right, reinforcing a negative idea. Instead, we can
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just say, okay, let me look at what I did,
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let me look at the technique, let me look at
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my approach, let me, you know, make another effort, maybe
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correct something this time. And so I'm not identifying so
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much with the result, or I'm just it's just something
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I realized. Like anything else, you get better and better
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the more you practice it. Right, we can do that
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somewhat with focusing Instead of focusing so much on self
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identity other than that, I'm somebody who keeps trying. But
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other than that, we can focus more on the process
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than identifying with it. What if transformation isn't just about
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thinking differently but feeling differently. Science shows us that true
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change happen when we align not just our minds, but
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also the neural networks in our hearts and guts. This
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heart mind connection is the key to deeper healing, resilience,
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and expanded awareness. That's why I created the Heart Mind
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all access, membership and community, a space designed to help
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you rewire your nervous system, cultivate heart intelligence, and live.
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With greater clarity and purpose.
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00:15:35.279 --> 00:15:39.919
and experts in neuroplasticity, all sharing powerful tools to help
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you shift your mindset and heartset, regulate your emotions, and
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connected and conscious life, I invite you to join us.
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Clip the link to learn more and start your journey today.
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Yeah. More on their solution. What is the solution and
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not that people didn't create the solution. So it's just
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sometimes hard for people to create the solution and it
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needs more time sometimes and if we are hostile to
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people that try to create something, then they will of
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course need more time to create it will not feel
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good about what we about our attitude toward them if
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we are their leaders. So in order to make it
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really healthy and possible for their solutions to be found
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in the shortest period of time. We have to create
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the atmosphere, let people take care of how to find
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a solution, and not give them the solution, but waiting
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for that solution and be patient, and is going to happen.
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When people are happy, they work more.
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Absolutely so, Jersey and Rack responsibility. As I mentioned before,
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we talk about taking one hundred percent ownership for really
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our inner and outer lives, for the circumstances we face
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moment to moment, and some places we can see where
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we created some of those circumstances or at least participated
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in the arising of those circumits. In other cases we
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may see it. You know, I really didn't have much
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to do with it, but we still have a choice
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to make at that point, right, And you've said often
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said I think that the body never lies. And so
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how does the physical body expose the places where maybe
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we're avoiding responsibility or avoiding ownership, whether it's emotionally, relationally, spiritually,
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what have you. How can we have the body be
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something that kind of is a truth teller for us.
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Well, the body receives the way that we care for it.
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So the body receives all the care and if it
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doesn't receive care, receive something else and can be harmed
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and when it happens, can be in pain, can be
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in discomfort, and it will tell us. And we have
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the power to feed it the right way, to move
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it the right way, and we have the power to
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destroy it right, we have the power to heal it.
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We have the power. Our mind is everything what really
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happens to the body, and we are responsible and represent
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for that body. And the body is a great communicator,
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you know, it tells us that if something is wrong,
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it tells it and we have to really look into
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that with love and care, with healing and kindness, and
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if we do, then we can find what bothers the
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bout it and find a way how to resolve it,
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how to heal it, what the body wants to get better.
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And if we are you know, really kind and healers
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will find a way. We will find what's what the
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body wants.
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Yeah, absolutely, And you know we in the rack responsibility
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kind of philosophy, we say, the kind of magical rack
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responsibility question is what can I do? And so that's
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that solution focus. You are talking about whatever circumstances we
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find ourselves in, no matter how challenging, how unjust, how.
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Terrible, whatever it might be.
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If we just ask ourselves that question, we've shifted out
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of any kind of victim mindset or any kind of
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disempowering mindset into what can I do? Well? There's always
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a million different things we can do and try. We
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can experiment with this, experiment with that, so well, if
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it's achieve it's what can we do right? Or in
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add is what can I do? And it seems like
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you really embrace that solution focus. And also I want
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to come back to this idea about easy in heart choices,
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because you know, when I grew up, I came of
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age in the nineteen fifties and sixties, and my father
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was pretty conservative, and he was definitely, you know, recommending
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this is the way discipline, you know, and you know,
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for whatever reason, I wasn't responding well that. I just
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kept looking for an easier, softer way. The whole counterculture
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happened and I went headlong into that. And there were
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reasons for that. The nineteen fifties society in the US
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was pretty controlling and suffocating, but nonetheless, that choice to
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pursue an easier and softer way led me into addiction
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and the chaos eventually in the prison and all kinds
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of things before I finally woke up and realized the
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power of living a choice. So it's just such a
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critical distinction. And you know, we live in a culture
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today that's just engineered for comfort and convenience. It's all
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about comfort and convenience, and that can be such a
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you know, a gravitational pull for people to get addicted
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to comfort, and they even have the entirely like I
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shouldn't have to experience this comfort, you know, where whereas
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human beings were you know, hundreds of thousands of years
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dealt with discomfort, we can't even imagine just to survive.
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And suddenly here we.
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Are feeling entitled to live in a cushion world of
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NonStop comfort and convenience. So I wonder if you could
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talk about the impact that you see that having on
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people and how we can shift out of that too,
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not again not to punish ourselves, but just to embrace
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the kind of way of being with life and this
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issue of comfort and discomfort that actually moves us forward
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because you know, being willing to challenge ourselves, because if
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we don't, not much happens.
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Yeah, we can look at that from many perspectives, I
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guess you know. One of those is, let's say body weight,
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and when body weight is higher than normal, people become
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bigger and because of that they could live a lot
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of shorter se The research really points to one thing
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that when people when the research on the rats and
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mice and monkeys showed that when the food was restricted
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limited and as we're not satisfied completely, then they turn
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themselves into survival and healing and getting better and lived
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about forty percent longer. So you could think about that
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we cannot be completely satisfied because if we are, then
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we will never create anything better or more. Okay, if
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we are in a place that we want on a
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satisfaction and not getting better, Okay, that's what the person's
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believe is that also we are responsible for society and
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for the voice of society. So we also need to
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talk that. You know, being satisfied means also the living
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that doesn't have any meaning, that doesn't fight for anything better,
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for more, for society, for yourself, so that in order
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to be in that place, we need to overcome something
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that is really difficult. Hard. So that's the hard choice
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comes in that you know, we need to be in
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the places that something is hard for us, and that's
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the only way actually to become better, to improve something
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that without the existence of it will be satisfied. Easy
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choices will be presented and we can never evolve, we
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can never get better, We can never really fight with aging,
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deterioration and getting worse over time.
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Yeah, you pointed to something really important.
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I think one of the most important elements or principles
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for our mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing is having a
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sense of meaning and purpose in our lives. And we
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create meaning through our struggles, Right, That's how we create meaning.
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And this idea of I love this.
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If we're completely satisfied all the time, where's the motivation
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to improve to grow and where the challenges and us?
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Where's the meaning? And you know, there are many modern
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conveniences that we can use to support our growth and
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prioritize our time. But there's a difference between using the
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conveniences of modern life to support our growth and create
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more possibilities as opposed to creating just a never ending
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state of self satisfaction or something or comfort.
404
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You know, where's the hard choice? Right? If we have
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enough money for anything. What we want to do? Then
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what right? So should we go to Hawaii and smoke
407
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cigar and waiting for death? So what to do? There
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is always there's always something to improve, to get better,
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to be responsible for the society. Stoics approach is that
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they believe that nature brought us here, and we are
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responsible for the nature. So we are responsible for educate ourselves,
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think and evolve and to serve back the nature with
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everything what we would become. And that drove me crazy
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all my life, you know, I really thought about that,
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and that's how I lived my life. I am evolving.
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I'm responsible for that nature, for my you know, mother,
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and my planet than the wholeness.
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So I don't know what your age is, and you're
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comfortable disclosing that on which one of us is older.
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I'm seventy six. I was born in nineteen forty nine,
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and I'm very happy what you talked about. You know
422
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that the research that shows research with rats and mice,
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so if they have less food than would be fully satisfying,
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they're actually motivated to the physiology shifts and ways that
425
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are actually healthy for them. And I weigh less today
426
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than I think I weighed in high school, and that's
427
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been It's been a long journey because I got up
428
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to Yeah there were times forty years ago when I
429
00:25:48.799 --> 00:25:51.160
even got over two hundred. But I spent much of
430
00:25:51.200 --> 00:25:53.720
my adult life in the one eighties and one nineties.
431
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And I weighed one sixty one yesterday, and I think
432
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that's less than I weigh in high school. I still
433
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need to get I think I need to break down
434
00:26:00.640 --> 00:26:02.599
into the one fifties to get rid of a little
435
00:26:02.599 --> 00:26:05.119
bit of visual extra visual fat. I still have that
436
00:26:05.200 --> 00:26:07.279
belly pat but I'm really happy to be there, and
437
00:26:07.319 --> 00:26:09.559
I feel so much healthier. So I like to talk
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about aging and this idea of maybe aging even as
439
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a radical act, how we embrace aging. So obviously you're
440
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probably in the second half of your life at least
441
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we none of us know how long we're going to
442
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be around, but long if you could, I wonder if
443
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you could talk about your own process of aging and
444
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how you've related with that.
445
00:26:25.880 --> 00:26:28.839
Well, you know, my brother was born forty nine, so
446
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I was born fifty four, so I'm seventy one.
447
00:26:32.680 --> 00:26:33.599
Oh you're a youngster.
448
00:26:34.119 --> 00:26:38.680
Yeah, youngster, yeah, young boy. You know, for me, when
449
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I look at aging is very interesting from the perspective
450
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of my life, how I lived life. What is interesting
451
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that I always was telling my clients and other people
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that you should always hire somebody older than you to
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learn how to live life, and not the younger unless
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you have some other thoughts. So, you know, like when
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I look at aging, I look at the research, but
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I look at one hundred years old people that lived
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life and learn from them. So I look into a
458
00:27:19.519 --> 00:27:25.440
lot in the bloe zoms and analyze the way of eating, movement, exercise,
459
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and then there's very clear that they didn't exercise much.
460
00:27:29.559 --> 00:27:34.319
They have just very limited way of exercise. So they
461
00:27:34.359 --> 00:27:38.799
either do gardening or walk up the hill and not
462
00:27:38.839 --> 00:27:42.839
really much of it. They mostly they have plant based
463
00:27:42.880 --> 00:27:49.920
diet and not overeating. It's a lifestyle, community lifestyle that
464
00:27:50.559 --> 00:27:55.160
they are happy with themselves. You know. I watched this
465
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documentary from Costa Rica and then they said that they
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didn't have medical insurance, but they are responsible for everyone.
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When somebody has something, then they contribute money and they
468
00:28:10.039 --> 00:28:15.880
actually help. So they live very healthy way, so nothing
469
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happens really to them and they believe that is the way.
470
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So I learned not to exercise too much. I learned
471
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to smile and to be happy and to enjoy life,
472
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because I think it's important. Hard I learned that you
473
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cannot be too big, because you know the way, it
474
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creates inflammation and creates problems and gets heat. The body
475
00:28:42.720 --> 00:28:46.240
becomes hot. And when the body becomes more and more
476
00:28:46.279 --> 00:28:50.319
and more skinny, lives long and it's cold. It's cold,
477
00:28:50.400 --> 00:28:53.440
but it's not Why is it cold, Because it's not
478
00:28:54.039 --> 00:28:58.559
overworking too much. The fairness is not too hot. So
479
00:28:59.079 --> 00:29:03.319
everything is limited to what is really needed and there
480
00:29:03.400 --> 00:29:08.440
is no access. Access is very interesting in life from
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the perspective of enough, What is really enough? Really? What
482
00:29:13.680 --> 00:29:17.039
do we need? Do we need really so much? And
483
00:29:17.759 --> 00:29:22.200
do we need really more than we need? So these
484
00:29:22.200 --> 00:29:26.839
are a lot of questions about exercise, about the food, meditation.
485
00:29:27.279 --> 00:29:30.680
Do we need meditate five hours a day or is
486
00:29:30.720 --> 00:29:34.319
it enough twenty minutes twice a day. Is it enough
487
00:29:34.400 --> 00:29:38.960
exercise thirty minutes a day or five hours in the gym? Right,
488
00:29:39.039 --> 00:29:43.279
So there are questions about you know, the food, exercise,
489
00:29:43.440 --> 00:29:48.519
And there is somewhere, there is balance, somewhere, there is
490
00:29:48.960 --> 00:29:51.880
a way, and some of us get a little bit
491
00:29:51.920 --> 00:29:55.319
better in one and the other one, but definitely those
492
00:29:55.359 --> 00:29:59.440
who live more than a hundred. They did something right.
493
00:30:00.160 --> 00:30:02.920
Absolutely, Yeah, I want to explore more of this whole
494
00:30:02.920 --> 00:30:05.720
issue of exercise and everything with you. I watched a
495
00:30:05.839 --> 00:30:08.880
news magazine story on TV a while back, not too
496
00:30:08.960 --> 00:30:11.079
long ago. It was focusing on one of the blue
497
00:30:11.160 --> 00:30:14.559
zones in Costa Rica, and they had this gentleman who
498
00:30:14.680 --> 00:30:17.599
was a composino cowboy, kind of out in the country
499
00:30:17.680 --> 00:30:19.880
kind of character. And he was over one hundred I
500
00:30:19.880 --> 00:30:21.640
think it was one hundred and three, one hundred and
501
00:30:21.680 --> 00:30:23.759
four or something, and he's still getting on his horse
502
00:30:23.799 --> 00:30:26.400
every day. And I was quite amazing, Right, he still
503
00:30:26.480 --> 00:30:29.240
rides every day, and he was quite a character. He
504
00:30:29.319 --> 00:30:31.839
was joking up with the interviewer and you know, he
505
00:30:31.960 --> 00:30:34.880
was quite a character, and he was clearly enjoying life,
506
00:30:34.920 --> 00:30:37.319
you know. So I think there's a real key there
507
00:30:37.359 --> 00:30:40.440
that enjoyment quality. And there's also our relationships, which I
508
00:30:40.519 --> 00:30:42.519
want to come back to in a moment. But first
509
00:30:42.519 --> 00:30:44.519
of all, let's explore this eye. So it's interesting to
510
00:30:44.559 --> 00:30:46.799
hear you say that, you know, you learn to not
511
00:30:46.920 --> 00:30:50.079
exercise too much. Now you're a weightlifting champion and you
512
00:30:50.119 --> 00:30:52.720
look like you're in pretty good shape now. And I
513
00:30:52.759 --> 00:30:55.480
also want to talk about you know how we work
514
00:30:55.559 --> 00:30:59.519
with pain, both physical pain and then obviously emotional pain,
515
00:30:59.519 --> 00:31:02.200
different kinds to pain. But so talk a little bit
516
00:31:02.200 --> 00:31:04.119
about your journey. I mean, I don't know whether you
517
00:31:04.160 --> 00:31:07.359
were primarily a weightlifter in your early years and now
518
00:31:07.400 --> 00:31:10.079
you've moved to more balanced apposed to physical health, or
519
00:31:10.119 --> 00:31:12.960
what is your relationship and to exercise and your philosophy
520
00:31:12.960 --> 00:31:15.640
around that, and also in terms of working with pain
521
00:31:15.680 --> 00:31:17.720
that kind of inevily comes up in life, whether it's
522
00:31:17.720 --> 00:31:18.960
physical or emotional pain.
523
00:31:19.480 --> 00:31:24.200
You know, weightlifting is with savior for me, and weightlifting
524
00:31:24.319 --> 00:31:29.839
is anaerobic training, so it's really not much training. The
525
00:31:29.920 --> 00:31:34.079
more intense we become, the less we train. To understand that,
526
00:31:34.400 --> 00:31:38.519
Let's think about your saying bold, right, you know, training
527
00:31:38.599 --> 00:31:43.400
coming out of blogs, and let's say he's in blogs
528
00:31:43.440 --> 00:31:47.599
and coming out after three seconds stops running, right, So
529
00:31:47.720 --> 00:31:53.920
the longest around that he does is only within the competition,
530
00:31:54.160 --> 00:31:58.319
it's just ten seconds. But in training he does something
531
00:31:58.359 --> 00:32:01.400
for three seconds and the rest for three minutes, and
532
00:32:01.440 --> 00:32:04.359
that's another three seconds, and the rest for three minutes
533
00:32:05.119 --> 00:32:09.720
and an hour twenty times three seconds is only one minute,
534
00:32:10.039 --> 00:32:13.359
So he doesn't do anything for fifty nine minutes and
535
00:32:13.480 --> 00:32:17.279
does only for one minute. That one minute creates the
536
00:32:17.319 --> 00:32:20.519
best runner in the world, the fastest human being on
537
00:32:20.559 --> 00:32:22.920
the planet. You know, weight lifting is kind of the
538
00:32:22.960 --> 00:32:27.039
same thing. You do the snatch, It takes two seconds,
539
00:32:27.400 --> 00:32:29.920
and then you resk for three minutes and you do
540
00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:33.799
another one. So it's not much truly training, but there's
541
00:32:33.839 --> 00:32:36.480
a lot of talk between and so on, and that
542
00:32:36.599 --> 00:32:40.640
creates the best applets. When you think about when you
543
00:32:40.640 --> 00:32:44.319
look at the Olympic stadium, what do you see? You
544
00:32:44.359 --> 00:32:50.240
see athletes throwing things, jumping right and running fast. So
545
00:32:51.279 --> 00:32:53.920
and then when you look at the pole volters, Wow,
546
00:32:54.319 --> 00:33:01.720
but the beautiful bodies they have, right, it's amazing bodies that,
547
00:33:02.440 --> 00:33:06.559
you know, So the body has to somehow we've stunned
548
00:33:06.680 --> 00:33:10.799
you know much what is needed. So if the bar
549
00:33:11.039 --> 00:33:14.240
is you know, five meters up there, so the body
550
00:33:14.319 --> 00:33:17.680
needs to match it in order to overcome. And every
551
00:33:17.799 --> 00:33:23.200
level brings the same story. So when jumper, the long
552
00:33:23.319 --> 00:33:26.200
jump is there and the record is there, the flag
553
00:33:26.279 --> 00:33:30.720
is there, and the brain starts really rolling toward how
554
00:33:30.799 --> 00:33:34.920
to train, how to spend next five years to really
555
00:33:35.039 --> 00:33:39.240
jump further than that, And that's in a way creates
556
00:33:39.440 --> 00:33:44.480
this kind of training, creates the happiest athletes, never exhausted,
557
00:33:45.119 --> 00:33:50.359
never tired, and smiling, laughing. Look at those sprinters when
558
00:33:50.359 --> 00:33:53.440
they finish the sprain, you know it's like nine seconds,
559
00:33:53.519 --> 00:33:56.480
the seconds, and they hang out and you know, like
560
00:33:56.640 --> 00:33:59.359
you could see that they are really happy. But look
561
00:33:59.400 --> 00:34:03.240
at the the runner's ending the run after two hours,
562
00:34:03.279 --> 00:34:07.160
they exhausted, tie, some of them collapse and Okay, so
563
00:34:07.680 --> 00:34:10.480
we are talking about the choice. It is make your
564
00:34:10.519 --> 00:34:11.920
choice for me.
565
00:34:11.920 --> 00:34:13.039
This is really good news.
566
00:34:13.159 --> 00:34:17.079
I'm very busy leading my company Heart Mind, and so
567
00:34:17.400 --> 00:34:20.559
I need to be efficient about how I use my time.
568
00:34:20.599 --> 00:34:23.039
But I'm really focusing on health. And so it's been
569
00:34:23.039 --> 00:34:25.320
a number of years now that I learned from so
570
00:34:25.400 --> 00:34:28.599
many different people. One that if somebody wants to be
571
00:34:28.639 --> 00:34:30.880
an endurance runner, that's fine, it's what they want to do.
572
00:34:30.920 --> 00:34:34.280
But it actually there's no research that says endurance athletes
573
00:34:34.360 --> 00:34:38.159
have longer lifespans. There's actually what really comes into place
574
00:34:38.239 --> 00:34:40.760
more your VO two max, which you don't need to
575
00:34:41.039 --> 00:34:43.800
be an endurance athlete to increase your VO two max.
576
00:34:44.159 --> 00:34:47.480
How efficiently your body uses oxygen and so you know,
577
00:34:47.920 --> 00:34:50.920
rather than you know, the spending hours on a treadmill
578
00:34:51.039 --> 00:34:53.320
or a bicycle or rather than you know, I really
579
00:34:53.400 --> 00:34:56.639
learned to do intervals in a short period of time
580
00:34:56.679 --> 00:34:59.800
with cardio, and then for my weight training to do
581
00:35:00.039 --> 00:35:02.440
the model that I've kind of embraced is where I
582
00:35:02.559 --> 00:35:06.000
do one set of twelve to exhaustion. I have enough weight,
583
00:35:06.119 --> 00:35:09.039
whether it's tension, resistance bands, or it's weights I'm lifting
584
00:35:09.480 --> 00:35:12.079
to get to that point of exhaustion with twelve lifts,
585
00:35:12.119 --> 00:35:14.280
and over time I can increase the weight, but so
586
00:35:14.400 --> 00:35:16.079
I can go down. In fact, I did a workout
587
00:35:16.119 --> 00:35:19.239
this morning. I did my usual weight workout with mostly
588
00:35:19.360 --> 00:35:22.039
arms and some legs, and my little home gym just
589
00:35:22.039 --> 00:35:24.159
took me about twenty minutes. If I go over to
590
00:35:24.360 --> 00:35:27.400
the Y the YMCA, where we do more extensive workouts,
591
00:35:27.440 --> 00:35:30.119
I might spend a half hour to forty minutes at
592
00:35:30.119 --> 00:35:33.159
most doing the circuit. Right, But I'm really happy that
593
00:35:33.320 --> 00:35:34.039
I don't have.
594
00:35:34.000 --> 00:35:35.559
To be a gym rat to be healthy.
595
00:35:36.039 --> 00:35:39.039
Right, And so obviously that's been your experience as well.
596
00:35:39.559 --> 00:35:45.400
Yeah, too, think about Vio two Marx is hilarious. Is
597
00:35:45.679 --> 00:35:46.880
relating to them.
598
00:35:47.360 --> 00:35:49.679
Yeah, there are people that live long lives, you know,
599
00:35:49.719 --> 00:35:51.840
that don't do much or what we think leads to
600
00:35:51.920 --> 00:35:54.519
longevity other than be happier, have the right diet, or
601
00:35:54.559 --> 00:35:57.800
have good community, have good relationships. But they may be
602
00:35:57.960 --> 00:36:00.400
also I think we have to be a little way
603
00:36:00.400 --> 00:36:02.840
of exceptionalism because just the fact that they're in these
604
00:36:02.840 --> 00:36:05.159
cultures there are people who live over one hundred doesn't
605
00:36:05.159 --> 00:36:08.320
mean that's the baseline or the average or something so
606
00:36:08.519 --> 00:36:10.760
but clearly I think it does. You know, there's a
607
00:36:10.800 --> 00:36:13.280
whole biohacking movement today and there's a lot going on
608
00:36:13.320 --> 00:36:16.320
there in times of really understanding the deep research on
609
00:36:16.480 --> 00:36:19.000
how we can extend longevity, perhaps even you know, in
610
00:36:19.079 --> 00:36:21.679
the one hundred and ten hundred and fifteen, if people.
611
00:36:21.400 --> 00:36:22.679
Wanted to the other even beyond.
612
00:36:23.079 --> 00:36:26.119
But I think you know that Harvard study of adult
613
00:36:26.199 --> 00:36:30.000
development that my friend Robert Waldinger is the current leader
614
00:36:30.039 --> 00:36:33.840
of points to that they followed a group of men
615
00:36:33.920 --> 00:36:36.440
and then their spouses and now their children for ninety
616
00:36:36.519 --> 00:36:41.360
years and they found that barnun the leading contributor to
617
00:36:41.760 --> 00:36:45.760
longevity and health span, not only longevity but healthpan has
618
00:36:45.800 --> 00:36:49.159
been the quality of people's relationships that they had committed
619
00:36:49.199 --> 00:36:51.000
relationships at one time or another.
620
00:36:51.519 --> 00:36:57.880
Yeah, well, that's definitely a community important element of loving
621
00:36:57.960 --> 00:37:03.559
and happiness and enjoying time together I remember Tim Ferries
622
00:37:03.559 --> 00:37:06.199
asking me a question, was his success for you? How
623
00:37:06.239 --> 00:37:09.760
you could measure that? And I said, well, you know,
624
00:37:09.840 --> 00:37:13.360
if you kind of have a dinner with another couple
625
00:37:13.960 --> 00:37:18.480
and four people sit at the table and they enjoy
626
00:37:18.559 --> 00:37:23.199
life together and they like each other in every way,
627
00:37:23.400 --> 00:37:28.159
and next day nobody has a hangover and they really
628
00:37:28.280 --> 00:37:31.800
are looking for another one another dinner like that, and
629
00:37:31.840 --> 00:37:35.360
then when you have ten thousand dinners, then you die. Okay,
630
00:37:35.440 --> 00:37:38.199
that's kind of a life that we live, and our
631
00:37:38.280 --> 00:37:42.239
success is actually have these dinners. The truth is that
632
00:37:42.280 --> 00:37:45.199
people don't have these kind of dinners. There is always
633
00:37:45.199 --> 00:37:48.920
somebody that doesn't like somebody, and then these dinners are
634
00:37:48.920 --> 00:37:53.639
not good. So to really have a good time, it's
635
00:37:53.880 --> 00:37:58.840
our responsibility to really how we can find people, how
636
00:37:58.880 --> 00:38:02.599
we can find people that when we sit together, we
637
00:38:02.760 --> 00:38:05.320
like each other, We like each other in four ways.
638
00:38:05.679 --> 00:38:08.400
You know, it's hard to even put three people together
639
00:38:08.480 --> 00:38:11.880
they like each other four. Wow. Dinner is a challenge.
640
00:38:12.119 --> 00:38:16.239
Dinner is a challenge to enjoy a relationship on that level.
641
00:38:16.719 --> 00:38:21.719
And then if we enjoy relationship at that level, of course,
642
00:38:22.320 --> 00:38:27.400
this happiness and this goodness in us shines for us
643
00:38:27.519 --> 00:38:29.920
and we feel good all of us feel good and
644
00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:33.480
that's what's about. And you're right, this is the biggest
645
00:38:33.480 --> 00:38:38.760
element of longevity, and you know, definitely one that is
646
00:38:39.159 --> 00:38:42.800
valid and important. And when I look at the people
647
00:38:42.840 --> 00:38:46.079
in blue zones, they get the same thing. They definitely
648
00:38:46.119 --> 00:38:49.760
had the community and you can see that they like
649
00:38:49.840 --> 00:38:50.239
each other.
650
00:38:50.639 --> 00:38:50.840
Yeah.
651
00:38:50.840 --> 00:38:54.800
Absolutely, it's a wonderful example. You brought up having dinner
652
00:38:54.880 --> 00:38:57.800
for people, having dinner a wonderful framework. I feel very fortunate.
653
00:38:57.840 --> 00:39:00.960
I just was out in Colorado for a retreat with
654
00:39:00.960 --> 00:39:02.840
my wife and at the end of the treat we
655
00:39:02.840 --> 00:39:04.599
were able to go visit a very close friend of
656
00:39:04.599 --> 00:39:06.639
mine and so he and his wife and my wife
657
00:39:06.679 --> 00:39:07.840
and I was four of us at dinner and it
658
00:39:07.880 --> 00:39:09.920
was exactly the kind of doing you were describing. We
659
00:39:09.960 --> 00:39:13.280
all liked each other, enjoyed each other. You know, they're
660
00:39:13.440 --> 00:39:16.400
all four of us are committed to our individual spiritual journey,
661
00:39:16.440 --> 00:39:19.000
but we're also working as couples. We have a sense
662
00:39:19.039 --> 00:39:21.760
of a path as couples, being on a path as couples,
663
00:39:21.760 --> 00:39:25.199
and they're very embraced in recovery work as couples, and
664
00:39:25.239 --> 00:39:27.199
my wife and I are involved in other types of work.
665
00:39:27.239 --> 00:39:29.559
But we really enjoyed each other, enjoyed the meal, and
666
00:39:29.599 --> 00:39:32.519
nobody had a hangover, and so it was it was great.
667
00:39:32.559 --> 00:39:35.199
I think having more dinners like that is an absolutely
668
00:39:35.519 --> 00:39:37.440
wonderful thing. And I will say that, you know, in
669
00:39:37.519 --> 00:39:40.760
terms of physical well, the exercise part, you know, I
670
00:39:40.840 --> 00:39:42.880
exercised regularly, but as I said.
671
00:39:42.639 --> 00:39:43.119
I keep it.
672
00:39:43.199 --> 00:39:46.519
You know, something I can accomplish in fifteen to thirty
673
00:39:46.559 --> 00:39:49.239
minutes forty five at most, several times a week. But
674
00:39:49.360 --> 00:39:52.039
what I really invest in is my own happiness. And
675
00:39:52.079 --> 00:39:55.599
I invest a lot of time in feeling happy and grateful.
676
00:39:55.679 --> 00:39:57.440
You know. I do a lot of inner work every
677
00:39:57.480 --> 00:40:00.639
morning and my meditations and really to learn to live
678
00:40:00.719 --> 00:40:03.239
life in a state of happiness and gratitude regardless of
679
00:40:03.239 --> 00:40:06.760
what's going on. That's my responsibility. That happiness is an
680
00:40:06.840 --> 00:40:09.599
inside job, and I think those are the biggest investments
681
00:40:09.599 --> 00:40:11.639
that really pay out. That and really investing in my
682
00:40:11.719 --> 00:40:15.760
relationship with my wife, you know, renewing that commitment every year,
683
00:40:15.800 --> 00:40:19.079
I feel more committed to really having the power of
684
00:40:19.079 --> 00:40:22.360
that relationship being a central focus of my life. So yeah,
685
00:40:22.519 --> 00:40:24.199
I really resonate with what you're saying.
686
00:40:24.280 --> 00:40:26.679
Yeah, thank you. Well, you know, everything what we do
687
00:40:26.719 --> 00:40:31.760
in life should serve happiness. Right, So because it's equanimitive, right,
688
00:40:32.199 --> 00:40:36.039
this is the site effect of our life. If it
689
00:40:36.159 --> 00:40:40.400
is the zet effect, then whatever we do contributes to
690
00:40:40.599 --> 00:40:46.480
that happiness, and whatever we do has to somehow relate
691
00:40:47.039 --> 00:40:50.360
to our happiness. It's gonna be too hard because then
692
00:40:50.440 --> 00:40:54.320
we are not happy. We are striving too much. So
693
00:40:54.719 --> 00:40:57.880
it has to be something I have aligned with it.
694
00:40:58.400 --> 00:41:01.920
And you know, when we want to achieve certain things
695
00:41:02.079 --> 00:41:06.159
too hard, then we play too much attention to something
696
00:41:06.239 --> 00:41:10.320
that we want to get and we can easily lose
697
00:41:10.360 --> 00:41:14.840
our happiness, our enjoy in life. So there's a timeline
698
00:41:15.079 --> 00:41:21.119
in life that the things happen can happen shorter. Let's
699
00:41:21.159 --> 00:41:24.199
say you need five years to get something, but if
700
00:41:24.199 --> 00:41:27.639
you really push, really push, it will before. But when
701
00:41:27.639 --> 00:41:31.840
you push like that, you will maybe not have too
702
00:41:31.960 --> 00:41:34.440
much time to spend with your daughter and your son,
703
00:41:34.559 --> 00:41:39.079
your wife and everything. Relations will suffer. And if you
704
00:41:39.559 --> 00:41:42.840
spend five years, you will have everything together. So here
705
00:41:43.000 --> 00:41:47.800
is this balance that we are responsible for that whatever
706
00:41:48.039 --> 00:41:54.519
is outside of us as somehow wait and be feeding
707
00:41:54.679 --> 00:41:57.599
their happiness and not challenging.
708
00:41:57.920 --> 00:42:00.400
Yes, I'm listening to you, joys, I'm really appreciate and
709
00:42:00.440 --> 00:42:03.280
we could title this interview the art of living, I think,
710
00:42:03.320 --> 00:42:06.559
because there's that kind of art of finding this balance, and.
711
00:42:06.519 --> 00:42:09.880
Yeah, yes it is. It is the skill. There is
712
00:42:09.920 --> 00:42:12.559
such a thing as a skill of living a good life.
713
00:42:12.599 --> 00:42:16.199
And philosophers try to figure this out and try to
714
00:42:16.239 --> 00:42:19.760
talk to us from a different perspective like Buddhist perspective
715
00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:24.159
and Stoics perspective, and you know, and the other plots
716
00:42:24.239 --> 00:42:27.239
and societies and so on. So there is such a
717
00:42:27.280 --> 00:42:30.800
thing as as the skill of living a good life.
718
00:42:31.159 --> 00:42:35.480
Absolutely, And what philosophers, philosophers, I'm sorry, have been focused
719
00:42:35.480 --> 00:42:38.079
on for the ages, and which has often given short
720
00:42:38.119 --> 00:42:41.079
shrift in our current society is wisdom. And you don't
721
00:42:41.079 --> 00:42:43.719
even hear people talk about wisdom that much, but really
722
00:42:43.760 --> 00:42:46.880
that if we're interested in learning the art of living
723
00:42:46.920 --> 00:42:49.119
and living a good life, and then maybe as we're
724
00:42:49.159 --> 00:42:51.239
aging and learning the age well and so forth to
725
00:42:51.280 --> 00:42:53.679
the art of that over time, you know, and developing
726
00:42:53.719 --> 00:42:56.840
that discernment and finding those balances. What a cruise is
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00:42:56.840 --> 00:42:58.559
a kind of wisdom, which is I think a good
728
00:42:58.599 --> 00:43:01.159
reason why you suggested, you said, someone suggested, if you
729
00:43:01.199 --> 00:43:04.760
want to learn something about life, get someone older than
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00:43:04.800 --> 00:43:06.639
you to work for you. That you can learn from
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00:43:06.679 --> 00:43:10.079
it because they possibly have more wisdom, right, right.
732
00:43:10.079 --> 00:43:13.519
And no, hopefully they were happy, right and they enjoy
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00:43:13.760 --> 00:43:16.960
that life. So we don't want to learn from people
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00:43:17.599 --> 00:43:21.159
that lived long and they were miserable, right. We want
735
00:43:21.239 --> 00:43:24.559
to learn a really from people that live long and
736
00:43:24.639 --> 00:43:28.719
they were happy. And you know, I tried to really
737
00:43:29.400 --> 00:43:33.239
tell to people over and over when they really question
738
00:43:33.480 --> 00:43:36.760
the whole thing of miserable and happy and so on,
739
00:43:37.239 --> 00:43:40.840
my answer is very clear. I can make myself miserable
740
00:43:40.960 --> 00:43:45.239
in one second. I can be so hostile to myself
741
00:43:45.679 --> 00:43:49.320
for the things that they didn't do or I didn't
742
00:43:49.559 --> 00:43:54.800
forgive myself, or I didn't achieve, or I failed. I
743
00:43:54.840 --> 00:43:58.719
can bring the all those to my mind and make
744
00:43:58.800 --> 00:44:04.400
myself so sick that is unbelievable. And I don't choose
745
00:44:04.440 --> 00:44:04.840
to do that.
746
00:44:05.440 --> 00:44:09.599
Well, there's wisdom in of itself. Yeah, this has been fabulous, Jersey.
747
00:44:09.760 --> 00:44:12.559
So you just you know, really model this the power
748
00:44:12.639 --> 00:44:14.840
of living a choice, and you just want you're right
749
00:44:14.880 --> 00:44:17.920
there that we could choose to focus on all the
750
00:44:17.960 --> 00:44:20.719
things that would make us miserable, or we can choose
751
00:44:20.760 --> 00:44:23.440
to focus on what's going to bring about happiness and
752
00:44:23.480 --> 00:44:25.920
move our lives forward and it's very much a choice
753
00:44:25.920 --> 00:44:28.400
that we're making every moment, every day, and we can
754
00:44:28.440 --> 00:44:30.679
do our best with it. But you're really modeling that,
755
00:44:30.880 --> 00:44:34.000
articulating that so beautifully. So thank you very much for
756
00:44:34.119 --> 00:44:37.320
being on our Radical Responsibility podcasts and for your work
757
00:44:37.360 --> 00:44:41.039
and contributions, and we will put in our show notes
758
00:44:41.199 --> 00:44:43.920
you know, everything that people would like to learn about
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00:44:43.960 --> 00:44:46.199
you and your work. You have a basic website that
760
00:44:46.239 --> 00:44:47.119
people can go to.
761
00:44:47.559 --> 00:44:51.039
Yes, there is the happy body dot com and probably
762
00:44:51.079 --> 00:44:54.360
the best way to start there, and you know, begin
763
00:44:54.599 --> 00:44:57.719
the journey toward the happy body.
764
00:44:58.239 --> 00:44:58.599
Yeah.
765
00:44:58.639 --> 00:45:00.599
Well, I love even the name of your work and
766
00:45:00.639 --> 00:45:02.559
your brand, and so for a happy body, I mean,
767
00:45:03.000 --> 00:45:04.159
how can you go wrong with that?
768
00:45:04.239 --> 00:45:06.719
Sounds great? Well, thank you very much, Be well and
769
00:45:06.760 --> 00:45:07.159
take care.
770
00:45:07.639 --> 00:45:08.000
Thank you.
771
00:45:08.079 --> 00:45:12.239
I appreciate taking radical responsibility for our lives means taking action,
772
00:45:12.679 --> 00:45:15.599
and today you can start by helping us grow this community.
773
00:45:15.880 --> 00:45:19.360
If these insights into healing and transformation have served you,
774
00:45:19.639 --> 00:45:23.840
please subscribe on YouTube and follow us on Apple Podcasts
775
00:45:23.840 --> 00:45:27.800
and Spotify. While you're there, leave us a review. It
776
00:45:27.840 --> 00:45:30.920
takes thirty seconds, but it's the most powerful way to
777
00:45:31.039 --> 00:45:34.920
help our message reach someone else seeking deeper self awareness.
778
00:45:35.280 --> 00:45:35.639
Thank you.
779
00:45:35.719 --> 00:45:39.840
For being part of the journey towards lasting change. Thank
780
00:45:39.880 --> 00:45:43.480
you for joining me on the Radical Responsibility Podcast. Remember,
781
00:45:43.599 --> 00:45:46.280
real change happens when we commit to our growth, face
782
00:45:46.320 --> 00:45:49.880
our challenges with compassion, and stay open to transformation. If
783
00:45:49.920 --> 00:45:53.159
you found this episode helpful, I encourage you to subscribe
784
00:45:53.199 --> 00:45:56.559
and help us spread the message of healing and personal empowerment.
785
00:45:56.639 --> 00:45:59.320
Stay grounded, stay present, and stay true to you.
786
00:45:59.519 --> 00:46:01.559
Take care, constell the
787
00:46:01.760 --> 00:46:05.840
Full perform almost