The Freedom Project

036: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome Through Vulnerability with Michelle ”Mace” Curran

A few years back, we worked with an athlete called Kat.

Kat was the partner of the gym owner; a good athlete, but who struggled with skill work. She also struggled with how she appeared to the rest of the community she led.

Because of this, she held back from practising skills and pushing to her limits in front of others.

Of course, this slowed her progress and growth.

Over the following months, we taught her the power of vulnerability. She began feeling comfortable with messing up skills in front of others. She fell whilst practising handstand walking but learned to laugh about it. She pushed her limits and completely blew up in workouts but she learned not to feel judged. She signed up for the next level of competition and fully committed when she was there. She learned to go all in.

Because of this, she not only reached her next level but felt more confident and secure in herself too.

When we wrapped up our coaching time, she spoke words I’ll never forget “vulnerability is my superpower.”

Today’s podcast embraces how to be vulnerable as an athlete.

I speak to former Thunderbird pilot, Michelle “Mace” Curran, about how she overcame imposter syndrome and the fear of failure through embracing vulnerability in an authentic way.

Michelle is a US Air Force Major, and was formerly the lead solo pilot in the Thunderbirds - the first female to fly that position. She’s now coaching others on how to embrace vulnerability for growth.

035: Getting To Know Yourself, w/ Phil Mansfield

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom” - Aristotle

“Knowing others is intelligence.

Knowing yourself is true wisdom.

Mastering others is strength.

Mastering yourself is true power”

Lao Tzu

Or simply

“Know thyself”

Socrates

It doesn’t matter if you were born millenia ago like Aristotle, Lao Tzu, or Socrates, or born today like you. Knowing yourself is the first step you must take in order to fulfil your potential as an athlete and as a human.

In this podcast, Phil Mansfield, Coach at Red Pill Training, frequently asks the question “do you push the piano, or play the piano?”

What he’s getting at is something like “are you someone who thrives in grunt work, routine, and discipline, or are you someone who thrives in chaos and the unknown?”

By knowing this, you know how to structure your training and recovery, and even how to think about your self-talk.

But self-knowledge doesn’t stop there of course.

What really drives you to be your best?

What are your fears?

What are your worst habits and best attributes?

What do you spend undue time worrying over?

What is the story at the heart of your performance challenges?

Who do you believe you are?

How has time and experience trained your nervous system’s default setting?

What are you really imagining before a lift?

If you don’t know these things, you will be a leaf in the wind; blown about by external circumstance; lacking any say in your outcome.

At the end of the day, you can only control the controllable. The only controllable is you.

So begin a kind of study. Part psychological, part philosophical, part sports performance, part anthropological.

Make notes and question why you’re doing what you’re doing. Get to know who you really are from a different perspective.

Become the observer, as someone once said to me.

Phil is a true gem of a human and we cover some really fertile ground for athletes. It’s always fascinating to find someone who says similar things, but from a different perspective to yourself. This is what I found in this conversation.

034: Earned V.s Perceived Confidence With Jason Khalipa

You want to compete with confidence. That way when you turn up to the competition floor, you’ll back yourself. You’ll spend less time worrying about what others do. And hopefully, you’ll be able to execute your plan to your highest standard.

An average plan executed with 100% confidence is better than a perfect plan executed with 50% confidence.

Let’s view the goal of confidence through our RRP Method: Regulate, Rewire & Perform.

A 2016 study showed that self-esteem may be associated with improved parasympathetic functioning.

In other words, the more you are able to regulate your state, the more you back yourself. Without proper nervous system regulation, you are far more likely to doubt yourself, compare, and stress.

Coach Rachel said to me in a conversation yesterday “all great truth is found in paradox”. When it comes to rewiring your stories, there couldn’t be a truer word spoken.

Consider two opposing beliefs: “I am the best here, and I am certain to win” and “I don’t deserve to be here. I’m going to fail miserably.” Obviously both have their drawbacks, but also they have hidden benefits.

The arrogant “I’m the best here” opinion may fill you with the kind of self-assuredness that helps you peak. Look at Conor McGregor in his early UFC days for an example.

The “I don’t deserve to be here” mentality, may actually help you outwork many others in training.

But the drawbacks of both are self-evident and extremely limiting. To perform at your best, you must be able to step outside of both of these narratives and believe only in truth. That is, what exists outside of the story you tell yourself.

Only when you see the world truthfully can you perform at your best.

Then from a Perform perspective, you can’t just hope to be confident. You need the strategies, tactics, and routine that reinforce confidence in your performance.

A game plan without pre-lift routines, pre-competition routines, mental reset buttons, and a firm understanding of workout-specific self-talk will only undermine you.

So, RRP: Regulate, Rewire, Perform.

In today’s episode with CrossFit Games legend and entrepreneur, Jason Khalipa, you’re going to learn so much about confidence and how to deploy it into your life.

Remember to subscribe to the show and leave a kind review, and also to follow us Mindset Rx’d on Instagram.

033: Hitting The Rest Brakes HARD w/ Kelly Starrett

Us athletes like to identify as hard chargers. We’re tougher, more resilient, and more tenacious than regular Joe’s. As such we pride ourselves on how we can keep on pushing when others would stop.

Like I’ve said before, this is an essential skill to develop for any athlete, and any human. If you gave up at the first sign of discomfort, you wouldn’t get very far in life.

However, your body and your mind aren't made for endless grind.

Speaking from an evolutionary perspective, we were built to work very very hard, and then rest completely and fully for a long, long time.

Let’s dissect this a little bit. We can break this problem down into three components: rewire, regulate, and dominate.

Rewiring is the process of changing the story. The story getting in the way of most athletes is the hustle and grind mentality. “I’ll sleep when I’m dead”, “I’ve gotta outwork the competition”, or maybe a fear trap of “oh my God, everyone’s working harder than me and I will fail if I let myself rest.”

Regulate is the physical side of the equation. Too many athletes we speak to spend their days constantly switched on. Pushing, grinding, forcing their body into the ground. Which is fine if there’s ample recovery too. Even your down time isn’t really down time: the hours on your phone are not the rest you think they are. Your body and mind still perceive this as work.

Finally, dominate. This is on the competition or gym floor. We’re grinding instead of flowing. Great performances don’t come from a place of constant grind, they come from putting yourself in a place of effortless effort.

Without these three components, minds fill with negativity and bodies don’t perform. To perform at your best by harnessing your full mindset, rewire, regulate and dominate.

In this conversation with Kelly Starrett, we discuss the value of putting the brakes on - enforced down time - in order to put yourself in a better place. We also discuss the value of having fun, changing up your warm ups, the greatest mindset challenge Kelly has ever faced and a tonne more besides.

Enjoy this wide ranging conversation with the wonderful, Kelly Starrett

032: People Pleasing & One-Size-Fits-One Mindsets w/ Caroline Burckle

If only what worked for everyone else worked for you.

The amount of times you hear “oh, I just started meditation, and that fixed all my mindset challenges.” “you know when I began journaling, that solved all my issues.” “it was a psychedelic trip that changed my mentality.”

Well, great for that person. But what about for you?

99.9% of your DNA is genetically identical to mine. That doesn’t mean we should follow the same programming, even if we have identical goals. It doesn’t mean our coaches should speak to us in the same way, even if we go to the same gym. It doesn’t mean my mindset practise and yours should be identical.

Mindset is one-size-fits-one.

Are you driven by numbers and quantifiable data? Or is it the feeling that drives performance?

Do you want to succeed because deep down you want to be loved, or do you want to succeed to prove yourself to the world?

You are you; not only because of your parents' genetic data being passed down to you, but because of their parents’ DNA sequences being passed down to them. And so on and so forth since the first living entity on earth. That’s incredibly unique.

Then, you have to consider the fact that every single experience you’ve ever had - every conversation, every reprimand, every pass you made in your school team, every particle of light entering your retina, has shaped you in one way or another.

You - are unique; beautifully so. So you’ve got to find out what works for you. That means certain failure many times. That means stepping away from conformity and safety. That means being taken out by the unknown. 

But if you really want to express the most brilliant version of you, you need an idiosyncratic approach - that is an approach that is shaped to your needs.

In this interview with US Olympic swimmer, artist, and founder of RISE athletes, Caroline Burckle, the main theme is this one of finding what works for you, specifically are you a thinker or a feeler?

Expect to also learn, how to find your one-size-fits-one approach how you can regulate your nervous system better, the warning signs you’re not regulated, when split times hurt performance and much more.

If you enjoy the show, remember to subscribe to get more interviews with athletes and coaches to take you to your next level.

031: How Expectations Limit Performance w/ Margaux Alvarez

That moment you realise you’re actually good at CrossFit is a double edged sword.

There was probably a moment where you looked round the gym and you realised that you were no longer the athlete you were when you started. Or maybe you won a comp and that changed your own perception.

These watershed moments are a brilliant opportunity to rewrite your story. No longer are you an amateur, you are good at this.

Be careful though, because if you’re not aware you’ll create expectations which will limit your performance.

Let’s define expectations quickly. Expectations are visions of the future, not that you hope to happen, but you bank on happening.

What’s the problem with that, you may ask? Well, firstly, where did these expectations come from? Was it what you consciously crafted for yourself? Or are you assuming that the people you surround yourself with - your coaches, fellow athletes, and family, now expect a level of performance from you? Implicit in this is the challenging idea “what if I let them down?”

Or does this come from fear? Fear of going back to the struggle? As we’ve previously discussed on this show, fear generated beliefs are often limiting beliefs.

Expectations are too unyielding to be helpful. When you expect something to go a certain way, your sense of security is attacked when the anticipated result fails to materialise. Expectations create unhelpful pressure too. Our best performances happen when we’re not overwhelmed by the amount of pressure we feel.

So what’s the alternative? Aspirations.

Firstly, there’s aspirations of outcome based goals. There’s nothing wrong with saying: “I aspire to get to the Semifinals.

Then, we have aspirations of input based goals. “I will do everything within my control to go unbroken on the double unders.” “I will put full effort into planning my macros and recovery.”

Have high standards by all means. Have hope for your future. Don’t, however, hold onto expectations which will limit your performance.

Today’s guest, 7x CrossFit Games athlete Margaux Alvarez, speaks so eloquently about many things in the following show, but the theme running through this, and something she is clearly highly adept at, is observing and refocusing expectations.

Alongside expectations, we also discuss:

• How the tragic passing of her sister changed the way she lived her life
• What Margaux would teach an athlete on the cusp of reaching their next level
• The biggest hurdle Margaux had to overcome in competition
• The balance of discipline and self-compassion

030: Comparison & How To Beat It w/ Brent Fikowski

Do you catch yourself Instagram stalking to check up on how other athletes are doing? Scrolling through the leaderboard to check your placings when really you should be in bed? Watching other athletes in workouts when you could be in your own lane?

Comparison has never been easier.

Instead of strawmanning this argument let’s take the side of comparison. Let’s listen to the voice in your head that says “just check the leaderboard one more time… let’s see what so and so did in that qualifier or how their training is going.” I mean, surely it provides some benefit, right?

When watching others you can identify things you can do better and even character skills to aim at. You may see the exact key that you need to unlock your next level.

But listen carefully. Is that voice saying things like “ah man, I admire so and so’s grit and determination, and here’s how I can work toward that.” or, is it saying things like “shit, I’m not good enough, I’m not strong enough, I’m too slow.”

What’s more, what does this do to your self belief? Improve it or lessen it?

It probably will give you a boost of motivation, but fear driven motivation is quick to disappear and can cause long term mindset challenges.

When you are deciding whether your comparison is useful or not, consider these three questions?

1. Does it make me feel more like or less like the person I want to be?
2. Does this help me create a relationship with myself which helps me?
3. And most importantly, what’s the story I’m telling myself?

In this episode with Brent Fikowski, we go into great length to discuss comparison and how to stop it.

One thing we can all take from this interview is Brent’s ability not to double down on his emotionally disruptive states by getting upset at himself. He’s aware enough not to let his anxiety make him anxious or stress make him more stressed.

This is one thing we can all be careful about: not becoming frustrated by our frustration or sad about our sadness. Experiencing the emotion once is enough.

Alongside comparison, we also discuss:

• Dealing with doubt
• Self-generated confidence
• Overcoming self-criticism
• How to handle online qualifiers
• And incorporating fun into training

If you enjoy this episode with Brent Fikowski AKA The Professor, make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss upcoming episodes.

029: Dealing With Pressure w/ Lucy Campbell

Maybe the pressure is what drives you forward. Unerringly. Ceaselessly, toward your best. Could you have done what you have done without that pressure; forcing you, pushing you?

But you recognise the times that the pressure has got too much. When will I snatch Xkg? When will I reach the semis? When will I be good enough?

Pressure creates diamonds, they say.

But pressure has also been your downfall.

The pressure certainly wasn’t creating diamonds when I didn’t sleep for three days straight, not because I was busy, but because I couldn’t.

It wasn’t good for me when, at 3am, I was a nervous ball of energy, unable to get a break from the constant criticism & judgment in my head, and unable to get more than 5 minutes of sleep.

The pressure was making life miserable.

And I know it makes the life of so many athletes miserable too. Maybe that’s you.

Maybe the pressure and the force and the stress you’re putting yourself under is not needed in order to be successful.

Maybe you could do all of this without the pressure.

Maybe the pressure has become something you’ve grown attached to, because who would you be without it? What if you weren’t good enough without the pressure?

I’m asking you honestly now, are you attached to the pressure?

The very same pressure that is a stone in your shoe every time you workout or compete.

What would happen if you dropped this pressure? Sure, you’ve proven to yourself that you can run a mile with a stone in your shoe. You could probably run a mile without that stone too.

Think back to your best performances - in training or elsewhere. What did they feel like? Did they feel forced and stressed and full of pressure? Or did they feel open, free and effortless despite their difficulty?

No one is asking you to shy away from difficult things, or to quit holding yourself to a high standard. Quite the opposite. I’m saying free up the space to perform your best by dropping the energy you’re currently devoting to fighting this self-imposed pressure.

The podcast you’re about to listen to with CrossFit athlete Lucy Campbell goes into this subject of pressure. She speaks candidly about pressure to perform and to conform & how that affects our identity. Her background in sports psychology which makes for a really informative opinion.

We also discuss body image, the role of identity, overthinking, comparison and dealing with injury.

If you enjoy the show, please head to Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube and subscribe.

028: The Paradox Of High Performance With Logan Gelbrich

You are not your emotions. But you can’t discount them either.

In those moments of fear, rage, love, or side-splitting hilarity, you can’t deny those emotions are as real as the headphones you’re listening to this podcast through, or whatever is in your visual field.

You feel emotions whether you like it or not, and emotions sway you whether you like it or not.

We often get into mindset training because our emotions have too much of a say in your life. Your fear of standing out prevents you from truly committing to training, or leaving it all on the floor in a workout. Your anxiety prevents social connection. Your nerves ruin your competition or qualifier performance.

Due to its popularity and its effectiveness, the Stoic framework provides a great starting point to getting a handle on these emotions. Quotes like “if you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment” are often misinterpreted in a way that suggest we should be removing our emotions.

Your emotions serve a purpose though. Disgust means you probably shouldn’t eat that food. Doubt is a good sign not to trust someone. Awe creates gratitude. If we dismiss our emotions entirely, we lose sight of a highly evolved skill set which gives us a unique advantage. Subtle emotions give subtle clues to what we need.

Left to run amok though, emotions destroy us.

There’s a middle ground to seek then. This middle ground is one from which we can observe emotions without becoming immersed in emotion. The goal is to get to a point where frustration doesn’t ruin any more of your workout than it needs to, and where confidence doesn’t lead you to blindness of your weaknesses.

You want to be able to use your emotions as indicators of truth. Your emotions are telling you something the reptilian part of your mind knows to be true, but your more recently evolved brain structure hasn’t caught up with yet.

Viewed through a purely evolutionary lens, your emotions exist because they serve a purpose. Otherwise they would have been wiped out of existence long ago.

Your job is to see them for what they are - indicators which may or may not be trustworthy.

In this conversation with Logan Gelbrich, we discuss the limitation and nuance of emotions, as well as:

• How to hold the standard of success
• Logan’s journey of mindset and what he’s learned along the way
• Psychological safety and self-expression
• Developing awareness
• The 5 different perspectives you can view any scenario through
• What great culture looks like & how to develop it
• And why the Sphinx may be thousands of years older than the experts think.

Logan is one of those people who connects me to a deeper level of awareness, and I thoroughly hope you’ll enjoy this conversation.

027: Turning Doubt Into Confidence: Know Thyself with Justin Cotler

2500 years ago, Socrates bought the Greek aphorism, Know Thyself into the forefront of philosophy. His point was that before you can claim to know anything, you must know yourself.

Human wisdom, he said, begins with the recognition of one’s own ignorance.

You and I, as athletes and as humans, are ignorant. We see the world through our narrow perceptive bubble. Our beliefs filter out information which could help us in pursuit of our goals. Our confirmation bias dismisses anything too uncomfortable to digest. Our own personal experience fashions a lens which distorts the colour of the world.

What does this mean for us as athletes?

We turn away from the information which is the exact data which would highlight a path of growth - the thing we say we want.

We hide from the uncomfortable truth of weakness.

We avoid situations, conversations and tests which may bring our limitations to light.

All of this results in what Justin Cotler calls the worst thing an athlete can have: doubt.

Am I fast enough? Am I strong enough? Will I miss this rep? What if I get sick again?

Or, more to the point:

Am I good enough? Do I deserve to be here? Will people still like me? Will I be happy?

Doubt is the antithesis to what athletes truly require: confidence.

In this conversation, Justin Cotler and I discuss the path athletes, coaches, and humans alike can take to becoming more confident.

We also discuss:

• The role of ego in sports
• The testing of your mindset
• Why not being talented may be your greatest advantage
• Generating self-knowledge
• And creating turning points in your life