The Freedom Project

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

026: Going All In On Greatness With Kari Pearce

The wonderful Kari Pearce joins Coach Tom today to discuss what it truly means to fully commit to being the best version of you you possibly can be. Kari not only exemplifies this as an athlete, but a businesswoman too.

Kari is all in on her potential as a human. Expect to learn how you can go all in on your potential too.

Alongside this, we'll also discuss how to deal with bad luck (withdrawing from the CrossFit Games in 21 and being medically withdrawn prior), how Kari changes her mindset for different events, how she keeps training fun, and the book she recommends to everyone.

Make sure you subscribe to Limitless Athlete wherever you get your podcasts.

025: Epigenetics and The Athlete’s Mindset - Interview w/ Nessa Carey

Today, Coach Tom is joined by Nessa Carey, author of Epigenetics Revolution to discuss how epigenetics plays a role in your mindset, both from a performance perspective and a mental health perspective.

The Ultimate Guide To Mindset For Coaches: 5 Steps To Training Your Mindset (3/3)

In the final part of the series, Coaches Rachel and Tom show you how to train your mindset so that you can get your mindset out of your way.

The Ultimate Guide To Mindset For Coaches: The Biggest Mindset Issues Coaches Face (2/3)

Today, Coaches Rachel and Tom explore the biggest mindset issues coaches face. This is why burnout, losing the love of training, and financial challenges happen, from a mindset perspective.

You'll discover how your mindset has been created and what challenges it may present.

024: Mindset Training For CrossFit Games Athletes - Interview with Brett Piperni

You see the world through the lens of the story you believe. What you consider your truth distorts the information you take in, to fit in with your narrative. Believe the world is flat, and you’ll only see, hear, and feel things which confirm that opinion.

 

You’ll dismiss the very real evidence in order to prevent your inner world’s certainty from being disrupted. Experts become shills, friends become distant, and you become ever more convinced of your opinion despite the world telling you otherwise.

 

Of course, the world being flat is a extreme example, but for how long did the world believe that women shouldn’t lift weights, smoking had no impact on your health, and that our race denoted our worth?

 

Beliefs have real world consequences; Societally and personally.

 

Do you believe that you’re always going to be the victim? Do you believe the world has missed your genius and in fact owes you something? Do you believe you’ll never succeed, you’re worthless, you don’t deserve love, or you’re inherently weak?

 

And more importantly, are you blind to the bountiful truth which proves otherwise, just because some inner part of you seeks the certainty of your confirmation bias?

 

Your beliefs aren’t shaping your world in a metaphysical or hypothetical way. They’re shaping your world through filtering out aspects of reality, selecting your thoughts, crafting your emotions, choosing your behaviours, and dictating your success.

 

You are the only person who has the power to see through your internal bullshit and realise your potential, and that begins with making conscious decisions about how you’re going to interpret the world.

 

In this interview with the mindset coach to some of the best CrossFit athletes around, Brett Piperni, we’re going to explore the way you can consciously choose your interpretation of reality and therefore set yourself free from your limits.

023: Hypnosis for Athletes with Dr. David Spiegel

Today on the Limitless Athlete Podcast, you’ll be listening to a conversation I had with Dr. David Spiegel. Dr. Spiegel is one of the United States’ most respected experts in the clinical uses of hypnosis. He is associate chair of psychiatry and behavioural studies at Stanford University. He has over 40 years of clinical research.

This conversation is all about hypnosis for two kinds of athletes, those who want to address their baseline mental health - so addressing sleep, stress, anxiety and the like - and those who want to unlock new levels of performance.

What I discovered through researching this podcast and having this conversation is that many of the tools we dismiss instantly are hugely valuable assets. I had always considered hypnosis as some form of trickery.

In Dr. Spiegel's words though, all we’re doing is accessing a different state of consciousness of intense absorption. You can use this pliable state of consciousness to enhance your mindset in ways that wouldn’t normally be accessible to you.

We’ll also cover some of the foundations of hypnosis and what to look for in a good practitioner, as well as how to utilise self-hypnosis

The Ultimate Guide To Mindset For Coaches: Burnout, Finances & Losing The Love of Training 1/3

We know coaches struggle with three main things: burnout, losing the love of training/being in the gym, and finances. All of these, and many other challenges have a mindset component to them. We know because we are coaches and we coach, coaches. Luckily, there's a path to fixing this and finding the career you always wished you had. This is the first in a three part series where we will teach you as coaches how to address these challenges.

022: Training Your Mental Fitness - Bethany Shadburne Interview

Today on the Limitless Athlete Podcast, you’ll be listening to a conversation I had with CrossFit Games athlete, Bethany Shadburne. Bethany’s vulnerability in this podcast was inspiring to see as she walked us through what it’s really like to be an elite level athlete, and the mindset struggles which go along with that.

A large part of the conversation is focused on how Bethany has overcome various mindset challenges using mindset training including journaling and creating a supportive community.

Our main topic is a discussion around the mismatch of physical and mindset fitness and how that stops you from accessing your full potential, can lead to overtraining, a lack of trust, and being overrun by fear-dominated scripts.

Alongside this we discuss...

• How people pleasing can destroy a coaching relationship

• The value of friends who speak the truth

• Generating confidence

• The details of Bethany’s mindset training

• How the fear of getting fat and not being good enough push Bethany towards doing too much and therefore getting injured

 

021: Finding Meaning In Challenging Situations - Interview w/ Simon Jeffries

Today on the Limitless Athlete Podcast, you’ll be listening to a conversation I had with Simon Jeffries. Simon Jeffries is a Mindset and Performance Coach with The Natural Edge. In a former life, Simon was in the UK Special Forces. In the conversation, Simon takes us through his life and how he wound up joining the Royal Marines, then enrolling in, and eventually successfully completing, selection for Special Forces.