How to make choices that create the best results

00:00.00	mikebledsoe	Welcome to Monday mornings with mike and max and today we're gonna be talking about choice how to choose Better. We're gonna start off with a quote from Dr. Victor frankl and the quote is between stimulus and response. There is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response and our response lies our growth and our freedom.
00:25.18	Max Shank	Oh So when I think about this I always use fasting as a way to get people into this mode of thinking because we're so conditioned to. Eat whenever we feel that spark of a stimulus like oh I'm hungry and usually that Stimulus gets confused because you're not physically Hungry. You're just ah, chronologically hungry. Like it's time to eat or I'm bored so you reflexively go after the food and I think this concept of taking a pause so you can choose with your neocortex or what I call the wizard brain is maybe the.. The only important aspect for living a better life because if you're using your lizard brain to choose you have no control over what happens it is valuable to make Lizard brain reflexive choices when there is. Imminent danger but the rest of the time you'll probably get the worst outcome possible and you're certainly not able to see the big picture. In fact in the book Dune which is probably my favorite fiction book the test they do to Determine. If. The young lad is human is they put his hand in a box that gives crazy crazy pain and simultaneously the proctor of this test is holding a poisoned needle at his neck and says if you take your hand out of the box I will kill you. So. The whole idea is being able to suffer the pain of your hand feeling like it's melting off for the big picture of survival and that's pretty much the key to better choices is. You have to be willing to sacrifice what you want now for what you want most and if you don't take that Pause. You have no chance.
02:41.10	mikebledsoe	Yeah I Also think about the the response without without taking any space. You know there's no space. There's just a ah a reaction. A response is something that's done consciously. Your reaction is. Is unconscious and ah most of our behavior is a reaction. It's unconscious and a lot of it. It's trained over time and ah 1 of the things that I've noticed is that we tend to be ah, very. Very poor at recognizing which reactions or unconscious ah ah reactions we have ah are man my brain's freezing on this 1 Ah. They're not serving us anymore. We don't recognize when they're not serving us anymore a lot of times and so.
03:38.32	Max Shank	I think it has to do with the subconscious self-image. So whatever Selfim image you truly hold subconsciously that's going to be the driver of those reactive or reflexive or unconscious decisions.
03:53.69	mikebledsoe	Say more.
03:56.76	Max Shank	Okay, so you have this version of yourself this story of yourself that you believe that you are comfortable with remember the eco's top Priority is to sustain to keep things status quo to get as much control as Possible. So. Whatever your self-image is like your subconscious will reflexively choose to reinforce that Position. So If you're not giving yourself well, you need 2 things a you need to take that pause if you would like to choose consciously. And B which proves quite a bit harder is you have to alter your selfimage which takes conscious practice and I think writing down what your target self looks like I know James clear ah talks about how. You make up an identity and then you'll choose to be your choices will be congruent with that identity. So That's 1 way of looking at that.
05:03.59	mikebledsoe	Yeah, and well an identity is is built up like what's connected to identity is is beliefs what you believe about yourself. But Also what you believe about the world and if we want to look at this from a ah physiological perspective. There's a lot of neural connections. There's actual physical neural connections that that either support or don't support ways of viewing the world and so a lot of that has to be done and this is what they look at with Psychedelic Medicine Why it so helpful is because it. At a physiological level changes those neural connections or allows those neural connections to to change and so the more repetition you have an old identity or in an identity I won't say old in an identity the the more physical Connections. You're going to have so it it takes. There's a bit of work that has to be done in order for someone to change how they view themselves and how they they view the world and what they believe about those things.
06:07.57	Max Shank	Big time you gotta be willing to like this like a snake that doesn't shed its skin will die So You have to be willing to shed those dead layers in order to embrace that new identity and. That can prove very difficult because you have to basically suffer a partial death in order to do that.
06:31.61	mikebledsoe	Yeah, that that identity is from from my view is largely formed from avoiding certain feelings. So kids at a young age. They they. They experience something. They have a feeling they don't like it they decide hey I want to avoid feeling this ever again. So I will behave in a way that allows me to avoid feeling this way and if I ever start to feel this way then I'm going to change my behavior and that really shapes. The identity that shapes that or what we could call personality so that shapes personality that shapes identity and that ah that identity stays away from certain things and indulges in other things and ah. You know we talk about you know parts of that that ego or that identity that's going to die and it doesn't want to die. But I think a lot of it is is the the self doesn't want to have that experience it doesn't want to experience that feeling that that feeling that feeling to a child is like death. You know you ever watch a 4 year old just go to fucking pieces because someone took his favorite logo lego you know or or toy car he is acting like it's the end of the world. Yeah.
07:52.27	Max Shank	Well it is because he has the inability to see the big picture I think that's 1 of the things that I've noticed most um is that for a child It's either the best thing ever or the worst tragedy that has ever befallen them. And there's not really an in-between because they're purely present and in fact, their brain waves are basically similar I think it's theta brainwave to psychedelics. So everything is new and different. Everything is right now. So there's no there's no attachment to. Last week and there's no understanding of next week it's just what's happening right now I skinned my knee it hurts I'm going to scream Bloody murder or what's happening right now I'm chasing a butterfly and running around and this is the best butterfly I've ever seen.
08:42.92	mikebledsoe	Yeah, and so a lot of behavior comes from what that 4 year old chooses and that those neural connect connections are made. There's feelings that are judged as to wanting to avoid all these things and so that that starts creating a lot of that. On a macro scale. The unconscious patterns. The unconscious reactions. Ah, and so ah, that that's why I say the majority of how we behave is is unconscious.
09:09.47	Max Shank	Um, it's not.
09:15.14	Max Shank	And it's not just avoidance right because we're always naturally moving toward pleasure away from paint. So would you say it's both.
09:21.94	mikebledsoe	Yeah, well,, there's there's things we avoid and there's things we indulge in ah and I mean I've known people. Well I'll talk about myself. Ah I used to indulge in guilt and so someone would think well you're crazy. Like well if you want to know what you tend to indulge in is just where do you spend the majority of your emotional space. Where is you know? Maybe you're playing a video game or you're working and your mind is fully engaged in something else. But that moment that you break from that. And you get that moment with yourself What kind of memories. Do you pull up? you know, do you pull up memories that make you feel joy Happy Sad Guilty you know, Ah, whatever it may be and so I think that it would be good for for anybody to do an assessment and go. Ah, what is it that I indulge in and then also what are the emotions that I rarely experience or maybe maybe I start to experience them and I figure out a way to ah ah avoid Them. You know there's where a lot of addiction comes from is. Ah, the addictive behavior is an avoidance you know people are addicted to video games or porn or yeah substances and it's because they want to get away from something. So Ah yeah.
10:45.29	Max Shank	It's all escapism right? it it doesn't matter what lever that you're using. It's more about what are you trying to escape and if you don't go through that then you'll just pick up a new addiction if you happen to quit 1 It's like chain smoking and donuts at an a a meeting.
10:58.34	mikebledsoe	Yeah.
11:02.99	Max Shank	Like ah this so much better and maybe for some people. It is a lot better.
11:04.75	mikebledsoe	We will get addicted to exercise I Watched you know I'm sure you do too you we we both own gyms and there's people that come in that are I don't know how many people there were. They're basically alcoholics and chain smokers before they they came to work out.
11:10.68	Max Shank	Oh yeah.
11:17.30	Max Shank	And right.
11:22.97	mikebledsoe	And then they found Crossfit and which cross Crossfit I think got popular amongst those types of individuals. Ah yeah, they because the thing is is if you if you if you push yourself under heaviest loads possible.
11:31.26	Max Shank	Masochists.
11:41.30	mikebledsoe	Or you go to the extreme and get into these glycolytic workouts or you get into these high endurance workouts where you know you start getting into this place where your mind really has to be focused on the present or else you get fucked up. So if you're squatting 500 pounds and you're not present.
11:54.16	Max Shank	Further.
11:59.87	mikebledsoe	Guess what it's you're gonna hurt yourself. You know you're you're going for time and all you're trying to do is breathe and that's the only thing you can think about is breathing and feeling your body Even if it's not enjoyable. It's still better than you know, having that moment with yourself. So I think that I think that particular.
12:05.84	Max Shank	Um, yeah.
12:16.45	Max Shank	Um, the.
12:19.19	mikebledsoe	Exercise protocol lends itself to people who who want to escape.
12:23.89	Max Shank	I Think it's good to like the idea of Escape is we don't avoid things we avoid feelings. That's what's so interesting and when it comes to the identity. You also want to consider the role and you have to look at.
12:30.46	mikebledsoe	Right.
12:43.51	Max Shank	A couple things neurologically so neurons that fire together wire together and Neuron neural pathways are just like So basically the more you fire nerves along a pathway.
12:47.27	mikebledsoe	A.
13:02.96	Max Shank	The more efficient you get at firing that same neural pathway which is why sometimes people feel a familiar pain pattern like in their shoulder or whatever. Even though there's no problem there anymore. It's just been so reinforced because what happens you get this fatty.
13:14.18	mikebledsoe	Um.
13:21.52	Max Shank	Tissue called Myelin which is called a Myelin sheath it wraps around the Axon and it's basically like insulation. So The conductivity is Greater. There's less signal Loss. So It's like it's basically like going from a dirt hiking path. To a superhighway. You know the more you go through that same neurological firing pathway. Ah the more efficiently that you can go through there and there's definitely less resistance which is another electricity term. It's funny how there's all these.
13:58.19	mikebledsoe	Well it is a it is an electrical system.
14:00.74	Max Shank	Similarities. It is electrical exactly so you got to recognize that the more that you have fired a certain pathway. It's probably going to take um, an equal and opposite amount of counter. Action action or counteractivity to form a ah new pathway because you will subconsciously or reflexively gravitate Toward. What is the lowest energy cost and most familiar.
14:31.85	mikebledsoe	Yeah, and going back to the quote from the beginning is that that ah that time in between is ah the time in between stimulus and response that space is our power to choose.
14:38.90	Max Shank	The.
14:50.54	mikebledsoe	And at least our growth and freedom and so there are what you pointed out before the show there are there are times where you want a reaction so you know Imminent Danger Imminent Physical Danger. You usually want to rely on reactivity If you. Know you know what? I'm just going to take 3 breaths and gonna I'm gonna think about this when you're dead right? And so yeah, flinch is a man Ah Tony Blauer Ah went to 1 of his courses and ah.
15:09.94	Max Shank	Um, yeah, while a ah punch is coming at you and you should have just flinched.
15:27.46	mikebledsoe	Yeah, he he bases everything off the flinch because he goes look. We could train you in all these crazy tactics. But you're not going to train it enough like I'm not going to train you well enough in a weekend. So let's just go up. Let's let's start with the flinch and then.
15:28.47	Max Shank	Yeah.
15:43.29	Max Shank	Um.
15:45.91	mikebledsoe	After you flinch. What do you do next because the flinch is actually a good reaction if somebody goes to hit you or you're being shot at or you know, whatever it's and you're not going up. You're not going to untrain that flinch and so.
16:00.60	Max Shank	It's like reflexive piggybacking right? He's taking this reflex that already happens and you're reinforcing it in a better way.
16:07.73	mikebledsoe	Right? right? And so um, so some we're not saying that everything. Every reaction is a poor reaction but I do want to point out is um, having been myself I've done some tactical training in the military and the whole point of that tactical training is that you're going to repeat the same behavior. So many times that it becomes a reaction. They actually when you get into a firefight. You don't want to be in this. You do want to try to remain calm.
16:35.94	Max Shank	Her.
16:45.37	mikebledsoe	And you do want to breathe easy if you can but at the beginning of ah of a situation when a situation breaks out. You're not gonna start off calm you're gonna go in this heightened state and then you've got to calm yourself down with breath from there but that that 2 to 3 hree minutes that takes you to calm down. That's. That's when you get killed and so you gotta the the whole idea is there what what? I'm pointing out is there is a way to there's 2 parts here. There's a way to take a breath and train yourself to have greater. Time to consider your choices for the best response possible but there's also the ability to train yourself situationally to where you don't have to have that time to respond in order to make the best choice possible so in both cases.
17:37.57	Max Shank	Um, yeah.
17:40.31	mikebledsoe	We're trying to maximize for best outcome by either reaction or by choice and your reaction can only be decided before the situation occurs and the ability to respond is something that can happen in the moment. But only if you're not put in to as long as you you can remain downregulated to a degree. So if someone comes in your house and starts putting a gun in your face your ability down regulates not going to be too Great. You're better to go with your reaction until you can downregulate into a better state.
18:14.68	Max Shank	Um, yeah, maybe I think um, what use. Ah you know you can make the right choice and still get a bad outcome I Think what you're touching on. There is really valuable because it's.
18:18.73	mikebledsoe	Um, yeah, maybe is the right answer. Ah.
18:28.40	mikebledsoe	Yeah.
18:33.87	Max Shank	You're practicing 2 different things. The first thing you're practicing is the ability to stay calm under pressure and when I was competing and fighting. We would basically 1 guy would get in the corner of the ring and he was not allowed to throw punches and he was not allowed to move. And he would just get punched at any who the the practice was to watch all of the punches come. You know we were allowed to keep our hands up, but the whole point was don't think about anything else. Just let the punches come and try to keep your eyes open so you don't go into this. Flint response. So that practice is calm under pressure which is giving you the ability to use your higher order thinking and then the other thing you're talking about matches the different stages of learning so you have. At the very beginning when you're learning a new thing. It's pure cognitive stage like juggling or music at first you are thinking about everything that's going on. You're thinking like okay I have to throw the ball here and then I have to throw the ball here and then I have to move my hand like this and then basically you get to the. Autonomous level which is so it's like cognitive associative. Ah, sometimes there's like more steps than that basically but the end result is that if you practice something enough. It becomes very automatic. So that's the second thing that you're talking about is you train something so much. That you have implanted a new reflex.
20:09.33	mikebledsoe	Yeah I mean you're you're reminding me of the the quadrant of ah the unconscious incompetence conscious incompetence conscious competence and unconscious competence. So the stages of learning being that so I'll repeat everybody.
20:19.83	Max Shank	Unconscious competence. Yeah, exactly.
20:28.24	mikebledsoe	Starts with unconscious incompetence. This is you're not good at something and you don't even know how to improve at it and you may not even know that you're bad at it until you're put in the situation then conscious incompetence is I know that I suck at it and I may be trying to get better at it. But I'm having to think about it and I'm still not that good at it.
20:37.50	Max Shank	The.
20:47.79	mikebledsoe	Conscious competence is I have to think about it in order to be good at it if I become unconscious during the process I'll slide into old behavior old patterns and do it poorly and then unconscious competence which is ah which is I have I've intentionally trained this behavior and now I. Become competent at this skill or whatever it is um even in an unconscious state and so I I think that the idea is to move through that with as many things that you find Valuable. You know your your values are going to Dictate. Ah, what it is that you're going to become competent at.
21:24.27	Max Shank	Well and what's really interesting about this is you can ah build really bad habits going through the same Way. So That's 1 of the values of having a really good coach or a mentor and 1 of the dramatically bad costs. Having a bad mentor is you might build bad patterns like let's say you're learning how to exercise and you learn exactly the wrong way. But you get better and better at the wrong way and that's why it's so valuable to have someone.
21:56.56	mikebledsoe	Um, yeah.
22:02.77	Max Shank	Pay attention to you like in some of the dance classes I've taken. Um I Really appreciate when the teacher will call out a mistake right away. So I don't reinforce that bad pattern. It's just like you know I'm doing my thing and I'm trying to keep up I'm doing this like African dance shit.
22:14.54	mikebledsoe	Yeah, um.
22:22.76	Max Shank	And you know of course I'm coming from a little bit of fight background but also a lot of just robotic exercising and I just hear like this guy yelled no and I'm like startled but I really appreciate it because the last thing I want to do is reinforce a destructive pattern.
22:40.74	mikebledsoe	Um, yeah.
22:42.54	Max Shank	And make that the autonomous thing So I like I like where we're at right now so we have reflexive or reactive and then we have conscious choice which can be um, improved upon it allows us to use the neocortex and I think. Unless you have something else to add the next logical place to go is logical fallacies where you are operating from your wizard brain but you are ah basically being tricked to make. A destructive or ah, a wrong choice because of 1 of these like psychological or logical fallacies like ah the sunk cost fallacy if you're familiar with. So yeah, tell folks at home about the sunk cost fallacy. Well.
23:30.25	mikebledsoe	Yeah, go it? Yeah tell tell tell us all. Yeah.
23:38.73	Max Shank	The sunk cost fallacy is like you have put in a lot of effort already. So even though you should not put any more effort because it's a lost cause you'll keep putting more in just because you've invested so much and the easiest example is if you're playing poker and. You put in more chips and you put in more chips and you put in more chips and you see the final card and you don't you don't make your hand that you are trying to make you don't have a good winning. You don't have a chance at winning. But you still put more money in the pot just because you've invested so much and. It's hard to tell the difference between getting crushed by the sunk cost fallacy and grit like sometimes you should persevere and follow through and sometimes you should cut your losses so. It's really hard for people to. Notice the sunk cost fallacy and if you're operating from like your lizard Brain. It's nearly impossible to because you'll be emotionally locked in. You'll be emotionally hooked with that fallacy.
24:50.16	mikebledsoe	Yeah I mean you hit on a good point there which is I think a lot of people a lot of entrepreneurs run into that is ah you know because it's getting difficult. Is it something that am I not meant to do This is it supposed to be easy am I not supposed to do this should I change industry should I. Is my product. No good but whatever it is and then ah yeah on the other side is and you hear you hear ah coaches and consultants and speakers recommend different things. Yeah on 1 side you got the the people going if you don't love what you're doing then you should quit and then.
25:27.27	Max Shank	The 1
25:29.33	mikebledsoe	On the other side which by the way I'm a pretty good quitter. Ah, the other side is you know now you got to grind it out and this and that and so 1 of the things that I've learned how to ah make this choice because I've quit a lot of things but I will also will also grind um and I've had to learn. There's a lot of grinding I did where I should have walked away sooner and there are things that I got lazy about and didn't put a lot of effort into because I ah thought it should ah should be easier. Um, and sometimes it was ah but I've all you know I've stuck with things longer than I should have and I've I wouldn't say I've ditched things before but there's there's been times where I spent a lot of time contemplating whether I should quit something while while grinding through and. Really finding that what I what I like to do is go look I will grind I've actually worked more this past I'd say like 6 seven months than I Haven in a very long time I say the last 3 years it's been 3 years since I worked this this much and I've worked hard but.
26:41.49	Max Shank	Her.
26:45.85	mikebledsoe	Ah, but the thing is I'm inspired so I'm doing I'm working a lot of hours. Um, figuring out how to be as productive as possible I've done a lot of shit this year with my business that did not work I get I hit like roadblock after roadblock I the business. Ah. Almost ran out of money at 1 point there was I hit a lot of things that there that some people would say man. Maybe maybe like if you look at the year before the business was doing twice as good What's what's going on now. Maybe you're just not supposed to do this and and that crossed my mind for a moment but. What I really experienced was like I'm still inspired to do this I'm not working because out of desperation I'm not working because like I need to make a dollar like I could I know and and part of it is is like I've been around long enough that I can make dollars a lot of different ways like I've done it a few times
27:33.55	Max Shank	Ah, what.
27:43.66	mikebledsoe	Ah, exactly yeah, super easy money. Ah, it's really it's easy hard money. But ah, the.
27:43.92	Max Shank	Prostitution For example, easy easy money for you.
27:52.74	Max Shank	Well I Like what you're saying because it requires wisdom to know if you have a tendency to quit early or a tendency to um, get emotionally involved in a decision. That's not good overall and. What I noticed part of the reason 1 of the many reasons I enjoy chopping it up with you is because you and I approach things very differently like I really have not taken a lot of big risks I've never really laid out ah a large amount of Capital. Into anything I've always been like the the slow cooker type of mentality. But I'm also able to try more things and I'm able to um, like cut those losses a little bit more easily and.
28:31.65	mikebledsoe	Ah.
28:46.81	Max Shank	I Know we've mentioned in a podcast before but you got to recognize that anyone who's done Well whether it's like the more like long slow or the you know company just blows up and makes a ton is basically every success story has a lot of failures.
29:05.14	mikebledsoe	Ah.
29:06.30	Max Shank	Along the way and you're not going to know which thing people will like the best and and what people like the best has nothing to do with how much effort you put into it either. Um, and then the last thing that you said that I liked was.
29:19.68	mikebledsoe	Yeah.
29:25.65	Max Shank	You feel like purpose or passion. Maybe I'm maybe I'm the 1 who came up with the word purpose there. But if you are if you feel like you are satisfying a life purpose or following your bliss as Joseph Campbell Puts it. You won't find anything difficult like you'll just keep putting in more time you won't find yourself wishing you were doing something else because you're like I'm doing what I'm supposed to do I'm Doing. It's like ah a hammer hammering nails like this is the intended purpose I am a hammer. My purpose is hammering Nails. So If you're doing something that you're really interested in ah then you'll be able to get through those moments where things don't seem to go right.
30:16.20	mikebledsoe	Yeah, ah 1 of the things that's really helped me out ah is I'd say more recently I used to get really hung up on um, the purpose or passion conversation and. I noticed that when I was younger and I see this with a lot of young entrepreneurs or new entrepreneurs is they get caught up with a thing like they're passionate about you know a type of coaching or they're passionate about a method technique. Whatever it is and because. Probably because it made an a large impact in their own life and for myself. Um, when I started my latest business. The strong coach. Um, actually it's not the latest build it business. It's the latest business I'm still running ah the strong coach. I started that business because I loved coaches and I put coaches First I had all these ideas of what I want to teach them how I want to teach them all these things and then I started with my beta group. My first cohort back in 2018 and I realized they needed no a bunch of shit I had no intention to teach and I wasn't as interested in teaching it but I already but I had the information so I I needed to give it to them. Um, and I noticed that. Because I was so passionate about helping coaches with whatever they needed to be successful in getting their own clients results because I was so passionate about that that I didn't care if I was teaching business or leadership because I was more passionate at the time if I were to if I were to choose a passion around a thing that I wanted to teach. It would be around leadership and personal responsibility and and and a lot of personal development topics. Not um, as much about business even though I I had taught business before.
32:17.00	Max Shank	So you got clear. Ah you got you got clear on who you wanted to serve more than anything else.
32:25.94	mikebledsoe	It's about who and who and so like 3 and a half years later I am more passionate or I I would say I carry the same amount of passion now as I did 3 and a half years ago and that's because I did I found. Group of people who I want to help the most the people who I would surround myself with the the people who like I don't I can't solve all the world's problems. Um I I want to make people as healthy as possible and make people on the planet healthy. But I know that. That people aren't gonna do what I say and I don't know how to do everything I don't know what the right answers for everything I'm not going to create something that solves all the problems but I know huh I'm sorry you're you're doomed but I but I go you know what though like I look at things and I go look I am.
33:09.35	Max Shank	Damn it I hoped you would I hoped you would.
33:22.91	mikebledsoe	Uniquely positioned to help coaches and coaches are uniquely positioned to help people in ah in an era where there's an over too much information to sift through and so it takes someone who's going to be an expert in something and and hold someone's hand and guide them there. So um, so like you know sometimes sometimes there are moments where I'm like man am I really doing something that's making the difference in the world I Want to make um and then you know I remind myself of that So when it gets when it gets. What I know is what I'm doing now is what I know how to do best. That's gonna make the the most positive impact for others and myself and and and the thing is is I read this book mastery by Robert Green I know I've brought this up on the show before but he talks about having you know.
34:08.76	Max Shank	So when when.
34:20.80	mikebledsoe	People who create really innovative things in the world that make a big difference tend to have mastered up to 3 things and it could take 7 to 10 years to master something so a lot of people don't come up with their greatest innovations till they're in their forty s fifty sixty s because they needed time to master a few things and. And I look at it and I go am I going to do this forever I have people go how long are you going to coach coaches and I go as long as long as it's obvious that I should keep doing it and the way I'll know it's obvious to do something else is when something else comes along that just completely. Ah, feel feels bigger and more expansive than what I'm ah, currently doing and for someone who I'm someone who really loves having their options open. You know I have yeah, that's ah, that's a personality trait that you know on 1 side of the coin you have people. Who if they make a commitment to something in a month from now is like on on Friday the twenty ninth I'm going to be at this person's house doing this thing man that makes them feel so good that would drive me nuts because I'm like oh. Like is there a better opportunity going to come up is that go to be my favorite choice that night. how I don't know how I'm going to feel the week leading up to that I'm somebody who likes that I feel more relaxed and better about having ah many choices up to the last minute so there's different different personalities and so because.
35:35.94	Max Shank	Her.
35:46.75	Max Shank	Her.
35:51.54	mikebledsoe	I Have this thing where I don't really I prefer freedom over over the the illusion of certainty The the yeah I do prefer a little more chaos over order. But ah the some.
35:56.47	Max Shank	Over order? yeah.
36:09.75	mikebledsoe	Thing I keep my mind is well if this isn't what I'm supposed to be doing because I coached a lot of coaches. So I this is the kind of the thing I get from them. It's like oh I don't know if this is what I'm supposed to be doing I'm like who cares just do it and it doesn't you can always change it later and and everything you're doing right now.
36:20.79	Max Shank	Try it and see yeah.
36:27.16	mikebledsoe	If if you're meant to do something else when you get to that thing. You're meant to be doing the big pie in the sky thing which probably doesn't exist ah is like raining on people's parades ah is that you're practicing everything you've been doing up into this moment is getting you prepared for that. So. For me if I'm if I'm getting better at business I'm like man this is great getting better at marketing copywriting creating offers making social media posts podcasting. It's all like even if I'm not doing a thing that I'm quote unquote supposed to be doing in 5 years none of those skills are going to be bad to have accumulated in order to to achieve that and I've I've had moments in my current life where I go wow I had to go through you know all this bullshit. What seemed like bullshit at the time so that I can be effective at what I do now and having a lot of gratitude for it.
37:21.91	Max Shank	Are.
37:25.49	mikebledsoe	And I I bring this up because I I want people to be able to put themselves wholeheartedly into the choices that they're making in this moment and get as much out of it as possible learn as much as you possibly can and. While holding this perspective has really helped me to achieve peace when in the face of uncertainty.
37:50.73	Max Shank	Well, it probably makes a lot easier because it makes it easier to choose when you have a clear purpose because then you will choose congruently with that purpose if you have a clear role or identity and a clear purpose then the choices are going to be easier. So The other thing that you mentioned is you're going to change your mind like if you are are waiting to make the last decision you will never make 1 You know what? I mean like I just want to. But yeah, ah because that's also me like i'm.
38:18.79	mikebledsoe	Um I like I like how you said that if you're waiting to make the last decision. Yeah.
38:29.51	Max Shank	Ah, naturally very patient. It's easy for me to not be dynamic when there doesn't seem to be a need for it. I mean charlie munger says about you know patience and prudence in the past and then betting big when the the time is correct and that's really more. My style like I I've recognized that in life. You know, even like growing up broke. Ah, you don't have to make a lot of decisions. You just have to bet big when the time is right? So you don't have to be racing around on a wheel all the time. So the whole idea of like decision fatigue sounds like kind of funny when you realize how few decisions you actually need to make it's just that when you make them you have to really? um, do so heavily when the odds are heavily in your favor.
39:22.22	mikebledsoe	I Think a lot of people. Also they they make a choice and they start questioning their choice instead of giving giving their the choice they made their full attention.
39:23.94	Max Shank	And.
39:33.92	Max Shank	Yeah, and it's good to like evaluate your choices so you can make better decisions in the future but you want to um, give things a chance to work before you you quit on them I think and the fact that you bring up coaching is perfect because.
39:46.66	mikebledsoe	Yeah.
39:52.63	Max Shank	What what is the job of a coach if not to help you make better choices now the tactic for how you do that you can ask leading questions. You can point blank give them a recipe and say like hey I have this recipe for putting together an offer. So if you follow it. And you fill in the blanks your offer will probably be a lot better than whatever you come up with on your own that's like 1 way that you can coach someone is you can teach them a formula and the other way that you can coach people is you can provide Feedback. You're doing well this you're doing not so well you should change this. You should keep doing this um and then you can also answer questions. We talked last week about the difference between support which is answering questions and accountability which is I'm asking you questions. Um, and it's all it's all about how to make better choices and I think that's a perfect segue into authority which is another logical fallacy that people fall into as well. So you have the authority of a coach you are going to put. More weight into what a coach says just the same way. You're going to put more weight into what your doctor says because they allegedly know more than you do about health and they may in some ways know a lot more than you do about health. But if it's tricky because. Authority is how we get comparative advantage. So comparative advantage is an economics term. Basically if I can earn 3 hundred per hour coaching then I pay an electrician 1 hundred per hour. Um, the overall gain is better. Because I couldn't that's an hour that I couldn't spend coaching if I tried to do the electoral myself even if the result was just as good which it wouldn't be but you have to ah give the authority to that electrician you have to trust that he's going to. Make the right choice for you and so our whole society is is based off of that type of authority in different areas and it gets tricky when you start. Um. So like Authoritarianism I guess is where we'll come from there and I hope I didn't like gloss over too many things but basically authoritarianism is where 1 person makes all the choices for everybody else and controls the choosing and that's not what we have done in ah America for a long time.
42:41.42	Max Shank	In most cases. Um, but we do selectively have um, centralized control and people argue politics all the time but the only argument really worth having is. Who is the authority and what is their Jurisdiction So who decides and when do they get to decide and we've all kind of agreed that if somebody murders a guy and the judge says guilty then we take away that person's freedom and throw them into Jail even though they would.
43:18.83	mikebledsoe	Right? So yeah.
43:19.32	Max Shank	Not choose that right? So That's that's basically the only argument worth having is who's in charge and when do they get to decide. But of course you know if you watch the news people are arguing about stupid bullshit all the time like nobody is talking about. Authority and Jurisdiction. Even though those are the only important arguments to have.
43:40.44	mikebledsoe	Yeah, and Authority is is not something that somebody can just assume Authority is granted by the individual or a group of individuals. So if you hire a coach you're choosing for that person to have authority. Um, and. And it's not absolute authority with a coach because they're making suggestions right? It's not like they're not going to I want to meet the coach that uses the stick just just put a ah shot collar on your balls.
44:02.36	Max Shank	Right? That's how I do my coaching.
44:16.51	mikebledsoe	And every time you do something I don't like I'm going to zap you.
44:18.22	Max Shank	I Have a farm out in the middle of nowhere where people have to give up all their worldly possessions and then I beat them until they're great coaches. Ah so the other the I.
44:28.45	mikebledsoe	I Um I just I just got uncomfortable I'm like ah too close to the truth. No I'm just kidding.
44:37.60	Max Shank	The the other side of um, the logical fallacy of appeal to authority which is um, it's a way to say that my choice is inarguable if I say I'm the doctor I'm the scientist I'm the ph d. Ah, you have to trust me then that is an appeal to authority which is another logical fallacy and you're very likely to be coerced into a bad decision. The other um side of that is an ad hominem attack. Which is where you're attacking the individual and you are trying to disqualify what they have to say so you know you have a person a and person b let's say person a is an authoritarian and let's just say we'll just call him doctor science because those are really good authority tags. And then we'll have person b we'll call him a conspiracy nut job and the whole idea here is if you focus on the authority of these labels then you're not going to be evaluating or choosing based on the content of the arguments. So if someone who has lots of authority makes a bad argument and you just respect their authority. You might walk into a trap similarly if someone is labeled as a nutjob or a wacko or whatever. You're not even going to give any credence to what their argument is even if it has a valid premise and a logical thought process. So. That's why it's really important to not um, Blindly follow an authority or blindly ignore someone who's been labeled as like bad.
46:26.36	mikebledsoe	Yeah, yeah I mean you got to think for yourself, you got to you got to be able to take the information and and process it but people people that's not an efficient way to do it right? There's it's like ah cultural neural pathways are set up.
46:27.13	Max Shank	Or dumb essentially.
46:44.45	mikebledsoe	To just say all right? Whatever this person says we'll just do it I don't have to think about it's It's culturally, it's a cultural unconscious pattern that's been built in.
46:53.24	Max Shank	Well and it's responsibility. It's the difference between a child and an adult and a big part of growing up is you are no longer ah blindly following what the parent or the Authority says the whole concept of freedom itself is about choice.
46:58.30	mikebledsoe	Yeah.
47:12.11	Max Shank	The only difference between sex and rape is Choice. There's no, there's mechanically.. It's like the Same. It's just about whether you have a choice or not so it's really important to understand that your freedom. Lies in your ability to say yes or to say no your ability to choose freely is what freedom is all about and I can't think of a more important concept and like you said Authority is given.
47:30.72	mikebledsoe	Yeah, yeah.
47:47.20	Max Shank	Right? We have these rules in our society. The rulers rule with rules and really we have crime and punishment which means we have labeled something as a crime and we have a consequence that follows it so you are sort of accepting. Those consequences for your actions and when you accept responsibility for your actions then you also have power over your choices part of the reason a lot of people don't want to do that. Ah, myself included for a long time is then you also are taking potentially the blame for those choices. But it. It really is the difference between ah the child role and the adult role if you are willing to accept the risk then you get the reward and and reward is just a type of consequence. It's like what happens consequently what happens next after you.
48:45.50	mikebledsoe	Yeah, yeah, and 1 thing I want to point out is well I think I think you said you you talked about the word. No and just the the ability to say no ah is highly underrated. Um.
48:46.16	Max Shank	After you choose.
49:04.94	mikebledsoe	Not used and the thing is is no matter how someone's labeled if they don't honor your no if if someone is trying to do something to you and they and you say no and they don't they don't you know they still push the moment that you're. There's physical interaction. It's called violence and that's immoral so to not honor. Someone's note to to not get their their consent is ah is violence. Um, whether that be ah for sex or for a vaccine. It's. Both of these are violence if it's forced upon you? Yeah, So well if if it's well I would say violence is the initiation of force and force could be We could I like to put violence in the category of.
49:47.74	Max Shank	It's coercion right? because Violence violence isn't always immoral is the only slight disagreement.
50:01.41	mikebledsoe	You initiated the the physical interaction. The force and a defense is just using force like if someone comes into my house and tries to Rob me and I shoot them I didn't conduct violence I I used force and so.
50:09.31	Max Shank	Ah.
50:14.86	Max Shank	Ah, that's why yeah I thought I I would say the opposite I would say you responded violently but you were right to do so so and I think you you and I do a good job of being semantically precise or at least clarifying what we're talking about.
50:22.85	mikebledsoe	Yeah, yeah.
50:33.20	Max Shank	So that we understand what the other person is saying.
50:33.17	mikebledsoe	Right? Well and coercion is the threat of violence. It's It's the it's and or the the threat of you know you're never gonna work in this town again or you're you You can't you know.
50:38.14	Max Shank	Well, that's 1 way.
50:52.13	mikebledsoe	To take away your livelihood or whatever. So that's coercion. Either way.
50:53.94	Max Shank	So coercion as I've understood it to be defined is the deliberate interference with property using fraud or force.
51:05.60	mikebledsoe	Yeah, ah Wikipedia says coercion is is compelling a party to act in an unvoluntary manner by use of threats including Force. It involves a set of various types of forceful actions that violate the free will of an individual to induce a desired response. For example. A bully demanding lunch money from a student or the student gets beaten. These actions may include extortion Blackmail torture threats to induce favors or even sexual assault in law coercion is codified as a duress as a duress crime such actions are used as leverage to force the victim. To act in a way contrary to their own interests. So ah, yeah, yeah I think I think that for for both of what we said that that summarizes it is it really really well and so.
51:45.37	Max Shank	That tracks.
51:56.80	mikebledsoe	I point this out and part of this conversation was inspired by a dm conversation I got on Instagram with somebody who was very emotionally triggered by a post I made and to be told the post was supposed to cause people to think and connect some dots.
52:14.14	Max Shank	Ah.
52:15.88	mikebledsoe	Um, and you know I imagine a lot of my followers were able to connect those dots because I got a lot of people who liked it and then I got 1 person who did not like it and ah she was extremely flustered and even admitted you know in in the the dm she said.
52:24.80	Max Shank	Ah.
52:33.81	mikebledsoe	You know every fiber of my being says this is wrong. It's like there's this admission of like this emotional hijack or a version of logical fallacy and um, you know I think we we got to be careful of those things. Um and and this is why. Ah, the United states was set up as a republic and not a democracy. Ah the the founding fathers recognized democracy as ah as a dangerous as a dangerous way of doing things the greeks the greeks started off as a republic and then they deteriorated.
52:54.10	Max Shank	Um.
53:10.90	mikebledsoe	Into democracy thinking you know all the while the story the narrative that was told and the story that's being told now is that democracy is an democracy is an evolution when in fact, it's ah, a devolution from a Republic and a Republic is set up in a way that that reduces. The amount of Authority a single person can have it really dilutes. Ah this ability to create violent action or coercion against a certain population of people it it creates a lot of checks and balances. It's why there's an electoral college. Ah, for voting most people don't really understand how that works. Um, yeah so um.
53:52.27	Max Shank	Yeah Mob rule. Otherwise right I like that you called it a demockery that's kind of hilarious I know that was like a freudianlip or something but I I think a demockery it's mob rule if.
54:00.69	mikebledsoe	It was it was but I'm using it from now. Well like you said a democracy is my role. Yeah.
54:08.94	Max Shank	If I get if I get fifty one percent of the people to say that. Ah we should be able to Rob and rape the other forty nine then it's legal to do So is that fucking insanity or what like that's crazy.
54:19.90	mikebledsoe	Yeah, well. Ah, my buddy who has probably more racial ethnicities in his background than anyone I know he's he's as as mud as they come. You know he says ah and I quote him because he he can speak on this. Like the greatest minority on the planet is the individual and in a democracy. The individual is not honored at all democracy and and communism have more alike than a Republic and and democracy and So. Ah,, there's yeah.
54:59.51	Max Shank	That's where all the evil stuff happens too like people are like oh jeffrey dahmer he's so it's like like yeah sometimes that happens but we know him way more and nobody talks about like chairman mao and stalin and Mussolini and all these fucking that racked up. Way bigger numbers I mean if we're really to yeah I think a hundred million under mal okay like.
55:18.15	mikebledsoe	Millions tens of millions of people more more people have died under Royalty Royal commands and communist demands than any other no other individual has ever. Caused more harm than people who are in charge of Communist countries.
55:39.28	Max Shank	Right? Because there's no um, agile rebalancing you know when you're able to vote with free choice a you're not gonna have interactions that are net loss you and I would only choose to do business if. What I have is worth it to you is worth at least a little more than what you pay so when you have a society that's based on win-win or profit. Um, you can rebalance you have that agility. So there's going to be um that the food supply. For example, you're not going to have some central planner make a mistake about how much food there should be because there's gonna be opportunity for people to choose lots of different foods and there will be this. Competition and collaboration and um I think that's 1 of the most important things is that we're allowed to rebalance and vote with our dollars I mean look we could go down a deep rabbit hole about how the fed has really fucked up the. Value of money through quantative quantitative easing which is just a really finesse way of saying like we're fucking with the currency. Um, but look the reality is if you're free to choose. That's great and if you're forced to obey that's usually not great and I don't want to make such a ah broad generalization. But the whole reason we have free speech as amendment 1 and um, use of violence or right to bear arms. Number 2 is because those are the only ways that we can interact with each other to resolve conflict we can resolve conflict with our words or we can resolve them with violence and of course we would preserve to do it without. Ah. Physical violence. But sometimes there's no other choice and that's why that's baked into this idea of individual freedom.
57:53.69	mikebledsoe	Yeah, and I I think we would we We have to mention I mean now that we're down this track if we're we have to talk about ah capitalism and so ah to me. Ah.
58:05.67	Max Shank	Stop. Um I I Wish we I wish we had capitalism in this country? Cronyism um.
58:12.50	mikebledsoe	Decentralization I Wish we did too. Yeah, but we have um I don't know if this is I don't I don't know if we have like the greatest expression of capitalism Currently there is and we do have cronyism.
58:24.28	Max Shank	No, we have cronyism. It's horrific. We have we have lobbying we have all of these special. It's fucking look. It's It's not the worst but it's really deviated a lot from the concept of what capitalism should be.
58:40.22	mikebledsoe	Well the the concept of capitalism in its purest form has never been. You know the only time this existed is when probably in the old west when the the reach of government really couldn't get out and. Impact people's lives in say Nevada I mean ah I read Mark twain's autobiography and he traveled all over he he seemed to be fairly unfettered by anybody to do any business that he he would like to do um and paid no tax. So he um so I think that.
59:02.11	Max Shank	Ah.
59:17.93	mikebledsoe	If we like zoom out on a macro scale. This idea of capitalism like it's always existed to some degree anytime. There's an exchange of services and goods in an exchange of value for those things that's ah, that's a capitalist endeavor when when choice is involved. Where where it's a voluntary and interaction and and pure capitalism like you're like you're alluding to is is where there is no. Ah there is no friction between voluntary interaction. There is no force. There is no coercion being brought in by a third party ah, third party butting their nose and say you're and my business so to voluntary adults creating an exchange if you read it's voluntary. This is what this is all of this is getting down to and.
01:00:05.75	Max Shank	That's the key word is voluntary. That's the key word.
01:00:13.90	mikebledsoe	There's a really awesome series I Bet you've watched it ah which is called ah, free to choose or freedom to choose by Milton friedman. It's free on youtube milton friedman ah he does he does such a good job of talking about.
01:00:19.38	Max Shank	Fuck. Yeah I've seen it. It's free on Youtube folks thomas souls on there too.
01:00:31.80	mikebledsoe	How Capitalism has led to the point where we have all this innovation like it's what's responsible for the ability to have all the goods and services that we have at our disposal now. Um, no thanks to government regulation. The thing about Capitalism I Think about Capitalism and there's been times where it's exploded and there's times where it's It's been retracted I think we're in a ah phase of Contraction. We're contracting on capitalism right now for various reasons and and I think yeah.
01:01:04.33	Max Shank	Fear I believe isn't that the only way that freedom gets eroded is through fear I'm pretty sure.
01:01:08.66	mikebledsoe	Yeah, yeah, so fear is doing that. But if we think about capitalism what it creates if you look at what Milton friedman describes in that in that series is It's really a decentralization of authority. So. The more voluntary interactions that we have in the world the more the individual gets to practice their own authority that they are the authority of their own life. Um I call that sovereignty if you if you have sovereignty that means that you are the authority of yourself and. And Sovereignty being a word that only used to be used according to royalty because they were the ones that were above the law right? They they could basically break all the laws and nothing happened to them and there were sovereignty with yeah exactly and so like the idea of sovereignty.
01:01:48.72	Max Shank	Ah, right? like.
01:01:54.99	Max Shank	Right? Kind of like our politicians now.
01:02:03.10	mikebledsoe	Ah, individual Sovereignty was something that was also ah very at the forefront of the forming of the republic of the United states and when the declaration of independence was drafted the constitution a lot of this was based on individual sovereignty as a. A philosophical backbone and so capitalism is something that has to exist in a free society because it is the epitome of voluntary interaction and you can tell if something is is capitalist or not because what max was saying at the beginning. But we have is cronyism or crony capitalism and there really isn't there. There are companies that are leveraging the government and to use violence and coercion. Ah you know disguised as in the words of regulation um to. Ah, basically force companies out or or force companies to do things a certain way. It. It creates a lot of involuntary behavior and when we have involuntary behavior that creates conflict and so if we want to have a a world of peace and without conflict then we. We really need people to to practice their own authority over themselves and realize that they are um, they are their their own ruler. So um, and which brings me to like anarchy the word anarchy all it means is without a ruler.
01:03:33.95	Max Shank	A.
01:03:35.84	mikebledsoe	And a lot of people you know Anarchy has been associated with with chaos. Ah, and it's a really good propaganda play to associate anarchy with chaos because most people have been tricked into believing that humans are evil.
01:03:40.55	Max Shank	Have. Right.
01:03:55.77	mikebledsoe	And that they they want to be violent and that you need to be made safe by somebody else when the truth is is most people are peaceful loving just want to get along I don't want to pick a fight most people will avoid those situations.
01:04:09.28	Max Shank	The chance of killing yourself versus someone else killing you is like a Hundred times more because there are different like even just pure like suicide outpaces murder by such a dramatic amount. It's like.
01:04:27.64	mikebledsoe	M.
01:04:28.41	Max Shank	4 times or something like that. Maybe even more maybe 8 times people kill themselves way more than they kill other people. So This idea that your neighbor is dangerous is the only argument that can be made to take away. That sovereignty and it's like we talked about you know people who trade freedom for security will lose both and deserve neither.
01:04:52.78	mikebledsoe	Well I'll also say no 1 can take away your sovereignty like you are a sovereign being you do have the authority of your own life. If and if anyone else has authority over you. It's because you gave it to them now if.
01:05:02.35	Max Shank	What and there are consequences Totally no.
01:05:09.87	mikebledsoe	If you do something and someone who says that they're the authority over you they come and cause violence on you. That's an amoral action and so that's something that most people just won't be able to wrap their heads around and that's okay, but ah because. Most people are brainwashed into believing that you know the government or what they deem to be the Authority really is looking out for their best interest even if they make a mistake the overall. Ah the overall idea of it is beneficial.
01:05:44.45	Max Shank	I Think part of the reason for that is once you realize the opposite it like shatters your illusion of reality so it is so ah surreal it. It is a reality shattering experience to recognize the fact that oh.
01:05:46.18	mikebledsoe	Um.
01:06:03.76	Max Shank	Wow 12 years of school is a really bad investment for a child. Oh Wow look at how the tax dollars are squandered Oh Wow Look how many soldiers have been sacrificed in fucking Pointless Wars Oh Wow look at all these politicians flexing their power and taking away our freedom so they can grease their own pockets. Oh and it just goes On. And on and on and on and people like oh well, the media wouldn't lie to you and the reason they the reason. Yeah exactly Well. The reason people don't do that is because you have to like shatter your previous comfortable version of reality. Even if it is.
01:06:27.91	mikebledsoe	Um, the media is just 1 big advertisement.
01:06:42.42	Max Shank	Even if it's wrong. It's familiar so you can keep your ego intact if you're just like no no, no, they they know what's best they're doing What's best for everybody and you know a lot of the time. It's just impossible to say after the fact but I feel like we've gotten a little too far down.
01:06:45.80	mikebledsoe	Yeah, yeah.
01:07:01.63	Max Shank	Or maybe just appropriately far down the rabbit hole of ah choice within a societal framework or within the state. But I think we can easily bring it back around and kind of.
01:07:10.42	mikebledsoe	Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:07:19.64	Max Shank	Wrap up the idea that if you are what you said earlier really resonated if you figure out who you want to serve just ask them like if you're not sure what to do just ask the people that you want to help. And they'll tell you what they want, you know what? I mean like then you're you're very likely to make the right make a constructive choice.
01:07:40.56	mikebledsoe	Yep, like.
01:07:45.49	mikebledsoe	Yeah, spot on spot on. That's that's the 1 of the biggest things that ah that I teach is if you're ever confused about what to do next go ask your clients. Go ask your potential clients.
01:07:49.37	Max Shank	I think.
01:08:02.74	mikebledsoe	And ideal customer.
01:08:05.12	Max Shank	It's kind of like you know you and I tend to resonate with male entrepreneurs around 30 years old for obvious reasons like I understand it I don't understand women I've tried to I've done a lot of I've done a lot of work in the field.
01:08:10.37	mikebledsoe	Yeah, like.
01:08:22.10	Max Shank	Trying to understand women but I'm still pretty confused.
01:08:24.89	mikebledsoe	Yeah, that's that's a code yet to be cracked and I think it's not supposed to be cracked because it's ah the the mystery is a big part of the attraction in my opinion. Yeah.
01:08:37.60	Max Shank	Yeah, we we like things that are different but familiar wasn't that weird.
01:08:44.52	mikebledsoe	What let's close this down any ah, any final thoughts on this.
01:08:51.20	Max Shank	Final thoughts on how to choose better take a pause. Be aware of the so you take a pause then you are able to use your wizard brain Once you take a pause Then. You will likely get trapped by logical fallacies If you're not aware of what they are and if you're not sure what to do? Um, just try to make your choices align with the identity and the purpose that you want not necessarily the 1 that you have. Because your subconscious self-image can lead you toward the same life. You've always been living but of course the whole idea is to let go of that so you can make room for a new and better 1 and then. Once you make a choice. Don't be afraid to quit if it's wrong. But Also once you make a choice make sure you give it a chance to actually work so really test it out in the field and the other thing I would say last but maybe not least is.
01:09:56.12	mikebledsoe	Yeah, yeah.
01:10:08.14	Max Shank	If We're talking about a choice for Business. You have no clue and people will lie to you until you offer it up for sale whether it's a service or a product or anything like that if you're like hey I got this thing and you tell your friend they're like oh that's really cool. No no, don't ask their opinion. Ask if they want to purchase it like that. That's what really ah tells the story.
01:10:33.37	mikebledsoe	Yeah, yeah, just no skin in the gain with an opinion. Ah yet.
01:10:38.10	Max Shank	No skin in the game. We've been talking shit for an hour. No skin. It's easy to talk. It is cheap.
01:10:44.98	mikebledsoe	Ah, yeah, that's why I say talk is cheap. Ah yeah I yeah I'd say like the big takeaways from me that I'd like people to leave with is um, you know. You can you can choose. You can get better at choosing now in the moment by learning to downregulate yourself. Ah when when faced with something that's stressful and you can also choose in the past or you can choose in the present the train for the future by ah, training yourself. To acquire skills that you you imagine you might need in the future like you might need to acquire the skill of taking a gun out of a holster and shooting a piece of paper that may be something else down the road but the going from unconscious incompetence looking at the area of your life where you want to make improvements. And looking at where you're incompetent and then choosing the the number 1 thing that you want to do and then train that with conscious incompetence be okay with being incompetent. It's something that you're trying to get good at and then watching yourself go into conscious competence and then getting the point of making it. Ah, unconscious competence and if you really take that perspective when you when you step into learning I find when I did that that I I started learning a lot faster because it was kind of strange the more patience I had with myself in realizing where I was at in the process. Allowed me to down regulate which allowed me to learn more quickly and then the last thing I want to mention is a lot of the principles that we talk about are happening on an individual level and according to 1 of the hermetic principles as above so below as within. Is without and basically what that means is whatever' is happening in this context and what I mean right now is whatever is happening for someone on an individual level psychologically the way they approach things is the same you're going to see the same manifestations happen in large groups of people in society whether it be.
01:12:51.47	Max Shank	A.
01:12:53.99	mikebledsoe	Ah, school City or an entire nation or the whole world. There are pieces of this individual psychology that applies culturally and so when you learn ah when when you learn 1 really deeply when you go to connect the dots to the other. It. It makes a lot of sense So worth paying attention to so if you're ever confused about why an entire society is behaving a certain way I'll just look at why individuals behave that way when when they're left to their own devices. So.
01:13:25.78	Max Shank	Oh man, that's good. It made me think of 2 more things actually which I think are really important 1 is that you can choose now about the past so framing your experience might be the most important choice you ever make. Because if you frame your experience as 1 of gratitude rather than 1 of resentment or victimhood then you are basically dooming your future based on your past. So I think that's 1 of the most common problems I see people have when they continue to make choices that are self-destructive is. They have not framed their experience in a constructive way. You know if you were beaten as a child and you say oh I'm a beaten victim versus I was beaten as a child clearly my parent wanted. What's best for me and clearly they cared about me. They just didn't really have a good way of showing it and regardless of all that it made me the person that I am today so framing your past is a very important choice that is worth putting on paper and that leads to the second thing which is your state of being. Physically and mentally will strongly influence your ability to make decisions. So if you are seeing the world with abundance. Mentally if you are um, exercising regularly if you have adequate blood flow. You're going to make better choices if you are stagnant. Your chi your blood All that stuff is stagnant. You're going to make worse choices that are more contractive and so I think between the choice of framing your past and your present to help your future and also changing your state. Can be crazy beneficial and sometimes it's better to sleep on it before you make a decision sometimes better to go for a walk or run because your state of being will heavily influence your ability to make a choice.
01:15:27.98	mikebledsoe	Absolutely Ah, anything you want to mention besides Maxsank Dot Com for finding you.
01:15:38.20	Max Shank	Yep Maxsank Dot Com and if you'd like to outsource all of your decision makingking to me I would be happy to enroll you in my Authoritarian program. You don't need to worry about choosing for yourself anymore I will just assume all your earthly possessions and I'll I'll tell you what to do from here on out.
01:15:55.40	mikebledsoe	Ah, perfect. 1 thing I want to mention by the way I've been getting messages from people that they're listening and enjoying it so I want to let all the people that are listening know that I have the strong coach summit coming up in March.
01:15:55.51	Max Shank	So.
01:16:12.49	mikebledsoe	And so if you want to check that out. Go to the strongcoach dot com slash summit or you can just hit me up on Instagram I'll give you the link so just want to let you all know about that so that you don't find out about too late and then you're mad that I didn't mention on the show and then. You know people get upset with me a lot. So.
01:16:29.65	Max Shank	By the way I was just joking I ain't your mom I don't want to make your choices for you.
01:16:35.34	mikebledsoe	Ah, it's like a fake plug in front of ah, a real plug and it's like ah ah all right? Good show. Let me brother.
01:16:44.48	Max Shank	Love your brother take care.