The G.E.M. Series EP29: 
Peak Performance: Optimizing Psychology to Overcome Fear With Brian Bergford
Blake: [00:00:00] Welcome to the G.E.M Series, powered by Rocket level. On this podcast, we empower entrepreneurs to succeed by setting big goals, pro, and having a fearless mindset.
Blake: The G.E.M Series is all about investing in yourself. We're here to share the path to getting what you want out of life by sharing the stories of entrepreneurs who have done this themselves, providing thorough research from our team on what careers and habits are yielding the best.
Blake: And discussing the mindset it takes to overcome the obstacles that all future entrepreneurs will face. Investing in yourself starts with putting in the work every single day, and this podcast is here to help you do exactly that. My name is Blake Chapman. I'm the Vice president of the Ambassador Program here at Rocket Level, and I am thrilled to be your host for the G.E.M series.
Hello and welcome to today's G.E.M series. I am thrilled to welcome today's guest, Brian Berg Ford. So just to give you guys a little bit of background Brian [00:01:00] specializes in personal performance optimization and sports psychology. He coaches and develops customized performance systems for athletes as well as athletic professionals and business owners has a great knack for helping clients get unstuck by removing some of those pesky personal barriers that inhibit expression of their greater potential.
We all need that. , and Brian's really an expert, at this. He's also an entrepreneur who owns multiple businesses, has. National Championships in swimming, which is something he took up at the age of 30. And that actactuallygan as an effort to overcome his lifelong phobia of having his face submerged in water.
So I, I mean, I could go on and on. The more I learned about Brian, the more that I am excited to have him on today. He's got so much wisdom to share with us. Brian, welcome to the show. How are you doing? 
Brian: I'm doing just super duper thank you. It's a beautiful day here in Colorado. It's gonna be like 50 degrees and then [00:02:00] it is going to get really cold and tomorrow's high is gonna be two degrees with like a minus 10.
So I'm just pumping myself up for this shift. , golly, 
Blake: weather and I'm complaining over in Atlanta over at, right in the forties. We're all like, but are you in Boulder? Or Where 
Brian: are you? Yeah, I'm just north of Denver. Yep. Okay. So, okay. Mm-hmm. . Very cool. I absolutely, absolutely love it out there.
Blake: It's gorgeous.
Brian:  It is four seasons and they're all pretty great, and none of them are too extreme. You get a little bit of everything. Yeah, absolutely.
Blake: So Brian, for those that don't know you, would you mind just sharing a little bit about yourself with, with the audience? 
Brian: Yeah, sure. So we'll just kind of see what comes to mind.
there are so many directions that should go right, because it's interesting when you're asked about like, Hey, like, tell me a little bit about you. There's, there are so many different ways to answer it based on like who the audience is and like who you're speaking to, the individual across from you, et cetera.
So I'm just [00:03:00] gonna kind of spitball it a little bit and see whatever comes to mind. It'll be my biography of the day. It'll all be true. Amazing. But it's not like planned so to speak. Yeah, so I, I guess as you alluded to, we'll there. It's funny,, I without not an athlete in my younger years.
I played like, like little peewee baseball and stuff like that. And it wasn't until I was 30 Cuz like in high school and stuff, my wife and I were both in a school that was very heavy into the arts. You know, we had a lot of like the varsity football players like, and then, some of the big choirs and, and stuff like that.
And I was 30 years old when I. Took up swimming. I had a background in like strength training, and personal training, so I understood a lot of the mechanics of that. But it was like you mentioned, just a reaction to wanting to overcome this kind of lifelong panic response phobia that I had that just seemed to be taking things over.
And so I got sick and tired of it and took up swimming and now, you know, I just, I love competing and I, you know, this next [00:04:00] year will probably be my, like, I don't know, ninth or so national championship, ninth and ninth and 10th. There are twice E each year, so I'm pumped about that. I am fascinated. I, I think as you can tell, by human performance, especially as pertains to high-level athletics, high level in business, people that are go-getters, people that have batteries included.
I never enjoyed when I was doing even personal training working with the general public because it's like, it's like you want all this stuff, but you're not forcing for it. Mm-hmm. . And it just kind of like the attitude of a lot of people made me wanna throw up in my mouth versus when I was working with athletes and like football teams, stuff like that.
Completely different because those people came, came to play and we weren't having to go through like, let's get, let's get excited. It's like, you come ready to play, man, we can take your performance to an unbelievable level. And those are the type of people that I enjoy working with. My background is in psychology, so.
Really kind of my, my specialization is around psychological [00:05:00] infrastructure and building frameworks and the. Makes sense in terms of providing the structure and the support that high performers are gonna need. Mm-hmm. to not only perform at a high level but as close to or at the peak of their potential as they possibly can be.
And the beautiful thing about that is it's not an age thing, right? We always look at like, oh, this person is peaked and this and that. And I've never looked at it like that because to me you can be 105 years old and the gap between where you're at and your max potential that ththatight be the smallest that it's ever been.
And like, Getting that gap as narrow as possible for people in whatever their endeavor is. What I love to focus on and work on. And that's just what, that's what we build together. 
Blake: Absolutely. And I love the idea of, of that narrowing the gap between what your max potential is. I'd be curious when when when all this kind of spark for you.
Because I know you said you didn't, you know, you didn't have necessarily, like you didn't get into the swimming till you're 30. [00:06:00] I, I, I, I find it hard to believe that there wasn't a little bit of that, like growing up or, or something, 
Brian: you know? Yeah, I think it's interesting the trajectory of it, right?
Because one of the beautiful things, one of things that I love about life now that I didn't love before is how it turns out completely different than we would've ever anticipated expected plan for. And that's kind of the beauty of it. Like I love that part. I think to answer your question It began in a place of just like tremendous kind of emotional tumult and turmoil.
Yeah. At, you know, in, in my youth and just some situations that they were, what they were, you know? I wouldn't trade it now for the world, but back then, I mean, I. I, it was, it was awful, you know? And I was suicidal for the largest part of my youth, and it was just t crazy town. And I thought I would never, ever, ever see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Like I would never get there. And a lot of times I was like, great, I'll just shut it down now. Do you know? And that's kind of where my head was at. Well, at a certain point that started to change [00:07:00] because I decided I'm either gonna make an adjustment or I. Like literally die, you know? Yeah. It was like, it just kinda came to a head and you get to a crossroads like that and it's like, it's like, okay, F this.
I'm not gonna be defined by all this stuff. And, it started with a little bit of frustration and anger and dissatisfaction with being where, where I was and not finding that acceptable. Well, over time, that evolved into studying psychology and wanting to understand what made people tick, because part of it is just like, at the beginning it was, Why would a person, or why would people ever do such and such?
It just made no sense to me and it was delving into if maybe I have some understanding around it, that might bring some peace. There are some flaws in that logic, but it's fine. It got me started. It wasn't really too much later that. I station rated to, so as you move beyond that, then you get to a place of finally compelling when you find humans performing at the upper echelons of their potential, and then all of [00:08:00] a sudden the spark of inspiration kicks in and it's not about the frustration or the anger I have to escape or I have to get out.
It becomes a little more compelling and healthy that. Man, these people love what they're doing and watching them pull off something that's kind of superhuman. Mm-hmm. , gosh, that's inspiring. And then it sparks something within you. But it's not that that person had something special, it's they're revealing something about yourself to you.
And it lights this fire on the inside and then this desire starts to grow and then eventually it kind of turns into love and becomes where. Enjoy and you're passionate and you can throw yourself into something and life becomes a lot more fun. So that's a little bit, and I know it was a long-winded answer, but no, as with most things, it's like the evolution of our life and our consciousness and where we're going and what the things that we find passionate something he thing and the things and the people and the places that we love and what inspires us.
Shifts and changes over time. And so we spend so much of our lives trying to hold things static or get it to a certain [00:09:00] point. But the beauty of it is that hmm. The silence or like as things start to develop and you watch that transformation, if we can get over trying to control everything, we start to see the beauty and the evolution and like, I don't need to have control over all this, right?
I'm just responsible for doing the best I can by having the narrowest gap between where I'm at and my maximum potential. And that's how I'm gonna show gratitude to you know, my family, the world, God, what, whatever people believe in and subscribe to. Absolutely. 
Blake: And I, I think so many people can relate to, to, to that feeling of, you know, whenever you're truly at your, at your lowest, and then seeing just a little, a little some, just a little something that can, that can bring you through to the other side.
I, I know that right now, I mean, even in the united, everywhere in the entire world mental health is at an all-time low. And I, something that I've studied. You know, in, in the [00:10:00] past is, and something that I came up on my last podcast was, why do we, why do we think that is? And, you know, for you, you, you talk about, you know, overcoming fear as, as like a key, a key issue that kind of unlocks that potential, but then also leads you to have a greater acceptance of yourself.
I was, I was kind of curious, you know, with, with, with all this whenever you started. Looking at your transition, you, you, you got into, cuz you, you have a psychology background that you, you started, so, you went from being in this point and then something unlocked in you that you were like, you know what I'm gonna study.
Were you wanting to study your mind and kind of figure things out? Or what was your motivation? 
Brian: It went from being just a fascination with psychological dysfunction because that's what I wanted to understand at the beginning. And then I got to a place where I'm, I'm like, I'm like, hold on. This is such a tremendously powerful tool.
There's so much more to us than dysfunction, right? Mm-hmm. . And it's very, very in vogue right now [00:11:00] to like, tell everybody about your dysfunction and how special you are and like because you have this really special problem, which is a bunch of crap to me. It's like if that's, it's a. The amazing way that society right now is manifesting the narcissism that it just tends to be in our collective consciousness for whatever reason, you know?
Yeah. I think it, it came from a place of going from like, okay, I'm fascinated by dysfunction and like, understanding that a little bit to like, like, holy crap. People are doing amazing, compelling, inspiring things that lift the other, other people around them. And that's what I wanted to be invested in.
A lot of times we start the journey as the motivation is not how we finish the journey. Totally. Hopefully, it, that's, that's the way it should always be. You mentioned something about mental health being at an all-time low. It's, it's a crazy thing, and one of the pieces that I see myself you know, to what of our extent I can help and contribute with all that is also [00:12:00] mental fitness.
Is at an all-time low. And so when everybody's like, oh my God, you know, it's just like, man, mental health's terrible. It's like, how much time do you spend every single day and every single week actively doing mental training? You're comcompletetta shape and you're not fit. And then like something comes along and you, it's you.
You don't have the psychological immunity right, to put up with that stuff. And that's. A lot of it is right in sports. We talk a lot about business too. If you get injured, that takes, I mean, that wipes everything out. You can't train, you can't do anything like you are down for the count and you just have to wait it out until you can get back in the game.
That is a tremendous time suck Staying. Fit and healthy and having a buffer and being very careful not to do injurious things to yourself. You can have a tremendous career in [00:13:00] whatever you're doing. By just having the fortitude and the wherewithal and the resiliency when other people like the crap of life hits them.
You're in a position where you have that extra cushion. 100%. And so you can absorb things and they, they don't have like the crushing impact on you that they otherwise, that they otherwise would. You know, like if sometimes. All right. The best way to like breakthrough something is to steer right into it and like hit full throttle.
Like if you're in the ocean, you sure as crap don't wanna be sideways to a, like a massive wave and you're just kind of there floating around because you're gonna get capsized. Sometimes you have to like be very proactive. You have to turn the ship. You have to point the bow, like right in. There's a bower, the stern, the front
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I'm an idiot sometimes. I don't know. Whatever the front of the ship is and. Turn the nose right into the oncoming wave and like you just have to go [00:14:00] directly into it because if you don't, you're gonna let fear in other things. Put you in a position. So much of life is about positioning, or you're gonna put yourself in a position where you're gonna become a victim of the wave, but it's because you didn't prepare for it and he didn't approach it correctly. Absolutely. 
Blake: You know, I think that there's, you put it much more eloquently than I do, but one of my mantras and something I'm always telling people, Look at the thing, right? Just look at the thing. Because when you uncover it, you know, I, it's, it's usually, it, it's gonna take you somewhere a lot better than if you're just living in fear of something that is something that's just looming over you, you know?
Yep. So that's always I, I, I feel like that's what, what you're doing. You know, I love the idea of obviously that. Completely horrifying to be on a ship. , go through, go through a giant wave. That would be, that'd be horrifying. But the thing is, sometimes that's, that's truly the only option, cuz the other option is just, you know, failing and being stuck [00:15:00] for forever.
Yeah. And you know, and, and that's the way that a lot of people live, which is It's, it's, it's pretty unfortunate. A lot 
Brian: of its timing of courage too, right? Like, because if you're turning the ship into the wave, your courage is upfront. But the benefit is on the back side of all that, right?
Versus like, if you get rocked by the fricking wave, you're gonna have to have courage, but it's gonna be forced. It's not a volitional thing where you are proactively courageous. You're reacting on the back end because you're like, okay, now we're underwater and I have to get out, or I'm gonna drown. And it's a reactive position instead of a proactive one.
Position, and again, like I I said earlier, so much about life is positioning. So, you know, people have courage. Be like, like, I just don't have courage. I don't have this, like, the hell, you don't like. Go back through your life and if you have any reason, a very logical, level-headed view of yourself like you have tremendous amounts of courage, you have tremendous amounts of boldness, you have these pieces inside of you.[00:16:00] 
The question is when they get activated and what it takes to activate them. Right? Hundred percent. Wait until you get injured and then you have to go see a doctor and whatever else. And sometimes that stuff is inevitable and it happens, but I would. Proposed that most of the injuries we sustain, we sustain due to lack of prior planning, lack of accountability to ourselves and the people around us, and the ones that can't.
It's not because like, oh my gosh, this just came outta nowhere and how could I know? And it's like, well, how prepared were you? Mm-hmm. you. Yeah, absolutely. 
Blake: Yeah. No, that, that's that makes, that makes perfect sense because if you're always having to react to everything that, that comes your way, I mean, you're, you're just at the mercy of life instead of taking charge of it, you know, and being a, there's no room from being an actual impact player whenever you're constantly in a position of having to.
Just, you know, word off, word off, whatever comes your way. . I [00:17:00] for anybody that's listening, I just lifted my hands and like I'm in fear of something coming my way. ,. Yeah. But yeah. What are some of the, I I, so I, I would love to hear, cause you, you mentioned, you know, being mentally fit. So what are some examples of maybe how you can train, train your Nog into, do some of them, do some of that?
Do you have any kind of stuff that you use? 
Brian: Yeah. Yeah. So one of the interesting pieces of this is typically where we start is not by adding things on, it's by removing things. So when we have a whole conglomerate of like, just this mush in our head of like different systems and values and beliefs and identity things and this and that and the other there's so much.
We're just running this program under the surface that presupposes a lot of things, and that oftentimes is what drives our performance and what [00:18:00] oftentimes is tripping us up and making us inefficient. And, and a lot of people, and I just encourage you, right, like if you feel real Hmm. Dragged down, tired, kind of exhausted, and you're going out.
Doing your best to kick butt and take names, and you're giving incredible effort and grind and whatever your kind of mantra is, but you're just like exhausted and you're like, I just don't know what's wrong sometimes. Because people can't imagine, they're like, I can't work any harder. I'm not sure what I'm missing.
And a lot of times it's like, it's not that you're missing anything, it's, you have too many programs running one on top of the other. And it's sort of like, you know, one of the browsers that I have open that I probably shouldn't because we're on a together, but like one of my, my other browsers, I've probably got like 10 or 11 windows, or sorry, tabs across the top.
And the issue with that is something that I know is. At a certain point, I'm gonna need to like just close that all down because running all those cycles in the [00:19:00] background is gonna siphon away energy that we need to focus on moving forward. And sometimes people think things are wrong with them and I'm like, you're just running a bunch of background programs.
Some of them that are probably very, very subconscious, you have no idea that they're even going. And so we have to go in, examine some of that, strip away the things that are just siphoning energy because of the beauty. When you get it back, it's like free stuff. It's free energy. It's free power. Yeah, it's free, right?
Like motivation to move ahead. It's, it's being settled in yourself. So the first part is stripping off layers. And then again, I'm speaking in generalities because when I'm working with an individual client, every single person is. Different. So it's not like, Hey, follow the program that I just gave to the other 52 people.
It's, it's like, no, it's different for every person, but in a general sense, stripping away a lot of the layers is where we start and then we start diving into, okay, based on like your goals and your objectives, what kind of, since we've moved some of that other stuff [00:20:00] aside that wasn't as healthy, what would a person who is truly dead serious about accomplishing that and living a life like that?
What would they have to think and believe and tell themselves and what kind of an environment and relationships, and what type of friends would they have to have to accomplish that? And we start to collaboratively work together to build that out. Because again, it's funny cuz there are certain programs that we will run at certain times that like mental programs that we will put in place that we know are not true.
But at the moment, they serve a very, very specific purpose. And so sometimes we'll even insert like a block of code if you will, and then it's like, yeah, we're gonna run this code until we get past this, you know, whatever they're, they're doing in business or like once we get, like through q2, right?
We're gonna pull that out and we're gonna put something else in. But for right now and who you need to [00:21:00] be and how you need to show up and present yourself and like the momentum you need to create in your leadership for your team. You have got to be running this code right now. Now we need to keep in mind that that's not necessarily, like, that's not something you were pre-programmed with.
That's not part of your soul. That's something, and I'm not talking about being inauthentic and being bad, right? But when you get to athletics, even sometimes when you step out onto the field, you better be running a different program than you are when you're like just hanging out with your kids.
Do you know what I'm saying? Percent. When you're hanging out with your kids, you don't wanna be like, let's go intensely like fired up. Like, I'm gonna kick butt, take names, and I'm gonna just freaking stick it to these people. Do you know? You have to put yourself in a different frame of mind and based on the game that you're playing should determine right.
If we back out of that, what kind of mental programs do I need to run to be the best at what I. . Understood? 
Blake: [00:22:00] Yeah. And I know that everybody is probably a little different. I, I mean, are there any kind of like top common ones that you see like happening pretty frequently that are some tabs that people have up that you're like, you're like, okay, well these are a couple of obvious ones that aren't obvious to you, you know,
Brian: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think one thing that, the first thing that came to mind was. People are oftentimes they're not particularly conscientious or especially aware of how they really, truly talk to themselves. And they might be if they're doing like an affirmation or something, you know, if they're like on an affirmation binge or whatever, they're like, yeah, here are my affirmations.
But I'm like, I'm like, that's not necessarily, we really wanna look at the mental languaging. You have the questions you constantly kind of keep running in the background the way you speak to yourself and the way. Perceive situations, right? When you see something go a little bit sideways, like [00:23:00] what is your default?
What is your knee-jerk response like, why is that? Is that healthy? Is that gonna be something that's gonna get you down the road and help you accomplish what you said is truly important to you? If it is that important to you, like, great, we need to evaluate if that's serving you. If it's not, we need to get it out there.
You gotta learn. Speak to yourself, the con, because most people have a conversation in their head going on all day long. So you are the most inf influential person in your life, whether you like it or not, right? Which is why all of us are where we're at as a product of like what we've done in the past, whether or not we like it, right?
In one way, shape, or hundred forms. And so getting to that place of like, there are no victims here, only volunteers, and taking some responsibility for that and examining how do we talk to ourselves. How do we frame situations in our mind, especially when things go wrong because things are gonna go wrong and we don't wanna just fall off the side of the road and tumble down the hill?
It would be nice to mitigate the damage of [00:24:00] something and find a way, like, how are we gonna use that to our advantage? So it becomes a lot about like how you habitually talk to yourself the questions that you ask and then get into great. What would be better ways to go about that, and then how do we implement that?
How do we train that? Cuz sometimes it's disciplines like we're using you know, things like meditation with some auto-suggestion. There are a lot of different modalities for it, depending on the person and what connects with them. Sometimes it is doing visualization. There are a. Tactical things you can do, but the bigger strategy behind it is like removing the crap and like build new programs that are gonna take you.
Because the programs we all have right now, frankly, most of us haven't designed truly from the ground up, where we designed it from the outset because we're like, we want this beautiful skyscraper, we want this huge building. Awesome. We're gonna start with that in mind and from the very beginning, everything we.
Are going to do and [00:25:00] focus on is gonna be the architecture that's going and, and like the foundation that's truly going to support the supplies we're gonna need. What kind of staff are we gonna need? Right? Absolutely. And when you do that from the very outset, but most of us haven't, I mean, Nobody has, cuz life shifts and turns.
And so, especially if you're a person thinking about making a change in your career, doing something like that and getting more into entrepreneurship or should I continue this business or should I move to another one? Should I stay put? Et cetera, et cetera. When you're in transitional phases and you realize you're moving into something new, all of a sudden, that stuff previously, you can appreciate it.
You can say that has given me some perspective, and some different tools that I can use in the future. However, that architecture is not what you need in the future. Mm-hmm. . And so to be very purposeful, especially as you're thinking about making transitions to get some guidance around it, is powerful.
So when you were 
Blake: kind of figuring all this stuff out, were, were there, you know, certain people that you studied? I mean, did this all come from just [00:26:00] your own experience? How did you, how did you? Because right now, whenever you're talking about this stuff, it's funny. Maybe it's because I recently watched The Matrix, but it makes me think of  It makes me think of That's funny.
Blake: Breaking outta the Matrix. Do you know? You're like, okay, yeah, I'm gonna take a step back from society and make some decisions for myself and regain some agency 
Brian: here. Do you know? Yeah, yeah. I love talking with you because you know, from the very outset, even before we came on here, right?
Like there's just, there's that connection and like those pieces that you know, that you share with people. Like I love movies, especially ones with deeper connotations underneath. I saw my niece has been over in London studying for the last six months or whatever, and she can't. Came back for Christmas break and it was nice to see her.
And I was so proud of her because she finally watched The Matrix I've been telling her for, for a few years, you know, and she only saw it once and there's a lot that happens in it. And I was like, go back and like, keep re-watching it. There are a lot of layers to it, but movies have been a big thing over time to just inspire me.
Right. Because it's [00:27:00] something you can go back to. You always see a different movie the next time you watch it, especially if it does have some depth to it. That's been big in the beginning. You know, I it, it really, it's funny it started cuz I was like 14 when I dipped in heavily cuz I, I don't tend to do things.
I do some things in moderation, but the things I'm passionate about, I not, I don't, I have to like force myself into being a little bit more moderated in my response, but dove head first into just, A lot of personal development like books and psychology and understanding it that way. And then when I went to like college, you know, it's all the, all the curriculum there and all the different things that you read.
In terms of people that I've studied, it's hard to say because I've, there has truly been so many that as soon as I say one or two or three, it's like, but there's. You know, dozens and dozens and dozens of others. One that was pretty significant for me. I would say a, at a point in my development, it would not be appropriate for me now.
So I, to [00:28:00] take this with a grain of salt like it was appropriate for the season of life I was in. And what I needed at that moment was I did a lot of Tony Robbins stuff, right? Went through a lot of different things there. You know, I was at the point where when I decided to kinda like step away from that but I was at the place where it was like that transition point of like, like, wow, I could go on and like become a senior leader here.
Right? And that would've taken me down one path, but I just recognized, no, I got exactly what I needed here and the things to help. I transform and transition to being ready for my next phase of evolution, and then like I moved on. I think there's a real key in that for people. Sometimes they get stuck in different systems and they're like, this is the thing, or that's the thing, and it's like, just keep it in perspective, right?
Every season of life there's. Appropriate influences for you. And some maybe are not anymore. And so to continually just have that mindset of like, don't try and just find [00:29:00] the one thing. Right. Absolutely. Because I, I, I think it's really easy to get caught in that. Yeah. Yeah. I've 
Blake: noticed that theme kind of popped up while we've been talking about something.
Being what you needed at a certain season of life and then recognizing that, hey, it's a little bit different. Is that, so is that something that you train other people to do? I mean, or Cause I, is that a, is that a, a way to kind of move forward, and do you notice that popping up in people a lot?
Because I, I think that it is something that I've seen when I've talked to people is that sure, you get, you get very rigid and like, This is kind of my end all, be all. I follow this, and they're not challenging themselves to break out of that. So I guess I'd just be curious if that's something, you know, that if, if, how do you practically apply something like that?
Brian: Well I'll give you one practical way to apply something like that. I learned a long time ago, I'm not sure who the exact source was on this, but it made sense to me [00:30:00] intuitively and I just went with it from like a pretty young age. Anytime you're approaching. Reaching a goal or an objective that you have, right?
Like by the time you actually like get to the day, you need to have it already. Pushed out. Mm-hmm. , right? Or set your next objective, or you need to do it that same day. Right. A lot of people don't have that leapfrog approach, and so they just run, run, run, run, run until they get up to the thing, and then it's like, oh my gosh, this is awesome.
And then they had, you know, they're like, they're like, cool, I'm gonna take a week off. But then it, you know, it turns into like three by the time they finally get the motor going back again. And then they're starting to think about like, well, what do I really wanna do? But they've kind of lost the juice and the mojo and so now, They're up against the law of inertia and I would propose, and, and part of this is just being a swimmer and knowing how much efficiency, you know, being a really good swimmer has a lot more to do with not doing things that slow yourself down.
[00:31:00] Perpetuating the momentum as opposed to start, stop, stop, start, stop, stop, stop, stop. Like the kind of crap that would blow out your transmission in your car. What do you think it does to you? And so as you're approaching something, you always wanna be kind of like thinking ahead of that and almost setting something.
So you always have something compelling out in the future. Not like, oh, let's take a, you know, five-month vacation every time you hit a goal mentally until you get back on track. So that is one practical way to kind of keep. Keep that going because like, lemme give you an example. Last okay.
So nationals, that was in August. That was in Virginia. Yeah. I already had my goal set for this next upcoming August by the time I was halfway home on the plane the next day. Mm. And so I was like very, very, very clear on a couple of things. One where I was going, but also recognizing like, holy crap.
I cannot do what I did to get to where I am right [00:32:00] now and get to where I want to be. I have to change, I have to do different things. I have to evolve not only in like who I am and how I think and how I'm looking at stuff but like how I train and the paradigms that I hold about this sport. A lot of it has to change because they were super ambitious.
And so that's the advantage of objectives and goals is they can become things that. Compelling and pulling us through those times that are very difficult, especially in the growing pains of evolution. Where they're not healthy is when we start to constantly like beat ourselves up because we didn't hit the goal and this and that.
And so you want your goals to be something you know, in my mind that serves you and don't become, you know, this terrible. Terrible tyrants that's just beating on you all the time, and you start to feel like a freaking loser and then you build up the courage to go again, but then you miss it, and then it's like this whole guilt complex.
That's not what goals are for. I miss goals constantly, like [00:33:00] constantly. I set 'em every quarterly objective and I miss a lot of 'em. I used to get, especially. Well, as I was younger, I would get demoralized. I would get downtrodden. I would have huge emotional valleys I would go into because I'm like the mother of God, and part of it is because I was trying to just be more rigid and just push and power through and all this kind of things.
Not having a broader perspective about like, The long game and playing the long game and not getting so caught up in the fricking goal. The point of the goal is to push you to evolve and become a better person. Now, when I was young, that sounded like a load of crap. I knew I, intellectually, I kind of agreed with it, but in the back of my mind I was, I was like, whatever.
Like I just wanna reach the goal. And it's like, fine. And life will give you what you ask for, and that's what I was truly asked for asking for. So I got a whole hell of a lot of misery. When I finally grew up some of the best lessons of our entire lives, we learned when were young and we resist them until decades and decades and decades later, and we finally accept that and, we go.
[00:34:00] That's pretty spot on. Life opens up and then you have the emotional richness. Right? Cuz I'd much rather have an emotionally rich life than a life where I just like to accomplish a lot. And it's that adrenaline spike of being addicted to like, yes, I did it. Yes, I did it. Yes, I did it. And it's like, you're a crack addict for goals
How, how is that, how is that healthy? Yeah. You're, you're com being compelled by something and having like, I being inspired by compelling feats and events and stuff like that is very different than being a compulsive human being. Mm-hmm. , I, yeah, 
Blake: because it's, it's kind of funny how with goal setting, and I had to figure that out too.
You know, in terms of, cuz I, I used to just beat myself up and I'd be like, oh my gosh. I didn't, I didn't knock out what I had to, what I said I would knock out. And then I was like, okay, there's a little bit of a mental shift. The point of goal setting is, is goal setting. You know, it's, it's the drive along the way and, [00:35:00] and all of the improvements that happen kinda incrementally.
I listen to, have you ever heard of that? I, I don't. It's either Huberman or Huberman. Andrew Huberman, he's a, he's a he, he is a neuroscientist at Harvard, but he, he does a bunch of podcasts and that's one. That I was like, oh, okay. That's pretty cool that it's proven that goals and, and achieving them is kind of.
The dissent of your joy, your joy. That's kind of where, where it tapers off. It's, you know, the hard work that goes into consistently, you know, aiming towards something generally better is where Yep. Happiness 
Brian: is driven from. I think a lot of that is Bec I'd love it if you brought it up.
A lot of that has to do with the fact that. When we make everything about something outside of ourselves and realize the goal and accomplish something, there's nothing wrong with it, right? Like I work with high-performance people. I work with people that probably mostly need to calm down a little bit, because [00:36:00] they're so out there, you know, whether it's athletes or business people or artists or whatever, they are not lazy folk what's so ever, right?
But I think the reason is that like goals are looked at in the right way. Is because it focuses us on appreciating ourselves and the evolution that we're going through and, turning the lens back within instead of putting our happiness outside of ourselves and thinking, Nope, I, I still, it's like that song by you two.
I still haven't found what I'm looking for. Mm-hmm. , right? I've been to the highest mountains. I've done all this different stuff. Like I've found God, I've found this, I found that, and I still haven't found what I'm looking for. And that's because we are constantly looking. Outside of ourselves or putting our success out there.
And it's like, yeah, but I have to do this. And I've always, and it's like, it's like it's not about that. It's about loving who you're becoming. And appreciating the [00:37:00] magnificence of who you are and the crap you've been willing to put up with, and the persistence that you have, and the determination and the devotion and the love that you show others through that process.
Because I can tell you one of the quickest ways to get to a goal is to do a lot. Dirty, underhanded things. Yeah. It just, is, right? Yeah. And like, that's great. I, I mean, can help people reach their goals fast a lot of times. And why don't we go that route? Because I know that the adrenaline of it and like the pleasure hits and the fixes they keep getting, they're gonna be excited individuals.
The fricking soul is gonna die inside of them. And at some point, they're gonna hit rock bottom because there's gonna be nowhere to hide. I don't know when it's gonna happen. I don't know how it's gonna happen, but it's gonna freaking happen. And when you're in a place all by yourself and you cannot turn on, you know, like no offense, right, but like you can't turn on another podcast or you can't look at somebody else, or you can't get addicted to somebody else in [00:38:00] another relationship and this is the one and you, it's just you and you.
And that's. And you have nothing in there, and actually, there's a lot of guilt and shame over the crazy ass stuff that you did to climb the rungs and get to your goal and every, and then the problem with that is it's addictive because now you have an, now you have an image to uphold and people see you a certain way and you have to live up to that and like, wow, how am I gonna go bigger next time?
That's a tough spot to be in. Right? And eventually, you're gonna come face to face with that. And like a lot of this stuff, you know, like, it's funny as I'm talking about it, one of the reasons I love this and appreciate this context and this opportunity is because when you're speaking this kind of stuff, you, if you're, if you're doing it right, you're reflecting internally and you're like, yep, I need to, I need to focus on that again, because everything I'm saying, I'm looking at myself and recognizing the areas in my life, either past or present.
Where do I need to apply these things better or do I need to take my advice? And so, you [00:39:00] know, I hope this inspires other people. But, you know, this to me, I mean, selfishly, it's like I get to inspire myself by reminding myself of the truth that I know and not acting like, oh no, I didn't know that. No, I, really, really do know.
So I just encourage people taking, take account of who you're becoming because that ultimately is gonna be the legacy. That you leave, certainly in a spiritual sense, it doesn't matter. You can have edifices to you. You can have all kinds of things and acclaim and this, that, and the other. And it's like who you become is gonna make the biggest difference in the world.
And like if you achieve some goals along the way, that's awesome. That's just gravy on top. But if that's what your world's about, I don't know. It seems, yeah. Seems like it's not gonna get you. Absolutely. It's I mean that's where true, true 
Blake: coping comes from. So many people don't understand how to even sit with themselves and cope.
And it's funny when you say that too because listening to all those things, I'm like, I, I [00:40:00] start doing the same thing, a mental checklist of like, I'm like, okay, what are some ways that I, I I was like, cause there's always room for everybody to do it, right? Oh yeah. 
Brian: Yeah. Yeah. And you think about the experts, right?
Like the people that are the best of the best world-class. It's not that the, I mean, we romanticize it and we imagine like, oh my gosh, they're doing so many like different, amazing things. And it's like, it's like, no, they're not. They're doing the same basic crap that you're doing, but they're doing it way better, gentlemen.
Blocking and tackling, blocking and tackling, blocking and tackling, blocking and tackling. This isn't, and no, it's not sexy and everybody loves the Hail Mary and the this and the that, and the lateral, unless it doesn't work, which one of the games I saw recently, which lateral didn't work too well. But it's is blocking and tackling and I think most One of the biggest places you can put yourself at a huge advantage, in my opinion, is doing all the mundane [00:41:00] worrying, right?
Like it's all the like, like tedious, like day after day of the same old crap, just to get like maybe one 60th of 1% better, but then stacking. Week after week, month after month, year after year together, and seeing what you come up with in 10 years. And the biggest problem I had when I was young is I, I was like, awesome.
Over the next three-year period, I'm gonna accomplish this. And it's like completely unbelievably unrealistic. Intellectually it makes sense, right? But like it's never gonna happen. And that's way different. Like if you can have a longer vision of like 10, 15, 20 years down the road. That's a very different life.
It's a very different outcome. For somebody that's more playing, you know, on Simon Sinek terms would be more like the infinite game versus playing just a finite game. But I can't see past the end of my nose. I can only see next year or two or three years from now. If I'm playing an infinite game, I'm gonna play the game very differently than everybody else that's on the field.
That's just thinking in terms of [00:42:00] like the next, until the next time out or the next. Absolutely 
Blake: true. And you know, every time I think about swimming, I always think about this essay, the, it's, it's called The Mundane of Excellence. I don't know, have you, 
Brian: have you read that? Oh, that's awesome. No, but that title's freaking amazing.
I was, 
Blake: it's like a spot on, you know, it's like, but it, it, it breaks down what it takes to become truly excellent from the perspective of what swimmers typically go. To perfect their craft. And a lot of it is extremely mundane, but it's also the extremely intentional practice of if you're gonna take a stroke, every single little movement counts for something, you know, and it's very gradual.
And it's, it's that's one of the, one of the tenants' consistency. The other tenant of it is listed in there is about, you know is, you know, consistent, intentional, and also intentional. 
Brian: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I mean, it's crazy the stuff, you know, like this morning I like I showed up cuz part of it is one of the [00:43:00] things I wanna know.
And it's been this way since I started swimming because I just knew that I had so much catch-up to play. After all, I was so far behind the eight ball in the sense that most of the people I'm around now, they've been swimming since they were tiny children. I mean, they have swum their entire lives. And I'm like, I'm starting at 30.
And that produces some unique challenges. , yeah. Of. And I'm like, I'm like, Nope, I'm gonna train every single day. Like not in the pool every single day, like five days a week, but it's gonna be 365 days every single year, over year, over a year of like training and like never missing a day. And why would I?
And to keep that kind of momentum, then you have to have that larger purpose, that larger why, whatever you want to think about, to drive you into being intentional because it's so easy to like, okay, I have to go do this thing today, versus, you know, like today I show up. I'm gonna be early. Like that's just a practice, that's a discipline.
That's weird. I'm gonna show up early. First one there. I'm the last one to leave. But also not just doing that as like a, it's not like a badge of honor. Like that's not [00:44:00] what matters so much. It's like I'm getting intentional practicing cuz I love that you piece those together because they have to go hand in hand.
Otherwise, it doesn't work the same. Right. But. Being there early, I'm leaving late and everything that I'm doing is intentional. And so if I get an extra, you know, 500 yards in a week or something, like something that seems like nothing right to a swimmer, right? That's not a lot. But over a year, And then you factor that out over an entire decade.
That makes a night and day difference. And when you develop these habits and these disciplines and you go and you are intentional and you're thinking about like, where am I going? What's compelling to me? Like why am I doing that? That's awesome. Who do I have that I can watch that inspires me?
Where can I go to like either listen to podcasts or look at videos with whatever somebody's jam is to stay? Inspired to keep that in the forefront of their mind so that you do those little things right so that you show up early, you go late, and then when you're there, I mean, [00:45:00] you know, I have some training partners too, and part of that is just making sure that I do what I can to encourage other people around me so that I have training partners and that they like.
Being in the pool with me and liking what we contribute back and forth to each other like that's part of the discipline. Cause this morning it was like, for most mornings are crazy. Like some of the stuff that we do together and the sets are insane. Like the rest time, we're not getting the intensity that we're pushing.
Yeah. And going for like two hours straight at like about the top end of like what you feel like you're capable. Over and over and over again. You gotta be freaking passionate to do something like that. And, passion to me is a lot of the structure that you put into your life and your business and your family, and into your whatever, whatever it is for you that you really, truly wanna be remembered for and great at.
Brian, you got me pumped 
Blake: up, man. 
Brian: It's 
Blake: funny, before the [00:46:00] podcast we were talking about you know how I'm starting to swim a little bit and you know, get, getting into, getting into all of that and I can just tell that, you know, these conversations I, you know, love getting to, to talk with you. I can tell that your conversations.
Inspiring to I'm sure everybody that you end up meeting. So I'd be curious kind of in, in wrapping up here, what is the mission that you'd say you're on right now if you were to kinda 
Brian: express that? My mission? Like, like, like my life ambition mission, or in what sense? Cuz there are a lot of ways I can answer this
Yeah. 
Blake: You know, I'd say, I'd say your, your your, your 
Brian: personal mission. My mission is honestly overarching and the thing that is not the only type of, top of mind, but just practices more than anything else is like a spiritual awakening. Yeah. And the interesting piece is that's at hmm. [00:47:00] How that used to fit into my life.
Cuz I, I used to. I'll just be honest. Look at that sometimes and be, be like, I don't know. That's a kinda weak dude. , like, you could, you could just like use like, oh yeah. Like I'm, I'm, I'm spiritually awakening and like, as an excuse to be a big fricking loser. Like, and that, and that's honestly like kind of where I was coming from.
Like, great, that excuses you from doing a whole lot of things. And at one level it can be almost a distraction or a diversion. But when you delve into something, And you get into like what it truly is. I mean, I can tell you, dude, of all the things that I've done in my life. That journey is by far, far, and away the most kind of gut-wrenching, the most.
You have to look at yourself like you can't look away the most. You have to confront things. It's like there's no off-ramp for it, and it can be scary and confusing, and you're [00:48:00] like, I don't know where this is at, because it's not exactly like there are people around every corner that are really, truly dead serious about that.
And so some of the stuff that you experience, I, I don't like there's, I don't even have a human that I can talk with about it. And so it takes a lot of like trust and dedication and staying in the pocket and like having faith in the process and having faith in yourself and God or the universe or whatever people Right.
Subscribe to. Yeah. To have the courage to keep going in the face of something like that. And honestly, that's one of the reasons that I think one of the big themes in my life from the very beginning was overcoming fear and not letting it control me. Back then, I was like, why is there so much fear and terror in my life?
And then I. Busted through that, and for a while, it was like clear sailing and then this whole journey came around and I'm like, mother of god, this is terrifying. And I know exactly why I have the muscles built, and thankfully I have, hopefully, the horses in the barn to carry me through that. Because it takes a [00:49:00] tremendous amount, tremendous amount of courage and a lot of focus because the world doesn't exactly lend itself well.
To not distract from that objective. Absolutely. 
Blake: Yeah, I, I feel like that's kind of my mission too, you know, in a sense. 
Brian: It's funny you said. That's awesome. just, yeah. You 
Blake: know four years ago I was you know, I, I got into my, into my twenties. I struggled, with addiction in part.
And you know, was like, gosh, like I am doing. I'm just doing everything. You know, everything is, is becoming dulled and you know, there's, there are direct repercussions that are happening. And then for the last four years just decided, luckily, decided to just be like, all right, I'm just gonna, you know, cut everything out.
Just go full sober and, yep. And you know, it's funny whenever you were, because I almost feel like it [00:50:00] was lucky in a sense because some people don't get the chance to maybe this is not the best way to put it, but some people don't get the chance to, to even experience what that drastic change is like of going from full addiction mode to full.
Full being like, shit, I have no coping mechanisms, And I have no way to, to like tap into my spirituality and everything that's going out there. So, yeah. Thank you for, you know, thank you for sharing that. I think that it's really important that people realize that it's a way to tap into the kind of life that.
Want for yourself and become the person that you know you can be for your community and you know, everybody around you. So I, I, I appreciate you saying 
Brian: that. You're welcome, dude. And thank you for sharing that. I think, I mean, I think that's powerful for listeners because Right, all of us.
Have stuff that like comes up and, and honestly, sometimes it's, it's a real privilege to have the crap hit the fan and have your life kind of go sideways and you're just frustrating. You're life. You're like, oh my God, [00:51:00] like I've made a mess of some of this stuff. Because sometimes it's like the severity of an ex of those types of experiences is the only thing that can cause somebody to cry.
Out of that. Right. And that's that crossroad we talked about in the beginning. It's like, okay, right. Like I'm here at this intersection and this is gonna go one way with one life, or it's gonna go the other way with like a very different life and everything in life. Can be an advantage. Right? And like, gosh, I heard an interview with Mike Tyson.
He said something about that. I was like, I love that. Like I say that too, like, this is great. You know, he was like, he was like, I just, you know, I, I made my disadvantages, my advantages. And that's like a huge, huge, huge, huge key. And it's like, it's how we see things. And the other thing I would just maybe leave that with is I, I tell clients, pretty much most people that come into my orbit that I have serious conversations with, right?
If adversity comes into your life, make it [00:52:00] pay you for fricking being there. It's better like if it's coming into my place, it's not staying rent-free. Oh hell no. I'm charging big-time exorbitant fees like you can be here and whatever. Like, I'm gonna have to wade through this and we'll see how it turns out.
But the one thing I do know is it's, it's. Extract a cost from you. If you're adversity in my life, you're gonna pay for being here. And you know what? Like that is just gonna go into my bank account of things that I'm grateful for and experiences that were maybe painful and I would never wish it on anybody else.
However, now I don't know if maybe somebody in my life around me is like inspired by something and I never even see it. I never know about it. They never say anything, but it makes an impact. that was worth all of it, you know, to me. 100%. 
Blake: Yeah. Yeah. You know, you better that adversity. You better pay up, man.
You know, I, I, oh yeah. I love that. 
Brian: Yeah, you got my mo. You got my money. You got my [00:53:00] money. . Okay. No, no, I'm gonna get that money for you. Okay. All right. Awesome. Like, I'm gonna ask you again, the more you got my money, you got my money. And it's just, oh man. I'm like a dog on a bone with that because it's just, you know, sometimes we let stuff come into our lives and we just, we act li like, oh my gosh.
And like we just ha it's like a. This terrible storm came through or something and it's like, it's like, please get something out of the richness of that experience. And the, at the moment, that may not be an appropriate thing to do. Sometimes you have to be past it a little bit. Yeah. But to have that mentality that that's one of your values and one of the things that you hold dear is making adversity pay you and pay up.
Mm-hmm. That's gonna, that's gonna change how you live yours. 100%, 
Blake: man. Brian, thank you so much for hopping on. Where can everybody keep up with you what would be the best way for people to get more of this amazing wisdom that you've shared with us today?? 
Brian: I mean, honestly, like, if somebody wants to reach out to me directly, just send me an email at Brian Berg for [00:54:00] performance.com.
But also like my website, before performance.com. Word of warning. I don't do a whole lot on social, and that is by design. And so if people do want to say kind of up to speed, make sure you hop on my website, you're on my email list, cuz that's where I tend to communicate with people.
Excellent. 
Blake: All right, well thank you for your time, everybody. This is the G.E.M series. Be on the lookout for Brian. We're gonna do some, we're gonna, we're gonna be seeing some great things from, from Brian in the future. And hope I can have you on again 
Brian: at some. I'd love to. Blake, I appreciate your time and this opportunity.
It's been an honor, my friend. Absolutely. Thanks, brother. 
Blake: All right, everybody. Have a great day.
Thank you for joining us on this episode of The G.E.M Series, the podcast for anybody dedicated to investing in themselves. If you'd like to see the resources mentioned in this episode, learn more about what we were up to at rocket level, or come over and join us. Just click on the links below. Until next time, this is Blake Chapman, and remember [00:55:00] to be awesome and do awesome things.