Weight Room Wealth

THE NEUROSCIENCE OF CHRISTMAS:
In the early fourth century, in the coastal Roman city of Myra, a father of three daughters fell on hard times.

A previously wealthy man, he fell into poverty which meant that he no longer had enough money to arrange weddings for his daughters. In the early 300’s AD, this meant more than just social collapse. The daughters would have to be sold into prostitution.

Meanwhile, at his church, the Bishop learned of his parishioner’s hardship and took matters into his own hands.

Cloaked by the darkness of night, he made his way to the man’s house, stepped up onto a ledge and dropped a bag of gold coins through the open window.

The next evening, he did it again. This time, three more coins for the man’s second daughter.

On the third night, with a third bag of gold prepared for the third daughter, as he reached up towards the window, the family was ready for him. They wanted to meet their hero.

It was their priest, Nicholas of Myra.

Saint Nicholas.

Santa Claus.

I have this painting hung over my desk because I believe that it is the great secret to chronic pain relief.

Your brain serves as the gatekeeper to pain.

Its mechanism is simple.

Every moment of your life, your brain uses your senses (vision, hearing, smell, taste and touch) to evaluate the world around you.

Remember, the brain is a two-million year old protection device. It’s top priority is survival.

When your brain perceives safety, it relaxes. YOU relax. You feel loose, the shoulders come down, your heart rate drops. This best version of you exists in this state. It’s in this state that the pain-free version of you exists too.

But when the brain perceives danger, it activates your fight or flight system. The heart rate rises, the pupils dilate, your ribs flare and your pelvis tilts forward. It’s preparing you to fight your enemy.

What was originally installed as a primal response to escaping life-threatening experiences for humans thousands of years ago, today, the brain gets a little confused.

Continued in comments…

I am trying to simultaneously build an exceptional business and be a world class athlete.

I’ve been at this whole athlete thing for about two years with varying degrees of intensity, success, failures, consistency and everything in between.

The obvious conclusion is that this is hard.

Doing any ONE of these alone is difficult. But doing them BOTH is REALLY difficult.

Last week, after HYROX Las Vegas I ran into the brick wall of burnout. I couldn’t do anything. All of my Oura Ring data was devastatingly bad.

Not to mention, I ran my slowest time ever despite training harder than ever.

So, starting today, I’m attempting to really figure this out.

My next measuring stick will by HYROX New York in June. I don’t have a goal time yet but I’ll figure that out soon.

Saturdays have changed. Recovering and studying.

This will be cool in 2034.

***The plan reveals itself***

Welcome to the 5am Club
I used to watch this YouTube video that was a tour of a $14,000,000 NYC apartment all the time.

The apartment was on the 60th floor of Madison Square Park Tower.

I would consider this my dream apartment.

This week I started waking up at 5am, making a cup of coffee and just sitting on my couch to collect my thoughts before starting my day.

This is the view from my couch.

On the left you’ll see two tall, skinny towers.

The taller one is Madison Square Park Tower.

Each morning, around 5:15, a few minutes after I sit on my couch, I would see the lights turn on in roughly the same apartment.

Approximately 60 floors up and clearly a full floor home.

Each morning, I stare across the Hudson at this lit up home in the sky and wonder who that person is and what they might know that I don’t.

This brings me to the 5am club.

I read this book last weekend “The 5am Club” thanks to the recommendation from

The gist of the book is, wake up every day at 5am and allow yourself to have some tranquility to start your day.

Some other key points…

-Sleep is still super important. Gotta be more dialed in with your bedtime if this is going to be sustainable. The book recommends 10pm. That feels late to me.

-I appreciated how much the author emphasized rest. To the extent that being in “the club” means taking 2 full off days per week.

With the new wake time, I’ve only added 90mins to my day but for some reason I can’t explain, it now feels like I have all the time in the world.

Just last week it felt like I needed 30 hour days to get everything in.

And it’s not like I’m adding productive time.

From 5am-6am, I just sit, drink coffee and write in a journal.

Must be some sort of mindset phenomenon.

8 years in business comes down to this.

Here’s the business plan for Athletic Health.

For the entrepreneurs out there here’s some key points.

-I don’t start making money until level 3 (course). Initially just trying to build a list of people with interest in what my company does. And then narrow that list down to serious prospects.

-The highest level is egregiously expensive. Like $100k. This is the dream offer to the dream client. This is you being able to do everything you’ve always wanted. This is serving at the absolute highest level that you know how. Of course, this comes with a significant financial investment from the customer but if they can pay it, you can deliver in a major way.

-Ultimately all of my (Leadership) time/energy will be spent on the bookends of the business. At the very front as the face and voice attracting people to the organization and then at the top serving the dream customer at the highest level. Everything in between gets systemized and delegated.

-At the front end, it’s all about selling your story. I’m selling prospects that Athletic Health is the absolute key to winning the health game. My socials, podcasts and free content is selling this from all different angles. I’m never trying to make a cent from content (believe me, I’ve tried a million times and it doesn’t work)

-The secret ingredient to making any of this actually work is “giving a sh*t.” The secret to living is giving. Give ten times more than you could ever expect to get in return and your life will be blessed. At the various and infinite moments of uncertainty, you can have faith in giving. This is where I default to when I am uncertain.

Thanks to and for showing me this.

Thanks to for making sure I don’t drift off into La La Land and actually get things done.

On a foam roller at 6:45am

As I continue to push and pull to build my business, time has become a major issue for me.

I used to think that it was cheesy when I would hear influencers talk about time management.

As I stand right now, I just have too much to do and not enough time to get it all done.

I’m reading this book, “How to Sell Your Way Through Life” (Not my favorite title, but Napoleon Hill might be favorite author) and in it he sets a clear budget for your time. (Scroll through the pictures to see it).

Yesterday, I did my own time budget using this time.
It is REMARKABLE how easily time slips away throughout the day.

It legitimately took me an hour to figure out how to hit these targets that Hill lists in the book.

You can see in the final picture how I ended up budgeting my time (I’m sure it will change).

It all starts with being on a foam roller at 6:45 sharp. This means, I can’t let time slip away with the snooze button. I can dillydally making my morning coffee.

These targets are do-able if I don’t allow any slippage (probably far easier said than done).

But I’m going for it!
———
PS: For many of the influencers I admire like , , , etc. I love to scroll through all the way back through their thousands of posts to see what they were doing when they were just getting started.

‘s is particularly good and transparent.
‘s is also great.
not so much since he’s been famous for 40 freaking years!

For all of my social media existence, I’ve tried a million different things. A soup of randomness.

Some things were successful, most were not.

From a business perspective, I’m as dialed in as ever. As focused as ever.

This is a point where plan emerges.

So I’d like to note this post for any future “Sean’s” who might be scrolling through to the end of my feed looking for clues.

This is the point where I’m only posting for myself and anyone looking back a decade from now. I don’t care about likes, engagements and followers (definitely not true, but I’ll try!)

I just want there to be a record of how I did this.

Who knows, maybe this will become the “famous treadmill selfie.”

Working for the Lakers, I noticed 4 specific trends amongst the world’s best athletes that were virtually non-existent amongst amateurs.

1. The players who were underperforming or hurt had crummy posture.

2. The athletes who weren’t reaching their potential had strength in all the wrong places.

3. The young athletes were running out of gas to soon, leaving them vulnerable to injury and unable to perform at their best.

4. The brain held the master key to it all

The data I was uncovering about the brain was astounding and the direct correlation to what I was seeing in NBA weight rooms blew me away.

I went CRAZY, trying to learn about the brain, reading over 300 books to crack the code.

I published my first newsletter this morning detailing all of this glorious neuroscience.

I’ll put the link in my story and bio.

I spend my waking moments trying to be a successful person.

I wish it were easier.

In the Information Age of podcasts, documentaries, blogs, email newsletters and, of course, this bloody social media, it’s far too easy for me to get lost.

Every podcast I listen to has me thinking I’m making lethal business mistakes.

Every newsletter I read, makes me feel like I have no idea how to train anyone.

And every book I digest pulls me in yet another direction.

At some point, I’ve gotta call it for what it is….noise.

It’s all just noise.

Arbitrary, random and mostly useless noise.

So what really is important?

This is the best I can come up with after 36 years of living.

Faith
I don’t mean faith as in religion (although I’ve grown to think this far more important than my initial view).

I mean faith in YOURSELF.

Faith that YOUR ideas and YOUR intuitions are good enough. In fact, it’s faith that your ideas and intuitions are GREAT enough.

Robert Greene talks about how each person has a remarkably unique genetic sequence. No one in the history of the world is quite like you and therein lies your gift.

All the “noise” is exceptional at making you think otherwise.

I’m writing this on my notes app, while on the bus to my NYC office. Everyone is playing games on their phone, scrolling on social and listening to the very noise that distracts them from their inner tour guide to life…

…Jiminy Cricket…

Your intuition.

It would appear, at least to me, that intentionally stopping the noise brings you back into touch with who you were meant to be.

💪 Continued in Comments 💪

In 1996, Harvard-trained Neuroanatomist, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor experienced a severe hemorrhage in the left hemisphere of her brain. On the afternoon of this rare stroke (AVM), she could not walk, talk, read, write or recall any of her life.
 
In the grueling 8-year recovery process, Dr. Taylor uncovered one of the most profound neurological discoveries of our time.
 
We have all heard that we are only able to use a small fraction of our brain’s true power, but Dr. Taylor has committed her life to showing you how you can use ALL of it...or as she calls it, “Whole Brain Living.”
 
Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor was named one of TIME Magazine’s Most Influential People in the World in 2008, she highlighted the first ever TED conference with her TED Talk “My Stroke of Insight” which has recorded over 8 MILLION VIEWS on YouTube and she was a premiere guest on Oprah’s Soul Series.
 
She is the author of two best-selling books and the #1 book
on strokes on Amazon.

In this episode you will learn…
- How to Use Your Whole Brain
- The 4 Personalities We All Have
- The Difference Between the Right Brain and Left
- What it Feels Like to Have a Stroke
- How to Remove Neurological Blocks
- How to Eliminate Stage Fright
- SO MUCH MORE!

“When our limbic system anxiety circuit is triggered, we are neuroanatomically cut off from accessing our higher cortical thinking centers, which is where our learned knowledge is stored.” – Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor