S1E85 · Jasmine Birch: Perspective from experiences

Hey squad, welcome to another week of the Virtus Performance podcast. Before we dive into episode 85 with Jasmine Birch, the newest member of Virtus Performance/most recent graduate of the mentorship program. I would like to say thank you to all you guys for listening. It's been an absolute pleasure being able to bring these episodes to you each week to be able to have conversations with cool people, doing cool shit, it's kind of like the dream job that I don't get paid for. But as you'll learn in the last minute of Jasmine's episode, doesn't matter whether you

get paid or not, or how much you get paid, as long as you're doing something that makes you happy and fills you up, then we're all good. The money will come eventually and the money will flow in. If anyone sponsored the podcast, you're more than welcome to. Alright, so this episode Jas, as I said, very recent graduate of the mentorship, she's about to dive into being a coach, so we kind of talked about her journey, her struggles, all the things that she's been through, which is a lot more than the average 20 year old. I

love the fact that we have a platform like this where we can talk to people who are industry professionals, people who are leading the charge in their particular field. I can talk to grandparents, mums, dads, and talk to 20 year olds named Rook about how they see the world and what they believe. And if Jas didn't mention that she was 20 like 14 times and rip into me being old a couple of times, then you wouldn't know she's 20 years old because she has a very mature head on her shoulders, which is good because it just means when she starts working, I'm going to expect way more from her.

Let's get stuck in. My personal and business goal is to be just a little bit better every day. I believe everyone, especially normal people, have a story to tell. The Virtus podcast exists to help us all find small ways of consistent improvement by discussing the journey and experiences of each of our guests. Jasmine. Yeah. Welcome to the podcast. Thanks. It's bloody good to have you, mate. Happy to be here. You excited? Nervous? How are you feeling? Excited. Nervous. Butterflies all at once. It's the same thing. So I don't know. Same thing. It is. One we look at positively, one we don't.

Yeah. I think like overall it's just butterflies in the stomach that flutter along. Well good. And that's what it feels like. You'll be fine. If anyone wants to send Jas some words of support, by all means, now is probably the time. Send her some good luck. First question for you. What gets you out of bed in the morning? It's a good question. Thanks. I knew you'd ask me that. But it's funny because like I'll listen to these podcasts and I hear that one question that you say to every person and I've never actually thought about what my answer is kind of thing.

And then when he's like, now that I've got to think of it, I'm like, okay, what is it? I think the biggest thing that gets me out of bed every morning is to get up and learn and just grow more and more each day. I sort of like the fact that like each day you can sort of finish it off and think, yup, I've learned that today or today I've succeeded that today. I tried that, that I've never tried before. Um, I think that stuff's really cool. And I think that's what gets me up out

of bed every single day because currently things like work and uni and stuff like it's stuff that I do, but at the end of the day, finishing it off and working out what I've learned from it is what gets me out of bed. Have you always been hungry to learn, hungry to like find ways for you to grow? Yeah, I have. And it's weird. Like I was thinking about it a while ago. I was trying to work out why. I have no idea why. It's, um, interesting, but I have always throughout school year 12, year

11, year 12, I did VC and I was always pushing myself to do more and more in terms of like learning and picked all the shitty subjects like bio health and human mass PE, like all the sports science based. Yeah. Like all the ones that I thought of, I plotted it out really smartly. You could say in like year 10 and thought, yeah, let's like pick subjects that will relate all well together. And then that pushed me to keep going in learning, I think, because they all somehow related together and I was like, yup, this is cool.

Let's keep learning about it. I went from there really. Yeah. When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? I don't know. I don't think I really ever had anything set in mind at all. Like I didn't really know. I think probably one time I would have been like, yeah, let's be a vet or yeah, let's be like, my mom was a nurse. I used to sometimes say like, yeah, I'll do nursing maybe, but I never really ended up following that path. And it sucks because now look back at it and I'm always like, eh, maybe I should just pick nursing.

Because I don't know, it's going back to that idea of like the degree you've done or the degree I'm in. It's an easy, nursing is such one of them things that you finish it and you sort of, yeah, you're a nurse. But I think, yeah, the degree that we are in, you've done. So for the people playing at home, what are you studying? Physical activity and health science. So. And how far in are you? Third year. Started up this week to finish off my last year. I spent all last year, I'd started off with, in my first year of uni, I was doing exercise science and public health, a double degree.

And that was awesome. I was doing that. The public health side, I hated, it was boring. It was so shit. I thought it'd be like health and human VCE, but it was nothing like that. It was a complete opposite. And I was like, yep, why did I pick this? So then I like went to the course coordinator and I was like, yep. Actually I didn't start off like that. So in my first year I had a head injury halfway through the first year of it. And then that made me go part-time in my second semester. And then during being part-time I sort of stopped and I was like, wow, why am I doing this course?

That's going to take me like over four years now to complete. And I didn't even know what I want out of it. So I went and saw the course coordinator and I was like, what am I doing? Let's get somewhere with this. And then he was awesome and convinced me. First year you did that. Yeah. So I was straight away like, I needed, I don't know. It took me three years to be like, hey, what the hell's happening? Yeah. It was really like, I look back on it now and I just push myself so much. Awesome.

I don't know. It's full on, that's for sure. But yeah, the course coordinator convinced me into a three-year course. Cause then I was like, yep, I want to be a teacher. Let's do a master's of teaching after my degree. And that'll get me to a set like time, spot, place with a job title after it. And then yeah, I went from there. It's pretty cool that you can kind of look back at, I guess your first year at uni and the fact that you were able to not just like go with the flow, you were able to go, okay, I want to change this.

I want to tweak this. Yeah. Before we just brush over it, talk me through the head injury. What happened? Really good story. Better be. I can't say it's a good story. I actually don't know if I should say, cause you're going to think of like another shitty nickname to give me probably. We'll get to that later. I was at work, which was being a pharmacy assistant at, so just like I was standing at the registers about to serve a customer. All was fine. I went to work that day really sick and I just started the job.

I was about 10 shifts in. Um, yeah, I went to work when I should know I was sick, had the flu. Um, just had like two days in a row of uni. I was probably only about like 10 weeks into like first year of uni or whatever. Pretty full on pushing myself. Blah, blah, blah. Um, yeah. Customers came up to the registers. I was serving them out of nowhere, just blacked out, fainted, hit the back of my head on the ground, on the tiles. And then the ambulance came and they got me to Frankston hospital. It's funny.

The place I was working at was in Frankston, which was five minutes away from Frankston hospital. And long story short, we got a bill for like the ambulance car trip and that costed like $1,200 and literally it was like less than a five minute drive. Fun fact, anyway, make sure you've always got cover, which I did. Yeah, share that to everybody who doesn't have an ambulance cover. Yeah, get onto it because that stuff's crazy. Um, yeah, so went to Frankston hospital, had a CT scan done, had a blood clot hemorrhage forming in the left side of my brain.

Crazy stuff. They didn't have any brain neurosurgeons at the time. So then I got emergency transported to Alfred hospital that night and had brain surgery done. Like literally got to Alfred. Like I think my shift was at like 10, like a 10 to four or something. I think the fall happened at 11 in the morning. I got to Frankston hospital at 12. I had surgery done like 11 PM that night and like, yeah, crazy stuff. How does, there's like 15 different questions like that. But it's insane thinking back on it now. How does that event, it's too bad question.

How does it make you feel? And second part, how does it shape the person you are now? It, um, makes me feel proud of myself in a way that I look back in the hour. A lot of people hear the story and they're like, wow, shut up. Like you didn't have brain surgery. I'll show you the photo of like, I know we're on a podcast and they can't see it, but like I wouldn't even care if people came up to me and were like, Oh, let me see because I'm more than happy to talk about it.

But there's a photo of what my head looks like after the surgery had happened. And it's literally insane. Oh, I'll need to find it later. Like it's because it's so far ago, but literally like I had 40 staples in my head. Half this hair was shaved. That's why I have like really short bits of hair there if you ever notice. Um, yeah, it was really crazy. It's shaped me into a stronger person. That's for sure. A lot of like doctors afterwards, like literally, I feel like I'm gonna cry. I hate that. Wouldn't be the first time someone's cried in this office.

So carry on. Yeah. Sounds good. Someday. Yeah. I can imagine. Um, yeah. Like so many doctors like looked at me afterwards and like literally just shook their heads. Like she's like, no. Okay. Like she's not going to be able to remember anything. She like, yeah, they pretty much just said like my recovery wasn't going to have much of a hope, blah, blah, blah. And then yeah, literally the impatient person I am, I was like, I hate the hospital. I need to get out of here. I was in hospital for a week after that surgery when I probably should have been in there a lot longer, but I absolutely hated it.

It was so shit. Like I hated that. Like people were driving all the way from morning to peninsula to Alfred to come see me and stuff. And I was like, no, I need to go home. So I finished as soon as I finished the course, anybody. So I was like, get me out of here. I don't want to be here. I got home and I spent like, I was pretty much bedridden for like three or four weeks and I had to have like two months off work. Um, lost my license for three months, which lost my license.

Yeah. So like apparently anyone that has any brain surgery or neuro blah, blah, blah stuff done. Um, like it has to get reassessed for driving and stuff. So I was on red peas at the time. I'd literally had my license for about three months and I lost it for six months just because of that situation. Then like all is good looking back on it. I got it reassessed after three months cause I was absolutely hating catching public transport. It was horrible. And I was like, I don't deserve this. And I was fine. I recovered really well in a month's time.

I was pretty much like back on my feet. Hair was growing back awesomely. People were like, you don't even look like you just had brain surgery. But at the time, like in hospital, half of my face was swollen. And like I literally had 50 staples like up in my head. It was retarded. It was really fun. I guess. And you need them. No. Oh, that's a good new thing. But that wasn't like literally after like the head injury, everyone was like, she needs a helmet. Like get her a helmet. Cause it was just like this. Yeah.

I was thinking literally helmets in there somewhere, but now like, yeah, it was pretty fun. It's um, and it's like just weird hearing that whole story. This all started from a faint, like that. I think, I don't know. I kind of look at it and hear you tell the story and it makes me think about, it's like twofold, right? It's like how resilient we can be as humans and how resilient we are. And then like how precious and fragile life is and how precious and fragile we are. Um, it's like that it's like a double-edged sword.

Definitely. I think, um, I think a lot throughout, like, cause I'm only 20 and I think out of my 20 years of living, I don't know. I've had a lot of things that have just happened to me that have just really made me realize that for like my age. I don't know. Some people might not have an option. I use that opportunity. Like some people might not have an opportunity to realize that till they're 40, 50, 60, 70. Definitely. I feel very grateful to have that opportunity so young because I wouldn't be the person I am today if that was the case.

And um, it only probably just hit me a couple over the past few months on like looking back at your experiences, even though they could be so shit and just work out, okay, what good did I get out of this? Like how can I shape this to see like who I am and how it's brought me to be a better person kind of thing. That's not the normal regular mindset of a 20 year old. And that's something I realized like only a couple of weeks ago, I was like, hang on, why do I think like this so young?

Like, I don't know. I think like after hanging around a lot with you guys as well, I was a bit like, Oh, why am I already thinking like they are this age? Like let's, I don't know, but I'm really happy for it, but who knows? To think what I'll be thinking like when I'm your age, I'll be doing more than podcasts and whoa, whoa, whoa. Imagine. I don't know if that's a compliment or not. It's a compliment. That's okay. Yeah. Yeah. And like, like from my point of view, I've seen how much you've grown and developed over the last four months now.

Yeah. And it's been, it's been rapid, but obviously the, you were able to do that and you kind of had the capacity to do that because of everything you've been through. Yeah, definitely. What is a bit, I don't know if I like this question, but what advice would you have for the people, for the people or for people who maybe 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, younger adults trying to figure out their place in the world and I'm not like, this is not you answering it from the finish line or from like, you know, a podium

or whatever, but what advice would you have for people that maybe haven't been through the same things and like, it's all like, this is where pain comes in. It's all relative. Yeah. I think, it's hard to give advice on that because as you said, like it's all about experience and reflection kind of thing. Um, I think advice would be if you, if someone who hasn't been through experiences that are giving them the mindset of like what we've just spoken about, I think an idea would be practicing things like gratitude and doing all that sort of stuff to so that when they do go through those experiences, they be beyond more than ready for it.

And I think it's going back to that idea of like comfort zone and stuff. If you can get out of it, then just do it. And then that'll build yourself on 21 comfort zone. Yeah. Just give it a read. But like, I don't know. That's a good question. You don't want to be that preach person telling it like people. And that's why like a podcast like this is such a good medium to have this conversation because the people that are listening to it are ready for that conversation. They're open for the conversation. They're ready to hear your story and my insights into you as a person.

Um, and I think we can look at things like gratitude and journaling and what, and like mindfulness and all those buzzwords at the moment, but we can look at that and all it does, it like strengthens, strengthens your resilience on what you can deal with and what you can, what you can, um, what you can conquer or over come. Like we look at something that we've been talking about a little bit last few months. We look at like training and it's a really simple, like stress adaptation cycle, like stress, adaptation, repeat, and that's it. But

we don't necessarily look at things like gratitude and mental resilience and fortitude and things like that in the same light, but it's the same thing. Absolutely. I think as well, it's that idea of understanding that like everyone's going through something or has been through something, just all at different levels. And I remember like when I first started at Virtus and you were telling me about like podcasts you do and stuff. And um, I think like one of the biggest takeaways I got from like the conversation was, was when you like pointed to each client and

he told like a little section about everything you knew from them and every single one, like you can just look at that person and be like, wow, I would have never thought that they've had three ACL injuries and a reconstruction here and there or like, I don't know, it's pretty cool that everyone's just got something different and no one's got an idea of what it could be. And that's who they are today kind of thing. It's really interesting in a way. Yeah. As it, obviously, so for those that don't know, Jazz has just finished up the Virtus mentorship program, which was 12 weeks.

Bit of a deep dive into like personal professional development, learning how to be a coach, but our focus on it is to learn how to be a better person first. Um, and I think you've kind of taken that by the scruff of the neck and yeah, kind of get you out of my hand. Yeah. So you're starting as a coach next week. Yeah. Which will be today when the podcast comes out. Yeah. So first of all, congratulations. Thanks. Excited to be here. How does everyone hearing that story and all the stuff you've gone through and you know, we've had a pretty rapid learning phase the last three months.

Does it feel like you're ready? Yeah, I do feel ready. I do. And I don't, that's a hard question. I think everyone feels like they do though. And they don't. It's that idea of like, you're on a boat and it's always drowning kind of thing. Like, I don't know. I feel ready in terms of confidence and I think each day I feel more and more ready kind of thing as well. Like the more I learn from you guys, the more I learn from the people around me as well. The support, blah, blah, blah, makes me feel more and more ready.

But I think each day it's like, hang on a second. I need to learn this. I need to know more about this. Why don't I know this yet? So it's always that battle of like what you do and don't know. Have you felt like you, that whole like drowning thing, have you ever felt in the last last three months that it's possible that you will drown or have you always felt like, you know, I'm always going to be able to keep my head above water. Yeah, definitely the past three months there would be so many times where like one day I'd be in a verse and I'd be like, Oh yeah, like let's do this.

Today's a good day. I've just learned like 500 things, blah, blah, blah. Then I'd go the next day and I'd, I don't know, like make a mistake and then be like shit. Like I give up kind of thing. And I think one of the biggest things about trying something new is just to keep doing it, keep doing it because like, I think there are so many times, even up to up until now, I'm sort of like, I could pin the, what's it called? Pull the string. I don't know. I could, I don't know. There's like some sort of saying for it, but yeah.

Pull the pin or something. Yeah. Well I haven't like, it's that idea of like over the past three months I've always had that sort of like I could pull the pin right now if I wanted to. And the first week of doing the internship, I thought, I remember you saying like literally one sentence, like you guys are going to get pushed out of your edges to like develop as much as you can. I remember hearing that. I thought that sounds cool. And then I thought, fuck that. I don't want to do that. Like I can always just quit.

I mean like, you know, that's a natural feeling. Yeah. And I thought, Oh, whatever. Who cares? I'll just pull the pin whenever I want to. And then I think every single week there's always that thought of pulling the pin, but then I'm like, why the hell would I do that? Like I've already made it this far and I keep like, I'm just, my head's just above water and I'm, yeah. Can I tell you a secret? I think everyone feels like that. Everyone that is working towards their edges and pushing their edges and like teetering on the edge.

Like I feel like that most weeks. Yeah. You know, like you guys come in as like mentorship students and you probably look at us about, oh those guys got it figured out, they're like talking, like, and we do the same thing with the people that we look up to and things like that. But what everyone needs to realize, like we've already spoken about it, everyone struggles and everyone goes through that stuff, but everyone, most people, I think everyone, everyone's doing their best. And the majority of people that are pushing their edges feel like they're drowning most of the time.

Yeah, definitely. And the kind of cool thing, the scary thing is like, it's completely up to you whether you drown or not. Where we as a team, as a collective are going to be there to throw in the rings or like to jump in and help you and things like that. But yeah, that can only happen if you keep kicking. Yeah, definitely. And you keep, keep treading water and trying to keep trying to stick your head above, above the water. And you know, like I have days where I feel like I'm drowning. Like the other day was one of those days where it was just the shit was just pile on top, pile on top, pile on top.

And all it took was a little walk and a conversation with a couple of the others and you know, I was kind of back above water. Back on top. Yeah. So anyone going through that kind of stuff just has to ask for help. Yeah. And be vulnerable enough to take it. Yeah. I think it's just going back to that idea of like what Logan said when we went to Sydney was whatever's in your control. Shout out to Logan. Whatever's in your control, use that as your process. Work out what's out of your control. And I did it the other day like in my journal.

I wrote like what's in my control. All these things like just wrote a list of them and then okay, what's out of my control. Understand that. Accept it. It is what it is. You can't help it. Just put a smile. Go back to what's in your control. Yeah. And just yeah, utilise it and use that process over and over again. It's so simple. Like because obviously we've had a couple of team downloads and in terms of like what we learned at that summit and like for those that aren't aware, the team kind of got away a couple of weeks ago to a kind of organisational culture, leadership, personal development seminar called Hold the Standard.

And we hung out with Logan Goldrick who was on the podcast two episodes ago. So if you haven't heard that conversation, dive in because it's a precursor to kind of what I'm about to say. But there were kind of three things that I thought were the main takeaways and the importance of them have kind of shifted over the last couple of weeks. Like the first thing I thought was that adaptive and technical challenge and leadership play, which is huge, right? It's incredibly important. And then there's that transcend and include. Like every time we transcend who we currently are, we include who we were before.

But I think the most important thing or the simplest thing that probably doesn't get enough airtime is just the simple and it's like two columns, all the shit you can control versus all the shit you can't. And you know, there's 20 things that you can control and there's an endless number of things that you can't. But once we get our heads around that and we understand it, then it's all on us. Yeah, definitely. I think if everyone could really get that process down, that mindset of, or just doing that exercise once a week of something or something like the controls in versus controls out, like just how much better you'd go about evaluating things and analysing the situation, etc.

It'd be really beneficial I think. Yeah, I think it's one of those basic things we overlook. Yeah. Talking about adaptive and technical, the amount of information we have isn't the problem. Like the reason why people don't achieve the things they want to achieve, the reason why people don't, and the reason why we don't, like I said before, we're not saying this from a point of yeah, I've achieved everything I want. It's not an information thing. It's just a matter of like taking action, doing experiments, right? Like having the exercises to be able to like figure out, okay, well, here's my hole, here's my gap.

Here's what I need to work on. I think another big thing as well that I took from it was the worry box situation on like, I don't know, I feel like over the past three months the person who I was before Virtus was just a constant worry box in terms of like not being able to evaluate it though whatsoever. Like I would just always overthink, always over analyse, blah, blah, blah, every decision. Explain the worry box exercise. So just write on your page the worry box and then just constantly list every single thought that's going through your head that's worrying you.

All the negatives stuff. All the negatives, yeah. What are the, because like I'm sure you've got some, with starting coaching next week and diving in, what are the main ones that have been kind of circulating? So like for me a big thing, my current worry box is what people think of me. What, I don't know, for some reason reputation's one, not that like, I don't know, that's weird, but reputation what people think of me, self-doubt, um, confidence, like my confidence being killed. God, I feel like there's so many, but now that I've been put on the spot to say it, I can't think of them.

They're three pretty big ones. Yeah, they are probably like I could probably branch off all those tiny little ones constantly. Where does the reputation one come from do you think? I don't know. I just think that idea of like what I'm doing is really putting myself out there in a way kind of thing. And not a lot of my friends or people I know are doing that. So it's sort of like, Hey, I'm the first one. What do you guys think? That's that idea of like, yeah, you'll get thinking that I think you'll get, I don't know, you don't strike me as the kind of person that is super hung up on what people think of you.

But in saying that, like I know that you, you want to be liked because you're, you're that kind of person that wants to connect with people. And it seems like you just want people to respect you. Yeah. And then I think it just gets to that point of where I overthink on what other people are thinking. So yeah, it's just that idea of just stop worrying about it and get over it and just do it. Yeah. Which is an easy thing to say and a hard thing to do, but I think most people from what

I've learned over my 27 years of existence, even though they've caught me old before, is that most people are so worried about their own shit that they don't give a fuck about your shit. Which isn't me saying that everyone's selfish and no one cares about themselves, but it's that when everyone's got shit going on, like I said before, and most people's, if you feel like they're judging you or that, you know, there's something wrong or something coming, like bad energy coming from them, usually it's just a reflection of what they don't like about themselves. Like, here's a, here's something that you'll learn and like anyone that puts themselves out there is learning this.

But as you put yourself out there, you'll get kind of two responses. You'll get a, maybe three responses. You'll get a, yes, Jazz, that's amazing. Like, that's awesome. Like, I love it. I want it. Like, hey, how can I support you? How can I help you? How can I get around you? How can I pump you up? All that kind of stuff. Yeah. And the middle one is just like, oh yeah, cool. And then people will just go about their business. And then you'll get the, oh, why are you doing that? You're going to fail anyway.

What's the point? Waste of time. Like, you're wrong. Like all that kind of stuff. Like there's, and you're going to get that regardless. Yeah. And anyone stepping up, putting themselves out there, putting yourself in a position where they're not overly comfortable and it's different to everyone else. You're going to get one of those three things. Yeah. Your challenge will kind of be, how can I move and just focus on the ones that are pumping up? Because you can choose to look left or you can choose to look right. And if you look at the guys on the left that are just like tall poppies in their own, like throwing reasons why it can't work, you'll never get anywhere.

But if you focus on the people that want to see you succeed, which is everyone in that box up there, and then I'm sure that you've got that group of people that want to see you succeed and just don't feel disheartened when people that you expect to be in that box on the right or in the box on the left. It's not about that. It's not about you. Like it's about them. Yeah, that's good. And like when you went through those three examples, like now I think about it, I haven't really experienced that the very last one on someone saying, Hey, you're going to fail.

You're not going to succeed. It won't usually be like a message back to you. Yeah, exactly. It's yeah, no, that's good. If people think you're crazy, you're doing a good job. Yeah, I think that as well. That's a good, put that on a t-shirt. Put that on a t-shirt. Yeah, no, it's a good one. You've spent too much time on this. I know. Picking up way too many fricking slogans. What's your favourite slogan? Never miss a Monday. Never miss a Monday. Yeah. Good. What are you, what are you most excited for in terms of this next phase, this next season, next step?

With the burdens or with life? Take it wherever you want to take it. Um, I'm most excited to obviously like grow, develop, blah, blah, blah. The reason why I wake up every morning. Um, I'm excited to feel successful because I think, yeah, that it was probably a really dangerous sentence. Cause it's like, Hey, might never get successful. But like, I don't know. I'm excited to, but it depends like what I define as success. And if like, yeah, like if getting one client is what my goal was that week, there's a win. Yeah. I'm excited to, yeah.

Just like start ticking off boxes kind of thing and make sure you enjoy ticking them off along the way though. Yeah. Cause it'll go really quick. It'll go quick and you'll like, everyone go through this. You'll go through phases where you don't enjoy shit you used to enjoy or you don't appreciate things that you should appreciate. And it's because you, you've got that growth mindset, but that growth mindset comes with a curse of never being satisfied. And this is me talking from experience, right? It's the more you want, the more you get, the more you want.

Like I don't mean more as in things or like whatever, but it's experiences and, and connection and all that kind of stuff. But I think about this way, week, what week of the mentorship did you decide that you wanted a job? Week three. So weeks, if you were to talk to week three, you and you would just say, Hey, week three jazz, cause you weren't rookie yet. Hey, week three jazz. Like what would you define success at the end of this mentorship? What would your answer have been? Oh, it would have been something crap. Like something really bad.

Success to me back then would have been like, I don't know, successfully waking up at 5am every morning or something like, yeah. And that's cool though, to look back now at like what I define as success. So it's three months ago, which is not a long period of time. So if you were to, if you were to go, okay, well I'm 27 and I'm old now and you're 20 and there's three months have passed and you've grown a significant amount. If you're better than me by like 25, I'm going to be really pissed off. I'm going to be really upset.

Run my own little vertice. Seriously. Like that's the thing. You've got 21 of those timeframes until you're my age. So you've got so much opportunity for growth and development and money. And that's so, it's, this is going back to that having a growth mindset of how unsatisfied I feel now with everything. And it's to, it's weird to think that, well, it'll be like at 27, you just don't know. And you don't know how far that goes or, yeah. Yeah. It's like the more you know, the more you don't know kind of thing. And like it just opens up more and more and more.

And then you you've got to, and this is me talking from a, Hey, I'm in the ditch with you trying to figure it out. But it's, you've got to figure out, okay, what are the things I love to do? What are the, like, which parts of my day do I enjoy? And like, for me, this conversation is part of like the best parts of my day. Yeah, that's cool. How do I keep that happening? And how do I focus on the good of this? Even when, you know, I know of after this, I've got a list of stuff to do.

Yeah. You know, I've got a list of people that I need to please or don't, or the people that I just could just, you know, tell them to get stuff for a couple of days. Give me a few days for me. There's always going to be the pool of more and the pool of enjoyment you have. How do you go about managing that? How do you find time for your enjoyment pool? I am pretty, and I use the word luck, but it's like, it's by design. I'm pretty lucky that I get to enjoy most of my day.

If I'm complaining about not enjoying my day, usually it's because I'm burning the candle at one end. Yeah. I, I have a lot more, and we all do have a lot more time and I give myself credit for it in terms of what I can do. Yeah. I could, if I wanted to take the full day off tomorrow and go do something. Yeah. I'm not going to because I've got stuff to do. Yeah. But I need to be more aware that that is an option. Yeah. And I need to be more aware that, hey, if I don't want to work a certain period of time, I don't have to.

Yeah. Yes. People, I might be letting people down. Yes. People might have to change their schedules. Yes. I might have changed my schedule, but I'm in charge of that. So if it's costing me more than it's going to give me, so if it's like my health or, you know, I'm super tired or whether it's time with KP or whether it's time teaching you guys or time, you know, whatever time doing podcasts, if I don't force myself to have that time, then I won't get it. Yeah. So it's kind of, it's probably a really ambiguous answer, but the balance and the management is just about like, okay, what do I need right now?

And what does the business need? And what are my relationships and friendships and what does my family need and all those kinds of things. And it's like, okay, back to my values. Yeah. And it's like, okay, like I kind of have like a wheel in my head that kind of goes, am I ticking off my values with all this kind of stuff? Yeah. So that's really impressive. I struggle with that. I think that's like 20 years old, I know. Yeah. That's like my biggest weakness. It's the stuff we've been working through. And I've got some Jim Rowan books for you.

But he uses, it's kind of a seasons thing, right? There's summer where it's like, you know, just bathing in the, you know, enjoying everything. And there's like autumn where you've got to like set things up for winter. And then there's winter where you just got to like head down, bum up, get the job done. Yeah. And then there's spring where everything's starting to bloom again, everything's rolling and, you know, things will start to grow by themselves. I look, I try and look at my life and how I'm living in those seasons. Yeah. And then my inverters, the same deal, like, and obviously the seasons don't have to last for three months.

Yeah. Earlier in the year, I got two, two weeks away where I didn't think about anything that was like me enjoying summer. Yeah. I got back and I kind of went, holy shit, I've got some work to do. Yeah. And like, it was a big, you know, big autumn phase where I just feel like I'm drowning, feel like I'm overwhelmed because I've got so much stuff to do. But that overwhelm's coming from the decisions I'm making. And now I'm kind of shifting to a phase where it's like, okay, well, I need to pull back on

how much time I'm spending at the gym at night, or I need to pull back on how much time I'm spending on just reading and writing and stuff. And I need to spend more time on sleeping because that's what's going to help fuel the rest of it. And it's just like, you know, you're always over-correct. I think that's an important thing to realize is when you're like, I'm not sleeping enough, I'm not giving myself enough time for me. There's probably going to be a time in a month where we'll have a conversation about, yeah, I've been doing fuck all.

Yeah, definitely. And it's not because I don't want to, like, it's just because I over-correct it. And then I'll like, you're constantly shifting back and forth between different things. Yeah. And that management comes from just practice, but by no means have I figured it out. Yeah. I've got tools and, and resources and things that have helped along the way that I'm kind of like, starting to realize now how important they are. Yeah. I started planning like a series of like, resources or whatever that I could just give out that are like, it's called the Don't Be Shit series, right?

Yeah. So like, right now I'm in like a bit of a season of being shit with money. Yeah. So I'm writing down, okay, what are the things that I can do? Yeah. Can I track my spending? Can I track what money's coming in first? Like all these kind of things. Here's 10 things I need to do in the Be Less Shit series to sort that out. And the same thing can happen with my health, with my relationships, with work stuff, whatever. So the management comes from, it comes from experience, but it comes from asking for help as well.

Yeah. Like, I don't know if I asked Jess or Coop or KP the right question, or I asked one of my other mentors, I asked Mum or whatever, if I asked them the right question about, hey, I need help with this, or hey, what would you do in this situation? And I can use their experiences, then my world's going to be a better place. Yeah. And I think I've probably said to you before, but you've got 12 other professionals to like, just download as much of their learnings as possible, and use their hindsight as your foresight.

Yeah. No, it's good. And I'm really grateful for it because like, yeah, it's pretty weird to think that, I don't know, I wouldn't be in this office right now if it was for any of that. Well, that's just a whole lot of sliding doors moments. Yeah, it is. Definitely is a rollercoaster. Yeah, but your actions and your, uh, you pushing your edges at things that's got you to this point. Yeah. It's not like a train station, it's a train stop. It's not the final destination, but it's just like a train stop along the way. Yeah. And you may have to get off the train at some point to get on another train.

Yeah. Flying with your analogies today. I was just about to say that the amount of analogies we've used, like one's a boat, one's a train stop, rollercoaster. Yeah. Seasons. Seasons. Yeah, I think it's important because as humans we're incredibly flawed beings, things. Yeah. And if we can, and we try to assign meaning to everything even if it doesn't necessarily need it. And if we can use some analogies to get things to make sense. Makes it ten times easier. Like there's probably no rhyme or reason why you've fanted and hit your head, but it's an opportunity for gratitude and for, it's a big resilience play, right?

Yeah, absolutely. I really like the word resilience. Put it on a t-shirt. Yeah. I was actually going to get tattooed once. Really? Yeah. Just the word resilient right there on my arm. I haven't done it yet though because the thing that stops me from getting it tattooed is, because I'm like, oh yeah, I'll be a teacher one day. And I don't know, teachers just can't, I don't think they can have tattoos showing like... Mate, it's 2019, surely. I know, and I thought that as well. Surely. See what happens one day. One day. This is going

to be a bit of a stretch for you to answer this, but fast forward, I was going to say five years' time, but fast forward to being my age. Yeah. What does your life look like? It looks like a house, hopefully. It's a good question. House, kids, like real family lifestyle kind of thing. Awesome. Not being a coach. It'd be like, I think a typical nine to five jobs in terms of like what I've studied and what the pathway I've taken. Yeah. I think being a teacher would be cool with a family, which is something I'd like to do.

Like exactly what KP does, actually. That's good. She, but no, I like, yeah. Um, nah, but her and Steph as well, like, especially Steph's pathway, like a pathway she took throughout uni. Like, so she did exercise science, graduated it, loved it, year off working in that field. Then straight after that, master's teaching straight after that, being a teacher loves her job. Awesome. Yeah. I love how she does it like part-time as well and like still gets to work at a mum's Thai restaurant on weekends. That's cool. I'd like to be doing something like that. Um, yeah, just like PE teaching or something.

Definitely in the long run right now though. It's funny cause last year that was my set mind and like, yeah, I'd be at the end of my third year looking at degrees for a master's of teaching right now. I just couldn't think of doing that whatsoever. And I, yeah, it's funny how quickly that can change. And it sucks when you just get that same question from the same relative or someone that goes like, Oh, how's uni going? Yeah. Like what's your plans next year? Or what are you doing? And it's really hard to get people to understand like you just don't know and you never will.

No one does know. The only person that can really understand it and really get it is you. Like my intention as a, as someone that you can come to and look up to and help you get to there. Like my intention is to really understand why you want to get there and then help you map out a path to get there. Like I said before, like if the, we're back to the trains, if the Veritas train is something that you don't want to be on forever, like it doesn't change the fact that I want to properly like invest in who you are and what we're working on because you're going to make such an epic impact in the meantime.

And if we can be a stepping stone for your next train trip, then that's a win. If you decide that you want to stay on the train forever, not mad about it. But that's the, like having those conversations means that if, you know, if I hear on the grapevine and like, it doesn't matter, like it might be one of your relatives that you've just kind of gone, you know what, I'm just going to give them a two minute download and actually tell them what the fuck's going on. Yeah. They might hear about a teaching gig

somewhere or they might, you know, they might be able to introduce you to someone who allows you to open yourself up to a whole world. And you know, like obviously you've kind of dove into the Veritas world over the last three and a half, four months. Yeah. Which is such a short period of time, right? Yeah. But then like if I look at it relative to everything else, like Veritas has only been a thing for three and a bit years. So that's a short period of time. Like I look back at who I was six months before we opened a Veritas and I was like, that guy's an idiot.

I look back to myself like a month ago, I'm like that guy's an idiot. If I listen to a podcast more than, actually I listen to a podcast that was like two days later and I was like, I'm an idiot. What am I doing? But all it does is it's just like another arrow in the quiver. It's like another, you know, it's not a page in a book, whatever. I can't think of any more analogies. Yeah. Either can I, but I, but you know what I mean? A leaf in the wind. I don't know. I get what you mean though.

You don't have to chase a leaf. It's funny though. Cause like, I think we always look back on ourselves like, yeah, a month ago I was an idiot. Literally three months ago, three, four months ago before this internship, I can't recognize myself kind of thing. Like that's cool. And then like looking back at it the year before that, like after having a head injury, could not recognize myself whatsoever. The year before that again, being in year 12, I just cannot even imagine the person I was. Yeah. And it doesn't matter what we do. It's all just everything we do, everything we learn, experience, whatever, all of them are in some way a transferable skill to whatever we do next.

Yeah, definitely. It doesn't, you know, to, to use a Logan example, like Dave Grohl is a pretty epic person in the world. Yeah. And yeah, I've heard Logan say this a couple of times on podcasts. I'm probably going to butcher it, but I don't care. Dave Grohl was, you know, a part of Nirvana, right? The drummer for Nirvana. Obviously when Kurt Cobain died, he could have just been like, you know, big mourning face. He could have just been like, oh, I can't do this without Kurt, but decided to write an album, sell the album, realize he needed a band, next minute the Foo Fighters are born and he's done this.

Like whatever, if he decided to go and be a teacher or if he decided to go and be a strength conditioning coach, like it doesn't matter. He would have like changed the game no matter what he did because he just had that belief in yourself, that desire and that all of those abilities that you learn just shifted it across to something else. Yeah. I have no doubt that everyone in their own way has that in them. In some way. In some way, which I think is the cool thing. You might find it in teaching. You might find it in trying to think of a weird, weird job.

You might find it in a new nurse in 10 years. Who knows? And it's like that idea as well. Who cares? Like it's, I don't know, it's just an open ended life and it's like, it could just lead anywhere really. Does that scare or excite you? Both. Good. Yeah. It's going back to that butterfly thing again. I think it excites me though more than anything. It used to scare me though. But when I started the internship and the more people I met and the more I learnt about everyone's direction, the more like conversations I had with people and realise like, Hey, there's so much more to life than worrying about what I'm doing in three years time.

Kind of thing. Who cares what I do as long as I'm happy. And I think that's why I'm at Virtus because I'm happy that it's like when you said like the Virtus train kind of thing. You're like, yeah, you might not be on it forever. Right now. I'm happy to be on it forever. You've got to express for a while mate. You can't get off. Literally like right now, express train, let's go. But that could change in whoever knows time. Yeah. And you just don't know. Phase of not knowing. It's a cool phase. I like it.

Yeah. It's it's, I think it's a good phase if you approach it the right way. Um, like I was the classic student that got to the third year at uni, bounced me into the degree and I'm like, Oh, what do I want to do with my life? Like that kind of deal. And I used to be so caught up on the fact that the exercise science degree, and you can say for any degree that doesn't have like a job at the end, like, you know, nursing or teaching or whatever. It doesn't have a job at the end.

So you're like, Oh, what am I going to do? But it's, it forced me in a way to go, okay, what do I actually want to do? Or what do I not want to do? And you know, I've had a bunch of different jobs, but it made me realize, okay, I do love this stuff. Yeah. And like, you know, you talk about not being a coach forever. I'm probably not going to be a coach forever. Yeah, exactly. It's like a stepping stone to that next thing. Yeah. And I'll use all the skills I learned when I was coaching all the SNC stuff, everything I will use in some way, whatever's next.

Yeah. But you can't, I think you can't really be caught up on, I'm going to, I have to do this thing. Yeah, definitely. And I think we live in a time now where we're broader in a lot more affluence and there's a lot more security and we have the capabilities to be able to think, Hey, what's my purpose? What's my meaning? What's my why? What's my true north? What is the thing that I, that will really light my soul on fire and how can I get there? And in two years when that's not a thing anymore, like it just shifts slightly and you go, okay, what's the next thing?

That next thing isn't, you know, a complete 180 turn. Like it's just slight steps to the left and you keep moving forward. Yeah. Yeah. No, I like it. And I think like at the end of the day, it's just doing what makes you happy. Like everyone just fusses so much about getting into what you said before we live in such a world of everyone wanting to know the end answer and like, what will I be doing? Who cares? Just be happy when you wake up. I think that's the biggest thing I've learned though, because I don't know, like this time last year, I'd wake up not feeling happy because I wasn't doing what I wanted to do.

Now I wake up feeling happy because... Between now and then, and like obviously there's, it's not happy every day and happiness, everyone's got their own definition, but between now and then, what are the habits that you've kind of instilled in and behaviours that you've instilled into your life that have helped you get from I'm unhappy to I'm happy regardless of what's going on. I think just, I think willpower is huge. I think that's probably like one of the biggest habits I've always had in terms of like displaying it and just making sure I've always got it kind of thing.

Because without willpower, you're just not really going to get anywhere in terms of... What does willpower actually look like? What is it when you say willpower? When I think of willpower, I think of the PDF that Jess sent me. Do you know what I'm talking about? That means I've got to explain it and I don't want to explain it. Oh mate, it sends lots of PDFs. Yeah, she does. We're on a podcast mate, you're not just talking about me, so you're probably going to have to explain it to her. There's a PDF about habits and how to have a habit, you need to have willpower and willpower is your way of motivation and the way you...

Oh, you're butchering it. How am I supposed to not butcher it if you're taking a photo of me with a whiskey looking glass full of water? Are you done? No. Come on mate, people are waiting. How would you define willpower? I don't know if willpower exists. Really? Interesting. As cop-out because it's, it's just, I don't like that word. What's a replacement word for it then? Good question. It's like the motivation thing, like motivation, motivation is like having a shower, like if you wait for that and you know, wait for it to come, then you're actually going to have to do something to drive that motivation.

And like action and taking action and having behaviours and habits that you can continually do, like journaling and gratitude and meditation and all those kind of things, they're the things that kind of fill up your willpower. I kind of look at it as, and like, yeah, this is me saying that willpower doesn't exist and doesn't exist at the same time, but the behaviours that you actually undertake, they're the things that build up that reserve of this is what I'm, this is why I'm doing it. This is what I'm doing and then the why behind it is the thing that drives you.

Yeah, definitely. It's almost like an attitude thing. You have, let's not get into the determinism free will debate because I'm arguing with Jess at the moment, but you have the power, probably, maybe, maybe not. You have the power to determine how you think about something. You can't control what happens. You can't control, you know, a million different things, but you can control how you react to it and how you accept it. Like, you know, I've had one of those weeks where fridges broken, ovens broken, TVs broken. Um, what else? Someone, someone stole two grand out of a bank account, a little bit of food, like, um, there's just like adding up, adding up, adding up.

And like, when I broke the TV, I just sat on the couch and laughed. I'm just like, it's broken now. And like, I think you'd be more upset. And I was like, look, there's nothing. It's, it's broken. And it's one of those things that I'll, sometimes I'll let that shit get me down, but then I realize how insignificant it is. And, you know, I think it's a willpower attitude, whatever. It's for me, it's just a gratitude play. It's a perspective play. Um, I look at people that are less fortunate than me. I look at people that, you know, I'm so lucky and we're all so lucky and lucky is a bit of a shit word, but we're so fortunate.

I think it's the same word to have everything we have and to have the abilities and capabilities and whatever we have. And like, you know, if I lost Virtus today and if I lost, you know, our team today, you know, everyone had to go work somewhere else. I'd be shattered, devastated, but it doesn't change who I am as a person and how fortunate I am to have the work ethic slash, um, perspective slash gratitude that I have. So that, you know, the willpower thing, I don't think like, as long as you don't rely on willpower,

as long as willpower is that thing that you're like, okay, this is like a, this is like, you know, filling up my fuel tank in my car. I've got to continually fill up that willpower. Otherwise it's going to run out. Um, rather than, uh, I can just lean back and rely on my willpower. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. But everything's already predetermined, so it doesn't matter. Everything's already happening. True. That as well. Yeah. I know. Three questions for you to finish off. First question, what are you most proud of? Um, I am proud of sitting here right now.

Yeah, that was a good answer. Um, proud to be here kind of thing. Like as I said before, week three, the internship, I was like, yeah, cool. I got to get a job at this place and just didn't leave. Obviously. Just hang, hung around quite a bit. Um, do you remember what I said to you when you said, how do I get a job? You said making impossible for me not to hire you. Good job. Yeah. Thank you. Yep. And now I'm here. So I'm proud of that because yeah, ghost track kept pushing for 12 weeks.

Um, no, we're like just before the start line now. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Scary. Exciting. Good. Next question. I'm trying to think, hang on. Am I proud of anything else? No, that's good. Yeah. No, keep going. Proud of Liam. Good job. Yeah. He needs a shout out. What are you most confident about? Um, Oh, that's a rough one. What am I most confident about? Uh, I'm a bit stuck. I don't know. Self-confidence. Yeah. Yeah. It's a hard question to answer though. Cause it's one of those things where you don't want to bump up your ego kind of thing.

Just load up, man. Just load up. Confident in, I feel confident towards next week, the more and more each day comes by. Yeah. Um, like sometimes it might not look like it, but then I don't know, over time someone will say something or I will ask someone something and then that bumps up my confidence more and more every single time I think about working for Virtus. So that's really good because once again, going back to 12 weeks ago, if you were to ask me that, I'd be like, like I'd be, what do we call it? A tree.

Virtus. Yeah. Putting down roots, um, struggling to talk to anyone. Blah, blah, blah. It's not like that anymore. Yeah. Awesome. You have a lot of reasons to be confident. Thank you. Lean on when you do feel confident, remind yourself of why. Yeah. And work out why. Evaluate it. Use it. Yeah. That's cool. Last question. Yeah. What are you most excited about? I'm excited to start, to start, um, really delving into sort of like the next few weeks, like the next, so I start uni this week. Um, so, and then we just worked out VGTs last week, um, on when like who's running them, blah, blah, blah.

I'm sort of excited to have a bit more of a schedule, like a weekly schedule of like knowing, cause for example, like a month ago, it was like Virtus six to 11, three days a week, even though it was like five days a week. And then I'd be like working, blah, blah, blah. I'm excited to have a bit more of a set schedule with where I want to be, what I want to do, feeling happy with it. Cause for the past three months, it's been like super happy being at Virtus and then like going to chemistry house and just being like, I hate this.

So yeah. Yeah. I'm excited for that. Yeah. Awesome. Any more for any more? Um, I think we're sorted. Another shout out to Liam. I feel like he deserved a lot more talking about in that podcast. The correct answer to what are you most confident about is my relationship. Yeah. And you would have been sweet. Oh, damn it. He's going to listen to that and wait till the last minute. He'll probably like turn it off by the last minute. Oh man, I would be upset. Damn it. The Rook and the rock. So anyone listening at home, if you're still listening, Jasmine's new nickname is Rook.

Yep. It's partly because she's a newest coach, but also mostly because she hated it so much that she told us to stop calling her that. And for anyone out there, any uninitiated, she's a fairly mature 20 year old, but obviously not mature enough. If you don't want to be called something that you need to like, just look like you're embracing it and it'll go away. Yeah. So bad luck there. Bad luck. Maybe I should start embracing it then. You got a favourite quote to finish off? One I've been saying a lot lately, um, in terms of like the conversations I've been having with people is the one by Ray Dalio out of principles, meaningful, yep.

Give it a ding. Meaningful work and meaningful relationships. I don't know off by heart or anything. This is just what I get out of the sentence. Meaningful work and meaningful relationships is all that you need. And then money is just an added income. Like it's just a bonus. It's a win. If you can sort of get yourself in an environment that has those boxes and you're getting paid for it, like awesome. But if you can do it without getting paid, who cares? I think it's really important to find like a place where you're happy in working.

If you're at a job where like you're not in a meaningful relationship, but it's meaningful work, then you're sort of missing out on that idea. And then you're only there for income. Like it's just, hmm. It's cool. Yeah. Mate, love your work. It's been a pleasure. Thanks. Well, finish off.