Dan is a friend of mine who I met through Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Beyond BJJ, He is also a registered nurse and owner of Think Tank Floatation, a wellness center whose goals are to spread knowledge and elevate people to their highest potential. Dan is what I think most people would call a "free-thinker" and in particular is super thoughtful and knowledgeable about holistic health.

I really liked where Dan started the conversation, explaining how "trying to balance self improvement with being happy in the present moment" was his most important value. In many ways I feel like this articulates the struggle so many of us have day to day. We understand the importance of drive and ambition and we want to get better every day. At the same time though, if we focus too much on where we want to get to, we miss the present moment and sacrifice our happiness. We spent a good bit of time talking about that balancing act and also how Dan's experiences in life shaped his approach to it. For Dan it seems like if you accept the premise that we are imperfect and should always seek to improve, but also accept that we should find joy and happiness throughout that journey; that goes a long way to striking the right balance. 

I also enjoyed this conversation because, after framing Dan's value up front, we then spent the rest of the discussion kind of exploring the nooks and crannies of his mind to see how it drove his views on all different aspects of the human experience. This included things like, the mind body connection,  what "God" really means, how to build self awareness, and lots of other interesting philosophical topics. This was a fun one because we didn't get too heavy on any one topic, but kicked around a lot of different ideas and just went where the conversation took us.