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This is the concept of the Split Moment: the fork in the road where one tiny decision leads you toward your highest potential… or deeper into stagnation. The kind of decisions you barely notice:

• Hitting snooze vs. getting up
• Pausing to breathe vs. reacting emotionally
• Doing the workout vs. delaying
• Speaking honestly vs. staying quiet
• Putting the phone down vs. numbing out

Each of these micro-choices is a vote for the identity you’re building; or avoiding.

Shae breaks down why these moments matter so much, how they accumulate into entirely different futures, and how to start noticing them in real time so you can choose growth instead of autopilot.

This episode is short, sharp, and meant to change the way you move through your day.

• Why transformation happens in tiny moments, not big ones

Life is built in seconds, not years.

• How micro-decisions quietly shape your identity

Every action reinforces the story you tell yourself about who you are.

• How to catch the “Split Moments” in real time

Awareness > willpower.

• Why drifting through decisions keeps you stuck

Autopilot is the enemy of becoming the person you want to be.

• The truth about momentum and the compounding effect of one small action

One aligned choice today can change the direction of your entire week.

Support the show

👉 If this episode hit home, please leave a 5-star review, share it with someone who needs it, and subscribe so you don’t miss future life-changing conversations.

For any and all of your high quality supplement needs check out our store on Thorne Supplements

Until next time, go get uncomfortable.

Schedule a free strategy call with us at EnlightenedAthlete.com to learn how we can help you build the best version of yourself through exercise & movement programs, stress management, breathwork, and nutrition coaching!

Connect with us or send in your story submissions by shooting us an email at [email protected]

Find Shae on Facebook HERE

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In this episode, Shae breaks down the CHEK Institute’s 1-2-3-4 System, one of the most practical and powerful frameworks for creating real, lasting change in any area of your life. Whether you’re trying to improve your health, relationships, career, or sense of purpose, this holistic model gives you a clear blueprint for how to move forward with intention and alignment.

You’ll learn how to clarify your dream (“One Love”), balance the energies of yin and yang, make conscious choices instead of reactive ones, and strengthen the Four Doctors: Happiness, Movement, Diet, and Quiet. Shae simplifies each part into practical insights you can start using today.

If you’ve been feeling stuck, overwhelmed, directionless, or burned out, this episode offers a grounded, step-by-step path back to clarity and empowerment.

1. The One Love — Your Dream, Goal, or Objective

• Why you MUST know where you’re going
• The 10 questions to uncover your true desires
• Why change only lasts when the dream comes from you
• The minimum “7 out of 10” desire needed for success

2. The Two Forces — Balancing Yin & Yang

• Yin = rest, recovery, parasympathetic, nourishment
• Yang = effort, stress, action, sympathetic
• Why Western culture is often too yang
• How imbalances create fatigue, burnout, or stagnation

3. The Three Choices — Optimal, Suboptimal, Do Nothing

• The optimal choice considers your whole “dream team”
• Suboptimal → immediate gratification but slower progress
• “Do nothing” → when it’s apathy vs. when it’s a healthy timeout
• Why evolution only happens through conscious choices

4. The Four Doctors — The Pillars of a Healthy Life

• Dr. Happiness: your purpose & joy
• Dr. Movement: the energy you expend
• Dr. Diet: fuel, nourishment, digestion
• Dr. Quiet: sleep, rest, downregulation
• How these four physicians work together, and what happens when one is ignored

5. The Five Dream-Design Factors

• Time
• Energy
• Willingness
• Finances
• Equipment

Support the show

👉 If this episode hit home, please leave a 5-star review, share it with someone who needs it, and subscribe so you don’t miss future life-changing conversations.

For any and all of your high quality supplement needs check out our store on Thorne Supplements

Until next time, go get uncomfortable.

Schedule a free strategy call with us at EnlightenedAthlete.com to learn how we can help you build the best version of yourself through exercise & movement programs, stress management, breathwork, and nutrition coaching!

Connect with us or send in your story submissions by shooting us an email at [email protected]

Find Shae on Facebook HERE

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In this episode, I share five things he’s been using, loving, and learning lately, across health, creativity, mindset, personal growth, homesteading, and purpose. This is a practical, honest, and unscripted look into what’s helping him stay grounded, productive, resilient, and aligned during a chaotic transition into nursing school, parenthood, and building new systems.

From a life-changing rest technique, to a mindset shift that stopped burnout, to spiritual themes showing up in daily life, to lessons from raising chickens, to the importance of having a clear personal mission, this episode is packed with insights listeners can apply immediately.

1. The Health Tool That’s Saving His Energy Right Now

How Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR / Yoga Nidra) boosts recovery, resets the nervous system, and replaces naps for better focus and creativity.

2. The App That’s Rewiring His Productivity & Creativity

How The Operator Standard and its AI-based prompts revealed a major mindset issue: being too attached to outcomes and how detaching brought clarity and momentum.

3. A Spiritual Theme That Keeps Showing Up

The practice of surrendering control, trusting God, letting go of anxious overthinking, and learning to respond to life instead of trying to force outcomes.

4. What Raising Chickens Taught Him About Stress, Presence & Simplicity

A grounding hobby that forces him outside, into nature, and out of overstimulation plus what winter chicken-keeping is teaching him about patience, care, and rhythm.

5. Purpose, Direction & Why His Life Changed the Moment He Committed

How finding a clear mission in the medical field restored momentum, confidence, and a deeper sense of meaning, along with a powerful story about carrying a rock down a mountain and hearing the “move your feet” message that set everything in motion.

Support the show

👉 If this episode hit home, please leave a 5-star review, share it with someone who needs it, and subscribe so you don’t miss future life-changing conversations.

For any and all of your high quality supplement needs check out our store on Thorne Supplements

Until next time, go get uncomfortable.

Schedule a free strategy call with us at EnlightenedAthlete.com to learn how we can help you build the best version of yourself through exercise & movement programs, stress management, breathwork, and nutrition coaching!

Connect with us or send in your story submissions by shooting us an email at [email protected]

Find Shae on Facebook HERE

Follow us on Instagram HERE

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode, Shae breaks down one of the most powerful truths about human behavior, discipline, and progress — Newton’s First Law of Motion — and shows how it directly governs the results you get in your life.

Shae shares personal stories, examples, and the psychology behind resistance, showing how comfort, stagnation, and hesitation keep you at rest, while small consistent actions create unstoppable momentum in every area of your life.

You'll learn:

• How “external forces” , wake-up calls, discomfort, truth, structure, create change
• Why routine comfort traps you in a version of yourself you’ve outgrown
• How the Stronger Than Stress program functions as a momentum-building system
• Why clarity + direction beat motivation every single time
• How the Hero's Journey appears in your life in real time
• Why you must associate pain with staying the same, and pleasure with growth

This episode is a call to adventure; a push to step out of stagnation and into motion, where your life changes.

1. Inertia affects humans the same way it affects objects.

If you're not moving, nothing changes. If you are moving, change accelerates.

2. Momentum is built through action, not motivation.

Waiting to “feel ready” is the exact thing keeping you stuck.

3. External forces create transformation.

Discomfort, truth, coaching, structure, and intentional challenge push you into motion.

4. Consistency builds confidence.

Every small action compounds, making discipline and identity easier over time.

5. Pain is a teacher.

Staying the same eventually becomes more painful than changing.

6. The Hero’s Journey starts with answering the call.

Growth happens the moment you step into the unknown, not before it.

Do one thing you’ve been avoiding in the next 24 hours:

• Have the conversation
• Train when you don’t want to
• Sit in silence instead of scrolling
• Wake up earlier
• Say the truth
• Do the internal work instead of hiding behind productivity

One action = momentum.

Support the show

👉 If this episode hit home, please leave a 5-star review, share it with someone who needs it, and subscribe so you don’t miss future life-changing conversations.

For any and all of your high quality supplement needs check out our store on Thorne Supplements

Until next time, go get uncomfortable.

Schedule a free strategy call with us at EnlightenedAthlete.com to learn how we can help you build the best version of yourself through exercise & movement programs, stress management, breathwork, and nutrition coaching!

Connect with us or send in your story submissions by shooting us an email at [email protected]

Find Shae on Facebook HERE

Follow us on Instagram HERE

Send us Fan Mail

In this powerful and honest conversation, Shae sits down with his brother Christian, a highly skilled visual storyteller, filmmaker, musician, and creator to explore what creativity truly is, where his ideas come from, and how ordinary people can tap into their own creative potential.

Christian breaks down his philosophy on creativity as a state of play, not a system; why detaching from outcomes is essential; and how developing confidence, sometimes even blind confidence, is the spark that gets a creative life moving. The two discuss the spiritual nature of art, the role of God in inspiration, and why overthinking kills more dreams than failure ever will.

They dive into:

• How creativity evolves from childhood playfulness
• Why you must “start before you're ready” even if your early work is bad
• Developing your own style through volume, practice & patience
• Why some ideas feel like they come from somewhere outside yourself
• The danger of tying creativity to money, validation, or going viral
• Breaking out of anxiety, overanalysis & being “in your head”
• How creativity applies not just to art but to business, problem-solving & life direction
• A powerful story about loss, perspective, God’s timing, and realizing what actually makes you “rich”

This episode is filled with wisdom on identity, purpose, art, masculinity, spirituality, and personal evolution. Whether you’re a creator, entrepreneur, or someone feeling stuck, this conversation will wake something up in you.

Support the show

👉 If this episode hit home, please leave a 5-star review, share it with someone who needs it, and subscribe so you don’t miss future life-changing conversations.

For any and all of your high quality supplement needs check out our store on Thorne Supplements

Until next time, go get uncomfortable.

Schedule a free strategy call with us at EnlightenedAthlete.com to learn how we can help you build the best version of yourself through exercise & movement programs, stress management, breathwork, and nutrition coaching!

Connect with us or send in your story submissions by shooting us an email at [email protected]

Find Shae on Facebook HERE

Follow us on Instagram HERE

Send us Fan Mail

The January Hero Arc series closes with a powerful message inspired by Teddy Roosevelt’s iconic “Man in the Arena” quote. This is the episode for anyone who’s tired of watching life pass by, tired of waiting for “the perfect moment,” and ready to finally step into the arena of their own life.

Shae walks through the difference between:

• people who observe
• people who criticize
• and people who actually live

and makes the case that 2026 is the year you stop sitting in the stands and start taking meaningful action toward the life you actually want.

Through personal stories, philosophy, psychology, and the tools from Episodes 1–8, this episode is your final push to become the person your future demands.

1. The Power of the “Man in the Arena” Mindset

Why stepping into the arena matters more than perfection, approval, or comfort and why the critic never counts.

2. Fear of Judgment & Failure is Natural; Do It Anyway

Shae talks openly about his own struggles and fears.
 And why the only thing worse than failing is living with regret.

3. The Two Hard Lives

• Building a life you’re proud of is hard.
• Living a life you regret is way harder.
  You choose your hard.

8. The Final Challenge

As soon as the episode ends, take one meaningful action you’ve been avoiding:

• Make the call
• Clean your car
• Message the client
• Sign up
• Start the thing

Action is the separator.

Support the show

👉 If this episode hit home, please leave a 5-star review, share it with someone who needs it, and subscribe so you don’t miss future life-changing conversations.

For any and all of your high quality supplement needs check out our store on Thorne Supplements

Until next time, go get uncomfortable.

Schedule a free strategy call with us at EnlightenedAthlete.com to learn how we can help you build the best version of yourself through exercise & movement programs, stress management, breathwork, and nutrition coaching!

Connect with us or send in your story submissions by shooting us an email at [email protected]

Find Shae on Facebook HERE

Follow us on Instagram HERE

Send us Fan Mail

In Episode 8 of The Hero Arc Series, Shae teaches one of the most practical and transformative skills in the entire arc: daily presence.

Most people live on autopilot; reactive, distracted, emotionally unstable, waiting for someone else to tell them what to do. Presence breaks that cycle. This episode gives you a simple, one-minute practice that shifts you from unconscious reactivity to intentional action.

Shae walks you through a complete presence protocol you can use any time during the day to:

• Slow your heart rate
• Regulate your nervous system
• Make better decisions
• Stay grounded in your identity and purpose
• Override emotional impulses
• Show up intentionally for the people who matter

This is a small practice with massive returns.

1. Why most adults are living like children in adult bodies

Running patterns, avoiding responsibility, and hoping someone else will save them.

2. Presence = power

When you're present, you stop reacting and start choosing.

3. Calm is a physiological skill

You can train your nervous system to stay stable under stress — it’s not just a personality trait.

4. Strengthening your prefrontal cortex

Every time you return your attention to the moment, you literally build the circuits for emotional regulation and impulse control.

5. Tim Ferriss’ fear-setting principle

Suffering is often imagined. Reality is usually a “2 or 3 out of 10,” not a “10.”

6. The complete Presence Practice

A daily protocol you can run in 60–90 seconds:

STEP 1: The Physiological Sigh
A fast way to relax the body and clear the mind.

STEP 2: Body Scan
Tune into tension, intuition, and your body's signals.

STEP 3: Name It, Blame It, Tame It (from Paul Chek)
Identify the emotional pattern, acknowledge it, and release its control.

STEP 4: Set Your Direction
Not goals: state.
Decide how you want to show up for the next hour, conversation, workout, or moment.

For the next 7 days, run the presence practice once per day.
It takes one minute.
The goal: practice intention, not perfection.

• Breathe
• Scan
• Name it, blame it, tame it
• Choose your state

Small reps build massive emotional strength.

Support the show

👉 If this episode hit home, please leave a 5-star review, share it with someone who needs it, and subscribe so you don’t miss future life-changing conversations.

For any and all of your high quality supplement needs check out our store on Thorne Supplements

Until next time, go get uncomfortable.

Schedule a free strategy call with us at EnlightenedAthlete.com to learn how we can help you build the best version of yourself through exercise & movement programs, stress management, breathwork, and nutrition coaching!

Connect with us or send in your story submissions by shooting us an email at [email protected]

Find Shae on Facebook HERE

Follow us on Instagram HERE

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode of The Hero Arc Series, Shae guides you through one of the most powerful ideas in the entire arc: building your personal code, your operating system, the way the samurai built their Bushido.

Most people drift through life like an empty can blowing down the street; reactive, overwhelmed, and shaped by forces they don’t even notice. Today, you learn how to take your power back.

Shae breaks down:

• Why you must consciously choose your values or the world will choose them for you
• How modern algorithms and media deliberately program your emotional responses
• How to design your own ethical framework: your personal Bushido
• How living by a code strengthens the anterior cingulate cortex (your “override” mechanism during hard effort)
• How to course-correct instantly when you act out of alignment
• Shae’s own values map created in a performance coaching session
• The seven virtues of Bushido and how to adapt each into modern life
• How the Saiyans (DBZ) illustrate resilience, adaptation, and growth under stress
• Why struggle, setbacks, and discomfort are feedback, not failure

This episode is about identity, discipline, honor, integrity, and turning yourself into a person who can handle anything.

1. Without a personal code, you become programmable

Algorithms, advertising, politics, and culture shape you if you don’t shape yourself. Awareness = sovereignty.

2. A code builds predictable behavior under chaos

Your values become the filter you run actions through. “What would the best version of me do here?”

3. Your brain has a built-in override system

Strengthening your anterior cingulate cortex helps you override fear, hesitation, and self-doubt.

4. Bushido offers a blueprint:

• Rectitude / Integrity — Chooses right action even under pressure
• Courage — Acts with fear, not without it
• Benevolence — Strength used in service of others
• Respect — Discipline toward self & environment
• Honesty — Radical truth with self and others
• Honor — Loyalty to your own principles
• Loyalty — Commitment to mission and people

5. Saiyan philosophy = stress + adaptation = growth

Over the next 3–7 days, spend 10 minutes per day writing:

1. What values already guide your life?
2. What values should guide your life to reach your potential?
3. What behaviors or habits are holding you back?

By the end of the week, create your first draft of your personal code, your modern Bushido.

Support the show

👉 If this episode hit home, please leave a 5-star review, share it with someone who needs it, and subscribe so you don’t miss future life-changing conversations.

For any and all of your high quality supplement needs check out our store on Thorne Supplements

Until next time, go get uncomfortable.

Schedule a free strategy call with us at EnlightenedAthlete.com to learn how we can help you build the best version of yourself through exercise & movement programs, stress management, breathwork, and nutrition coaching!

Connect with us or send in your story submissions by shooting us an email at [email protected]

Find Shae on Facebook HERE

Follow us on Instagram HERE

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode of Get Uncomfortable, Shae teaches two tools that will radically change your ability to execute: The Power List and a simple, research-backed gratitude practice that rewires your brain for resilience, presence, and confidence.

Most people obsess over 1-year, 5-year, and 10-year goals… but they don’t even know what they need to get done tomorrow. Today’s episode is about bringing your focus back to the 24-hour game, the only game that actually matters.

If you're struggling with discipline, consistency, or direction, this is the episode you need.

1. Why Execution Fails Without Direction

If you don’t know exactly where you're going each day, you can’t win the day. Big goals don’t happen by accident, they require structure and daily intention.

2. The Power List (Andy Frisella)

A simple system of five critical tasks that move you directly toward your goals.
Not chores. Not busywork.
Actual needle-moving tasks.

You’ll learn:

• How to choose critical tasks
• How to grade your wins and losses
• What it means to “win the day” and build unstoppable momentum

3. Reducing Limbic Friction

Simple ways to make taking action easier:

• Set your workout gear out the night before
• Prep your workspace
• Remove one layer of friction to increase follow-through

4. Categories for Your Daily Tasks

Use these buckets to build a balanced life:

• Personal development
• Business / career
• Health & fitness
• Family & relationships

5. The Neuroscience of Gratitude

A gratitude practice is not fluff, it’s physiology.

Shae explains how gratitude:

• Activates the prefrontal cortex
• Reduces amygdala-driven fear and stress
• Improves sleep
• Increases dopamine and serotonin
• Enhances emotional regulation
• Boosts resilience
• Improves cardiovascular health

6. How to Practice Gratitude Properly

It’s not just writing words. It’s:

• Visualizing what you’re grateful for
• Feeling it in your body
• Letting that feeling expand
• Sending out loving-kindness energy to others

Practicing this even 2–3 times per week changes your emotional baseline.

For tomorrow:

1. Create your Power List (five critical tasks).
2. Execute all five, no excuses.
3. Write down three things you’re grateful for and actually feel them.

Repeat.
 Stack wins.
 Become the kind of person who follows through.

Support the show

👉 If this episode hit home, please leave a 5-star review, share it with someone who needs it, and subscribe so you don’t miss future life-changing conversations.

For any and all of your high quality supplement needs check out our store on Thorne Supplements

Until next time, go get uncomfortable.

Schedule a free strategy call with us at EnlightenedAthlete.com to learn how we can help you build the best version of yourself through exercise & movement programs, stress management, breathwork, and nutrition coaching!

Connect with us or send in your story submissions by shooting us an email at [email protected]

Find Shae on Facebook HERE

Follow us on Instagram HERE

Send us Fan Mail

In this fifth installment of the January Hero Arc, Shae breaks down one of the most important principles for becoming the hero of your own life: the body and mind are inseparable  and training your body is one of the fastest ways to rewire your brain for discipline, confidence, and momentum.

This episode goes deep into the science and the application of physical mastery. If you want to understand why training makes you mentally stronger and how to build a training week that actually supports your goals this one is essential.

🔥 Key Topics Covered

• Limbic Friction & the Science of Discipline

• What limbic friction is and why it makes you want to quit
• How repeated reps teach your brain to override avoidance

• The Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC)

• The brain region responsible for discipline & effort
• How it activates during hard physical effort
• Why pushing through discomfort literally rewires your brain
• Shae’s personal story running 400m repeats and overriding the “bitch voice”

• Foundations of Proper Physical Training

What your training MUST include if you want long-term performance, energy, and injury prevention:

1. Flexibility & Mobility
2. Energizing Exercises (Paul Chek’s Zone Exercises)
3. Real Core Training (McGill Big 3, Locke 5)
4. The 7 Primal Movement Patterns

• A Suggested Week of Training

• The Hidden Consequences of Avoidance

Avoiding physical challenge bleeds into every part of life:

• Lower confidence
• Poor stress tolerance
• More illness and fragility
• Missed opportunities
• Reduced respect and perceived capability

The Challenge: SET THE STANDARD

For the next 7 days:
Commit to 3 training sessions not for calories or metrics but for the mental win.

 This is how you build momentum and become someone who follows through.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Dr. Andrew Huberman: Limbic Friction (podcast search)
• Dr. Stuart McGill: McGill Big 3
• Dr. Andrew Locke: The Locke 5
• Paul Chek: Zone Exercises
  (You can Google each for guided protocols and videos.)

Thorne Supplement Dispensary

For the same foundational supplements I personally use and recommend, visit our Enlightened Athlete Thorne Dispensary

 Purchasing through this link supports the show, my family, and the mission of helping more people set a higher standard.

Support the show

👉 If this episode hit home, please leave a 5-star review, share it with someone who needs it, and subscribe so you don’t miss future life-changing conversations.

For any and all of your high quality supplement needs check out our store on Thorne Supplements

Until next time, go get uncomfortable.

Schedule a free strategy call with us at EnlightenedAthlete.com to learn how we can help you build the best version of yourself through exercise & movement programs, stress management, breathwork, and nutrition coaching!

Connect with us or send in your story submissions by shooting us an email at [email protected]

Find Shae on Facebook HERE

Follow us on Instagram HERE