Today I`m joined by Linda Carroll, a therapist and couple`s coach with over 3 decades of experience. Linda is the author of Love Skills, and that`s exactly what we`ll talk about today: How to develop your love skills, whether you`re in a relationship, looking for one, or simply want to improve your friendships.

Max Out Insights:

We fall in love with the qualities that are different from ours. Ironically, those are also the things that might end up driving us nuts the most

The only person that can make you feel whole is you

People do better with a schedule

Learning to truly listen without an agenda other than wanting to understand is one of the most important skills you can ever develop

Accept each other`s feelings, even if they may seem irrational

Max Out Quotes:

“When we get stressed, things tend to be exaggerated.”

“What couples lack is not love. What they lack is skills to manage life under stress.”

“The one you`re looking for is you.”

“Real listening is when I put aside my story and my internal dialogue and really listen to who you are.”

Today I am excited to talk to John Zeratsky, the best-selling author of the books Sprint and Make Time. After 15 years as a designer for technology companies such as Google Ventures and YouTube, John and his wife decided to quit their jobs and travel through Central America for 18 months. With those experiences, John now focuses on speaking and writing about making time for what matters.

There`s hundreds of defaults in our environment that influence our behavior in suboptimal ways. Think of your phone constantly ringing or your browser sending you email notifications. By raising awareness to these defaults and then changing them, we can take control of our time and attention again.

Living a disciplined life is more about the right processes, habits, and environments than having massive levels of willpower

If you want to wake up earlier, you need to be realistic about when you need to sleep

Make Time: 4 Step process:

1) Define your daily highlight (doesn`t need to be work)

2) Lazer your focus and get rid of distractions

Busy Bandwagon and Infinity Pools

How to deal with email

Switching cost: Why it`s most effective to focus on one thing at a time

3) Energize your body and mind throughout the day

Cental Park Your Plate: start with salad first

importance of rest and recovery on ability to perform

4) Reflect, adjust, and keep experimenting

What was your highlight?

Did you make time for it?

How were your energy levels?

Which strategies did you employ and did they work?

#74- Make Time For NATURE by Max Weigand

#73: Releasing Your Inner Handbrakes by Max Weigand

Today I am joined by the 2x World Champion and Olympic Silver Medalist in rowing, Annie Vernon. After an incredibly successful 10 year career, Annie has taken her interest in peak performance and and studied many of the world`s greatest athletes for her phenomenal book Mind Games, trying to understand what sets them apart from the rest. And that`s exactly what we`ll talk about today: How to develop the psychology of an elite athlete to thrive in all areas of your life!

Max Out Insights:

You`re always competing - against yourself or somebody else

Competition can bring out the best in us - World Records aren`t set in training, but in the Olympic final with the whole world watching

Competition can also bring out the worst in us - when we start comparing ourselves to others or previous or idealized versions of ourselves, base our self-worth on our performance, or neglect other areas of life

In elite sports, the highs are very high and the lows are very low

As an athlete, you create your own reality and self-justify your odd lifestyle to be able to stick with it, even if the rest of the world doesn`t understand

The most important and difficult challenge is achieving your true potential

Belief is a choice - you choose what you want to believe and then convince yourself of that new reality

Max Out Quotes:

“People don`t set world records in training, they set world records in the Olympic final.”

“Sport is something you do, but it doesn`t define who you are.”

“Do you stand on the starting line actually believing you can win the race?”

Today`s guest is the world`s leading authority on the application of genius thinking to personal and organisational development, Michael Gelb. In addition to writing 17 books that include the best-seller How to think like Leonardo da Vinci, Michael has been named the Brain of the year in 1999, performed with the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan, owns a fifth degree black belt in Aikido and speaks on stages around the world about improving brain power, creativity and leadership.

Max Out Insights:

Whatever your gifts and talents are, the goal of life is to mine them to the best of your ability

If traditional life and career paths don`t fit for you, you might have to make up your own

100 Question Exercise: Without stopping, write down 100 questions that are intriguing to you. As Michael shares, random insights into the deeper questions of life often occur as a result

When crazy ideas arise, record them. The more you record them, the more show up.

The most creative geniuses alter times of intense focus with periods of complete relaxation away from their work

Stream of consciousness writing and mind mapping are great tools to access the smarter parts of yourself

Find a way to instill curiosity and a thirst for knowledge and satisfy it every day

When you fall down, the only thing that matters is how quickly you can recover and how long you go before you remember what your purpose is

Max Out Quotes:

“You don`t have to know what you`re going to do, but figure out what your criteria are: What do you stand for? What are your values? What do you want your life to be about?”

“You don`t have to figure it out all at once.”

“I kept doing one thing at a time that I really loved and figured out how I could learn it as intensively and achieve as much mastery as possible in the shortest amount of time possible.”

“There`s a part of you that is way smarter than you are, and the smartest people learn to consult the smarter part of themselves.”

“Without energy, you won`t get anything done.”

“It`s actually easy to get great ideas. The hard part is following through on them.”

“There is too much suffering in the world, so our work is not done. There is too much stupidity in the world, so our work is not done.”

#70: 3 Questions To Create Purpose Every Day by Max Weigand

Today I`m honored to talk to one of my superheros and certainly one of the greatest thinkers alive today, Tom Rath. As the best-selling author of 10 books including Strength Finder 2.0 and the former head of Gallup`s research on employee management and leadership, Tom is the world`s leading expert on building your strengths and creating a fully charged and meaningful life!

Max Out Insights:

When kids face challenges growing up, they end up becoming stronger than kids that don`t

How can you match what the world needs with what you have to offer?

Focusing on how your work impacts even one other person supercharges our motivation and wellbeing

Focusing on meaning and contribution is more effective than happiness

Our social relationships are the single best predictor of our overall wellbeing

When you force an introvert to act more extroverted, their wellbeing increases

There are 3 basic functions of every team: Create, relate, operate

Being charged daily starts with small decisions in 3 areas: Eating, sleeping, and moving. If you make good choices in these areas every day, it creates an upward spiral of energy and success

Focus on what`s important rather than what`s urgent

Max Out Quotes:

“How do your efforts serve another human being?”

“The more time that I spend thinking about helping other people on a given day, the less stressful it is and the easier it is to get things done.”

“Instead of asking `Where can I find happiness?`, I think the key is to say `Where can I create happiness for another person?`”

“It`s probably a good thing to challenge parts of our personality that could help us to create more wellbeing for ourselves and other people.”

“The more you can orient your time in a day around those contributions your work makes for other people, the less regret you have and the less stressful your days are.”

“The more you go up the ladder of success, the more interested people are in others and the less self-focused they are.”

“The more you can connect short-term incentives with the right long-term goals, it becomes a lot easier to make the right decisions as you go through the day.”

“Find a way to bring a reminder of who your work serves into your daily routine.”

Today`s guest is none other than the real life Wizard of Oz, Steve Sims. Born into a family of bricklayers, Steve has used his ability to break down walls to make the impossible possible over and over again. As the founder of Bluefish, Steve makes once in a lifetime experiences happen for the rich and famous around the world, whether it`s getting married by the Pope, meeting Elon Musk, or diving to the titanic.

Max Out Insights:

Are you doing things for your pleasure or the pleasure of other people?

Be transparent about who you are and what you want from people

Start with the first millimeter instead of planning everything in advance

Cultivating ignorance for our difficulties can be powerful

Max Out Quotes:

“We run away from pain faster than we run towards opportunity.”

“Usually the thing we avoid is the thing we most need to do.”

“What`s the first millimeter you can walk to move you towards your goals?”

Tony Jeffries is an Olympic Bronze medallist and former professional boxer that now owns California`s N.1 gym, Box`N Burn. After an undefeated professional career and winning the European as well as 7 National championships, hand injuries forced Tony to retire from boxing and took away the thing he loved most since the age of 10. But Tony managed to use the mindset he developed in sports to throw himself into the business world, and now trains A-list celebrities such as Robbie Williams, Tim Tebow, and our beloved superhero Thor!

Join us as we discuss getting up after being knocked down, the mental preparation of world-class athletes, as well as what it`s like to train Chris Hemsworth!

Max Out Insights:

If you truly want to see what you`re capable of, you must be selfish and sacrifice things other people aren`t willing to sacrifice

Small 1% improvements add up over time

We often don`t appreciate the good things until they`re gone - what`s amazing about your life RIGHT NOW?

Max Out Quotes:

“If you don`t do these things, you will never find out how far you could go”

“You might know make it, but guess what: You might.”