Mental Training Lab

In this solocast, I’m exploring a paradox I’ve been thinking about a lot lately: the more optimized a system becomes, the more fragile it can get.

We start with sleep, but this applies to performance routines, recovery, leadership, training, and the way we prepare for just about anything. When everything has to go exactly right in order for us to feel ready, we end up narrowing the window for success.

So I’m breaking down the difference between fragile, resilient, and anti-fragile systems, and how we can build habits that don’t just work when conditions are perfect, but can actually hold up when life gets messy.

The goal isn’t to stop improving your systems, it’s to make sure your systems can survive contact with reality.

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Learn more about The Mental Training Lab
Connect with Pete on Instagram | LinkedIn | Website
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This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.  

**This conversation is all about psilocybin-assisted therapy, but it is not medical advice. Psilocybin is not appropriate for everyone, laws vary by location, and anyone interested in this work should seek support only from qualified professionals in legal, regulated settings.**

In this episode of The Mental Training Lab, I sit down with Adam O'Neil, a Boulder-based licensed psychologist and clinical psilocybin facilitator working at the intersection of mental health, performance psychology, and natural medicine.

Adam brings a rare combination of rigor and heart to this conversation. We talk about the importance of comprehensive psychological assessment, the structure of psilocybin-assisted therapy, and why preparation, facilitation, and integration matter just as much as the journey itself. We also explore how plant medicine, when approached responsibly, can help people encounter deeper layers of identity, trauma, shame, avoidance, and pressure that traditional mental skills training may not fully reach.

You’ll learn about the role of acceptance, surrender, ancestral wisdom, and cultural humility in this work. And why athletes and high performers may be drawn to deeper healing beyond optimization. Whether or not psilocybin is part of your path, this conversation offers a powerful reminder that performance is not separate from wholeness, and that sometimes the next level of growth requires us to stop fixing ourselves and start meeting ourselves more honestly.

Learn more about Adam’s work and The Clearing healing center here: www.theclearingboulder.com

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Learn more about The Mental Training Lab
Connect with Pete on Instagram | LinkedIn | Website
Subscribe to the podcast on Apple | Spotify

This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.  

Your nervous system is the foundation of everything else. It shapes the way you perceive reality, and everything flows from there: what you think, how you decide, what comes out of your mouth, and what your people feel when you walk in the room.

You can have the right words, the right plan, and the right tools. But if your state is communicating panic, pressure, or disconnection, that's what lands first and colors everything after it.

In this solocast, I dig into why state regulation isn't a sidebar to great coaching and leadership. It's the throughline. I share a story from my own work with a basketball team that illustrates exactly what happens when leaders skip this piece, and what becomes possible when they don't. We get into interoceptive awareness, the science of why calm is contagious, and three practical ways to start building a more regulated nervous system on purpose.

Being calm, stoic, or serene isn't the end goal. It's about knowing where you are, being responsible for your experience, shifting when you need to, and creating the conditions for the people around you to access their best when it matters most.

Learn more about working with me one-on-one and my new coaching course at drkcoaching.com.

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Learn more about The Mental Training Lab
Connect with Pete on Instagram | LinkedIn | Website
Subscribe to the podcast on Apple | Spotify

This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.  

In this episode of The Mental Training Lab, I sit down with Buddhist teacher, meditation teacher, and author Lodro Rinzler to explore a concept that has powerful implications for athletes, leaders, and high performers: basic goodness.

So many of us operate from the quiet assumption that we’re not enough. Not successful enough, disciplined enough, accomplished enough, or mentally tough enough. Lodro’s work and new book “You Are Good, You Are Enough” challenge that story at the root, offering the possibility that beneath the striving, self-doubt, anxiety, and the insatiable need to achieve, there is something fundamentally whole and worthy already present.

Together, we unpack how meditation functions as mental training, why thoughts don’t mean you’re “bad” at meditating, and how loving-kindness can help us relate differently to ourselves and others. We also explore the tension between achievement and worth and why so many high performers keep chasing external validation only to discover it doesn’t deliver the peace they hoped for.

If you’ve ever felt fueled by the belief that you’re not enough, or if you coach athletes and performers who live inside that story, this conversation offers a grounded, practical, and deeply human way to begin relating differently to your own mind.

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Learn more about The Mental Training Lab
Connect with Pete on Instagram | LinkedIn | Website
Subscribe to the podcast on Apple | Spotify

This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.  

In this week's solocast, I’m unpacking something I’ve been seeing a lot lately: the idea of caring less about the outcome and just focusing on the process. That mindset may not seem like that big of a deal to you, but the more I hear it, the more I think it’s missing something important.

Because the truth is, you do care. You care about the result, and when that starts to feel uncomfortable, pressure, anxiety, fear of what it might mean if you don’t get it, we try to solve that by pretending it doesn’t matter. What that actually creates is a version of you that’s never fully in, never fully committed, and ends up stuck in that half in, half out space. 

So let's tackle what’s really underneath that, why it’s happening, and what it takes to move through it. Because if you don’t care about the outcome, the process doesn’t really work. At some point, you have to be willing to name what you want and accept the risk that comes with it.

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Learn more about The Mental Training Lab
Connect with Pete on Instagram | LinkedIn | Website
Subscribe to the podcast on Apple | Spotify

This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.  

What does it really take to build trust and psychological safety in teams under pressure? In this episode of The Mental Training Lab, I sit down with Peter Hodgkinson, high-performance consultant and the former Head of Build at Mercedes F1. Peter has spent decades in elite motorsport, including Formula 1, Le Mans, and the America’s Cup. He shares how environments with razor-thin margins and constant pressure shaped his philosophy on intent-based leadership, consistency, and human performance.

Peter's experience connects directly to what many people are navigating every day: burnout from grinding in “second gear,” leading teams through high-stakes moments, and trying to align values with actual behavior, not just words on a wall. You’ll learn practical frameworks like Peter’s three-part model of trust (reliability, capability, relationship) and the importance of psychological safety in performance. Plus, get insight into how organizations like Mercedes made culture real by tying behavior, instead of just outcomes, to performance reviews and incentives.

If you’re a leader, coach, or performer looking to build stronger teams, reduce burnout, and lead more effectively under pressure, this conversation offers both clear models and immediately actionable insights you can start applying today.

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Learn more about The Mental Training Lab
Connect with Pete on Instagram | LinkedIn | Website
Subscribe to the podcast on Apple | Spotify

This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.  

In today's solo-cast, I’m digging into something I see all the time with athletes and high performers, the way we misunderstand nerves, pressure, and what it actually takes to access flow.

We’ve been taught that the goal is to calm down, relax, and eliminate anxiety before we perform. But in reality, that approach can pull us further away from our best.

I break down why being a little “too activated” is often exactly where you want to be, how to rethink your relationship with nerves, and what it really looks like to find that sweet spot between challenge and skill.

I also share a practical tool, the trigger breath, that you can start training right away to create just enough space in your system to let performance happen instead of forcing it.

This is about shifting out of control mode and into a place where you can trust your preparation, work with your physiology, and access a higher level of performance more consistently.

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Learn more about The Mental Training Lab
Connect with Pete on Instagram | LinkedIn | Website
Subscribe to the podcast on Apple | Spotify

This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.  

On this episode of The Mental Training Lab we are sharing an episode of The Transformational Leader featuring a conversation with Pete Kadushin.

"On this week's mid-week episode of The Transformational Leader, Adam Quiney welcomes friend of the show Pete Kadushin for a live coaching conversation that pulls back the curtain on what transformational leadership work actually looks like in practice. Pete brings a client, Chris McAdoo, into the session and invites Adam to observe and offer real-time feedback as the coaching unfolds.

What follows is a candid, unscripted exploration of leadership, coaching, and the subtle dynamics that emerge in live developmental work. Adam steps in throughout the conversation with interruptions, reflections, and questions—supporting Pete while also highlighting the deeper patterns at play beneath the surface of the coaching moment.

The episode offers listeners a rare look into the craft of leadership coaching: how coaches listen, where they intervene, and how transformational insights can arise in the middle of a conversation. Adam's intention is to demystify the process—revealing not just the visible techniques of coaching, but the underlying "being" and awareness that make meaningful breakthroughs possible.
If you've ever wondered what transformational coaching actually looks like in real time—or how leaders support one another in developing their craft—this episode offers a thoughtful and illuminating window into that work."

Check out The Transformational Leader podcast Website | Apple | Spotify 

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Learn more about The Mental Training Lab
Connect with Pete on Instagram | LinkedIn | Website
Subscribe to the podcast on Apple | Spotify

This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.  

For decades, athletes and high performers have been taught to grind harder, push through pain, and silence weakness at all costs. I’m your host Pete Kadushin, and in this episode of The Mental Training Lab, I sit down with clinical sport psychologist and author Dr. Hillary Cauthen to talk about one of the most romanticized ideas in sport and performance: mental toughness.

Hillary explains why that traditional narrative gives her the “ick” and why many performers are quietly paying the price through burnout, injury, harsh self-talk, and unsustainable pressure. We discuss a more holistic model of mental strength that still honors resilience and perseverance but adds essential capacities like self-awareness, vulnerability, emotional regulation, and values-based motivation.

Hillary steps up to the plate to coach me on my own “wrestler mindset” and the fear-based motivation that many high achievers rely on. You’ll learn about identity, performance culture, and how expanding our tool set can help us sustain excellence without losing our competitive edge.

If you’re an athlete, coach, or leader who grew up in grind culture, this conversation offers a powerful reframe and a glimpse of what real cultural change can look like in action.

Learn more about Hillary’s book Hello Trauma: Our Invisible Teammate on her website: www.hillarycauthen.com.

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Learn more about The Mental Training Lab
Connect with Pete on Instagram | LinkedIn | Website
Subscribe to the podcast on Apple | Spotify

This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.  

In this solo episode, I’m exploring something I see all the time in the performance world: the illusion of progress. From the outside, it can look like we’re doing everything right. We’re building mental skills, trying new strategies, putting in the reps, and staying disciplined. And yet, despite all that effort, we often find ourselves circling back to the same patterns and frustrations.

In this conversation, I unpack why that happens. We look at the deeper structure underneath behavior — how our beliefs quietly shape our actions, and how those actions reinforce the very reality we’re trying to change. When we only focus on adding new tools without examining that underlying layer, we can end up getting better at running the same loop.

As always, I’ll leave you with a few practical questions you can use to reflect on your own patterns and begin creating real movement, not just the appearance of it. If you’ve been working hard but feel like you’re not actually getting anywhere, this episode will give you a different lens to look through.

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Learn more about The Mental Training Lab
Connect with Pete on Instagram | LinkedIn | Website
Subscribe to the podcast on Apple | Spotify

This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.