#80 - "I'm Not Good Enough" - The Inner Critic Every Tactical Athlete Fights

43.5% of elite tactical athletes reported self-doubt as a barrier difficulty factor. 

The voice. 

SEALs. Rangers. Pilots. Wildlland Firefighters. Ultra marathon runners... "Im not good enough". 

In this episode we unpack specific ways to silence your inner critic. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, what's going on, everybody? So welcome to the Everyday Responder podcast. And we have a topic today that is near and dear to my heart. It is uh figuring out how we can actually endure tough things, but more specifically, how we combat and how we provide evidence to ultimately silence our inner critic, right? Our inner critic is so freaking loud, and it's something that I've dealt with, I still deal with, and a lot of my clients are dealing with the the same thing. So I think this is going to be very helpful. Like a couple things that that just come to mind for me is I I just had a client crush a half marathon, absolutely crushed his target of uh of his goal. Um, pacing was on point, nutrition was perfect, everything went really well. And we're talking about it, we're debriefing, and it's like, okay, like let's let's talk about it, let's unpack it. Everything went super well. And it's always followed with a yeah, but you know, I could have done this better, or I could have done that better, or I'm not super happy about this. And I'm like, dude, stop talking. Like, let's let's stop. Let's let's not even go there because why are we why are we downplaying our accomplishment right there? And I've done the same thing where whether it's a briefing, whether it's whatever it may be, a uh a race that I've done, whatever that is, and it's like, oh yeah, like, yeah, that was uh, I guess it was okay, but like, you know, what about this? Or this person got this total or whatever that may be. Somebody else just had a conversation with her, and it is like, hey, you know, uh I'm super, you know, frustrated with the scale, different things like that. And then we start looking at a a whole from a holistic perspective. And my job, and I always know this is the case, my job is to just hold up a mirror and be like, well, where are we at from a performance perspective? Because I know that she's absolutely crushing it from a performance perspective. Where are we at from a lifestyle perspective? I know she's absolutely crushing it from a lifestyle perspective. Where are we at from nutrition? We are very compliant, probably 85 to 90% compliant. But again, we are taking so much stock in the scale that we're losing sight of what we are actually accomplishing. So there's always going to be that loud inner critic. I think that we all have it. It's always kind of going off in our head of, hey, you're not, um, yeah, that was cool, but you're still not strong enough, you're not fast enough, you're not powerful enough, you're not confident enough, you're not lean enough, whatever that may be. You're not, you're always not blank enough. I'm not good enough. I'm not this, I'm not that. But the reality is we need to start looking at the evidence that we're providing to ourselves and really look into, okay, I am doing this really well, I am doing that really well. Who the hell cares about X, Y, and Z, right? Because we are looking at the forward momentum that we actually have. So, with some of that research that I've done, I've done recently, I've talked about the endurance crucible, a lot of different things of a uh a video of I broke down some specific techniques that we can use to ultimately endure barriers that were where other people would quit. So we um were we're lucky enough to have some SEALs, uh Rangers, SF pilots, uh, weapon school instructors, like all these different types of folks. Um we had a couple people complete Leadville, we had a uh uh world's strongest firefighter competitor, all these different types of people who gave us a ton of different insight. So I'm gonna break that down a little bit. I don't want to sit here and give you a ton of different data and statistics and and kind of define some of these techniques. I think it'd be more helpful if we go into uh I love phrases. So if we talk through a couple different phrases that will help us with our inner critic here, because ultimately the the with our our mind, it's it's going to be the first casualty. And there is nothing more frustrating when your legs can still fire, when your body can still fire. But when your mind is like, ah, you know, maybe you shouldn't do that, maybe you shouldn't try that. Oh, you're you're feeling a little tired, whatever that may be, or your mind's always going to be that first casualty if you do not protect it. And most importantly, if you're not providing evidence to actually silence that. So getting into you know some of the data, and I think this is you know one of the one of the best parts or one of my favorite parts about all of it is you go through, you know, some of these folks, like the the top of the top, the 1%, all these different types of things. And and that's not even accurate because I would venture to guess if you raise your right hand, if you had your cur, if you have the courage to raise your right hand, you are automatically in the 1% because 1% of the population is in uh in service, whether that's police, fire, or military. Um, and I know with social media, with different things like that, you'd think that everybody is a first responder or everybody is a tactical athlete. Um, but that's just not the reality. But you look at some of those folks uh who have done, you know, very amazing things. Um, you know, you look at some of the things that they've been faced with, with the uh barriers that they were faced with. So you look at extreme physical pain, um, mental fatigue, cognitive breakdown, time pressure, past fail events, self-doubt, aka I'm not good enough, external pressure, complete isolation, fear or anxiety, right? All those things happen to the best we got, right? So the reality is, and I can promise you, you know, your worst day is on the calendar. We just don't have the specific date. So it's very important to understand, like, regardless of whether you think these things are big or you're you're faced with those things, and you're like, oh, I know I could handle that, or whatever that may be. My promise to you is that they are coming. There is nothing wrong with you when you have these things or you're going through these things. It simply just means that you are human. So, regardless of what people are for uh posting on social media, regardless of how perfect somebody's life looks, that it I can promise you it is a highlight reel, and everybody is going through something. Um, some people are able to put in more reps, but they, you know, I would say nobody really knows what they're doing. The the most important thing is, hey, some people have that confidence from getting in reps and and they're they're good at that execution portion. But again, it's all things that that need to be practiced. And bottom line here, hey, you're you're human, so these things are going to happen. But we start looking at, you know, the the effects, right? The the recovery or the actual resilience and being able to respond and get back to your baseline, that takes work, that takes effort, that takes a lot of a lot of sacrifice with certain things. But I start, you know, having conversations with people and and figuring out, you know, where they're at from a physical capacity, mental capacity. We start unpacking that. And I think the you know, thinking through you know different units, you see uh police officers, firefighters, whatever that may be. And I I think the reality is it's or I should say the the reality is is pretty uncomfortable, right? And we we have people that you know ask questions of what should I do for this? What should I do for that? Should I try this? Should I try that? I think I'm gonna hop to that, right? And what do we think about a six-month training compliance where where it's unknown? Like, how the hell are you expecting yourself to be prepared for a crazy barrier moment, whether physically or mentally, if we are not building that that training compliance, for example? Or we talk about nutrition, right? A lot of people use the shield of hey, I, you know, intuitively eat or I eat quote unquote healthy. We use that shield, but it's like, are you actually fueling your body to be able to endure from a physical and mental capacity? Are you fueling your body to make sharper decisions and be able to respond when you are in the lows or or to raise your ceiling? Um, so when you do get dropped down a little bit, you are still able to function and respond. I I've been talking a lot about non-negotiables. Like that is another huge one where a lot of people have inconsistent habits. They just try to do it when time is available. But it's like, hey, if you say you were going to do something, let's build that self-efficacy for for you and actually do it, right? And it doesn't have to be some landslide victory every day. But what are three things that you can do, you can consistently crush on a day-to-day basis? Well, when you do those on a consistent basis and you said you were going to do them, all of a sudden you are increasing your confidence, you are increasing your command presence. You start looking at strength, conditioning, power, resting heart rate, body comp, average hours of sleep, right? All these different types of things. If we have specific data and evidence that we are moving in the right direction and we are improving these things, we are going to silence that inner critic when we are faced with a barrier or when we, you know, don't feel like doing something, or when we're trying to negotiate and talk our way out of doing something, right? But you if you have all this data, you are going to be good to go. Right. I just talked about the the client who is a little bit frustrated with the scale, which is understandable, right? The scale can be super frustrating. And I've definitely, definitely been on that path. But it's like, okay, yeah, the the scale is frustrating. It's a little stagnant right now. But what if we start looking at your strength, your conditioning, your power, your resting heart rate, your body comp, right, your uh lifestyle factors, right? All you're doing, your non-negotiables, you are crushing all those things. I who who cares about the scale, right? Why are we chasing that that arbitrary metric when you are crushing it and you are drastically improving your strength, your conditioning, your power, your lifestyle, right? All those different types of things. So, yes, the scale is part of the equation and it will 100% move in the right direction if you keep that consistency. But the problem that I see is people put way too much stock into the scale in this example, and now all of a sudden it's like, oh, you know what? Why don't I just start something new on Monday? And it's like, you were so close. I think of that meme all the time, like the digging for gold meme where he just turns around and the gold was right there. If you just kept digging a little bit more, right? So there's still that whoosh effect of like, oh wow, woke up way less than the other, the other couple, couple of way-ins, stuff like that. Another thing with the the uncomfortable reality is many people don't stress test themselves. I say this time and time again, you should be putting, you know, two to three things, maybe one, depending on where you're at. Very, you know, relatively hard thing on the calendar, right? If you want to improve your runtime, sign up for a 5K, you know, public speaking, sign up for Toastmasters, get into a public speaking uh spot, right? You uh are scared of heights. Why don't you go skydiving? You're you know, uh want to improve your nutrition, let's set a date, right? Let's let's set a date where where you are going to be ready to go, right? Putting something hard on the calendar where it is like, okay, I am going to stress test myself in training. I am going to build myself up physically and mentally through prep, through sacrifice, through those types of things. So when we do face a barrier, we are good to go. But you're if people are not doing these things, what and I don't care if the barrier is physical or mental, if people are not doing these things, where do we think we're gonna be from a mental capacity standpoint? Right? We're probably not gonna be in a good spot. And and how could we be if we're not keeping our word and we're not improving these things or or we're not you know giving it a go and getting up at bat there? Right. So, with all that said, I do have some specific techniques that were found. And again, I'm gonna go over some of these, but the the big thing is I'm I'm trying to summarize them and give you some insight into something that that hopefully clicks and that's tangible and actionable, rather than just saying, like, hey, this is what the technique is, this is how you know we define it, and so on and so forth. I want to give you a quick phrase that has helped me uh really practice these techniques and make sure that we are getting consistent reps with them. So uh before we get into those, a couple different techniques here. So, number one, I'm sure that this is somewhat familiar, but breaking tasks into smaller segments, just segmenting things, breaking things down into digestible uh bites and saying, like, even if that is one step forward, you know, we are segmenting the long-term plan into you know where we need to go. Embracing or accepting discomfort, re reframing perspective, connecting to your purpose or why, um, shifting attention, controlled breathing pattern. So there's a bunch of different techniques. And again, if you are interested in diving more and seeing how to define those and give you specific reading recommendations to improve those, um, uh you definitely fill out the the form below for the endurance crucible, and that will be more more detail about that. But again, what I wanted to do is give you just a quick phrase. So going into you know the first phrase here that kind of uh you know solidifies some of these techniques, and and that's the goal with each one is to kind of solidify these techniques into a digestible sentence here to make it make it really hit. So the first one is courage will always come before confidence, right? And and I will tell you that only comes from betting on yourself and and getting in the ring, doing hard, uncomfortable things. I had a coach once talk to we were having a call, and I he he was like giving me recommendations and I was given you know things that I wanted to do, and I was like, Yeah, I just I'm not like confident enough to do that right now, but but I will I'll get to it. And he asked me, he's like, you know what, Justin, like answer this like as quickly as possible. Don't think about it. What comes first, courage or confidence? And I'm like, oh, courage. And he's like, Yeah, so you're you're pretty, you're almost telling me that you're not courageous enough to to do it, to take that leap, to bet on yourself. And I was like, Oh, holy crap, like that, that uh, you know, now you got me fired up. I'm gonna go do it. And he's like, that is the point. So the idea here is hey, you need to have courage before confidence with certain things. And now that confidence will come, but it only comes from repetition. So a lot of people are like, Oh, how do I, you know, increase my confidence, or how do I do this, or how do I do that? And you just gotta start, right? You gotta just say, okay, you know what? I don't care. I'm gonna detach from the outcome. I'm gonna execute and get in the ring, learn, and now we can refine. So again, I know it's kind of cliche, but it it truly is like you either win or you learn with certain things. So let's try more things, let's have the courage to bet on ourselves, especially in training, so that eventually when you are tested, you have that confidence when you need it. But again, it only comes from betting on yourself. Another one here, your unfair advantage is the why you've been avoiding. Now, I think this one is extremely powerful. And I know that like your your why is it's said a lot and it's it's almost to the point where it's a little bit cliche, but I think it's only cliche because it's turned into like a motivational poster where it's like, hey, you know, this is mine, this this might be good for you, right? That is not what the what your why, in my opinion, should be. It should be something that you don't have to explain it away, you don't have to tell anybody but any about anybody about it. Nobody else has to really understand it. The goal here is to get away from that motivational poster type mentality and really sit with yourself and unpack it. So I think the best tool for truly finding your why is your notebook, right? Write down things, write down uh maybe you answer some questions, uh like some pre uh predetermined prompts that you answer that you write on, right? Five minutes a day, 10 minutes a day, and you have a different one every day. Maybe you have a journal that that gives you certain prompts, right? But I think it needs to, we we need to create that psychological space to be able to unpack our why and not be do not be consuming while we're doing it, right? We consume so much information. And if you are only consuming information, you are not thinking for yourself. I think this is one of the most valuable things that I've been doing as of recently. I do it every single day. It's my thinking block. I learned that from uh The Road Less Stupid. That's a uh book. But essentially you just write a question, right? Write something that's on your mind, like, oh, you know, what why do I do what I do, right? Or something like that. It doesn't have to be that exact prompt, but you just ask yourself a question where you can actually solve or try to solve the answer. So I prefer writing down bullets. I'll have a question every day, and then I write down, like, okay, bullet, bullet, bullet. And then as I go, once the timer goes off, it's like, cool, my thinking block is done. I have a lot of cool ideas here. And it's I do the same thing for content, for example. If it's like, you know, what did I like? A question that I just did the other day is like, what did I need to hear as a tactical athlete when I was at a low point? And then I'm just like brainstorming, okay, what did I need to hear? Um, this is the lesson learned, this is the wisdom that I gain. And all of a sudden we we have some some content that'll hopefully be helpful. But again, you're I'm telling you, you 1000% have an unfair advantage. And the why is is the answer there, in my opinion, because again, it's it's super individual to you. I can't tell you what your why is, I can't tell you the the the reason behind it, the impacts. I can't, you know, state the emotion behind it. I can't feel the emotion behind it. But that's what makes it so unique, is it's super personal and individual to you. And then that is what we need to tap into when you are, you know, even when you are going through peaks, but most importantly, when you when you're going through the valleys, the reality is like we've talked about before, there's going to be uh lonely chapters, there's going to be isolation, there's going to be self-doubt, there's going to be physical pain or mental exhaustion, right? Like we've talked about, those things are coming. But when you do have your why and you can really lean on it and it fires you up, maybe it gets you a little bit emotional. It's like, okay, this is we're we're good, right? We're we're good to go. And that is the thought process there. Another one here is lead yourself like you lead the people depending on you, right? And that honestly, that was found from the question in the in the thinking block where it is like, you know, I uh I heard this quote the other day. I forget who said it, but it was essentially like, if you coach yourself, then you have a fool for a client. And I was like, that is probably the most accurate thing I've ever heard. And that is why I have coaches myself, but I I think it's very important because we we always have blind spots. Some of those blind spots were avoided intentionally, some are unintentional. But the idea here is hey, you know, you you are wrestling with you quit, like we've been talking about. You're wrestling with your breaking point, you're wrestling with your inner critic. And then there's all these things, if we were to detach a little bit and start thinking about an actual perspective from the outside, we start looking at, okay, where are you at from a training perspective? And again, if you have that, for example, six-month training compliance, you have some PRs, you have evidence, you're gonna be good to go. And that's going to be the fuel keeping you going. If you start detaching and thinking about wisdom, where it's like, okay, I know wisdom and experience, I know that I've done this before and it didn't work out well. So why the hell am I gonna keep doing it? Right. But that only really comes from detaching and actually, you know, reframing that discomfort and re-reframing the certain situation. Going off of that main point, another major one here is the advice that you would give a teammate, right? If I was coming to you and I'm like, hey, you know, I'm dealing with this, I'm dealing with that, I'm dealing with this. I would hope that you wouldn't be like, yo, like stop being soft, just bulldoze through, like, don't be a bitch. Like, just get through it. You'd probably like ask me some questions. You might help me reframe it a little bit, right? You might be like, dude, you you've done this before, like, why just just like try this or try that, or have you thought about this? Right. I would hope from a leadership perspective, you would do something like that, and you wouldn't just say, Well, you know, the the classic, crusty, you know, I had to do it, like make sure that they they felt the the pain that I felt or or whatever, which is just weird behavior nonetheless, but super important. And we, if we don't detach and kind of look from a different perspective, we're never able never able to see that advice. And, you know, I actually just used this the other day where somebody was like uh you know, uh having a hard time with something certain. And I'm like, okay, like let me reframe it a little bit, let me ask some questions and kind of almost put it in the in the perspective of like I was asking them. Then they're they're giving me an answer, and I'm like, that's your answer. Like, great job. Like we we solved it. So sometimes acting for that, acting, you know, for as that mirror for other people is super helpful. The the last thing here that I think is very important, and it only comes from getting in the ring, is start looking at your previous accomplishments, right? I think that is extremely important. Where it's like you're you're starting to take that perspective of like, wait, yeah, yeah, this is very hard in the moment for sure. But at the end of the day, like I've I've been here before, like I've done something similar. Or I remember, you know, thinking back to that prep, and that was brutal, and I kept going, right? That that's fuel so you can keep going in the future. So again, lead yourself like you lead the people depending on you. Another one here, and two more is discipline with a deadline. So discipline is is thrown out a lot of the times, and it for a good reason, right? We obviously need to be disciplined. I just love the idea of adding that with a deadline. So this is very important. This is that, you know, two to three times per year, I'm doing something hard, or I'm I'm just gonna sign up for something, right? And I talk about this all the time. You know, people will say, like, oh yeah, like I think that a 5k would be cool. And I'm like, well, that's your homework. Like, go find a 5K in your area, get back to me and and sign up for it. Like, put your money there, sign up for it. And now we can reverse engineer with long term planning and short term execution. Right. And it's obviously very important that we're not just doing something like crazy. Like we still need to use that segmenting aspect of like, if you're not really a good runner, um, well, you I don't think you could really get into Leadville. But um, it's like, oh yeah, I'm gonna sign up for a hundred miler. And it's like, well, like, why don't we start with a 5K or a half marathon or something like that and build towards it? But very, very important, discipline with a deadline, put something hard on the schedule, and now we can start reverse engineering it. And the most beautiful thing about this is I I tell people all the time, we should have a wall of fame for us with your accomplishments, your bibs, your uh your medals, your accomplishments, pictures of good events, right? All those different types of things, and not uh not from like an egotistical asshole standpoint. It's more for like, hey, you know, this is me versus me. This is the reality of damn, I've been through these really cool events. I'm going to, I'm going to endure this. And I look over at mine and it's like, okay, cool. I have my bibs, I have medals, I have powerlifting trophies, all these different types of things. But the beautiful thing, I have my my uh best warrior plaque there. The beautiful thing about these is I have no idea what my times were, what my totals were, what you know, uh where I finished in the best warrior. I have no clue. But the beautiful thing is who I become, who I became in the process, right? Thinking through that. Like I remember the tough days. I remember the the sessions that I didn't want to do that I did anyways, right? So it's very important to make sure that we are stress testing ourselves consistently, right? And I say, you know, two to three things a year, but it's really a daily thing, just on a smaller scale. So you say you're going to get up at 5 a.m. every morning, right? That is also discipline with a deadline. You say you're going to, you know, get your meal prep, your meals prepped at this time, that is also discipline with a deadline, right? So there's obviously different, you know, different heights and different levels to it. But I think the the big missing piece is really kind of stress testing yourself on a big picture. And then that's going to kind of sprinkle down on all the smaller things. So discipline with a deadline, super, super freaking important. The last one here is endure, but not alone, right? So I think it's very important that we have little aspects and little changes because again, these are popular words, but it's very important. It's like, hey, you know, you you have to endure. That's the that's the bottom line, right? And again, we talked about your mind being the first casualty, so we need to protect it. But the reality is it takes effort to be able to endure certain things, but we can't be doing it alone. You think about law enforcement, firefighters, military, all first responders, all people who have raised the right hand, right? There's no solo missions here. But for some reason, we think that we can do it alone. We think that we can endure this by ourselves. We think that we can keep all these thoughts in our head that are like eating us alive, right? So this is the reality of like I am where I am because of coaches, whether that's a business coach, whether that's strength and conditioning coaches. I always have a coach or a group or something that I am involved with or something that I am actively investing in because I think it's so freaking important. The amount of times that I've reached out to coaches or you know, been like, yo, I'm kind of struggling with this right now, or I'm kind of getting smoked in the real world. Like, can I make some adjustments here? Or what are your thoughts on X, Y, and Z? And again, gaining wisdom from the process. So if you do invest in a coach or you have a good teammate or something like that, making sure that we know like and trust them. So I always say three up, three down, right? If you you should at all times have three people that you, like I said, know like and trust that you could go to with anything, whether that's you know, wisdom that you need, whether that's uh, you know, you're having an issue with something, whether that's just somebody to talk to when you're feeling off. And then not saying that you need to like, you know, start crying with everybody, but just like, yo, I'm um uh I'm I just wanted to check in. Um, how's everything going? Right. You should have those three people up and then also three people down, where it's like three people who you are actively mentoring or actively pushing or actively checking in on, right? And that is that that tribe or that team mentality here. So big thing is like if you are not always trying to strive or get in a room with people that are a few steps ahead, uh steps ahead, I think you are wrong. As well as on the other end, if you have leadership, experience, and wisdom, and you are trying to gatekeep certain things for the people under you, you are also wrong. So the idea here is the only way that we are going to be able to endure really hard things and keep repeating that process and keep showing up for the next day is understanding that we cannot do it alone here. So the idea that I really wanted to hit home is you start looking at all those things, whether it's um courage before confidence, finding your unfair advantage, which is your why, leading yourself, discipline with a deadline, enduring, but not alone. You start looking at, you know, you do those and you practice those and you start looking at it from a perspective of, okay, I am action actioning these things on a day-to-day basis. Now we're starting to look at, you know, you truly applying those things, your training compliance, your nutrition compliance, your non-negotiables, your strength and conditioning, you doing two to three hard things on the calendar, you're starting to read and apply books, your body comps moving in the right direction. Like, how do you think you're going to face that barrier different than the person before who is not doing these things or has no idea or has no evidence? So as you keep getting in the ring and you do these things, like what do we think is going to happen to your mental capacity? Right? You are going to be way better off and you are probably going to be in a pretty damn good spot if you are doing these things on a day-to-day, week to week, month to month, year-to-year basis, right? That is why these targets are so important. A lot of people kind of look at them lightly or like, why does it matter that you know I missed my non-negotiable or I negotiated with my non-negotiable? Why does it matter? Like, I already feel like I'm in a good spot from a body comp perspective. Why does my nutrition really matter? Why does my training compliance, my does my, you know, average hours of sleep really make that much of a difference? And it's like, well, when we do all these things and we are moving in the right direction on all of them, now we can start measuring backwards and looking backwards and being like, holy crap, like I've came a long way. I'm gonna keep going, right? That is the fuel needed to keep you going because a lot of us, what we do, and why that inner critic is so loud is we always measure against an ideal, which that would literally be like uh being in the desert trying to touch the horizon line, right? You're measuring yourself against unrealistic standards. But if you start putting in effort and you you get some data, you see where you're at, you find some evidence, and then you improve, and then you do it again, and you do it again, and you do it again, and you just keep repeating that process. Now all of a sudden you're a completely different person from a physical and mental perspective. So I've done a lot of talking about, you know, how this stuff is super important. And it's, you know, in my opinion, this is the foundation. And so many people will ask questions that are good questions, but it's like, you know, what should I do for my training? Like, should I do four days or five days of training, or should I do, you know, 30 minutes or 45 minutes of zone two? What happens if my heart rate drifts up a little bit, or what happens if the scale fluctuates and all these different questions, which again are good questions, but the idea is if we don't have these things in line, if we don't have these foundational principles and then these perspectives and these strategies in line, and we're not actioning them on a day-to-day basis, we're we're going to run down a dead end. So we need to definitely avoid that. I would ask you a couple other things here, you know, to really hit these uh hit these points home. Number one is who do you need to become, right? To be able to endure whatever comes your way. So I would ask you, like, write a letter to your future self, maybe five years from now, 10 years from now, be vivid, be bold. It should be intimidating, it should be uncomfortable, right? Now we start thinking about that. We write it down. We write down where you're at from a strength perspective, conditioning perspective, what your body comp looks like, what does your family look like? You know, uh, how do you treat your family? Who's in your corner? All these different types of things. Get super specific on it. Now that is our North Star. That is our strategy, that is where we are facing. That's the direction that we're facing. Now we can start testing a lot of these things and figuring out what you need from for day-to-day operations, what your specific goals are. So now we have that long-term strategy. Now we can start executing in the short term, but most importantly, get some data so we can measure against that. How the hell are we going to be stopped if we're always chasing who we want to be five years from now, 10 years from now, right? Like I always say, it's a it's literally just like a never-ending ultra marathon. That's literally life. So there's going to be peaks and valleys, there's going to be really good miles, and there's going to be, you know, cinder block for feet miles. But the idea here is okay, now we have our game plan. That is going to fire me up. We're starting to think about our why. We're starting to get in the ring. We're starting to do uncomfortable things. We're starting to actually lead ourselves. We're starting to provide evidence to ourselves to silencing that that inner critic. Because, like I talked about before, those barriers, they're they're coming. I can promise you that. The pain, the exhaustion, time pressure, any kind of past fail event, you know, external pressure, self doubt, all these things are going to happen. So the more pre work that we put in beforehand, the better that we're going to be. So, like I always say, big thing here pray your worst it doesn't happen. Train and prepare like it will.