Today on the podcast:
Luke is a speaker, health & mindset coach, endurance adventurer and author.
Luke has run through the Sahara desert, down Mt Everest, through a tropical Chinese forest without food or water and his first-ever triathlon was a double Ironman distance race taking him 35 hours non-stop to complete.
He constantly pushes his physical and mental boundaries to the absolute limit of his capabilities. I’ve been following Luke since I entered the world of endurance racing in 2018 and he has some fantastic stories and a great outlook towards dealing with mental health.
Episode Outline
- 05:15 Retiring as a professional footballer at age 28 and moving into the world of endurance events
- 12:36 The horrible “now what” and feeling lost along with strategies to avoid or cope with it
- 15:25 Signing up to Marathons des Sables in 2011 to run away from his mental health issues
- 19:00 Luke’s advice for those who are going all-in on a single, crystal-clear goal, in athletics or otherwise
- 23:39 Why using the marathon to run away from mental health issues came back to bite Luke in the backside
- 29:55 Where Luke’s self-worth was tied to while he was depressed and dealing with the chip on his shoulder
- 35:06 The ultimate triathlon: Morocco to Monaco, swim, bike, run 2000km in 12 days
- 51:43 Train your mind to be stronger and build mental toughness by living in the present moment
- 56:45 How Luke lives out living in the present moment (i.e. athletics vs day-to-day life)
- 1:02:48 What Luke is most excited about at the moment
Key Points
- If you’re single-minded on any goal, the only way to know whether you’ll succeed is by making the decision to succeed. Trying to achieve “balance” while chasing a big vision for your life is a losing strategy. You also need to be aware of potential consequences if you fail or miss the goal. Once you’re aware and are still motivated, then it’s time to decide.
- Hard work is not the key to success. It’s merely a prerequisite to success. Look in the mirror and embrace the fact that you’ll probably need a great deal of patience to achieve your goal—maybe a year’s worth, or even ten. If you’re still willing to make the climb, go all-in. And if doubts continue to linger in spite of the fact that you want to go for your goal, go hard, but “start teasing out a few passion projects on the side” so that you’ll always have options.
- If you want to become mentally stronger, you need to develop the ability to be present. Learn from the past and plan for the future, but train your mind to always stay in the present moment. The present moment is the “base” that you come back to that will allow you to stay unshakable and take stock if distractions, changes, and setbacks present themselves. The ability to be present will help you nip negativity, wherever it comes from, in the bud.
Powerful Quotes by Luke
- Life is about decisions. Life isn’t about balance. Life is about making decisions that are going to help you and those around you progress, and you have to deal with those consequences of those decisions that you make.
- Just because you work hard doesn’t mean you’re going to be successful.
- If you’re going to set a goal, and it’s a goal that you’re willing to sacrifice time, energy, effort, and money on, when you think it’s big enough, make it even bigger. It should absolutely scare the living daylights out of you, and you probably should be a little bit confused and say, “I’m not sure how I’m going to achieve that, but I’m going to do the work that I need to do daily in order to be the person that I believe I can be to achieve that goal.”
- Our bodies will break when they reach the limit that we’ve trained them up to; but our minds have no limits.
- I’ve got to learn from the past, plan for the future, but live in the present moment.
Guest info
