A New Way of Being

How often do we spend time continually looking to the future – while overlooking how far we have already come?Dr Dame Katherine Grainger is Britain’s most decorated female Olympian. She won rowing gold at London 2012 and silver at four other Olympic Games. We spoke about reflecting back on how far you’ve come – as well as what perseverance is all about**MyTwitter: https://twitter.com/simonmundieInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/simonmundie/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-mundie-89379114/And for the 'Mundie on Monday' newsletter - featuring three of the best Life Lessons from four years and 200 of these conversations - head to simonmundie.com (where you can also drop me an email)Please do share this episode - it makes a big difference in helping people find this podcast.Thank you.Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alberto Salazar was once the most revered running coach in the world, leading athletes including Mo Farah to the very top of their game. But, in 2019, Salazar was banned from athletics for violating anti doping rules. This week’s guest, Steve Magness, had worked alongside him at the Nike Oregon Project – and he was the whistleblower whose claims were followed up by a BBC Panorama and Pro Publica investigation, leading, ultimately, to Salazar’s downfall.It’s fascinating to hear Steve explaining his role in what is a truly incredible tale. While he says being a whistleblower led to a traumatic nine-year period of his life, he says he doesn’t regret it. And what he learned during that time informed his most recent book – called Do Hard Things. He busts myths around what toughness and resilience really mean. Toughness and grit isn’t about projecting confidence or some of the other the obvious stuff, like running marathons or taking ice baths. It's about being authentic, embracing having hard conversations... right through to sitting still and doing absolutely nothing. In this episode:Overcoming the doubting voice in the headSteve's key role in exposing high-profile athletics coach Alberto SalazarThe importance of not being dependent on achievement and success to ‘fill an internal hole’How his view of athletics has been tainted by the Salazar experience‘Tyrant leaders’ who rely on fear to motivateThe similarities between good leadership and parentingThe four key pillars of doing hard thingsConfidence is quiet and insecurity is loudThe importance of being ‘secure but flexible’Self or no self - do we really need to have a conceptual identity?Avoiding emotions & embracing boredomWhy often the hardest thing is doing nothingEmbracing having hard conversationsSteve Magness' website: http://www.stevemagness.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/stevemagness**MyTwitter: https://twitter.com/simonmundieInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/simonmundie/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-mundie-89379114/And for the 'Mundie on Monday' newsletter - featuring three of the best Life Lessons from four years and 200 of these conversations - head to simonmundie.com (where you can also drop me an email)Please do share this episode - it makes a big difference in helping people find this podcast.Thank you.Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brad Smeele was a world champion wakeboarder – until he broke his neck performing a trick in 2014 which left him quadriplegic. Until that point, Brad had been pretty much living the dream, chasing summers around the world while earning money on the side as a model.His identity before the accident was closely bound up with his physicality, and coming to terms with the fact that that was no longer the case was a huge challenge. However – Brad has demonstrated a truly inspiring mentality toward his new life as a quadriplegicHe has taken acceptance to a new level. For Brad it’s all about owning what happens to you.**MyTwitter: https://twitter.com/simonmundieInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/simonmundie/Email: info@simonmundie.comAnd for the 'Mundie on Monday' newsletter - featuring three of the best Life Lessons from four years and 200 of these conversations - head to simonmundie.com (where you can also drop me an email)Please do share this episode - it makes a big difference in helping people find this podcast. Much obliged.Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why relationships are the key to success in sport and life, with former England captain Will Carling. Will was appointed captain aged just 22 and led England to their first ever rugby World Cup final in 1991. As well as reaching that World Cup final- England won three Grand Slams in the 90s under Will, and were undoubtedly the northern hemisphere’s best team during that period. The theme of this conversation is relationships, in life and sport, which Will says are more important than 'success'. Will also talks about why leadership is all about having the best interests of your team at heart, emphasises the importance of continuous honest conversations, and explains why hitting rock bottom, as he did after retiring from his playing career, can be a blessing in disguise. MyTwitter: https://twitter.com/simonmundieInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/simonmundie/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-mundie-89379114/And for the 'Mundie on Monday' newsletter - featuring three of the best Life Lessons from four years and 200 of these conversations - head to simonmundie.com (where you can also drop me an email)Please do share this episode - it makes a big difference in helping people find this podcast.Thank you.Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There’s a lot to be said for truly empathetic leadership, where caring for and taking an interest in the individual comes first. Not only does this create an environment in which people can flourish, it makes winning and success more likely. And my guest this week, Ama Agbeze, undoubtedly proved that to be the case, when she led England to their greatest netball triumph – a historic Commonwealth Games gold medal in 2018.The Commonwealth Games is the pinnacle competition in netball, because currently the sport is not part of the summer Olympics. Team England’s victory in 2018 was their first gold medal in the competition – and was the undoubted all-time highlight for the sport in this country. How did Ama capytain the team to triumph? We talk about the importance of valuing individuals within a team set up, and Ama also shares insights such as the impact on her life and mental health when she was unexpectedly dropped from the team the following year. And Ama’s emotional intelligence doesn’t just shine on court – she does some amazing work off it, too, in her role as an ambassador for Greenhouse Sports, the charity that uses sport to help disadvantaged young people. In this episode:The importance of valuing individuals within a team set upEmpathy and sincere complimentsSport as a great leveller"If you work hard anything is possible”The key mentors in Ama's life – and what she took from themMaking your own mind up about people, not accepting pre-conceptionsSuccess is not a straight lineThe importance of beliefRemembering people are just people – and taking them off pedestalsManaging voices of doubtImportance of a support networkThe journey is more important than the medalLearning that it is ok to be vulnerableThe power of time management & prioritisingGreenhouse Sports - Changing lives Through Sport: https://www.greenhousesports.org/**MyTwitter: https://twitter.com/simonmundieInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/simonmundie/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-mundie-89379114/And for the 'Mundie on Monday' newsletter - featuring three of the best Life Lessons from four years and 200 of these conversations - head to simonmundie.com (where you can also drop me an email)Please do share this episode - it makes a big difference in helping people find this podcast.Thank you.Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Would you like to know some tips for succeeding under pressure from someone who was one of the best in the business?Sir Nick Faldo is Britain’s greatest ever golfer – a six times major winner who spent 97 weeks as world number one in his pomp.During our full length conversation – I asked him about one of his strategies for success, which came down to being able to... slow down.**MyTwitter: https://twitter.com/simonmundieInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/simonmundie/Email: info@simonmundie.comAnd for the 'Mundie on Monday' newsletter - featuring three of the best Life Lessons from four years and 200 of these conversations - head to simonmundie.com (where you can also drop me an email)Please do share this episode - it makes a big difference in helping people find this podcast. Much obliged.Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We tend to believe happiness is found when we accumulate money, success and status – but that’s actually wide of the mark. According to one of the pre-eminent happiness scientists in the world, real joy is found by tapping into the transformative power of Awe.Dacher Keltner is a bestselling author and psychology professor at the University of California. Twenty years into teaching people about happiness, he is on a mission to reveal the secrets of the good life. He has found that experiencing a sense of awe leads people to cooperate, share resources, and sacrifice for others, while also becoming more modest, and less narcissistic. In a nutshell – It’s not about aggrandising our sense of self – it’s about transcending it.But what is awe and how do we get more of it in our lives? You’re about to find out.Dacher's 8 'wonders of life' and ways into awe: the moral beauty, nature, collective movement, music, visual design, spirituality, big ideas, and the cycle of life and death. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dame Heather Rabbatts trained as a barrister – but that barely gets her CV started. She’s also been a BBC Governor, the youngest-ever Chief Executive of Merton and Lambeth Councils, Head of Education at Channel 4, a Director of the Bank of England, a Board Member of the UK Film Council, and deputy chair of Millwall FC – and that’s just to name a few.I wanted to ask her about getting ahead in big organisations and businesses – and she gave her take on that before speaking about retaining humility as you rise the ranks – as was so masterfully personified by Nelson Mandella, who she met while working in Lambeth.***MyTwitter: https://twitter.com/simonmundieInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/simonmundie/Email: info@simonmundie.comAnd for the 'Mundie on Monday' newsletter - featuring three of the best Life Lessons from four years and 200 of these conversations - head to simonmundie.com (where you can also drop me an email)Please do share this episode - it makes a big difference in helping people find this podcast. Much obliged.Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Flow is an optimal state of consciousness where we feel and perform our best".As many of you know, the topic of flow and its deeper implications are subjects I have spoken about on many occasions in this podcast – and in today’s episode we dive into what is a fascinating area. Steven Kotler is a New York Times best-selling author and executive director of the Flow Research Collective.Steven has spent decades exploring flow and working out ways for people – from elite athletes and Navy seals through to your everyday man and woman – to hack their way into 'the zone'. As well as being about flow and how to get in to it, this episode is also about peak ageing and performance, and is full of actionable insights, tips and hacks.In this episode we discuss:How the feats of extreme athletes in the 90s informed Steven's decades of work on FlowHow Flow is a trillion dollar industry - we pay to watch it and love to experience itFlow underpins peak performance - and peak ageingWhy accessing Flow is so crucial as we age (think inflammation & stress and Flow's direct anti-ageing properties)How Flow can increase the speed of learning by as much as 500%Flow & releasing the 5 Potent Reward chemicalsSteven's Peak Performance ageing experimentThe Four Stage Cycle of getting into FlowDeliberate Practice v Deliberate PlayUnderstanding Allostatic Load - the cumulative burden of stress & life eventsHow to do a Flow WalkFriction that gets in the way of FlowUnderstanding Flow TriggersThe Flow Research Collective: https://www.flowresearchcollective.com/Steven's website & book Gnar Country 'Growing Old, Staying Rad': https://www.stevenkotler.com/book-pages/gnar-country**MyTwitter: https://twitter.com/simonmundieInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/simonmundie/And for the 'Mundie on Monday' newsletter - featuring three of the best Life Lessons from four years and 200 of these conversations - head to simonmundie.com (where you can also drop me an email)Please do share this episode - it makes a big difference in helping people find this podcast.Thank you.Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What the experience of flow - particularly in sport - may reveal about the nature of reality. One theme that has arisen time and again while recording this podcast is the experience of flow, and numerous athletes in particular have spoken about the experience of "me" not being there in such moments. But what is that "me" that seems to disappear? That’s a big question and here to help address it is Rupert Spira, a philosopher interested in the nature of reality, the nature of consciousness - and non-duality.This is a rerelease of the episode Rupert and I recorded in 2021 - the full 2 hour episode can be found here:https://www.simonmundie.com/blog/rupert-spira-a-philosophy-of-sport-and-reality"I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness." - Max Planck, the Nobel prize winning Physicist and 'father of quantum theory'MyTwitter: https://twitter.com/simonmundieInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/simonmundie/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-mundie-89379114/And for the 'Mundie on Monday' newsletter - featuring three of the best Life Lessons from four years and 200 of these conversations - head to simonmundie.com (where you can also drop me an email)Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.