Andy Petranek, Whole Life Challenge Co-Founder

Andy Petranek (0:00)

I mean, I think the big thing that I've taken over the course of my life is the smaller the steps and the longer I can make them last in my daily practice, the more impact they'll have on my life.

I don't have to take big, bold, audacious jumps and leaps into oblivion and think... In fact, most of the time when I do that, those don't work at all.

Michael Gervais (0:36)

All right, welcome back or welcome to the Finding Mastery podcast. I'm Michael Gervais by Trade and Training, a sport and performance psychologist and the co-founder of Compete to Create. And the whole idea behind these conversations is to learn from people who are on the path of mastery, to understand how the extraordinaries think and do, how they organize their inner world, how they organize their external life to be able to manage the stress that they're running toward. And so we also wanna dig to understand the mental skills that they use to build and refine their craft.

I wanna take a minute here to announce a really exciting event that we have coming up. As you continue to navigate the challenges and opportunities of 2024, I wanna pose a question. What are you doing right now to be great with stress? How are you working with stress on your pursuit towards your most important ambitions and goals? And I just wanna get right to the heart of the key elements. One in particular, for what it takes to excel in today's high heat, high stakes world. Because stress is not the problem that we think it is. Stress is a synonym for change. And our ability to be agile with change, that is the real opportunity at hand. So if you're wanting to unlock extraordinary results and sustainable performance in your life, it's not about avoiding or reducing stress. And as simple as that sounds, it's very tricky to do, but it is about fundamentally changing your relationship with it.

And that's why I'm so thrilled to invite you to a special event. It's a free virtual event that we're offering, and it's called The Power of Embracing Stress. It's on Wednesday, March 6th at 2 p.m. Pacific. So to sign up, just head over to findingmastery.com/training, whether it's advancing in your career or improving your health or cultivating stronger relationships, I think a new approach to stress can be one of the most powerful unlocks for you and your life. So join us for this free virtual training, The Power of Embracing Stress, on Wednesday, March 6th at 2 p.m. Pacific. Go to findingmastery.com/training to sign up once again. That's findingmastery.com/training, and I'm really excited to see you there.

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Now, this week's conversation is with Andy Petranek. He's the co-founder of the Whole Life Challenge, and Andy is also a Marine Gulf War veteran, as well as the oldest participant at age 43 to qualify for the 2009 CrossFit Games. Pretty cool, he's fit. He understands what it takes to put himself in uncomfortable situations and how to thrive. He understands the mechanisms to train for those uncomfortable situations as well. So he's participated in dozens of adventure races where they varied in length anywhere from three hours to seven days.

And he became known for his ability to navigate in the wilderness carrying heavy loads and getting through obstacles quickly with those heavy loads. And he's able to persevere in some of the worst conditions. We talk about it in the podcast here.