The Mental Frame & Specific Daily Actions to Succeed | Andy Stumpf

**Andy Stumpf** (0:00)
Pick the choice, as often as possible, that is slightly more difficult. To me, it's the small stuff that nobody sees that makes the biggest difference in the world. Everybody knows the harder choice versus the easier choice. Everybody, to include myself, will look externally and say, what do I need to do?
I know what I need to do, and so do they. They need to do the thing, then even if it's microscopic, that they wanna do less, more often than they do the thing that they wanna do more. That, over time, is the juice.

**Andrew Huberman** (0:34)
Welcome to the Huberman Lab Podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.
I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. My guest today is Andy Stumpf, a retired Navy SEAL and subsequently a member of the Red Bull High Performance Team, where he was a wing suitor, where they literally get into what some people call squirrel suits and fly. He set two world records, wing suiting. But today's discussion is not really prompted by his career in the military, nor his wing suiting, although it does impact the discussion. Today's discussion was prompted by my reading of Andy's recent book called Drown Proof. Now, there are a lot of books out there by former Navy SEALs, but upon reading it, I realized that this was a special book, and that Andy's experience and the lessons he shares, and most importantly, the tools he shares, are both unique and indeed important for everyone to hear. For instance, he describes a tool in there that I now use every single week, which has allowed me and many other people, and I'm certain you, to separate out issues of concern versus issues of impact, meaning to allow you to actually be able to impact, perhaps not control, but certainly have an impact on certain things, while ignoring the issues in life that distract you, that pull you into drama, and that can numb you out, and that essentially waste your life. Today, you'll learn what that exercise is and how to implement it in your life. You'll also learn a lot of other simple tools about how to take the slightly harder road in certain moments versus the easier road. You'll also learn from Andy about the most difficult things that he encountered in life and how he navigated them. And no, those weren't in the military nor wingsuiting. It actually comes from his personal life, which he shares very candidly.
And finally, we have a very serious and in many ways, somewhat emotional discussion about suicide and mental health more generally. I do hope that that discussion will benefit all of you. I'm certainly, we are certainly, I should say, very open to your input. That discussion, of course, raises more questions than it provides answers. But I think we can all agree that this is an extremely important and timely topic. The frequency of suicide is increasing significantly in all communities. So for reasons related to the range and the nature of the specific topics that we discussed today, you're in for a very special episode. Thank you, Andy Stumpf. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is, however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost to consumer information about science and science related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, today's episode does include sponsors. All right, my book is finally ready for release.
Protocols and Operating Manual for the Human Body is coming out in three months. It's my first book and I've been working on it for many years now.
And it's really a reflection of decades of research and experience that came even prior to starting the book. My goal for this book is that it serves as an easy to use manual for dealing with any number of different pain points or performance goals that you might have in terms of mental health, physical health and performance. It covers the science and most effective protocols for sleep, nutrition, exercise, focused learning and neuroplasticity, stress management and much more. I'm super excited to share it with all of you. The launch date is September 15th. You can learn more about it or pre-order by going to protocolsbook.com. It's also available on amazon.com.
And I'm super excited that Protocols is finally ready for release. And as always, thank you for your interest in science. And now for my discussion with Andy Stumpf. Andy Stumpf, welcome.

**Andy Stumpf** (4:07)
Thank you for having me.

**Andrew Huberman** (4:09)
I read your book, Drownproof, recently.