September 13, 2025 • 26 mins
Episode 110: “The Cycle Breaker’s Guide to Becoming Unstoppable”
Episode Summary: In this episode, Kimen Petersen explores the patterns that keep us stuck and how to break free from cycles that limit our potential. Through personal stories, analogies, and motivational insights, Kimen encourages listeners to step out of their comfort zones, embrace risk, and pursue extraordinary lives with intention and courage.
Key Topics Covered:
- The trap of repetition: Why doing the same thing yields the same results.
- The danger of spreading yourself too thin versus the power of focused effort.
- Facing the fear of failure and reframing what it means to fall short.
- The importance of specificity and going "all in" on your goals.
- Lessons from athletes and high achievers on balancing hard work with recovery and mindfulness.
- Practical steps to break cycles and move toward your dreams.
Notable Quotes:
- "Good results can be the enemy of great ones."
- "If you can't risk meeting yourself at the bottom, you'll never have the chance to meet yourself at the top."
- "The impossible is only temporary."
Connect with Kimen: Instagram: @yourinneradvocate Listen on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean
Episode Timeline:
- 00:00 – Introduction & podcast purpose
- 00:40 – The trap of repetition and comfort
- 03:00 – Spreading yourself too thin vs. focus
- 06:00 – Facing the fear of failure
- 10:00 – Lessons from athletes: specificity and recovery
- 15:00 – Practical steps to break cycles
- 26:00 – Final challenge & closing thoughts
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Welcome to Your Inner Advocate,a podcast by Kimen Petersen,
formerly Conversations with Kimen.
This podcast is a space forinspiration, soulful insights,
and meaningful life lessons.
Your host, Kimen Petersen drawsfrom personal stories and powerful
conversations with remarkablepeople to help illuminate your path.
These episodes reflect his livedexperiences and thoughtful perspectives,
(00:25):
all aimed at encouraging you to live lifewith greater authenticity, joy, and ease.
Your inner advocate is here tohelp you tune in, trust your inner
wisdom, and move through life withmore clarity, flow, and fulfillment.
Welcome back let me ask you something.
(00:47):
Do you think that if you continue todo exactly what you've been doing all
along, if you continue right now doingthe same thing over and over again,
will you ever get a different result?
And the truth is no.
You will always get what you've gotten.
(01:08):
And yet so many of us keep repeatingthe same patterns over and over
again, hoping that somehow theoutcome will ultimately change.
And that my friends, isthe definition of insanity.
Literally doing the same thing over andover and expecting a different result.
(01:30):
So today we're gonna explorewhat it takes to break outta that
cycle, what it takes to step.
Out of the familiar to risk failureand move towards the extraordinary.
Now think about like thetrap of repetition here.
Think about your daily routine, thehabits of patterns, the automatic
(01:52):
ways you respond to things.
You know, they may, these thingsmay be giving you good results
up to now, and you may be feelingreally comfortable, but here's.
The danger,
good results can be theenemy of great ones.
(02:17):
Imagine a bird that never leavesthis cage because it's safe, warm,
fed, it survives, but it never soars.
When we stay locked into our routines,even if they're working, we might
actually be preventing ourselves fromstepping into our extraordinary potential.
(02:38):
Think about Thomas Edison triedthousands of materials for the light bulb
filament before he found the right one.
Thousands.
If you'd stopped at the firsthundred, we may still be in the dark.
That's the power of trying somethingnew even after repeated failure.
(03:02):
Now there's another trap.
You know, that was the trap of repetition.
But there's this trap ofspreading yourself too thin.
And sometimes we do havethis opposite problem.
Instead of doing the same thing endlessly,we try to do everything at once.
Think about it.
What?
Like we're trying to, we'retrying to work like work towards
(03:26):
a hundred things at the same time.
And we start scattering our engenergy into a thousand pieces hoping
just one of these things stick.
And what happens?
We, we actually stay average in a wholebunch of things, but we never master one.
(03:49):
Specificity is actuallythe path to excellence it.
This creates focus and depth.
It is like a magnifying glass.
If you hold, hold it over andover the sun, and if you keep on
moving it around, nothing happens.
But when you focus on one littlepoint for an intense amount of time,
(04:16):
it, it can set the world on fire.
You know, sometimes spreading ourselfthin is, is a defense mechanism, right?
Because if we never give onething everything we've got
and then we fail, we can say, well,
(04:37):
I wasn't really all in,
but here's the truth.
If you can't risk meeting yourselfat the bottom, you'll never have the
chance to meet yourself at the top.
So what about facing the fear of failure?
(04:59):
If, just like I said, if you'll,if you never take the chance,
you never take the riskof failing greatly.
Then you may never have thechance of see succeeding greatly.
And the one thing that holds us back fromtaking massive risk is a fear of failure.
(05:25):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I know.
It's terrifying because giving everythingyou have to one pursuit means there's
no safety, net of excuses, nothing.
That's it.
You're all in.
You give everything you got.
Like the question in yourhead could be, what if I fail?
What if I give it my all in?
(05:47):
It still doesn't work.
Okay, let me reframe that though.
Better to take.
Have taken the chance and fallen thannever have taken the chance at all.
Every single great achievement onthis planet that's ever been done.
(06:09):
It was once considered impossible.
You know, of course, untilsomeone came along who didn't
know any better and just did it.
You think about the Wrightbrothers, people laughed at them.
Human flight, no way.
And yet, two bicycle mechanics from a tinyworkshop changed the course of history
(06:32):
because they dared to try.
What about you?
What about that thing?
That thing you know you're here for?
It doesn't matter if athletics,it doesn't matter if it's a
(06:54):
business, it doesn't matter.
It really doesn't matterexactly what it is.
The fact is you probably havea clue what you're here for.
There's something that lightsyou up, and there's probably
also some things in between it.
Like maybe you're doing it at some level
and yet
(07:18):
there's still this fearthat you'll never make it.
You know, I, I met a few athletes.
And sometimes I try not to giveadvice too much, but sometimes I
just like, oh, I hate to do this.
But like, I, you know, it's likemaybe their, their main thing, maybe
(07:39):
a middle distance runner and there'sa specific distance that seems to be
the right, right distance for them.
And yet they're trainingfor all kinds of things.
Like cross country and they're doingfive Ks and they're doing all this thing,
but like, say they're an 800 or a 1500meter runner, but they're spreading
(08:02):
themselves all over the place and neverreally doing the specific, the really,
really specific work or not reallyfocusing all in on the specific work.
And they're spreadingthemselves too thin and um.
Kind of like I really want to sayto them is, is like, yeah, like
(08:25):
the first two years of a quad.
And if you understand what a quadis, we're talking about runners right
now, we're talking about the Olympics.
Quad is the four year cycle.
So the first two yearsof quad, like go for it.
Have fun, do it all.
Run all the stuff.
In the second two years ofa quad, get very specific.
Get specific with the workoutsthat are designed to give you
(08:46):
the speed, to give you the kick.
Get specific on the races.
Get into like as many races asyou can to get the idea of what it
feels like to be at a tactical race.
Get really specific on thesecond two years of a quad
so you can give yourselfthe opportunity to show up.
(09:10):
On the line in the stadium atthe Olympics, wondering how
the hell did I just get here?
You are capable of more than you know.
I was gonna say, you know that,but like maybe you don't, but
(09:31):
I think you have an inkling.
'cause you have this passionand this desire to move forward
and I feel like it's never notbacked up with, with the goods.
The problem is we have this brainthat gets in our way sometimes,
so I'm gonna speak directly to you.
(09:53):
The truth is you are capable of amazingthings and really more than you know.
And at the same time I'm speaking tomyself because sometimes I wonder too,
you may have been living small, repeatedroutines or scattering your energy,
(10:16):
but deep down inside, youknow, there's more in you.
I, I, why would you bedoing all this stuff?
Why would you have that dream?
Why would you be moving?
Forward and continuouslythrough each of the upsets.
Why would you keep on doing itif you didn't know underneath
there was something more?
(10:37):
So the problem isn'twhat you're capable of.
The problem comes down to belief.
It's that little inner critic whispering.
Play safe.
Don't risk it.
Don't try too hard.
But here's the secret.
(10:59):
This is life.
And if you really wannalive an extraordinary life,
you're not meant to stay safe.
You're meant to grow, you're meantto stretch, you're meant to expand
(11:21):
life.
Is like lifting weights.
The muscle only grows when it's stressed,when it's pushed beyond its comfort zone.
Without resistance,
there's no growth and strength.
(11:43):
Without risk, there's no growth in life.
So the extraordinary lifeyou're, you're dreaming about,
it's waiting on the otherside of your routine.
(12:04):
And the understanding that being allin in life doesn't just mean pushing.
'cause I, I know somany athletes like this.
They, they just push and push and pushand push and push and that works to a
certain point, but then you get to apoint of diminishing ret, uh, returns.
(12:27):
And then if you're pushing way toohard, like almost obs to the point of
obsessed trying to move faster than youshould in a direction, and you're not
balancing the recovery with the load.
Then there's a chance oflike developing injury.
(12:49):
An injury is gonna slow you down more thanslowing down, taking breaks, taking a day.
A recovery day injury will slowyou down over the long run.
Way more than that.
Way more than getting enough sleep.
Way more than.
(13:09):
Getting the proper Nutri Nutritionway more than anything else.
You see, athletes are really, really goodat the hard things and for the average
person, the hard things has is moreto do with like physically demanding,
(13:29):
hard running fast, working out hard.
Um.
Yeah, all that long hours, workingout, all that stuff, that's
actually the easy part for athletes.
The hard stuff for athletes, it wouldseem, and I've heard it from many
(13:50):
people, is like, oh, I just can'tdo the mindfulness stuff or the
meditation or, you know, it's like Ihave trouble holding back and like.
I, I have trouble running slow.
I'm, I'm really big on this one.
I'm really bad at runningslow, which is funny 'cause I'm
really bad at running fast too.
(14:11):
So everything, everything'sto safe for me.
Um, but the truth is it's a lot ofpeople have a tough time, like with
like the strength work with the.
(14:31):
The mental aspect like mindfulnessand meditation and getting, getting
mental coaching, counseling support,uh, proper nutrition, proper rest,
taking days off for incredible athletes.
That's the hard stuff.
(14:52):
And what I usually tell when I reallyidentify this is an aspect of any human
being that's really extraordinary.
Can push and push and push andpush like crazy, but they can't
do the so-called easy things.
I like to remind 'em, I like to flipthe script on 'em a little bit and and
say, listen, you can do hard things.
And they're like, well, yeah, right?
Like I do hard things home from.
(15:14):
All the time.
The truth is all this other stuff,this, this stuff that's so necessary,
that'll take you beyond your normalroutine and take you that last
little bit to the extraordinary.
That is actually the hard stuff.
So if you.
Really consider that, that allthat other stuff is the hard stuff.
And you can hard do, youcan really do hard things.
(15:37):
Then lean into the hardstuff, the real hard stuff.
Not, not the stuff that isn't hardfor you, but the real hard stuff
with that same determination thatyou can lean into like working out
hard, running faster and everything.
And that will change yourroutine and change your life.
So how do we break this cycle like.
(15:58):
Because he honestly think I know you.
I know.
Uh, like I know me for one, one, Iknow I want to do some, I do want
to do big, big things in his life.
I want to keep on growing.
I, I want to push pastwhat I think is possible.
I like, I'd love to speakin front of massive crowds.
(16:19):
So how are we going to break this cycle?
The first, first off.
Any way we can, anything we want to break.
First we have to lead into awareness
and take a look.
Where am I repeating patterns that aregiving me the same results, like what are
the things that I'm doing over and overagain and they're not really working,
(16:47):
and where am I avoiding riskby staying in the safe zone?
Where are the chances I'm not taking,
you know, where am I settling?
And this isn't like somethingyou used to judge yourself.
You just, like right nowwe're just at awareness phase.
(17:09):
Like, what am I doing over and over again?
It's not working.
Or what are the thingsthat I'm not doing that?
M and maybe we don't have aconscious idea what this is, but
now let's go and take a look.
Let's see what really successfulpeople are doing, what they're leaning
into, how did they get to the point?
(17:29):
And then compare what we'redoing to what they're doing.
And if there's this gap in betweenwhat we're doing and they're
doing, let's try to fill it.
You know, sometimes I hear like, youknow, people really want to accomplish
great things, maybe middle distance.
Um, but they're like, oh, Ireally don't like the speed work.
Well, there you go.
(17:51):
That's the thing youmight have to lean into.
Usually the things we don't like areprobably the things that we're avoiding,
which probably is the thing we need to do.
You know, you cannot likesomething and do it anyway.
(18:11):
Second, let's, let's lean into courage.
If you really choose to focus, liketruly focus on what matters most.
Not 10 things halfway, but onething wholeheartedly, and I do
understand the fear 'cause like
(18:32):
the inner critical will be in thebackground, but, but if I go all
in and I fail, I'll be devastated.
And whereas that looks true, andit sounds true and it kind of feels
true, I'll tell you the truth.
(18:53):
Everything that I've ever taken onin my life, like really taken on.
Like when I went back to schooland I took it on a hundred percent
and I was in, I mean, classes were eight.
Eight to 12 hours a day,six or five days a week.
(19:16):
And then after school I wouldspend four hours studying.
And on the weekend I'dspend 19 hours studying
and I went all in.
And I, I did it succeed.
So maybe this isn't the greatest example.
(19:37):
'cause I, I do believe when we go all in.
More than likely we're gonna succeed.
But the honest truth is, in all the thingsI've done in this life, if I've given
it a hundred percent and I failed, Ifelt a little bit bad about the failure.
But I'll tell you of, of all the thingsI've done in my life where I haven't
(20:01):
given it my all, where I haven't puteverything, I got into it and failed.
I felt worse about that.
Because nagging in theback of my mind was always,
what if I just tried a little harder?
Like, do you really wanna live alife looking back with what ifs?
(20:24):
Or do you wanna live a lifeknowing that you gave it your all?
Because when you do give it your all,give it a hundred percent every day.
And let me clarify.
Because some people get confusedabout a hundred percent.
This is a hundred percentof what you have that day.
So if you're only running at 30% today,if all you got is 30% and you give that
(20:49):
full 30%, you've given a hundred percent.
The truth is when you've givenit your all and you know there's
nothing else you could have done,no matter what the outcome is.
After the initial upset, if youdidn't make it, you will know.
For a fact, you'll find comfortin the fact you did it all.
You did everything you could.
(21:10):
Third, reframing failure.
Instead of seeing failure asproof, you weren't good enough.
It is proof that you tried.
The proof that you stretch, the proofthat you were brave enough to go all in.
And like I said, if you went all in,
proof that you did all you could.
(21:34):
Because failure doesn't break you.
It's regret that does that.
And regret just comes when you don'ttry or you don't try hard enough.
And here's another interesting thought.
The impossible is only temporary.
(22:02):
Let me leave you with this truth.
Every impossible thing wasimpossible until it wasn't
running the four minute mile,reaching the moon, mapping the human
genome all completely impossibleuntil it wasn't and people did it.
(22:25):
Not because they were fearless, butbecause they were willing to look
fear in the face and move anyway.
Also,
they weren't willing totake no for an answer,
and many times on the paththey fell multiple times.
(22:49):
But the truth is.
The only way to success is to getup one more time than you fall.
So you could frame it that I just have toget up one more time, and maybe that one,
one more time repeats itself many times.
(23:09):
But not only that, every time you fall,you learn from that fall and you stand
back up a new person and you do it again.
And you just keep on learning andfalling and learning and falling and
learning and falling until one day
you're shocked because you didn't fall.
(23:32):
So why not you?
Why not your dream?
Why not your extraordinary life?
If not you, why not you?
The impossible is only temporaryuntil someone proves it's possible,
and maybe you're theone meant to prove it.
(23:53):
And that includes internally too.
Something that is impossible foryou is only impossible for you
until it's not until you do it.
And then the trick is to raise the bar.
(24:19):
So here's my challenge to you.
Find one area in your life that you'restuck in a cycle where you keep repeating
the same pattern over and over again,and dare to do something different.
Anything, change it.
Change your thought.
(24:39):
Change your action.
Change your speech,change your physicality.
Change the way you hold yourself.
Change what you, what you write.
Get very specific.
Get very specific on theway you move towards it.
Look at the people who've been successful.
(25:00):
You don't have to reinvent the wheel.
And see where you, what you're doingisn't lined up with the, all these
people who have been very specificand they get focused and get bold.
Yeah, it's scary and yes, you might fall,but if you're really willing to risk
(25:22):
hitting the bottom on a pursuit of anincredible goal, an extraordinary dream,
you'll give yourself the only chance.
To reach the top, and that is howextraordinary lives are built, not
by playing it saved, not by beinglucky, not by repeating yesterday, but
(25:46):
by daring to step into the unknown,
and that's the unknown for self.
If I can leave you with one thing,remember this, you're capable of more than
you know, so God get outta your own way.
Break the cycle
(26:07):
and move towards your destiny,your goal, and your dreams.
Thank you for listening to this episodeof Your Inner Advocate, a podcast by
Kimen Petersen, formerly Conversationswith Kimen if you found value in
today's episode, please follow likeand share the podcast with someone
(26:30):
who you think may benefit from it.
You can listen on Apple Podcast.
Spotify, Podbean, and connect onInstagram @ your inner advocate.
Until next time, keep listening toand developing your inner advocate.
Welcome to Your Inner Advocate,a podcast by Kimen Petersen,
formerly Conversations with Kimen.
This podcast is a space forinspiration, soulful insights,
and meaningful life lessons.
Your host, Kimen Petersen drawsfrom personal stories and powerful
conversations with remarkablepeople to help illuminate your path.
These episodes reflect his livedexperiences and thoughtful perspectives,
(00:25):
all aimed at encouraging you to live lifewith greater authenticity, joy, and ease.
Your inner advocate is here tohelp you tune in, trust your inner
wisdom, and move through life withmore clarity, flow, and fulfillment.
Welcome back let me ask you something.
(00:47):
Do you think that if you continue todo exactly what you've been doing all
along, if you continue right now doingthe same thing over and over again,
will you ever get a different result?
And the truth is no.
You will always get what you've gotten.
(01:08):
And yet so many of us keep repeatingthe same patterns over and over
again, hoping that somehow theoutcome will ultimately change.
And that my friends, isthe definition of insanity.
Literally doing the same thing over andover and expecting a different result.
(01:30):
So today we're gonna explorewhat it takes to break outta that
cycle, what it takes to step.
Out of the familiar to risk failureand move towards the extraordinary.
Now think about like thetrap of repetition here.
Think about your daily routine, thehabits of patterns, the automatic
(01:52):
ways you respond to things.
You know, they may, these thingsmay be giving you good results
up to now, and you may be feelingreally comfortable, but here's.
The danger,
good results can be theenemy of great ones.
(02:17):
Imagine a bird that never leavesthis cage because it's safe, warm,
fed, it survives, but it never soars.
When we stay locked into our routines,even if they're working, we might
actually be preventing ourselves fromstepping into our extraordinary potential.
(02:38):
Think about Thomas Edison triedthousands of materials for the light bulb
filament before he found the right one.
Thousands.
If you'd stopped at the firsthundred, we may still be in the dark.
That's the power of trying somethingnew even after repeated failure.
(03:02):
Now there's another trap.
You know, that was the trap of repetition.
But there's this trap ofspreading yourself too thin.
And sometimes we do havethis opposite problem.
Instead of doing the same thing endlessly,we try to do everything at once.
Think about it.
What?
Like we're trying to, we'retrying to work like work towards
(03:26):
a hundred things at the same time.
And we start scattering our engenergy into a thousand pieces hoping
just one of these things stick.
And what happens?
We, we actually stay average in a wholebunch of things, but we never master one.
(03:49):
Specificity is actuallythe path to excellence it.
This creates focus and depth.
It is like a magnifying glass.
If you hold, hold it over andover the sun, and if you keep on
moving it around, nothing happens.
But when you focus on one littlepoint for an intense amount of time,
(04:16):
it, it can set the world on fire.
You know, sometimes spreading ourselfthin is, is a defense mechanism, right?
Because if we never give onething everything we've got
and then we fail, we can say, well,
(04:37):
I wasn't really all in,
but here's the truth.
If you can't risk meeting yourselfat the bottom, you'll never have the
chance to meet yourself at the top.
So what about facing the fear of failure?
(04:59):
If, just like I said, if you'll,if you never take the chance,
you never take the riskof failing greatly.
Then you may never have thechance of see succeeding greatly.
And the one thing that holds us back fromtaking massive risk is a fear of failure.
(05:25):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I know.
It's terrifying because giving everythingyou have to one pursuit means there's
no safety, net of excuses, nothing.
That's it.
You're all in.
You give everything you got.
Like the question in yourhead could be, what if I fail?
What if I give it my all in?
(05:47):
It still doesn't work.
Okay, let me reframe that though.
Better to take.
Have taken the chance and fallen thannever have taken the chance at all.
Every single great achievement onthis planet that's ever been done.
(06:09):
It was once considered impossible.
You know, of course, untilsomeone came along who didn't
know any better and just did it.
You think about the Wrightbrothers, people laughed at them.
Human flight, no way.
And yet, two bicycle mechanics from a tinyworkshop changed the course of history
(06:32):
because they dared to try.
What about you?
What about that thing?
That thing you know you're here for?
It doesn't matter if athletics,it doesn't matter if it's a
(06:54):
business, it doesn't matter.
It really doesn't matterexactly what it is.
The fact is you probably havea clue what you're here for.
There's something that lightsyou up, and there's probably
also some things in between it.
Like maybe you're doing it at some level
and yet
(07:18):
there's still this fearthat you'll never make it.
You know, I, I met a few athletes.
And sometimes I try not to giveadvice too much, but sometimes I
just like, oh, I hate to do this.
But like, I, you know, it's likemaybe their, their main thing, maybe
(07:39):
a middle distance runner and there'sa specific distance that seems to be
the right, right distance for them.
And yet they're trainingfor all kinds of things.
Like cross country and they're doingfive Ks and they're doing all this thing,
but like, say they're an 800 or a 1500meter runner, but they're spreading
(08:02):
themselves all over the place and neverreally doing the specific, the really,
really specific work or not reallyfocusing all in on the specific work.
And they're spreadingthemselves too thin and um.
Kind of like I really want to sayto them is, is like, yeah, like
(08:25):
the first two years of a quad.
And if you understand what a quadis, we're talking about runners right
now, we're talking about the Olympics.
Quad is the four year cycle.
So the first two yearsof quad, like go for it.
Have fun, do it all.
Run all the stuff.
In the second two years ofa quad, get very specific.
Get specific with the workoutsthat are designed to give you
(08:46):
the speed, to give you the kick.
Get specific on the races.
Get into like as many races asyou can to get the idea of what it
feels like to be at a tactical race.
Get really specific on thesecond two years of a quad
so you can give yourselfthe opportunity to show up.
(09:10):
On the line in the stadium atthe Olympics, wondering how
the hell did I just get here?
You are capable of more than you know.
I was gonna say, you know that,but like maybe you don't, but
(09:31):
I think you have an inkling.
'cause you have this passionand this desire to move forward
and I feel like it's never notbacked up with, with the goods.
The problem is we have this brainthat gets in our way sometimes,
so I'm gonna speak directly to you.
(09:53):
The truth is you are capable of amazingthings and really more than you know.
And at the same time I'm speaking tomyself because sometimes I wonder too,
you may have been living small, repeatedroutines or scattering your energy,
(10:16):
but deep down inside, youknow, there's more in you.
I, I, why would you bedoing all this stuff?
Why would you have that dream?
Why would you be moving?
Forward and continuouslythrough each of the upsets.
Why would you keep on doing itif you didn't know underneath
there was something more?
(10:37):
So the problem isn'twhat you're capable of.
The problem comes down to belief.
It's that little inner critic whispering.
Play safe.
Don't risk it.
Don't try too hard.
But here's the secret.
(10:59):
This is life.
And if you really wannalive an extraordinary life,
you're not meant to stay safe.
You're meant to grow, you're meantto stretch, you're meant to expand
(11:21):
life.
Is like lifting weights.
The muscle only grows when it's stressed,when it's pushed beyond its comfort zone.
Without resistance,
there's no growth and strength.
(11:43):
Without risk, there's no growth in life.
So the extraordinary lifeyou're, you're dreaming about,
it's waiting on the otherside of your routine.
(12:04):
And the understanding that being allin in life doesn't just mean pushing.
'cause I, I know somany athletes like this.
They, they just push and push and pushand push and push and that works to a
certain point, but then you get to apoint of diminishing ret, uh, returns.
(12:27):
And then if you're pushing way toohard, like almost obs to the point of
obsessed trying to move faster than youshould in a direction, and you're not
balancing the recovery with the load.
Then there's a chance oflike developing injury.
(12:49):
An injury is gonna slow you down more thanslowing down, taking breaks, taking a day.
A recovery day injury will slowyou down over the long run.
Way more than that.
Way more than getting enough sleep.
Way more than.
(13:09):
Getting the proper Nutri Nutritionway more than anything else.
You see, athletes are really, really goodat the hard things and for the average
person, the hard things has is moreto do with like physically demanding,
(13:29):
hard running fast, working out hard.
Um.
Yeah, all that long hours, workingout, all that stuff, that's
actually the easy part for athletes.
The hard stuff for athletes, it wouldseem, and I've heard it from many
(13:50):
people, is like, oh, I just can'tdo the mindfulness stuff or the
meditation or, you know, it's like Ihave trouble holding back and like.
I, I have trouble running slow.
I'm, I'm really big on this one.
I'm really bad at runningslow, which is funny 'cause I'm
really bad at running fast too.
(14:11):
So everything, everything'sto safe for me.
Um, but the truth is it's a lot ofpeople have a tough time, like with
like the strength work with the.
(14:31):
The mental aspect like mindfulnessand meditation and getting, getting
mental coaching, counseling support,uh, proper nutrition, proper rest,
taking days off for incredible athletes.
That's the hard stuff.
(14:52):
And what I usually tell when I reallyidentify this is an aspect of any human
being that's really extraordinary.
Can push and push and push andpush like crazy, but they can't
do the so-called easy things.
I like to remind 'em, I like to flipthe script on 'em a little bit and and
say, listen, you can do hard things.
And they're like, well, yeah, right?
Like I do hard things home from.
(15:14):
All the time.
The truth is all this other stuff,this, this stuff that's so necessary,
that'll take you beyond your normalroutine and take you that last
little bit to the extraordinary.
That is actually the hard stuff.
So if you.
Really consider that, that allthat other stuff is the hard stuff.
And you can hard do, youcan really do hard things.
(15:37):
Then lean into the hardstuff, the real hard stuff.
Not, not the stuff that isn't hardfor you, but the real hard stuff
with that same determination thatyou can lean into like working out
hard, running faster and everything.
And that will change yourroutine and change your life.
So how do we break this cycle like.
(15:58):
Because he honestly think I know you.
I know.
Uh, like I know me for one, one, Iknow I want to do some, I do want
to do big, big things in his life.
I want to keep on growing.
I, I want to push pastwhat I think is possible.
I like, I'd love to speakin front of massive crowds.
(16:19):
So how are we going to break this cycle?
The first, first off.
Any way we can, anything we want to break.
First we have to lead into awareness
and take a look.
Where am I repeating patterns that aregiving me the same results, like what are
the things that I'm doing over and overagain and they're not really working,
(16:47):
and where am I avoiding riskby staying in the safe zone?
Where are the chances I'm not taking,
you know, where am I settling?
And this isn't like somethingyou used to judge yourself.
You just, like right nowwe're just at awareness phase.
(17:09):
Like, what am I doing over and over again?
It's not working.
Or what are the thingsthat I'm not doing that?
M and maybe we don't have aconscious idea what this is, but
now let's go and take a look.
Let's see what really successfulpeople are doing, what they're leaning
into, how did they get to the point?
(17:29):
And then compare what we'redoing to what they're doing.
And if there's this gap in betweenwhat we're doing and they're
doing, let's try to fill it.
You know, sometimes I hear like, youknow, people really want to accomplish
great things, maybe middle distance.
Um, but they're like, oh, Ireally don't like the speed work.
Well, there you go.
(17:51):
That's the thing youmight have to lean into.
Usually the things we don't like areprobably the things that we're avoiding,
which probably is the thing we need to do.
You know, you cannot likesomething and do it anyway.
(18:11):
Second, let's, let's lean into courage.
If you really choose to focus, liketruly focus on what matters most.
Not 10 things halfway, but onething wholeheartedly, and I do
understand the fear 'cause like
(18:32):
the inner critical will be in thebackground, but, but if I go all
in and I fail, I'll be devastated.
And whereas that looks true, andit sounds true and it kind of feels
true, I'll tell you the truth.
(18:53):
Everything that I've ever taken onin my life, like really taken on.
Like when I went back to schooland I took it on a hundred percent
and I was in, I mean, classes were eight.
Eight to 12 hours a day,six or five days a week.
(19:16):
And then after school I wouldspend four hours studying.
And on the weekend I'dspend 19 hours studying
and I went all in.
And I, I did it succeed.
So maybe this isn't the greatest example.
(19:37):
'cause I, I do believe when we go all in.
More than likely we're gonna succeed.
But the honest truth is, in all the thingsI've done in this life, if I've given
it a hundred percent and I failed, Ifelt a little bit bad about the failure.
But I'll tell you of, of all the thingsI've done in my life where I haven't
(20:01):
given it my all, where I haven't puteverything, I got into it and failed.
I felt worse about that.
Because nagging in theback of my mind was always,
what if I just tried a little harder?
Like, do you really wanna live alife looking back with what ifs?
(20:24):
Or do you wanna live a lifeknowing that you gave it your all?
Because when you do give it your all,give it a hundred percent every day.
And let me clarify.
Because some people get confusedabout a hundred percent.
This is a hundred percentof what you have that day.
So if you're only running at 30% today,if all you got is 30% and you give that
(20:49):
full 30%, you've given a hundred percent.
The truth is when you've givenit your all and you know there's
nothing else you could have done,no matter what the outcome is.
After the initial upset, if youdidn't make it, you will know.
For a fact, you'll find comfortin the fact you did it all.
You did everything you could.
(21:10):
Third, reframing failure.
Instead of seeing failure asproof, you weren't good enough.
It is proof that you tried.
The proof that you stretch, the proofthat you were brave enough to go all in.
And like I said, if you went all in,
proof that you did all you could.
(21:34):
Because failure doesn't break you.
It's regret that does that.
And regret just comes when you don'ttry or you don't try hard enough.
And here's another interesting thought.
The impossible is only temporary.
(22:02):
Let me leave you with this truth.
Every impossible thing wasimpossible until it wasn't
running the four minute mile,reaching the moon, mapping the human
genome all completely impossibleuntil it wasn't and people did it.
(22:25):
Not because they were fearless, butbecause they were willing to look
fear in the face and move anyway.
Also,
they weren't willing totake no for an answer,
and many times on the paththey fell multiple times.
(22:49):
But the truth is.
The only way to success is to getup one more time than you fall.
So you could frame it that I just have toget up one more time, and maybe that one,
one more time repeats itself many times.
(23:09):
But not only that, every time you fall,you learn from that fall and you stand
back up a new person and you do it again.
And you just keep on learning andfalling and learning and falling and
learning and falling until one day
you're shocked because you didn't fall.
(23:32):
So why not you?
Why not your dream?
Why not your extraordinary life?
If not you, why not you?
The impossible is only temporaryuntil someone proves it's possible,
and maybe you're theone meant to prove it.
(23:53):
And that includes internally too.
Something that is impossible foryou is only impossible for you
until it's not until you do it.
And then the trick is to raise the bar.
(24:19):
So here's my challenge to you.
Find one area in your life that you'restuck in a cycle where you keep repeating
the same pattern over and over again,and dare to do something different.
Anything, change it.
Change your thought.
(24:39):
Change your action.
Change your speech,change your physicality.
Change the way you hold yourself.
Change what you, what you write.
Get very specific.
Get very specific on theway you move towards it.
Look at the people who've been successful.
(25:00):
You don't have to reinvent the wheel.
And see where you, what you're doingisn't lined up with the, all these
people who have been very specificand they get focused and get bold.
Yeah, it's scary and yes, you might fall,but if you're really willing to risk
(25:22):
hitting the bottom on a pursuit of anincredible goal, an extraordinary dream,
you'll give yourself the only chance.
To reach the top, and that is howextraordinary lives are built, not
by playing it saved, not by beinglucky, not by repeating yesterday, but
(25:46):
by daring to step into the unknown,
and that's the unknown for self.
If I can leave you with one thing,remember this, you're capable of more than
you know, so God get outta your own way.
Break the cycle
(26:07):
and move towards your destiny,your goal, and your dreams.
Thank you for listening to this episodeof Your Inner Advocate, a podcast by
Kimen Petersen, formerly Conversationswith Kimen if you found value in
today's episode, please follow likeand share the podcast with someone
(26:30):
who you think may benefit from it.
You can listen on Apple Podcast.
Spotify, Podbean, and connect onInstagram @ your inner advocate.
Until next time, keep listening toand developing your inner advocate.
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