26: Optimal Performance for Artists - Reality Check with Derrick McManus - The Loud Whisper Takeover

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Ladris for Takeover podcast.
In a previous episode I had avery special guest and I
interviewed him for somecharacter research.
As you know, I'm an actionactress and I'm obsessed with
those roles with.
You know that we play in actionmovies.
So he came on the podcastsharing his experience as a
former sniper.

(00:20):
He was part of the elitespecial police forces in
Australia the STAR Group SpecialTasks and Rescue Group.
From counter-terrorism tohostage siege situations,
high-risk arrests, vip security,cliff and cave rescues,
helicopter operations, riotcontrol he did it all.
He got shot 14 times andsurvived being attacked by a

(00:45):
military weapon.
Last time he shared a lot ofhis experience of working in
just high risk environments.
Later on he founded his ownbusiness because obviously he
gathered a lot of big lifelessons along the way.
His business is called HumanDurability.
And what better way than totalk about how we as artists can

(01:08):
stay long-term in the industry?
Because, let's be honest, asfreelancers artists, dancers,
theater makers, filmmakers,stunts we work project by
project.
Very often there's momentum,we're building and then we're
back to square one.
Burnout is real in our industry.
So I can't wait to go in-depthin this topic.

(01:31):
Please welcome back for asecond episode Derek McManus.
Hi, derek, how are you doing?

Speaker 2 (01:37):
So good to be back.
You said that you enjoyed thefirst episode a lot.
So did I, and particularlybecause your questions go deep,
but in a slightly differentdirection than what I've been
asked before, and it's obviouslyyour mindset and your purpose.
So I'm looking forward to wherethis one goes oh, thank you so
much, derek.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
I hope that I will be , you know, able to do this
interview as much justice aslast time and ask the right
questions.
First of all, can you tell usabout human durability, the
philosophy behind it?
So?

Speaker 2 (02:09):
human durability has been born out of my experience
of being shot 14 times.
And it started because, fiveyears prior to the shooting, I
sat down and I had aconversation with my ex-wife now
, but my wife at the time.
We had a conversation with myex-wife now, but, but my wife at
the time, we had a conversation.
Do you know something?
I'm joining star group.
Uh, high risk arrest, as yousaid before.

(02:31):
High risk arrest, hostage siege, counter-terrorism, vip
security to the queen.
I was a sniper, I was a diverand I was trained by the
military in counter-terrorism.
So that was reality for me.
And I just said to myself doyou know something?
I've got to have a very seriousconversation, open, honest,
confronting conversation aboutthe reality of the challenges

(02:52):
but also the reality of theopportunities that go with it.
But most people look at justthe opportunities and they're
aware of the challenges, but wedon't want to talk about them
because they're just that littlebit scary and we hope they
won't affect us or I'm the luckyperson they won't affect, they
won't get me.
But I sat down and I had thisconversation and, as a result of

(03:14):
having that conversation aboutthe reality of my future
opportunities as well asobstacles.
I prepared myself physically,mentally and emotionally for the
challenges that I couldrealistically expect to
encounter as a result of mychoices or my circumstances that
I found myself in, and it wasabout sustaining optimal

(03:36):
performance.
Now resilience is what a lot ofpeople talk about, and I know
that some people and I laugh,because I just find this quite
humorous that people are gettingtired of resilience.
They're getting resiliencefatigue.
What does resilience actuallymean?
I know I keep on getting toldI'm resilient, but as much as
I'm resilient, still things aregoing wrong.

(03:57):
So resilience is our ability tobounce back.
When things go wrong, we'reable to make it better.
We're able to bounce back.
Human durability is aboutunderstanding what might happen
and then having a plan tosustain optimal performance so
that we don't have to bounceback.
It's about seeing the signsthat tell us it's going well,

(04:18):
leveraging those, making themost of them, but also seeing
the signs that tell us it'sgoing badly and that we need to
make a change.
Now what often happens is peoplesee the sign that it's going
wrong and they go.
I don't know what to do.
I get completely overwhelmed.
So we go into flight, fight,freeze or fawn, and in the

(04:40):
flight and fight stages of that.
We just go I don't know what todo.
We either freeze up, we runaway, or we don't know what to
do.
And so, having some idea ofwhat we're going to deal with,
some idea of how we're going todeal with it because we have
this conversation before theycome up I know what the sign is.
If I see that sign, I'm goingto take this action.
As soon as we see the sign, wetake the action and then we can

(05:07):
alleviate or mitigate thecircumstances that are going to
cause us stress.
So it is about sustainingoptimal performance and the
basis to it is just having someidea of what we're going to deal
with and some idea of how we'regoing to deal with it if it
does happen.
Now, to give it some context foryou, I certainly use that in my
industry of high-risk arrest,hostage siege, counter-terrorism

(05:28):
, and I called it expecting theunexpected.
It's the unexpected onlybecause we won't talk about it.
And if we don't talk about it,we can say it's unexpected.
And when it does happen, you gooh my gosh, I don't know what
to do.
But if we have some idea ofwhat it's going to be, it is no
longer the unexpected.
It's not what we want, but it'snot a complete surprise when it

(05:52):
happens and we are betterprepared to be able to manage it
.
Now I'm also reading a greatbook at the moment called
Predictable Surprises.
Right, predictable Surprises.
It's a great book, but it'sabout the disasters I should
have seen coming and how I wouldhave avoided them.
Okay, and this again goes backto having some idea of what

(06:13):
you're going to deal with.
Re, in reality, for all thepeople in your industry of
making films, being actors, uh,being bit pieces and sometimes
being stars, there is a realitythat sometimes work is going to
dry up.
There is no two ways about it.
You'll have all the rightconnections, but nobody's making
a movie at the moment, or theylike someone who's better than

(06:35):
you.
You're not going to be able toget there.
This is not a surprise.
This should not be unexpected.
Sorry, this is not something weshouldn't expect is going to
happen.
So, if it does happen, how areyou going to manage it?
It's always a surprise when itdoes happen, but it shouldn't be
unexpected.
So we should have some idea inour mind If this happens, I've

(06:57):
got a backup plan.
I've got a friend who owns acoffee shop.
I'm just going to make a fewdollars, keep the dollars coming
in until I get the next role.
I've got somewhere I can go andI can do temp working, whatever
it might be.
Or I've got enough funds in thebank.
I can just sit back and I canwait.
But that means that if youaren't getting regular jobs, you
can't go out and buy yourself aLamborghini with the money you

(07:19):
got on the last job.
You've got to bank it and storeit.
So it's just about having thatpreparation and it is about
sustaining optimal performance.
It's what I did in the shooting, but I now talk to 10 year old
kids in schools.
I talk to fighter pilots.
I talk to hairdressers.
I talk to banking and finance.
I talk to real estate.

(07:39):
The philosophy that I talkabout applies to anybody and
everybody, and I look forward tohaving this discussion with you
tonight.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
And that's really why I invited you as well, because
when you said that you weretalking to hairdressers and 10
years old kids in schools, I waslike, ok, he's not just talking
to the big organizations andyou know the high profile
leaders, he can really relate toall human beings and I think
that is fantastic and that'swhat we need as artists to feel
supported.

(08:07):
So when you're talking aboutsustaining optimal performance,
the first things that come tomind to me where artists
struggle, is the creative block.
I would say there are momentswhere we feel very creative and
then there are moments where, ohmy gosh, I don't have any idea,
I'm stuck, I'm stuck, I'm stuck.
Then there's the financial part, like you said, because we

(08:29):
don't know if the next gig iscoming, and sometimes there is a
lot of work and sometimes thereisn't, and it's finding, you
know, this sustainability inregards to finances.
Then there is also preparingourselves for the climax of our
career and the after climax.
Why am I saying that is in thedance world, I've seen it many

(08:51):
times Like all of a sudden youstart to become well known in
the industry and then you win acompetition or a battle and then
everybody's talking about you.
You're at the peak of yourcareer, so to speak, because at
the dancer, everybody talksabout you and then, all of a
sudden, your fame fades out.
It does fade out and there isnothing to do about it, because

(09:12):
somebody else won a competition,and it's, I think, the same
thing with actors or stunts.
Maybe at a certain age youmight perform, you know and do
bigger things than you knowlater in life.
So there's also that that weneed to deal with.
That's what I wanted to put incontext as well, when people are
listening to all the wisdomyou're going to share.
Another thing I wanted to saythat I found interesting,

(09:33):
because you're talking abouthaving confronting conversations
, being realistic, talking aboutopportunities and obstacles,
but there is something verydifferent from positive thinking
.
There's a lot of things aroundpositive thinking, positive
thinking, think positive, but Ifeel you're an incredible
positive person.
Like when I interviewed lasttime, there was a force in your

(09:57):
mindset that made you moveforwards.
Yet there was not.
There was no toxicity of overpositive thinking.
Can you explain a little bitwhat the difference is with your
work in regards to justpositive thinking?

Speaker 2 (10:10):
So, yes, I have a reputation among my friends of
being a very positive thinkerand always positive and always
smiling and always seeing thegood side of everything.
But I think that comes fromhaving that realistic
conversation about this is whatcould possibly happen, and if it
does happen, how am I going tobe able to manage it?

(10:32):
So it's about looking at allthe good things that could
happen, but also acknowledgingall the bad things as well, and
so when one of those bad thingscomes up, I'm not destroyed by
it.
I've already got some plan ofaction.
If that happens, I'm able toencounter it.
Take a random event we gocamping, and you can only go

(10:52):
camping when it's a wetterseason here in south australia,
because we'll start bushfires.
But if we go camping in thewetter season, all the wood may
be wet.
And if it does get wet, whatare the contingencies?
Some people go out there andthey get destroyed.
Oh my gosh, I can only have uhwet wood.
I can't start a fire.
What do I do now?
I'm destroyed, I'm upset, mycamping weekend is destroyed,

(11:15):
whereas I've already got ananswer in my mind I've brought
some sort of uh accelerant thatI've been able to use to start a
fire, I've got some dry canning, whatever it might be.
So in the acting world, it'sabout saying I'm going into this
acting world, I know there's areal possibility that I'm going
to get some really great scenes,and it may not be that you're

(11:35):
missing out on work, but you'reonly getting the smaller roles.
You're not getting the starroles or the intermediate roles,
you're only getting the smallerroles.
And it's about not beingcompletely destroyed by that and
just saying this was always apossibility.
I've now got to make a decision.
Do I want to stay in thisindustry and keep on accepting
those small roles until I canprove myself, until somebody

(11:59):
notices me and then I startgetting the larger roles?
Or do I make a decision and go?
No, this is not for me.
I'm not getting what I want.
I need to go somewhere else tofind myself.
It's always going to bedisappointing if you have to get
out or you're not getting theroles you want.
But it shouldn't be unexpectedbecause in all the history of

(12:19):
making movies there's alwaysbeen those people who only get
little roles.
They never get the scene.
I mean, los angeles is umrenowned for being the city of
broken hearts, because peopledon't make it in the acting
industry.
So if it's happening to otherpeople, we need to be able to
have that realistic, open,honest, confronting conversation
with ourselves.
It may not happen for me, andthe more we anticipate that, the

(12:44):
less we're going to bedestroyed Now not being
destroyed and I think I'mrepeating myself a little bit
here but it doesn't mean we'renot going to be disappointed.
It doesn't mean we're notallowed to have tears about it.
That's reality.
We do get disappointed, butit's about instantly turning
that around and going okay, I'mgoing to make the best of
whatever else it is, or I'm justgoing to enjoy what I can and

(13:08):
make the most of it.
And I'll give you a little bitof an insight.
I play small roles in somemovies as well.
I've been on the ABC TV, I'vedone a couple of major
commercials and I've hadintermediate roles.
And I've had one role in acommercial where there was only
two of us, a husband and a wife.
So I had the lead male rolebecause it was only one of us.

(13:30):
So I've done a little bit.
So I've got a little bit of aninsight into the industry.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
Oh, so here we know a little bit of a secret that we
didn't know about you before.
There is still something that Iwant to unpack, though, because
you are able to look at the badthings in life, like the things
that could be disappointing.
Like, for example, you had thatconversation with your wife hey
, I could get shot, I could getin a wheelchair for the rest of

(13:57):
my life, I could get reallybadly injured.
But there is something, so Imake the parallel right with
artists.
But there is something, so Imake the parallel right with
artists.
Our anxiety would be I nevermake it in the industry, but our
anxiety could also be I'm goingto stay poor for the rest of my

(14:19):
life, you know, or I'm on earth.
My purpose on earth is tocreatively express myself, and I
might not fully fulfill mypotential before I die.
Here you know, like these arethe kind of anxieties or things
that could hit us really hard,but you somehow were able to
look at these things.

(14:39):
I'm not saying that you werenot affected by it.
Emotions touched you, touchedyou, like you said, but you were
able not to go spiraling down,associating a story to it and
making your whole life dependenton it and you remained very
grounded and you remained verypassionate about you still going

(15:00):
in those houses Arresting thebad guys, even though they
attacked you with militaryweapons, knowing that your life,
it was a life or death kind ofsituation.
What is it, you know, in yourmind that made you still so
grounded, lived passionatelywhat you were doing.
Yet look at the things and notspiral down, because I think

(15:23):
that's what art is.
You know, we're so passionatehuman beings.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
We do spiral down from time to time, you know, or
we attach our self-worth to ityep, so I I think again, this
goes back to the conversation Ihad with myself, as much as I
had a conversation with my wifefive years before the shooting.
I then had to have aconversation with myself, and
I've put this model ofconversation into a circular
model, which I call the humandurability model, and this is

(15:49):
about having that conversation.
These are opportunities, theseare the challenges, these are
the resources that I have tomanage it and these are the gaps
that I have in the resources,and these are the trigger points
that tell me it's going well,or these are the trigger points
that tell me it's going badly.
And then we go into a planningphase as a result of those
trigger points, and then we gothrough some other phases as

(16:11):
well.
The point of the model is thatthere are two levels of comfort
that come out of this model.
The first level of comfort isyes, I know what my vision is, I
know what the opportunities are, I know what the opportunities
are, I know what the obstaclesare, I know what the resources
are, I know what the gaps are,blah, blah, blah.
I can cover all of that.
I know exactly what's happeningin my life, I know what

(16:32):
resources I have.
I know what my emotionalcontrol is like.
Even if the worst thing happens, I can handle it.
I can keep on going, I canmanage, I'll survive.
And going, I can manage, I'llsurvive.
And that changes your mindsetthat even if the worst happens,
it doesn't matter.
So now you can make bold,positive outward decisions and
take action that other people go.

(16:53):
How can you do that?
Because I'm very comfortable.
If the worst happens, I canhandle it.
The other level of comfort thatcomes out of it is I don't know
whether I can handle thoseobstacles.
I don't know whether I canhandle those obstacles.
I don't know whether I have theresources.
I know that I've got big gapsand I don't know whether I can
fill them.
If that does happen, it willdestroy me emotionally.

(17:13):
I won't be able to face myfriends, I won't have the
finances to survive it.
And if you get to the pointwhere you start getting
overwhelmed, oh my gosh, I don'tknow what I can do.
I don't know whether I canhandle that.
You need to make a differentdecision.
You need to take a differentaction Now.
That doesn't mean that you stepout of the industry completely.
It may just mean you take alittle bit more time building up

(17:37):
your resources.
You build up your supportsystem behind you.
You build up your actingability.
You build up your financialresources so that if the worst
thing happens, you have theability to manage it.
And if you do the building up,you can come back in.
Or it may just be, you know,something that would destroy me.

(17:57):
I don't think I'd be able tohandle it.
So the acting industry, thefilming industry, is not the
industry for me.
Now, this is sometimes achallenging decision to make,
but sometimes it's the best one.
And a great analogy that I useon a regular basis is I've got
an accountant and I love myaccountant and there is no way

(18:17):
in the world that my accountantcould ever operate in star group
.
She does not have the nerve forit.
She does not have the nerve forit, she does not have the
passion for it.
She has no interest in it.
It would absolutely destroy herif she was in there.
But, by the same token, if mefrom Star Group had to go and do
accounting, that would destroyme.
I would not enjoy that.

(18:38):
I wouldn't have the focus, thetime, the patience.
I would do a terrible job.
So it's not the industry.
For me, we've got to find thatindustry that we do have the
passion, we have the skills, wehave the abilities, we have the
resources to be able to handleit, so that, if the worst
happens, our passion will carryus through.

(18:58):
But we've also got to know wehave those extra resources as
well.
So there's two levels ofcomfort.
One I know that this couldhappen, but I'll be able to
handle it.
Excellent, let's go forward.
The second is actually it woulddestroy me.
I don't think I'd be able tomanage it.
I need to take a step back, andthe beauty about going through
the model and doing the planningis when you go to that level,

(19:21):
you can actually say I'm notgoing to do this for this reason
, this reason, this reason, thisreason, rather than just going,
oh, I'm not sure, it doesn'tfeel right, I don't know.
You're able to articulate thereasons, and articulating the
reasons makes you feel goodabout yourself because you know
exactly what it is, but it alsolets other people help

(19:43):
understand you.
Now, if it means that you'regoing to go away and do some
training and then come back,you're able to articulate and
say, no, I'm not ready yet.
I want to go and do and peoplewill go.
Excellent.
That makes sense and they'll bemore able to support you as
well.
But it's those two levels ofcomfort that really come out of
it, and I had that level ofcomfort for the industry that I

(20:07):
was in and I wanted to go backin there.
I also had conversations withmy family.
If I get shot, I want to goback into that industry.
When I got shot so badly we hadto have another conversation,
but I always had that supportfrom my family, so that was a
bonus as well.

Speaker 1 (20:25):
So you were talking about, okay, if we're going to
say, if the worst happened, Ican handle it, you've been able
to feel at ease with thatsentence If the worst happened,
I can handle it and kind of sitwith the how am I going to do it
?
But how do we train for it?
For example, in our lastepisode I was sharing about my

(20:48):
Krav Maga training.
In Krav Maga, we do drills likeit's self-defense, we fight, we
do sparring and we cannot giveup, like one of the things that
our teacher says you cannot giveup.
And you were making theparallel when you got shot,
lying down on the floor forthree hours.
For three hours you were I'mnot going to give up, I'm going
to stay alive, basically.
And so you were sharing abouthow your training for the

(21:10):
special police forces gave youthis unstoppable energy and
mindset to stay alive on thatfloor for three hours losing
blood.
But then what is your trainingto find comfort in?
Well, if the worst worst happen, I can handle that.
How do you train your mind?

Speaker 2 (21:29):
you know to feel at ease so it comes down to
incremental growth.
In your krav maga, one of thethings you said in our interview
and I'll paraphrase, and I hopeI do you justice um, that when
you get punched in the face,generally speaking you don't
know what to do.
So when you first started KravMaga, they didn't throw you into
a ring with a black belt andlet you get absolutely beaten up

(21:52):
and see whether you've got thestrength to keep on going.
No, you were introduced toother people at your level and
you got a small hit.
It was on the arm and you'vegone.
Oh, that hurts.
No, I can keep on going.
So it's incremental growth.
Going into the special forces,it wasn't okay.
Here's an AK-47, here's a Uzisubmachine gun, here's some

(22:13):
sound of flash grenades.
Go and attack that building andsee how you go.
No, it was incremental growth.
We were introduced to weapons.
We were introduced to tactics.
I had been in the policedepartment for a number of years
.
I had some exposure to thatsort of stuff before I started
in star group.
But when I entered star group,we had people who were

(22:34):
performing at the elite level.
I was a beginner right, andthat's the role that I was given
.
I was given the beginner's roleand then I built my skills
slowly, passionately, and solong as I kept on enjoying it, I
would keep going.
The thing that gives us thegreatest strength is our belief,
our knowledge, our comfort thatif we stop enjoying something,

(22:57):
we make a decision and we getout of it.
We go and find something thatwe're passionate about.
Okay, your Krav Maga, youracting, your action roles, that
you take on the stunts that youdo.
You didn't go into thosestraight away, you trained up to
them, and I'm sure there'sgoing to get to the point where
some movie director is going tosay I want you to jump off that

(23:19):
10-story building into a smallpool of water and you're going
to go no, that role is not forme, that's too dangerous, I'm
going to make a choice not to doit.
So the power and belief and thecomfort of saying no, I'm not
going to, I'm going to dosomething else is where I
probably find comfort.

(23:39):
In that as well, I'm quitecomfortable.
I don't have to do it, I'm notproving anything to anyone.
I know I want to take on therole and I know the stuff that I
don't want to do as well, andI'm quite happy to say no.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
I love what you said about incremental growth because
it also means that our worstcase scenario is also
incremental.
When you start your career, itcan be well, my worst case
scenario is not knowing what I'mgoing to earn in six months
time, but then eventually youcan take more risks.
Well, I'm okay to handle Idon't know what I'm going to

(24:13):
earn next month.
Or it could be incrementalgrowth, could be I don't know
what I'm doing because it's myfirst ever movie that I'm making
and it's going to be a fiveminute short, and worst case
scenario is it fails.
And then the next incrementalgrowth is I'm making a feature
film and if this fails, I'm okay.

(24:35):
So incremental growth is also.
Our worst case scenario isincremental, but we are building
up the skills, the mindset, thecapabilities of handling a
bigger worst-case scenario.
Would you say it's correct?

Speaker 2 (24:47):
Yeah, absolutely no.
I completely agree with whatyou're saying there and as you
were talking, I was justprocessing that.
There's also another comfortthat says I know where my
benchmark is, that I know myperformance is 100% reliable.
I want to take on the higherroles.
But if that doesn't work out, Iknow I'm still brilliant at

(25:08):
this role.
I'm still brilliant at thislevel.
I've been successful, I'veproved it.
I may try this one.
It may not work this time I'llcome back here.
I'll regain my confidence againand then I'll try that next
level up in another arena or inanother place.
And failure is okay, becausefailure is something we're going

(25:30):
to do over and over again inour life.
Every time we decide to take onanother level of challenge.
The first steps are going to bedifficult.
Most of the time we're going tohave some failures in those
first few moments, first fewtimes.
But it's because we're growing.
But failure is okay and I'mquite comfortable and I've got

(25:50):
to say quite comfortable makinga mistake and embarrassing
myself.
Now it depends on context, butI know that when I'm
deliberately trying to grow,deliberately trying to gain a
new skill, that embarrassment ofoh my gosh, I just stopped that
up 10 times.
I did it so much when I wasdoing weapons development, when

(26:11):
we were changing from onefirearm to another firearm and
we had to be able to field stripit and go through our instant
action drills.
They weren't comfortable, theyhad to be built up and we would
be making mistakes.
But it wasn't just me makingmistakes, everybody was doing it
.
Some people picked it upquicker than others and I was
maybe one of those slow ones,but it didn't matter.

(26:32):
I was passionate.
I understood the process andgrowth comes from making a
mistake and keeping on going.

Speaker 1 (26:39):
Can you give us another example of your
relationship with failure, amoment where you were working in
the special elite police forceswhere you really failed?
What was it?

Speaker 2 (26:50):
what happened, oh, wow, there are so many of those
moments.
Which one do I go to?
So I, um, I've been a gymnastin my life and, uh, you know,
there's obviously lots of skillswe learned there.
But I also used to playbasketball, and there's just a
moment here which has just cometo me.
I was playing basketball at areasonably high competitive

(27:14):
level and it was the verybeginning of a game and we
jumped to the tip off.
The ball was tipped straight tome, me and I just laid up
straight underneath the basketand I was ready to score the
basket, but I could hear downthe court people going no, no,
no, and I've gone.

(27:35):
Oh my gosh, I've gone the wrongway.
There must be something wrong.
So I've got this absolutelyclear layup.
There was nothing ever going tostop me.
Two points, absolutelyperfectly.
And I just kept on bouncing theball around to a spare place in
the court and I've gone.
What's wrong?
And they've gone.
Why did you stop?
I said you were telling me no,no, no, derek.

(27:56):
We were telling you go, go andit's this.
Oh my gosh, I completely heardthe wrong thing.
But I also still had thatconfidence within myself that
I'm a good player.
Make a mistake.
There are lots of mistakes thatget made in basketball.
You know you take three pointshots and you completely miss
the basket, you completely missthe, the backboard.

(28:18):
But you know that your skillsare there.
You have proved yourself inother areas, so you keep on
going.
Your confidence is there.
If I was to take shots and missfive shots in a row, I would
then start reassessing andsaying, okay, I need to settle
down, I need to take some timeout, I need to get off the court
and just relax and regroupmyself.

(28:38):
Let the others play on um, andthat again is still okay.
It's a matter of processing it.
But oh, there are so many timesthat I've stuffed up.
Uh, driving a car, I've had myfair share of accidents.
I'm not a perfect driver, eventhough I've been trained to
drive in high speed chases.
I could take on the lowestlevel of racing cars on racing

(29:01):
tracks and I'd be able to holdmy own at the lower levels of
racing cars on racing tracks andI'd be able to hold my own at
the lower levels of racing.
But I still make mistakes, Istill have accidents and and I
regret them there's no two wordsabout it and they're
embarrassing, but it doesn'tstop me driving, and the same
should happen in your roles inmovies and making films and

(29:22):
action and all the rest of it.
Not everything's going to goperfect.
It is the same for absolutelyeverybody.
Look at any actor you want inthe world and they have all made
mistakes.
They've all made their B grade,c grade, d grade movies before
they got to the A grades.
It's a process that everybody'sgone through, so it shouldn't
be unexpected for us to makesome mistakes as well.

(29:45):
It shouldn't be unexpected, butit can be a surprise, but it
shouldn't destroy us.
We should already have saidthis may happen.
If it does.
This is how I'm going torespond to it I just want to go
back to the basket oh no, don'tgo back to my embarrassment, yes
.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
Yes, yes, yes, because I think it's very
interesting.
So you're about, you're like,you're about to put the ball in
the basket.
You hear no, no, no.
People say go, go, go, you stop.
That's a moment ofembarrassment, like you know.
I would imagine that you wouldfeel shame and guilt and you let

(30:24):
your team down.
Now you're saying at that time,if this incident had to happen
several times, you would havereassessed yourself and
basically you would have said,ok, there's a pattern here,
let's sit down.
There's a pattern and I need toaddress the pattern, but this
was a one moment thing.
Now, a lot of people in thisone moment thing, could make a

(30:47):
decision about themselves.
I'm not worth it.
They would like just shivergoing back on the court.
What is it that you know,thinking about it, that maybe
now exists in your model ofanalyzing what happened in your
mind?
That you were like well, I'mnot going to make a big deal out
of it, you know, and keep going, because everybody doesn't do

(31:07):
that.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
So what you're talking about now is mindset.
What was my mindset?
How did I control my mind?
How did I control my emotions?
And I have a four-phase mindsetof human durability.
It's a four-phase mantra thatI'm able to repeat anytime, any
challenge, it doesn't matterwhat it is.
And the first one is staystrong physically, mentally and

(31:28):
emotionally.
Stay strong.
This is about having a veryclear idea of what we want to
achieve and having enoughpassion for it that it doesn't
matter what mistake we make.
We don't care, we just want tokeep on going.
The second part of the mantra isfind a system right, and this

(31:50):
is the system that works for you.
It is your system, it is yourway of playing.
I played on a basketball court.
We all got trained by the sametrainer, the same coach, we had
the same ball, we had the same,all those sorts of things.
But everybody shoots adifferent way, everybody does a
layup a different way.
Everybody does, you know, doestheir own little bit.

(32:10):
But it's about finding thesystem that works for you.
You are an action actress, andI'm sure there are plenty of
others, but no two of you arethe same.
You have your different way ofinterpreting what people say.
So it's about finding yoursystem and the third part is
work the system.
So, stay strong, find a system,work the system, and that is

(32:35):
absolutely immerse yourself inwhat works for you.
Do it over and over.
Your system got you to whereyou are.
Your system will get you towhere you want to go next.
But the fourth part of it istweak the system.
If it is getting you what youwant and everything is going and
you're starting to grow, tweakthe system.

(32:55):
Leverage what you're doing anddoing well and do more of that.
If it becomes a plateau, thenyou've got to go.
Okay, is this time to take arest?
Take it easy on myself, go andhave a bit of a holiday,
whatever it is, because it easyon myself.
Go and have a bit of a holiday,whatever it is, because it's
plateaued.
It's going along nicely.
But if it's in decline, wedon't need to throw the system

(33:16):
out, we just need to tweak it.
Okay, and this is somethingthat I now repeat in my mind
over and over and over Staystrong, find the system, work
the system, tweak the system.
Now, what you'll findinteresting is this did not come
out of the shooting.
This did not come out of stargroup.
This came out of cycling.
Okay, and I've give you somecontext.

(33:40):
I love cycling.
I rode from adelaide tomelbourne, which is 800
kilometers.
We did that in four days, so200 kilometers a day, four days
in a row.
In at the end of 22, 2022, Irode a mountain bike over the
top of the himalayas at 5 416meters, at minus 15.
So I love my cycling.

(34:02):
Now, I've had a few accidents onmy bike as well, and there was
one time where I was off my bikefor about nine months and when
I got back on my bike, I didn'thave the energy, I didn't have
the um, the strength, thatdidn't have the endurance that I
had in the past, and I startedriding up a hill and halfway up
the hill which I used to loveriding up I started getting

(34:24):
tired and in pain and I've gonestuff.
I'm going to turn around.
I'll come back and do thisagain later, but all of a sudden
, my mind just switched and I'vegone.
Derek, stay strong.
You want to get to the top ofthe hill?
You know it's a slow process.
You know you've done it before.
Okay, stay strong.
You want to get to the topthere.
What do you need to do.

(34:44):
And I then reflected back towhen I first started cycling.
I wasn't strong, I wasn'tstrong, I didn't have endurance,
I didn't have skills, and toget up the top of the hill was
hard when I started.
But what did I do when Istarted that allowed me to gain
the strength that I'd be able tocharge up those hills and
absolutely love it.
So I had to be humble enough togo back to my beginnings and

(35:06):
find the system that worked forme back then.
Back to my beginnings, and findthe system that worked for me
back then and once I knew whatthat system was.
And basically that system wasjust keep the pedals turning,
and I'd always say it like thatbecause my pedals were just
turning slowly.
But if I kept the pedalsturning, I would make it to the
top.
And then I just worked thatsystem.

(35:27):
Each time I I came out for aride, I would just keep the
pedals turning, and then Istarted to get faster and I've
gone to myself.
Okay, I remember this is theeasy part of the hill.
I can push myself a little bitharder here, so it would stay
strong.
I wanted to get to the top.
I wanted to become good.
Find my system.
Be humble enough to go back andfind what works for you,

(35:51):
implement it.
Work that system over over and,when it starts to work well,
leverage what you're doing welland get more of it.
When it's not working so well,okay, tweak that system.
How can you do it better?
What do you need to change?
And that came out of my cycling, but it applies to everything
in life.
There's not one person thatI've spoken to who goes nah, nah
, that would never work for me.
They just go.

(36:11):
That's so sensible, it's justso easy to understand and I
think it works for everybody.

Speaker 1 (36:21):
Yeah, and if I can apply it directly to, for
example, an acting career, youknow, this moment of
embarrassment that you had withthe basketball, for example, it
could happen when you're doing acasting.
You know, all of a sudden youhave the impression that a
casting director is like, oh mygosh, not this and or you take
it very personally.

(36:41):
Then it's like stay strong.
Also, find your system, like inacting.
There are different ways offinding a character or analyzing
a text.
There are loads of methods.
There are different systems youcan fall back on.
If at some point you'reunstable or destabilized, work
on it, tweak it and make it workand, yeah, continue climbing

(37:03):
the mountain.
You know, even if you feel inthat casting moment or during
filming, sometimes filming costsa lot of money, so sometimes
you're really under pressure toget.
Yo, we got to get it in twoshots, three shots, we don't
have 10 shots, so better be goodnow, and that can also be
stressful.

Speaker 2 (37:20):
Absolutely, if I can just pick up on that.
If I can just pick up on that.
It may also be that you come toa casting, you come to make a
film and you're feeling sick.
You haven't slept well thatnight, okay, and so you have to
stay strong.
I want to make this movie.
Let me think what is it that Ican do that?
I know I don't have to workhard, but I will be an absolute,

(37:44):
acceptable, not exemplary.
I will be an acceptable actorif I keep on doing this.
What is your system that worksfor you every time without fail,
and you can just work it, workat work and if you start to feel
better, leverage it and do thata little bit more.
But if it's not working for you, what is the system that does

(38:04):
work and find it and rework it,because we all have different
levels of passion, differentlevels of interest.
We may have a cat that is inthe veterinarians that day, so
we're not able to focus.
So we've just got to say,despite the challenge, where's
my base level?
And it's not about going backto basics, it's about going back

(38:26):
to the baseline where you knowyou're 100% reliable and just
implement that system if thatmakes sense yes, absolutely, and
also one of my favoritespeakers.

Speaker 1 (38:37):
I don't know if you know Lisa Nichols no, I don't
she's an American, she's apublic speaker and she also she
talks about that, the thingswe're really good at, you know,
and where we shine.
Actually, our 50% effort isprobably 150% for someone else

(38:59):
and we don't realize how muchyou know.
Our 100% is 500% of someoneelse and also acknowledge that.
So when you talk about, well,I'm going to be an acceptable
actor in your mind, you'reacceptable, but actually you
might be perceived as theamazing, extraordinary actor.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
And we spoke about this before and I'll just
mention it quickly here.
I have two different models ofresilience one to get through
day to day, week to week, andwe'll talk about these in a
moment.
The second one is aspirationalresilience, where we're trying
to push ourselves hard.
The first step of aspirationalresilience is silence that inner
critic that's telling youyou're no good, that everybody

(39:36):
else is better than you.
And it's not about sorry, it'sabout challenging the inner
critic.
Um, why is it saying this?
But point four, picking up onwhat you were saying, point four
says be great at what you dobest.
The little inner critic istelling you you're no good, even
though you're doing it well.
The little inner critic issaying everybody else can do

(39:57):
better than you.
You're not so good.
If you can do it well,everybody else is great.
But if we can challenge thatinner critic, acknowledge what
we are good at and justabsolutely leverage it, work
what is working well for us,even if we think other people
are good.
If this is what we are great at, be great at it and be proud of

(40:18):
it, the proudness, the pride,will lead to more confidence.
That confidence will attractinterest in you because you'll
appear more relaxed and thatconfidence is is a massive,
massive part of anything that wedo there are so many things I
want to bounce back on, so we'regoing to talk about your two

(40:40):
models in a second.

Speaker 1 (40:41):
I want to dive deeper into the inner critting in a
second as well, in confidence.
But before that I want to goback to the let's be an
acceptable actor, because thereis something that you talk about
a lot in human durability ispeak performance versus optimal,
sustainable, long-termperformance, and I think that's
a really important topic.
But, for example, in the worldof dance, when I was full on

(41:05):
dancing, I sort of lived withthat mindset.
Full on dancing, I sort oflived with that mindset I have
to be at the peak of myperformance 365 days a year, and
that is absolutely notsustainable.
But it's the same thing withour creativity.
You know like we want to be themost creative and the best
actor and the best dancer at alltimes.

(41:25):
But tell us what your take ison this peak performance versus
optimal, sustainable performanceokay.

Speaker 2 (41:32):
So peak performance, very simply, is the very best
you can be and once you getthere, you need to stay there
and we all want to be peakperformance.
But we've got to understandthat we reach peak for a reason.
You can't get to the peak of amountain and then keep on going.
You get to the peak of themountain, then you come down
going.
You get to the peak of themountain, then you come down.
The other side.
The same with our performance.

(41:53):
We can get to the peak, butthen we've got to come down
again because the peak isabsolutely testing us.
On a mountain the peak there'slow temperature, low oxygen.
You've expended a whole heap ofenergy to get there.
Peak of our, our performance.
We have focused on thatperformance, whatever it is, and

(42:14):
we've got to the top.
We've expended a lot of energy.
We've ignored our familybecause we've been focused on
this.
We've ignored our healthbecause we've been focused on
this.
We've ignored sleep and allsorts of things.
So we can get to peak, but thenwe've got to find a way of
coming down and relaxing so thatwe can sustain an optimal

(42:34):
performance.
And sustainable optimalperformance takes in.
I need to peak at certain times, but once I've had that peak, I
then need to go away and get amassage.
I need to go away and have aholiday.
I need to actually have lunchand get good nutrition in.
I need to take some time out.
I've just spent three monthsabsolutely in a pressure cooker

(42:57):
making a movie and I've ignoredmy family.
I need to go and spend sometime with my family, my loved
one, my partner, whatever itmight be.
So sustainable, optimalperformance is what you need to
do so that you can continue onand still peak where you need to
and take a rest.
In star group, we were seen asthe guys and in my days we were

(43:20):
guys.
We have actually had one femalecome in and be a star group
operative.
So, um, I now change mylanguage, I'm picking up on
myself.
We are the people who come inwhen nobody else can handle it,
when they need some extrastrength, skills, equipment,
whatever it might be, and instar group, when we are

(43:41):
performing, we need to be peakperformers 100.
If we drop the ball in any waysor form, um, it's either our
life that's on the line or ourpartner's lives that are on the
line.
So when we're in work mode, weare 100%.
When we come out of work mode,we know that we need to relax,
we need to regroup, replenish,all those sorts of things.

(44:03):
But for the shooting and this isthe important part, the
shooting I was at work.
I needed to be 100% reliable,100% peak performer.
But because I had done thethinking beforehand and said, if
I get shot, what do I want todo to ensure that I'm going to

(44:25):
stay alive, I had to accept thatI wouldn't be able to be peak
performer.
My performance was going tohave to.
I had to accept that I wouldn'tbe able to be peak performer.
My performance was going tohave to come down here somewhere
to a lower level.
Because I had to control panic,not let panic take control of
the situation.
I had to control shock, not letshock control the blood flow in
my body and just bleed out.

(44:45):
To do that, I needed to slowdown my heart rate and I needed
to slow down my breathing.
That meant that I needed to beable to relax in the midst of
this adversity.
I could no longer be the peakperformer If I tried to be peak
performer and still keepstorming the house and trying to
fight and wrestle and run andall the rest of it I would have

(45:06):
bled out like that and I wouldhave died.
So I had said to myselfbeforehand if I get shot, what
have I done in the past insituations where I've been under
massive stress?
What's happened to my mindsetwhen I've been under massive
pressure either an injury on mybike or basketball or gymnastics

(45:29):
when I've had those injuries,what's happened to myself and
how would I like to performbetter?
And I had to work that all outbeforehand so that if I did get
shot because I knew this wasgoing to be a massive challenge
if it did happen, what would Iwant to do in my mind so that I
could control my body and myemotions, so that I could
sustain a performance where Iwouldn't bleed out and I'd give

(45:52):
myself the best chance ofsurviving until I could get the
medical help and then startclimbing again.
And it really was a mindset ofbeing.
If I want to sustain optimalperformance, I need to know how
to take care of myself, not justphysically, but in my mind as
well.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
I just want to clarify something as well.
When you were in those eliteforces so obviously you told the
story last time of you beingshot 14 times.
So you said there was a momentof preparation and that
preparation was very mental.
Then, peak performance you getinto that house to arrest the
bad guy.
Essentially, he attacks youwith um military weapon, you're

(46:31):
on the floor, you're bleedingout.
You stay alive.
A lot has to do with mindset,because even the doctors thought
, okay, this is a miracle thatthis guy is still alive.
Then it took you two years and ahalf to get back on your feet
and go back to your jobessentially.
So that's really two years anda half of giving yourself the

(46:51):
time to get back into it.
It was not two weeks, it wasnot two days, it's like two
years and a half.
I'm also guessing that inbetween operations you were not
doing a helicopter rescue on aMonday and then an
anti-terrorist attack on aTuesday, and then a cliff rescue
on a Wednesday.
Andist attack on a Tuesday, andthen you know, a cliff rescue,
you know, on a Wednesday, anddeep diving on a Thursday.

(47:14):
There is time in between.
I feel as artists as well,sometimes we get one job after
the other, and sometimes we haveno jobs at all and we are like,
oh gosh, when is the next one?
And then sometimes it's okay,here we go, go, go, go, go go,
you know, and we just we don'teven take the time to let it
sink in and to celebrate thesmall wins and to prepare

(47:36):
ourselves for the next one.
What would be your top tipnumber one for this sort of, you
know, gig to gig?

Speaker 2 (47:45):
This purely goes back to the mantra Stay strong, find
your system, work your system,tweak your system.
That is the mindset that getsme through almost everything in
my life.
Now, the staying strong and thefinding the system probably
changes no matter what thecircumstances are.
I have a system for cycling.
I have a system for gymnastics.

(48:06):
I have a system for keynotespeaking on an international
stage.
I have a system for talkingover a system for keynote
speaking on an internationalstage.
I have a system for talking tokids.
We have different systems andit's about accepting the fact
that we can change and we cankeep on going, but the most
important one is to stay strong,and the easiest way to stay
strong is be doing somethingthat you are passionate about.

(48:27):
If you don't have the passionwhen those challenges come up,
you're going to go.
Oh, you know something?
This is too hard.
I'm just going to sit and watchNetflix until the next gig
comes along.
I don't know what to do.
If you are absolutely passionateabout something, you will just
keep on wiggling and weaving andzigging and zagging and talking
to people and embracingdifferent ideas and finding some

(48:50):
way to make it happen.
It is still a struggle.
You can zigzag, weave andwander and still not find
anything.
And it may just be an unusualopportunity that comes in and
you go didn't even see thatcoming.
But it means if you're doingsomething you're passionate
about, something you absolutelylove and you want to be

(49:11):
successful, you will keep onpushing yourself.
You will also find other ways ofsustaining.
You know, get a job in a cafe,do some temping, you know, in
admin, whatever it might be,until you can get back to what
you want to do.
But it is about finding.
Stay strong, find the system,work your system and tweak it
where you need to.
If you're not getting the gigsyou want, what do you need to do

(49:33):
to tweak that so you can getback in front of the right
people, put yourself in aposition, or just what do you do
to sustain your energy as wellas your finance?

Speaker 1 (49:45):
Now I would love to dive deeper into both of your
systems.
So there is a functional and anaspirational resilience model.
Can we dive deep into yourworld?

Speaker 2 (49:56):
Oh, I love and I really do.
I love talking about these Formany years.
I was talking about justresilience and I feel like most
people talk about resilience.
If you need to be resilient,you need to be able to do X, y,
z, and after a while I've justgone.
Do you know something?
It's not working for me.
It doesn't seem.
What I'm teaching doesn't seemto apply to absolutely

(50:18):
everything.
People say you know what inthis situation?
Oh well, maybe you need totweak it just a little bit.
So I came up with two models.
The is functional resilience,the second is aspirational
resilience.
Functional resilience is what weneed to do to get through the
day-to-day, week-to-weekmonotonous stuff that we need to
do just to make life work.

(50:40):
We're not always excited aboutit, but these are the processes.
I spoke about my accountantdoing my accountancy before I.
I hate it, but I know I need todo my books.
I need to be able to do enoughbook work to get it to her.
I hate doing it, but I've got amodel that we need to go
through so that I can do that.
And then there's aspirationalresilience, and aspirational

(51:02):
resilience is what we need to doto keep our energy high so that
we can keep on pushingourselves.
We can keep on going torehearsals and screens, the
tests and all those sorts ofthings and then get that role
that's going to take a demanding, passionate, energetic
performance for three months,six months, 12 months, whatever

(51:25):
the project might be, and we'reable to keep ourselves going
with that energy and and I'll gointo what the six steps are in
each of those in just a moment.
But aspirational resilience iswhen we are talking about being
a peak performer.
This is when we are pushingourselves all the time and, as
I've described before, if westay in peak performance mode

(51:46):
all the time, we will get to thepoint of being burnt out, all
right.
So we need to be able to pushourselves far enough that we go.
I see the sign and again, thisis about knowing what the signs
are that tell us it's going wellor it's going badly.
If we see the sign that we go,oh, this is leading to burnout.
I'm not sleeping well, I'mstarting to get overwhelmed, I'm
not remembering my lines, I'mmaking some mistakes.

(52:08):
Okay, I need to come out ofaspirational and go back to
functional.
Maybe just for 10 minutes,maybe just for a couple of days,
maybe just I need to take alunch break and I need to get my
energies back up, whatever itmight be.
But if we stay in aspirationaltoo long, we will go into
burnout.
We've got to know when to flickback to functional.

(52:29):
But if you stay in functionaltoo long, where you're just
resting, relaxing, replenishing,you will go into rust out.
So you can choose rust out orburn out.
But the human durability comesfrom knowing how to flick from
one model of resilience to theother and then back again at the
appropriate time, rather thanjust saying, oh my gosh,

(52:53):
everybody else is so strong,I've got to keep on going.
And that, in my world ofpolicing, this leads to either
burnout, anxieties, stress,depression and, in worst-case
scenarios, people take theirlife because they feel that they
cannot perform at the levels ofeverybody else.
They just become a burden, andwe do have a lot of people that

(53:14):
don't know how to handle it andthey take their own life and
it's an absolute obviously.
It's an absolute tragedy whenthat happens.
So we need to know when we gofrom pushing ourselves to going.
Do you know?
This is taking too much out ofme, whether it's personally or
whether I'm not seeing my familyor I'm not taking holidays, or
I'm not eating, or whatever itmight be.
I'm going to flick back to thefunctional system for a while

(53:37):
and it's relax, rest, replenishand then re-engage.
Okay now there are six stages.
In each of those, I'm happy totake your questions on what I've
discussed so far and then happyto dive right into those models
.

Speaker 1 (53:52):
Yeah, I'm going to ask two questions.
The first question is you saidwe go from aspirational to
functional, from functional toaspirational resilience because
we can go into, rust out or burnout.
I love that rust out if we rest, into, if we rest, relax and
replenish for too long, but wedo that at the appropriate time.

(54:15):
So we go from one model to theother at the appropriate time
and that can happen after 10minutes, or it can happen after
10 days, or it can happen even,you know, after longer.
When do we know that it's theappropriate time?

Speaker 2 (54:30):
okay.
So, um, I honestly believe thatwe all know when the
appropriate time is.
Our gut tells us I should bedoing something different.
The unfortunate thing is thatwe were talking about that inner
critic before.
That inner critic is sayingeverybody else is still pushing
ourselves.
You have to keep pushingyourself, otherwise you're weak.

(54:55):
Right?
It starts telling us all thisfalse information.
We know when we're not doingwell.
We know when we need to takesome time out.
We know when we're starting toget stressed, overwhelmed, not
sleeping well, we're starting torely more on alcohol or other
additives to keep our energiesup or reduce stress.
But the really key thing is tobe really proactive right from

(55:16):
the very beginning.
I'm going into this industry.
I know that in this industry,people do go into burnout,
people do become alcoholics,they depend on drugs.
I don't want that for my life.
And before we get into it, wesay to ourselves what is the
sign that tells me I'm startingto go that direction?
If we start to notice ourselvesand this is not just actors,

(55:39):
this is police, this isemergency services, finance
industry or everybody gets intothis.
Okay, I am starting to drink,not just twice a week, I'm
starting to drink four times aweek.
Now I'm not drinking four timesa week, I'm drinking six times
a week, and now I'm drinkingtwice a day and we go.

(55:59):
I know it's happening, but it'sokay, I'll be able to handle it
, I'll be able to bring it backlater.
And it just keeps on buildingup and compounding.
If we are able to say toourselves beforehand if I start
drinking four times a week, Ineed to start taking action then
and saying, no, I'm only goingto drink three times a week, or
I'm going to cut down, or I'mgoing to cut it out for two

(56:19):
weeks so that it doesn't becomethe compounding problem.
And you can apply this toanything that's happening in
your life.
If you know what the indicatoris that tells you you're going
badly, take action immediatelyand that will take you from
aspirational and back tofunctional.
To be able to manage this, Ineed to take some time out.

(56:40):
I need to actually rest andrelax.
I need to make sure I getproper sleep so that I don't
have to rely on the alcoholright, and we need to be able to
flick between one and the other.
Go home, take a rest, take onenight and get really good sleep
and then come back and pushyourself at work again, knowing
that you don't want to continuewith whatever bad habit is that

(57:02):
you're getting into.

Speaker 1 (57:03):
Yeah, I personally cannot relate to the alcohol
because I don't drink, but Ilike, for example, for me it
would be irritability, I wouldget really grumpy.
You know, like there is agrumpiness, like I'm not a nice
person anymore, like I'm justgrumpy for a yes or for a no.

Speaker 2 (57:19):
I think that's a big trigger that I can recognize in
myself can I ask you, what is itthat causes you to start
becoming that grumpy person?
Do you know what the indicatoris?
Do you know what the, thecatalyst is that makes you into
that?

Speaker 1 (57:33):
yeah, it's what you said.
It's the everybody else is inaction.
And so there starts I start tobuild a huge amount of guilt and
shame around.
If I'm in resting mode, youknow, in replenishing mode, I'm
like I shouldn't, should not, Ishould be in action.
You know you cannot, you're notallowed to push the pause
button.
But then I'm also.

(57:53):
I'm a very extreme person, like,for example, when I started
Krav Maga.
For four months I was training17 hours a week, I was pushing
my body to the limits and I havethat sort of hyper focus and I
go really deep into things andon one hand, it works really
well.
That's my way of functioning,but on the other hand, I have to
be very careful of burnout andthat burnout comes with a

(58:18):
physical irritability in termsof I need my sleep and sometimes
I just have to, and again itcomes to guilt and shame.
Right, it's like, but youshould be at peak performance
all the time and that's mydancer's spirit, you know, like
365 days a year, becausetomorrow there could be a
casting.
What if tomorrow there is acasting?
You cannot lean back.

(58:39):
So, yeah, those are thetriggers I would say I should
the guilt, the shame, and I putthe bar so high that I don't
allow myself to function up my70%.

Speaker 2 (58:51):
So the shoulds, the coulds, they are always
positives in our lives as wellas being negatives, and you've
got to recognize when it'spushing you.
Well, that's great.
I should be doing this yes,actually I should, because I may
get a role tomorrow, so I needto be well prepared.
But the should, the could, isactually causing me to lose
sleep and, generally speaking,and when I look at my functional

(59:15):
resilience, sleep and nutritionare number one.
You've got to focus on thosetwo things and we could speak
for two hours about how to getgood sleep and ensure your
nutrition without beingnutrition and sleep Nazi, but
just we could talk about it fortwo hours.
But that sleep and ensure yournutrition without being
nutrition and sleep Nazi, butjust we could talk about it for
two hours.
But that sleep and nutrition.
If you're not getting them,that's when people start getting
irritable or they start losingtheir lines, they're not able to

(59:38):
focus and concentrate, they'renot able to do their best work
because they're not able to stayin that hyper state which we
need if we're in aspirational.
So recognising what thosetriggers are is part of that
circular model for humandurability that I was talking
about before.
What are the indicators thattell you it's not going well.
I'm not sleeping well, so Iprobably won't perform well.

(59:59):
If I haven't slept well forfour days, okay, what do I need
to do to change that?
And take that action straightaway as soon as you start
finding yourself and I do thisfor myself as soon as I start
finding myself starting to getsnappy, starting to get bitey,
irritable when I shouldn't be.
I'm not normally this way.
Why don't you really annoy metoday Actually, it's probably

(01:00:21):
not about you, it's probablyabout me and go and do what I
need to do to take care of thatand bring myself back to being
the performer I want to be.

Speaker 1 (01:00:31):
I want to ask another quick question, which is about
going again from functional toaspirational, from aspirational
to functional.
You were shot 14 times.
You lost all your blood.
Then you had two years and ahalf of rehabilitation before
you went back on the grounds inyour job.
Those two years and a half Iknow there were moments where

(01:00:54):
you were able to just move apinky finger and that was a huge
achievement because obviouslyyou had injuries all over your
body.
But those two years and a half,was that a two year and a half
of functional resilience thatyou went through?
Or during those two years and ahalf, would you say there were
moments of aspirationalresilience?
Did you still go through thatflow of aspirational functional

(01:01:17):
or was it just two years and ahalf of functional?

Speaker 2 (01:01:20):
No, I think if any of us analyze our lives, we will
be able to recognize times whenwe're in aspirational and times
when we're in functional.
We are forced into it atdifferent times, not by choice,
and in that two years and a halfof trying to get back to star
group, there were highs, therewere lows.

(01:01:40):
There were times when I hadgreat efforts and I was
achieving.
There were times when I'd trythings and I'd fall and I would
be in tears and I would have totake time out and I would cause
myself an injury that was goingto set me back by six weeks
before I'd be able to get backto where I was, so flicking
between functional andaspirational and in the zone and

(01:02:03):
out of the zone and performance, and I didn't have any of these
models that we're talking aboutat the time.
It was just things that I wasdoing intuitively and sometimes
I just had no idea what to do.
And that's when I broke downand I was in absolute tears
because things weren't goingwell.
But there's also times where Ithought to myself I'm going to
take on the challenge of walkingfive steps today, and sometimes

(01:02:28):
it would be too hard to walkfive steps and I'd collapse at
four steps and I'd have to go.
Okay, at least I did four butthen I started walking down the
hallway and then I was walkingout into the shopping centers
and all those sorts of thingsand sometimes I'd come home and
I'd have strained a calf muscleor twisted an ankle and I'd have
to be sitting down for threedays, not walking at all.

(01:02:50):
So it's highs and lows, butdefinitely flicking in a
functional and aspirationalbackwards and forwards all the
time, and we all do it.
We just need to sit back everynow and then and go.
Actually this is anaspirational moment.
Actually I was in functionalmode then and it's okay to sit
back, rest, relax and replenish.

(01:03:11):
We need to be able to do it.
If you look at the eliteathletes and the olympic cycle
is a classic four years betweenolympics there are world
champions here, a worldchampionships here, and then
they go back and they rest andthey only do three days of
training for about three or fourweeks and then they start
peaking for the state championsor the national championships

(01:03:34):
and then they rest and relax andthen they're back at peak again
for the Olympics.
So that cycle of aspirationaland functional certainly affects
every one of those.

Speaker 1 (01:03:44):
So let's dive back into the model.
You said there were six stagesin the model.
Tell us more.

Speaker 2 (01:03:50):
Okay, in the essence of time, I'll just articulate
the six steps without going intothem in too much depth.
Functional resilience it'sabout rest, relax, replenish and
then re-engage.
And so it starts with sleep andnutrition.
They are the baseline Wheneveranything is going wrong.
They are the first twocheck-ins for me, and I like to

(01:04:12):
try and make sure I get goodsleep and have good nutrition
most of the time, but as soon asI start getting snappy, I go.
Am I getting enough sleep?
Okay, so sleep and nutritionare always my go-tos.
The the next level.
Step two, meaningful havepeople that you can have
conversations with, and realconversations, okay.

(01:04:33):
Step three is have empathy foryourself and empathy for others.
Empathy for ourselves is whatyou were talking about before,
about, oh my gosh.
My performance is only so goodhere.
I'm not all that great, butthat performance is sometimes
150 or 500% better than otherpeople, right?

(01:04:54):
We also have our bad days wherewe haven't slept well, where
we're worried about our cat orour dog going to the vet, where
something's happening with ourparents or our children.
Our mind is distracted.
We have bad days, right.
So have some understanding thateverybody has those.
Be kind to yourself, but alsobe kind to other people, right

(01:05:16):
people.
There are some people in theworld who are just evil and
nasty.
There are some people who willwant to undermine you, but most
of the time it's not becausethey want to do badly by you.
They may see it as acompetition competition is
healthy but, generally speaking,people make mistakes, they say

(01:05:37):
things that they don't mean andwe take it personally and that
becomes our focus for the next10 minutes, 10 hours, 10 days,
10 weeks, 10 years, and peoplelive with hatred because
somebody said something to themand if you talk to that other
person, they go.
Well, I don't even remembersaying that.
So have some empathy for otherpeople, and this applies when

(01:05:59):
you cut off on the road and youknow how people get road rage.
Oh my gosh, you are such a thatperson probably just made a
mistake.
So have sympathy, empathy foryourself and empathy for other
people.
Number four of functional andthis is about rest, relax,
replenish and re-engage numberfour is get active.
It's not about being an eliteathlete or performing at the

(01:06:22):
highest levels.
It's just about having our bodymoving, and the more.
The fitter you are, the fitteryou are, the fitter you are, the
fitter you are, the fitter youare, the more you can do.
But even if you are not fit atall, just get active, move.
It's not always just about thephysical body.
Being out there and beingactive is good for our mental

(01:06:42):
health as much as it is for ourphysical health.
Number five is the one thatmost people go.
Oh, that's me.
I love this one.
It's about guilt-free indulgence.
Now, sleep and nutrition are myfirst go-to Guilt-free
indulgence.
If I feel tired, I'm having abad day, things are going wrong,
I will sit down in front ofNetflix and I'll have two

(01:07:03):
packets of chocolate biscuitsnext to me and I'll eat every
biscuit in those two packets andI will not feel guilty about it
.
Yes, I know it's going toimpact my health.
Yes, I know it's going toimpact my body, my fitness, but
I don't care.
It's what I needed.
And our guilt-free indulgenceextends to you know something
I've been working hard for X, y,z.

(01:07:25):
I'm going to go away for aweekend with my kids and not
answer the phone and not focuson work.
Just enjoy my time with myfamily.
I'm going to take 10 minutes inthe middle of casting or in the
middle of a high pressure moviescene on set where your
performance is not great.
You've got to be able to bebold enough and confident enough

(01:07:48):
within yourself to say to thedirector I need to take 10
minutes, I need to go and get adrink, I need to get my energy
levels back up.
I need to just get my focusback into place and then come
back and get right into it.
But you've got to do thatguilt-free.
Okay.
You've got to be able toindulge yourself in what you
need.
If you feel guilty about it thewhole time, you won, won't

(01:08:10):
enjoy it, you won't get thebenefit from it.
So it's got to be guilt-free.
You've got to be bold enough tolook after yourself.
And the last one is, once you'vedone those five, reframe your
challenges.
Once you've had enough sleep,you sometimes come back and you
look at it and the problem andyou go.
Actually, I don't know why thatwas a problem.
I can see what the solution isnow Because you've had sleep,

(01:08:33):
you've rested your mind.
Sleep just reframes all yourcortisol levels.
Sleeping actually eats up thecortisol in your body.
It puts your thoughts intofiles where you can access them
easily.
Your short-term memory increase, all those sorts of things.

(01:08:54):
But come back and reframe yourchallenges.
So sleep and nutrition,meaningful connection, empathy
for yourself and others.
Get active, guilt-freeindulgence.
Then reframe your challengesand step back in.
So that's functional resilience.
Any thoughts or questions aboutthat one?

Speaker 1 (01:09:12):
No, I absolutely love it and I think I will probably
write it down on a little pieceof paper and just have it, you
know, in front of me on my desk.
Especially the guilt-free thingLike for me, the being
guilt-free of not being in peakperformance is such a big thing
for me as an artist.
So that will be a very biglesson to practice on a daily
basis.

Speaker 2 (01:09:32):
And Cindy.
Let me and I'll say thisprobably at the end again as
well If any of your listenerswant to email me and say, derek,
can you share those with us?
I'll send them an email withdetails of both functional and
aspirational and be very happyto share them.
So aspirational resilienceagain.
Six steps.
It starts with challenge theinner critic, right, because

(01:09:52):
sometimes that inner critic isactually our best friend.
It is stopping us from takingtoo many risks that we're not
well prepared for.
Okay, so challenge the innercritic.
And that's that little voiceinside your head that's going
you idiot, you can't do it,you're not good enough.
Everybody else is better thanyou.
We've got to challenge thatvoice and make sure that we're
making fair assessments.

(01:10:14):
And this goes back to stepthree of being, uh, having
empathy for ourselves.
But challenge that inner credit.
Step two is practiceself-appreciation, right, and
this is about looking at thegood things you have done, the
successes you have had, andbeing able to say to yourself
damn, I'm good, and I don't carewhether 20 000 people are

(01:10:40):
better than you.
If you are good at what you aredoing, you're better than what
you were yesterday.
You have improved, you haverefined.
We need to be able to practiceself-appreciation and say I got
better today than what I wasyesterday.
If I can do that, I can keep ongoing, okay.
The next one is draw strengthsfrom those successes, and this

(01:11:02):
goes back to the mantra staystrong, find the system, draw
strengths from your successesthere was a system that allowed
you to create success.
Understand what that system isright and then work it.
Stay strong, find your systemand work that system.
Immerse yourself in it.
Step four is be great at whatyou do best, and this is what we

(01:11:22):
were talking about before.
If you are good at it, there'sprobably other people looking at
you and going I wish I could beas good as you, but the little
inner critic is saying no, don'tget too big a head, you're not
that good, others are betterthan you.
If you are good at it, be greatat what you do best.

(01:11:44):
A really important one, whichmost people find difficult, is
just to sit back and acceptcompliments.
When someone genuinely pays youa compliment wow, you did that
well.
You may be thinking to yourselfthat was just an accident, I
don't even know how I did it, itdoesn't matter, they have paid
you a compliment.

(01:12:04):
We've got to remember thosecompliments, because that little
inner critic is going to keepon feeding us with criticism and
you're useless.
But you can fight that innercritic by saying, okay, I'm
thinking that I'm useless, butthey said I was good at it, so
maybe I'm better than what I'mthinking myself.
We've got to remember whatthose compliments are and accept

(01:12:25):
those compliments.
And the last one is be congruentwith what's meaningful to you.
Right, be congruent with yourpurpose.
What are you here for?
Are you here to take on anyrole whatsoever it doesn't
matter what it is or are you a,a person who is looking for

(01:12:46):
action parts?
Right, as an action actress?
Would you accept a role as asinger on a kid's daytime tv
production?
Probably wouldn't fit with whatyou want.
So you've got to stay congruentwith what's meaningful to you.
Okay, as soon as we start doingstuff that is that isn't

(01:13:09):
meaningful to us, then we'llstart getting bored, angry.
We will look for the alcohol tokeep us going through.
We will be looking for thesugar kicks.
It'll start stressing us.
So be congruent with what'smeaningful to you.
And this is what allowed me togo back into star Group
afterwards.
It was a passion for me.

(01:13:30):
It was what was meaningful tome.
But the most meaningful thingfor me was being with my family
and being able to interact withmy kids, and so if anything
interrupted my ability to dothat, I would cancel it from my
life.
And if, after the shooting, myfamily, my children, my wife,

(01:13:52):
other people that are meaningfulin my life, said Derek, I don't
think I can handle this.
It's going to cause me to notstress.
They were more important to methan what Star Group was.
I would have found anotherreason to be passionate in some
other place, because my familywas always number one, and
people find that hard to believe.
My gosh, you have to be sodedicated to get into special

(01:14:12):
operations, special forces, butmy family was always the number
one.
I would have gone out ofspecial forces if it was causing
me stress in my family and Ithought that was going to break
us up and it wasn't going to bethe direction that I wanted to
go.
So challenge the inner critic,practice self-appreciation, draw
strength from your successes,be great at what you do best,

(01:14:34):
accept genuine compliments andbe congruent with your purpose.
And both of those models fitback into that mantra of stay
strong.
Find your system work yoursystem.
Tweak your system.
Our systems have to includetimes where we are in
aspirational and our system hasto include times when we are in

(01:14:56):
functional.
And we need to be able to dothat guilt-free, because that
will give us the power tosustain an optimal performance.

Speaker 1 (01:15:05):
And I love the fact that you talked about accepting
compliments, because I feelthere is so much power in
accepting compliments, lettingit sink in In a lot of my
leadership programs for dancersand choreographers.
I actually have an exercisewhich is we're going to
compliment each other afterthey've been working together

(01:15:25):
for six weeks and they are notallowed to dismiss the
compliment.
The only thing they can say isthank you.
They are not allowed to say ohyeah, but you know, I just did
it once, or they cannot dismissit.
They have just to say thank youand it allows both, or both
sides, to grow.
Really, because people have tostart accepting and taking it in

(01:15:48):
, that people see potential inthem and also you have to
complement others.
So you have to also startseeing potential in everyone,
not just the people that youfind likable and you had a good
vibe with, and no, you have tostart also looking at people you
know through a different lens,and usually that exercise takes

(01:16:09):
over and people do not want itto stop, you know, and they cry
and they hug this.

Speaker 2 (01:16:14):
Actually, what you just said actually helps you to
remain in a positive mind frameand be a positive thinker.
Right, we need to be able torecognize when people are doing
the wrong thing or when they'renot performing well.
But I don't care who it isyou're interacting with.
There is something about thatperson that you're able to go
you are brilliant at that now.
Maybe a person that annoys you,you know in overall, but there

(01:16:38):
is something about them that youcan find to complement.
And when we look for the goodin people, instead of always
just focusing on oh my gosh,they're bad, so they can't be
doing anything right, justlooking for that good allows us
to start creating positivity inour mind.
Not about denying the negativeor denying the bad, but it's
about being able to see bothsides exactly, and seeing people

(01:17:01):
in a more balanced way.

Speaker 1 (01:17:03):
The other thing I want to sort of ask you, um is I
love that you said we don'tsilence our inner critic.
We challenge our inner critic.
So when you don't silence ourinner critic, we challenge our
inner critic.
So when you talk aboutchallenging our inner critic,
can you clarify a little bit?
Is it having a conversationwith our inner critic in terms
of let's see if there is a partof truth in what you're saying,

(01:17:23):
or how do you challenge yourinner critic?

Speaker 2 (01:17:26):
Okay, and it is about looking at the truth of that.
And I find that those otherfour, those next four steps uh,
the practice of appreciation,drawing strengths from success,
being great at what we do andaccepting genuine compliments
help us to challenge the innercritic.
Okay, I'm doubting this aboutmyself, but those people have
just given me compliments aboutit.

(01:17:46):
Maybe I'm being too hard onmyself, right?
So we've got to go back to stepthree of functional and go let
me reassess myself.
Can I be kinder to myself?
Can I reframe it?
Can I look at it from adifferent perspective?
Is there something else I cansee?
We challenge the inner criticby, uh, looking at our successes

(01:18:07):
and practicingself-appreciation.
Um, oh, my god, I can't do this.
What have I done similar in thepast?
Or actually I've done thatwhich was similar and I was
actually really successful at it.
And going back to the mantra,my system for creating success
over there is xyz.
Maybe I can challenge the innercritic and if I use that system

(01:18:27):
, I can actually start growinghere.
And challenging the innercritic is about saying I use
that system, I can actuallystart growing here.
And challenging the innercritic is about saying do you
know something I am beingcongruent with who I am.
I don't care if I embarrassmyself.
Inner critic's going you idiot.
Everyone's going to laugh atyou.
No, this is so meaningful to me, I want it so much, I don't
care if everybody laughs,because I'll be the one who's

(01:18:49):
laughing last when I get what Iwant, when I achieve where I
want to go.
And there are so many peopleand I'm sure everybody can
relate to it we look at peoplein life and we go oh my gosh,
they are so embarrassing.
How could they be so pushy,passionate about what they want?
They're never going to besuccessful.
And then you go, oh my gosh,they've just got the role that I
wanted.

(01:19:09):
How did they get that?
It's that passion, that belief,that silencing the inner critic
inside their own head.
And this is about our risktolerance and risk acceptance
that if I push myself so far,how far do I go before I start
getting too embarrassed formyself?
But if we're passionate aboutwhat we want, we will go through

(01:19:32):
people laughing at us and thosesorts of things.
So there's a whole range ofthings that we do to challenge
the inner critic, but it is justprobably it comes back to
looking at functional resilience, having that meaningful
connection, because thosemeaningful connections will give
you the compliments, havingempathy for ourselves.
There's another thing that Ilike to do with people, and it's

(01:19:54):
about affirmations.
Affirmations is something thatpeople say oh, if you make
positive affirmations, you willfind yourself being a positive
person.
I find them absolutely draining, unless you add another step,
and this comes back to theresilience models.
I am really good at this.
I should be able to do it well.

(01:20:14):
I am really good at this.
I should be able to do it well.
Inside your head, your littleinner critic is going I should
be able to do this.
No, you can't, you're an idiot.
I should be able to do it.
No, you've never done it well,that's what the inner critic's
saying.
But if you add another step ofsaying I should be able to do it
no, you've never done it well,that's what the inner critic's
saying.
But if you add another step ofsaying I should be able to do
this well, because I did it theother day and I was successful,

(01:20:37):
I should be able to repeat itthe inner critic's going oh yeah
, okay, you did do it well theother day, can you repeat it?
And then you've got to startjustifying.
So it's about having thoseaffirmations with reasoning
behind it.
So I am good because of thisreason, and it's the reason that
will make you believe it,rather than just trying to

(01:20:59):
repeat I'm good, I'm good, I'mgood.
So those affirmations arereally important to have a
reasoning along with them.

Speaker 1 (01:21:07):
I want to also jump back on what you said about
seeing what we're really good at, and I feel sometimes it's very
difficult to see what we'rereally good at In the world of
the arts.
We are very often multi-curious, multi-passionate,
multi-talented people and I'msure you must have gone through
that as well, because you werein Star Group, you were in the

(01:21:32):
special elite police forces andthen you got into the business
of coaching, being a publicspeaker, you know, sharing your
knowledge with independent smallbusinesses and big
organizations.
You must have come to arealization oh, I'm not only

(01:21:54):
good at being a special elitepolice officer, I'm also good at
something else.
So how did you come to thatrealization and how can anybody
else also kind of broaden theirvision about, yeah, you're good
at this, but also this and thisand this?

Speaker 2 (01:22:06):
so this came back to congruence, following what was
meaningful to me when I firstgot asked to do some speaking
about the shooting.
People have gone.
Oh my gosh, that's an amazingstory.
You've got to come to ourcompany and we will pay you x
dollars to tell that story atour conference.
And it meant nothing to mebecause I believe they wanted

(01:22:29):
the hero story and I didn't seemyself as a hero.
The heroes were the guys whocame and got me, risked their
lives to save mine, andbasically I said, no, I won't
take money for it.
If you want to pay money for ahero story, pay then, because I
would feel guilty if I was doingthat on stage and taking money
for it.
But then I used 24 units ofblood in a seven-hour period

(01:22:53):
straight after the shooting.
The body only holds 10 units ofblood, so I used virtually two
and a half times the bloodvolume in blood that had been
donated by other people.
And the blood service came tome and said Derek, how would you
like to say thank you to blooddonors for what they did for you
?
By telling your story to themand letting them know what a
difference it made that theirblood was able to save your life

(01:23:14):
.
And I've gone.
Yes, no problems, I will standup and say thank you all day
long, because it was aboutsaying thank you.
And I still remember my firstspeech.
Even though I wanted to saythank you, I was so nervous
about getting up there in frontof all these people and making a
speech.
I had my speech written outword for word.

(01:23:35):
It was right there in front ofme and it wasn't quite this bad,
but it symbolizes basicallywhat it was like.
I stood up and I said hello, myname is, oh, derek, my name is
Derek and I thank you.
Blah, blah, blah.
But it was almost that bad.
I didn't know how to breathe, Ididn't know how to talk.
I was so nervous.

(01:23:56):
But because I was saying thankyou, I got up and I did it again
.
And I did it again, and thenpeople came to me afterwards and
gone oh my gosh, what you saidabout what you did, how you
handled that, really made adifference to me.
That's, I'm going to be able tochange my life as a result and
I've gone.
Hang on, where's this come from?
And that then fueled my passionof I wanted to pass those

(01:24:18):
messages on, and so then Istarted getting more and more
confident about the message andmore comfortable about that's
what I was delivering, andstarted loving seeing the
changes in people and how theywere embracing it.
And so I just kept on going andrefined my skills, recognize
and this is the important part Irecognized when I performed

(01:24:41):
well in front of other peopleand I recognized when I didn't
perform well.
And yes, I was critical ofmyself, yes, I was embarrassed
when I didn't perform well, butit was about saying you know
something, I want to get better,I want to be able to do more of
this.
So what was it that I didn't dowell that I can improve upon?
What is it that I have donewell that I can leverage more of

(01:25:02):
?
And again, I didn't have thesemodels way back then, but I now
see how those models have playedinto my life throughout my life
, and they just make sense andhelp me to get on.

Speaker 1 (01:25:15):
And now that I can articulate these models, it just
makes me really, really pleasedbut very comfortable about
talking to people there isanother thing as well that you
mentioned earlier on becongruent with your purpose, and
also you were saying that youalso always went back to what is
really important for you, whichwas spending time with your

(01:25:36):
family.
In the arts, there is veryoften an identity crisis.
I would say we identify so muchwith our art, like we are the
product.
You know, our body is theproduct that we sell.
Like we are the actor on screen, the dancer.
We use our, our, our body andI'm not saying that people don't

(01:25:58):
, you know, give importance totheir families, but they give so
much worth to their career andtheir artistic expression is
that when that goes wrong, theirwhole life crumbles.
And I think that in careers asin, you know, the special elite
police forces you were a part of, because there's so much

(01:26:20):
passion and dedication involved,people are dedicated to their
duty, and maybe there's also asimilar identity crisis, you
know where sometimes you have tostep back and say, hey,
actually there is Cindy or Derek, the human being, and then
there is this professional lifethat I'm leading.
Have you ever gone through thissort of identity crisis at some
point?

Speaker 2 (01:26:40):
Absolutely, absolutely.
And I had to get my head aroundit.
In fact, I put a post on mysocial media, both Facebook and
LinkedIn, and it was areasonably lengthy one, but it
started out with I am not my job, I am not my past, and it was
looking about who we are rightnow and what value we are to

(01:27:04):
each other.
Blah, blah, blah.
But I think the important thingand I go back to another
different model, which I callthe continuum, and I go back to
another different model which Icall the continuum, and the part
that I'll pull out of thatcontinuum is that when we take
on another challenge and westart failing, we fail at one
aspect of our lives, we fail atone aspect of our skills, but

(01:27:26):
then we globalize it.
Like you just said, I amuseless in my life, my life is
out, pointless because I can'tdo this one thing.
And we've got to remember thatwe are not our job, we are not
our past, we are not oursuccesses, we are not good at
that skill, but we're still goodparents, we're still good
partners, we're still good uhsiblings, we're still good

(01:27:50):
children to our parents.
We are still good people in thecommunity.
We still have value to otherpeople in our industry.
It is one aspect, one skill,and we've got to recognise that
that is the only thing that weneed to build up.
Everything else is still good,and this is about being kind to
yourself, having empathy foryourself and being congruent

(01:28:13):
with your purpose.
This is what I want to do, butunderstanding.
I'm still good at all theseother things in my life, but
I've had that down as well.

Speaker 1 (01:28:21):
Um, when I underperform at star group and
we go out for a qualityqualifying shoot and I am the
lowest score, Thank you so muchfor all the amazing top tips,
guidance, all these littlenudgets and gems that we can
also, you know, take away fromthis episode and apply in our
own artistic careers.

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26: Optimal Performance for Artists - Reality Check with Derrick McManus

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}26: Optimal Performance for Artists - Reality Check with Derrick McManus