Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - YAPLive: Secrets to Optimize Your Life with David Nurse, Dr. Ethan Kross, Mateo Franceschetti and Dr. Meeta Singh Mohindra | Uncut Version

Episode Date: March 19, 2021

In today's show, Hala Taha is joined by a panel of experts like David Nurse, Dr. Ethan Kross, Mateo Franceschetti and Dr. Meeta Singh Mohindra to discuss on how to Optimise Your life in terms of Productivity, Focus, Mental Health and Physical Health. Listen to this episode in full and absorb all the knowledge from this episode to step up your life.   Social Media:   Follow YAP on IG: www.instagram.com/youngandprofiting Reach out to Hala directly at [e-mail] Follow Hala on Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Follow Hala on Instagram: www.instagram.com/yapwithhala Follow Hala on ClubHouse: @halataha Check out our website to meet the team, view show notes and transcripts: www.youngandprofiting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Welcome to the show! I'm your host, Halataha, and on Young and Profiting Podcast, we investigate a new topic each week and interview some of the brightest minds in the world. My goal is to turn their wisdom into actionable advice that you can use in your everyday life, no matter your age, profession, or industry. There's no fluff on this podcast, and that's on purpose. I'm here to uncover value from my guests by doing the proper research and asking the right questions. If you're new to the show, we've chatted with the likes of XFBI agents, real estate moguls, self-made billionaires, CEOs, and bestselling authors.

Our subject matter ranges from enhanced in productivity, had again influenced the art of entrepreneurship, and more. If you're smart and like to continually improve yourself, hit the subscribe button, because you'll love it here at Young and Profiting Podcast. We're going to be joined by several experts today and it's all about optimizing your life. And so when I talk about optimizing your life, I'm really talking about four main areas that's productivity, focus, mental health, and physical health. And so I've got a really great panel today. I have David Nurse who's already here,

and he is a life optimization coach. He's a motivational speaker. He's a podcast host of the 1% or podcast, an author of Pivot and Go. He's also a former professional basketball player. He's coached the Brooklyn Nets. And now he really focuses on personal development, confidence building, leadership leadership and motivational growth.

So I think David is gonna be a huge asset to this conversation. We're also gonna have Dr. Ethan Cross joining us. He is one of the world's leading experts on controlling the conscious mind. We have Mateo Friend Shetty on the line as well. And he is the co-founder and CEO of Eight Sleep. It's the world's leading sleep enhancement company.

And we're also gonna be having Dr. Mita Singh Mohindra, who is David Meltzer sleep coach. He's one of my great friends. And she is a service chief of sleep medicine, section head and medical director at Henry Ford sleep center. So we've got lots of amazing experts here. People are gonna be joining shortly as well. Ethan is here as well.

So let me just add him here and then add him as a moderator. All right, so let's kick this off. The first question that I wanna ask the panel is what is your opinion in regards to having an optimized life? Like what does a fully optimized life look like for you? How would you describe that?

Let's just start off with this general question to get us in the mood. David, since your mic is off, why don't you kick it off? All right, thank you for having me on. So a total optimized life to me is being able to live in a life rhythm, basically. Not just necessarily, hey, you've got your sleep on point, your nutrition on point.

It's really where that just all flows together because a lot of times when we're living in this optimized life, it's like, oh, we gotta do this. Oh, this morning routine is two hours long or oh, we have to put this in now. Now there's a new thing like this, but really it's that vibe, that beat, that song that you have in your headphones where

you're just, where you're in a rhythm. So to me, yes, dialing in these things that will make you optimize pouring into your, your sleep development, your nutrition and just kind of being a, just a sponge and addicted to learning and growing and using yourself as a test to too. One of my friends, Ben Greenfield, does a great job at this. He's like the human test, too, but he just gets it so dialed in that his life rhythm is basically living fully optimized.

And then one of the biggest things to be honest that I do is I have affirmations placed around my apartment in different places. And I have one right by my bedside. And all it says is today could be the greatest day of your life And I look at that every morning when I wake up it's the first thing I see Telling me that hey today could be this great day Like if we don't give it the opportunity

It'll never be but if we live in the potential that it could be Then we open things up to this great life that we have and this life rhythm that we're able to live I love that. I think that's super powerful and insightful, David. Mateo, how about you? How would you describe a fully optimized life? Yeah. First of all, I'm a huge believer in a fully optimized life.

We want to get the most out of our time. So a fully optimized life is something that gives you the most out of our time. So a fully optimized life is something that gives you the most out of your time, both in terms of energy and the personal and professional achievements. And that to me is spread across all the pillars of health which are sleep and nutrition and sickness. Yeah, totally agree. And we're definitely going to get into the mental and physical aspects of a fully optimized life. Ethan, how about you? How would you describe a fully optimized life? Well, for me, it breaks down to a person's ability to align how they think, feel or behave with their goals.

We all have goals for how we want to think, feel, and behave and the ability to do that. That's optimization for me. And so it breaks down along those three lines. And I think you could fit a lot of the things that we're going to be talking about today, whether it be our mental health, our physical health, sleep, social relationships, all within that framework. Yeah, I love that. Okay, awesome. So let's start with productivity. And in my opinion, I think a lot of unproductivity arises from a lack of prioritization. So we're unclear about what we actually need to do to achieve our goals. We're unclear about what is the highest priority. So anybody can kind of jump in here and answer this question whoever feels motivated to, how do you guys suggest that we get clear

with our priorities? I'll take the question. Getting clear with your priorities is about setting up systems. Setting up systems that lead into process, so you have your process that will lead into results. So for me personally, one thing that I do that is, a game changer is I have what I call the Big Three.

The Big Three in different aspects. I have the Big Three in the joys of the day, my little wins, and I have the Big Three in my needle movers, like the things that are really going to take me to the next level. And at the end of each day, I take the time, five, ten minutes, and just jot them down. Three big wins in both of those aspects, knowing that, so it kind of shows me, hey, no matter what, I've had some type of win the day and I can have that win the day mentality.

So prioritizing what's essential is, it really comes down to balance, what they say, balance? It's BS, balance is BS. You core into the things that are the most important things to you. We have strengths, we have got to give gifts for a reason, and we have weaknesses, but we don't have to make every single weakness up to become just level, playing field, or just average. Focus on your strength, focus on that, and make it the best that it can possibly be, because

then that's when you put around these people with different strengths, this compliments wish list to make an ultimate team. So it's understanding that you have a strength inside of you to focus on that, make that your essential, have your, have your non-negotiables that you're not going to do. Like for me, to be able to prioritize my time, my time is the most important thing. I'll have it scheduled out to every 30 minutes, the night before I go to bed. So I know what I'm going to do tomorrow.

I don't have to just wonder and kind of waste time thinking about like I'm right to it. I don't take any random calls. Everything has to be scheduled in because my time in your guys time is the most valuable asset we can have. So what's building these systems with processes that lead to the results. If you're just looking to the result, though, you're never going to get there.

You have to look at the system and processes to lead there. Yeah. And I love how you mentioned to focus on some big things. You didn't say, you know, write out everything that you have to do. You said, focus on the things that are really going to move the needle. I actually interviewed a lady. Her name is Laura Vandercam pretty recently, and she's like one of the world's leading time management experts, and she calls this a Tidalist.

So not a Tidalist, it's a Tidalist because it's just three big things that you've got to do that day. And then you feel more motivated because it's more realistic than listing 10 things that you're never going to get to, and you never really get to finish your checklist. So I think that also helps with your mental health when you actually complete the things that you set out to do. Love it, love it.

And I call it my two-grow list. So we all have our different names for it. But if you pivot these words, these two-do, and you think of a two-do list and you're automatically thinking, man, I gotta do this. Or I'm just trying to keep my head above water. But if you pivot these words to, oh, to grow to tada, then it brings a lot more excitement

in just the daily grind where I pivot that word into the daily fine. So you can, words are just things we've grown up, our subconscious is told, they mean certain things, but literally they can mean whatever they want. Like, fear, failure, success, rich life, like it's based on your definition, not the worlds. Yeah, and Ethan, I'm curious to think what you have to say about priority is, what comes to mind to you? And I know you're an expert when it comes to mental health

and our conscious mind and everything. How does that relate to priorities and what are your thoughts there? Well, I think it goes back to this framework I started with. You have goals, ways you want to think, feel and behave, right? And then you want to try to align what you're doing and I would say, eat everything you do during the day.

How can you make those thoughts, goals, and behaviors come to fruition? So I think it involves being deliberate. So in the morning, sitting down and thinking about, you know, what is feasible to accomplish? And then putting it down, I think different strokes for different folks. I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all.

I think lists can work really well for some people. I think they can be paralyzing for others and actually be the source of a lot of stress. Like, oh my God, I've got 10 things on this list or 30 things or 300 things if you really like to break things down. So I think it really involves finding what the sweet spot is for you.

What is a system that works for you when it comes to figuring out how can you actually meet the goals that you have? And how do you guys feel about structuring your day based on when your brain is at peak performance or when your body is at peak performance? How do you guys manage the activities that you do throughout the day based on your sleep schedule

and everything like that? Like what are your thoughts around that? Yeah, so it's a good question. And let me touch please also for a second on the previous question I really love what everyone shares and I'll try to apply it I use a slightly different framework that to me is no input and output right so to really maximize my life I need to be at my peak energy to be at my peak energy What do I need and I really need three things and there is where I maximize or I try to maximize my nutrition, where I track my blood

levels in real time on a key tone, testing. And the other thing I do is exercise that goes with your second question is the first thing I do in the morning that gives me a lot of energy to then go to the day and also feel that I already took care of myself. So mentally is almost a mental relief. And the last one is slick. I really need to sleep at least eight hours. In my case, eight hours and a half to feel great.

I already know that if I wake up and I'm below 18% sleep or below the eight hours, that day I need to take it slow and I need to adjust my schedule. But to maximize my weekly schedule, I also have blocks in my calendar that they call Power Time. I have a really big one on Wednesday morning, so I don't take any meeting on Wednesday morning and I use that time just to think. And it's a moment in the middle of the week to review what I have done the previous two days or

what I want to achieve in the next two days. And then every day, I tried to sat in through our self, power time. I love power time, especially in the middle of the week on Wednesday. I think that's such a great actionable tip for everyone listening here. So

since Dr. Mita is here, and Mateo is here, and you just brought up sleep. I want to know from both of you guys since you're both in this area, a lot of people get less than eight hours of sleep, and people brag about this, honestly, about getting less than eight hours of sleep, and they seem to be doing fine on a day-to-day basis.

But what are some of the more subtle things that happen to our bodies over time when we don't get enough sleep? And maybe we can hear from Dr. Mita since she just joined us. I want to circle back to what you were just talking about. You were talking about how we should prioritize our day, and what time are there certain times of the day

when biologically you are actually better off doing certain things versus others, and it is true. So our alertness doesn't really stay steady throughout the day. It varies. So, you know, in the morning, you're better off when you're doing some focus mental tasks. In the mid-aftonune, there's definitely a dip in your alertness, and that's the time when maybe, you know, you shouldn't be trying to do something very, very important. Maybe you can take some time today, do some more mundane tasks.

And then the evening, you might have another, you know, another burst of energy. And that's when you can, you know, maybe you can do more creative work. And it all depends on multiple things. It depends on how much sleep you had the night before. So if you, if you got less sleep, well, then during that time during the day, when you're going to be less alert, you're going to feel more tired. And of course, it also depends on, you know, your, it's called chronobiology, which is whether you're a morning person or a night out. So I'm a morning person. So for me, that dip in the alert misogynist between one and say three in the afternoon, for somebody who's a night out, it may be between four and six in the evening. You know, timing is different for different people because it's individualized.

And then, you know, coming back to your second question, which was about, let's talk about, you know, what happens if you don't get enough sleep. So the first thing I'll tell you is that if you're getting less sleep on a chronic basis, you are, you really are not a good judge of whether you are well-rested or not. It's very similar to somebody who's been drinking at a bar. That's the last person who should be deciding whether you're free to drive. If you chronically get less sleep, your brain adapts to that level of sleepiness and that becomes your new normal and which is why you think you get by.

And you're doing pretty well. Typically, if you were in the sleep lab, and they were doing objective tests of measurement on your performance, there'd be some impairment. And yeah, I mean, we can go down the list of every aspect of human performance that is affected by sleep. And I would challenge you to find one thing that you could do, which is not affected by, not getting enough sleep. Sleep is so important for our physical health, our mental health, our productivity, our focus. It really impacts everything.

And I think if you know how to get really good sleep, it can be like a secret weapon. Since we've got two really big sleep experts on the line, I do wanna talk about circadian rhythms. So I'd love for you guys to define what a circadian rhythm is so that people who aren't familiar know what that is. And then I also want to understand how we can influence circadian rhythms. So can we learn our sleep habits or are they kind of inherited? So Matay or Ormita, either one of you, if you guys want to dive deep. Sure. So circadian rhythms are these

intrinsic timekeeping systems that we have within us, which are approximately 24 hours. And for us human beings are main circadian clock. It's located in our brain. It's like right at the roof of our mouth. And it's in our brain. And it's intrinsic, which basically means that it's always keeping time. And if you took that clock out and you put it in a petri addition, it would still keep time. It keeps time, but then on a daily basis, it gets reset to whatever your local time zone is because of exposure to light and dark.

So when I wake up, I'm based on the east coast. Every time I wake up and I get exposed to bright light, my circadian clock gets reset to the east coast time. And then at night when I'm in darkness, when I fall asleep, my brain secrete smell of tone and you know, that's how my circadian system sort of works. Now there are a few features of your circadian system that are really interesting. So even though there's a clock in our brain, in fact, every cell in your body and every function, a physiological function

has a circadian rhythm. And so the clock in your brain is just like a master clock, but you know, digestion, performance, everything, everything has its own circadian rhythm. The second thing is that the circadian clock decides whether you are a night owl or a morning person. So whether you prefer to be awake in the morning and fall asleep earlier or if you prefer to be more active at night and you go to bed later. And so that's a very important thing that your circadian rhythm decides. So when we talk about sleep, we talk about not just the quantity of sleep, which is, you know, you need on an average, 79 aisles of sleep to function well, but also the quality and the timing. And the timing is what you're referring to when you're talking about circadian clock. So if you're a Naitao, and I think I spoke

to one of, was it Catherine, Carolyn, who was, you know, she's a significant, maybe a Naitao. Well, if she went to bed late and was allowed herself to sleep in, she would be sleeping in alignment to her circadian clock. I'm a morning person. So if I, you know, can't get to bed on time because I'm busy, but I still wake up in the morning early. Well, that's the reason why I might not get enough sleep, because I'm not sleeping in accordance to my circadian. And I think I'll just let other people speak right now, because I've given you a little bit of a background information.

Yeah, I mean, this foundation was awesome. So I'm not even going to pass it a circadian rhythm point. But I wanted to sort of call back to your previous question, right? About the fact that sometimes people say, point, but I wanted to sort of call back to your previous question, right? About the fact that sometimes people say, or they used to say in particular in the night, is a lot of entrepreneurs, or I'm a tough guy, I sleep only for hours per night, I will sleep when I'm dead. But I think things changed a lot since then.

There is a very different education. We are more health aware of what is needed for our body. And I really think that sleep deprivation is the news-boking. And so I'm an entrepreneur, but at least in my field, so in health and wellness, if I was going out and saying, oh, I just work most of the time, and as it only for hours, that wouldn't be well perceived and for sure not well perceived, also from my customers. And so I really think there is a new trend that is part of this mental wellness and physical wellness and physical wellness is, again, on nutrition, sleep and exercise.

I just wanted to jump on something that Mita said. I thought that was a wonderful intro to circadian rhythms, but M too, you mentioned that seven to nine hours on average is what's required. I think it's useful for folks on the call to just recognize that, you know, we throw around those numbers because that captures the bulk of people, but there are always going to be folks who fall outside those bounds. And, you know, if you do, I think it's important to recognize that there are always going to be some people who need less than seven hours or even more than nine. And that doesn't mean you're problematic or deficient in some way. And so I think, I mean, I would love to hear a little bit more from me to Mateo about how to help people identify precisely how many hours they need because one observation that I informally have just working with lots of students and talking with lots of people about wellness

and health is some people say they need 13 hours or you know they get by just fine with five and a half no problem whatsoever and I'm guessing there are for some people that's probably perfectly fine. What's your X-quart opinion on that? That's a brilliant question, I really like that. So on an average adults need about seven to nine hours of sleep. We know that, of course, there's definitely variability in the human need.

Typically, if you're getting less than six hours of sleep, then the detrimental effects of not getting enough sleep are more likely to happen. There's also the reverse. So there are in some people who are over sleeping, which is, you know, consuming more than nine or ten hours of sleep, even that's shown to be bad and that definitely should be investigated. I think that what Ethan was really referring to is practically speaking, how can you tell that you're getting enough sleep? And really there are some clues you can get, like a set of questionnaires that you can answer for yourself. For example, do you feel refreshed

and you wake up and are you able to get through the day without coffee or caffeine or do you feel that you crash? Do you feel that you can concentrate or do you feel that you can still stay awake in quiet, boring, dull, sedentary situations? So, you know, most people, even if they're sleepy, they're going to be perfectly fine if they're under bright lights, if they're walking around, if they're They're going to be perfectly fine if they're under bright lights, if they're walking around, if they're motivated, etc. But if you were sitting down in a quiet boring dull situation, and for some people listening to this clubhouse meeting might be a quiet boring dull situation, and that might unmask sleepiness.

And that's really important to know, because sometimes, for example, driving is a quiet boring dull sedentary situation. So you might feel that when you're at work or at a feeling school, you're perfectly fine, you keep going, but then you get into a car and you're driving back home. And that's when you start feeling sleepy. That's because that situation has unmasked your sleepiness. The other clue that's really, it's a good clue is whenever you get longer sleep

on your days of versus what you're getting on a you know during your work week. So for example, if I from Monday to Friday was getting six hours of sleep but then on the weekend came along and I'm now I'm getting 10 to 12 hours of sleep. Well that means I'm playing catch up and that means that I was sleep deprived because that's why I'm playing catch up. So that would be another way to realize. And it becomes a little difficult because oftentimes when people say that they can get by with five hours of sleep, then the difference between somebody who can get by with five hours of sleep versus somebody like Mateo or I who think that they need eight hours of sleep,

maybe not that they need less sleep, but then that their ability to tolerate sleep deprivation is better than mine. So they've done it on a more chronic basis and that this becomes then you normal. But there is definitely there is variability. I will say that there's one more thing that people should be aware of, which is that oftentimes, you know, what we're talking about is not getting enough time in bed because you're leading busy lives, there's a hustle and that's different. But there's a large number of people who have difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep or have non-refreshing sleep despite the opportunity to do so. And that's insomnia, which is something totally different.

And that's something that also needs to be addressed. So you may have clients you're working with who may say, I get into bed on time, but my brain's wired, I just can't wind down, I can't fall asleep. And then it's time to wake up. So, I spend eight hours in bed, but I got only five hours. And that is not the same thing as sleep deprivation.

That's insomnia. Yeah, good point. Mateo, I see you wanna add something here. Yeah, I wanted to add the two weak things. So there are stats that report that only one person, every four million has the genetic ability to feel well-rested with only four to six hours of sleep. So if you are sleeping between four and six hours,

and you believe that that is the right amount of sleep for you, it means that you are one out of four million people that can genetically do that, just not to side the ballpark. The second thing that I always recommend is for one week, try to sleep one hour longer every day. At the end of the week you will have slept seven hours, no more than usual, which substantially equals to one more night, and then you assess how you feel.

That is one of the best tests that you can run. If you feel considerably back there after that week, more energize and happier and healthier, then you already have an answer, and that means that probably you need more sleep. Well, instead, if you don't feel any considerable difference, probably you were already sleeping enough. Young and profitors, do you have a brilliant business idea, but you don't know how to move forward with it? Going into debt for a four-year degree isn't the only path to success. Instead, learn everything you need to know about running a business for free by listening to the Millionaire University podcast. The Millionaire University podcast is a show that's changing the game for aspiring entrepreneurs. Hosted by Justin and Tara Williams, it's the ultimate resource for those who want to run a successful business and graduate rich, not broke.

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this podcast has it all. So don't wait, now is the time to turn your business idea into a reality by listening to the Millionaire University podcast. New episodes drop Mondays and Thursdays. Find the Millionaire University podcast on Apple Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. I love that. And I love actionable tips. That's what we're all about here at Young and Profiting Podcast. And so my next question is really about goal setting. I want to talk about manifestation and visualization and what your perspectives are on that, as well as how we can

ensure that we actually take action, because it's easy to dream and to plan, but a lot of people actually have trouble taking the action that's needed. So David, Ethan, any thoughts on this? the action that's needed. So David, Ethan, any thoughts on this? Yeah, absolutely. I love that. And goals are what drive us. Goals are what wake us up. Extremely excited to attack the mission we're on. And I gotta say, I don't have a job. I don't have a career. I'm on a mission because of goals. So I have my MBA players and people that I work with set what I call big crazy out of this world dream goals. Like something just so awesome and huge that it's going to be, it's going to take some time to get to, but it's going to be such a fun journey and enjoyable journey getting

there. So a tool that I use and I'll just give you a quick story of my uncle who coaches the Toronto Raptors and he won the NBA championship in his first years of head coach. So everybody was saying, you know, first year head coach, you got lucky, you struck lightning in the bottle. But really he'd been coaching as a head coach in all these different countries, different small little colleges for 27 years. So his goal to be this NBA head coach, which he put this picture on his fridge of him holding

up the trophy, cut out the face and put his face on there. He saw it. He lived in this every single day. So he saw himself as an NBA head coach, no matter what level he was at. 27 years later, he becomes this overnight success. So the power of setting big goals and then the power of visualizing yourself, seeing yourself in that day. You can train your subconscious to fully believe that is who you are. I mean, it's gonna take time, obviously. And it's never gonna go into straight line.

There's no straight line of success. It's always up and down, especially with goals. Your goals might change. They might pivot a little bit, but you know you're on this mission. And another tool that I use, I call it the treasure map. So this big crazy out of this world, dream goal, is your treasure. That's your goal.

Now there's going to be different X's along that journey that are going to lead you to that. So the tool is to be able to write out what are all those X's. Like what are those steps that you're going to have to take? Like you might have to grind a lot, but if you enjoy this grind, these X's along the way. If you can see yourself enjoying this quote unquote grind, you're going to make it. And I'm a firm believer that Basically, I mean other than playing in the NBA unless you're six, eight, and super athletic. Like you can really accomplish anything you put your mind to like I'm a small town

kid from the middle of nowhere cornfields of Iowa. I had a dream to play in the NBA, turned into coaching in the NBA, then it turned into being a motivational speaker, living in LA in an apartment overlooking the water. And that's what's happened. You'd manifest your dreams if you speak them into existence. Set up these target markers, put dates on when you want to hit them.

These super specific, like one of my NBA players, sorry I'm talking a lot, but this is something I'm super passionate about. Do you still about his, his don't want to subonacy place for the Indiana Pacers? And two years ago, we were working, he was coming off the bench and you know, I just asked him, I was like, Hey, what are you? What are your goals? And he said, to be great. I was like, okay, so does everybody else. Like that's the most bad answer there is. Let's be very specific with it. So we decided he decided, wanted to be an NBA All-Star, say, win 2020. This was 2018 at the time.

Where's that? Chicago. What time's tip off? 7 30 PM February 18th was the date. So we put that on the no card. He wrote it in his phone and his lock screen, put it in the no card, put it in his wallet. So he's carrying around this goal with him wherever he went all the time, living in this every day that this is his wallet. So he's carrying around this goal with him wherever he went all the time, living in this every day that this is his goal. 2020 rolls around February 18th,

Chicago 730 p.m. Don't mind this, the bonuses and NBA all start. No one would have seen that coming off the bench to be coming now into the top 10 players in the league because he has specific goals and took these daily 1% steps to get there. I mean, wrapping that up, but set big goals, know what your plan is going to be, have your blueprint. You can't just go out there and without a plan. Your plan might change and might pivot. That's totally okay. You're going to go through seasons where you end up in the pit. It feels like you're not accomplishing anything, embrace that pit because that coal and the fire is what makes your your diamond shine your on the other side as it is. And then just I mean day after day enjoying that daily journey.

I think that that is incredible advice. Ethan, I saw that you were ready to go with some insight. What do you think about this? There's a lot of research on this. And as David was saying, you know, finding that that goal that big picture goal is crucial and is really important. And it's importantly though, the first step and what you want to do after that according to the science is you want to then actually think about, well, what are the obstacles to getting to this endpoint? So what are the things that potentially stand in the way? And then once you identify what those obstacles are, the next step is to come up with a series of really specific plans. We actually call them if-then-plan. So if this happens,

if this obstacle occurs, then I'm going to handle it this way. And I think, you know, what David was saying about having the X's on the map scaffolds onto that a bit. And that's really one of the formulas for following through and accomplishing your goals, identifying the goal, then breaking it down, what stands in the way, and then coming up with those ultra-specific if-then plans that put you in a position so that when you come across that obstacle in your life, you don't have to think really hard at that point. What am I gonna do? You've already got the plan dialed up.

So once you hit the obstacle, once LeBron James gets in the lane, I guess, if we're dealing with the NBA, right? Then you know what to do, how to manage that. And that can be very useful. Totally agree. The next topic that I wanna cover is meditation. And I'm gonna do it this like a round

table style will hop from moderator to moderator. I want to know if you meditate, what is your meditation practice like and how has that benefited you in your life. And then I want to talk about people who are free to start meditating. I'm one of those people. Everybody thinks, you know, assumes that I meditate just because of the level of success that I've had and everything, but I actually don't meditate, at least I don't think I meditate. I might do it and not realize that it's meditation. So let me know, let's go around the room here. Mateo, let's start with you. If you meditate and how it has benefited you and how you incorporate that in your routine. So as I try to maximize my life, I try to work on meditation as well. I always struggle to be consistent.

So I can be consistent in the other dimensions that we discuss, one is that I always struggle with meditation. Until when I made a few changes. And so first on my mind, I call it self-reflection, now instead of meditation, and the difference is before I was using headspace, and I was doing a guided meditation, but usually after a week or a couple of weeks, I was not continuing. What I said, what I do today is I wake up and I spend the first 30 minutes of my morning just doing nothing and sitting on a couch or on a chair with my feet.

I drink the morning. But I don't have any guided meditation. I don't have any plan. I just let my mind run. And I have seen meaningful benefits in particular clarity because after a full night of sleep, you just let your mind go wherever you want, so you start thinking of things, but you do absolutely nothing. You don't even walk, you just help reflect. Love that, David. How about you? What is your meditation practice like and how has it benefited your life?

Yeah, so I like that point too, because I don't call it meditation. I think meditation is one of those terms that just gets thrown around like networking and culture and all of it sounds great, but no one really knows what it means. And to be honest, like maybe some of you guys out there meditate for two hours, I just don't have a time to meditate for two hours.

So my meditation is five minutes in the morning after I make my great coffee. I don't know how you don't drink coffee either It's a it's definitely a drug, but drink my great coffee and I spend five minutes just quiet nothing and sometimes those five minutes Are just the longest five minutes there are, but I give my first 30 minutes Faith is a big thing to me and my faith in Jesus is a big thing I give my first 30 minutes to God every morning morning and I'll spend those five minutes just listening and sometimes that's when I have my biggest breakthroughs and and what my thoughts are gonna be instead of just having this racing mind if I gotta do this

I gotta do that. So for me my meditation is five minutes in the morning and five minutes when I was five to ten minutes at the end when I'm reflecting on those those big three. Awesome. Ethan, how about you? What is your meditation practice like? I've been meditating on and off since I was five years old. My dad actually took me to get a mantra. So I have a long history with it. It's not a part of my daily routine. You know, I think meditation is can be a phenomenally useful tool for helping people deal with a buzzing in our life. And there's a lot of data that support its efficacy. But the one message I like to impress on people is that meditation is one of many different tools that exist for managing our minds.

And I don't think that there are any single magic pills out there. Lots of different tools, and different tools work for different people. One of the messages that I think often gets lost as the culture has gotten really swept away with mindfulness and meditation is that it is the tool to the point that I think if you're not meditating, some people wonder what's wrong with that, like why can't I find a half hour or even five minutes in the morning, you're afternoon to do it? You don't have to. There are lots of other things. And if other tools are working for you great, if meditation is something that is useful though, then go for it. So it doesn't factor into my toolbox when I tend to use,

but if it works for others, I certainly endorse it. I'm curious to know, like, if you don't meditate, what tools do you use then to kind of ground yourself and to put yourself in a good mental space? Well, you know, I think there are three categories of tools that exist for managing the mind. And by that, I mean, you know, oftentimes we don't have to deliberately try to control how we're thinking or feeling, but sometimes, like when don't have to deliberately try to control how we're thinking or feeling, but sometimes like when we're worrying or ruminating, we feel the need to do so.

And when that happens, when you're looking for tools in those situations, there are three buckets that you can pull from. There are things you can do on your own. There are ways of harnessing our relationships with other people. And then there are ways of interacting with the world around us. I'll give you an example just to break it down really quick of a tool in each one of those spaces. So something you could do on your own, when you're really stressed out about something,

let's say it's COVID anxiety in the pandemic, you could jump into what we call the mental time travel machine. And think about how you're going to feel six months from now. Once significant portion of the population is vaccinated and we have this in the rear window. We know from lots of experiments that when people transport themselves in time, they travel to the future. They think about how they're going to feel down the road, around the beach, when they're on the beach, sipping the piniacalada. What that does in psychologically is it makes it clear that what you're going through

right now, as awful as it is, it's temporary, it'll eventually pass, and that gives us hope. And you know that hope can be really useful for quieting an anxious or ruminative mind. You can also find people to talk to about the things that are bothering you, but here you want to be really, really careful who you seek out for advice. You don't want to just find any person to chat with about what I would call chatter, the buzzing stream of thoughts running through your head. You want to find people who are adept at really listening to you and empathically connecting, but not just getting you to venture emotions, but rather people who are in a position

to help you find a way of putting your problem in perspective. So, I have like three people I go to when I experience difficulties in my life, and I know I could share authentically what I'm struggling with. They validate that experience, but they then help me break out of this kind of room- roomative mess that is characterizing how I'm feeling. So find other people who are really skilled at being like really good advisors. And then the last bucket to give an example of your environment, go for a walk in a green space, we know that that can be rejuvenating, seek out an experience that provides you with

a sense of awe. So, you know, awe is a really underrated emotion. It's something we experience when we're in the presence of something vast, that we have trouble explaining. So, my most recent awe experience was seeing the Mars Rover land on Mars. I have trouble understanding how we figured out how to take an SUV, blast it off planet on earth, and land it on another planet. When I think about that, I'm filled with awe.

And one of the things we know is that when you experience awe, that makes your concerns feel a whole lot smaller, right? Like on the one hand, you're contemplating something vast and indescribable. Well, when you're doing that, your own problems don't seem quite as big. So that's just one example of something you could do in each one of those categories. But as science is shown, as I talk about in my book chatter, there are a ton of other things that people can do to help break themselves out of a room-native funk. Oh my gosh, this is so interesting, so fascinating. I know everybody tuning in is finding a ton of value.

Mita, you're up next. I want to understand if you meditate and if you could describe your meditation practice to us and how it has benefited your life. I do have a meditation practice and I do practice very regularly. I practice in the morning as well as in the evening before I go to bed. And in addition to that, I do have, you know, I do some faith-based practice, meditation practice too. I mean, I thought that ethans answers very nuance because, you know, there are different things that work for different people. I'll tell you, I am partial towards meditation and relaxation because I know that it can be a very effective tool in winding down when people are trying to fall asleep. And the principles of mindfulness in which you know you're non-judgmental and you're accepting those are also great tools to deal with poor sleep. Like if you have issues with in which you're not

being able to stay asleep and you're waking up in the middle of the night, the worst thing you can do is get really aggravated because guess what that's going to do? It's going to make you sleep even worse. So practicing those tools of non-judgment and acceptance, the tools that you might have learned during your mindfulness or meditation practice during the day, that can be very useful when you need them either at night or because I work with a lot of athletes.

They also really help center an athlete when they're about to go on to the court or go on to the field wherever they're playing. The other thing is that we talk about certain times during the day when you're meditating either early in the morning or on the evening, but building small breaks throughout the day. So for every 19 minutes of solid work, if you can put in a few breaks, that really helps. Then, you know, if they're electronic free, if they involve physical activity, like walking outside, going out into nature, interacting with people, shooting the breeze, all of those things hit a reset button that helps you prepare for the next 60 to 90 minutes of hard work that you're

going to be doing. So that's the long thing that I would add there. Can I just jump in to something that me to set there? And this will maybe connect the different streams we've been talking about, you know, mental well-being and sleep, which are of course intimately related. You know, one of the questions I think a lot of people have is what do you do when you find your waking mind communicating with your sleeping mind? I start, you know, at two o'clock, you're hit with a thought, oh my God, and then you can't go to sleep.

And it's really tough, as I'm sure Matteo, will add that when you find yourself ruminating or worrying in middle of night, it can be difficult to deal with that state in part because we know that brain systems that are useful for combating rumination and worry and suppressing them. Those are offline, so to speak, when you're sleeping.

So it's really hard to manage that buzzing mind in the middle of the night. So in terms of like practical tape homes, I think one thing that folks can do, if they want to minimize the likelihood of having those kinds of intrusive thoughts while they're sleeping, is to practice good, you know, what I think is often called sleep hygiene. So really like like stay away from social media. I realize that might be like counterproductive for this panel here, but it's early, so it's okay right now, but you really don't wanna be checking your email

and chiming in to different social networks that have the potential to elicit some kind of worry, some of our room minutes of thought, because if that happens, it puts you behind the eight ball from the very beginning and there are ways to prevent that. So just wanted to add that in there because I do think this connection between sleep and managing your mind is so intimately related and there are concrete things people can do to optimize the way the two flow together.

I love that add-on and I also love the fact that Dr. Mita brought up breaks because common sense tells us that the more time we spend working, the more work is going to get done, but it's just not true because we're not robots. Our minds need to recharge and research actually suggests that a 15 minute break every 90 minutes is a great way to accomplish more by actually doing less. So, Dr. Meade, I'm really happy that you brought up breaks because especially in the time of COVID with everyone working from home, I think people are really having trouble having that work-life balance. So with that said, maybe I'll kick it to you, David. How do you suggest, you know, now that more people

are working remotely, that they can incorporate more work-life balance in their life, even though they might not be leaving their house all day, and it's really hard to separate work from home right now. What would you suggest? Yeah, super good question, and that's that's a real thing we struggle with as high performers, high achievers. We want to continue moving the needle forward and continue to grow. And it's just, it just is wearing the zoom light fatigue. It's real. So the biggest thing you can do is not let your calendar

control you, but you control your calendar. In one way that I do that is with a tool that I call the time pizza. So the time pizza is a 24 hour slice pizza. You just draw a circle and you slice it out. Slice out one side where it shows where you're allocating your time currently. And you'll be surprised of how much free time you have,

how much wasted time you have, and you can decide where you wanna put that. It's a great tool for just kind of understanding where you spend the majority of your time and how you can allocate your time towards the most important, towards the essential. So, yes, controlling your calendar, not letting it control you.

Like I talked about earlier, scheduling things in, scheduling in your workout. Like, I'm business meeting. You're not gonna miss an important business meeting schedule your workout in like that. What is important to you? Schedule those things in. And then the understanding of mindset that,

that was to myself at the beginning of the day is this a full plate mentality. We have everything on our plate at the beginning of the day that we're going to get done. And we don't have to stress and worry to get out one more email, get out one more thing. You pick your shutdown time and make it a celebration. Make it a celebration.

We're gonna let everybody, your kids know, your spouse know, hey, closing time, shops closing down to 5.30, yelling out, making something fun, but know that this is when you're gonna shut down. And one of the biggest things that I've done is, is me and my wife, we put our phones on airplane mode. When we decide the time is up,

we're gonna spend intentional time together. We'll put our phones on airplane mode and we'll have our shutdown time. And that's the recharge that's unique because we just can't keep going and going and going 24 or seven. That work life balances, gets too much, gets too intense. So those are the tools I use and I recommend. I love that, Mateo, what do you wanna add?

Yeah, I have an advice as well here. So I color code my calendar. I also treated about that and there were a couple of screenshots. But so I give a color to different type of meetings. So for what I do, no, I have product meetings, growth meetings, investor meetings. I also schedule my training.

And so I have colors for each of these different categories. And at the end of the week, every Sunday, I receive a report, I make a report that summarizes how much time I spend in each area. And then I see if that matches my priorities. So let's say for me as an entrepreneur this week, now I rewanted to focus on product is product what percentage of my week? Is it 30% 50% or what? And what I noticed I have been doing this for three years now, but is a great forcing function to make sure that you are really allocating your time in accordance with your priorities. Thank you so much. And David, I know that you've got to jump. So I want to give you an opportunity

to say goodbye to the panel. And then we're going to start phasing this into Q&A. So David, do you want to just say a few words? Goodbye. Yeah. Thank you guys for allowing me to be on this and share some info and mindset with you guys. I picked up a lot from you all. And I thought I had my sleep down to a science, but now I learned a lot more. So I'm excited to go to sleep. If that makes sense, then I'm excited to wake up the next day to reach my goal. So I guess I'm just excited for everything. Anyways, thanks for being on everybody. I appreciate y'all.

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just nom nom. Go right now for 50% off your no risk two week trial at trinom.com slash app. That's trinom and om.com slash app for 50% off trinom.com slash app. I've got Ed here. He's going to be the first question. But before we go there, I do have a couple more questions. And this is mostly about mental health, which is related to sleep as well. So anybody on the panel can shout out. The first question though is for Ethan specifically. And I know you have a book called Chatter, and it's all about the your inner voice and how it dictates our moods, our relationships. And I know you have a book called Chatter, and it's all about your inner voice and how it dictates our moods, our relationships. And I know that you believe that our thoughts don't control us. We control our thoughts, and those thoughts can control our feelings.

And I think that's a really powerful statement to think that we have control over our feelings when oftentimes we feel like our feelings are out of our control. So how do we better control our thoughts and how do we maintain a healthy internal chatter? So I think step one is simply recognizing that people have the capacity to control their feeling is really important. And a lot of people don't think that they have that capacity. This is one of the foundational assumptions of a branch of intervention called the cognitive approach. And the idea is like things happen in the world that can lead us to feel a certain way, but it's how we interpret those

situations, how we make sense of them, that really determines how we feel. And so a lot of what we do when we're trying to help people manage their moods and really bring their moods in a line with how they want to feel is we work on helping people change the way they're thinking about the situation, reframing it. Again, take COVID as an example. COVID is awful. By, you know, like there's no qualifying that.

But there are ways of changing the way we're thinking about what we're going through right now, right? We can look at the big picture and the unbelievable scientific progress that has happened. I mean, I truly believe that there will be no bill prizes one for the vaccine effort that has taken place. We've never created a vaccine this quickly for this many people to deal with this pernicious bug.

Like free framing it in that terms, that's pretty remarkable, as is the fact that we're gonna get through this pandemic in a record period of time. So that's just one slight change to how we think about a situation that can make people feel better. And there are lots of other

tools that exist, some of which I talked about before, like awe or talking to people who are skilled at helping you reframe the situation that can likewise be really helpful. Yes, super interesting stuff. And I know Ethan, you're going to be coming on Young and Profiting Podcasts, soon, and we're going to dive deep into all of this, which I'm super excited about. So thank you so much for being on this panel, Mateo, Ethan, Mita and we're going to dive this, which I'm super excited so thank you so much for b material, Ethan, Mita. We're section like I said, if you

raise your hand, we've got here on the stage. Okay, so here at heart, how can we question for the panel? Thank you so much for letting me come up here, Ethan, thanks for the great nuggets. You guys have been wonderful. A couple of comments and questions real fast.

You talked about the mindfulness thing. I started on November 1st. I took a challenge from someone that doesn't matter. You don't know who it is. And on November 1, I started meditating. And I call it more mindfulness than meditation. It's just stopping for a period. I challenge myself to do 30 minutes each

day and I do it at night. And I also just do a blank journal right, right after. And I don't know when I start my mindfulness practice what I'm going to write. Sometimes I think I do know, but actually what happens is when I'm just querying my mind of the clutter of work and just stresses and bills and everything else, it really puts me in a position to be able to just freeform right and I've been really educational and enlightening for me to go back and look at what I've written. And in that time, since that started, I've paid off on my bills, I've bought a house, I've paid off a lot of other deaths, I've lost lots of weight. I mean, things have just been, and that wasn't the objective of November 1st, but it's been the end result of just

Getting my mind right every day and knowing that every single day. I'm going to do that And so that's just been that's a little plug for a pop meditation called mindfulness college is pausing and refreshing Question for the panel after that long-winded statement is It was really easy for me to manage my time when I was in my office and I had my staff and I had team and I had a strategy of just not scheduling more than half my day and then allowing the other half for interruptions, fires, spur of the moment, nine holes of golf, whatever I might fill today. Now that I'm working from home and my home is my office and my office is my home and my

kitchen is my cafeteria and my backyard is my playground and my kitchen is my cafeteria and my backyard is my playground and my grandkids are there all day. What kind of vice does anybody here have for just how to balance my day better with everything happening all over the same roof every day now? So I'll tell you, you know, what you're describing is really what happened to a lot of people when the lockdown happened, right? When they started people were at home. So those lines that we have, those social lines of, you know, going to work and that distinction between home and the work life sort of blurred. And typically those lines help

Those lines help give us a schedule, an outside schedule, and an outside schedule allows us to have some control over life. So that it doesn't feel like free form. And so, you know, I would tell people that if you're going to be, if you're working from home, impose a schedule on yourself, which is clear and distinct. So you know, make sure you strict about the times you go to bed and the times you wake up. You're strict about getting enough light during the day because light is really important to strengthen those decayed rhythms. You're able to separate out the time when you're working, the time that you're going to be exercising, the time you're going to separate out the time when you're working, the time that you're going to be

exercising, the time you're going to be interacting with your family. Just doing all of that, it helps your productivity because then it doesn't feel that everything is in free form. Yeah, I can follow up on that. Although Ed, it sounded like you wanted to maybe say something. So, I'll go ahead. No, I'm not. I'm eager to hear what you're saying. The only thing I don't want to. I don't want to. Eager to hear what you say.

The only thing I was going to say is I don't even have in California and I just drive. I can't wait to just get outside. There are days when I go three or four straight days is in the office and really struggling with my AM-PM calendar and sleep. And just the chance to just get outside, even if it's just to put the sunroof down and go for a drive has been

amazing. So, to me, to thank you for that, Ethan, I'm eager to hear what you have to say. Well, Ed, you've depressed me now because I'm not in Southern California. I know I'm not in Michigan. Take where? Convicted in itself.

Typically, very great. I just want to reinforce what Mehta said about the Neifra structure. So, one of the things we know about human beings is we have this strong motivation to have order, like to know that the world is predictable, we're certain, and part of the thing that's so stressful about COVID right now,

is there's so much uncertainty and so much that's outside of our control. And one of the really neat developments in psychology over the past several years is we've discovered that when people feel like they don't have control and they don't have order, which as me very eloquently described, is I think something that is many of us are experiencing right now, there are lots of things we can do to help regain that sense of control.

And so creating a schedule that is certainly one thing you could do. Other things you could do aren't always so intuitive, but they're nonetheless useful. So organizing your space can be a helpful tool. So many people when they're stressed out, right? And then they feel like they don't have control. They reflexively tidy up, do the dishes. I do this myself and it's very out of characteristic for me because I'm not an overly orderly guy, very kind of free-flowing usually. But when I'm stressed out, I clean up the house. My wife loves it. Sometimes I think she wants me to be stressed more often because of it. That's a joke in case she's listening here.

Yeah, I got that good. Okay, cool. But, but you know, so that's one thing you could do. Another thing you could do is engage in a ritual and a ritual is a very structured sequence of behaviors that have meaning for us. And so there are many religious rituals that are passed down to us from our cultures that we engage in, but there are also personal rituals that can also be effective. There are things that you do on your own. So, you know, for me, it might be waking up and going for a walk first thing in the morning and then coming home and making breakfast for my daughters waking them up. That's my personal ritual. And because that is ordered and there's a sequence that characterizes it, that gives me a sense of order and control as well. And so lots of different

ways we can try to regain a sense of order and control. And they range from the kinds of things that Dr. Mita was talking about to some of the other things that I just mentioned. Yeah, that's really good. Last thing I'll say and then I'll be quiet. My morning ritual is great and then havoc just happens. I get up in the morning, I write in my five minute journal, I do three things I'm grateful for, I do an IAM statement, you know, what's going to make today great? I go make coffee, I do an IAM statement, you know, what's gonna make today great? I go make coffee, my wife and I sit and have our coffee typically,

some days we don't, most days we do. And then I have a pretty reactionary mode, I teach and I consult and it just seems like I look at the email and okay, how am I gonna react today? So I appreciate the insight, I need to just manage things a little bit better and this advice has just been really priceless.

So thank you so much. And Hala, thanks for the time. Yeah, of course. Ed, thank you so much for your question. Let's circle back to sleep really quick, because there's something that I wanted to touch on that we didn't get a chance to, and it was naps. So I've heard of places like Google, Nike, Zappos.

They all have nap rooms or nap pods. and they pay their employees to basically take a nap at work and that's because sleep and it's relation to a lack of productivity cost businesses 63 billion dollars a year. So there's like a monetary value aligned with lack of sleep and productivity in the workplace. So Mateo, I see you're off mute. You're eager to answer this question. Talk to me about naps and the importance of naps. Yeah, absolutely. I'm a huge fan of naps.

I think they are one of the greatest hacks and superpowers that we have. Always is very hard to first have the time in the middle of the day. And second, to also have the mindset to really stop your mind from racing. But if you can take a nap in the middle of the day is one of the best things that you can do to reduce the amount of adenosine that you have in your brain. So it's similar to almost the same benefit that you get from a coffee. Obviously from a

physiological standpoint it's completely different. The coffee is just something that goes in between your brain and the adenosine, while instead the nap, it reduces in a real way the amount of adenosine. One thing I do is, first, I recommend to take an app that is between 20 and 30 minutes. You don't want to get into RAM or deep sleep. And second, one thing I do is I drink a coffee right before the nap. It will take around 30 minutes for the coffee to keep keen. And by that time, I already woke up from my nap. And so in this way, I really maximize the benefit of the nap itself and the coffee.

I love that. I think Daniel Pink told me about that. I interviewed him. He calls it a napachino. I love that. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, there's this name that is napachino and it's the best of the two worlds. So I caught FI plus the nap. Again, don't sleep for too long or you will feel groggy.

Do it at least eight hours before going to bed. So in my case, I tried to do it around 1 pm, 2 pm and the latest and see how you feel. In my case, it gives me a lot of energy and improves my performance during the afternoon. Awesome. Okay. We're going to get to our last question and then we're going to wrap it up because I do know that a lot of you guys on stage have some time constraints. And so I want to be mindful of that. So, Haley, I saw that you were off mute before. You were the last question of the evening. How can we help you today? Hi, it's a pleasure to be on.

I apologize, I am on my commute on home. So I've listened to everything that everyone's had to say and I'm gonna try and remember my comments. The first one is regarding NAPS, which was the most current comment, when I was in university and that's 45 years ago. I read that Napoleon never slept. He had NAPS. And I thought, hmm,

if he can conquer Europe on 20-minute NAPS, surely the goodness I can make it through my exams. It did not take more than a week. to this day I can still lay down, say I'm going to nap for 20 minutes and I will naturally wake up in 20 minutes. My mind is refreshed. It's just a break away from whatever stressors are going on in your life. So that's my first thought. Secondly, we were talking earlier about mindfulness and I think one of the big things there is awareness to be aware of your thoughts. And over the last few years and intensely over the last year, I've been watching my thoughts. And when one comes up that is not the kind of path I want to go down, I either say, okay, how can I reframe that? How can I pivot? Or if that's difficult for me, I just choose something that's easy to feel good about. So I think about my granddaughter, about our beautiful gardens,

or whatever at that point in time will put me on a different trajectory. As far as the office in the home, I've been very blessed that being self-employed, I can restrict access to my office. So I literally do leave home. I go to my office, I don't allow people in, so I'm following all of the COVID requirements.

And when I'm at work, I work. When I leave work, work is done. That's one of my superpowers. The moment I lock the door, work is done. That's one of my superpowers. The moment I lock the door, work is done, and it does not interfere with the rest of my day. But for those of you who are trying to cope with working from home in an environment that is not the one you're accustomed to, yes, definitely do the organizing definitely set yourself

scheduled. But one of the best pieces of advice that I heard is put headphones on. You don't have to be listening to anything, but you tell the rest of the people in your environment. Listen, when I have my headphones on, I'm working. So you cannot come and interrupt me. That was a wonderful summary. I have to say, like, what a great way to end the show. I'm sorry that you got cut off, Haley.

But what a great, fantastic way to end the show. And you gave some really great advice as well. I'm sorry that you cut out there. I'm gonna have to wrap up the show here. So thank you so much for your contribution, Haley. We appreciate that you came up, gave your takeaways. Those were amazing. And we're just going to wrap up. And so the last question I'm going to ask everybody on the stage, and then after you answer, you guys can leave quietly and go on with the rest of your night. I usually ask all my guests, what is your secret to profiting in life? But for this session, since it's a special session about optimizing your life,

I will ask you, what is your top secret to optimizing your life? And we'll kick it off. We'll start with Mateo, then we'll go Ethan Mita, and you guys can leave after you give your response. For me, Stephanie is asleep, so everything is around sleep. Then I wake up with peak energy and I can do my best every single day. Awesome. How about you, Ethan? You know, I try to just ride it. So if I don't get enough sleep, I'm not too hard on myself. And sometimes I have to work harder than others, but I just kind of go with the flow. And that's really worked for me. How about you, Mita?

What is your secret to optimizing your life? I have to say that I do think that sleep is an investment in tomorrow, the next day. It's the investment to do well. And the only way you can actually do it is by not stressing out about it. So Ethan's absolutely right. You have to sort of go with the flow.

As long as you know you've done your level best and you've allowed yourself enough time to sleep, that's all you can do. Amazing. Well, we had such an incredible discussion today. We talked about everything in regarding to optimizing your life, whether it had to do with productivity, focus, mental health, your physical health, sleep.

We talked about it all, so I hope you guys enjoyed this episode of Young and Profiting Podcast. Thank you so much to all the moderators who helped out today. And until next time, this is Hala, signing off. Are you looking for ways to be happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative? I'm Gretchen Rubin, the number one best-selling author of the Happiness Project. And every week, we share ideas and practical solutions on the Happier with Gretchen Ruben Podcast. My co-host and Happiness Guinea Pig is my sister Elizabeth Kraft. That's me, Elizabeth Kraft, a TV writer and producer in Hollywood.

Join us as we explore fresh insights from cutting edge science, ancient wisdom, pop culture, and our own experiences about cultivating happiness and good habits. Every week we offer a try this at home tip you can use to boost your happiness without spending a lot of time energy or money. Suggestions such as follow the one minute rule. Choose a one word theme for the year or design your summer. We also feature segments like know yourself better where we discuss questions like are you an over buyer or an under buyer? Morning person or night person, abundance lever or simplicity lever? And every episode includes a happiness hack, a quick easy shortcut to more happiness.

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