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Wayne Andersen

Self-Optimization: A Place to Thrive

Your physical and mental health are critical. Each aspect of health – how we sleep, how we move, what we eat – is important to our overall health. Once these components work together and stabilize, we can focus on optimization. Where we can put our minds where we want, when we want, for as long as we want and make choices that continue to move us forward. Are you ready to take control?

Video Transcription:

So, we’ve talked about self-awareness being the critical beginning point. We’ve talked a lot about self-
management including emotional agility and how critical they are to become that Dominant Force in
your life.

What I’d like to do now is talk about optimization. In order to create Optimal Health and Wellbeing for
yourself, we have to ask ourselves a lot of questions and we have to decide that, “I want to do this.”
It’s much easier to stay in the space you’ve been in, the comfort zone, right? Life is okay, life is fine, I’m
doing okay, but that’s not really where life is.

We were put on this planet for a very short period of time and I believe it’s to optimize ourselves to
become more and I know you have it inside of you. You have such greatness inside of you and no matter
what happened in the past, your future is in front of you. And we can help take you on that journey.
It’s not going to be easy, but the practice makes perfect. And anything can be changed with practice.
I don’t care what your situation is. I came from a relatively modest family and I live a life most people
only dream of now, and it’s taken a lot of work, but I can tell you spending the time working on yourself
may not seem like immediate benefit, but it’ll come pretty quick. It’ll come because you’ll start to
change your relationship with yourself and also with others.

When you build that internal stability where things can’t trigger you, where you sit back and look at
everything using this beautiful thing that we’re the only creature on the planet that has access to, which
is this treasure, this gift we have, and if we’re using this versus that Labrador, that emotional, that
reptilian brains; we can change everything and everybody has that. We just have to understand how it
works, how we can modify it, and how we can put it in position to serve you and that starts today.

First, it starts with your physical health. You know, one of the key parts of that is understanding that
your brain is inside there. It’s the structure that allows the healthy mind to develop. And so, it’s so
important to take great care of our body. So, our physical health includes the things we eat, how we
move, how we sleep, and how we handle our energy.
Our healthy mind, of course, our surroundings, and how we take our surroundings and put them in
position to really help us.

You know, I’ve been teaching these for almost 20 years and as I focus on them, I understand that they all
integrate. Just like many years ago when I decided to become a critical care physician and recognize that rather than being a heart doctor or a lung doctor, I needed to be a doctor of the whole body to make sure that all these organs were working together. We need to make sure that all the components work together and once we get them stabilized, moving to optimization is the next step.

One of the things I’d love you to do is ask yourself in terms of the things I value in terms of my physical
health. Am I eating right? Am I getting away from processed foods? Am I staying away from lots of fats
and lots of meats?

You buy your willpower at the grocery store, don’t buy or bring home stuff that you have a tendency to
want. Crunchiness of potato chips or sweet ice cream because those are things that have temporary
pleasure, but in the long term, add you on to a period of having poor and poorer health.
Am I focused on how much the quantity I’m eating as well? So they reach and maintain a healthy weight.
Am I hydrating myself and putting myself in position for my body to function at a high level?
Sleep, I always look at it as my secret weapon. Each night your body defrags and puts itself in position to
categorize and put all this information in place so it can serve you. So, sleep is critical.
Your physical health is critical and I know most of us know that we may not be doing it and we may not
be doing it because we haven’t figured out in here.

You’ve got to be willing to do with 360 on yourself, to ask yourself the hard questions, to become the
master of your thoughts and feelings, to be in charge using this part of your brain.
The superpowers of taking control of your mind are the most powerful gift you could ever give yourself.
I know it’s been the most important thing that I’ve given to myself. It has allowed me to continue to
thrive and now I can tell you the gift is available to you. So, take a hold of this practice, do the work,
apply it daily just like you would exercise or go for a walk and start doing it throughout the day.

Anytime you have a chance, take that moment, Stop. Challenge. and Choose., see where you are, and start thinking that I am not my thoughts and feelings. I am the creator of what I want in my life and go out
and make that a reality.

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