And what has, [laughs] what has the triathlon training specifically taught you?

Hmm.

Yeah, okay, so for your first question there, so how do I do it? Um, first of all, with difficulty.

Um, and second of all, what I've learned over time and in training and in work, I've learned this, this piece of advice from a guy called Josh Waitzkin, who's a, he wrote an excellent book that I'd recommend to, to anyone out there interested in high performance called The Art of Learning.

It's a bit of a classic in high performance world, and he talks about this concept in there, and he says, "How well we turn it on depends on how well we turn it off." And- I really apply this in my life.

And before, when I started off in the corporate world, I was always on.

I was just grinding at my desk 24/7 and probably operating at about a five maybe, if I was being generous, a six out of 10.

Yeah.

the discipline to rest.

And there's a formula that I love around this, which is stress plus rest equals growth.

If we are constantly putting ourselves under stress, good or bad stress, and I'll come back to that in a moment.

If we are constantly putting ourselves under stress, if we are constantly working and not resting, we might grow a little bit, but over time we'll plateau.

And then we will see a decline in growth.

And then if I left unchecked, that will sadly lead to burnout.

So thinking about that formula, we want to stress ourselves, yes, but ensure that we're getting sufficient rest and recovery.

For me, I would say

You described a former life as one that ticks every box, but... feeds nothing inside you for listeners or viewers who suspects they're in that the same trap but cannot quite name it what are the early warning signs they should be paying attention to

So I think the position I was in is one that many, many people are in today.

And perhaps some of you guys listening right now might be in that very spot, which is that you've got a good, stable job working for a good company that looks after you well.

But perhaps the work itself isn't what you're truly passionate about, what you really love.

And maybe on sort of Sunday evening, you have those Sunday scaries where you slightly dread the week ahead.

And maybe you wake up on Monday morning and think, Oh God, I've got a full week of work.

And you almost want to fast forward to the weekend when you can have your life back and enjoy it.

Because

So what was it like growing up, and, um, what experiences shaped who you are today?

Hmm.

Sure.

So I had a quite an ordinary background.

So I grew up here in, in England, in London.

I went to Edinburgh University, where I studied, and I then started my career, my professional career as an accountant, as you, as you shared, Joy, in the introduction, at PWC, and it seemed like the sensible decision.

Um, my dad had been an accountant, my granddad had been an accountant.

[laughs]