Why did it count backwards?
Oh no, we're now recording.
What?
Hello Captain.
Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away.
What are we going to talk about?
I don't know.
So, leadership, life and everything else.
Yeah.
And we're live.
No, we're still recording.
Welcome aboard Captain and the Clown.
Podcast on life, leadership and everything else.
Hi Michelle.
Hi Guy.
Captain.
And the Clown.
The Clown.
And today's destination is?
Doing your best.
So what have you been up to?
I am preparing for a round table next week.
And you're going to do your best?
I am going to do my best.
You're always doing your best.
Yeah, yeah.
A group of ladies who lead in Western Sydney.
So I'm very excited about that.
Awesome.
Fantastic, fantastic.
Yeah, I'm preparing for a couple of virtual sessions with some clients overseas.
Yes, they still haven't plucked up the courage to get people travelling overseas to do stuff yet.
But we'll get there.
So on that actually, the, so in person I love the feedback, the immediate feedback I get from people in person.
And the Zoom thing I'm not a fan of.
Have you found?
It's challenging.
Yeah.
It's challenging running any sort of training session virtually.
I find it exhausting.
It is exhausting because you're not getting the same energy back and you're never making eye contact.
Because if you're looking at the camera, you're not looking at people's eyes.
But if you're looking at the screen, you're not looking at the camera so that you're not looking straight ahead.
And so I find it a lot less personal.
It's obviously something that we have to get used to because in the future this hybrid work from home model.
Yeah.
I hadn't thought of that actually.
Yeah, the fact that there's no eye contact.
Yeah, no eye contact.
You're either looking at a camera or you're looking at a screen.
You are never looking somebody in the eyes if you're on a Zoom or a Teams or...
No, you're looking at their eyes.
But yeah, you're not...
Yeah, but not looking in their eyes.
You're not making that human connection and receiving your oxytocin.
Anyway, today is about doing your best.
Yes.
Yes, because we both have a belief that a lot of people don't share.
No, no, there are some naysayers out there.
Yeah, so I firmly believe that every single person on this planet every day of their life does their best.
Yes, under the circumstances.
Under the circumstances.
Whatever they may be on that particular day, that particular minute.
They're doing their best.
Not their peak.
No, no, there is a difference.
Their peak is something different.
Their peak is when the world conspires to give you everything you need on that day and all the environment is perfect and you hit your peak.
The planets align, the green lights one after another.
Yeah, the planets align, Venus is lined up with Mars and you're doing the most you can possibly do.
Yes.
But on the other days, everyone is doing their best.
Yeah, the days where you fall over, skin your knee, you don't get a report done.
You don't get anything done on your to-do list because of the kids are sick, your computer's not backed up, you're whatever.
You're still doing your best under those circumstances.
That's it.
And a lot of people have argued with me when I brought up this topic.
They said, no, no, on Saturday I was sat on the couch all day long.
And I said, well, that was your best on that day.
That's all you could do.
Yeah.
Oh, but I could have done more, but you didn't.
No.
Well, people actually think about that.
So no one ever criticised the seasons for the winter trees lose their leaves.
It's like, come on, you could have kept it.
Keep your leaves all through the year.
Stop being, is it deciduous?
Yeah.
And so they, you know, but ourselves we beat up or we beat up others because they do need downtime.
And then they're doing the best downtime they can.
But it's that recuperate and again, there could have been things that haven't aligned, that haven't worked out,
but you are doing your best, even getting out of bed or sitting up or, you know.
For some people getting out of bed can be very difficult.
That's right.
When they're in their depressive states or whatever, it stops you from being able to get out of bed.
And I think we need more compassion for people.
I'm not condoning laziness here.
No.
Oh, no, absolutely.
What I'm saying is that if somebody is lazy, they're doing their best,
but what they need to do is they need to find out what are the factors that are causing them to be lazy
or that's sucking the motivation out of them or so, you know, they haven't learned to overcome this or this challenge.
And so ultimately, yet.
Yet.
Exactly.
And I think what it does is if you make the, I guess, the internal belief that I'm always doing my best,
then you're a little less harsh on yourself.
And then rather than using your energy to beat yourself up,
you're going to use your energy to find out what you need to change to do better, to get closer to your peak,
whatever your peak may be.
So rather than using all of that neural energy to beat yourself up because you were lazy,
beat yourself up because you didn't finish that school assignment,
you should be sitting there using that neural energy to figure out what do you need to do differently next time to get closer to your peak.
Yeah. Yeah.
I'm thinking even back when, you know, I was at uni and the thought of washing up because the dishes would pile up.
Yeah.
And I know this has got nothing to do with business, but it was that thing of after, you know,
a big night the night before or whatever, facing a mountain of washing the next day, washing up plates, cups, et cetera.
And it was just that, oh, I can't, you felt, you didn't feel well anyway.
I had had a couple of drinks the night before.
At uni? No.
And I was an art student.
Oh, what? They don't go together?
But it got to the stage where it was just, oh, even just, and, you know, you wanted a drink of water and there wasn't a clean cup.
And you considered maybe even a saucer or drinking straight from the tap.
But I'm getting a picture of university days now.
It wasn't good.
But it came down to the fact where I was like, OK, I've either got to wash up and it's then a big, big chore, big thing to do.
Or I can just be like lazy, do a cup at a time as I need it.
So that was your best?
That was my best at the time.
I then I got sick of that.
I actually got to the stage where I was sick of having to face that every single day.
And it's not that I was a lazy person.
It was just it wasn't a priority.
Yeah.
And then I made the decision, OK, I am only going to have one cup, one bowl, one.
And it made it a hell of a lot easier.
The decision to do it and to wash it as I.
And that was so you removed all of the obstacles to allow you to get closer to your peak and your peak was having clean dishes.
Correct. That was my thing.
I kind of digressed a little.
That's OK. That's OK.
I am so I used this mindset, I guess, about always doing your best when I overcame my fear of public speaking.
So as you know, we've discussed this in the past, both in the past, both of us had a fear of public speaking.
Yes.
And I would get up there and I was getting better at it, but I still feared my audience and I was feeling insecure, even though I was starting to get good at public speaking.
And then I sat down one day and I was thinking about it.
I was thinking, well, what could they possibly be judging?
Because I'm doing my best every time I go out there.
I'm doing my best.
I'm not great at it yet.
I'm still learning it, but I'm certainly doing my best.
And then I realized that every single day I do my best.
And if people have got a problem with that, that problem's not with me.
That problem's with them because I'm doing my best.
If they're expecting more from me, they're expecting something that can't happen yet.
No, no.
And you can't control others.
No, I can't.
And so when I start to realize that I was going to do my best, if my best wasn't good enough for them, that's their problem.
So that then took all of the fear away from me so I could concentrate on what I was doing.
I could concentrate on getting better and using any feedback that I got to improve and grow and learn
without that massive fear of judgment coming from the audience.
It's like, I guess, being in a Datsun 180B and driving down the highway,
expecting the car to be able to do 200 kilometers an hour.
And you can't. It's an old rat load. It's only going to attack you 120, 130.
The problem's not with the car. The problem's with the expectation that it can do 300 kilometers an hour.
It's the same as my audience. If they expected me to be better at that time when I was learning, that's their problem.
Yeah.
And so if you can harness that and bring that thought inside yourself, that every day you do your best.
Yes.
It stops you worrying about other people.
That's right. So yeah, there's some days.
So even going for a walk in the morning.
Some days I could, and because of my knees, I can't run anymore.
And I used to be so hard on myself because to me it didn't feel like I was actually exercising if I was walking.
It's like walking for plebs. Like honestly, you're not exercising.
This is a poor excuse to call it an exercise.
And then I had to change my mindset and that I was at least getting out, the blood was flowing,
and I would walk fast quickly. But there are some mornings when it's a struggle to get out of bed.
I know that feeling.
Pleas when I do get out, and I do, I make myself get out of bed.
But going and I make myself go for a walk. But it's that some days I'm not going to break any land speed records at all.
I don't even work up a sweat.
Yeah.
But I can.
So I guess your peak changes throughout your life, doesn't it?
It does.
Yeah.
Yeah, you've got to readjust that.
You've got to readjust your peak.
Have you ever been in flow or in what they call it the zone?
Absolutely. Well, even flying.
So there are some days when you are so on and, you know, every flight is safe from A to B,
but you are so on that you, you know, your radio calls, your checklists, your calls to crew,
your takeoff flight landing, everything is just a hundred percent, a hundred and ten percent.
It's almost like it's happening without you thinking.
Yeah. Yeah. And it's just an extension of your body. It's amazing.
Actually, when I was learning to fly, there was a, an instructor and he used to be a, a Qantas captain of all captains.
Not that there's anything wrong with Qantas captains, but it was, he had a lot of experience.
I think he had something like 20,000 hours and he took me up on this very windy day to do crosswind takeoff and landings.
Now I had struggled as a student to do this. I've done a couple of lessons and hadn't quite got it.
And he actually, he demonstrated the first one with me in the aircraft and it was, it was beautiful to watch
and to be part of rough as it's all buggery around the circuit, but he made it so easy and he was so confident of his ability
that he had the time and the brain space to not only fly, but to talk and describe everything he was doing at the time.
And it, it clicked immediately and it was easy after that.
So yeah, so being in the zone and I saw what it was like to be in the zone.
And then that's something that you want to achieve. It's possible.
Yeah, we train for it in sport. So similar to what you were saying previously about muscle memory, about, you know, it's you train so much.
What would you, I think the term you used was an armchair pilot where it's just so comfortable.
That's right. Armchair. Well, no, that's an armchair practice. So it was, it was you rehearsing it in, in the armchair.
So prior to, a bit like athletes who do the mental preparation. Absolutely. Yeah. Mental rehearsal.
Yeah. So we, we did in sport as well. You train hours and hours and hours because when you get to the game, you don't want to be thinking.
No. The times that I played my worst is when I was inside my head. I was thinking, yeah.
But the times where I played my best and I remember the time I actually did play my best was two, two tournaments, one tournament in 1993 at the World Cup
and another tournament in 95. I achieved what I refer to, now refer to and other athletes refer to as being in the zone.
I was in the zone. It's like the world had slowed down and everything was happening at this incredible slow pace.
Even though they're throwing projectiles at me at very, at a very fast pace. It's, it's almost like I could predict what was going to happen before it happened.
Yeah. And it was the most amazing experience. And so I discovered what peak feels like.
But this, all of the universe had aligned. I trained hard. I wasn't in my head about anything outside of my sport.
Had a good sleep. I had a good sleep. I was eating good nutrition. I was recovering well. I was stretching.
I was doing everything that I needed to do to be able to reach my peak. And I did. Yes.
But I've had tournaments and not just, not just sport, but also keynotes early on in my career where I didn't reach my peak
because I hadn't looked after all the outside factors. But again, looking back on those days and those times, I was doing my best under the conditions that I was in.
You know, maybe I had a problem with my relationship at the time or I had this. And so they, those were the things that were getting into my head.
And that's why elite athletes, you hear about them all the time. They, they, they come into the stadium with headphones on, they remove the outside world.
They have to be so one point focused so that they can be at their peak. But most people aren't. Yeah.
LeBron James, you know, so we have to be a bit more compassionate with ourselves and, and with our colleagues and with our family and with our kids
and realize that they're doing their best. Yeah. They don't, they don't have the support crew behind them to remove all external distractions
so that they can be at their peak when they need to perform.
I had a flying, a chief flying instructor who instilled, he drilled it in us. Prior performance prevents, sorry, prior practice prevents piss poor performance.
Yes. Or prior preparation is what it is. We heard, perfect practice. Right. Perfect practice prevents piss poor performance.
Yes. Cause if you're practicing the wrong way, it doesn't work. Yeah. You practice like you want to, yeah. Practice like you want to compete.
Yeah. And so, and his name was Pat. So it was Pat's proven process prior preparation prevents piss poor performance.
Say that quickly again. I want to hear that quickly.
So yeah, but it was, and it was true because the days that you didn't prepare in for, and this was for flying training, but you can apply it to anything.
Yeah. The days you did not prepare. So either allowing for the outside factors or building yourself up, even, even with flying, you know, the landings that you did where if the weather was bad, there were conditions that weren't favorable necessarily
because you planned that landing so far back as in you were in the climb and you'd already, you knew you'd briefed it. You knew what your outs were. If anything went wrong, you knew exactly what to do. And so did your colleague.
The nice days where it was, you know, only a little bit of wind and it was a sunny day. You're almost lulled into this false sense of security that it was just, ah, it's another landing.
And sure you briefed it, but your head space wasn't as acute as what it is for, you know, allowing for the, the more challenging conditions.
Yeah. So every day we do our best. We don't necessarily always do our peak. Our peak is for when the universe is aligning everything for us.
How do we, how do we argue with the naysayers out there that say, Oh, look, I spent the whole day on the couch. How can you say I'm doing my best?
Well, why were they on the couch? Exactly. Why were they on the couch? Well, I was tired. Well, there you go. The universe was conspiring to make you tired. That's right. You needed some recovery. Yeah.
I think, I think the reinforcing the thing of doing your best doesn't mean peak. So you haven't scored a hundred percent in a test, but you did your best and you got, you know, you might get 38%.
You did your best because either you hadn't prepared it with stuff you didn't know. You'd had a late night. Your pen didn't work. You ran out of time, whatever it is. And we're not giving excuses.
It's just, you haven't reached peak a hundred percent, but a hundred percent for you that day may be 38%.
And it's a complete waste of your time and energy to beat yourself up that you weren't at your peak.
What you should do is you should look at the fact that you weren't at your peak. Now learn what were the factors so that next time you can remove or overcome or do something different.
Yeah, do your own debrief. That's right. Yeah. Okay. So that's what I achieved. That was my best with the situation, with the circumstances.
So what were the circumstances? And then debrief with yourself, like you say, go through, all right, well, why was I tired? Well, I stand up too late the night before looking on TikTok or whatever it was.
I ate a big bowl of ice cream and I'm lactose intolerant and so I didn't sleep at all. Yeah. Yeah. So I think we've got to be kinder to ourselves.
We've got to realize that every single day we are doing our best. Yeah. Not our peak. No. Our best. But doesn't mean you have to be okay with substandard performance.
You just need to identify what were the factors that meant that your best on that day was substandard from your, you know, from your metrics, whatever you measure.
And then just start to assess what do I do differently? Did you make your bed in the morning? Did you drink your water when you woke up? Did you have your cold shower? Did you sleep? Yeah.
Did you make your bed? Did you follow your routines? Did you set yourself up for success? Yeah. All comes back to that.
I'd love to get the kids to hear this message, all kids to hear this message. Every day you do your best. Yeah. Even when you're lying on the couch. Yeah.
But if you're not happy with lying on the couch, you know, you want to get closer to your peak, whatever your peak may be, then just look at the factors that are causing you to lay on the couch. Yeah.
You know, not do your homework. Look at the factors that are causing you to sleep in. Is it because you're scared? Because you don't know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. Just to start to think about it a little bit better. That's right.
Because we've got too many people on this planet beating themselves up, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Be kind. Be kind to yourself. Be kind.
So we're getting close to the end of the podcast, because as you tell me many, many times, length matters.
So any last thoughts about doing your best and your peak? No, but I now know what my sign off is going to be. What's your sign off? We got a new sign off? Well, mine is... Do your best? No. Be kind to yourself. Be kind to yourself. Yeah. Yeah. I like that. Give yourself a hug.
Give yourself a hug. I like that. All right. So if you're saying be kind to yourself, I might then say, because you're always doing your best. And why I put that voice on, I don't know. No, we'll end up in Pakistan.
I can't hold an accent at all. No. No. All my accents always end up in Pakistan. I'm going to have to figure that out. I didn't grow up in Pakistan, so I don't know why my accents always end up there. Thank you for the reminder. I'm doing my best, Michelle. My accents are horrible.
I'll start in Ireland and then I'll end up in Pakistan in a very short amount of time. But anyway, I'm doing my best. Okay. So I think we leave this podcast with the thought that all of our days, we're doing our best. Yep. And be kind to yourself. Because you're doing your best. That's it. See you again next time. Bye. Bye.
So Michelle, where can they find us? Captainandtheclown.com. Where you'll find links to our websites for keynote speaking and corporate training. Yes, that's captainandtheclown.com.
Well, that was fun. That was fun. You're such a clown. Lady captain. And who's going to listen to this? Maybe our mums. Thanks mum.