#1497 THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT Interview

Every day at 1:01 p.m. Central Time, I show up and do live, 1-on-1 coaching with members of our community.

As I type these words, I’ve done nearly 70 days in a row and coached people nearly 200 times.

You can join us live to check it out. And, you can sign up for Heroic Coach to get instant access to the 200+ individual coaching sessions I’ve done a BROAD range of subjects.

Check out the list of questions I’ve addressed below. We dropped them in as ONE JUMBO PARAGRAPH to playfully show you all the topics we’ve explored.

Now…

Every THURSDAY, I invite one of my favorite teachers to join us for a “Heroic Chat with Masters.”

We’ve connected with everyone from Phil Stutz, John Mackey, William Damon, Cal Newport, Tal Ben-Shahar, Mark Divine, Pilar Gerasimo, Steve Chandler, Donald Robertson and Tom Morris so far. (And, before that, I did 100+ interviews in a different context.)

But…

The other day, I had what I believe is THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT interview I’ve ever done.

That chat was with Harvard psychiatrist Chris Palmer, MD.

Why was THAT chat THE most powerful one I’ve ever had?

Because Chris has identified THE #1 THING that connects ALL physiological AND psychological disorders (aka depression, anxiety, etc!) and provides both a coherent theoretical framework to articulate the underlying cause AND, even more importantly, an incredibly straight-forward and practical way to address the issues.

We talk about this wisdom in our Notes on Brain Energy (which you can download for free here and that we’ll explore in the next several +1s) but it really came to life in this 90-minute, practical-wisdom-packed chat.

You can watch/listen to that chat for free here.

I think this wisdom can not only change many (many!) lives but SAVE many as well.

I typed that as I reflected on a note I read the other day from a Heroic Coach who recently lost her beloved 20-year-old son to suicide.

I believe the wisdom in this discussion can help solve the global mental health crisis we are in and I hope that you and your loved ones find it empowering. 🙏

While we’re on the subject: Here’s a direct link to watch Conquering Depression 101 in which I share my story and practical wisdom to create a life of deep, sustainable meaning and joy.

That’s Today’s +1.

We have a lot of work to do.

Let’s do it.

TODAY.

P.S. That chat is one of nearly 100 “Luminary” sessions Michael and Alexandra (and now I) have done with world-class guest faculty members for our Coach program.

You can learn more about our Heroic Performance Coach certification and empowerment program, the science (and thousands of testimonials) that shows that it works, and how we’re committed to helping you activate your Heroic potential while teaching you how to help others do the same (while building a thriving coaching business in the process if that is your calling) by visiting: https://heroic.us/coach

P.P.S. As part of Heroic Coach, you ALSO get access to a TON of other goodness including the archive of coaching sessions. I promised to share the crazy jumbo list of questions I’ve answered so far. Here it is.

What was the pre-work before committing to these 1:01 sessions? How can I maintain equanimity when life’s circumstances are not allowing for the structure I'd prefer? How can I make masterpiece days anti-fragile? How can I level up my protocols so I can show up as my best for a difficult conversation? How can I best navigate and support someone who’s fighting cancer? How to alchemize a loss into living my best Heroic life? How can I level up my protocols so I can show up as my best for a difficult conversation? How do I figure out how to serve during retirement? How can I increase the amount of time I sleep? What will be Heroic’s approach to use virtues as guardrails when social launches? How can I best overcome my resistance to sharing my work on social media? How can I maintain my Soul Force when my family gets sick? Can you tell me more about “courage” being moved from west to east in the Heroic compass? How can I stay committed to my protocol while being alone in this journey? How can I best Move away from feeling guilty for making changes in my life? What’s one thing I can focus on beyond the fundamentals while fighting cancer? How can I lean into a challenge without second-guessing myself? How can I best practice radical acceptance? How can I best differentiate a conscious pivot from following my calling? Does having a tracking device outweighs my commitment to stay away from digital distractions? How can I best strengthen my focus with a deliberate practice? How can I best support my rebellious and energetic son? How can I beat my greatest kryptonite? How can I best use a challenge as fuel? How can I improve my protocol in a way I can use it when I feel the worse? How to proactively keep my momentum going when I'm on the road? How can I best honor my protocol while also prioritizing my partner? How do you schedule your time? How does your team operationalize virtues? What’s the ideal pace to go through the mastery videos? How can I recommit to getting my Soul Force back to 101 when my hormones are impacting me? How can I best tell my friends and family what Heroic is? How can I use my second mountain to help others who suffered in the way that I have? I think I'm too willing to compromise, how can I be more mindful of my decision to compromise or not? How can I best show up as a coach when I'm still dealing with glitches? How can I best create space for my wife to practice renewal? How can I go from glitch to recovery fast? How to integrate all the work I'm doing with Heroic while connecting with my loved ones? How can let go of the things I can’t control? How can I transition from my current job to being my own boss? How can I best move forward in a newly-established practice? How can I best optimize my sleep? How can I best support someone when their challenge triggers me? How can I reach my best in Love when it feels like I'm doing well in Energy and Work? How can I integrate more love into my life in a practical way? How can I best bring out my best self? Is there a point where my top VIA strengths can become a weakness? How can I say goodbye to the path of seeking pleasure over pain? How can I be more specific with my work targets? What is your perspectives on personality tests? Is it possible to follow all of the protocols with a busy workload? How can I use the Heroic app without using my phone more than I'd like? Can you help me understand how agency and recommitment fits in with Tolle’s wisdom on acceptance? Do you have a system for processing your past and connecting to your future self? How can I use a recent Move to recreate my life? What called you to move from personal Self-Mastery to Heroic service? How can I best maintain a connection to my identity when getting triggered? How can I engage in social media mindfully, given I need that tool for my business? How can I turn my coaching business into a profitable side hustle? How can I take my business to the next level? How can I understand when it would be best to recommend therapy to a coachee? What are the Heroic tools to prevent burnout? How can I best support project managers embodying their via’s? How can I best WOOP my business goal? How can I become more excited about going to sleep? How can I best deal with giving myself treats after doing something difficult? How can I best support heroes who are running for office? How can I best create a group to connect to people as intellectual friends? How do I decide what to focus on when I want to do it all? How do I determine the next steps in my coaching business? How do you plan your deep work blocks? How do I coach others through defensiveness when the defensiveness is a desire to be right? How to not eat later when the sun comes down + how to fuel the body when this happens? Which health modalities would you recommend? How do I reconcile ambiguity + passion? How can I show up as my best when I need to? How can I best support my kids while applying the Heroic wisdom? How can I implement content creation into my daily protocol? What’s your framework for bringing children into this world? How can I get better at doing my desired task faster? How can I improve my recovery? How can I improve my meditation practice? How can I best answer the question “What do I want”? What are your words of encouragement + ideas to connect with a mentee whose best friend recently attempted suicide? What is your protocol when you’re managing slumps in life? How do you see your role in actively insuring that 51% of humanity are all able to see themselves reflected in what’s possible? How should I approach choosing my coaching clients? How can I best pivot to Heroic coaching? How can I best figure out what I want for my career? How can I best guide someone to get on the Heroic app? How can I best navigate the process of doing something that scares me? How can I best navigate to my ideal career? How can I best step up and help more people? How can I best improve my focus? What is your #1 trait that you would recommend someone who’s trying to be a healthy, masculine Man? How do I architect my masterpiece day when I'm working? How do I keep the boundaries that I set and communicate them? How do I make consistent progress in my business without letting it creep into my PM bookend? How do you handle a life crisis and stick to your protocol? I want to serve other moms of children with chronic illness — how can I teach them about quality of sleep when they’re having interruptions every night? What would you recommend doing if I didn’t get to some targets at the end of the day? How can I use the Heroic app for virtue spotting? How can I trust that life will guide me towards the right path - through adversity and toward where I need to be? How do I negotiate the perfectionism I feel when un-committing to targets? How can I best improve my elevated HR and low HRV? How can I best shift to have a sustainability mindset? How can I best increase my Soul Force score? How can I best find the one thing that can help me with focus? How will I know if I am truly putting theory into practice? How can I best transition my business without compromising my financial needs? How can I best reconcile being sensitive instead of fragile? How can I best move from consumer to creator? How can I best find a new and meaningful way to help people? I'm struggling with my lows and celebrations — what should I do? What would be the ideal strategy to take trauma to self-mastery? How do I determine when it’s time for me to hire a coach? What are some impactful things you would share with someone to begin embracing the journey of transformation? If there were a “listening 101” masterclass, what would that be for you? Do you wear blue light blocking glasses all the time or only when you’re looking at screens? How do we help others activate their Soul Force? What are your recommended tools for battling rumination when one starts going down that path? What’s your process for creating the Philosopher’s Notes? What are your thoughts on laziness vis-à-vis avoidance? Do you adapt the amount of meditation depending on the day? How can I best recover from a burnout? What is your perspective on rest days vs. daily habits? Would you have a suggested structure for Heroic meetups? Would you be able to clarify the best ways to use Heroic coach content in my business? What would be the ideal tools to Move from victim to creator? How can I best use my sleep data to stay Heroic? What is your journaling protocol? My biggest struggle is sleep. How would you suggest I optimize it? How can I best show up as a leader? What does creating an antifragile family looks like? Coaches, this is how we are going to change the world. I'm looking to spiral up, and sleep seems like where I should start. What do you think? How can I do all the things I want to do? Sometimes I need naps but they adversely affect my nighttime sleep. What should I do differently? How can I get comfortable owning my story? How do you get used to + expect life’s challenges? What levers did you use to manage the transition of dropping out of law school? Does meditation and taking a power nap help substitute quality of sleep throughout one’s day? How can we help coachees understand the true reality of constraints vs fabricated constraints? What could I do to support an injury? I would love some advice to deepen the connection with my grandson. Coming from the idea that coaching needs permission, how can I support someone going through depression? What would be the ideal way to deal with my fixed mindset? I would love some extra advice on dealing with chronic disease. How can I best support my daughter? Is there an ideal structure to bring Heroic into my Team? How should I approach getting back on track? What advice can you offer to increase my resilience? Could you coach me on how to find my ideal relationship? I need help getting to a Soul Force of 101. My challenge is only having a short period of sleep. Should I follow another kind of protocol? Question for Emerson: What is your #1 start and #1 stop before a chess match — and what do I say to my kids to get them to do their #1 start and #1 stop? How can I double down on my own health habits while at the same time trying to be supportive and connect with my husband who has cancer? How can I serve my friend’s son now that my friend passed away? How do you integrate feelings of resentment from the past? How do I cultivate resiliency with my team? What are the benefits to immediately celebrating after meeting a target in real time? How do I get my Soul Force back to 101? How do I define who I truly want to serve? Do you have any thoughts about supporting my kids making better nutrition decisions? How can I be more fully present, especially for my family? How can I best navigate a combative relationship with a friend? How can I know what my son wants without projecting what I want into him? What can I do to show up as my best in the face of mortality? I’ve experienced some pain during meditation — any thoughts? Do you have any advice on trying to find the strength to embrace and alchemize my current challenge? Should I pursue my current business or should I take a step back and make sure that is my calling? I'm on the way to visit my wife’s great uncle who is the most brilliant, wise human I’ve ever met… what question would you ask a living confucius or a buddha if you had the opportunity to do so? How can I encourage my daughter to drop sugar and grains? When I finish my day, I just go into my hermitage…but the stats show that we need deep connections…how did you balance coming out of your hermitage? How can I take my breath training to the next level?