Gerry Hussey on How You Lead Yourself to Infinite Potential EP 450
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Okay, you say, I want some breakfast. Your so-called boyfriend says, we got eggs in the fridge. Obviously, when you say breakfast, you mean McDonald's. Definitely a side-eye situation. Bring home the bacon, steak patty, or others with a BOGO for $1 breakfast. Only in the app. Limited time only at participating McDonald's. Valid once a day. Must opt into rewards. Visit McDApp for details. Ba-da-ba-ba-ba.

Walmart Plus members save on meeting up with friends. Save on having them over for dinner with free delivery with no hidden fees or markups. That's groceries plus napkins plus that vegetable chopper to make things a bit easier. Plus, members save on gas to go meet them in their neck of the woods. Plus, when you're ready for the ultimate sign of friendship, start a show together with your included Paramount Plus subscription. Walmart Plus members save on this plus so much more.

Start a 30-day free trial at walmartplus.com. Paramount Plus is central plan only. Separate registration required. See Walmart Plus terms and conditions. Coming up next on Passion Strike. I want you to ask yourself a question. Are you living life from a place of fear or a place of love? And now that you see the way you're living your life, your lifestyle, the style in which you're living your life, ask yourself if nothing changes. If you continue to live your life

the way you're living, if you continue to eat the food you're eating, if you continue to say the things to yourself that you say yourself, if you continue in the same way, what does that look like in 15 to 20 years time? What does it look like in good health? What does it look like in mental health? What does it look like in relationship? And if that's a picture that inspires you and makes you very happy, fantastic, change nothing. If it's not a picture, the good news is

Tiny changes every day can change that picture completely. Welcome to Passion Struck. Hi, I'm your host, John R. Miles. And on the show, we decipher the secrets, tips, and guidance of the world's most inspiring people and turn their wisdom into practical advice for you and those around you. Our mission is to help you unlock the

power of intentionality so that you can become the best version of yourself. If you're new to the show, I offer advice and answer listener questions on Fridays. We have long form interviews the rest of the week with guests ranging from astronauts to authors, CEOs, creators, innovators, scientists, military leaders, visionaries, and athletes. Now, let's go out there and become passion struck. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to

Episode 450 of Passion Struck. So hard to believe we're at 450 episodes already. Passion Struck is consistently ranked as the number one alternative health podcast. A heartfelt thank you to each and every one of you who return to the show every week, eager to listen, learn, and most importantly, discover new ways to live better, to be better, and to make a meaningful impact in the world.

If you're new to the show, thank you so much for being here. Or you simply want to introduce this to a friend or a family member, and we so appreciate it when you do that. We have episode starter packs, which are collections or

of our fans' favorite episodes that we organize into convenient playlists that give any new listener a great way to get acclimated to everything we do here on the show. Either go to Spotify or PassionStruck.com slash Starter Packs to get started. I'm so excited to announce that my new book, Passion Struck, was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer First Horizon Award for Debut Book of the Year. And you can find it on

on Amazon or on the PassionStruck website. In case you missed them, we had two phenomenal interviews earlier this week. The first was with astronaut Steve Bowen, a true hero from the depths of the ocean to the expanse of space. We'll delve into the critical moments and decisions that propelled Steve's career into the stratosphere.

He'll share how he tackled self-doubt and the unexpected twists on his path to the stars. From record-breaking spacewalks to seeing Earth's fragile beauty from above, Steve brings a fresh perspective on the highs and lows of space exploration. The second interview was with Bronnie Ware, author of the internationally best-selling book, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. Bronnie shares powerful stories and lessons about living without regrets, embracing authenticity and

finding true fulfillment. Whether you're seeking direction, inspiration, or a reminder of what's truly important in life, this conversation will touch your heart and motivate you to live more passionately. And if you liked either of those previous episodes or today's, we would so appreciate you giving it a five-star rating and review. They go such a long way in strengthening the Passion Struck community where we can help more people to create an intentional life. And I know we and our guests love to hear your feedback. Today, we are privileged to have Jerry Hussey,

Ireland's leading health and performance coach on the PassionStruck podcast, whose life work is to reawaken the passion and energy within us, focusing on achieving sustainable high performance while nurturing our health and well-being. Jerry, a co-founder of Soul Space, guides his clients to delve deep into their inner potential and embrace a life of purpose and vitality. His acclaimed books, Awaken Your Power Within and The Freedom Within, offer profound insights into self-discovery and the

art of living fully. With a storied career that includes preparing Olympic athletes for glory and helping top-tier teams to clinch victory, Jerry brings a wealth of knowledge on integrating mind, body, and soul for peak performance. Today, he shares with us his journey, insights, and the psychological strategies that not only elite athletes, but

Thank you.

or anyone navigating the complexities of modern life. Jerry's wisdom is a beacon of hope and a guide to discovering strength within. Thank you for choosing PassionStruck and choosing me to be your host and guide on your journey to creating an intentional life. Now, let that journey begin.

Okay, you say, I want some breakfast. Your so-called boyfriend says, we got eggs in the fridge. Obviously, when you say breakfast, you mean McDonald's. Definitely a side-eye situation. Bring home the bacon, steak patty, or others with a BOGO for $1 breakfast. Only in the app. Limited time only at participating McDonald's. Valid once a day. Must opt into rewards. Visit McDApp for details. Ba-da-ba-ba-ba.

Walmart Plus members save on meeting up with friends. Save on having them over for dinner with free delivery with no hidden fees or markups. That's groceries plus napkins plus that vegetable chopper to make things a bit easier. Plus, members save on gas to go meet them in their neck of the woods. Plus, when you're ready for the ultimate sign of friendship, start a show together with your included Paramount Plus subscription. Walmart Plus members save on this plus so much more. Start a 30-day free trial at WalmartPlus.com.

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Going back to school is a big step, but having support at every step of your academic journey can make a big difference. Imagine your future differently at capella.edu. I am absolutely thrilled today to have Jerry Hussey join us on PassionStruck. Welcome, Jerry. Thank you for having me. It's great to be here. Well, as we were talking about before, I happen to love rugby. I played at the Naval Academy and then in the Navy.

as I was growing up. And I just love that you're a psychologist for

One of my favorite rugby teams. So can't wait to dive into this. I wasn't expecting you to come out and monster rugby jersey. So it's one of the teams I've been lucky enough to work with. And although our nearest and probably biggest rivals in Ireland, Leinster has stole the show. And I have to be a humble in accepting that they have a magnificent team and I live in Leinster. So I should be a Leinster fan, but once you've experienced Leinster,

What Munster is about and their identity, it's magnificent. So my heart, even though I'm originally born in the West, which is Connacht, I live in Leinster, but my heart is with Munster Rugby. It's a remarkable club, remarkable history, remarkable tradition, and our day will come again. Our day will come again.

Speaking of the Navy and the Naval Academy team, we came and played squad from Ireland, and this is coming back off of an undefeated national championship team. And it just shows you what the international scene in rugby is like because we got clobbered.

So not as bad as Navy lost to Notre Dame in football, we lost in rugby as well. I was hoping we were going to fare a little bit well, but the Six Nations tournament you guys have going on right now, I'm happy to see Ireland at the top. That's great to see. And hopefully this coming weekend, you hand Scotland a loss. My family's from Scotland, so we have a little bit partial.

Yeah, well, you know, it's a great sign. I've been lucky enough to work with, you know, Olympic teams and particularly from Ireland. There's a narrative in Ireland because we're a small country with a small population. There was a narrative for too long about competing. It wasn't a great to compete. Isn't it great to be at a World Cup? Thankfully, that's...

now changing and our rugby team is not about competing anymore they want to be the best in the world consistently they want to win world cups and it's almost expected of them and that brings pressure so this next week again we have the chance to win the six nations which would be phenomenal but we let slip if that's what you want to say the grand slam and that's the pressure we're under now but you know it's amazing and i think i think it's great for irish teams

that we expect to be the best in the world because the narrative has been for too long, we're a small nation, small population, and it's good enough to just compete. I think that narrative has gone and you have to really admire that Irish rugby team. They've set their stall out. They want to be the best in the world and they're going after that. And I really admire it. I think it's a great goal and you've got to hold yourself to the same standard that New Zealand does and even South Africa, which is,

isn't the largest country either. So of course, of course, Jerry, I want to dive into this by getting into some of your background. And as I was preparing for this, I found out some really unique things about you when you were a child, you were highly anxious, you found yourself not being able to concentrate in school, I can feel what you were feeling at that time, because I had a traumatic brain injury when I was five.

that caused me also to have concentration issues, speech impediments, etc. But as I understand it, and I was sorry when I heard this, you had two suicide attempts before you were 14. And oftentimes we have that ignition moment in life. And for you, that came after your second attempt at suicide. And if I have the story correct,

You were at the doctor. You had gone through a series of medical tests, and you and your mom were waiting to hear from this doctor. He comes in. It's obvious he gets the test results right when he's walking in, and he tells you that there's nothing wrong. Your mom immediately addresses the doctor, tells him he's wrong, that he needs to do more tests, and he keeps going down the same path.

which I think I have witnessed myself with Western and explain this pivotal moment in your life.

Yeah, I mean, it's exactly it. A lot of people ask me, how did you get into this line of work and what drives you, what makes you so passionate? In some ways, I chose it and in some ways I didn't. I remember that moment as a 14-year-old kid, days after a second suicide attempt, living with high anxiety where at times I feel I was going to have a heart attack. I wasn't able to sleep. I thought there was something wrong with my body.

not really being able to experience life. Everybody seemed to be happy around me. I had this constant anxiety and fear and it was chaos and

I just needed someone to help me figure out what's wrong with me. Why is my heart racing? Why do I feel like this? Why do I feel anxious and nauseous all the time? Why have I no confidence? Why am I so hard on myself? I looked at the medical world, as most people do, to help me and my parents. My dad was a very proud West of Ireland man and they had to find a doctor and they had probably to borrow money to get me from one to the other. So

I was looking outward for this medical world to save me. And just as you said, the doctor flicks through all the results and we've done a brain scan and we've done blood tests and we've checked everything in his heart and we've done an ECG. And what he said to my mother was great news. Everything is clear. You have a perfectly healthy young man. And what I noticed on that day was that before any test, he spent time speaking to my mother about me, but he never looked at me. I was sitting there beside him having a panic attack in his office. He never spoke to me.

And when he came back in, he spoke to my mother about me. And I remember thinking, why is he not talking to me about this? So I felt totally ignored. I felt like, why am I not in this conversation? And then he said to my mother, he's a perfectly healthy young man. And just like you said, my mother, out of love and worry, said, please, there has to be something because I've seen him. I've seen what this does to him. You've missed something.

And he said to my mother, if you want my honest opinion, Mrs. Hussey, he's making this up so he doesn't have to go to school. And at that moment, two voices in my head went off. It felt like a kick in the stomach. It felt like he was after kicking me in the stomach. And one voice in my head said, you see, Jerry, you are useless.

And there's nothing wrong with you. And you're making this up. And you are weak. And you're a burden on everyone. What the hell's wrong with you? And that inner critic wanted to just attack me and tell me that I was as useless as I was afraid I was. But then another voice that I really had never heard before, another voice said something that

Like, how dare you? How dare you speak to my mother like that? And how dare you tell a terrified 14-year-old boy that he's making this up because he's not? And I never really believed in myself up to that moment. And there's a lovely expression that says, you never know how strong you are until strong is the only option. And at that moment, I realized I am not allowing this guy speak to my mother like that.

And if it's not for me, if I can't save myself, because even at that time, I didn't know whether I'd commit suicide or not. I was...

It still was on my radar. But what I said was, "I'm going to give this a shot because maybe there's another 14-year-old boy out there that I could save." And I looked at his wall and it was full of certs, highly qualified medical doctor, and medical doctors do amazing things. But at that moment, I remember thinking, for all of his qualifications, he has missed something. And to stand here and tell a child that he's making this up is just wrong.

And that's the moment that voice inside of me said, you need to start looking at this. And my mom on the way home in the car said, we'll get to the bottom of this. And she said, and if you do, you can help millions of people. And at the moment of 14, I knew what the rest of my life would look like. I knew that if I could firstly try to save myself,

and get myself to a place of strength and calm and figure out my own anxiety and change myself. If I could do that, if I could find a way that I could spend the rest of my life showing other people the way in, and that's the way my life has unfolded. It has been planned and unplanned, but that's the catalyst moment. That is the ignition moment in which I knew this is now my mission.

Jerry, I love that story, and there's so many different ways I could take this. I mean, one of the things I've been fortunate to have is...

some of the world-leading functional medicine doctors on the show. And what they've really showed me is that the Western way of treating us with protocols and looking at the leaves or branches of your whole system is the wrong way that we're approaching the patient. It really needs to be as if we're looking at the whole tree, if you use that metaphor, and looking at what are the underlying things that are going on.

I love that you brought that up and recognized it at such a young age. Where I want to go with this is it reminded me of a saying that Viktor Frankl has, that he who has a why will find a how. I think it ties directly into what you were just talking about, because now you had your why.

but you had to find your how. How did you go about doing that? It started with me and my mother and my mom, my dad, you know, I'm so lucky to still have them. And they've been instrumental. And I used to ask questions and I used to say to my mother, like, well, where is the problem? And my mother said, well, if they've checked the body, it's not in the body. I said, well, where is it? My mother said, maybe it's in the mind. And my mother was about to

say something truly profound, but I'm not sure if he knew how profound it was. So I said, well, is that like the brain? Because they've looked at the brain, they've done the brain scans, the brain is fine. And my mother said, I don't think the mind and the brain are the same.

Now, we know from neuroscience now, and we know from when we look at the quantum body, we know that the mind is not the brain. We know that the brain is part of the mind, but the brain, the nervous system, the skin, the microbiome, the gut, the heart,

are all part of the mind. And to have a healthy mind, all of those parts have to be working in a state of cohesion and a state of connection. And if one of those parts are out of whack, then the mind can't be right. So my mother was the first part to almost say, you've got to look outside the brain.

I think psychology, in an attempt to justify itself, went too far into the neuroscience, where we love to talk about brain chemistry and synaptic connections and neurogenesis and neuroplasticity and the good brain axis. And we try to become very scientific to be accepted by the medical world.

But 'psychieology' means 'study of' and 'psychieology' is the study of the human psyche. Now the psyche is the soul. So psychologists should care a little bit less about the neuroscience of the brain and they should care more about the soul because the mind and the brain are not the same.

So that was the starting point. Then we started scouring secondhand bookshops for books. And I remember coming across by a guy called Deepak Chopra. And I was like, this guy claimed to be a doctor, but he was saying things that I never heard any doctor saying. And in fact, this seems so outrageous. I was like, is this guy even a real doctor? Now we'd know Google that time. So I couldn't really research, but I'm like, no, this guy claims to be a doctor.

And what he was saying, and this was one of the fundamental starting points in my understanding, he said that nothing in the universe is stationary. Everything is moving and changing. There's no fixed point in the universe. Everything is moving and changing, including your body.

And I remember thinking, but my bone looks like it's stationary. But it's not because every cell in your body is regenerating all the time. And bar a very specific part of the heart and your teeth enamel, everything else in your body is changing. So the question then was the brain I'm born with is not the brain I die with.

My nervous system, how it is right now, doesn't have to be the nervous system I have tomorrow. And when we started to think about, well, what's changing the brain? It's our environment. It's the food we eat. But the brain is responding to what you think about. And I remember thinking about that at 14 years old. Well, if the brain is listening to what I'm thinking about, then who's thinking? Now, neuroscience has proven so many incredible things about our magnificent brain.

But the one thing it can't figure out is where is consciousness? So the brain, its structure and its chemistry is responding to the thoughts I think. My nervous system is responding to the thoughts I think. And by changing my thought and my thought alone, I can change my nervous system. I can change my chemistry. I can switch on my immune system or I can switch off my immune system.

And when we look at the nervous system, we look at sympathetic nervous system and parasympathetic nervous system.

And if I think of something that is worried or fearful or dread, that sends a specific signal to the nervous system. It switches on my sympathetic nervous system. My immune system is switched off and now I'm flooded in the chemicals of stress, which long term has a negative impact on my gut. And my gut is my immune system. So my thoughts and my thoughts alone are either upgrading my immune system or downgrading my immune system.

So the more I started to think about this and the more I dug into this science was the more I realized that the thoughts we think, the words we use, how my soul feels is the joy, love, laughter in my life. The relationship I have with myself is having a massive impact on my cells, my immune system, my brain, my brain chemistry. It's like, holy God.

And that's when Deepak said, the mind is not in the body. The body is in the mind. And that is where I began to really discover that so much of anxiety has nothing to do with a dysfunctional brain, has nothing to do with a chemical imbalance.

It's to do with a nervous system function, a nervous system that is either fight, flight or freeze mode because of trauma, because of fatigue. Something has put your nervous system out of balance. But the good news is through things like meditation, trauma release, cold water immersion, changing your vagal tone, you can change your nervous system. You can change your immune system. You can change your brain chemistry.

So taking a snapshot of who I am today in no way means that's who I'm going to be tomorrow. So that work was really the starting point where I began to realize that we're literally 3D printers and we have a subconscious program running at the heart of who we are.

And if that program is saying the world is safe and I'm an incredible person and I experience joy and love and laughter, then my cells, my immune system goes in one way. But if my inner program is I'm not good enough, I'm not loved, there's something wrong with me, life is hard, the world is out to get me, then I switch myself into survival mode and I switch off my immune system.

And by putting myself in that survival mode, I'm switching on anxiety, I'm switching on panic attacks. It was like, wow, this isn't something I was born with. This isn't a genetic thing. This isn't a chemical imbalance. This is a thinking problem. And if I can change my thinking and I can change my nervous system and I can change my gut health, there's a good chance all this disappears. And I suppose I'm living proof that if you're willing to put that work in,

You don't have to live with this. You don't have to suffer with this.

That's where I started. That's the level of detail I tried to look at, the connection between the mind and body, the good brain axis, the role of the microbiome, the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. By the time I was 18, 19, I was reading and studying and eating books up on this and often getting thrown out of classes. I got thrown out of a geography class once because I was meant to be studying Oxbow Lakes. And my teacher found me reading a book on brain chemistry and

and how our thoughts change the chemistry of the brain. And he threw me out of class and said, don't be filling your head with that nonsense. That's not important. And I said, no, I think it's important. And they said, no, no, that's not on our curriculum. That's not important. So it's been a fascination of mine, but not always shared by my teachers and not always shared by some of the people I shared with.

Okay, you say, I want some breakfast. Your so-called boyfriend says, we got eggs in the fridge. Obviously, when you say breakfast, you mean McDonald's. Definitely a side-eye situation. Bring home the bacon, steak patty, or others with a BOGO for $1 breakfast. Only in the app. Limited time only at participating McDonald's. Valid once a day. Must opt into rewards. Visit McDApp for details. Ba-da-ba-ba-ba.

Walmart Plus members save on meeting up with friends. Save on having them over for dinner with free delivery with no hidden fees or markups. That's groceries plus napkins plus that vegetable chopper to make things a bit easier. Plus, members save on gas to go meet them in their neck of the woods. Plus, when you're ready for the ultimate sign of friendship, start a show together with your included Paramount Plus subscription. Walmart Plus members save on this plus so much more. Start a 30-day free trial at WalmartPlus.com.

Paramount Plus, a central plan only. Separate registration required. See Walmart Plus terms and conditions. Jerry, I love that explanation because this podcast was really born out of that same viewpoint. What I talk about all the time is the power of choice, especially the micro choices that we make. And people sometimes ask, why are you on an alternative health podcast? Well, if you think about health, whether that's our physical health, our mental health, our financial health, our relationship health,

our spiritual health, our emotional health, you name it, it all comes down to the choices we make. Your choices determine your health span. Your choices determine your longevity. They determine your mental state. They determine whether you're happy or you're not. It all comes down to the choices that we make and the micro moments throughout our days. And they ultimately lead us to a life of happiness and success or to one that I call a waterfall of demise.

How do you believe these micro choices are formed? Because as you said, and you've talked about it a couple times now, you've referenced that we often have a couple different voices in our head. And I have found that myself. I find that there's one

That's this louder voice that keeps telling me that everything I'm doing is fine. And so if I'm in this negative spiral, it tells me to continue that. If I'm in a positive spiral, it tells me to continue that. But then there's this quieter voice I find that we have a harder time listening to. And that's because we're so immersed in the distractions that are around us. And we have to be really intentional about our path to hear it and use mechanisms that allow us. And it usually...

is the voice of self-control. It's typically telling you, are you on the wrong path? Are you on the right path?

you need to take action or not. Do you subscribe to that? Do you feel the same way? Yeah, absolutely. You referenced the book earlier, Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl, and that book has a massive impact on my life. Frankl, for people who don't know, was a concentration camp survivor, was exposed to all the probably as horrific as we can imagine a human being to be exposed to, and probably lost his way and give up hope. And then in the middle of all that, realized that

Even within the imprisonment of the physical body, there is something that can't be imprisoned, and that is my mind. That is my inner state. And what he realized was that you can't solve a problem if your emotions and thinking are equal to the problem. So when he looked around, what caused that concentration camp was anger and judgment and bitterness and hatred.

And he realized that if I allow myself to become full of anger and hatred and bitterness, then I can't solve the problem because I'm equal to the problem. I'm just living in the same emotions that have caused the problem. So he began to understand that even though his physical body could be imprisoned, that his mind can't. And he went on to write incredible books and he talked about the power of choice.

And because he'd been through the hardships and atrocities that he had, he accepted a few things. One of the things that he accepted was we don't always get to control what happens to us in our life. So he was a physician living a lovely life with his wife, with his children, and before he noticed in the concentration camp. He accepted that we don't always get to control what happens to us in our life. But what he absolutely accepted

believed was we always get to choose our response. He talked about the difference between pain and suffering, and he acknowledged that life for many of us will involve pain. It's nearly inevitable that life will bring pain at different points in our life. And there's no point in being false positive. And there's no point pretending that if you meditate, life won't bring you challenges. We'll all be challenged.

and we'll all experience pain. And I've certainly experienced enough pain in my life. But what he said was the difference in pain and suffering is suffering is your response to that pain. Suffering is your response to that challenge. Now, when I read that book, I realized that I spent too long waiting for somebody else to solve my anxiety, somebody else to solve my problems. I used to say, why is this happening to me? Now, why is this happening to me?

is a statement of a victim. "Why is this happening for me?" is a different question. I say, "Why me?" and then I change it to "Why not me?" And instead of saying, "I suffer from anxiety," I just say, "I have anxiety, but anxiety doesn't have me." And if I'm going to have this, then my story will not be about my anxiety. My story will be about my response to my anxiety.

And I almost said to my anxiety, you're in for the greatest fight of your life. And even if we have to live with each other for the rest of our life, I'm going to stop hating you. And I'm going to stop being angry with you. And I'm still going to stop being ashamed of you because you're me. You're part of me. And I'm going to love you. And I'm going to listen to you. And I want to understand you. But here's the thing. You're a part of me. You're not me.

So I learned from an early age that we can't always control whether it's a cancer diagnosis, a job loss, whether it's some type of health diagnosis. Pain happens. And sometimes in a second, we end up in a situation we never believed we would be in.

And very often, every right to be angry. You've every right to be bitter. You've every right to hold that anger and bitterness for the rest of your life. But just because you have a right to doesn't mean it's the right thing to do because you also have a freedom. And when we look at people like Mandela, an amazing expression he had was the day they opened the cell, he said, I knew that unless I left anger and bitterness behind...

I would never be free. So I had to stop suffering with anxiety. I had to stop suffering with life. Stop wishing I was different. Stop wishing this wasn't in my life. And instead make a choice about my response to it. So choice, every morning you wake up, you have a choice and a chance.

A chance to start again, a chance to pursue happiness, a chance to pursue your dream, a chance to witness the sunrise, a chance to tell your wife you love her, a chance to tell your children you love them, a chance to be present, a chance to witness the magnificence of life. And you have a choice. And the choice is do I take that or do I scroll on my phone? Do I eat processed food? Do I give out about things I can't control?

And if you're giving your energy and attention to things you can't control, you are disempowered and you are a victim. The moment, no matter how small, but the moment you switch your energy and attention from something you can't control into what you can control, you move from being disempowered to empowered. You move from being a victim who is fighting life to a co-creator who's manifesting life.

And that was the start for me. That is choice. So every day I ask myself, what are my choices? And what drives those better choices is my why. So I've left it late to be a dad. I have a son who's three and a half. I have a little girl who's one and a half. And I think about this when I wake up in the morning. When they get married, if they get married, that's probably 30 years away. And I ask myself a question. Do I want to be there?

And if I'm there, do I want to be healthy? We know that less than 20% of all illness has anything to do with genetics. Even 20% is a big number. There's some people who would say that's 10 or 5%. So if 80% of whether I'm at that wedding or not comes down to my daily decisions, then I build a visualization every single morning. And I ask myself, can I see myself being at that wedding?

And I see myself with my little son, I see myself tying his tie, kissing him on the cheek and telling him that I love him. I don't have full control over whether that happens, but all the medical statistics, the unquestionable science is telling us that less than 20% of illness and disease has anything to do with genetics. It is lifestyle based.

So I'm going to stack the odds in my favor. So you need a why, a why to get you out of bed, a why to get you into the gym, a why to get you into the cold water. The why is we need to be there for the people that matter. We need to be there in the times that matter. And also in this one short life that we have.

Wouldn't it be magnificent to turn up without fear, without comparison? Wouldn't it be magnificent to find out who you truly are and how powerful you can be? And in this one short thing that we call life, wouldn't it be magnificent to experience freedom? And only you can give yourself freedom. Nobody else in the world can give you freedom, but you can give your freedom every single morning, a chance and a choice.

Well, I love that answer. And I want to dive down on this just a little bit deeper, because I've heard you make the statement that we are one question away from a major breakthrough in our life. How does a listener who just heard what you're talking about, who might be stuck in their life, how do they start asking the right question at the right time to facilitate the transformation to change?

I think we're all one question away. And I think the first question is, what is my heart asking me for now? A simple exercise I get people to do, maybe close your eyes for five or 10 minutes, or even now while you're listening to this, just close your eyes. Now imagine you're sitting in front of a screen and that screen is a movie screen and it's about to come on. And the movie that's about to come on is a movie about you over the last couple of months or the last year.

And I'm going to show you the way in which you live in your life, the speed at which you live in your life, the food you're eating, the things you're putting into your gut, the thoughts you're thinking, the sleep you're getting and not getting, the stress you're holding, the emotions you're not releasing. I'm going to show you the whole lot without judgment. I want you to see the way you live in your life.

the speed at which you're living life, the exercise you're taking or not taking. I want you to see the food you're eating and ask how that feels. I want you to listen to the words you're using, the things you're talking about. I want you to ask yourself a question. Are you living life from a place of fear or a place of love? And now that you see the way you're living your life, your lifestyle, the style in which you're living your life, ask yourself if nothing changes.

If you continue to live your life the way you're living, if you continue to eat the food you're eating, if you continue to say the things to yourself that you say yourself, if you continue in the same way, what does that look like in 15 to 20 years' time? What does it look like in good health? What does it look like in mental health? What does it look like in relationship? And if that's a picture that inspires you and makes you very happy, fantastic, change nothing. If it's not a picture, the good news is...

Tiny changes every day can change that picture completely. So think of a golf swing, anyone that plays golf, you change the face of the club by a millimeter and you hit that ball 250 yards. That one millimeter change drastically changes where the ball's going to end. A tiny change made today and held over 30 years drastically changes that picture.

So 1% of your day is 15 minutes. What I would ask you is, can you give yourself, can you love yourself enough to give yourself 15 minutes, 1% of your day to stop, to breathe, to exercise? What's the emotion you need to let go of? What's the relationship you have with yourself? Do you sometimes say things to yourself that are unkind and unfair?

Do you sometimes say things to yourself that you wouldn't say to a loved one? And is that good enough? So the first question is when you witness and observe yourself, what's the picture that creates? The second question, is that a picture that inspires you? Is that a picture that you want to happen? And if it's not, are you willing to give yourself 1% of your day every day? So there are three simple, powerful questions.

Jerry, I love him. And it reminded me, I happened to hear Adam Grant talk the other day, and he was talking about this 1% in a little bit different way. He was saying that if you do something over and over again throughout a year with just 15 minutes of your time,

it puts you in the 98th percentile of being skilled in that endeavor. So if you want to learn a language, if you just spend 15 minutes a day at trying to pick up a new language, you're going to be better at that language than 98% of the other people around you. Same thing with anything we do in it.

Reminded me of your concept of infinite potential, which you explain in your international bestselling book, Awaken Your Power Within. Can you elaborate on how individuals can start tapping into this infinite potential that some of us feel is too hard to even grasp for us to implement, but I think is one of the core sources of how we eventually become our truest selves?

I think there's an expression that says your life goes in the direction of the stories you tell yourself. So in order for anything to be possible, you've got to firstly believe in it. You've got to speak it. And if you're saying to yourself, I can't do that, that wouldn't happen for me. I couldn't write a bestseller. I can't get on that podcast.

That's exactly what will happen because the subconscious mind is like a sat-nav. Once you enter a destination into the sat-nav, as you drive, the sat-nav will reroute you, it'll redirect you, it'll keep actively moving and changing, but ultimately with one purpose in mind, to bring you to your pre-programmed destination. Now think of that as the subconscious mind. Once you have a subconscious belief,

The conscious mind is like the sat-nav. It'll deal with the day-to-day stuff, but it will make sure that you end up back at your pre-programmed destination. A building, if you think of it when you're building a building, you need to put a foundation down. And a building can't be bigger than the size of its foundations. If it is, it'll fall down. Your life, your happiness, and your success cannot be bigger than what you believe it will be.

And even if it is, if something magnificent happens in your life that you didn't believe you deserve, you'll somehow sabotage it. And very quickly, you'll end up acquiesced at it. So the first place is examine your subconscious programs, your subconscious beliefs. What do you believe about yourself?

If someone said you're going to write a best-selling book, what's your initial answer? So you're looking at a guy who was almost kicked out of school, failed most of his exams, had a terrible stammer, couldn't speak. His biggest fear was being asked a question in public because he couldn't speak.

crippled with anxiety, feeling absolutely useless. Now, with two international bestselling books, speaking all over the world, no stammer. And most days, not every day, most days, I feel joyful and happy and excited. And that started by me believing that change was possible. So the first step is you've got to change your inner stories. Secondly, is be

be careful about the targets you set because targets are a funny thing. They can focus you and they can motivate you. So sometimes let's say we say, I want to run a six minute mile and we work really, really, really, really hard and we run a six minute mile. And you say, God, that was fantastic. And then someone says, why didn't you run a five 58 mile? Because if you can run a six minute mile, so if your target is to earn a million dollars a year,

Be careful because that's all you'll ever earn. So I talk about abundance. I tell myself stories that I want to live a life of abundance. I want to experience an abundance of happiness, an abundance of joy. I want to earn an abundance of money. People say, how much is that? I don't put a number because I'm not limiting it. I want to write incredible books. How many books are you going to write? Multiple books. Okay.

I don't put numbers. So be careful around numbers and targets. I know targets can be very motivating, but just be careful. They can become a limit. So you begin to believe in abundance. And when I was in this change, people used to say to me, you need to listen to this person called Louise Hay.

And I remember at the time thinking, I'm not going to listen to her because she's so American and Americans are all naturally positive because that's what we believed in Ireland. Americans, they're better than us and they're naturally positive because the picture, the image of America that we used to get was strong, positive.

big cities. It was like, ye were everything that we wanted to be, but we could never be because ye were genetically different. That was our belief system. And I was thinking, she's going to be some American telling me how great I can be, but I can't be great. I'm just from the west of Ireland. My dad's a farmer with no money and I have anxiety and Louise here doesn't know that. If she really knew me, she wouldn't say that.

But I promise I committed to listen. And I remember the first time I put it on, I remember things that she was saying, like, I am Louise Hay. And she was saying, I want you to repeat after me. I am an infinite source. I'm like, what? I can manifest all the wealth I want. And I suddenly realized that not only did I not believe those things about myself, but I actually believed it was wrong to even say this.

Something in my being was like, I can say these things. And she was saying, repeat after me, I am an infinite source of wisdom. I speak confidently and calmly. I earn money easily. And I'm like, that's not me. I don't believe any of that about me. And then it was so clear. No wonder I don't believe it. So I can't manifest it.

And I remember the first night I knew something big had shifted in my life. As I was listening to these audios, I was falling asleep. And I don't know, people might remember there was an old black Walkman, a Sony Walkman. And if you were really lucky and you saved up for months and months. And I had this old black Sony Walkman with a tape in it and I had the headphones on. And as I was falling asleep, I remember repeating from Louise Hay, I am a powerful human being. I am destined for great things.

I manifest abundance easily. I'm a kind, loving human being and I deserve all the love in the world. And I remember not only could I say it, but I believed it. And I think that's a fundamental start. You cannot manifest anything other than your deepest beliefs.

And the limits of our world are often simply the limits of our unconscious programs. And sometimes those conscious programs have been given to us by a teacher, a parent, somebody has given us a limiting program. And very often we've created themselves. So the starting point, I would say for everybody's examine your deepest subconscious beliefs. And if they're not ones of abundance and love,

You can change them. And that's the gift. You can change your deepest subconscious beliefs. And once you have a subconscious belief, then the conscious mind is able to go into the world and pick the cues that match that. But if you have a limiting subconscious belief, your conscious mind is only allowed to pick the cues in the world that match your belief. And you won't see anything else.

Jerry, one of the things that I learned when I was in the military was this basic tenet of leadership. Lead yourself, lead others, lead always. But nothing happens unless you learn self-leadership. I think it's the same thing about kindness. You can't be kind to someone else unless you're kind to yourself. You can't help someone else unless you are trying to make yourself the best person that you can be.

I know you also believe in the crucial nature of self-leadership in both sports and life. What's a strategy for someone who is doubting their ability right now? Someone who maybe just heard what you said and is wondering, how do I pivot out of this place that I'm at? How do I start leading myself to where I want to go? And I want to

Bridge this with a phrase I heard you say in another podcast where I love this. You said you need to make the business of your life, business of your life. And it sounds like such a simple thing to say, but to me, it's really tied into self-leadership as well. I was hoping you might be able to explain it through that lens.

For me, it's always about asking the question, what do you want the world to be? I think the greatest leadership is service. How can I serve people? How can I serve others? The human ego thinks about the I. What serves me? What makes me look good? The problem with the world today is too many people are looking at me.

And we look, we separate. So we have this idea in the world that you're either pro something or anti something. And we're making people more labels. We have more labels now than ever. We have more sides and people have to take sides. The problem with that is we're just separating people. We're dividing people. We're segregating people. What I've always tried to ask is what unites people? And if you said to most people,

Would you like to wake up in the morning and feel at peace? As you go about your day, would you like to feel love and joy? And as you fall to sleep at night time, would you love to know that you are enough and that you are loved and that you are making a difference? And I think the answer is yes. Regardless of religion or gender or nationality, I've always been more interested in what unites humanity.

And what unites humanity more than anything else is love. Ultimately, we're all looking to feel loved and be lovable. And in fact, I believe the biggest trauma a human being can experience is the feeling of being unloved and unlovable. And that brings anger.

There's only two human emotions: fear or love. So love manifests as patience, kindness and forgiveness. Fear can manifest as impatience, anger, frustration, judgment, comparison. But they're just labels for the same thing. That's all fear. If we can find a common ground,

And if we can realize that human beings are more connected than disconnected, and behind all the labels and the different skin colors and the different religions is actually a soul, and the soul is craving one thing, to feel connected and to be loved. And wouldn't that be a magnificent world? I don't think the world needs more labels. I don't think it needs more anger. I don't think it needs more push and force, force, force. I don't think it needs more sides. I think it needs more connection.

It needs more forgiveness. It needs more understanding and it needs more love. So if that's what the world needs, I believe that whatever you think the world needs, you have to be an ambassador for that. It's the same when I work with corporate or executive teams. The first thing I ask them is, what would you like your team to be? What would you like your team to be filled with? And they say joy, fun, passion, love, truth.

And then I tell them, you can't expect anything to be in your team if you're not bringing it. So whatever you want in the world, if you want more joy in the world, more peace in the world, more connection, you have to be ambassador of that. So every morning as a part of my morning routine, I ask myself, what does love look like today? If I showed up from a place of love today, what does that look like? And where am I holding anger? Where am I holding fear? And how do I release that?

So we all have a choice as we spoke about. And forgiveness for me is the gateway to freedom. Who do you need to forgive? Because if you're holding anger and you're comparing yourself and you're judging others, that's a miserable place to be. Nobody wants to be in that place. So who do you need to forgive? Maybe you need to forgive yourself first.

or you need to forgive others, or you need to forgive the world. And forgiveness has nothing to do with the other person. Sometimes we say, I'm not going to forgive because they don't deserve forgiveness. Forgiveness is not about the other person. Forgiveness is an emotional gift of freedom to yourself, where you're saying that person, that place, that incident, that time no longer defines me. I'm giving that person, that place, that moment, no more space in my life.

I am emotionally moving on and I'm becoming indifferent to it. So every morning when we wake up, ask yourself, what does love look like? And in order to get to that place of love, what do I need to let go of? Who do I need to forgive? And am I willing to forgive? The more we have people turning up from a place of forgiveness and love and understanding, the more we have human beings looking to find the common ground, the less we want to segregate and label forgiveness

And the more we realize that actually we're all connected in some magnificent act of quantum entanglement, we're all connected. And when we see each other in each other's eyes, when we see the humanity in each other, and we realize that one of the greatest ways for me to be happy is to help others be happy. There's no separation here. So it is about showing up with love and kindness. And one of the steps to doing that is forgiveness.

I have to tell you, Jerry, one of the main things I'm trying to help people change with this podcast is I think so many people are waking up feeling that they don't matter. I think we have a worldwide crisis of unmattering going on where people just don't feel like they hold significance. And when you don't feel like you hold significance, it leads to you feeling lonely, helpless,

you get mental health issues, et cetera. So I think that was really inspirational. And I have one final question for you. I can't be talking to Ireland's top performance psychologist and not ask a sports-related question. So for the audience who's been with us this whole time, Gerry has worked with Olympic athletes, professional athletes, specifically in boxing, sailing, and rugby, but beyond that as well.

And I just have to ask, we see great athletes all the time. What do you think separates an elite athlete from a great athlete in their sport? Because I think it's the same thing in our life on what signifies an elite performer or

from a good or a great one? I think, yeah, for me, it's always about what is great. So one of the first questions I ask athletes is, what do you want out of this? And they'll say, I want an Olympic gold medal. And I'll say, why? And that's where it gets really interesting. Why? Sometimes they don't know. So you can be a really successful athlete with a lot of medals, but how does that transfer into happiness?

So what I try to do is I try to bring the professional athlete and the person into harmony. And you teach people that to pursue something is magnificent. I'm very ambitious. I want to win everything. But the pursuit of something has to be the journey in itself. And it sounds like the old cliche.

If you go to the Olympic Games and you spend your entire life full of stress and fear and anxiety and missing out on things and you win, you win the gold medal. I promise you, it's not worth it. And I've worked with so many Olympic gold medalists who would say it wasn't worth it.

It is about understanding that the real value of a goal, be it a world title or an Olympic medal, is who that goal makes you become. So if that goal makes you become someone that's more calm, more focused, less distracted, more joy, living a life of more passion, the goal almost disappears. So what we work with is the right person with the right process, never worries about the outcome.

The greatest athletes for me are the people who say this is what I want and I'm not getting distracted. And I'm going to give myself the courage and the freedom to pursue this with my entire being. I'm going to put my entire soul into this. And if I win the gold medal, phenomenal. And if I don't, I can live with that. But what I won't live with is regrets. There's a beautiful expression that says the tragedy of life is not death.

The tragedy of life is arriving at the end and realizing we never lived. Or there's another way of saying it, the tragedy of life is not death. The tragedy of life is all the little things we let die within us as we live. So what I say to athletes is, let's not worry about the gold medal. Let's fill this process with fun and passion. Let's get the process right. Let's maximize our potential. Let's go for this with everything we have.

And whether it ends in a gold medal or not, it's going to end in a better place. So a goal is only valuable if it makes you a better, happier person. So the greatest athletes for me are the ones that were totally free. We'd be in a dressing room even 20 minutes before an Olympic final and we'd be laughing. And they're like, isn't this magnificent that we get to experience this?

Isn't it magnificent that in 20 minutes, I'm going to be in the Olympic final and I'm going to show the world what I'm made of. And if it's good enough, it's good enough. And if it's not, I'm going to leave nothing undone. The greatest athletes I've worked with had this freedom. They didn't need the gold medal. And in fact, there's a, in the movie, Cool Cool Runnings, which you might've heard of, or maybe not, but it's a movie I love. And it's only a Hollywood movie. So it's based on fact, but it's a movie. So it's,

But in that, John Candy, who's a coach and he's won all the medals and then he cheats. He's playing the character of a coach that cheated. And now he's training the Jamaican bobsleigh team. And in one quiet moment, one of the Jamaican bobsleigh athletes asked him a question, the hard question, why did you cheat? And he said, coach, you had the medals. You had the records, right?

Why the hell would you cheat? And John Candy says something in the movie. It's only a movie, but I think it's really important. And he said to the athlete, if you're not enough without the medals, you'll never be enough with the medals. And you know what? That is so true in my experience. If you need a medal to justify your existence, if you need a medal to make you feel enough,

The pressure to win that medal will mean you'll never win it and you'll never be enough. But if you feel enough without the medal and you're not attached to the medal, it gives you freedom to take your attachment away from the outcome into the process. And now you compete with freedom and love and joy. And the more you compete with freedom and love and joy is the more likely you are to win a medal. So...

It's so counterintuitive, but I used to work with Olympic athletes. The first question I said to them is, why do you want Olympic medal? And by the end, I'm like, let's stop talking about Olympic medals. Let's start talking about love and joy and non-attachment. Too many people in their life are trying to build a business. We're trying to move money. We're trying to increase. Why? What's going to bring you? I want to climb Everest. Why? What are you hoping to find on top? I'm going to run 52 marathons in 52 days. Why? What are you hoping to find? We need to know why we're pursuing something.

And the pursuit itself has to be enough. That beautiful line from John Candy was so special. If you're not enough without the medal, you'll never be enough with the medal. If you're not enough without the promotion, you won't be enough with the promotion. If you're not enough without the billion dollar business, you'll never be enough with the billion dollar business. We still a little bit in life have this idea that money, success and medals is somehow linked to happiness. It's not actually.

because no external thing can create an internal happiness. Things of matter, like money and medals, don't really matter. And what I say to athletes is, do not spend your entire life chasing things of matter to arrive at the point where you've got them, only to realize that the things of matter don't actually matter. Happiness is an inside job, and it's more about what you release and what you let go than what you gain.

And the true value of your life is not about what you acquire. It's about what you give away. Service to humanity, to be a beacon of truth and a beacon of love, to be a person of kindness is one of the greatest gifts there is. And if that leads you to an Olympic medal, phenomenal. And if it doesn't, it's going to lead you to happiness either way you've won. So I hope that makes sense. I absolutely love that. I couldn't have said it any better myself. And what a way to,

to end this episode on. Jerry, if someone in the audience is not familiar with you, we have a global audience here. What are some of the best ways for them to contact you? My Instagram page is just my name. I think it's Jerry underscore Hussey. Our business is called Soul Space, S-O-U-L-S-P-A-C-E, so soulspace.ie, and you'll get us either there. But Instagram is probably, or LinkedIn is probably the easiest way to find me. Jerry, it was such an honor to have you here today. Brian,

told me this was going to be a great episode. I've listened to a bunch of your episodes and man, what an honor to have you. Thank you again. Brian's a great guy and keep up the great work, John. You're doing great work. I'm a big fan of your podcast and you're getting a really, really important message out to the world. So please keep doing your work and what a pleasure and honor it was for me to be on.

What an incredible honor that was to interview Jerry Hussey. And I want to thank Jerry and Brian Keene also for introducing me to Jerry for coming on the podcast today. Links to all things Jerry will be in the show notes at passionstruck.com. Please use the website links if you purchase any of the books from the guests that we feature here on the show. Videos are on YouTube at both our main channel at John R. Miles and our Clips channel at Passion Struck Clips. Please go subscribe and join over a quarter million other subscribers.

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And if you want doses of daily inspiration, then follow me on all the social platforms at John R. Miles. Are you curious to understand where you stand on the path to becoming passion struck? Dive into our engaging passion struck quiz crafted to reflect the core principles I shared

in my new book, Passion Struck. This quiz offers you a dynamic way to gauge your progress on the Passion Struck continuum. Head over to passionstruck.com to embark on this journey. It's just 20 questions and only take you 10 minutes to complete. You're about to hear a preview of the Passion Struck podcast interview that I did with

Paul Rabel, known as the Michael Jordan or Wayne Gretzky of lacrosse. And he's also the co-founder of the Premier Lacrosse League. In our episode, Paul dives into his new book, The Way of the Champion, where he shares the essential philosophies and practices that helped him reach the pinnacle of a sport. He'll also discuss profound insights from luminaries like Bill Belichick and Steph Curry, and how these lessons can be applied not just in sports, but also in life. As athletes, we always dream.

about playing in a national championship game, sold out at Gillette Stadium, 70,000 people there, overtime, ball on our stick, game on the line, chance to win it for our alma mater. That's the dream. But to get there, you have to spend countless hours on your own in empty stadiums doing the tedious, monotonous work that is skill development, that is running sprints, that is doing squats and pushups,

That has to be what you fall in love with such that you can experience that moment that you dream of. And the athletes that fall in love with the process, that get into the detail during practice, that understand that they actually improve the most when they practice away from practice, especially team sports. Yeah.

You hear whether it's Larry Bird's story or Michael Jordan's story. So practicing away from practice when you're on your own in the quiet, the early morning hours, the late night hours, that's where the best end up rising to the top. Remember that we rise by lifting others. So share this show with those that you love and care about. And if you found today's episode with Jerry Hussey,

inspirational, and I sure found it inspirational, then definitely share it with friends and family who could use the advice that he gave here today. In the meantime, do your best to apply what you hear on the show so that you can live what you listen. Until next time, go out there yourself and become passion struck.

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