Today, despite the production of adequate quantities of food to feed the global population, an estimated 690 million people, or one in nine people, go hungry, and 3 billion cannot afford a healthy diet. At the same time, tons of food are lost and wasted. Food loss and waste represents a waste of significant and scarce resources that are used to produce food, including water, soil, energy, labor, and time. It also translates to the emission of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. Reducing food loss and waste can strengthen food systems and benefit society as a whole. It contributes to improving food security and nutrition, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, lowers the pressure on land and water resources, and increases productivity and economic growth. FAO leads international efforts to defeat hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition, and is mandated to raise levels of nutrition and reduce food losses and food waste, taking into account sustainable production and consumption practices. The observance of an International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, as proclaimed by Resolution 74, Stroke 29, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 19, 2019, provides an opportunity to highlight successes achieved in reducing food loss and waste, and to reflect and take stock of actions needed going forward toward achieving SDG target 12.3.


All right. Hello everybody. This is going to be today's first and last talk in English you'll hear So I'm Otto I came all the way from Finland here to tell you about how to What you should know about the database. So I'm a long time Linux and open source advocate and I'm a I've contributed to WordPress core, but also to many other projects and I've contributed quite a lot to Maria DB So I know a few things about the database and I I work at a company called Seravo Which makes enterprise grade? Hosting and upkeep which means upkeep means that we guarantee our customers that the site works all the time No matter how much traffic they have or Even if their own coders sometimes make mistakes, we ensure that the site works all the time So why do I like to tell about the database because I think it's the the common common problems you have with WordPress is either that it gets slow or You might have security issues somebody hacks your web website and the database is related to both of them So I think it's important for developers to know something about the database. There's all of your Valuable data and it's often the bottleneck of performance. How fast your WordPress page this place So in my opinion the database is the single most important part of your WordPress infrastructure so I have ten tips for you and Tip number one is that learn how to make database dumps. How many of you know how to make a database dump? So that's very convenient because it's it you get a plain text version of your database And you can read exactly what it contains and you can even edit it and then import it again into your database And also it's important to know how to make database dumps in plain text because that's the only Interoperable way you can move your database from one system to another and from one database version to another You can do that using the traditional MySQL dump tool or using VP CLI So here is an example, this is the command I use to make database dumps and By the way There is my Twitter handle so my slides have quite a lot of code examples So you might want to look at them afterwards and I will post my slides in my Twitter account So you will find it there So here is an example how it looks like and you can for example Make two database dumps before and after you change a setting and then you can use diff for the text files to find out What changed in the database? That's fairly convenient and More more about the structure of the database here. You can see some some column Some table names and and values but more more you can find in the WordPress codex on that page Right. So tip number two learn how to use VP CLI It's very convenient for database operations You can quickly find out what are your biggest tables and you can search any string from your database and My favorite one is the last one The VP CLI command search and replace how many of you have used it Quite a few so this is an example how you can in your entire database change a HTTP address into the secure version very easily and quickly Then tip number three how many of you use PHP my admin Almost everybody. So my tip is the checkout Adminer. It's a smaller and faster and in my opinion better Graphical tool to browse your database Then tip number four, this is something that all WordPress developers should know so on every single WordPress page load this Query is made from the database Work does always gets the options on every single page load. So if you have a slow site, you can check Manually running this command SQL command in your database console to see how many rows it returns And how long it takes so if you have if the result is very big or slow, then that's going to slow down every single page load of WordPress and Here is a few is two examples if you notice that your VP options table is very big You can use these SQL commands to find out what are the What are the biggest fields and what rows are most common and WordPress doesn't have an index in this table at all because it's supposed to be By design less than one megabit all the time But if your database is bigger than that then you need to either clean it up or add an index Another table that often unfortunately grows big is the VP post meta table Especially if you have a VU commerce installed it will generate lots and lots of rows into this table and with this command You can find out what type of Rows are most common in your VP post meta table Unfortunately, lots of lots of plugins pollute this table and we need to raise some awareness among the plugin developers and team developers that you can't use The post meta functions too much because every single Time you save something it will generate one new row in the database So then tip number six learn SQL So their commands I show you how here are in the SQL language and that's something you can Command to the database and it will fetch the data for you So if you learn the basics about Selects and inserts and updates then you will be a better WordPress developer because you have some understanding of how the WordPress is talking to the database And if you're if you notice that you're doing something that you are using very very frequently or in high numbers The WordPress meta functions, then you should consider creating your own table That's not too hard, and it will be very good for performance And then when you learn SQL you should learn what an index and a full table scan means these are links to the documentation So if you find my presentation you can read more and Then tip number seven. I just told you to learn some SQL, but next I tell you don't use it directly You need to understand how it works, but you're not supposed to use it most of the time directly So WordPress has lots of built-in functions to do it. The most simple one is get posts If you're just getting posts use the built-in WordPress function It will do all the caching and optimizations for you If that's not good enough, you need to do something more complex use the VP query class And if that's not good enough, then you can use the VP DB get row and insert and other Methods and if that if not even that is good enough for you and you need to do your own SQL commands, then don't put them directly, but use the VP DB prepare and VP DB query methods It did it will protect you from SQL injections All right, so that was the part for For WordPress, but then you need to make sure that your database installation Installation is also good. So I would recommend Maria DB well obviously because I've been involved in its development But also many of you who like open source probably understand that something that's Managed by Oracle is not going to be a good open source product in the long run And then you need to use a recent version and then you need to make sure that all of your settings are okay That you have you're using the inner DB engine that your character set is correct And your collation is correct and so on and this is actually quite complex So if you are working on a very big project, then you maybe need to hire a database Expert to make sure that your data stuff is correct or or you can use a company and a Managed WordPress service that has taken care of all of these settings for you And then sometimes you shouldn't use the database at all And here is a quick example of how to use transients transients enables you to store Complex quarries the result of complex quarries in a single database row Or if you have ready or something similar installed it will be stored in memory and will be super fast How many of you have heard about the transient API in WordPress? Please check it out. It will help you make your site Make your own code much faster in many occasions alright, and then my last tip is That you should do something to monitor your performance. You can use the show process list in the console try it out or You can enable Maria DB as something called slow log So you can log for example all quarries that take more than five seconds and then analyze what's in the log and There's also tools like for example tidways that you can use to analyze what's happening in your php code and database in real-time in production And then my one final and extra tip is that never push your database into production This is something that unfortunately happens quite often because people when they develop WordPress sites They do some some things in code and some things in the settings and the settings are in the database And then they are tempted to push the database into production. That's that's bad. Try to do something else All right. Thank you. If you want to ask me something directly, we don't have time for more than one question right now Yes Wanted to ask one question regarding the collision of database because well in previous Developments I've run into old servers that are running like playing utf-8 instead of the md4 whatever was after and I would like to know if there is any important difference besides maybe some security concerns or something else because Sometimes I'm like forced to Change the collision database to work with these old servers But they shouldn't be sitting in a way that sometimes you run into them and there's no option around So I'd like to know if there's anything else besides well you use that emojis for example, but I know there's some security concern in there I think I Don't think there's any security concern But there are some usability concerns So when you are creating your database make sure that you choose the utf mb4 Character set because if you want to store emojis in your database in your comments For example, then you need to have this character set and then the collision means in what order is the results If you have a result in an alphabetical order, then in what order is the different characters? Put so that needs to be in your case the Spanish collation. All right, so the server for example does not allow these newer collation let's say because like I said they're very old servers They shouldn't be there in first place, but so then you can dump the database in the text format and Then change the collation and then import it back. Yeah, that's what that's what that's the safest and easiest thing to do All right. Thank you


Hey guys, how are you today? So we are here with another design team video challenge video and This month I challenged the team with mark making. There are so many different ways to make marks in mixed media The list and possibilities are completely endless. Most of my product line though is Developed around and revolving around the idea of how can I help you make more interesting marks? At least I hope that's that's my idea. I hope I'm accomplishing that but I don't know you guys are the ones to say So this month I wanted to see what they could do with my products whether they're digital the digital downloads a physical product a Stamp a stencil or something to see what they could do with making marks now I am have been for quite a few months now developing a new line of products That's going to be available in a couple of different places One of them is in the Etsy shop. I my sister is a feng shui expert and Is that how you pronounce it Elizabeth feng shui feng shui feng shui? Anyway, you know good it balance energy balancing, right? It's not about good energy or bad energy It's about balancing said energy you can't in your life have the good You know there was that old saying you can't have the good without the bad That's true and it's about balance so as part of helping her with some things for her business Which I've been doing including logo work for her And I will include a link to her website in the description below our Facebook page I think it's a Facebook page right now One of the things that kind of came about by accident was a Yang Yang ruler So I found this really interesting So how fun would it be to take something like this to make not only make marks on your page? But you could use this to trace out the yin yang shape on your journal page or your canvas You could within each shape on one side put The good so say something in life is bothering you put the good or the blessing on one side the bad On the other side and then cover the whole thing up with artwork You know way of therapeutically working out the good and the bad and balancing out the the to and coming to a Solution for you that helps you live with both I thought it was really interesting and plus you could just doodle you could just you maybe that's just too much for you you could use the shapes to just create an interesting doodle and You know bonus you if you're not into the whole yang yang shing Yin Yang thing and you know are you into paisley patterns because that's really it's a shape of a paisley pattern So they come in oops three sizes three six and Jumbo nine size nine inch size So from tip to tip They are made out of Plexi and they have a protective clear frosted coating on it. That's what you see here They're actually clear, but there's a protective layer of plastic on them. So you get three in the set They're about 1250 a set At least as of right now So they are available in the Etsy shop and those among other things and I can't wait to see what the design team And you guys do with them. So I am going to link the Etsy store in the description below along with the design team blog page and Every week as they come out with Videos I make them live for that month for this month for October So if their link doesn't work, it's because their video is not live yet, but there are other videos do work So go watch them start in January and go forward Don't forget to show them some love. There's some really great content out there with the team and Yeah, what can you do with making mark make making marks in your work with the tools for my Etsy shop? And if you have the yin-yang rulers, I would love to see what you do I do think my friend Cindy udder has made a video And if I can figure out which one it is if I can get a link I will link that also in the description below she was a part of the test team for these and she created some fun content So that's it for right now. Don't forget to like share and subscribe and show everybody some love and Go out and have a great day and do something nice for yourself because you deserve it. I'll see you later. Bye guys


For many, the search for a dream home begins at Private Property. The website boasts a wide variety of estate property, including sought-after options on their spectacular garden route. Positioned on the breathtaking coastline adjoining Muscle Bay is Pinnacle Point Estate. It's home not only to a Peter Matkovic-designed cliff-top 18-hole championship golf course, but also to a world-renowned archaeological site with earliest evidence for modern human behaviour. My name is Peter Nelson. I'm an archaeologist at the University of Cape Town. And we're now sitting in Cave 13B at Pinnacle Point, which a friend of mine and myself discovered in 97. And the significance of this site to the archaeological world is that it is one of six sites in South Africa that's got middle stone age material in it, which is when humans emerge both as a species as well as behaviourally. At the moment this is the site that has the oldest dates for this behavioural modernity of humans. So literally it is at the moment the site that has the earliest evidence for modern human behaviour. So we believe the reason that the material here has been preserved in the first place is that from about 90,000 years ago till about 40,000 years ago this cave is sealed by a massive sand dune that sits in here. And we believe that it's during that time that not only are the materials in here being preserved, but also calcium carbonates are coming from the concrete at the top of the cliff and cementing everything in here and fossilising things in here. So you can see dunes in here, you can see sediments on the cave walls which have become cemented. So it's thanks to that Pompeii effect, if you will, that the material in here has been preserved. Because of the discoveries and starting the project here in 2000, myself and the family decided to move here because we were travelling up and down to be involved in the project. So we've been in the fossil base since then and being really, really happy here. When we first moved we thought, oh, you know, moving to this little coastal dorpi. But we really love it. So all the luxuries of a city are here. There's a lovely museum in town, the Diaz Museum, which has got a caravalle there, the ship. So we spend a bit of time there as well. And then lots of other activities as well. The beaches are nearby. It is a very, very underrated place, which is probably a blessing for us. But yeah, a very, very nice place to be. Dr Nilsson is not the only one who has fallen in love with Muscle Bay. And Pinnacle Point Estate with its award-winning golf course has become the first choice for golfing enthusiasts wanting to loom the lifestyle. My name is Alphonse Mayer. This is my wife, Sine, and my son, Alphonse. We've been living at Pinnacle Point Estate since 2014. And the main reason we bought at Pinnacle Point was really for golf. We love the setting here. I think the way it was designed, you start on one and you go up inland. And as you get into your game, you're coming down the coast. And that's when it gets really spectacular. When you get to number five, six, and seven, I think is one of the best holes in the country. It's only a pitching wedge, but if the wind blows, many people can't hit that green. My personal favorite is number 12, where you can hit the driver and then probably pitching wedge in, but you've got to be very accurate from the tee box. And then 18th hole is probably one of the most spectacular holes in the country. As a finishing hole, I think it's brilliant. I enjoy playing golf here with my family. It's a great course. I mean, it's on the cliffs. It's a very beautiful place. And there's a lot of risk and reward holes, especially from the blue or the black teeth. I enjoy the longer course more. There are so many tourists and visitors from Europe and other countries. It takes forever for them to play around with golf because they always have their cameras and cell phones out and they take pictures all the time and they almost forget to play golf. We've got a very good facility up at the driving range, Chippengreen as well as a Patengreen. We also host the Louis Worcestershire Academy there. We've got a nice little pro shop there. In 2016, the clubhouse was extended into a new phase. It includes a spa with an indoor heated pool. It's got a jacuzzi. It's got steam rooms. It's got four treatment rooms, a lovely hair salon. And while the ladies are in the hair salon, we've got a kids club as well where they can leave their kids to play indoors. The clubhouse is actually situated on the best spot at Pinnacle Point. Upstairs you've got the members bar and it's got the most beautiful views of the ocean. It's also got the restaurant facility on the middle floor, which can seat about 140 people, but the best place actually at Pinnacle Point. You go after a round of golf out on the terrace and you look over the ocean and you have a nice cocktail after a round of golf. One of the main benefits of Pinnacle Point is that it's so close to the George Airport. So it's very convenient for people flying in from Janisburg or Durban or Cape Town to come and play a round of golf here. I love living at Pinnacle Point. I think it's the most beautiful place on earth. I love to go for walks here. We have two lovely beaches. Every morning the ocean looks different. The birdlife is fantastic. I like to go for a jog along the coastline on the golf paths. It's soothing for the soul. It's lovely to be outside and breathe in fresh air. We've got two big shopping malls here. Both have everything you need. Mosel Bay has a number of very good schools for the residents here. It's just on their doorstep. Private schools as well as government schools that are really good. Also on this date is a nice tennis court where me and my dad play once a week or so which I enjoy very much. I also like to go out and cycle. There's nice trails next to the coast here. It's nice not only to get out but to see such a beautiful place while you do it. Although there's a lot of houses on this date with swimming pools, there's also a communal swimming pool at the lodges where you can socialize with your friends and have a good time. We love living at Pinnacle Point. We love the lifestyle and I think as a family we made the right choice to invest at Pinnacle Point. With so much on offer, it's no wonder achieving the highest number of residential sales seems to be no problem for Pinnacle Point Estates resident Pam Golding agent. I'm Tian Sketer. I'm the Pam Golding agent for Pinnacle Point residential estate. I also live on the estate. Property is my passion. Pinnacle Point is my passion. The two of them combined is the ideal situation. To sell property at Pinnacle Point is quite easy. I know you're going to buy. I just need to show you where you're going to buy. The nice thing about Pinnacle is there's four different types of property that you can invest in. The sectional title units which is the villas starting from 1.8 million for a two-bedroom furnished and then the lodges starting at 1.7 million furnished two-bedroom units and then the faint-bones unit which is full-title units. A little bit smaller stand, easy for lock-up and go. They start anything from 2.5 million up to 5 million and then the freestanding houses anything from 7 million up to 35 million. Obviously, those properties have got the perfect views of the private beaches, the clubhouse. One of the attractions of the estate is that there will be a World Heritage Site within the next three years. We'll be the only estate in the world with a World Heritage Site within our parameters. And that attracts quite a lot of international buyers to be part of that. I think one of the things that attract people about Pinnacle Point is also the low density. There's a lot of open space between houses. We're a lifestyle estate. It's a sound investment. It's a secure investment. There's a lot on offer and we can cater for all your different needs. Where else can you live such an incredible lifestyle in such spectacular beauty? Only here. Yes, indeed. Only at Pinnacle Point can you find so many property options in such an idyllic setting. Make sure you too live the lifestyle by finding your dream garden route home on privateproperty.co.za. There's a home for everyone on private property.


Suspense! In the diners and club cars of America's finest trains, wherever the knowing traveler seeks the last word in luxury, the first word in wines is C-R-E-S-T-A, V-L-A-N-C-A, Cresta, Blanca, Cresta Blanca. Yes, Cresta Blanca, California wine is the choice among those who set today's mode in travel as well as gracious living. So enrich your dining, distinguish your entertaining with Cresta Blanca. When you pour Cresta Blanca burgundy, sautern, or any Cresta Blanca selection, you enjoy the finest in wine. Shenleys Cresta Blanca wine company, Livermore, California. And now Shenleys brings you Radio's Outstanding Theatre of Thrills Suspense! Presented by Roma Wines. That's R-O-M-A. Roma Wines for your everyday enjoyment. Tonight Roma Wines of Fresno, California bring you Mr. John Lund in Murder Abored the Alphabet, a suspense play produced, edited and directed for Shenleys by William Spear. It is well past midnight now, and I write these words so that other men may know the full story of that ill-fated voyage of the deep-sea tug alphabet. Ours was not a large vessel, but sturdily built for its task, and though it seems an age, it was only a little over six months ago that we sailed from Liverpool, England, bound out across the North Atlantic to deliver our ship to her new owners, a salvage firm of Boston, Massachusetts. And by the cost of... We put out with a reduced compliment, just a handful of men, twelve in all. We were a new crew sent on board for this journey of the deep-sea lanes, and I sailed as chief officer under the command of Captain Godfrey Walker, second-maid Harvey Goodrum and chief engineer Alec McCavish, being the other members of our small saloon. I remember we departed on a cold wet day, with a fog lying low over Birkenhead, and the northwest wind blowing fresh in our teeth. On a port! As the drab gray of the Liverpool dark side dropped back into the soaking mists, I doubt if any man aboard could have foretold what lay ahead over those three thousand miles of heaving seas. When we had cleared the light ship, I went into the wheelhouse, where Captain Walker searched the channel ahead, his deep black eye staring out from under the shaggy eyebrows. I saw him, his huge frame bundled in a salt-stained great coat. Mr. Marshland, everything secure to proceed? Yes, sir. Everything on deck is lashed down as tight as a whistle. Good, good. We may get a dirty crossing this time of the year. Oh, it should be uncomfortable, sir. When it comes to ships, I'm used to something a little bigger. You're on no ten thousand ton an hour, Mr. If we hit it heavy, there'll be many a man on board who wish he'd never left the dockside. Oh, I think the crew can take it, sir. Yeah, maybe, Mr. Maybe. A few days out and we'll see. Keep it to a course, quartermaster. All right, sir. All right, Mr. Marshland, you can take her now. Very good, sir. Your course is south-seventy-west. South-seventy-west, sir. See these helmsmen, keep her on the course. I'll be back in Macabre if you want. Aye, aye, sir. Oh, the skipper, sir. Is he? Aye. Fair gives me the creeps he does. Oh, he's probably harmless enough. He used to bigger commands than this, I imagine. Ah, but I'd keep a watch on him, sir, far with you. Keep a watch on him. Why? Why? You don't know now, sir. You'll find out soon enough. South-seventy-west, check your course. South-seventy-west, sir. Marshland, sir. You sent for me? Take a chair, Mr. Thank you, sir. No, no! Certainly, sir. Is there anything wrong? No, no, no, nothing's wrong. I just want to talk to you, discuss the affairs of the ship with you. Give you some idea of what I expect. Oh, here, a cigarette? Oh, thank you. Oh, by the way, you will not use that ashtray on your right. No, you will not use it. You may place your ash carefully on the other one. Uh, this one? Yes, yes, that one. Tell me, how long since you had your last birth, Mr. Why, uh, it's been some time, sir. Port Captain says you know me. Well, uh, only by reputation, sir. Would it surprise you to learn that I know something of you by reputation, Mr? Why, I don't exactly.  Oh, well, no matter. Now, I shall tell you the reason I summoned you to my cabin, Mr. Marshland. You will find, if you do not know already, that I have very definite ways. I wish things to be done, very definite ways. First of all, I demand complete, unquestioning obedience. Well, of course, Sarah. I'm sure you'll get the fullest cooperation from myself and the crew. Good, good. I want that to be perfectly clear. I also insist that your supervision of the work on the ship be done in a certain manner, I shall prescribe. All items of work will be carried out in alphabetical order. Alphabetical order, sir? Precisely. Starting with A and carrying through to Z. I'm afraid I don't understand, sir. I think my meaning is perfectly clear. If the hands are painting ship, they will start with the alleyways and all other items beginning with A. Then the bulkheads, then the decks, and so forth. You understand me now, Mr.? Oh, yes, yes, sir. I think I understand. But I'm afraid I don't quite see your reason. Mr. Marsh! My reasons are not to be questioned. You will remember while I'm in command of this vessel, I hold the power of life and death. He was sitting across from me on the small satire of his cabin. His massive face half hidden in the shadows. His eyes piercing into mine. In the nearness of him, I could see the bloodshot veins like thin red tracings against the white. The man was mad. Higgins was right. He was mad. Yes, life and death. When I looked about his cabin, there was something inhuman in its ordered neatness, as if the warmth of man had not touched it. I saw the book stacked evenly in the bookshelf. I saw the titles arranged in alphabetical order. It was a pattern completing itself. The desk, the bunk, a maculet, not a wrinkler speck of dust visible to the naked eye. On the bulkhead were four photographs and largements of outdoor scenes. With a start, I realized they too were in perfect order, arranged according to the seasons from left to right, spring, summer, autumn, winter. My eyes darted about me again and on the shelf above his bunk I saw three cameras. They also fitted the pattern, the smallest on the left, the largest on the right. I remembered the chair and the ashtray and turned towards him as he spoke again. Is that perfectly clear, Mr. Marshland? Yes, sir. Perfectly clear. Good, good. Now, one final thing. I insist that the quartermasters taking the wheel appear in sequence of the first letter of their surnames. But, sir, that will mean rearranging the watches, surely. Silence! You will do as I order. Very good, sir. The watches will be changed. That's better, much better. Well, mister, now that we understand one another, we shall cease talking about the ship. I see you've noticed my photographs. Well, I can't say I know much about it, sir, but I'd say they're excellent. Of course they're excellent. I took them myself, a hobby of mine. You may have noticed I have three cameras. Two of them are of German make, the other American. The medium-sized one in the middle I use with infrared film, comparatively recent development. The other two I use for general purposes. Are you interested in photography, Mr. Marshland? Well, I can't say I am particularly, sir. I've never done anything like that for a hobby. Very well. If you're not interested, you may go. Oh, I didn't mean that I... That is in order, Mr. Marshland! You will now go! I left him then, and stumbled into the cold darkness outside. The thoughts tumbling unendingly threw my head as I made my way to my cabin. We were pushing our way over the restless waters of the North Atlantic with a madman in command. On the morning of the third day, the second officer came running onto the bridge and plung himself excitedly into the wheelhouse. Mr. Marshland, I'd like a word with you. Go ahead, Goodrum. What is it? Would you come outside? I can't tell you here. Certainly. Now, what in the world is the matter with you? This is the wireless operator, sir. Abba Crumby. He's gone. You mean he's disappeared? Off the ship? Disappeared? Maybe. But I wouldn't wonder if there was a better name for it than that, sir. What do you mean? I mean murder. Abba Crumby was gone, vanished without a trace with the decks of the alphabet. And although I didn't have the feeling myself, there was an uneasiness within the crew now. They seemed furtive, frightened, and they quietly drifted out of sight whenever the captain made an appearance on the deck. You could see they feared him, and somehow connected his madness with the disappearance of the wireless operator. That night, I stood in the darkness of the wheelhouse, the faint light from the vinegar shining on the face of Higgins as he stood his trick at the wheel. It's a rough go, sir. That Heather Crumby didn't just fall over the side by himself. Mock my words on that. Oh, come now, Higgins. Many a man has disappeared from shipboard, swept over the side by a sea. Ah, sir, on a stormy night that may be. But last night was pretty quiet one. Just a little kisser rain. Done in he was, sir. But why? What reason? Reason. Ah, no one had no reason, sir. Except maybe the queer one. The queer one. Ah, the skipper, sir. Good heavens, man. Are you accusing the captain of...? He's not a normal man, sir. I wouldn't be too loud about the captain, Higgins. You can't accuse people without evidence. I'll keep me tongue. But the skipper's obvious rocker. You know that as well as I do, sir. He's got some set ideas about things, but that has alphabetical ideas, sir. Well, yes, but... And you thought of this, sir. His name. Abercrombie. Whatever. Beginning with a hay. The first skipper of the alphabet. Abercrombie was the first. But he won't be the last, sir. He won't be the last. For suspense, Roma Wines are bringing you Mr. John Lund in murder aboard the alphabet. Roma Wines' presentation tonight in Radio's Outstanding Theatre of Thrills. Suspense. Suspense.  That's R-O-M-A. Roma Wines. America's largest selling wines. When it's 90 in the shade and there's no shade, that's the time to enjoy tall, tinkling glasses of ice cold Roma wine and soda. Yes, treat your family and friends to the first quenching goodness of Roma wine and soda. So simple. Have filled tall glasses with any Roma wine. Such as robust Roma burgundy or delicate Roma saterne. Fill up with cracked ice and soda. Sweeten to taste. Then take a long, cooling sip and smile. You will discover why Roma wine and soda is so cool to come home to. Especially when the weatherman says warmer. And remember, for better taste, always enjoy Roma wines. That's R-O-M-A. Roma Wines. The greatest name in wines. And now Roma wines bring back to our Hollywood soundstage. John Lund as Fertmaite Marshland and Joseph Kearns as Captain Walker in Murder Abored the Alphabet. A play well calculated to keep you in suspense. Needless to say, the conclusions of the men were no surprise to me. But I didn't feel the time was ripe for further action. On the evening of the following day the barometer started dropping and next morning saw the low-grade clouds scutting swiftly before the wind and the alphabet laboring heavily in the rising sea. It was at eight bells in the morning watch, the sixth day of sea. Who's there? It's MacKervish, Mr. Mead. Well, come in, chief. Take a chair, chief. Oh, what is it? You look bothered. Butterfield, Mr. He's lost. Lost? Aye. Are you sure, MacKervish? Aye, I'm sure enough. We've searched for him all around the ship. There's knee at place, Mr. Have you informed the captain? Ah, he's the old man. Do you think he knows it? Come on. There's another man gone, sir. Butterfield. Butterfield, eh? Aye, sir. How long have you known this, Mr. Marshall? The chief engineer informed me only a few moments ago, sir. Are you sure of this, Mr. MacKervish? Aye, I'm sure. There's knee at trace of him anywhere aboard the ship. Very well, Mr. MacKervish. You may go. I wish to speak to the chief officer alone. What about Butterfield, sir? Go, Mr. MacKervish. That's an order. Aye, sir. I'll go. Well, Mr. Marshall? I'm afraid this is beyond me, sir. No, I'm not referring to the engineer, Mr. He's obviously disappeared. There's nothing we can do about it. Well, why are you standing? Why don't you sit down? Well, I do. But thank you, sir. Yes, it's Thursday. Let me sit in the armchair. Thank you. Well, what do you think of my ship now? You still find it uncomfortable? Oh, no, sir. I like it very well. I thought a long time before I shipped aboard. Oh, you did, eh, Mr. Huh? Well, she's small. But then any ship to ship, eh? I'd like something a little more, but then the sea is the lady that counts. Am I right? That's right, sir. You love her. You love her very much, don't you, Marshall? I do. Yes, I do. You're young, but you love her more than anything?  More than is, uh, more than is natural? Captain, eh? And now you're seated. Would you like to inspect my cameras and tell me what you think of it? Well, I'm afraid I don't know if I deal about that sort of thing, sir. Oh, you know nothing about them. Hey, good you may leave my cabin. Certainly, sir. I shall look into the Butterfield matter. He's left this ship, mister. You're only wasting your time. Now go! For the second time, I left the cabin of that strange man. I left him alone with his madness, and steadying myself against the roll of the ship, walked the deck, thinking my own thoughts. It was that night that Higgins came to me in my cabin. I bet he meant her, and he settled his wizened body down upon my armchair. I was lying in my bunk, watching him as he sat there, awkwardly twisting his cap and his hands. It's an unusual request I have, sir, and I hope I can speak in confidence, like... Go on, Higgins. Whatever you have to say will be just between the two of us. Well, sir, we think the skipper should be put away, sir. Put away? What do you mean? Locked up, sir, but he can't arm us. You know that's mutiny. Ah, it's mutiny, but Mr. Marshland, he'll murder us all. Epicromby, Butterfield. He'll go clear on down the alphabet if we don't stop him. There's no proof. Well, the lads are sure enough. Are they? Just give us the word, sir, and we'll help you. We'll put him away. Very well, Higgins. Keep it among yourselves, but you can tell the men this. There's any more trouble. I'll take matters into my own hands. You can rest assured of it. Thank you, sir. They ate my mutiny, but are either caught in the world as ever would convict you at it. No. No, Higgins, I don't think there is. It had to be done very carefully, and for quite a while I lay back upon my bunk, thinking of what Higgins had said. It would be risky, but the men were behind me. That would more than sway the balance. Higgins was right. Any court of law would see the wisdom of my action. They would never convict for mutiny, and Captain Walker would be locked away forever. We continued on our way, and in the hull of the wind and the long seas, you could sense the cold hand of fear that had settled over the alphabet. By the evening of the seventh day, we stood well out on our great circle track, more than halfway between Liverpool and Boston. We plunged through dirty seas, rising to each crest and falling to the trough below, with the water curling green over the flare of our bluff bow. But we made fair time, and the knots slipped steadily astern. It was during the inky blackness of that night that death struck again on the decks of the alphabet, and another member of our dwindling van disappeared into the unknown. Abercrombie, Butterfield, and now the third man. His name was Chadwick. Good evening, sir. Dirty weather, sir. Be getting below, sir. Would you please let me by? I want to go below. You dropped something, sir. Never mind. I'll get it. Aren't you, Mr. Marshall? You are, too. Aren't you, Captain? I thought I heard a scream. Oh, did you now, mister? Did you? We're all here, sir. You all know why you're here. Yes, sir. The lead's now. We're with you, mister. We'll stop his tricks, we will. Good. Now we must do this quietly and quickly. There must be no bungling, understand? Yes, sir. All right. Here goes.  Well, mister, what is it you are? Come out here, sir. I want to show you something. Mr. Marshall! Never mind that, men. Captain, say where you are. This gun is loaded. So, now it's mutiny. Marshall and you better...  One move and I'll shoot. My knife in your gizzard! Mr. Marshall and these have skipped an hour. You'll swing for this, Marshall, and you will know... You really think they'll hang a mate for mutiny when they can hang a Captain from murder? We sailed into Boston Harbor with Captain Walker Lash securely to a chair in his cabin. After the first brief struggle, he had grown quieter. And during the last days of our voyage, he had just sat there, silently, saying nothing, a strange, mad smile leering from his lips. We arrived in Boston late in the afternoon, and as we sailed up the harbor, we hoisted the international signal calling for the harbor police. After we had docked alongside, I went up to his cabin to ensure that all was in readiness for the arrival of the police. And as I stood over him, bound there in his chair, his eyes seemed to mock me, his smile taunting me. So, Mr. Marshall, this is to be the success of your little plan, eh? I have nothing to say to you, Captain. The police will be aboard at any moment. You think I'm mad, don't you? But you've bungled it badly, Mr. You've bungled it very badly. Have I? Who's that? Police! Police, come in, come in! Officer, this man is... Yes, you've bungled it, Mr. Marshall. Why weren't you content to let me be with my madness, as I was content to let you be with yours?  If you hadn't bungled it... What are you talking about? I know all about you, Mr. Under a bit of a cloud, eh? Haven't shipped for quite a while. Not the first vessel you've been on where men have disappeared in the black of the night, eh? Oh, but I wouldn't have cared. No, I like your methods, business like by the letters, by the alphabet. You are mad. Take him away, officer. Yes, mad quite. But you should have taken more interest in my photography, Mr. The infrared film, for instance. You can take pictures on the darkest night. Would I have one, Mr. an excellent likeness? A likeness?  The police have been very understanding. They could readily understand how a man could hate and fear the sea, and yet love it, like a woman. Love it enough to follow it and make every sacrifice, even human sacrifice. But now they say they must send me away to a place where the sea can no longer torture me. A place of no land or sea or wind or rain, but only rest. Can you pray? Yes. To the sea. Only to the sea. Suspense. Murder aboard the alphabet, starring John Lund, presented by Roma Wines. That's R-O-M-A. Those better tasting Roma Wines. America's favorite wines. Yes, Roma Wines taste better, because Roma brings you the captured natural richness of California's choicest grapes, gently pressed and guided, unhurriedly, with ancient skills, and America's greatest wine-making resources to tempting taste luxury. These better tasting Roma Wines are placed with mellow Roma Wines of years before, and from these, the world's greatest wine reserves, Roma later selects for your enjoyment. This weekend, share with your friends the hospitality of delicious Roma California wine. Before dinner, serve nut-like Roma sherry. After dinner, enjoy rich, Roma port. Yes, the better taste of choice Roma Wines tells you why Roma, that's R-O-M-A. Roma Wines are enjoyed by more Americans than any other wines. John Lund will soon be seen in Paramount's 36-star production, Variety Girl. Tonight's Suspense play was by Charles Tourelle. Next Thursday, same time, you will hear Lloyd Nolan Suspense Produced and directed by William Spear for the Roma Wine Company of Fresno, California. Next week, Suspense will present Lloyd Nolan, the following week, Edmund O'Brien. Make it a point to listen each Thursday to Suspense Radio's Outstanding Theatre of Thrills. This is CBS The Columbia Broadcasting System.


Hello everyone, I am Dr. Prashant Bhavna, I am a consultant rheumatologist and clinical immunologist at Manipal Hospital, J. Nagar, Bangalore. Today I would talk about vaccination in autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic disease. Many of them you know that infection is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with autoimmune rheumatic disease. Invasive pneumococcal infections, influenza, herpes zoster, hepatitis B are the major vaccine preventable diseases. So, any patient who we are planning to start on antirheumatic drugs, we vaccinate them to boost immune system against those specific organisms. Ideal time is to give two weeks before we start antirheumatic drugs. Influenza vaccine is given once a year. Pneumococcal vaccines, they are two types. One is PCV13, which is T-cell dependent. It has to be taken once in lifetime. Another is PPSV23, which required a booster dose after 5 years and after 65 years of age. Other vaccine is herpes zoster, which has come recently to India. It is two-dose vaccine. One is at day zero and other is after two months of the first vaccine. It has to be given for the young woman if they are starting on anti-inflammatory medicines, particularly Tophacitinib, but ideally to be given after 50 years of age. The other vaccines, if you want to take like particularly hepatitis B, hepatitis C, particularly the healthcare professional who are at risk of getting the infection, you should consult an infectious disease specialist or a rheumatologist for the same. Thank you.


Well, welcome to the show, Eric and Alan. So great to have you. Thanks for having us. Great to be here. Yeah, thank you. Great to be here. And I'd love to just jump in. How did the book come about? Eric came and gave a talk at Google in May of, I believe it was 2021, three years ago. And I was working at Google at the time. We were home due to COVID. And I wasn't sure if I was gonna go to this talk, but my wife said, yeah, that sounds pretty interesting. You should go. And I was just fascinated by how, he talked about performance principles, but it was all based on his hands-on experience of working with a wide variety of people. And I just thought it was really interesting. And I had written a couple of previous books, How Google Works and Trillion Dollar Coach. So it was sort of itching for a third project anyway. And here we are. Yeah, I think Alan mailed me a copy of the Trillion Dollar Coach and I consumed it in one evening. I really like the writing style. I've been entertaining for years in my mind about maybe doing a book. So then we met and we just kind of seemed to hit it off on the personality side. And I knew it was a matter of time. I just wasn't sure when it was, but I wanted to kind of get a message out about a 30-year career, working with about 25,000 of the world's best performers and learned principles in working with these men and women that I thought could be very actionable and applicable to the population as a whole. And what drew you to performance psychology, Eric? So I got an undergrad degree in psychology and biology from UC Davis, took time off and kind of backpacked through Europe and then got into a PhD program. And I was kind of the standard clinical psychologist. I wasn't focusing on performance as much then. My job was then to make people who didn't feel well feel better as it were. And then I took an internship with the US Navy. And that's when life changed for me. My intent was just to kind of do the residency, if you will, or the internship and then the obligated three-year payback and the opportunities that presented themselves were literally mind-blowing. We've lived in Spain for a while and I got to work. I'm packing the book a little bit, the NASA program. And then the world changed, right? 9-11 occurred and because of my interest areas, my research background, I really shifted from more of a clinician to more performance-based. And went to Sears School, worked there and survival of Asian resistance and escape. And then what really kind of drew most of my interest was working for my last 10 years in the Navy as the head clinical and performance psychologist for the Navy SEALs. So that's when I was kind of sharpening that skill set as it were. And that's when I knew performance psychology was much more interesting to me. No disrespect to the clinical side, been there, done that. But I was much more interested in taking incredible men and women and making them even better and doing it empirically. And I'm very curious around the title Learned Excellence because I think many listeners think of excellence as rare, hard to come by and probably not learned. So how did the title come about and what exactly do you mean by learning excellence? Yeah, I don't want to go down various rabbit holes here but I am so tired after 30 years of the narrative of I can never do what he or she is doing because they were born that way. It is utter nonsense.  In fact, I want the listeners and the readers of the book to run away from that narrative.  There are clear physical advantages that people are born with and maybe we can make an argument some intellectual advantages at times as well. But to a man and to a woman, when you read the book and you impact the 32 elite performers that we doc, we could have literally had thousands in there but we chose 32. Each one of them tells the story for us and the narrative of they weren't born that way. No one is born, all of the top performers have navigated usually behind the scenes. Very, very few people can kind of see the failures they've had and how they've iterated their growth outside of the comfort zone. So that was a non-negotiable. I wanted people to remember, excellence can be learned, no one's born with it. Johnny is a performer on stage in a band and when we started this company, I was telling Johnny that I didn't know anything about performance and he was like, what are you talking about? Getting on the microphone here in the podcast and being in front of the room with our clients is performing and it was really eye-opening for Johnny to give me that insight because I had never really thought of myself as a performer and I know there's probably some listeners in the audience who feel the same way. When they think about performance, they think, oh, that's someone else, that's athletes, that's Navy SEALs, that's leaders. How would you explain to someone who doesn't see themselves as a performer how they could actually improve their performance? We're all performers. When you have a job, I started my career, my first job was in retail. Actually, before that, I taught karate and you're performing. You're up there teaching a kid how to do karate. You're trying to sell a pair of ski boots. That's performance. It doesn't mean it's fake or scripted or what have you. It just means that you have an objective, you have a perhaps a script or a set of knowledge that you're trying to convey. That's all performance. So actually the very thesis of our book is that we are all performers and not just at our jobs. When we're at home, we're performing as a partner, as a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a spouse, as a parent. I don't mean it's performative. I don't mean it's fake, but you're doing something that you really care about that you're invested in and you would love to be really good at it. That's what we mean by performance. Look, there's been a ton of information podcasts, readings, et cetera around mindset. I think one of the takeaways from a 30-year career with 25,000 roughly high-end performers is one of the takeaway messages is that the default mindset, if someone has the same mindset for every role that they play, when you look at the research and you look at their lives, they're probably not performing in other roles very well. And I'll give a great example, a really easy one I think for a lot of people to think about is within the sport analogy here. Like if we're all professional athletes and we get paid to be competitive, relentless and gritty, pick your favorite sport. And we do that and then we transition to, now we go home to our significant other spouse and our children. How do you suppose that relationship's going to work if you're competitive, relentless and gritty with husband, wife, et cetera? It's gonna fall flat. So one of the things that we've invited the readers to really think carefully about is how they transition. First, identify those five or six key roles that you play in life. For me, I'm a performance psychologist, I'm a husband, I'm a son, I'm a father, a grumpy pickleball player on the weekends, whatever your roles may be. And then choose literally words that you think will help propel that mindset or that role to perform optimally.  One of the kind of revelations for me in the book was like, wait a minute, I can choose my mindset. Because I think most people just sort of wake up, well, here's my mindset. And then you may try, you know, various ways of self-improving here or there. But when do you ever stop back and say, in this job, in this career, here's the type of mindset that people need that are the most successful, to be the most successful. And I got 70% of it and I don't got 30% of it. That really kind of a more systematic approach. What is the right mindset for that role? But then as Eric is saying, my role as a son is different than my role as a parent, than my role as, you know, what have you. So we're just saying be deliberate. And then when you're going between those different roles, make sure you're changing your mindset, like actually have some sort of process read the markers of the new mindset, something. So your mind is triggered to go to the new mindset. Well, I love that. And it just, it really got me thinking because we have a lot of very analytical listeners who tune into this show. And it's an obvious why that set of folks find this show fascinating because their analytical minds work very well at the analytical job that they have. Their engineers, their software developers, that problem solution oriented mindset works fabulous there. But that mindset also comes up short when it is connection and conversation and being in the moment because it's always fast forward and backwards or looking for weak points to be able to fix. And it's very important for people to understand that whatever mindset that they have developed in order to be successful in certain areas of their life when they put themselves in an uncomfortable situation or see where it comes up short that doesn't mean that you are a failure. It just means that you have, this is the area in which you can improve and which you can build a new mindset, just a new mindset that not only will allow you to exceed but will allow you to be just as successful as the mindset that allows you to do very well at work we can now install a new mindset that will allow you to be very successful in networking, connection, being in the moment, rapid rapport building. Now, Alan, you bring up a great point around the choosing the mindset piece because so many of us have mindsets from our peers or our significant other or our family the way we were raised and these become our default mindset without ever choosing it. It's just the environment we're in the way we are communicated to, the way we are raised and then when we come up against resistance we don't often think, well, what if I just changed my mindset? You might think I have to work harder or I'm a failure or their inner critic gets into play. So how do we recognize when it is mindset and not effort output or something other than mindset? Well, mindset is kind of a vague term, right? How would you actually define it? So we play with that a little bit in the book of how do you define it? But what's not vague is how do you practice your mindset? How does your mindset manifest itself? And it's really, Eric has a mantra, stay in the circle. What does that mean? Well, what's in the circle are the things that you can control? What can you control?   So that you can practice your mindset because let's say you go on a first date with someone maybe you wouldn't have gone out with and it doesn't go well. Well, that's a chance for you to practice because your old mindset might be, well, that was dumb or I wish I hadn't said this or I'm never gonna do that again but maybe that's not the mindset you want. So then you could stop and you could say, okay, what's the mindset I want? Well, the mindset I want at my attitude is, I'm optimistic. I don't know, you know? So, well, the next one will go better. You know what I mean? So the more, besides choosing the mindset, the other thing is putting yourself into positions to practice it. And usually that's through adversity. So when you're in an adverse situation, something happens, stop and say, oh, wait a minute. Now I can practice my attitude, my effort, my behavior. As we go into mindset, I think for many of us we might recognize some areas where we want to improve our mindset but that idea of seeking adversity or discomfort oftentimes has consequences tied to it. And for a lot of us, if we are in the extrinsic mindset where those consequences influence our reputation, can hurt our career, can make someone not like us, can have that first date go awful and judgy, can be very scary for us than to go even further outside of our comfort zone. And our comfort zone often tries to protect our reputation. Yeah, so you just brought up that term that I was gonna go there anyhow, AJ, so the comfort zone. We all have these bubbles of comfort, whether they're at work in relationships, hobbies, whatever. And I think the mistake that I've seen people as the performance psychologist on my end, I see the mistake happen often is people try too much, too fast, too soon. And I think that the key word here is kind of incremental. I think regardless of what circles you're looking in, whether it's hobbies, work, et cetera, if people take a mindful approach to, okay, I'm going to incrementally work outside of that, and I'm gonna be okay with failure, right? That's the F word here. If I had a nickel for every time I've seen risk aversion because of what you said, they view it as a threat, they view it as a hit upon their reputation, et cetera. But without getting on a soapbox too much, I mean, the world is a very complicated place and it's not going to get easier. Whether we talk politically, climate, whatever it may be, we're at a time in our lives now and a time in the world now where we're gonna need people to be okay taking incremental risk to iterate and innovate. If people stay in the comfort zone, by definition, the comfort zone does not equate to growth, literally. And I think that if I asked all of us, not only on this podcast, but your audience members as well, to think of the most significant learnings that they've had in their lives, I probably am gonna be correct when they look at failure as those times they've learned the most. Now, do I want people to fail? Of course not. But do I think that they're going to learn from failure and iterating if they do it incrementally? Of course I do. It's the people that try too much too fast that all of a sudden have an enormous failure. Yeah, so stretching that comfort zone in an incremental manner allows you to face failure that doesn't have to be the reputational hit, but starts to strengthen that grit, that resolve, and help you find the right mindset to be successful in that performance role. Versus, and of course it's the new year, so everyone's thinking about six different resolutions and all these habits they need to change. And of course it's very easy to fail in one of those resolutions, then throw all the other five out the window and just give up on it if we stretch ourselves too much too far with this comfort zone.  And the very first mental discipline we talk about in our book is values, values and goals. And values is all about understanding your identity and caring less about reputation. Then people think, okay, well what is my identity? I need to understand my identity. And everyone thinks they understand their identity and they probably do, but have you really taken the time to write it down and really understand it? And we go through this process that Eric goes through with each of his clients, the values credo. And it's a lengthier process. I'll let Eric describe it a little bit more, but the point is we think we know ourselves, but why not take the few minutes to really know yourself? And actually, well it takes more than a few minutes. So that you really understand your identity. And then in most cases, you don't really care as much if your reputation takes a hit as long as you are being true to your identity. And the truism in fact is that if you're true to your identity, your reputation is usually just fine. I agree with that. And I'll say one thing, AJ and Johnny. So when you look at the best performers in their respective disciplines, literally, sport, music, medicine, law, business, politics, whatever it is. And we interview at Tana Cirque du Soleil, all sorts of entertainers as well. When you look at what I think most people would say, yes, those men and women are the best at what they do. When you look at these individuals, what they've done, and this is key, they've just accelerated, meaning they're moving from valuing reputation to valuing identity much faster than most. So ages and stages in life, one of the facts that we know in the human developmental process is as we age and stage and get older, we care generally less about what other people think.  Where whatever they want to at the beach or whatever, they just don't care. So my point here is if we know that the best performers in the world are moving away from reputation to identity, then it makes sense, and this is where Alan and I unpack a process to do that. It makes sense to get people to kinda double and triple down on their identity faster because you're literally wasting time worrying about reputation. Identity is where it's at. Your values, your credo, if you focus on that, by definition, as Alan said, by definition, your reputation will follow. And with that, I noticed when you were stating values earlier, that those were not at all related to outcome. So win or lose, success or failure, you can still be loyal. You could still be adventurous. And I think that's a really important distinction because a lot of times, reputation is tied to outcome, right? And we think if we lose in public, if we miss that shot or we fail in that presentation or we have to go back to the dinner table and tell our parents we didn't get the job because of the job interview, that outcome is tied to the reputation. And then of course, if we become outcome dependent, our performance can sink based on whatever the last outcome was in our life, whereas values are around actions you can take, win or loss, success or failure, each and every day in that specific role that you're looking to perform in. Amen. I mean, you have a very advanced analysis. I'll keep it simple. Focus on the recipe. Don't worry about what the cake's going to look like. Every cake has the same six ingredients at the same temperature and they're all gonna look the same. The people that worry about this, there's a quote here that we talk about often, like professionals focus on process, amateurs focus on outcome. Where do you wanna be? Which side of that equation do you wanna be?  We all have someone we answer to, right? Whether you're a business making widgets, whether it's stakeholders, stockholders, whether it's a professional sport team that needs to deliver wins for the city, the players, the ownership, et cetera. We have limited control over the outcomes. We have some, we can influence an effect, but where we have total control is a repeatable consistent process that we exercise. And then by definition, if we stay true to the recipe, we're gonna get the outcomes. We're going to get that cake more times than not. And again, to go along with that, you were mentioning of writing it out and putting it on paper and what that looks like and what the behaviors and actions that go with that identity look like. And for a lot of people, they're not going to take the time to do that. And they're sitting on the couch and are like, I know exactly who I am and how I behave. And these so-called couch warriors are going to be right. While they're sitting on the couch, doing absolutely nothing, who they say they are is who they are. But once tension and pressure gets put into the situation where they're outside of that comfort zone, well, now they're gonna be faced with a reality of a true identity that is either going to be comforting because they are who they say they are to themselves and to the world or they come up incredibly short to that. And that is just certainly scary for a lot of people because that means that what is on paper is not what's in their mind and is not what shows up in reality. And at that point, there's either work to be done or you submit to what that reality is. And that could be quite terrifying for some people. Yeah, we have five disciplines in the book that they're more or less in order and it starts with values.  Why are you performing? Why do you wanna get better for yourself, not for others? But then we spend a whole chapter talking about mindset which we've talked a little bit about and then we get into process which Eric was just talking about, process not outcome. And on that one, it's very easy when you have a bad outcome. It's very natural to go, whoa, I have to change something. I did something wrong, I made a mistake. Something has to change and blow things up. And what we're preaching there is no, sometimes you can do everything right and things still go wrong. You play right and you still lose the game. So don't overreact. Part of that comes from your identity but mostly it comes from your confidence in your process and having a process to adjust your process. I'll say this, Johnny. I highly doubt that many, if any listeners to your UNAJ's podcast here are going to be kind of couch surfers or couch potatoes. But given that there might be a few, I would challenge them to once they do this and we unpack this in the book, there are some great stories of very high level performers, Cliff Divers, Snowboard Champions, Cirque du Soleil. And the minute you can codify, if you will, and really document kind of those value or identity markers, even though you might be on a couch saying, hey, I know what those are, but the minute you not only document them, but here's the key. I have reading glasses somewhere. My reading glasses, if I gave you my reading glasses to each of you to try on, you would say, wow, Eric, your vision is screwed up because it's my prescription. So yeah, maybe, there you go. But my point is here, it not only becomes freeing, but once people actually make decisions based on those values, that's where the game changes. It's not just writing them down. It's actually using that as a filter saying, okay, I'm gonna do things that are true to who I am, as opposed to the noise outside of the circle. And again, I know that it's just gonna require some trust and belief, but if you don't believe us, like I would invite your readers, hey, read the book and read these great stories from elite performers that once they do this, they don't give to you know what's about what other people think. They're focused on their convicted kind of linear path on what they believe they ought to be doing and why. Now that process piece is, Alan, you had alluded to a lot of times when we fail, we can wanna change the process or you can become a bit of a process junkie and getting golf swing tips on YouTube and then on TikTok and oh, I gotta change it. And all of a sudden you've created this Frankenstein process that is not gonna get you anywhere near the performance that you need or want. So how can we know that the process that we're on is right and who do we need to bring in to help us make sure that we stick to that process to be successful? I have a few pet peeves in life. One of them is watching performers or people make changes without measurement. Drives me bananas and this to your point about like golf swing on YouTube when we document a very high performer who will remain nameless but was literally taking athletic advice from a Starbucks barista for those baristas listening for those baristas listening to your podcast here. I appreciate what you do. I could not function in this world without what you do. So thank you, but you have literally no business or little business giving feedback to a tier one athlete. So my point here is if you're going to iterate a change and all of us well, we're gonna iterate process changes as we age and stage, whether physicality changes, whether talking to Johnny a musician as well as you age and stage, you may have to iterate changes as well. My point is change one thing at a time and measure that because if we change all three I often bring up fly fishing as a great example. I'm a part-time obviously resident of Montana. I love to fly fish. There's only three ways if catching fish is important and it isn't catching release, I really don't care. But if catching fish is important, there really only three ways that you can catch fish, right? Where on the river, how many casts and the type of fly you're using. If I don't catch fish and I change all three and I start to catch fish, how the hell do I know why? So I think it's important to really adopt an iterative process. I'm gonna make a change. I'm gonna measure that. I'm gonna bounce it off valid and vetted board of directors or coaching staff or the people I trust in my life. And then I'll measure it and then make another change if necessary. Now, Alan, you brought up contingencies and for some of our audience members and sometimes myself included, it can feel like catastrophizing. Do you think about all the contingencies and all the things that can go wrong? So how do we put together a contingency plan that will actually work to better our performance and not bog us down in a negative mindset that might keep us from taking the actions we need to? I don't see why it's catastrophizing to be prepared because things go wrong. It's as simple as you're giving a presentation and it always happens. Suddenly your laptop decides that's the time to reboot and download the latest install, right? And now you gotta kill 20 minutes. So be ready for that. Have a second laptop. Be ready to do it on a whiteboard. What have you? And think through these things. What if this happens? What if that happens? It doesn't mean it's gonna happen. It doesn't mean you have to focus on that happening but it reduces the stress because when that happens you go, all right, I'm ready for that. I gave a speech last year at a conference and I practiced that speech. I was ready to go and I was two thirds of the way through it and boom, I forgot what was next. And I did not prepare for that contingency. So I muddled through it, I figured it out. But there were several seconds of stammering on stage in an awkward audience. I tell you what, next time I'm gonna be ready for that. What if I forget what's next? Maybe I'll have a cheat sheet with me. Maybe I'll have a joke ready to go. I don't know. But it's simple things like that. The only thing it can do is reduce the stress. The other thing I'll add, I'm somewhat biased as a 20 year retired commander in the Navy, obviously. But in the military, we have this thing and had this thing called readiness. I think outside of the military, aviation has it. You want your pilot and co-pilot to be very well versed in multiple contingencies if you're 35,000 feet or 36,000 feet above earth. In medicine, I hope none of us have to go through surgery but when you go through a surgery, there's a medical team that has multiple contingencies in place. So we often view contingency planning as just kind of something that the really high end astronauts, surgeons, Navy SEALs do. I actually say false. I scream false. I think all of us can iterate and be ready with multiple contingencies. The good thing about having a contingency plan is that ideally won't cause you to catastrophize. Instead, it causes you never to exhibit the human stress response. If I have plan A, B, C, and D and plan A and B die on the vine and I had no plan C, I'm gonna have stress. I'm gonna be Allen on that stage going, oh, God, now what do I do? Or if I have this plan built, it seamlessly flows into not a big deal. So I think for the listeners, I would invite you to also start to build in contingency planning into everything that you do. People talk a lot about visualization and we include that as one of our techniques in the book.  When I was practicing for that talk, I visualized giving the speech. Of course, I did not visualize forgetting the speech. And so when we're talking about contingency planning, bake it into your visualization. It's not gonna make it happen. It's not gonna add stress. It will actually reduce stress because you know, no matter what happens, I'm ready. Yeah, so I'd love to unpack the management of stress because obviously we know stress impacts performance and even with the best plans and process and contingencies, as we heard, you can have that blank out moment on stage in this big moment and this huge spike of stress. So what can we do to get ourselves ready before performance to manage stress? And then can we also talk about what to do in the moment when that stress is at an all-time high? Yeah, we have an entire chapter called adversity tolerance. And I think that when you look at the top, thousands of performers, irrespective of their discipline and what they do, these men and women are just doing more of these more consistently than most. And some of those things that you talked about are pre and post-performance routines. So I would invite all of us on this podcast as well as your audience to really think about what are those routines that get you kind of catalyzed, ready to go? I mean, obviously, Johnny's nodding.  So music, ironically, and I'm not saying it because we have a musician here on the podcast, but music is probably the most popular. Like if I wanna go and practice an athletic performance and I listen, I'm gonna age myself. If I listen to Metallica or ACDC's Thunderstruck, that's going to get me going with a mindset of performance markedly different than say Beethoven or Mozart, which may be a post-performance routine. So pre and post-performance routines are one thing. I think as Alan said, visualization, pre, you ought to visualize many contingencies as possible. I think positive self-talk and thought management, managing that positive self-talk during the performance. I think being able to black box, the psychological term is compartmentalized. So when things don't go well, and by the way, we're human and we interact with technology, there are going to be failures all the time. Athletes are going to drop a pass, strike out. I was at a Van Halen concert years ago with my wife. And this was a handful of years ago, not too long ago, but it was when David Lee Roth came back with the band. And I think Sebastian Van Halen was playing as well with, anyhow, not unlike Alan, David Lee Roth in the middle of a song, literally forgot the lyrics. Like literally forgot. And I was just sitting there going, wow, this is crazy. And he dropped an F bomb and turned to his band saying, let's start again from the top. And my point is you have to be able to compartmentalize what we call black box it. You can't let that derail, in his case, the rest of his concert. In an athlete's case, the other endings or quarters that he or she is going to play. So I think that a long answer to your question, AJ, is there are multiple factors or disciplines? We unpack 10 specific ones in that adversity tolerance chapter that we believe move the needle and we're learning from the best performers in the world. So in a way, we're inviting the reader to reverse engineer what the best are doing. And it's not hard, by the way, no pun intended. They're all learned. None of us are born with any of them, by the way. Well, those processes are incredibly important to put yourself in the emotional and mindset that you wanna be in to perform at a high level. And what I loved about the book was that you also brought attention regardless if you know it or not, you have these processes. And if you take the time to look at what your morning process looks like, and sure to you, you're hanging out in your pajamas, making some coffee, and then maybe you'll get a shower. But if you look at that as that's the process of what you're getting ready for the day, you can make changes to optimize that to get you in the best state to perform at your best. But we never look at those things to that manner. They're just how we go about the day, but they have a purpose regardless whether you know it or not. Yeah, we have a section in the book about time management where we talked to several people, a lot of top business people about just how they organize their day and they organize their morning. And they are investing time in family things. You know, it's not all work, work, work except while they're doing that, they may say, okay, when I'm doing this, I'm gonna start thinking about work. I'm gonna start getting myself in that mindset. So a lot of it, like you said, are the things we're already doing and we're just saying be a little more intentional on how you're using that time. If you loved your couch potato time in the evening, that's great, put it in your calendar and be intentional to not do anything during that time. Like not think about shit, you know, like just be intentional on how you're using each of those times and adopting the right mindset. Now with that black boxing, just like in the plane crash scenario, we have to go back to the box and check the tapes. So not good in the moment should never derail your performance, but we gotta figure out what put us in that state. So walk us through what you do after the performance then to actually take meaningful data from that experience. Yeah, so Eric Spolstra, I believe obviously one of the best coaches of all time, Miami Heat Coach. He's in the book as well and he talks about a term that he learned from the military. We have something in the military called After Action Reviews or AARs. And that's a really important, I think, tactic that all the listeners can think about how they wanna employ in their lives as well or deploy in their lives. And I think that it's one thing to put something in the box to stay mission-minded whether it's a concert and you forget the lyrics, whether it's an athletic performance, whether it's a business presentation, you can't let that derail you. The non-elite performer gets completely derailed and shaken up and they literally have action paralysis. The elite performer boxes it and then as you appropriately mentioned, now in a safer space, not trying to sound touchy-feely here, but literally away from that performance, unpack it with people who can give you honest feedback. If you're an athlete, there's a tremendous number of I think the average professional athlete has between nine and 13 various coaches. So they are the strength and conditioning, nutrition, everything. There's video, there's also in the business world, there's a professional coach. We can unpack that at Nazian, but it's really important, what am I learning from that? And I think there are three, in addition to the AAR, there are three things that I would invite the audience to think about. What did we do well? What can we do better? In other words, what failed, right? What did I have to black box? And the most important thing are what are the processes we can put in play to make sure that doesn't happen again? So as Alan talked about, right? The first time I'm hearing about his failure on stage, which I think is a delicious example, but he put a process in play to make sure that doesn't happen again. So I do think the AARs, the unpacking of the box is a really important tactic. And Eric, you talk about putting distance or a safe place like it's a touchy-feely thing, but I think that's the critical aspect of doing an effective unpacking the black box. Get past the emotions, because when you make a mistake, you're mad, you're upset, you're sad, you're feeling down on yourself, and you need to put that in the black box and move on. And then after the event, after the interview, after the presentation, after the speech, what have you, you may still be feeling a lot of that buzz. You're not in a position to unpack the box yet. So we talked to Eric Spolstra and he talks about, maybe a couple of days after a game, he'll get the team in the locker room and they unpack the box together as a team. The emotions have subsided, there's less opportunity for finger pointing, and you can be much more rational. What happened, why, what do we learn from it? Yeah, I remember our first experience working with the military, and we were excited that they got great results and we wanted to get that after action report immediately. And it took a couple of weeks, almost three weeks, and we asked, what's taken so long, and exactly that for that reason. Listen, at the end of any training, there's gonna be highs, there's gonna be emotions involved, and it's gonna feel like we achieved our objectives and our outcome, but it is important for us to create the space for the emotions to dissipate, to then look and say, okay, these were the outcomes that we wanted out of the training, this is specifically what we were trained on, where are we now beyond any emotional high or low? Cause to your point, there's definitely low in failure, but you can't learn much either in success if you're just gonna ride the high of that emotion. Yeah, you hit the nail on the head. I mean, I think for me, this could be an entirely different podcast, I don't wanna go down a rabbit hole, but emotions are contagious, and that's probably why the military kept you at arm's length for a little bit as well, is they're digesting that. The worst decisions that I've seen made ever as a performance psychologist and coach for high performers are the ones that are made out of emotion. They're horrible, horrible decisions, and generally it causes everyone else, like I know when I'm around someone who's anxious, I feel more anxious, when I'm around people who are angry and irritated, guess what I feel? I feel angry and irritated. So again, if you think of an emotion as a contagion, I wanna make sure if I'm giving people feedback or if I'm receiving feedback, I wanna try to be emotionally neutral. So I'm not swayed one way or the other. So I agree with you wholeheartedly. Now there's an entire section of the book on balance and recovery, and I think it's very easy in the social media world to see top performers with their crazy schedules and everything they're doing and all the hours they're working on it, and to think they're superhuman, when in actuality, we all need sleep, we all need moments to recover, and sometimes there's gonna be other parts of our life or other identities that are just gonna have to be de-prioritized for us to perform at the level we need to in this specific situation. So how do you both approach balance and recovery in your performance identities? And are there any things that we might be doing wrong when it comes to balance and recovery for our audience members who, I know we had an episode recently around burnout that was really popular. I think a lot of our audience are feeling burnout for this reason. I really like the metaphor of a beach house. Like if we're all a beach house and I invite your listeners to think about the same thing you pretend, you are all of a sudden objectified as a beach house. Those homes that are on one or two pillars are going to be less stable than those homes on five or six. When the waves of adversity to stick with the metaphor come, obviously it's gonna wipe out a lot. When I, as a performance psychologist, both now within a career in the military and a career in professional sport, and I'm not gonna use names here, but I think we could each name five or six people in most disciplines that have become what they do, literally. They are a really good insert the blank. And they've fed and watered that for an entire career and entire life almost. And then when it's time to transition based on ages and stages, whether we call that retirement or whether we call that whatever. What we see is, again, I'm not gonna say names here, but we see a lot of these lives fall apart. Because again, they're so enmeshed on what they do. So I invite the audience members to think about six different pillars. Work relationships, which are both friendships, romantic as well as family. The third pillar's health, fourth pillar's hobbies, fifth pillar's spirituality can be religion, but doesn't have to be. You can be spiritual and just be in awe of this universe and this planet. And then lastly, legacy. And I would invite the audience members to think about how they're spending time and emotional and physical and financial resources within each of those areas. The last thing I'll say is I'm a research geek, I'm gonna geek out here a little bit. It used to be thought that the most balanced performers weren't the best at what they do. Not only false, patently false. When you look at the meta-analyses and that consolidate a bunch of different studies, those performers who are more balanced are actually more likely to innovate.  They tend to be a lot more productive as well. So whatever they do for a living will actually become magnified if they feed in water multiple pillars on their proverbial beach house, as it were. Beautiful metaphor. I think it works so well in this category. And I know many in our audience are thinking of some of those pillars, but maybe not all six. So thank you for outlining it. Another question that I have for the audience members who are new parents or our parents, when we think about performance, we often think about our kids. So you talk family and legacy, those are two things that come up and immediately the parents in the audience go, okay, but I want my kids to perform at an elite level. So what advice do you have for parents when it comes to getting someone else to perform, not looking at themselves? Well, first, just reflecting back on the house on stilts. We're also realistic, like let's say you're one of those parents when you're raising kids and you're in the middle of a career. And boy, you know, it doesn't really just, you really just don't have much time to work out or to focus on spirituality or what have you. It's just not realistic. And so we're realistic about that and these things will adjust through your ages and stages. Our perspective though is when it comes to balance is be aware if there is a pillar that is being undernourished because you just don't have time right now. At least be aware of it and have a plan. Maybe three months from now, you're gonna take a vacation. And during that vacation, you're gonna go for a walk every day for 45 minutes. You know, whatever it is, have a plan so that you're going to be investing in balance at least over the longer term. And then on the parent side, Eric, you get that question all the time. What do you say? Yeah, so here I'm gonna skate on some thin ice and hopefully I don't fall in the proverbial lake. But I'm gonna tell you, I'm a big fan of having kids start to navigate working outside of comfort zones and iterating failure and failure with, let's call it controlled failure. Again, I don't want CPS Child Protective Services to be called here saying, hey, Dr. Padrat, it's not what I'm saying. I'm saying the world is a very difficult and complex place that is going to become more difficult and more complex, whether it's climate, politics, population, resources, COVID, whatever. I mean, we could go down this rabbit hole at 1,000 days until tomorrow. My point is we need what I want, ideally, is if you're listeners with kids, A, get the book, sorry, but I mean, seriously, because I'm a big believer that these tools and techniques are not being taught in schools and ought to be. It's shameful and I'll get off my soapbox. But I think it's important that if we're gonna ask kids and children to navigate in iterations of discomfort, then it's the onus is on us as parents to make sure and as mentors to make sure we're arming them with tools and techniques that are empirically based to navigate those adversities. Meaning, I want you to try something outside of your comfort zone. Again, back to what I said, the worst mistakes kids can make is working too fast out of that comfort zone or too far. But if we iterate and teach them breathing, teach them visualization, teach them black boxing, teach them contingency planning, teach them positive self-talk, and then they challenge themselves to work further and further, then what we have is a 25 to 30 year old who knows how to navigate adversity. Right now, I fear that there are gonna be a lot of people that are risk averse who are not practicing working out of the comfort zone. So I would challenge those parents on the call not to all the sudden put your kids in crazy positions of failure, but make sure that they're challenging themselves to try something new and what are they learning from that every day? We interviewed 32 people. I think we asked almost everyone of them a similar question and we all got very many similar answers. Put them in a position to experience some adversity. And we had this one story which I just loved which was from a former Navy SEAL named Peter Nashak. And he was, he went to Hawaii with his mom when he was 10, 11, something like that. And he saw some guy, he said cliff diving. I'm not sure what they were doing. He saw some people diving into a lagoon. And he saw, that sounds, that looks sort of fun. Mom, why don't you go talk to them and see if I can join them.  And he said, that was scarier than diving off the cliff. Going to talk to some strangers. And his mom's right there. Like she's not sending them off in any dangerous situation.  And to this day, you know, former Navy SEAL, he remembers that as a watershed moment for him. For children, the idea of facing boredom is plenty adversity, right? But it's like, here, go outside and entertain yourself. Well, I could be completely entertained by playing these video games. That's right. That's why you're going outside, go find a stick and go find something to whack with it and occupy your time for four hours. And when kids are able then to go out there and then figure that out, they enter into their imagination and create worlds onto themselves that they can explore. But without that adversity, they can't plug into their imagination. They can't plug into being resourceful. They can't plug into their social skills, which all are going to help them succeed in the world. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I'll say three simple, I'm a simpleton, right? I try to keep things relatively simple. For your audience members who have children, if you can just do three things with your kids, I'll consider this a strong victory. Ask them what they've learned new today every day. I'm just literally three questions every day. What do you learn new today? Were you brave? So if we go back to the learning question, that forces them to actually try something new and adopt a new skill. Were you brave? It forces them to work a little bit incrementally outside of a comfort zone. And then the last question, were you kind? And we all know there's a ton of research around being kind and being empathetic and it builds adversity, all of that. So if parents can just focus on those three things, what do you learn? Were you brave and were you kind? Over time, it's gonna be like compound interest, man. That's gonna deliver deliciously, to be honest. Now, with that, I think a challenge is when to quit. So we talked a lot about adversity, facing adversity, putting yourself in uncertain situations, but then there's the flip side of, well, maybe I'm just not gonna get beyond that place of performance and maybe there's something else that I should be putting my focus or effort and energy behind. Do you have any rules or strategies around knowing when to quit or how to identify when it's time to hang it up? Not to come full circle intentionally, but I do think it's this ought to be values driven as well. Like if we use that as a compass, right? That should be true North, as long as I'm hitting my values. But I don't like the term quit as much as I love the term pivot. And I think it's important that times people have the freedom and flexibility to realize, hey, this isn't for me, but I'm still gonna leverage the exact same identity markers or value markers. I'm gonna find a way to scratch that itch, right? I may be competitive as all hell and that may mean one of my identity markers or value credo markers. But if I can't be a professional athlete or professional musician, how can I still scratch that itch of competitiveness and pivot elsewhere? Yeah, we have this great story. We talked to a guy named Derek Walker. He's a finance executive at Nike. Derek initially wanted to be a pro baseball player and he was in the minors for, I think it was in the Diamondbacks organization for about four years. Didn't make it. He didn't quit. He talked about pivoting and he talked about what did I like about that experience? What did I learn from that experience? Where can I get a similar experience? So he went for the Navy SEALs and made it almost all the way through training, but he did not succeed. Isn't that right, Eric? He failed in training. That's correct. So here's a guy that almost all the way through Hell Week and Bud's training and failed again. But again, learn from that. What can I learn from that? Went into business, got an MBA, has done very well. And so just his simple act of retraining a failure from reframing it from quitting to pivoting, I think was a very powerful for him. Absolutely. Thank you for coming full circle. It was so great to have both of you join the show. We're excited for the book to come out and share with our audience. Where can they find out more about the book and the work you do? Yeah, so the book comes out February 6th. Thank you for mentioning that. I invite the listeners to go on learnedexcellence.com. The book is called Learned Excellence. And yeah, please pass the word for sure. We certainly believe it's a very fine, I think hybrid of really great stories as well as the empirical side, which I think it needs to be research-based, evidence-based as well. And hopefully it's helpful and valuable to everybody. Absolutely. And I love the one, three and six month plan at the back of the book. I think tons of value there for audience members who love taking action. So thank you again, Eric and Alan. It was so great having you. Thank you. Thank you both so much. Thanks for having us.


What's good YouTube, this is your boy T-World back at y'all again with another speed art video If you're new to the channel go ahead and subscribe make sure you click post notification So you will be notified every time your boy drops some heat You feel me. I'm gonna start doing more videos of Me drawing from from nothing, you know, I'm saying just strictly off my ideas because I know this I've been doing a lot of these grounds and these These cartoon type videos where mainly I do trace the outline and I need a I need to make sure I Make it known that I really can do this many boys a real deal be set as art stuff So I'm gonna start with more original pieces So y'all don't get it twisted. Thank you, but ain't got the sauce when your boy got the sauce You feel me. I appreciate y'all for your love and support I'm truly trying to make you to my job Because it's my passion for real. I really like making videos and just being able to do whatever I want to do and folks like it and Folks like just love what I want to do You know I'm saying like I feel free when I can just get up and wake up and just draw whatever Knowing somebody gonna like it or appreciate what I'm doing. So I really got a passion for YouTube. So And all y'all got to do is stay supporting your boy and we can make this my Reality make you to my job You know I'm saying so the grind on stop After the holidays, I'm gonna turn it up a notch Another thing too if you if it's anything you want to see me cover y'all go ahead and leave it in the comments Because I see it's a lot of comments that I seen today That I'm writing down to make sure I cover in video is y'all giving me a lot of ideas So I appreciate y'all so if it's anything personally you want to see if you got a favorite artist that you like that's big You like man. You need to draw him. You know I'm saying I'm a look at it You got enough clout your boy gonna spares out on the heart You know I'm saying I appreciate y'all for the love and support