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Joe Sanok 00:00:47  This is the practice of the Practice podcast with Joe Santos, session number 29.

Joe Sanok 00:00:57  I'm Joe saying I'm your host. And welcome to the practice of the Practice podcast. We are doing this series all around high performance mindset. As you've been seeing over the last few weeks, we've had people every single week that we are just digging into and getting to know them. And, you know, for me, it's, you know, we can be high performers.

Joe Sanok 00:01:15  I'm an Enneagram three, so I'm a high achiever, naturally, in a lot of ways. first born raised by two firstborns that had star charts my whole life. and so to me, achievement, you know, for a long time was the goal. It was getting people's attention through achievement. It's doing big things that, you know, make me stand out. And then at a certain point, you just realize that, like, that's a stupid goal to just achieve for the sake of achieving instead of, you know, what does that give me inside? What does that help me think through in regards to who I'm becoming? I mean, honestly, you know, going through such a horrific public divorce, in 2021 and then getting near full custody, my kids, like everything personally fell apart around me. And I watched my daughters like, have a really rough time with a lot of that. and, you know, a lot of that. I don't talk about the details publicly because I don't want to ever say something publicly that my daughters later here and say, I can't believe you said that.

Joe Sanok 00:02:07  but we went through a bunch of BS, and, it was really hard. And when you go through tough times, it kind of strips away all the meaningless stuff. and that's why I'm really excited today, with about just kind of the conversation that we're going to have, because, you know, having that those difficulties, those things that get you through life that then help you become a better person, maybe be a little more mindful. it's nuanced. You know, so often when we hear high performance mindset, like what this series is about, we think the bro is on Instagram that are drinking their creatine and, you know, they're optimizing everything. But as I interview people that have actually done crazy badass things, there's usually something a lot deeper than just, hey, I want to achieve something big, and I want to do it so that I'm known in the world. which is why I'm so excited to have Akshay Nanavati with me. Akshay is a US marine veteran who overcame PTSD, addiction and depression that pushed him to the brink of suicide.

Joe Sanok 00:03:03  By embracing his demons, he has built a global business, run ultramarathons, spent ten days in complete darkness and skied across some of the world's most extreme environments, including a 60 day solo 500 mile expedition in Antarctica that nearly cost him his life. Despite four biological defects, including a blood disorder that doctors said would kill him in boot camp. He's become a sponsored athlete and elite endurance athlete. His book, fear, has been praised by the Dalai Lama for its insights on transforming fear and suffering into strength. Now, Akshay is on a mission to help people explore the edges and fall in love with both play and suffering in order to create a life of greater meaning, joy and fulfillment. Akshay. Welcome to the practice of the Practice podcast.

Akshay Nanavati 00:03:49  Thank you so much for having me.

Joe Sanok 00:03:50  And there are like 50 things in that intro that I want to dig into. Okay, I want to start with the ten days in Darkness. Tell me about that.

Akshay Nanavati 00:03:59  It was the second time I did a darkness retreat, so the first time was seven Days in Darkness.

Akshay Nanavati 00:04:03  The second time was actually training for my solo expedition in Antarctica. And the whole time you were sitting in a pitch dark room, it is so dark you cannot see your hand in front of you. 24 hours a day. And when you're in that level of darkness, they say your brain starts to release DMT, so you hallucinate. In fact, the brightest light I've ever seen in my entire life was sitting in a dark room. It was so bright that it was blinding. I was literally shielding my eyes, covering my eyes because I thought it was blinding me. But it was a profoundly beautiful experience to spend that much time with the number one relationship that everyone and every one of us has the relationship with ourselves. And when you go into darkness, it strips away one of the primary ways in which we engage with the world, the visual sense. So even right now, as I'm looking at you, looking at the wall, there's somewhere external for my consciousness to latch on to onto in a very simple way.

Akshay Nanavati 00:04:56  That's a white wall, that's a white wall or that's a a black door.

Speaker 4 00:05:00  A couple of espresso.

Akshay Nanavati 00:05:01  Exactly. But consciousness has somewhere external to latch onto in the darkness. It has nowhere external to latch onto. So as a result, you're forced to go within. And when you go within, you're opening doors into yourself that have very rarely been opened. And what comes out of those doors is not just the sunshine, rainbows and unicorns. It's your darkness and your demons. But that's the value. Because whatever rises up, whatever rises up from within, you can now engage it, face it, and use it. Because if you don't, it's going to control your life without your awareness. And that's why I go into the darkness. That's why I sought these experiences in stillness.

Joe Sanok 00:05:37  Man. Like it? It reminds me of like for me, this is a much smaller version of that. But I get to be a sitter for an ayahuasca retreat and, you know, is there. Just make sure people could get to the bathroom and things like that.

Joe Sanok 00:05:47  But I had like six hours sitting in relative darkness, hearing this amazing Peruvian music. And, you know, as people are going through it, you're not really needed a lot of the time you're there more as a safety. And, you know, they're kind of in their own experience. It's just if someone gets up to go to the bathroom, you help them make sure that they can get there and that fall over. But I ended up saying, okay, like, what am I going to do with the six hours? I was just sitting in the darkness hearing this beautiful music, not being on anything else while everyone's like, you know, experiencing taste in the universe. And I thought, you know, I'm going to just start at the beginning of my life with my earliest memory and I just, like, went as slow as I could through every memory of my life. And it was just such a beautiful like, I've never taken the time to do that. And so I can't even imagine what, like ten days, like where your mind goes, especially as the body's releasing DMT.

Joe Sanok 00:06:34  what do you think that did for you? How did that transform you?

Akshay Nanavati 00:06:37  Well, it also was very dependent on the intention on which and why you go into the darkness. So the first time I went in, I had gone through a very challenging divorce. I ended up breaking my sobriety. I had struggled with drinking after the war. I got sober, went through this experience, broke my sobriety, so I went into the darkness more as an experience for healing, to find some answers that I might not have discovered. That we're still sending me into the pit of my own despair. But the second time I went in, it was training for Antarctica. So it was a very different level of consciousness, very different intention. I was in a good space. I was sober, mentally, physically, spiritually thriving. So I went in there to train for solitude. So both times I got different value from the experience. The first time I got more understanding about myself and what was driving me into the darkness, I confronted my great fear of stillness, a fear that I think all human beings have.

Akshay Nanavati 00:07:30  But it's not a fear most people with say they have. Like, if you ask somebody what you're scared of, almost nobody will say stillness. But in my experience of the human condition, it is, I would say, the number one fear we all have is being still with ourselves. And if you just look at how people live their lives, that could not be more evident, right? We'll do everything we can to distract ourselves from ourselves. So the second time, though, when I did go in, I built it allowed me to find places within myself, to build myself into someone stronger and better. I mean spiritually, physically. I had a conversation with what I perceived to be God that left me bawling in tears. So I was accessing parts of myself to become the kind of person I needed to be to ski across Antarctica for my gain. It was training for that expedition, and when I went out to Antarctica for 60 days alone, I didn't struggle with the solitude one bit. I mean, yes, I.

Speaker 4 00:08:17  Didn't have a training.

Joe Sanok 00:08:18  Crew or somebody, like watching you. It was like.

Speaker 4 00:08:21  Totally alone.

Akshay Nanavati 00:08:21  Completely alone, completely alone. I was geographically the most isolated human being on Earth for portions of that journey.

Speaker 4 00:08:28  Oh my.

Joe Sanok 00:08:28  Gosh, what I mean. That talk about fear. Like, I mean, like, I don't even know what my next question would be like. And it's like, I read your bio, but I think when you said it just then of like 60 days alone, it's like, even though I knew you were alone somehow, it still was like there had to be a backup plan. There had to be a helicopter, just like down the road or something. but like so you get just like dropped off there and you have like a map to figure out where to go or like tell.

Speaker 4 00:08:56  Me about that.

Akshay Nanavati 00:08:56  So logistics. So you went from from southern tip of Chile. I fly to a base camp in Antarctica called Union Glacier. From there, they dropped me in a small plane to the coast of Antarctica.

Akshay Nanavati 00:09:06  And once I get out there, then I'm alone and I start skiing. My. The goal was to complete the world's first coast to coast ski crossing of Antarctica. It had not only never been done before, it had never been attempted before. And many adventurers consider this to be impossible. After having attempted it, I will say that at least starting from that coast of Antarctica, it is impossible. it was it was unforgiving, hard. Like I've done a lot of hard things, but it's it's indescribable how how much suffering that expedition was. So I ended up.

Speaker 4 00:09:35  Getting I got to just pause.

Joe Sanok 00:09:37  I'm literally talking to the modern day Ernest Shackleton.

Speaker 4 00:09:40  Like like so.

Akshay Nanavati 00:09:42  Shackleton called this the last great polar adventure to complete a coast to coast crossing of Antarctica has never been, like I said, attempted before, forget about completed and after 500 miles dragging the heaviest sled. It was a £420 sled uphill through through the most challenging snow conditions Antarctica got in modern history. So when you're plowing £420 through soft snow, it is hell.

Akshay Nanavati 00:10:06  I mean, there were days.

Speaker 4 00:10:07  Where I'm from, northern Michigan.

Joe Sanok 00:10:08  I pulled kids up a.

Speaker 4 00:10:10  Sled that's like £100.

Joe Sanok 00:10:11  Like come on.

Akshay Nanavati 00:10:14  It was just I mean, there were days where every three steps, the two, the two sleds would get stuck in the snow. I'd have to fight them out with all my might. Three steps later, it happened again. And this would go on and on and on for nine hours. After 60 days of this completely alone, I managed to get 500 miles through the steepest part of the journey and literally pushed my body to the brink of death. I got diverticulitis, which is essentially an infection in the colon, and if it's left untreated, it will burst. It'll go into your bloodstream, get septic, and kill you. And eight years ago, that's exactly what happened to an adventurer in Antarctica. So I was on the edge. On the very edge. But to, you know, to your point, it was all completely alone. And when I did get when I, when I did get to the after 60 days, you know, got to that brink of death, then a plane came in, evacuated me and flew me back to the Union Glacier base camp, from which I then flew out back to Chile.

Joe Sanok 00:11:06  Now why like is it adventure? Is it self-development? Is it something else like like why do this.

Akshay Nanavati 00:11:13  Great question. definitely. There's a part of me that loves the adventure side of it. But for me, at the core of it, it's a very, very spiritual journey. I believe every goal should have and I think is valuable to have both a selfish and a selfless goal. So, selfishly, for me, the goal was to go deeper within myself to see what I would find. I have been playing on the edges for decades and the further you go out onto the edge, the greater the treasures you reveal. You know you in life, just in any context of life, you have to battle the dragon to find the treasure. The all movies are some version of that, right? That's the hero's journey. And so I went out there looking for the biggest dragon I could find, to see what would be revealed in the depths of solitude and suffering. Away from the decadence and distractions.

Akshay Nanavati 00:12:02  The masks we wear in normal life. When you're stripped of all of that, it reveals something pure about the human soul, about the human spirit, about the human experience. And I wanted to see what I would find so you could call it seeking transcendence, enlightenment, awakening. You know, Maslow's hierarchy needs self-actualization. So some flavor of that. And then the selfless goal was to bring those treasures back and share them, just as I am doing now with you. And when I speak all over the world to share them, to help everybody else navigate, everybody's got their own version of an Antarctica to cross. Everybody suffers. Everybody's going through struggle. But because I get to and it really is a privilege that I get to go out and choose my suffering. I've been to war zones. I've worked with survivors of sex trafficking with former child soldiers. Many people in the world don't even have the luxury of choosing their own suffering. I do. We do. I mean, anybody, if we're in this position, we're blessed a lot more than a lot of other people in the world, you know.

Akshay Nanavati 00:12:56  And so, yeah, the fact that I get to play on such an extreme edge, I get to open doors that are very otherwise rarely opened. And so to me, it's a responsibility to now bring that wisdom back and share it with others.

Joe Sanok 00:13:09  You know, as you say that about other kind of things, you know, that we, we get to choose our suffering. Yeah. I remember in the thick of my divorce, you know, it's like I'm losing all this money. My, my attorney says it's like the worst divorce they've seen in years. And it's like, I'm trying to be mindful in it, and I'm trying to do the whole, like, conscious parenting, and. And I'm not going to throw my ex under the bus, but it didn't feel like that was reciprocated. And, you know, I'm getting like full custody of my kids. And I'm sitting in my hot tub in the backyard and I'm doing this meditation, that was on Sam Harris's meditation app. And it was this kind of old Greek meditation where you think about who would love your life, exactly how it is.

Joe Sanok 00:13:50  And I'm sitting there in like, you know, however many gallons are in a hot tub of fresh water that like when people can't even drink water and I own a hot tub. Like, who can afford a hot tub in a house that I can afford with healthy kids? You know, three, three blocks from Lake Michigan, where it has 20% of the world's freshwater. And like just those things alone, more than half the globe would say, give me that. and then add on top of that all the other things. And it's just like, and I think we can we can honor our own suffering and honor our own pain and not say, like, I can't feel that because there's people that don't have water.

Akshay Nanavati 00:14:23  Exactly.

Joe Sanok 00:14:24  But we can also have an appreciation and like sort of a zoom out ness of like, dang, like I do have some things that a lot of the world doesn't have. And that and I can feel both. It's not binary.

Akshay Nanavati 00:14:35  100%. I always like to say that the power of perspective, the gift of perspective, is not to deny your pain.

Akshay Nanavati 00:14:40  It's to give you the weapons to rise above your pain. That's the whole point of it. So I love what you said, and that was very much a tool to move me through pain and Antarctica, to move me through the challenges of life. Like you said, we all go through challenges and it doesn't actually help to deny your pain. To say, I'm not allowed to feel this way. You're resisting and resisting and resistance is the cause of all unnecessary suffering, resisting or clinging. The moment you accept what is acceptance of business is the freedom is the key to freedom for all unnecessary suffering. So you can say, I'm allowed to feel this emotional pain. I'm feeling this, this emotional hurt, this mental hurt, this in Antarctica, the physical hurt, whatever the hurt may be. But perspective gives me a weapon to rise above it, to say, hey, I'm gonna feel this, but look what I do have. And there's a Latin phrase that's that says amor fati, which is to love fate.

Akshay Nanavati 00:15:32  Can you love fate even when things are not going so well? And it shifts your mentality to say to exactly what you did? There's still so much to be grateful for. And got it. I can move through this. I'm stronger than this, right? I have the weapons, the strength, the strength to move through this challenge.

Joe Sanok 00:15:47  What do you think it was about? Nirvana and your work that got the attention of the Dalai Lama, Jack Kornfield. I mean these like greats of like, you know, spiritual teachings and not not to say that you shouldn't deserve it, but it's like to me that just seems like so crazy to have like the Dalai Lama like be like, great job Akshay.

Speaker 4 00:16:08  Yeah. I mean like like.

Joe Sanok 00:16:09  How did that happen? And what do you think it was about that that really resonates with so many people?

Akshay Nanavati 00:16:13  Well, I'll answer the second question and then share how it happened. So I think the first part is it came from a place of deep truth and lived experience.

Akshay Nanavati 00:16:21  It was sharing my own suffering. It wasn't it. There's a distinction between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge to me is learning. Wisdom is experience and it's not. But again, it's not that either is wrong or right or good or bad, but there is a distinction, and I think knowledge should be applied to experience. So you gain true wisdom because knowledge can be conceptual and you can somebody can hear this and say, oh, that makes sense. But when you have wisdom now, it's a knowing and that space between conceptual understanding and embedded knowing that it's rooted in your subconscious is a huge space. You know, there's that scene in The Matrix where Morpheus tells neo, don't you are faster than this. Don't think you are. No you are. There's a vast gap between thinking and knowing, and wisdom is that gap. So the point is to say that I think when I shared a fear of Anna, it was one coming from a place of lived experience and two genuine desire to serve. I mean, literally, when the monk who got me, which leads me to how I made that happen.

Akshay Nanavati 00:17:16  So to get the Dalai Lama endorsement, when I wrote this book, I had zero platform, unknown author, no brand. And it's a very spiritual concept, this idea of fear not being the antithesis of nirvana, but an access point to it. So I thought, who's the spiritual leader in the world to validate this ethos, this concept, Dalai Lama. And I had no connections or anything like that. So I was like, but what's the worst if I try to reach out. At worst they say no, I'm impure. I'm exactly where I am. So I reached out to his office. It got me kind of nowhere, and I did a ton of research on Google. I found an actual person in the office of the Dalai Lama, reached out to him, who connected me to three other monks. Finally got to a monk in the monastery at the at His Holiness office in Dharamsala, and I shot a personal video for him, sharing everything I've been through. What the ethos of Nirvana, what our mission is, how we want to help people move through suffering.

Akshay Nanavati 00:18:05  And, over five months, I built a relationship with this monk, stayed in touch, and the whole time I kept thinking, there's no way this is going to happen. Who am I? They're going to hate my book. Why haven't they responded to my email yet? But the key lesson there is you can have those thoughts, but you don't have to be defined by those thoughts. You can take action in the face of those thoughts. So I would have them, but I'd still write the email or whatever the action may be. And after five months of press, you know, kind of doing this, I got a response back from this monk in the office there and said, considering everything you've been through and your genuine desire to serve. I'll press your case. So right there, I think, is the answer, I think, of why it happened. Is the wisdom. And there was a genuine it wasn't a fake genuinely wanting to help people who've suffered, you know, and, share the lessons I've learned.

Akshay Nanavati 00:18:50  And I was very blessed with the Dalai Lama and Jack Canfield and many incredible souls who've made an impact in my life with their endorsement of this book.

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Joe Sanok 00:20:03  Trust me. Don't waste any more of your time and try therapy notes. Just use promo code Joe at checkout. What's your personal practice look like? You know, whenever I interview people that have done these things that, like, the world like says, that's great. You attempted Antarctica or, you know, like and and to have people like the Dalai Lama saying like, well done. like, what do you do on either like a daily, weekly, quarterly, annual basis? Like what is your just like, personal grounding look like.

Akshay Nanavati 00:20:36  It varies depending on my goal at the time, so I only just recently returned from Antarctica. So before this, for the last four years, my world was focused on training for Antarctica. So the goals, the daily routines were different. Now that I'm back, my number one focus at the present time is sharing the lessons from these experiences and building the brand in the business. So when I wake up, I get right to work. You know, let's I have my protein, I'll eat something and I get literally right to work.

Akshay Nanavati 00:21:04  And then in the middle of the day, I get my strength session evening. I'll get some endurance sessions. My meditation has slipped a little bit, but I'll be getting back to now meditation in the middle of the day. But it's basically completely oriented towards one mission at a time. Really. And then I am married, so, you know, my wife and I will spend some time together in the evening. Weekends we at least do a date day. But the point is, it's very intentional. And I'm big. Like, I'm not a big believer in a 20 step morning routine. I think the number one thing you should do in the morning or again, there's no should everybody should do whatever they want. But the number one thing I believe is the best thing to do in the morning at least speaking for myself is the one thing oriented towards your current breakthrough, your goal, your one highest priority right now. Focus your first hour, your first two hours, your first three hours, whatever it may be to that craft.

Akshay Nanavati 00:21:53  So when I was training for Antarctica, my first my focus was on Antarctica. So whether it be training or gear prepping or nutrition planning, it was all oriented towards that. Now, the first thing I do when I wake up after having my protein shake is work on the business. So it's all oriented towards kind of one mission at a time, from a very intentional place and dedicating my world towards that, pursuing it with with obsession.

Joe Sanok 00:22:19  That's awesome. I gotta say to folks, if you've been with me for a while, you know that episode 200, I interviewed Jay Papazian, who wrote the book The One Thing with Gary Keller, founder of Keller Williams unbelievable book. It's on my, like, required reading list for anyone that wants to. To work with us is such a good book. So even just hearing, you know, focus on that one thing right away. It's such great, such great, kind of focus. And what I love about what you just said is, and I see this so often with like, quote, high achievers, people that have done really big things is that, there's a couple things that I see, you know, I think some people would believe if I got the Dalai Lama to endorse my book, I'm going to get all the keynotes I want.

Joe Sanok 00:23:01  I'm going to get my business will blow up. If I just get this one external thing. It's going to make everything else easier. And what I've found is that, sure, like it gives you credibility. You know, having written Thursday's The New Friday with Harpercollins, you know, being on you know Simon cynics like speaking team like those are things that, you know, whatever the like, you know, different things that people care about. Like this channel did a story. I mean, whatever. Like it builds credibility, but it doesn't land the plane. It doesn't make the business guaranteed to take off. It doesn't really guarantee anything. It's still waking up, doing your protein shake, focusing on okay, my speaking career, my keynote, whatever. Like your goal is to like I want to do X number of talks this year. Yeah. And so I think that sometimes people listening that haven't started are like, oh, if I could only do this then it's going to be easier for me early on.

Joe Sanok 00:23:50  That was if I could get Pat Flynn from the Smart Passive Income on my show. Oh, I'm going to be able to get so many great other speakers. And it's like, I love Pat Flynn, but lots of people don't even know.

Speaker 4 00:24:00  Who he is, you know? So it's like so.

Joe Sanok 00:24:02  So that's not like all of a sudden then like the blessing of someone else makes it. It's actually like the work that you're doing and the message you're doing and the groundedness you're finding, that moves the business forward, or even the things that you're doing in life.

Speaker 4 00:24:16  yeah.

Akshay Nanavati 00:24:16  You're also setting yourself up for a life of misery if you. And believe me, I've been there too, that when I get X, then everything will be golden. But you could have $0, or you could have $1 billion. You're going to have problems. So the more you focus on the process of overcoming those problems, of embracing those problems. Of the journey of the fight itself. The better your life becomes.

Akshay Nanavati 00:24:37  And look, I'll be the first to tell you I have hard moments where I'm like, oh, I just wish I already had X result, right? But but as soon as I have those moments, I bring myself in back to the now, remembering that there is another fight, that this is what it's all about. The dream is this moment of struggle. You know, when I was in Antarctica, I mentioned I had very, very soft snow in the conditions I was there. There was one day where I had crossed 20km for the first time, about 13 miles. And this was a milestone I desperately needed to hit. And that night it snowed. And my and my distance, my daily distance went from 20 to 17 to 14 to 13km. And on that, on that day of 13km. It was indescribably hard. I sat down on my sled midway through the day and just looked up and said, come on, please give me a break. Like I'm dying here, you know? And my friend, I opened up my GPS to look for the compass bearing, and this quote popped up from my friend back home.

Akshay Nanavati 00:25:27  It said, difficulty is the is the excuse that history never accepts. And I smiled. I whispered to myself, you chose this, you get to do this. And as soon as I started skiing again, it hit me that this is the very moment I was. This is the reason why I was. There was that moment. If I wanted easy, why the hell would I choose to ski cross Antarctica? Yeah. You know, it was like this realization that the storms are the summits, the moments of hardships are what it is all about. And God knows I get it. Somebody listening to this, when you're in it, it can feel a lot easier said than done. But you know this, I know this. You and me have gone. Anybody has gone through struggle to get to where they are. And now you can look back on your struggle and say, I would not be who I am today had I not endured that. The person that is sitting in front of you today, Joe, like I would not be this version of me had I not endured everything I've endured to get here.

Akshay Nanavati 00:26:17  So now that I can see it, when I go through that next moment of the the figurative soft snow with my sleds get stuck in it, whether it be here in the reality or in Antarctica. It's like, that's why this That's what this is about. It's this moment that defines me. The summit's we go through in life are very temporal, right? They last a minute and then they're gone. And there's a new problem. So the more you can remember that the storm is the summit, the more you find the beauty in the storm and you become the eye of the storm, and you become the peace, you become. This the very storm, right? That is what life is about. That challenge, that fight.

Joe Sanok 00:26:51  It reminds me of. I remember when I went through, like suicide intervention training as a therapist and looking at from the time someone really is actively suicidal, like I want to kill myself to, when they have enough respite that they're at least open to not killing themselves.

Joe Sanok 00:27:08  Like it's like half an hour to 60 minutes is that window. And so it's like, if you can get that person through that to then start to get help. Obviously there's all sorts of other factors that go into it, but it's like, you know, if they don't have access to a weapon that could do that, if they can be with a person for 60 minutes, it's like sometimes we think, oh God, for the next three weeks, how are we going to keep this person safe? It's like, no, we literally let's just be with that person for 60 minutes. And and that research may have changed since, you know, I took that training, but just that idea of that summit, that storm really just being temporary. It also I'm wondering, like, were there mornings that you and this may not just be in Antarctica, other times where you're like, I just I just want to keep sleeping. Like I just want a day off, like.

Speaker 4 00:27:50  Oh, it happens.

Akshay Nanavati 00:27:50  A lot. Absolutely.

Speaker 4 00:27:52  I mean, I love so it's like it happened. I have a hard time.

Joe Sanok 00:27:55  Getting out of bed in Northern.

Speaker 4 00:27:56  Michigan.

Akshay Nanavati 00:27:56  So yeah, it happened a ton in Antarctica. It happens here. I mean, in Antarctica, the amount of times when I would wake up and let's say you see a new layer of snow outside. And I know now this day is going to be absolute hell. I don't want to get out of my tent. I'd rather stay in my tent. But you it you know the recognition that every moment defines your entire destiny. If if that one moment I didn't get into get out of my tent, right. Because I let one very temporary moment. temporary feeling define my actions for the entire day. I'm going to look back on that with regret. Like today, even though I didn't complete the crossing, I don't have regret about how hard I worked. I literally pushed my body to the brink of death. But let's say there were three days I didn't get out of the tent because I didn't feel like it.

Akshay Nanavati 00:28:41  I can I would now look back on it and feel miserable, like I could have pushed harder. I could have pushed harder. So a simple mantra I use is remember tomorrow? It's an Iron Maiden song too. But remember, tomorrow, you know, like that tomorrow is going to come. How am I going to feel? And every day at the end of the day, no matter how hard the day was, I was always happier that I got out of my tent. And the same thing applies to this life. There has never been a day when I worked hard and I felt and I regretted it. Not a single day in my life, because when I go to bed, feeling like I've given my soul to that day, to the obsessive pursuit of my craft, there's no greater moment. I mean, I don't think anybody would have a moment when they've worked hard being like, I wish I did work as hard, you know, it's just. I mean, you can say that if you hate what you do, of course, like, that's a different context and a different scenario.

Akshay Nanavati 00:29:30  And then you can find different things and whatnot. But when it's when you're pursuing your craft that fires you up, the work is what lights me up. And yes, there are many days I don't it struggles. I would rather the result that I want got here to to today instead of, you know, 100 days from now, whatever it may be. But I keep bringing myself back. The point is not to say to not to have those moments. It's when you have those moments to bring yourself back into the remembrance that the now is all that matters, and the decision you make today will shape your tomorrow, and it'll shape every tomorrow forward. So really remembering that, like holding on to the realization that every moment there's a decision and the decision you make shapes you. It shapes your entire destiny. So do it with consciousness. Do it with intention.

Speaker 4 00:30:13  Do you do.

Joe Sanok 00:30:13  You ever struggle with, like, the slowing down side or giving yourself permission to say, sleep in or to like, relax? Or do you feel like you found like a good balance with that?

Akshay Nanavati 00:30:24  I think, look, I'm not demonizing recovery and sleep.

Akshay Nanavati 00:30:26  I think everybody should get as much sleep as you need. It's absolutely essential. I think there's sometimes in this hustle world, it's like sacrifice sleep. And I think that's complete nonsense. Like it's the duality, right? It is the duality. Just as much as you push obsessively balanced stress with recovery, it's the same thing on a workout level. Like very physically, when you stress your muscles, that actually breaks it down. It's when you're recovering that they're getting stronger. So it's the same thing for the mind and the spirit, the core teaching of all fear, of everything I've learned in Antarctica for decades, that playing on the edges is a concept that I call the paradox of oneness. And what this is, the paradox of oneness is the realization that the entire human experience is a dance of opposites. So there's life and death, light and dark, ego and humility, pain and pleasure, masculine, feminine and so on and so on, so on and so forth. And the paradox of oneness is a realization that these two forces are not separate, but they're two expressions of the same hole You cannot have a summit without a valley.

Akshay Nanavati 00:31:25  You cannot have light without dark. But we live in a world that demonizes one side of a duality as bad. Right. The stress is bad. The pain is bad, the darkness is bad, the fear is bad. So on and so forth. But the more you remember that neither is good, neither is bad. You can embrace both sides of the duality, and you create a sum that is greater than each individual part. You create a sum that is, that the whole that is greater than each individual side. So as much as I play on the edge of pain and hardship and suffering, I play on the edge of joy and light and fun. My wife will tell you like I'm a goofball. I'm joking all the time. I laugh at stupid, childish jokes, right? But who cares? Because I want to be like another core mantra that I have is be a warrior in action, a monk in wisdom, and a child in play. You can beat all three of those things at the same time.

Akshay Nanavati 00:32:10  And when you do, you create a more fulfilling, legendary life.

Speaker 4 00:32:13  I mean.

Joe Sanok 00:32:14  You're starting to sound like Lao Tzu. I mean.

Speaker 4 00:32:16  You got some Daoism in there too, but since you.

Joe Sanok 00:32:19  Like, jokes.

Speaker 4 00:32:20  I'll.

Joe Sanok 00:32:21  Tell you a joke, my ten year old told me this.

Speaker 4 00:32:23  Morning. Sure, I'd love to.

Joe Sanok 00:32:25  It is totally unplanned, but hey, she told me this morning. why, why are pirates called pirates?

Akshay Nanavati 00:32:32  Why?

Speaker 4 00:32:33  They just are. Well, the last one.

Akshay Nanavati 00:32:39  That might be a child in play. That's such a beautiful expression of that. Exactly.

Speaker 4 00:32:42  Oh, really?

Joe Sanok 00:32:43  Well, it's like tonight, I have improv every Tuesday night. I do that, and.

Speaker 4 00:32:46  I'm.

Joe Sanok 00:32:47  Teaching more improv. And to me, I like. Yeah, I get that. I love that, Man, I feel like we could talk for so long. the last question, though, that I always ask is if every private practitioner in the world were listening right now, what would you want them to know?

Akshay Nanavati 00:33:00  Great question.

Akshay Nanavati 00:33:01  I think to build off of a point I've said about being focused on the problems is let me expand on a framework of that, and this is what I would say. I want you to know, all growth in life, in your business, in your practice is two things. Find what's working and do more of it. Find the problem. Fix the problem. That's really at the core of it. That's everything. That's all growth. So focus your entire world on being systematic about these two things, and a very simple way to find the problem. Fix the problem is to turn your problem statements into questions because a statement is a wall a question is a door. So instead of saying, for example, I don't have the money to fund Antarctica, it costs $1.1 million. Instead of saying, I don't have the money, I could say, how can I raise that money? How can I make that money? When you start asking questions, you'll find solutions. So the key takeaway I would say for anybody listening is be systematic about how you solve problems.

Akshay Nanavati 00:33:51  One problem at a time. Fix one problem at a time, remembering that you will never get to the end of problems. So all progress is not the elimination of problems, it's the creation of new problems. So create. Keep creating new problems, keep finding new solutions. And on the other side of those problems, the new solutions is a new awakening.

Speaker 4 00:34:07  Brilliant.

Joe Sanok 00:34:08  If people want to follow your work, if they want to hire you for a keynote or connect you with, you know, some someone that's putting on talks or any of it, where can they find you?

Akshay Nanavati 00:34:17  You can find me on Instagram at Theravada. That's F.e.a.r., Vana and Nirvana. Com you can see more about my speaking and stuff there. And I speak all over the world, so I'd love to come share the lessons I've learned over the years.

Joe Sanok 00:34:32  So awesome. Thanks for being on the show today.

Akshay Nanavati 00:34:34  Thank you so much, my friend, for having me.

Joe Sanok 00:34:42  You know, the intersection of kind of mindset and of our own life often feels so binary as we talked about it, that we have to somehow, like, give up our goals in life to somehow achieve in our business.

Joe Sanok 00:34:58  And I just don't buy into that. Yeah. And I think, you know, people like this that are on the show, as I think through all of all of the people that have been a part of this series. I want to just make sure that you, the audience, think through. Are you thinking with that binary way of thinking, or could there be things that you achieve, and that you also find that other side of the mountain, that you find joy and that you know, you build your business, but it's also doesn't take your soul. That's why, you know, here at practice, the practice, we say we help you build a thriving private practice you absolutely love. We want that thriving side where you're rocking out the business, you're doing good marketing, you're doing the operational side, you have good w-2s, and you're not setting yourself up for unnecessary risk. And you're seeing the clients you want to serve. You're enjoying it. You show up at your business, say, I can't believe this is my world.

Joe Sanok 00:35:47  You know, that's going to change over time. You know, the kind of practice you have today will be different in five years. You may want to sell. You may want to do podcasts or Ted talks or, you know, go across Antarctica, do this unachievable thing, to go from side to side, who knows what your thing is. but start dreaming. Hopefully these guests, continue to inspire you to do things not just that are big and make you world renowned, famous, but also small in your community to make you enjoy the world that you have. You know, we also couldn't do this show without amazing sponsors like Therapy notes. Therapy notes is the best electronic health records out there. They will help you switch over from your current EHR. they also give you two months for free or just money off if you use promo code Joe at checkout. they are phenomenal. They help with automated billing. it's going to make it easier to outsource your billing. So many reasons to switch to therapy.

Joe Sanok 00:36:41  You know, just head on over to therapy notes. Com read about it and at checkout. Just use promo code. Joe. Thank you so much for letting me into your ears and into your brain. Have a great day. I'll talk to you soon. Special thanks to the band silence Sexy for that intro music. And this podcast is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is given with the understanding that neither the host, the producers, the publishers or guests are rendering legal, accounting, clinical or other professional information. If you want a professional, you should find one.