Episode 248: Lessons of 2022 - The Annual Performance Review
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As we head into the new year with new goals and pursuits in life and in sport, we take stock of the lessons learned in 2022 to help pave the way for success in the coming year. In this episode of the Purple Patch podcast, we look back so we can move forward.
Matt compiles key observations and lessons in performance over the past year to help you shed unproductive habits, prioritize best practices, refocus your mindset and ultimately help you build a platform of success in 2023 off of the foundation you built in 2022.
Matt breaks it down to these 7 key lessons of the year:
1: Packing the Calories - A Paradigm Shift
(12:41) "On longer endurance events, this has not only become possible, but absolutely performance enhancing."
2. We are Social Beings - There is Strength in Numbers
(15:47) "Ultimately, the truth is that we gain value from being connected, from feeling a sense of belonging, for having shared experiences."
3. Excellence is Built on Basic Fundamentals - Lessons from the Norwegian Train
(21:43) "When you get your recipe right around these fundamentals that are really, really basic, guess how far you are close to optimal. You're 90% to 95% of the way there. That's almost everything."
4 . Women’s Sports is Great - Recognizing Athletic Greatness
(24:57) "Women's sport consistently delivers. Not almost as good as, but absolutely as good in the same way as men's sport. And we will all benefit if we collectively invest, deliver the same exposure, facilitate the same promotion side by side as men's sport."
5. Multisport Produces Great Results in Running - A Well-Rounded Approach
(26:34) "It facilitates athletes being healthier, enjoying the sport more, and getting faster."
6. There is Great Value in Taking on a Big Challenge - Meeting and Beating Your Limits
(34:25) "Sometimes you're going to have setbacks, but by committing to the journey, and course correcting through the natural adversity and obstacles that you will face both logistically and energy-wise, ultimately, you will reap great rewards."
7. Evolve Beyond COVID - An Opportunity to Grow
(38:43) "While it was a slap in the face, and we all talked about simplification, and learning and applying new lessons, we don't actually need a pandemic to improve ourselves. We always are empowered to make decisions to actually improve our lot"
We would also like to thank you for your continued support of our ever-evolving podcast. We would love your feedback to help the show grow and make the Purple Patch Podcast a useful educational tool to help you along in your own performance Journey.
Episode Timestamps
00:00 - 02:47 - Welcome and Episode Introduction
02:54 - 07:31 - Matt's News-ings
07:46 - 11:15 - Word of the Week
11:23 - 42:54 - The Meat and Potatoes - Episode 248: Lessons of 2022 - The Annual Performance Review
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Full Transcript
Matt Dixon 00:00
I'm Matt Dixon and welcome to the purple patch podcast. The mission of Purple Patch is to empower and educate every human being to reach their athletic potential. Through the lens of athletic potential, you reach your human potential. The purpose of this podcast is to help time-starved people everywhere integrate sport into life.
Matt Dixon 00:21
This week gang, we're taking a look back so that we can march forward and set up our best year of performance in 2023. And it might also be a good time for you to take a look inside so that you can set the best strategic path forward for your health and your performance. Yes, with the help from the team of InsideTracker, we can help get really specific on where you should place your focus, whether it's around nutrition supplements, or maybe helping destress your life. It's a tool and service that we leverage at Purple Patch. And you can too, all you need to do is head to insidetracker.com/purplepatch. And we've got a handy code for you Purple Patch Pro two zero. And with that, you get 20% off everything at the store. It's high value, it's going to facilitate better performance, and it arms you with the information necessary to help you on your performance journey. All right, let's crack on with the show. It's a goodie today.
Matt Dixon 01:22
Yes, welcome to the meat and potatoes. And well goodness me, we march into the holidays and it has been quite a year. And so today it is time for us to look back over 2022 and pull out a few key observations and lessons in performance, hopefully allowing you to apply some of these lessons as you march forward into next year. Now as ever, what I've done, we'd like to do this on an annual basis is I've drawn some of my favorite lessons in education from Purple Patch, but also utilize some of the lessons and broader performance that we've seen over the scope of the landscape in both triathlon sport and general performance globally. My goal today is I hope to be really succinct, deliver a nice little list with one to two key observations from each of the topics that we're going to discuss. Now hopefully these are enough for you to spark interest that maybe you dig into more, maybe you can help leverage so that you can build a platform to integrate into your ongoing journey. Now, there are also a little bit of a chance in other words for me to have fun in reflection. Pause, look back, and think about what we've been discussing over the course of this year. But before we get going as this is in fact our final show of 2022 I'm going to ensure that Barry earns his keep Yes, I want to make sure that he earns his salt. And so today we are going to crack on with a little bit of Matt's News-ing.
Matt Dixon 02:54
Yes, Matt's News-ings folks, and there are many people out there that are getting ready to jump on the Purple Patch bandwagon, which is a good thing because it helps you build your performance, get ready for your races, and ultimately integrate sport into life so that you can not only achieve your goals but also amplify all of the other components of life. And we are running right now a very special promotion, we tend to not discount too much because we believe in the value of our services, but that doesn't mean that we can't supplement and provide a little bit of gift giving of our own. And so now between now and the end of the year, any athlete that decides to join any one of the squad programs - and we have several, we have our run squad, our bike squad, our strength program, and of course, triathlon squad - any athlete that joins between now and the end of the year is going to receive a free complimentary one to one individual consultation with a Purple Patch coach that is $150 worth of value. This individual session is going to help you plan your season ahead and you can also focus on any performance topical questions that you might have. Now, this is above and beyond the regular royal welcome that we'd like to give every purple patch athlete because anyone joining any one of our products always begins with a personal individual phone call. Because ultimately, we believe you are more than a number and we want to ensure that that personal touch can create a really soft landing into our ecosystem and our programming. So you get two things, you get a nice introductory call, you get to make sure that you have a navigating experience around our platform, but also you get to spend lots of time with a one to one coach to really make sure that you do some thorough individual planning. That sounds really good. All you have to do is head to the website, purplepatchfitness.com and you can see all of the programs there. On registration, we're going to take it from there. If you have any questions of course or if you would like, just you know a complimentary call to understand more about our programming, simply email us info@purplepatchfitness.com and we will set up a complimentary call. Second, I want to take a little bit of a glance ahead in this week's Matt's News-ings to 2023. Because we are in the process right now, as I've mentioned before, completely reimagining this show, and we intend to proverbially take it to the next level. We want to deliver deeper education, more research, and validated scientific findings to support our lessons and perspective around the whole of the performance landscape. And this is gonna be fun, we're gonna kick off 2023 with a series of shows that are all designed around you planning your performance journey, as well as lots of the lessons that we've got from coaching. We are also planning to revisit all of the fundamental topics that make up the Purple Patch methodology. And I think that's going to be really grounding and helpful for you. And so, with that in mind, as we look to expand our team, this is an opportunity for you to get excited - number one, because I think the Purple Patch podcast is going to be super as we launch into 2023. But also, maybe it's an opportunity to become a part of our team. Because unlike a lot of those tech companies right now, we're actually hiring. We have various openings open Purple Patch, from a new triathlon coach that we're seeking, hopefully, San Francisco based for that, research assistants for this show the podcast, we're also looking for additional members to join our squad team to help across all of the components of fulfilling great athlete experience and success across the programs that I mentioned before. And of course, the biggie, we are looking and seeking a director of operations for everything at purple patch, yes, a senior role to help us develop without losing that personal high touch that we pride ourselves on. And so if you're interested in learning more, simply head to the careers page at the website, Purple Patch fitness.com, or reach out to us and we'll send you all of the information you might be interested in. We are a dedicated team to help athletes find great performance. You can ping us an email at info@purplepatchfitness.com. And we'll take it from there. All right, those are the quick bullets for Matt's News-ings and Barry, just because I love you, mate. I know it's been a couple of weeks but I missed those tunes. I'm just inundated with the holiday musical tastes that everyone's pumping. We want to do this week the ukulele It is a special word of the week.
Matt Dixon 07:46
Yes, the word of the week this week is 6.5. 6.5? Yes, 6.5 listening. Because by you taking the time, of which we are thankful for, but you taking the time to listen to today's show, you are going to be one of the lucky listeners that helped us nudge over the line of 6.5. Yes, we are in our fourth season and as we enter 2022, we are going to be surpassing more than six and a half million listens on the show. This is a show that started out being recorded in the closet in my bedroom. That's where the acoustics were great. And we had very humble ambitions, to be honest. We just simply hoped to provide some value to a few people. We hoped that our perspective and experiencing coaching methodology could help time-starved athletes and fitness enthusiasts integrate sport into life, so that they could not only achieve their goals but also amplify their health become a better version of themselves at work, and for their family and friends. And from those very humble beginnings, this show has grown with a tiny team, as an adjunct to our real lives that we have running Purple Patch and everything else that we do to ultimately one of the more popular health and fitness podcasts that are out there. And so I just want to say for Word of the Week, a very quick thank you to you guys, the listeners, our audience, because I hear all the time that perhaps we are doing something that's helpful. And that's really fulfilling. And I also want to say beyond my thanks for you guys for staying loyal and listening and providing the feedback to help us evolve and grow. I also want to deliver a promise, and that is to keep this real. We are going to keep striving and trying our very best to deliver really high-value education that you can apply to your life. I don't want this to be up in the clouds. I want it to be really really useful to you guys listening. A Purple Patch mantra. In fact, my favorite Purple Patch mantra is evolve or die, and this spirit has helped us continually grow and improve the show. And we promise to keep delivering content that hopefully is useful. And finally, if you do enjoy the show, of course, it's always appreciated if you can leave us a positive review wherever you listen to the show. And of course, take it upon yourself to share it with friends, or those that you think might benefit from the lessons that we provide. One thing as well, I should add just at the end, I highly encourage you to take a peek at our video podcast. Yes, we deliver two versions of the show number one, of course, by audio, you listen to it on your Spotify on your Apple podcast, but you can also watch the Purple Patch podcast with lots of nice graphics and educational tutorials within, something that we're really going to ramp up next year via YouTube, or as my friend Pete's mom would say, the YouTube. And so yeah, it's a great place to listen. And it's valuable. But I say this week's Word of the Week, a big thank you and appreciate it because by listening to this show, you are going to officially knock us over the line, 6.5 million. That's a lot of people the last time I checked. All right, should we do it, we're looking back over 2022. It is time folks for The Meat and Potatoes.
Matt Dixon 11:23
Yes, it is The Meat of Potatoes, and more than any other show in this year, I get to go - pretty quick fire. I'm going to look back and try and jog your memory. I'm going to bring out some truths for you. And all of these are going to be anchored in our education that we've covered over 2022 as well as my observations from the broader performance world. We look back today just so that we can ultimately look forward and integrate so many lessons. So what I intend to do is only spend a little bit of time, just a few lines at most on each one of the topics and there are seven. So we have to hold hands and just get through seven key lessons of the whole year. You're ready. I hope so because I am. This is quick and dirty. And a really fun, enjoyable way to finish off the year of the purple patch podcast. And without further ado, let's do it.
Matt Dixon 12:21
Number one. I think that 2022 saw the true coming of what I've seen bubbling up for the last three to five years. We're going to start with nutrition as it relates to endurance performance. And I'm going to label this packing the calories. Because on longer endurance events, this is not only become possible, but absolutely performance enhancing. If we go back 10 years, or 10 years or so, you would hear all of the experts myself included spouting off about trying to fly under the nutrition radar. What we were saying here or preaching was endurance athletes should just consume enough calories in racing, that they could just sustain the demands of the events while avoiding gastric distress. And infact we weren't saying this off of a vapor, we were looking at applied lessons of what was occurring in races, but also drawing on peer-reviewed research. Because at that time, until just a few years ago, it was shown in peer-reviewed research, the athletes couldn't consume any more than about 60 grams or about 240 calories per hour of carbohydrate, without - boom - stomachs blowing up. And so it made sense, fly under the radar, you're burning more calories than that but just supplement with a little bit more. Now, now, athletes 100, 110, 120 grams per hour, and not only successfully consuming in a really smart strategic way, but also displaying objectively performance gains. That is some really compelling stuff. And I think almost above all else when it comes to endurance performance. My number one is packing the calories. We saw it explode and absolutely go through the paradigm shift. It's been occurring, but now it has arrived. And if you're training or racing for a marathon, a half Ironman, and Ironman and ultra distance trail run whatever it might be, you better be in 2023 really taking on board the lessons that we've gone through a lot over the course of this year of how to consume more calories, while of course still avoiding gastric distress. Good stuff. So what's the lesson number two? Remember we've got seven to get through. This is how quick fire is today ladies and gentlemen. It's a lot of fun. For me, just a rattle them off.
Matt Dixon 15:02
Number two. Lesson number two of 2022 is we are social beings. 2022 was absolutely the year where we all collectively got back together, and goodness me did we enjoy it. This emerged from the Purple Patch training camps, which there was an unbridled thirst and desire - bring us more camps - we packed all of our camps this year, the vibrancy of travel that I saw going in the summer for my event, but also family vacation that was occurring all over the world, my experience was in Europe, but there was an energy of vibrancy, the opening of the Purple Patch Center, where we got so used to working from home from being somewhat isolated. But ultimately, the truth is that we gain value from being connected, from feeling a sense of belonging, for having shared experiences. And this year, I felt like there was an absolutely undoubted thirst for this. And a really return to the understanding of the benefits of folks connecting supporting each other, helping each other on their journeys. And as I look forward to 2023, what does this really mean? Well, you've heard me say many times before that community is a central part, a sense of belonging is a central part to almost any athlete's success in their performance journey. So I really encourage you, as you march into whatever your goals are, for next year, lean in. Become a part of something. Embrace the community elements, the accountability that comes with it, the performance enhancement of helping others being helped by others and mentorship. It is better than going solo. Become a part of something. Now, maybe that part of something is Purple Patch. Because guess what? We care about these things, and we're pretty good. It's actually central. It's our heartbeat, is our community. But whatever it is for you, as we look back over the last three years that we've gone through 2022, for me, it was the explosion back to us being connected. And wow, that it feel good. And if you have that sense and feeling lean into that, because I promise you, that is the amplifier. That's the central DNA that can help you maximize and optimize all of the stuff, all of the investment, all of the energy that you put into whatever your goals are, become a part of something in 2022 that is lesson number two.
Matt Dixon 17:51
Lesson number three, it's a fun one. excellence. Excellence is built on very basic fundamentals. So much has been said about the breakthrough of two Norwegian triathletes this year. The name Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden over the last few years, they have been emerging, delivering, starting back in 2020, with the Olympic gold medal, 2019 Gustav becoming the Ironman 70.3 world champion. These have been two athletes that are ultimately changing the sport. They get labeled as the Norwegian train and once again this year, we saw domination from these two athletes. And so much has been talked about around the two athletes and their surrounding team about their embracing of science analysis and data. But when we pause and we reflect, and we filter through some of the hype, it is undoubted that yes they do leverage some groundbreaking technology and science but, when we filter through the absolute truth of these two athletes, is that their success is predominantly built on two incredible athletes who absolutely filter distractions, nail really good habits and build their success on the fundamentals. In fact, they only utilize science and data and approaches that they truly will yield better, faster performance. They don't just apply everything. In fact, they have very, very strong filters and a lot of their existence is driven down to simplistic, repeatable habits. You might even call it mundane and that is the ultimate truth. And it will always be the truth. At purple patch, we have a saying, Nail the Basics. And what that means for the two world-class athletes is fantastic habits around sleep, a very hard and consistent training program, edging towards what the body can absorb, all supported with a huge amount of fuel, nutrition, and hydration.
Matt Dixon 20:22
But beyond that, it is then incremental, that they wrap around tracking data science technology, but that is filtered and applied with great strategy by a team of exercise physiologists and coaches. So for you, the time-starved athlete, what is it mean? What it means for you is building really smart training that fits into your life, not doing too much, but doing a consistent amount of training that actually can fit into the other stresses in your life. And then committing to really good, high-quality habits around sleep, ensuring that you are fueling your training and your life with a great quality and amount of nutrition, ensuring that you're eating enough calories to support the training that you're doing. And that's something that is hit or miss for most athletes, I have to be honest. Making sure that you're adhering to post-training fueling as a great stress management tool, but also as an optimizer of the hard work that you're putting in, and I would add, beyond any endurance training you're doing, also ensure that you embrace and commit to a season-long recipe of integrated strength and conditioning. And when you get your recipe right around these fundamentals that are really, really basic, guess how far you are close to optimal. You're 90% to 95% of the way there. That's almost everything. And it is only then, once you nail those habits, that you think about considering adding technology, data science, lactate meters, compression boots, whatever they might be. Nail your fundamentals. It's a lesson from 2022. By the way, it was a lesson from 2021, 2020, 2019, since we have started Purple Patch in 2008. This is the ever, ever-lasting fundamental truth. And once again, these two Norwegian athletes while we look at them, and think science, technology, and data, this is two athletes that build their success on the fundamentals. And you can too. That is lesson number three. And that means ladies and gentlemen, that we are already at the top of the mountain. This is going to be the peak lesson number four. And for the top of our mountain as we start to look at the valley below.
Matt Dixon 22:59
Lesson number four, I would say isn't even really a lesson. All it is is a rubber stamp. Let's all just agree. women's sport is great. It's interesting. It is in fact, as interesting as compelling as men's sport. Let's just double-underline that. Women's sport is fricking great. Now this year, I really enjoyed the English soccer team. And you might not follow soccer, but English soccer team won the European championships this year and the quality of - I'm allowed to say - football was fantastic. And in fact, the quality of the soccer across the whole tournament was fantastic. It was exceptional. But if we apply it to our passions, more collectively, endurance sports, let's just go to the Hawaii Ironman World Championship in 2022. For the first time, we had two races. We had predominantly a women's race and a men's race. The women's race was on Thursday. And the men's race was on Saturday. And all I have to say is what a race. It was a standalone race for the women who delivered a fantastic spectacle, amazing set of performances, and wonderful storylines. And here's the thing. I think here's the important thing because so many people get pulled up with well, the men get so much more attraction and they deliver just two more eyeballs, but that's so much because of promotion and historical consequences and where the money flows. But ultimately sport as a spectacle is about storylines. It's about competition. It's about drama. It's about personalities. It's not just about faster, faster, faster, more power, more power, more power. It's about those components. That's the thing that's compelling. And women's sport consistently delivers not almost as good as, but absolutely as good in the same way as men's sport. And we will all benefit. If we collectively invest, deliver the same exposure, facilitate the same promotion side by side as men's sport. And I think that actually triathlon is a wonderful case study of that. Because we're not playing catch up. The fabric of the sport was built on as close as we can get to equality. And prize money is typically the same. Now we need to double down on the same exposure and this growth that that sport has, but it's along the way. And organizations like the professional triathlons organization, the PTO, that is a wonderful tool to help build out, not just men's sport with the women being a relegated afterthought, but side-by-side storylines, drama, competition. And so my fourth top-of-the-mountain lesson in 2022, is not a lesson at all, it's just a truth, women's sport is great.
Matt Dixon 26:14
Number five, we start to turn the corner we start to come home, we can smell the flowers. Number five is another rubber stamp. And that's a simple truth. Multisport, or multi-discipline approach produces great results in running. It facilitates athletes been healthier, enjoying the sport more, and getting faster. And so a big performance lesson of 2022, which again, we've been talking about for a long time and proving it is that multi-sport is a catalyst for run performance. I remember way back when, when I first started purple patch, I earned the title of the recovery coach, and the people that said that weren't saying it in a very nice way. In fact, I was labeled the recovery coach through the lens that I was a quack a shill, just for promoting the importance of recovery for athletes. Well, fast forward to now. And I think I can say from one of the first times (blows a raspberry) I was right. So there. Recovery is fully accepted as a yin and yang, an absolute critical part of performance. It's not a shortcut. It is a facilitator of high performance. Well guess what, when I talk about running performance, and integrating a multi-sport approach, I think we're in a similar situation now. And I think in 10 years' time, I'm going to say See, I told you so I was right, again, I know that sounds rather grandiose and maybe a little bit egotistical but I think I'm right on this. We have had massive success this season and many seasons before of athletes of all levels, who have improved their running via a multi-sport approach. And in fact, we believe in it so much now that earlier this year, we launched our run squad. And we've now had the opportunity to take a broader range of athlete abilities and experiences through the multi-sport approach and have delivered ever better results. And this is for folks that many of them say I'm just not a runner, I hate running, or I'm plateaued or I'm trying to break the injury cycle. I consistently run and all I face every week, every month is just niggles injuries, setbacks. And our results over the course of 2020 to have encompass the full spectrum. We had a two-hour and 35-minute marathon runner, finish it at New York, that's pretty fast. And he was only running a couple of times a week because he had to leverage multi sport to get ready. We had multiple in fact many sub-three hour finishers from athletes who had never before broken that barrier. And they had used conventional approaches and then they all agreed to shift the lens, take on the multi-sport approach and there was a landscape of many athletes that broke that mythical barrier, three hours in a marathon. That's really good for just an amateur fitness enthusiasts. But beyond the fast lens of running, we also had folks that just had huge personal accomplishments. So many athletes that actually broke the injury curse of running, they managed to put together a whole season of injury free running and off the back of injury free, they, therefore, built a platform of consistency and the net result is that they ended up going faster. That's fantastic. And it isn't just in running. It's running off the bike as well. Heck beyond it all my mate Angus. Yeah, for some of you guys that know him, that guy Angus, he actually completed his Ironman journey for his 60th Birthday via the multi-sport approach, if that's not performance readiness, I don't know what is. And the key here is I believe that this is really quite groundbreaking. So if you are frustrated with running as a sport, if you want to be a runner, but just cycle through injuries feel like that you've plateaued, perhaps you don't even believe you can become a runner. It's just not a sport for me. That's not true. Everyone can successfully run. And perhaps 2023 is the year that you take on a broader perspective. You take an approach, which we've proven, can not only get you faster but also keep you healthier. And ultimately, that makes it more, what's that word? Oh, that's right, fun. And that's great. And so the rubber stamp lesson number five, a multi-sport approach to running is a catalyst for your success. And that means that we have got two more to go, what could they be as our big lessons for 2022?
Matt Dixon 31:09
We're two to go, number six, here it is. There is great value in taking on a big challenge. We talked about this at the start of the year, we framed it in the BHAG, the big, hairy, audacious goal. But I tell you what, there is tremendous value in broader perspectives, all-around performance of taking on a nasty, big challenge. Now, this lesson is actually really personal to me, because years I have coached about the value of consistency and that we actually gain benefits, we grow and evolve, when we decide to take on a really big challenge. Something that perhaps is a little bit scary, a little bit daunting, that actually demands our commitment that we embrace into the process. And we do that we tend to get a lot out of it. And so in 2022, once again, I decided to eat my own dog food, and take on my own really big challenge. And this was all in the midst of it being quite honestly the busiest year of work and family that I've ever experienced. I was in thick of kids sports, school activities with my 10-year-old Baxter, and of course, Purple Patch continued to grow, managing the team, being a custodian for all of the athletes ultimately and I decided to commit to the training for a seven day Haute Route challenge with my brothers. Yes, all the way through the Alps. It was 800 kilometers, it was a big scary challenge. And guess what? I did it. But beyond doing it and I did it pretty well. I was really satisfied with the results. I was really proud of myself. But the key lesson isn't about, oh, I did well, it's actually the fact that it amplified everything else. It amplified my health, my energy, my performance at Purple Patch, even how I showed up for my family. It was the very catalyst, and this is so counterintuitive, but the commitment and the demands of that training helped me convert into the very best version of myself. I leveraged that journey to become a better leader, a better father, a better husband, it forced organization and the commitment was really rewarding. I was leaner, stronger, had more energy, I slept better, because of this journey. Far from it being a monkey on the back or just another thing to manage. It was actually a catalyst for improvement and growth. And let me tell you this before you think okay, great. But is that me? You can do this. Whatever it is, you can embrace and draw the same benefits. I highly encourage you as you look forward, to embrace a challenge, to collaborate with the most important folks in your life. And that's really important, ensuring that you don't just do this alone. Oh, I'm going to train for the Haute Route, but collaborate with the constituents in your life, and ensure that as you do take on the journey, retain a healthy dose of pragmatism. It's not going to be perfect. Sometimes you're going to have setbacks, but by committing to the journey, and course correcting through the natural adversity and obstacles that you will face both logistically and energy-wise, ultimately, you will reap great rewards. And so I would say remember the word - integration - but chase something big and demanding in 2023. We're going to talk about that in Q1. But once again, it whacked me around the back of the head, people thrive when they commit to a really big challenge. I would encourage you to go back and listen to some of the episodes that we did on Haute Route. Perhaps the final one is a great cause of reflection and a lot of fun as well.
Matt Dixon 35:10
And finally, folks, that means that we have delivered ourselves to number seven. What is the performance lesson of 2022 that we can close this chapter? Well, I feel like I need to put COVID-19 to bed. We've talked a lot about the pandemic over the course of the last two years. And we've discussed shutdowns, infections, vaccines, managing illness so that you can emerge back to your best self as quickly as possible, the importance of your sporting journey beyond competition, but as we just talked about with that challenge, how it can facilitate better health, better performance across work and life. And as we end 2022 Let me say something, goodness me, are we not just a very forgetful bunch. Because when we go back to 2020, and we were forced into a simplification of life shutdown. So many things being stripped away from us, we actually were forced into a point of reflection. For a while we were rudderless, and we were scrambling. And then we created a framework and the most successful folks leaned into the sporting and athletic journey and training so that they could build a little bit of consistency in what was a really chaotic time. And while it was a real negative globally, and there was obviously a lot of struggle that occurred and is still occurring, I should point out, there was also some net positives out of this life was simplified. Many of us actually got back to some basics became a little bit more grounded, remembered that relationships and experiences are a really important fabric of life. And we all talked about, goodness me, there are great lessons for us that when life does return back to normal, we can apply and become ultimately a better version of ourselves. Well, over those two years, we talked about the reinvention of good habits, mindset approach, simplification, emerge from the stressful time, build something better. And guess what? Right now, as we end 2022, and we have said goodbye to the pandemic, at least the version of the pandemic that really caused the most disruption. We are right back, right back to our old habits. Few of us really grew. Not many of us actually evolved. The vast majority are back to the old hectic ways. The stresses of life are back up to how we lived. The same old challenges that we see with athletes, whether it's systemic stress, whether it's injury, whether it's logistical challenges, they're all back. We hear it all the time, athletes are back to the same old journey. Did we learn anything from the last two and a half years? I don't know. I think that we learn. But did we apply the lessons? And that's a really different thing. Ultimately, though, as we finished 2022, I think that's okay. Because I know that there's always opportunity. We have that saying that I've already mentioned today, evolve or die. And what I do know is that while it was a slap in the face, and we all talked about simplification, and learning and applying new lessons, we don't actually need a pandemic to improve ourselves. We always are empowered to make decisions to actually improve our lot, whether it's our health, whether it's our sporting performance, whether it's how we show up in our relationships, friends and work. And so what I want us to do with this lesson is pause and reflect and say, yeah, we're really forgetful. The vast majority of us didn't change. We're kind of back to how we were. And that's sort of deflating, but with that, there's opportunity.
Matt Dixon 39:23
Let's acknowledge that, but now let's evolve. Now let's improve. And so as you go into 2023, think about your relationships. Take courage, and take on a massive challenge this year, and build the components that will progress you to that challenge, but also accelerate you in other parts of life. And don't do it alone. Because things are so much more rewarding and ultimately positive when you share the journey with someone. So yeah, there's been a big year again, so much turbulence, but we have the opportunity to grow as he go into 2023. And so once again, folks, those are my big lessons for 2022. All I want to say is, thank you. Thank you so much for being a part of the show, for helping us get across that 6.5 number. Jiminy Christmas, 6.5 million, I've got to say that's a bit humbling. And thanks again, and have a wonderful holiday season. Our next episode is not going to be between the Christmas and New Year's holiday, it's not going to be in that first week of January. We're going to launch on the week of January 9. That's going to be our first episode of 2023. And I promise you, it's a cracker. We launch with Lauren Fleshman. We're going to talk to her about her book, Good for a Girl. It is a stunning read. I talked about it last week. And I really encourage you to get it on pre-order, because it's coming out January 10th. Alright folks, thanks so much for listening. Be safe, connect with your friends and family and keep the health up. Let's go and do good things in 2023. Take care.
Matt Dixon 41:05
Guys, thanks so much for joining. And thank you for listening. I hope that you enjoyed the new format. You can never miss an episode by simply subscribing, head to the Purple Patch channel of YouTube, and you will find it there and you could subscribe. Of course, I'd like to ask you, if you will subscribe, also share it with your friends. And it's really helpful if you leave a nice positive review in the comments. Now any questions that you have, let me know feel free to add a comment and I will try my best to respond and support you on your performance journey. And in fact, as we commence this video podcast experience, if you have any feedback at all, as mentioned earlier in the show, we would love your help in helping us to improve. Simply email us, info@purplepatchfitness.com or leave it in the comments of the show at the Purple Patch page and we will get you dialed in. We'd love constructive feedback. We are in a growth mindset as we like to call it. And so feel free to share with your friends. But as I said, let's build this together. Let's make it something special. It's really fun. We're really trying hard to make it a special experience and we want to welcome you into the Purple Patch community. With that, I hope you have a great week. Stay healthy, have fun, keep smiling, doing whatever you do. Take care
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
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