Mat Lock:
Mr. Stuart Walter, welcome back to The Unleashing Potential Podcast.
Stuart Walter:
You are welcome. And we’re back.
Mat Lock:
Yeah, absolutely. And for those who haven’t listened to the first episode with yourself, I would certainly encourage you to do so. But Stuart is the founder and owner of Elite Mindset Institute and is a professional clinical hypnotherapist and NLP practitioner who works with elite athletes, ambitious entrepreneurs and individuals to help them recognise their potential of achieving great results. You see I just did your introduction for you.
Stuart Walter:
Well, I sound awesome. Why do I find?
Mat Lock:
So as we talked about last time, you’ve got an incredible heritage of working with 38 world champions so far across a whole range of different sports. But just so you can introduce yourself I mean, just to … I guess not what I’ve said but your version of what it is you actually do to help whoever it is you’re working with to get better results.
Stuart Walter:
Yeah. Thanks Matt and thanks everyone for watching/listening, whatever you’re doing. Yeah. I guess my role is to make people better. Okay? Remove the barricades, the blockages that you’ve created in your own mind. All right? Our minds are incredibly powerful and incredibly stupid. It depends on how you use it. Our mind has got what? 16 fundamentals of the human mind that always exists. So it’s understanding each of these fundamentals as a filter. And so what? This is this person. See you find me any person that I can drop them through these 16 fundamentals and go, right. “There’s the root cause of all the issues you’ve got now. Right? Do you enjoy it?” “No.” “Okay. Let’s change it.” And then lift them back up through these same 16 filters to go, right. This is a new version of you.
Stuart Walter:
Whereas remembering this is basically the deeper level of programme. Who we are on the surface is who we are. What we’re doing is responding to the programmes under these. So we changed the programme. So therefore who you are on surface becomes a totally different person. So I’m not talking about a typical psychology which would be, “Well, let’s go back and have a look at the past what made you who you are today. Tell me about your parents.” Because that’s already happened. The way I work and my model of working with people is, “Right. This is who you are. That’s where you want to go to. Who do you need to be to achieve this result?” And that’s all it is. Is basically changing the person, building the person that excels in business, in life, and in sport.
Mat Lock:
Yeah. No, thank you. Now to I guess pre-frame what we’re going to talk about today, for The Unleashing Potential Podcast, as the name would suggest, we are absolutely focused in everything we do on the everyday athletes of the world. And what we’re trying to do is ultimately create events that empower everyday athletes around the world. That’s the ultimate dream and provide the elite experience for everyday athletes. And we have a fairly broad spectrum. We have some absolute athletic weapons who come and play in our events and they go harder and it’s awesome to watch. We have some who are just stepping into that realm for the first time and having a red hot crack and loving it. And that’s equally awesome to see. And we have those standing on the sidelines who are thinking, “Oh, I think I’d like to do it but I’m not ready. I’m not good enough. I’m not strong enough. I’m not fit enough.”
Mat Lock:
Whatever it may be. All of those sort of internal messages, I suppose. Yeah we’ve recently had yeah, two or three people write in who are listening to the podcast. Thank you for that. And say, “Look …” Especially during the COVID-19 situation. Struggling to be motivated isn’t perhaps not the right way. What they’ve basically said is, “I find myself defaulting to working on my strengths. So doing what I’m good at the versus using the time to focus on my weaknesses.” And the question is from them why and could you talk to someone who could give advice for how to address that. And here we are today having this conversation taa daa. Enter Stuart Walter. So yeah. I mean, hopefully that’s enough of a lead in for you to … I guess, why do we do it is the first part and then the second part we’ll get to will be all right. What advice, tips, tricks or techniques would you offer to the listeners or the watchers who-
Stuart Walter:
Yeah. Quite simply, Mat, what’s happening people are defaulting. There’s two factors at play here. One is motivation is only possible when you have direction. Okay? Which is great because all the, I guess the elite athletes I’ve been working with in the lead up to 2020 Olympics, all of a sudden they had a direction. Therefore they had motivation. Pools were shut down, sporting events were shut down. The Olympics has shut down and therefore there’s no direction for them. So therefore, no motivation. So that’s one of the fundamentals. If people aren’t feeling motivated, you’ll probably find that they haven’t got a very clear direction or target in their life. So what I would say to a lot of people who are questioning don’t seem to have this is stop. Have a look at who you’re going to be, what you want to achieve in your life. How does it look? See. If you’re only kind of feeling half motivated, I’d probably say your goals are running half size. If you’re motivated some days and not the other days, I would say that same thing. The goals aren’t big enough or there’s something in that goal that’s scary.
Stuart Walter:
So therefore you start holding back or you’re creating fears and uncertainty, self-sabotage, procrastination. So that’s one of the fundamentals of focusing on the end result. Number two factor for why people would default is in times of pressure and stress you go back to learned behaviours. Okay? Learned as in survival. This is one of our major fundamentals of us. We’re here for one reason that’s survival. So we’re always on the lookout for things that potentially hurt us or harm us physically and emotionally. So our brain is always going to go back to survival in times of pressure and stress. To go right, how do we do this? So number one, if you don’t have a goal or it’s been shut off and you can’t do anything, you’re not going to have any motivation. Pressure and stress you go back to learned behaviours. If learned behaviour is kind of negative, that’s what’s going to happen. So we’re always going to find the positive part of our life and sit in there, okay?
Stuart Walter:
Because it gives us comfort. It gives us safe and security in a very uncomfortable unsecure world. So you can see exactly why our brains going back to go, “Well, look, I feel safe and comfortable here. Why would I push myself?” Okay? So maybe that helps and helps all your listeners out there and viewers.
Mat Lock:
Yeah, sure. Oh, yeah. Thank you for that. Again, from my logical brain to break it down that way makes a lot of sense. To understand why it is. Certainly there was one athlete in particular who reached out who self described himself as a heavier athlete. He used to play a sport at a very high level, almost national level, different country. And he basically had to get a job and fend to a career and so on and kind of let himself go, his words, and is struggling with exactly the subject where he says he’s motivated yet based on what you’re describing or what you’ve just said, I wonder whether he’s sufficiently motivated let’s say. Whether the goal is big enough to truly motivate but certainly he has concerns around why he doesn’t train as he should. He knows he should and he thinks he wants to. I’m being a bit candid because I guess he’s going to be listening and people he knows will be listening. So I’m not going to name him but I do want to help him. And he’s not alone at the end of the day. He’s not alone.
Stuart Walter:
Oh, look, I would say this is typical of athletes. One of the greatest fears that I work with with athletes is the fear of success. Okay? So many people think it’s fear of failure, “Oh, I’m scared about failing.” They’re not because you can get probably 80% of the way towards success by getting away from the past. It’s this extra 20% is the fear of success kind of pushing back because what happens with judgement ? What happens? What would people think? What would happen if people are thrust in the spotlight? They’re not ready for it. They’re not strong enough and resilient enough to be able to hold this space. So a lot of people are actually self sabotaging back to that 80%. Okay? The other factor at play is just on this case alone, by listening and kind of reading and interpreting is if someone’s been in sports, the higher they go, the more they’re going to crash at the end of it.
Stuart Walter:
If someone in sport or business in life has been at the top and then bang! It’s crashed, the way the brain works … Again, we go back to the fundamentals, which is protecting ourselves from potential hurt, potential harm. We’ve now got this one experience not the highest of the issue, it’s the low from it. So our brain goes, “Right. Let’s go back up here.” Our brains go, “Why would we want to go back up and hurt ourselves again? Because that’s what happened last time.” So the higher we go, the more we crash. Next time we’re going to go up the brain’s going. “Yeah, let’s self-sabotage. Let’s hold back a little bit.” So if anyone’s been in a relationship and it was awesome and it ended in tears, you don’t go rushing out to go, “Right. Let’s do it again.” Most people go, “Let’s hold back a little bit just in case.”
Stuart Walter:
So if it does fail, it won’t feel as bad. In you in a negative space your brain goes back to look to past experiences. So it’s always going to reflect on the previous one. So let’s look at it. This one might be a 10 out of 10. It’s going to crash to -10. We start going back up to go, “Well, we’ll just sit at nine.” So if it crashes you think -9. It’s not that bad but it’s actually worse because in this one, it’s worse than the memory of this one. When you’re in a negative state, you only look backwards. So you’re looking at the -9 plus the -10 becomes a -19. So then you would go back up again. Your brain goes, “Oh, I don’t want to hurt myself again. So we’re only going to go to 8.” Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! [crosstalk 00:00:11:01]. But you probably want to be this person that might’ve been successful in sport and crash. And they’d go, “Right. Let’s get back into business.” So you probably find there’s a limit to potential with the brain is actually going, “But I don’t want to hurt myself.”
Mat Lock:
No. That makes total sense. And what advice would you give to that person? And again, both people because he’s not alone. What would be the advice for how to handle that?
Stuart Walter:
Awareness is the key. Awareness is absolutely the key. If you can feel yourself going up here and go, “Yeah, I’m being successful. That’s great.” But don’t forget most people are seeking this conscious level which is only 3 to 5% of our human mind. I’m a specialist in this 95 to 97% to go, “Well, this is logical. Your brain doesn’t want you to perform because you might get hurt. What if you are a success? So what if you go twice as big this time and crashed twice as low.” We’re trying to protect you from this potential hurt. Remembering it’s only potential and as I mentioned in the last video, we spoke about the fear of sharks. Okay? You can’t have a fear of sharks sitting here but if there’s up to here in water and there’s one hanging off your leg that’s not a fear. That’s a reality.
Stuart Walter:
So it’s just taking a step, managing it. Taking another step, managing it. Okay? There’s always going to be fear. That’s a signal that your brain is going, “What you’re about to do is dangerous. It could hurt based on past experiences.” So imagine if you could just go back to the past, to the big extension lead that’s connected to that negative power, turn it off, unplug it. Imagine you can unplug the power to all these negatives and go, “Oh, let’s go plug it in out of here in the future and turn it off.” So all of a sudden you’ve got exactly the same person but we’re now going, “Oh, this will be good. This is somehow beneficial.” So it’s a matter of changing the programmes that are down at this deeper level. And that’s where I specialise. A lot of people can’t do it because they’re too caught up in this conscious mind, which is where all the emotions sitting as well.
Stuart Walter:
And a classic example is what I call the yeah-buts. Okay? You will hear it in everyday conversation, “Yeah I’m going to do it but.” The yeah is the unconscious mind, “Yeah I can do it.” The but is past experience and emotions. Yeah-but. Yeah-but. I’m a good person but. I know I need to lose weight but. I know I need to be successful, I know I can go harder but. So you can simply reframe it by take the word but out of it therefore you’d no reference to the past to go, “I’m a good person. And I know I need to lose weight. And I know I can be a lot better in my job, in my life, my relationships and …” So that then, that change of word from but to an and is actually now going to start creating a positive action and momentum. So maybe that can help that person that you know and a lot of people. If you hear yourself going, “Yeah, but” That’s exactly what’s going on. It’s your mind reaching back to past experiences to help and protect you, keep you safe.
Mat Lock:
Yeah, absolutely. And for those who are listening who perhaps haven’t experienced hypnotherapy themselves and therefore have listened to what you’ve just said and go, “Yeah, but [inaudible 00:14:17]. It’s a bit tree huggy, a bit herbal, a bit green. It’s not really for me.” Out of the 38 world champion do you want to pull out two or three specific examples where as a result of working with you and what you do that performance has improved by X? It’s quantifiable, it’s measurable and undeniable on that basis.
Stuart Walter:
Yeah. Probably one of the good ones I mentioned the last one, which is a 400 metre hurdler.
Mat Lock:
That’s okay. Mention it again. Absolutely.
Stuart Walter:
Yeah. Okay. Let’s let’s just look at it. 400 metre hurdles. So imagine the 400 metre hurdle track. Number one, under 17 year old national champion. Now, remember he’s already Australia’s number one for the 400 metres. He was throwing up two days before an event because he was that nervous. He wasn’t sleeping. He was tightening up. Everything was just out the door. So his coach actually connected with me and said, “Hey, look, can you help? Because this is the situation.” So again, he’s caught up in this. “This is who I am.” And in the emotional triggers. “This is what I do, I run. Last time I ran I felt this way. Last time before an event I was throwing up two days before.” So here he is now two days before he’s going, “Oh, what happened last time? [inaudible 00:15:27]. throwing up. Oh, right. That’s the programme. Let me do it again for you. You’re welcome.”
Stuart Walter:
So I started working with this young kid who was running 56.5. Okay? This is all documented, verified and results because it’s on tiny sheets around the country and around the world. 56.5, a month later we had him running 52.6. So [crosstalk 00:15:52].
Mat Lock:
And nothing else changed?
Stuart Walter:
Nothing else changed. Conditions slightly, wind direction slightly but 3.9 seconds as a reduction in time over a 56 second race is huge. As I alluded to before, this is the end result. This is what I want to achieve. Okay? And then removing the nerves and the doubts and the fears. So now we’ve got excess baggage disappeared. This is where I’m focused on. Truly believing and trusting I’ve got this skill. I’ve got it. I’m number one in the country. Now I’m free on life where I’m not carrying this huge emotional weight. Gone. So focused on the target, the end result, managing nerves, doubts and fears. That was a 3.9 second reduction. I mean, the fourth session I did with him was actually at the state title track where he got that 52.6. I actually had him sitting there against the car tyre. I got him into a nice relaxed state, brought his coach in there. The coach was actually the one that says, “Right. Let me drop all the technical information into you.” While I had him in that state, brought him back out bang! Done. How this looked on track map was just incredible.
Stuart Walter:
So you can imagine 400 metres hurdles track roared the big egg. You’ve got the finish line. Okay? He was already crossing the finish line. The rest of the pack were about five metres behind. With his new reduction in time, 3.9 seconds, based on his average running speed, he would actually have a gain of 27.6 metres. So what happened is his crossing the line now. You reckon the 27 litres plus the five would be 32 metres. Okay? It wasn’t. That state title he actually won by 45 metres. That’s half the length of the main straight. You look at that and think, “How is that possible?” It’s because you look at the guy, he’s disappearing down the runway. All his opposition are looking at him and go, “Hang on. Not what is he doing but what are we not doing?” [inaudible 00:17:55] tightened up and they had a net loss of 13 metres by his results. So think about this within sport, within life. If you’re focused on your opposition, you’ll tighten up and you’ll end up going backwards.
Stuart Walter:
If you’re just relaxed and focused on what you do and trust yourself, you’ll be the one hitting records and everyone else is going to be going backwards because they’re too focused on you. Okay? That’s kind of the situation. So you look at that. That’s one clearly measurable outcome. Let’s look at other people. Who else we got? Melissa Hauschildt, three time world, 70.3 Ironman Ironwoman. I worked with her back in her steeplechase days and cross country days in Australia track and field team. I worked with her and she had a lot of … Well, she had a few issues in regards to travelling, coaches within the Australian side. There was this conflict of emotions and the way people treated each other. So basically with her, we’ve got “Look, every time you’re going to be travelling, you’re going to be in this environment. You’re not going to excel in this environment if you want to be the one you want to be. So let’s just remove yourself out of it.” So she did and changed the sport. And she won her first three Ironman.
Mat Lock:
Oh, she dominated.
Stuart Walter:
Dominated. And she’s still regarded as one of the strongest mindsets in I guess, triathlon or even world steeplechase.
Mat Lock:
I didn’t know that backstory for her. I knew she was steeplechase but I didn’t know that backstory because I watched her debut and she was phenomenal. I mean, she was next level.
Stuart Walter:
Oh yeah. You wait until she comes back. This is going to be absolutely mind blowing. Okay? Now she’s had her daughter. You wait for that. [crosstalk 00:19:43] see what she’s doing. I did a podcast with her only a few weeks ago. Yeah. So she’s an incredible lady because what we did with her, there was … She’ll be fine mentioning this but she’s got her potential, which is 100%. And you’ve got the 0%. I’ve actually documented this as well through [Brain Best 00:00:20:09]. Who was the coach for James Magnuson, [inaudible 00:20:08] all the fastest women in history back at that time. Brian Best was his swim coach. He’s a client of mine now. A good friend. And I’ve run this measurement through with him as a physical coach but it’s me being mindset. Now, most people start feeling resistance to potential at 40%. Think about that 40%.
Stuart Walter:
So you can double what you thought was tough and you’re still not near your potential. Okay? Think about that. So with say [inaudible 00:20:37] for example, she wasn’t able to push through that 80% barrier. All three disciplines, cover everything up and go hard. And she goes, everything was sitting around the 80. So what happened is it’s not the 80 that was the issue. Okay? The fact that she couldn’t achieve the 100 because every time she’d do that, she’d get hurt and break physically, emotionally. So the body kept her held back. The mind kept her held back to 80% so she didn’t have to push any further. When you look at the results, even at 80%, she’s got three or four or how many world champions? Okay?
Mat Lock:
Yeah.
Stuart Walter:
The game is not pushing harder. The game was actually slowing down and this is where we got the results because most people will push, push, push, and get to breaking point. Then they’ll step back and go, “Oh, I’ll go back to 40%. At least I’m doing something.” So if you’re now training within this 40 to 80 percentage range guess what happens? There’s your muscle memory. You are now training between 40 and 80%. It’s not optimal. Again we come back to the basics of the human mind. Apply pressure and stress you go back to learnt behaviours. Now, all of a sudden, when you go to a competition, you could be anywhere between 40 and 80%. There’s inconsistency.
Stuart Walter:
So how do we increase? It’s simple. When your brain says slow down, don’t slow down, stop. Totally stop. Put your feet up. Watch a movie, have a beer, refocus on what’s important. Then when you get that motivation to go again … So trusting your mind and trusting your body, then bang! Straight up to 85%. all three disciplines. What happens next? Right, if you start feeling that resistance at 85% stop. Okay? Don’t go thinking, “Oh, everyone else is doing something.” Yeah, they are. They breaking themselves. Let them do it. Okay? Come back, stop, refocus, bang! 90%. Do it again, 95%. Come back. Do it again. Bang! 100%. So what we’ve actually done is now you’ve trained you your body to only perform at 100%. So when you train it to 100%, when you compete it to 100% so now next time you go to an event, you know you’re going to be at 100%. There’s belief. Your opposition know you’re going to be at 100%. There’s pressure for them. Okay? That’s how you win.
Mat Lock:
Yeah. Fascinating. So it’s another example where less is more sometimes.
Stuart Walter:
Yeah, absolutely. And you know what? You’d be the same. If you have one of those days in business where you just can’t break through everything. Everything seems to be on this downward spiral, like I do. I know where my rate is. I’m not producing anything at 50%. So I’ll shut off. Go and spend the day. I’ll put the feet up, go for a drive, have a coffee, watch a movie, have a beer, have a pack of chips, refocus. So then when I pick up again, bang! Straight back to 100%. But if yours is 50% and you keep pulling it down, pulling it down and you got a huge recovery again. I’ll just shut things off and go, right. Change state, walk state, go back out. So when people see me, they only see me at 100%.
Mat Lock:
Yep. That makes sense. [inaudible 00:23:35] Absolutely. That was fascinating. That was very helpful. Thank you. And I kind of put you on the spot with some of that so my apologies but I appreciate.
Stuart Walter:
It’s all right. Not a problem.
Mat Lock:
You know your craft. It wasn’t the first time you’ve heard that described I’m guessing. No, but I appreciate it. So I’m conscious of time. So if anyone want to reach out and get in contact with you, how did they do that?
Stuart Walter:
Yeah. Through any of my websites. We’ve got the elitemindsetinstitute.com or the Athletes Secret Weapon. If you’re looking for more of the sports related, go to Athletessecretweapon.com website. If you’re looking for the more that, the everyday type of thing, business and life issues, Elite Mindset is probably more the pathway for you. You’ll probably get those links I would think in your notes.
Mat Lock:
Yeah. I’ll put them in the show notes for sure. And you mentioned you have a podcast as well, so feel free to give that a shoutout.
Stuart Walter:
Yeah. Athlete’s Secret Weapon Podcast. Yeah, it’s on basically about six different platforms, Spotify-
Mat Lock:
On everywhere.
Stuart Walter:
Not yet. It’s more about interviewing some of the best athletes in the world. I’ve got bull riders, rowers, motor racing, [inaudible 00:24:46] cup guys. I’ve got Brain Best the swim coach. I think there’s only about 10 episodes there now. The next one is coming up in a few weeks. Yeah Melissa is there. We’ve got a five time world karate champion. She’s coming up next.
Mat Lock:
Oh, fantastic. Pretty good.
Stuart Walter:
So that’s the Podcast, Athletes Secret Weapon. But yeah, if anyone’s interested I’m … I’m not sure if I mentioned the Dear Diary Process eBook, if people are interested in that. Which is one of the greatest self-empowerment tools that I’ve created a published book. If anyone’s interested in an ebook version of it. Okay? Put that in the notes as well. That’s a downloadable book. They can actually-
Mat Lock:
Yeah. That’s very kind of you. You made the offer last time and continues to do so where it’s a free downloadable eBook which is absolutely self-explanatory. I’ve read it and used it. I have to say it’s excellent. And I will put the link in the show notes so that everyone can access it and we’re going to work it out in one of the weekly emails as well, so that it’s available to everyone.
Stuart Walter:
Fantastic. Yeah. Awesome. And I think I’ve mentioned specials as well for my online programme [inaudible 00:25:48] eight week athlete’s secret weapon, online programme, hypnosis, workbooks, self development, self empowerment tools and resources spread out over an eight week period. If anyone’s interested in that, I think I mentioned last time, a 40% discount offer.
Mat Lock:
Yeah. That’s fantastic again.
Stuart Walter:
Just there’s a special promo code. We’ll put that in the notes for you. That’s 40% off the $4.95 so it’ll be coming down to about $2.97.
Mat Lock:
That’s awesome. Thank you very much.
Stuart Walter:
Yes. If anyone is interested and even face to face or not face to face these days but Skype. Yeah, just feel free to just connect on email and we’ll work out a way to have a chat and connect.
Mat Lock:
That’s amazing. Thank you very much. I appreciate your time again and your expertise. I’m sure it’s not the last time we’re going to have you on the podcast. And I know that this is mindset and performance big topics for everyone certainly in our sport as are all sports. So thank you again. And yeah, you continue to take care and stay safe during COVID-19.
Stuart Walter:
Will do. Stay safe. Stay distant.
Mat Lock:
Absolutely. Sure thing.
Stuart Walter:
Thank you very much. Take care. Bye
