SHAWN STEVENSON: Welcome to the Model Health Show and thank you so much for joining me for this very special 10-year anniversary of the Model Health Show.

It's been one decade of the Model Health Show, and I wanted to put together something very powerful and to really dig in on some of the biggest things that I've learned about success and about growth over the past decade and having the opportunity to interview hundreds of some of the most remarkable experts in the respective fields, and also for my own experience. I thought I would really compile this together for you and give you something that's going to empower you for many, many years to come. Now, when sharing with you what I've discovered over the past 10 years about success, I thought it would be important to tell you why I started the show in the first place. I grew up most of my childhood in poverty, but I also had a childhood that was very rich in experiences and growing up on food stamps and WIC and getting food from charities, and being on the school lunch program, I had that little red ticket to give my school lunch every day.

I got to experience first-hand what poor health really looks like and what a largely ultra-processed food diet looks like, because for me, the outcomes were right in my environment. Most of my family members had at least one chronic illness, and the vast majority of my family members, the adults in my family were obese and experiencing, again, even my grandfather, heart disease, my mother diabetes, my aunts and uncles, depression, obesity, and this was just normalized around me, and for me and my little brother and sister growing up with chronic asthma and allergies, and me getting diagnosed with a so-called incurable spinal condition, arthritic condition of my spine and bones when I was fresh out of my teen years, and actually being at track practice, being an aspiring athlete and breaking my hip from running when I was just 15 years old. And seeing all of this abnormality taking place and not really knowing that there was a difference, because that's all that I knew, that's what was in my environment.

And so, I didn't really know what health look like. I didn't know what success look like, because I grew up in poverty, but again, being rich in experiences, there were still so much beauty and so many lessons to learn in my environment. And so, growing up in conditions where it was right with violence and drug use, and we still found a way to, for example, engage in play, to be outside, to spend hours upon hours at the basketball court or even literally having to crate up on the phone pole and playing basketball, and just finding ways to connect and to enjoy life as a child.

Now, that does not mean that everything was all roses and sunshine and rainbows, but we still had accessibility to something that a lot of kids are being deficient in today, which is just being outside and playing with your friends, playing with your family members. And so, I had a lot of that, and it really helped to fertilize a ground that today has really expressed itself in my family. We have a culture of play within my family, we're always doing something together that's playful and fun, and I'm grateful for that because those seeds were getting fertilized in a childhood that might seem as though it was lacking in a lot.

And so, it was things like that, getting small glimpses into what was possible into experiences that can help to provide some breadcrumbs essentially, to create a life of health, of well-being, of healthy relationships, of success. And when I was in middle school, really at the end of my elementary school experience, because the beginning of my elementary experience, I was in the "city school" on the free lunch program, the whole thing. And then my mom got me into the desegregation program. The desegregation program. Listen to the name. That's how recent this was. Alright, I'm still pretty young.

And so, we were getting bust out to the "good schools". Alright, I'm spending it about two hours a day on the bus, on the school bus, going to and from school now, and being able to see this new environment to see these houses, to see this pristine, this cleanliness, and to see people doing these jobs, for example, that I've never seen before, my mother was working a lot of times overnight at a convenience store, and my stepfather was a cook. And so that's really what I was exposed to, and my grandmother and grandfather, who I lived with when I was very young, worked in a factory. And so having a friend and going and staying at his house and seeing that his father is some kind of a judge or something and his mother is practicing law, I thought that this was like a movie or a TV show that this guy is living in. And so... But I got to touch it, I got to experience it and be in the presence of it. And this is one of the most important things, of course, being in the environment.

Absolutely, but that's what's so special about today, is that we can virtually get ourselves in these environments, and we don't have to attach ourselves to the excuse that we can't see something different, it's just Where are we placing our attention? And so little did I know I was planted in this environment and I was able to again, start to fertilize these goals and these dreams and these aspirations, and seeing examples of healthy relationships again, because that's something that I struggle to see when I was growing up, and so being from where I'm from and being able to transform my own reality, my own health, my own well-being, my own relationships, my own career, and creating a career that I truly love that's devoted to service, and getting up each day and asking, how can I serve today, and finding a way to grow and to expand and to empower, that's really why I started the show in the beginning, was to create a model of what's possible because that's something that I was lacking on the surface, but all I had to do is just dig a little bit deeper and pay attention, that even in the struggles, even in the drama, even in the craziness, there was always lessons, there was always a value even in learning what I don't want, getting discernment and exercising that muscle as well.

And so that's what I wanted to create with the Model Health Show, when I started, it was to create a show, to show that there was something more, and I have the science to back it up.

And so today I'm going to go through 10 of the biggest lessons over the past 10 years that has helped to create a show that has very frequently been the number one health podcast in the United States. I'm saying that with such authority because again, understanding where I come from and to achieve something like that... It's extraordinary. It's not supposed to happen, but it happened. And that's what's possible. When I started this show, I didn't have "connections" I wasn't living in a health hub of the United States or the world, I lived in St. Louis Missouri, I'm from the Midwest, the heartland that has the most trouble with our hearts. Alright, I'm talking about with heart disease, lots of good people, big hearts, big, big hearts, but also a lot of chronic disease. And coming from that space and to create something that has impacted the lives of so many people, it's just truly remarkable. But again, I know that this is possible, but it's not an accident, there are certain ingredients into creating something like this so special, and I want to thank you so, so, so very much for being a part of this with me.

It truly does mean everything, and you're going to see through this episode just how much this means to me, and the impact that this experience has had and that you've had on me, just knowing that you are there. So, let's dive in, let's get into number one here on the list of 10 biggest lessons from last 10 years, 10 biggest keys to growth and success.

Number one is that you must have goals and accountability. Doing the show for the past 10 years has created a remarkable layer of accountability in my life, knowing that each and every week, essentially, every week, the past 10 years of course, we've taken a week off here and there, and I record a couple of shows in a week, but essentially knowing every single week that there are people all over the world who are expecting greatness, they're expecting me to show up, they're expecting empowerment, they're expecting education.

It forced me to grow every week, no matter what I had to get better every single week. And so having that layer of accountability, having that goal in front of me kept pushing me forward, kept growing me. Whether I like it or not, whether I understand it or not, I didn't even understand that that was happening until preparing for this show, it all came to the survey is like, "Wait a minute, every single week, I've been forced to grow myself, I've put something in place psychologically for myself." That creates a constant environment or constant thrust towards growth towards evolution, and we all have the capacity to do that. And so we've got to find in our lives, number one, having a goal, the most effective way of not achieving your goals is not having any, first and foremost. And in addition to that, being accountable to ourselves. We might trust ourselves, some of us don't trust ourselves.

We might trust ourselves but having others in our lives. And we're going to talk more about this in a little bit. That are holding us accountable, that are expecting us to show up, that are expecting us to contribute, to be our best. To do what we say we're going to do. We are all connected, humans are social creatures, and when we deny that, of course, we got introverts, we got extra, we got a whole spectrum, but when it really boils down to it. We evolved with each other; we need each other. And we have to acknowledge that and respect that. Our brains are wired up to want to contribute, to want to be of service and to help the people that we care about. And so, we've got to find a way to tap into that.

So, I implore you, number one, to put non-negotiable goals in front of you because they force you to grow. Without having goals in our lives, we can feel sort of like a tumbleweed, just kind of getting blown around aimlessly by the environment, right? Is that.

That is tumble weeding. Alright, and you might have felt like that before, I remember hearing a line in that Katy Perry song, she was like, "Have you ever felt like a plastic bag," and I'm just like, "That's a really strange line to put it to a pop song, plastic bag," then afterwards I noticed a plastic bag flying around in traffic and it was just getting whipped around here or there, it seems like it's going somewhere and then wow, just gets knocked off its course.

So, Katy knew what she was talking about. Shout out to Katy Perry, but truly, have you ever felt like a plastic bag? Have you ever felt like a tumbleweed, just kind of getting blown around in life aimlessly or just really feeling like you're not in control of things, a big contributing factor to that is not having direction, because the human mind itself is really functioning, parts of the brain is like a cerebral mechanism, it's like a heat-seeking missile guidance system. It's like a GPS. We know about this, the reticular cortex, the reticular activating system has been talked about a lot in science and also in personal development, that we have to give our brain instructions on what to focus on because our minds are so expensive, there's so much that we could put our attention on.

And we also have a certain guiding focus in how our mind is functioning because if we were paying attention to all this stuff, we would become stagnant, we would become paralyzed essentially. And so, using this to our own benefit purposefully putting a goal in front of us, whatever that might be. A friend of mine, Mark Bell, has been on the show a world record holding powerlifter.

Mark was thicker than a snicker. Thicker than a snicker and he's a big guy, lifting big weights. He's still pretty robust. He's a pretty thick guy, but he just ran the Boston Marathon a couple of days ago. My guy was like, you know what? I've achieved this thing over here. What am I going to put in front of myself? I'm going to do something exceptional that people don't think I could do, this big action figure of a man, was like, you know what? I'm getting my muscular self out of here, I'm going to run this Boston Marathon, I'm going to find a way that fits for me and make it happen.

And so, I'm not telling you to run a marathon. Alright? I'm allergic personally. Alright, but if that is going to compel you to do what is necessary to achieve that goal, that's what it's all about is the process, it's what's going to grow us, maybe it's having a goal of writing something each day, pages in your book, writing a book, maybe it's a goal of having a certain amount of songs that you create, or educating a certain amount of people, creating a new education program, designing clothes, whatever it is, you've got to put a goal on it. Don't just go by the seat of your pants past, and that's just a good transition with designing clothes, alright?

Don't fly by the seat of your pants with this. Be intentional, tap into your mind's capacity to actually help you to get there, because with that GPS, when you put in the in destination, all of a sudden, the optional ways of getting there appear. And that's the thing too, keyword, optional. Because there isn't just one way to get you to that goal. Life will qualify you to achieve that goal through different modalities, and we're going to talk more about that in a moment, but I wanted to share this incredible quote from Bill Copeland, he said "The trouble with not having a goal is that you could spend your life running up and down the field and never actually score." Tumbleweed, up and down the field, you're running all over the place to run it in circles, but you never actually score.

So again, I implore you, I highly encourage you to create goals intentionally, purposefully put something in front of you to aim at. And also incorporate a way to have accountability. The goal itself is not necessarily all about achieving the goal, that's not really what it's all about, it's giving your mind and body something to aim at and the person you become in the process. Alright, so that's number one on these 10 biggest keys to growth and success that I've learned over the past 10 years of doing the Model Health Show, number one is you must have goals and accountability.

Number two is consistency is a superpower. When I started the show, podcasts were not a part of our popular lexicon yet. I was still kind of... It was a new uncharted land, and on the mission to boldly go where no one has gone before, many people were trying to jump on the bandwagon, they're trying to create their own Starship Enterprise. I'm going to start a podcast, let's start a podcast.

Starting a podcast became the 2000s equivalent of starting a garage band in the '80s and '70s is just like let's start a podcast. Just throw up some microphones and that's cool. We want that. We want people to experiment, to have fun, to try things out, but part of the reason why that garage band doesn't end up actually on the stage or sharing their music and having a career that they're passionate about is, yes, talent can be a factor, absolutely, but also the fact many people who are seemingly un-talented, many artists, musicians who are absolute superstars today will tell you that they sucked, they sucked in the beginning. They would tell you that they were pretty terrible, but they kept at it. When their peers were doing other sh*t, they kept at it, they kept working, they kept refining their craft, they just didn't quit, they kept moving forward. Progressively getting better and better and better.

We might hear the stories about savant's, about people who are "prodigies" in a particular thing. Yes, we might have a proclivity, there are those instances, but the majority of the time that people who achieve exceptional success are those who keep working at it, who keep perfecting their craft, who keep finding ways to grow and to diversify and they get better.

Consistency is a superpower outside of loving my family, the most consistent thing that I've done in the past 10 years is this show. I just didn't quit. Many peers, people along the way, they started, and they've abandoned ship, alright? I just kept moving forward and I'll explain why more a little bit later, but of course, it tied into that sense of responsibility on my part and also was deeper than just doing a show, this was about helping to transform and empower and uplift our culture. It was a mission to help to improve the health of our society that is rapidly deteriorating, and so I really felt... And I'm connected to a deep sense of responsibility. And so, you can have that, but if you're not showing up, then what is it matter?

The Hall of Fame coach, Bear Bryant said, "Never quit. It is the easiest cop out in the world, set a goal and don't quit until you attain it, when you do attain it, set another goal, and don't quit until you reach it, never quit." This might sound simple, but I'm telling you, it is the most accessible, it is the most practical and tangible thing for you to achieve great success in your life in any area, just be consistent.

Consistency is a superpower. Be captain consistency, tantatata, be that alright, be captain consistency, just keep showing up, keep working towards a thing, they're going to be times when you don't feel like it, they're going to be times when it seems incredibly challenging, just keep at it. There're going to be times when you might take a little time off here or there, but keep at it, return to your practice, keep moving forward, keep finding a way to grow, consistency is a superpower, please hear me. Alright, so that is number two on our list of the 10 biggest keys to growth and success that I've discovered over the past 10 years.

Number three on our list of 10 biggest keys to growth and success is to stay true to who you are. Muting your personality, suppressing your authenticity, putting a mask on to try to fit into the status quo, these are sure fire ways to be unfulfilled and to feel disconnected. You might actually achieve superficial success, but this would be through outer appearances, because you'll very likely feel this gnawing sense that something is missing. I've seen this over and over and over again. I know some of the most successful people walking around in a variety of fields, and those that go for the fame going for the money, and that being their modus operandi, their driving force, often find themselves at the end of the day feeling empty and then turning their life around or turning their life over to something bigger, ultimately, to help to heal that black hole that they're experiencing. And it started off with suppressing that and muting who they truly are, it started off with not honoring what's really within their soul, what's really within their heart.

Now, this one, possibly more than any other, is not easy because just psychologically, if we look at evolution, we're worried about fitting in, we want to be a part of the tribe, we don't want to get kicked out, isolation, abandonment, being exiled from the group, is going to mean death, alright? Now again, this is a hard wiring in us, but what's beautiful about us is that we can supersede those very primitive thoughts. And today, more than ever, there are ways to connect with society and having society to honor our uniqueness, to honor our excellence, because oftentimes, even though those that rise to prominence in their respective tribe are those who are operating from a unique place, who are pushing growth and change and evolution within the tribe, but somebody has to have the audacity to do it.

And so, when I started in this field, I've been in the field of health and fitness for 20 years, and when I started in this field, and in particular, before the Model Health Show, again, a decade, 10 years, it's a celebration. Alright, shout out to Dave Chapelle and Rick James, but really thinking about this. I did a TED Talk in Las Vegas, and this was about 12 years ago, and after coming off stage, this couple came up to me, and I've been introduced to them beforehand, but you know how you meet people just in passing, I was like, "Oh, hey, what's up, whatever, whatever."

And the person who introduced us actually was, Jim Kwik, my guy, alright, Jim has been the most frequent guest here on the Model Health Show for a reason, magical stuff happens around... My guy, Jim Kwik, accelerated learning expert, but what are the odds? Alright, his name being Jim Kwik, this is his real name, alright, K-W-I-K, and he's an accelerated learning expert, but he went through his own psychological struggles and being the, "Slower kid," and not really being able to learn efficiently in school and really struggling. And so that's why he's so passionate about teaching today, but Jim introduced us before I went on stage, afterwards, they came up to me, they were like, "That's amazing." We just launched this new podcast, and we're looking for somebody to be the face of it, and to be the resident nutrition expert. And they told me about some of the reach that they had with their website, and I just launched my website and I had... To hear the numbers that they had, it was just like, "What? That's a... How is that even possible? That's incredible." Yes, my goal is to reach and impact people, let's do it.

So, I became a face of this brand and helped to build that podcast, again, this was even earlier than the Model Health Show, to a place of prominence and having hundreds of thousands of downloads at that time was just in the top half of a percent.

And I slowly realized over time that I was still fitting into the status quo, being somebody who's coming from this academic background, going to a conventional university, but I'm doing something that's very unconventional at the same time, ironically, and wanting to appeal to that air of academia to really show, "Yeah, this hmm-mm... " Having that great po-upon vibe and it didn't feel good. And so, over time, I just slowly, slowly started to open up and be more myself, which is crazy because I'm one of those people, I really see myself as somebody who is being myself, and of course, there's times and places where you spice things up, different aspects of your character, but for me to do that, it was because of the concern of like, "I want to help people, so I want to make sure that they know that I know what I'm talking about," and to do that, I have to be very prestigious.

And it became like a kryptonite over time. And eventually, me and my friends with that show, we amicably parted ways, and when I started the Model Health Show from episode number one, I was fully, authentically myself. And you can catch that vibe, and I'm honored to say... And thank you so much for those who are listening right now, who've been there since episode one, and also people who've worked their way up to this episode today who started episode one, because we have thousands of people every week go back and start from episode one and take this journey with me. And so, I can stand here proud and feel good about people going and push and play on episode one, it was dedicated to our epidemic of heart disease, by the way.

But sometimes, of course, we're going to feel like there's stuff out there that we've created that we don't want anybody to see, alright. I wrote a book before Sleep Smarter, international best seller, before Eat Smarter, USA Today national best seller. Before those books, there is another book that shall remain nameless, people seem to find this book though, and occasionally people tag me, whatever, and I will prefer for that book to not be the one that people find and attribute to my work. And not to say that the book wasn't good, but it was still a process. But if I didn't write that book, I wouldn't have been able to create a book that helped to shift the culture.

When Sleep Smarter came out, it shifted the culture. I got a major deal with one of the big five publishers and have a book that is now translated in 21 or 22 different country/languages, and all these are all separate foreign book deals because they saw the movement of this book, and prior to that, and part of the reason was, a sleep wellness-related book hadn't been successful historically, so it was very cautionary around the publishing industry. And so, it was the first sleep wellness-related book to become an international bestseller and several wonderful books have come out since.

And what I was doing was simply addressing a huge gap in the market of health and wellness, being a nutritionist, I believed... My belief, I was operating in a silo for a period, because food had helped to heal me. And many of the people that I work with, but not everybody. So, for me, food was everything, but when I finally, after years of clinical practice working with people day in and day out, I finally asked about their sleep, and I was just shocked at what people were telling me, and I started digging into the research, like, "How much does sleep deprivation impact their blood sugar? How much does it impact their blood pressure and hypertension, their cognitive function?" Right? And I'm just blown away that this information exists, but I also knew at the time, and I had something special because I had written a book previously and I'd been teaching and teaching classes and speaking. I understood something about our world and communication that not a lot of people realize, which is, people want to change, I've never met a single person who didn't want to be healthy, people want change, but we don't often want to change that much, alright?

We're comfortable with who we are, we might not like who we are, but we are comfortable in who we are, it's because it's what we know, we've become accustomed to ourselves being a certain way. And so, changing a lot of things in our life at one time to achieve a goal can be too turbulent and we will want to land the plane, we won't allow it to take off. And so, what I did was, and also having this incredible patchwork quilt of events and experiences that led up to that moment, I knew that this subject that was otherwise a boring subject, talking about sleep, what? Now, you might hear this today and be like, "I love sleep, I love talking about sleep." This was not like this back then, alright?

And I needed to find a way to make sleep sexy, I needed to find a way to make sleep attractive and interesting. And for folks who want change, but didn't want to change that much, I also needed to create science-backed, simple action steps that people could employ to get results, to get results without changing their life and switching their entire world upside down.

And I put together 21 of those, 21 clinically proven strategies to improve your sleep quality. So, this recipe and also that other ingredient of being somebody who has an experience in writing, being somebody who had experience, now years of experience in communication. And so, you start to put these ingredients together and it's just like, wow, something special grew from that, right? So, over time, we got little sprouts here or there, but boom, Jack and the Beanstalk jumped off in that moment. And if I wasn't staying true to who I was and putting an element of fun making science sexy, dare I say sexy, and putting these ingredients and making it cool, making science cool, making being smart, cool. These things, these elements, no way would this have happened, no way would the Model Health Show have been several times the number one health podcast in the United States.

So, it's staying true to who you are. Now again, you might be like, "But Shawn you don't understand. I am weird, I am so into Anime, it is scary." Like, "I'm telling you right now, you are not alone." If you're into Anime, you know that, but you're like, "Shawn, I actually... I wear the clothes, I dress as an Anime... " Okay, again, there are ways... There are people who are dressing in Anime, their favorite character's outfits and creating content on social media who have huge followings, and their podcast obviously about all of this stuff, and people are finding a way to monetize their passion or find a way doing what they love, creating a career, crafting a career around something that they're passionate about. Never before has that been so attainable, but you're going to have to have the courage to be you, be more and more yourself, because also a thing about humans, we can sense when somebody is being inauthentic. We know it, we know it, we might tolerate it, but the more that you're being authentically you and really showing up as you in your best self, the more that real people are going to connect with the real you.

Over time, I found ways to embrace these strange things about myself that there were times when I felt wildly uncomfortable about them, as a matter of fact, not wanting people to know about them. Growing up in that environment in the inner city, that's one thing. My most vivid experience in my adolescence and really coming into my own, really coming online mentally and psychologically. We lived in a two-family flat that was super run-down, and we lived... There's a little walkway and we live next door to where crack was being cooked and distributed from. And this was just something that was normalized, you're going to hear gun shots, you're going to hear the sirens, but again, you might hear something like that if you're not affiliated with any experiences like that, and it sounds like something that is terrorizing, you don't know if you're living in it, it's just what you live in, it's just the environment.

And also, because things were simultaneously, there was so much beauty in the environment, there was so much discovery, I had a lot of freedom, actually, which is strange because I probably wouldn't have given my child this freedom, but hey, this is the kind of thing that I was living in.

So, I was out and exploring and yes, I ran into some situations where I could have... It could have all ended. But fortunately, I was able to navigate through those things, so I have that experience and that is in my... That's in my DNA, that's in my experience, my lexicon as a part of the ingredients that makes me up. I could be embarrassed about that, alright. And at the same time, especially when I really got connected to this environment, 'cause I predominantly lived in this environment, there's a time when I lived with my grandmother and my grandfather, and being a kid in the early '80s, biracial, living with my early mid-80s was when I lived with my grandparents, and this is the white side of my family.

So I'm living in the inner city of the black side, and I've got my white side of my family and my grandmother is listening to country music, Dolly Parton, Conway Twitty, Randy Travis, the Judds, this is just in the environment, I got Public Enemy over in the other hand, and Anita Baker, and 2 Live Crew, and I shouldn't have been listening to 2 Live Crew, but I've got this and then I've got this, and I started to become embarrassed by this Crystal Gayle, Reba McEntire part of me. Because all my friends, that wasn't a reality to them, they didn't know what that was.

And so, in the experience of living in the country, once my grandparents, my grandfather's health really took a turn for the worst, moving back to Piedmont, Missouri and spending summers, dirt road, fishing and hunting, swimming in the river. And we're talking about when, there's no streetlights, when it gets dark outside, it's dark, it's dark, dark, it's a different kind of dark. And again, that might be something that strangely, I would never talk about. I didn't talk about that when I became a teen and went to high school in my early adulthood because it didn't fit the paradigm of my environment. But all of these things helped to blend together to make me uniquely who I am and to embrace all of it.

And fortunately, once I began working at the gym at my university, part of that cultural diversity helped me to connect with people, right? And I got more flavors, more diversity added to my experience because working at a university, I'm working with people from all over the world, I mean, all over the world.

And now, I have this kind of proclivity towards learning language of culture, because I've already had such a diverse palette of culture, and then I pick all of that stuff up. And so, it's no wonder that the Model Health Show audience is so diverse and so beautiful and so special. And again, I want to thank you so much for being a part of this, in this movement, in this mission, and really focusing on being the best that you could possibly be. And again, if you're looking at the podcast medium, there might not necessarily be somebody who looks like me or who sounds like me, or who thinks like I do, who talks like I do, and that could have put me in a place of fear, and I might not have taken action to do the thing.

And so, even still to this day, 10 years later, pretty unique as far as my experience, my background, my appearance, and instead of being in fear about those things, being passionate and upfront and courageous about those things, because that authenticity is what's truly going to connect our hearts.

And again, this is one of the big keys to success and growth that I've learned over the past 10 years, it's been an evolution, and I hope that you really remember this one, it's one that could be the most challenging, but stay true to who you are, stay true to who you are. Let's move on to number four, on our list of the 10 biggest keys to growth and success.

Number four is excellence will always be valuable. Right now, we're living at a time, we're living in a world that is so saturated with information, with options, but true excellence is still uncommon, living in the information age, what people are starving for is wisdom, what people are starving for is profound knowledge, profound information.

And there have been wonderful books written on the subject of practice and growth and training, Malcolm Gladwell, in one of his seminal works, he talked about this concept that another researcher had really identified, but this 10000-hour rule, I've invested well over 10,000 hours in preparation for these episodes, and the show process, and the recordings and the interview process and the post-process, more than 10,000 hours. What do you think's going to happen?

There seems to be this profound shift that takes place when we accumulate so many hours, so much dedication, so much of our time into a thing, we become world class at a thing, we become elite in a thing when we invest that amount of time regardless of where you begin, you will radically improve by putting that amount of time in. Even prior to reaching that 10000-hour mark, you're going to grow yourself in such a profound way because you're developing a level of excellence that is rare.

A lot of times, we just dabble in things, and it's cool to dabble in things because we want to find out what we're really attracted to, but when you double, triple, quadruple down on a thing and really invest your time into something, you're going to develop a state of natural exuberance, natural excellence, just by you showing up and doing the thing, excellence is going to exude from you and through this process and choosing consistency, choosing creating this goal and having that accountability, knowing that I'm being expected to show up, that episode better be there with empowerment, with insight, with growth, with empowering information with science, I'm going to have to grow.

I'd never thought about it, but because that was in front of me, it just kept qualifying me, and I did the calculation about a year ago, I had already surpassed 10,000 hours in research and preparation for this show and the recording of the shows and the interview process and the post-production, all these different things, and I was just blown away because not only did that 10,000 hours become something that was resonant to me, but I had this little happy experience, this little happy coincidence of Malcolm Gladwell's team reaching out because he was launching a new show, and asking if we could talk about his new show and they would talk about my show. And so, to have Malcolm Gladwell, shouting out the Model Health Show was crazy as bananas in pajamas. Actually, I got to play it for you.

MALCOLM GLADWELL: It can sometimes feel like a Lord of the Rings sized quest to find our way to the health and fitness we desire, but what if we had a road map that actually made the process fun, entertaining and empowering. The Model Health Show is packed with the latest science on every health topic you can imagine, interviews with the best experts in their respective fields and delivered in a way that's actionable and easy to understand. Join research scientist and best-selling author, Shawn Stevenson to explore the realms of sleep science, hormone health, longevity, and so much more. The show is a treasure trove of actionable health and fitness knowledge. Find the Model Health Show, wherever you get your podcasts.

Now again, keep in mind that excellence will always be valuable. Yes, things are going to come in and out of fashion. Some things can be hot... Be so hot right now. Alright, it could be Zoolander, they could be Hansel, but excellence is eternal. Excellence is sustainable. Alright, it's not something that's hot, it's a flash in the pan thing. Hot can transition potentially into excellence, and we can have flashes of excellence in being hot, but truly developing whatever it is that you're passionate about and finding a place to express excellence, that's really going to help you to always stand out in a crowded environment, in a crowded field. Now podcast, there's millions of podcasts, couple million podcasts, and so continuing to have one of the top shows of all podcasts in the world is... That's bananas in pajamas as well, and again, shout out to Malcolm Gladwell for that beautiful articulation and energy. And I see you Malcolm, 10,000 hours.

Yeah, and also, keep in mind, going above and beyond is a rarity and it puts you into an elite space. There's a wonderful quote from Wayne Dyer that says, "It's never crowded along the extra mile." It's never crowded along the extra mile, you're going to find yourself in a territory where there is no crowd, where there's plenty of room for success and growth and development, and Wayne Dyer, huge inspiration for me in this process as well, of becoming more myself.

Now, over the years, I've also had the opportunity to interview many people expressing excellence, to work with many companies who are expressing excellence, and I actually met some guys from Finland who had been studying an aspect of science and health and nutrition, not just them in their own lifespan, but it had been in their families for generations, they had this lineage and documentation of so many of the things that modern science today is now affirming, and in particular, regarding medicinal mushrooms like Reishi, that's now clinically proven to improve our sleep quality.

The journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior affirmed again, that Reishi's able to improve sleep latency, meaning that you fall asleep faster. It's found to improve sleep efficiency, extending, and expanding our REM sleep and deep sleep time. It's a difference of being unconscious and actually getting high quality rejuvenating sleep and Reishi's one of those things that is now getting clinically proven to do this, but it's been known for centuries.

Reishi, chaga probably the most antioxidant-rich food, herb humans have ever consumed, and its anti-cancer properties, tons of peer-review data on that. We've got Lion's Mane, for example, which researchers at the University of Malaya found that it's one of the few things that's found to be extremely neuroprotective and potentially neuro-regenerative, and they're studying it for its impact on helping people with traumatic brain injuries like... It's crazy. And also, they have a long lineage, my friends in Finland with coffee in a particular high quality organic regenerative farming, all the good things that we need to be looking for if we are going to partake in coffee, you really need to get the good stuff. And I'm talking about my friends at Four Sigmatic, and I shared with him that, listen, this is our 10-year anniversary, and I want to do something special for everyone, I want to give a gift to the Model Health Show listeners.

And so, they was like, Shawn, I got you. And so normally their instant Lion's Mane Chaga, Organic Coffee, this is now in stores all over the country, it's even... Yes, high-end health food stores Erewhon and Whole Foods, but also now they're getting it places like Target and it's just crazy, but their instant lion's mane, Chaga, organic coffee is typically $15. And for the Model Health Show listeners, it's typically $12, they give us a discount but in honor of the 10-year anniversary of the Model Health Show it's going from 15 to 12 to free. That's right, you're going to get a free instant coffee from Four Sigmatic.

When you go to foursigmatic.com/decade, and you're going to get a free instant coffee. You just pay for shipping, alright. It's just shipping, you cover the shipping, they're going to send you their lion's mane coffee for free, alright? Incredible. Incredible gift from them, and I'm so grateful for them to do that, and if you've been wanting to try their instant coffee or if you're already Four Sigmatic customer, this is a great opportunity to add something to your list for free, and of course, you could add more stuff to your cart there, and they've got wonderful subscriptions that you have access to, but if you don't want to have a subscription, you could just simply after getting your free coffee, just go to the email and you can cancel the subscription at any time as well.

So again, such an incredible gift, take advantage alright, free. This is free, you just pay for shipping. Free instant Lion's Mane coffee for you to celebrate 10 years of the model health show, go to foursigmatic.com/decade, that's F-O-U-R-S-I-G-M-A-T-I-C.com/decade.

Alright, now, moving on to number five on the list of 10 biggest keys to growth and success, number five is to know that grit and resilience is required. Here's the definition of grit according to the American Psychological Association. Grit, a personality trade characterized by perseverance and passion for achieving long-term goals. Grit entails working strenuously to overcome challenges and maintain effort and interest over time despite failures, adversities, and plateaus in progress.

Recent study suggests this trait may be more relevant than intelligence in determining a person's high achievement, for example, grit may be particularly important to accomplishing an especially complex task when there is a strong temptation to give up all together.

They lie to you; they're lying to you. Easy this, easy that... No, no, no. Excellence comes at a premium. Success comes at a premium. You're going to have to grow and you're going to have to express grit, you're going to have to be resilient, it's required, and you can't want the success without the growth, you can't want the success without enduring the obstacles because in truth, we have to be at peace with the fact that obstacles are going to be inevitable in our path to getting from where we are to where we want to be, whether that's in our relationship, whether that's with our health, whether that's with our finances, our success in life, whatever the case might be, there are inherently going to be obstacles that we have to find a way to endure, to surpass, find a way under, around, though, whatever it takes.

But most people, again, when we are faced with these obstacles along our path, we tend to throw in the towel, and for you to truly be successful, we have to be at peace again, that the obstacles are coming, we have to stop living this fantasy that everything is going to be smooth sailing. That's not how greatness is created, we don't tell... We don't watch a movie, and it's just a good day. Ice Cube had a song as a good day. But at the end of the video, if you remember. The popo got him. They got him, he went to jail. Alright, that's where the next video picks up, it might be a good day, but that's...

Even in the articulation of the good day, there are a lot of, "Hey, this thing usually happens that I have to endure," and so why do we want our entertainment to be riveting and to have complications and obstacles for the hero to find a way to battle through, you are the hero, you're the hero, and you're going to be faced with enemies, you're going to be faced with obstacles, challenges to qualify you, because what usually happens in that hero's story, that Hero's Journey, is that the obstacles help to bring qualities out of the hero, the obstacles help the hero to grow and to find a way to save the day, and if we're talking about saving the day, we're talking about saving your experience of joy and fulfillment and success in this life.

So yes, we have to be at peace with the fact that obstacles are inevitable, but you get to decide what those obstacles actually mean, this is the power that you have as a human being living this life right now, you have the ability to decide the meaning of these things. So, when the obstacle presents itself, we could say, "Oh, this is too much, this is the thing that's going to take me... To take me out, to take me out of the game. I cannot survive this, I cannot endure this, I can't deal with it," or we can reframe the inevitable challenges that life will keep on passing out to you, especially if you've chosen greatness, life is going to qualify you for said greatness, you have to become the type of person that can actually handle and manage a life of greatness.

None of that's saying that... I don't want to scare the greatness away, because with the life of greatness, there is a lot of joy, there's a lot of happiness. There's a lot of passion, and there's also challenges, and so we get to decide what those challenges mean by asking ourselves empowering questions, so for example, when you're faced with that challenge, ask What is this challenge trying to teach me?

Be still and ask, "What is this challenge trying to teach me?" Ask, "What quality or qualities is this obstacle trying to bring forward in me?" You have so much dormant capacity, you have capacity that you don't even realize you have because you've never been in a situation where you had to express that or unlock that capacity to endure, to be resilient, what quality or qualities is this obstacle trying to bring forward in me, is it a quality of being more patient, is my patience called into question here, and it's the thing that has hung me up so far in my life and now in order to get to the next level, I have to practice more patience.

Is it drawing forth and asking to bring out of me the quality of strength? Have I previously given in when a weight was put on to my shoulders and now I need to develop more strength and to express more strength to stand up for myself, to stand up for my people in this situation, whatever the case might be, is that the quality more strength, you might already be strong, but maybe that's the quality that's needing to emerge as a new level of strength. Whatever that might be for you, ask these questions, go within, I don't have the answer for you. It's your answer, but you're not going to get to the answer unless you ask the question.

You can also ask, "Who must I become to move beyond this challenge?" Who must I become? Because that's what it's really all about. The challenges are there to qualify us for the goals, for the success that we say that we want. Alright, we're going to move on to number six on this list of the 10 biggest key to growth and success that I've learned over the past 10 years with the model who show.

Number six is relationships are the fastest way to elevate. When I started this show, I had no idea what my greatest reward would be. I had no idea, I just wanted to help, I just wanted to... I just wanted to teach, I just wanted to uplift, I did not know that I would be so gifted with relationships. I just had no idea, because for me, in my mind, coming from where I come from is very much a life of solitude as far as your struggles, as far as the work that you put in, and you don't talk about it as well. You just struggle, you just do what you got to do, you get it done. And that's that. There's this concept of being self-made, but in reality, of course, there's a language here, we get caught up in the language where somebody previously might have come from a life of poverty and achieve a level of success and being an entrepreneur and all the things, but no one is truly self-made, that's nearly impossible, because there's going to be actions that conspire for that success to take place, they're going to happen with and through other people.

And so, this idea of being self-made is sometimes very selfish. And so being able to understand for me, again, I didn't like the idea of somebody achieving something because somebody gave them an opportunity, gave them something, whereas the next person is working for and they're fighting for it.

It seemed a little unfair. But here's the part that can be missing from that, it's still what the person does with the opportunity at the end of the day, and being that we are, in fact, social creatures, we are designed to lift each other up, to help to propel and to create bridges from where someone is to where someone wants to be, our relationships can function as a pre-qualifier for success in a particular domain, the people who know us and who know what we're capable of, and helping to bridge that gap again, to put us in positions where we could thrive, where we can grow. Now, just because somebody's put into position doesn't mean that they're going to thrive and take advantage of the opportunity. And also, because somebody's given an opportunity, oftentimes, it does not negate the fact that we can create our own opportunities, but we tend to get caught up in our identity of how things are supposed to be. And so, coming from somebody who very much consider themselves to be... To give an analogy of a lone wolf, I'm going to do this, I'm going to change the world.

Like putting this responsibility on myself can psychologically really weigh me down and to open my mind and to appreciate and accept that there are other wonderful people who have the same goal as me, and there is so much room necessary needed for more people to step into this and to work together, that's really what you'll find here within this remarkable catalogue and archives that we have is I'm a fan of these individuals that I bring forward for you, and you could hear it in my voice when I'm speaking with them.

Because I know what they're about, I know what their mission is, and I'm in resonance with it. That's why I bring them here. This doesn't mean that they're always going to do things like I do them. See things the way that I see them, but we are all conspiring for the good of our families and our health, most importantly. And so really understanding that, for me personally, has been the most rewarding thing, has been my relationships and the wonderful people that are in my life, and also the fact that people that I was learning from priority and starting to show, my heroes in health and psychology and personal development, every single one of them, I've had the opportunity to have conversations with.

Every single one of them are now people that are in my life, some of them... Bob Proctor, for example, he's passed away, but I have an opportunity to have these conversations with Bob Proctor, my friend Michael Beckwith. Who's going to be here in a few moments? Tony Robins, Dr. Bruce Lipton, Dr. Daniel Goldman, the list goes on and on. These are people that I was learning from for years and implementing in the work that I was doing, and the patients that were coming into my clinical practice, and the people that I was speaking to on stages and really helping to inspire more ways of empowerment and health and I just didn't even know that that was a thing when I started this.

And so, please remember that relationships are the fastest way to elevate, but it's not about trying to get, it's about being of service, even in those relationships, finding a way to serve and to uplift and not being a place of expectation, especially when you're creating a new relationship. We have these who come in with expectation, we have this expectation hang over. Shout out to Christine Hassler, who's been a guest on the show, and she talks about the expectation hangover. And it can also hang us up and prevent us from having a relationship that's of integrity, because even within relationships, there's going to be some relationships that are dysfunction or not good along the way, of course, because you got to learn discernment, you got to have your standards, but also we must learn that relationships are about contribution, relationships are about having someone's back and the gift would be you having that same feeling and knowing that they have your back as well, it's really special when you can feel like you're not alone out here in these streets. So, relationships are the fastest way to elevate. It's another big lesson.

Now, another one of the relationships who stepped up to provide a gift to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Model Health Show is one of my all-time favorite companies with some of the most integrity, good people through and through dedicated to regenerative farming. They're changing the way that things are being done. I'm talking about the folks at Paleovalley. And the person that actually connected to me with Paleovalley, Shana Mota, she is one of the sweetest, most genuine, beautiful human beings I've ever met, and some people are just like too good, just too good. But just even her alignment and her belief in them, again, it's that relationship bridge, because I trust her, because I know her, it created a bridge, it created an opening for that connection to take place. Right? And so, to celebrate our ten-year anniversary, the folks at Paleovalley wanted to do something on the snacking tip for everybody.

Now, a lot of wonderful teachers out there right now in the health space, like Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, for example, is talking about the necessity of having high quality protein as a hallmark to prevent degradation in the face of aging, and her working with aging populations for so many years and really seeing this stand out and of course, triggering the development of muscle through using our muscles, of course, but also providing adequate amounts of protein, but in the snacking process is where things go arise, especially in the protein tip. Now for years, of course, humans have been utilizing different drying processing and preservation processing to have, "jerky and meat sticks" and things like that, but some of those can be really, really low quality, some of the additives and even the sourcing as well, and for this anniversary for a limited time only if you've been wanting to try Paleovalleys grass-fed beef sticks that also support regenerative farming.

Paleovalley is giving you 80% off to help celebrate our 10-year anniversary, $4.99 for pack of their grass-fed meat sticks. Note, this will go fast. It's only valid for one pack per customer, and you can get exclusive access at Paleovalley.com/decade, go to P-A-L-E-O-V-A-L-L-E-Y.com/decade. You're going to get access to this very, very special limited time gift from the folks at Paleovalley.

Alright, now moving on, we're at number seven on our list of the 10 biggest keys to growth in success, number seven is to stand for something bigger than yourself, that's what's going to get you through those tough times. That's what's going to keep that thing in front of you and create a sense of responsibility is to stand for something bitter than yourself. Recently, the CDC published their latest report on disease rates in the United States. And currently, according to the CDC, over 60% of United States citizens have at least one chronic disease. Have at least one chronic disease. 40% of United States citizens have two or more chronic diseases. We are the most chronically diseased nation in the history of humanity.

In addition to that, the NIH recently published some data, and they've affirmed that 73% of American adults are now overweight or obese, with 42% of American adults being clinically obese. That number has gone up. This was prior to the pandemic, that number has gone up significantly. So, when you get these next numbers that'll be coming out in the next year or two is going to be shocking, but maybe not. Our obesity rate has essentially tripled in the last 50 years, something is clearly wrong.

Now, this is not a vanity metric, we're talking about dramatically increasing our risk of dying from all manner of chronic debilitating conditions, heart disease, diabetes, liver disease, kidney disease, Alzheimer's, all of these things are deeply connected to obesity, hundreds of thousands of people die directly from complications, relating to their obesity, but then the expression might be different, it might be, again, a breakdown with the cardiovascular system, it might be a breakdown with the liver, it might be a breakdown with the brain, regardless, we've got to take this... To say to take this seriously is an understatement like we are in a state of... If we're talking about a pandemic, this is a multi, multi, pandemic, it means beyond a nation subset essentially this is a global issue.

Globally, we are not doing well as a species, and so we've got to find a way to stand for something bigger than ourselves, that's what it was for me, and seeing these epidemics continuously rising, trending upwards, things that were once rare for our people, and seeing it first hand, the devastation and the pain and the suffering and the people that it took from me, and what it almost threatened to take away my life, I couldn't stand by and just let this sh*t happen.

And so, for me, this is what I do this for. No one has to tell me to do this. No one has to tell me to show up, I'm doing it for this purpose. And now, of course, coincidentally, here in the United States, and this is according to the Journal of the American Medical Association, one of our most prestigious journals. The United States healthcare system is now over $4 trillion a year. Our money as a society is being siphoned $4 trillion a year, more than $4 trillion a year, is being signed into our healthcare system for all of these pish posh, terrible, disgusting outcomes. It's just getting more and more and more lucrative, and according to the study published in the Journal of The American Medical Association, hopefully you're going to watch our YouTube as well, because of course we put the studies up and provide the references and things like that on that journey.

So, if you're listening to the audio version of The Model Health Show, that would be a great gift as well to celebrate the 10-year anniversary, pop over to the YouTube channel, the Model Health Show on YouTube and subscribe on YouTube. And so, in their study, they found that of that $4 trillion being siphoned and pulled into our healthcare system, approximately $1 trillion of United States money, of the money of our citizens, $1 trillion is effectively wasted due to fraud, unnecessary procedures, administrative complexity, like hiding the money, doing this little thing. Little thing over here. Making things too complex. And other reasons as well, $1 trillion. Do you know what we can do with a trillion dollars as far as real health care, as far as helping to feed higher quality food to our citizens, providing access to parks and recreation centers and gyms, we can create a revolution with the money that's just f*cking being wasted and here we are, we're still seeing all of these issues trending upwards, $5 trillion is just around the corner. We're going to see that, $6 trillion, $7 trillion.

Now, our society, unfortunately, has become dependent, our system of economics here in the United States, why would you not... People who are looking to make money are investing in different dimension of United States healthcare because they're so lucrative, why would they not? And what they're doing, they're investing in a need for our citizens to be diseased, they're investing in a need in the requirement for our citizens to be sick. That's how sick we are. One of the most lucrative things in our economy today is the investment in need requirement for our citizens to be diseased in order for it to continue to function, I'm not standing for it.

And so again, one of the biggest keys to grow the success is to stand for something, to identify with something that's bigger than yourself, that you are going to show up for, and for you in your life. This can be a variety of things. Many people, of course, feel the same way that I do, and they show up in different ways and working in different dimensions of health care and wellness and fitness, but for you, it could be standing for your family, it could be standing for access to education, for our kids, it could be any other worthy cause that resonates with you, there's a lot of issues in our world today, and there's a lot of room for improvement, but the more that you can identify with something that you could stand for, something bigger than yourself, the more successful and fulfilled, you're going to be.

Number eight on our list of the 10 biggest keys to growth and success that I've discovered over the past 10 years, is to stay curious and to challenge your thinking. One of the most remarkable skills for true longevity that I've seen, a character trait that you can develop, again, I said is a skill, is to be able to question your biases, we tend to think, of course, because we're not waking up like, "I want to be wrong today," we believe that our way of viewing things is the right way, and oftentimes, even regardless of the outcomes, regardless of the results that we might see, we still believe that our way is the way, especially if we found success doing things a certain way, we really get even more layers of belief psychologically that this is the way to do things.

And regardless of new information is presented or a better way to do things, we tend to latch on to the things that helped us to get to that place of comfort. And so, it's important for us to understand that over time, we need to keep finding a way to question our beliefs, question our biases, and be aware of our biases as well. I have a bias towards what have humans been doing the longest.

When it comes to health, what are the ingredients for human health that have proven again and again to help us to remain healthy disease-free and to maintain functionality and puts real food, movement practices. High quality sleep, all these different things, but I have to check myself when something new is brought about because it might prevent me from seeing the next stage or next step of our evolution as a species. I might identify a twinkie as being something that is ultra-processed food that is going to potentially contribute to disease if it's consumed on a consistent basis, but I have to be open, I have to check my bias and just be open to the fact like maybe this twinkie, some kind of way can activate some aspect of mental resilience.

I have to be open to the fact that maybe this newly invented ultra-processed food product helps to unlock some kind of dormant cognitive ability or something, maybe you could see through walls. If you eat enough twinkies, you can see through... And it's outlandish, but I have to keep my mind open to that and check myself on my biases because for example, through human evolution until recently, showers and bathing might not be that frequent, alright?

And so, what if I was standing against people washing their ass. What if I was like, "No, we haven't done that for a long time. We need more dirty asses out here." Okay? That might be a problem, it might prevent me from accessing a layer of hygiene, reducing disease rates and whatever the case might be, and maybe even potentially reducing the funk out there on the streets, right? Shout out to Uptown Funk. So again, stay curious and challenge your thinking on a continuous basis, for me, I had to do this when it comes to pharmaceutical companies, and I have a bias towards seeing a pattern of behavior and seeing so much degradation and damage potentially.

But also, being open to the opportunity for positive things to come out of this industry. And what I'm talking about, for example, and this is something I'm very passionate about sharing the education because historically, here are just a list of some of the crimes committed by pharmaceutical companies, Pfizer was ordered to pay the largest health care fraud settlement in the history of the Department of Justice paying out $2.3 billion after pleading guilty to a felony violation. In fact, Pfizer was the first drug company to be convicted of a RICO charge. RICO litigation referring to Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, are laws created to help combat organized crimes syndicates.

This pharmaceutical company has been convicted of this; this is real. Pfizer was ordered to pay $1.2 billion to settle lawsuits from their drug Prempro that caused women to develop breast cancer. And they knew this, although early evidence showed the increased risk, internal documents show the company intentionally suppressed the data while is destroying the lives of countless people. Pfizer was caught testing an experimental drug on Nigerian children, lives were lost. It took 15 years for those families to be compensated, Pfizer was caught bribing foreign governments and regulatory officials in other country several times. It's one of those times they were caught resulting in a $60 million fine for corrupt practices and bribery in Russia, Bulgaria in China, among other countries.

The corruption on both foreign and domestic soil runs deep with many other leading pharmaceutical companies as well is not just Pfizer. One of the most pervasive offenders is Johnson & Johnson. One of the times, Johnson & Johnson was caught committing corrupt practices resulted in a $70 million fine for bribing doctors in European countries. Officials at the Security and Exchange Commission said that Johnson & Johnson bribes might have harmed Public Health and several European companies for years, the company try to hide its illegal activities by using sham contracts, offshore companies, and slush funds to cover its tracks, it sounds like a f*cking villain, doesn't it?

In the investigation, prosecutors said that Johnson & Johnson had provided "Significant assistance in their investigation of other drug companies who are committing similar crimes resulting in reduced criminal fine for themselves." Alright, so they were snitching. Not only were they committing the crimes, they were snitching on other drug companies so that they're not doing the hard time or paying the hard fine. Right? So just the integrity, they don't even have street code, alright? They're doing all the dirty sh*t that you see illegal illicit drug smugglers do, these supposedly prestigious organizations are doing the same sh*t, and they're doing it again and again and again and again.

Johnson & Johnson was also ordered to pay part of a $26 billion lawsuit for their contribution to the opioid crisis that is now killed well over half a million Americans. Johnson & Johnson was caught illegally promoting anti-psychotic drugs to be used for children and people with developmental disabilities. The US Department of Justice note their criminal and civil fines were $2.2 billion for their illegal activities.

Johnson & Johnson was ordered to pay $4.7 billion to women and the families of victims who developed ovarian cancer as a result of using their flagship baby powder. Internal documents revealed that Johnson & Johnson knew there was likely a strong cancer-causing compound in their product for nearly 50 years. They knew this 50 years ago, they knew. Now, again, it's not just... I can go on and on. Merck the blockbuster painkiller Vioxx caused approximately 140,000. This is documented proven, approximately 140,000 heart attacks in United States customers, killed an estimated 60,000 Americans. They manipulated the clinical trial data that killed 60,000 people, and they were allowed to continue to do business. Why would that happen is because our system of government, our economic system is dependent on the success of these pharmaceutical companies now.

And if, for example, you had a fish oil company, if you had a fish oil company and your fish oil kills 60,000 people, we're probably going to be like, you can't sell fish oil anymore, alright? You kill 60000, not 1,000, not 50, 60,000 people with your damn fish oil, you can't sell. You're out of the fish oil game. But that's not what happens in these cases. They pay these fines that are scraps to them, they're a lot for these fines and they profit even when they kill. We're talking about mass killings, mass murder of our citizens. And so even with my bias, I still have to... And I believe, again, we can create intelligent biases, we can track and make intelligent observations, but we also need to keep a space open, for revolution for change. I have to still keep myself open to the fact that these companies that have a history of criminal offenses and violence against our citizens have a capacity to create something beneficial.

Alright, so I'm giving a strong example on something I've obviously very passionate about, but that's what I want to implore you to do because we have to stay curious. We have to challenge our thinking and also be patient with our assessments too. We tend to jump to snap conclusions and over time, even with these issues, whether it's in regard to some of the pandemic-related mandates, I'm going to take my time. I didn't just come right out and say things. I would much rather be the most accurate than to be first.

And so, I take my time with things, I process things, I think about things from different angles. And so, in order for us to be truly successful in today's world, we have to spend time actually processing. Having time to think and to look at things from different perspectives.

Questioning your biases is not about abandoning your beliefs or letting people off the hook, it's about making sure that you don't become dogmatic and become the very zealot that you believe that you're standing up against. We must stay curious, we must continue to keep our mind open to new revelations and new discoveries, even if we don't agree with them, remain able to take things in and to process things, if we have a barrier put up, we're not even going to be able to allow in new insight to new ideas and to process and to really come to a holistic understanding of things. It's more important than ever to listen to and acknowledge multiple perspectives, that's what really lifts humanity up, that's what being human is really all about, it's working together. It's being able to share ideas, is being able to have empowering positive conversations, and to be able to take on what works and to discard what is unnecessary or what doesn't work, but we cannot get there if we are not remaining open.

Number nine on our list is to find a way to serve. Booker T. Washington said, "Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others." I promise you, success will feel empty if we're not in a way of service, and so finding a way to serve and this could be, again, service to your family, service to your partner, service to your children, service to your community, service to your neighbors, service to an industry, service to an education system, service to a music industry, whatever the case might be, finding a way to serve. Connect service, connect to upliftment and empowerment, and I promise you, it's going to help to catalyze and to help you to really catapult yourself into a realm of growth and success that is truly fulfilling long-term.

And number 10 here on our list of the 10 biggest keys to growth and success is, health is the ultimate advantage, serve mightily, but you must not lose yourself. Oftentimes, some of the most passionate servants among us are those who will sacrifice themselves. And over time, the people who are trusting in you and relying on you, lose you because you lose yourself. We could serve at even a higher level if we are healthy. We could serve more deeper, more people, if we are physically and mentally well, we must take care of ourselves, we must take care of our mind and our body that we're experiencing all of this from, first, put a priority on yourself.

Sometimes it can get shuffled around. And I know that we have this tendency to do this, we tell ourselves we're going to put ourselves first, but it sounds great in theory, but in practice is very difficult. Find a way to pour into your own cup so that you have more to give every single day. Health is the ultimate advantage, especially today, when we are existing in a society, a community that is largely unhealthy, the competitive advantage of you being healthy, of you being fit is out of this world to be able to think more clearly, more rationally, to have more energy, to not be held up with sickness and preventing you from doing the things that you want, from being in a state of pain and anguish.

Now, we get operated moved to this up, this speaks to the resilience, this speaks to the grit, because we're all going to deal with stuff physically and mentally, but to persevere to find a way to mend these issues to become better, to find a way past it and to show up, that's what it's really all about, health is the ultimate advantage.

I appreciate you so much for tuning in today and to spend his time with me, this is a huge accomplishment. I don't think that this is really even set in yet to understand. It's been a decade of The Model Health Show, and I promise you, I'm just getting started, I'm just getting warmed up. I've got so much in store for you, incredible master classes on a variety of subjects, the most amazing world class guests are coming your way very, very soon. And again, utilize these things, anything that speaks to you, put it into practice, because at the end of the day, it's not just about a theory, it's about practice, it's about implementation. And speed of implementation is one of the things I've seen the most successful people have as well. Alright, so put something in play for yourself. I appreciate you so very much. Take care, have an amazing day. And I'll talk with you soon.

And for more after the show, make sure to head over to themodelhealthshow.com, that's where you can find all of the show notes, you could find transcriptions, videos for each episode, and if you got a comment, you can leave me a comment there as well. And please make sure to head over to iTunes and leave us a rating to let everybody know that the show is awesome. And I appreciate that so much, and take care, I promise to keep giving you more powerful, empowering, great content to help you transform your life. Thanks for tuning in.