You are now listening to The Model Health Show with Shawn Stevenson. For more, visit themodelhealthshow.com. 
 
Shawn Stevenson: Welcome to The Model Health Show. This is fitness and nutrition expert Shawn Stevenson and I am so grateful for you tuning in with me today. 

I'm so excited about this episode. This guy is a real hero of mine and somebody I've seen make a huge transition from the world of professional sports into the world of professional speaking, which is interesting in and of itself but there's a certain flavor that he started off with. 

He went from the NFL to being a stage performer and performing Broadway type shows and off-Broadway and producing his own show and becoming a playwright. It's just like how do you even have the connective tissue for those things? 

So we're going to talk about that today and a lot of the things that he's going to share with you really translates over into your world as well, because he's taken these insights about really not just becoming somebody who's average at what you do, but being world-class. 

And he's been able to instill this in different arenas in his own life and also training people to do the same thing. And so if anybody has the perspective on being allergic to average and actually becoming world-class, it's our guest today. 

So I'm really, really, really excited about that. And part of being world-class obviously is making sure that we're fueling our bodies the right way and really make sure that we're optimizing our nutrition. 

It's been a little hot lately, and I've been out there putting in my own work on my body and training and also just that mental labor and creating a new project that I'm working on right now. 

And so I've been going pretty hard with the Red Juice, and I'm not talking about the Red Juice from when you're a kid. When I was a kid, red juice meant Kool-Aid, we were kind of broke so it was Flavor Aid for us. 

And this was, there were little packets of random, artificially colored and flavored powders you poured into the pitcher with some water and then put the hitter of sugar, I'm talking like a cup of sugar in like a 2-liter jug, it was crazy, crazy. And guess how much nutrition is in there— zero. How many minerals and vitamins— zero. 

There is actually a great comparison when we're talking about this Red Juice formula that's from Earth grown nutrients, coming from Organifi versus something like what I used to get in high school when I was trying to not drink soda, so I would buy like Powerade with my lunch, or like Gatorade. 

And so listen to this, with Gatorade we're talking 34 grams of sugar 140 calories, all right. Organifi Red Juice one gram of sugar and it's sweetened using low glycemic sweeteners like monk fruit, for example, that also has nutrients along with it. 11 superfoods, how many superfoods are in Gatorade again? Ah, that's right, none. 

And then we've got 30 calories and we're just flooding our body with all these powerful superfoods including Acai, which Acai, as you probably already know, it's antioxidant powerhouse, it's about 10 times more oxygen content than basically every other fruit out there, the conventional fruits and this is why I put in the category of being a "superfood". 

And also we've got strawberry in there, we've got blueberry in there and I want to share this study with you on blueberries I just came across— researchers at the University of Michigan published research finding that blueberry intake can potentially affect genes related to fat burning. 

So this is a direct nutrigenomic powerhouse that can affect genes that kind of enhance your ability to burn fat, and so it's loaded with vitamin C, vitamin K. Plus powerful antioxidants and inflammation-fighting compounds bundled up in this great tasting Red Juice formula that you can add to water, shake it up and there you go. 

So pop over there, check them out, it's organifi.com/model, that's O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I.com/model, you get 20 percent off the Red Juice formula, the Green Juice formula, the Gold, so many other incredible things that they have there and they're just great people doing a lot of good for our bodies and for the planet at large. So head over there, check them out, organifi.com/model for 20 percent off. And now let's get to the Apple podcast review of the week. 
 
iTunes review: Another 5-star review titled "Found The Oasis in The Desert" by Die Young 120: "I've only listened to 4-5 shows so far, but everything I heard is so great and I feel like I'm in the desert finding the oasis of great information about health. Now the problem is there are so many shows that I would have to listen to every day, it's overwhelming. I feel so lucky to find this podcast and thank you, Shawn, for being you and sharing your priceless knowledge."
 

Shawn Stevenson: Awesome, thank you so much for leaving me that review over on Apple Podcasts. I appreciate it so, so very much. And listen, if you've yet to leave a review, pop over to Apple podcasts, leave a review and let everybody know to think of the show and it could be featured as a review of the week potentially here on The Model Health Show. So again, thank you so very much. And on that note, let's get to our special guest and topic of the day. 
 
Bo Eason is a former NFL All-Pro, actor, playwright, motivational speaker, leadership trainer, and author. He started his career in the NFL as a top pick for the Houston Oilers and continuing on with the San Francisco 49ers, during his 5-year career both competed beside and against some of the greatest players of his generation. 

And after his football career ended he branched out into acting and wrote a one-man play called "Runt of the Litter" that went to Broadway. 

And now as a speaker in leadership coach, he trains some of the most successful people in the world, athletes, artists, entrepreneurs, C suite execs, on how to communicate for maximum impact and success. 

He's got a brand new book "There's No Plan B for Your A-Game: Be the Best in the World at What You Do". And he's here to chop it up with all of us on The Model Health Show. 

I'd like to introduce you and jump into this conversation with the incredible Bo Eason. I don't think I've ever told you this, but I'm pretty sure it was Tech Mobile or Super Tech Mobile— I played you in a video game. 
 
Bo Eason: You know what, Axel and I were just talking about that. So funny that you said. I have buddies that were in the video games, but I wasn't.

I didn't know anything about video games and they got, "Man, you're my safety and whatever, "I don't know if it's Madden or whatever it was, and I was like, "What do you mean?" They go, "Man, you're really good on this thing." Anyway, that's kind of a rule that we've implemented into our home, Dawn and I with the kids, is, "You can play video games if you're in the video game". So if you're a character in it then you can play it. 
 
Shawn Stevenson: Wow, I love that so much. And yeah, you were one of those players that like had a little bit more speed, and that was your goal too, I think, when you were coming up like you wanted to be not just the fastest person, but the fastest person running backward. 
 
Bo Eason: Yeah, that's right, that's right.
 
Shawn Stevenson: I read your book and this is one of my favorite books of the year.
 

Bo Eason: Oh great, thanks, Shawn. 
 
Shawn Stevenson: So much good stuff, just nugget after nugget. I'm going to be quoting you during this episode. But one of the things you started off early in the book, one of these early statements you said that "You will succeed or fail based on the stories you tell yourself and others." Why does a story that we tell ourselves matter so much?
 
Bo Eason: People have family stories, they come from a family usually— all the time. And that family has a story, has a family traditional story. And the story could be great like of achievement, or of honor, or of heroism. 

Or the story could be like, "Oh we got a bunch of alcoholics in our family, we got some crazies in our family," which every family does. 
 
Shawn Stevenson: Uncle Larry, everybody has Uncle Larry. 
 
Bo Eason: Yeah, sitting around the table at Thanksgiving, you're like, "Damn, Uncle Larry is still here." So we then take on that story, like we'll take it on for real or not. 

And everybody that I've ever known creates their own story, the ones they have really achieved, they create their own story regardless of their family story. 

They go, "I'm going to be the author of my own story, my own life story and I'm going to rewrite our family tradition. And I'm going to go forward extricating myself from that story." 

And it's kind of emancipation, like you say, "I'm independent on my family, this is my story, I'm no longer going to live out that family story. 

And the people that I've always admired, that have really gone to the top regardless of their background, they're the ones who go, "No, no I've actually put a stake in the ground and this is my story." 

What we actually do is we live it out no different than as an actor lives out a part, like if you take a great actor like Denzel Washington or Robert De Niro, they become that role that the writer wrote, and that's why they're so great, that's why you can't take your eyes off of them because they live it, they dress like it, they look like it, their hair is like it. 

And you and I do the same exact thing, we're just doing it unconsciously. And so if you and I have control and we're the author of that story, why do we always write a crappy story? 

Most people write like a really bad story, like I’m mediocre, I'm just getting by. If you're the author you might as well write a love story or like one of courage and bravery and that's what people just kind of fail to do.
 
Shawn Stevenson: Yeah and that's the great thing and why I'm so excited to have you on, you are one of the people, you're probably the foremost person on the planet in helping people to really take ownership of their story and to proactively, consciously write their story. 

And you shared for me the fact that our stories really do dictate everything about our lives, like you just kind of details like a movie that we're playing out. But in this statement, you also mention the stories that we tell other people. So how does that matter?
 
Bo Eason: Yeah. Well, if you're living it out, you're going to be then telling your story, your body, I'll use the example of a great, great performer like Denzel or De Niro, or Al Pacino. Their body is actually living out that character. 

And so their body cannot lie, you know the body can't lie. So you can make false statements can come out of your mouth but your body will betray you every time. So these guys, great performers embody that story so the body can't lie. 
 
So every molecule that they're walking around with is expressing that story. Same for you and me, we're living this story in real-time in front of real people, all the time. 

And so that's why, and rarely does this happen, but when it does happen it's very apparent to everyone in the room— when somebody walks into the room or you're walking in the airport and somebody walks by you you're like, "Damn," and you're staring at them and it might not be like an attractive thing like, "Oh I want to date her/ I want to date him," it's not like that. It's more like, "Why am I just looking at that person? Why is that person carrying such presence?" 

And it's because they're unapologetic about the story that they're living out. Where most people are walking around, trying to hide everything about them and apologizing if they're too powerful or too good looking or too strong, and they're indicating to the world, "Hey, I'm not that strong." 

And you see this all the time, you'll see it in politics, you'll see it in media, you'll see people once they're being looked at they start to do weird things with their bodies that indicate to the audience, "Hey I'm not as handsome as I appear to be." "I am not as strong as I appear to be." "I'm not dangerous I'm very safe to look at me." 

And that's not how human beings were made. I mean, for everyone watching and listening to us today, it's all about like, "Look, you're living out a story, that story could be great, that story could suck, it's up to you, you're the author of it."
 
Shawn Stevenson: Yeah, facts, that's absolute facts. And that's one of the things that you really taught and something I picked up from you early on that I never really thought about is the fact that we're playing out our stories physically and teaching that physicality. 

And another level of ownership of our story is through the way that we present our bodies. But I want to talk about your story a little bit, and I hope that I'm quoting this correctly, but there are 4 people from your high school that went to the NFL and nobody had done that prior to you being there and nobody's done it after you being there. 

And this was really a result and you make a clear case for that in the book of the story that you picked up. And so for you, when was it that you started to kind of embody that story and start to write that script for you going to the NFL? 
 
Bo Eason: Yeah, well when I was 9 I made the plan, that's when I drew up the 20-year plan to be the best safety in the world. 

And obviously I was small, everyone is small 9 but there were a lot of kids around me there were a lot more athletic and a lot better than I was at the time. 

But I knew, I had some sense that given when I would be drafted, which would be 1984, so we're talking about 1969 where I'm drawing the plan up, and all I could think about I added up the years until I went through high school, till I went through college and I would be eligible to be drafted. And that would be 1984. 

And so I go, "But by then I will have outrun them all, I'll outwork them all and then I'll be the one standing on top then."

So I had that kind of, I don't know why, but I had the kind of foresight to see that. So I went to high school, I had 280 kids in the high school, really small farm community, never had a pro athlete before I got there, never have they had one since I left. 

And I have an older brother who is 17 months older than me, Tony. And he was much bigger than me, even though we were a year apart in school, he was taller, he was more stoic, he was a quarterback. 

And still, to this day, he's like the best athlete I've ever seen. I mean he can pick up a tennis racket or a golf club or basketball, it doesn't matter, he can play. 

And he's always been like that and I'm like, "Damn, how's he doing that?" Because I'm growing up with him and we're throwing the ball back and forth.

So we get to high school, right and obviously never been a pro athlete from this tiny high school and we had 27 boys on our high school team. 

Half of them you had to throw uniforms on people just to get the numbers up so you could have some team. 

And my brother and I were both on that same team. I had this dream, I had this plan to be the best safety. 

And I never really heard anybody else talking about a plan or a dream or playing in the NFL, I don't remember hearing it. But as it turns out, one team with 27 guys on it, 27 farm boys on it turned out 4 NFL players, of one team. 

And those 4 NFL players it wasn't like they were kind of a cup of coffee guys, we played for a total of 25 years and 2 Super Bowls. 

So it's crazy to think because the odds, just so everyone knows, here are the odds if you play high school football— 0.03 percent of high school football players play in the NFL, 0.03 percent. 

So I always asked people, "So I had 27 dudes on my high school team. Based on that percentage of 0.03 percent, how many of us do you think went to the pros?" And they're like, "Well, 0?" And I go, "No, 4." 

You would think like a legacy would start right, but it was that one team. When I thought back I was like, "How could that be?". 

Statistically an impossibility, correct? It's just impossible, that can't happen. Especially when it's not a football factory, to begin with. And that happens. 

So a lot of people always go, "Well what was in the water?" How did this happen?" And I always think back, and I don't know this to be 100 percent true, but I always think back to the 20-year plan, the one kid who had the dream. And did that help the others go along? 

Because the kid who did have the dream was kind of smallish, kind of not the best player. And this is the people I always think about Shawn, obviously I know those 4 guys right, one is my brother and then I know the 2 other guys, but these are the guys I think about every day. 

Not those 4, it's the 5 guys out of that 27 that were better than us. I always think about them, not a day goes by I don't think about the 5 guys who were better than the 4 that went all the way. And I always think of like the regret that they must feel. 

I've never talked to them about it, but they were better, they were bigger. And something just derailed them, either it wasn't their dream or it was partying or lost track or it got too hard; something derailed them. And I always think about them. 

I wonder if they wanted to do it, I wonder if they knew they were better or maybe they didn't have a dad like me who was encouraging them. 

There are all these variables that fall into it. So 4 guys go all the way, and the other 5 were better than those 4. And so it could have been 9 out of 27, wouldn't that have been crazy?
 
Shawn Stevenson: It already is. Just from the vibe from the book I know, and I know you can say that you don't know if it's 100 percent the case, but I just feel it from reading the book that it was your intention that really propelled in the way that you would even talk about it got into other people's bones, with your brother and the other 2 fellows. 

And it's contagious, when somebody has that plan, has the audacity. And what was so remarkable is that you weren't thinking in such a short term which is what we tend to do, we dramatically underestimate what we can achieve long term. 

And so there was one instance that I loved in this book because I've never heard the story before, of you having a picture of Walter Payton in your locker. Can you share this story?
 
Bo Eason: Yes. I love that story. When I was growing up and I was in high school Walter Payton was the man, even though the Chicago Bears weren't a good team then they got better like in 1985 when they beat my brother in the Super Bowl actually, they were great then. But before that, they weren't so good, but he was amazing. 

And I just loved his nickname, Sweetness, I love how he ran the ball. He was much smaller than you would imagine, especially when you see him in person you're like, "Man, he doesn't look like Walter Payton, he's kind of not very tall." But he's strong and he can play. 

Anyway, I just admired him, I loved the way he played. And so I cut his picture out of Sports Illustrated I put it up in my locker at school right. 

So you know when you're in high school how many times you open your locker every day, you open it like 10 times a day, and there's Walter Payton. 

And the picture of Walter Payton, which I think is the most important part of the story, is he's running right at the camera lens in a game, they somehow captured it, he's looking right into the lens as he's running. 

And so the picture if you're looking at it in my locker, he's looking right at me and he's got the ball in his hand and he's like about to collide with me as a safety, as a player. So that goes on for 4 years of me opening that locker and looking at Walter Payton. 

Then I moved on and go to college and I don't have that picture up anymore in college, I don't even have a locker. 

And I'm in the pros now, now it's 1984, now it's 1985 and they won the Super Bowl, right. We played them the very next year, so they just beat my brother in the Super Bowl and now I'm playing against Walter Payton for the first time, so it must have been 1986, early 1985. 

He gets the ball and he's sweeping to his right so to my left and I'm coming up to make the tackle. And when that happens when you're now going to tackle somebody you have admired your whole life, it's weird. 

Because your whole life kind of turns into slow motion and I'm running up and I'm going, "Shit, that's Walter Payton, man, and I am about to tackle Walter Payton." 

And as I get closer and closer I go, " This is going to happen, this is going to happen, here it comes, this is going to hurt." Bam! I tackle and we both go down, right. 

And he's lying flat on his back, and now, he's a veteran right, he's been around forever, he's like the best running back in the league and I'm a rookie. And I'm laying on top of Walter Payton because I'm shocked that I got him on the ground. 

So you know, veterans do not like rookies laying on them in the NFL. They want you off of them as quickly as possible, they don't want you like wallowing in your success. 

But I kind of was just laying there, kind of shocked, and I remember thinking this, "Oh shit, I hope my mom and dad saw that on TV." Because I just talked Walter Payton.
 
Shawn Stevenson: The picture from your locker.
 
Bo Eason: Yeah, exact same picture as I'm running up to him, he's looking at me, it's the exact same picture and then get him on the ground I start to stand up slowly off of him after I'm on top of him for way too long. 

And as I'm getting up he kicks me right in the groin and goes and drops some MFs on me. 

This is Walter Payton, remember how high his voice was? Like he is a sweet guy. But right then I go, "Okay, this is serious like this is no hero worship anymore. This guy is the real deal." 

But the picture of him in my locker and the picture of him as I approached him to tackle him was exactly the same picture. 

And as I got further along in my career, those things happened over and over again where it's like this deja vu of like, "Oh I have been here before, I was here when I was 10 and 11 and 12."

Because you start to play against the guys that were your heroes, and you learn that they're just guys just like you who could be tackled, who will drop MF on you quickly and kick in the groin because they are competitors. And that's when you go, "Oh shit, this is it, man, I'm here." 
 
Shawn Stevenson: Powerful, man, it's so powerful. That's just a really big testament and I know that everybody listening has had those moments where they visualized and saw something and it ends up happening. 

But the level that you've done it is just astounding because you actually focused on it, you made it real for yourself. 

But there's also something really important that you reiterated different ways throughout the book and this is the importance of eliminating everything that doesn't support your stories, not just the things you're doing, but eliminating the things that do not support your story. So you got to talk about that.
 
Bo Eason: Yeah, most people think, Shawn that, "Wow, if I'm going to attempt to be the best in the world at something, I got to make a big to-do list, I got to follow the list and do a bunch of things, and then I got to gather a bunch of things and a bunch of people and build this thing so I can be the best." That is not true. 

It's actually, you get there by eliminating things. So you gain greatness by eliminating things, it's weird, it's like a myth. 

People think like successful people got a 1,000 people around them or a 10,000 person team around them and they don't, it's lean. I always think of it like this— you know militarily say the U.S. military. 

When we really need a job to be done, like we need something to happen, who do we send in? Do we send in 200,000 troops to March around the country? We don't do that, do we? Not crazy. What we do do is send in the 12 best dudes. 

Elite military, we send in Special Forces, 12 guys who are going to get the job done. They might come back with 8, but they're getting, they don't finish, they don't come back empty-handed, they finished the job. Think of it like that. 

You got to start eliminating all the troops to get to the elite, right? So I've always been good at this, my parents some innate way we're really good at elimination. 

They were good at eliminating distractions, people with negative thoughts or didn't believe in dreams or didn't take dreams seriously, naysayers, bad coaching, which you know we've all had and it's really easy to recognize that my parents were really quick to get rid of them. 

All of those distractions, all of those naysayers, all of those people who say you can't have your dreams, they were really quick to get rid of them, and I mean get rid of them. And I have always had that ability too. So if it's a bad coach or somebody doesn't believe in me or believe in my dreams, I'm really quick to extricate myself from them and being around them, really quick. People with mediocre mindsets, I'm really quick to step aside and let them live that life. 

So I think to reach the top it's about cutting the fat away, cutting all that away, it's no different than Michelangelo. I always think of him when he created the David, he had to chisel that thing and people go, "How did you create the David, how did you do that?" 

And he said, "It was pretty simple. I took the marble, it was just a big old hunk of marble and I chipped away at what wasn't necessary." And as soon as he got rid of everything that wasn't necessary, outcomes the David.

I think us attempting to be the best in the world at something is exactly the same thing; you just chip away at what is not necessary. 

Now that goes for food, that goes for exercise, that goes for mentors, coaching, who you marry, who you date. 

All of it falls in who you hang out with, all of that stuff falls away until it's very lean and you only have the David sitting there, which is the best in the world. 
 
Shawn Stevenson: Wow. There's a small statement that you've said several times already that I hope people are picking upon. You said the best several times already.

And you make a statement in the book you were speaking on stage somewhere and you were sharing this data I think there was a brain doctor there and he said how powerful it was that you were using those words, the best and it's really been a big part of your success because it gives your brain direction. 

So can you talk about specifically why would, and it is going to make some people uncomfortable to say that, why would you have the audacity to say that, "I want to be the best, I am the best."
 
Bo Eason: I know, people get so— not everybody, because I think most people in their primitive, natural self know that that's why they're here.

And so when somebody speaks it which is so rare these days and says, "Gold medal, not silver," or, "You're the best, not second" most people feel it deep inside, and they are like, "Oh yeah, I just forgot, that is why I'm here." 

Because if you look at the odds in which we're born, if you think about the odds, the odds are so stacked against us you and me even being here, being born. 

And we were born number one like we were the one, you and me were the ones who penetrated that egg so that we could become a human being right, and the odds of that happening were at least 300 million to 1, that's how many sperms are delivered. 300 million to 1 odds that we're born and you and me won that race. 

And I'm sure the competitors that we were swimming against that day were like us. I always think of Michael Phelps as would be brothers and sisters and the day of that swim that he had, that he won, no wonder he's got 20 gold medals. 

It's a competitive swim to death for us to even be born. So we are born the best, then we're born into the world and we're trying to prove to the world that we're not the best. And the media tells us, Hollywood tells us, DC tells us, most of the publishing world tells us that mediocre is fine.

When we're not born that way, so when I say the word the best, a lot of people feel that deep down and they're reminded of actually who they are. The reason I use the word the best is because of my dad, that's how he woke us up. 

And my dad, he's been dead for 10 years but up until pretty close to the day he died every time he woke me up which was for 18 years straight and then after I got married and started having kids and stuff, he would still do it, he would rub our backs, and I'm the youngest of 6 kids right, so I was the last in line so it was my 4 older sisters than my brother than me. 

And he would wake us up early in the morning and he would rub our backs and he had dirty hands and he had rough hands, he was a cowboy you know. 

And he would rub and he wasn't a gentle guy and he would whisper in our ears, "Keep moving partner, you're the best in there God damn it, keep moving." 

And that is how I woke up every morning of my life. For the first 21, 22 years of my life, me and my brother were embarrassed that he was saying that to us, because he would say it to us when we're up to bat in Little League and he would yell it in the middle of a game, "You're the best goddamn it." Can I say that word? Okay. 

And he would say, my brother and I went on a double date once with the Thomasini sisters, he says it in front of them. I was 15, my brother was 16, we're going to see Saturday Night Fever. 

And he said, "God damn it, boys, you're the best, you're leaders." And the girls were like, "What is he saying?" And me and my brother, my brother is like, "Dad, go back in the house, we got this." 

And that's how he is, unbending, it didn't matter if we sucked, it didn't matter if we weren't the best that day, he still said it and he said it to my sisters, that's how it went. 

Everyone thinks, not everyone, but a lot of people think, "Oh Bo, you talk about being the best, that's really conceited, or that's a little too big for your britches.

And I'm like, "I don't think it is," because every time I've attempted to be the best, other people come with me just like the 4 guys off that little team in high school. So is it selfish, is it conceited, I don't think so. 

I think we are born to be the best, I am just trying to live it out, I'm trying to bring it into existence and I do it in different disciplines, it doesn't matter what, I don't even care what discipline it is. 

You could say to me, "Bo, let's you and me achieve perfect pitch in the next 20 years," and that's actually a possibility right so they used to think that that wasn't a possibility, that you had to be born with a perfect pitch like Mariah Carey or Beethoven. 

But that's actually not true, you and me could train with one of the greatest voice coaches in the world for the next 12, 15, 20 years and you and me could achieve perfect pitch and almost nobody on the planet couldn't do that. Isn't that wild? 

Only people who can't do that is if you're tone-deaf and there's almost nobody in the world that's tone-deaf. People think, "Oh, you're a bad singer, you must be tone-deaf," that's not true. 

You just don't have enough training. So given the training you and me could actually, we would be world-class, right. We could do the same in chess.
 
Shawn Stevenson: Create a Christmas album. 
 
Bo Eason: We might be something we want to do. Anyway, but that can be achieved by playing the piano, playing the saxophone, chess, memorization, running the mile. 

All of these things can be achieved given the time, and you've got to aim at being the best. I just think, and here's the thing too about that brain doctor. 

So he said, "You know why you have achieved these things at a high level in different disciplines like you went from safety to being a playwright and a performer there and then being a speaker and a trainer here and an author there— because you know how, you know why, you were able to reach that level."
 
And I go, "No I really don't, this was several years ago, I don't think I do." And he goes, "Because you used the word the best". And I go, "Okay, say more about that." 

And he goes, "Well, your brain knows exactly what to do if you say the best, but your brain does not know what to do with average or mediocre or second or third. It doesn't know what to do with that information." 

So think about that. I always tell people when they go, "Well, Bo you've been conceited, number one is too high". 

And I go, "Okay, I'll change my training if this sentence has ever happened in the history of the world: a kid goes up to their mom and dad when they're 7 or 8 when kids always say it, they come up and they say, "Mom, dad I want to win a gold medal in the Olympics or I want to be the best saxophone player in the world." 

Do they, have any kid ever gone up to their mom and dad and said this sentence, "Mom, Dad, I've decided what I want to do with my life. I want to win the bronze medal". It's never been said! It's never been said. 

Now, we'll take a bronze medal if we lose the gold, we'll take the silver, but you know, you've got you've had friends who've won silver medals, you've had friends who've won bronze medals. If you ask them because I always go, "Dude, where's your medal, I want to see it? Where's your silver, where's your bronze?" 

And you know what they always say? I don't know where it is. They know where the gold is because that's on the wall. 

Silver is never on the wall, it's in a gym bag 20 years old, sitting in a locker room somewhere their mom has in the garage. It's weird, right. 

So I will change my dialogue, as soon as some kid goes to their mom and dad and says they want to win a silver medal, I'll change it, I'll be happy to. But no one's ever said that. 

But as years go by, they get so beat up and so beat down that they go, "I'll just take a medal." And then they're getting nothing, they're not even on the Olympic team at that point, because they opted for Plan B instead of Plan A. Plan A always happens, it always happens unless you opt for Plan B. Then Plan B happens, it's how it goes.
 
Shawn Stevenson: Incredible, incredible. What is so really cool about this is that you have proven this in different disciplines, from getting to the NFL and competing and just being amongst players like Walter Payton and Jerry Rice and being able to pick up nuggets that you've shared with all of us from those experiences. 

And from than pretty devastating knee injury of several curtailed that experience, and you were forced to dive into something else. 

And you knew, and I think— can you share this because I think you said like, "I'm going to end up in jail, the skill set that I have doesn't translate over."
 
Bo Eason: It's so true. If you spent the last 20 years of your life which I did at one point, attempting to be the best safety in the world. 

So if that in the eighty's, I don't know if it's true today, because the rules are different, but if you're the best safety in the 1980's, that is the era of Jack Tatum, of Doug Plank, trained killers right. 

So if you're the best safety your job is to run full speed and bury your head in the other human beings and destroy their courage and everything, so that they do not enter this zone anymore. 

You take the fear right out of the best athletes in the world, that's your job. So if you're going to reach the top at that job which I was, it's very nerve-wrecking because you're thinking, because I got injured and that was my seventh knee surgery and as I was laying on this field, it was in the Orange Bowl in Miami, we were playing the Dolphins. 

And I was laying on my back and they got me on a stretcher and started wheeling me off and I knew it was pretty much over, close to over then. 

First image that I thought of my life was prison, because I thought about like, "Look, I'm the best in the world at this thing that I've trained for for 20 years and that thing does not translate to the civilian world very well." 

Because what it is is about hurting people and being acknowledged and paid for it. And I just thought, "Oh man, the best place for me to be is prison."
 
Shawn Stevenson: You're dangerous. 
 
Bo Eason: Because I could survive in that environment, I’d thrive in that environment. And in the next moment as I was having fear about wearing that orange jumpsuit as they're wheeling me off in Miami, I just remember going, "I've got to find a platform, like a place, because it used to be on a grass field and I got to find another field, another place to put all this TNT that I feel inside my body. 

Where is that going to be? Is that going to be in prison where I can express myself fully there? Is it going to be hurting people? is it going to hurting myself?" Because that's what I'm really trained well to do. 

And I thought, "I'm going to move to New York City," right then, I thought, "I'm moving to New York City." I didn't have any history with New York City other than playing the Jets or the Giants, that was it. 

So I'm in there for a night at a time. But I knew that theater was there. I knew that Broadway and off-Broadway and it was about theater there, I just knew that somehow. And I thought, "Well those people express themselves whether it be Mikhail Baryshnikov in ballet or it be Robert De Niro in playing or Marlon Brando on Broadway.

 These people were men like me, they were expressive and they were the best in the world at what they did. Why can't I go get trained like that?" 

And so I had the surgery, I rehabbed, moved to New York City and just started training my butt off, same protocol that it took me to be the best safety in the world. I did but as a stage performer. 

People always go, "Well that's so different, pro sports and Broadway off-Broadway performance, that's just 2 different disciplines." 

And I said, "It's not, it's really a lot alike." The principles of being the best in those 2 things are exactly the same. I knew how to show up, I knew how to run the miles and I knew the time commitment that it would take. 

So I was in New York, I took every class I could possibly take. Now mind you I had no background in this, so I was probably just horrible but I thought I was good at saying these lines and performing on stage and learning how to move on stage and then learning how to write. 

And I took all these classes and every class that I went into Shawn I was like the oldest dude in there, right, I already had a career but these were kids, 18, 19-year-old kids I was 27, 28 by the time I was done with football. 

And I go in there and they thought I was some old dude and I go, "Listen, everybody, listen to me. Who's the best stage performer..." Imagine their faces, who's the best stage performer of our time? Who is that? Who's that person? And they all said Al Pacino. This was about 1990. 

And I go, "Cool, where is he?" And the are like, "I don't know man, he's Al Pacino, he's probably on a movie set somewhere, he is probably acting somewhere." I go, "Cool. Because if he's the best, then I need to talk to him." 

The one thing you learn is only the best at what they do will help you be the best at what you do, and those second-place members, they never help you. 
 
Shawn Stevenson: That's interesting.
 
Bo Eason: Weird, right? 
 
Shawn Stevenson: That's really interesting. 
 
Bo Eason: If you, if your son wants to be the best receiver in the world I would send him directly to Jerry Rice. I would send him directly to the greatest receiver ever.

Maybe the greatest football player ever. And he would help him and he's the only one who could and he's the only one who would help him, because everybody chasing Jerry Rice is going to be one worried that you're going to pass them up, which you are, because your aim is to be the best, and they can't teach you how to be the best because if they could they would be the best. 

So I go directly to the guy, the same thing with Al Pacino, right. So they say he's the best, like, "Okay, where is he?" 

And I was having dinner one night in New York City with a friend who introduced me to Lee Strasberg's wife, Lee Strasberg had died so it was the widow of Lee Strasberg, her name was Anna Strasberg. 

Lee Strasberg was the most acting coach in the world right, he was Al Pacino's acting coach, along with Marlon Brando, Sophia Loren, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, the whole list. 

So I sat down and had dinner with her and I start asking her questions, "How do I be the best, how do I do this, how do I train? What do I do?" 

And she goes, "You know what, you ask a lot of questions. I'm going to put you together with Al Pacino, you've heard of him?" I go, "Yeah, I heard of him." And so I was at Al Pacino's house within like a week.
 
Shawn Stevenson: Incredible, that's crazy. That's nuts. 
 
Bo Eason: And I just said to him, no different than I would in the same scenario with your son and Jerry Rice, I just said, "Hey man, I want what you got. Can you tell me how to get it, what you got, I want to take your mantle. How do I do it?"

Because I knew how to work Shawn, but I didn't know exactly where to put that work. And he goes, "Okay, Bo, I'll tell you but that's going to be 15 years." And I go, "That's cool because I work great in those kinds of timelines."
 
Shawn Stevenson: Been there before. 
 
Bo Eason: And basically he told me the same principles that I would have told anybody who wanted to be the best safety which is, "Your body is going to have to be on a stage performing more than any other human being's body in the next 15 years. And if you do that, if you do that, you'll be standing on top." 

And that's exactly what I did. I just did exactly what he said. There's one thing that I had control over, I didn't have control over the way I looked like other actors were handsome, are more talented, or had more experience than me. 

The one thing I had was I know how to show up for 15, 20 years and put my butt on the stage for more hours than they would. That's it, the same thing as being the best safety. So that's what I did. 

And then after 15 years passed, I was on stage in New York, performing my play, that I'm the only guy in, and AL Pacino sitting right there in the audience. And we make eye contact and I'm like, "Shit, that's Al Pacino right there watching me perform a play." 

And he just gave me a nod, we made eye contact, he gives me a nod, and that was it. I mean that's what things take, that's what mastery takes. The bad part is, the sad part is people just want to skip all those years. 
 
You know, they just want to skip it or just go, "Yeah, I do want to be the best receiver in the world but can we get it without putting in the 15 years? Can I get?" I'm like, "No." And then they'll go, "I want to be the best stage performer int he world, can I skip those 15, 20 years?" "No, you can't." And that's just how it goes. 

So these timelines that people have just have to be broader. Most people, especially in this world that we live in, it's just so quick, everything's so fast, you get instant gratification, everything is at your fingertips. 

But mastery has not, and that's the one thing I love about it. No one will compete with you when it comes to those kinds of timelines, they just won't, they'll eventually go away. 
 
Shawn Stevenson: It's a lot of room out here, you know. Listen, just having that experience and being able to absorb the information from, again, the best, when you want to be the best you seek out the best. 

And a lot of household names, these major actors have been in your audience and you decided to share this gift with the rest of us and just these different insights and the training and all those things you've put a lot of this into the book. 

And so we're going to talk about more of those insights right after this quick break, so sit tight we'll be right back. 
 
Shawn Stevenson: Today we're in the midst of a new revolution with our understanding of food. We used to just be focused on this macronutrient paradigm, proteins, fats, carbohydrates. 

Carbohydrates and proteins got a pretty good name, but fats were drug through the mud. Why is that? Because it's called fat! All right, the name implies something different than the other two, because when we hear the word fat we think about fat on our bodies. Fat in food and fat in our bodies are two totally different things. And it's like thinking, "If I eat blueberries I'm going to turn blue," when you think that eating fat is going to turn you fat, it just doesn't work like that. 

And any of those 3 macronutrients can actually put fat on your body if you eat too much or the wrong types.

Healthy fats which I'm proposing that we start to call lipids or even energy are incredibly important for every single function in your body, your cells, every single cell in your body, we have upwards of 100 trillion cells that make you up, require fats to just maintain the integrity of your cell membranes. 

We're talking about the thing that holds your cells together and enables your cells to communicate, it's very important. Also your brain, your brain is mostly fat and water, this is why fats are so important when you're deficient in fats, especially the right kinds of fats, you can see some big issues. 

So in order to address that, some of my favorite things today are MCT oils, and specifically if we look at emulsified MCT oils that actually taste amazing, and these are medium-chain triglyceride oils that are extracted from things like coconut, palm, and these medium-chain triglycerides have a thermogenic effect on the body which means they are able to positively alter your metabolism. 

That's number one, a thermogenic effect from MCT oils positively altering your metabolism. Number 2, MCTs are more easily absorbed by your cells, so unlike conventional food of any type that has to go through a pretty arduous process of digestion, turning that foodstuff into you stuff, MCTs are able to go directly to your cells and provide almost instant energy. 

And number 3, MCT oils are very protective of your microbiome, there's so much research today about the importance of having a healthy microbiome and the integrity of our gut. 

MCT oils are one of those things that help to support that because they are especially effective at combating viruses, parasites, bacteria, there's so much good news that is able to be found in these MCT oils, but you want to get the good stuff. 

And for me, that's why I go to onnit.com/model. That's O-N-N-I-T.com/model to get the emulsified MCT oils which are like a coffee creamer. These are great to add to your coffees and teas, smoothies and things like that to get in a little bit of extra flavor plus all the benefits of MCT oils. 

They're easy to stir so you don't have to throw everything into a blender just to get a nice coffee drink, but also they taste good and they make the process of being healthy fun and enjoyable. 

So head over check them out, they got vanilla, coconut, cinnamon swirl and strawberry, it's one of my favorites. 

So go to onnit.com/model for 10 percent off your entire purchase, not just for the MCT oil but all of the health and human performance supplements that Onnit carries and all of their fitness equipment, gear and so much other cool stuff. 

Alright, head over there, check them out, Onnit.com/model, now back to the show. 
 
Alright, we're back and we're talking with Bo Eason about his incredible new book, There's No Plan B For your A-Game, and if anybody knows about this and becoming the best in the world at something is Bo Eason. 

And before the break, we were talking about a little bit of your experience and interacting and absorbing some of the insights from some of the best in the world, and you yourself becoming the best. 

And one of the things that I wanted to talk to you about, and this is in the book, this is a direct quote, there are many quotes that I have. You said, "There is no gene for working to bring something rewarding into existence. There is no inherited talent for discipline." 
 
And you were talking about people's reservation of diving in and working hard basically and you say there's no gene for that. So nobody else has an advantage, you just need to step into that arena?
 
Bo Eason: Yeah. I think our world is so stuck on and media talks about this all the time and being an athlete or a former athlete, and my kids being athletes, when I watch shows like ESPN or sports television, they're always talking about, "Oh, he's a natural/ she's gifted. They got the genes, you didn't." 

They're inferring that the audience didn't get these genes, right. And so they'll take somebody like a Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan and they'll say, "Well they got the tall gene and they got the basketball gene and you didn't." 

There's no such gene. There's no such thing, but what it does it gives people an excuse not to work as hard as Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant. They give you an out. And I think that's a really bad message to be sending, there's no gene for that.

You and I could decide today to become world-class at a number of things and we could achieve it before we die, we could achieve it in the next 20 years. I think that's the only way to live your life is to take your life into 20-year chunks and go, "I'm going to be world-class at this thing by the end of these 20 years." 

And just live your life in those little increments instead of going, "I just don't have that acting gene, I can never be a great actor." Or, "I just don't have, I can't throw the ball." There's no such thing. 

I just think it's a way out for us to be lazy and not put in those 20 years of mastery. So I mean that's what I think about that stuff and people often push back and they'll go, "Oh Bo, shoot, I don't have 20 years." 

And this will be like a 20-year-old person saying this to me. I'm like, "Okay, so you're going to be dead by the time you're 40, is your prognostication, that's what you're telling me? Because you're telling me you don't have 20 years." 

And they go, "No, but I want, I'll be alive and I'm 40 but I'll be old." Actually, no. You can actually achieve world-class if you want it. It's up to you. I just think this whole gene thing, this whole natural thing like, "Oh, you're a natural I'm not, you're a natural I'm not." 

That just, I think it lowers the bar in our world too. And you notice the people who say that stuff, it's the ones who could have done it and didn't. They're the ones who say that the ones who promote this word called, "He's a natural you're not," they have the ability to be that great too, they just decided not to. 

And so they use this excuse, "Oh, he's a natural, my family is not made like that." You can look at biology, the first rule of biology is competition, we know how to compete, you and me are here because our ancestors knew how to compete and survive, that's the only reason we're here. 

And dinosaurs, they're not here, they were bigger, they were faster, they were stronger than us. They could do everything better than us except adapt because human beings, we know how to adapt and we know how to adapt fast. 

We're really great at that. So therefore whatever we choose to be the best at we can achieve it in this lifetime, we've just got to run some miles and put ourselves in demanding situations so then we have to adapt. 

And no one wants to do that, because guess what— adaptation is not comfortable, it's a struggle. So everyone goes, "Well, I like when things are easy." And then our world, our culture promotes this ease, they promote ease and luxury. 

And I'm like, "Why don't we promote struggle and hard work when we have a better world? Wouldn't a lot of people achieve this greatness instead of promoting mediocrity all the time? 

It would be a lot better place to live." And then the bar would get raised higher and higher and higher instead of it going lower and lower and lower. 
 
Shawn Stevenson: Yeah, that's facts, that's what's actually happening. One of the words you use also throughout the book is "commitment" and when people are saying, for example, they come to you and say, "Bo, I want to be in a committed relationship," you ask, "How are your commitments doing in other areas?" How does that translate?
 
Bo Eason: Yeah, because commitment is the new cool, right like remember when cool was cool like I remember watching Happy Days when I was a kid and they had the character name Fonzie and he'd go, "Hey," and he was cool. 

He was cool because he was distant and he had a cigarette and he was like cool, that used to be cool, right. 

That's not cool anymore— commitment is cool because commitment is attractive. You ever notice, I just remember this feeling or this sensation happening when I was single.

So when I was dating, I remember being attracted to a certain girl and her not being attracted to me as far as I know, right. And then I met my future wife, I met Dawn, right. And I go, "Oh, she's the one I'm marrying her."

And I remember this distinctly happening as soon as I was committed like, "That's the girl forever, that's my wife forever". All the sudden the girls I didn't think were attracted are now attracted. 

Bo didn't change other than his commitments like I didn't get better looking, but I became more attractive because my commitments were attractive to those girls who I didn't think were attracted in the first place. Do you understand? 

So commitment is attractive, that's why you can never take your eyes off of people who are fully committed to whatever they're doing, even like you look at— if you're watching the Olympics and I'm always taken by the little girls, they're so young 13, 14-year-old gymnast, and regardless if you're a male or you're a female, I dare you to try to take your eyes off of those little girls while they're competing. 

Now, when they're not competing you can kind of dismiss them, you can kind of look away and you can take in the rest of the world, but when they're competing on a balance beam or on a high bar on a floor exercise, I dare you to try to look away. 

You can't look away because all you see is the commitment, all you see is even though they're 13, you see over half of their life has been dedicated to this one moment in time. 

Since they were 6 or 7 and they've sacrificed everything, they had to sacrifice the prom and dating and food at times and freedom, and they've dedicated to this balance beam for this one moment, you can't look away from that. 

Now think about that in your own life, people go to me, "Bo, I want to be in a committed relationship." So the first question I ask is, "Okay, let's talk about your commitments, what are you committed to?" 

And they go, "Well, nothing. I'm totally free." And I go, "Well, no wonder you are not in a great relationship." Because no one's attracted to somebody who is cool and free and who has no responsibilities. But you can remember a time when that was cool, that was kind of attractive. Right? Not anymore. The attraction is attractive, commitment is attractive. So my single friends, I always say to them, "Get committed, watch what happens." 
 
Shawn Stevenson: That's powerful. I love those examples too. Another thing you did was you reframed this terminology "hard work" which is changed as well. 
 
Bo Eason: Yeah. 

Shawn Stevenson: Because for me even when you mentioned in the book I conjured up this thought of like we're in the hard hat, you know what I'm saying, I'm at the construction, site, you know, the jack hammer, whatever. But you have redefined it and really brought forth what it really means. So let's talk about that. 
 
Bo Eason: Yeah, it is. I do use the word "hard work" but I made sure in the book— that I preface it by saying, "Hey I'm not talking about digging ditches". I'm not talking about doing work you don't want to do; you're talking about them the most precious work there is in the world which is bringing your vision into existence. 

That's the kind of work that you can do 12, 13, 15 hours a day and you don't know you've worked! You're tired, you need to recover but you're like, "Damn, I'm a recovering back at this." 

Because you love it, because it's your vision and your expression. One time I was on a stage, Shawn, and it was a big stage, it was like with a prominent dude. 

And I was up there and I was new to the world, the stage world, and I'm up there and I'm talking about hard work like it's the greatest thing ever. 

And after I came offstage the guy who owned the stage came up to me and he said, "Bo, hey, you can't say that you used the word hard work, you use that term a lot." And I go, "Yeah, that's what it takes." 

And he goes, "You can't use that with my people, they don't like that word, we've polled it, we've studied it". I'm like, "Wait a minute you polled a word you studied a term called hard work and you've found out that your audience—" it makes me laugh. "You've found that your audience doesn't like that word, so you don't say it anymore?" 

So if they're going to be the best in the world just if I can eliminate hard work they can still get there? We cannot get there, okay, it's not going to happen. 

And so now I have just found out on that day that hard work has this negative connotation, much like a competitor or competition has kind of a bad connotation these days; or domination, or the word predator, all these words that I love what they mean, I love what they really represent. 

And I use them in the book but they've been turned upside down by our culture to mean bad things. These words have been flipped upside down. 

And I think the word hard work or struggle is part of that. I remember my son when he was like 5 or 6, I remember instead of reading him like fairy tales to bed I would read him like great books from like Daniel Coyle, I would be reading the "Talent Code" to him. And I remember this sentence in the "Talent Code" it said, "If you have an interest in being world-class, then struggle is a biological necessity." 

And I remember reading him that over and over nightly, when he was 6, 7, 8. And now it's he's memorized it so that struggle is not a bad word to him, struggle is a biological necessity if you're interested in going all the way. That's how I think of these words. Because I just think the culture has really flipped them. 
 
Shawn Stevenson: Absolutely. You made the statement in the book something to the effect of once you decide to be the best, you just guaranteed yourself a bunch of obstacles. And when I read it in that context it was just like that's a good thing, that's a really good thing.

Bo Eason: Yeah, that's another word, right people, "Oh I hate obstacles." "Oh really? Well." When I was 9, I was just a kid right, so I am walking around the neighborhood throwing rocks at windows and stuff doing the stuff we did, right? Not a care in the world, not an obstacle in the world. 

And then I made this declaration— I'm going to be the best safety in the world. And I'm just a 9 year old just created a bunch of obstacles for his life. That's the only way to get better, are obstacles. 

Because they fortify you, they make you strong and they're of your creation. So that Bo, the 9-year-old could have gone, "I think I'll just throw rocks at windows for the rest of my life, and I'll have no obstacles except the police," that stuff will come eventually, right? 

But I had this carefree life. And then I set a bunch of obstacles in place in front of me which fortified me many years later to be strong, fast and be elite at what I wanted to do in my life. 

So obstacles are actually necessary part of the game that you're playing, and I'm the one who created those obstacles, I didn't have to have them, I created them. 

And so if I created them, I could move through them, I can circumvent them, I can hurdle them I can go on to them, I could overpower them. 

And I'm going to get my butt kicked too, it's going to happen, it's going to happen a bloody nose is going to happen, a few knee surgeries are going to happen, it's all part of the process but it gets you to a place in your mind where you're unstoppable because regardless of the injuries, regardless of the bloody noses, regardless of the naysayers that you can achieve whatever you want to achieve for the rest of your life, not just football, whatever you choose. 
 
Shawn Stevenson: Yeah, oh man, I love it so much. So in the book, you break it down into these 4 stages: declaration, preparation, acceleration, and domination. 

And a lot of things we've discussed thus far are hitting those 2 areas in a big way and you dive in even deeper in the book. But acceleration and domination, let's talk a little bit about that and maybe cover some key points and what to look towards. When I heard those words they really were exciting for me personally.
 
Bo Eason: Yeah, me too. I love those words and acceleration is really about— I've always, I've been infatuated speed my whole life. I've been around really fast people in my life, I've always loved it, I always wanted to be fast and worked really hard to be fast. 

And it was just a huge advantage, Shawn, if you could outrun everybody on the court and you knew it, and you could outrun everybody on the field you had a huge advantage. Because you can move faster than anyone else, you had a huge advantage, you knew you had the edge to win that particular competition. 

So I've always been obsessed with it. Acceleration is a huge part of speed. Here's the truth about speed— so if you take Usain Bolt, right, that's the fastest human being ever to walk the face of the earth. 

He's not just the fastest man in the world, he's the fastest man in the history of the world. So think of how many people have been on this planet? 

That freaks me out when I think about that. A good buddy of mine is a guy named Leroy Dixon right so he's my son's speed coach and my daughter's. Great dude, he's the 7th fastest man in the history of the world, so he's beat Usain Bolt 3 times and won a championship against him in the 4 by 100 relay. But he's the 7th fastest of all time. 

Now Axel and I just went to a movie with Leroy 2 nights ago and we train with him every week. And when you see him he just looks like a regular dude, right? But man, when he moves, he moves.

So when I'm around Leroy I'm always asking him about speed and he says this about Usain Bolt— so you Usain Bolt can't run faster than Leroy, and I'm like, "What do you mean?"

Even though he's the fastest man of all time and Leroy's the 7th fast man, he goes, "What you're seeing is an optical illusion, he can't run faster than me but he decelerates at a slower pace than me." Isn't that cool? 

So think about that for a second. So if you and me are racing Usain Bolt right now and we start off of the blocks and we're pretty even; you and me are going to decelerate at a faster pace than he is. 

You can only hold top speed for a few yards which are like, I think he reaches a speed of like 32 miles an hour, some crazy like that, but he can only hold it for a few yards. So far that's what the human body can do. 

And then everybody starts decelerating. So when you see somebody passing, when you see Usain Bolt passing all those guys at the end of the race and then break in the tape and winning, he's not passing them, they're slowing down faster than him. Crazy to think about, right?
 
So think about acceleration in this way— think about being the best in the world at something. 

So if you and me want to be the best— pick a subject, violin player, if we want to be virtuouso violin player, which is totally doable for you and me in this lifetime, if we choose that we got to stay healthy enough, long enough, vibrant long enough to train all those hours at something that a lot of people have a head start on us with. The violin, you play the violin?
 
Shawn Stevenson: Absolutely not. 
 
Bo Eason: Yeah, me neither. So you and me are going to have to bust our asses and science has proved this over and over, this isn't just me talking about this. That we can reach virtuoso status at playing the violin but we have to be healthy enough and we have to get the, and you know better than anyone, we have to get enough sleep. 

You know the one thing that separates the greatest violin players in the world from the second tier? You know what it is?
 
Shawn Stevenson: What is it?
 
Bo Eason: One hour of sleep a day more. 
 
Shawn Stevenson: Incredible.
 
Bo Eason: Isn't that crazy?
 
Shawn Stevenson: It makes sense though. 
 
Bo Eason: Isn't that crazy? 5 hours of sleep a week more than the second tier. That's it, they all have the same hours of training, isn't that wild? 

This is why I like to use the word acceleration, because you and me, if that's our commitment which it could be, we have to decelerate at a slower pace than everybody else, meaning we have to be the healthiest, we have to be the best at recovery and we have to be able to train the hardest with the greatest violin coach. Wild, right? 

That's what acceleration is all about, it's not that you're passing everybody, it's that they're decelerating because guess what they're going to do, guess what everyone else who's got this commitment of being the best violin player in the world, they're going to go like this— 

"Oh man, I worked hard yesterday, I am just going to phone it in today. I'm not going to practice deliberately, I'm not going to put myself outside the comfort zone. I'm going to stay up late maybe have 3 beers and a pizza." 

And now you and me got him. Because now they're decelerating and you and me are decelerating at a slower pace than them. And given year after year after year after year of that acceleration you and me are standing at the top. That's cool, that's a cool life, that's a life worth living, like an honorable life. 

I think instead of those 5 guys that I think about every day, who are great dudes, I love them, great dudes, but one day they at the end of their life, they might even feel this today, I don't know, is they have to sit with regret and go, 

"Damn, that little sucker, he was smaller than me, he was slower, he wasn't as tough as me. He just didn't quit, he just hung in there, he just didn't decelerate at a faster pace than me." That's it, that's a cool life. So that's the acceleration piece. 
 
The domination piece that you asked about, and a lot of people will go, "Bo, you can't say the word dominate or domination," I'm like, "Why? That is such a great word?" 

I never am talking about dominating other people, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about dominating your own shortcomings, dominating the space that you occupy. You dominate what your vision is. You dominate yourself.

It's never, like even when you think of domination you think of 2 boxers or 2 MMA fighters who were badasses and they are in the ring and it looks like they're trying to dominate one another.

In reality, for them to get in that ring and be a world champion, think of their own mind that they had to dominate to even reach that level. 

Think of their time that they had to dominate, think of the space they had to dominate, the nutrition, the sleep, the recovery, the coaching, the training, they had to dominate their own mind to be able to get there. 

And now they're in the ring, expressing that domination. And when those 2 great dominators meet each other it's a beautiful fight, it's something that we all, it's an art form. 

That's what I mean by domination. And I also mean this. What I have found every time I attempted to be the best in the world at a thing, regardless of the discipline, what I found is that a bunch of people came with me and a bunch of people helped me. 

I didn't do it by myself, never, a bunch of people helped me, people that you would never think would help you came out of the woodwork to help you, to help me. 

And then a bunch of friends and like-minded people kind of saw me doing it and it goes, "Well if he's going there, I'm certainly going there too, because he doesn't have any more talent than me, look at him," or whatever. And they came with me. That's cool. 

When you start to dominate your own space that you're in, what you find is that it raises everybody that wants to go. 

Now some people will exclude themselves for sure, like some people may be in competition with you in the podcast space right and they either compete with Shawn they go, "Shawn's good, I want to raise my level to his, or I want to surpass him." Well that's good for Shawn, and that's good for the world, but most people don't do that. 

They go like this, "Shawn is good I'll never catch him, forget it, I won't even start." And so they've lost before they even began. When they could have had an opportunity to make Shawn's podcast better by competing with you. 

That's a lost art, it's so lost, Shawn, that even the most competitive, supposedly the most competitive people on our planet today, we would think right are the elite athletes right so you go, "Wow, they're really competitive, that's how they reach this level." 

But even them, if you noticed lately trending, what kind of trends in pro sports now is stacking teams. 

So what you tell me what competitor would get every good player in the league on their team, so what they're actually doing is asking less of themselves as a competitor so that they can dominate and win championships.
 
As a competitor, I don't understand that mindset. As a competitor I would go, "They can build their team, I'm going to beat them, I'm going to ask more of myself, I am going to ask more of my teammates around me and let's beat them, these guys who want to stack their teams." 

So I think when that happens, basketball, football, but whatever the sport is that that happens they keep stacking the team, basketball or football goes like this— it slowly ticks down, because the only things that can get better are the competitive things. 

So even our most competitors won't compete, won't demand more of what they're made of, the sport suffers. 

So the only reason Usain Bolt is so fast is he got guys nipping and his heels every day, younger guys coming up and he's fast and he wants to beat Usain Bolt's butt. Which now makes track and field attractive to us, instead of the opposite. 
 
Shawn Stevenson: Incredible. Absolutely, we actually thrive off of it and we don't think about it, this is there in our day to day lives to take advantage of. 

It's so powerful man, again, there are so many powerful insights in this book and just like the switches that we can just flip in our mind and start to live our lives appropriately, which is to be the best. 

And so I'm just grateful that you put all these together for us, I know that it was a labor of love of course to make this happen. And when this is coming out, folks are going to have about a week maybe a week and a half to actually pick up a bunch of bonuses by preordering the book. So can you tell everybody how to do that?
 
Bo Eason: Yeah, that I would do because the people listening now will be pre-ordering the book. So lucky for you, we got a bunch of preorder bonuses, really cool stuff, stuff that we're doing today like walking them through the process of becoming the best in the world at what they want to become the best in the world at. 

And there's guides, the free guides and trainings, and groups that you get to spend time with me and I train you at these various things that you and me are talking about today. Because look, here's the thing— my dad was a regular dude. 

He's a farmer, he's a rancher, he's a cowboy. He didn't talk a lot, but when he spoke, it meant something. And the most vivid thing I remember him ever saying is that I was the best and my brother was the best and my sisters were the best and then all our friends, whoever was around, they were the best. 

And he saw greatness in people that they probably couldn't see for themselves, at least I couldn't see it for myself. The book is written from that place, you're going to be coached from that place by me. 

So all the bonuses lead to that like, I am able to see what my dad sees in people and speak it and tell you have the wherewithal to live it into existence.

And that's all he did for us and that's all I do for the people that I work with and the people who are going to be reading this book. 
 
Shawn Stevenson: Awesome man, so where can people grab those bonuses?
 
Bo Eason: Yeah, they'll go to BoEasonBook.com, and preorder the book and then you've got a bunch of bonuses coming at you.
 
Shawn Stevenson: Yeah, so go do that right now, go pick up those bonuses. You've proven it across different fields and just seeing you multiple times today speaking, there's really nobody better, man, you're incredible. 

The way that shoe move your body on the stage along with the stories that you share and the insights is really something to see. 

And I'm just grateful that you put all this together for us to absorb some of that and to remember who we are. So thank you so much for hanging out with me man, I appreciate it.
 
Bo Eason: I appreciate it, Shawn, thank you, man. 
 
Shawn Stevenson: Awesome, awesome. Everybody, thank you for tuning into the show today. I know you got a lot of value out of this episode and one of the biggest takeaways for me personally was when he talked about along the lines of acceleration is not just what you see on the surface, it's also decelerating slower than everybody else. 

And he mentioned sleep in there, in that context, and in the book even mentions Tom Brady and Le Bron James arguably 2 of the greatest, if not the greatest of all time in their respective fields and sleep is a part of their regiment, so that enables them to decelerate slower than everybody else who's out partying. 

And that reminds me of my son and I, we just watched Baywatch, the other day, the remake The Rock and Zac Efron and Zac Efron his character Brody in the movie he won 2 golds, but on that day when he was supposed to perform and win the third gold predict potentially he was out partying the night before and he ended up puking in the pool during the competition. Super gross, but I like the movie, I thought it was really good. 

But just keeping all these things in context because your performance isn't just about going out and breaking down all the barriers, run in your head and the stuff, there's going to be times where you recalibrate and when you hit these obstacles sometimes they are going to knock you back a few notches, but being able to brush yourself off, readjust, learn a lesson and keep moving forward. 

And so again, definitely pick up this book, it's one of my favorite books of the year, There's No Plan B For Your A-Game, go grab those bonuses, it's BoEasonBook.com, and grab those right now. 

And we've got some epic, powerhouse episodes coming your way so make sure to stay tuned. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it out with your friends and family on social media you can tag me, I am at Shawnmodel and what's your Instagram handle?
 
Bo Eason: What is my Instagram handle? BoEason21. 
 
Shawn Stevenson: At BoEason21. And his son Axel just made a voice appearance on the show. Tag us, let everybody know what you thought of the episode. 

I appreciate you so much for tuning in. Take care, have an amazing day, and I'll talk with you soon. 
 
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