The secret to becoming more | Joy McAdams | TEDxBocaRaton

[Music] thank you so there's one idea one thought that comes to all of us throughout our lifetime the problem is that only few have the courage to believe it and even fewer have the courage to put in the work to make it a reality this idea this truth is that you You Were Made for More You Were Made for More today I'm going to share with

you the strategies I learned through endurance sport personally as well as interviewing the most elite in the sport yes I'm one of the crazies and I got to know the ones that are even crazier than me I'll share that with you today because I want it to be your more you're going to be able to take the lessons so this thought first came to me when

I was three years old three years old I was tired of sitting on the sideline every night I would watch my dad he would go running I would wait till he got back I wanted to run with him so finally I asked him I was like can you please let me run on your cooldown I of course what dad's gonna say no I started running with

him nightly but I Was Made for More remember soon I asked him told him I want to run a race I was three so I thought 5K 3.1 made sense to me right three three miles and there's an incredible race in the Tampa Bay area called the Gasparilla distance classic it still happens to this day it has various distances and I asked them if I could

do that it has Pirates and all this stuff so you know for a kid that was exciting he probably thought he was going to carry me halfway but he said yes well I showed up that day as a three-year-old ran the 5K without stopping it was a magical day year goes by I'm Made for More remember I remember standing outside the living room door as my

parents were sitting in there I mustered up the courage walked in puffed out my chest and declared to them I wasn't a baby anymore I was four I wanted to run the 15K the 9.3 miles how many Runners do I have in the room 9.3 that's legit that's a legit distance and for a four-year-old well of course my parents their faced like dropped my mom had

Terror on her face but here's what I appreciate about my parents big lesson to parents they didn't shut down my Big Goal they didn't shut me down they set up a series of tests and they said if you can pass these tests we'll allow you to chase your big dream big lesson for parents well I passed the test to my mom's Terror and I showed up

and I ran the 15K that's actually Greta Waits she's a world-renowned marathon runner and that day as you see my dad and I media was there it was a huge deal on the Tampa Bay area we were the last two people two hours and 30 minutes I actually feel sorry for my dad he's the one that had the shimmy step but without stopping two hours 30

minutes 33 minutes as four years old I finished the 15K it was a big deal but here's the thing is it impressive that a four-year-old had the energy to run 9.3 miles how many of you have little kids their energy is balanced that's not impressive at all what was impressive and here's where the lessons start the long-term Focus the consistency the training and now what I

that's what was impressive now I wish I could say that this was the beginning of an incredible running career but the truth was it ran its course I ran it every year Charles 12 but I got introduced to team sports and that's that was just so much more fun until 40 years later 40 years later I'm 44 years old I gotten very involved on LinkedIn and

all through my LinkedIn feed was everything about growth and adversity happens for us not to us get comfortable with being uncomfortable and there I was left realizing that I was in a very dangerous spot I was comfortable again I wasn't growing and for whatever reason I was scrolling back through these pictures and that is when everything I just shared with you hit me and I was

so impressed with that four-year-old I was like man want that mindset and so that was the answer I decided to share with my LinkedIn the Journey of me chasing growth through physical challenge and I had never pushed myself to that extent since that day so I decided to sign up for my first marathon and my motto to this day is if you're gonna suffer let's suffer

in Paradise right so I signed up for a marathon in Hawaii and um Hawaii down I I thought downhill would be easier but if you know anything about running if you don't have a strategy if you don't know what you're doing you're going to be shot by about Mile 10 and that's exactly what happened everything seized up and the next 16.2 miles I learned some very

key lessons that I want you to write down and listen to today number one when you are in pain suffering discouragement what you need is hope to keep going the only way to get hope is to remove yourself from that current situation even if it's just for a minute and picture where you want to be what it's going to look like what it's going to feel

like on the other side that will give you just enough hope to keep going apply that to your life number two keep moving I don't care how slow it is if you stop even for a minute in your life if you feel like man I'm just going through the motions keep going through the motions just don't stop don't stop because when you stop the will to

quit is going to be so strong it'll probably overtake you and then last but not least we won't get into this flawless fails go dark I went dark that Day to a very dark spot but it got me through I finished and on the other side was all the courage all the growth that I was wanting now the story gets better I get on a helicopter

um because I couldn't walk the next day get on a helicopter and um there's two other businessmen on the helicopter and as we were flying over the Kona Coast I was pretty much giving these guys the Ted Talk they were a captive audience that I'm giving you right now about growth and Challenge and the pilot for whatever reason because maybe he was trying to shut me

up I don't know but he's like so what's next joy and Iron Man I had no idea that at that moment the reason he was asking was because we were flying over the Kona Coast which is the swim start for the most iconic Triathlon there is the Iron Man World Championship and so I was like sure that sounds awesome I mean after all I just ran

a marathon until I got back to my hotel room Googled what that was it's a 2.4 mile swim 112 mile bike and then a full Marathon my legs were still throbbing I was like there's no way there's no way I'm gonna do that but I thought you know what I'm committed to this growth this physical challenge I can at least attempt to do a half and

the next couple months were spent crying my way just me and Google I still didn't have a coach figuring out I did show up I did do a half Ironman then obviously you know what's next I knew I had all the tools and strategies that go on I finished my first full by the end of that year in Cozumel Mexico I did the full distance and

here's the big lesson here's another lesson I want you to write down when it comes to challenge there's nothing to fear you replace fear with respect for the preparation that is like crucial respect for the preparation I knew now that I had the tools now here's where it gets good there's a concept called aggressive patience I didn't realize that everything I had been doing I was

acting on aggressive patients aggressive patience is the concept that you don't know what your goal is going to be you don't maybe know you know what opportunity you're even looking for but you're aggressively working on yourself you're aggressively growing yourself so that when those appear you're ready you're ready to take the opportunity so on LinkedIn I connected with somebody else and he was a businessman he

loved Triathlon and he had this idea to to bring the most elite in the sport the pros the world champions the Olympians combine them with age group create a community I was like I want to be a part of that so I was like let me let me create a podcast and be the host for that I wanted to get into that mindset to the next

level and so had I not been all this aggressive patience I would have never been ready to do something like that I wouldn't have been able to step up and talk to these athletes on any kind of level but here's what I wanted to find out from all of them I wanted to know what do they have in common what do they have in common because

if you see them on any given day there's nothing about them that stands out physically it's all here it's all in their mind number one they all describe themselves as stubborn stubborn very well driven okay makes sense number two intrinsically motivated what's the difference between intrinsically and being extrinsically motivated intrinsic means you hold on to your power nothing takes it from you that's the one thing

you can control there's a track workout on the session it's raining it's snowing they're not going to stay inside they're going to go shovel the snow they're going to run in the Rain the weather's not going to take their power from them they own their power big lesson got into the Neuroscience of it there's excitatory and inhibitory messaging going on when your body starts moving the

difference with them compared to most of us is that for us the messaging stops us at a perceived maximal effort that's when we feel wasted when we're done I can't take another step it's just the body's way of protecting you it's only a perceived maximal effort for the elite athlete they override that messaging because of their stubbornness because of their willpower they push themselves to True

maximal effort that's why you'll see them passing out at the end and totally Delirious I've had many a pro that I walked from the Finish to the end the next day there's pictures on social media and they're like Joy I didn't even I don't even remember seeing you they're totally delusional that's how far they push their body so so many things and then here's a here's

an example how does this apply to me how does this apply to business well here's a Harvard Business Review talking about comparing it to businessmen the the common denominator is mental toughness it's not that they're more gifted more talented it's just they know how to manage the pressure and they work the hardest so you're like Joy that's great I'm not interested in getting involved in Endurance

Sports though so how does this apply to me let me close with this story remember the helicopter ride one of the men three and a half years later when I'm preparing I qualified I finally got a coach learned how to swim back and run a little faster qualified for my first full distance Army and World Championship he sends me a message on LinkedIn he's like Joy

do you remember me I was one of the men on the helicopter and he said for the last three and a half years I've been following your journey and it was just the inspiration I needed to lose close to 100 pounds and here's a picture of me with my kids traveling I would have never been able to do the things I've done with my kids had

I not gotten healthy and gotten active thank you and good luck [Applause] [Music]