Chasing Excellence

We're exploring why counting how many times we pick up our phone each day matters more than tracking total screen time. By paying attention to that one number — and setting a realistic weekly limit instead of chasing zero — we build awareness of where our time, energy, attention, and money actually go, and we take action toward investing our focus in a life of health, happiness, and purpose, rathe...

We're talking with installation artist Christina Watka , to explore the quiet practice of noticing — meeting life as it is, without judgment, right in the middle of the noise and chaos of raising young kids. Noticing sharpens our awareness of what's actually in front of us, builds the intention to slow down instead of letting ego fill the silence, and moves us toward action rooted in presence rath...

We're exploring two practices that turn scattered effort into focused work - planning the day before it starts, and reviewing it before it ends. By building our plan around what actually matters and asking five honest questions at the close of each day, we create awareness around how we're actually spending our time, intention around what deserves our focus, and action toward days that move us tow...

We're exploring Ted Gioia's idea of "dopamine culture" — how so many parts of life have drifted from slow, traditional pursuits through faster, modern versions into addictive, bite-sized hits of instant gratification. By naming where our attention actually goes versus where we want it to go, we build awareness of that pull, intention to protect the slower pursuits that actually fulfill us, and act...

We're exploring why our modern food environment is insane - and why once you see it, you can't unsee it. With our friend EC Synkowski, author of A Good Nutrition Book , we build awareness around how ultra-processed foods are engineered to be everywhere and impossible to escape. From there, we build intention around the choices that are actually within our control, and action toward a life of healt...

We're exploring how to find real fulfillment inside a job that already gives us balance and security, without needing to blow it all up for something new. By treating our work as a calling instead of just a career, we build awareness around what's already working, intention around where we point our energy, and action toward a life of health, happiness, and purpose - even when the job we have isn'...

We're exploring how to tell the difference between a challenge worth pushing through and a misalignment worth walking away from. By anchoring the decision in whether our values are actually aligned, we build awareness around what's really driving our discomfort, intention around when to work on our mindset versus make a real change, and action toward a life of health, happiness, and purpose - even...

We're revisiting a favorite conversation with Trevor Ragan to unpack his simple equation for discomfort: caring plus uncertainty. When we treat that discomfort as proof we're on the wrong path, we shrink from the exact challenges that build us - but when we see it as a signal that the work matters, we turn it into fuel for growth. We're building the awareness to name what we're feeling, the intent...

We're exploring how to know whether we're building grit or slipping toward burnout when life leaves almost no room for training. By understanding allostatic load and finding our minimum effective dose, we build awareness of what our body and season of life can actually handle, intention around protecting the training we truly enjoy, and action that turns limited time into real progress - without l...

We're exploring why we can't maximize every goal at once, and how picturing life as a Frisbee balanced on a pencil - instead of a seesaw - changes the way we chase what matters. By identifying the 20% of effort that drives 80% of the results across our health, work, and relationships, we build awareness of where we're overextending, intention around the handful of things worth our full focus, and...

We're exploring how to pursue ambitious goals without making our identity dependent on the outcome. By placing the person and the process ahead of the goal, we build awareness around what we can control, intention around the habits and character traits we want to practice, and action toward a life of health, happiness, and purpose - even when reality doesn't match our expectations. Keep Going 🐾 S...

We're kicking off an October Experiment, a shift from one longer weekly episode to short, daily episodes every weekday. Today, we explore why this change matters: showing up with something short to think about each day keeps us focused on today's choices, instead of waiting for one big leap forward. By building this habit of daily attention, we hope to help you build awareness around the small dec...

What if the problem with your diet isn't discipline — it's that you've never learned to think for yourself about food? In this episode, our friend EC Synkowski (author of A Good Nutrition Book ) joins us to explain why calories, macros, and micros — not keto, paleo, or intermittent fasting — are the real levers that decide your results. We break down her Three Pillars Method — the 800-gram fruit-a...

Plateaus, leaderboards, and the real reason most people stop making progress in the gym — we answer the questions you've been too afraid to ask. In part two of our training Q&A, Jamison and Ben explore why fitness follows the stock market (not a straight line), how to use the leaderboard as a tool instead of a verdict, and why the law of diminishing returns is actually proof you're advancing —...

Ever wonder whether that soreness means rest—or push through? If one bad night of sleep wrecks your training? Or whether all those YouTube influencers are right that rep ranges don't really matter? In this episode, Jamison fires community questions at Ben, and the answers are exactly what coaches and athletes need to hear — clear, direct, and rooted in how the body actually works. We dig into the...

What if the single greatest predictor of your health at 80 isn't your cholesterol or blood pressure — but how satisfied you are in your relationships? In this conversation, we sit down with Dr. Robert Waldinger, director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development — the longest-running study of adult life ever conducted — to unpack what 85 years of research reveals about what actually makes a good l...

What if the most important training you'll ever do happens nowhere near a barbell? Annie Thorisdottir and her co-writer Christine Bald join Patrick to discuss their new book, Iceland Annie: The Evolution of a CrossFit Games Legend — five years in the making and built on a prologue Christine wrote before Annie ever agreed to write it. You'll hear why Annie believes character is trained the same way...

Short and sweet this week: Our latest challenge is kicking off today, and we don't want you to miss it. ❤️‍🔥 More information on the Happiness Challenge 🐾 Join us inside the ChaseTracker app 👊 Jump into the Chase Club See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

We’re kicking off our new 21-Day Happiness Challenge — and it's probably not what you expect. Instead of focusing on what you have to be grateful for, we flip the lens: what don't you have that you're grateful to be without? That single shift — from counting blessings to counting absences — sits at the heart of this challenge. We explore how modern culture, the "affluenza virus," and the pull of s...

What does depression look like when nothing in your life is actually wrong? Ben shares his first real experience with depression — not born of circumstance, but of chemistry — and why it changed everything he thought he understood about mental health. In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Rich, Ben's physician and friend, to unpack the autoimmune response that attacked Ben's brain, the treatments...

What if every day you could see — in real time — whether you're drifting or chasing? In this solo episode, Patrick unpacks the rebuilt ChaseTracker app and the foundational framework behind it: drifting is the slow, often unseen move toward convenience, comfort, and conformity, while chasing is the daily decision to organize your time, energy, attention, and money toward what truly matters. Learn...

What if you could assess your mental fitness the same way you track your lifts, your miles, and your macros — with honest data, asked on a regular schedule? In this episode, Patrick hosts Chris Irwin to build a practical self-assessment tool rooted in the Five Mind Killers: a set of diagnostic questions mapped across each mind killer that, asked honestly every three to six months, reveal whether y...

What if the most important question in programming has nothing to do with the workout itself? In this episode, Ben breaks down how to design training that works — whether you're coaching a packed class or programming for a single athlete — and why the answer starts with one question most coaches never ask. Learn why compliance is the real metric, how logistical constraints shape every programming...

Hard things don't get easier when we pretend they aren't hard — they get easier when we stop wishing they were different. In this solo 5x5, Ben answers one listener question from each of the five factors: dealing with a chaotic home situation with a napping toddler, chasing a federal special agent fitness standard, eating clean on the road, deciding whether to have more kids in your 40s, and navig...

How much responsibility do we actually carry for where our teenagers end up — and how much is simply out of our hands? In this episode, we dig into a powerful listener question from David about parental influence, the six factors that shape teenagers, and the three things fathers can genuinely control: modeling, connection, and agency. We explore why control and influence are two very different to...