Chasing Excellence

Is the label "high performer" quietly holding you back from becoming one? In this episode, Patrick unpacks four lessons from the 21-day High Performance Challenge — and makes the case that high performance isn't a status reserved for athletes and CEOs. It's a set of actions anyone can adopt. From Tony Robbins' "musts vs. shoulds" to Kobe Bryant's marathon gym session, we connect high performance t...

What does it actually take to connect — with your kids, your partner, your community, and the strangers you meet every day? In this episode, Ben answers five listener questions on the CONNECT factor, from parenting across different households to rebuilding friendships in your 40s and 50s. You'll learn why kids become what they repeatedly experience (not what you tell them), how to distinguish a va...

What if the problem isn't your program — it's how you're showing up for it? In this episode, Ben and Jamison break down 10 training hygiene habits that can transform your results, regardless of what you're training for, where you train, or what program you follow. From intentional intensity and the recovery-adaptation curve, to learning to breathe, filming yourself, and never negotiating mid-worko...

What if the guilt you're calling loyalty is the very thing keeping you stuck? In this episode, we answer a question from Chase Club member Mike about whether to switch gyms — and it turns out, it's not really about gyms at all. We unpack the difference between loyalty (a choice) and guilt (a feeling), explore the three pillars that make any community worth staying in, and give you a framework for...

What if raising a child well means releasing your vision of who they're supposed to become — and learning instead to see who they actually are? Patrick is joined this week by Christina Watka, an installation artist whose entire practice is built around entering a space without a plan, noticing what's there, and letting the work lead. In this Raise episode, they explore how that same artistic openn...

High performance isn't a talent — it's a system. This week, we bring together three of our most foundational conversations to show you exactly what that system looks like in practice. From the two non-negotiables that underpin every kind of success, to the five specific characteristics we see in every high performer we've ever met, to the seven quiet habits that keep most people from closing the g...

What if high performance at work isn't a talent you either have or don't — but a system you can practice starting today? In this episode, Patrick introduces the 21-Day High Performance Challenge and walks through the five interdependent characteristics that, together, make up a practice for doing the right things at the highest level you're capable of. We connect this system to the Five Factors of...

What does it look like to go from 500 pounds to a CrossFit coach - not out of inspiration, but because fear was the only thing in the room? In this episode, Jamison sits down with Athena Perez : affiliate owner, coach, and author of a two-part memoir about identity, worth, and what fitness spaces get dangerously wrong. We explore how compounding habits shape who we become long before we notice, wh...

Every parent who cares about health eventually hits this wall: your kids don't want to do what you know is good for them — and the more you push, the harder they pull away. In this episode, we tackle Chase Club member Brendan's question about getting his 16-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter to move consistently, despite shared custody. We dig into why the modeling you do today isn't for the te...

What if becoming extraordinary isn't really about your own habits — it's about the habits you build that make everyone around you better? In this episode, we sit down with Jon Gordon, author of 33 books and 18 bestsellers, to explore seven habits that transform ordinary people into the kind of person others genuinely want to be around. We explore how the ratio of positive to negative interactions...

What if your triggers aren't random — they're a map back to yourself? In this close-out episode, Patrick reflects on the 21-day trigger challenge with two reframes that change everything: the tug of war between wants and reality, and the difference between surface triggers (your mental dojo) and the serious ones rooted in your own history. Learn why the fastest road to context-independent peace of...

What if the key to being capable at 75 isn't training harder — it's training more completely ? In this episode, we introduce the Heavy, Fast, Far, and Free framework: a simple weekly approach to strength, power, endurance, and mobility that keeps every fitness bucket full. You'll learn why power declines 10x faster than strength (and why that matters for staying formidable at any age), why VO2 max...

Coaches and mentors aren't essential — but they might be the best shortcut you'll ever find. In this episode, we answer Chase Club member David's question about whether coaches need coaches, and explore how Ben has built three very different mentorship relationships, each running on a different value exchange. You'll learn why reciprocity is the non-negotiable foundation of any real mentorship, an...

What if the reason you keep falling back on old habits isn't a lack of discipline — but a failure of persuasion? In this episode, we sit down with New York Times bestselling author Jay Heinrichs to explore how ancient rhetoric holds the secret to becoming the person your best self already believes you can be. You'll discover Aristotle's three-part framework for identity — craft, caring, and cause...

What if you didn't need a prescription to fix your testosterone — and what if training through surgery was simpler than you thought? In this 5x5 episode, Ben answers five listener questions about training — covering HRT, surgery recovery, rucking, bite-sized movement for busy parents, and the essential home gym stack. 🙋🏼 Ask a question 👉🏼 Get the full Listener's Guide here ❤️‍🔥 Free Newslette...

What if the most powerful thing you can do for your kids' emotional health is regulate yourself first? In this episode of our Raise series, Patrick sits down with Jenna Cain — a pediatric physical therapist, Level 3 Enlifted coach, and mother of two — to explore why the nervous system of the adult in the room determines what's possible for the child in front of them. We dig into why asking questio...

Ryan Rivard went from a homeless overdose survivor at 19 to summiting Mount Everest at 40 — and the most powerful thing he learned is that neither rock bottom nor the summit was the point. We explore how gratitude transforms daily life, why everyone is recovering from something, and why the person showing up at work needs to be the same one your family gets at home. Ryan walks us through the Dodek...

As we age, the Five Factors don't disappear — they shift. And most people wait until something breaks before they start paying attention. Answering a Chase Club member’s question, we break down exactly how to adjust how we train, eat, sleep, think, and connect across each decade of life — and why the most dangerous thing isn't aging itself, it's the drift that comes with it. You'll walk away with...

We're launching a 21-Day Trigger Challenge: a structured daily practice built around five pillars (trigger identification, recovery speed, response vs. reaction, regulation strategies, and self-compassion) designed to shorten the gap between stimulus and choice. Whether you join the Chase Club , use the  ChaseTracker app , or rely on nothing but a notebook and three questions at the end of ea...

What does it actually mean to be fit for life — not just for a competition, a season, or a phase? In this episode, Ben, Cole, and Jamison unpack six foundational principles for anyone who wants to build fitness that serves them today, tomorrow, and forever. You'll walk away with a clear framework for training with sustainable effort, building real-world capability, and stacking weeks and months in...

In the first of our new 5x5 series, Ben takes five listener questions on the THINK factor, covering growth mindset, the Fragmented → Focused → Flow framework, and the distillation process behind the CE frameworks we talk about all the time. You'll walk away with a clear process for building a growth mindset in others, a new approach to retaining what you read and listen to, and a reframe on why le...

What if most of what your kids are learning about emotions isn't coming from what you say — it's coming from what they watch you do? In this first episode of our new Raise series, we explore Doug Earl Johnston's groundbreaking book  Choosing Emotions  — now the single most comprehensive reference on human emotions in the English language — and what it means to parent as someone who choos...

What happens when the coach you hired tells you to do the opposite of what you expected? We dig into a listener's real dilemma — her coach told her to take six days off from training — and explore why the hardest part of being coached isn't the programming, it's the trust. Discover why a great coach's perspective is the single most valuable thing you're paying for, and why curiosity beats judgment...

What if conquering fear has been the wrong goal all along? In this episode, Jim Murphy - author of Inner Excellence and The Best Possible Life - reveals that fear isn't the root problem: the root is self-centeredness, and fixing it changes everything. We explore the "affluenza virus," the three internal adversaries (the Critic, the Trickster, and the Monkey Mind), and why the ego's obsession with...

What's really standing between you and the life you know is possible? In this deep-dive supercut, we unpack nine distractions that quietly pull us off course — from the supplement trap and toxic digital algorithms to the four idols, self-doubt, and comfort seeking. Discover why these distractions aren't random, and how recognizing them is the first step to breaking free. These nine distractions mo...