#34 Amelia Boone: Learning How to Suffer

Since the popularity of Obstacle Course Racing, or OCR, has exploded onto the scene, there has been one woman who has dominated the sport: Amelia Boone. Amelia ran her first race in 2011 after some prodding from a co-worker, and though she says she stumbled her way to an unimpressive finish, she was smitten. She has since amassed over 50 podiums and two dozen victories, including the Spartan Race World Championship in 2013, and the World's Toughest Mudder (three times!) in 2012, 2014 and 2015. Oh, and her 2014 victory came just eight weeks after major knee surgery. Though she vehemently denies it, Amelia is superhuman. This interview is a little different than others you may have heard on The Knowledge Project but no less fascinating. We cover a wide variety of topics including habits, reading, self-reliance, and training. Specifically, you’ll learn: Why Amelia was drawn to obstacle racing even though running was something she despised The complementary connection between her sport and her professional work and how racing has made her a more effective attorney How Amelia fights physical and mental fatigue when most people quit (she even shares a story of how she dealt with a vacant support station halfway through a 100 mile race) What she does to develop grit and resilience so she knows she can rely on herself when things get rough Amelia’s “to-do list” trick that makes sure she’s productive — you’ll want to steal this How a serious injury taught Amelia some of her most powerful lessons about who she is and what’s important to her What Amelia’s parents did to teach her to be self-sufficient from a very young age How she learned to deal with setbacks, and how careful she is with the language she uses when she speaks to herself when things go wrong Why Amelia runs with a Sharpie and the same playlist she’s listened to for the past 5 years How Amelia transformed herself from a casual weekend warrior to one of the most finely tuned athletes in the world Whether you’re an athlete, a weekend jogger, or the only exercise you get is the leisure stroll from the couch to the refrigerator, there are lots of insights and plenty of inspiration waiting for you in this interview. Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:08Shane Parrish?

  Welcome to the Farnham Street Podcast called The Knowledge Project. I'm your host, Shane Parrish, the curator behind the Farnham Street blog, which is an online community focused on mastering the best of what other people have already figured out. The Knowledge Project is where we talk with interesting people to uncover the frameworks you can use to learn more in less time, make better decisions, and live a happier and more meaningful life. On this episode, I have Amelia Boone. Amelia's dominated obstacle course racing since its infancy. She's almost superhuman. A four-time world champion, she's been called the Michael Jordan of obstacle course racing. She's also known as the Queen of Pain, having once said, "I'm not the strongest, I'm not the fastest, but I'm really good at suffering."

• 0:51Shane Parrish?

  In this conversation, we talk about learning, self-reliance, reading, and a little bit about training, and so much more. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

• 1:09Shane Parrish?

  Amelia Boone is here, and she's one of the most decorated athletes in the ultra-competitive and somewhat superhuman Spartan and Tough Mudder races, 24-hour races, 100 miles of running. And when she's not doing that, she's a lawyer for Apple. She offers a real-life example of someone driven by a different motor. I'm pleased to have her on The Knowledge Project for the first time. Welcome, Amelia.

• 1:32Speaker 01

  Thank you, thank you. I'm excited to be here, really appreciative.

• 1:36Shane Parrish?

  Make the case for why, given all you've accomplished, I shouldn't think of you as superhuman.

• 1:43Speaker 01

  The case. I mean, because most people, I think, that would think there's a little bit of crazy more than superhuman. But I think the funny thing is, is I've always just considered myself a very regular person, and that I've never really been a standout all-star in anything. I just happened to kind of find this weird world and capitalized on it pretty early on. But, you know, I was just going through the motions for the first 28, 30 years of my life. And then kind of cha- made a change.

• 2:24Shane Parrish?

  How did you get started in this kind of branch of athleticism? And keep it like they're both super competitive. So being a lawyer and then being this ultra competitive athlete on the same token. Walk me through a little bit about that.

• 2:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I, you know, I, I went to college, I went to law school. I went there with the idea that this was all about academics and this was all about getting the best job I could. And so in college, I, you know, worked my butt off to graduate the top of my class so I can get the best law school that I could go to. In law school, you know, I worked hard so I could be at the top of the class to get to the best, into the best law firm that I could get into. And I got into, you know, one of the top law firms in the world. And I sat around that first year and I go, okay, what's next? Um, and it was one of those realizations where I thought I'd like, I'd worked to achieve that goal and worked to achieve that goal. But then there was something else that was still there.

• 3:23Speaker 01

  And so it wasn't until I was, you know, twenty seven at the time and uh, decided randomly as people do for stupid events to, to run a tough mutter with uh, some coworkers there. And they, we finished and they were like, okay, that was cool. Check that off the list, go back to our lives. Uh, but suddenly I found just this different niche, this different, I think, competitive outlet for myself. And one that I was really bad at, I mean, my first race that I went out there, I remember falling off of every single obstacle and being like, really Amelia, really? You used to, you used to do monkey bars all the time when you were a little kid and you can't even hold your body weight up? And I think it kind of at that point in my life,

• 4:08Speaker 01

  reignited this fire of this new challenge of this new thing. Um, and it, it created a life of its own.

• 4:17Shane Parrish?

  What's it like going from an extremely mentally challenging job to this physical sort of release when you're training, or you're running, or you're racing? And how do they complement each other?

• 4:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, I used to think that there was no tie between the two. I remember at first, when I first started racing, I used to think, no, one's completely physical, and this provides me the outlet that sitting at a desk all day long doesn't provide me. But the more that I realized, and the longer that I've done it, I've realized that actually many of these races, and especially because I'm geared towards the really long distance races, they're way more mental than they are physical, especially at a certain point. They say in a 24-hour race, you know, you're gonna run, the first half of the race is physical, and the second half of the race is completely mental. And there's so much strategy and triage that involves and goes on in these races, kind

• 5:18Speaker 01

  of like in day-to-day and work as an attorney, and things come up, or, and anyway, it doesn't matter if you're an attorney, in any situation, you have to be able to adapt on the fly when things go wrong. And that's really what all these ultra-endurance events are about, because it's not if things are gonna go wrong out there, it's when things are going to go wrong out there. And the people that succeed in them are the ones that are able to address the task at hand and work through that. And so I think that I've found more and more that I've continued to do this, a very, very distinct connection between the two areas of my life.

• 5:55Shane Parrish?

  Can you give me an example of something that, like, you're 50 miles into a 100-mile race, and you have to work through, and what does that look like to you personally?

• 6:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I think, I mean, there are a number of things that come up, but for instance, if you have, I was in a race about two years ago, and I realized that I, at certain points in the race, you had drop bags, so you would have areas where you would store, store your supplies and your nutrition in advance, and then you, you plot that carefully out to kind of know, like, okay, if I need to change out shoes, or I need to change out socks, like, what am I gonna do? And I remember I got to this aid station, a sixty mile aid station. And I didn't have, I screwed up my drop backs. So I basically just didn't have anything at that station.

• 6:48Speaker 01

  And I was like, I don't have my nutrition. I don't have the shoes that I was gonna change into. And at that point, you start, your entire race plan starts to crumble. And you start to think, oh, God, oh, God. But then I realized, like, look, like, it's not, there's nothing in that that you can't work through. So, yes, I don't have the nutrition that I was planning on. But this is why I train, you know, long distance, sometimes fasted runs to know that your body can get through these things. And it's just so you kind of adapt. And I'm like, okay, well, I don't have my nutrition for the next ten, fifteen miles. So I'm gonna have to take it a little bit slower. Gonna have to make sure that I don't get into that zone of bonking. And so you just kind of readjust your race plan.

• 7:33Speaker 01

  And it's little things like that that happen all the time, or things with injuries. And you swear that a situation will pop up, but all of a sudden, your left knee is hurting. And you think, oh, God, I've really done something wrong. And then five miles later, you're fine. I just kind of talk through it in my head. And I say, okay, what is hurting right now? How can I change this? Can I change my gait? Can I slow down and walk? Can I stop and stretch? And it's just all those, kind of the little micro adjustments that you make.

• 8:04Shane Parrish?

  So that's where you are today when you're racing. Were you always like that? Like, after that first race and you went into the second one, were you as mentally prepared? Or as strong, maybe, as you are now? How did you develop that?

• 8:18Speaker 01

  It's like any skill, it's definitely, it's, it's practice. It's through habit and it's through repetition. I think that initially, I was very, very.

• 8:29Speaker 01

  Kind of volatile and all over the places in races. And when something started going wrong, I would scream and cry and, and think, oh, this is the end and et cetera, et cetera. So it is definitely something that the more you expose yourself to, uh, the, the better you get at it, like anything. And I think that's also why something, a lot of these ultra endurance events, you don't see them dominated by, well, this is changing, but you don't see them dominated necessarily by like very young kids. So the 18, the 20 year olds who are probably are way vastly physically superior to those of us in our mid 30s or 40s.

• 9:13Speaker 01

  You see in a lot of these events, actually it's people more seasoned in their late 30s, in their early 40s. You can be a dominant ultra runner into your mid, late 40s. And I've seen that a lot because it comes through the mental practice and that repetition and just knowing that you can adjust instead of freaking out.

• 9:37Speaker 02

  This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Good times mean competitions between you and your friends, like seeing who can throw some pigskin the farthest or rush the field the fastest. Winner gets an ultra because it's not just a superior light beer. It's also giving fans superior access to their favorite sporting events. Superior is worth playing for. Visit michelobultra.com/superioraccess to enter. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 Anheuser Busch InBev Michelob Ultra Beer, St. Louis, Missouri.

• 10:05Speaker 03

  Running a small business means I wear lots of hats. When I put on my hiring hat, I can count on LinkedIn Hiring Pro to make it easy. LinkedIn Hiring Pro helps manage my hiring workflow, puts my job post in front of a unique network of professionals and matches me with the best candidates for my business. I can also share my job with my network. No other job site lets me do that. No wonder most small businesses say they'd use LinkedIn Hiring Pro again. Hire right the first time. Post your job for free on LinkedIn today at LinkedIn.com/quality.

• 10:36Shane Parrish?

  Have you ever freaked out when you're running?

• 10:38Speaker 01

  Definitely. I mean, I've been in races where I have been in situations where I just, I, I mentally shut down. I was in, there was these races that are now defunct, um, for a number of reasons, mainly liability, uh, but they're, they're. They were called the death race. And it was a race that's very hard to explain, but you never really knew when it started. You had a general idea and you didn't know when it ended, but they generally went about like seventy two hours. You're out there in the woods doing various tasks. It was a very mental combination, so you'd have to say, carry a bag of cement up a mountain and then at the top memorize a Bible verse and then run back down and then recite the Bible verse to the volunteers that were sitting there.

• 11:22Speaker 01

  And if you got it wrong, you had to do it all over again. And so it was a kind of a combination of all of that. And I remember in one of the races, we were about forty eight hours in and I had to carry this log up this ravine. It was like gushing water and it was just very dangerous. And at some point I just sat there and I just sat down and I'm like, no, I can't do this. I will not do this anymore. But I let myself in that moment, like take ten fifteen minutes, sit with it, let it pass, and then realize like all you have to do is just take the next step. Cause when you start to look at the entire macro picture and you get overwhelmed and

• 12:03Speaker 01

  that's the key in all these races that I've always found is just, just focus on the next singular step. I never look at the distance. I don't wear a watch that tells me, you know, how many miles or how long I'm into something because that's when you start to get overwhelmed.

• 12:20Shane Parrish?

  So that perspective, does that carry over to work as well?

• 12:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think so. Um, I think that it definitely, I always am focusing on just like the mini little tasks. It's kind of one of those things, like if anybody sets to do lists, one of my favorite things to do is write a to do list and put something on there that I've already finished so then I can just cross it off, you know?

• 12:44Shane Parrish?

  So you get that feeling of accomplishment?

• 12:46Speaker 01

  Exactly. It's just gaining that little momentum of something that, okay, if I can just get this done, then I'm already on a roll.

• 12:57Shane Parrish?

  Is it hard to see yourself just with this like, what does my next step look like? Like right in front of left versus? How do you map that to these goals where you you want a podium? You wanna be the best at what you do?

• 13:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, this has been an interesting relationship, I think, that I've kind of developed over over the years and realizing

• 13:20Speaker 01

  that where you are going to start to falter and where I have fallen down in races is when I start to run somebody else's race. And and those are the situations where somebody's going out much faster than me. Oh, I should keep up with him instead of trusting that I actually know what I'm doing out there.

• 13:40Shane Parrish?

  Right.

• 13:41Speaker 01

  And and so it's very tough sometimes, and especially in a very long race, where you'll be going out at a much slower pace because you say, okay, this is how I do it. I'm I'm a closer and I'm a finisher. I gained my speed and my momentum in the last twenty thirty miles as opposed to the beginning. But you see somebody else executing a different strategy. And the situations where I've blown up have been those situations where I've tried to follow them. And it's a tough thing to do because you know, you don't you don't. It's not always going to be successful for you to go out there and and and do your own thing. But I've always said that I don't care. It doesn't bother me if somebody else beats me on any given day.

• 14:26Speaker 01

  Like it that does not bother me. What bothers me is when I make mistakes and I beat myself. And I've found that most of the time that I do that is when I'm when I don't kind of stick with what I know and kind of focusing on that internal compass.

• 14:45Shane Parrish?

  So you're really racing against yourself?

• 14:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think so. And I think in in in so many ways. And I've also I've also come to realize as well that winning, as motivated as people are to win, as motivated as athletes are to win. You see so many people winning races and so miserable and unhappy at the same time. Or you see people who are sitting at the top of their profession and you think, man, you should be happy. But you realize, and as I've realized is that it's never going to be enough just to win a race. It's never going to be enough just to be sitting at the top because you think, you think at some point, like, once I get to X point in my life, once I have achieved this, then I will be happy and I will have made it.

• 15:33Speaker 01

  And it's just so not true. And so for me, racing has really turned into just the love of the entire process. And the love of getting there and working through those really long, hard situations. And if the results follow, great. Um, but if they don't, it's not as tough for me anymore because I realized like I just love the process of getting there.

• 16:00Shane Parrish?

  Was it always like that for you? Or did that come about through some injuries or like, how did you land on that?

• 16:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think, I think deep down, I always kind of realized it. But I allowed myself to stray from that. When I started having success, um, and thinking that, and really, when I started to have success through winning, and then thinking that that was the end goal and that was all that mattered. And so I started to get fixated on it, you know, it's like, the more you win, the more you have success, the more you feel the need to stay successful. And you're so scared of falling from that. And it actually took me, it was, I was injured for a year. I ended up with a, a stress fracture in my femur, quickly followed by a stress fracture in my sacrum.

• 16:51Speaker 01

  So I was off of running and competing for a year. And it forced me to really step back and take a look at myself and say, okay, who is Amelia Boone? Outside of racing, who's Amelia Boone outside of being an athlete? Which is kind of a funny question for me because I didn't grow up an athlete. You know, this was an identity I didn't have until I was about twenty eight years old. But suddenly, in a span of five or six years, I clung to it as my soul identity. And stepping back through that, I realized that the winning was and doing well and success

• 17:30Speaker 01

  was a great challenge for me and I enjoyed the competition and I enjoyed getting there, but it was also making me miserable. And so I think having to step back from that and reframing and understanding and really kind of looking at like where that all came from forced me to reprioritize.

• 17:48Shane Parrish?

  So many of us get driven by that. We we want to be the best in whatever our respective field is and then we accomplish that. But we're unable to kind of step back because then your identity becomes wrapped up in winning and your ego starts to play with you and how did you get the, was it the injuries that gave you the ability to kind of like step back and give you that perspective? Or were you able to do that as you were going through this and be like, okay, well, winning is not uh, you know, it it's not giving me this thing that I need and what gives me this thing I need is the journey.

• 18:24Speaker 01

  I don't necessarily think it was the injuries because to be completely honest, as I as I sat there on the sidelines for a year, all I could picture was coming back and, you know, crushing it again and and getting to that point again and standing on top of that podium again because I was if something was taken away from me and so I was singularly focused on getting back to that. It was actually the humbling process of once I was healed and able to start training again and start racing again. And realizing that that amount of time off had really dinged me as an athlete to be better. I mean, it takes a long time to rebuild. But I decided to go out and race anyway and to kind of check my ego

• 19:07Speaker 01

  and realize that it's just, it's it's all a process. And so it was actually for me was getting back out on that race course. And, you know, getting my pants beaten off like and then just and not doing well. And realizing actually that It wasn't the end of the world.

• 19:26Shane Parrish?

  Hmm.

• 19:26Speaker 01

  And that that wasn't that some of the races that I had this past year were actually were my worst finishes ever. Were the most memorable to me and because I've realized that the the times that I can focus on and the times where I felt joy and felt fulfilled and felt happiness. Were not the times after a race where you would be standing on a podium or where you had that great victory. They were times when I was out there in the middle of misery at three AM with fellow competitors like breaking through the ice thinking what are we doing just laughing and it was it was those kinds of moments shared with other people.

• 20:09Speaker 01

  And I realized that that's I mean, that's really what it's all about at the end of the day.

• 20:14Shane Parrish?

  Do you think that makes you less competitive or more competitive?

• 20:17Speaker 01

  You mean that mindset?

• 20:19Shane Parrish?

  Yeah, yeah. Does that make it more likely that you're going to accomplish a podium? Or or do you think it makes it more like like are they mutually exclusive? Or do they drive each other? I don't know. Talk to me about that relationship.

• 20:32Speaker 01

  I don't think so because I actually think that sometimes the more that you I actually think it makes me more competitive as an athlete to then not be fixated on the results. I think that when people are able to step away from that end goal as the end all be all. That's when you actually really start to thrive. Because otherwise it's very and it's true and with any any goal you set in life and and I always try to you know, make this people realize that this is applicable well beyond athletics is that if you get completely fixated on the outcome. You're going to sit there and drive yourself nuts trying to achieve it and beat yourself up if you're not achieving it.

• 21:15Speaker 01

  Um, and I think in a lot of ways that's really self sabotage. I think that's why you see people always say the cliche things. It's it's hard to get to the top. It's even harder to stay there. And I think that's because once you're at the top, people start to self sabotage. Um, so there's kind of a great freedom in the whole being the underdog and kind of a great freedom and. Learning the mindset that the results don't matter, but I don't think that's something that is definitely a learned to practice. I don't think that anyone can just be like, "I don't care about results anymore." Because, I mean, we're all high achievers and that's a huge lie. What it is, I mean, we care about results. But what it is, is choosing consciously

• 22:00Speaker 01

  to focus on something. You can focus on the results, but like making an effort to to always kind of check yourself in various points of the process. And when you start to get overly fixated on one thing, then to bring yourself back in.

• 22:20Shane Parrish?

  When you're out running or you're competing, you're alone. I mean, nobody owes you anything. Talk about entitlement and self-sufficiency.

• 22:31Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah. So I have had a major, I don't know, problem, but I think in this, in our world today, we see so many people that you feel like you have a right to something, or that someone should help you out. And I was raised, my parents are phenomenal, phenomenal. I had a phenomenal childhood. I had, you know, fantastic upbringing and I thank them so much for that. But it was one of the things they told me very early on is like, "You can't depend on anyone in your life except you." And I understand that that sounds very

• 23:13Speaker 01

  cynical and can sound kind of very lonely, but I think it's the ideal way to function, is that if you want something, people will help you on the long the way, and that's great, and be grateful for that, but you can't expect it to happen. And I see so many things in our world today where it's like, well, but I should get this because so and so and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But it's not that way. And so what I always choose to see the world is that if somebody helps me, that's phenomenal and that's great. And I'm, you know, and I give back and I am appreciative, but I'm not going to sit there and expect it. And that it's always going to be on me. And it's that self responsibility and, and

• 23:58Speaker 01

  kind of just self sufficiency that I've always prided myself on is that I think that's all we can ask as human beings for ourselves and then to help others is to first be self sufficient and be able to take care of yourself. And that's really what it comes down to for me.

• 24:16Shane Parrish?

  Did your parents have actions that, that reinforced that when you were a kid? Like, is there a message for parents that are listening to this interview, uh, that want to make their kids more or less entitled and what they can do or what you think that would be applicable?

• 24:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, and I will say this with a big caveat that I don't have kids. So take this with a grain of salt. But from my experience, what I think my, there are many things I'm very grateful for my parents for. First of all, starts with that we didn't have a TV really growing up. Um, and so I was forced to read all the time, not forced to, but I mean, that was, that was what I did. And I was a voracious reader and I read everything and anything. And I, so that was number one. Second is definitely that as soon as we, as soon as my sister and I were able to work, um, we were out there getting jobs. And, um, even before, I mean, my first job ever was mucking out stalls when I was

• 25:16Speaker 01

  six years old in this barn where we kept, um, my mom and sister had a horse. And to pay for the horses boarding at the barn, we worked kind of not as farmhands, but a stable help to muck out stalls and to take care of the different horses. And so I remember being six years old and given a wheelbarrow and my mom saying I got 25 cents for stall. And I'm sitting there, six years old, wheeling around this wheelbarrow full of sawdust and, you know, horse poop and, um, but feeling pride in that accomplishment. And so we never got new things and we never, you know, got new cars and we never had any of that. It was that if you wanted to buy something, you got a job and you worked for

• 26:01Speaker 01

  it. And I worked through high school. I worked all throughout college. I worked through law school. And, um, I, I really am thankful. And I know I whined and complained at the time that my friends were getting things that I wasn't getting, but I mean, I, I, it was the best thing ever that they could have done for me.

• 26:21Shane Parrish?

  And in your, your corporate and your racing experience, do you feel like that that is a, um, a common belief that people have in terms of the self-sufficiency? Or do you feel like people are prone to entitlement to the point where it, it impacts not only their happiness, but their ability to do things?

• 26:44Speaker 01

  I feel like the people who are the most content and therefore kind of, I would say, the most successful in it are the ones that, that don't have that entitlement. And I, you know, I'm in a sport where there's not a lot, there's little money, there's very few sponsorships. And so you don't see a lot of entitled athletes and especially in ultra running, you know, it's very under the radar. It's, it's, it's not on TV and people run a hundred miles to get a bell buckle, for God's sakes. You know, like there's an, there's a no, there's, there's very little ego in it. And so I think that that's partly

• 27:25Speaker 01

  why I was, why I was drawn to it. And so there is a lot of self-sufficiency out there, but you see it start to creep out and where people start to think, well, but I should get so and so because I've been, you know, this successful of an athlete. And, and luckily, because it is still such a small community, there is kind of a A social norming effect when people's egos start to get out of control. And so it's kind of the checking by the social shaming of those folks that I think really keeps people in line.

• 28:01Shane Parrish?

  Can you talk to me about how you you prepare and deal with the setbacks? I know the last year has been particularly challenging and I think you have like a $60,000 pinky finger.

• 28:15Speaker 01

  Yes, yes, my my finger is titanium, so.

• 28:19Shane Parrish?

  Talk to me about how that's been going from, I think you podiumed six, six or seven years in a row. And then last year was a particularly challenging year because of these injuries. How do you, how have you learned to deal with these setbacks?

• 28:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think I keep telling myself that like anything, it's also practice and learned behavior. But I'm not gonna lie, it doesn't necessarily get easier.

• 28:48Speaker 01

  I still have the same, you still have the same reaction to any time that you feel like life kicks you or brings you down, or you have an injury, or you have something that prevents you from from doing what you love. What's changed is actually how I've talked to myself about it, the the language that I've used myself, and then how I, how I react to it. And so, for instance, I, the first time that I was ever had a long term injury, I would sit there and I would start to beat myself up over the fact that I was upset. Or I would beat myself up over the fact that I was injured. And then I would get upset over the fact that I was upset that I was injured. And so it was like this nasty,

• 29:34Speaker 01

  like nasty vicious cycle of self-flagellation. Um, of is what I would call it. And the only thing, and I think that so many of us get caught into that, in that repeatedly beating ourselves up for our mistakes, and then beating ourselves up for feeling a certain way. And so one of the things that I've started to do with all setbacks is really just to start to speak kindly to myself and to be more gentle with myself. As a type A, very perfectionistic person that.

• 30:09Speaker 01

  I've had a lot of nasty, negative self-talk that I've never really realized um or understood for a long time. And I was one of those people who people like, oh, you should change your language and how you talk. I'm like, oh, that, you know, I was like, goofy crap that I don't really understand or deal with. And that's that's not at all my thing, you know, I was like, I don't really feel like I need to change my language. Um, but I realized as soon as I was started to be gentler to myself and to just kind of recognize that, okay, this is how you're feeling. It's not good nor bad that you're feeling this way. It's just is what it is.

• 30:51Speaker 01

  And this is just a feeling and it isn't who you are. And going through that entire process, um, dealing with the setbacks has been very helpful for me. And that I credit a lot to picking up an actual meditation practice, um, which I never really had beforehand. I would always say the excuses, oh, running is my meditation. Like, I don't sit still and I and I still believe that running is a great form of meditation for me. It's where I get all my best ideas. It's where I, you know, do the majority of my thinking and planning for the day. But actually being forced to sit still and to think about these things as well has definitely helped.

• 31:33Shane Parrish?

  I find that meditation is an enabler of so many other things. People look at it as, uh, you know, this cost of time. Uh, but it facilitates so much of what comes later. I really empathized with your kind of your self-talk because I'm incredibly hard on myself. Uh, not only in my expectations of myself, but in terms of the language I use on myself or with myself. And I've always wondered if that drives me or if it limits me or to what extent where am I on that continuum? Um, because part of it does drive people to be better. I mean, it's facing reality and dealing with

• 32:15Shane Parrish?

  you know, maybe things that you've done that you could have done better. And then part of it is, you know, you're, you're switching yourself into this negative mindset. How do you, how do you think about that?

• 32:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, I actually, I, I've had the same kind of struggle and and battle in my head about that as well. But for me, what I've also realized is that I've And this is a recent change that I've really kind of a practice that I've tried to instill. Is that I've always kind of thought of these negative parts of me or these negative thoughts as as demons or things to banish or things that are limiting me. But instead recognizing that actually, if I look at the past thirty four years of my life, just how old I am. That these thoughts and these processes and the way that I have worked and have actually contributed to my success.

• 33:07Speaker 01

  So the way, you know, for even though people may say that it's it's bad or it's a bad part of you or something to be banished. Actually, it's done pretty well for me.

• 33:19Shane Parrish?

  Yeah.

• 33:20Speaker 01

  And so, and so the idea is then to acknowledge that that self-talk or these habits have have done, have, you know, provided me a lot. But that doesn't mean that I have to stick with them and that doesn't mean that I that I can't change them and try something new. And so it's kind of like, thank you. Thank you for being there. Thank you for what you have enabled me to do. But like, I think it's now time to try something different, you know, and you aren't in this isn't bad. This isn't a bad part of me. But like, you've served your purpose and now I'm gonna try and see if I can find a different way.

• 33:59Shane Parrish?

  I like that. It's like this notion of what got you here is not gonna get you there.

• 34:04Speaker 01

  Right, exactly. And I think also just to to realize that I think so many people are like, oh, and I especially this around the time of year of New Year's is like, this is what I want to change. This is what I want to do away with and this is my nasty habit. But I think that people rarely give thanks to those parts of themselves because that's what's brought you a lot of success in a way, even if you think it is something that's limiting. Um, it's it's a function, it's of, you know, it's it's part of who you are. Um, and once you can be appreciative of that, then um, you can actually start to change it.

• 34:36Shane Parrish?

  I I like that a lot. Talk to me about some of your your habits that you think make a huge difference in terms of not only your happiness, but your ability to manage two incredibly successful careers uh, and do so much.

• 34:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, I am a big believer in routine and um, and really just in making things. I get asked a lot, like, how do you? So I get up around four AM. And um, I get a lot of people say, how do you do that? And how do you train? And how do you force yourself out there every day? And like anything, it's just, it's repetition. But I've realized that I function best early in the mornings and that people are totally different. So my number one thing is for people is to realize where is your kind of golden hour of the day? And mine actually is before the sun comes up. And so I can get up and that's when I train. And that's actually, you know, I know that at that hour of the morning, I'm not going to have work obligations.

• 35:35Speaker 01

  Whereas if I wait till the end of the day, then you never know, things bleed over, you get stuck at the office, et cetera, et cetera. But then also, you know, like that's just when I get up and I'm ready to go and I'm productive and I am super productive through the first, you know, eight, nine hours of the day and then I start to crash later on.

• 35:53Shane Parrish?

  Right.

• 35:54Speaker 01

  And so it's capitalizing on that and, and recognizing that everyone has a different rhythm. And so that's been something that's been really, really useful for me and just in, in honoring that and knowing that if I need to be super productive, then that's when I'm, that's when I'm going to get it done. And then I can't, I can't try and, you know, draft a very complex contract at seven o'clock at night because my brain's already shutting down.

• 36:24Shane Parrish?

  Right.

• 36:25Speaker 01

  In a sense. And so I think that that's, that's been really something that's been important to me in terms of, in terms of habits and routines.

• 36:35Shane Parrish?

  Can we geek out on that for a second? Like, do you eat the same thing every day? Do you, like, how far does this habit and routine go?

• 37:12Speaker 04

  The new LinkedIn Hiring Pro can't undo your last hire. The no-show. Who set you back because they didn't show up on day one? Or day two? Or ever again? And now your product launch is delayed because you're talking to alien abduction podcasters to track them down. But LinkedIn Hiring Pro can help make sure your next hire sticks. In fact, businesses who use LinkedIn are 24% less likely to reopen a role in the next 12 months. Hire right the first time with LinkedIn Hiring Pro. Post a free job today at LinkedIn.com/quality.

• 37:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, I don't, well, it is very kind of automated when I get up and, and then I have my coffee and then I do the same kind of warm-up exercises before I go out for my run. And I generally run about five days a week right now. And so, and even on the mornings that are, even on the days that are rest days for me, which is a habit I recently included that I didn't for a very long time. But it's the same, I do the same process. It's just that I'm not going out to the trails. Instead, it's, I've realized like, okay, well, then I'll go to the gym and sit in the sauna. So I feel like I'm doing something, kind of replacing that. And I think that's very, very tough, especially for athletes that are super type A. And they're like, oh, I can't take a rest day.

• 38:28Speaker 01

  I can't take a day off. And I'm like, well, just do the same routine, but just shove in something else. Like go to a coffee shop for those hours where you would be training or go sit in the sauna as I do. So that's all, the first, you know, the, the eating and everything like that in the early mornings is very automated, for sure. And I think that that, you know, you take out, you take out the decisions. And I think we, and a lot of people touch on the thing that the less decisions, the fewer decisions you have to make every day, the less brain space it takes up. And so, yeah, there are certain things where if you just kind of automate it, it frees up so much time to focus on other things.

• 39:11Shane Parrish?

  What do you listen to when you run or work out? Like, are you listening to audiobooks? Are you listening to music? Uh, is it the same song on repeat? Like, is it nothing? Is it just you and this silence and this internal monologue?

• 39:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I have um, a little iPod shuffle that I listen to. And it's actually has had the same songs on it for probably about five or six years.

• 39:37Shane Parrish?

  Oh, wow.

• 39:38Speaker 01

  Um, I was probably the only person upset when Apple discontinued the shuffles. Uh, because everyone's like, who uses a shuffle anymore? And I go, I do. Um, but yeah, so I listen to music um, when I run. But the music is kind of almost like, I don't actually really even hear the music. And a lot of the times, I've talked about a lot, is that I'll be kind of like, I'll hit a song and then just repeat that song over and over and over again. And so even though the music's there, I'm not really focusing on it. It kind of serves as background noise for me to then think about other things.

• 40:16Speaker 01

  Um, and that's just how, you know, I've, that's for some reason, has always been something that's very therapeutic to me. It is very kind of meditative.

• 40:28Shane Parrish?

  What sort of things do you think about when you're? I don't even know, like, I get up at four AM, but I definitely don't go running. So, I mean, like, what sort of things do you think about when you're on a four or five hour training run? Right? Like, you know, you do more before most people get out of bed, then.

• 40:48Speaker 01

  Yeah. I, so that's actually where I do the major, I, I blog occasionally. Um, I, I'd like to write more than I do, but I do a fair amount of writing. Not all of it suits the light of day. And I do most of the writing in my head when I'm running. And then I then I will, you know, after the run and sit there and then write down what I was thinking about, because otherwise it'll just vanish out of my head. And I don't really run with a phone ever, so I'm not going to stop and run and and take down notes of things that I was writing. I do sometimes run with a Sharpie. And so then I'll kind of jot down things on my arm as I'm going if something if something kind of comes along.

• 41:30Speaker 01

  But I worked through a lot of problems actually out there. And I don't force things. I kind of it's whatever kind of comes to my head of something that I need to think about and then devote some time to it. And then move on to the next thing. And then sometimes it just honestly, you just kind of zone out. And it is that people say, oh, is it a runner's high? I don't think if it's a runner's high. It's more just if you've ever meditated and got into a zone where just nothing comes to your brain, then then it's kind of that state, I guess. And that for me is like the ultimate kind of run. It's almost kind of a blank mind.

• 42:10Shane Parrish?

  One of the questions that I really want to ask you, and I can't figure out a way to fit this in. So I'm just going to come out and ask it right away. Which is like, what do you fear?

• 42:21Speaker 01

  Yeah. Okay, so here's a funny, I'll answer this in a roundabout way. If you'd asked my parents when I was five years old, the answer is everything. Amelia fears everything. I was that kid, and I was petrified of I couldn't like sleep over at my friend's house because I was afraid of, you know, like my parents' house burning down or something totally random. I had completely I had so many fears and so many phobias. And so it was very kind of when I started to sign up for these races and these long 24 hour races,

• 42:59Speaker 01

  it was so out of character for me and for what everybody in my family and my friends knew about me. And I think that it was actually through doing a lot of these races that I started to work through a lot of these fears and being fearful. But Honestly, the one of the big things that I fear is not being able to do what I love. And so and that that is why injury has been such a hard thing for me. Um, is because you you fear the loss of something being taken away from you. And I think that so many people in life are driven by that fear of loss.

• 43:38Speaker 01

  And that's that's why we set up structures like we do is that we are so afraid of things being taken from us or losing. Um, but so and and not losing in the scheme like losing a race, but losing something, losing connection, losing a loved one, um, losing a relationship. And so those are things that I are still that I still have to work through and I and I work on. And for me, really kind of addressing those has been in reframing how how you term that loss. Cause sometimes that loss then opens up space for something else to come into your life. Um, and that's that's really been a process that I've been working through these past few years.

• 44:24Speaker 01

  And I don't have the answer. It's still it's still a it's still a, you know, an ongoing, uh, ongoing journey for me.

• 44:31Shane Parrish?

  Are you still a big reader?

• 44:33Speaker 01

  I am a big reader. It's not as much as I want to be anymore. Um, I I I I actually have gotten back into reading. It was something that I brought back in my life about two years ago after, you know, a few years of just of kind of putting things to the side. But yeah, it's and it's actually been something that has been a huge, huge benefit to just set aside time to read. Cause I used to do it all the time and I stopped for a long time. So.

• 45:05Shane Parrish?

  When do you read?

• 45:06Speaker 01

  I do. So I now set aside about thirty minutes to an hour every night before I go to bed to read. And I don't force myself. Like if I don't feel like reading, I'm not going to sit there and be like, you read, Amelia. Um, but that's generally how I thought, yeah.

• 45:24Speaker 01

  It's like, it's like, you know, designated study hall time or something. Um, but so I that's I generally read every night um before I go to bed and then mainly it travel. I travel, I'm on planes a lot. I look forward to planes. I do my best work and my best reading on planes because I never get wifi.

• 45:46Shane Parrish?

  Hmm.

• 45:46Speaker 01

  And I absolutely love it and it gives me a huge chunk of time to be able to read, um, to be able to write.

• 45:54Shane Parrish?

  So, so you, you have very, you know, firm obligations and very two, two very complete lives. What might actually be full time lives for other people, you fit two of them in and you read. How do you sort, there is a million books published each year. How do you sort through what you read?

• 46:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I a long time ago, not a long time ago, I think it was when I was probably in college. Um, I decided I was going to read every book on the list of like the hundred greatest novels that everyone should read in their lifetime. And I don't actually know where that list came from. I think it was, I don't know if it was Time or like The Guardian. It was, it was by no means a definitive source, but it was some like hundred greatest classics everyone should read. And I started doing that in college and working my way through. And so I still, when now, if I don't have something like in my, if I, if I don't have a book, like that's really calling to me, then I'll go back to that list and be like, okay, what have I not hit on there?

• 46:55Speaker 01

  Um, but I do take, I have a running list, I have a running like note on my, um, on my phone of books that people mentioned that come up and I just, when, when people say something like or recommend it, like I'll write it down. And so, I mean, I've just, I probably have two hundred books that are sitting there that are waiting to be read. And then kind of when I need the next thing, I will take a look at that and be like, ah, that strikes me. Cause I go in waves of, do I want to read something fiction? Do I want to read a novel? Do I spend a long time doing solely nonfiction and now I'm trying to get back to more into the novels. Um, so yeah.

• 47:30Shane Parrish?

  Why is that?

• 47:32Speaker 01

  I think that.

• 47:36Speaker 01

  Reading, when I was young, reading for me was always not an escape, but an ability to kind of like journey into a different world. Um, in into the novels and into that realm. And I think in my life, like there, and I think right now in in society, we are so connected. And everything is, you know, you can get instant access to to world events, to everything going on. And at some point, it's like you kind of want to back away from that. And so it's kind of, and so for me, novels, getting back into novels have been has is an opportunity to to live in a different kind of world for a bit.

• 48:20Speaker 01

  And um, I think that that's something that is underappreciated uh, in this day and age.

• 48:27Shane Parrish?

  So as a uh, self-described, you know, type A personality, when you're reading a nonfiction book, how do you actually read that? Do you read from cover to cover? Do you uh, jump around a bit? How how do you process that?

• 48:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, I read, so I generally, one of the greatest, most freeing things that ever happened to me was when I gave myself permission to not finish a book. Um, and I used to think that if I started a book, that I needed to read all the way through it. And if I didn't, then I was just a failure. And once I realized that there's nothing wrong with putting down a book that's feels like a slog, um, then I've then I've kind of, you know, repurposed that. I generally read cover to cover, um, unless it's a book that's that's, you know, very chapter specific and you can jump around. Cause there are some times where if I'm reading a book, nonfiction book about athletic performance

• 49:23Speaker 01

  or sports psychology or something like that, then I'm only really focused on one area. So I'll jump straight to that and I don't feel bad about that. Um, but yeah, it's it's generally cover to cover and I don't try and overthink it either. But do definitely have no qualms anymore about putting books down.

• 49:44Shane Parrish?

  Talk to me a little bit about that. That's really interesting. The not the putting the books down, but the learning aspect of this. I just kind of thought about this. You you went to from not having competed in a particular sport, not having any friends in it, to dominating that sport. How did you learn how to train, compete, to tune your body? What was that process like?

• 50:07Speaker 01

  I think, to be honest, I think that's the the part of the sport that got me so excited and got me involved because there was no roadmap. When I started out with obstacle racing, I mean, it was the it was a brand new. People wouldn't even call it a sport. We didn't even know what to call it. We were calling it adventure racing. I mean, we there wasn't a name for it. And there was no roadmap. There was no way to train. And so I had the opportunity to kind of write that quote unquote, book and to to to find out and to try different things and to learn. And it was all through trial, trial and error. And I think that that's what appealed to me. Whereas opposed

• 50:52Speaker 01

  to people will get into triathlon or things like that. And, you know, okay, well, this is you have to do a brick workout, and this is how you do it. And this is, these are the, you know, the the certain ways, and this is your, your schedule. And everything was so planned out. For me, it was the the challenge in in learning the best way to go about something that nobody had any idea how to do. And that was was really drew me in there.

• 51:20Shane Parrish?

  How did you learn? Was it sheer, like brute force on your part? Or was it like, oh, I'm gonna seek out and talk to these people, and I'm gonna read these, the these books that might offer me tidbits, and I'm gonna craft my own plan? Like, what did that look like?

• 51:34Speaker 01

  Honestly, it was it was really just trial and error. I found that for a very long time, I didn't, so I didn't run with a watch. I didn't know what a tempo run was. I didn't understand the different training. You know, I didn't come from athletic background. So there was almost this ignorance is bliss kind of thing. And just going out there and not knowing anything. And kind of having freedom from all of those inputs. And I've actually found is that now it's it's almost harder because there is so much input coming in. This is how you should train and this is if you're not doing it this way and then you're doing it wrong and this is the best exercise for so and so.

• 52:18Speaker 01

  Whereas when I first started, there was none of that. And it's actually has driven me bonkers to the point where like I've started to actually disconnect from a lot of that and just to go back to this was where I started with all of this and how and like and it worked for me. So stick to that. As opposed to listening to all those inputs from other people about what is the best way to do something. Because I think that no, no two athletes are the same and one training plan isn't going to work for everyone. And so mine may be a bit more unconventional and a bit different than what the standard. You know, the the standard thinking is now.

• 52:59Speaker 01

  But six, seven years ago, there was no thinking like that. So just to ignore that.

• 53:05Shane Parrish?

  But finding your own path is part of like what you you self described that as like finding joy in that. Like that was part of the appeal to it. That doesn't necessarily exist today, right? People, there's tons of resources on how to train, how to compete. There's there's tons of people like you to reach out to and be like, hey, can you help me? Would you still go about it the same way, knowing what you know now? Or would you try to more optimize that?

• 53:30Speaker 01

  Honestly, if if I was starting out now, I don't actually even think I would get into it. Because I think that there was already, you already have this roadmap. And I think that you already have this way of comparing. So for me, it's always been about what I've realized and come to accept and recognize is that I like the new challenge. I like the unknown. And um and I like something, I like the challenge of where there is no map that's been written. And so for me, like if I, I it's like, it's like, okay, well, what's the next thing now? What's the thing that no one else has conquered that that people don't understand? Um, and then to try and and to learn that.

• 54:15Speaker 01

  Um, so I I it's interesting to think about for sure.

• 54:20Shane Parrish?

  Do you set goals for the year? What's your personal process for like accomplishment?

• 54:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, I I do not set goals. Um, I don't set resolutions. Uh, but I do kind of focus on themes. Um, so I will every kind of year review. Review what happened or or what I took from that and then and then try and apply that into my life going forward. Um, and so I think this entire past year for me was kind of like reconnecting with racing and rediscovering joy. Um, and and understanding that and and what I realized from that from racing and and actually finding joy in it again.

• 55:06Speaker 01

  Is that part of that joy was is is about for me is. Writing my own, you know, marching to my own tune. And um, to do that, sometimes you have to be bold. And you I have to say, okay, well, this is what everybody wants me to do as an athlete. But it's not necessarily what I'm being drawn to right now. So I'm gonna go off into this direction and having the ability to say that and to recognize that and realize like that's okay. And so for me, I'm now like saying, okay, well, this year, the idea is. Like as part of that capitalizing on that joy is to be bold and go in my direction and have that self-confidence. And so that's kind of what I do on a on a yearly basis.

• 55:50Speaker 01

  Um, I have goal races. Um, but I try to not get too. Fixated on the actual race itself. Um, cause as I've realized, as I've realized, the joy comes from the building up to that race and the getting excited about it, you know, it's kind of like when you go on a trip and you get super excited before you're on the trip and everything and then you get there and you're like, okay, this is cool, you know? It's not, it's always the anticipation and.

• 56:15Shane Parrish?

  I like that a lot. That's shared with a lot of extremely successful athletes in um, sports that I've talked to and it's across the board is that, you know, the day to day, the grind, the, the preparation, you know, when you go out for a race, that's, you know, that's one single event, but it's won or lost in a way during the week, the training, the preparation, the mental.

• 56:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, and I think that, I think it's the most, you know, the, the best athletes are the ones who enjoy the daily grind. And I honestly discovered this past year that I could train and train and train and train and rarely race and be happy as long as I was training, you know?

• 56:54Shane Parrish?

  Oh, that's interesting, but could you train without having a race? Like, would you still have the same sort of maybe competitiveness or drive that would make you get up at four, or not make you, but you know, get up at four AM to go run for five to six hours?

• 57:08Speaker 01

  Absolutely, I absolutely, because I, the racing is kind of the icing on the cake, but for me, the joy is found in, in the day to day. And the, like, if it was four to five hours on a treadmill, god, no. But I've realized that a lot of my, you know, it's the trails, it's nature, it's me being out there, kind of by myself, clearing my head, seeing beautiful things.

• 57:30Shane Parrish?

  Well, let's time shift for one second here. It's sixty years in the future. Uh, we're having a conversation telepathically, probably. Uh, talk to me about what you want in your life. What is your, what does your life look like at that point? What, what made you happy?

• 57:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, um, man, so how old am I? Mid nineties, phew.

• 57:52Speaker 01

  Hope I make it that far. I hope I'm walking at that point. I I hope I'm running.

• 57:56Shane Parrish?

  Are you still racing at that point?

• 57:57Speaker 01

  I know, I know. I actually, that's one of the things that I've that I've taken a step back to to realize is that like I want to have longevity as an athlete. And when I'm in my seventies and eighties, it would be amazing to still be out running. Um, and I do know people at that age who are running races still.

• 58:16Shane Parrish?

  Oh, that's awesome.

• 58:17Speaker 01

  Um, but I think for me, it's really, it's about relationships. And um, in my life at that point, it's it's really about building those connections. And it sounds weird coming from a person who spends hours a day by herself training. Because I realize that that's actually a very selfish act. But what has always kept me coming back to sport um, is really the community and the connections that you build. And the reason that I love really long races is that it's less about you individually, you know,

• 58:55Speaker 01

  and less about pure physicality and more about the connections built out there on the course and among the community. And so those are the relationships that I really cherish. And um, so for me, it's it's really about sixty years from now. Like, what have I given um, to others? And how am I relating to others? And um, you know, I think that in the in the day, we all just want to be surrounded by people that we love and that love us. And um, that's so hopefully everyone, I mean, I assume at that point, we'll all be living to one hundred and fifty anyway, so.

• 59:41Shane Parrish?

  It's okay. You'll still be putting us to shame by getting up at four and running like fifty miles, right?

• 59:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 59:48Shane Parrish?

  Do you do you ever have days when you just wanna like give up and sit on the couch and watch Netflix? Like, wh- what do you do when you're exhausted by by all of it? I was exhausted just researching you going like, oh my god, like, I don't feel like a lazy person very often, but I'm like, oh, I feel so lazy right now.

• 1:00:09Speaker 01

  So this is I people may want to shoot me for saying this. I never, I don't really get tired. And so and I don't have never had a day where I just really am just like, screw this, I don't wanna go for a run. I just, I just wanna sit on the couch all day. To me, that sounds like the worst torture in the entire world. Um, and I think what's really driven that is that because I was kept away from training for a year or so is that every single time that I go out for a run that I'm able to train, it's an act of gratitude for me.

• 1:00:44Shane Parrish?

  Right.

• 1:00:45Speaker 01

  Like, I am just so over the moon giddy to be able to go out there and do something that makes me happy. And so focusing on that, um, you know, just just drives me, drives me through it. Um, and so I guess that maybe that's something that keeps me that keeps me going. May- maybe at some point I'll hit a wall and I'll be all out of gratitude, but I hope not.

• 1:01:10Shane Parrish?

  Oh, hopefully you just get more of it, right?

• 1:01:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:01:13Shane Parrish?

  Wh- what do you, what do you have to give up? There's an opportunity cost to this, right? So what are you sacrificing to live this way?

• 1:01:20Speaker 01

  I sacrifice, I, to be honest, I sacrifice a lot of my relationships. And that's, as I said, it sounds funny when I say in sixty years, like, what do you want? And I say, people around me that I love and and that, you know, share time together. Because I realize it is a very selfish act. Um, and I don't get to see my friends, my family as much as I'd like to. Um, it's harder for me to.

• 1:01:48Speaker 01

  You know, go, all of my vacation time is taken up by racing. So I don't necessarily have time to go vacation with friends or to go do other ventures that aren't related to racing. Um, so there's definitely, you know, that there's that part of me that I haven't really figured out. And I found a lot of connections and, and relationships through, you know, the athletic world and whatnot. But I definitely, you know, sometimes have that guilt that creeps in um around family and friends and, and things like that. And, and you know, I give up work happy hours and things along those lines that, but instead if I, you know, have to train early the next morning and whatnot.

• 1:02:32Speaker 01

  But I think there's a balance. I mean, I don't think by any means that I'm singularly focused on one thing to the detriment of others. Because when people say like, I don't have time, it's not that they don't have time. It's just that it, you know, is it, it's just not the first thing on their priority list. And so I say, I say, for instance, oh, I don't have time to make my bed. Oh, no, that's not true. I got plenty of time to make my bed. It's just not a priority for me. Um, so I think it's just what you choose, what you choose to focus on for sure.

• 1:03:09Shane Parrish?

  Do you talk to yourself that way? Like, I, I find it really helpful when people confront that reality. And the reality being like, I'm choosing not to do something because I'm placing something else as more important versus like, I can't do that.

• 1:03:23Speaker 01

  Oh, absolutely. And it's, it, to me, it goes a hundred and ten percent like, I own, I own my, my faults. I own my weaknesses and I own things that I am really bad at, you know? Like, I don't, for instance, I'm an awful cook. I'm a horrific cook. I will burn down the house with anything. If I really wanted to, I could take the time and learn how to not burn my eggs. But it's just not a priority for me. And I will admit that maybe at one point in my life, it will be a priority. And that's the thing is that I don't think that it's necessarily a bad thing. I think, I think people can do.

• 1:04:03Speaker 01

  Like two things pretty well, like if you look at like work, family and extracurriculars, like you can probably nail two out of three of those. It's when you try and like do really well at like all three of those. Um, that stuff starts to like go by the wayside. But that doesn't mean that you can't have it all. It's just that your all is gonna shift at different points in your life. And um, you know, and your priorities are gonna shift. So I don't really have a problem with with owning that. There are some things in my life that I just don't put at the top.

• 1:04:37Shane Parrish?

  Yeah, I I think that's part of what makes people su- successful, right? Is that they they make those trade offs between I don't have to be good at everything. I wanna be really good at a few things and I realize that that ha- comes with a cost.

• 1:04:51Speaker 01

  Right, exactly.

• 1:04:52Shane Parrish?

  You you had an interesting habit as a young child, which was uh, you collected quotes. Can you tell me about that? When did that start? What does that look like today?

• 1:05:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, I the the quote started with me and my reading habit. Um, so I'll never forget, you know, we were enrolled kind of in the the summer reading a library, lo- local library reading programs. And I remember like reading sixty books in a summer or something like that. And I was probably got in like third or fourth grade and I would just take quotes from books that really kind of stuck out to me. And I would, at that point, I mean, there was really no computer stuff. And so it was all just written down in a notebook. Um, and then as I got older and um, I was heavily involved in music as well and very much so. And that lyrics really talked to me.

• 1:05:43Speaker 01

  And so um, I then switched to when lyrics would grab me, I created a document that had all the lyrics. And then that also put in all my book quotes. And um, unfortunately, you know, back in the day when your computers used to crash and you used to lose everything that went along with the computer. So there have been a few times where I've lost all those documents, which has been really sad. But I've always kind of. Tried to recreate them and whatnot, um, but I, to this day, whenever a quote pops up to me in a book or in a lyric or just anywhere, like I stick it into a document and um, it's really interesting to me because I can go back through that list and then, and then kind of pinpoint

• 1:06:26Speaker 01

  moments in time based on that quote or that song or how I was feeling. It's very, very pervasive with songs for me. I mean, because I'm sure everyone can do this, like teenage angst years of what you were listening to and where you were at that point in time. But it is, I have this playlist um, on my, on my iTunes of like all these different songs from different eras in my life. And uh, it's really kind of, you just like take a walk down memory lane by listening to them.

• 1:06:55Shane Parrish?

  Hmm, that's awesome. Um, so being a type A person and not necessarily just an athlete, but one of the common things I hear from my type A friends is uh, an incredibly successful friends is that resting is a form of weakness. Uh, resting being sleep, resting being like anything that is not pushing you forward towards a particular goal or achievement. Wh- what do you say to that?

• 1:07:22Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah. I mean, this was something that I, if you would talk to me three years ago, then I would have completely agreed is that oh, I don't, I don't, I don't rest. I'm, I'm always constantly moving and like, there's no point in rest, et cetera. Um, and it, it led me into situations with burnout, obviously, you know, physically, mentally, um, and in forms of serious injury on the physical side. It's only been, you know, within the past year or two that I've been able to embrace the concept of rest and that really that you're gonna have to at some point

• 1:08:02Speaker 01

  take a step back. Everything in life is a push and pull. So you push, you push, you push, and then you've got to pull back. Like it's just natural and that nothing is a linear straight forward progression and um, like, don't get me wrong. I still hate the concept of rest. I don't, it doesn't come naturally to me. Every once a week, you know, when I have my rest days and I sit there and I'm anxious and I'm agitated and I just want to get it over with, um, and get back to, you know, get back to the grind. But I think that it's it's been one of those relationships that I've been working on reformulating and realizing that there's nothing wrong with rest. It's not a four-letter word. It's nothing dirty.

• 1:08:44Speaker 01

  And that, like, the greatest gains come from those times of of quietness.

• 1:08:51Shane Parrish?

  I like that a lot. Amelia, where can people find out more about you?

• 1:08:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, so you can find me on social media, on Twitter at Amelia Boone, on Instagram at ARBoone11. I have a website that still needs some updating and a blog, AmeliaBooneRacing.com. And yeah, that's generally where I'm most responsive.

• 1:09:17Shane Parrish?

  Thank you so much for being on the show. This was an amazing conversation.

• 1:09:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

• 1:09:26Shane Parrish?

  Hey, guys. This is Shane again. Just a few more things before we wrap up. You can find show notes from today's show at fs.blog/podcast. You can also find out information on how to get a transcript there. And if you'd like to receive a weekly email from me filled with all sorts of brain food, go to fs.blog/newsletter. The newsletter is all the good stuff I found on the internet this week that I've read and shared with close friends, books I'm reading, and so much more. Lastly, if you enjoyed this or any other episode of The Knowledge Project, please consider subscribing and leaving a review. Every review helps us make the show better, expand our reach, and share our message with more people. And it only takes a minute. Thank you for listening and being part of the Farnum Street community.