Insight

Who is Patrick Buggy?

A coach, writer, and aspiring entrepreneur – creator of Mindful Ambition.

I learned more about Patrick via a Q&A interview. He has some great answers. Check it out below!

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Q1) I read your story in your About section, but was there a particular moment when your life shifted? Or was it the result of numerous experiences?

“I change in two ways: gradually and suddenly.

An INSIGHT can hit you in a moment. But transformational, last change tends to be an accumulation of gradual, incremental, step-by-step actions.

That’s how it’s been with my journey. There have been lots of insights that hit in an instant. But they don’t actually make a difference until they’re aggregated and compounded over time with consistent practice.

At Optimize, we talk about helping you go from Theory to Practice to Mastery.

An insight is the theory. It’s putting things into practice that has led me to feeling healthier, more energized, more confident, more connected, more on my path, etc.”

Q2) Out of all the mindful exercises you have written about, do you have a favorite and why?

“The one that’s going to help me conquer my next most-important challenge. 😉

The tool I use most often is my Daily Wins Checklist. The tool that’s helped me take the biggest leaps is Fear-Setting. For all goal-setting, it’s WOOP!

These days, I’m probably having the most fun with The Fear Game, helping me close the gap between hits of intuition of things I want to do, and actually doing them.”

Q3) Who comes to mind when you think of role models in your field? How have they influenced your life?

“I’m profoundly grateful that two of my biggest mentors, Brian Johnson and Michael Balchan, are now my teammates at Optimize.

I could go on for days about these two. Both are astonishingly radiant exemplars, truly embodying and practicing wisdom to live life at their best and change the world.

Optimize has played a massive role in my personal and professional growth in the last 5 years. All of that is thanks to Bri.

Michael is the one who first turned me on to Optimize. He was the first coach I ever hired, and has played a direct role in supporting my growth in countless other ways.”

Q4) What does success mean to you?

“Closing the gap between who you’re being and who you’re capable of being. Moment to moment.”

Q5) What do you like to do for fun?

“I love moving my body and being outdoors! Hiking, climbing, camping, sports, going to the beach, playing games with friends, etc.

I find deep, meaningful conversations to be super fun.

And…I’m also obsessed with Optimizing! I geek out hard on the subject matter of my work, and generally find work to be fun.”

Q6) What would you consider your greatest accomplishment? What else would you like to accomplish?

“My greatest accomplishments: every time I’ve made the decision to leave the safety of my comfort zone and the “approved path” to trust my intuition of what I really wanted.

What I want to accomplish: the same thing, repeated, to continue stepping into the next-best version of myself and giving my greatest gifts in service to others.

My biggest growth edge these days is all areas of building deeply meaningful, authentic, wholehearted relationships.”

Q7) What has been the most difficult part of your journey? Do you have a routine or specific exercises to help you overcome struggles?

“Most difficult = Loneliness and doubt when I hadn’t yet built any momentum in my business. I had no idea if forging my own path would work. I sometimes felt like I was crazy for trying. At one point, I had zero clients, went through a breakup, and my grandma died, all in the span of a couple weeks.

Every struggle requires a slightly different solution, but there are common frameworks and support structures that I apply in all of them:

1 – The Fundamentals. This is language we use at Optimize about how you’re managing your energy. How you’re sleeping, eating, moving, breathing, and meditating makes a HUGE difference in your ability to navigate challenges.

2 – What is it that I want? Beginning with the end in mind of the future vision. Orienting with that north-star. Then…

3 – How would I show up to this challenge if I were at my best? Getting clear on that. And then…

3 – Taking action. Taking small steps. That’s how we make progress.”

Q8) Have you found any similar struggles in people you’ve coached? How have you worked together on overcoming these?

“Hah! Yes.

It’s not often that we have a challenge that’s UNcommon. All of our struggles are shared, in a way.

Simply having that frame, that we aren’t alone in, or broken for, facing the challenge the facing is a HUGE place to start.

If we are unwilling to accept and love our current situation, and find some semblance of okayness and internal safety within it, we’ll never be able to make effective progress forward.”

Q9) What are 3 recommendations a struggling person can do to improve their life?

“1 – Dial in your Fundamentals. Sleep more. Eat nourishing foods. Move your body daily. Meditate every day. Breathe through your nose.

2 – Get support. Talk about your challenges with a trusted party.

3 – Treat it all like an experiment. Try things out. See if they work. Keep what helps, drop what doesn’t.”

Q10) What does your ideal life look like?

“I’m living it. 🙂

The thing is, life is all about change. So this is mostly a process-orientation, not an end state.

Energetically, I’m in the best shape of my life and feel like I’m making meaningful progress towards my health/movement/energy-oriented goals.

Work-wise, I’m living on purpose. Giving a wide range of my skills in service to the world. Growing as a result of constant challenges. And working with a team, and in an environment of powerful support.

Love-wise, I feel connected with a community of people who care about me and want me to be my best, that my most important relationships are deepening in authentic and meaningful ways, and that I’m strengthening my ability to forge new connections.

Put another way, my ideal life is feeling like I’m on my path, and that I’m showing up every day ready to take another step forward.”

Q11) If a magical genie gave you 3 wishes, what would you ask for?

“1 – To make it the norm for everyone in the world to meditate every day.

2 – For everyone in the world to understand how to regulate their nervous systems and process challenging emotions.

3 – More wishes? ;)”

If you are looking to escape your 9-5 job, you came to the right place.

What I’m going to share with you will help you on your entrepreneurial journey; no matter if you are just beginning or have “entrepreneured” for years.

Let these 10 insights from Tim Ferriss be a guide to the good life:

1. “Slow Dance: Have you ever watched kids, On a merry-go-round? Or listened to the rain, Slapping on the ground? Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight? Or gazed at the sun into the fading night? You better slow down. Don’t dance too fast. Time is short. The music won’t last. Do you run through each day, On the fly? When you ask: How are you? Do you hear the reply? When the day is done, do you lie in your bed, With the next hundred chores, Running through your head? You’d better slow down, Don’t dance too fast. Time is short, The music won’t last. Ever told your child we’ll do it tomorrow? And in your haste, Not see his sorrow? Ever lost touch, Let a good friendship die, Cause you never had time, To call and say Hi? You’d better slow down. Don’t dance so fast. Time is short. The music won’t last. When you run so fast to get somewhere, You miss half the fun of getting there. When you worry and hurry through your day, It is like an unopened gift thrown away. Life is not a race. Do take it slower. Hear the music, Before the song is over.” — This may have been written by David Weatherford but I first heard it from Tim Ferriss.

2. “For all of the most important things, the timing always sucks. Waiting for a good time to quit your job? The stars will never align and the traffic lights of life will never all be green at the same time. The universe doesn’t conspire against you, but it doesn’t go out of its way to line up the pins either. Conditions are never perfect. “Someday” is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it “eventually,” just do it and correct course along the way.”

3. “But you are the average of the five people you associate with most, so do not underestimate the effects of your pessimistic, unambitious, or disorganized friends. If someone isn’t making you stronger, they’re making you weaker.”

4. “A person’s success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have.”

5. “If you are insecure, guess what? The rest of the world is, too. Do not overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself. You are better than you think.”

6. “To enjoy life, you don’t need fancy nonsense, but you do need to control your time and realize that most things just aren’t as serious as you make them out to be.”

7. “It’s lonely at the top. Ninety-nine percent of people in the world are convinced they are incapable of achieving great things, so they aim for the mediocre. The level of competition is thus fiercest for ‘realistic’ goals, paradoxically making them the most time and energy-consuming.”

8. “If you let pride stop you, you will hate life.”

9. “Role models who push us to exceed our limits, physical training that removes our spare tires, and risks that expand our sphere of comfortable action are all examples of eustress—stress that is healthful and the stimulus for growth.”

10. “People are fond of using the it’s not what you know, it’s who you know adage as an excuse for inaction, as if all successful people are born with powerful friends. Nonsense.”

Read these, and then read them again. These are the 10 best insights from Tim Ferriss. Please leave a comment adding additional insights from Tim or any from yourself that you have found helpful!

An Addition: Tim’s 5 favorite books include:

1) Moral Letters to Lucilus by Seneca the Younger

2) Surely you’re joking, Mr. Feynman by Richard Feynman

3) Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis

4) Dune by Frank Herbert

5) The Effective Executor by Peter F. Drucker

I wish the best for you as you journey toward the life you desire.

Exclusive Interview with Mindful Ambition’s Patrick Buggy