"I think… a concern that many of us run into is we are playing as hard as we are working and it's crushing our body,” says Olly Wood in today’s episode. His advice on the trifecta of physical, digestive and psychological health comes not only from book learning, but also from personal experience. A former motorbike track racer and personal trainer, he felt on top of the world in regard to his physical condition. He was forced to confront the unbalanced reality of his life, however, after a major crash tore several muscles in his shoulder—injuries he’s still nursing a few years later—and one of his first thoughts while in the hospital was how much work he had to do on Monday. Wood refers to this as his “hit by a truck moment”—a major incident which prompted him to realize that, despite his peak physical condition, he wasn’t taking care of himself holistically. 

Now, he discusses the need to focus on what’s important in our lives instead of just looking at what’s urgent—a state which lets issues we could have begun to fix much sooner grow and fester into larger, life-disrupting problems. Wood and Brilliant Thoughts host Tristan Ahumada continue on to talk about creating a plan for your health and well-being, the danger of an “all or nothing” attitude and how our physical, digestive and psychological health all affect each other—and, in turn, our ability to function.

Olly Wood, founder of The Meta Project, got his start in the trenches of the health world as a PT in a big box gym.  After 7 years of working with primarily high-performing business owners he saw the extent to which stress, inflammation and a lack of focus on recovery was ruining any progress they were making, and, worse still, was leaving them burnt out and unproductive mentally as well. Find him on Instagram at @ollywoodnz.