Andy Vasily: Travel, Recovery and Connection

"I developed a framework for delivering meaningful physical education and movement experiences that will inspire young people to be physically active for life." - Andy Vasily

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Andy Vasily is a leading educator who has taught at International Baccalaureate schools in 5 different countries over the past 18 years (Japan, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, China, and Saudi Arabia). He completed his teaching training in education and psychology at the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada.

He is also an international educational consultant and founder of the award-winning blog www.pyppewithandy.com. Andy previously worked as a Child-Youth Counsellor at a young offender’s facility in Windsor, Ontario and it was through this experience that he first realized the stumbling blocks and injustices that many of these young people faced in their daily experience. As a direct result of seeing a need for change, he pursued a full-time career as an educator.

Wanting to push his own understanding of teaching and learning to a deeper level, Andy made the decision to begin blogging in order to share his teaching practice and connect with other educators and top researchers around the world. The value that he saw in this exchange of vision and practical applications led to an enriched professional learning journey that he has shared with practitioners and scholars alike.

Andy is an innovator in the area of education and has continued growing his commitment to student learning by bringing the global community together to create meaningful progress in the way students learn around the globe. He has presented his work in over 20 countries and spoken at a number of international conferences.

Website:

www.pyppewithandy.com and www.mindfulandpresent.com

TEDx Talk

Show Notes: 

[00:04:21] How Saudi Arabia is Changing

“I've been here four years, and they're extremely committed to change. So I tell a lot of people that I speak to from outside the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, that it is the most exciting time to live in a country because the doors were closed to Saudi Arabia forever. Then suddenly they've opened their doors and, and they're bringing in tourists.

The Saudi Arabian government is promoting lots of sporting events here and building new hotels, and they know that they can't sustain themselves on oil anymore. So they are now tapping into the tourist industry.“

[00:07:48] Andy's Hometown and How He Traveled

“I had been dating this, Girl from a woman from the university. She was studying nursing, and then she was from Toronto, and then she wanted to go and experience the world. Then she had an opportunity to go to Japan after we graduated, and I was really set on staying where I was, which is Windsor, Ontario. 

And then the opportunity presented itself for me to go to Japan and I was going to go for six months and play football there, and then suddenly that turned into ten years. We got married, two children, then we moved to Eastern Europe, Azerbaijan. Then we moved to Cambodia, then we moved to China for five years, and we've been living in Saudi Arabia for four years.

So what a beautiful life experience to truly be an international person, you know? And I think that's what we're saying. The world is changing so rapidly and, we're becoming so globalized that there is no other way to look at it, but to be internationally minded.” 

[00:11:09] Following What's Important To You

“And I took a leave of absence, and I said, I'll be back. I just want to do this for a bit. And then I was at Detroit Metro airport, and it was at Detroit Metro airport where I was ready to fly out, and I called my dad on the payphone, and I literally broke down in tears, and I was like, I'm so scared right now because I don't know what's going to happen.

And at that moment I was in tears. I'm reflecting like, what am I doing? Why am I doing this? And, and my dad was like, well, like, you're going to be okay. You're just going for a little while. Well, a little while ended up ten years. And a little while, I ended up connecting with beautiful Japanese people and families and becoming a part of a good Japanese culture and having this amazing experience and then suddenly getting married and having two kids and experiencing a completely different life.

And that's when my world and my life changed, and I said, I'm not going back to the person that I was. I'm not going back to my hometown. Not that I didn't want to go back. I said I will go back to my hometown, but I'm not going to be the same person because this is open my eyes to the amazing world that is in front of us and available to us if we are open to that experience.”

[00:15:12] Professional Football Tryout

[00:18:19] Resolutions and Long Term Thinking

People mentioned: Dr. Albert Bandura and  Dr. Mike Gervais

“Dr. Albert Bandura,  speaks about proximal goals and, and that idea that you can have your dream, you can have your vision, please have your dream and vision because life is about dreams and visions. And if you don't have a dream and a vision and you don't actually see what you want in your mind, then you'll never get there.

But then that's not enough. And that's what Dr. Mike Gervais, talks about all the time, is that that's not enough. That's not enough to get you to where you want to be. You now have to break it down into the micro-steps needed to get you to that goal. And I think that's one of the big things that people miss out on is actually sitting down and doing the hard work of mapping out.

The day to day work needed to get you to your destination, and then when you get to that destination, that destination will then take you to a new destination. So it's not looking at it as the absolute end goal. Is it just the next goal. I think that's where everybody falls short, even myself. I still fall short.”

[00:21:41] Frameworking and Eisenhower Decision Matrix 

For more see: #77 - How To Train Your Mind: Movement

Eisenhower Decision Matrix.jpg

[00:25:38] The Three Shot Journal

“So it's a pretty short journal. So at the end of every run, you write in detail your three best shots. So in an average round for a great player, you're going to take 72 shots, but you're going to narrow it down to your three best shots.

And at the end, every you're going to write in your journal your three best shots. So then at the end, you imagine doing that for six months. You have this amazing journal of excellence to draw on. Of what you are capable of. This is not only about golf a, and B, you're three chunks, three shots, journal of life.

You know, the three greatest things that happened to me today, whatever it is, but you have to recognize and document your greatness daily. And, and what you're doing well so that you can remind yourself of your terrible times. You can open up that, and you can look months and months and months of success, and once you truly achieved.

So it's that seeking that three-shot journal from golf, but applying it to life, you know? So your three greatest moments every day, it's an easy thing. It takes five minutes of your 1,442 minutes per day. Right? So it takes five minutes.”

[00:29:20] What Gets Measured Gets Managed

[00:30:49] Data Has No Emotion

[00:32:41] Prioritizing Daily Recovery

[00:34:45] Being Present

[00:38:03] Do More vs Be More

[00:39:31] With Knowledge, Comes Responsibility

[00:43:16] Searching Inside One's Self

[00:44:51] Experiences Not Gifts

“But the act of Christmas is the act of giving and caring and loving and communicating. And those are the values that we try to instill — every single day in our kids. So our kids, when they're adults, I mean our, my oldest boy is 16, my youngest son is 14, and I hope to hell that when they are 30 or 25 or 30 or 35 when they reflect on what Christmas means to them, Christmas was the world.

Christmas was people. Christmas was experiences and love and learning, and all of those things. And, and that's kind of how we're looking at things now as we journey through our own life with our family.”

[00:49:46] Having Gratitude For Time Spent With Those That Matter Most

[00:52:48] We Need To Connect

[00:54:07] Andy's Professional Background

[00:57:00] Creating A Program For Movement Not Sport 

“Somebody who's going to go into the physical education space and not wants to play a team sport. So why? And it's not that they don't want to play a team sport, it's just that they have other interests. So why not create a physical education program that allows for movement? So you imagine, going to PE class and we're going to teach, after Christmas, we're going to teach a health and wellness unit of a fitness unit. Yeah. So now I'm pitching it, and then I get to go, the beauty of my job is I get to go in and, and co-teach and kind of muddle lessons. So I'm like, you know what? Let's get some of these kids just into power walking. So why not allow them to bring their device, listen to music and power walk around the field, listen to a podcast, listen to an audiobook and power walk the field.”

[01:00:37] Fitting the Program Into the Community

[01:02:55] Gardening In PE

[01:05:41] How Andy's Career Has Evolved

[01:07:08] Erich's Educational Background

[01:09:23] Andy's Important Mentors

“But we also have to look at who are the daily mentors who push us and inspire us. And you might not talk to them for three, three, or four months, but then suddenly you might reconnect with them, and then you realize why you reconnected with them because they also inspire you. So it's a difficult question to answer, but I would say that every day we have the opportunity to be mentored when we open our minds and our present.”

[01:12:12] Gratitude and Connecting with Others

[01:15:04] Being Sucked Into Our Devices

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Full Transcript Episode 84 - Andy Vasily: Travel, Recovery and Connection

[00:03:54] Erich Wenzel: Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Phoenix Geocity. And today's guests, we are joined by Andy Vasiliy. Hey, Andy. 

[00:04:00] Andy Vasily: Hey, how's it going, Erich? And thanks a lot for the invitation to be on your show. 

[00:04:05] Erich Wenzel: Yeah, this is awesome. So just as a disclosure, you're actually all the way in Saudi Arabia. So this is the farthest podcast I've ever recorded, you know, nine hour time difference from us. It's really, really cool that, you know, through technology we can make this kind of connection. 

[00:04:21] How Saudi Arabia is Changing 

[00:04:21] Andy Vasily: Which is the cool thing is that I am in Saudi Arabia and Saudi Arabia gets a very bad rap around the world, you know?

[00:04:32] And, but they are committed to change. I've been here four years and they're extremely committed to change. So I tell a lot of people that I speak to from outside the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, that it is the most exciting time to live in a country because. You know, the doors were closed to Saudi Arabia forever, you know, and then suddenly they've opened their doors and, and they're bringing in tourists.

[00:04:59] And that's how I told you my mother-in-law in Canada, she came last week on a tourist visa and they are, the Saudi Arabian government is promoting lots of sporting events here and building new hotels and they know that they can sustain themselves on oil anymore. So they are now tapping into the tourist industry.

[00:05:22] So it's their attempt to truly change. I have many colleagues that are native Saudi Arabians, and they're wonderful people, you know? So when you get down to the finer details and nuances of people in general, yeah, there's, there's a great appreciation. For me being in this country and the people I've met here and the locals and everybody is the same around the world and what they want and, and the love that they have for their kids and family and so forth.

[00:05:58] So yeah, it's great to be in Saudi Arabia. And, speaking to you from here. 

[00:06:04] Erich Wenzel: Yeah. Wow, that's so cool. And I mean, you shared with us the, and by us, I mean the Compete to Group group about your, a little background and teaching at cost. Is that how the acronym is? And, just watching the video, it's a very interesting thing because it, it's at once modern, but still holds a lot of the traditional values of, of the Arab Arab countries.

[00:06:24] And it's like this weird blending of the new and the old in some ways as I was watching it to kind of just, you know, prepare for this. And it's one thing that I always kind of, or have gravitated towards as I've gotten more exposure to podcasts in particular. Growing up in the United States and in particular the Midwest, the families here, especially my own family, we have very deep roots in the sense that you come to the Midwest and you stay in the Midwest and to travel outside of the Midwest.

[00:06:52] There's a lot of friction to get people to move and the. For me, like with my family, I've only really traveled within like the three neighboring States being like Wisconsin, Indiana, and maybe Iowa. But outside of that, we haven't really moved around. Any other travel I've done has been through my own friends, going to other places, like I've been to Cancun and I've been to now.

[00:07:19] California and then want to, I've been bitten by the travel bug. I don't know if it's my generation, but I just want to see the world and broadly speaking, become a citizen of the world. And when I see someone like you, you pretty much embody that. You know, you're, you're someone who was born in Canada as far as I can tell from like your Ted talk, and then you've kind of jumped in and worked in all different countries all over the world.

[00:07:41] And that's kind of a thing that some people don't really know how to grapple with that. 

[00:07:48] Andy's Hometown and How He Traveled

[00:07:48] Andy Vasily: Yeah. And you know, when you, when you speak about that, the reality is, so I'm from the Midwest too. If we consider the Midwest from North South in the South of the U S and move all the way up to the North of Canada, that's where I'm from.

[00:08:04] So I'm from Windsor, Ontario, Canada, which is a border city with Detroit, Michigan. I spent a lot of time in the States and Michigan and Ohio and. And Kentucky and Tennessee golfing. I played a lot of golf. So for me, I was very much a, a hometown kind of Windsor, Ontario person. I went to the university of Windsor American football was my first real love.

[00:08:33] I played a lot of golf. I played on the university golf team. But, playing on the football team was my focus. And, you know, I figured that after I ended my football career, I had a short, professional tryout. It didn't work out. but I felt that. I was going to stay in my hometown and I was going to teach in my hometown or be a police officer.

[00:08:56] You know, a lot of the teammates that I played with were either cops, firemen, or teachers, and then suddenly I was presented with the opportunity. I had been dating this, Girl from a woman from the university. She was studying nursing, and then she was from Toronto, and then she wanted to kind of go and experience the world, and then she had an opportunity to go to Japan after we graduated, and I was really set on staying where I was.

[00:09:26] Which is Windsor, Ontario. And then the opportunity presented itself for me to go to Japan and I was going to go for six months and play football there, and then suddenly that turned into 10 years. We got married, two children, then we moved to Eastern Europe, Azerbaijan. Then we moved to Cambodia, then we moved to China for five years, and we've been living in Saudi Arabia for four years.

[00:09:52] So what a beautiful life experience to truly be an international person, you know? And I think that's what we're saying. The world is changing so rapidly and, we're becoming so globalized, you know, that there is no other way to look at it, but to be internationally minded. 

[00:10:17] Erich Wenzel: I couldn't agree more with that.

[00:10:19] To me, it's just, it's just so fascinating because it's like, it's at the edges where, where domains and people and ideas. Get to mix together and you get to create new shades and new textures that are the most exciting thing about this stuff. You know? And, and this is like been a new theme that I keep seeing around is like on the internet, we like to say how polarized it is or campy or tribal and all of that.

[00:10:43] And it is true to some degree. But what I see now is like we're getting into this point where people are like, okay, I get it, but can we be better? Basically like everyone's asking like, okay, what's, how do we, we see how bad it's been and where is it going? And your story is like the perfect example of you had the opportunity and you had a person that you were going to follow anywhere basically, and you just kept going.

[00:11:09] Following What's Important To You

[00:11:09] And it's I think pulling on that thread, it's like when you have this opportunity in life, you don't have to have it all planned out and you just say, well, I guess if I really care about this thing, whatever the thing is, it could be a person, it could be a job, it could be whatever, and you just keep going and all of a sudden when you have a chance to reflect on it, you realize, wow, look how far I've come.

[00:11:32]Andy Vasily: Yeah. You know, and this is 20 years in the process, right? So I left Canada in 1997 that's a long time ago. Right. So, and I remember it so clearly to this day that I was such a hometown kind of person that I will never leave here to suddenly go to Detroit Metro airport. To leave for the first time.

[00:11:55] You know, I had done some traveling a little bit, you know, in the States playing golf and to Jamaica and you know, but I had never gone internationally. And suddenly I was. I had packed up everything. I sold my car, I quit my job. I took a leave of absence. Actually, I was a child youth worker. So I was working with kids with behavioral and mental challenges.

[00:12:21] And I took a leave of absence and I said, I'll be back. I just want to go do this for a bit. And then I was at Detroit Metro airport and it was at Detroit Metro airport where I was ready to fly out and I called my dad on the pay phone and I literally broke down in tears and I was like, I'm so scared right now because I don't know what's going to happen.

[00:12:43] And at that moment I was in tears. I'm reflecting like, what am I doing? Why am I doing this? And, and my dad was like, well, like, you're going to be okay. You're just going for a little while. Well, a little while ended up 10 years. And a little while, I ended up connecting with beautiful Japanese people and families and becoming a part of a good Japanese culture and having this amazing experience and then suddenly getting married and having two kids and experiencing a completely different life.

[00:13:22] And that's when my world and my life changed, and I said, I'm not going back to the person that I was. I'm not going back to my hometown. Not that I didn't want to go back. I said I will go back to my hometown, but I'm not going to be the same person because this is open my eyes to the amazing world that is in front of us and available to us. If we are open to that experience. 

[00:13:51] Erich Wenzel:  That's so cool. Like it reminds me of like some of the stuff I even, I've been through over the last year just getting into psychology and mindset and like, my background is engineering, but I keep seeing this stuff with mindset and how psychology helps at once, individuals, right, where we get stuck in our own loops or patterns or whatever it is.

[00:14:15] And you've already been talking about the integral nature of movement. It is to function well or you know, pulling on that thread to self actualize, I guess is the correct word. And you know, when you get the chance to, to experience something, cause I think that's really what matters. Like you can't, you know. Psychologically, you know, lock yourself out of something without extra ever giving the effort to do something. And it's, of course it's scary, right? You can always have those moments of like, what, what if I fail? Or what if, you know, why am I here? And you're gonna want to get cold feet and pull away from that edge.

[00:14:53] But if you hadn't followed through with that and you wouldn't be here today and be able to talk about it, it's many of the things you do. And I did you for me, like, did you. Go into this with research, or was it just kind of like, well, this is what I have the opportunity to go with? And did you just dive like, yeah, I'm just in, 

[00:15:12] Professional Football Tryout

[00:15:12] Andy Vasily: Yeah, yeah.

[00:15:12] You know what it was? It was all in because the internet even exists. I'm sure it was 97 right. So it was still. A bumpy ride, the internet, you get on the internet and it's slow and it's clunky. And what I did was, I had been awkward, so I played American football, I call it American football, cause that.

[00:15:32] And I can't call it football because that's soccer everywhere else in the world. So, American football was my life, you know, and that's what I grew up playing, and that's what, gave me so much hope and purpose. So I had my professional tryout and as a quarterback and a punter in the Canadian football league, and I did quite well in the tryout, but the reality was, and thinking back, I could kick and throw a football as good as.

[00:16:01] Any quarterback and punter in the U S and Canada. But I was five, ten, 170 and I, and I ran probably a four, nine 40. So at the time, even though I could do some really good things with the football, and I felt that I can make it in the Canadian league, there was no place for Canadian quarterbacks and punters in the Canadian league.

[00:16:24] In my home league, you know? So I started to look at options to play professionally in Europe, and I had an opportunity to go and coach and play in Belgium. And I thought, perfect. So my wife, girlfriend at the time who was graduating from nursing, I said. Let's go to Belgium. We'll just go there. I gotta, I got a coaching job I can play, we'll get an apartment and a car, it'll be beautiful.

[00:16:50] And then she totally flipped everything upside down and said, actually, no, I'm going to go to Japan with my sister. And then they got all pissed off. And I said, no, but we had a plan to go to Belgium. And she said, well, just come to Japan and play football. But going to Japan, they didn't allow foreign players to play, but I could coach. So I did some whatever research I could do on the internet at that time. And I found out that Harris Shima, I went to Harris Shima, Japan, Hiroshima, a very historical city. Right. That's where I lived for 10 years. And I found out that they had a football team and I faxed a letter to them.

[00:17:34] And, they said, please come, you can coach us. And, when I arrived two weeks later, I was coaching the team and I was punting and throwing, and they're like, wow, you can throw us so well and you can fund, but you can't pay for us because there are no foreigners. So I coached them for a bit and then, but that was the, the clunky days.

[00:17:54] There's no research you've got to dive in. And that's what I did. And I think that's the fear I experienced at Detroit Metro airport. I was diving into the unknown. I truly was, and I was scared shitless, but I felt that I was, I was also proud of the courage that I was taking in the moment to make that leap into the unknown.

[00:18:19] Resolutions and Long Term Thinking

[00:18:19] Erich Wenzel: That's awesome. I mean, I couldn't, I couldn't agree anymore. Like you can see and learn from those people's lives. As much as you can, right. But there's a point where you can only absorb so much from someone's lessons. Like you have to go out and live it. Like experience trumps everything regardless of whatever it is.

[00:18:40] You know, you gotta there's a point where it's like, you see all these courses, especially now, because we're recording this in the middle of December, where it's everything online right now has sales for classes or something, or like new year's resolution things. And it's like every time I see someone.

[00:18:56] And they discount these courses like astronomically, and it makes me a little sad because I'm just like, all of these people are going to get really gung ho about buying a course and they're going to be like, yeah, I'm going to be to do X, or I'm going to start working out, or whatever. But that motivation usually, it doesn't last.

[00:19:12] You know, it lasts for maybe two weeks and then then it goes away and then all of a sudden that course just collects dust or whatever it is. That gym membership doesn't get used ever again. You just have to make the commitment that you have the, you're going to see whatever it is that you're doing through to the end.

[00:19:34] Right. And I think the important thing to realize is that there isn't an end and that it's always evolving. 

[00:19:42] Andy Vasily:  And I think that's, that's the thing. And that's why new year's resolutions don't work out because they're short term fixes to long term challenges. Right? Yeah. And Albert Bandura, Dr. Albert Bandura, who is, one of the most amazing in my mind's eye, one of the most amazing psychologists that ever.

[00:20:04]then speaks about proximal goals and, and that idea that you can have your dream, you can have your vision, please have your dream and vision because life is about dreams and visions. And if you don't have a dream and a vision and you don't actually see what you want in your mind, then you'll never get there.

[00:20:28] But then that's not enough. And that's what Dr. Mike Gervais, talks about all the time, is that that's not enough. That's not enough to get you to where you want to be. You now have to break it down into the micro steps needed to get you to that goal. And I think that's one of the big things that people miss out on is actually sitting down and doing the hard work of mapping out.

[00:20:53] The day to day work needed to get you to your destination. And then when you get to that destination, that destination will then take you to a new destination. So it's not looking at it as the absolute end goal. It's just the next goal, you know? I think that's where everybody falls short, you know, even myself, I still fall short.

[00:21:16] I try to stay active. I started, I try to meditate. I try to eat well. I try to do all of these things, but it's like if you don't plan accordingly. It can be very, it can be very difficult to follow through in the long term. Yeah. So that's, that's kind of the big thing that I'm grappling with now.

[00:21:41] Frameworking and Eisenhower Decision Matrix 

[00:21:41] Erich Wenzel: Yeah. I mean, I couldn't agree more. And like for me, the big thing is. I get really like bullish on frameworking. I really look at how you organize your day to day routine or weekly routines to allow yourself, do you have less cognitive resistance to be able to do what is the best, right? Like I just wrote about, a mental framework called the Eisenhower decision matrix.

[00:22:07] And it's a two by two grid where you have what's urgent and important. So it's urgent, not urgent, important, unimportant. And basically the quote is like, what? What is important is seldom urgent is a quote from Dwight D Eisenhower, and in our modern lives, many things feel urgent and both important. You know, it can be meetings, it could be, you know, the next phone call you got to make or whatever, and it's usually dictated by someone else.

[00:22:34] And the quadrant that is the thing that we should be maximizing for is what is not urgent but important to ourselves intrinsically and I, and that's where I put a lot of these things in that category is like eating well, working out, spending time with family. And when you really look at that, I feel like that decision matrix helps you.

[00:22:56] Really understand where your certain things are wasting time so that you can then organize your life around it. Basically to be like, okay, so if I know that working out is important to me, but it's not urgent. I just have to make it like check the box, but consciously check the box, you know, like make a routine and like a three day schedule or something.

[00:23:17] Or make it like part of a community where you go to like a yoga class for an hour or two days a week or something. You know, try to wrap as many positive benefits together to allow. That cognitive resistance that'll happen because we're always going to start falling short, because when we're like, I guess that when the motivation goes away, there's a high probability that we're going to, you know, not want to keep doing it.

[00:23:38] Andy Vasily: Yeah, and I think what you're saying really resonates and a, I'm going to check that out. I think I saw this post that you did with the , what did you call it? The 

[00:23:47] Erich Wenzel: Eisenhower grid or decision matrix. 

[00:23:50] Andy Vasily:  So I'm going to check that out, but it didn't make total sense, the idea, really it's a constant reflection on what works and what doesn't, but it's not absolute.

[00:24:03] And, and this is the forgiveness that you can offer yourself when if you wake up late and you don't go work out, rather than beating yourself up and using negative self talk, you're actually saying enough. You're checking more boxes in the long run of getting up and working out, allowing yourself some forgiveness instead of beating yourself down with negative language, saying you, you know, your craft, you, you know, you don't stick to say you're going to do it is the long game, you know, and you, and you build in that, that forgiveness along the way.

[00:24:44] So I think that's, that's a really good way to look at goal setting. And a good way to be active, self-forgiveness in the process of trying to attain that long term vision that you set for yourself. 

[00:25:01] Erich Wenzel:  Yeah, I mean, it's really important. I think a lot of times we over assume that we're going to perform all of the time.

[00:25:08] And in reality it's like a lot of things happen. You know, life happens. You go out and grab a drink or something, or I don't know. It doesn't matter what it is. And it's not to say that, Hey. I'm, I'm going to fall off the horse here. It's more of like, okay, I remember a time where I was really motivated about doing this thing and I know what it was like then.

[00:25:29] So I can come back to that, you know, frame of mind or reference that routine. Maybe it's not 100% that routine, but I can come back to it at the very least. 

[00:25:38] The Three Shot Journal

[00:25:38]Andy Vasily: And I just want to share the work with you because what you're doing resonates with me. And I've done some work with, Dr. Carl Morris, who is a, a world renowned sports psychologist from, the UK, and he is a sports psychologist on the European golf tour.

[00:25:59] So I met him through a friend of a friend, and then I had some virtual coaching lessons with him. And so he was taking me through some of it. You know, in my own journey of learning about myself, I had worked on some work with him and in particular about golf. So I like, I'm a pretty accomplished golfer, but my mind gets in the way a lot so I can go out and shoot even par quite easily.

[00:26:29] But when my mind gets in the way. And falls away. And I ended up having a terrible round, which is the game of golf. But I was trying to refine and refocus my efforts to be a better golfer. So what Carl said to me, and one of the things, big growth things you said, is she calls it a three shot journal. So at the end of every round of goals, he said, you have your journal, which, which I have right here.

[00:26:59] You can see my journal. We're on Skype right now. See, you see on the video call that I'm holding my journal. But it's that idea that you journal at the end of every round, your three best shots. So it doesn't matter how badly you played. Now, Karl Morris has coached six major winners, but he's coached us open winners.

[00:27:21] Open championship winners, masters winners. He's, he's really good at what he does, and he gets even the world's back to do this. So it's a pretty short journal. So at the end of every run, you write in detail your three best shots. So in an average round for a great player, you're going to take 72 shots, but you're going to narrow it down to your three best shots.

[00:27:46] And at the end, every room you're going to write in your journal your three best shots. So then at the end, you imagine doing that for six months. You have this amazing journal of excellence to draw on. Of, of what you are capable of. This is not only about golf a, and B, you're three chunks, three shots, journal of life.

[00:28:09] You know, the three greatest things that happened to me today, whatever it is, but you have to recognize and document your greatness on a daily basis. And, and what you're doing well so that you can remind yourself of your terrible times. You can open up that and you can look months and months and months of success, and once you truly achieved.

[00:28:38] So it's that seeking that three shot journal from golf, but applying it to life, you know? So your three greatest moments every day, it's an easy thing. It takes five minutes. of your 1,442 minutes per day. Right?  So it takes five minutes.

[00:28:59] So pick up a pencil and write your three greatest moments. And I myself, fall short. You know, I do it weeks on end and then I stopped doing it and then I go back to it. And I do it, and then I stop doing it and, you know, stick with it. 

[00:29:20] What Gets Measured Gets Managed

[00:29:20] Erich Wenzel: As you have the Charlie Monger what gets measured gets managed.

[00:29:26] Andy Vasily: Hmm. Say more about that.

[00:29:27] Erich Wenzel: It's the idea that when, if we start to what we want to get better at, or just know more about, we have to measure it. And so, full disclosure, I'm wearing both an Oura ring and whoop. And, you know, the science on sleep has been totally. I don't know, blown out of the water lately with, with books from Dr. Matthew Walker and podcasts. He's been on many podcasts at this point. And I don't know, I read that book and it, and it totally just, I just was like all in for it. I just saw this thing that people in society were just, especially here in America, it's all about the grind. You know, the entrepreneur mindset.

[00:30:04] Like you just got to work yourself to the ground and then, you know, hopefully one day you make it. And I'm like, you know, that sounds cool and I could do it. I'm pretty sure I could do it. I'm very type A, but I also think there's, there's a better way to do it too. And then I started listening to all the science of this stuff and wearing wearables like woop and aura ring and one comparing the datasets to how they actually measure differently, but also how looking at like, you know, a subjective.

[00:30:35] Or sorry, an objective number to compare against this subjective experience of what it's like to sleep, and I just find it utterly fascinating to be able to quantify something like recovery. Right. 

[00:30:49] Data Has No Emotion

[00:30:49] Andy Vasily: Yeah. And what's you're saying? One of the big things I learned from, so I told you about Dr. Karl Morris a few minutes ago, so I met him through my Scottish golf coach who had coached on the European tour for six years, and I had guy on my own podcast guy, Jerry Nico, and he's coached some of the world's best and what he did like, you can't move forward in life unless you have data.

[00:31:17] So if you're a golfer, you need to know what your club head is doing through impact. And then you have to know the percentage that your club head is off the directional path that you want the ball to go. You know? And so you really had to look at the data, but then the data data has no emotion.

[00:31:39] Right data is just factual, but how we interpret data is very personal. So we get data and we make it personal. It's about us. And that's why we don't accept data. It was because it's painting a different picture of how we perceive ourselves, you know? So data has no emotion. Data is just there. It's just information for you to reflect on and then to say, you know what?

[00:32:10] I'm going to use this and then I'm going to create a plan of action to move forward. And a, but when we take data and we don't accept data because it attacks us personally, then we're not using it to our advantage. So you're the one using everything. I use Fitbit, just to record my sleep and my activity during the week. but it's just data. It's just there for us to use or not use. So why wouldn't we use it? 

[00:32:41] Prioritizing Daily Recovery

[00:32:41] Erich Wenzel: For me, it's, it's been like this, I don't know. I've been building this view of what recovery is like. And like, as an engineer, again, I think of the systems, you know, we're where our other engineers overemphasized product design, or like how to lay out a factory well to, to optimize, you know, you know, and I think Amazon, right?

[00:33:02] Where you have a warehouse that is optimized around getting an order to the person as fast as it can, right. And there's the optimization stream there. But what the thing that we don't realize is that there's a whole component that we've under optimized for, and that is human recovery. How well does a person perform every day because we're put under crazy hours.

[00:33:27] We are crazy, you know. Always an urgent, you know, if we're going back to that, and we're always kind of wound up a little bit because of just the stress of life, because you're stuck in traffic. If you live in like California or something like that, and you're, you know, you're always kind of, you know, above a certain stress, sold.

[00:33:45] And so I started looking at this idea of like, how can we optimize for like, or prioritize for daily human recovery. Because if we do that, it not only optimizes our businesses, it optimizes wellbeing for people. And that's a new word I'm using right now with positive psychology. But, and it also optimizes how people, how they interact with those and what they care about in the rest of their life.

[00:34:10] Because they can go to work and they work less. They can, you know, get enough sleep and they're more productive and they can go home and they're not stressed out. So they're not talking about the things that bothered them at work, so they can show up for their, you know, their family, friends and whatever they care about.

[00:34:25] And so everyone in this cohesive system, or at least idealized system would benefit if we can learn how to effectively manage ourselves. Because what society tells us is the right way to go about it, you know, obviously isn't working to some degree or another. 

[00:34:45] Being Present

[00:34:45] Andy Vasily: Absolutely. And what you're saying is that idea of just being present as Michael Gervais says in the present moment, and then stitching together all of those present moments, you know, and our ability to be present is a trained skill and you know, you can mediate.

[00:35:08] Whether you set your time for five minutes and your mind wanders all over the place. Let your mind wander with non-judgment. But to truly trap into the power of presence. And I recently had on my podcast, I'm at first Saudi Arabian, tour golfer. He's an amazing person.

[00:35:35] He's really into this mindset stuff and, and he's trying to figure it out. And he worked with Dr. Carl Morris a couple of years ago when he first made the tour and he, he was here. His name is   and he was here a couple of nights ago and we had a two hour podcast. And as a professional athlete, he's a phenomenal golfer.

[00:35:58] What he still struggles with is the ability to stay present and not to ruminate about the past or to project into the future, but to truly be present. Right. And Everything that you're talking about is, you know, the act of recovery is to cognitively prepare you for the present moment. You know, as if you're not fully recovered, then you're going to be distracted.

[00:36:28] You're going to be thinking about other things. You're going to be tired and fatigued. So that element, and I've got a friend in Japan who I speak to every day, is a Canadian Canadian guy who's an avid athlete and plays a lot of sports. But he's in the Japanese mindset. He's lived in Japan for 25 years where he's functioning on four and a half hours sleep a night, and he's working out.

[00:36:53] He's running a business. He's literally jogging and running every day. He's trying to fit all this in. So his idea is the old Arnold Schwarzenegger mindset, which is to work your ass off for 20 hours a day. Right? And then you have four hours sleep, and the way you get ahead is to work even 21 hours with three hours sleep that's bullshit.

[00:37:19] Right? So my friend in Japan, and we're, we're at odds, we're debating on WhatsApp all the time. I ask him, how much sleep did he get?  So we're always talking about this. So he's of the mindset that you have to do, do, do, do, do, in order to be like Gervais says, right.

[00:37:38] And I'm like, that's bullshit. You gotta be, be, be, be to do. Yeah. 

[00:37:44] So we're at, my family's going back, we're actually going back to Hiroshima, Japan at Christmas, and I'll spend a lot of time with my friends and debate. The fine Japanese times, but, it is the idea, this is an ongoing discussion that you have to have.

[00:38:03] Do More vs Be More

[00:38:03] Erich Wenzel: I mean that's really fascinating. You know, I, I actually didn't think how, I'm not sure cause I'm so plugged into this newer, newer view, of recovery 

[00:38:11] and, and be more to do more categories as Michael Gervais would say. And so I wasn't sure, I wasn't sure how prevalent that old mindset is, but I guess it's still probably there pretty heavily with there.

[00:38:24] Andy Vasily: Yeah. It's there. I think that. You, me and the other is that are really investing time in the, being instead of doing, are still a huge minority. You know, like it's a, I would say less than 15% of the population actually thinks this way, whereas the population does, does, does in order to be, be, be. 

[00:38:52] Erich Wenzel: Yeah. I mean for me it's, I like to look at it as like this word.

[00:38:56] If I could encompass all of these teachings into a word, it would be the idea of awareness and it's an all encompassing awareness of how you, how do you feel at the moment? How does your body feel at the moment and something deeper, how do you feel at the moment? And it's like all three of those things come together and basically it's like getting struck by lightning, as many times as possible where you're just coming in.

[00:39:26] Andy Vasily: Right. And when you can align everything. Yeah, exactly. Electricity. 

[00:39:31] With Knowledge, Comes Responsibility

[00:39:31] Erich Wenzel: And I just, it's just one of these things it's part of the reason this podcast exists to many degrees and it's why I even do what I do. Like I had a friend of mine asked me, he's like. He's like, why don't you do this? Which is a very fair point cause I don't, this is not a job for me.

[00:39:50] This is totally done out of personal curiosity and a feeling of like responsibility to give back and learn from others. And I told him without even hesitation, cause I was like giving them an overview of my personal philosophy, which is, after I came back from Seattle from the live version, I came up with a new one.

[00:40:09] After doing the online course, which is now it's with knowledge comes responsibility is my new. Personal philosophy, and that's a combination of two, two very famous quotes. if you're a fan of Spiderman, you could kind of guess where that one that we're most of that comes from. But, I took out the word power from, you know, with great power comes great responsibility.

[00:40:32] And I basically, I don't care about traditional power. In any way. It doesn't mean anything to me. I don't want to have power over anybody. I really don't care. And so my dad, when I was little, would always tell me with knowledge equals power. And so I. I just remember him telling me that really, really little age and it resonated with me and, and you know, I shared a story.

[00:40:58] Part of why we were connected is I shared a story about my teacher who got me to read books and, and her changing my perspective on what it meant to be a reader. you know, telling me, Hey, Erich, you don't need to read what everyone else is reading at four years old. because I wasn't interested in things like I was bored of it, so I didn't like, so my reading comprehension problem wasn't because I couldn't actually read.

[00:41:20] It's because I wasn't engaged. And, and then my dad, once, once the flip heads, like the switch had flipped or whatever, my dad noticed that I would just becoming this reader and I wound up, you know, reading like an adult thriller novel. In like fifth grade and I started from that day forward, I was reading books that were like my own, my own thing, along with all of my formalized education, like I would read the chapters, I had to read for school, and then I would read more books and like that, that was my way of embodying the knowledge, you know, equals power aspect of it.

[00:41:55] And then from there it's just, I've always just had this very deep seated sense of personal responsibility. I don't know how or why or where, but Spiderman in particular has just resonated with me since I was like five and I don't even know why, but my parents told me that I was like five and my mom called my dad and said, Hey, he really likes Spiderman.

[00:42:14] And then, I don't know, I have no idea why, but it's still super important to me. The idea of, you know, having the geeky, nerdy science guy who. Takes his brain and does good for the world, but doesn't ask for anything in return is, I don't know. I don't know. I just don't know what it is about 

[00:42:34] Andy Vasily: noble cause man, 

[00:42:37] Erich Wenzel: it's, it's really, I dunno, I've never really put the words together like that to think about it that way. But yeah, that, that is like why I do what I do. A lot of it. 

[00:42:49] Andy Vasily: And you'll, you'll continue to venue to continue to figure that out as, as go through your own journey. And, and what you're describing is purpose really, right. And, and really identifying what our purpose is. And then, sticking to that purpose and being committed to that purpose and not knowing what the answers are. And figuring it out along the way. 

[00:43:16] Searching Inside One's Self

[00:43:16] Erich Wenzel: Yeah, it's, it's been a really fun road to go on this journey of self discovery. You know, the, the searching within oneself, like. I, I read a book called awareness over probably like the middle of this year, and it's basically a book by 10 Tony DeMello. He's actually a Jesuit priest, and everything he wrote is like excerpted talks that he would do on stage.

[00:43:43] And it's. It's some of it's pretty spiritual and stuff and might not resonate with some people, but it's written plainly enough that it's like, Oh, it kind of hits you over the head with it and you're like, Hm. I've never thought about things like that. Like thinking about love or, or selfishness or like holding onto opinions that don't. Don't matter to you or things like that. 

[00:44:04] And is this like one of those books that I read at night going to bed and were contemplated for reflective mood and it, it had a huge impact on me to process how you deal with, you know, loss, pain, forgiveness. You know, all of the negative side effects of being alive to some degree.

[00:44:22] It was a fascinating book. And I started a tradition this year or last year where I give all of my friends books instead of things and, everyone is getting a special book that pertains to their interests, but they'll also be getting that book because I thought it was so important for my own personal exercising of demons and things like that, that hopefully they get the same out of it.

[00:44:44] Andy Vasily:  Yeah. Which is Tim Ferriss. I love when Tim Ferriss asked the question about the book. You know, 

[00:44:49] Erich Wenzel: I was going to ask you at the end, so don't worry. It's coming. 

[00:44:51] Experiences Not Gifts

[00:44:51] Andy Vasily: Yeah. But no, that's what I. That's what I really believe in as well. And it's this idea of giving back. And, and recently, one of the things that I've come across in my own life with my own family, having lived outside of Canada for 25 years.

[00:45:10] And we're in Saudi Arabia. It's a Muslim country. There's no, you know, there's no Christmas here, but our house is decorated. We have a Christmas tree. Our boys have, have only experienced two white Christmases, going back to Canada, you know, when they were very young. so they don't really remember having a Christmas in the snow.

[00:45:33] So it's this idea of, You know, being connected with what matters the most. And what does Christmas represent? Ultimately, it's about togetherness. It's about gratitude. It's about appreciation. So really getting our boys to understand that no matter where we are in the world, we will celebrate a form of Christmas.

[00:45:57] So we're going to be back in Japan for Christmas this year, and, and we will, we won't have a Christmas tree. But what we tell her, because we'll be in Japan in a hotel room, so we won't have a Christmas tree. But what we tell our boys is that, that, and I recently read this, is that the greatest gifts say you can give your children are experiences and not gifts.

[00:46:21] So every Christmas, last Christmas, we were in Scotland. The year before that we were in Japan. Actually, we're going back in a couple of weeks, but every Christmas we're someplace else in the world, and you wake up and, and we play Christmas carols and we bring the Christmas stockings. And you can look outside and it's tropical, but it's still Christmas to us.

[00:46:48] But the act of Christmas is the act of giving and caring and loving and communicating. And those are the, the values that we try to instill. Every single day in our kids. So our kids, when they're adults, I mean our, my oldest boy is 16 my youngest son is 14 and I hope to hell that when they are 30 or 25 or 30 or 35 when they reflect back on what Christmas means to them, Christmas was the world.

[00:47:23] Christmas was people. Christmas was experiences and love and learning and all of those things. And, and that's kind of how we're looking at things now as we journey. Through our own life with our family. 

[00:47:40] Erich Wenzel: That's so cool. I mean, it's giving, you know, it's, it's setting the precedent in sense that, you know, Christmas isn't tied to a place.

[00:47:48] It is tied to an idea, right? It's tied to something bigger and deeper and more meaningful than, than where you happen to be in the world. And I think that's really powerful because it's taking away some of the, the pomp and circumstance that is Christmas, at least in the materialistic world. And it.

[00:48:06] Really parcels it down to what really is important, you know, cause you can still be festive. And like you said, you have the stockings and the, the Christmas carols. But outside can look very different than the idealized view that us in America are probably most of the world think of. And I think it's really cool to, to have that because, you know, it makes me reflect on even what it was like to grow up for my own Christmas.

[00:48:29] And it wasn't anything like that where we were going to places, but. My dad has always this kind of person and, and I can show you after we're done recording here what some of my basement looks like, but my dad has always been the kind of person that when even if we didn't have like material resources or things like that

[00:48:47] He made it a point to, you know, show up in the best way possible to show that he cared. And a lot of times it would be like, dad, I really liked this thing, or whatever it was that we were really into. Like I mentioned Spiderman or something like that, and my dad would go out in the world and he would find it.

[00:49:04] He wouldn't, he wouldn't. Make an excuse, he would go to every store he could ever imagine. And then so it showed up on Christmas, you know, cause this was before the internet. And so my dad always just kind of found things like he was, he's a, he's a Hunter. And so, you know, I remember being a part of those things and just having some of those memories of like just my dad having this intrinsic value to just, you know, like see things through to the end, you know, and, and it just gets hardwired into you at some point where you just see it, someone does leads by example and you just can't help but do it too, because he just, that's just what you saw. 

[00:49:46] Having Gratitude For Time Spent With Those That Matter Most

[00:49:46] Andy Vasily: Yeah. And that, that's it.

[00:49:48] Exactly. And that's the modeling piece. Right. And, and that's what I think is so important as, and you know, I was reflecting with my wife the other day and, and I say my one son was sick and then he comes and wakes us up in the middle of the night and then, you know, I'm, I just want to sleep, but then I have to wake up and take care of him.

[00:50:09] And I was a bit frustrated, but my wife is like. Yeah. We only have four more years with the boys. Four more years. Because when the boys, you know, when, when kids go off to university as parents, you will have spent 80% of your kid's life. With them under the age of 18 yup. Right? Yup. And then when I think about that statistic and I go, Holy shit, I'm getting out of bed and I'm going to go, even if it's two o'clock in the morning and I'm going to go get him a hot water bottle and I'm gonna get him a.

[00:50:43] Cup of hot tea, whatever he needs. because I, you know, I have limited time with these kids and I want to model patience and love and all of these things to them, so that they can bring that forward into the world as well. 

[00:50:59] Erich Wenzel: Yeah. I'm assuming that's from the Tim urban article, that, that you read that.

[00:51:04]Andy Vasily: No. 

[00:51:05] Erich Wenzel: So Tim Urban he's a blogger. Excuse me. He's a blog called wait, but why? And he has these funny little, like. Hand-drawn images about, just ideas he's a thinker, broadly speaking, and he was on Tim Ferriss's podcast, but he has, a blog that's basically encapsulates that same idea. He just reframes the number to make, it says, show you in pictogram is basically.

[00:51:28] What it means to how much time you have left, when it spends with your parents or in a family unit, you know, and it, and it really kind of sends the message home when you really think about, yeah, like at 18 that's 80% of your child's life or your life rather. And it's just, 

[00:51:44] Andy Vasily: it 

[00:51:45] Erich Wenzel: makes them feel really fortunate that I wasn't in a room and not in a rush to get out of the house or move far away from my family.

[00:51:51] And I think understanding some of the statistics of that stuff really makes it important for me to honestly not move super far away from my family so that I can still have those deep close connections going forward. And then it also is true for friends too. I have a very unique group of friends who have all been on this podcast.

[00:52:11]We've all known each other for about 20 years. So it's like a family you choose rather than the family you're born with, which is the craziest thing ever. But we've all kind of grown in parallel, and a lot of us resonate with a lot of these same ideals still to this day, which is crazy to think that these five of us that all grew up together somehow grew up along the same terms in, but in parallel pathways.

[00:52:35] It's kinda nuts, but it also goes to show, you know, how important tribe and community is for humanity. And it's, I don't know, it's really humbling to think about stuff like that. 

[00:52:48] We Need To Connect

[00:52:48] Andy Vasily: Yeah. That's the art of connection, right? And we are, a pack of wolves we need to connect. And whether we're an introvert or an extrovert.

[00:52:57]and we have to honor introverts and extroverts ultimately, no matter who we are or what we offer the world, we have to connect to a group. Introverts in particular can struggle and introverts can, can feel that they have to be an extrovert to connect, but they really don't have to be. You know, introverts just connect on a one-to-one level deeply with others.

[00:53:23] And that's every introvert needs that. Every extrovert needs that stimulation of the big group and that group momentum. But we're all different, but we have to connect. And that's, that's the beauty of it. And that's kind of the work that I do in education is to, to honor every student and where they're at.

[00:53:44] And to, really emphasize to teachers that you have to create the conditions for all students to flourish. You're introverts or extroverts. You have to find a space for all of them to flourish. And, and that's what I really committed myself to through the work that I do. 

[00:54:07] Andy's Professional Background

[00:54:07] Erich Wenzel: So this is a perfect point that we can get into your professional background because you know, we've got almost an hour now.

[00:54:11] And I didn't even ask that at the beginning because we just totally started riffing. 

[00:54:16] Andy Vasily: So my background, and so I graduated with a psychology degree. I got an education degree as well, and I moved into the world of international education. So. I started teaching internationally in Hiroshima, Japan at the Hiroshima International school, which was a combination of students.

[00:54:40] I think there were 120 students in the school, from 10 different countries. And then that led to me moving to different Azerbaijan and I worked at. At a international school there and everywhere I've gone, I've worked at international schools, but what I've done along the way is that kind of developed, I taught physical education and health and wellness, so I kind of developed over the last 20 years, I developed this framework for delivering meaningful physical education and movement experiences that will inspire young people to be physically active for life.

[00:55:22] And what that means is the traditional way that we look at physical education doesn't work. It's broken. It does not serve the masses. It serves the athletes. Right? So I now, a lot of the work that I do, so I'm based in Saudi Arabia, and my job right now is I'm, I'm an instructional coach, so I coached teachers.

[00:55:47] So, I coach PE teachers, I coach visual arts teachers, music teachers and librarians, and I coached them around their practice and how they're providing meaningful experiences for their learners. But really at the end of it, most of my experiences with physical education and health, so I go around to.

[00:56:10] Different countries. I presented in, probably over 20 countries on four continents to thousands of teachers about how you can create the conditions for all students to thrive physically. That means that you have to honor where every student is at and. You're not serving only the athletes, you're serving every single student.

[00:56:39] So if you can get that student that doesn't like sport to embrace movement for life, then you've done the best job in the world. And you know, so I go around the world and I just kind of teach teachers how to inspire students to want to move. 

[00:57:00] Creating A Program For Movement Not Sport 

[00:57:00] Erich Wenzel: That's awesome. That is so cool. I wish I had a teacher like you when I was little because I was that student who did not connect to movement at all.

[00:57:11] Growing up I was, you know, I kind of mentioned the reading aspect of it, but I was also really cerebral in general. I was, instead of doing what other kids did, I watched history channel and discovery channel, and was kind of locked in my brain. And, and I wrote about this. It was actually the episode with the Eisenhower decision matrix is how I basically reframed my entire thinking about movement, broadly speaking, because I always thought to myself, you know, especially growing up, I saw people around me who could express themselves physically, right?

[00:57:41] They became popular kids. They became the kids who people looked up to because they could do other things that kids couldn't, or it's easy to measure against, right? Like if you run faster than someone else and you know, you know right away, right. Go ahead. 

[00:57:59] Andy Vasily: I don't mean to cut you off by saying exactly what you're saying is the purpose of my work and the purpose of my work is to take every single student like you, you know, very cerebral, a reader.

[00:58:15]Somebody who's going to go into the physical education space and not want to play team sport. So why? And it's not that they don't want to play team sport, it's just that they have other interests. So why not create a physical education program that allows for movement? So you imagine, going to PE class and we're going to teach, after Christmas, we're going to teach a health and wellness unit of a fitness unit. Yeah. So how I'm pitching it and then I get to go, the beauty of my job is I get to go in and, and co-teach and kind of muddle lessons. So I'm like, you know what? Let's get some of these kids just into power walking. So why not allow them to bring their device, listen to music and power walk around the field, listen to a podcast, listen to an audio book and power walk the field.

[00:59:12] How big of a win is that right. So it's opening up the minds of the teachers to what's possible so that at the end of the day, you can look at your 23 students or your 31 students or your 19 students, however many students you have in the class and know I have done a great job because I have inspired movement under.

[00:59:37] Their terms and conditions, but under my own terms and conditions within the curriculum that I'm operating in. 

[00:59:45] Erich Wenzel: That's so cool. I mean, it's just, I love the idea of, of one being able to adapt to the students' needs, right? Being able to take a student where they're at and the O the only goal and you know, it's not about, you know, pass, fail or, you know, getting an a, it's about taking them from where they were and just moving them up.

[01:00:04] You know, and if they're able to take it and run with it, awesome. You know, if their table to take the torch and go light it, you know, and the next one or whatever, that's, you know, that's gravy, you know, everything else is gravy. But if you can just make them, you know, 1% better than when they came in through that door, or at least light a fire behind them.

[01:00:20] I think. That you're winning, and I love the distinction you made there is, is calling it movement not working out. And I don't know if you wanna elaborate on that because I think that's a really important distinction. It's like meditation versus mindfulness. I think, you know, unpacking those terms is really important.

[01:00:37] Fitting the Program Into the Community

[01:00:37] Andy Vasily: And that, and that's it. So that is exactly the challenge that I bring to, the teachers that I coach and the schools that I work with. And I was recently in Abu Dhabi and I was working with a group of teachers there. And, and I was just talking like the first thing you have to do when constructing a curriculum is to and meet him in terms of physical education, is to look at what's available to the kids outside their community.

[01:01:07] Don't bring in this curriculum from someplace else and try to drop it in and make it your own because it will not work. So you have to look at what options are available. So can the kids cycle, can the kids skateboard? Can the kids play racket sports? Can the kids do this? And then once you figure out what the kids can do outside of school, you build your movement program around that.

[01:01:35] Right. So then the kids are super inspired too. So in Saudi Arabia here we have a skate park 500 meters away. We have tennis courts, we have squash courts. We have lots of paths to bike on. So. What I'm trying to do here, over the past four years is to create cycling units and power walking units and skateboarding units.

[01:01:59] Because if we can inspire the kids in PE, what are they going to do? Take action. They're gonna want to get skateboards, they're going to go to the skate park. They're going to want to get a bike and ride on the past. They're gonna want to go to the racket club and play tennis and badminton. Now you've inspired lifetime movement, so that's what it's about.

[01:02:20] It's not dropping in this curriculum. One size fits all. No. It's looking at what you have first. And then working outward from that. 

[01:02:31] Erich Wenzel: It's providing the blueprint basically, right? It's like, here, here's the access to the information and like, here's how like the fundamentals of it, and it's not to, you know, overly push the, the athletic component or the sport component and say, yes, you're going to compete if you do this thing.

[01:02:48] It's more of like, Hey, if you enjoy moving in this way, keep doing it. You know, we've given you everything in this run with it. 

[01:02:55] Gardening In PE

[01:02:55] Andy Vasily: 100%. I've got a friend who's a researcher at the university of Kentucky, and the beautiful thing that he did was he had done a bunch of research, with his, PhD grads. How people in Kentucky are active after high school, the overwhelming majority of people or active through gardening.

[01:03:19] Oh, then he said, okay, so let's scale this back and let's introduce gardening and PE. Such a physical thing. You're touching the earth, you're shoveling you're moving rocks. You're, you're doing 

[01:03:36] Erich Wenzel:  this is so much more functional than that. Right? 

[01:03:38] Andy Vasily: Right. So let's actually introduce gardening in PE. How great is that?

[01:03:44] Right? 

[01:03:45] Erich Wenzel: That has a double whammy too, man. 

[01:03:48] Andy Vasily: So then you have this great garden in this school, and part of the program is to go out there and manually work in the garden, and the kids fall in love with it because that's what the statistics and the data say is that kids are, you know, adults are most active cutting their grass.

[01:04:08] Weeding. You know, their gardens and planting and doing all of this, and that's, that's, you know, that, that opened my eyes. I connected with him about seven years ago and we've been in touch ever since. And that's, and so now I'm introducing that to schools. In the Middle East, gardening. That sounds cool.

[01:04:30] Erich Wenzel: I didn't even think about that. But that's such a cool, like holistic thing because you get students interested in gardening and say, look, it keeps you active. And then, you know, you start wrapping in the, not just flowers but even crops, and then all of a sudden you start having, you know, self-contained community gardens that, you know, are creating their own food.

[01:04:47] And then I, this is just me going off with my systems thinking, but it just sounds like a cool thing. And then, you know, adding in positive psychology in there, you know, if people are invested in things that look nice, you know, cause you have extra green and foliage that people are attending and care about.

[01:05:01] And then all of a sudden. It just has all these positive reinforcement benefits that, you know, you can't, it's like, why not? It's so cool and it's such a cool idea. I never even, I don't know why I didn't think about that either. It's so, you know, it's kind of right there in your face. from, from the education standpoint. 

[01:05:22] Did you have a specific goal in mind, like was teaching or education something you are always interested in or was it more driven by your love for sports and like trying to figure out your own internal world and then that just kind of facilitated of you being able to reach out to that as you know, for other people.

[01:05:41] How Andy's Career Has Evolved

[01:05:41] Andy Vasily: It started with physical education, sport, that was my background, but then moved into more holistically how I can engage kids in learning that is meaningful. And, and then that kind of took over my pursuit, and my profession was like, how can I make a difference? And in a really instilling in young people, a desire to learn and then to create the conditions for them to learn on a continual basis, which is completely away from the control and compliance model that is ancient to war of, autonomy and voice and choice and action and the agency.

[01:06:32] And to create the conditions for kids to. work within those parameters in order to find out what they love and what they're passionate about. And that's what I firmly believe in. So the whole testing thing, you know, is the window because it just doesn't work, you know? You can teach the test, or you can, you can teach the love and passion of every young learner.

[01:06:58] So I'm. I am devoting my life to teaching teachers how to teach to the love and passion of every learner. 

[01:07:08] Erich's Educational Background

[01:07:08]Erich Wenzel: So good. It makes me really happy to hear like professors, like you are educators who are, I guess pretty meta where you're teaching the teacher, but it's really, really cool because as my education ended within college and things like that, I was really fortunate at the community college I went to where we had a lot of real world practical teaching. 

[01:07:30] It was very applied like a hybrid. someone would say even like a trade school where half of the students would go on to become engineers. And the other half of the students were like adult learners who were already in jobs and they just never got a degree, but their companies were like, Hey, you've been here long enough. Just go get the associates, we'll promote you and you'll, you know, you'll, you'll be able to upgrade your path basically. And a lot of those people, it was like, Motorola. Eric guys. So they're all like from cell phones, first-generation early nineties, and stuff like that. 

[01:08:01] And they had the ability to be teaching as if it was a business, not in the sense of like, I'm a button pusher, but in the sense of I need to give you real world problems.

[01:08:13] I give you all of the tools necessary, all the equipment necessary, and the basic foundation of solving said problem. And then they leave the room. And then the people who get it and the people who understand it wound up teaching other people in the room as, as like in part of the labs. And for me, I excelled in that environment.

[01:08:32] You like it when it felt like giving me a breadcrumb trail and I knew that, you know, as soon as I had the first bird come, I was already down like breadcrumb three because I just understood the foundational stuff and then I could teach other people and other people would look at me and say, how do you get this so much?

[01:08:47] And I would be like, I don't really know, but I'm going to help you get to where I'm at. And it was fun. It was the most. Enjoyable experience I ever had in school, and it happened in college. I never had the point where someone just gave me the tools necessary to problem solve and to be like, Oh, Hey, you can actually do something without someone saying you can go do it, basically.

[01:09:10] And I think part of that is having good mentors. And it sounds like you've had many good mentors in many different domains on this day. Are there any ones that like resonate with you or you know. Remember most, 

[01:09:23] Andy's Important Mentors

[01:09:23]Andy Vasily: you know, like over the years I've had so many, and when I think back to early days, I think of my Canadian history teacher who was always there for me in high school.

[01:09:36] And the high school was obviously, you know, for many kids, it's a difficult time, especially when you're experiencing some family trauma. You know? so, I had a history teacher. who was phenomenal, you know, and he was always there. And it wasn't about the history, it was about the mentorship. And, you know, and I learned so much from him, and I connected with him.

[01:10:04] And, and, and in university there were a couple of coaches that I had. And then moving forward, it's like mentorship comes in many forms. Mentorship can be a fleeting moment. You know, where you meet somebody and you're like, wow, that person really made me think differently. So the big question in life is like who inspired you, right?

[01:10:28] And yes, we have some pivotal moments in life where people stepped up to the plate. And if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't be doing the work that we do. But we have to stay open and present to the, to the daily. Opportunities that come our way to be moved and inspired by people who cross our path. And those are the mentors as well.

[01:10:55] Those are the people who are mentors. And I think that mentorship comes in many farms, you know? So I'm, I'm always completely inspired by people. but for the big ones that stood out, it's, it's my teacher in high school. It's my brother in law. my sister's, husband who, it was a really tough martial arts dude who kicked my ass, who made me, made me always look at the goal and to work hard to get there.

[01:11:26] And she wasn't very nice, and I didn't like him, but I love him now. And he's literally like a brother. But, we have to look at, you know, your question is important, who were the big mentors? 

[01:11:42] But we also have to look at who are the daily mentors who push us and inspire us. And you might not talk to them for three, three, or four months, but then suddenly you might reconnect with them and then you realize why you reconnected with them because they also inspire you. So it's a difficult question to answer, but I would say that, every day we have the opportunity to be mentored when we open our minds and our present.

[01:12:12] Gratitude and Connecting with Others

[01:12:12] Erich Wenzel: That's awesome. Yeah. I think you're right. It is hard because it almost does it injustice to everyone you've been fortunate to cross paths with. You know, it's a sense of gratitude that I have many times I'm doing this podcast in general has for me unlocked the ability or the sense of gratitude I have for conversations, for conversations of depth and connection and meaning.

[01:12:36]and so whenever I meet someone new or make plans with somebody. I really go into it with a deep sense of gratitude. This person like yourself could literally be doing anything else right now with your time. But you chose to talk to me. And it's really, really, you know, it's humbling and it's awesome to be able to have that sense about it.

[01:12:56] And I think, you know we if you go into every moment with the sense of gratitude and being grateful for, you weren't walking away from it learning something at the very least, because a lot of times people are more negative than they should be about things like, Oh, this person was whatever. You know, they always have like a kind of a chip on their shoulder about interactions of certain things.

[01:13:15] And it's like, if you just realize that, you know, we have a finite amount of bandwidth and when people choose to use it, W like with your, you know, to do that. It's, it's really powerful, I think. 

[01:13:29] Andy Vasily: Yeah. And that makes total sense. Right? But that's a conscious effort to recognize that and to be in the moment.

[01:13:37] And one of the things that we do as a family is when we go out for dinner. Devices are away. There's no devices out. but then we actually do a moment where we just say, okay, boys, let's just look in the restaurant right now. And when we look around the restaurant, there'll be lots of families there.

[01:13:56] And every single table, most tables, multiple devices out. So you have this disconnected presence. Right. And I look at it, I'm so sad to see that and the boys, and I want the boys to see that. And I want the boys to see the disconnect.  It really is such an important thing because. As much as you might. You feel your phone buzz in your pocket. Oh, somebody contacted me. Oh social media. Really what it is is this is our moment to be together, and then when you actually look around and see everybody on their devices, it's like the Jetsons.

[01:14:37] It's like, I can't believe that people can hold sacred sessions between family members and to look each other in the eye and to talk about. What worked well that day? What didn't, what are you hoping for tomorrow? What's worrying you? What are you anxious about? All of these things and to have those discussions.

[01:15:04] Being Sucked Into Our Devices

[01:15:04] Erich Wenzel: Yeah, I mean, it's one of the symptoms, like I was talking, we talked about it before with social media and stuff like that. We get sucked into these, these devices and you know, they feel so important, right. Because the illusion and the psychology that goes into them, you know, they, they, they push all the right.

[01:15:22] You know, little dopamine buttons, like my little fun way of thinking about this is, it's like having an  IV drip of dopamine for your, you know, that's in your pocket. And you know, if you let it do that to you, then it will distract you from what really matters. And that's the, in the moment of like, who you're with.

[01:15:41] And it doesn't matter who it is, it's your family, your friends, your significant other, your coworkers. You know, we, we, we, you know. Under prioritize the moment where it's like sometimes the vices seal feel more real or more connected than they actually are. And I, and I really pushed back on that stuff because I just think that there's a better way to go about it.

[01:16:01] Like for me personally, I have 90% of my notifications turned off. I have like phone calls and I have text messages and I'm. About about, that's about it. Like everything else, I don't have any notifications on my phone because it's not, it's just not necessary. Like I don't need my phone or Facebook or Instagram telling me when I should be looking at it because it doesn't mean anything.

[01:16:22] Like it'll be there however long it will be there and I'll, I'll get to it when I get to it. And so it's just kind of. I don't know. I'm really bullish on this because I think human connection is so important, and like what you're saying here with like the cell phone stuff, I really reconnected to that with podcasting.

[01:16:41] when this first started, it was me and my friends kind of having. For lack of a better term, barroom talk where we would, you know, all going to grab a beer. And we'd sit around and talk about consciousness or the meaning of life for three hours and get nowhere. And then we know we are, we talk about things that you shouldn't be talking about.

[01:17:40] And you know, we got a little heated and into it, but no one hated each other at the end and no one got angry. And, But no one took out their phone for three hours and everyone was locked into the discussion having fun, you know, everyone was into it and I was like, huh, there's something here.

[01:17:59]And that's going to do it for part one with Andy Vasily. He had to run really quick to go make dinner for his family. So right timing for us, talking about all of this connection and you know, making time for the people that matter most for us. So we will have part two in a couple of weeks come out where we'll pick up.

[01:18:22] Where this discussion left off, but it will be its own self contained conversation. So you won't miss anything if you don't listen to this one or you only listen to number two. But I really highly recommend listening to both of those episodes. So I will see you all in the next episode. .

Psychology, Mind SetErich WenzelAndy Vasily, PYP PE With Andy, Andy Vasily TEDx, Travel, World Citizen, Tim Ferriss, KAUST, Dr. Albert Bandura, Dr. Michael Gervais, Compete to Create, Be More to do more, Mindset, Mentors, Connection, Communcation, LIfe is about experiences, Eisenhower Decision Matrix, Mindset and MovementComment