Coach Cat is Back!

This Transcript is Autogenerated:

Kristi Wagner  0:02  
During the World Championships, he kept saying, Don't get so stressed out and so nervous that you're not enjoying this experience. And it was really good advice. Yeah, because it can be really scary. Welcome to the other three years, a show for anyone who has an Olympic sized dream they want to turn into a reality. Hi, and welcome to this week's episode of the other three years podcast this week is really fun and exciting. I interviewed my Coach Eric Adelanto who I call cat most everybody calls him cat. And we talked about a bunch of different things. He was the assistant sculling coach this summer for the national team. So he was with us, the whole summer in Princeton, and then in Italy, and of course in Belgrade. So I just talked to him asked him some questions about what that was like, because he's the head coach at Orion and the executive director at Saratoga rowing, but was like an assistant role this summer. So what that was like for him, and just what his big takeaways were from the summer, things that he thought maybe I needed to work on for the rest of the year, which is kind of his job to tell me what to work on. So that should have been an easy question. I think, as always, he had many very good and inspirational and potent things to say and to share. So I think if you're a rower, or not an athlete or not, there's a lot that you can get from him and from the conversation. So I hope that everyone really enjoys it. But before we get into that, here's an update on what is currently going on in my training. I'm in Saratoga. And I'm, I'd say like 7065 to 70% of the way back into training. I'm definitely feeling better. I'm not gonna lie. Last week, I was tired. And things that should not have been hard felt hard. It's really weird, like I talked about last week, I think on the podcast, feeling out of shape, but you're also in shape. It's this really weird middle ground. And it's really weird to say that I felt out of shape, because I know that I am not out of shape. But in rowing, we peak for like a six to eight minute race. But our training is hours long. So it's a really weird dynamic to get back to this like hours and hours of training and low heart rate and your heart rate is way higher than it should be in your body feels horrible. And you know that that's why we do it. That's why you love it. So it's really fun. In this past week, I got to go for some really fun bike rides, and I got some really nice rose. And we had some beautiful days on the water, as Kat and I kind of talked about in our conversation, actually don't know if it'll be in this episode. So if you don't hear it, then tune in next week, because we're gonna share part two. But talk we talked a little bit about the struggle between coming back to training after Worlds. And then a lot of my teammates that have been here have been training and are going really fast right now. And kind of the dynamic between those things of one doesn't really affect the other and how do we kind of cohabitate and everyone support each other, but not take anything personally from what the other group is doing. I think I've just been trying to navigate that. And I will be the first to say that I'm always a work in progress. And I'm always looking to like learn and adapt. And I wouldn't say that it's all been super, super easy. Because I always want to be out there and be competitive. But at the same time, I'm a strong believer that you can have two feelings at the same time. And I'm happy for my teammates and really proud of them and really psyched to see them going so fast. It's just hard to be taking break time when other people are making improvements and not to think oh no, like I need to be doing that. When I know I don't but it's just like a nap a hard thing to navigate. But yesterday, so it's Monday and yesterday on Sunday went on a long ride with some of our friends and some of my teammates to Lake George. I think it was 63 miles round trip. So took us a couple hours but it was a beautiful day and it was a really fun ride. So that was really nice. And then this morning we did this fun triathlon that my teammates have been doing all summer and I was pretty nervous about which again, alludes to a point in our conversation that I think is going to be in next week's episode of me feeling the need to stress out about things that are unnecessary to stress out about but I don't know I did a bad job yesterday, so maybe today will be better. But I was unnecessarily stressed out about this triathlon because I had not done it before but basically we rode for an hour, then ran around. We call it the Fitch loop which is like six miles, which took about an hour. And then we rode our bikes around the lake which was like 16 or 18 miles or something. So also took about an hour or so is about three hours of cardio right in the morning on a Monday morning. So it was actually super fun. I loved it. And yeah, now it's Monday. So good Monday, got some work done and did some working out and just happy to be back living a more normal life. This coming weekend. It's my mom's 60th birthday. And I don't know if she'd be upset by me saying how old she's turning. I don't think so. Cuz she like looks amazing. First, like she is she is amazing. So I'm gonna be going home to celebrate her birthday, some of my teammates are going to the Green Mountain head Regatta, which is a really fun steak turn race in Vermont. And yeah, we're kind of just in full fall swing of things. I'm going to the post track tranquility event tomorrow night that I think people heard about in the episode last week. And I'm actually really excited. I think it's gonna be really fun. So stay tuned next week for my review of the post track tranquility event. Yeah, I think that's it for what's currently happening. So here is my conversation with my coach cat.

Hi, and welcome to this week's episode of the other three years. So this is very exciting. I have cat, my coach. I always feel like I should introduce you as Eric in formal situations.

Eric Catalano  6:35  
You may I think more people will know me as cat. Oh, no

Kristi Wagner  6:38  
use cat and Eric, back on the podcast. Yeah, you're my first reoccurring guest honored. So I thought that it would be cool to talk to you about your experience this summer. Because correct me if I'm wrong, it was your first senior national team world's experience. Yes, I thought that maybe we could start by talking about what the experience was like, especially because I feel a major change that I've seen you slash Orion go through, and I've gone through is that we used to be very much outside the system. And I feel like that was a little bit of our identity. And we can definitely explain that for people a little bit more. And now we're kind of inside the system, which is a new role for all of us. So I don't know if you felt similar to that or like, and I think your coaching this summer was a different experience for you. I know you were explaining that to me a little bit what that was like,

Eric Catalano  7:43  
Yeah, sure. So this summer, I was assisting with the lightweight women's double, and the Openweight women's double, and then also a little bit with the women's quad and the lightweight men's double. But I think for the most part, I was kind of helping out. Yossi was coaching the women's doubles. So having me there, I think was his, I was able to kind of fill in when whatever gaps he needed, I also kind of helped with rigging and getting the boats ready and that kind of stuff. But I will say it was a little different experience than I expected, I am used to being the head coach of a program and kind of everything running through me and taking kind of the lead on everything. And in this scenario, I was an assistant coach. So I think it's good for everyone, it was definitely good for me to have that space where I have to kind of take a step back and spend more time supporting what the head coach is doing, and, and trying to fill in whatever gaps I can without being kind of the owner of the training, but more, you know, just a part of the training. So at first I was expecting to do a little more, you know, hands on coaching, if that's if that's a term, but kind of learned different roles that I could take throughout the training and was able to spend a little more time kind of really trying to I mean, my goal and I don't know if you felt it or not, but my goal was really to try and just support the culture a little bit more like if I wasn't going to be out there instructing on a ton of things on the water was to support the culture and to really try and help keep the vibes good and keep everyone on the same page. It was weird because that kind of stuff is so soft that you don't know if any, if it's working, it's you just hope that your presence is kind of helping and in the end I will say that afterwards. One of the athletes gave me a really nice send me a really nice text and and kind of mentioned how I had helped in that way. And I hadn't mentioned that, that that was my goal. So really hearing that, you know, I was really pleased that, at least to her, it was a goal was accomplished in her in her mind, even though she didn't know that that's what I was going after.

Kristi Wagner  10:17  
Yeah, no, I mean, I definitely felt it too. But I think just like going back, because I, you mentioned that, you know, in Saratoga, and at Orion, like, you are in charge of everything, you're the one that we all ask questions, you don't really report, you know, you are the head honcho. So was it a challenge to then not be in that role? And like, how did you deal with that?

Eric Catalano  10:44  
Oh, I mean, at first, I was super excited, because I was like, Wow, I'm gonna have the next six weeks where I don't have to make any decisions. And I feel like my, my life up until that point was like, just a constant state of decision fatigue. So getting into that space, I'm like, wow, this is great. I don't have to make any decisions. But then I did really start to miss making decisions. So that's when I kind of thought, Alright, I need to change, change my goals for this and see if I can support culture, think about a different ways that I can make an impact. I just

Kristi Wagner  11:20  
feel like I think that you handle that the whole thing? Well, like, at least from my vantage point. And I feel like that would be a struggle for people like say you are at one job, and then you go to another job, and you're no longer in charge, like how do you navigate that? Especially if maybe, sometimes you disagree with what the people? And I'm not saying that you did? But like, you're kind of disagreeing with the people that are your superiors, or whatever are you doing? How do you navigate

Eric Catalano  11:51  
that? Yeah, I, I think the other thing that I did is I really like looked for opportunities to just be a student myself, like, if I was going to be in an assistant role, I wanted to know exactly what the head coach was looking for. And so, you know, in a lot of times in the launch, you know, I was just listening to what he was saying, watching what he was watching, and just kind of learning and coming up with ways that I can try and teach that same thing through my own voice. And, and it was good, because this was the new coaching staff has like, some different takes on kind of when we started in this whole journey that the head coach for the US women what was different. And so as the regime changed, there's like different styles, there's, they're looking for different things. So being able to kind of figure out what it is that that makes the new regime really excited, was a good learning experience for me, and will help me restructure our training to ensure that we're aiming towards what they're looking for.

Kristi Wagner  13:08  
I know you've mentioned to me before that if I lose, you don't think you lost. But if I win, you don't think you want and like you're not. And I don't mean, I'm not trying to put my words in your mouth. That's just like what I've Yeah, no, I've said that. Like, you're not, you know, that's not why you're doing it, and you don't necessarily feel those things. But did you feel a sense of like accomplishment over the summer being that both of the boats, you were primarily working with like medals at the World Championships?

Eric Catalano  13:36  
I did, but in the same sense that I really don't I really don't take a lot of the wins and losses personally, whether I'm the head coach or the assistant coach. So

Kristi Wagner  13:50  
can you maybe explain what that conversation that we had before of you not taking like the wins and losses personally? Yeah, because I think that's different from other coaches.

Eric Catalano  14:01  
Yeah. I mean, I feel like my role is to help to help you get into the best place that you can. But what happens on race day is fail, it's up to you. It's up to the universe. There's a lot of things that go into that, that are outside of my control. And I feel like one of my strengths is really only focusing on the things that are inside my control, and get having you prepared, having my athletes ready to race. Those are in my control, and I can feel accomplished. When those pieces pieces are aligned. I try not to get stressed at all about the things that are outside of my control.

Kristi Wagner  14:44  
That's easier said than done. Yeah, for me. Personally, I love to stress about things that are outside of my control. Because I think most of the population would agree Um, no, I don't love to do it. I just do it a lot. We're all working.

Eric Catalano  15:06  
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think I think I'm pretty good at catching myself like getting stressed over things. If things are outside of my control, it's always just reframe it and take care of the stuff in your control.

Kristi Wagner  15:18  
That's true. A cat is that I don't think I mentioned last time you were on that I tried to think about all the time. It's like, what's one thing that you can do today that will make every day after this easier and better? Helps me not procrastinate.

Eric Catalano  15:33  
That's a good one is that cat ism was taken from some book on business, I forget which one. So it's not actually a cat ism. But thank you for attributing it to me

Kristi Wagner  15:43  
or any, like, originals.

Eric Catalano  15:47  
The absence of a compliment is not an insult.

Kristi Wagner  15:51  
So one of my teammates, Megan Goodman likes just give us high low and buffalo. So what would you say was your high low and buffalo of the World Championships

Eric Catalano  16:02  
high? Was probably you getting a medal. That's something that I have wanted to happen for a long time, as much as you have wanted to happen for a long time. The low was actually not being there in person to see it. I was sick that day, and stayed away from the race course. That was tough to watch on the computer. So I went all the way to Belgrade to watch you on the computer, which I've done at home previous years. And the buffalo Buffalo was that I ate fresh fig for the first time. And then I ate like seven or eight of them every single day because there was the fig bush that we walked past on the way to practice every single day. Yes. Hi, Haley. That was Italy. Yes. Yeah. Oh, you mean Belgrade? That's

Kristi Wagner  16:57  
okay. That's that counts. No,

Eric Catalano  16:59  
my buffalo and Belgrade was I went to the mall with Michael Martin off and he swore there was a grocery store there. And we walked around that ball like seven times. And then he found in the basement. I was like, it's not here, Michael. It's not here.

Kristi Wagner  17:15  
Yeah. And you went shopping. You bought all that stuff.

Eric Catalano  17:19  
I did buy some stuff. I did buy some stuff for for 1000s and 1000s of whatever their currency has, you know, dinars, like dinner, but which is, which was actually like 25 bucks.

Kristi Wagner  17:32  
I thought you were gonna say something about all the ice creams you guys had at the racecourse?

Eric Catalano  17:36  
We did. Isabel and I had ice cream every day. So

Kristi Wagner  17:39  
obviously, it was very exciting and very fun to race. World Champs but now we're in the super weird time that happens every year when we come home. And I think that maybe I will be good at it by the time I retire rowing. But I do think I learned a little bit every year. Yeah, yeah. But do you think maybe you can just talk a little bit about kind of maybe like the state of Orion right now. And just the challenge. I don't know if challenge is the right word. But just like the interesting aspect of different athletes doing things. Sure. So

Eric Catalano  18:11  
I feel like last year and years prior, you would just kind of like jump right back into training. And I don't know if I pressured you on it at all. But I feel like there wasn't much of a downtime. So that's kind of been consciously, I think you've been at least from my perspective, you've been working on that. And I've been trying to also like, make sure that you and the other athletes who are at Worlds had a little more space to recover from the season. But at the same time, the other part of our team, they took their they had their recovery earlier in from their year earlier in the summer. So they're actually up and running. So it's a tricky time, because we have like some people who are just kind of getting their feet wet again, after taking a recovery and some people who are kind of hitting their stride and getting ready for racing. So it is a little bit tricky. I think it's tricky for the athletes. As you know, people have different goals approaching. And and I think it's tricky as a coach. And I've noticed, like, you know, for athletes as well, like, it's not easy. It's not easy to watch other people going fast. When you were in a place where you're not trying to go fast, and kind of seeing these like, oh, I want to be going that fast, but I'm supposed to be like taking a break and other people being I want to go fast. But we have these other people aren't even practicing with us, but I want to see how fast I am relative to that other, you know, to those other people. So it is it is tricky in the team dynamics and we talked about that a little bit in a team meeting and trying to talk About different parts of the team having different goals as we, as we go into the fall and, and being in your best space for a race this summer is a lot different than being in your best face for race in November. And, and trying to balance those, I think is tricky, but a good challenge. And I think we'll all learn from it. Each time we do it,

Kristi Wagner  20:24  
I think that it's hard because I, at least for me, I want to be a good teammate. And I want to support my teammates. But I think exactly what you said is true. We wouldn't be here if we weren't competitive people and compartmentalizing the, like, I'm not being competitive right now, with just who I am as a person is really hard. And even though I know that it is smart to take time off, and I've learned over the years that jumping back into I think I had competition fatigue. Yeah, last year, more than like physical fatigue, my body felt fine. And my mind was tired of sitting at a start line. Yeah. But that still doesn't mean that it's any easier in the moment of practice. Yeah. So I just feel like that's the for me personally, that's the challenge.

Eric Catalano  21:27  
Yeah. And I can definitely see that I could see people struggling with with that. And I'm just trying to understand, and I'm hoping that we can kind of push it throughout our team that we're that we all try and understand that we can compete competing with each other. As it may be fun, it may make practice a little more interesting. But ultimately, we want to compete with a standard that is going to achieve the level we want to achieve. So you know, we want to, we want to be fast more than we want to be faster than our teammate. And I think that's a tricky thing to learn. Because as soon as you're at the lineup next to someone, you forget, and you want to be faster than the person next to you. And when I was coaching juniors, I tried to kind of always work with them and and talk about, like, your goal isn't to make the varsity, if you just try to make the varsity, you could be in a slow varsity, your goal is to like, be really fast. And then you will make it like then the other things line up once you're fast, then you'll be in a fast boat. But just making the boat doesn't mean that the boat is going to be good. Being fast means that the boat is going to be good. And and that I think it's it's a different way to look at approaching the same thing. But it is hard because you know, as soon as you get in a starting block next to somebody, like your mindset doesn't shift that you're going against a clock or yourself you suddenly like Oh, there they are, there's my competitor. And it is helpful to kind of personify our competitors. And I think that, you know, does help along the way. But we can't we can't forget that ultimately, like, if you're fast, you'll be in a fast boat. Because you make it fast. If you just get in a boat, it doesn't mean it's going to be fast.

Kristi Wagner  23:30  
Yeah. I think about the the sign that said, you want to be a person that people want to be in a boat with. And they don't want to be in a boat again. Like, yeah, you want to be in, you want to be a person that people want in their boat, and they don't want to be racing you. I think about that with the juniors too. Like, I would always say or you would probably say and then I would say like, you want to be the person that when other people hear you're in their boat, they're like, yes, you know, yeah. Because it's just going to make everything better, rather than hoping that you're going to be in, you know, some scenario,

Eric Catalano  24:07  
right? Even I could make some high school boats. It doesn't mean that boat is going to be fast.

Kristi Wagner  24:16  
Yeah, it is funny, though, because I think that I did achieve a goal this year that I had had for a while, which is exciting. But it's this same weird thing of you think you're gonna feel different after you achieve some sort of goal and then you sort of just basically be like zactly the same? Yeah,

Eric Catalano  24:38  
I think that goes to the the idea that happiness is not on the other side of any particular goal, not happiness, but even satisfaction. It's not a threshold that we cross when we get to that goal. Like it has to be found like along the way. Yeah,

Kristi Wagner  24:54  
it's just something that I wish that I had known A while ago, because I think that there was so much of my rowing career that I spent thinking, if I just do this, if I just do this, and I can still see that it's hard for like some of my teammates that maybe haven't been around as long they say, Well, you can say that because you've done it. Right. And I'm like, No, that's the problem like this is the issue is that you're thinking that it's just because I went to the Olympics, or just because whatever, but in reality, like, I still have the same insecurities that I had, I mean, maybe not all of them, but like, a lot of them,

Eric Catalano  25:38  
it's the same, you know, you're not automatically going to be happier on the other side of promotion, or on the new job, or, or whatever. It's not a destination, it can't be. It can't be on the like, the grass is greener. And as soon as this happens, I'm going to be happy. I'm using happy but satisfied or fulfilled or without anxiety or whatever that whatever the case may be. It's not on the other side of some goal.

Kristi Wagner  26:05  
Yeah. But that it is this weird flip side? Because then you kind of hit the well then why are you doing it? If you're not going to feel some sort of satisfaction or happiness or whatever. And I thought, I think it's interesting, because also like during the World Championships, USC have saying, like, this is why we do all don't get so stressed out and so nervous that you're not enjoying this experience. Right? And it was really good advice. Yeah. Yeah. Because it can be really scary.

Eric Catalano  26:40  
So I coached through walkie talkies. And I've always appreciated that I can like talk, and they can't really talk back to me because there's they're all in, you know, in waterproof bags and such. But sometimes I feel like somebody, some people have like, just turned it off or turned it down.

Kristi Wagner  26:59  
I don't think I've ever turned you off. But I do just kind of you know, you can zone it out if you need to. Well, because cat. So he coaches us through these walkie talkies, and we do a lot of rate shifting things. And he'll so he'll say, Okay, we're gonna do three minutes at this, and then two minutes at this at one minute at this. And he'll say, okay, all I'll tell you at the two minute mark at the three minute mark, and he is so wrong all the time. Like his time. It's, like minutes wrong. He's always so it's like,

Eric Catalano  27:37  
just so one I have two excuses. Like, why do you reasons not excuses reasons. My first reason is that I really like watching rowing, I forget to look at my clock and know and catch the transitions. But two is I bought this, like $3 watch from Amazon. And it's been sitting outside in my launch for the past several years. And I just realized, like this week, as I tried as I reset it like three times this week, I think it loses like 20 minutes a day. Like I come back and look, like I said this thing yesterday. It's like, so during your practice, it probably does just the clock just loses time. Okay,

Kristi Wagner  28:20  
sure, we can blame the clock. Um, so what has been what were you looking forward to coming home and what has been like the best part about coming back to regular life, maybe the worst part also.

Eric Catalano  28:35  
So I was looking forward to a lot of things I because I spent so much time like just watching rowing and thinking about how I would kind of help or how I would explain the things that I that I was seeing. I just, I feel like I had a lot of brain space to think while I was away, not having not making so many decisions. So I was really excited to just kind of try new things and explain things in different ways. I was also really excited to live by myself. I haven't had a roommate in a really long time. And this was a long time to have a roommate and I was really excited to just like, have the walkie talkie again.

Kristi Wagner  29:21  
Good. Good. Any surprises since you've come home?

Eric Catalano  29:25  
I mean, outside of our buildings being renovated, which was really, really exciting. Yeah. I don't want to say surprises. But I was really pleased with the progress that some of the athletes I haven't worked with in a really long time it came back and I feel like they're moving really well. So that was super exciting. And what do I miss? All my meals being made for me?

Kristi Wagner  29:55  
I'm back to eating dehydrated huel the Princeton Training Center girls could not compute that you don't cook. They were like, how do you

Eric Catalano  30:06  
eat? Yeah, yeah, I don't know. I just do.

Kristi Wagner  30:09  
I mean, he was not really food.

Eric Catalano  30:13  
You just pour a little water in and stick it in the microwave. You cook it the fuel? Yeah. The hot and savory who?

Kristi Wagner  30:20  
What is it like soup like lentils. It's like dehydrated stuff. Yeah. Stuff like vegetables, meat.

Eric Catalano  30:29  
There's like they're like curries. And yeah. Wow. Is it good as a pasta One, two? I think it's good. I survive on it. But does it taste good? Some of them do. Yeah. Yeah. And Soylent? Soylent? You don't cook though.

Kristi Wagner  30:46  
You make your Soylent smoothie?

Eric Catalano  30:49  
Sure. Is this an advertisement for Soylent? This is a delicious smoothie, by the way. So you take two bananas, and chop them up and put them in the blender. And then you put five scoops of Soylent in. Sorry,

Kristi Wagner  31:03  
can you specify though that you don't peel the banana?

Eric Catalano  31:07  
Oh, they're frozen bananas? And yeah, just chop them? Like I don't, I don't take the peels off. Just chop them up and throw them in two bananas, frozen. And then five scoops of Soylent and some water and blend it. And it's amazing.

Kristi Wagner  31:22  
Why do you leave? Peel on the banana?

Eric Catalano  31:27  
I don't have the energy to peel them. I can't tell them that there's a peel when it's blended. There's no take the sticker off. That's good. Yeah, think of how much fiber I get.

Kristi Wagner  31:40  
I was gonna say like, there must be some sort of nutritional value?

Eric Catalano  31:44  
I would think so. Yeah. See? Interest? We could ask Liz Fosco we could. She was on the podcast. He

Kristi Wagner  31:50  
was and it was a great episode. Everyone should go listen.

Eric Catalano  31:52  
Yeah, yeah. I'll ask her about banana peel. Yeah,

Kristi Wagner  31:56  
I'd be interested to know. So what would you say? Are your like key takeaways from the summer?

Eric Catalano  32:03  
If you have any, uh,

Kristi Wagner  32:07  
my follow up question was going to be, what do you think are the things I can do to improve the most in this next year without giving like my competitors, some sort of

Eric Catalano  32:21  
my key takeaways are just a big emphasis on on rhythm and a big emphasis on using the momentum and the mass of your body in the rowing stroke, really, effectively. And I think it's very easy to get into a into a push really hard mentality. But a lot of people push hard. And, and sometimes people who can't push as hard as others can still go faster. And it's really, I think, related to how well you like, use your mass and, and can take advantage of levers and momentum and swing. And also the idea of just kind of tapping and tapping and spinning and just maintaining speed, rather than really looking for something heavy. And I'm using, you know, vague terms, but uh, but instead of like grabbing a bunch of weight, and then throwing it as far as you can, it's like, can you just tap it along? Can you keep it moving, keep it spinning. And so being able to see, to see that in action a little bit more, was a big takeaway for me. The other one is, is giving a little more space for kind of easy, steady state. Work is something that, especially in our program, because we have so many competitive people out there, and we're in singles, and I like to have everyone in a group together where I can talk to everyone and see everyone because everyone's in such close proximity. They kind of start racing, in a general sense. And I'm not consciously racing, but they're jostling for position. And it really kind of ups the intensity of the practice that that maybe we needed a little bit less intense and a little more like easy with kind of movement focus instead of like racing each other focused. So really trying to find a way to make a little more room for that in our program. As another takeaway for me for you. I think just continuing to get body over finding this. I mean, we've been working on that for a little while and I think you've made a lot of progress this year. But, but a cleaner, easier release coming into body over and then also really just narrowing down your focus to the things that you can control. And I feel like sorry, if I give things away, but I feel like you, you give away a lot of your brain space to to other people that you that you don't need to give away to other people.

Kristi Wagner  35:15  
Yeah, I can share with everybody something I shared with cat recently, and obviously, I have had kind of an emotional couple of months like in my personal life, which was not fun. But I was obviously using up a lot of emotional energy to deal with my life. And I then couldn't spend that emotional energy on rowing, because I didn't have any more emotional energy to spend. Turns out there's a limit. And but it was actually like a really good experience, because I realized that I had been spending a lot of emotional energy on things that really didn't matter. And that when I didn't have that emotional energy to spend, I was just like, matter of fact, and it was just so much simpler and so much easier to like complete a practice or complete a hard workout. Or if something didn't go well, like be able to walk away from it and not take it super personally not let it affect the rest of my I think it was just a good lesson for me in my life, that spending emotional energy on things that are outside of your control is like it's only negatively affecting you. So that was right, emotions are fleeting in us. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Moral of the story.

Eric Catalano  36:38  
No, no, I mean, you know that saying, like, holding a grudge is like drinking poison and expecting the other person gets sick. And like, you kind of are giving brain space to other people isn't like, affecting them. It's affecting you. Yeah. And so I think it's not even with emotional energy, but they all being worried about what other people think doesn't change anything about their life. It only affects you. Yeah, yeah.

Kristi Wagner  37:12  
And my finish has to get better, and the fish has to get better. Yeah. So I hope that everyone enjoyed that conversation. And be sure to tune in next week, because we're going to share part two of the conversation where the tables kind of turn and he asks me some questions, which I really just sprung on him and he did a pretty good job. So maybe he should have a slight future in podcasting. I don't know. But to close the show this week, I have a quote from Muhammad Ali, who says you don't lose if you get knocked down, you lose if you stay down. With that. I hope everyone has a great week. Thanks so much for listening, and we'll see you next time. I'd love to hear from you. So send us a topic suggestion or if you'd like to submit a question for our Ask Christy anything segment, head to our website, the other three years.com

Transcribed by https://otter.ai