I get a you bloody champions, it's Harps. Who else would be welcome to the you projects? So I put out a little a call, you know, out in the podcast Wilderness a couple of weeks ago, asking for you, my listeners, my faithful, trusty listeners, to send in a queue that I might provide an A four for some Q and A. And one of our cheeky listeners who's not totally unfamiliar to all of you, Kelly, who's been on the show once before, went well, I've got more
than a question. I've got a couple and oh no, I think you said, can I come on and ask these questions? Or something like that? Firstly, Hi, Kel, how are you?
Hi? Craig, I'm good. I did ask that. I thought I'm going to be cheeky and you'll either say yes or no.
I love that though. I love that. Look if you're a if you're a well, if you listen and you wouldn't mind doing one of these one day and you think you know you can come on and ask me some questions, well we'll do another one. We're not going to do a million of them, but you know, I definitely go into the group and hit me up and
at some stage we'll do another one. But so the quick backstory that is not large, but call and I train at the same gym, So I don't know, I don't know our Is that our origin story the gym or is it like did you? I know that we've kind of we high five each other near the bloody cable crossovers and the bench press, and we we share a little bit of love, but we don't really know each other off the podcast or outside the gym that much. Is that we initially intersected?
Yeah, the gym. I remember seeing people kind of flocking around you and I thought, who, who on earth is this person? Why is he so? Why is he so popular? Why is he so intriguing? And then yeah, I just kind of stumbled upon who you were and we started talking. You know, I got over my intimation and said hello a couple of times and that was it, and started listening to the podcast and really got a lot out of it. So I think that's our Yeah, that's our origin.
And I think we did a listener Asking Me Questions series a couple of years ago and you came on, do you remember what nump? Doesn't matter? I don't do you remember what number it was? I don't.
I think it was about five years ago.
Yeah, well we've been around for that long, all right. So you actually came up with some really good questions. So, as always everyone, I normally don't know the questions in advance, and I've not done any massive preparation or anything. But I've given each of these questions a little bit of thought because Kelly's questions were really different and insightful. And I'm not just pissing in your pocket because you hear
quite clever. And for me, I get asked a lot of the same shit, and I do lots of other people's podcasts, and that's okay. I'm not mad at answering the same questions, but you know, it's nice when I get asked questions that you know. Also, I get asked questions I don't know the answers to, of course, but I'll give I'll share some thoughts or ideas. But these questions are really good. So we're gonna we're going to
see how we land. I feel like this is going to end up being two or three short ish podcasts. We have fifteen questions in total, and knowing me and my verbosity, as Sister Kathleen used to say, I am excessively verbose and loquacious, and that I am. So yeah, let's get underway, let's go, let's see how we go. And this could be one long podcast or a few different ones, and anything that you want to add or weave in around your questions and my answers, feel free. Kelly Smith, takeover.
Take over. Well, I wanted to ask you things that were different to what I've heard on the podcast, because I do listen to almost every episode and I'm not just saying that's pissing your pocket because I'm here, I genuinely do. So what I've noticed at the moment is that there is a huge uptake in the health and wellbeing, fitness fitness influencer space, and you know, every other person
has something to say about that. So I was wondering, is there anyone or any single message that you feel is absolutely on point at the moment in that space? And the opposite of that, is there any messaging that you think is completely off base?
All right, let's go with question one. So the question is do I think there's anything that's getting brought up a lot or presented a lot in media and social media that's bang on. So that there's there's a lot of culti thinking and a lot of emotional kind of bro science pseudoscience that I don't see eye to eye with, But there's one message that's starting to get a fair bit of airtime that I fucking love and I'm giving it a fair bit of airtime. And this is this
is not new, by the way. We've known this for a long time, but we've never really leaned into it. We've never really shone a light on it, and we've never in public really opened the door widely on it. And that is the message around the importance of an impact on love, connection, kindness, social acceptance, and belonging on physical, mental,
and emotional health. So we talk a lot in our world about, of course, about food, and about exercise, and about sleep, and about drugs and about boos and about stress and about all of those things, and we need to talk about those because they are all factors and variables which one hundred percent impact on a person's physical, mental,
and emotional health. But what we know now is that things like loneliness and social disconnection and isolation and rejection and an individual feeling like they don't belong with, they're not wanted or loved or needed, has an incredibly negative effect on their physiology, not just their psychology and their
emotional state. So the answer is, what I'm loving is that we're now starting to recognize the impact of sociology in broad terms, the way a person operates on a sociological level with friends and family and other humans, and the impact of that, and the role of that, and the importance of that with helping people live long and strong. So you know, like I think this kel. I don't have data on this, but I'm pretty fucking sure about this.
If somebody had ticked all the boxes pretty well, not perfect, but they eat pretty well, they exercise pretty well, they sleep pretty well. You know, they don't do much booze, they don't eat much junk, they walk a fair bit. They tick all of the boxes, and they're somewhere in the ballpark of a seven to nine out of ten
on all of those markers or variables. But that person lives by themselves and are isolated and lonely and feel unloved and unwanted and socially and emotionally disconnected, I think that will have a bigger impact on them than any of the other variables in isolation. Right. So yeah, because when you're lonely, your biochemistry changes. You know, when you're lonely, you're producing, for one of a more accurate scientific term, sad hormones and stress hormones. And hormones affect your physiology
from a cellular level up. And we know there's a you've probably heard me bang on about it. There's a thing called ah fuckuld you fuck? Come on, harps, reach into the old mental It's called psychoneuroimmunology. There it is from the shelf up the back of my brain. Psychooneuroimmunology or p and I talks about the relationship between basically how you are mentally and emotionally and the impact that that has on your immune system and also everything else.
So the long winded answer is, I think we're shine in the health wellness fitness space. We're now starting to talk about the fact that being in healthy relationships, being loved, needed, wanted, connected, is actually a huge effect of an impact on not only physical, mental, emotional health, but also health span and lifespan. Help.
Yeah, do you think also too? And this is a side note to it, but given that we've got organizations like the AFL shining a light on men's mental health rounds, and then we've got players who are sadly taking their lives because of mental health issues. Do you think that it becoming more mainstream in such a way is also helping to shine that light on love and connection rather than you know, you need muscles and you need to be bloky, or you need to be chummy or whatever it is.
Yeah. Sure, And look, I mean, I think there's a lot of things which are pigeonholed on. Men can't talk about emotions or that's kind of bullshit that men are definitely not as good as women, I think, But that's just my opinion. But look, dude's I talk about I'm constantly talking about feelings and emotions and I'm a bit of an alpha male, But am I I don't know, I've got biceps. But I'll give you a hug, I'll fucking cry with you, I'll sit with you, I'll have
snot going on with you. I'll do the whole fucking shooting match, and I'll tell you about all my flaws and weaknesses and bullshit and fear and insecurity and I don't think that makes me less of a bloke, right, But yeah, you're absolutely right, and it is good that we're bringing this to, you know, a space where it's it's more visible, it's more talked about, there's more awareness.
We're pulling it out of the darkness into the light, and it's it is for the obvious reasons of mental health and suicide prevention and all of that, of course, but also just more broadly. You know, people who feel like I consciously, intentionally and consciously find a way to at least invest a little bit of time and energy and love into people that I don't know, or whenever I can. I was going to say every day, Well that's not true, because every day an opportunity doesn't present itself,
but whenever I can. And I think that, you know, not only and I know this sounds all shit.
We've got all very deep and spiritual very quickly, but I truly just believe that not only is it great for the person that you're giving love to and paying attention to and sharing some unconditional kindness with, I think it's.
Great for you too. And absolutely I know there's another question about that. Just read out your second question again, because I glossed over it.
So question two, So basically, what's the opposite? Do you think there's any messaging at the moment that is completely inaccurate?
Yeah, Look, I think there's a I don't want to identify a specific thing, but I think that the broad kind of messaging that that happens in. Look, it happens in what I would call psychological, ideological, and scientific or
pseudo scientific silos. Do you like that? And what I mean by that is people saying this is the best way too, This is the best way to lose weight or fat, This is the best way to build muscle, This is the best way to sleep effectively, This is the best way to hydrate, this is the best way to get rich. This is you know, all of that anything around, And what I truly believe is that you know there is there is There are very few things that work for everybody the same, in fact, other than
fucking eating oxygen. I reckon, we all need that, right, Well, that's a given, but there's not much you know, Well, we all need water, we all need you know. But even then you go, well how much water do you need? Well, how much do your weigh? How much did you sweat? Today, how much do you typically sweat? You know, what kind of food did you eat? Did the food that you eat was it high water content food or low water
content food? Because if you eat a diet the high and water content food, you don't need to drink as much as the person who doesn't. Oh, I didn't know that, right, So there are a lot of variables. So what I hate is any messaging that tells people that this is the best way for everyone to achieve this particular outcome. And I wrote something yesterday specific to this, which is not a very good it's not a very good kind
of interruption, but I'm going to find it. So I wrote this thing yesterday and it's specific to what I'm talking about. And it's a whiteboard of mine that you've probably read twenty times. It's old, and the whiteboard says something works for everybody, but everything doesn't work for everybody, So find your something. And then I wrote in the comment there's no universal best diet, workout, sleep protocol, medication, supplement, lifestyle,
or even job. That is, there's no single intervention, strategy or approach that works equally well for everyone. But there is a best everything for you, the individual what works optimally for me could be anywhere between mildly effective and disastrous for you. My healthy snack could be your anaphylactic reaction. My dream career could be your nightmare job. The medication
that helps me function might give you anxiety. Don't confuse advertising with information or truth or pseudoscience with actual science. Your body is your greatest teacher and truth teller. And so for me, that's like I'm like, even when you've got to remember when a doctor, a dietitian, like we're talking about a GP here, and even surgeons to an extent, and exercise scientists and psychologists, and when we sit in
front of a person like me. I've written tens of thousands of programs for people, fitness, exercise program strength programs, a myriad of different variations of that. I've trained. I've done over fifty thousand PT sessions. Now, if you came to me, and I know you reasonably well, you sat down and you went, Craig, this is me. You've seen my body, you know me, and you said, Craig, these are my goals. And then I said, cal let's do
some testing. And then with all of that data, I'm going to then write you a program, and what that program is is my best guess at what I think will work based on all my knowledge and experience and all the shit you told me. But is it going to be the perfect program? No chance. So everything is kind of to a point, high level trial and error
and educated guessing. When a doctor like I've got this thing called you station tube dysfunction, right, my ears, one of my ears blocks usually not both at the same time, but one or the other blocks. And it's like I've been trying to resolve this problem. I reckon. I've spoken to ten medical people who've all given me different advice, which is cool, who are all qualified, all knowledgeable, spoken a pharmacists. I've spoken to a bunch of people I've
done and they've all given me medical advice. They've all got more knowledge than me. They've all given me advice. None of the advice worked, right, So this is my point. My point is everyone's taking an educated.
Guess yep, yep. So there's no one size fits all for obviously not.
And even down to one that might surprise you. It's like people would think I would say everyone should lift weights. No, I wouldn't say that. I would say everyone over forty should do some strength training, in my opinion, for a bunch of very logical reasons that I could explain. But do need people need to go to a gym? No? Do they need to lift bar bells, dumbbells and kettlebells? No?
Are there other ways to build strength heaps? Okay, So I'm suggesting strength training is probably a good idea for most people. Unless you're a genetic freak, or unless you do something daily that keeps you physically very strong and robust, then you don't need it. But even with that, I'm like, well, how you get strong and stay strong? There's a myriad of options for that.
Yeah, I mean, look, you wouldn't recommend my ninety five year old and do a bench press, would you.
I mean, she'd probably beat me at the moment with me fuck shoulders, But no, we won't. We won't be doing that for grant. Are those answers? Okay?
Yeah? Very interesting and not what I expected either.
Oh good, good? Yeah, all right, what's you down? Only thirteen to go?
Let's crack on, let's go. So this probably you can expand upon from your first answer, and as a long time listener, something I've noticed is do you feel like your style has changed recently and that perhaps you're a bit more vulnerable than you have been in the past. And if you feel that, what's been the change?
I think he reaches down to plug his fine and terrible thing to do in the middle of a podcast. I think, I think, yes, I don't want to be disingenuous when when I say this, so you know, I don't want to bang on because everyone's the same. I mean kind of not there. I just said everyone's saying definitely not the same. But I think a lot of people suffer from insecurity. I reckon you probably have or do I have, or do right? And so I was
as somebody with a little bit of a profile. I was so good at distracting and deflecting and instead of at times probably opening doors that I could or should have opened in some conversations, I would just be the funny guy because I can make people laugh, I can tell stories, I can inspire people. I can be passionate, I can be them. I can do all of that. But I also wanted people to think highly of me, which is, you know, all kinds of insecure and fear and a bunch of other things, of course. And I
mean it's not just the last few years. Maybe the last few years, I've become more and more I try to be you know that that thing I talk about. There's like there's public you, there's personal you, there's private you, and secret you. Do you remember that little kind of ye? So you know, public you is the you that everyone anyone can access, you know, the blocoo's selling you you bananas.
He gets to meet public you, and then personal you, I think is more closer friends and family, and then private you is really maybe one or two people, maybe three depends how and then secret you is that's just you gets to know that person, right, Yeah, Well I try to open I try to get through, you know, like on a podcast. I try to bypass public me and personal me and get somewhere in the ballpark of private me and maybe even periodically secret me, because I
think it might be valuable to other people. And I think if people think less of me or I'm embarrassed or I'm humiliated or I look less, I'm okay with it. And if I'm not okay with it, that's my ego. And so like one of the things that when you talk about a value driven life, like where I say one of my key values is service and love and kindness. I think it's really easy to say that on a podcast.
Absolutely, I think it's.
Very fucking hard to live it when no one's looking, no one's watching, and because like I feel like, and I'm not saying I'm better than anyone, I'm definitely not. But I feel like there are a lot of people who have public attention or a spotlight who I don't reckon. The way that they are when they're being watched is the way that they are when they're not being watched.
I feel like there's some bullshit going on with a lot of people, And if I'm being completely transparent, there's been bullshit going on with me over the years, you know. I think for the most part I was close to authentic, but there was still bullshit and deception and lies and insecurity and me trying to be impressive, right.
And that was just fueled by your ego.
Ego, insecurity, fear, self loathing, oh, just pick a fucking yeah, all of it, market, all of it.
This is exactly what I mean, though, And the interesting thing is that I picked up on it from a whiteboard that you put out which was about imposter syndrome, and you just think it was like three slides and you listed everything that you were insecure about, and I think you ended it with something like I'm human. And having been listening and following for so long, it was the first time that I kind of stopped and went,
oh shit, that's everything that I feel. And if someone in your position is putting it out there that you feel the same way, well, that's hope, and that's that's honesty, and that's really vulnerable. And then I started listening in a different way and I thought, Okay, there's there's something that's coming through that is hitting more to the core of you than there ever has been. And that's what that question was.
Wow, thank you. Yeah, it's it's it's for me. It's a constant process to walk my talk, you know, to do to do what I say and too because I'm an only child and part of me wants attention and all that bullshit, and and like, I really think that for me, and this is going to sound weird, but it's a spiritual journey of and again this sounds bullshitty,
but having a purpose bigger than me. Yeah, you know, and I know that I used to be all about my well, I wasn't always all about my body, but I was about you know, building a business, building a brand, looking good, you know, all that stuff. Nothing wrong with any of that, by the way, but realizing, you know, getting to a point where I had kind of ticked a lot of boxes, you know, and from the outline outside looking in, people would have thought, you know, he
he's got his shit together, he's going well. But so often the confident, funny, successful guy is actually the sad, scared, insecure guy trying to be what he thinks is going to impress people. And I And by the way, I don't sit at home fucking rocking back and forwards, going I'm broken. I still you know, I still fuck around, I still have fun, I still have a good life. But I just think the irony is that trying to be impressive is the opposite.
It'd be very tiring.
Well, but also it's not impressive because we know what's going on. We know what's going on, you know. It's like, well, you know, sometimes people are say some horrible shit about me, not not too often, but every now and then, and honestly I believe them, or I go yeah, I understand why you think that, and I'm not even mad at you, and I'm not gonna It's like, I reckon, this is the challenge. It's like we I think in hey, everyone, feel free to turn off if this is too fucking
dark and weird. But I you know, we're so much at the moment living in these, like I said, these silos or these cults of thoughts, where we think the right way, we have the right this or the right whatever, the right beliefs, the right faith, the right diet, the right way to train, the right political beliefs, or we have the right ideology and if you don't think like us,
you're our enemy, and blah blah blah. And I just think, fuck, you know, I don't know many people who think like me anyway, which is not that's good for the rest of the world. But if I only love or like or pay attention to people who agree with me on everything, I'm going to have fucking two friends in the world, so you know. And also I think, just like when you just turn down the emotion and the need to be right, and you go, how many times in my
life have I been wrong? Fucking thousands? Well, of course, I'm going to get shit wrong today, of course, of course, you know.
Yeah, no, it's an interesting one as well, that you can have all of those thoughts and tapping into the imposter syndrome. You can have nine people say something really lovely about you, and then number ten comes along and says something really and you go, number ten's right because I am awful, I am incapable, I am shit, I don't know what I'm doing, and that number ten is correct, and you just forget any of the good because that, yeah, the doubt creeps in.
That is so fucking true. I told a story. I've told this story, but I did. A friend of mine, Rosa, owns a gym. Shout out to Rosa or anyone who goes to Rosa's gym in Riots called the boat House. It's one of the best privately owned gym's regional gyms. Is it regional, right, I don't know, but anyway, great And every year I go down and I do a
talk for Rosa. I love job just because she's great, and not this year, but I think last year, Mate, of the last one or two talks I did, there was someone in the group who, as I was doing the presentation, Kelp. It was about I don't know eighty people, so not small, not huge, just a good group of people.
And there was a dude there who clearly fucking hated me, and in my mind, right I'm looking at him, I'm like this guy, it's like it's always I don't know why, but not always, but mostly it's going to be seventy or eighty percent women in my gigs. We won't even unpack why that is. And no, it's not because of fucking my attractiveness, so don't be a smart ass everyone. I think it's because people buy into women buy in
more to personal growth stuff than men generally. But anyway, so he's looking at me, and he's not smiling, he's not enjoying it, and he's sitting next to I imagine his wife, and I'm thinking that, poor motherfucker. His wife dragged him along. He could be home watching the footy. He does not want to be here, and I felt bad for him, and then I felt bad for me because clearly he didn't like So seventy nine people are enjoying it. One blood has hate me. Where do you reckon?
All My attention and focus was.
Right, Yeah, mister footy of course, right.
So I've just and I'm I'm almost and so instead of I don't think I was shit, but I certainly wasn't my best because I got distracted and whatever. Anyway, I finished, I did an okay job. Few people like thanks, that was great. I'm like cool, see you. Anyway, mister Footy fucking starts walking up towards me to talk and I'm like, ah god, I'm not even being paid, Like what is going on? I don't need this. I haven't
had dinner, you know, I'm feeling sorry for himself. And he comes out and reaches out up, reaches out his hand and shakes my hand. He goes, that was amazing, thank you so much, and I'm like, fuck off, what guess what?
He was?
Vision impaired?
Wow?
So the dude couldn't see me. And I'm I'm telling myself a completely bullshit story, right. I literally not only was there not a problem, I created a problem for myself the mid circumstance.
Wow. And isn't it you know That's that's what we do, right, Like we create most of the problems. And I think it was one of your episodes where you were talking about how you know a certain percentage, which I think was quite high, Like, what is it ninety percent of what we worry about never happens, and yet we spend all of this time with it just spinning the wheels of doubt.
Yeah, I think it's ninety one percent never happens of the shit that we spend a lot of time, effort, energy, focus on, and then nine percent does. But something like seventy five percent of the time when those things do happen, it's not nearly as bad as we imagined.
Yeah, you know.
So it's like, ah, so here's what I think to do. Right, We're going good, I think. So we've done three questions. Let's do two more yep, and then we'll call that everyone. We're having a team meeting as we're going Melissa, leave all this in, Melissa, don't edit any of this out. This is the inner workings of the you project. Call and I are having an on the run meeting. So we'll do two more, then we'll call it a day, and then we'll crank it up and do another one.
So next question, please, missus interviewer.
Next question is what is the biggest lesson you have learned in the past ten years.
Oh well, yeah I did. When I looked at that, you're go on.
Go on, Well, I captured at that, because there have been many episodes where you've already spoken about lessons learned over the course of your life. But I thought, let's reduce it a bit.
So I actually, like, truthfully, nothing particularly like there's not a standout thing. There's a million things, but I thought i'd say I'd share two things that have been absolutely been lessons that have been underlined, reinforced and put in bold letters in my brain over the last ten years that for me matter. And I think also what I'm
about to share is broadly relevant. So you know, if I had some revelations that didn't affect anyone else or it wasn't relevant, you know, but these are really relevant for me and I think most other people, and neither
of them are going to surprise you. So Number one is that, like more than ever, I now understand, especially as I'm now old as fuck, I understand that while chronological aging that is the calendar, everyone is a constant until we die, biological aging is a variable that we can to a large extent control, slash manipulate, slash influence, and so meaning that sixty one year old Craig Anthony Harper doesn't need to not because he's better or special
or gifted, because I'm fucking not. We've identified that I don't need to walk around in a typical sixty one year old body. In other words, I can have the health and fitness and performance and strength and physiology of somebody who is the equivalent of or someone who's forty years old at forty one or forty five or fifty, so I can have the equivalent physiology, in other words,
of somebody much younger. Now, that is I think, and as I've gotten older, and I've really I mean, I've never been more I was going to say disciplined, but I'm not disciplined. Like I'm not undisciplined either, but I've never been more particular about what I do to my body,
you know. So I'm like, I used to give myself a lot more latitude than I do now, just because I realize with my six out of ten genetics and my sixty one years on the planet and my multitude of fucking injuries that I've had through training like a moron, I need to optimize my behaviors, my choices, my habits, my lifestyle, my actions in order to work well for a long time. And so that's really been reinforced. Is that that you know, obviously, aging is a constant, but
how I age is a variable. So that's number one, and then you can comment on both of these when I'm finished, if you like. And number two is just very simply that my brain slash mind, my cognitive system, let's call it, that needs to be trained, like I need to constantly and consciously and intentionally keep my brain young by doing things that I don't need to do
but I choose to do just for that purpose. So if you think that your brain is just gonna magically stay young, functional, healthy, and somewhere near optimum cognition, just
because you're wrong, you're wrong. It ain't gonna. So if you're anywhere in the ballpark of forty five onwards, and again it's not a personal prescription, it's just a recommendation, and you're not doing something to keep your mind work well, your brain working well, mental acuity, sharpness, memory, cognitive function, creativity, all of that, then I would highly recommend that you do.
And for me, obviously a big part of that right now is doing my PhD. So that's like training and taking my brain to the gym every day for a hard session.
Great. The most fascinating thing about that, though, is that and you know, I'm not saying this to be a cheeky ship, but you admitted to being old as fuck, and it's now that you have have come to the conclusion on these things. So the fact that you know that you're you can function in a body that is much younger than your biological age, and that you need to keep training your brain in order to keep it sharp and young and on point, it sounds like all
of those learnings have come with experience and age. So it's kind of ironic, isn't it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, But I think there's a real difference between knowing something theoretically and having it reinforced experientially. Hell yep, you know. It's like, oh, we know, you know, I know I shouldn't eat you know, too much junk food, and I know, I know, I know data da And then you get diabetes and then you're like, oh, fuck, I shouldn't eat too much junk food. And now I've got diabetes. Now I can't do certain things, and now I'm you know, so there's a difference between having a
theoretical understanding of something and knowing something. See for me, applied knowledge that's intelligence. Knowledge is just having something in your fucking cognitive hard drive. It's like, you know, so many people have a gym membership and a gym program and a reason to go to the gym, but they don't go to the gym right a lot like way more than fifty sixty seventy percent of current members either
rarely go or don't go. I'm not saying it's all about gyms, but I'm just saying, you know, we can simultaneously have the knowledge, have the understanding, have the reason, and still not do the thing that we know is going to be good for our body and our health and our longevity and our health span and our cognitive function and our heart and our lungs and our the list goes on. And no, it's not about being a fucking fitness freak or an exercise junkie or a gym junkie.
It's about you've only got one body you can't get a fuck another one you can't.
It's been an experience for me that so I mentioned my grandmother earlier. She's now ninety five. When she was forty seven, she had a heart attack and was told that that's it. You know, you know Corby Family in You're not going to make it through the night. We'll do what we can, but you won't make it through the night. So now at ninety five, she says, it's been a very long night, and what, oh.
You've got to do a podcast called It's been a very long night. Yeah. In fact, she should write a book and you should write it with her. Listen to me bussing you around. Well, I love that. I love that sentence.
Yep. So we did create a podcast. But what she did was she changed her entire diet. She opened a health food store before they were even trendy. And she then read in it would have been her late forties early fifties that doing a crossword every day was great for your cognitive function and would help ward off dementia. And at ninety five she's still doing a crossword. She uses a magnifier now because her eyes are quite bad.
But she has been for me that example of she knew what she had to do in order to have that body and that brain that would carry her through in the best possible way, and she did the work and she's still here. Yeah.
God bless her, God bless her. Little sucks. Yeah, she makes Mary look like a teenager.
She does.
Yeah, Mary's just a sprightly eighty five. All right, let's do one more question and then we'll pull the pin and then reset.
All right, so number five, what has been the most challenging part of your PhD?
Thinking about this before, and it's like, honestly, I guess for me, not a single thing, a bunch of things. But I firstly, I was clueless, Like I did not know what I was getting into. I didn't understand what a PhD was, which is not a good starting point. I didn't understand, like and really I didn't understand. Oh you, I mean I kind of did. But you know, like people think when you do a PhD, you go to UNI and you know there are lectures and chutes and
there you know there's there's none of it. Well in mind, there's none of that. It's all research based. So you do your own research. So you come up with an idea, you come up with an area that you want to research. You've got to fill a hole in the science. You got to look at something that hasn't been looked at or something that hasn't been looked at in the way that you're going to look at it. And then you're trying to solve a problem, right, or you're trying to
bring some new information. And so you you design your research and then you run your own research. You get a venue, you get participants, you get ethical approval through the university, which is not an easy feat because you can't put anyone at any kind of risk at all.
And then you do all of that, then you get all of this data, and then you've got to try and figure out what the fucking data means because it's all numbers and shit, right, And then then you know, and then you try to sift through that, make sense of it, interpret the data, find patterns, fine holes, find things that no one else has found. Hopefully, I mean it's much more than this, of course, But then you've got to write, you know, for mine, anyway, three or
four academic papers that get published by academic journals. So all of that. It was just like for me, it was literally like it was like it's like going to somewhere like Russia, just wh is Russia? Because I have no clue. Right, I was in Russia, and I know I'm not dumb, and I know they're not dumb, but I can't speak their language. I don't understand the culture. I don't understand how to go and buy a fucking
bottle of milk or a cart in the milk. I don't understand do they have coffee like we have their fucking cafes like we is there? How does it work? Do I? You know, I don't understand the government. I don't understand the culture. I don't understand the money. I can't speak the language. I don't know. You know, it's like that. It's like you've just gone to Russia and I didn't even fucking learn one word of Russian before I start, right, I yeah, so I nobody threw me
in the deep end, and nobody. In fact, where I'm studying is called Brain Park, which is the Neuroscience Neuropsychology Lab of Monash, And they're fucking amazing. They're so good to me. You know, I've said this before, Like day one it was like bring your granddad to work day, and I'm sitting in this room with about eight other PhD students who it could be my kid or my kid's kid, right, and yeah, it was just like it
was a very steep learning curve. I guess specifically it was I started full time two years full time and now in part time, so that helped. But the first two years it was like I was doing I had two careers, one as a researcher, full time researcher, and then the other as you know, all the shit other
shit I do. And I guess specifically, just yeah, learning how PhD world works, learning understanding academic language, writing academically, Like, yeah, I have lots of thoughts that I'll share when I finish my PhD. But I do think, and I'm happy to say this, I do think that that academic writing is unnecessarily complicated. It's it's and but I that's if you read some of the stuff that I'm you know, putting out now, you'd go, what the fuck is this? I go, this is what needs to be written the
way it needs to be written. I understand that. And I'm just a shitkicker. I'm not going to change the system, neither do I want to. But but it's been it's been. I'm not going to say it's been fun, but it's been good for me. It's been good for me. A lot of things that aren't fun are good for you. And it's definitely you know. It's taught me a lot about many things, including myself, which is good. So Kel, let's pull the pin. Sure, we're going to say goodbye.
Kel and I are going to continue on in the next few minutes with installment too, but for now, everyone, Kel, thanks for being on the you project, Thanks for putting up your hand, Thanks for those five great questions. I'll see it the water cooler at.
The gym, Absolutely you will.
Thanks Kel. Thanks everyone,