#45: Ryan Harris | Daily Habits and Mentality of a Super-Bowl Champion
Ryan Harris is retired NFL offensive lineman, talk show host, author, and motivational speaker. Ryan is a Super Bowl Champion, who protected Peyton Manning during the Denver Broncos most recent championship season. After retiring from professional football, Ryan shifted his focus to public speaking and sharing the lessons he learned from decades of elite athletics.
Today is the final episode of the Habit hacking series here on the MindMill. Early in 2019, the MindMill teamed up with an event to promote the understanding, impact, dissection, and mastering of our personal habits. The summit, Habit Hackers, was a massive success; bringing hundreds together to learn from top performers, entrepreneurs, Super Bowl champions, and elite coaches. The day-long summit was packed with presentations and workshops to aide in mastering routines that shape our lives. I had the pleasure of interviewing the creator, David Blutenthal on the podcast to discuss his inspiration for habit hackers. We also dove into our own trials and tribulations surrounding our personal habits. Great episode, be sure to go back and give it a listen or refresher. David is expanding Habit Hackers this year with a series of mini-workshops before the next big summit in early 2020. These workshops will give people hands-on opportunities to tackle their habits in different areas of life with accountability and social support. Whether you desire to transform your personal finance habits, create a more effective communication, or build new structures for your health and fitness, you’ll find something to take on with these workshops. You can find more information about all things Habit Hackers at https://habithackers.co.
This episode absolutely flew by, and I’m so excited to share it with you. Today we are with Super Bowl Champion, talk show host, author, and motivational speaker Ryan harris. Ryan is a retired NFL offensive lineman who protected Peyton Manning during the Denver Broncos most recent championship season. After retiring from professional football, Ryan shifted his focus to public speaking and sharing the lessons he learned from decades of elite athletics.
Ryan completely embodies his positivity and excitement for life. From the beginning of our interview, we couldn’t help but laugh and joke around. I don’t get too many chances to talk about football on the show, so I took the opportunity to hear from an absolute expert. After some obligatory college football trash talk, Ryan opened up about how his attitude and dedication to incremental improvements led to his longevity as a top competitor. We then move the conversation to his routines for success post NFL. Ryan has learned so much as a family man and businessman. He opens up about the daily habits that keep him at his best; as a father, a husband, and as a public speaker.
I gotta put it out there. I was only one of the multiple interviews Ryan gave this day. He got his names mixed up, and called me “Terry” towards the end of our conversation. haha while slightly embarrassing for both of us, the quality of our interview more than made up for it. I mentioned it after we wrapped up, and got him back on the air to smooth it out. Oh the lessons we learn as podcasters. I loved this interview, and am so excited to share “Terry” I mean Ryan Harris’ story on the MindMill podcast.
CONTACT Ryan Harris
Ryan’s Newest Book – Mindset for Mastery: An NFL Champion’s Guide to Reaching Your Greatness
Bio
Super Bowl 50 Champion Ryan Harris is a 10 year veteran of the NFL. Ryan was drafted by the Denver Broncos in 2007 as an offensive tackle. Ryan left Denver for a few years and continued his career with the Houston Texans and Kansas City Chiefs. He then came back to Denver and played left tackle in the Broncos’ Super Bowl 50 Championship year. Most recently Ryan was with the Pittsburgh Steelers before retiring at the end of the 2016 season. Ryan played college football at the University of Notre Dame, where he graduated with two degrees, one in Economics and Policy and the other in Political Science. Ryan is a practicing Muslim, from Minnesota, and currently resides with his family in Denver, CO.
Off the field, Ryan believes that together we can change the world. He believes that “It is your right to be extraordinary.” That when we embrace that right, we create positive change in the world. And through our commitment to educate ourselves, invest in our communities and act on our passions, real change happens.
“It is your right to be extraordinary. When we embrace that right, we create positive change in the world.”
Show Notes
0:08 Intro
0:40 Seth talks about The MindMill Booklet
2:00 Final episode in the Habit Hackers series
3:15 Seth intros Ryan Harris
4:14 Seth talks about being called ‘Terry’ at the end of the interview
4:44 Ryan harris joins the show
5:00 College football
5:20 Ryan talks about Trevor Lawrence
6:14 Seth talks about the feeling of the student section at a game
6:20 Ryan talks about limited time in college
6:45 They discuss Trevor Lawrence being potential like Patrick Mahomes
7:37 Ryan talks about how the second year in a program lets you work on technique
8:15 Seth asks about Ryans habits
8:36 Ryans on how habits are tools
9:35 Celebrating every win
10:27 Focusing on breathing
10:48 Seth talks about the Wim Hof breathing technique
11:48 Ryan talks about learning how to breath
12:53 Seth talks about the importance of leaning breath work
13:54 Seth asks about how Ryans career change made a different in his habits
14:03 Ryan talks about the importance of forgiveness
14:57 Ryan talks about taking care of himself first
16:10 Seth asks about an early discipline
16:23 Ryan talks about finding and celebrating even little wins
17:10 Ryan prompts a talk about being grateful
17:44 Ryan talks about being comfortable with being uncomfortable
18:15 Ryan talks taking notes and finding the details
18:50 Seth talks about flow states
19:23 Ryan talks about giving yourself space
19:39 Seth talks about taking control of your emotion
20:04 Ryan talks about meditating
20:50 Ryan talks about overcoming fear
21:20 Seth asks about personal habits
21:29 Ryan talks vacations and changing your surroundings
22:56 Seth talks about needing to plan spontaneity
23:35 Ryan talks about planing
24:27 Seth asks about habits Ryan is trying to break
24:49 Ryan talks about self doubt and anger
26:06 Ryan talks about burn out
26:26 Seth talks about changing life style
26:38 Ryan talks about make work worth it
26:51 Seth asks about what Ryan does when he is at a breaking point
27:00 Ryan talks about how he changed his reactions
27:59 Ryan talks about choosing empathy
29:06 Seth ask about balancing routine with spontaneity
29:37 Ryan talks about forgiveness
30:57 Ryan talks about having people come to him
31:53 Ryan apologizes for confusing Seth with Terry
32:34 Outro
