On this episode of AlignedLife, my guest is my youngest son, Silas, who's 8 years old and just wrapped up recording an episode of my dad's podcast, The Encore Phase, right before this one.

I wanted to sit down with Silas because I love how freely he follows his creativity, and I wanted to explore that with him. We talk about how he goes all-in on his interests, from WWE to the NBA to painting rocks and selling them, and how he lets go of the old thing without any guilt when something new grabs his attention. That gives me the chance to introduce him to the sunk cost fallacy and tie it back to why his mom closed her store this year after 12 years, on her own terms, once it stopped making her happy.

We also get into his YouTube channel, HooperFN, which he started about two weeks ago and has already used to post over 70 videos of basketball, video games, and hanging out with friends. I love that his channel has zero strategy behind it. It's pure, unfiltered creativity from a kid who's just doing what he wants to do. We talk about subscriber counts and views, and I lay out the one rule for keeping the channel alive: the second those numbers start affecting how he feels about himself, we're done.

If you have kids, or if you've just lost touch with why you used to create things before you worried about what anyone else thought, I think you'll get something out of this one.

This is the first of five talks I'm hosting at our house for Roman and Leo's friends and teammates. The goal is to introduce them to ideas, concepts, and tools that will not only help them on the court or field, but more importantly in life. I'm just trying to plant some seeds!

The series covers Mindset, Mindfulness, Meditation, Breathwork, and Visualization.

Only 3% of high school athletes play college basketball. What separates that 3% from everyone else isn't talent — it's mindset.

In this first session of Mindful Mondays, I sit down with a group of teenage athletes to break down what mindset actually is, why fear is the #1 thing working against you, and how belief drives everything you achieve (or don't). We cover the Kobe "Mamba Mentality" mindset, the difference between your brain and your mind, why comparison (especially on social media) kills confidence, and the exact tools — journaling, affirmations, visualization, and more — that turn doubt into belief.

This is part 1 of a 5-part series built for young athletes, but the lessons apply to anyone chasing a goal.

In this talk:

- The stat that shows how rare it is to go pro — and why mindset closes the gap
- Why "you cannot achieve what you do not believe"
- Brain vs. mind, and why you can't control one but can control the other
- Fear: what it actually is (False Evidence Appearing Real) and how to face it
- The Messi penalty-miss story — and what elite athletes do differently after failure
-Building confidence through preparation, self-talk, and routines
- Simple journaling prompts to start strengthening your mindset tonight

Next up in the series: Mindfulness — the difference between mindset (the doing) and mindfulness (the being) on 7.27.26

Book referenced: The Mindful Athlete by George Mumford

Session 2 of Mindful Mondays--a series for teen athletes on mindset, mindfulness, and the mental side of sport. This episode breaks down what mindfulness actually means, why elite athletes like Jared McCain and Michael Jordan rely on it, and how presence unlocks flow state on the court, field, or pitch.

We look at NBA forward Aaron Gordon's string of soft-tissue injuries and the connection between unprocessed grief and physical breakdown — a real example of the mind-body connection in action. We hear Phil Jackson describe building mental strength into championship Bulls and Lakers teams. And we dig into Nick Anderson, an 88% career free-throw shooter who never recovered his form after four missed free throws in a playoff game — a case study in how the past can hijack performance if you let it.

Topics covered:
The real definition of mindfulness — and why "without judgment" is the hardest part
Presence: why "be where your feet are" is the key to playing without fear
Mindset vs. mindfulness — the doing vs. the being
How fear only exists in the past or future, never in the present moment
Flow state (aka "the zone"): what it is, its characteristics, and why trying harder pushes it further away
Practical tools to build mindfulness: breathwork, visualization, journaling, routines, and honest self-check-ins
Why bottling up emotions works against you, on and off the field

Next up: a guided introduction to meditation.

What if the difference between good and great isn't talent — it's what happens in the 5 minutes before you step on the field?

In this session of Mindful Mondays, we break down meditation — not the sit-cross-legged-and-empty-your-mind myth, but the real, practical tool elite athletes use to get present, cut distractions, and perform under pressure. We recap last week's mindfulness talk (fear only lives in the past and future — not the present), then dive into what meditation actually is, the different ways to practice it, and the neuroscience behind why it works (prefrontal cortex, amygdala, default mode network — yes, we nerd out a little).

Then we go live with special guest Hakim Tafari — meditation teacher, Tai Chi instructor, model, DJ, and one of the most authentic humans on the planet — who joins us straight from Zoom to share how he uses meditation daily, why "trust the process" isn't just a saying, and closes the session with a live guided meditation and visualization exercise for the guys.

Featuring insights and references from Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Jude Bellingham, and George Mumford's The Mindful Athlete.

This is Session 3 of a 5-part series built for young athletes (ages 13-18) ready to train the mental side of the game — the side that separates good from great.

Every week on The Five, we find one headline and one deeper idea across all five pillars of aligned living — Spirit, Mind, Body, Money, and Creativity — and ask what they mean for the life you're actually trying to build.

This week, one thread ran through every pillar before we went looking for it: the things you gave up in the process of becoming competent.

In Spirit, the science of awe — why the emotion that makes you feel small might be one of the most important things you can regularly experience, and what happens when you stop letting yourself be stopped.

In Mind, the case for boredom — new research confirms that the idle hour isn't wasted time, it's where your best thinking actually happens, and most of us have engineered it out of our lives. In Body, we get into Zone 2 cardio — the slow, unglamorous training that fitness culture ignores and the longevity science says you can't skip.

In Money, the financial shame loop — why anxiety about money is rarely a math problem, and how avoidance makes it worse — plus the latest on the Fed's rate decision under Warsh, May CPI, the jobs report, and where the market stands.

And in Creativity, we look at the research on adult play — what Dr. Stuart Brown found across 6,000 life histories, why the opposite of play is depression, and what your eight-year-old self might still be trying to tell you.

Five pillars. Five conversations. This is The Five.

Every week on The Five, we find one headline and one deeper idea across all five pillars of aligned living — Spirit, Mind, Body, Money, and Creativity — and ask what they mean for the life you're actually trying to build.

This week, one thread ran through every pillar before we went looking for it: what you're holding too tight.

In Spirit, new research across 22 countries confirms what the theologians and the neuroscientists are finally agreeing on — forgiveness isn't a gift you give someone else, it's a weight you put down yourself. In Mind, we look at what it actually means that the average on-screen attention span is now 47 seconds — not just for productivity, but for your capacity to think, to believe, to know what you actually want. In Body, we get into VO2 max and the dementia data, and why your cardiovascular fitness right now is a record of everything you've done with your body for years — not a summary of last week. In Money, we make the case that your bank statement is a self-portrait — and most of us haven't looked at it that way. And in Creativity, we look at what the research says about boredom: that the empty hour isn't nothing. It's where your thinking actually happens.

Five pillars. Five conversations. This is The Five.

This week's sponsor: AlignedLife Community
https://www.alignedlife.community/

Every week on The Five, we find one headline and one deeper idea across all five pillars of aligned living—Spirit, Mind, Body, Money, and Creativity—and ask what they mean for the life you're actually trying to build.

This week, one thread ran through every pillar before we went looking for it: showing up. Not dramatically. Not as a resolution. Just the ordinary, recurring act of being present — to a practice, a community, a conversation, a physical discipline, a room full of people making something together—on the weeks when it would be just as easy not to.

In Spirit, we look at new research suggesting that consistent communal practice predicts happiness more than wealth—and ask what your version of that practice actually is.

In Mind, we get into what researchers call cognitive offloading—the way AI dependence quietly erodes the critical-thinking muscle when you stop using it.

In Body, the longevity data keeps pointing at the same variable: not intensity, but consistency—and what it actually takes to keep showing up to the physical work.

In Money, we look at why families avoid inheritance and wealth transfer conversations, and what it costs the people you love when you keep deferring the ones that need to happen.

And in Creativity, we explore why community choir research is now informing NHS mental health programs—and what it says about the kind of making that can only happen when everyone's in the room at the same time.

Five pillars. Five conversations. This is The Five.

This show's sponsor: the AlignedLife Community

https://www.alignedlife.community/

Every week on The Five, we find one headline and one deeper idea across all five pillars of aligned living — Spirit, Mind, Body, Money, and Creativity — and ask what they mean for the life you're actually trying to build.

This week, one question ran through all five pillars: what are you still keeping for yourself?

Not dramatically. Not as a manifesto. Just as an honest look at how many small handoffs we make every day — our decisions, our attention, our spiritual search, our sense of what our money is for — and what accumulates when we stop asking who's actually in charge.

In Spirit, we look at what happens when technology quietly absorbs the functions religion used to serve — and what gets lost in the substitution.

In Mind, we get into new data on AI and decision-making, and the philosophical argument that judgment isn't just useful, it's constitutive — you can't fully delegate it without losing something about who you are.

In Body, we look at the longevity movement and the uncomfortable finding hiding inside it: the strongest predictors of a long, healthy life aren't cellular. They're purpose and connection.

In Money, we sit with the gap between what people say they value and where their money actually goes — and make the case that the antidote isn't discipline, it's clarity.

And in Creativity, Rick Rubin's The Creative Act makes the argument that creativity begins with noticing — and that in a world engineered to capture your attention, protecting the capacity to notice is its own kind of practice.

Five pillars. Five Conversations. This is The Five.