Podcast
Chasing Excellence
Hosted by Ben Bergeron & Patrick Cummings · EN
Most people aren't stuck because they lack information. They're stuck because they know what to do and can't quite do it consistently. The slow drift keeps winning.
Chasing Excellence is for people who are already trying — working out, eating well, staying positive — but find themselves in the one-good-week, one-bad-week cycle.
Ben Bergeron, Patrick Cummings, and a crew of authors, thinkers, and doers explore the five factors of health — how we eat, move, think, connect, and rest — and what it actually takes to crowd out the drift and build the life you keep almost living.
New episodes every Monday and Thursday.
Beyond the podcast: the Chase Club brings together a crew for daily lessons, monthly challenges, and the real work of crowding out the drift. The ChaseTracker app helps you track the Five Factors daily.
65episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
20 Simple Ways to Fight Drift — That Invisible Shift Away from Your Best Self
2d ago00:51:10Tap to summarizeTwenty tactics. Five factors. One episode worth pulling back from the archives.In this replay, we walk through the four highest-leverage actions you can take in each of the five key areas of life — Move, Sleep, Eat, Think, and Connect — and unpack the why behind each one.Drift is the enemy of excellence, and this episode is one of the sharpest tools we've built to fight it. You'll leave with a concrete checklist of daily behaviors designed to close the gap between where you are and where you want to be.👉🏼 Get the full Listener's Guide here❤️🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase Club👋 New to Chasing Excellence? Start hereSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Raise | Screens Are Only 1 of 5 Causes of Anxious Kids (w/ Kim John Payne)
1w ago00:48:54Tap to summarizeWhat if the thing overwhelming your kids isn't screens — it's a culture of too much?In this episode, Patrick sits down with Kim John Payne, author of Simplicity Parenting, to explore why children today are exhibiting what used to be considered trauma responses, and what parents can actually do about it.We explore the five causes of childhood overwhelm, why the antidote starts with the parents — not the kids — and how defining "enoughness" for yourself is the most powerful act of social activism a parent can make.👉🏼 Get the full Listener's Guide here❤️🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase Club👋 New to Chasing Excellence? Start here!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Chase Challenge | You Don't Need Anyone's Permission to Be a High Performer
2w ago00:25:48Tap to summarizeIs the label "high performer" quietly holding you back from becoming one?In this episode, Patrick unpacks four lessons from the 21-day High Performance Challenge — and makes the case that high performance isn't a status reserved for athletes and CEOs. It's a set of actions anyone can adopt.From Tony Robbins' "musts vs. shoulds" to Kobe Bryant's marathon gym session, we connect high performance to the core belief that true excellence is something we pursue for others, not for ourselves.❤️🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase Club👋 New to Chasing Excellence? Start hereSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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5x5 | Building Real Friendships After 40 & Asking Questions That Connect
2w ago00:52:52Tap to summarizeWhat does it actually take to connect — with your kids, your partner, your community, and the strangers you meet every day?In this episode, Ben answers five listener questions on the CONNECT factor, from parenting across different households to rebuilding friendships in your 40s and 50s.You'll learn why kids become what they repeatedly experience (not what you tell them), how to distinguish a values divergence from a seasonal slump, why adult friendships require intention and initiative, how to create hope and agency in a loved one without becoming the health police, and which questions actually open people up.🙋🏻♂️ Send us a Question👉🏼 Get the full Listener's Guide here❤️🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase Club👋 New to Chasing Excellence? Start hereSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Forever Fit | Learn to Breathe (+ 9 More Habits That Upgrade Your Training)
3w ago01:16:24Tap to summarizeWhat if the problem isn't your program — it's how you're showing up for it?In this episode, Ben and Jamison break down 10 training hygiene habits that can transform your results, regardless of what you're training for, where you train, or what program you follow.From intentional intensity and the recovery-adaptation curve, to learning to breathe, filming yourself, and never negotiating mid-workout — these principles serve the Train factor in the Five Factors framework.The goal isn't to do more. It's to finally get what you came for.👉🏼 Get the full Listener's Guide here❤️🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase Club👋 New to Chasing Excellence? Start hereSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcribe →You Don't Owe Your Past More Than You Owe Your Future
4w ago00:33:01Tap to summarizeWhat if the guilt you're calling loyalty is the very thing keeping you stuck?In this episode, we answer a question from Chase Club member Mike about whether to switch gyms — and it turns out, it's not really about gyms at all.We unpack the difference between loyalty (a choice) and guilt (a feeling), explore the three pillars that make any community worth staying in, and give you a framework for knowing when it's time to move on — and how to do it with integrity.👉🏼 Get the full Listener's Guide here❤️🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase Club👋 New to Chasing Excellence? Start hereSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Raise | Receive Your Kids — Don't Just Shape Them (w/ Christina Watka)
Jun 2200:54:03Tap to summarizeWhat if raising a child well means releasing your vision of who they're supposed to become — and learning instead to see who they actually are?Patrick is joined this week by Christina Watka, an installation artist whose entire practice is built around entering a space without a plan, noticing what's there, and letting the work lead.In this Raise episode, they explore how that same artistic openness transforms the way you parent: the role of noticing, the power of solitude, and what it means to receive your children instead of trying to shape them.👉🏼 Get the full Listener's Guide here❤️🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase Club👋 New to Chasing Excellence? Start hereSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcribe →The High Performer's Playbook: 2 Rules, 5 Habits, & 7 Traps
Jun 1501:59:59Tap to summarizeHigh performance isn't a talent — it's a system.This week, we bring together three of our most foundational conversations to show you exactly what that system looks like in practice.From the two non-negotiables that underpin every kind of success, to the five specific characteristics we see in every high performer we've ever met, to the seven quiet habits that keep most people from closing the gap — this is the raw material behind our new 21-Day High Performance Challenge.👉🏼 Get the full Listener's Guide here❤️🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase Club👋 New to Chasing Excellence? Start here!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Chase Challenge | High Performance Isn't a Talent. Prove It in 21 Days
Jun 1100:21:55Tap to summarizeWhat if high performance at work isn't a talent you either have or don't — but a system you can practice starting today?In this episode, Patrick introduces the 21-Day High Performance Challenge and walks through the five interdependent characteristics that, together, make up a practice for doing the right things at the highest level you're capable of.We connect this system to the Five Factors of health you already know — because drift, the quiet enemy of excellence, doesn't just happen to your body. It happens to your work, too. And these five characteristics are how you fight back.Whether you join inside the Chase Club, the ChaseTracker app, or with nothing but a notebook and three questions at the end of each day, this challenge is an invitation to close the gap between who you are and who you want to be at work.❤️🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase Club👋 New to Chasing Excellence? Start hereSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Purpose Effect | Athena Perez on Fasting 40 Days to Face Emotional Eating
Jun 801:18:19Tap to summarizeWhat does it look like to go from 500 pounds to a CrossFit coach - not out of inspiration, but because fear was the only thing in the room?In this episode, Jamison sits down with Athena Perez: affiliate owner, coach, and author of a two-part memoir about identity, worth, and what fitness spaces get dangerously wrong.We explore how compounding habits shape who we become long before we notice, why a 40-day fast became Athena's clearest window into emotional eating and genuine purpose, and why placing people on pedestals - in the gym or anywhere else - always costs you something.👉🏼 Get the full Listener's Guide here❤️🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase Club👋 New to Chasing Excellence? Start hereSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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