Quests, Self-Talk & Health: Glen Lubbert's Stamina Lab Game of Life | Episode 422

Summary

Professor Game Podcast – Episode 422

Quests, Self-Talk & Health: Glen Lubbert's Stamina Lab Game of Life
Date: December 8, 2025
Host: Rob Alvarez
Guest: Glen Lubbert, Co-founder & CEO of Stamina Lab

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Rob Alvarez sits down with Glen Lubbert of Stamina Lab to explore how game thinking, solution-focused coaching, and self-talk can revolutionize health, wellbeing, and personal growth. The conversation centers on treating behavior change as a game—complete with quests, progress markers, and forgiving restarts. Glen shares how reframing “failure” and leveraging our innate resources leads to more enduring motivation, energy, and positive transformation. The episode is rich with real-life examples, frameworks practitioners can use, and actionable insights drawn from both Glen’s personal journey and Stamina Lab’s behavioral science-backed methods.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Treating Behavior Change as a Game

• Mindset Shift: Glen emphasizes a philosophy of self-experimentation and playfulness, moving away from willpower and shame, towards curiosity and joy.

  • "If you, when you really look at trying to reach your health and well being goals, which we do there as a game, does take away the guilt and shame and brings more joy to the process." (02:01, Glen)

• The Experimenter's Mindset:

  • There is no true “failure”—only feedback and new information for the next attempt.
  • Running a marathon, business, or pursuing health: all are approached as ongoing experiments.

2. Structuring Daily Life as Progressive Quests

• Glen’s Routine:
  • Training for his first marathon has shaped daily habits with clear, game-like progression: preparation, fueling, recovery, and role flexibility at his startup.
  • Morning exercise serves both physical and cognitive problem-solving needs, analogous to prepping for daily challenges in a game. (04:45, Glen)

3. The Power of Kind Self-Talk and the “Magic Words”

• Overcoming Fixed Mindsets:
  • Negative self-talk and shame are major obstacles in behavior change.
• 8 Magic Words / Phrases:
  • Right now, so far, not yet, at least … When appended to a negative belief, these open possibility and creativity.
    • "I always mess things up... so far."
    • "I never get to that next level... right now."
    • "I can't do this... not yet."
  • "Those eight magic words just crack the door open for possibility and allows your brain the ability to be creative and solve the problem." (12:01, Glen)

4. The Value of Clear Goals and Intrinsic Motivation (“Tell the cab driver where to go”)

• The Cab Driver Analogy:
  • Many focus on what they don’t want, but without a clear destination, you can't move forward.
    • "That cab driver says, okay, that's fine, but I can't pull away from the curve until you tell me where you want to go." (15:10, Glen)
• Quests on Stamina Lab:
  • The platform uses quests—mini-games for stress, eating, resilience, self-talk, etc.—always starting with “What do you want instead?”
• Motivation through Meaning:
  • Progress requires linking goals to meaningful, intrinsic outcomes (e.g., health, joy, accomplishment).
    • "Game decisions are built on intrinsic motivation... this story development too, is really intrinsic into the person." (16:45, Glen)

5. How to Spot and Build on Existing Strengths

• Focus on Practical Capacity, Not Root Cause:
  • Traditional approaches fixate on analyzing failures (e.g., why you ate ice cream), but Glen’s method seeks evidence of capacity—what stopped you from eating the whole pint, or from not trying at all?
    • "What kept you from eating the half a pint of ice cream?... That is a skill, it's a capacity that you're already on the path to change." (20:01, Glen)
• The Detective Approach:
  • Look for clues of progress (“you’re already on the path”), no matter how tiny.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Game Mentality and Resilience:

  • "You're not going to hit that top goal... but if you just keep going, you learn from it. Not beating myself up because I didn’t know… being kind to yourself, because every kind of change is inherently challenging." (08:03, Glen)

• On the Value of Failure in Games (and Life):

  • Rob shares:
    • "Even if I know, I’m not going to make it [in a game], I still want to go and push as far as I can, so I can have better information the next time I do the run." (09:04, Rob)

• On Applying Game Structure to Health:

  • "What we can apply to our own lives is that destination. Where do we want to go? And that’s where the quests are that we do..." (15:10, Glen)

• Favorite Game Metaphor:

  • "The point of the game [Tetris] was to keep trying to play the game, to keep it going. And I think that's really for the Game of Life and the game of your health—that's the goal of the game, is to just to keep it going." (29:04, Glen)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Introductions & Stamina Lab’s Mission – 00:00–02:29
• Glen’s Daily Life: Marathon Training as Game Structure – 02:45–04:45
• On Failing, Learning, and Experimenting – 05:22–08:03
• The Importance of Kind Self-Talk & 8 Magic Words – 10:19–12:14
• Quests and the Cab Driver Goal Analogy – 12:39–18:11
• Best Practices: Spotting Existing Capacity – 18:41–22:24
• Book Recommendation: Outlive by Peter Attia – 23:53–26:52
• Favorite Games: Tetris & Five Crowns – 27:01–29:04
• Final Advice & Where to Find Stamina Lab – 29:49–30:50

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Actionable Takeaways

• Frame behavior change as a game: Approach challenges with curiosity, iteration, and joy, not shame.
• Use “magic words” to reframe setbacks: Append right now, so far, not yet, at least to negative self-statements.
• Be explicit about your goals: “Tell the cab driver where to go”—know what you want, not just what you want to avoid.
• Link your goals to intrinsic meaning: Ask “What difference will this make for me?” Dig for real motivation.
• Notice and build on existing progress: Even the smallest actions toward change count—find and reinforce them.

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Resources & Recommendations

• Book:
  • Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Dr. Peter Attia (23:53)
    • Focuses on prevention and the big levers for health, not just optimization minutiae.
• Potential Future Guest:
  • Dr. Deborah Teplo, Glen’s partner at Stamina Lab and expert in solution-focused approaches, competitive athletics, and music (23:03).
• Stamina Lab Website:
  • staminalab.io – Quests, resources, and coaching sessions.

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Final Words

Glen’s Core Message:
“You are already on the path to becoming the person you want to be. Be clear about your goal, tell the cab driver where to go, understand what difference it will make for you, and be kind to yourself. Change is hard, but you’re already on the path—look for evidence and keep going.” (29:49, Glen)

Transcript

[A]

That cab driver says, okay, that's fine, but I can't pull away from the curve until you tell me where you want to go.

[B]

So yes, we will definitely be talking about that strategy of telling the taxi driver where we want to go. Right. Makes all the sense in the world and you'll understand a lot more even at the early stages of the episode. But it's something we'll be using all along with Glenn. And as you know, this is Professor Game, the show where we use, you know, help you understand how games, gamification and game thinking help us boost engagement, multiply retention and build stronger communities. I'm Rob Alvarez. I'm a founder and coach at Professor Game. I'm also the head of engagement strategy in Europe at the Octalysis Group, leading gamification consultancy around the world. And I also teach gamification and game based solutions at IE Business School, efmd, EBS University and other places around the world. And before we dive into today's conversation, if you're struggling, struggling with retention, churn engagement in your business and want to turn that around, we got you covered. You can grab our free resources right now. Just go ahead and click on the links in the description. So engagers, welcome back to another episode of the Professor Game podcast. And we have Glenn with us today. Glenn, we do need to know, are you prepared to engage?

[A]

I am ready to engage. Yes.

[B]

Let's do this. Glenn Lubert is the co founder and CEO of Stamina Lab, a health tech company that helps people create lasting well being not through willpower, hacks, habits or fixing themselves, but by building on the inner resources and skills they already have. His company combines solution focused health coaching, behavior science and personalized data to improve energy, focus and resilience without the usual shame or overwhelm. Is there anything we're missing from that intro that we should know? Glenn?

[A]

No. That's fantastic. That's fantastic. Yeah, I appreciate that.

[B]

I was laughing at the usual shame.

[A]

Yeah, totally. It's a big part of behavior change when you're trying to do something and you know, we just are so we beat ourselves up so much about trying to get to our goals and I think that's really why I'm excited for this because conversation, Rob, because you know, like this is if you, when you really look at trying to reach your health and well being goals, which we do there as a game, does take away the guilt and shame and brings more joy to the process. And so that's what I'm excited to talk about.

[B]

Let's do exactly that. So, Glenn, if we were to sort of follow you around or shadow you or however you want to frame it, what would it look like or feel like? We essentially want to see how, you know, being in your shoes could be, could be, could look like in these days.

[A]

So, you know, right now I'm spending a lot of my time preparing for my run, my first marathon. So that pretty much dictates a lot of my life. And so most of my mornings are up early, running, getting my day started with running or working out in the gym. And then that's a great, great way to start off the day regardless. But that's, yeah, that then, then I have to fuel myself for the runs. So that drives when I so much eating that I have to do and then obviously recovery from the runs, that's, you know, stretching and sleeping. So that sets up the whole day. And then I run a startup. So there's, there's the work that goes into that. And I think one of the things that connects with those two though, is the mornings. You know, it does give me an opportunity to get up, clear my head, get things, start thinking about some of the problems and challenges that I have. And when you're exercising, it gives your brain a different way of working out problems and solving solutions that you want to have it for your day. You're literally using different parts of your neurochemistry. So it's a great connection to being able to be prepared and show up my best for, for my, myself and my team. So that's, I mean, that starts off, that starts off my day and then, you know, it could be, it could, it's a wild card of things to do because, you know, when you're, when you're, anyone who's run a business knows that there's different things you, different hats you have to wear. And so some days, you know, it's more data insight, sometimes it's working with my team and sometimes do it's product, product, product development. My days that I are my least favorite but are ones that are so essential are my finance days. And on some days are everything in there. And some days I'm here up on podcast talking to you and all your amazing listeners.

[B]

Sounds amazing. So Glenn, we always like to dive straight in after understanding you a little bit better and ask one of the difficult questions, so to speak. And it has to do with failure or a first attempt in learning. Right. Especially when it has to do with these, you know, habit building, using the motivational psychology and all these things that we've we've discussed in your intro, you know, something you were trying to do and just didn't work out. At least in the, you know, first or few attempts. We want to be there with you, feel that, you know, feel the pain. But especially if you see some of the lessons that we could potentially learn not to perhaps make this at least the same mistake as you did in many ways.

[A]

Yeah. You know, I thought about, I think, you know, I think about failure. You know, our whole philosophy at stamina lab is that, you know, you are your own lab, you are your own experiment and you are your own best coach. And so when you have this experimenter's mindset, you know, there really is no failure, quote, unquote failure. It's just new information for the next experiment. And I think that really the failure, my failure came from growing into that mindset and getting into that mindset where it is about an experiment. I'm training for a marathon. But even like, you know, when you're. Yesterday I went for a long run and I didn't have enough. You have to eat these goo things that really, they don't taste fantastic but, but you need the fuel when you go these really long miles, there's no, no way around it. And you know, not. I didn't have enough on that. And that was actually a really good failure because I, I like, oh, okay, this is so important. I could feel that I didn't have it enough for the last few miles that I actually definitely needed. I'm like, don't forget that. Make sure you definitely have enough for that. So.

Yeah. And then you could, you know, it could be even, even more high stakes. Like I think that's really where the failure is. You know, how much of a high, high stakes that were, you know, spend a lot of time, you spend a lot, spend a lot of time thinking about when you're running. I think a lot of things and the thought back to, you know, an early time when I was in high school that I did a race and you know, I, I was, I really could have done a good job and gone really further in the race, but I mentally shut down because I knew I wasn't going to hit the goal I wanted to go get to. And so I mean if I just gone just, just normal, I would have been fine. I would have not, not hit the goal, but I would have been good enough to keep moving on to the next stage of the progression. And that was a tough lesson to, to learn. It's you know, to keep, keep, keep going Even if you're, you know, you're not going to hit that, that top, top goal. I don't know if I answered that question, but the two things that you.

[B]

Were, you were saying, you know, one of them is sort of get ready for battle every time you go out, right. Like, you have to. Whatever you're, you're getting into, you know, and in the real world, it's exactly the same, same way, Right. Like again, video games, card games in real life, in business life, you know, you have to set your gear straight for whatever it is you're bringing. And, you know, maybe one of the times it didn't work, you do it.

[A]

Again, you learn, you learn from it.

[B]

Yeah, learn, you learn and do it again. Right? So I completely agree with this sort.

[A]

Of fail learn and being kind and being kind to yourself. I think that's, you know, underscores our huge philosophy. Our philosophy at Stamina Lab is you have to be kind to yourself. Because this change is anything, any, any, any endeavor worth trying to do is going to be a bit. Is going to be hard. That taking that challenge each higher and higher or to the next level is going to, Is going to inherently have a failure in it or you're not pushing. You know, you have to figure out like, oh, I didn't know that. I gonna need that, that extra tool or whatever it was in that case, that gel for the running. I didn't know that. But because I went out and pushed the goal a little bit further, I was like, oh, okay, yeah, you're going to need that. So not beating myself up because I didn't know or. Yeah, just, just, just be kind to yourself. Because every kind of change is inherently challenging because we're pushing the boundaries.

[B]

Yeah. And that connects very well to the other experience you were mentioning of, you know, oh, I'm not going to make it to my goal. So I kind of disconnect.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So there's, there's tough lessons there. Tough lesson for me, there's two things. Like, one of them is, you know, you set goals and you sometimes achieve them straight up and sometimes not, and sometimes you just achieve them some other ways or you just achieve them later. It's, you know, it's just the way it works. And if you have this as a mentality and say, well, look, like this time it didn't go exactly as I had planned it, but I want to keep pushing especially to see what else I can learn. Like when I'm playing a game, even if I know, like, oh, I don't have enough health, right. I'm not going to make it push through all these things. I still want to go and push as far as I can so I can have better information the next time I do the run when I have the best stats, right. And I am able to really push through and get through all that. So having that sort of game mentality there is saying, oh, you know, this is still just another trial run. Let's see what I can do the next time is, you know, again, I know I'm not going to get to the final boss. I'm not going to finish the game this time. Going all the way to classics, to Mario. Oh, I don't have enough lives really to finish the whole thing in my experience. So oh, I'm going to drop off. Or you can try and finish as far as you can in that level and see what it's all about so that when you do have, you know, two, three spare lives, you can actually finish it and get to the next one and have, have more experience. So for me, those are key lessons and I love the stories and I.

[A]

Think that too, you know, it's how we talk to ourselves is so important. And when we're engaging in a endeavor and.

There'S eight magic words we use and you used one of them right there, we eight magic words we use to help change our fixed self talk where, you know, I, I always do it this way. I always mess up. I never, I never can get to that next level. All the, all the things that you say that were that are just fixed, that says I, I'm not good enough, I suck at this whatever is things. But there's eight magic words phrases that we like to use to share because it just cracks the door open for possibility. And when you crack the door open for possibility, then your mind gets really creative to figure out how to get to where it wants to go. And the eight magic words you use, one of them are right now, so far, not yet and at least. And you take that and add that to any sentence that is fixed or, or is limiting yourself. Like I always mess things up so far or I never get to that next level right now or at least I got this far or I haven't figured out how to do or I can't do this, not yet, I haven't figured out how to do this. And so those eight magic words just crack the door open for possibility and allows your brain the ability to be creative and solve the problem. And often, you know, when we go to sleep, you know, our Brain does amazing things. As our back processors are working. Our genius lounge is what I like to call when you have the default mode network going in there at night, you know that that's when you solve these game problems in life is game obviously the having allowing yourself to say these words to yourself. And that self talk cracks the door open for possibilities so creative solutions can come into play.

[B]

That sounds very accurate to say the least. So Glenn, of course we talked about difficult times and those quote unquote failures that then led to future success as well. How about this time we talk about the success side of things? Like what does that look like when it actually does work out? You know with these motivational science and behavioral stuff that you do as well with your app and the regular work you guys are doing.

[A]

Yeah. The one thing that I think is most important to start and we, we create, we created what's called quests on our platform and that's been a really successful tool for us to be able to have health quests. And those health quests, they, they range from, you know, they could be anything from stress management, healthy eating, resilience, procrastination.

Conflict, self talk. Like we just did anything where it's causing stress and we've broken those up into little quests. So those are little mini games, little challenges that you want to take. And that's been really successful. And the reason it's been so successful is because it follows our evidence based, solution focused approach. This approach has thousands of research studies behind it, 100 meta analysis over 40 some years that shows lasting change works when you apply this approach. And it happens with more joy and more hope. And it's based on hope theory, quite honestly. Yeah, it happens because we don't go down the root cause analysis of a problem. We don't beat ourselves up for the guilt and shame of what would go wrong or what went wrong. And this is why it leaves a lasting change and this is why our clients have so much success for it. When we start a quest, we're starting off by asking the question is what do you want? What do you want instead? So many times you have to know where that goal is. We have to know what our goal we want to get. What's the goal of the game? If we don't know specifically what that goal of the game is, then we don't know how to win the game. So we like to say you get into the cab car, you get into a cab and kind of pulls up the things and you're like okay, you get in the cab. And the cab says, okay, where do you want to go? And you say, well, I don't want to go over there because I always get killed. I don't want to go over there because, you know, that person stresses me out. That, that pisses me off. I don't want to go over there because I'd never been good at that. I don't want to go there. You know, I can never eat well because I just don't. I don't want to go there. Okay? That cab driver says, okay, that's fine, but I can't pull weights from the curve until you tell me where you want to go.

Just like, you know, that's why I think games are so amazing. And I like them in sports, and I like them in card games and board games and video games. Games are so great because. And this is why running the marathon is so fantastic. Because the goal is very specific to run the 26.2 miles to the finish line. That just makes everything so clear. And so what we, what we can, if we can apply that to life, into our. We apply it to our health, but you apply it to any part of your life. You need to tell the cab driver where you want to go in life. Because we so much. When, you know, we see talking to somebody, they beat. They either beat themselves up or they complain about others because they're just, you know, they're ruminating in this past problem, but because they're not telling the cab driver where to go. Our brain needs a destination. And so playing a game is great because. And that's why they're so fun and addicting, is because it gives us a destination. And that's what we can apply to our own lives is that destination. Where do we want to go? And that's where the quests are that we do is the quests are, hey, we're going to help with your stress management, healthy eating, that type of thing, procrastination. And so we know exactly where we want to go and we ask when. We ask when people come start with us, they say, okay, well, not only where do you want to go, but the next question you want to ask yourself, okay, tell the cab driver where to go. But you also have to tell them what difference it's going to make for you. Because really great.

Game.

Decisions are built on intrinsic motivation. That. That's something that's really clear to the individual, that this is so deep inside them, that, yes, I know where I want to go. This story development, too, is really intrinsic into the person and so you ask yourself, okay, tell the cab driver where you want to go. And then you, then you say, okay, now what difference is that going to make for me? So not. It's not, because that's leads to motivation. You can't. You get bored with the game, you get bored with your goal. One, if you're not clear about it, but two, if it, if it's not, if you're not clear of why you want to do it, why it's not. Just running a marathon is a lot of work. Sorry, I don't think I can swear. But the. But then I have to understand why I'm going to do it. What. And what difference is it going to make for me to do that? And I gave a little bit of it right now. You know, it gives me structure to the workday and doing the startup. It's great for that. It's obviously great for your health. I want the sense of accomplishment again, you ask yourself that multiple times. What difference is it going to make? What difference is it going to make? Usually we get to love and joy and happiness that these are going to make for us ourselves. But really having that clear goal, telling the cab driver where you want to go and really being and understanding what difference is going to make for you, and that's what is made, leads to successful, lasting change. With people who take our quests and with, with people we work with, our clients we work with.

[B]

That sounds amazing. So, Glenn, with all that experience, all that data that you have, all those clients that you've served, you know, at stamina labs, what would you say is the best practice in terms of, you know, behavioral change and, you know, basically sort of achieving your goals in many ways. What, what, what should people do to at least, you know, improve their chances or, you know, do a better job and whatever, whatever objectives they might have or how do they set objectives could be a place to get started as well. I don't know. Where would you take us?

[A]

Yeah, no, I think we all get the prescription of what we need to do in life. We need to exercise more, we need to eat more whole foods, we need to get a good night's sleep.

We.

Have trouble implementing in our lives is the problem because life gets messy and we're built with a negativity bias in our brain, which is what we needed to survive in evolution. We had to watch out for danger, whichever, Watch out for danger. And so we often go back and look at, okay, well, why did I do this? What was the root cause of why I did this? And that you could beat yourself up by that. And we don't even talk about strengths either, because strengths are what got you to where you are. What we're trying to say is what is the capacity that you have that shows that you're already on the path to change? Obviously, the first thing I said was, before know where you want to go, we have to know what the goal of the game is. We have to know what the goal of the game is and why we really want to do it. But then we have to be kind of detectives in our own game. We have to be detectives where we're looking back into our life, we're looking at our lives and looking for evidence of where we're already on the path to change. One of my favorite examples is we talk about someone asked, they want to reduce their eating their sugar. We all want to reduce that something. We have too much sugar in our lives.

In between sessions, when someone came and said they had, they came back and they said, oh, I had a half a pint of ice cream. And they're beating themselves up for that half a pint of ice cream. And the guilt and the shame, like, oh, I broke down. I had the half a pint of ice cream. Ugh, damn. And then traditionally you would say, well, let's figure out why you had that half a pint of ice cream. Why what, what triggers you to do it. And this is where people could go into the habits or the traditional approaches of breaking down what, why, why you did it, and you replace that with something else. And that's where people go get, go wrong. And that's what I really want to would emphasize is that we get stuck in that paralyzed for that. The guy would say, well, if we ask him that, like, well, my ex wife called and I got a fight over the kids. And then, you know, I got upset and I was frustrated and I went and got a half a pint of ice cream. So now this person has to get tell me this whole story that he didn't like all over again. He's. Now he's all upset again. And then we'll say, okay, when that happens next time we'll replace it with something else. It makes logical sense. Right? Well, but we, but we do this and it's whack a mole. Because who knows what's going to trigger the person next time to have the half a pint of ice cream. Instead we say, what kept you from eating the half a pint of ice cream? I don't need to hold the whole Reason I just need to know what kept you from eating the half a pint of ice cream. Well, I didn't eat the half a pint of ice cream because of all the things that you're bringing to bear in that moment. That is a skill, it's a capacity that you're already on the path to change. Okay, maybe you didn't have zero ice cream, but you didn't have a whole pint. You didn't have two pints of ice cream, you didn't have 10 pints of ice cream. There was something you did right there. And now we have evidence that you're already on the path of change. In fact, people that are listening to this podcast right now, this is evidence that they're on the path to change because they're listening to learn how to learn more about behavior, behavioral science and how they can apply that. So that's already, that's evidence there that they're on the, on the path to change. So that's what we're looking for is where am I already on the path to change? It's not as, it's not a zero sum game. It's not a zero sum game in life. It's, you know, there's, there's as clues in your day where you're already on the path, understand your, what your goal is, why you want to get there and then look for where you're already doing it, even in the smallest way.

[B]

That sounds amazing. Thanks for that massive recommendation, Glenn. I think everybody will find it very, very useful to sort of push themselves forward in many ways. So, you know, after, after hearing these questions and understanding a bit more, I know you heard a few episodes as well. Is there somebody that you would be curious to listen to their perspective on this podcast? A future guest on Professor Cain?

[A]

Yeah, you know, that's a great question. There is.

I think that, honestly, I think the person I think would most be find most interesting is.

My partner, Dr. Deborah Teplo. She is really expert in this area and she, she's been a competitive athlete to herself and, and a PhD musician. And the, the unique way you apply.

This approach in those realms is really, it's, it's my mentor and someone I learn from all the time. And she would be, I think, a.

Fantastic. Yes. Stanford Ph.D. graduate.

[B]

Glenn, keeping up with those recommendations, what would you say is a book that you would recommend people listening to this podcast something that maybe inspired you or you think that people should read to understand these things better?

[A]

The one book that I really like is it's called Outlive. It's a science and Art of longevity by Dr. Peter Attia. He was just recently featured on 60 Minutes, so if you want to just get a 60 Minutes clip version of it. But, you know, it really talks about the.

He has a great metaphor about, you know, trying to help. Help yourself with health, where the. Our healthcare system was originally set up to sick. It's really sick care. And he was in that business and he would just be running around and he had this dream where he kept trying to catch eggs falling from a building. And that's what he felt like was helping people. Like, okay, I got to catch this person. We got to catch them before they die. I got to keep that going on. And then one day he realized, wait a second. What if I go to the top of the building and see who's throwing the eggs down and stop him? And so it's really about. The metaphor is about prevention and what you could do to prevent what he calls the four horsemen of death, which is.

Diabetes, heart disease, dementia, and cancer. And diabetes underlines all three of the other ones. So it's a fantastic book. It really gives you the. Just a clear. You don't have to. All these supplements and all these other things you read here on podcasts and getting this much sunlight and all these little things, those are all like the 1% dials that you want to do. He goes into just the massive levers you can pull. Um, and you just kind of, you know, if you're gonna. If you're gonna play a game, do I wanna go and just go get those one one little things over there points, or do I wanna get the massive points over here?

[B]

Sounds like an amazing guest. I've heard. I think I've heard him on another podcast and I've heard of him many times.

It sounds amazing, all the stuff that he's. That he's done. And an amazing book to. To read as well. That's his latest book, am I right?

[A]

Yeah. The only book he's written. And I really like it because again, it doesn't go. It doesn't try to get you to buy supplements or try to do this, put a stick of butter in your coffee or any of these crazy fringe ideas that they might turn the knob just a little bit. For the most 98% of us, we. All we need to do is, unless we're a super professional athlete, we really. We just need to do some of the basics stuff. And he talks about why. Why it's so important and how to do It. And then, and that's why I really like what. And it complements what we do too, because, you know, again, it's, it gives you the prescription of what you do. But how do we enter it into our lives? Again? He'll, he'll. He'll help you give the, the goal, the direction of the cab. He'll help you give you a more of an intrinsic reason why what difference is going to make for you in your life. And then what I, like I said, I said look for evidence of where you' on the path of doing it and do more of that.

[B]

Sounds absolutely amazing, Glenn. And we get to the difficult question now. What would you say is your favorite game?

[A]

Favorite game. Okay, so this one was a good, this is a good one. You know, when I was a kid and I just, I just pulled it out. I just found it was my, my Nintendo Game Boy was my favorite. One of my favorite toys. And I playing Tetris on that was. I don't know the number of hours that I played that.

And then, you know, it's, I just addicted. That was just so addicting because you get that immediate feedback loop and you're solving a puzzle constantly in there. In my, my later years here, the one I really like, there's a card game I really like. It's called the Five Crowns. And it's, it's. You have basically the wild card changes every hand all the way from, you know, the beginning of the card deck all the way through the kings, when the kings go wild, I guess. And so I like it for a lot of reasons. I like the, you know, pattern recognition that falls into it, and I like that the wild card changes. So you're, it's like life, you know, your life change happens every time. But mostly I like it because that, it's something that my, my mom and my late father loved to play. We love to play together. I think that's the most important. One of the most important things about games is when you can play it with others.

[B]

Sounds amazing. You mentioned Tetris. I haven't played the Five Crowns, so I'll look into that for sure. When you mentioned treacherous, I remember that I relatively recently found out that somebody finished Tetris. It sort of got stuck. It's like it's the end, you know, there's no more Tetris.

[A]

I did see that too.

[B]

My sense was that that was impossible because if you, if you create the algorithm for it to just go faster, there's certain no end. But apparently that's not the way it was built and there was, you know, decades later, after being launched, there was an end game, a final, you know, end of the game, literally where you defeat the final boss. And somebody actually made it that far. I'm sure I didn't make it, you know, more than 5% of that road. But I admire the passion of this, you know, Anonymous, at least for me, gamer who, who managed to defeat Tetris in that very special place.

[A]

Well, obviously before that. But I think you alluded to something that I really like about games in which that game Tetris and the same idea I thought it had, which is, which is how you apply it to your health. The Game of Health and Game of Life is that when you view Chesters, which, as I did, was the point of the game was to keep trying to play the game, to keep it going. And I think that's really for the Game of Life and the game of your health. That's the goal of the game, is to just to keep it going. How do I keep it going? How do I keep playing the game?

[B]

How do you keep it going? Absolutely. And you know, we could keep going for hours, Glenn, but it is probably time we start wrapping up. So I don't know if you have any final words, any final advice and of course, let us know where we can find out more about Stamina Labs and the work you guys do.

[A]

Yeah, you know, like I said, I think the big, big message here is that you are already on the path to becoming the person you want to be. And be clear about what, what you want to, what your goal is, what you're trying to achieve. Tell the cab driver where to go and understand what difference it's going to make for you. And finally be kind to yourself. You're. Like I said, the change is hard and you're already on the path. Look for the, look for that evidence and you can find more about what we do at stamina lab IO. That's stamina lab IO. You can learn more about our, our quest. We have links to our social media where we post tons of little clips and videos about, about this approach. So if you don't want to even sign up for something we have, there's plenty out there that you can start to learn more about how to ask these. Ask better questions to yourself. And that's really what the heart of solution focused approach is. Ask better questions to yourself. If you want to have a free complimentary coaching session, you can sign up at Stamina Lab IO.

[B]

A lot of value packed in there. Thanks a lot for all that. And Glenn, it was a pleasure having you on the Professor Game podcast. However.

[A]

Yeah, thank you.

[B]

At least for now and for today, it is time to say that it's game over. Hey engagers, and thank you for listening to the Professor Game podcast. And since you're interested in this world of creating motivation, engagement, loyalty using game inspired solutions, how about you join us on our free online community at Professor Game on School. You can find the link right below in the description, but the main thing is to click there. Join us. It's a platform called Old School. It's for free and you'll find plenty of resources. There will be up to date with everything that we're doing, any opportunities that we might have for you, and of course, before you go on to your next mission, before you click Continue, please remember to subscribe using your favorite podcast app and listen to the next episode of Professor Game. See you there.

[A]

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