So much of life's fulfillment is about pursuing things that you're passionate about and that you're interested in and that's the thing that I maybe I feel most excited about is that regardless of how big or successful or whatever it becomes in those terms it's interesting to me.

The biggest thing I think as an athlete for most people is having the confidence to pull back when things aren't going right.

Your training plan is only perfect on the day that you make it and then there are all these other variables that come in like my kid kept me up last night or you know I had this really stressful phone call with a supplier whatever it is and those things affect you.

And so if you don't listen to those things, listen to your body then ultimately you're just kind of like plowing through on this thing that doesn't make any more sense.

That's Jesse Thomas and this is the ritual podcast.

The ritual podcast.

Hey everybody, how you guys doing? What's happening? My name is Rich Roll. I am your host. This is my podcast. Welcome or welcome back.

Got a great show for you guys today. Happy to be with all of you. Today's guest is not only one of the world's most accomplished professional triathletes.

He's also one of the most popular, one of the most likeable, grounded, funny and dynamic professional athletes I've ever met. His name is Jesse Thomas. He's super rad.

He's super fast, but oh so much more than meets the eye. And it all begins with him as a standout track and field athlete at Stanford.

But the story really starts in 2011 at something called the Wildflower Triathlon, which for those of you who are unfamiliar is a very prestigious triathlon race.

And at the time Jesse was a complete unknown in this sport. And yet on a borrowed bike and a pair of $9,88 or sunglasses that he bought at the drugstore outright wins the race.

He absolutely crushes it. And to give you a sense of how shocking this was in the triathlon community, the announcer, the race announcer actually asks him as he crossed the finish line. Like who are you?

In any event since then Jesse has gone on to become the first person to win that very same race three years in a row. And along his circuit as path as a pro he is podiumed at some of the most prestigious races in the world, including a coveted third at the challenge Roth Ironman distance event last summer, which is a extremely prestigious Ironman race.

But the reason I wanted to share Jesse story has very little to do with his somewhat I guess you could call it unrelatable ability to exercise better than the rest of us.

And so much more to do with who he is as a person, this guy who is alchemizing in real time this insanely demanding training and racing schedule with what I think is a more relatable experience of dealing with the pressures of being a present dad.

A husband, a podcast toast, check out his show work play love. It's great. And a CEO, he's an entrepreneur who at the same time is running this company called picky bars, which is a performance nutrition company that make great stuff gluten and dairy free energy bars and granola and oatmeal, which he co-founded with his wife Lauren Flushman who herself is an incredibly successful former professional runner.

She earned more all American accolades than any other athlete in Stanford history. So this is a power couple in any event Jesse super witty. He's a great storyteller and those stories are coming up in a few but first.

Okay, Jesse, so what do we talk about? Well, we talk about a lot of stuff we talk about Jesse's beginnings as a track and field and cross country star at Stanford.

How he became the first person to win the wildflower troughathlon three years in a row. What it's like to run this entity picky bars and how that works symbiotically with his life as a professional athlete. What it's like to work with your wife professionally.

The challenges that athletes face retiring and grappling with a loss of purpose. We talk about the power of athletes storytelling and how it's kind of incumbent upon professional athletes these days in the modern Instagram era to do that very thing.

And we talk about working with a coach. He has a legendary coach Matt Tixon. We talk about that. We talk about his podcast and how he made a theater shades a thing.

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