Win Today

#225 | Winning Is: Inner Peace = High Performance

• Ryan A. Cass • Season 5

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In this episode, Ryan reframes success through the lens of awareness, alignment, and steady effort. Drawing on conversations with high performers and adventurers like Damian Browne—who rowed solo from New York City to Ireland with no prior rowing experience—you’ll hear how the real victory lies in self-realization and inner peace, not outcomes or applause.

Damian’s story reveals a sharper, more useful definition of success: one measured by honesty, courage, and connection. Each day becomes a chance to learn who you are under pressure, to refine your process, and to serve from a place of clarity instead of fear.

Ryan breaks down how to operationalize this mindset so it shows up in your calendar, not just your journal:

  • Simple, daily commitments aligned with your core values
  • Honest reflection to uncover blind spots
  • Small, consistent actions that build inner freedom

When fear stops driving your choices, confidence becomes durable—carried across seasons, goals, and setbacks.

Thank you for tuning in! If you feel led, please subscribe & share the show to others who you believe would benefit from it.
Keep in touch below!

SPEAKER_02:

What does winning actually mean? Hey guys, we've got a bonus for this week in that earlier this year we started the winning is series, and it's exploring curiosity as to what winning really means. I believe many of us may have had a definition in our mind about winning being a binary outcome or winning being tied to a particular result. And what I'm seeing in high performers now is more of a shift in that winning isn't tied to a particular result, but more so tied to a level of awareness, a state of mind, a state of being and process of becoming. So that's a focal point in every conversation now is to understand what winning mean to people who have achieved feats that very few people in the world have, so that we can collect insights from them and influence and perhaps shape what winning means to us. And I've found this to be very beneficial in that winning isn't so much of a particular result, but it's more so an internal process and state of being. So enjoy this one. Cheers.

SPEAKER_01:

Do hard things. Help one person. Be good and do good. Live a life of discipline, and you'll always win. You have all of the tools that you need to succeed. Welcome to win today.

SPEAKER_02:

Thank you so much for tuning in. My name is Ryan Cass and I'm your host. My purpose in this world is to help push people further and harder than they believe possible and become unshakable in what matters most to them in their lives. Every week, you're gonna learn from either myself or a renowned expert in their field, and we're gonna unveil pieces of our playbook to help you win today. Please, if you love the show, subscribe and share it with somebody that will benefit from it. Let's dig in. I have a new closing tradition on the podcast, and it's to ask high performers what winning means to them. Because one thing that I've learned over the years interviewing high performers is that winning isn't so much outcome-based as it is a more likely to be aligned to values or something deeper than winning equals a bank figure or winning equals this. So I'm gonna pose that to you. What is winning to you?

SPEAKER_00:

It is um self-realization and inner peace. So it's to make the most of my time, energy, and efforts to three things that are finite. Uh they'll all run out someday, and when they do, I want to be able to contently feel, you know, I gave this thing everything I had. I tried my best. Whether I was soaring or in the gutter, every day I got up and I tried my best. I tried to move the needle a little bit in being a better human, in connecting with others, in um in knowing myself a little bit better, um, in um coaching people, in touching people in any way I can, and inducing energy in somebody so that they can go after whatever is important to them in life. Um so that's the the potential piece, trying to make the most of my time, energy, and effort. And then if I feel if um I challenge myself enough and deeply enough, um I I get to know myself on levels that are um are unknown, like until you go into them, you didn't know that was party, or you didn't see it, or you didn't feel it. Um so if I keep challenging myself, if I keep pushing myself and unveiling those levels, like peeling away those layers of an onion, um eventually, I mean you can feel it, you get this um you get this internal freedom from having a map, a very clear and detailed and broad and deep map of who you are as a human, and that brings inner peace. You know, you you you have nothing to hide because from yourself, you're not hiding away internally, you're not letting fear dictate your life. You're living this honest, courageous experience that um that unveils these levels to you, and then if you experience them enough, you know, even if they're levels you don't enjoy like and don't like about yourself, over time you can do something about that, or you can accept it as somebody, a part of you, and that's that know thyself piece. Um, and that's that that in itself, the deeper you know yourself, the more peace you have in how you live every day. So that's it. Self-realization and inner peace.

SPEAKER_02:

That's captivating. If I asked you that question a decade or two ago, do you believe that would still be your response?

SPEAKER_00:

I wouldn't have been able to articulate it. I I would have been operating out of a similar space, but not, you know, again, I wouldn't have said that the the drive probably wouldn't have been as deep because I wouldn't have had as uh many experiences that would have brought the humility and understanding and clarity that I now have. Um but I would have felt it for sure. I I think I locked into that really early in life. I feel I've always had a good feel for life and what's important. Um, but I wouldn't have been able to articulate it. I probably would have and I wouldn't have had the um I wouldn't have had the self-understanding to or the self-confidence to to admit that I didn't know how to say it. And I probably would have made up some, you know, shitty answer. Well, appreciate the honesty there.

SPEAKER_02:

So really cool definition there from Damian Brown. He was on the show recently, and he is most notably recognized as being the first man to row across the Atlantic from New York City to Ireland, and he did so with literally zero rowing experience, but went ahead and jumped right in, committed to something, and got it done. But really interesting answer there. He didn't say that winning is becoming a Guinness World Record holder. He didn't say that winning is raising tons of money, but inner peace and self-awareness. So tying it back to a state of being. Really, really neat. So it's my wish that hearing this again influences a perspective, not that it changes your existing definition, but perhaps that it may get you to think a little bit more if winning is uh uh in fact a result-driven response right now. So it's uh interesting to see more of these responses. We'll continue to bring them forward. And uh it's my wish that again, this is something that just provides some useful insights. So we'll continue to explore this and ultimately turn this into something really meaningful, whether it's a collection of responses, like a mini ebook or something like that. I'm not sure, but I have something special in mind with this. So with that, make it a great day, make it a great week, month, and let's win today. Thank you so much.

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Ryan Cass

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