Burn From Within

From movie and TV actor to The Mindhealth Coach - Michael Legge

• Matt Garrow-Fisher • Season 1 • Episode 32

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On this week’s episode, I have Michael Legge, who is a former actor best known for playing teenage Frank McCourt in Allen parker’s 1999 movie Angela's ashes and you might also know him from other TV shows like Shameless. Since being famous in the acting world for over two decades, he has now transitioned into a new career, having extensively studied self-development, various forms of therapies, and coaching. Now he is the founder of the mind health coach, helping actors and performing artists with anxiety and achieving their peak performance to excel in their career. We actually met in India, a few years ago at a neuro-linguistic programming retreat and got on very well.  I had to get him on the show as he made quite a career change and talks openly about it. In this episode, you will discover:

  • How Michael made the decision to leave his successful career in acting of almost 20 years and the gradual transition to a new passion of coaching
  • How solving his own persistent level of anxiety in acting fuelled helping other actors with this common challenge in the profession
  • What skills from a long and successful career in acting transferred into coaching?
  • How Michael’s purpose changed as his career changed and the realisation of shifting from his ego to operating at the level of contribution to others
  • How to tackle anxiety in your career and during Covid-19
  • What’s the one thing that’s made Michael Legge burn from within?

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Matt Garrow-Fisher:

On this week's episode, I have Michael Legg. Who's a former actor best known for playing teenage. Frank McCourt in Allen park is 1999. Movie Angela's ashes. And you might also know him from other TV shows like shameless. Now since being famous in the acting world for over two decades, he's now transitioned into a new career. Having extensively studied self-development various forms of therapy and coaching. Now he's the founder of the mind health coach, helping actors and performing artists with anxiety and achieving their peak performance to Excel in that career. We actually met in India a few years ago at a neuro-linguistic programming retreat. In this episode, you will discover how Michael made the decision to leave his successful career enacting of almost 20 years and the gradual transition to a new passion of coaching. How solving his own persistent level of anxiety Fueled a new passion to help others what skills from a long and successful career in acting transferred into coaching. How Michael's purpose changed? As his career changed. How to tackle anxiety in your career and during COVID 19. What's the one thing that makes Michael leg. Burn from within. The full show notes and videos of other interviews are available. App burn from within.com forward slash interviews. So listen all the way through. And enjoy. Rewind and fast forward to the time when you thought. You know what acting is, something that I want to potentially leave behind as a career path and maybe do something different, took about that time. And what was going on in your experience then?

Michael Legge:

Yeah, absolutely. So I had a very successful acting career and, acting was my passion since I was a teenager. And I was incredibly lucky. I worked with some of the best actors and directors in the world, and I learned a huge amount from them and not just about acting about life. And I had a lot of fun along the way. But a. Yeah, it was never, I guess it was never like a deliberate decision to leave acting or anything. It was there came a point to be completely honest where there was like a natural transition into coaching because, at my most successful I discovered that I was in an industry where you needed to be mentally very strong. And I, got a lot of success very quickly. And I realized that particularly in the creative industries, there's a lot of pressure. There's a lot of insecurity and you really need to be at the top of your game and so I took myself off basically, and I learned lots of strategies and tools and techniques. I did a lot of training, a lot of different courses. I was very lucky to meet you in India at that time. And when our, one of our NLP trainings and then basically these techniques and strategies that they worked so well for me. And that just naturally I started helping other people, other actors, essentially it started with, I naturally just started helping my actor colleagues. And that's really when the mind health coach kicked off. So it was, yeah, it was more of a natural transition rather than a, I'm going to quit acting and become a coach now. And yeah.

Matt Garrow-Fisher:

Yeah. And so you mentioned that you've started helping other actors who were in her, in your, in your shoes. What was it that inspired you to do all of this? Personal development. Self-development tr extensive training in therapy, different therapy, methodologies, and coaching. What were the problems or challenges that you were trying to solve in your life? And how are those challenges common in the actors that you're helping?

Michael Legge:

So I would say that the main challenge that I discovered, I didn't know it was called anxiety at the time. And I have to say that it never got to an extreme level, but it got to a level where I was daily feeling this just sense of unease. And. I was working back to back with film and theater and TV and I think part of it was, I was working very hard and I was a bit of a perfectionist, I still am. So I was trying to really do everything at the top of my game and learning how to be in the industry and have wellbeing at the same time. And really, you know what, you've set up as amazing because if I'd find you then essentially what I was going through was a burner. So a symptom was certainly anxiety. I'm not sure I'm crazy, but Sen, had terrible anxiety for years. I didn't really, it was just more this kind of low level That Florida, when I would have an addition, for example, and, I really wanted the part. I would put a ton of pressure on myself, like way too much pressure on myself. And unfortunately, sometimes that worked, I would nearly addition and I would get the part and then, that became a Potter and it was like, clearly, that's how, I need to get myself that stressed to be that successful and continue being, not successful. And equally I was in my mid twenties, to late twenties at the height of my success and then going into my early thirties. And as I matured, I think I realized I don't need to feel the stress at the time. I don't think it's. I know it's not healthy. I know that I surely it's unsustainable. I saw kind of other actors around me, that's come to other things, and I got a real education in why actors can go run down the drink and drugs Rouge, especially the older actors you could see. Just cause there's so much stress and pressure and insecurity in the industry. And I knew I just, I didn't want to go there. I'd worked too hard. And so before, I guess before it got any worse, before it got to the point where I had to quit completely and because I was just too anxious and stressed, I knew that it was important to work on myself. And equally, because I am a bit of a perfectionist, that hasn't gone away. I am. I studied everything I could get my hands on. I had to I felt I had to become the best learning, personal development, but then I loved it so much. And I've always been fascinated by psychology being an actor. Anyway, that's one of the reasons I think it became an actor I'm fascinated by what makes people tick. I'm not, I'm just fascinated by helping people feel better essentially. That's what I do.

Matt Garrow-Fisher:

Yeah. And in terms of when. When you started exploring all these different personal development methodologies, was there a, like a moment where you just said that's it I'm done with acting and yeah. Knew that, this path of coaching therapy was something you wanted to do or was it like a very gradual process? How did that transition unfold?

Michael Legge:

Yeah. Great question. So I kept working for a good, I kept working for a good and 10 years after I started learning, yes, I, it was a gradual process in to personal development. Cause I was a bit. I have a little bit of a cynical brand as well, too. A lot of the kind of self-help stuff and particularly the self-help industry. And then, and that's just cause I was, I think I was ignorant to a lot of the brilliant stuff that is available like there and the stuff that I'd seen before that was to me, felt a bit trite and a bit, be the best version of yourself and all of this stuff when I was already in the career that was pressurized. I didn't feel like I wanted to put more pressure on myself and I felt that was counter productive to wellbeing. And I realized I wanted to go more into the wellbeing route. So it was a gradual process in and then it took over. And I think I started doing very well as a coach and I find myself not wanting to take on acting jobs. Because I was busy with clients and also I could see transformations and clients that I was working with. Then I was getting great feedback and I was getting the sand buds and to be completely honest that I got from acting, I'd come upstairs and, it's very it's hard to explain, but it's a very similar kind of feeling of achievement you get when you come off stage or you've finished filming a scene or. And you feel you've done a really good job on it. It's a similar, it's a similar feeling. I think when you feel you've transformed somebody's perspective on something, which is essentially what acting is doing, when you're on stage or you're in a movie or you're on a TV series. And I think that's the most fun part of playing a different character when you can be somebody completely different and then change somebody's perspective on something. If the script is good and it's, a good project so really then yeah, it evolved and the, the coaching took over and it became a very, yeah. As I said, it just became a very natural transition and also, never say never, I never

Matt Garrow-Fisher:

a dot potentially in acting interesting. Got it. And you've had a successful career in acting trained. Now you're a coach. I always find people that transitioned to new industries. They have a set of skills that they've developed and sometimes you can transfer those skills into brand new disciplines. What do you think you've learned in your years of your acting career? That you can translate into. Everyday life for yourself. And also for the people that you coach what skills maybe principles or values have served you well, or you've developed that you can now give to others.

Michael Legge:

And another great question. I think the first one that comes to mind as an actor, when you're preparing for a row and even if the row similar to you which often it isn't but even if it is similar to, you do a psychological assessment of that character, you really do. You break down the behavior of the beliefs. The environments that the character is in, where the characters being, where the characters go into. It's very similar with coach and it's, what's happened to you, where are you right now? Where do you want to be? What are your beliefs? What are your, and, talk me through your day. When you wake up in the morning, what is your behavior? What you do, what are your habits? What are your disciplines? It's squarely similar. And I think that's the main thing that I bring. I will rarely say to my clients that I'm cause I do, I work with lots of different techniques. I work with CBT and NLP, and there's a lot of acting stuff in there. And very rarely will I say, I'm not doing a character assessment. But yeah, that would be the main thing. To be able to assess somebody. And mainly for the reason of getting to know an acting, you would call it a super objective in our world. We call it well, our world. Now we call it purpose, and because. Why do you get out of bed in the morning? I think that's the big that's the big question we all want to answer. And once you went through that, you're sorted.

Matt Garrow-Fisher:

And do you know what I mean? I was thinking of asking this question and you've just brought it up, but what would you say is your purpose now? And what would you say was your purpose when you were acting when you're in that career? And if there is a difference.

Michael Legge:

Very good. That's, it's a very lovely question to ponder because I could give you the true answer or I could give it the answer I'd like to give you, which would be untrue. So I'm going to be completely honest, as soon as you said it. I thought my purpose as an actor was to work as much as possible and to be a successful actor, if I'm being completely honest and. Because of the nature of the industry. I think it's forefront in most doctor's minds, not to generalize, but I think it's true. You go from job to job and it's the only security you have really you want to work as much as possible. No, my purpose is to, is much more a button, my own wellbeing and the wellbeing of everybody you remind me. My, my kind of grand purpose is to make as many people as possible feel better in whatever way that means.

Matt Garrow-Fisher:

Yeah. There's definitely a pattern in when you started talking about your transition of moving away from acting and just having that underlying it, wasn't like. Extreme burnout or extreme anxiety, but there was this kind of level of of anxiety of pressure that you really wanted to get away from. And it went part and parcel with the industry as well, as you said. And now that, and now you're transitioning to help other people To to deal with that whatever level of anxiety or stress or burnout they're in. What do you think, is it about wellbeing that, that became so important to you? That, that made that shift of, okay. I think I want to move into this space of wellbeing and away from acting. What was important about that?

Michael Legge:

So I think I think the turning point for me was understanding that I wanted to enjoy the job that I did and I was starting to not enjoy being an actor and acting and I was on. I was on an incredibly when this, so we really started, and when this stuff really started kicking off as in, in my own head of, Ooh, maybe this isn't right for me, I was, I was in shameless. I was on that show shameless. That was super successful. And I remember specifically, I think I was I'm the fourth season of it. And I was about to shoot a scene. And I remember very distinctly just thinking to myself, I should be feeling so fortunate and I should be so happy. I'm about to go out and work with these amazing actors. And they were, they're incredible actors and lovely crew. And I just felt a little I just felt empty. I just felt the kind of emptiness. And I felt very guilty about that for a long time, but it was I think it was me maturing. Really? I think I I was growing up and maturing and as I matured yeah, came to the kind of realization, that this, yeah. Th that wellbeing and feeling good. Every day is it's something to strive towards. And there were too many days where I was just worrying about learning lines and, getting my performance right. And worrying about, will I be in the next series or will I get that other job that I addition for, or, and. I was just worrying a lot. I think I was just worrying constantly and then I didn't want to, and I knew I didn't have to. I knew that there was, other ways. So

Matt Garrow-Fisher:

It's interesting you say that a few of the other guests I've had mentioned. Very successful careers. They've climbed up the corporate ladder sometimes, or, being very successful in their own businesses. And then they reach a goal potentially or level of status where, any more status is not giving them. The satisfaction that they got when they first were in their career and they were climbing up the ladder. And then it becomes okay what's next? They've done this. There must be more to life. And then that this empty feeling starts to sink in. Yeah. And that's when people start to shift from, the ego and, massaging status tend to move towards contribution that the six human needs Maslow tumor needs Talks about this extensively. Do you think there was a sh a kind of a shift for you when you realized that wellbeing was more important and what was there like a shift towards maybe contribution and actually. Helping others or making the world a better place or a bigger purpose. Did you think there was that kind of shift?

Michael Legge:

Yeah that's a very interesting it's a very interesting reflection actually, because as you're just saying that I I'm not saying I was unusual as an actor. A lot of actors actually uncomfortable with the spotlight outside of the acting, if but I particularly find that stuff super uncomfortable. I remember the very first TV series I, I did. I was 18 and I was in London and I was with this big group of guys shooting a series called dream team. No. It was the very first series and it was for sky and dream team became this huge like case. It became this massive pit show. And I remember the first few episodes went out and I'd flung back to Ireland and I was coming through the airport. And loads of people were coming over and taking photos. And this was when they had cameras. It wasn't like phone cameras. That's a long time ago, but I remember that stuff I got that happened very quickly. And So in terms of all of the ego stuff of an actor, some actors love that a lot of actors to be honest dunked. And, but I didn't just not like it it made me it was like I turned into a different person. I became super, super shy with that kind of attention. I felt really uncomfortable with it. And I just, I didn't like it. And I never knew how I think maybe if you do a big therapy session on me, I would probably say, I, was going to self-sabotage my career because I was terrified about becoming famous. I was scared because the more kind of famous I did become, and the more I did get recognized and. I find that difficult. I find that really difficult.

Matt Garrow-Fisher:

My question was did you notice a shift when you'd actually achieved a certain goal? Level of success in your career where, you know, the more success you achieved that, you weren't as motivated by that. And actually there was a, when you went towards wellbeing, do you feel that there was a shift to contribute to, to the world in some way, whether that's a greater purpose or making the world a better place or helping other people, do you feel that there was a shift in that direction?

Michael Legge:

Yes. So absolutely there was a, yeah, there was a definite shift to a lot of focus had been on me, basically. A lot of focus had been on me. And you are pretty well when you're doing well as an actor, you are looked after very well and and When you're off SAS or you're not in that world. I certainly would find myself wanting to help other people in whatever way that I could. And I think a, I think, and it's, for me, it started feeling much more valuable to help other people than, She had an episode of something. I wasn't sure that I was really shifting perspectives by being in a long run and TV show that, people really loved and enjoyed, but I didn't feel, I didn't feel purposeful. Exactly. I did not feel purposeful.

Matt Garrow-Fisher:

And when you mentioned that your purposes as an actor was to work really hard if we go even a level above that, like what, for what reason did you want to work so hard? Can imagine a lot of listeners would be thinking I want to. Winning an award, or I want to, win more major TV shows or films and that kind of stuff. But what was the driver for? What? For working so hard?

Michael Legge:

I think for me, the driver for working so hard was being very conscious that within the acting industry, certainly then work begets work. The more you work, the more work you've got and as an actor, that the biggest fear is being out of work, essentially. And of course, when you're within the industry, you see all around you, most people at any one time are out of work. And so it's, it's right there. And I experienced, I experienced a lot of being out of work as well. And that would often surprise people because sometimes, some of the years where I, I do the big film, but then maybe I wouldn't work for six months after that. And I don't think people quite understood that, eh, outside of the industry, certainly within the industry actors get that, actors will go, we'll do something pretty huge and there'll be at the premiere and there'll be interviews and there'll be all over magazines, but they may not have worked since that movie was filmed, which could have been a year or two years ago. Yeah. Yes,

Matt Garrow-Fisher:

and I'm very curious about you've made this shift out of acting and there's probably a lot of actors out there that, felt that anxiety and, not, it's not a constant stream of work, as you say that, the creative industry in general isn't what would you say to people that are, In that constant state of stress, maybe not feeling fulfilled in their career. And you could be talking about actors, but it could translate to other careers as well. What, with your own experience, and I guess with hindsight what would you say for them to do in order to find a new purpose or transition into the next stage of their life? If they feel that they're. Not a path that's that sustainable or not a path that is fulfilling.

Michael Legge:

So I think for sure, and what helped me definitely was Taking a little bit of time to reflect on what I actually wanted. So I think that's the first thing that I would recommend too. Absolutely. If it's in your conscious mind that you're not fully fulfilled Or there's a bit of an edge there that you can't quite scratch. I think it's a good sign and I think it's a great opportunity more than anything else don't be fearful of that, that it's just there for a reason. So just of that first I'm being conscious that this, understanding that can be a very good thing. This can be an amazing opportunity. And it's not necessarily about changing everything, but I think there's always improvement to be made when you have that itch. And you're not quite sure what's happening. And so that's the first thing I would say. The second thing I would say is talk to somebody. And for sure. Go see you talk to you much. You're the mom, or maybe come to me first thing, go to you, but no, absolutely. I think I talk to somebody who can steer you to clarity. It's all about clarity. It's all about sitting down and talking to somebody who can steer you and in a direction that you either may not have thought about before, or you have thought about, but you haven't. Had the luxury of sitting down and spending an hour or two, none of us do that. We rarely sit down and say I'm just going to reflect on, the next three months that might last for five minutes. If you're with somebody who's used to doing that with you and, or even if it is your partner or a friend or whatever, but have somebody. To sit there and question you, on, on what you really want and just try to get as much clarity about what you genuinely want as possible. Cause often we, I think we tend to bury our wants. So sometimes we think we know what we want, but it's only when we're deeply questioned that we often get surprised by what we actually want.

Matt Garrow-Fisher:

Yeah. Yeah. And in terms of obviously you made the shift to, to, to wellbeing now there's an element of having balance in your life to have wellbeing. How do you Restore balance in your life when things might seem chaotic. And, maybe from your experience in working with clients who might be super busy maybe really stressed and have to perform like at their peak to do their jobs enacting. How can you what steps can you take in order to Get more balanced in your life for the important things like your health, your family, relationships, passions, that kind of stuff.

Michael Legge:

I think we very much create, our life from the moment we wake up in the morning to the moment we go to sleep and. Being conscious that you're much more in control of that process. And I think a lot of people don't make changes or don't imagine that they have the strength to choose how they want their days, weeks, months to be. And you actually do. And that starts with your thinking. Absolutely. It starts with your thinking. So be brave enough if you have, another. An interest that you, that hasn't developed fully or a talent or there's something, burning within you. I think that's your thing. And, we all know when we've something burning within us and run with it. Absolutely run with it. There's a reason that thing is burning within you, it's it needs to it needs to get out. And I often it's the best thing you can do to let something like that out and be brave enough, be brave enough to make changes.

Matt Garrow-Fisher:

Yeah. In terms of some of the challenges that you have seen in, in, in your job now in coaching, what have been. Like some of the common problems that clients have had with regard to anxiety in their job and in their career. And also now during COVID how has that kind of changed the dynamic for some of the problems that you solve?

Michael Legge:

Firstly, with COVID I think a lot of people who didn't really know what anxiety was now I do, unfortunately. And also, so very, unfortunately the people who were suffering with any kind of anxiety or stress that's, multiplied. Generally we're living in a very anxious, collectively we're very anxious at the moment. And. And it's a very difficult situation because yourself, these things kind of spreads, the news, everyone's watching the news and it's just, bad news headline after bad news headline, after bad news headline. And we're slightly addicted to getting the information and we're processing this information and. And so I think we're glued to the news much more than we would ordinarily be. And I think, with the whole environmental crisis, that's happening as well at the minute with with Brexit, with there seems to be a lot happening at once. And the absolute best thing I think people can do for sure is to Is to really cultivate a more positive, optimistic mindset. It sounds at times very obvious, and it is very obvious, but at the more positive and the more optimistic people can be, and the more resilient they're going to be, yourself might the most resilient people in the world. They all have one thing in common and that's a positive can-do mindset. And people, yes are being incredibly tested at the minute. The people who were already anxious with life are super anxious. The people who've never had anxiety before are now understanding what anxiety is. And

Matt Garrow-Fisher:

I was going to ask about yeah. Actual practices and routines maybe, or habits to people who couldn't adopt to, consistently lower anxiety. And when we take yourself back to when you and your acting career, there was that level of anxiety. That just, it just didn't go away. How can people. Though with that level, whatever it is, if it's like burnout level too, something that's a little bit uncomfortable, how can people consistently lower their, average level of anxiety? Is there any regular habits that they can adopt disciplines, things that they can learn and all of that kind of stuff, even, how do they cultivate a positive mindset? How do they do that?

Michael Legge:

Okay, brilliant. So the first thing about anxiety for me the first big kind of principle, the first big idea on starting to reduce your anxiety is absolutely look into the past and being aware and that you've got through. We all have, we've all got through trauma, we've all got through negative experiences and we've all been through stressful events. And knowing that you'll get through it again, you just will and having that knowledge and reminding yourself that we are so much stronger than we can possibly imagine. We are so much more resilient. Then we can imagine there's so much more going on inside of us and within us than we can ever imagine. And we mostly are going to be okay. So having a very strong belief that everything is going to be okay. And that's not, that's not a toxic positivity that's reality, 99% of what goes on in our heads with worry and anxiety is rubbish. It's our own invention. 99% of it never happens. So the other thing with batteries, we being aware that being aware of where your focuses. And because we tend to get what we focus on. So of course the more negative we are. Okay. We're going to start noticing lots of negative things within our environment and the more positive we are, the same, we're just going to notice much more positive things. At a point it very much is a choice you can decide to wake up in the morning and set an intention. I think that's a brilliant exercise to start with just setting an intention of, what I'm going to have a great day today. Whatever happens. I'm going to do my best just to get through the day and try to stay as positive as possible. And I think there's a really brilliant exercise that I learned called flip the word X that I do a lot with clients and flip the word ifs is, and. Anxiety and anxious thoughts and worry is often proceeded by us asking ourselves, that little inner critic, usually critical voice that we have, but the inner voice will often ask what if followed by a negative? You know what, if I lose my job, what if I get sick? What if

Matt Garrow-Fisher:

this it's the recipe for fair, right? It's like the underlying formula for fair.

Michael Legge:

It is it's the formula for fair. So let's, let's change the formula and two, what if plus a positive? So what if, everything turns out okay, what if I can cope? And I do get through this and. It's a habit, of course. And it takes a little bit of it's a pattern that you can develop, but if you every time you become conscious of what effing plus a negative, if you can flip that immediately to a, what if positive, it's a habit to the more you do it. And naturally you'll start going to the positive. And so that's one for sure. That's a good one. I'm a huge fan of meditation. I'm a massive fan of meditation and there's so many different types out there. I personally do transcendental, but I'm a big fan of mindful meditation as well. The main kind of the big idea with meditation will the way I see it is We are absolutely not our thoughts. Like absolutely not our thoughts. And it's a very dangerous thing. I think when people start believing everything that they think because as I said so much of it is genuinely rubbish and that's not being disparaging or disrespectful to people. It's just, it's biology. A lot of it is just garbled, rubbish. And so meditation does this wonderful thing that it disassociates and your thoughts from you so that you can just observe the and observing your own thoughts. The brilliant thing that happens eventually after, and a few meditation sessions and it gets stronger, the more you do it is You really are able to look at your thoughts as separate to you, and then they lose all of their power. And I really good exercise to get started with is a, if you close your eyes and you just imagine your thoughts as imagine you're sitting on the side of a road and your thoughts are cars, lorries, and traffic, and they're just driving past. You can just sit for a few minutes and just every thought that comes into your head over the next few minutes. Not that we'll do it now, but over the next few minutes, you just imagine, I thought drives past here comes another one. It's not driving past and here comes another one. It's driving past. If you do this for a couple of minutes, just every day, that's enough meditation. To start. Cause we think meditation is just about becoming conscious that your thoughts are not, you that's essentially what it is so that, a large part of the brain

Matt Garrow-Fisher:

People can maybe adopt these practices at what point. Would you say clients come to you for help and support, whether that's for anxiety or to help them with their performance in their career? Like at what point do you typically see people reach out to you for help?

Michael Legge:

Okay. So I would definitely say those know there's three different kind of timings. When people come to me in terms of what they're experiencing, when they come to me one will be. I've had enough, I know that this thing is really affecting my work or really affecting my relationships or really affecting the quality of my life. And I might rock bottom and I really need help. And in that. Circumstance depending on how deep it is and whether they need to see, a psychotherapist or a psychologist. I've a lot of people that I recommend them to see if I feel I can help them as a coach. I absolutely will. The second kind of group of people that come to me, they're all where. They're aware that there's something within them. That's just holding them back. It may not be it's a bit like the way I was, it's not daily on their mind, but they just know that. It's a niche, it's I just say life's maybe possibly by, and I haven't really achieved everything that I wanted. And I know there's all of this kind of talent in me, for these other things that has never been laid out and, or, there's a little bit of anxiety in me or I'm a bit worried, or I'm a bit stressed about making presentations or I'm a bit stressed about this. And I really wish I wasn't, and I wish I was more positive and more confident. And then I have another set of people that come to me who are, it's all about the high performance state they're doing super well already, and they just want to I'm not going to say the phrase crush it, but they, but I just did, but they want to, they want peak performance. And so those are the three kind of various that I work on.

Matt Garrow-Fisher:

Got it. Got it. Awesome. My final question, Michael is now I call someone that burns from within they're living a life full of passion and purposeful and they have balance for all the things that are important to them in life. How would you, what's the one thing do you think has made the biggest difference for you to burn from within to live with passion, purpose, and balance?

Michael Legge:

Wow.

Matt Garrow-Fisher:

And you can take your time. A lot of people do.

Michael Legge:

It's such a great question. I love that question. Yes, I know exactly what. A, when I understood the concept that I teach very early on when I'm coaching people when I fully understood the concept, that there is always a pause between, external stimulus, something happening and your reaction to it. And in that pause, you have a choice as to how to behave. As to whether to react to it negatively or react to it positively or be proactive. And that blew my mind and still does, because now I remember I wrote on a sheet of paper years ago that I don't feel unwell. But I just feel that I'd love to be in control of my own brand 100% of the time. And and that concept really helps with that. Just knowing that whatever happens to you in life, you're always much more in control than you think. And you can be much more in control, with just a little bit of practice.

Matt Garrow-Fisher:

Yeah. Yeah. It's that concept of you're, you are not your thoughts. And actually just take a moment just to observe things and things will pass and it took a while for me to realize I did iowaska and I was, I realized that I wasn't even my body, there's a separation there and yeah. That, that is actually comforting to know that you can just observe things and not feel like you're being led. Life is leading you, but actually you're in control. But it, it requires some, some practice and discipline and. Educating yourself and yeah, that's made a huge difference to my life as well. So really interesting. I'm fascinated particularly, we both. Of study to neuro-linguistic programming. And one of the big components of NLP is modeling modeling other people, modeling people that you want to replicate similar results to and I think some, to be honest, the ultimate form of modeling that I've seen outside of NLP is through acting whether it's method acting or doing like a character assessment and really getting into the mind of a character. If given where in COVID well, a lot of countries are in lockdown. The UK is in full national lockdown now. Yeah. Is there any particular character or person that you think you would like to method act or get into their mind to help with dealing with anxiety or dealing with this quite challenging situation that many of us are in with COVID is there any particular Characters or even people that, maybe role models that people can start to think about and get into that step into their worlds in order to deal with this COVID crisis,

Michael Legge:

want to know their burning question? I immediately, I was thinking of one person throughout, throughout that and it's Just cause I think he's the wisest person in the world and it's David Attenborough. And I think, cause he, it's well known, isn't it? That all of his documentaries, part of the magic of it is. Just this beautiful, soothing voice that he has. And that's him, that's his character. That's his love and his, that energy coming through the screen and his passion and enthusiasm and intelligence and he's articulate. And and yeah, we need a lot more of that in the world. We need a lot of that right now.

Matt Garrow-Fisher:

I totally get that. And with Attenborough, he's, he's lived a long life already. I think he's 94 now and seeing the world changed so much, been through world Wars and economic crisis and all of that. But, there's something about him that he's. It's a calm wise old man that, that seen the world and he knows that things can get better. And taking this proactive approach to making, to finding solutions, to making the world better, even with all of these challenges, become the calm old man that with a strong voice, I love it. Where can people find. You Michael contact you to inquire about coaching and or acting and and, get in touch with you. How can they do that?

Michael Legge:

So you can check my website, the mind health coach.com, and I'm on Instagram quite a bit at the mind health coach, or you can always email me if you ever want to get in contact. It's michael@themindhealthcoach.com.

Matt Garrow-Fisher:

Love it. Thank you so much, Michael. It's been a, it's been a really interesting interview talking about like a lot of different topics from, acting, transitioning, coaching mindfulness, David Attenborough and thoroughly enjoyed it. And thank you once again for joining the show.

Michael Legge:

It's a pleasure. I love to thanks a million, man. Thank you. Awesome.

Matt Garrow-Fisher:

If you want to learn more about how to consistently deal with anxiety, please do check out Michael's page. I've included in the show notes. He's truly a phenomenal coach. I'm really has an incredible level of skill and helping actors and actually anyone with both anxiety and achieving peak performance. By shifting their state. And if you're unsure about what to do next. In your career. Perhaps you're feeling consistently stressed and can't find a way out. What first contact Michael, especially if you're an actor and then start exploring which direction would make sense from within you. To live a more. Passionate purposeful imbalanced life. Book a free consultation for my 12 week career fulfillment program. It's based on a proven method that has helped hundreds of people over the last 14 years to find a new career path that lights them up inside. Just go to burn from within.com forward slash fulfilling career. And book your free consultation would be now to see if it's right for you. Stay updated with more inspiring interviews by hitting the subscribe button now on your player for the burn from within podcast. Until next time. Live with passion, purpose, and balance. And burn from within.