Layne Beachley’s mindset strategies (including her 7% rule)

Layne Beachley:
7% rule is essentially, if you're awake between 6:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m., you've got 15 hours of daytime, and 7% of that is an hour. So the idea is to invest 7% of your life into managing your mindset, prioritising your wellbeing, calming the central nervous system, establishing clear boundaries around your energy, because time management is actually energy management. When I learned how to prioritise my energy, I stopped being distracted, and that ultimately impacted my performance. So that 7% heavily impacts the other 93%.

Tahn Sharpe:
Welcome to "INTHEBLACK", a CPA Australia Podcast. I'm Tahn Sharpe, Editor of INTHEBLACK and host of this episode. Now, today's guest knows a little something about performing under pressure

Layne Beachley:
A little.

Tahn Sharpe:
Layne Beachley is seven-time world champion of surfing and is widely regarded as one of the greatest surfers of all time. Layne, thanks for joining us.

Layne Beachley:
Thanks, Tahn. Good to be here.

Tahn Sharpe:
Now, today we're gonna talk about the 7% rule, which is the idea that you can dedicate 7% of your day to resetting your nervous system, which is something that can help improve the way you think, the way you act and hopefully the way you perform.

Layne Beachley:
Yes.

Tahn Sharpe:
But before we go there--

Layne Beachley:
Hmm.

Tahn Sharpe:
I want to delve back into your past--

Layne Beachley:
Okay.

Tahn Sharpe:
And take you back to when you were a young girl.

Layne Beachley:
Oh, here we go.

Tahn Sharpe:
You're learning to surf.

Layne Beachley:
Can I lie down? Is this like a therapy session?

Tahn Sharpe:
Won't be necessary. At some point, you realise as you're starting to surf, that you're quite good at this.

Layne Beachley:
Hmm.

Tahn Sharpe:
Did you ever at that stage think that that would lead to a professional surfing career?

Layne Beachley:
I must have.

Tahn Sharpe:
Yes.

Layne Beachley:
But the challenge was, and you know, that you understand the premise of if you can't see it, you can't be it. There were very few women for me to look up to, which then presented me with this concept of not having heroes, but having mentors. So I started surfing at Manly Beach as a 4-year-old. I was paddling out the back as a 5-year-old, and by the time I'm six or seven, I've found my happy place. You know?

Tahn Sharpe:
Yes.

Layne Beachley:
The ocean still is my happy place. It's my retreat. It's where I, I've learned to adapt, I've learned to surrender, I've learned a true sense of freedom. I also have a healthy dose of humility when I'm in there.

Tahn Sharpe:
Very necessary.

Layne Beachley:
Very. It's also where I go to process my pains, heal my hurts, celebrate my wins. So it's my true happy place. And, and I say that because I ask people quite often, where's your happy place?

Tahn Sharpe:
Yes.

Layne Beachley:
Because we all need somewhere to retreat to when life gets overwhelming. And I'm very fortunate that I've found not only a recreation, but also a, a pure passion that just drives me every day. Like every day I get up, I'm thinking, what time can I surf today? Well, first, are there waves? Second, when can I surf? So when I started competing or when I started surfing, I had the dream of becoming a world champion at something, but I didn't really formulate that plan until later on.

I was about 15. And that's when I decided I wanted to be a world champion surfer. But at the time, I was surrounded by world champions. You know, I had Barton Lynch and Tom Carroll, Martin Potter, and then the pro tour started coming around the Northern beaches. So there was Wendy Botha, Pam Burridge, Lisa Andersen, Frieda Zamba, like all the, the past champions. And, and I just kept watching them and watching them and analysing them, and then went, I'm gonna beat you.

Tahn Sharpe:
Yes. You're taking me back to my childhood, actually.

Layne Beachley:
Oh, good.

Tahn Sharpe:
Hearing all those names and the sort of having awareness of the, the World Surfing League. Now, you've sort of built a reputation as a high performance mindset coach in the last few years. At what point? I mean, was it during this surfing career that you became aware of the self and aware of the importance of mental health?

Layne Beachley:
Yes, definitely. Until I invested myself into a certain direction, I was very easily distracted. So how I reflect on... I was on tour for 19 years. I won seven world titles. Five of them, well, six of them were won in a row. So no other surfer in history has won six consecutive world titles.

Five of them in fear, two of them were in love, and the first seven of my, first seven years of my career, I was a victim. And I call myself a victim because everything outside of me was distracting me and dictating the quality of my life to me.

Tahn Sharpe:
Okay.

Layne Beachley:
So that meant for me that I wasn't being the author, the architect, the driver. I wasn't in the driver's seat. And it's very easy to lay the blame on the conditions, the ocean, mother nature, things going wrong. It's really easy to blame external circumstances for my misfortune, my disappointment, my lack of ownership, or my lack of vulnerability, but eventually I realised that the common denominator to all my suffering and disappointment was me, my mindset, the six inches between my ears. I had to change that if I wanted to win.

Tahn Sharpe:
So those, those sort of things that you identified, I'd imagine that funnelled through to the 7% rule.

Layne Beachley:
Yes, 100%.

Tahn Sharpe:
Can you explain how that fits into it?

Layne Beachley:
Well, there's, 7% rule is essentially, if 100% of your day is... Well, I, the way that I've crafted this is that if you're awake between 6:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m., you've got 15 hours of, of daylight or daytime, and 7% of that is an hour.

So the idea is to invest 7% of your life into managing your mindset, prioritising your wellbeing, adapting to change, calming the central nervous system, prioritising rest, establishing clear boundaries around your energy, because time management is actually energy management, and we, I want to help people manage their energy better, because when I learned how to prioritise my energy, I stopped being distracted, I started establishing clearer boundaries, and I, and that ultimately impacted my performance. So that 7% heavily impacts the other 93%.

But sometime often we focus on the bigger picture, and it's the little things that we miss. And it's the little things that actually made the biggest difference in my life, especially as a professional surfer. It was the little things, the little processes, the little micro moments, the little breaks. The advantages that, the competitive advantages that I found as a professional athlete weren't all technical.

In an actual fact, they were mental, physical, emotional, and that helped me become the best of the best and helped me stay at the top and perform at that level over a sustained period. So that's why I believe that there's very few athletes that'll win six consecutive world titles, because, yes, you've gotta have the mongrel and you've gotta have the work ethic and the consistency of discipline, but you've also gotta know when to pull back.

Tahn Sharpe:
Yes.

Layne Beachley:
You've, and you've gotta honour that. And I didn't in the first seven years. So the cost of not doing that is individualised. For me, it's strained relationships, it's pain management for life.

Tahn Sharpe:
Hmm.

Layne Beachley:
It's severe injuries. It's the loss of sponsors, it's the loss of connection. There's a lot of things that I'm sure everyone can relate to. You don't have to be a world champion to learn these lessons. And that's why I love doing what I do, because yes, they're my life lessons wrapped up in winning world titles, but you don't have to be a world champion to win them and, and learn them.

Tahn Sharpe:
Indeed, you don't need to be a world champion to have those pressures and to need balance.

Layne Beachley:
Exactly.

Tahn Sharpe:
You sometimes need a device to sort of help you find that balance.

Layne Beachley:
Well, we use devices to, to actually numb us and, and distract us. And so that actually gets us further away from whatever balance is. I don't know, I don't know if there is such a thing as life balance. You know, it's, it's all blended into life, and it's a matter of us finding out what works for us, what do I need, and then not only asking the question, but then honouring the answer and investing in that.

And that's what I wanna inspire your audience to do, is invest in themselves. They're so good at investing in their clients and portfolios and trends and changes, but when do they put themselves first to actually think about, hang on, if I lose myself in this, then how can I keep showing up for the people who are relying on me to do the work I do?

Tahn Sharpe:
Yeah, it's a question, I think, that a lot of accountants and CFOs and financial advisors starting to address now is what they're doing for themselves. But, but certainly more can be done. Can we just pull the thread a little bit on the 7% rule and how it actually works and what it means and what someone might do to sort of start putting some of those principles in place?

Layne Beachley:
Do I have to give it all away? 'Cause there's--

Tahn Sharpe:
No, not at all. Not at all. Perhaps a little summation or hint.

Layne Beachley:
Well, they're literally actions that we can all take based on where we are at in our life. And they don't have to be all taken at the same time.

Tahn Sharpe:
Okay.

Layne Beachley:
So they're micro moments, they're micro habits that are implemented intentionally. So they're intentional shifts into our behaviours, which come from, which comes from a commitment that, and a belief that I am worthy of this, I'm worthy of this investment into myself, such as saying no.

Putting boundaries around your energy and your time, being more present with your friends and family, prioritising rest over doing and being more and having more. Bringing... Drinking more water. Like they're really simple things and they're, and, and they're things that we take for granted.

They're things that we forget. And often when we're at the busiest state, it's when we go, I'll push all that aside. I'll wait till I get through this period and then I'll come back to it, when in actual fact, it's these 7% or these little micro moments or 7% of your day, which is an hour over the 15 hour of your day. It's not one hour allocated to all of these things. It's like five minutes here and five minutes there. Sunshine breaks and things like that.

Tahn Sharpe:
Okay.

Layne Beachley:
It's the micro moments that you commit to once you become aware of your operating model. We all, we all operate best in 90 minute sprints. And after we hit the top of that bell curve, we actually start to decrease our levels of productivity, our levels of focus, our memory, everything starts to decline, yet we just see that as something I have to push through, push through, push through, I don't have the time to stop.

And there's always something urgent hijacking the important. There's always somebody needing us. There's always something that needs more attention than what we can give ourselves. And until we stop and connect with how we truly feel and go, actually, you know what? I need to just take 90 seconds, because science has actually shown that if you push through that bell curve, it results in prolonged pain and suffering.

But if you honour the 90 minute sprint and you stop for 90 seconds, you'll regenerate yourself so quickly that you won't get home and be the dictator dad or the angry mum. You won't go on holiday and fall apart and get sick in the first two weeks and then come home and eat a holiday from the holiday.

Like all of that will be skipped, because you're just taking these five minute to 10 minute micro moments throughout your day that you've scheduled, that you've honoured, that you've guarded, knowing that that's gonna help you show up more consistently with more productivity. You're gonna take fewer sick days, sick days, you're gonna be more accurate in your work. You're gonna increase your sales by 20%. There's all these scientific metrics that go behind these micro moments.

Tahn Sharpe:
Now, I know you're speaking at our CPA Week Conference in June.

Layne Beachley:
Yeah.

Tahn Sharpe:
And you'll meet lots of members, of course.

Layne Beachley:
Yes.

Tahn Sharpe:
And I guess when you speak to those members, you'll kind of, they'll, they'll let you know that it's very hard to sort of carve out an hour from the day.

Layne Beachley:
I'm not asking you to carve out an hour of your day.

Tahn Sharpe:
And I imagine the best way to sort of the advice that you're going to give them is, as you said, to just take snatches when you can. Instead of sort of, when the pressure comes on and carving out the me time, you actually make sure it becomes more important to, to, to provide that to yourself.

Layne Beachley:
Hmm.

Tahn Sharpe:
And not all at once, but in little pieces when you can.

Layne Beachley:
Yeah. And that's essentially the message. You've right, you've nailed it, Tahn because if I ask you to go and take out an hour of your day, you'll think, how on earth am I gonna find another hour of my day? And I'm not asking you to find any more time in your day. I'm asking you to manage your time better.

And these are things that I had to learn too, because I was convinced that to be at the top of my game for as long as I was, I had to work twice as hard as everybody else.

And I did that, but to what extent, or to what cost? I mentioned it earlier, pain, suffering, strained relationships, isolation, loneliness, and now pain management, because I saw every breakdown as something I had to push through and overcome. It was just another goal.

Tahn Sharpe:
Yes.

Layne Beachley:
Had I just honoured my body? 'Cause it whispers before it screams.

Tahn Sharpe:
Your body lets you know and gives hints?

Layne Beachley:
Are you listening to the whispers or are you waiting for the screams? And now, even though it's screaming at you, are you still tuning to, are you choosing to tune in or are you tuning out because you're like, I can't talk right now? I can't hear that right now. I need to, I need to get this done. And then you get to that moment, okay, I got it done. And instead of decompressing and doing whatever you need to do to take a break, oh, whew! Done. All right, next?

And I understand there's a lot of demands, but do you have to say yes to every single one of them? What does success actually look like for you? How do you even know if you're there? And do you take the time to celebrate it? 'Cause you can't build on success that hasn't been celebrated. There's all these things that I've learned as an athlete that I wish I knew earlier, that I've turned into a toolkit, not just as a one hour keynote, but as a book and as a workshop and as a business to help people be their better selves so they can live a better life.

To, if, if, if you're thriving and you are happy, then you show up better, you are more productive and you can earn more and deliver more and give more, but we tend to give to everyone else and we deplete ourselves of everything and then wonder why... It's kind of like that oxygen mask analogy, right? Everyone's sitting comfortably in their seats with their mask on, and you've run around the whole plane to make sure everyone's got their mask on, and now you are gasping for air and no one can help you.

Tahn Sharpe:
Yes.

Layne Beachley:
That's what I'm asking you to do, is just put your mask on first, but with micro moments, not with, not with enormous shifts.

Tahn Sharpe:
Yes.

Layne Beachley:
And I understand life gets in the way. I understand that too. You know, if you have the best intentions to go to the gym, I'm going to the gym today. I've got 30 minutes and I'm going to the gym, and a child gets sick, or the dog breaks its leg and you've, now you've gotta go to the hospital, that's okay, but don't allow that moment today to sabotage the opportunity tomorrow.

Tahn Sharpe:
Absolutely.

Layne Beachley:
And don't beat yourself up and drown yourself in a guilt sh*t sandwich because you, you are not willing to forgive the fact that life happens.

Tahn Sharpe:
Yes.

Layne Beachley:
You know?

Tahn Sharpe:
How do you switch off when you really need to and you're under pressure and you've got 1 million things going on professionally and home? A lot of members have a family.

Layne Beachley:
Hmm.

Tahn Sharpe:
I mean, besides jumping in the water and having a surf--

Layne Beachley:
Yeah.

Tahn Sharpe:
Are there any sort of tips that you know for switching off?

Layne Beachley:
Yeah. So intentionally.

Tahn Sharpe:
Yes.

Layne Beachley:
You have to do it intentionally, number one.

Tahn Sharpe:
Okay.

Layne Beachley:
Secondly, the quickest way to get out of the stress response and activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the rest, the pause, the play response, is through an intentional breath. And there's a variety of different breathing techniques that you can do.

Tahn Sharpe:
Uh-huh.

Layne Beachley:
But if you just intentionally breathe for one minute and focus on your breath for one minute, you'll reduce stress by a significant amount in your body. And that can be a psychological sigh, I mean, a physiological sigh, which is... And you intentionally relax everything on the inhale on, on the exhale. It's the duration of the exhale that creates the relaxation response. Breathe in as short and sharp as you want. Obviously the deeper you breathe in, the slower and more prolonged the exhale can be.

Tahn Sharpe:
Right.

Layne Beachley:
So a physiological sigh is take one sip and then another sip, hold it, and then until it's all out. Like intentionally suck the belly in, compress the diaphragm, expend all of that air out, and then go again. Or a box breathing technique. Breathe in for four seconds, hold it for four seconds, exhale for four seconds, hold that for four seconds. Do that four times, that's one minute.

Tahn Sharpe:
Yeah, great. That's pretty quick and easy.

Layne Beachley:
That's really simple. Or breathe in for four seconds, hold for seven seconds, exhale for eight seconds. You do that a couple of times.

Tahn Sharpe:
Right. And I, I imagine that that forces you to sort of stop, reassess, relax--

Layne Beachley:
Yes.

Tahn Sharpe:
And brings your heart rate down and brings a little bit of focus and clarity. And you can approach problems in a whole different way if you've just taken that moment to reset.

Layne Beachley:
Yes. That all starts with the awareness that you are out of control.

Tahn Sharpe:
Yes.

Layne Beachley:
That you're stressed, you're tense, your thoughts are racing into the future, and you're, you're not solving anything. You're just running over. I had this on a holiday recently where I was running late to, we'd booked an adventure and I couldn't find where it was and we were walking around San Sebastian in circles and I'm like, where the hell is this?

And I was stressed about being late 'cause I thought they might leave without us. And I was getting really wound up and thinking about all the things that could possibly go wrong. And I was stressing myself out, and I just stopped in my tracks and went…. Right. Where to from here? And then 30 seconds later I found them.

Tahn Sharpe:
Very good.

Layne Beachley:
Yeah. So it's the awareness that you're in that spiral. if anywhere... Have you seen the movie "Inside Out"?

Tahn Sharpe:
Yes.

Layne Beachley:
Have you seen the second one?

Tahn Sharpe:
I have not.

Layne Beachley:
Watch the second one. That's when anxiety comes in.

Tahn Sharpe:
Okay.

Layne Beachley:
And anxiety takes over the whole programme.

Tahn Sharpe:
It's an overbearing emotion?

Layne Beachley:
Yes, yeah, but he, she takes over the teenage daughter.

Tahn Sharpe:
Yes.

Layne Beachley:
And thinks that she's serving her and supporting her growth, because if she keeps her safe, just by keeping her aware that anything could go wrong at any time. So if I just keep scanning, then I've got this. And that's what anxiety does. So anxiety is tricking you into believing that you're keeping yourself safe.

Tahn Sharpe:
What would you do from a leadership perspective? Or how would you advise leaders who have a team of people and they're looking to maybe implement some of these principles so it becomes part of a, like a team-based organisational culture mindset rather than an individual thing?

Layne Beachley:
Yeah. So we'll work with Awake Academy for a start.

Tahn Sharpe:
Of course.

Layne Beachley:
But as we all know, and we've seen this in sport. If you want the team to play a different game, then you need to empower the team to come up with the rules. It can't be from a coach down, it's from players up. And you, as a team, you want to know that you are valued, that you are respected, that you are heard.

And by empowering the team to identify where are they going right, where are they going wrong, and what can they implement or do to, to create that shift? Michael McGuire did that with the Broncos in 2025, and that's how they turned the whole season around. He's like, it's whatever I'm telling him, it's not working, so over to you guys, fix it.

And it's the same for any culture, for any leadership group. Yeah, I mean, obviously team, team players are looking for leadership. They're looking for inspiration, they're looking for role modelling, but they're looking for permission. Essentially, that's all they're really looking for is permission.

So you are telling me that it's safe to go and take a five-minute sunshine break? You are telling me that it's wrong to sit at my desk and eat lunch? You are telling me that it's wrong to send emails at 3:00 in the morning? Or are you behaving in a way that's suggesting, actually I'm sending you emails at midnight, seeing you at your desk instead of going out and getting some fresh air and some sunshine on your face. That shows to me that you respect the job.

Like what's the story that you're telling your team? And if the team feel permission to actually prioritise themselves, so that's why we've worked with groups like KPMG, where it's come from the CEO, he is like, "I want my partners to take better care of themselves." I said, "Well, it comes from your leadership, but then we've given them the tools. Now you need to give them permission to implement them."

Tahn Sharpe:
Yes. What signals are you sending?

Layne Beachley:
What's the signals you're sending? Yeah, what's the story you're telling and the signals you're sending?

Tahn Sharpe:
Very good.

Layne Beachley:
Yeah.

Tahn Sharpe:
So final words of advice. If there's one thing that our accountants and CFOs and advisors should know when they go back to their desk, what should they take from today?

Layne Beachley:
Oh wow! Be intentional with your energy, which means... Well, I feel that the biggest challenge, challenge that people have, financial advisors in particular, is their lives are dominated by and consumed by volatility, change. Everything that you are focusing on is essentially out of your control.

And with all heard control the controllables, and that's such a cliche, I'm not gonna give them that advice. But what I am gonna ask you to do is just be intentional with your energy. So honour. If the body's screaming ask yourself, what does my body need right now? And then go do that.

Tahn Sharpe:
Yes.

Layne Beachley:
Take that sunshine break, drink a little bit more water, go and have that micro nap. Maybe if you are working from home, you can. Maybe not in the office, you can't, but honour that. But all we really want is we want more presence. Like, and that starts with presence with the self, because when we're present with ourselves, then we can be present with each other. We can't give what we don't have. We can't give more love if we don't have self-love.

We can't give compassion if we have no compassion. We can't give empathy if we don't have empathy. We can't give energy if we don't have energy. So give yourself first and give yourself permission to have that first. So yesterday I was up in the Sunshine Coast working with a whole bunch of female financial advisors, and the themes were a lot of the same. You know, they're looking for how to balance that life juggle and they're looking for more presence with friends and family. So, have you heard about the thing, the third space?

Tahn Sharpe:
No.

Layne Beachley:
Okay. So you've got, you know, work and home, and then you've got the third space. How do you utilise that space between work and home? Because that'll influence how you walk in the door. So my advice to financial planners and accountants and people who are working in such a volatile and uncertain industry is to give yourself a bit of certainty in that third space by being intentional. That means digest whatever happened in the day.

Before you get through the, before you enter the household, if you are driving, this is a really easy one. If you're driving home, when you pull into the driveway or park on the street, takes three intentional breaths, calm it all down, and then when you get out of the car, close the door. And as you close the door, use that as a metaphor with closing the door on the day.

Tahn Sharpe:
That's a good one.

Layne Beachley:
And then be intentional about who you're gonna be when you walk in that door. Find one to two or maybe three words, I am focused, I'm present, I'm grateful, whatever it is, like I'm, I am going to be that when I walk through that door. So you are intentionally putting yourself into a situation where you are empowered and that you're committing to showing up for the people that love you. Because I've received a really powerful and painful message from my husband one day when he said to me, why do I always get the broken Layne? And that's unacceptable. And that's what changed me.

Tahn Sharpe:
Oh, very good.

Layne Beachley:
Yeah.

Tahn Sharpe:
It's a good origin story.

Layne Beachley:
Yeah. And I had to commit to doing things differently. So if your loved ones are, are getting the most broken, depleted version of you, only you can change that. So take some deep breaths, use that third space, shut the door on the day and then commit to who you're gonna be before you walk inside.

Tahn Sharpe:
And listen to the body whispers.

Layne Beachley:
Listen to the whispers before it starts screaming.

Tahn Sharpe:
Wonderful. Layne, thanks so much for joining us. It's been a wonderful chat. You're just as much an inspiration now as you were when I was a young fellow watching you win all those world types.

Layne Beachley:
Oh, thanks, Tahn.

Tahn Sharpe:
For our listeners eager to learn more, please refer to the INTHEBLACK website and for show links and additional resources. And don't forget that Layne will be speaking at our CPA event in June.

And don't forget also to subscribe to INTHEBLACK, and please, share this episode with your friends and colleagues in the business community. Until next time, thanks for listening.