None of these achievements were possible without my ongoing experiment in comfort zone demolition to achieve extraordinary freedom. From 2016 to 2020, I’ve recorded over 800 of these experiments in my Freedom Log.
After 10 years of hostile silence, I rekindled communication with my brother, David, to transform the relationship to the closest it’s been since childhood.
After four decades of giving speeches to corporate groups, I took a risk to expand my audience to jail inmates. I received thank you notes that brought tears to my eyes.
In 2018, I got this text, “Absolutely hopeless. Scared. Alone. Out.” Then I talked one of my buddies out of suicide. My prior volunteer work at crisis hotlines paid off decades later.
During the 2020 social justice protests, I orchestrated 10 hours of online meetings with mixed racial audiences on “Taking Accountability for Conversations about Race.”
At age 67, I regularly beat Tom Brady’s time in the 40 yard sprint at the NFL draft combine when he was a college senior.
When I say “Never going to happen,” I mean zero chance. But when I gave myself permission to conduct an “experiment” instead of a make-or-break outcome, nothing was impossible.
Art Turock has the rare distinction of being an elite performer in two fields—business + sports. For three decades as an entrepreneur, he has been a speaker to over 125 Fortune 500 companies, one of the highest totals all-time in the speaking industry. His professional engagements involve keynote speeches, seminars, coaching, and year-long Mission Unreasonable Projects.
Turock has enjoyed a 13-year career in masters track and field. In 2015 and 2016, his pentathlon scores at the USA Track & Field Masters Championship earned #8 world rankings for his age group.
In 2016, Art Turock began a bold experiment in demolishing comfort zones to develop his capacity of volition–freedom of choice. He discarded four of his comfort zones each week in mindset mastery practices recorded in his Freedom Log. By 2021, Art had conducted over 800 of these experiments. Comfort zone demolition is Art’s favorite lifestyle habit.
From 2018-2020 Art Turock has orchestrated The Extraordinary Freedom Experiment to empower high achievers in business, military, and athletics to field test his five freedom optimization practices in pursuit of their heartfelt goals. These bold experimenters are the Intrepid Freedom Crusaders.
Articles by Art and references to his work have appeared in Success, USA Today, Fortune, Readers Digest, Association Management, Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work, Bloomberg News, CNN, and millions of Starbuck’s cups (The Way I See It series).
Turock has published books in two categories; self-help/health and business. His first book, Getting Physical: How to Stick with Your Exercise Program, was a best seller with 70,000 copies sold only in retail stores. For business readers, Art wrote Invent Business Opportunities No One Else Can Imagine, and Competent is Not an Option: Build an Elite Leadership Team Following the Talent Development Game Plan of Sports Champions.
For six years, Art served in the United States Air Force Reserve as a jet engine mechanic. He’s been a faculty member to The Honor Foundation, which prepares military special operators for private sector careers.
Art Turock graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Union College (BS) and earned a Master of Education degree from the University of Florida.
Turock competes in masters track and field in pentathlon in five events: long jump, 200-meter dash, javelin, discus, and 1500-meter run.
In 2015, his pentathlon score won a bronze medal at the USA Track & Field Masters Championship and earned a world ranking of #8. In 2016, Art won the silver medal and earned a #8 world ranking.
These athlete achievements are more remarkable because of Art’s genetic birth defects—an enlarged heart and deformed inferior vena cava—which impede blood circulation.
Top Lifetime Achievement: On three occasions, Art Turock talked people out of committing suicide.
Click below to download Art Turock’s bio and high-resolution photos.
Besides sharing my accomplishments, I want you to know me at a level deeper–my source of motivation to master comfort zones and achieve goals that truly matter. Here’s how my three core passionate values-Extraordinary, Freedom, and Courage–are revealed in memorable life experiences.
When I returned from seeing the premiere of Rocky in 1976, I immediately went for a jog on snowy roads adjacent to cornfields in Coralville, IA. Time was 2 am. Temperature was 20 degrees below zero. My wife thought I was absolutely crazy. Actually, I was just overwhelmingly inspired.
Obviously, I was not alone. The Rocky story line hit a nerve for millions of people who witnessed a local club fighter going the distance against the world heavyweight champion—a truly extraordinary achievement.
In the most memorable impactful conversation of my college years, classmate, Tim McGill, listened for ten minutes, and tossed me a book, Escape from Freedom, by Dr. Eric Fromm. After digesting Fromm’s mind-blowing insights about freedom, I knew my destiny--at least for next quarter. I would major in psychology. What did Fromm mean by “escape” from freedom?” This quote captures the essence of his life-altering message:
“Modern man lives under the illusion that he knows 'what he wants,' while he actually wants what he is supposed to want. In order to accept this it is necessary to realize that to know what one really wants is not comparatively easy, as most people think, but one of the most difficult problems any human being has to solve. It is a task we frantically try to avoid by accepting ready-made goals as though they were our own.”
In the 1980s, marketing was done by phone and mail. To launch my speaking business, I telephoned meeting planners while sitting at my red table. Since I was starting out, I had zero references to endorse my speaking abilities. I knew would hear lots of “No, not interested” responses from meeting planners. I dreaded facing personal rejection when every call is a cold call. Picking up the phone took courage.
After six months, I got my first booking, and circumstances changed very quickly. After my speeches to national trade associations, audience members hired me to speak to their companies. Speaker bureaus were eager to represent me. I developed unique expertise to combat a new competitor emerging in the supermarket industry--Walmart. And never made a cold call again. Courage to master comfort zones is life-altering.
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