127 - Welcome To The Game: Identity, Standards & What It Takes to Win with Mark Coles127 - Welcome To The Game: Identity, Standards & What It Takes to Win with Mark Coles
The Chase Life Podcast
Rachel Godfrey and Mark Coles have a straight-talking conversation about identity, standards and emotional stability, and how these shape results in body, business and life. Their chat questions whether someone truly wants to play a harder game or just enjoys the idea of success without the work.
1:34:52•9 Nov 2026
Welcome to the Game: Identity, Standards and Playing to Win with Mark Coles
Episode Overview
- Your current results are a delayed reflection of your identity and standards, not just your stated goals.
- Perfectionism is described as a form of low self-worth, because it sets impossible standards that demoralise you and your team.
- Emotional freedom and stability are presented as non-negotiable if you want to hold bigger goals in business, health and relationships.
- Quick sprints and short programmes can be powerful confidence boosts, but only if they sit on strong foundations and honest data.
- Playing a bigger game demands full commitment: raising standards, seeking help when you have a skills gap, and accepting that the journey will be challenging.
“Perfectionism is not the same as high standards. It's actually a low standard because it's an impossible standard.”
What drives someone to seek a bigger, bolder life rather than just fantasise about it? This high-energy conversation between coach and consultant Rachel Godfrey and business mentor Mark Coles centres on exactly that question: identity, standards, and what it really takes to "play the game" in body, business and life. Across more than two decades each in coaching, they compare notes on why so many ambitious people say they want more but shy away from the discomfort required.
Mark is blunt about foundations: chasing quick wins without solid habits, data and emotional stability is like strapping "a jet propel on the boat" when the hull is cracked. Rachel echoes this with her own story of becoming complacent in training and how raising her physical standards unlocked new levels in business. Identity and self-worth sit at the core of their framework.
They argue that your current results are a delayed reflection of who you've been being, not what you claim to want. That’s why Rachel pushes back on perfectionism, calling it "a low standard because it's an impossible standard," and urges clients to raise realistic, non-negotiable standards instead. Both share candid examples of admitting their own skill gaps, hiring expensive mentors, and telling their teams "I'm not good enough here" as an act of strong leadership rather than weakness.
You’ll also hear them tackle emotional freedom, partying and alcohol in earlier years, and how many high earners use work, socialising or even medications as distractions instead of facing the deeper identity work. They repeatedly return to one central challenge: do you genuinely want to play the hard, sometimes rough game that growth demands, or do you just like the idea of it?
If you’re rethinking your standards in health, work or sobriety, this conversation might leave you asking: what game are you actually committed to playing from today?
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