Turning Right Free Summary by Kay Bretz

12/26/22, 11:53 AM Turning Right Free Summary by Kay Bretz
BOOK
Turning Right
Inspire the Magic
Kay Bretz
Major Street Publishing, 2021 
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106
Editorial Rating  Qualities 
https://www.getabstract.com/en/summary/turning-right/41754?st=SEARCH&sq=marathon 1/13
 8 Applicable
Engaging
Inspiring
Recommendation
Long-distance running, which celebrates hardiness of spirit, offers many
metaphors for life. As one of the world’s elite ultramarathon runners and

an inspiring writer, Kay Bretz explains how to forsake the strictures of
the status quo and reach for the stars. He offers a direct message to the
human spirit for those who want to tap into their natural intuitive
powers and innate capabilities. Bretz makes a persuasive argument for
escaping overthinking. Trusting your intuition, he counsels, will lead to
solutions that nourish your performance and growth.
Take-Aways
A child with cancer taught Kay Bretz how to use a new mind-set to
attack problems.
Bretz didn’t need to learn any new knowledge. He had to unlearn old
knowledge.
Bretz’s “turning right” mind-set enabled his achievements.
Psychologist Gavin Freeman claims people either have motivation to
win (good) or motivation to not fail (bad).
Magic can happen when you relinquish control and rely on intuition.
Bretz’s enlightened mind-set helped him graduate from marathons to
ultramarathons.
To live large, break free of your mental chains. Try a new plan.
Turning right demands self-examination.
Summary
A child with cancer taught Kay Bretz how to use a new mind-set to
attack problems.
During part of his childhood, Kay – a German name pronounced “Kai,”
which rhymes with sky – Bretz had a persistent bedwetting problem, a
huge embarrassment for a preteen. The doctors told him the problem
would go away in time, but it didn’t.Then, Bretz read about a little boy
with apparently incurable cancer who had created his own fantasy world.
In it, the boy was the captain of a tiny spaceship that patrolled through
his body, blasting away the evil cancer cells. The boy persisted in his
vision and eventually recovered.
Bretz admired the brave, imaginative boy and his mind-over-matter

strategy. He assured himself that he could use a similar approach, but he
knew he had to trust himself to make it work. Bretz understood that
lapses might happen, but he decided to persist. With these hopeful,
trusting thoughts, he went to bed affirming that he would wake up dry –
and he did. After a time, he realized that he’d cured his problem. This
gave Bretz an abiding faith in the power of positive thinking.
“There are so many things in the world that we can’t

control, but we can choose our attitude and mind-set.”
Realizing that he had the power to transform himself, Bretz asked what

else he could accomplish by directing his mind and attitude. He
wondered if he could become someone different, someone more capable
and accomplished. Bretz wondered if this improved, more capable
person might be who he really was deep down or, at least, who he was
supposed to be.
Bretz didn’t need to learn any new knowledge. He had to unlearn old
knowledge.
Bretz realized he had to reject old ideas that were holding him back,
including the arbitrary mental limitations he had placed on himself. He
understood that many people restrict themselves in the same way.
Using the conventional attributes of hard work, focus and discipline,

Bretz gained great success as an adult. He earned a doctorate and
become a well-paid consultant at McKinsey & Co.
But he wanted more. He vowed to reignite the transformative power of

intuition he’d discovered as an insecure youth. He applied his mental
determination to the goal of becoming a better long-distance
runner. Starting as a recreational marathon runner, he became one of
the world’s top ultramarathon athletes. He says the power of his mind
made all the difference.
Bretz’s mind-set enabled him to achieve great things.

Bretz discovered that you can possess great skill and the best of luck, but
still not triumph over difficult challenges. To get ahead in tough
circumstances, he believes, you must reach within yourself to a
previously unexplored part of your personality.
“It helps to remind ourselves that what got us here and was
successful in the past often prevents us from reaching our
aspirations for the future.”
This may mean abandoning what you know and reaching for the
unknown. In doing so, you can attain fresh awareness, a more
comprehensive understanding of who you are, what you can achieve and
who you can become. With this new self-awareness, you will no longer
let life bounce you around. Instead, you will be empowered to take
charge of your fate. This journey has nothing to do with becoming great;
it has everything to do with tapping into the power inside you, so you can
start turning right in your life.
Psychologist Gavin Freeman claims people either have motivation to

win (good) or motivation to not fail (bad).
Bretz first began to change his mind-set as a young boy. Later, as an
adult and a casual marathoner, he further expanded his mental
awareness and capacities. He says his adult mental work began when he
met noted sports psychologist Gavin Freeman at a work-sponsored
event. Freeman worked with the Australian Summer Olympics, Winter
Olympics and Paralympics teams. His mental training helped Simon
Fairweather, a member of the Australian archery team, win a gold medal
during the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
“Deep inside, we know that when we challenge ourselves, we

make fascinating discoveries of who we really are and what
fulfills us.”
Freeman took Bretz under his wing, mentoring him as a distance runner.
He taught Bretz about two types of sports competitors. One stays in the
present, pays attention to the work and maintains the motivation to
improve and prevail. The other constantly worries about performing
poorly and, as a result, often fails. Having motivation to not lose is never
effective, but having motivation to win is. Freeman advised Bretz

to focus always on success, not failure.
Magic can happen when you relinquish control and rely on intuition.

As the two men got to know each other, Freeman cautioned Bretz that he
was much too programmed as a long-distance runner and as a person.
He advised Bretz to stop trying to figure everything out and to start
relying on his intuition.Freeman counseled Bretz to set up practice
sessions that amounted to mystery runs by letting a friend pick
a running route without telling Bretz anything about it in advance.
Freeman pushed Bretz just to run after this friend and follow his
lead. This meant that in training, Bretz would have to stick with the pace
and the plan of another runner who would be in charge of the session.
Bretz wouldn’t know when the pace would pick up, when it would
slacken, how long the run would take or what course it would follow.
“If we want to be surprised by life, we need to surprise

ourselves.”
For a highly programmed athlete like Bretz, who always planned his
races carefully and paced himself according to the distance he wanted to
cover, this would be tortuous. He would have to put all of his planning
and rationality aside, and depend instead on trust and on taking the
world as it came, spontaneously. Bretz would have to stay completely in
the moment for the entire run, no matter how long it might turn out to
be.
For his mystery-run training, Bretz recruited Corey, a good friend and a
fast runner. Bretz lives in suburban Melbourne, Australia, and whenever
he ran in his neighborhood, he’d always turn left out of his yard. This
was pure force of habit. However, when Corey began to run with Bretz,
for some reason, leaving Bretz’s yard, he always turned right. Following
Corey, Bretz did the same and – against his conditioning – turned right.
On these turning-right mystery runs, everything changed for Bretz, in his
running, and in his life.
Since Bretz could no longer plan his runs, he had to adapt and let his
intuition – and not his rational mind – take over. As Bretz put it, he
learned to focus on the job in front of him. He let the experience reel out,
feeling almost like an onlooker.
This made all the difference for Bretz, as his mentor Freeman knew it
would. Once and for all, Bretz let go as a runner. He turned off his
mind and, with it, all of his fears and worries about failure. He ran
absorbed in running itself – not overriding his body with predetermined
structures – letting instinct replace calculation, and pursuing an
unplanned plan to let loose and go.
“When I stayed present, I felt time slow down. With my still

mind, I could deal with what was happening in the moment.
Despite not having control, I felt much more in charge.”
By utilizing Freeman’s strategy, which became Bretz’s signature

“turning-right” approach, he transformed himself from a casual
marathoner into one of the world’s most elite ultramarathon runners.
Meditation, which Bretz mastered over time, also proved extremely
helpful in his ascent to advanced status among marathon runners.
Bretz’s enlightened mind-set helped him graduate from marathons

to ultramarathons.
Armed with a powerful, new mind-set, increased awareness and insight,

Bretz distinguished himself as an elite long-distance athlete in some of
the world’s most challenging ultramarathon events. These included the
Big Red Run, a 250-kilometer race – around 155 miles, or, as Bretz puts
it, like a “regional bus trip”– in Australia’s outback, going through the
Simpson Desert. The thought of running this demanding ultramarathon
race initially intimidated Bretz, but he won the grueling event, his most
punishing by far. He beat the previous winning record by more than five
hours.
“It was striking how well my intuition knew what best to do.
One of the biggest shifts in my perspective had been to let go
of preconceived expectations of how I should feel and
perform. Judgments…were more and more replaced by the
acknowledgement that life, my life and the lives of others,
was more nuanced than black and white.”
Bretz also participated in Delirious WEST, a 350-kilometer (217-mile)

ultramarathon along the Bibbulmun Track, a long-distance trail in
Western Australia. He finished in second place, completing the
punishing course in 68.52 hours.
In 2019, Bretz became a new member of the Emus, the Australian

national team of 24-hour runners. As a team member, he participated in
the 24-Hour World Championship Race in Albi, France. He finished as
the 11th male runner. During his run, Bretz covered
259.67 kilometers (161 miles).
To live large, break free of your mental chains. Try a new plan.
Are you tired of doing things in a small way? Are you fed up with
proceeding down the same worn path? How about trying something
entirely new, even if it is scary? Would you rather live large than live
small?
Ask yourself some additional pertinent questions: Does your internal

accounting ever total up the high costs of selling yourself short? What
about the rewards you could earn with a bolder approach? Would such
an approach enable you to achieve your long-held dreams?
“By raising your consciousness, you can become better

equipped to deal with what’s thrown at you.”
Many people are afraid to abandon the status quo, even though stepping
out of their old boundaries would expand their possibilities.
Unfortunately, they are just to0 frightened, even when they know that
autopilot will never take them to the heights. Ask if you are in a self-
imposed box, and if you are ready to break out of it? If so, turn right, into
the light. Be courageous and live the life you were always meant to live.
Turning right demands self-examination.

Bretz’s turning right approach to self-improvement calls for mental
training to get you where you want to go. Turning right is all about self-
reflectionand enhancing your intuitive powers. The turning right mind-
set calls for being positive and avoiding any negative self-talk.
Obviously, such a mind-over-matter approach demands self-

examinati0n and self-discovery. But it will help you progress from good
to great.
“We all come to a point where playing small no longer

satisfies us, and where the familiar path isn’t any easier
than taking a scary turn into unknown territory.”
As part of your self-reflection, ask these questions. Answer honestly and

objectively. Be willing to travel where the answers lead you.
Your dreams exist outside your comfort zone. What are they?

Are you ready to step beyond your comfort zone and try something
new?
What values guide your life?
What is the most significant challenge in your life right now?
What are you doing to meet this challenge?
Did you ever “turn right” before? What happened?
Do you ever run away from your fears?
How would your life be different if you had no fear and no constraints
on how you think and what you do?
Life throws many curveballs. How have you handled the curveballs?
When did you succeed? Why were you successful at those times, but
not others?
If you were someone else – someone more successful – how would
things be different for you?
Everybody fails at one time or another. How does failure affect your
state of mind or feelings about the future?
Do you deal successfully with trouble, turmoil or pain?
Many people give themselves sustaining energy and power by going
outside and spending time in nature. Do you? If not, why not?
What attitudes, assumptions and beliefs prevent you from moving
ahead or help you move ahead?
About the Author

Corporate leader, athlete and explorer Kay Bretz is an associate
principal at McKinsey & Company. In 2020, Bretz established Turning
Right, a consultancy that works with individuals and organizations.
This document is restricted to the personal use of Ruhi Shohel (ruhi.haji.md@gmail.com)
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12/26/22, 11:53 AM Turning Right Free Summary by Kay Bretz

BUY BOOK OR AUDIOBOOK

Read or listen offline

Editorial Rating  Qualities 

Bretz admired the brave, imaginative boy and his mind-over-matter

“There are so many things in the world that we can’t

Realizing that he had the power to transform himself, Bretz asked what

Using the conventional attributes of hard work, focus and discipline,

But he wanted more. He vowed to reignite the transformative power of

Bretz’s mind-set enabled him to achieve great things.

Psychologist Gavin Freeman claims people either have motivation to

“Deep inside, we know that when we challenge ourselves, we

effective, but having motivation to win is. Freeman advised Bretz

Magic can happen when you relinquish control and rely on intuition.

“If we want to be surprised by life, we need to surprise

“When I stayed present, I felt time slow down. With my still

By utilizing Freeman’s strategy, which became Bretz’s signature

Bretz’s enlightened mind-set helped him graduate from marathons

Armed with a powerful, new mind-set, increased awareness and insight,

Bretz also participated in Delirious WEST, a 350-kilometer (217-mile)

In 2019, Bretz became a new member of the Emus, the Australian

To live large, break free of your mental chains. Try a new plan.

Ask yourself some additional pertinent questions: Does your internal

“By raising your consciousness, you can become better

Turning right demands self-examination.

Obviously, such a mind-over-matter approach demands self-

“We all come to a point where playing small no longer

As part of your self-reflection, ask these questions. Answer honestly and

Your dreams exist outside your comfort zone. What are they?

About the Author

Did you like this summary?

Is this knowledge worth sharing?

Comment on this summary

More on this topic

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How to Be Successful in Business

Resilience Lessons from Sports

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