Dean Anderson

I am a learning junky. My hobbies are all things you can never master, but always get better at doing, like flyfishing, gardening, playing guitar, and wine collecting. Improving at anything is a joy to me.

I've been interested in human performance and personal development since youth - I was the fastest swimmer in the world my age at 10 and 12, I think because I was doing mental training, breath control, visualization, and other self management techniques at a very young age. No one taught me this stuff; it was just what I did. It came naturally.

I carried this passion for inner states of consciousness and performance into my academic and athletic pursuits at Stanford University (BA '75; MA '78). After graduate school, I founded and ran the Optimal Performance Institute in the Bay Area, teaching high performers the inner game of human excellence. This orientation enfuses my personal and professional life today. I am an "inner/outer" guy: always pursuing excellence on the outside by operating from the highest state I can on the inside. Hence, much of my work at Being First, Inc. is about helping people live and lead consciously so they can transform their mindset, behavior and organization's culture.

I see my purpose as helping people transform their worldviews to promote positive change in the world. I believe that my greatest contribution is to continually evolve myself and my own level of consciousness, because everything else stems from that. Walking my talk is important to me.

I love the outdoors, am inspired by its beauty and mystery, and consequently live between two wilderness ranches in Colorado. I am blessed with a beautiful family, and dear, loving friends. I am thrilled to be alive.