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At the end of the day, it's not about what
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you have or even what you've accomplished. It's about what
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you've done with those accomplishments. It's about who you've lifted at,
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who you've made better. It's about what you've given back.
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Denzel Washington, Welcome to Inspire Vision. Our sole purpose is
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to elevate the lives of others and to inspire you
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to do the same.
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Derek Johnson, Hey, thanks so much for being on the show.
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Thanks for having me, Doctor doug Hey, I really appreciate it.
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You know, this is going to be interesting because it's
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like you really focus on physical fitness and those type
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of things, and yet we're going to talk about that,
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but all sorts of other aspects to that. So what
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I'd love for you to do is to share with
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the audience who you are and how you came to
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this point in your life that you're doing what you're
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doing and helping make a difference in other people's lives.
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Yes, for sure, I appreciate it. Number One, I'm excited
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to be here. So my name is Darik Johnson. I'm
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a US Army veteran termed life coach. So essentially what
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I do nowadays. I help people break old patterns so
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they could thrive, not just survive. So if there are
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certain childhood traumas that they have and they haven't gotten over,
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if there are certain vices that are controlling them, whether
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those things are drugs and alcohol, it's start struggling with food,
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bad relationship with food, or any other negative emotion or
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past experience. I help them pinpoint what that thing is
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and what their patterns are that are holding them back.
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Because some people they crush it in one or two
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areas of their life, but other areas they kind of
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push it into the closet or slider it under the
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road and they're like, I'll get around to it. I'll
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get around to it. We pull those things out and
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then we work on it. So I have the fitness
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aspect and then the mental aspects, so we combine both
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get them in better physical condition and most importantly, help
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them and guide them to get over past traumas so
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they can feel like they're free again and they can
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fully breathe, so they're not carrying this quote unquote baggage
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with them into every single thing that they do, which
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can hold them back. So that's essentially what I do now,
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and just quick backstory on it. I grew up my
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father was US Army for twenty plus years, so he
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had the drill sergeant mentality, and he's also a farm boy,
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so that work ethic is in my bloodline. On my
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dad's side, a farm boy turned army, and my mother
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she's German, so my mother has been a kindergarten teacher
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for forty five years, So I had the teacher mom.
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I had the drill sergeant father, so that mentality was
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always instilled in me. But both of my parents they
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grew up very poor and then they became successful, and
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with their upbringing they saw a lot of violence, traumas,
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very dark times, and they had to be the parent
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for their brothers and sisters and cousins, nieces and nephews
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because they were the oldest. So they went into the
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workfield at thirteen fourteen years old and were just taking
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care of family and all that while their mothers were working.
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And so with that, they got into careers early, and
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they did not have the opportunity to do deep inner
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work of life coaching or therapy or senor psychologists and
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things of that nature. So they went all in on
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careers and serving others and making a positive impact in
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the world. But because they neglected themselves at night, they
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would start to drink more So in middle school when
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I was eleven, I noticed that between the hours of
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nine pm to one am, they would consume more alcohol
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after the cookouts, after they get togethers, and then their son,
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being the youngest, I became the physical, verbal, emotional punching bag.
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But I knew that it had nothing to do with me.
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So I was dealing with that from an age of
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eleven to seventeen, and then just at home a lot
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of abuse and then in school and I just said
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enough is enough. And so fitness was my step one
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into personal development. So I had to change that insecure
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scared timid boy into a man, and fitness was my
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inlet changing the physique. And then I was inspired to
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help others. And so with the upbringing of that, we
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have the support. We had the discipline in the home,
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but I love you and the love and affection that
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was non existent. The home was ran like a machine,
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which I mean it did help, but on the other side,
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there's things that are lacking. But it all made me
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who I am. So because I was that insecure child,
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just getting literally beat up at home and at schooled
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and bullied. I had to change my physique, which made
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me calmer. I worked on my faith, and then I
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really wanted to help elevate other people, and so I
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did ten years in the US Army and I've been
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a personal trainer since i was fifteen. I'm thirty four,
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so I've had a lot of experience working with hundreds
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of different body types, different modalities. But what inspires me
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the most is just to help people overcome the past.
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Anyone can follow a nutrition plan or workout plan with
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the right guidance and discipline, anyone can do that, but
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can we thrive long term because we're over something that
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happened from the past, we're not giving up our power.
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So that's my favorite thing to do, is to see
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that fulfillment in somebody's eye where their past doesn't find
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who they are and they say, you know what, that
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was part of my comeback story, and then they can
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help serve brothers. But there's a quick synopsis, Yeah.
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There you go. Well, and you know what I find interesting,
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Just as a side note, as I have interviewed others,
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what I find is that it's fascinating how physical fitness
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can help to alleviate some of those negativity emotions that
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exists within as subconsciously and actually and literally. By consciously
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and being mindful of those situations, physical fitness helps to
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overcome that and displace it to a point where it
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isn't affectingness anymore. So I'm really excited to talk about that,
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you know from your experience and how that works. Were
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there any other than what you've just shared, which I
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think is just fascinating. Were there any other defining moments
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where you said to yourself, you know what I'm going
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to do, what I'm going to do to make a
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difference in other people's lives or was it just kind
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of a gradual thing as you finished your service in
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the army and moved forward.
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It was, honestly a gradual thing. When I was a
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teenager because of I lived in Germany as a child,
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and when Europeans moved to America, one of the first
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things we do we always watch a ton of American
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high school movies and we wonder, is it really like that?
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The jock, the bully, the cheerleaders, all the stuff, And
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we're genue securious, is it like that, or is that's
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just in the TV shows, in the movies. So we
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moved to America and one hundred percent it's real. So
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I was getting pushed into the toilet, I was getting
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beat up, pushing to the locker, and just I was
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just it was a culture shock because in Germany I
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was living on a military base and I was going
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to German schools as well, and it was all organized
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and strategic, and came to America and it was just
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like a lot of energy, so I had to change
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really quick. And so honestly, it was just I got
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tired of being bullied by every single person in public
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and at home, and I got tired of not having
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control of my environment. So I made a promise and
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a pact with myself and said, from here on out,
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nobody else will have power over me. And so I
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didn't get into fitness to beat up anybody or to
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be violent, but I just said, I need to elevate
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myself because I had a lot of fears. I had
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a stuttering issue. I did not have any public speaking skills.
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I was always nervous. I didn't know who I was.
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So I had to create the man that I wanted
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to become. So I made that pact with myself and said,
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from here on out, nobody's going to have power over me.
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I'm going to control the situation and not give people
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the response that they expect. So family, they could expect
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you to be angry or sad, the bully at school
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expects you to be aggressive. So I said, you know what,
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let me just play chess with my words. And I
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would just play this game in my head to say,
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don't give them what they expect. Don't give them what
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they expect. And so I had to start early. But
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it's because of all the things that were happening. I
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just got sick and tired of getting beat up all
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the time. So I just had to stand up for myself.
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And once I did that, I I started helping people
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because people asked me, were like, hey, who are you?
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Did you go into it like a hyperbolic chamber. You
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used to be that shy kid in the class. Now
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you're in shape, you look like Captain America. You're really calm,
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you're really confident, you speak well. It like what happened
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in these two years. And then I told them I
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was like, you want to learn how? And then I
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started teaching people. So it was honestly just by time
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being scared for so long, I just got tired of
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feeling that way, so I said enough is enough. I
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made the change for myself, which then motivated me to
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help change and elevate others.
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Okay, so let's let's talk about that pain that you experienced.
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And obviously we all experienced some type of pain, suffering,
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whatever terminology you want to use. I like the concept
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of suffering, particularly because I'm here in Thailand, and I
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love that Buddha talks about that. But yes, but the
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reality is is that we all have subconsciously in our memory,
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in our brain that level of pain, fear, suffering that
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then comes out in the reality of what we experience
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in life. And you, as you shared with your story
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just a while ago, that's part of what you experienced
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as a child. So my question for you is, what
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did you do? How did you turn that pain suffering
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into a positive fuel based situation that allowed you then
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to make decisions, conscious decisions that put you in an
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entirely different modality.
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Great question. So one of the big things that I
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did is I legitimately got obsessed with comeback stories, learning
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people's comeback stories, athletes, designers, artists, parents, just anyone that
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was crushing it in their field. I loved learning their backstory.
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How did he become the way he is? Why is
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she so good at that? Why do they have this
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quote unquote killer instinct to just dominate their path and
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overcome any traumas. And so learning all these different stories,
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I saw many similarities, and I said, I can relate
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to him because of the upbringing or his relationship with
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his mother. I can relate to them because this happened
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in schooling. And I would just see myself and other
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successful people, and then I would just tell myself on
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autopilot and my subconscience, this is happening for me. This
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is part of my comeback story. This is happening for me.
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This is part of my comeback story. So I just
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ran that narrative in my head. So anything that would
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happen in life to me or around me, I just said,
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challenge accepted. Anytime something would happen, I'd literally say it
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out loud, challenge accepted. This is happening right now, and
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I feel this way, this is real. The challenge accepted.
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The only way to it is through it and so
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I just had that mentality and just kept pushing. But
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it was because I immersed myself in people's comeback stories,
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whether those were books, movies, music, and I just really
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fell in love with that because I would see everyone
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that's at a high level in life, they have skills
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and confidence that they earned because they pushed through dark times, traumas,
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pain and all that. And so that's one huge thing
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that helped me in my teenage years was just learning
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these stories. So I was never one to complain. Nobody
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ever knew anything really that I was going through because
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I knew ten people that had it way worse. I
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had both parents, Yes they were drunks, but at least
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I had both parents, and we lived in a beautiful
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house in Florida. So I was like, I can't complain.
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We have a swimming pool, I have food and air
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condition in Florida. Yes, I get my ass beat at
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night because they're drunk, but I can't much because somebody
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else has it worse. So I would always just look
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at perspective, so I would never bash anyone or complain.
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So learning people's stories helped me a ton because I
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saw myself and others.
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Okay, and you know what's fascinating about that is that
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you know, as I've really studied this interviewed, is so
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many people that I have had the opportunity to. In
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my mind, what you're really talking about is what I
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would term mindfulness and true consciousness to where you are
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observing those things coming up. You know, whatever situation or
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event occurs that brings up those emotions. If I'm understanding
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what you're saying, is you you observe that, you accept
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that as real, and then you take the steps to
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do something that is going to move that aside so