What If Your Hardest Season Is Preparing You for Something Greater?

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Yoga Nation, the Spirit of Gratitude podcast on the OneTech Nation platform. Hello, friends. My name is Yorgesh Patel, and this podcast explores the themes of building self-awareness and the power of our inner spirit, including the silent battles we all face. Join me every week as I invite high-profile guests as we explore how adversity shapes us, how gratitude lifts us, and how we can all uncover the inner strength that we all have within ourselves. Join the conversation. I appreciate you listening in.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

And my next guest, Shay SQ, was burned at the age of seven, leaving scars for over 65% of his body. But that did not stop his spirit. He became one of the most extraordinary endurance athletes in the world, competing in Iron Man World Championships, running seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. And he wrote about this journey authoring the bestseller, The Fire Within, how life's worst helped me achieve my best. And it is that fire that reminds all of us we can do hard things. And by sharing his story today, Shay hopes to help those struggling to realize the greatest tragedies are often our greatest blessings if we have enough faith to stay the course. And it's about what happens when pain becomes preparation. When bullying and physical suffering don't destroy your spirit, they sharpen it. And today we talk about endurance, joyful suffering, and why gratitude isn't always soft or pretty. And with gratitude, welcome to the podcast, Shay.

SPEAKER_02 1:33

Thank you, Ogre. It's a pleasure to be here with you guys today.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Oh, thank you. Uh, it's my honor and pleasure.

The Accident That Changed Everything

SPEAKER_01 1:39

So, Shay, could you tell us what happened that fateful day when you were a kid?

SPEAKER_02 1:43

August 4th, 1982, summers getting ready to start the third grade. My mom had asked me to warn my neighbors about an aggressive yellow jacket's nest. The previous day, this nest had swarmed my entire bicycle. So I recruited my best friend. We walked across the street, we knocked on the door, the dad's not home, but the 15-year-old daughter is. As I started telling her about the yellow jacket's nest, she asked if we would show her where the nest is in the yard and asked if we would help her. And I preface this by saying I had the most conservative, risk-averse parents we ever met. If there was any chance of me getting hurt doing anything, was never allowed to do it. Couldn't go to spend night parties, couldn't be around smokers, couldn't jump on trampolines, you name it. And so we walk over the nest and I show her the nest in the ground. She said, Hey, I need you guys to stand here. So we're standing like 15 feet away from the nest. She walks up with a match, throws it on the nest, and we all know a match in and of itself does nothing. So my buddy and I are standing there, we're watching these yellow jackets fly in and out of the nest. And without saying a word, she's standing behind us with a cup of gasoline. She pitches it, hits me on the right side of my shoulder, my face hits my buddy on his left side, hits that spark of a match, and with an instant we're engulfed in flames, head to toe. I was fearful the bees were going to come after us, so I ran into my yard next door, stopped, dropped, and rolled, put my fire out, and I looked over and I see my buddy screaming, engulfed in flames. So I ran back across the street, grabbed a water hose, and put him out. And just stood there alternating the water hose over the top of our head. And it's one of those things that people I say, you know, what does it feel like? And I said, I don't think words can describe the amount of pain we were in. Our body was black and charred, skin's melted, your clothes were coming off of you. I remember touching my head, all of my hair came out of my hand. And you were thinking, oh my gosh, what just happened? What is this new reality, right? And so that was it. Um spent the next three months in the hospital from there. I've had 43 surgeries today trying to reclaim my life as an athlete.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Did you ever ask yourself why me?

SPEAKER_02 3:57

I think it's natural for most people to ask yourself, why me? But over time you start asking yourself, why not me? Yoga, I remember sitting in that hospital room. I'm surrounded by all these kids, same condition, if not worse. I still remember this little four-year-old girl severely burned with a lighter that blew up in her face, little nubs for fingers, no nose, just two holes for nose. Her chin was melted to her chest. Every day I'd look over, she's smiling. And I'm telling myself, if she can smile after everything she's been through, what am I complaining about? Right? And that's one of the things that's always served me well in life is no matter what I'm going through, reflect on those people who are much worse than me, and they would pray to have the pain I'm going through. Right? This would be an increase in their quality of life to deal what I'm going through. And just to give an example, for instance, we got five kids, five amazing healthy kids. But much like any parent, there are times where you reach your breaking point, like, oh my gosh, you guys are driving me crazy. But it's in that moment of chaos you say, look, what about those parents who never who lost a kid? What about those couples who can never have a kid? They would give anything to have five bratty kids. And so those are things you just have to remind yourself that all these um inconveniences or uncomfortable situations or blessings, it's all based on the perspective in which we look at it.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

Yeah, and a lot of it is awareness, right? I mean, taking that deep reflection, and again, it takes probably a little bit of courage and just mindfulness to know that, hey, you have it better. Um, I mean, even for me, speaking from experience, after I was gonna lose the left eye because of an infection that had spread in the back, um, you know, I happened to see this burned victim uh coincidentally, who shared a picture when she was a cute little girl at six years of age, and how that fire when she was that young and she's now as an adult being 30 years old, having a husband and a beautiful daughter, you know, it's like, okay, who am I to complain? It's like considering the conversation I had with this person. I mean, of course, you know, the fire at the time kind of uh affected her mentally, but nonetheless, I'm like, who am I? And I think that once your relationship, once your awareness to pain, uh you you accept it, that's I think when that you reframe that that pain uh that pain. I don't know, did you did you ever feel that?

Living With Pain And Perspective

SPEAKER_02 6:41

Yes and no. It's one of those you start realizing for me, I've been in some state of pain for the last 44 years. There is not a single day that I've woken up during those years where I was in some kind of pain waking up. It's different levels of pain, right? And so what you learn to appreciate is the pain I'm experiencing means I'm alive. I had the joy of waking up today. I had the joy of doing what I want to do, push myself to the limit. The pain is a reminder that I'm not restricted, right? And that's what I'm fearful of. So when that pain goes away, maybe that means that my true living is gone. I'm not living, I'm just existing. And so I always feel like pain is a reminder, we have the joy of doing the things that we want to do.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

I, you know, I never that's a revelation because normally you seek to avoid pain to enjoy your quality of life.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

You know, some people say that, but when you start asking them, tell me about the most memorable experience in your life, I guarantee you there was pain as part of that experience, right? It's those times where we didn't think we could pay the rent. We were working 70 hours a week to get ahead at our job. Those are the things that we remember. It wasn't when something just fell in our lab. So why is it if we acknowledge that pain contributed to some of our most memorable experiences, we go to great lengths to avoid it. If we recognize pain is correlated to opportunity, shouldn't we seek it out?

SPEAKER_01 8:20

Wow, that's that's deep. Because, you know, the the question I wanted to ask, Shay, in regards to this topic was around, you know, embracing hard things. And I guess maybe perhaps ask answering it in a different way. Why do the most meaningful things in life almost require some form of suffering first?

SPEAKER_02 8:44

Yeah, I think it's to weed the people out that aren't willing to put in the hard work. You know, I'm a big believer of life is fair. People love to say it's not fair, and I think it is fair. Um, some people are granted natural gifts from birth, but when times get hard, those natural gifts go by the wayside. And it's when the people like me that are less gifted naturally are willing to do the hard things to get ahead to create those opportunities. Um I'm just a big believer that pain is a correlation to opportunity, and you learn that if you focus on that, there's a lot of opportunities in life because most people seek to avoid it. So when there's challenging opportunities ahead, people run away from it. If you run towards it, you've reduced the amount of people competing for this opportunity.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

Yeah, and I guess from my perspective, the pain isn't just physical, right? For some it could be emotional, you know, for some it could be mental. Does it is there a difference in those sort in those forms of pain compared to the physical?

SPEAKER_02 9:51

And again, and I'm also a big believer we should never try to compare pains. We all experience pain on different levels. I can tell you when I was cheating in the hospital, they amputated most of my ear while I was awake with no medicine. The strongest thing I got in the hospital was extra-strength tolanol. People say that must have been horrible. I said, well, yes, at ate, it was kind of painful, but I have an amazing pain tolerance and I don't have an addiction to narcotics or pain meds as a result of it, right? And so what I realized pain is temporary. Most of the times when we're going through something hard, if you're willing just to keep pushing forward, the pain will go away, or you become numb to it, you just don't even feel it anymore. That becomes your new normal.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

That's that's very true. I mean, even with my eyes, uh, the left eye is a very more dominant vision perspective than the right. I've learned to accept the right eye for what it is, and I move on. It hardens me to become a better person and it reminds myself of the gifts that I still do have, so that I focus less on, well, I can't see out of my right eye, then it's like, hey, I still have the gift of vision. So yeah, well, it's it's it's it's incredible, Shay, because I mean I think we're we're uh we're on the same wavelength there. And kind of going back a step a few minutes ago, when you hear people, and I'll say this really politely, make excuses for why they can't change, they can't start, or can't endorse something hard, what goes through your mind knowing what you've had to overcome?

SPEAKER_02 11:30

Well, I try to be sympathetic, but I'm also a realist, and so I tell them, you do realize those are excuses. And I said, look.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

How do they take it?

SPEAKER_02 11:42

I mean, sometimes they get pissed off, but they also, if they know me, they know what to expect because I'll then give them three or four different people I know personally that are going through the same, if not worse, right? And I say, look, if you're generally focused on how to get through this, I'll help you. We'll map out a plan to get through it. But if you're content just making excuses, please don't bother me with your excuses. There's enough of those going around in life.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

Yeah, and that's you know, that actually was my next question. That is, how do you help them find that perspective without dismissing their pain? So you just told me that you know you've you share five or six other folks that have gone through the same thing. Anything else?

SPEAKER_02 12:23

Well, I'm also willing to connect them to those people and say, hey, look, look, you know, we're all are dealing with something, right? I don't, everybody's got some kind of issue they're dealing with. Some are just better at hiding it, right? It doesn't mean they don't have problems in their life. But sometimes it does help talking to somebody else who's been through it. But I'm also a big believer in reading books about adversity because I believe the more that we read about this stuff, we are programming our brain that when something bad happens, our default reaction is not to panic and say, Poor me. Our default reaction is say, hey, I read about Ernest Shackleton going through this. I can do this. Here's what I need to do. And that's the key. It's just programming your brain that adversity is normal, it's not an anomaly. We just need to take a step back, think about our next step, and then move forward.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

And Shackleton, for those, uh, he was the explorer that went to the South Pole, if I'm not mistaken.

SPEAKER_02 13:23

100%. He is one of my hero's greatest adventurer in the history of the world, right? Here's a guy that spent two years stuck in Antarctica. I think it was like 1917, 1918. I mean, imagine that, right? Two years. No cell phones, no MRDs, and he got everybody and his crew home safe. And his biggest thing that he did was keeping everybody busy, keeping the brain focused on getting through today and living to the tomorrow.

Endurance Mindset And Daily Habits

SPEAKER_01 13:56

Is that running? Does that what running does to you personally?

SPEAKER_02 13:59

It does. Um, you know, I'm a big believer. I tell everybody. I was told 18 years ago I'd never run again. I was recommended a double knee replacement at 34. I get knee injections every six months, I get PRP once a year, I've had stem cells. I mean, as long as I'm running, I'm not in pain. The endorphins keep me going. And I think that's true with all things in life. It's when you sit still and feel sorry for yourself that things start to sink in. But as long as you're moving and moving forward, your brain naturally starts focusing on what's next? What else can I do? You know, that's one of the things when people say, I can never do an Iron Man. And I said, Really? What about tomorrow? If we met, could you run walk for 30 minutes? We're not judging on speed, could you run slash walk for 30 minutes? We're like, yeah. And I said, what if we met the next day? Could you ride a bike for 45 minutes? Pedal, coast, pedal, coast, 45 minutes. And I was like, of course. I said, well, guess what? 30 weeks of that progressive building, you would be an Iron Man. And that's so true with everything else in life. You just got to start. Right? You can't get so hung up on where you want to be six months, a year, two years from now. Just focus on what do I need to do today to get started? And then tomorrow, what do I need to do the next day? When you start stacking those daily habits, you're living a life you never thought was possible.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

Well, indulge me here for a second, because I mean I certainly have all the respect for these uh these triathletes like yourself. And, you know, again, when you're on mile 14 on the final run at the Iron Man in Kona, Hawaii, after the 2.2 mile swim, the 112 miles of biking. To me, at least I would think that my body is waiting for me to stop and screaming to stop. And what keeps you going? Is it your mind or your heart?

SPEAKER_02 15:58

It's both. So, number one, I make a commitment to my family, I will never quit. Literally, you're gonna have to drag me off that course. I've done a hundred plus races, knock on wood. I have never not finished. I've ran barefoot six miles, pushing my bike to get through. And so I will do whatever it takes to always finish. But every time I start a run, I'm not running 26 miles. I'm just running one mile 26 times. And so I'm just doing it bite size. So I said, hey, you just got to run one mile. And I get to the next mile, run one more. Before you know it, you're staying at the finish line. And that's the key with everything in life. Just for instance, we've got five kids. I talked about that, right? I've got a 12, 14, 16, 18, 20. If somebody were to tell me 20 years ago how challenging it would be to raise five kids, I'd never do it. It scared me to death. But once you're in it, there's no quitting. You say, you know what? I don't know how we're going to do it. But we're not quitting. Let's just get through today. Let's get through this week. And before you know it, you got five kids, hopefully graduating high school and in college and making a life for themselves.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

I think a lot of that though is faith, though, right? And what you believe and how you project that energy onto others.

SPEAKER_02 17:20

Faith is a huge component of our life. You know, it has been since I was born. It's I believe the adversity I'm experiencing, God is preparing me for something bigger. I'm a believer that He never gives us more than we can handle. It doesn't mean that we see His plan right away and we're like, oh, I get it. I've got this. But what it does mean, if I commit to just never quitting, God will give me the strength to get through it.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

And along the way, from what you just said regarding faith and and and God and a higher power, what is your definition of gratitude?

SPEAKER_02 17:56

I think gratitude is just being able to have the ability to make decisions for myself every single day and knowing that I had the strength to get through anything. I mean, truly, everything that we experienced, you need to be grateful for. It could always be worse, right? Just like when I was laying in that ICU room for three weeks, everything I did, I did lying flat on my back. You couldn't sit up to eat, go to the bathroom, anything. Watch TV, you watch TV with a mirror. But then I look over at the kid next to me that's missing two legs. I'm like, this ain't so bad. I can get through these three weeks, right?

Faith, Gratitude, And Shriners

SPEAKER_01 18:33

Shriners played a uh a huge role in your recovery.

SPEAKER_02 18:37

Huge role. And so when I was set a fire, we found out we had no insurance. My father's employer had canceled insurance on dependents. The girl who set us on fire, her homeowner's insurance denied liability. The estimated initial cost was $2 million. Right. And so they raised money in the community we lived in, Atlanta, just to pay our first week of medical bills. The Shriners heard about us and relocated my mother and I from Atlanta to Cincinnati. They treated me from eight to 21. I can't even imagine the millions of dollars they invested in me.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

That's incredible. I mean, uh, how do you give back when this organization has literally changed your life?

SPEAKER_02 19:21

I speak at their events, right? I share the good work they've done for me, and I speak, you know, I've spoken at their um what do they call it, burn conferences. But also I speak to other burn kids quite often. You know, I get a lot of calls from friends. Hey, would you mind speaking to this kid and kind of sharing your experience with him? Because when I was burned, and this is 44 years ago, I didn't know anybody else had been burned. I didn't know anybody else that had been burned, much less had competed at a high level in sports. You know, they told me I never play sports again, right? And so for me to be able to share with this kids, hey, look, here's the life that I have, here's everything I went through. If I can do it, you can do it. It all comes down to how much do you want it? And so I think that's the key with everybody in life. It's just giving them that hope that there is better out there if you're willing to put in the work.

Family, Presence, And Purpose

SPEAKER_01 20:20

Well, let's take this a step further then, Shay. I mean, your story is obviously about resilience. And what I'm curious to know about the quieter side of things. And what I mean by that is after everything that you've been through, the successes, the achievements, how do you personally recognize when you're drifting away from clarity or peace within your own life?

SPEAKER_02 20:41

With regards to how do you recognize it, I think you're just looking for things that happen in your daily life, right? Do you find yourself frustrated with the small things, right? For instance, with these five kids, I mean, I've got three in travel soccer, one traveling for wrestling. I mean, it's a lot to juggle all this.

SPEAKER_01 21:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:00

And you just have to keep reminding yourself these frustrations, your inability to be in four places at one time, these are all blessings. And so you just have to keep asking yourself, am I doing the right thing? And am I focused on the right things? Because one of the things I've realized is it doesn't matter how successful I am, if I'm standing there alone and there's nobody with me that I care about and love, then I focused on the wrong things. And I've seen so many people claim they're successful in life and they're all alone, they're miserable. For me, I'm willing to forego those things to make sure I'm spending the quality time with my wife and kids.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Is that just beyond purpose or is there something else? Your purpose in life. I mean, with everything that makes you you and unique in terms of your families, the slowing down, the relationships, forgiveness in the past, perhaps any doubt that creeps in. I doubt no pun intention. And I really doubt that that's an issue for you.

SPEAKER_02 22:02

I mean, purpose is obviously a big part for everybody, but purpose can't be everything. Purpose won't always make you happy or feel like you're satisfied, right? And so those are the things like I enjoy being outdoors in nature. And so there's nothing about purpose that deals with me experiencing mother nature. And so I love to go experience anything outdoors. Like we're heading to Alaska in a week. And for me, that's what brings me happiness, is just being to revel in the beauty of mother nature and take it in and unplug and be there with my family and share that experience with them.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

Yeah. It looks like a lot of that is staying present and not necessarily worrying about the past or the future, but just being for the sake of being.

SPEAKER_02 22:52

I do my best. I won't say I'm always the best at staying present. I definitely don't look at the past. I mean, to me, the past has no bearing. What happens, happens. But I do think you have to always keep an eye on the future. We have to make plans. We've got to have goals to get us to where we want to be. But it's also to maximize the moment today because we're never guaranteed tomorrow. And I can tell you, I know many people that talked about, well, once I retire, here's all these great things I'm going to do. And I'm like, you don't know you're going to live to be that age. So don't put off all these amazing things, waiting until you're 65 years old, start today. And so I'm a believer, there's certain things that I just do it. And I figure out how to make it happen along the way.

SPEAKER_01 23:43

And for the person that's listening, I would say in the quiet corner of their room, right? I mean, they're listening to you, but perhaps they may not have internalized the message. And I guess that's a part of, you know, I think what could really, what really transforms people is when it hits their

Joyful Suffering And Big Commitments

SPEAKER_01 23:59

soul. And so, you know, part of that I think you mentioned is this phrase of called joyful suffering. Um what do you mean? Is that just you know, just appreciating the journey from to get from point A to point B? Or is that something else? I think that's a big part of it.

SPEAKER_02 24:17

I also think it's a big part of accepting the uncertainty that comes with doing big things where you don't know the final outcome. For instance, I was approached worry. I'm sorry? Without worry. Correct. You just have to trust you're gonna do the hard work to get through it, however uncomfortable it may be. But give you an example, three years ago, I was approached by Navy SEAL. He said, Shay, I need to know, can I count on you? Are you in or out? I said, What am I committing to? He goes, Nope. I need to know, are you in or are you out? I said, All right, bird man, I'm in. What did I just commit to? He goes, Well, we're gonna either skydive or base chunk, we're gonna run a marathon, then do a plunge, seven continents, seven days. And I was like, oh my gosh, what did I just commit to? I mean, it scared me to death to think about it. But then I said, you know what? Just trust, do the work, and don't get too wrapped around the poll about what you're gonna have to do one year from now. And true to form, it happened. We did it, right? Like, how many people can say they skydived over the pyramids in Egypt, then ran a marathon beside them? Not many. And there's nothing special about me other than when people present these kind of opportunities. I just say yes. I don't try to think about everything that can go wrong. I just think about what an amazing experience. Man, I am so lucky that somebody's trusting me to be part of this experience.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

How do you shift that mindset in a person, right? I because you know I'm warming up to the idea because I can certainly see, you know, mental blockers that I make excuses for, right? I'm again, I've got different standards than than others. But just in terms of, you know, just you know, one-to-one, right? Forget the podcast. We're the forget the we're on the Yog Nation, this Red of Gratitude podcast. And so, you know, what would your advice be to

Stretch Goals, Failure, And Coaching

SPEAKER_01 26:15

me?

SPEAKER_02 26:15

Yeah, I would tell you tomorrow, sign up for something big. Sign up for something that scares you to death. Just sign up and then tell people. Shit, what did I commit myself to?

SPEAKER_01 26:26

You're gonna hold me accountable on that, aren't you?

SPEAKER_02 26:28

Sign up for a triathlon, a marathon. Sign up for something and then tell people about it to hold you accountable, and then you gotta do the work to make it happen. But the problem is everybody wants to overthink it and figure out can I do it? What's the chance I fail? That's not the joy in it. The joy is you're gonna figure out and do whatever it takes. And again, I bring back the example of parenthood. You just gotta jump in. If people always say, I'm gonna wait till I have enough money, well, you will never have enough money. Right? You just gotta jump in and you will make enough money to make it work. That's how life works. Your brain is designed to help you do the things that you want to do. But inversely, if you're somebody that looks for excuses, your brain's gonna continually feed you excuses to support why you shouldn't do something. That's why you need to actively train it, that you can do hard things. You need to read books where other people are doing hard things, so your brain starts saying, well, you know what? Maybe it's not crazy to run seven marathons in seven days. Maybe it's not crazy to run across the Grand Canyons and back in one day. Maybe it's not crazy to go spend a week in Antarctica, right? When you start training your brain, you believe these are normal things.

SPEAKER_01 27:43

Game on, and I guess what I can do just in terms of what would be achievable and what is reachable is to get to the presidential fitness standards as I am 53, look at that chart and understand you know, how many sit-ups do I have to do in a minute, how many push-ups, how long will it take for me to run a mile? So I can uh commit to you and to the citizens that are listening to this, I'll do it. Now, the next question is is the time frame, right? Because that's another thing where things, if you don't put a concentrated timestamp, it just gets lost in uh um you you know, for you forget about it. So help me through that process, Shay.

SPEAKER_02 28:29

Well, part of assessing your current state, like I don't know what level of fitness you're in, I'm assuming pretty good, but you know in your heart how close you are to it, right? But I would set a stretch goal, again, I'm just throwing a number out, say three months, right? And then say, hey, I know with 80% certainty I could hit this, and then call that six months. Again, I'm making up numbers. But you're doing everything you can to work towards those three months, and if you don't hit it, that's okay. You know, these stretch goals are meant for you not to hit them. If you hit them, that's huge. But it's nothing to be disappointed if you don't hit them.

SPEAKER_01 29:12

Okay, let's take that a step further because there are times, personally speaking, that I've set a goal, I tried to achieve them, it falls flat, and then I become dejected. And it's like, well, you know, your shoulders are down, you're just kind of sighing. It's like, well, if I didn't do it now, I'm not gonna do it again. So again, just that negative mindset creeps in. So what would be the consequences? Because I mean, there is, you have to have some sort of, I won't say punishment, but repercussions for not committing that of something that you stated you would do, or perhaps you manifested.

SPEAKER_02 29:49

I guess we look at things differently. To me, when I'm setting a big lofty goal, I know at the outset there's not a hundred percent chance I get it, otherwise, it wouldn't be a goal, right? So my measurement is not based on do I hit or not. My measurement is did I do everything within my power to make it happen? Did I give 100% effort all the time to make it happen? If I took shortcuts, then yes, I should feel defeated because I cheated. I gave up on myself. But if I did everything within my power to make it happen and I didn't hit it, I'm happy because I know I reached my maximum potential. And then I start analyzing, I say, hey, I have somebody else look and say, is there something I missed here? Can you help me? And that's one of the things I'm a big believer you get a coach. And so when I first started racing Iron Man, I was doing everything within my power. Again, not hitting the goals, but maximizing my potential. But then when I hired a world champion as a coach, I realized there was a difference in the training methodology. And then I started hitting these very big lofty goals because somebody helped me break down what I needed to do. And that's the key. It's if you can't get there, find somebody that has the experience to help you get there, and then do whatever it takes.

SPEAKER_01 31:15

Yeah, and it said also that personal accountability to yourself and to others. That's how I look at it.

SPEAKER_02 31:22

You know, people I say, oh, I can't do this. I said, I guarantee if I said tomorrow, I'll give you a million dollars if you can do it, you'd find a way to do it. And so imagine if you started approaching things in life as I'll get a million dollars if I do it. It changes your whole mindset on what you can and can't do. Again, it all comes down to what are you willing to sacrifice and for how long?

SPEAKER_01 31:47

Beautifully

Final Lesson Embrace The Suck

SPEAKER_01 31:48

stated. Shay, this half hour has been so incredible. Um thank you for all that you've shared, your wisdom and perspective, uh, beyond just you know the aspects when you were uh a kid, but just all the life lessons, things that you've learned, faith. Um, I'll leave you with the final words, sir. Is there anything that I missed in our conversation that you'd like to share uh to the perhaps a person that's listening in the quiet corner of the room, or perhaps they're stuck in traffic listening to this podcast?

SPEAKER_02 32:20

I think you should always remind yourself when you're in your darkest suffering, know you're being prepared for something greater. You're gonna learn something about yourself that you're either scared or didn't want to learn about yourself, but know it's gonna help you overcome things in the future that prepare you for new opportunities. And there's a saying they have in the military that I've adopted over the years is called embrace the suck. What does that mean? It means life's hard, it's tough, it's challenging, it's gonna beat you down, but that's what makes it so rewarding. If it was easy and everything just came to us, it would not bring us enjoyment, right?

SPEAKER_01 33:02

You know, this is a great perspective for the parent themselves, or perhaps what a parent can teach their child this exact uh mindset and philosophy. Shay, thank you for your time. Hey, my pleasure. Enjoyed it. Thanks.