Mick Unplugged - Bonus Episode 11 | with Eric North - Mick Unplugged

Episode Date: June 2, 2024

Mick Hunt delves deep with Eric North, exploring his transformation into a happiness warrior. Eric discusses his approach to turning life's challenges into opportunities for growth and how he uses his experiences to inspire others to find their joy. This episode is a treasure trove of practical advice on living a happier, more fulfilled life.Eric North's Background: A transformative journey from overcoming personal challenges to becoming a happiness coach, known for his unique approach to fostering joy and well-being in others.Defining Moments: Eric shares how overcoming a dangerous and abusive relationship shaped his mission to help others find their path to happiness.Discussion Topics:Eric's philosophy on happiness is that it's a choice and a lifestyle rather than a fleeting emotion.The role of gratitude, self-acceptance, and positive affirmations in personal transformation.Insights into the impact of relationships and environment on personal happiness.Key Quotes"Focus on being your best example, being your hero.""Everyone is capable; the answers we're looking for are always within."Next Steps:Learn More: Visit Eric North's website and follow his journey on social media.Reflect: Consider how daily gratitude and positive affirmations can transform your outlook.Engage: Share how Eric's insights inspire changes in your life using #MickUnplugged. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Are you ready to change your habits, sculpt your destiny, and light up your path to greatness? Welcome to the epicenter of transformation. This is Mic Unplugged. We'll help you identify your because, so you can create a routine that's not just productive, but powerful. You'll embrace the art of evolution, adapt strategies to stay ahead of the game, and take a step toward the extraordinary. So let's unleash your potential. Now, here's Mick. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Mick Unplugged, where we go beyond the why to discover your real because. And today we have a very special guest who's dedicated his

life to the pursuit of happiness, helping others find their inner peace. He's a renowned coach, writer, and motivational speaker known for his unique approach to unlocking human potential. It is truly an honor for me to welcome a happiness warrior, my happiness warrior, Mr. Eric North to the show. Eric, welcome on board, my brother. I can barely contain myself. You're so, it's so awesome. Just hearing your words and, and, and how meaningful they are to me. I don't hear words like that all the time. So it's, I'm really appreciative because I don't always listen to people who want to

compliment me, which is a, which is something I need to work on still. There's things we all need to work on. So thank you so much. I'm honored. I am very honored to be here today. No, I am definitely the honored one in the audience that's listening and those that are watching. You're going to understand why I call Eric my happiness warrior. So, so many nuggets he's about to give us. We haven't even prepped for this call. I can promise you you're going to get nuggets in. And there's some things that I'm going to want you to do throughout this, this podcast episode today for all the listeners. There's going to be a lot that I'm going to get nuggets in. And there's some things that I'm going to want you to do throughout this podcast episode today for all the listeners. There's going to be a lot that I'm going to

want you to write down. Eric, I would love just for the audience to know a little bit about who you are and what experiences in your early life inspired you to become a happiness coach and a motivational speaker because motivational speakers we hear about, right? But a happiness coach, that's something that's unique and something that only Eric North can bring. I'd love to hear that story. I think a lot of things in our lives are passed through genetics. And I think that a lot of our traits can come through.

Some things we can fix and change, but some things are just, we can't help it. And I have, I was a kid, I was very, I was a young kid. And I was very, I was very aware of the world around me at a very young, I remember things from when I was one years old. I can remember watching Andy Griffith's show at a hotel room. I knew I was one. So I remember things and I started being really aware of people's behavior. And I was too smart for most people.

I was too smart at a young age. And I was, I was always kind of perplexing people. And in the beginning I was odd because I was too smart. Then I went to school. I was in second grade. I was with reading with the sixth graders and i was in math i mean they were trying to send me to matthew i was driven to learn and just get the most out of life at a young age i was also probably a little weird and i wasn't i was i was very shy and i stuttered which was terrible my father made my father made me feel very ashamed of it. So that was kind of a source of trouble.

I look at it now and I think, I'm glad I went through all that. I'm kind of glad a lot of it taught me about being more respectful of others and realizing that we're not walking in someone else's shoes and we need to really think about how other people, you know, we don't know what's going on.

So a lot of good things came of that too. But my father would always put me in a, get out of the way or in someone's way. I always felt like i was in the way and he was embarrassed about me and we had a good relationship basically though too so it wasn't all bad but there was just you know parents think that they're doing the right thing and sometimes they're they're they're causing more harm you know so and i think that's just part of life this is what we have to we have to just be you know accept that they're doing their best. But I have these three aunts and they were my dad's sisters of varying ages.

And I have one left and she is one of the most, she's like my female version of me. And I, it's like when we're together, it's like we're twins and she's 20 years older, but it's like, we just were on the same path, the same humor, the same kindness. And I just spent some time with her because it's like we just we're on the same path the same humor the same kindness and i and i just spent some time with her because it's important to spend time with people that are getting older in your life and went to a restaurant in new york and she had the entire male staff of this restaurant coming to her every minute princess uh can i get for you you know and she

was she had the whole restaurant just in her sphere. And everyone was happy. And I have another aunt. She's passed away. And she was courageous and very glamorous, very striking, and very, very, very, very intelligent. And she was an advocate for conditions in mental hospitals in a time when no one really cares. And I can't go out in public about shopping or somewhere in my area that I live in without a lot of people wanting to stop and tell me what's going on with their life and they're excited to see me you know and they oh I'm doing all this since last time I saw you

and I'm so happy and they you know so it can take a while with me to get somewhere okay so and that's how she was too so I have my other aunt was a serious educator and she was like my cheerleader she was the youngest one and very serious she was she was like my cheerleader. She was the youngest one in various, but she was, she was right there with me when I was young, when we were doing IQ tests and things. And I always felt like I was a weird kid. Maybe I was a little out of place, but I always felt like the power of their belief in me made me always feel like I had an amazing future because they were so cool, you know?

And so they kind of kept me going mentally, you know, my mom was cool, but I was kind of still out of, I was not the kid that they wanted. Sort of, you know, it wasn't like the football playing. I like sports and beyond. I was always outdoors, but I wasn't like, I wasn't a good boy scout. I wasn't good in that type of situation. I didn't like the, I'm not, I'm not really good with authority figures if I don't respect them. Okay. If they're respectable, I'm honored. I'm honored to respect somebody,

but I guess I can see things at a younger age than most people are aware of. And that was where I got my kind of like, I have a big thing about something about if I find someone that is like, especially another man or woman that has a strong, honest integrity, you know, and sort of stands up for things that I'm going to automatically, I'm going to feel aligned. Yeah. And they're generally going to be people that are happier.

They're going to be people that are easy to laugh and they let people in. Yeah. So that's what you look for. I go in the room at a new place, just like going to a new podcast. And I expect that I'm going to meet friends right away. And look at us. Yeah. I always say, I was glad I go, I like everyone. And then how does that feel when you say that? How does that change your whole dynamic in your day-to-day life? And there are people, man, they are hard. They make it hard sometimes, you know,

but, but, you know, you have to just say, I don't know what they're going through. I don't know what they've been through. I'm really learning that lesson a lot as I, as I mature. I think that's really important is to really be respectful of what people want to tell you. Yeah. I still think mind your own business is the greatest phrase.

I think it's important, you know, mind your own business, right? Stay focused on you. Focus on being your best, being your best example, being your, being your hero. We've got to be our own hero, right? We have to be our own heroes for ourselves because everyone counts on us. That's, that's correct. You can't be a hero for someone else until you become a hero for yourself. And I learned that from Eric.

Well, I just think it's really important. I think it's so important that we don't have to have a lot of self-congratulation. We don't have to have a lot of that. I think we need to be able to realize our innate powers and be able to vocalize them and actually use them and feel them. So if I have a warrior-like mentality, a lot of people have a warrior-like mentality. I'm not the only one. And it's about,

it's about using that for good. It's using that for, it's using that. I care about everyone. I care about my own needs and my family, but I also care about the impact we have on everyone else and equity or fairness and everything else. No, absolutely. You know, we've talked a little bit offline and you talked about your personal journey and some of the challenges that you've faced. Can you share a specific moment where you had to dig deep to find happiness and how that influenced your future work?

You know, I always had a lot of friends and I was kind of having some fun crowd and everything. And then I got to a point where I met someone who was kind of dangerous and ended up being someone very dangerous for me and we were together for a long time we had a really two rocks two dysfunctional rock star couple together kind of times okay we had a lot of stuff that was cool and a lot of stuff that was like really like ah and um it was very abusive i'm not on my part it was a very abusive relationship towards me yeah and i'm not and i and i didn't have i've never had like i've done partying drinking and things but i was never like part of that there was never something that had me locked down and we just got into a place where i was concerned for my life when you're

with someone who's abusive they usually try to control everything in your life. So they try to get rid of your family, get rid of your friends, get rid of your job. Anything that distracts you from being kept in line by them. You know, so you isolate, you become isolated. And I was extremely isolated. And there was an incident where all I could do was call my mom.

And I hadn't talked to in six months. And guess what? She came right to the rescue. And I was able to take that moment and go, I'm not turning around. I'm not turning around. I'm not looking back going forward now. I'm done. I had like $50.

And I had lost her through a lot of reasons. I lost her a really good corporate job. I was like 30, I was like 31, 32, and I lost it really. That career just kind of sputtered. And it was just good, too, because that's not what I wanted to do with my life anyway. So I think about all these things, is anything that brings you into a place where there's a reckoning, and you really have to think about, I don't know if there's some way out of this,

you know, like, and if you're thinking that there always is a way out of it. Okay. And a lot of people think they have no choice and it leads to self harm and leads to other things that are bad, like bad nutrition, poor nutrition,

you know, sleep or self anything. And just gotta let it go. You know, you gotta think you gotta let it go. It you got to think you got to let it go. It's hard because I had, I was angry for a long time after we've, after we split up, I think you'd go through a phase of, I was angry.

I was angry at myself. I was, I was angry. I was, I was, I was like, I was not a victim, but I was, I was, I was kind of damaged emotionally. Cause I wouldn't, I wasn't able to trust anyone for a long time after that. So I put myself into work. Work for me is a solace to go into another place, a better place.

So I put myself to work. And I liked working. I found I could start working for myself. And then I got into real estate. And it was an ideal career for me for about 10 years. And during that 10 years that I'd started, I started my, I started doing testosterone replacement therapy with a clinic in Florida around 2011 or so. And 2010, I was at 43 and I was 42, 43, 42. And I was, I was, I was going from super high achiever, full of energy every day. So my energy levels were down. I was not feeling myself. And I was

actually feeling sometimes coming home from a really great day at real estate and then i didn't feel like going to the gym i didn't feel like having sex i didn't feel like you know just things were just kind of going to like kind of um not not a happy place and i got on this therapy and it changed my it just changed my their clinic i went to it was from florida and i think florida everything there was kind of chaotic anyway but um they were wonderful people and I learned but I learned about my own health from them I really learned about how my blood what these blood work numbers meant and things like that so I was able to start learning how to take control of my health you know and and doing in a way that was safely done and nothing crazy it was just therapy and I always seem to people I I think I'm a trustworthy person. I think

people tend to, people tend to come to me with ideas or they want to help me, help them for sure. And the owner of the clinic had heard about me from people he was, from his employees and he was like, I'm really excited to meet this guy. Maybe he wants to go into business with me. So I went down to Florida and I met him and I just,

I just, and we didn't end up going into business but he helped me get started and i spent like two weeks in his business every day with different people in the office and then i was like i don't want to do any of this in my own in my own place if i open in my own place we're going to do things a lot differently and um but i learned but i'm learning how i want at least i'm learning the approach i'm learning the approach i'm learning the nuts and bolts so then i started that and that was the beginning of like working for myself. It was my, I just had a picture the other day. I just came up in Facebook. It was like me and like a sleeveless shirt. I'm 40 something. So I'm pretty jacked up. And I used to do men's physique competitions. So

I was pretty like, I looked like an owner of a TRT clinic. And there's a picture of me doing drywall because I'm in the beginning of the business. I invested all my money. I went into my 401k to start it. I mean, I was going to be broke, broke, broke, broke, or I was going to make it. And you wore all the hats in the business, right? When I started a business that was at the time not mainstream. There was a lot of negativity.

There was a lot of misinformation, facts that were not, they're not correct about it. And in that, in this time period, now I have the enjoyment that when people call me, how soon can I make an appointment? Back in the day, I had to do everything.

I was cleaning the bathroom, taking the trash out, you know, doing everything and, you know, all aspects and working on weekends too. Going to trade shows

and going places to get my name out. That was a time when I had to be, I had all that other stuff in the past going and going places to get my name out. That was a time when I had to be, I had all that other stuff in the past going, and I had to start learning how to be in control of my life, you know? And there were times when it was really hard and the times when I wasn't sure about the mortgage.

Almost 12 years later now, I have a business that has helped me launch other businesses now and given me the opportunity to have really good, to create really great jobs for people that they work for me love it let's talk about the happiness warrior yes and now and then we go into happiness warrior it's all the entrepreneur stuff but that's where i got the point where i got kind of bored with business okay because i thought i wouldn't say i never get bored but i say i got the point where i was like, I need to do something more. I need to do more.

And I sort of fooled around the modeling business for a while. That was kind of fun. I got to meet a lot of people. And then the happiness warrior, once my publicist told me that I was a happiness warrior, I just took that right on and put it right on like a suit. I thought this would give me a really, really powerful motivation to be my best every day. Never let anyone down never let myself down always being adaptable always being ready for change i i developed my core values and i i use those a lot and i i have to take care of them it was going to cove in time and everybody

was health-wise i said i need to help people i started doing a lot of i did a lot of videos online that you know they'd just be like you know this is how we just take it take it down a notch here and start start feeling better about ourselves first and we can get out in the world again get our mask off you know but that was a tough time to help people get through as well and that was a time that i i i felt like i could do a lot of good like when the COVID started, and this is terrible, I was thinking, I was thinking, I'm training for something. I've been doing all these things to get all my skills and all my powers honed. And then it came, I said, oh my God, I got to close my business. I got to do all this stuff. And I thought, this is what I'm ready for now.

I'm ready to be a leader now. I'm ready to make sure this is, in my world, this is going to be handled as well as I can and get through this to wherever the other side is. I think that aside now is awesome. I think where we are right now, despite some political stuff, I think where we are right now as a world, we have a lot, we have a lot of potential now. So in the book, The Happiness Warrior, what are three things that people should go dive into the book that they're going to get out of it that they can implement like right now? First thing is that they have a right to be happy and then you give themselves permission to be happy. I think really, really, really important is to make the mind body connection that we're a sphere. You know, like with everything in our bodies and our mind, we eat what we think, what we speak.

It affects who we are. It affects our health. It affects our outcome. You know, making that just adjustment to loving yourself as much as possible, and that includes loving yourself in spirit and soul and body and mind. And I think it's very important.

People don't realize that they deserve much more in their lives. That's what I really try to think about is that act of just starting something that you're dreaming about doing can lead to something that is more amazing than you ever thought of. I totally agree. I try to always be positive, Sven, without calling myself a positive person. I don't want to have that kind of level, but I always, I don't like, I like to steer the ship. Yeah. My direction where I steer is towards everyone is happy with themselves, content with themselves and at peace with everyone around them. Tough. That is a hot, that is a mighty goal, but I think it's, I think it's possible. Oh, wholeheartedly, wholeheartedly.

And I told the audience and the listeners when we started that there's some things that I want them to write down. And these things were impactful for me. Eric, one of the things that you released is titled The Only Five Things That Matters. And I have to be very honest and transparent. It is probably the best article or blog that I have read in 2024. Wow. Because it is so impactful.

Like, I love things that are action and that's what this podcast is about right like we want to give the listeners the viewers things that they can start implementing in their life today right like you don't need to go hire anyone these are insights that you can start putting into your life everyone's answers but the answers we're looking for are always within absolutely Absolutely. You know that. Your story is so inspirational, too, because you were able to dig past whatever was going on and say, I deserve to live and be better and make my life the way I wanted to be.

Right. You don't have to do that anymore. When we're younger, we get put into boxes and places, and we don't necessarily get a chance to make what we want to do of ourselves. And then when you get older, the blessing is that we really have that that wisdom yeah wholeheartedly wholeheartedly I want to go into again for those and we'll have this the link to this article I'm in the show notes but it's on the the Metropolitan digital.com Metropolitan digital dot com and with Eric it's the five things that matter and what he's talking about here, the five things that truly matter to have a happy life and to

impart happiness in your life. And so Eric, we're going to go through these together. So I'm going to highlight what the first one is. And I want you to kind of tell us what you meant by that. So number one, and everyone write this down, express gratitude before rest at night. I'm going to say that again, express gratitude before rest at night. Eric, why is that important? I'm going to tell you, it totally changed my life. I had the best sleep the first night that I implemented this. I slept like a baby since being a baby. It started for my need to get better sleep and then i was with my sister one day and she has a pretty high stressful she's an entrepreneur too we don't have time to talk half the time when we do have something to say it was kind of very insightful and she says when i go

to bed at night i know that i've done my best i sleep i go to sleep right away and i said well so it wasn't what i was expecting, it wasn't what I was expecting. That wasn't what I was expecting for him to say. And it touched me because I was like, that's kind of what I needed to hear myself. So one thing I'm doing is new. I'm just passing information that I'm processing information and sharing it. And I think it's important, but that was a very important thought. So then I started this practice of, you know, I grew up, I grew up, you know,

prayer before bed and things like that. And it wasn't my thing, but I did it because it was the right thing to do at the time. And I still think there's something very valuable in kind of recounting your day. And that's the first thing I say in my prayer or whatever it is, in my affirmation is, I did my best today. I will do better tomorrow. Because what's the point? You don't want to do better tomorrow. What's the point? What's the point? I think, you know, Oh, I did this really cool thing.

Maybe if you're just like shooting baskets, okay. And you're getting like, you're getting, you're getting them all in. Keep doing it better. You know, anything like that. It's something that creates a higher level of self-esteem, skill, affirmation, anything like that. And so that I can do better tomorrow is always exciting to me. Yeah. Excited. Totally agree.

And then I might go through a little bit and then depends on how tired I am. I'm usually, I'm usually ready for bed. And I'll just say, I am grateful. I am thankful. I am content. I am happy. You can go, you can go amen, or you can go nothing. You can do whatever you want.

There's no rules. Okay. So whatever strikes us as individuals is important but i think that i i did my best today i can do that i will do better tomorrow as i think that's crucial it is and i'll tell you again once i read this and then i i saw a few of your videos that they were kind of talking about this as well. You actually have to believe it too, right? Gratitude. Yeah. But don't say things just to say things like have conviction around that gratitude. And like I said, Eric, I owe you because now it is a part of my nightly routine. I'll tell you an embarrassing tidbit real quick off the, I went to my high school reunion last year and I was one of those kids. I was a good kid and the kids and the guys the kids the adults that came the older adults that came to my reunion they were like the core group of friends that I had back then there was like the cheerleaders and

the class president and all the good all the good kids that participated they're good kids they're all grown up now and one of them she said to me she says i just i remember you as being very earnest and i thought that's probably that at that age at a young age i would have been embarrassed by that and then for at this age i'm just like oh that that's so awesome to hear that because i never i've never changed yeah you know and i was honest i mean like i was an earnest that's embarrassing you know i was like i said you know i see said, you should get to know me better now because now I'm a whole nother world going on. So that's how I feel. And I also, I know you're on your questions, but in the morning, what's the first thing that we should do as we wake up?

Be thankful that we saw this day. Right. But I always say, I always say, and I did this, I used to have another Instagram called redefining 50 when I was turning 50. And a lot of people followed that. And some people were like, I give my employees this to want them to listen to what you're saying. You know, it's motivational. And I started this thing. I heard I picked it up somewhere. As soon as I wake up, I don't care where i am what i'm doing i say good morning eric it's going to be a great day that's all i have to say i like it can you believe it

one time i was i was i was during coveted and i skipped it and i was traveling to um i was traveling to arizona i was at the airport and everything was going wrong and it was just a big mess and usually i have a really happy journey. Usually when I go anywhere, I'm happy. Everything's wonderful. Nothing gets in my way. Everything's fine. And this morning, everything was kind of like dark. And then I was going up into the elevator to get coffee in the place that's closed.

I said to myself, oh my God, I didn't say that. I didn't give my affirmation this morning. That's the reason everything is terrible. Okay. Dramatic. And then I did it. And I was by myself in this mirrored elevator. And I'm looking at myself and I'm like, hey, Eric, it's going to be a great day.

After that, everything went really well. So it's just voodoo. It's whatever you want to call it. But I think it's the mindset. There you go. Mindset. It's a mindset. And people would tell me a three-year-old can do this as well as a 60, 70-year-old.

It can be any age. But I have a lot of really high-level folk, high-level people that do amazing things. They've told me. And you would think, oh, they're just too jaded to do anything like that, right? Well, they do it. And then I hear, Oh, good. Believe how awesome my life has been. Yeah, I do believe it because I believe in it, you know, but I love hearing that because I think, okay, they might, even if they forget about me, they're still going

to spread that. They're still going to share that with others and that's going to help more people. So that's really good stuff. Really good stuff. I go rambling off. I think those are important things to get to know what my real intention is. Of of course and that's why we're doing this this is this is your show this is this is what it's about all right so let's go through the other four so we have a person i won't digress i'll keep going no no no you're good so number one was express gratitude before rest at night number two and this one is deep. Always express desires and intentions verbally with someone you trust. What's the meaning behind that one?

Do we want our life to happen or do we not want it to happen? If we want it to happen, we have to be proud of it. We have to be proud of our decisions and our choices and we have to own it. We have to own it. And by owning it, I mean, I don't want to have this idea of accountability.

I mean, this is now something that belongs to us. These are our dreams. These are our destiny. So sharing that with someone that you trust, I didn't just become the happiest word all by myself. There's so many people that I've sort of come along with me in my journey over the years that would do anything for me. And there, there, there, there, there, and I'm not, it's another thing that I don't, I don't deserve that. But I think if I have to make it honorable, I want to make sure I give, I give value, you know? So it's just balance.

I love it. I love it. All right. Number three, be always at work on something that provides value. Love it. To me, that's one of the best nuggets of wisdom that I've heard in a while. Always be working on something that provides value. There is always something that we can be doing to improve our mindset, make ourselves happier, take our mind off something that's negative and turn it around. And I think that it really comes down to what am I doing with my time right now?

I mean, we need to take time off i'm not a big believer in time off and i'm a big believer in being outside and tuning out and tuning out of our phones and everything but i think that having something that gives us pleasure too and something that gives that makes us feel like we're part of something that we're creating something or there's so many things it doesn't there's no definition of what that is it's just the definition that we find within ourselves. And for me, it's coming from my aunt since that I wanted, I'm the happiest warrior. They were happy to split their happiness wars. It's just, I was the, or maybe I'm the one in the family who's carrying that along, you know, that's my right now and my time in life right at the present. That's who I am.

Love it. I'm probably the happiest words they're my name i don't care no i'm just kidding that's it that is it all right number four number four is absolutely my favorite and it's something that i work on a couple of times a year number four nurture key relationships and let others go and so i say this a little bit differently. I say always work on your circle, your circle of friends, but nurture key relationships. And most important, you got to be able and willing to let others go. So powerful because when you talk about happiness and Eric, I say this a lot, everyone that you think is for you, isn't always for you. Yes. Right. When you

talk about happiness, there are some people in this world whose main objective is to bring up all the obstacles in life. There are people in this world who are just negative by nature. And the more that you have and you have this in the blog, the negative vocabulary around you, negative mindsets around you, it starts to penetrate into you whether you want it to or not and so I love number four nurture key relationships most importantly let others go so Eric I love your your two-minute table I have such a place in my life for friendship it's a very important part of who I am it's not

about having I have friends everywhere I I mean, it's this friends that I've had for maybe a short time that had become very important, but a lot, a lot of it with me are long-term deep friendships that don't, we don't see each other all the time, but I call those my friends for life. And I always tell them, you're my friend for life. You're my friend for life, no matter what, you know, and if we were in my one best friends halfway across the world for five years, but we're still walking the door, we're best friends again. You know what I mean? There's not going to be, I'm still solid with that friendship.

There are other, I've also found that there, like you just said, there are people who hurt people, hurt other people. They hurt other people. You got to think about and having anyone who's gone through a rebuild in their life or a renewal in their life knows that we have to, if we want to get out of our funk or our trauma, we have to be around. We have to say no to negative people. We have to say no to people who are gossiping or saying things about people or people, anything that we have to be around positive people that are happy. And they're there. You can find them. You know, they're always there.

And that's the key. Go to those places because if there's situations, if there's places that always bring negativity to you, stop going there. Yeah. Right. It is totally okay to be in control of your surroundings and your situations as adults. It is totally okay to stop negativity from creeping in. I felt the same way with business too.

I think it just overlays everything in our lives. And I think it's important with family. I think no one can hurt you more than family. No one can hurt us more than our family members. I think they can dig deep. It's important to be forgiving too. I think in realizing that there are people, I might be angry at them,

but I think it's important to realize that you don't get a lot of second chances in life, right? That's right. Some things are very finite. And once you cross that line, you're done. That's why I'm big on, that's why I'm really big on the words have spirit. Words have spirit because words never go away. And so, and words are beautiful.

I find so much pleasure in writing words, you know, and my thoughts come out of my head so fast when I'm creating a new column. I'm not even sure who actually writes it. It just comes out of my head. It comes out of my hand on the keyboard. And I look at that as a gift. It's a gift, not that I have, it's a gift that's been given to me. I feel like if I don't use it, I will lose it.

But I'm also, I'm using it because it really, I find that it really helps me to have more clarity and maintain more clarity and identify what people need to hear. So I go through phases where I'm thinking a lot about self. I do a lot. Almost everything is self-empowerment. I want to live in self-empowerment. Absolutely.

And I want people to feel that they have everything that I have. Okay. I don't want to be, I don't, I want to always have that kind of idea that no one's better than anyone else. I don't think that's ever true. Um, be kind and be kind. Nice is fine, but kind is actually taking, taking that feeling that you do care about someone else, you know, we do care about other people and that they, and that can change someone's entire life. Absolutely. Yeah. Totally.

All right. Number five. Okay. Dang it, Eric. You wrote number five for me. Take care of your bodies and minds as if your life depends on it, because honestly it does. So I made 2024 my year to get back into better shape. You know, I don't make excuses.

So I'll just say I took advantage of COVID. How about that? I took advantage. I have some really, I don't have a diet for your plan for you, but I have a couple of really good tips for almost anyone, okay? All right, let's get these tips now.

We need them. I'm going to do the first book to be a reference book kind of thing. But my new books in the future will be Happiest Words, Guide to Love, the Happiest Words, Guide to Your Body your body okay and not science so much well science is it's solid factual stuff but i'm coming to as a regular person trying to help someone else you know on their journey without feeling bad about them and my biggest thing is i don't want anyone to

ever feel bad about themselves okay you can't start anything good if you're feeling like you're, you're already fighting yourself and you're in your defensive. So I want everybody to feel like happy playing field where it's just about learning about themselves. So for food, and I think everything we eat has a purpose today. I want to have a really good brain for you. I want to be on my, my brain to be on fire, not on caffeine. And so I had some canned salmon. I made some brain food. And I just had something light that kept me, some good protein, good energy, a little whole wheat bread. And that to me was perfect because I had the protein, but I wasn't feeling heavy from a hamburger or something like that.

I'm subconsciously feeding my brain and feeding my brain mostly. I want to stay sharp and focused. And then one of the rules that I have, which is not always easy to do, is that everything, every time we have it, even if it's a snack, some snacks are not so good. Every meal, every major meal should have something from the produce family. Okay, so breakfast, have some fruit of some sort. Don't have fruit juice because that's high in sugar. Just have raw fruit. I do frozen blueberries, which are easy and much cheaper. And that's also brain food because after I have my little breakfast I have,

I'm going to write. I'm going to close out. I'm going to do a little emails and a little bit of work and get everything set up for the day. And then I'm going to shut that side down. I'm going to close out them if i do little emails a little bit of work and get everything set up for the day and then i'm going to shut that side down i'm going to write for an hour and i need my brain to be under my control you know i need to have things under control i need to have you know everything be on track and then i say every meal have what we do in our house is we have i like preparing my own food most of the time. So we have a big salad before every meal and we eat that first.

Because when you have that fiber and the greens inside of you, you're fuller and you're also going to accept the food that's coming on top of it now. It's going to be easier to digest too. So you're not going to eat as much, but you're going to feel full and you're going to feel satisfied

and you're going to feel energized from food that way. It's pretty easy stuff. And the other thing I have, this is a big me water black coffee whole organic milk not very much if you want to have any kind of milk whole organic milk a small amount if you don't need it every day and the water black coffee tea or something like that anything else all the reason no sweet beverages put that way so i need to throw the oat milk away that i just bought here do that i i that's that's that's also dietary too so that's not a point but for me that's how i am i'm very like that's to be the cleanest best stuff and that's all i will drink mostly i drink water coffee i drink coffee during the day and um but that way you're a lot of people get a lot of

sneaky calories in from things that they drink i believe believe it. I love, I love it all. I love all that stuff. But I have to say to myself, you know, it's, I have, I want to be a good example for you. Okay. And you can count on this to not kick your butt, but it's going to be like on your side, you know, I don't like that idea. You're a coach and you got to hurt somebody. I like the idea that you go, okay, well, you know, how do you feel about doing this?

How do you feel today? Is this making a difference? Is this positive thing for you? If it's not working, there's another way. Absolutely. Absolutely. And also my whole day is never give up, especially on yourself. There you go. I love that. All right, Eric, I'm getting you out of here on this. What's one thing you want listeners to do right now? What's, what's your biggest key to happiness well i really would like to have everyone reading me every week okay i'd like to have people start to really and talk to me and then get back to me and i have a new website it's beautiful it's www.thwarrior.com so it stands for the happiness where thwarrior.com get in there i'm going to get some

new pictures pretty soon i didn't i did a new photo shoot with a really cool guy the other day and just trying to keep it all my articles are on there too so you can get into uh the issue wire file in there and i'm just trying to build an audience that we can start saying hey you want me to come and speak for your event i'd love to go speak for your event and set something up that the speaker that you've never had before like like you've never had before, because I'm not going to do it in a scripted kind of way that is done. There you go. I'm going to mold this. Anything I do, I'm going to kind of mold it in the way I want it to be.

So everyone's having fun with learning and serious, too. I'm always serious, too. I'm a very serious person. I like to laugh, but I'm very serious, too. I think I'm always serious. I'm a very serious person. I like to laugh, but I'm very serious too. Awesome stuff. So thwarrior.com. And you can also find Eric on Facebook, on Instagram. He has articles. He has a ton of videos. I promise you, you will not regret it. You will have everything as well, Mick. And I have it's called the Happiness Warrior Official.

Yep. That is that's that's where all my a lot of a lot of my video, all my videos and things are, too. So and that's what I follow. The Happiness Warrior Official on Instagram. That's what I follow. I follow you too there. I promise you, you will not be disappointed. You can find daily inspiration, daily motivation. You will find, I promise you something

every day from Eric and it'll put a smile on your face and a smile in your heart as well. And Eric, that's what I appreciate the most about you, brother. Oh, I can't. I have so many things I appreciate about you as well. Oh, I can't. I have so many things I appreciate about you as well.

And also just thank you for having me on your show. This is your personal show. And it means a lot. It means more than anything to me. So it means the world that you're here. It means the world that you're here. And we're definitely

going to do this again. So I can see us having a happiness warrior series that we do on the podcast. I think we should do that for the people. We'll be the happiness warrior duo that we do on the podcast. I think we should do that for the people. We'll be the happiness warrior duo. Okay. There you go. I love it. All the listeners out there. Remember your because is your superpower. I'm Misha. Thanks for listening to Mick Unplugged. We hope this episode helps you take the next step toward the extraordinary and launches a

revolution in your life. Don't forget to rate and review the podcast and be sure to check us out on YouTube at Mick Unplugged. Remember, stay empowered, stay inspired and stay unplugged.