Passion Struck with John R. Miles - Dan Cnossen on Unstoppable Success Through Adversity EP 505

Episode Date: September 10, 2024

In this powerful episode of Passion Struck, John R. Miles sits down with Dan Cnossen, a former Navy SEAL and Paralympic gold medalist, to explore his extraordinary journey of resilience, mental toughness, and elite performance. After a life-altering injury on the battlefield, Dan refused to let adversity define him. Instead, he turned his setbacks into a springboard for unstoppable success. In this conversation,Dan shares the mindset that allowed him to overcome the fear of failure, find optimism in the face of challenges, and unlock the secrets to achieving greatness. He also discusses his involvement with the Mountain Seed Foundation, which helps Ukrainian soldiers through outdoor activities. Dan defines success as living a fulfilling life and contributing positively to others, regardless of outcomes.Whether you’re seeking inspiration, peak performance tips, or a masterclass in perseverance, this episode will motivate you to conquer your own obstacles.Watch Dan's incredible 60 Minute story of climbing with the Mountain Seed Foundation.Full show notes and resources: https://passionstruck.com/dan-cnossen-on-unstoppable-success-adversity/SponsorsBabbel: Unlock the power of learning a new language with Babbel's innovative system. Passion Struck listeners can get 60% off their subscription at Babbel.com/PASSION.Hims: Regrow your hair before it's too late! Start your free online visit today at Hims.com/PASSIONSTRUCK.Quince: Experience luxury for less with Quince's premium products at radically low prices. Enjoy free shipping and 365-day returns at Quince.com/PASSION.For more information about our sponsors and promo codes, visit: passionstruck.com/dealsIn this episode, you will learn:Overcoming fear of failure: Dan explains how acknowledging and confronting failure can fuel progress and push you toward success.Power of optimism: He delves into the mindset of maintaining positivity in the darkest of moments and how it contributes to a fulfilling life.Elite performance mindset: Dan shares the mental framework that enabled him to reach the pinnacle of success in both the military and the Paralympics.Finding purpose through service: His involvement with the Mountain Seed Foundation highlights the healing power of helping others and giving back to the community.Resilience through adversity: Learn how Dan turned a devastating injury into an opportunity to grow, adapt, and excel at a global level.Daily discipline for greatness: Dan emphasizes the importance of structure, discipline, and small daily habits that lead to extraordinary results.Connect with Dan Cnossen: https://dancnossen.com/Order Passion StruckUnlock the principles that will transform your life! Order my book, Passion Struck: Twelve Powerful Principles to Unlock Your Purpose and Ignite Your Most Intentional Life. Recognized as a 2024 must-read by the Next Big Idea Club, this book has earned accolades such as the Business Minds Best Book Award, the Eric Hoffer Award, and the Non-Fiction Book Awards Gold Medal. Order your copy today and ignite your journey toward intentional living!Catch More Passion StruckMy interview with Hari Budha Magar was about defying your limits to climb your Everest.Watch my episode with Navy SEAL John Doolittle on why anything is achievable.Catch my episode with Paralympian Oksana Masters on how the hard parts lead to triumph.Catch my interview with Katy Milkman on Creating Lasting Behavior Change for Good.Listen to my solo episode on The Importance of Empathy to Your LifeIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review! Even one sentence helps. Be sure to include your Twitter or Instagram handle so we can personally thank you!

Coming up next on Passion Struck. As much as we like to think that we are national assets as operators, these missions have go and no-go criteria. And the loss of me, it doesn't affect the no-go criteria. The mission continues. And they stayed on scene as they should and continued with the mission. And I do still to this day remember this light in my face

from the flight surgeon. I don't know if he put me under immediately or if I just let myself go after all that effort of just trying to stay in the game on that drag down the hill, but I let myself go. And the next thing I remember, waking up in a hospital room with my mother, a few feet away looking at me,

and I didn't know where am I and what is going on. Welcome to Passion Struck. Hi, I'm your host, Jon R. Miles, and on the show, we decipher the secrets, tips, and guidance of the world's most inspiring people and turn their wisdom into practical advice for you and those around you. Our mission is to help you unlock

the power of intentionality so that you can become the best version of yourself. If you're new to the show, I offer advice and answer listener questions on Fridays. We have long form interviews the rest of the week with guests ranging from astronauts to authors, CEOs, creators, innovators, scientists, military leaders, visionaries, and athletes. Now, let's go out there and become passion struck.

Hey, passion struck family. I am thrilled to welcome you back to episode 505. First off, a huge shout out to each and every one of you who turns in every week, eager to listen, grow and transform. You're the heartbeat of this community and your energy keeps us going strong. If you're new here, welcome to the passion struck movement.

We are so glad to have you. For those thinking about spreading the word, which we absolutely love, we've made it super easy with our episode Starter Packs. With over 500 episodes, I know it can be hard to know where to dive in. So we've curated playlists just for you. Whether you're passionate about behavioral science

or hearing from powerhouse women, we've got a pack that's perfect for you. Check them all out on Spotify or head over to passionstruck.com slash starter packs. Last week, I had an eye-opening conversation with Stanford psychologist, Dr. Jamil Zaki. We explored how cynicism can erode trust and how embracing hopeful skepticism can help rebuild it.

If you're ready to see the good in humanity again, don't miss that episode. It's one that will truly change your perspective. I also had the pleasure of chatting with Gabriel Rylek, Head of Content at Good and Upworthy and co-author of Good People, Stories from the Best of Humanity. Gabriel is on a mission to spotlight

the positive side of human nature and our conversation dives deep into why sharing stories of goodness isn't just uplifting, it can actually drive real change. We'll talk about how Upworthy created one of the kindest spaces online and why positive stories can reshape how we see the world. This is a conversation you don't want to miss.

And as always, thank you for your ratings, reviews, and feedback. They mean everything to us. If today's episode resonates with you, please leave us a 5-star review and share it with your friends and family. Your support not only helps us, but also our incredible guests. Now, onto today's episode, where I am incredibly honored to share the story of a true American hero, Lieutenant Commander Dan Knosson, in honor of remembering 9-11. This isn't just another episode, it's a masterclass in resilience, determination,

and the relentless pursuit of excellence. Dan's journey is nothing short of extraordinary. After growing up on a fifth-generation family farm in Kansas, Dan pursues his dream of becoming a Navy SEAL, a path that led him to elite leadership and multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. But in 2009, his life took a dramatic turn when a mission in Afghanistan left him severely injured resulting in the loss of both legs. What could have been the end of the story was just the beginning for Dan.

He not only learned to walk again with prosthetics, but he also discovered a new passion, cross-country skiing and biathlon. Dan's incredible drive led him to the 2014 US Paralympic team and a standout performance at the 2018 Paralympic Games, where he won six medals and was named best male athlete of the Games. But Dan didn't stop there. He's since earned two degrees from Harvard and is now training for the 2026 Paralympic Games. In this episode, Dan shares his powerful insights on overcoming adversity, redefining what's possible and how to maintain an unbreakable spirit, no matter the challenges you face. If you've ever questioned your own resilience or wondered how to push through life's toughest obstacles, Dan's story will inspire and equip you with the mindset to tackle anything.

This is an episode that's not just about hearing a remarkable story, it's about learning from one of the most resilient minds out there. Whether you're facing your own battles or just need a dose of motivation to keep going, Dan's Journey offers lessons that will stay with you long after the episode ends. Tune in, be inspired, and let Dan's story fuel your own pursuit of greatness. Thank you for choosing Passionstruck and choosing me on your journey to creating an intentional life. Now, let that journey begin. I am absolutely thrilled today to have Dan Knosson on Passion Struck. Welcome, Dan. Thanks, John. It's great to be here with you.

Man, it's such an honor to have you and ever since I found out about you, us both being Naval Academy grads, I have just wanted to have you on this podcast because I think the way you've lived your life and the impact that you're having are just so valuable for the audience. So thank you so much for doing this. Well, I appreciate the opportunity and I'm looking forward to the discussion. So I always like to get these things kicked off by doing a little bit of deep dive into the beginning of your story. And I understand you're a fifth generation Kansas family is where you grew up. How did that work ethic and those values shape who you are today?

I did grow up on a fifth generation farm and it's still in the family. It's been in the family since 1874. My maternal grandfather, his grandfather had moved out from Ohio and settled farm land that homes back. And I think I have a lot of influence from my grandfather. He farmed during the depression. I'm sure that was difficult to say the least during World War II. In that case, he had three daughters from my grandfather. He farmed during the Depression. I'm sure that was difficult to say the

least during World War II. In that case, he had three daughters and feeding the country as farmers did during that critical time. And as a kid growing up, we had land, 200 acres almost, some section of woods, a barn to play in. I would just be outside quite a bit. And I think I formed in that environment a real passion for being outside every day. Well, and how did that passion for being outside drive your decisions to want to join the military? My father served in the Marine Corps. He did three tours in the Vietnam era,

which is not to say that he pressured me to go into the military, but as a kid, I may have been influenced. I certainly looked up to him. I never felt like I had this decision to make about whether I wanted to go in the military. I just felt like this is what I wanted to do. My decisions were more about which branch of service and specifically which job within a branch of service, what I want to do.

And what I want to enlist, what I want to try to be an officer. If I want to try to be an officer, would I go to a service academy or ROTC? These were the decisions I was making in high school. We often ask kids at a fairly young age, high school to make plans that set them on a trajectory for the rest of their life. But fortunate for me, I had this goal of entering the U.S. Naval Academy

at the end of my first year of high school. And you do have to set this goal fairly early on unless you're a recruited athlete, which I was not gonna be, in order to start the process of application. I remember myself looking back upon my decision and similar to you, my father is also a Marine. He was part of first Marine division and was at the very beginning

aspects of Vietnam, primarily in Laos and Cambodia. But I have an interesting story for you that ties into. The rest of your story and that is. When he was a boot camp he was originally going to be an infantry and they told me we're starting this thing again called force recon. Ask him if you would want to be part of it and he said how much more does it pay and they said fifty dollars more month because I'm in. So they had forced recon before and then they had shut it down and were restarting it but they didn't have a school. So he was one of two or three classes that went down to Florida and he actually went to UDT school. So he's class of 16. Wow. So a little bit of a backstory there. That's incredible. I remember as a

kid reading stories of Marines and specifically recon force recon Marines in Vietnam or Army Rangers lurks and just being fascinated by it and drawn to this special operations. My dad was not in reconnaissance or infantry artillery, but then was a member of sort of the small teams that would go from village to village with language skills, but he spoke very highly of recon and forced recon. So for those who aren't familiar with this, when you are at an academy and there are a lot more graduates who are going into the SEAL teams now. But when you and I were there,

it was a pretty small group of people. I think my class, it might've been 12, I think yours it was 16. Correct. When did you make that decision and then what did you do to get prepared to even get selected to become a SEAL? Well, funny enough, I showed up at the Naval Academy wanting to be a Marine

and also not really knowing how to swim very well. I was very uncomfortable in the water, not scared, but extremely uncomfortable. And the first summer, the plebe summer, a couple of times a week you go to the swimming pool for basic drills, floating, life-saving, just demonstrating you can swim from one end of the pool to the other. And I remember marching to the swim pool and just feeling butterflies in my stomach. So clearly I had a long way to go in order to be selected for the SEAL program, which was not even something I wanted to do. It was certainly appealing to me, but I thought I had zero chance of being selected. Given what you just said, there were only 16 spots in my class.

We have recruited varsity swimmers in the freshman class and just a lot of talented athletes. So I didn't think I had a chance. So my sites were set on the Marine Corps infantry. But by the end of my first year, all of my friends, not all of them, but the majority of them wanted to be selected for the SEAL program. And by the end of the first year, I set this new goal for myself as well.

But it was gonna require getting in the water and training to be a better swimmer for sure. So I think people have a misconception of what SEALs might look like. And you and I have a mutual friend, John Doolittle, who retired as a captain. And I would say that Dew is someone who, when I think of a SEAL, stereotypically, I think of him.

He's a six foot three, big guy, collegiate swimmer, very strong athlete. But the vast majority of SEALs that I know are much smaller stature individuals, people who you wouldn't have picked out of a lineup to typically become part of a special warfare unit. Did you find that to be the case while you were serving? Well, yes, I did. I have also this idea of what a seal looked like, and it was not the physical stature that I have, but then I came to find out that I actually do have a fairly average physique for being a seal, which is to say five foot nine and a little stocky and

not necessarily the best at any one athletic endeavor, but I can be okay at more things such as running and fin swimming and doing the obstacle course. If you're really tall, if you're on the kind of the upper level of height, BUDS, which is this basic SEAL training, is going to be difficult. If you are a few inches taller than anyone in the class, the weight of the boat is going to be more on your head than the other members of your team. But for me, I realized that kind of you want people that have different capabilities. You want people who think differently, who have different experiences, who come from different backgrounds, maybe a combination of some people on the team who have street smarts, who have that kind of inner city background, people who have a rural background, people who grew up in the mountains are comfortable with snow, people who

grew up near the shore and are comfortable with the ocean, but also different capabilities in terms of someone that can lug a lot of weight, carry a machine gun with a lot of rounds of ammunition, someone else maybe who's smaller and more agile. So people who look different, who think different, and who have different physical capabilities all come together to make a more well-rounded team. Part of my understanding about going through BUD's basic underwater demolition school for SEALs is that Naval Academy grads have surprisingly done well in having higher graduation rates than other candidates who come in. What do you feel is some of the reasoning for that? I think that you have four years at the Naval Academy where

you're in a competitive environment. I said by the end of my first year I had now this new goal that I didn't verbalize so much, but anybody who knew me would probably know that I wanted to do this job, but we probably have dozens of members of our class who are at least interested in getting one of the 16 spots to go to BUDS. It required a lot of training, but you start to rise altogether. I had friends who were varsity swimmers. They helped me with my swimming when they could I helped them with running you have Just that as I said the competitive environment that just lifts people up and when we're pretty well screened We've had to go for me to be selected I had to go through a mini buds screener

which was basically a hazing weekend run by upperclassmen who all they had done was gone to mini buds and maybe we're gonna be going to buds but that hadn't even been determined yet overseen by loosely overseen by a couple seals that were assigned to the Academy basically a hazing weekend that then meant I could go to mini buds and go to mini buds in the summer before the senior year where you're maybe evaluated I don't really. I think now it's much more structured, but back then I wasn't sure how much we were actually being evaluated while we were at Mini Buds in Coronado come back for the senior year. And you do a physical fitness test that gets ranked. You do a peer evaluation and an interview panel. And I was extremely nervous for the interview

panel because we'd be going up in front of active duty SEAL senior enlisted and officers. And that was, I remember being extremely nervous and they were messing with me during that interview, but after looking back, I think I did all right. Well, I have an interesting story for you. I don't think I've ever told this publicly, but between second class and first year, I wanted to go to a mini buds, but I was unable to, because I had been selected to be part of the brigade honor staff. And so I had to do the honor staff thing for Pleep summer. And so I had a friend who I had known from NAPS.

He had already graduated. His name is Rich Rodriguez and Rich is now an Admiral in the reserves and as a seal. But rich knew how much I wanted to go to the teams. And at that point, many buds was a prerequisite, but he organized this. One time thing for me where he was part of SEAL team one, which you have a story about too. And he arranged that I could go spend three weeks with SEAL team one as a midshipman and basically do everything that they did do all the training so I could get immersed into it. And the story went extremely well for the first 72 hours until the commanding officer found out I was there and then all hell broke loose and I

was sent home. So I had a short but memorable experience with SEAL Team One. That's great. When I was in high school, I was interested in the SEAL Team. I didn't think I could be selected out of the Naval Academy, but I had gone to the, entered the Sea Cadet program, which is modeled after enlisting in the Navy. And so as part of the Sea Cadets, I actually went to Great Lakes, Illinois for bootcamp and wearing dungarees at actual Navy bootcamp, not in with a Navy bootcamp class, but the Sea Cadets, we were our own class and we're getting yelled at and just, it was bootcamp for two weeks and I did that. And then, but the goal was to go to SEAL training and I got to the summer before

my senior year of high school, I got to go to a two weeks of sea cadet seal training, which had like a hell night, which I just was. Miserable at it. I wimped out. I j it was a disaster for me, but the overall experience was really fun. We got to hang out with active duty seals. I'm a just a kid in high school. We got to shoot MP fives, do the

obstacle course. I was scared to death of the water. But overall, it was a really formative experience for me. So from what you're describing, this is something that you never in a million years thought possible for yourself. What do you think are some of the key lessons that you would share to listeners who are listening to this about perhaps they have a dream that they want to accomplish they think is out of possibility for them. What do you think made you have the successful run that you had to get selected, go through buds, complete

it, and then get your Trident and serve in an honorable way. What do you think were the core tenants that caused that? Well, I had this goal and the goal came from a combination of internal and external factors. But if I were to map out the length of the goal, which is to go from plebe year or sophomore year at the Naval Academy to wearing a trident on my uniform, that would be really distant and probably the length of it would be discouraging. But it was about daily choices that I made today. I'm going to go to the swimming pool and get

a little bit better. Maybe it's working on drown proofing or what I think the drown proofing sequence involves. Maybe it's working on my stroke, side stroke or front crawl stroke, doing what I can do to get a little bit better in the water, challenging myself, doing things like adventure races. I got, I ended up making the triathlon team. I was always pretty good at running and cycling came pretty naturally. Made the triathlon team challenging myself with triathlon races. So just in my own story, I think it's an example

of exposure and manageable tasks that you can achieve, which feed into the bigger picture of achieving this long range goal, which may be be short of your dream or it may be equal with your dream, but it all goes towards this and something you can do today to get a little bit better. Next thing you know, it's this stair-step approach and you're climbing the stairway and you can achieve great things, but it's to have confidence in training, confidence in yourself, confidence in your support network, seeking out a robust support network, people that you can train with or take feedback from being open-minded

to the feedback and course corrections. And then again, making these daily choices to get a little bit better. Well, I think you summed up something that I wrote about actually in the first chapter of my book. I have you ever read the book grit by Angela Duckworth? Yes, I have. So as you're familiar, she starts the book out by talking about our sister Academy West point and how, and how they were evaluating what allowed

people to have a successful beast barracks or not. They since then did 10 more years of study and came to the same conclusion around what constitutes helping a cadet graduate or not. And I happen to look at her data and thinking back about my time at the Academy and while passion and perseverance were absolutely two critical traits, I think she missed one element of the triangle. And I actually told her this to her face and she agreed with me.

And that is what you were just describing. You can have all the passion and perseverance that you want in your life. But I remember if I wasn't making daily choices that were getting me closer to the goals that I wanted to achieve. I was not going to graduate from the Naval Academy. And to me, that's really being intentional about your life. So if I would add something, it's intentionality coupled with that passion and perseverance. Because to me, intentionality kind of equates with self-control.

And you need to have that self-regulation that if you're not on a path to be where you want to be, you've got to make different choices to get back on the path to achieve the goals that you want to have in life. Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. And I think with that intentionality, it starts to cross it over into habit. And if you can, I feel like habit and momentum are related. And if you can have this habit and develop some momentum,

it makes those daily choices a little bit easier. And I've noticed that just in my own training now as a Paralympic athlete, that having routine, consistency, habit creates momentum, which then can take the onus off of me, And then in 2009, I was in the first year of college. And I was in the second year of college. And I was in the third year of college.

And I was in the fourth year of college. And I was in the fifth year of college. And I was in the sixth year of college. And I was in the seventh year of college. And I was in the eighth year of college. And I was in the eighth year of college. And I was in the eighth year of college. And I was in the eighth year of college. buds in 2003, if I have the timeline correct, went through your initial tours, did deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. And then in 2009, while you were in Afghanistan, your story took a dramatic

turn, can you describe the night of your injury and the immediate thoughts that went through your mind? Sure. To back up just a bit, I was serving as a platoon leader at a West coast team. Back up just a bit, I was serving as a platoon leader at a west coast team. And so that meant that I was in a position of leadership and responsibility for the success of the platoon's deployment. Now we had gone through our workup cycle. We're going to deploy to Afghanistan and reading the after action reports of the unit that we would replace, which was a SEAL platoon working with another SEAL platoon. We knew it was gonna be heavy combat.

So as a key leader in the platoon, and this is standard operating procedure, the key leadership deploys a few weeks in advance to the rest of the team. So I went out in that capacity to try to soak up as much information as I could could so that by the time the rest of the team arrived I'd be in a position of having some more experience on the ground learning some of the tactics that the unit replaced what they were doing and just meeting

the relevant players and becoming more familiar with the area of operations. So deployed in early September, 2009. And on the night of my injury, it was a turnover operation. So the majority of my platoon was not there. And I think this becomes more relevant in a couple of minutes when I get to what happened. Basically, the scheme of the operation was to conduct a target assault in Southern Afghanistan. And we would launch via two MH-47 helicopters flown by some really good army helicopter pilots.

And that comes into play later as well in the story. I would be part of a detached element that was assigned to hike to the top of a large hill, which overlooked the target compound. The target assault was gonna happen right around first light, but prior to that, we needed to get to the top of this hill. And so we were hiking up to the top of the hill

and we're on the top of it. It was more of a tabletop summit, plateau, flattened out a bit. And I was moving forward looking through my night vision goggles. And all of a sudden, there was a flash of light from underneath. And the next thing I know, there may have been a period of unconsciousness. I don't recall it. It seemed like there was no break.

I just was now in the dirt. But I probably was unconscious for a little bit. I probably also had been launched in the air I don't recall that I didn't hear anything I was told later by a member of the assault force who was down below that when he heard The explosion which is what had happened. I stepped on a pressure plate the weight of my foot Transmitted through the earth of two plates made a connection and the bomb went off. The bomb was two equivalent, approximately, of 105 millimeter artillery shells, or the equivalent of that.

But only one of them went off. And when this member of the assault force heard this and looked up through his night vision goggles, he saw a tall mushrooming column of dust and smoke. So he thought everybody up there on the hilltop was dead. I think there were 10 or 12 of us up on the hill. I don't remember exactly. But I remember thinking, this is a serious situation. I didn't know what had happened. I couldn't see anything. My night vision goggles were gone.

Everything was black. I knew I needed my teammates up there and I couldn't really do anything. I felt incapacitated. I was, I remember, I think I was reaching for my push to talk to try to key up the radio, but it wasn't there. My kit probably had been rearranged or torn off. But the next thing I knew, the guys up there were responding to the situation. None of them had been critically injured. I think their bells had been rung for about a minute. No one was responding on the hilltop to calls from down below about status updates. So for about a solid minute, they did think people were dead. Bad situation. Their bells

may have been rung, but nobody was critically injured. And that was very important. Now, the other thing is just this, this is a turnover operation. A couple of people I knew one in particular, I knew quite well from the Naval Academy and he was the platoon leader that I was shadowing and his response was immaculate. And I can be here today because of that and because of the bravery and response of everybody else up there. But keeping in mind that some of these people didn't really know me. We met within 48 hours of my arrival.

Some were new guys who I didn't know and from a different team. So their response to me is probably to be a part of that on the receiving end is something I'd be extremely proud of that I came from a community where this response happened the way that it did to try to save me because they had a bad situation. I was bleeding out. I had two femoral artery bleeds.

I'm not going to make it more than two minutes. So they had to apply tourniquets. They had to keep security. They were now compromised in vicinity of enemy forces. We're in an exposed position. We have to get off of this hilltop. All of this is having to be managed and in order to get off of that hilltop to get evacuated by a helicopter. And the helicopters are going all the way back to the

airfield where he launched from. It was a long flight, over 30 minutes, so we had to get them back. My teammates up there were told to get me down, so they were trying to carry me at first, but I remember tripping and stumbling. And so they had to just go to the, we didn't have stretchers and we were a light and mobile, nothing like that. It was now, okay, if we can't carry, we've got to drag him by the shoulder straps of his kit. So for me to be dragged down this rocky hill, it had taken us 20 plus minutes to hike up and we were doing all right. Now we're in an emergency. They're dragging me as fast as they could. And that was more, I'd been in some painful episodes physically through SEAL training or just self-imposed racing, adventure

racing, this kind of thing. But all of that pales in comparison to what I was experiencing. racing, this kind of thing. But all of that pales in comparison to what I was experiencing. And it was all I could really do just to try to stay in the game mentally. Not that I'm telling myself you need to stay in the game, but I was just responding to the calls of the medic who was attending to me. He had applied six tourniquets on my lower, lower, not that I was counting, but I'm told afterwards that it was six tourniquets. And when a tourniquet gets applied, that's painful. When six of them get supplied, that's really painful. But getting dragged off that hill was more pain than the application of the tourniquets. And eventually they got me down off of that hill over to the helicopter landing zone,

which had been hastily designated. And the helicopter coming in was really low on fuel, extremely low, I'm told later, within a minute of reaching the bingo fuel mark, where it would have had to go back to base without me, because you drop out of the sky if you exceed the bingo fuel limit. So it was precariously low on fuel. The timing was incredibly close. And they dragged me onto the back of the helicopter. There was a flight surgeon on board and then I just, they remained on scene to continue with the operation. As much as we like to think that we are national assets as operators, it's just these missions have go and no-go criteria and the loss of me,

it doesn't affect the no-go criteria. The mission continues and they stayed on scene as they should and continued with the mission. For me, there was a light in my face and I just remember that's the last thing I remember and I do still to this day remember this light in my face from the flight surgeon. I don't know if he put me under immediately or if I just let myself go after all that effort of just trying to stay in the game on that drag down the hill. But I let myself go. And the next thing I remember, I'm waking up in a hospital room with my mother, a few feet away looking at me.

And I didn't know where am I and what is going on. So you and I, before this episode, we're talking about Harry Uta Maggar, who I've had on the show a few months ago. And for people who didn't listen to that, Harry is a former Gurkha, which is special forces in the British military. And ironically, he was on one of his last patrols before leaving Afghanistan when he too stepped on an IED. And when he talks about the story, he really highlights an area that you did, which is the helicopter pilots who came in and saved them. He still knows their call sign. He's still trying to track them down, but what he understood later is that they vector it off of another mission to come and grab him

once he went down, but had it not been for their quick response, he would have died. And I'm guessing the same thing probably pertains to your situation as well. We were in an extremely remote area, and it's just a race against the clock. I've done enough medical analysis as well. We were in an extremely remote area and it's just a race against the clock. I've done enough medical analysis to know the timelines

and after a couple hours, your chance of survival go down quite a bit. After five hours, they go down drastically to the point of almost impossibility after a major IED strike. So it's really all about getting the injured service member onto a platform that can then take them to a field hospital as quickly as possible. I was brought back to Kandahar Airfield in southern Afghanistan and

it wasn't going well from what I'm told. I was in a medically induced coma at this point. But after the operation that My teammates were on ended and they came back to Kandahar airbase to regroup debrief to all that They also came through to see me And I think they were told it's probably it's more of a say goodbye situation And they summoned the senior ranking seal officer in country at the time bill Bill McRaven come down to, I'm told later, to put the purple heart on me before I succumbed,

but things got a little better. And this is what's for me, it's a little bit unnerving, but I was in a medically induced coma, which is like a black hole. There are no memories. There's no concept of time. I just was, it just was emptiness. And yet I was in this existential struggle for my life.

And so maybe at a subconscious level, I was fighting, or maybe this is just purely in the hands of the doctors and my body's gonna be doing what it's doing. I don't know, but to be told later that I was really on that line of maybe not making it is scary because you wanna, and I feel like when I was getting dragged off of the hill, I was awake, I could stay in this fight,

I could try to stay awake, that's my fight. But in this situation now, it's more of a medical situation and I'm not even awake really to try to summon resources and willpower but maybe this can happen at a lower subconscious level. I don't know. Well thank you for sharing that and when I was talking to Hari he told me he didn't really understand how precarious his situation was until he came out of, I think himself being induced into a coma and realized he no longer had legs.

When did the full enormity of your injuries fully come to realization for you? Did you know when you were coming down that mountain or was it when you regained full consciousness? Well, it was nighttime out and I was probably quite disoriented after the blast, but I couldn't see anything and that's fortunate. I'm glad it happened at night, not in the daytime. Although in the daytime, you can see earth disturbance a little bit better.

This is the situation though, it's at night. I can't see anything. I woke up from the medically induced coma 10 Earth 11 days later already back in the United States. I was back at Bethesda Naval Hospital my mother and sister were there and I remember

when I woke up I Was again disoriented and it was a matter of putting the pieces together. Where am I? What's going on? And then memories of that night, they came flooding back or that happened, but I'm very disoriented. I was under a fever.

I had, I was just burning up and I had a blanket covering my lower body, but my upper body was pretty much just shirtless and just sweating. I wasn't really looking down the direction, but when I did, it wasn't clear to me that my legs were gone. It's hard to, that might seem strange. How would you not know, like looking down that way that your legs weren't gone?

But I didn't really know. But I just remember I had this like foreboding sense that this is not good. But I do remember asking some medical person to the right of my bed if my legs are gone and they said yes, it's a heavy thing to hear. I didn't know the significance of amputation above the knee versus below the knee or up at the hip versus at the ankle, double versus single. I didn't, none of that mattered. It does matter, but in the beginning that was,

it was just, my legs are gone. And that's just a heavy thing to hear and process. When I found out I had a host of other internal injuries that then made the loss of the legs seem maybe not the main focus, but yet everybody focuses more so on the loss of the legs. But the internal injury that I sustained was really more of a problem in the first few weeks and even in more of the long run, I would say. So I mentioned Hari earlier.

I've also had Travis Mills on the show who's an army soldier and Oksana masters who will talk about, but as I have asked each one of them after they learned about their situation, the rehabilitation process when you're going through this is extremely arduous. And I asked them what motivated them to keep them going for Hari. It was his son for Xana. It was her mom and for Travis, it was his wife and kids. What was the key motivational factor for you that helped you through the rehabilitation?

I guess I would be in a different situation than the others. And in the sense that it wasn't about other people for me, it was more about, maybe this is more self-centered, but it was just, I want to be outside again. And I want to be in the woods. I want to be in nature. I want to see the world. I want to travel. I don't want to be limited.

So as I was talking to Hari, your life again, have a similar intersection point. He had gotten to a point of pretty large despair because he didn't know what his life would amount to. He didn't have purpose. And then he discovered extreme sports, which he never thought he'd be able to do again and along your path through recovery, I understand you discovered cross-country skiing and biathlon. How did that discovery impact your outlook on life?

Well, I was nearing the end of my time at Walter Reed. I had started at Bethesda Naval hospital, transferred to Walter Reed army medical center, both in basically in Washington, DC. Walter Reed was where I had to go to learn how to walk on prosthetics. I was in that hospital world for almost two years, but I would say at the year and a half mark, I went to a introductory recruitment sports camp for Paralympics in San Diego.

Not thinking too much about it, but I just wanted a trip to San Diego and it can be fun to be exposed to some sports. I was thinking about the Paralympics in general as a potential avenue for me to pursue, but more along the summer sports. And then when I was at this sports camp, I met the two coaches for the Nordic ski team, Vancouver Paralympics, Winter Olympics and Paralympics had just ended the previous winter. Didn't know much about that, didn't follow it,

but they were in a regrouping phase now. And they were looking to, some athletes had retired, they were looking to meet some new athletes. So they were at this camp in San Diego, in this obviously winter sport, but in a more of a summer sport destination. They had a ski machine. I talked to them.

They asked if I wanted to come to a camp in West Yellowstone, Montana, the following November. And I did. And when I went out there, it's not like it was just instant love being on snow because the conditions were miserable. It was dumping snow. I wasn't dressed appropriately.

I didn't know how to keep my stumps warm. I wasn't in a very good seat that it didn't fit me very well. You're now going to be cross-country skiing on a seat over two cross-country skis and just double poling. I didn't have background in cross-country skiing or ski racing, but in my mind the way that I think at the time it's I want to use legs as an athlete. I don't want to be in some adaptive rig where I'm just sitting down. It's like running or maybe cycling but with prosthetics. I want to use full body. That was my mind. But then I realized, okay, well if that's your mentality, you're just never going to cross-country ski then because the prosthetics aren't that good for it. So this is, if you wanna ski, if you wanna do biathlon,

this is how you do it. I saw my future teammates zipping by and they were so fast. And I thought with training and some dedication and some consistency and rerouting my life to actually be around snow a lot more than, maybe this is real. I didn't have any goals of meddling or anything. It just seemed like getting out in the woods again would be a good thing for me.

So I was on board with taking the next step and the next step was just to transition away from Walter Reed when that day came and transition to living somewhere where I could ski a lot more close to home on ski trails that would be grouped. And that I could then begin the process of training. Dan, I have to ask learning how to ski or do a biathlon is difficult enough for an able person. How difficult was this really to pick up these skills? It's not too difficult.

The problem is that you only have snow for a few months out of a year. That's what draws it out to be a few year process. If you were on snow over 300 days and you could probably, and I'm not talking about standing up cross country skiing, but sit skis from the seated position. I only have to do the double pole. The standings, if I was missing an arm and had my two, the two legs I was born with, that would be, I'd be in the standing category for the Paralympics, a different category than the seated position. That would have been a lot longer of a road because I'd have to learn the coordination of movement of legs with my skis underneath with pulling,

more coordination, much more technique. There's technique and double polling from the seated position, but you can learn this technique in a few years. I had an athletic background. I wasn't a recruited athlete at the Naval Academy, but I showed up there and I realized that within my class, I have some physical talent that in an engine, I could run, I could cycle. I made the triathlon team and started racing.

So I had this endurance background and now I have been as an amputee running a bit and that's what I wanted to do. But in the Paralympics, they don't have distance racing for amputees. And so I was really frustrated by that. They only have 200 meter and 100 meter sprint. I'm not a sprinter, but if they had the mile or the 5,000, I absolutely would have gone down that road. I love running, but this seemed like the hardest endurance sport that I could do in the Paralympics. So all of this is lining up and the technique I would say after

four to five years, which is four to five seasons of winter, that I was in a position where I could, at this point I'm finding age because I'm in my thirties, but I was learning this in my early thirties and then concerning the peak maybe at age 36, 37, where I had enough years into the sport, but still was more on the younger side. So we talked about intentional goals, helping you get through the Naval Academy. Can you talk about how this came back again to you in your journey to learning these two new skills to then even making it to the Paralympics?

Well, in the early years, I think I put a lot of pressure on just trying to win. And that's a result-oriented focus that I don't think was helping me out at all. I was a new athlete and we were going against Russian athletes, Ukrainian athletes, German athletes, Norwegian, a lot of athletes from across the world who've been doing this for a long time.

Maybe they were born with a disability, maybe they've been using their arms their whole life to propel themselves as a child to get across the room, maybe using their arms. And so it's just not realistic a couple years into my injury and now having to transform my upper body into kind of being the engine and just not knowing the ski handling, the subtleties of applying power while on snow, maximizing glide, being efficient that way. So I had a lot to learn, but I was too much focused on results. And goal setting is an important part of being an athlete and taking long goals, breaking them down maybe into seasonal goals, maybe breaking monthly or weekly

goals, taking goals and applying them across categories, not just saying, well, I'm going to train harder this year, but breaking it down as far as what's my sleep, what's my daily routine like, what's my rest situation, what's my hydration and nutrition situation, what are the skills that I can be working on in terms of technique and stuff that happens on snow, what's the situation in the weight room and with my body, how can I transform that, maximize strength to weight ratio to be optimal. All of these things I start to learn over time about how to do it. And that's where I actually start to put my focus instead of on winning. That's my goal is to win.

That wasn't really, that just puts too much pressure on me. So it's more like the process of achieving the goal became the goal is just to maximize the organization of this process and then dive into it and then make these choices day to day that feed into basically it's a training plan and you focus on that. And then when you get to race day, then it's about digging deep every other day. But now it's about effort and technique and focusing on the things that can actually make you get faster effort and technique. So not only did you achieve your goal, but you went on to win in a single Olympics, a gold medal, four silver medals, and a bronze medal, and you're named

male athlete for that Olympics game. Did you ever in a million years think that any of that would have been possible? No, no, I didn't. And partly, I think there's a decent amount of timing and timing can be, I don't want to say luck, but timing mattered because a couple of years past that, by 2022, I had been in the sport longer. I was 41 years old at that games. And the previous one in Sochi, Russia, I was 33, which is a good age where I can just hammer races and recover the next day.

But I was too new as an athlete. So this was a sweet spot for me. I was 37 years old, but more importantly, I think was the fact that I was in graduate school because on a surface I was very, I was worried about being in graduate school. I was using GI Bill from my time in the service and I had initially entered a one-year program in the season of 2015, 2016.

I didn't even compete on the World Cup Paralympic World Cup circuit that season. The next season I did a little bit, but school, the calendar really interfered with my ability to go to World Cup events. So I didn't really know where I was. And I had moved to New England. I was at sea level. I thought that could be good for me. Sea level training, but I didn't really know the places to ski and

I didn't have the support. I couldn't go to the training camps. So I was doing all of it by myself and I had a full course load and homework and writing papers and all this stuff going on, But it was really invigorating for me. And so after that first year's program, in the fall semester, actually, I should say, I had the foresight to apply for another program because I really, and that was to take me to divinity school. And where I was taking classes on Buddhism, Hinduism, philosophy, theology, any class that looked cool. I would just take that class and then class this year of the games that fit into my training

schedule so that I could hopefully get up to Vermont on the weekends in the winter and train Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday and then get back for class. There's a lot going on, but I had a local ski track, Weston ski track outside of Boston. I could do Tuesday night races. It was a 20 minute drive. I could get on the track and train. And I think for me, it was, that took my mind away from pressure and expectations.

And I just was gonna see what I could go do out on the snow, see what you can do, take one race at a time. Within this race, focus on what's right in front of you, right here. How can I get faster? Attack this terrain when it's time to shoot, switch. Now I'm a shooter. I just didn't have any expectations

and I think that's probably why I did well. Just to put this in perspective for the audience. So here you are training for the Paralympics and while you're going through it, you managed to earn two master's degree from a new England college known as Harvard while training to compete and win these medals. So it is quite the accomplishment, something that many listeners probably would think there's no way I myself could do something like this.

What message would you want to tell someone if they don't think they're capable of pursuing, making their dreams come true and how did you overcome any of those barriers? Well, I really believe it wasn't about achieving these things. I didn't need to win a gold medal to feel like I enjoyed this sport. I didn't need to get a master's degree in a piece of paper, but I loved taking the classes. I loved it. I loved meeting people, having new ideas thrown at me, conversations, the reading, expanding my foundation of knowledge personally. That's what it was about. It wasn't about winning a gold medal or getting some award. It was about putting in the work in woods, covering distance, recovering

from my injury. Certainly in the beginning that was important, but then now many years later I'm looking forward to winter and getting out on the ski trails. There are days when it's just the most and getting out on the ski trails. There are days when it's just the most serene and peaceful and beautiful sport you can imagine. That's what it was about and so it's not a, in my opinion, in my own story, it wasn't about achievement. But oh by the way, if you do focus on the things that you can be doing daily and really maximizing enjoyment and being on the right path. The path that you would want to be on if finances weren't a consideration, if external pressure wasn't a consideration, the right path for you. And you're on that path and you're enjoying it.

That's ultimately the best way to have success. Well, thank you for sharing that. And I think there are a whole bunch of lessons that people can get from your story and from the fact that focus on the process, not the outcomes that you want and enjoy that process, because that's where oftentimes we have the most fulfillment. Now I want to switch gears with you, Dan, on the remaining time that we have. So a few weeks ago, I knew we were having this episode coming up and.

I had the TV turned on a Sunday evening and in the background, I hear the person on 60 minutes mentioned a Naval Academy graduate, and I turn to look at 60 minutes to see them mentioning you climbing a mountain in support of the mountain seed foundation. them mentioning you climbing a mountain in support of the Mountain Seed Foundation. Can you tell us about your involvement with the foundation and what inspired you to join the board of directors? Yes, I'm happy to and thanks for asking about this, John. I have a classmate and friend from the Naval Academy, great class of 02, Nathan Schmidt. He went into the Marine Corps. He, as the 60 Minutes story shows,

he has suffered quite a bit from his experiences overseas as a Marine in combat. And I think he would say, and I don't want to speak on his behalf, but I would think he would say that he has struggled with what you could say is PTSD. But he found a lot of healing through his family, through his faith, but also through the mountains and through climbing, through difficult climbing in the Alps.

He had been posted overseas in Europe and pushed himself with guides in the Alps. And I think for him, and also in my own story, we have different situations. I don't believe I have PTSD, but I do have a physical injury that is very limiting. And in his situation, the wounds are more invisible in nature, but he did find that recovery and he wanted to do something to help Ukrainians after the first invasion. He has experience in Ukraine and knows a lot of people inside Ukraine, has a connection with Ukrainians. Mountain Seed Foundation, he started with a Ukrainian woman and they started this before the second, the

full-scale invasion. They started Mountain Seed Foundation in 2021, which we're proud of. It wasn't started after the invasion, although that would have been fine too, but we did start before. But then when the second invasion, the full scale one occurred, we realized we need to get families who have been affected by war and soldiers and people who have been displaced, people who lost their spouse, kids, get them out to the mountains and climb, heal. That right now it's happening in Austria. We have the Austrian Alps and there's a lot of, as you can see in the 60 Minutes episode, the scenery is beautiful. It's breathtaking. They also have the Via Ferrata routes, which were developed for military purposes, but they're great for safe climbing and for me for adaptive climbing. They make it a bit easier because I can use the cable if the rock feature itself isn't sufficient. So this where I'm leaving in just a few days to run

to be at a camp, a mountain sea camp in Austria with injured Ukrainian soldiers. I took a trip with Nathan a few months ago to Ukraine. We went to rehab centers for injured soldiers. We met and this was like for me going back into the days when I was at Walter Reed, went to the superhuman center in L'Vive. We went to state rehab centers in L'Vive and also Keeve. We saw many amputees. We saw soldiers who are not amputees, but have been injured and they're doing physical therapy, putting their life back together.

We believe we can offer them a lot of healing in a situation where the government doesn't have a lot of spare capacity to be thinking long-term and to maybe not the robust nonprofit network system that we have in the United States, because a lot of other veterans that I went through Walter Reed with, we benefited from charity groups that were taking service members out hunting or fishing

or going on sports or going on scuba diving, just really cool adventures. And this is, it's fun. It's developing camaraderie and a network of friends and sharing experiences. And ultimately it's healing. And so we really want to get the operations for climbing and retreat centers going inside Ukraine. And that was the second purpose of our trip to Ukraine. So we have a lot going on. We really are grateful to 60 Minutes for having the presence to do this story because it's really changed our situation.

And now we believe we can really grow and provide some of the support for Ukrainian soldiers who are fighting to protect their country, their way of life, and their freedom. So if you're a listener and you wanna find out more about the Mountain Seed Foundation and how you might be able to make a donation, I will have links to it in the show notes plus a link to that episode

that's aired on 60 Minutes. I do want to say that the Foundation offers a unique blend of art therapy, skill building, and mentoring, and they do this in a natural setting which plays a central role in the foundation's healing approach. And I just wanted to go back to that for a second with you, Dan, because you started this whole episode out talking about the role that nature always played on your life ever since you grew up on a farm. And now with this foundation, nature has come up back again.

Can you elaborate on why nature is such a powerful tool for recovery? Well, I think it does offer you, if we're in, this is being in tune with our origins and we're always as a species, much more closely connected to nature. I mean, all of the world is nature, but there's more than made sections than in others. And if, if you can find yourself in or near the ocean or mountains or woods or river or lake or just more peaceful settings, it allows some space to reflect in the situation

with mountain seed. We want to push the participants, the Ukrainians, whether they be gold star mothers or kids of gold star mothers or injured service members or the families of injured service members or externally displaced of injured service members or externally displaced persons. We want to push them a little bit out of their comfort zone, but in these amazing settings that I think can really provide that capacity to heal nature. If you let nature, it will do the work. It can be like a medicine. And I think it's a matter of just, you know, putting yourself in these situations, but in a safe way and allowing that time to heal.

And my last question for you, Dan, is this, you're preparing now for the 2026 Olympics, as I understand it. How do you define success and fulfillment now compared to before your injury? And what are your hopes and aspirations for the future? I think success for me is just living a life where I look forward to each day

and where I'm getting outside. I'm around people that I benefit from their presence, that we, people that you love, people that you love to be with. Success is not about winning a medal. That's not even why I'm doing this, making this effort to really step up my training in the next year and a half.

I don't need a medal. We're gonna go represent the US in a positive way, train and set that example, and then work hard and go race hard. That's success for me, no more than that. And enjoy the sport. And I don't know what's next. Hopefully some more involvement with the Mountain Seed Foundation and seeing where we're being open to a whole plethora of possibilities that is out there. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. And the last question I wanted to ask is if people want to learn more about you, your journey to the Olympics, et cetera, where's the best place for them to go?

To learn more about my journey. Well, I'm not a social media user. I actually don't know where to send people, but if for those who have listened to this podcast, I really appreciate listening to me share my story or some of my story. And I want to thank you, John, for the opportunity. It's I think when we talk about healing, one other aspect of healing is sharing your story and communicating, knowing that there are people willing to listen to me is very meaningful.

I think it's one way there's a lot of gratitude in the United States for service members. One certain way to express that is to listen to the stories that we have. I recently, well a couple months ago was on a trip to Normandy for the 80th anniversary of D-Day and I took away just the chance to listen to the stories of the veterans who served in World War II. It was a reminder that we have a lot of experience in history and our service members across generations. that we have a lot of experience in history and our service members across generations. We can learn a lot from them.

But it also in the act of listening is a meaningful way to show thanks for what they've done. Well, Dan, we're a great way to end the episode. Thank you again so much for joining us. Thanks, John. I appreciate this opportunity and it's great to meet you. What an incredible journey we just explored with Lieutenant Commander Dan Knosson. Dan's story is such a profound reminder that no obstacle is insurmountable when you possess

the willpower and determination to rise above it. From the battlefield to the Paralympic podium, Dan has shown us what true resilience looks like. His insights on perseverance, leadership, and embracing challenges are lessons that we can all carry with us in our own lives. If Dan's story moved you as much as it did me, I encourage you to share this episode with someone who could use a dose of inspiration today. Thank you, Dan, for showing all of us what it means to live a passion struck life. And remember, links related to everything Dan will be in the show notes at passionstruck.com. If you're inspired to grab a book from life. And remember links related to everything Dan will be in the show notes

at passionstruck.com. If you're inspired to grab a book from any of our guests, please use the links that you'll find in the show notes. You'll also find videos on YouTube at both our main channel at John R. Miles and our clips channel at passionstruck clips. Deal and discover all our advertisers deals and discount codes at passionstruck.com slash deals. Supporting those who support the show truly makes a difference. If you're looking for daily doses of inspiration, then please join me on all the social platforms at John R. Miles.

If you're curious to understand how I bring such amazing guests on the show, it's all thanks to building strong relationships. And I do that long before I ever need them. Most of our guests are not just interviewees, but also subscribers who contribute ideas for future topics. So come join our community. You'll be in smart company. Before we wrap up, I'm excited to share a sneak peek of our next episode of Passion Struck,

where we dive into the world of influence, power, and status with none other than Alison Frugal, the Mary Farley Amos Lee Distinguished Scholar of Organizational Behavior at UNC Chapel Hill. Allison's new book, Likeable Badass, How Women Get the Success They Deserve, Everything You Thought You Knew About How Power Dynamics Really Work. Whether you're navigating the workplace, your personal life, or just looking to elevate your status, this episode is packed with actionable strategies to help you thrive. If we look at the science of status, what leads somebody to be respected?

Well, we respect people who are assertive and capable more than people who aren't. And we respect people who are warm and giving and other-oriented more than people who aren't. So when you show up as likable and badass, you've done the science-based thing, the most controllable science-based thing that you have to get other people to value and respect you.

Remember that we rise by lifting others. So if you found Dan's story inspirational, or if you're excited about what's coming up with Alison for Gale, share the show with someone who could benefit. The greatest compliment that you can give us is to share the show with those that you care about. And as always, do your best to apply what you hear on the show

so that you can live what you listen. We'll see you next time. Live life, passion, scrub.