Passion Struck with John R. Miles - Maintaining Forward Momentum When All Odds Are Against You w/ John R. Miles EP 3

Episode Date: February 19, 2021

Ever wondered how you maintain your forward momentum in the face of extreme adversity? How can you keep anxiety and depression at bay even when all odds are stacked against you? In today’s show, John shares his wisdom on confronting your reality, unlocking human potential, and a positive mindset. Nearly 30 years back, John had the good fortune of meeting Admiral James Stockdale in his sophomore year at the Naval Academy. There was no better inspiration than Admiral Stockdale, who had been held a POW for a couple of years, was nearly beaten to death, and yet miraculously survived. So, how did Admiral Stockdale survive the brutality of his captors? Despite everything, how did he manage to cling on to hope and positivity? With the pandemic outbreak, many of us are experiencing pangs of anxiety and depression. While it is tempting to withdraw into a shell, John reminds us WHY you need to face your reality head-on in today's show. You will learn how visualizing your future can help you refocus on what you need to do today to move towards your end goal. Enjoy! What You Will Learn In This Show Why being “indifferent” in the face of adversity is the biggest mistake that you can make How to maintain hope and positivity even when the odds are stacked against you Why you need to focus more on inputs rather than the outcome And so much more… Follow John R. Miles Here: Website - https://passionstruck.com/ ​Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/passion_struck_life ​ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Johnrmiles.c0m ​ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Milesjohnr ​ Medium: https://medium.com/@JohnRMiles John's Website: https://johnrmiles.com/ - John's New eBook - The Passion Struck Framework https://passionstruck.com/coaching/

It really comes down to three things. You have to work on your mindset. You have to work on your internal well-being, meaning your gut health and a lot of the studies I've done on what you put in your body and its impact. And then lastly, you have to work on overcoming the anxiety, depression, fear, doubt, whatever those other things may be. And we talked about each one of those in more depth. Welcome to the PassionStruck podcast. My name is John Miles, a former combat veteran and multi-industry CEO, turned entrepreneur and human performance expert.

Each week we showcase an inspirational person and message that helps you unlock your hidden potential and unleash your creativity and leadership abilities. Thank you for spending time with me today and let's get igniting! Welcome to Momentum Friday. Welcome to Momentum Friday. Mental of Honor winner, Vice Admiral James Stockdale once said, you must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end, which you can never afford to lose with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality

whatever they might be. And in this episode, I want to learn pack Admiral Stockdale. And in this episode, I want to let pack Amarostock Dill's words in this quote, and why it has such a profound impact on you unlocking your hidden potential and living a purpose-driven life. I want to talk to you about facing the brutal reality of what's going on in your life and steps that you can take right now to take action. In our last episode, I discuss why comfort and empathy are the enemies of passion and discuss their growing impact on entrepreneurs and business fatality. The two major social forces

that propel the American dream and make us the envy of the world. And without them, we face a growing national emergency. I discussed how an examination distributed by the 2015 National Bureau of Economic Research report shows that startup action has been easing in the United States for around three decades. Dropping firmly in the course of the last ten years, and I further discussed how the Brookings Institute found that startup rate, the quantity of new organizations as a level of all organizations has fallen by almost half since 1978.

I think given that as a backdrop is extremely important in discussing the story of Admiral Stockdale. As I discussed in the last episode, we are facing a national urgency. More and more people are failing to live a passion driven life or a purpose driven life, however you might like to say it. I was very fortunate to meet Admiral Stockdale over 30 years ago. I was just beginning my sophomore or what we call it the Naval Academy, as our youngest year and going through leadership training during that summer.

And I was fortunate to have lectures from Vice Admiral Lawrence, from other admirals, from astronauts, and other people. And one day we got to have a guest lecture from Admiral Stockdale. And I was blown away by him and his talk. He had never forgotten what happened to him, but he discussed it in a way that was so vulnerable, so unique, and taught me so much about the importance of unlocking human potential that has stayed with me to this very day. For those of you who don't know the story of Admiral Stockdale. He was a Naval Academy grad and fighter pilot who was shot down and then spent several torture shears as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. And during that period of time, he overcame all the odds, never gave end to his captors, was continually beaten to the point of almost dying,

but eventually survived and got out and upon getting back to the US soil was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. As I was looking back at his story, it reminded me of a famous interview that Jim Collins did with him and Jim Collins outlined it as the Stockdale paradox. And in this, Jim Collins relates that it just seemed so

bleak, the uncertainty of Admiral Stockdale's fate, the brutality of his captors, and so forth. How on earth did he deal with it? How on earth did he overcome odds like this and become who he is today much less surviving them at all? And when Collins asked that question of Stockdale, they have returned to him and replied, I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which in retrospect, I would not trade. Can you imagine that sitting back decades later,

the way that they treated him, the injuries that he sustained during his time there, and to say that it was the defining event of his life, and he wouldn't trade it for an instant. I know for me that would be a very difficult thing to do. And as I faced trials and tribulations in my own life, I can say that I haven't had at times the courage that our most stockdale has to prevail. He further went on to say that the optimist, encourage that our most octal has to prevail.

People are the one on to say that the optimist, oh, they were the ones who said, we're gonna be out by Christmas and Christmas would come and Christmas would go. Then they'd say, we're gonna go out, gonna be out by Easter and Easter would come and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving and then it would be Christmas again

and they all died of a broken heart. This is a very important lesson that Avro Stockdale teaches us that you must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end, which as I stated before, you can never afford to lose with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality whatever they may be. And given the year we've had in 2020, all of us, including myself, are facing some pretty brutal realities right now. Some of us have experienced job loss, some of us have experienced the death of loved ones, some of us are an economic

peril, and others are facing other ailments. I happened today to be at the VA for a regular treatment with a neurologist and we just happened to get on to this discussion. And he was telling me about his life and he originally was an engineer and then after a number of years he decided to reinvent his career. And he was talking to me about his journey to becoming a neurologist. And we began talking about that, you know, whether it's an engineer or now a neurologist, you don't just get from point A to point B in one fell swoop. It's a long journey and there are many hiccups along the way.

And he was talking to me about how during the course of this transition that his weight has fluctuated caused much by the stress of what's going on. And he would tend to eat more when he became stressful because of the impact that it was having on his body. And as I sat there and thought about his story and how he would, over the past 10 decades, gain 20 pounds, lose the weight, then put it back on again, it made me think of my time with Admiral Sockdale and the story he told me about how he

prevailed. And so as I was sitting there talking to this neurologist, we began talking more and more about what were some of the things that he was facing. Are you ready to overcome your fears and start committing yourself to mastery and growth in your life and career? If you are, we're ready to overcome your fears and start committing yourself to mastery and growth in your life and career? If you are, we're ready to help you. Go to passionstruck.com slash coaching right now, and you'll be able to download the passionstruck framework and connect with a member of our coaching team. And so as I was sitting there talking to this neurologist, we began talking more and more about,

what were some of the things that he was facing? And he talked about the stress of being in a practice where he was before joining the VA, and the constant stress of trying to become a partner in that practice, and its toll on him, his family, his well-being. And what I started to talk to him about was, what was it that was causing you so much stress? And as we began talking about it, he started to go to the topic of outcome. He said, I became a neurologist and I wanted to become a partner so bad that that's where all my focus was. And as you were looking at that,

how did you relate that to the daily activities that you were doing? Because one of the most difficult things I've had to overcome is focusing so much on the outcome or the output that I forget the inputs along the way. And I think that's much of what Admiral Sokdale was trying to talk about regarding his experience with being in Hanoi and having to overcome the current reality he was facing. Because just like the neurologist I'm discussing here, he has a current reality. He's got young kids, he's got debt from taking on this the second career. He's got aspirations of where he wants to go, but he wasn't adhering to or trying to

think about his current reality. So one of the things I talked to him about that has worked for me, and I would encourage you yourself to do, is to take the time to picture where you want your life to be a year from now. And I do this often through meditation and through walks. And after I had a vision episode, I started walking back, where do I want to be in the future? I have a very loving girlfriend, and I certainly want her in her life. I want to improve the quality that I have with my own kids. I want to take the business that I'm starting in this podcast

and grow it immensely over the next year. And it got me thinking about where I am today and where I want to be. And so once I started having that story, I started creating a ritual in my own life where every day I wake up and you know after I get my coffee, I spend you know a good five to ten minutes rethinking about that vision. But then I spend the next 10 to 15 minutes thinking about what are the actions that I need to take today that are keeping

me from meeting that goal? What are the brutal facts of the current reality that I need to take today that are keeping me from meeting that goal. What are the brutal facts of the current reality that I need to overcome and prioritize so that I can in a year from now be where I want to be? And in my discussion with the doctor, I relayed that to him as well. And I told him, as I do with many of the people I work with, that it really comes down to three things. You have to work on your mindset. You have to work on your internal well-being, meaning your gut health and a lot of the studies I've done on what you put in your body and its impact.

And then lastly, you have to work on overcoming the anxiety, depression, fear, doubt, whatever those other things may be. And we talked about each one of those in more depth. And I started to talk to him about the importance of having that mindset of achieving your goal, but the importance of breaking it down into achievable daily steps. We then started talking about his diet, and I went through many of the stories I've written and articles on gut health.

My interview with Stephen Gundry and several other doctors, and how what we put in our body has such a huge impact on the way we feel each day, the way we interact with others, and how we perform. And then I also talked to him about exercise, and exercise takes a different form for each one of us. For some, it could be a walk for others.

It might be an orange theory class or CrossFit. For others, it could be a spin class. The important thing is that you have a ritual of attacking each one of these, if not on a daily basis, then on a weekly basis. And we then went through some of the brutal facts of other things that were impacting him. And it just got me to thinking back about this episode from last week about the entrepreneurial

journey and the things that are impacting so many of us today. Too often leaders and entrepreneurs start their journeys with a world-changing idea, backed by an initial momentum to impact their industry. And as I talked about last week, they let the scary edges of reality cause them to shrink back. And I think a major reason for this is they get so consumed with the final destination that they get lost in the daily things that they need to do to achieve it, coupled with taking care of their health and

taking care of their anxiety. That is why I believe the floor has dropped out on our human potential and for doing the very difficult work that it takes to truly excel. Whether it's him launching a new practice as a neurosurgeon, Admiral Stockdale relaunching his career, or launching and running companies, none of those things is for the faint-hearted, and the environment, the next generation of future leaders

and growth-minded individuals are coming up in, is far different than the generations before them, including the generation that I grew up in. As I talked about last week, our world is in the midst of an incredible season of change. As we move into our all-digital future, the world around us is changing, and many of us, instead of facing the brutal reality of all the things that are happening to us, we cling to the comfort that's around us. We fall into the trap of being indifferent. And as I started this podcast out, apathy and comfort are the enemies of passion and living a purpose driven life. Consider the transformation and courage that Admiral Stockdale had by overcoming the odds, overcoming the torture that he had,

and not only going back to being a military officer, but then becoming a professor at Stanford, being asked to become the vice president of the United States, and overcoming that ordeal, and other things that he did in his life. Make a choice, work every day, and start step into the sharp edges. We all face our own version of a cruel reality. And the number one thing we must do to face that brutality of that reality is to not try to

overcome it all in one fell swoop. Nothing worthwhile was ever built in a day, and overcoming this brutality won't be either. Thank you again for listening and watching to the Passion Strike podcast. Please download this, share it on social media, share it to your friends, and to the next time we talk, keep igniting. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for joining us. The purpose of our show is to make Passion Go viral. By sharing the knowledge and insights you can use to unlock your hidden potential.

To hear more, please subscribe to the show in iTunes Spotify Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you'd love this episode, we'd appreciate a five-star rating on iTunes, where if you simply tell free of your most driven and motivated friends about the show and post to your social accounts, that would help us grow our PassionStruct community too. If you want more tools to unlock your potential, please make sure to also visit our website

passionstruct.com to sign up to our email list, as well as check out all the links and resources in the show notes. Be sure to tune in on Tuesdays and Fridays for our next episodes and remember, make a choice, work hard, and step into your sharp edges. Thanks again and I'll see you next time. you