Passion Struck with John R. Miles - Staff Sergeant Travis Mills on How You Bounce Back and Rise Above Adversity EP 369

Episode Date: November 7, 2023

On today’s Passion Struck podcast, host John R. Miles talks with Travis Mills, a remarkable veteran whose survival story has captured the hearts of the nation. Delve into the teachings of 'BOUNCE BACK,' where Travis lays out 12 principles that go beyond the battlefield, providing guidance for anyone facing their darkest times and how to conquer them. Full show notes and resources can be found here: https://passionstruck.com/staff-sergeant-travis-mills-rise-above-adversity/   Passion Struck is Now Available for Pre-Order Want to learn the 12 philosophies that the most successful people use to create a limitless life? Pre-order John R. Miles’s new book, Passion Struck, which will be released on February 6, 2024. Sponsors Brought to you by OneSkin. Get 15% off your order using code Passionstruck at https://www.oneskin.co/#oneskinpod. Brought to you by Indeed: Claim your SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR CREDIT now at Indeed dot com slash PASSIONSTRUCK. Brought to you by Lifeforce: Join me and thousands of others who have transformed their lives through Lifeforce's proactive and personalized approach to healthcare. Visit MyLifeforce.com today to start your membership and receive an exclusive $200 off. Brought to you by Hello Fresh. Use code passion 50 to get 50% off plus free shipping!  --► For information about advertisers and promo codes, go to: https://passionstruck.com/deals/ The Resilient Warrior: Travis Mills' Journey of Recovery As one of the five surviving quadruple amputees from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Travis brings a powerful testimony of resilience and perseverance. Discover why letting go of 'why' can liberate you, how to navigate emotional healing, and why gratitude can be your greatest ally amidst adversity. Tune in for an episode filled with courageous tales, life-affirming insights, and Travis’s infectious humor, all aimed at helping you reclaim and recalibrate your life. 🌟"   Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter or Instagram handle so we can thank you personally! How to Connect with John Connect with John on Twitter at @John_RMiles and on Instagram at @john_R_Miles. Subscribe to our main YouTube Channel Here: https://www.youtube.com/c/JohnRMiles Subscribe to our YouTube Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@passionstruckclips Want to uncover your profound sense of Mattering? I provide my master class on five simple steps to achieving it. Want to hear my best interviews? Check out my starter packs on intentional behavior change, women at the top of their game, longevity, and well-being, and overcoming adversity. Learn more about John: https://johnrmiles.com/ 

Coming up next on Passion Struct. I think I'm just fortunate to still be around and I realized that instead of having survivor guilt and feeling like I should be down or out because people that make him echo my realize that it wasn't my choice or my call. I didn't make it back home, but I can push forward in life and live to the fullest not only for myself, but also for the service members that didn't make him echo me on their loved ones that no longer have them in their life. Welcome to Passion Struct.

Hi, I'm your host, John Armiles. 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 guest-ranging from astronauts to authors, CEOs, creators, innovators, scientists, military leaders, visionaries, and athletes. Now, let's go out there and become Passion Struck. Hello everyone, and welcome back to episode 369 of Passion Struck, consistently ranked by Apple as the number one alternative health podcast. Thank you to all of you who come back to the show every week to listen and learn how to live better,

be better and impact the world. For your new to the show, thank you so much for being here or you simply wanna introduce this to a friend or family member. Check out our episode Starter Packs, which are collections of our fans' favorite episodes that we organize into different playlists that give any new listener a great way to get acclimated to everything we do here on the show. Either go to Spotify or passionstruck.com slash Starter Packs to get started.

In case you missed it, last week I had three great interviews. The first was with Dr. Vanessa Bonds, a social psychologist and professor of organizational behavior at Cornell University. Dr. Bonds is the author, the eye-opening book, you have more influence than you think. And in our interview, we discuss her original research to shed light on the power dynamics of consent and influence. I also interviewed Rusty Schultan, best selling author, dynamic keynote speaker, and successful entrepreneur. We discuss Rusty's book, The Authority Advantage,

Building Thought Leadership Focused on Impact, not Ego. Lastly, I had on Michelle Mace Curran, a combat veteran and former F-16 pilot who once commanded the skies as Thunderbird No. 6, opposing Solo before becoming the lead Solo No Number 5 in the 2020-2021 air show season. Michelle's story is testament to the unwavering spirit for some of your events and determination. I also want to say thank you for your ratings and reviews. If you love today's episode or any of the others that I mentioned, we would appreciate you giving in a 5 star review and sharing it with your friends and families.

I know we and our guests love to see comments from our listeners and these reviews and ratings bring so many people into the passion-struct community. Today, I have the incredible honor of speaking with retired United States Army Staff Sergeant and New York Times best-selling author, Travis Mills. Travis is not just a war hero, he is one of only five quadruple amputees to survive the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His journey from the battlefield to where he is today is nothing short of awe-inspiring. In his latest book, Bounceback, Walfourer Principles to reclaim and recalibrate your life, Travis lays out a powerful roadmap for how to face life's challenges at on, and emerge stronger on the other side. This isn't just a book for soldiers or veterans.

It's a book for anyone who has faced trauma and adversity and is looking for a way, bounce back and reclaim their life. With nearly a decade of experience coaching others to overcome adversity, Travis shares practical strategies and heartfelt stories that will resonate with survivors from all walks of life. This episode is full of powerful antidote, medical insights, and of course, Travis's trademark humor. So without further ado, let's dive in and learn from Travis' incredible journey and the

invaluable lessons he has to share. Thank you for choosing PassionStruck and choosing me to be your host and guide on your journey to creating an intentional life. Now, let that journey begin. I am so excited today to welcome Travis Mills to Passionstruck. Welcome, Travis. Hey, thanks for having me. Good morning.

Good morning. Travis, we all have defining moments in our lives that we will never forget, moments that shape our life's trajectory. Your story is an incredible testament to human resilience and strength. Can you take us back to the moment in your in-laws bedroom, where you found yourself looking at a picture of yourself in a small sterling silver picture frame? And how through that moment,

did you realize your life was going to be completely different and how did it influence your journey to recalibrate it? So excited to get out of the hospital and all I did for the 19 months recovery was think I'm gonna retire, I'm gonna get out of the hospital and all I did for the 19 months recovery was think I'm going to retire. I'm going to get out of here. And life is all ebbs and flows or hills and valleys. In the military where I was a high up, stab sergeant and I led my guys had a great time with it and then I got blown up and then I built myself up to be somebody that was a mentor

of people look up to. They worked out with and recovered with at the hospital and then all I wanted was to retire and that way I retired. I went and stayed in my in-laws house. When I got there, I got everything that I wanted. I thought and then I realized I had to figure out who I was. I was no longer staff sergeant Travis Mills, leader of combat soldiers.

And I was no longer going to be the guy at the hospital that everybody looked up to and talked with, worked out with and believed in, asked questions to, and looked for mentorships. I was now out in the real world. and I didn't know what my next direction was going to be, and what I was going to be able to do with it, but my wife luckily walked in, and as the first time I think I ever showed anybody emotion about what I was going through, and I even like I wanted to, just by accident, and she assured me we'll get through this together, and then I decided that

there wasn't going to beat me, and I would just keep pressing be sure we were going to get through this together. And then I decided that there wasn't going to be me. And I would just keep pressing forward and figure it out. And in that moment, didn't really know what I was going to do. I'd start speaking a little bit, which I thought was fun. And then I also had the nonprofit for care packages. But we were going to expand that. And then this decided, let's go for it. Let's have some good times and not let this injury take rest

my life. You talk about your time in the military and it's something that I can relate to because when I was in, I felt the same way. We had this mission and we knew the strategy we needed to do to execute it. However, after I left the military, I was supposed to join the FBI. And that unfortunately hit a snag when Congress failed to pass. Spending bill and myself and my classmates got recirculated and I found myself in a similar place at my in-laws house and stuck between this life I had known in the military and now

having to go into the civilian world and find a job because I had no fallback plan to the FBI not happening. And I think whether it's coming out of the military or some aspect of our lives, we often find ourselves in this place that I call the abyss. It's this unknown place that we get stuck in. And as I was reading your story, it related to me because when we're stuck in this place, I think we have a choice. We can either remain stuck, self-sabotaging ourselves, hiding the fear of the unknown, et cetera,

or we can choose growth. And as I say, to become passion struck, would inspire you at that moment of being in the unknown to make that choice, and would advice would you give to a listener who finds themselves stuck in the same place? I was just fortunate to have my daughter by my side and my wife, so it wasn't really a hard decision of getting better as much as it was, what am I going to do next and finding my new path, if you will, because I was given a chance to live, and I was given a chance

to move forward in life regardless of having limbs or not. And my daughter being there with me is my guiding light, if you will, and my best friend made it easy for me to want to press forward in life. I can't say that I had a moment where I wanted to give up, right? I wanted to quit on anything,

but I can't say that it was just a hard time realizing that now I'm out of the military, now I have nobody tell me where to go, what to do, what to eat, what to say. And I had to figure life out. And I say I'm my own, but it wasn't really. I had to figure my life out. It was going to be most beneficial for me, but more importantly, my family.

My wife came in, reassured me, will be okay. My daughter, me hung out, we hang out like every day, and you just figure it out. But I think my background probably helped me out as well because my mom and dad always did anything they could for us children and I knew that was the most important thing was families. What happened to me was terrible but I'm pretty lucky guy. Someone who's faced the reality of potentially not being here today, how is your perception of mattering and making a difference changed or evolved? I think I'm just fortunate to still be around and I realized that instead of having survivor guilt and feeling like I should be down or out because the people that make it back home

I realized that it wasn't my choice or my call. I didn't make it back home, but I can push forward in life and live to the fullest not only for myself, but also for the service members that didn't make it back home and their loved ones that no longer have them in their life. I just think that realizing that I was given the opportunity to chance to live through injuries is one of the greatest gifts, and no matter how hard my life gets or how much I struggle with certain things, it could be worse. And I just need to count my blessings and just keep going forward.

Yeah, one of the things I love that you wrote in the book is that we need to learn to separate the trauma from the struggle. Why is it what truly matters is not the struggle, but how you struggle? Well, I'd say about how you adapt and overcome. That's how you can understand that struggle is real and there is stuff going on, but there's ways to be stronger. There's ways to get through it or adapt with it. Maybe you won't ever recover fully, but when you do have something come up that is constantly nagging at you,

or is a burden on you, there's ways to get around it and to cope with it. I remember how hard it was for my recovery, but I don't worry about, because the bomb hit me. I don't worry about when that bomb hit me anymore because it's something that happened in the past. Now, every day I have to put my legs on and my arm on when I walk around and prosthetics and use prosthetic hand to lead myself and dress myself and to drive myself around. It's always a constant reminder of what I went through, what does it mean I gotta live where I went through?

I can just keep pushing fast. Today, we're gonna spend most of the interview talking about your new book, which releases on November 7th, Bounce Back, 12-4-year principles to reclaim and recalibrate your life. And I was hoping you could describe Bounce Back because it's not just a title, but it's a powerful message that you want to share with the world. And you explained the main reason you wrote it and how it has shaped your life post-injury. Absolutely. I'm very fortunate to be a speaker

at a lot of events, I'm actually fine to Alabama today, right after this, and then I got head to Florida next week. But I think that the biggest question I always got was, hey, how'd you do it? Like, how'd you recover, end up being this person that's happy and smiling

and joking around and all that? I realized that after they said that, they always told me something was going on in their life. I had cancer, I have a car accident, I have this, I have that. And I just can't seem to figure out how to make it through or to come out of it, like how you came out of your injuries. And I thought, man, let me just figure out how to write my story, but as well as other people's stories of how they were able

to bounce back, how they were getting knocked down, but get up, dust themselves off, and keep going forward. And the unique part about my new book coming out that I'm very excited for is it's not just my story, it's the stories of people that went through cancer and divorced and house fires and drug addiction, but how they were at the bottom of the barrel, the lowest they could be and then how they clawed

and got their way back up and how they were able to bounce back as well as there's medical background. So theories and research papers and studies that go into how the mind works and how you're able to think a certain way and change your mindset or why you feel a certain way due to what your brain does in situations that you find yourself in. So I'm truly excited how it came out. The collaborative author, Kathy Huck, the research author I worked with was just a wealth of knowledge, very fantastic.

And I think it's a book that doesn't speak just to military people or just people that serve, whether it's first responders or firefighters or any kind of service, I think it speaks to everybody because everybody goes through something and showcases that we're not all alone in this and we're not isolated with what we're going through. Other people have struggles and this is how they were able to bounce back and get through it. In the book, you lay out 12-word principles and I'm going to go through several of them during the interview. The first is what you call that dog don't hunt, love the name. In it, you discuss the importance of not torturing yourself by not asking why me, but rather what now. How did shifting your mindset in this way change your path to recovery?

Well, I would sit in a hospital bed and I would close my eyes and I hope when I wish to pray this never happened, I would open my eyes and I was still in the hospital bed. And then you start going down the rabbit hole of a why this happened, a why me or what could I have done different, or what's my life going to be like? And all these questions that you can't answer. And you're never going to answer. Unfortunately, you're never going to answer in my situation. I'm never going to answer why this happened to me.

I have to accept that it did happen. I accept. All right, it happened. And I have to move forward. So with me, it's just about understanding what we can control, what we can understand, what we can figure out, compared to what we can. And simply put, I can't figure out why this happened.

And I'm never going to understand why it happened. And no answer I ever get for why it happened will make me feel better about it. So instead, I just stop asking why. I go ahead and accept that it happened. And then we just get a little better, brighter future. In principles three, you outline the concept that you point the finger and four fingers point back at you.

And you talk about the importance of being compassionate to our emotions. How has being compassionate towards your emotions, especially the painful ones, helped you in the healing process? Well, I told you I did mental health the wrong way. I didn't talk to mental health of the hospital. No matter if fact, I just gave a name, ranking social. And that was it. And then I had a community, like a social worker

I was supposed to talk to, and about the second session, I think I said, look, this isn't the movies. We're not gonna have any deep conversations. I think what you do is great, and people need it. Should definitely come see you, but we're gonna get nowhere. And she released me, but then I realized later on that I was fortunate because I had such a strong friend group that I had my counseling or my work done for me

while I talking to all my friends and being there to understand what they're going through. But then back to being compassionate, what's going on in your life or what's going on with your situation? It's okay to have a rough day, it's okay to be upset or sad or emotional about something. After you get to that part, then you have to figure out

how you're gonna get out of that. You don't just wanna sit and marinate in that. You wanna be compassionate to what you're going through, understand what you're going through, and work towards a plan to how you're gonna get out of what, whatever's driving you do, just feel that way. And as you pointed out in the book, almost everyone goes through trauma at some point in their life,

whether it's big T-trauma or little T-trauma. And I remember myself, after I got out of the military, I buried a lot of what was going on inside of me for a long time as we talked about before you came on. And I thought I was strong enough to handle the pain and I didn't wanna be a burden on others, which I think is something that a lot of people end up feeling.

Can you elaborate on why you think society often promotes the idea of a stiff upper lip and why you believe this is the wrong approach? Well, I don't know why society has done that, but I don't know that talking about your feelings was something that people said not to do. If you don't open that bag of worms and sayings like that because we just be able to be tougher than that.

Don't think about it and not worry about it. But then I think why that's so bad is because you press it down for so long and you start feeling dead to the world. You start not caring. And a lot of that stuff happens overseas. I can remember, I was so desensitized to what I was doing over there

that if we got in a fight with a Taliban and we killed a guy or a couple guys, we just would strap him on the front of our hood and we didn't know where to put him. So we put him, just like you'd put like a deer on the top of a car. Like we would strap a guy on a hood and take them to the nearest village

and drop them off and just leave. And maybe that's what you need to do when you're at war, but then you gotta be able to decompress and be able to talk about that stuff. And you come to peace with what you did and then understand that it's okay to have these feelings and these emotions and to talk about them actually makes you better off in the longer run

because you're not gonna ball it all up till finally you explode one day. Yeah, I can relate to you. One of the things that we often talk about on the show is the power of our daily choices and why it's so important that you intentionally set how you're going to live out each day because it's that culmination of choices that we do on an everyday basis that culminate in the life that we want to live or that we do live. And this relates to another concept that you bring about in the book, which is focus on creating small achievable goals. This I think is principle four of your book. Can you discuss why it's so important to break things down into small bite-sized chucks?

Yeah, for me, the first thing, I was like, I need to start walking. I need to have a prosthetic arm, or I need to get out of here. And as much as I wanted that, and I was like, that's my goal, I got to get that. I had to like, really break it down. Okay, well, first thing I got to do is actually, I got to be able to sit up, because I lost all my muscle mass in my stomach, where I couldn't sit up a roll right or left by myself. And once I was able to sit up, then I was able to go down to occupational therapy and work on building muscle, doing sit-ups, the coordination I needed for my arm to be able to move. And every day it was a new challenge to get me to the point where I could put legs on and put a prosthetic arm on and be able to walk and do everything. But if you set your goals too big too fast or you want this right now and it's going

to take six months, like my legs took six months, there's no little rewards there to make you feel better about your progress. So setting achievable and attainable goals as one step closer to a bigger goal is something I think is very helpful. When you take us back in time to that point where you were starting to make these incremental achievements, how was your mindset at that point and how did you get on from day to day when you were faced with such incredible setbacks that were staring you in the face? Yeah, I'll be honest, the reason I wanted my hand to work so bad is surely embarrassment because as a 25-year-old, I needed help with everything. I needed help getting a bedside shower to use in the restroom, to getting dressed, to

getting fed my food because I couldn't do it myself. And I was like, I got to get an arm. So five weeks into my recovery, I was able to put my prosthetic on for the very first time. They're how to open it and close it and rotate it. And I fed myself. I just at least started dressing myself. Someone else helped me ever again with using the restroom.

And that was like my driving force. I need to be independent if I'm gonna live through this. And then a bigger thing was, okay, I need to walk and get better because my wife says she's gonna stay with me. And it was important for me to understand that as much as my wife's great, and I love the fact that she's with me, she doesn't need to be my caregiver.

She needs to be my wife. So I need to do as much as I can by myself. And then we were wrong. She helps with some things still, and there's a lot of things I can't do around the house that would pick the slack up for someone else. But I think for me, my first goals and I set were based off of willingness to get better, but also a little bit of embarrassment

too. And then just kind of clicking away. Yeah, I know the technology behind prosthesis has gotten a lot better. I look at Christiane Annis who you might know and the fact that she's able to mountain climb now. What are some of the capabilities that it's allowed you to do and what are some of the limitations that are still there in technology today? Well, they come out with really high tech and advanced arms and hands, which are great, but they're not as durable as the one I wear now.

So when I push down against the chair to stand up, if I have the single motor fingers, it breaks because my weight will break it when I stand up. But what they have now, the technology I have right now, I have my hand here, I can go 360, that's pretty cool. But I can do everything I need to do with that. And then my legs are actually the coolest because not only to help me walk, but they are Bluetooth, so I lock my legs to my drive mode on my phone. And I drive like everybody else with my right foot,

going back and forth to the gas and brake pedals, very natural feeling. And then they're waterproof. So if it rains, I'm not worried. Oh my gosh, am I gonna break and things like that. But just the fact they have all this stuff, you wake up in a hospital bed and you're 25th birthday with no arms, no legs.

And you think your life's over, you have nothing left to a hospital bed and you're 25th birthday with no arms, no legs. And you think your life's over. You have nothing left to give. And now you're going to be someone's burden the rest of your life to where today I woke up. I took my daughter to school. I went to the dentist, came here. I got a haircut next in the beard trims.

And I can do all this stuff independently. And it feels pretty awesome. I just have five minutes of my day. I need my father and the arm, my dad, or my wife somebody, and my close circle, my legs on the right way, my arm on the right way. But once I get those on, I'm off to the races. Yeah, a good buddy of mine, I'm not sure if you know him or not. He's a retired Navy SEAL captain, John Doolittle.

He's part of a company called Katzu, and one of the things that they are working on is to help service members and other people who have lost limbs because I'm not sure if you've ever experienced this but a lot of stories that he talks to me about are after you've lost a limb you still have the sensation of it still being there and I was wondering if that was something that you've ever experienced. So I was in terrible pain my initial time in the hospital that they thought they were going to either give me so much pain killers, I was going to die.

Or I was going to just end up having that kind of pain in my life. So I was actually given special treatments that they were trying. They were cutting edge, had a sign paperwork. And the third one they gave me was a ketamine coma. And they gave me 6,000 milligrams of ketamine per hour for five days straight. And the idea of philosophy was it would take my brain and reset my nerves, because they believe that final imping is when your nerves

say my right arm, they try to go from here, they go down, they get blocked, and they're like, I can't find the hand, so they go over here, and they try to find the hand, and they go around, and they keep going, and it keeps like tapping and hurting. And the ketamine was supposed to reset my brain to think where my nerves end is where they end now

There's no longer a hand or arm attached and I was a second in the nation of 30th in the world to have it done Big case study done on me and it worked great actually. I am No painkillers, no medication whatsoever, and I don't have any panel in pain or anything like that ever since I had that procedure man, that's incredible talk about a major life improvement. Thank you for sharing that and I know or anything like that ever since I had that procedure. Man, that's incredible. Talk about a major life improvement. Thank you for sharing that. And I know one of the things that's been important to you are nonprofits that have helped

you along the way. And they've been helpful for me as well, especially finding post-traumatic growth. In principle number nine, you talk about your partnership that you do between the Boulder Crest Foundation and your own charity. Can you talk about what you were doing with the Warrior Path Program and how it's helping veterans and non-veterans like? Absolutely. The Warrior Path Program is fantastic.

It's a wonderful addition to the Travis Mills Foundation. Every time I was speaking somewhere, somebody would come up and say, we need to do post-matic stress because you do so much for physically injured service members and their families. And I would always tell them, check out Warrior Path Program or Home Based Program. And Warrior Path is able to open up their offerings and have other locations that would partner with them. And we became one of the first to partner with them.

And now we host 12 weeks. I think next year, we do a 15 weeks of the Warrior Path course. And we bring up veterans and first responders, show them how to struggle well and how to have post-metic growth and It's truly an exciting thing and to watch people go through the course and understand life goes on and to heal because They're facing what they're going through and they're able to get this training. It's just been an absolute game changer We've had a few people that have written in that we're about to kill themselves or because I love ones that said Oh my gosh my husband has come back and holding you first.

This is a man that I used to know. Thank you so much for what you guys did there. And it's truly awesome that we get to be a part of this. And the fact that it's for combat veterans, and then they open it up to first responders is massive. And so grateful for the partnership and the things that we're able to do there. I'm gonna jump to Principal Six of your book where you share a really fun antidote about Keisha dance parties. Can you share that story with us and how it inspired you to practice gratitude, which is something that you had thought for a long time was hogwash? Yeah, I have no idea why, but when I was overseas, somebody said, this is a lot of like Tasha and Katy Perry when I was

on guard duty. I don't know why, keeps party going and then very my recovery on every Friday we'd have Kesha Fridays and I'd hook my phone in and play like Andorra station for Kesha and just have the craziest music that all these big tough guys that are injured probably wouldn't normally listen to and I just would go to people that were getting frustrated saying we're gonna have a 10-second dance party and try to let them know don't take it too serious we're gonna have a 10-second dance party. And try to let them know, don't take it too serious. We're gonna have setbacks, it's okay. And we just kept listening to some Kesha

and just have a 10-second dance party or talk about what they're going through and help them refocus on the good they're doing, not the things you're struggling with. And I think it was a great way to reset for them in the moment that they were having, but also it wasn't like to dance a little bit. I'm all shoulders now, I gotta be careful. I did you jits you last night. And I

don't know what I did, but man, I messed my left shoulder up, which is not good. As my only shoulder, I really got left. That's usable. I did something last night when I was doing you jits here. I didn't lose though. I didn't lose. Which Travis, you've had the opportunity to just speak to and inspire people all around the country. Can you share with the audience a story of someone that you've met who has significantly been impacted by your message? We have a lot of people that fortunately reach out after I go to an event and I speak and tell me what they're going through and how it impacted them.

I had a lady that went through cancer and she used me as a her motivating factor while she was going to get better. And she has seen a couple of little clips my speeches online, but it was the craziest thing I was at lunch the other day out in town here in Maine and this lady walks up, she goes, oh my gosh, my daughter just saw you. She'd love to have a picture with you. I'm like, yeah, there's no problem.

She can come over too and she's in tears. And this lady had just like beat cancer and wanted to picture with me because she used a lot of what I have online and laughing to do as her inspiration. I was like, yeah, no problem. So we got a picture and hung out and I never knew when I was injured. The impact that my life was gonna have on people and I never knew when I got out of the hospital. After I was through my recovery, what things I could do to give back and it's really

cool because the emails and the stories and the things that come into our website at TravisMills.org are just like, they're heartwarming. And as great as this, I'm just a regular everyday guy that had to choose what way I was gonna go, get better or don't, my shows get better. And with my story can help people overcome obstacles in life, no matter what those obstacles are, I'm all about that. And I think it's a great thing ever.

And I tell everybody, their biggest problem is truly their biggest problem. So, there's no reason to downplay it. If they think it's the biggest thing going on in their life that's bothering them, then that is the biggest thing going on in their life. So, nobody has come to me and say, well, I have this going on, but it's not what you're going through. Because, in truth, what I'm going through is different than what they're going through and we all have our things we deal with.

So if my story, like I said, can help anybody, I love the fact that I can do that. And just to have people come up and hug me and tell me that they had to fight cancer and they did it through my videos and my stories and things like that, just that means the world that I'm able to help people and impact them in a positive way. Yeah, and I know one of the audiences you talk to a lot is corporate environments. How do you translate

your story, which on the surface could seem like a very personal one into helping people understand how it can be impactful in the workplace? Well, I tell everybody there's just like the irony, it's one big team, one big fight, and you gotta all work together. And then also, there'll be setbacks, there'll be challenges, there'll be days you don't really like. And I can understand that completely. And then also, I really let them know that there's two

of us in the Libby, the number one life lesson is don't dwell the past, it's reminiscent. But you can't change what happened yesterday, you can't change what happened a year ago, set a dwelling on that, just reminisce what the good times were, and keep pushing forward. And then I tell everybody, you can't change what happened yesterday. You can't change what happened a year ago. Said to dwelling on that, just reminisce what the good times were and keep pushing forward. And that's how everybody can't always control a situation which you can always control your attitude.

That's the one thing that you are in control of as your attitude. So if you get something that happens to you, take a step back, have a couple moments to breathe through it and then understand that your attitude is what you're in control of and make the most of it. It translates pretty well. I have a lot of fun doing it. I tell a lot more jokes than people see coming.

And I'm fortunate where it's enjoyable for me. I have a few businesses and things like that. And I always tell people, if I didn't enjoy speaking, I probably wouldn't do it. But since I enjoy it and I take it as a privilege, I think it really makes it a lot better for the audience because I'm actually up there doing something that I truly love doing.

And it relates pretty well. I do about 40 or 50 a year. I try to cap it so I have young kids, but it's a good time. Well, that's quite a lot. 40 to 50. Congratulations on that. One of the fundamental things we explore

on this podcast is the profound impact of mattering. And this is at the heart of your principal number 11. And you discuss in this chapter how you were the physical embodiment of a miraculous survival story. And that power gave you a purpose. You became a man on a mission. And you talk about how we only get one go around it life, one chance to make a difference. Why is it so important to create significance in our lives? Well, it's hard for us to look past what we got going on. Why is it so important to create significance in our lives?

Well, it's hard for us to look past what we got going on, or maybe hard for us to take a chance on ourselves because the fear will creep in and the doubt creeps in. And I think I was given this extra shot at life to really look to the fullest and to enjoy what I do, but make a big positive impact and make a difference. And I think that as soon as people get the chance to understand that, maybe not go out and have a near-death experience like I did, but understand that we only get one shot at this and rather than looking back on life and saying, man, I wish I would have

did this. I wish I would have bought a motorcycle. I always wanted a motorcycle and I never bought one. And now I can get one, but it's not going to be the same as if I would have when my head arms legs. So instead of looking back on the past day, man, I really wish I would did that. I look at the future and say, okay, let's see what we can do and craft it to what I want, but also craft it to how can I get back, how can I help and I'm gonna have purpose and be meaningful.

And I think that's something that we lose sight of as we go through the daily ground of life. How many times, even with you, have you been there working day over day or crushing things that after year after year and then looking back and saying, huh, and I should have took this opportunity or I should have changed this or maybe there was a chance I could have went after this idea or this goal or dream and I just tell people nowadays you only get one go round. I found not the hard way and that might as well go after it. I'm putting a brewery in. I

don't know how to brew any beer but we have a brew match. I'm putting a brewery in. I don't know how to brew any beer, but we have a brew master. I'm putting a brewery in just because I figured, why not? I want one. So the bank says it'll loan me money. They're good like that. And that might as well get a brewery. Okay.

Okay. For anyone who's listening who might be going through a challenging time, would advice would you give them today on the podcast to help them bounce back and reclaim their lives? I had some like it gets better. You just got to keep pushing forward and you got to look for your opportunity to make it better. And there's things that happen that we don't see coming and there's things that happen that we can understand the why they happen. If something's going on in your life that's holding you down to bringing you down, just keep trying to find your way around.

Just like that ketamine coma that I had to go through. If that ketamine coma stopped those nervousness, they're just trying to find my hands or my feet and getting really being annoying. But once I did the ketamine coma, it found a way to fix the problems. And it was all better and I took a couple trials, but we go through things that make it stronger

and we have to just adapt and overcome. And I think if someone's feeling down and out there listening to this, final makes you happy. Understand, you can't change the past and make a future better. Okay. And then lastly, Travis, if someone would like to learn more about you, where are the best places for them to go to do so? If you go to my Facebook page or my Instagram page for the fun videos and things I do, that's going to be at S.S.G. Travis Mills

on social media. And then if you want to find my website, that's gonna be at S.S.G. Travis Mills on social media. And then if you wanna find my website, TravisMillsCondition.org, or my other website for my speaking is TravisMills.org. Well Travis, thank you so much for joining us here today and congratulations on the launch of your second amazing book. Yeah, I appreciate it, hope everybody gets it. My first book, Club is a Come to the Seller.

And hopefully this one will have the same impact on people that my first one did. So I hope you guys enjoy the bounce back. And I appreciate your time today. Okay, thank you very much. I thoroughly enjoyed that interview with Travis Mills. And I wanted to thank Travis, Lauren Rosenthal, and Heschette Books, for the honor and privilege of having Travis appear on today's show. Links to all things Travis will be in the show notes at passionstruck.com.

Please use our website links if you purchase any of the books from the guests that we feature on the show. All proceeds go to supporting the show. And speaking of books, my brand new book titled Passion Struck, 12 powerful principles to unlock your purpose and ignite your most intentional life is now available for preorder at Amazon,

Barnes & Noble, or wherever you purchase books. Links will also be in the show notes. Videos are on YouTube at both John R. Miles and PassionStruck Clips. Evertiser deals and discount codes are in one convenient place at PassionStruck.com slash deals. You can sign up for my newsletter work intentionally on LinkedIn. You can catch me at John R. Miles on all the social platform, or you can sign up for my personal development newsletter live intentionally at passionstruck.com. You're about to hear or preview the PassionStruck podcast I did with Andrew McAfee, author of the new enlightening book, The Geekway. Andrew is the co-director of the MIT initiative

of the digital economy and a principal research scientist at the MIT Sloan School of Management. That the heart of the book is a different set of practices to bring people together and accomplish big things. I think the Geeks' most fundamental innovation has nothing to do with digital technologies. I think they have iterated and experimented their way into a better set of practices, all centered around, bringing us weird human beings together and letting us accomplish really, really important things.

The fee for the show is that you share it with family and friends when you find something useful or interesting. If you know someone who is dealing with adversity, then definitely share today's episode with them. The greatest compliment that you can give us is to share the show with those that you love and care about. In the meantime, be your best to apply what you hear on the show so that you can live what you listen. Until next time, go out there and become PassionStruck.

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