Determined Society with Shawn French | Adversity & Mindset - Surviving the Storms: Resilience in the Face of Adversity

Episode Date: October 28, 2024

In this episode of The Determined Society, host Shawn French dives into the highs and lows of life, from battling hurricane season in Southwest Florida to finding motivation amid chaos. He shares his personal struggles, relatable anecdotes, and offers valuable advice on perseverance and consistency in both personal and professional life.  Whether you're dealing with literal storms or figurative ones, this episode is packed with inspiration to keep you pushing forward, no matter how tough life gets. Subscribe, share, and stay determined! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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It's up to you. We'll take the laundry. Rinse. It's time to be great. If they watch and I know it's time, I confirm me. A whole society, determined. What's up, everybody? We are back, the Determine Society with another episode. I'm your host, Sean French. If this is your first time listening or watching,

please subscribe to the show on Apple and Spotify and YouTube. Write me a review. If you like it, you think it's great. Let me know, share the show with some friends. You know, today I just want to have an open conversation with you guys, kind of where I'm at right now and where I feel my lovely community. members in Southwest Florida are, man, we are fucking tired. I'm going to tell you what right now. I feel like the last month or so, I haven't had any normalcy in any of my three businesses.

I feel like the gym has been here and there. And I feel as though when you're little and just you're trying to learn how to swim and you got that neck above water a little bit and you're just trying to stay afloat. I feel like that's where me, my wife and most of the people here in the community in Southwest Florida are. So let me catch you up if you're on the other side of the or even on the other side of the United States of America and don't pay much attention to what has gone on here in the last month or so. We have been touched with hurricane fever. I realize that when you live in the southeastern United States,

those are something that, those are things that you're going to deal with. And I'll also say over the last two to four years, it's really the last two, is becoming more prevalent and more intense. I moved here in 2008. definitely don't like hurricanes. They scared the shit out of me. But I've learned to deal with them a little bit. I think the most,

the most anxietizing feeling about the hurricane is knowing they're coming. And, you know, we hear a lot of things that, hey, if you grow up in California, you're used to earthquakes, you know, you don't know when they're coming. Or, you know, if you live in the Midwest, you have tornadoes, you don't have time to react.

Almost like those are better situations, in my opinion. You know, growing up in California, I remember being through multiple earthquakes. and you just react. It's quick, it's over, and, you know, that's it. You know, but here you get this, you know, storm or disturbance that comes off the coast of Africa or in the Yucatan Peninsula, and you're literally glued to fucking Instagram or the TV for the next goddamn two freaking weeks, and all the while you're trying to go get gas, you're trying to get food, you're trying to get water, and then you're looking at your little babies and your kids and your wife,

And do we shutter up? Do we put the shutters up? Do I do it myself? Do we hire somebody? Because yeah, your boy's afraid of heights. I ain't getting up on the fucking second floor, especially if it's wet. So you go through all these things

that you're thinking about in your mind consciously, and it's not like it goes away. You close your eyes at night, and you're thinking about what's coming, and you wake up the next day, and you think about what's potentially coming, and you're in the survival mode. So this show today is for everybody that feels like they're in,

survival mode, that you feel like you may be overwhelmed in some area of your life. You may not be physically going through hurricane season here in southeast, United States, but you might be in a hurricane season, you know, figuratively in your own mind and in your life. And I just want this to be somewhat of an inspirational and informative message today. So let me back up. A couple weeks ago, my wife and my friend, Lauren, was getting married in California. And we debated on whether or not we were going to go because of the potential impending storms that were coming to Florida. This was after Hurricane Helene. And then when we saw that, you know, it was breaking up and it was only going to be a tropical disturbance, we decided to go. And, you know, we had obviously left the kids here in Florida.

And we fly out to California, which is my home state. And so we're in Southern California and to Mecula, fucking beautiful wineries, had a great time just having some time with me and my wife, because we hadn't had time together for just alone since our youngest was born, five years ago, almost six years ago, haven't had a weekend, haven't had any time like that to connect. No vacations, alone. So we were going to use this time as, you know, an amazing time to reconnect. Well, we get there and the probability goes from 10% to 20% that something was coming to 30 to 40, to 40 to 50 to all of a sudden hurricane milton was going to barrel down on you know the west coast of

florida at a category five i mean wins at one point got up to 180 out the middle of the gulf so we're sitting there the last day and a half two days of our trip worried about getting home in time to get to the kids so i want you guys to stick with me because there is a lesson in all this well it sounds like i'm venting or binging a plane i'm really not i'm i'm painting the story for you guys so we we fly from from San Diego back home, right? And our flight path was supposed to go from San Diego to Dallas to Tallahassee. Get our youngest, come home to Fort Myers, and start getting ready for this, you know, imminent hurricane.

And we get to San Diego in the morning. And for those of you don't know, it gets pretty fucking foggy in California early on in the day. So our flight gets delayed two hours. Well, that's not a big deal until. it is, right? So our flight gets delayed two hours and we're sitting there and we realize we're going to miss our connecting flight. We're going to miss our connecting flight in Dallas so we weren't going to get to Tallahassee at 5 p.m. anymore. So we had to figure out what we were going to do. Well, my wife being a season traveler, she goes on and figures out, well, we can go to Jacksonville,

get in around 9 p.m. But here's the kicker. We have to rent a car and drive to Tallahasse, which is two hours and 45 minutes away. Okay. in rain. At that point, it was like a tropical disturbance out there, a lot of rain, dangerous to be on the road. So anyway, it's stressful because we're just worried about how are we going to get home quick enough to potentially get my mom out of Northport who just had hip replacement surgery, then get all the kids together, and then make sure we had enough water and food and supplies. These are all things, guys, that we were going through that can suck the energy, right out of us and right out of all of you potentially as well.

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and eligibility vary by state. So once we get home, we make sure everything is handled. I had somebody put up the shutters while I was gone. And we get home and we were lucky enough, right, that the storm went about an hour and 40 minutes north of us and hit Cesta Key. When I say lucky, I mean, we weren't hit head on this time. And, you know, while we celebrate that, you know, my thoughts and my prayers and feelings and empathy and even sympathy because I've been through Ian to all those people up there in the

northern communities. And it's tough to deal with. But what happens is, guys, when you are locked down for a hurricane like that and you have all these storms coming at you, you become fucking paralyzed. There's no way to get around it. You are stuck in the house. You cannot go outside. You can't go anywhere because if you do and run out of gas, you ain't fucking getting it

anymore. Right. And for those of you that live, in hurricane area, you know how hard it is to get gas during a potential hurricane. You cannot, especially in southwest Florida, breads off the shelf, all the eggs are gone, you name it. So what happens is you go into the survival mode. And while I'm on this topic, the things that start to go by the wayside are your non-negotiables, are your daily standards, because now you're in survival mode. You're not worrying about how many calories you're taking in, you know, how many steps

you're getting, am I working out today? You know you're stuck in the house, right? You have nowhere to go. The other thing is you can't really do any business because everybody else is prepping for the hurricane. And if you reach out at the wrong time, you could really turn some people off. You can burn good relationships and business relationships and friendships for trying to act like business is usual and it's not. People are fearful, right? So I guess my point is, while I'm going on this long-ass tangent about hurricanes is we all have times in our lives where we get sidetracked and it becomes exhausting. And what happens thereafter for me in this specific situation is I don't feel any sense of

normalcy, as I mentioned at the beginning of the episode. I was having a conversation with my friend Jamie before we came on here, my buddy Mike, about, you know, they feel the same too. It's like over the last month, I don't feel normal. I don't feel like I can just move in a normal cadence. And I think there's these little blips and the little hiccups in life that take us off course. And this is where the message is, guys. This is where I want you to lock in.

It's like, it doesn't matter. Everybody's going through some shit, right? Whether it's a hurricane, whether it's a death in the field, family, someone gets sick, a car accident, someone gets fired, or just even a career transition, we all have the responsibility to just find a way every single day to move forward a little bit. Now, you'll see on social media, all these big guys, you know, I don't want to say any names, but they talk about do the work anyway, you know, your feelings don't fucking matter. Not, you know what, guys, your feelings do matter.

okay and here's here's where I think there's a breakdown in that specific ideology your feelings don't fuck your feelings is pretty much what they say you can feel what you feel and you can acknowledge it and lean into it but the one thing that we cannot do is quit on our life we cannot quit on our business we cannot quit on our family we have to make sure that every single day we pour into our cup even just a little bit for instance I woke up today I have nothing in me literally nothing in me. I feel like I'm on empty. And yet I'm sitting here in front of this camera on this microphone,

giving you everything I got because that is my responsibility. That is what I chose to do. And this is what I love to do. And as I continue on, I get more and more energy. So thank you for being there and listening, right? But rewind a little bit to the workout. I felt like shit. I didn't want to do it.

I got five exercises in. Five exercises in. and it wasn't my best 100%. But the one thing that we have to understand is, consistency doesn't look like full cups every day. I saw this graphic on, I think it was Dr. Kim. I can't remember what is that. Or Jim Quick, I think it was.

And, you know, it said what people think consistency looks like. And it was like four or five glasses lined up, you know, all the way full. And that's not what it looks like. What consistency actually looks like is one glass all the way full. and the next glass a quarter full, the next one, an eighth full, and next one, half full, and then three quarters full, and then another one at a full, a full glass. What that graphic is showing is that no matter what,

even if we do a little bit every single day, we can move toward the goals that we have set for ourselves. So for those of you that are listening and watching right now, that are confused, are tired, whatever season in your life in your end, just fucking find a way to keep going. you know, maybe it's one phone call. Maybe it's walking for five minutes. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's going to your spouse and saying, sorry, you know, or going to that friend and saying, hey, I did you wrong. I wasn't honest with you. Will you forgive me? These little things that we do on a

daily basis that match up with our core values are what matters. And if you can do that consistently, then, then you're going to see some movement. And I always look at it this way too, guys. the motivation that that is a that is a dangerous word motivation motivation is a dangerous word because most of us in society whether you're a you're an athlete which i was right or an entrepreneur or a self-professional or a teacher doesn't matter you're not going to be motivated every single day it doesn't exist it doesn't exist right so we talk about determination because this is the determine society and what determination looks like is just doing the little things.

Going for the walk, right? Having that important or tough conversation with your spouse. Leading your children, making the business call, one little thing at a time because what we notice is when we start doing the right things eventually after two or three days, what does that motivation level do? Kicks up a little bit, doesn't it? That bar of motivation goes a little bit higher because your discipline is there. You've been staying in your process. So that's the key. And this is something that I need to go back and look at in my life right now,

specifically in nutrition in the gym. Because everybody that's listened over the last four years knows that is my main struggle in life. I can get up and I can work and I can do my show and I can build this brand. The thing that's the hardest for me is managing the nutrition, the meals, the workouts. But if I just make that my standard, and my standard this week is three days

to get in the gym, well, it's better than zero, right? And there's going to be a lot of people out there saying, like, if you're not waking up at 2 a.m. and working out twice a day, seven days a week, you ain't shit. Guys, they're looking for clicks. They're looking for clicks. They're looking for social media cloud. That is not real life.

It is not sustainable. Find a process that works for you. If you're getting in the gym, Once every two weeks. Well, is it three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday better? How could you not feel good about that? How could you not look in the mirror at night when you're brushing your teeth before you go to bed and be happy with what you see? We do that enough.

We do that for two, three straight weeks. And then it turns into Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. And then maybe eventually it's Monday through Friday. And what you've done is you built a process that's sustainable. You've built a ramp up. And now that motivation is there. now you're accomplishing your goals and then you look back after six months and maybe you're completely transformed. Your business can be that way too. Your relationship can be that way too.

So that's my message today, guys. If you are tired and if you are overwhelmed, just start small. We're all feeling that way, right? No matter what you're going through, no matter where you live in the United States of America or where you're at in this world, things come at you. And what you have to do every day is understand that it's okay to feel a certain way, but it's not okay to fucking give up. So don't give up on yourself. Don't give up on your people. Keep moving forward, even if it's just an inch every single day. One of my favorite things is, is just, hey, let's move that football down the field just

a little bit, right? There's a little sports analogy for you. So again, I want to thank you guys for tuning in. If you have any questions, pop into the DMs at Deshaun French and share the show with something that you know that may need to hear. and I'll see you next time. Stay determined. So I've tried a lot of protein, you know. What I've always found is all the flavors, you can taste artificial flavoring in them.

With raw, it's exactly that. I don't taste that. It's a clean protein source. It tastes great, and I'm not putting a lot of things in my body that aren't good for you. The biggest thing that I will say that I love about raw nutrition and bum energy is they're all natural ingredients. third party tested. So what that means is an actual lab test is to make sure what's in the product is actually what is stated on the label. And then you'll see on the website of Braw Nutrition that it is signed off on. So there's no banned substances in these products. Athletes can use them

safely and not get tested and pop for a failed drug test for performance enhancing, you know, ingredients. It's completely safe. Guilt free, baby. Next up is a little song I'll be working Just know I'm a go for mine Because I earned it They watch and I know it's time I confirmed it

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