Your Transformation Station - 41. Mountain Mistakes I Keep Finding Myself in John Beede w/ Favazza

Episode Date: November 29, 2020

"How can you create a transformation in others if there's no transformation in yourself?" Join (Greg Favazza, podcast) host and creator as he talks to (John Beede) the "Seven Time Summit Climber" about his personal success. Seven-time summit climber John Beede describes how he overcame his fears while encouraging us to overcome our own metaphorical mountains, and discuss his book The Warrior Challenge, a novel for young adults and teens on building yourself up. https://www.johnbeede.com/blog/transformation-station   Support the showPODCAST INFO:Podcast website: https://ytspod.comApple Podcasts: https://ytspod.com/appleSpotify: https://ytspod.com/spotifyRSS: https://ytspod.com/rssYouTube: https://ytspod.com/youtubeSUPPORT & CONNECT:- Check out the sponsors below, it's the best way to support this podcast- Outgrow: https://www.ytspod.com/outgrow- Quillbot Flow: https://ytspod.com/quilbot - LearnWorlds: https://ytspod.com/learnworlds- Facebook: https://ytspod.com/facebook- Instagram: https://ytspod.com/instagram- TikTok: https://ytspod.com/tiktok- Twitter: https://ytspod.com/x Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Coming up on your transformation station. Self and wanting to turn back and being scared and not knowing if I had what it took. It's a daily, sometimes minutely conversation that I'm having with myself of. Like all those self-doubts I'm putting aside and I'm choosing the other, the angel on the shoulder versus the devil on the shoulder. I'm choosing to listen to this little cartoon character, you know, like, I remember there was like. Station tapping in to surpassing expectations from the most successful people in the modern day and honing in on new foresight, methodologies, and clairvoyance you never knew. This is your transformation station with your host, Greg Favaza. Definition of success. If I could go back, there's not many things that I would go back for, but...

What do you do when you lose your purpose? It's okay to struggle. It's okay that you're not okay. I am your host, Greg Favaza. Together, we will go on a journey. This show is all about surpassing our internal dialogue. Rediscovering your true identity. New foresight.

We have a chance to make the world a better place for our children. Start living in the example today and become your future self tomorrow. If you can leave our viewers with some good advice to follow, what would you let them know? These things that you're afraid to do? Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to your transformation station with your one and only, of course, Greg Favaza. Suppose you're someone aspiring to learn how to connect to the world. How can you create a transformation in others if there's no transformation in yourself? This question is often what I think about.

Your transformation station focuses on 30-day challenges, three-hour refinement, connecting clarity, the idealic life, interviews, investing your time. This is your transformation on how to decode ourselves through the realization of others, a transformative experience, and establish our own transformation. Now, let's get into this. We're tapping in to surpassing expectations from the most successful people in the the modern day and honing in on new foresight, methodologies, and clairvoyance you never knew. This is your transformation station with your host, Greg Favaza. I really do appreciate your time and for coming on your transformation station. I went through your work.

You've been through a lot. Seven different continents, somebody in the tallest mountains, self-pane your travel to 64 different countries is that right 67 now at this point and you were struck by lightning yeah it was an indirect hit but i definitely got the energy charge from a lightning bolt in colorado that's that is crazy um like what part in colorado on a curiosity uh that was on mount columbia which is uh in the south first off you live in nevada yeah i'm in henderson nevada right now it's a great base for adventures all around the southwest. That is awesome. But where is the nearest mountain to climb in that area? Oh, we've got some amazing, amazing climbing here. I mean,

Red Rock Canyon is a world-class place. It's about 40 minutes from my house. You've got a whole limestone basin for rock climbing. And you've got mountains that are proper mountaineering mountains within a four-hour drive of here in any direction. Wow. Okay. I spent some time out in Texas, San Antonio, Texas. And I love to hike. Like, it is, it's in my blood after the military. And if I wanted to do any kind of hiking, I would have to drive at least two to four hours to go anywhere. And I noticed a couple places out in the Nevada area.

But it's like, wow, it's a long drive. Just to spend the whole day and then another four hours back is really definitely like a limiting factor for me. I mean, like anything in life, if you want to do something, you just need to set aside the time and make the commitment. And that comes at a cost always. There's a cost of the things that you're saying no to and, of course, the financial expense of making it happen. But everything's got its price. And those who are willing to pay the price for things like climbing, get the rewards in turn. I like the optimism.

It's very, the way you. look at life, the way you view things is a much more refined level that I seek to understand for myself as for also our listeners is having that half full kind of mentality. How do you think someone can develop that if they don't have an understanding of it? Well, maybe it's because I got struck by lightning. Maybe it's because I spent too much time at altitude. Who knows? I mean, that's kind of a joke. There's the biology side of it. Sure that we all have a kind of a set, this is the way that our brain works. Then you can stretch within that, those parameters of what your biology has given you. But everybody is able to stretch

within those parameters of what your biology has given you. And I think that how anybody else can develop that, you can make small, can I do this? choices daily. You can say, am I capable of pushing this, this dumbbell one more rep? Am I capable of waking up 15 minutes earlier? Am I capable of writing this book for 15 more minutes or trying to figure out this guitar lick for 30 more minutes or like slamming out this exercise on the guitar on the fretboard? Whatever your thing is, you can stretch to push yourself just a tiny bit more each day and when you realize, okay, I didn't get the full 15 minutes of like this exercise on the fretboard as that example goes.

You made it for 10 minutes before your fingers gave out and you didn't think that that was possible. So each day by stretching yourself just a little bit more in the direction you're wanting to go is how you can develop that mindset of I'm capable of more. Focusing on progress over perfection. Yeah. There's no such thing as perfect. And even if you become the best in the world at something in a few years, somebody's going to come along and become even better than you at that thing. That's just the way of humanity. But you can love the process. You can love the journey and the continual upping of yourself.

And in order to love the process, we really need to love ourselves. And that's by. embracing our vulnerabilities as our authentic selves. That's a really powerful thought and concept. I mean, we can go real deep into that. It's a vulnerable thing even just to sometimes admit, like I love myself or even to say to another person, I love you. That's a vulnerable thing to say to somebody.

But to say I love a process, I mean, that's, I think there's a level of like ease to it because the process isn't going to say back, cool. Well, screw you, you're not allowed to love me. So, but there's an authenticity to it when you, when it's from you, when it's not, I'm doing this because my parents groomed me to do this or I'm, I'm not doing this because I have a teacher who I'm trying to impress or my spouse wants me to do this thing. When it's like, I am living my truth. I'm living my purpose. I'm doing the thing that I was

put on this earth to do, whether I get full accolades for doing so, or whether I get crue. criticized for the rest of my life. If you're in that place, living your purpose, that is as vulnerable as you can get, but that's also as powerful and as strong as you can get. The example that comes to mind is Vincent

Van Gogh. The guy died thinking he was a total failure. He thought, I will never be applauded or lauded as an artist. I did the thing that I thought was beauty. Nobody liked it. And

And he died. That's his life. Yeah. Like he never got the side of seeing his paintings selling for millions and hundreds, I think hundreds now years after his death, people thinking like this, this dude is the man. No, but he never saw that. He just died. And he lived his purpose.

And I think that's a beautiful thing that as tragic as it is, he did the thing that he knew to be beauty. He lived his purpose. And I can relate with that personally with anything that I apply myself. I take out so much. I beat the shit out of myself. I just beat myself every day internally, physically, mentally, spiritually, every way I can to push myself to the next level. And I realize that only can take me so far until I peak.

I mean, some would say it's a false summit. Yeah. Others would look at it as that's the only way they know how. How do we get past the point where we're no longer beating ourselves up? And how do we get to that level that we're all trying to achieve, whether it's self-actualization or if letting go of our ego? I can identify immensely with what you just said, because I get that same voice inside a lot.

I beat the shit out of myself. I'm my own worst critic. And if you heard the stuff going on in my mind, you'd be like, dude, you are abusive to yourself. And maybe you have the same thing going on in your brain. Maybe you would say that too.

I can tell you on Everest mountaineering, I'm going for the final, what we call summit rotation. So it takes two months to climb the mountain. And I was in the last of these summit rotations because it was kind of naturally split apart by your skill level. Those who were stronger, those who were feeling better, it went earlier, those who hung back needed rest.

We went in what was like the third group. Well, I'm in this group because my lungs are filling up with fluids. There's another climber in this group who's blind in one eye. Another guy was overweight on the mountain. I think he lost 60 pounds or 50 pounds while he was there over these two months. That's just how much like he was pushing himself every day beyond his limit. there was a female climber that didn't speak English who was with us. We were like the rag tag group that nobody thought would succeed.

Now think about it. If I told any of those people, if I started harping on their weaknesses, if I started criticizing them or saying like, you're not going to make it because of this, this or that, or I used any of the internal messages that I was telling myself for somebody else, they'd be like, screw you ass. Mm-hmm. And when you learn to observe those thoughts, you're able to say that same thing to yourself, right?

Because we're all down and out at some point in our lives. We all have our weaknesses, whether they're visible or hidden. We all have our chinks in our armor. And if you point at your own chinks in your armor and you criticize them or you try and put yourself down, yeah, that helps you get a little ways, but it won't push you all the way up to the top. So you have to look at that voice and say, screw you ass. Like, I'm worth more than being treated like that. Nobody should be talked to that way, especially not my own self talking to myself that way. And when you have that level of boundary that like when you compartmentalize that part of your brain and say that belongs over there, that's the asshole in me, I wouldn't talk to anybody else that way.

So I'm certainly not going to talk to myself with that same voice. It's a level of self-love and protection, just like you would protect a friend. And that's how you get past it. Wow. That was just articulated very precisely on point. When you made it to the top of Everest, what was your mentality starting off this journey? And then during the process, how were you holding yourself up? And then when you got to the top, what was the first thing that came to your mind?

I know that was a lot of questions at once. Okay. So I'll try and remember all three of them. while we go. My mindset while starting it was, I don't know that I can do this. I mean, the tallest mountain that I'd climbed previously was called Serra Akincagua, which is the tallest mountain in South America. And it's 22,000, I think 985 feet is the altitude somewhere around there. I mean, now that's Camp 3 on Everest. I mean, I'm still 7,6,000 feet below the summit of Everest a full mile of altitude.

So my brain is going like, do I have what it takes? I don't know. And I was scared. I was nervous. These are more lethal mountains than any I had climbed in previously. So it was a sense of humility. It was a sense of awe in being in this magical place, the kumbu in the Himalaya region, and reverence for the culture and the people there.

and kind of just a real open sense of let's see what happens when John throws himself into this new magical terrifying environment. So that was my mindset going in. While I was climbing was your second question. And was it like how did that change or what was my feeling as I went? What was your feeling during the process of making your way up there? It was every single day. doubting myself and wanting to turn back and being scared and not knowing if I had what it took. It's a daily, sometimes minutely conversation that I'm having with myself of. Like all those self-doubts I'm putting aside and I'm choosing the other, the angel on the shoulder versus the devil on the shoulder. I'm choosing to listen to this little cartoon character.

you know, like, I remember there was like actual cartoon. I remember watching when I was a kid, a literal devil and angel. I was like looking at the angel on the shoulder. And when people passed away while I was climbing and I heard that about the stories, that was a real intense conversation. It was, should I continue? Should I listen to the people complaining? Others are shutting back.

Should I follow them? When storms came in, when avalanches are falling around you as you're sleeping all throughout the night, when the glacier that you're sleeping on is cracking and groaning and moaning underneath you. When your body hurts so bad that you feel like you can't take another step or your lungs are about to explode like Shaquille O'Neal is standing on your chest. You just can't take another breath. All these things are like, should I do this thing? I see you giggling, like that image of me lying on the ice with Shaquille O'Neal is. Perfect.

I can visibly see that. Like, right? I feel like process is it's something that we can really hit on. It's like with you and me collaborating on this for a second is the fact that I was in the military and I had to go through not as stressful situations as you had to go through through that intensity. But as far as pushing our bodies beyond what our minds think that we can do and understand or comprehend. end. Yes. But that process of being able to continue forward, what it was like for me was just telling myself to take one more step, take one more, or imagine a loved one that's just about 50 meters up. It'll just go 50 more meters. I can meet the loved one that's waiting for me. Did you experience something similar to that? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that thought of just take that one. Don't even worry about what happens two steps from now. Don't even worry about what's going to happen 50 meters from now. If you can take one more step, just deal with that then.

But right now, all you got to do is get the energy to just put the left foot in front of the right. That's your only task in this moment. And what a beautiful analogy for right now for this time that we're in. Like in this analogy of climbing, if I'm worried about what happens 50 meters away and if it's a steep vertical, that could take half an hour or an hour. and the weather could be completely different. And if I'm like, here's exactly what's going to happen, 50 meters from now, I'm locking that in. There's no other option. I'm going to be wearing these clothes. I'm going to be eating this cliff bar.

I'm going to be drinking this like electrolyte drink. If I'm so locked into that and then the conditions change and I get there, suddenly I'm doing the completely wrong thing that makes no sense because I've thought too far into the future and I made too specific of a plan. So that organic approach is absolutely critical. And taking it one step of a time lets you make the right choice at the right moment for the right circumstance.

Oh, shit. That is profound. It's just presence. It's living in the now, in the moment. It's Eckhart Tolley's teachings. I mean, I learned the mountaineering and when I like learned about presence and meditation, It was a reminder of my climbing lessons in life and not so much. Like, I had that same holy shit profound moments while learning these things in the mountains.

But these are like what great these spiritual teachers teach. I just learned it through a different avenue. I want to throw another question out, but I want to, let's fuck it. So this process. That's the right approach to all questions. Fuck it. Let's do it. I feel like this is what.

built your character. This is what built your outlook, your value proposition. Who you hold yourself to such a high regard is these obstacles that you overcame. Do you feel like this is what molded John Beattie, the man I'm talking to right now? Tell me about your character, everything you view as far as your accountability, who you allow people in your life and who you don't type of person you want to be viewed as. Do you feel like these obstacles were actually opportunities? I think that these obstacles

made very clear analogies for the other stuff in my life. So I learned how to work with, I mean, my body does not, it's not designed for the mountains. I've got short legs, I'm bow-legged, I'm 5-11, I've got huge fat cheeks, I put on weight easily.

I'm not naturally inclined to the mountains, but I figured out how to work with what I've got and kick ass in the mountains. And I'm not the fastest, I'm not the best, I'm not even like some guy that's going to go down in history books as the world-class mountaineer. I just kept plugging away and doing what I need to do with the deck I've been given to accomplish my goals. So that makes a really clear analogy for me in my other life realms.

When it comes to business, I now have this like standard of lessons that I can look back to of who, like you mentioned, who am I going to choose as my business partners? And I'm faster at being able to recover from my mistakes as a result of who am I going to allow on my climbing teams. I mean, that turns into a life or death thing if you get the wrong person involved. Well, now I take those same standards to business. And then it's like dating. There was a time of my life when I was like, oh, you want to like stand me up for you. for a date, but maybe potentially in the future go on a date with me. I'd be like, okay.

And now it's like, oh, it doesn't work for you. Well, it doesn't work for me either. I want somebody who's going to really value my time being around me. And if that's not you, that's awesome. I hope you have an awesome rest of your life and see ya. I'm going to go find the right person in my life. You know, it's like it became a faster switch to these other life realms because I have these mountaineering lessons to look back at in this, this baseline of who I

am and what I'm capable of. It sounds like you developed a standard. Like your own, there's a fine line on the things that you will allow and what you don't allow. And that's so interesting because that's what is just beat into our heads in the military. And when I'm talking to you, I can just feel that. I can feel a relationship being built because you have this understanding of what is acceptable and what isn't acceptable. And if I were to ask you to do something,

I could rely on you and just know in the bottom of my heart that he will fulfill this task, whether it's in a fucking blizzard or if it's sunshine and bathing suits. And he's trying not to check out the women because he's got to make sure this is done. I would get it done and probably check out the women. I'm sorry, I'm a single guy.

I get to go talk. But you're right, man. I will get the task done. I like as much as I, like it sounds almost arrogant, but I am reliable. I get, I do everything I can to be a reliable human being in the people's lives who I'm, who I'm with. And where that comes from, it comes from that standard of saying, this is like a very clear understanding of this is what I'm capable of this is what I know that I can offer and give and if someone doesn't appreciate that I'm not angry at them I'm not like

why don't you accept me it's just like well I'm not the right person for that person in this time in their life maybe in the future maybe not but I love when I'm able to give and help and support other people and I love when people appreciate that. And if that's not the case, then that's just not an interaction that I'm willing to invest a lot of energy and effort into. So if it goes both ways, I'm all in 100%. Let's backtrack. Let's look at, like when you said, you don't want to come off as arrogant. Now, that brings me to the question of, is there a time where we can own our greatness and not allow that thought of whether we come off as arrogant or not

because we're displaying confidence in ourselves. Is there a time where we have to consider the counterthought so we can continue to move forward and ignore those biases? I think the best approach to that is when you're really good at something, you don't need to tell people that you're really good at that thing. you just are.

You just exist as great at that thing. A really rich person doesn't need to show off his flashy private jet on Instagram. And most don't, right? Like, if there's a book called The Millionaire Next Door, and it shows that most millionaires have pretty humble homes, and they've got pretty humble, like, they aren't flashy about it. And it's actually the people who are in debt and broke who have the flashy stuff that they've purchased with credit. And I think that that speaks huge for how to approach this question of how do we like own what we are and who we are and not be arrogant about it?

You just exist as that thing. And if you get asked about it like in a podcast like this, yeah, here's what I did. Here's what's badass. Here's the stuff that I know I crushed in life. Here are my weaknesses. And you're just truthful about it and authentic. but it's not like I think just

avoiding the flashy side to it is how to own it without trying to use what I've done, what anybody's done for validation. This is why I came into podcasting was to help myself become a much better speaker

and to learn from everybody I can, whoever I interact with and bring on the show and then ask them questions on what I can articulate. And it's really difficult when I get that profound information that I'm just hungering for because it's like, great, you get a show to do here. Yeah. What inspired you to write a book?

And I know you get that a lot. But I want to know this book you've written isn't garbage. It's amazing. A lot of people will write a book because they want to. to put a book out there, to claim more avenues to get more lines of income. Yeah. And their investment. But your focus is between ages 12 to 18 from becoming a young adult.

And the information that you share in your writing is like, I wish I have known this when I was at this time. especially for me it's inspiring to me that's awesome Greg I'm so glad that uh I mean first thanks for reading it and thanks for listening to the audiobook I'm so glad you're enjoying it and you're right like this is not a fluff book and this is documented research just like the stories in it are the most epic stories I have ever heard or come across in all my travels this is the best in information, the best life advice that I had ever wanted. And I wrote it to get to that original

question because it took me climbing the seven summits, the tallest mountain on every single continent of this planet to get this stuff. Yet there was a time in history when cultures had rights of passages that taught boys, here's the best stuff that our entire village or culture or tribe has gained over time. Here's all of it on a silver platter handed to you. You just have to like complete this task and whatever that task was for that culture, you would then get that wisdom. Well, we threw out the baby with the bathwater when we got rid of rites of passages because now having a kid hunt a lion or jump out of a tree with vines tied around his legs or like sending him off into the desert for six months to survive on his own, that's got nothing to do with anything

anymore. There was a time when that would help you survive. Now that doesn't help anybody with anything, it's just child abuse. But we also threw out, throughout this like transmission of our best info. So I wrote this so that there would be a set of stories that felt like a right of passage. Like, oh my gosh, look at this. I'm jumping over the great wall of China. I'm dirt road rate, like off road racing in Mexico. I'm escaping from a communist country. I'm rock climbing in Yosemite. I'm like a civil war, a scapey. Like you have these amazing tasks, but they all relate to here's the value, here's the lesson that took me until I was in my mid-30s to get. What if we just give those lessons to kids when they're between these ages of like 10, 12, up to 16, 18? That's

really the age frame for the book. And that's why I wrote it because I was like, this stuff needs to be taught earlier. That way, we don't have man boys trying to figure out what's going on, what it means to be a man. They just can live their life purpose and fully support, encourage, protect their people or tribes, their communities. Yes. I'm grateful that I was able to join the military and get that. When I grew up, I had none of that. And I was at a rock bottom place.

It took me a lot of trial and air, but there was no fixing those air. It was continuous air until I hit rock bottom. and then I joined the military and then that put me on the right path and I continued. And what your book illustrates that I love about this is it illustrates those little lessons that you learn in the service, but it's tailored to fit this young adult generation that's becoming a man. And it is fucking spot on. Thank you, Greg.

Yeah. Thank you. That's as much as I just, I mean, I just finished saying, don't do things for validation, but that felt pretty fucking validating. That was awesome to hear. So thanks. I'm glad you. I really, truly, though, thank you. And I wrote it for people who would dig into it like you have and say, oh my gosh, this is spot on. And I have so many dads and moms writing and saying, I am so thankful that this work exists so that I can not only be reminded of the stuff. and hear myself because it's just life lessons that are crucial, but also so that I can have a structure to give my child these lessons. And even if the like it's, this is a book. This isn't a video game. It's not a picture book. It's, it's like you got to read the thing to get the value out of it. Some people are surprised by this. But like you, once you dig in, it resonates with your own experience like it does with yours in the military. And there's a gentleman, his name

Steve Hemman, he's a great friend of mine, he's a green beret, and a lot of these lessons are, I mean, we went on a camping, like a road trip, and we camped out of this class B camper van talking for two weeks about what does it mean to be a man. And it was like a two-week-long podcast, essentially, him sharing what he learned in the military through like the elite level of the army and me and the elite level of mountaineering talking about what a kids need to know today. and he was critical for some of the formation of these ideas. So if it resonates with you from your experience of the military, that's part of why. I got to give a shout out to my boy, Steve Petman.

Yes. No, definitely. They are the elite of the elite. It caught my attention in the beginning. Right when you said creed was the first time, I'm like, all shit. Okay. This is definitely, this is hitting the spot. creeds are so very important.

I've been working on mine. I keep refining it and refining it. It's almost like your mission statement, but more of a poetic approach. And the importance behind that that I personally think, it's having it committed to memory. And when it's committed to memory, it shapes not only just your character,

but it shapes your views. It shapes your outlook, your outlets, where you find yourself wandering to. It shapes everything. And that's where I feel like your book just, it comes in smoothly. It weaves in and out as far as where you're trying to get the younger generation that's becoming a man to focus on what's really important in their lives right now. I really like that. I don't think that there's guidance for such a thing to discover what's truly important. There's not a clear, I want to say, I want to use the word structure, because in previous

generations it was usually like a religious structure or there was things like the Boy Scouts of America or the Girl Scouts of America, which have now gone by, in my opinion, like lost their way or gone by the wayside. There are things that, like Boys and Girls Club used to be like every single, week I'd show up. Now those things just aren't there for young people. And so this book exists to fill in that need and that gap. And it's also one of the things that says, this is tough. And you got to step up if you're going to go through this book and get what's in it. This is, I wrote it with the intent of repelling many people because there's so many books out

there that are like 60 or 80 pages and they're filled with pictures on every single page. And it's like, that's cute. It itself. more, but the content isn't there. I wanted to create the thing that had the content, even if it doesn't sell as many copies. I wanted the thing that had nutrition and value and would change a human being's trajectory of their entire life if they did what it took to go through it. And so there's meat in this. It's fucking organic. It's my question is when you were writing this, how did you, how did you, how did you manage writers doubt when you experience doubt in thinking what if this doesn't make it what if people

don't get what I'm trying to deliver I experienced that I did experience that a lot and when the book first got released some of the early critics were were or pretty harsh with it and met it kind of with like I don't with a me sort of general attitude or this won't land with kids with today's kids and so I dealt with it while I was writing it I dealt with it in the pre like early stages of release and that I'll work backwards to answer this question the the critics got to me I was like I crumbled a little bit I lost my sense of confidence in the book and finally after like seven or eight days of being like

Like, pretty dejected. Like, here's a year of work I put into this thing. It's the best information wisdom I've got. And it just is met with like a whatever attitude. That stung. But then I remembered while writing it, I had this day of full, like, body chills confidence that this is the best wisdom that's out there that I've seen

from the top elite performers, the guys who've got their life together. who I admire more than anybody in the world, what they've learned, what I've interviewed, dozens and dozens of people who I respect and love most. This is the collective wisdom of all of them. This is a joint project, and I believe in this stuff more than anything. And I remember before the book was released thinking, even if this thing doesn't sell any copies or if nobody likes it, this is the best I, this is the best that I can write.

and I landed back on that place. Fortunately now, the reviews have gone skyrocketed towards five-star reviews, which is awesome. But it's also with a sense of even if those five-star reviews weren't there, I would be beyond proud of the contents of this thing because it's what has shaped me into who I am. And it's what the people who I respect and admire and love most has shaped them into who they are. No, that's very inspirational. Is this your first writing or do you have any other books that you released? This is my third book, but this is my first one that's been released with a major publisher.

So this is Penguin Random House and the two prior to this. One is for adults. It's called the mini manual for becoming super awesome. And then there's a book called Climb on Success Strategies for Teens, which is a goal setting guide for teenagers. So I had gone through that writing process of learning to overcome writers' block and what if this doesn't make sense on page and working with an editor. My editor for this book, her name is Sarah Sargent with Penguin Random House, and she is actually part of the answer of how I got past this thought too of like,

does this make sense? Will this resonate with anybody? She was instrumental in making sure that my words made sense because I approached her with like 350 pages and she held me whittled it down to 200 and get the best nuggets out of that. Wow. I imagine you're kind of like me where you have all these great thoughts where they're just bouncing all over the place and you want to get them all down on paper. And then when you do, it's like, okay, this, this is great, but it goes from here to there to

there. It's like there's not flowing. Like, what the hell, Greg? Yeah, man. So there's a beauty in not waiting for inspiration, but setting aside dedicated time where you let your creativity out. So I'm the kind of guy where I get one o'clock in the morning, I have a like life, like a world-altering profound moment of creativity. But I've realized that if I let that take me away, then I'm exhausted. and it ruins the next two or three days versus if I set aside four hours of a riding block

between for me it was 8 a.m. and noon and I stick to that and that's when the creativity comes out. I write everything I've got. The net effect is much higher. Now to get to what you're saying specifically you do that day after day after day after day after day fully accepting that 50% of whatever you create is going to be crap. You're going to scratch it. Well then 30 days. from now, something you write or that came out is kind of related to something you wrote today. You link those two things to get. Like, oh, yeah, those two thoughts are combined and you put them next to each other as though you're rearranging, like if you took a deck of cards and shuffled them up and

sprayed them across the room, that's what the creative process is. And you want to put those numbers in order. Okay, where's my two of clubs? There's my two of diamonds. Oh, yeah, these two thoughts go together. Boom. Okay, what comes next? Well, the threes.

And you get, okay, here's my. three of hearts. So you have all these cards that you sprayed across the room and your creative thoughts. And then you take a step back and you start organizing these creative little gems that you've made into the correct order. How are you able to detach yourself from your work? I can just feel the raw emotion in your voice when you talk about this process. I'm thinking it must have been very difficult for you to decide what. what was important and what wasn't important.

What was that like for you? To detach myself from the work is how you get the perspective to see what's important and not important. And the best way that I know how to do that is to deplete myself physically. So that was like going for a run that just kicked my butt or going to a hot yoga class. I'm doing like 103 degrees with 50% humidity like three days in a row where I don't have anything. like I'm fully dehydrated. And I can't care about anything else. The next time I show up,

I have less emotional connection to the thing I created from that energetic body that's now just been killed. When you're so focused on your body and how much it aches and how much it pains, your mind can just rest on that while you do the work. I feel like that's when you can really just make something beautiful happen.

Yeah. I got rid of all the attachment in a kite surfing session or on the yoga mat or in a mountain trail run, all my attachment got released because I spent all my remaining energy there, which let me show up to the pages fresh and objective and arrange in a logical way. What was your childhood like? Were you like an introverted kind of person or were you more extroverted? How was that like?

I'm naturally an introvert, and I define that as I get energy from being alone and having my my own time. Agreed. Yet I love being with other people and it's not like I'm a, I'm inept socially. I, I, I mean, people think I'm an extrovert. People see me leading groups and they see me like bringing an energy into a room, but it doesn't charge me. We thrive off being alone.

I think that's the way we are able to develop our creativity is one where alone in front our work and we're just grinding and out somehow something just profound happens. I'm like, yes. Then you're incend it. But in context, I fully get it. And if anybody's listening and it's the same way, like that's

normal, it's okay and that's the way that you're built. That's the way it works for people like us. And there are some magical moments, especially when you get comfortable enough to be alone in your own skin and are okay with those alone times. There's some real

magical gems that not only are filling for yourself, but they create projects that are nourishing for other people when you are ready to reveal your life's work to the world. What was your childhood like? Did you experience anything that could haunt you to this day that, of course, isn't a positive experience, but a negative experience? And do you hold that as fire or does that hold you back at times if that makes any sense? I mean, my parents were super loving and made a great environment for me to grow up. I think that if there was anything that I can point to that was really shaping, then it would be that I had this really wonderful connection.

experience in like my kindergarten preschoolish years and then my family moved from Vancouver, Canada to here. And I didn't gel or connect and I felt quite lonely at the school. And so I had this thought for many, many years. And now as an adult I can recognize why it was there. But I had this thought of if I just like wait long enough, then I'll get to go back to where other people that I, that care about me are or where I, I care about them.

Or if I, something's always greener on the other side. And that is a blessing and a curse because it's like, I just work hard enough and grid it out and toughen up. Then I'll get the love and admiration that I'm looking for. Whereas the curse side of it is sometimes just sitting in your own stink and not doing anything about it and just sitting around waiting. Now I can see all those are just the thoughts of like a third grader, you know, and that's how that kid's process.

thing. And so I think I learned drive from that. And I also think that I learned how to how to sort of mope a little bit through that. We can somehow look back on that specific experience or multiple experiences and rationalize with our adult mindset and understand it logically is why didn't I do something different? Why didn't I do it this way? But what you said was, was perfect. as you were a third grader, you get it that you were viewing that previous engagement as a third rather than, rather than how you are now. And I believe that is the key to helping you just observe rather than trying to manipulate something that has already previously happened.

that's such a such a good point and we can do that we can do that as adults this is a tool I mean this is a beautiful tool I want to call out which you just specifically pointed out if you've started a business and it failed and then later you learned oh if only I didn't do this one thing or if only I treated this employee different whatever your thing is for why the business didn't work the way you thought it would you're looking at you're you can look back at that person from a week ago even, as though they were the third grader, because you've grown, you've learned from that experience, you've got the lesson now that you needed to get. That's why that thing happened in your life.

And to look back at it and criticize the third grader, like, oh, what an idiot that person is. I'm still the idiot. No, you learned the lesson. That's the gain you got. Now you can take that to the next thing in your life. Same thing with romantic relationships. Same thing with sports that she used to play. there's no like living in regret.

It's just you were presented a situation in life that you're supposed to learn. That's your life journey. And you haven't learned the lesson if you're sitting in your own stink and just like moping around. You've got to take the positive out of it. That is spot on. Well, it's your lesson. So yeah, you're right. I was somehow anticipating that to happen.

Yeah. that was that's funny um let's transition to our wrap up because i want to get some personal opinions on how our listeners can benefit from this on a much deeper level what is some good advice to follow and what is some bad advice to avoid advice in what regard and in like what subset of weird a universal standard of advice that we can apply in our daily living to improve our character understanding as what what it means to be a man or a woman, an individual as far as good advice and bad advice to avoid what people think they see when that's not what's really happening or others are

projecting on to you? I would first say that other people get to have their stories or what's going on in your mind, and we aren't mind readers for the very reason that you're not privy to their story. You have no control over it. You have no right to whatever thoughts or processes or circumstances. that led them to think that whatever it is that they think. So they get to do that. Some level of detachment would be my first bit of advice.

Second, bit of advice, we get most irritated about other people when those traits actually exist in us, but we deny it. And so if you find yourself irritated with somebody or if you find yourself trying to be defensive that somebody else might think something about you that's not true,

instead of trying to run over, there and shift their story around or change their mind about any given subject. Instead, ask the question, how am I guilty of this in my life in some way? If that person is making, has made you jealous, or you should ask, oh, how do I make other people jealous? If that person has showed up late and you're irritated, ask, well, how do I steal other people's time in other ways as well. Like what what is why does this irritate me? That's the only thing you can end up influencing and we all know the phrase that like if you want to change the world you start with yourself. There's an infinite number of iterations of that term yet and all of us are like

refusing to actually change and and I think that the best way to do that is it is not to like make affirmations like I am a good person and look yourself in the mirror. I love myself. I don't think that that's like super deep cutting when you do that over time maybe. Sure, hundreds of times of making an affirmation, it'll make a dent. But more impactful is to ask questions like, how am I not loving of myself? Or how am I X? Or how, why do I, like asking these who, what, when, where why questions are what make us reflect. more deeply and powerfully because then we put that question out, which we'll try to find the answer somehow, and that's what affects change.

I really like where you pointed out with the affirmation as far as that doesn't cut deep enough. And some people don't understand that. Highlight that for just a second as far as when you do those affirmations, you look yourself in the mirror and you tell yourself, you're this. you're this, you don't believe it because you feel like it's a quick fix. And if it works, which never does, but what you see, you will get results and it's more of a surface, you can say you're one thing, but when it comes time and you feel the pressure of a situation, you won't act accordingly to what you continuously tell yourself.

because you don't believe in it. That's not what your heart revolves around. You want the change, but if it's just this affirmation of telling yourself this so you can feel better, no, you have to address the roots of the problem and that revolves in embracing your vulnerabilities

and looking at yourself and accepting those and wanting to fix it or wanting not to. If I looked myself in the eyes in the mirror every morning and said, I, if my affirmation was along the lines of I respect myself and I am worthy of others respecting me, a simple affirmation is, that's pretty common one, right? I say that a hundred times. Okay, I got that. I got that.

I got that. I got that. Maybe you got that, but are you actually changing anything in your life? that it shows versus asking the question, what would I need to do to feel more self-respect? And how would I need to show up with other people so that they respected me more? I asked that question about a month ago. What do I need to do to respect myself more? I need to.

And the answer was, I need to not leave the dishes in the sink because I wake up and then I'm like, I'm such a slob and I go through that negative self-critic talk. like I'm a disaster, but oh, well, whatever. Let's put another dish in there. I mean, there's really basic, simple example. But I was like, okay, if that's what my brain is saying needs to be done for me to respect myself more, I'm going to commit to changing that because I want to respect myself, put the dishes in, dishwasher, close it.

Suddenly, next thing you know, I feel more respect for myself. Okay, now what do I need to do to feel like others respect me more? Well, I need to, like, stand up for myself if I'm treated in a way that doesn't jive with the behavior that I think. is appropriate for me. So that means getting better at setting boundaries, being able to tell people know or being able to even call somebody out

when they treat me in a way that is less than showing of respect. With the dishes like that, because it doesn't start there or stop there. Right. But it's making your bed. It's flossing your fucking teeth. It's washing the bottom of your feet. It's doing all those things,

trimming your nails, making shaved. You have a fresh haircut once a week. All those things ripple out. What it does is it makes you accountable in yourself. It displays conviction that you hold yourself to such high regard and you execute whatever you tell yourself. So when you say you're going to do something,

you're more likely to do it because you're consistent with your word internally that it happens automatically externally. And it's so funny that in the beginning of this conversation, you called me out on that. Like, hey, I could rely on you. I can feel your presence. I can feel like what you're bringing to this conversation. You mentioned that. And now we're getting to the nitty-gritty of the how and the why that shows up for others.

It's an intuitive thing that people who hold themselves to that level, they can feel it from other people. they interact with. Yeah, absolutely. I like that. Yeah, me too. I have like a, this is a cool arc of a conversation. I'm really grateful to have been here. Me too. I really do appreciate you and your time. For our listeners, how can they get in touch with you if they want to know more about Mr. John Beattie? If anybody would like to take any of my courses, watch any of my documentaries about climbing the seven summits or order any of my books. And my website is John B-D-D-J-O-H-N-B-E-D-E-E-D-E dot com. John B-D-D-C-T-C.

That's also my handle on all social media. I use Instagram the most. So just search for John B-D-D-E-D-E-D-E on Instagram. And to order any of my books, specifically The Warrior Challenge, head over to Amazon and type in The Warrior Challenge, eight quests for boys to grow up with kindness, courage, and grit. It's a bright red cover you're looking for. Put that in your cart and gift it to your nephew, to your son, your grandson, your student.

Whatever young male is in your life, this book will change his life and he needs to get it. Can you give us a little snapshot of your course and what that actually entails? Yeah. So now that COVID is around, I'm not able to speak live. giving keynote speeches. And so I'm actively creating courses on the subjects that I normally speak about, which include grit, resilience, finding vision, fear, life, purpose. I'm also a kite surfing instructor, so I've got a kite surfing instructional course,

subjects like these that I'm passionate about. If any of this conversation resonated with you, there will likely be a course about it within a year that will be coming out on that site. Well, John, I really do appreciate your time. Is there anything you wanted to say before I let you go? Thank you for opening up this conversational space, as the cool lingo is right now, but for making time for this conversation,

for asking these questions, for reading or listening to the audiobook in advance, and for who you are and how you showed up here was awesome. So that's what I want to leave it with. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you guys enjoyed today's episode. Subscribe if you have not already done so. But leave us a review.

Let us know how we can continue to improve your transformation station. I appreciate every one of you for tuning in. And I look forward to the next episode on your transformation station. You've been listening to. your transformation station. Rediscovering your true identity and purpose on this planet. We hope you enjoyed the show, and we hope you've gotten some useful and practical information. Join us weekly on Monday for the YTS Challenge and bi-weekly on Wednesday for the exclusive

interviews at 8 p.m. Central Time. In the meantime, connect with us on Facebook and Instagram at YTS The Podcast. We'll be back soon. then, this is your transformation station, signing off. It's tax season, and at LifeLock, we know you're tired of numbers. But here's a big one you need to hear. Billions. That's the amount of money and refunds the IRS has flagged for possible identity fraud.

Now here's another big number. 100 million. That's how many data points LifeLock monitors every second. If your identity is stolen, we'll fix it guaranteed. One last big number. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com slash podcast for the threats you can't control. Terms apply.