#124: The Positive Attitude And Its Gift Of Resiliency with Lucas Robak

Welcome to The Conscious Pivot Podcast with international speaker, business mentor, bestselling author of Pivot, and your host, Adam Markel. The Conscious Pivot shares the stories and wisdom of people who have successfully reinvented some area of their business and personal life. You'll gain powerful insights into how you can fully embrace new opportunities, increase your performance, and master the art and science of innovation and resilience. So please join Adam as he guides you on your conscious pivot.

Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Conscious Pivot Podcast. I'm your host, Adam Markel, and I am sitting in the seat today, just thrilled to be with all of you. I'm now, as my eyes are closed, I'm not sure if you can, you're watching this on YouTube, you can see that. If not, I'm giving you the play-by-play as you're listening, but my eyes are closed. And I'm sending you a whole lot of love. I absolutely just so dig that old Led Zeppelin song. I hope you guys all got that musical reference, and if not, then go, uh, go check out that tune. It's such a rad song. I'm sending out waves and waves of love, a whole lot of love to all of you. I have a great guest on the show today. I can't wait to introduce him in just a second, but I wanted to start with My expression of gratitude for this moment, appreciation for being here now in this, that all of you that are consuming, listening, etc., that you are a part of this lovely, and I do mean lovely, community of ours that has expanded and grown. And it's just, it's beautiful and something I feel so blessed to be a part of, to be able to be a voice. in this community, hopefully a voice of reason, but a voice of just what's real and true in the moment. That's certainly what inspires me to be here today and to share some things with all of you. So I feel blessed and grateful. And with that, happy to make an introduction of a wonderful, wonderful young man. And I guess at this point in my life, I get to call other people young. I'm a young man still, but this young man is younger than me. And his name is Lucas Roback. And he's just spectacular. Somebody I met about a year ago and was so taken by him, just by his authenticity and his sense of humor, his story, which is remarkable because he is a leader and stepping into his own greatness as a leader, as somebody that really will have a tremendous impact, has already had a great impact in the world, but will have even greater influence Because of who he is in the world. And I'll share a little bit about that, and we're going to just dive right in. You get to hear it from himself. He was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, MS as it's called. And rather than being defeated by that, he was empowered by it, motivated by it, motivated to create more value in the world. And he has continued to do that. He has formed an incredible foundation called— and an organization called the Wellness Fair. Yeah. He is the president of the Health and Wellness Network, an organization that's part of the area that he lives in, Southeast Wisconsin. He's somebody who's a bestselling author. He helps other people become bestselling authors as well. He created a company called Authorpreneur Academy. I'm going to actually talk a little bit about his book during this podcast. I shouldn't say his book because he has several books, but the book that I'm holding in my hand, for those of you who can see it, It's called I Am, and it's a children's book for positive thinkers with these incredible illustrations. It's just an incredible message. I actually bought— I guess it's about a year ago— I bought a dozen or so copies of this so that I could give it to my nieces and nephews and anybody else that I really cared about. It says here ages 0 to 5, which I always find is funny that this book is for 0 to 5 because frankly, I'm past the age of 5. And I love this book. I think it's, it's an incredible value for me as an adult or as a wannabe adult. And it just is incredible, just like the gentleman who wrote it, Lucas Roback. Welcome to the Conscious Pivot podcast. Thanks for being here today.

Hey, thank you very much, Adam, for having me. I greatly appreciate this opportunity. And before we even get started on the next print of that I Am book, I have already made the correction. It's from baby to adult. The reason why is after some parents are like, oh, my child's 6 years old, and I'm just like, are you serious?

People are very literal.

Yeah, yeah, it was like very literal. It's like, all right, fine, I'll just put baby to adult.

I was like, I'm sorry, my kid is 6, I can't get this book.

Okay. Yeah, exactly.

Baby to adult, and even adults that are still babies, right? Exactly. At heart. So Lucas, I would love it if you would share A little bit more. Obviously, I've said that you have a company that helps people to become authors, bestselling authors and the like, and that you've got an incredible event that you do each year called the Wellness Fair, and you are an organizer and an activist and all that. What's not a part of that introduction? What's not a part of your bio, let's say, that you would love for people to know about you?

Well, I guess, like, according with— to go with your podcast is there was an actual conscious pivot that took place to create each of those businesses that I do. Just to make long stories short for the wellness fair is after I got diagnosed with MS, I started researching how to successfully live with it rather than turning myself into a hypochondriac and researching all the horrific things that could possibly maybe might happen one day. And so I started researching how to successfully live with it, and it came pretty apparent after a couple weeks that it's just all Eastern medicine, natural, organic, healthy living. Essentially lifestyles that we should all be living to begin with, but we're not. And so whether if it's MS or just any type of chronic illness or whatever it might be, it's just all natural and organic. And I just figured that that was something that I wanted to be a part of. So I just dove headfirst into the health and wellness world here in Southeast Wisconsin. And in less than a year, I became a leader of a community. And then I just shifted the focus of where it was going and grew it into what we know of today as the Wellness Fair. Yeah, so it was mainly like the MS, getting diagnosed with the MS, and then coming to the realization that what we're taught is not how to successfully live with a chronic illness. And so that's kind of— that realization was the pivot that put me in that direction.

Yes. So Lucas, look, not everybody's watching this, and so some people are just hearing your voice, and I invite you all to go on YouTube and just check out the episode that way as well, because you see Lucas, he's just this young, vibrant, healthy Skinny. Yeah, you are. You're on the thin side. I used to be called that too. I'm not accused of being skinny anymore. I've got like— I'm wearing a bit of a— I have like a yoga shirt on, a Buddha shirt right now, and I've got a Buddha belly to go with it. So as time goes on, those parts of the body seem to expand on its own. Lucas, when was this diagnosis made? Because you're doing just terrific. I'd love for people to have more context around when were you diagnosed with MS? If you could actually even set the stage for that, tell us that story, if you will, take us back to that very pivotal point in time in your life, that would be terrific.

Oh boy, I'm getting chills just thinking about it. But so first of all, when people get diagnosed with MS, it takes a long time for them to actually like diagnose somebody. I got lucky that the very first time I went in with symptoms, they diagnosed me within But looking back and now knowing more about what MS is and what it does, what it can do to the body, just because people force that information on me, I'm not going off and researching it. People just tell me.

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I think it's hilarious. In high school, I had symptoms. In college, I had symptoms, which actually created a lot of animosity between my girlfriend and I. I lost my vision. I had bowel and bladder problems. And like, I just figured my body was like my car where you just keep driving it, sooner or later it's going to fix itself. And that's what it did for so many years. And then after my sister graduated college, we, we went to Colorado. So in college, I had a lot of bowel and bladder issues in college and we kind of— my doctor decided to diagnose me with chlamydia. And so it's just like, oh boy. So then we were both just like, oh, you're cheating on me. She's like, no, you're cheating on me. And then all of a sudden it's just like, okay, that just ended. Pretty abruptly. And it turned out that it was just a basic symptom of MS that I still experience today. And all it really is is that I just can't finish peeing or start it. So just to start peeing and to stop peeing, it takes a lot of effort, which I'm not going to go into details more about that.

No, we're probably okay there. So you're in college and these symptoms are showing up and very, I mean, We could all in this moment just imagine how difficult that situation would be and to not understand where or what and then to have a doctor tell you it's one thing that actually indicates you're not being faithful to your girlfriend and you end up in a beef about it and broken up. That's— wow. Yeah.

Needless to say, I don't see that doctor anymore.

Good. Good thinking.

There was other times too. I guess like, here's me like making excuses, but part of my story is that one of the reasons why I believe that I'm skinny is I used to work out, exercise all the time, and I actually found myself falling asleep either in the gym or right afterward. And people are just like, oh my gosh, exercise, it gives me so much energy. It's like, are you— like, you're a liar. It's like, I don't believe that. It's like, I can like, come work out with me. I'll show you me passed out in 30 minutes. And so, like, I'm actually finally starting to get back around about a little— 10 years later, I'm getting back around to working out. But like Memorial Day weekend of May 2014 was when I actually got diagnosed. And as I mentioned, I was at my sister's graduation in college in Colorado. With the altitude, everyone was blaming like my fatigue and just my symptoms on, oh, it's the altitude. But when I got back, I actually started to feel numbness and tingling. Tingliness on the left side of my body. And I'm assuming that you've had one of your limbs fall asleep, but if it was like an arm or a leg. Yeah. So that was like my permanent reality where it's just when your arm falls asleep, that's exactly— so I kept my left hand in my pocket because it didn't work anymore. I had a manual car. So my left foot on the clutch, I took a whole lot of concentration just to be able to use my left foot, let alone drive. It just got very painful. I was using walls, other people's shoulders, whether they were strangers or people that I knew, just to use as a walker to keep my balance. Doorframes just had this crazy knack to just jump out of nowhere and hit me, to where I couldn't just walk through a door. I had to bounce off, like play a little pinball going through a doorframe. And then I just got sick of it. And so I decided to just drive to the hospital and I actually Parked in the farthest parking lot that you can park at, at the hospital that I went to. So instead of walking to a door, I just walked into the ambulance entrance. And after a CAT scan, the night shift neurologist told me that I had MS. I've never heard of it before, but then they held me for 3 days to do a bunch of tests and like lumbar puncture, blood tests, MRIs, just a ton of different stuff. And I was able to at least like walk out of the hospital at that point, which was nice because once I got there, it was I wasn't able to walk that well anymore.

I'm taking that in for myself, and I'm sure other people are taking this in right now and imagining what it would be like to get that diagnosis, to hear that. What was happening for you other than the shock of it, which maybe that's all that was happening in the moment, I don't know. What was it like?

Getting diagnosed?

Yeah, being told you've got something, especially something you'd never heard of before. And I'm sure they were giving you some sense of what it meant, right? Well,

the doctors tried to tell me, but they speak in doctor language that nobody else can understand unless you've spent a very long time reading Latin. So yeah, I had no clue what they were saying. It's not bedside manner.

It's something else, right?

Yeah. So the nurse was my translator and she did a very good job explaining it using metaphors and stuff because they're like, oh yeah, the myelin sheath and all this like big Latin words. I'm like, I have no— everything was right over my head. It was actually a very empowering moment for me. I didn't see myself as a victim. I still don't see myself as a victim. And I still see MS as one of the most beneficial things that happened to me in terms of what it is that I can now do with my life. I saw it as a tool. I saw it as a positive, very positive moment while it was happening. By looking back on it, even like the people that visited me in the hospital, you can ask them, like my parents, some of my friends, my aunts, They came to visit me. It was— we had a whole lot of fun for those 72 hours that I was laying in that hospital bed. On the hospital bed because I was in the stroke unit, because that's just where their neurological unit was. So I was on the stroke floor and I was considered a fall risk because I couldn't— by that time, I wasn't able to even use a walker on my own. I would be wheelchair-bound. And—

And again, you're in college, right? Is that—

Oh no, this was after. So College was like— that college instance was in like 2004.

Okay.

I got diagnosed in 2014.

Got it. Oh, so 10 years later.

Yeah, 10 years later. So I've had symptoms for about 15 years.

Got it. So you're in your early 30s, you end up in the emergency room, you can't feel your limbs. I think the analogy of when your arm or your leg falls asleep, anybody that's ever had that experience, which probably everybody knows, it's incredibly painful. You can't use that limb. It's as if it's completely useless. It's tingling and numb. And it hurts actually. Yeah. And so you're basically— this is your existence until you end up in that emergency room and you get this diagnosis. Then thankfully, through a translator, through a nurse, you're finding out what this is about. But then, but then there's this something else that you just shared. I just want to reverse back because this is not a typical thing at all. And these days we do a lot of talking about the topic of resilience and how you create resilience, and we found that research and through our own personal experiences, mine and others that I've worked with, that there's sort of 3 things involved in resilience or when you speak to people who've been resilient, they've got these 3 things in common and you've just identified the first one. So here you are in a situation that would have, for the most part, I mean, it would have wigged out, depressed, upset anybody. I mean, I don't know anybody that would be that wouldn't have been really blown over by this news and everything. And you said this was empowering. So if you could go back to that for just a second so we can understand a little bit how it is that you could feel empowered and what was going on in your mind and what was somehow different about that situation so the rest of us who are listening now can learn from you, sir.

Okay. Well, I guess like it almost starts like a little more than 10 years before that even happened was I attempted suicide. And just because of that, without any medication or therapy, I was able to take myself out of depression just by using my thoughts. And I did a lot of research. Bob Proctor was pretty much the person that saved my life. I don't think he— he probably doesn't know that yet. Maybe I should write him a letter soon.

Tell Bob. Bob is still alive and doing well, and he ought to know this for sure. Maybe we'll send him— I know Bob. I'll send him a copy of this podcast so he can hear it directly from you. So please, Continue.

So yeah, so I just started, uh, just dove head— after I attempted suicide, I just started learning as much as I could from Bob. I had no clue what I was learning. I just felt like that was the right material to learn. And then so when I got diagnosed with MS after implementing those tools for about 10 years, I was just in that positive mindset, that positive mentality, knowing that only good is able to come from every situation. It's just a matter of like, how fast is it going to take you to see it? So like, for instance, in Jack Canfield's book, The Success Principles, he mentioned Candy Lightner. I believe I pronounced her name right, who's the founder of, uh, Mothers Against Drunk Driving. And MADD was created solely because her daughter was killed by a drunk driver. A horrible thing to happen. And yet, uh, drinking and driving laws are changing. And as well as like, so it's a matter of seeing only good in every situation as well as For about a year or 2 before, and even up to that point, and I guess like even still now, you're helping me with this though, you don't know it yet. I was trying to find my speaker platform, trying to find who it is, like what direction it is that I should go and everything like that. And then all of a sudden when they were telling me this, not having a clue what multiple sclerosis was, they were saying that, I'm just like, oh, that's my platform. It actually excited me. It's just like, oh my gosh, now I know. It's like, I can go and do this. I can be like the spokesperson. Yada, yada, yada. It's just my mind just started racing in terms of all the possibilities that were now open to me solely because I was able to pinpoint what was happening to me. And actually now I have a label that I can work with versus keep driving the car and it'll fix itself sooner or later. Now I know exactly what's happening as well as I can manage myself a little bit more too.

So it's important to put, or at least it was for you, was a really empowering thing to have at least Got a label for it, a language to describe what the heck your body was going— what was going on with you, right?

Yeah, multiple sclerosis beats chlamydia every day.

I mean, at some point, as you said, your work, your speaker platform is developing as we speak. Man, the story of a girl, of a girlfriend who left you thinking you had chlamydia when, as it turned out, you only had MS.

Yeah, it's just MS. Come on.

It's just MS.

It's not contagious or anything.

Right. What are you running for? Yeah.

You

can't catch it. Oh my goodness. So where do you go from there? You're in the hospital, you got family around. First of all, are your family surprised in that moment, do you think, that you have this positive attitude about this pretty ominous diagnosis?

Yeah, it's actually a little bit of a funny story. I think it's funny. But so I went in on Thursday night, like I gave a speech and I actually sat on the table with my hand in my pocket while I gave the speech instead of like walking around and falling over. And right after is when I drove to the ER on Thursday night. And then I called my mom Friday afternoon until I waited until after I got my diagnosis to call her. And so after she got over that, then yes, like she was like, they were surprised at my positivity. Like she was very upset that I waited as long as I did to call her. Yeah. Especially since she's right there as well. So, but it was like a very positive room, shall I say? Like the nurses all said, oh, I love coming into this room. It was just a lot of fun. We played different games just because like with MS, we have like active lesions and I had active lesions in my brain and my spine and sort of like stop the activity. We take steroids and it's not like the anabolic steroids. Like obviously I'm, Like, I'll take steroids and I'm not getting any bigger. But so those steroids, they mess with the blood sugar a little bit. And so they would take my, uh, blood sugar levels and we would, we would take bets. Everybody in the room would take a bet as to what the blood sugar level was. It was like we had Price is Right rules to where you can't go over at all. And the nurses got in on it. Like, I'm not going to mention their names just because they didn't want me to mention their names ever. But it was just a lot of fun. It was just— It's against the union rules. What was that?

It's against the union rules.

Yeah, exactly. You can't have that.

They're not allowed to bet on their patients' blood numbers. Oh my God.

Another thing that made it fun was because I was a fall risk, on my bed there's an alarm on my bed. So if I actually got up on my own, this loud alarm would go off and the nurses would come sprinting in. To where I actually timed it too, to where it's like, okay, I got to go to the bathroom. So I would push like the call monitor versus me sitting up. So I stopped using the call monitor because if I wanted them there, they would get there a lot quicker if I just sat up and the bed alarm went off because I fell out of bed. That made it a lot of fun too, because they were just good sports with me as well.

Yeah, it was like your own nurse Olympics. How quickly can they get in here? Lucas, what happens post— you get out of the hospital, obviously.

And first of all, again, not to make too little of this, because truthfully, I don't think there's any—

there's a possibility of making too much of this. You took the situation you were in and you reframed it. That's at least this language that we apply to this particular characteristic, this trait of resilient people and resilient leaders, as you are one of those. There are people that take a look at a situation and it's not like they are Pollyanna, as my father-in-law used to say sometimes. They're not ignoring the reality. You weren't ignoring the reality. You weren't saying, hey, I don't have MS. I have chlamydia.

I didn't say that.

They got it backwards, right? Now, you weren't making up a different diagnosis. You knew exactly what you were told. You weren't questioning the fact that this was something going on. You were looking at it in a very empowered way, in a very positive way. You were framing it in a way that was of a certain energy that not only was your family able to deal with what I imagine was a devastating bit of news that they received, but even like you say, the staff, the nurses, the personnel, people that are around these situations all the time and they know when they walk into a room and it's dark and it's depressing and it's It's awful news. It's like, you know, that's a particular energy.

And then they got this guy over here who's just been told he has MS, but meanwhile he's like creating the Nurse Olympics and he's got the prices right on his blood tests and things, and it's a completely different energy. So you took a realistic approach to something, but also applied a level of just— what's the word? Is it empowerment? Is that the word you would use for how— For your mindset at that moment?

Yeah, I guess it's just like I just chose to look at it in a positive light. So yeah, I do acknowledge that I do have MS. Absolutely. I'm not like naive or ignorant to that fact. It's just a matter of just because now I know that I have it, now I know like the symptoms that I have, that it's MS, and I know how to live. I know how to like handle those and I can avoid them now too, because before it was all just I have no idea what's happening. So it's a good thing just to know that. But it's also, for me, it's a phenomenal marketing tool. It's like we were talking about this before we started recording.

Yes.

Multiple sclerosis is like, as long as you can, no matter who you are, you're able to use it in whatever way that you want. As you can with any disease, with absolutely any positive or negative thing, as long as you look at it a certain way, you're able to use it. And that's one thing that I've learned from your Level 1 part of enrollment was use it. That was one of the best takeaways that I could take away from that weekend.

Yeah,

was use it.

It's so interesting, right? Because we all have so many things about ourselves that we would think, you know, have to remain private, or they're, they're just something that are what we call the dirty little secret. And so you taking that speaker training and determining that your dirty little secret was something that would actually be your Could be your strongest marketing tool or the strongest point of connection between yourself and other people.

There's such transparency.

It's so real.

Your vulnerability is real.

It's something we can all identify with, meaning identify with the feeling that we would hate to be given that diagnosis, and yet we all have our own stuff too. We all— and your attitude, the way you approach life, is so much more healthy and positive and interesting to be around than people that are maybe, quote, don't have MS or something like that. So yeah, and this is so— couldn't have planned this any better. So the second thing, the character trait that resilient people have in addition to being able to find the creative opportunities and see the sunshine in a situation or the positive side of even a real situation like yours, the second thing is that they find the meaning in things, that they search for the meaning. It's like Viktor Frankl's book, Man's Search for Meaning. We all have to find the meaning in our lives, the good, the bad, the ugly. And so even to the tune of finding the meaning, the marketing meaning, the ability to take something that's painful and use it in a way to serve. And I know that when you talk about marketing, using the MS for marketing, really what you're talking about is to get people to be more aware and to take better care of themselves. But I prefer if you shared a little bit about the work you're doing. And how it is that you're planning to use the MS or are already using it as part of your platform to bring about more awareness and understanding of these things.

Well, as you said, I'm extremely transparent with my health. When I do things with other functional medical practitioners, I tell them, it's just like, just waive the HIPAA law. I'll sign whatever you need to sign just so that you can use me as a real-life example versus metaphors and made-up facts. Like just made up stuff. So a lot of people are using me as examples. Like when I go see a chiropractor or an acupuncturist, massage therapist, or whoever it might be, I just wave my hip a lot for that. And another thing too is a lot of people told me, and they still tell me, like over the past few years, a lot of people, and it's almost like a conspiracy that's going on, is that they say if anybody should get diagnosed with MS, that it should be me. And at first I would be like super sarcastic, have a sarcastic response. Like, yeah, if anyone should have cancer, it should be you. But like the reason why they're saying that is because of what I'm like, the direction that I'm going, the positive mindset that I have and how I'm using it. And like how I use it is just like in my stories, like when I'm telling a story, I say, it's just like, oh, well, like when it comes to the wellness fair and working with connecting accredited wellness professionals with people that desire complete wellbeing, I use my MS as A tool in terms of here's my story. And after I learned about MS, that's when I learned about natural medicine. And that's the direction that I'm heading now. And you should join me because this is something that we should all be doing to begin with, not until you wait until something horrible happens. Let's make sure that it doesn't happen. And then when it comes to like author, working with entrepreneurs is people just, first of all, people just love excuses. They just love making up excuses. And if they'd rather come up with an excuse than actually do something. And I was a master of that in college to where people would call me up and be like, Lucas, I need an excuse. I'm like, all right, I got 5, choose one. But when it comes to like your business, it's a whole different story. And yet business owners are making excuses. And so I use my MS saying I have MS and I got this done. What's your excuse? It's very hard to top that. It is. So I use my illness in that way to like motivate them, or it probably demotivates some people, obviously, but it's just a way for me to say, it's like, anybody's able to do it. Children are able to become published authors, which is something that I'm working on, as well as somebody with a chronic illness is able to do everything from start to finish all on his own, trying to figure it out and experimenting along the way. And so it's like, if I can do it, you can do it.

Wow. The pace of change over the last couple of years has been rapid. And if you're a leader, a business owner, an entrepreneur, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Every day it's something different and something new. But the one thing that I've learned in performing at the height of all of those roles has been that we must be resilient. In fact, it's the unsung hero in every success story that you will ever hear about. And it's the reason why my team and I created the resilience assessment that more than 5,000 business leaders across the globe have taken. And all you have to do to get your own free resilient leader assessment is go to resiliencerank.com. It takes less than 3 minutes, and it's our gift to you for being the leader that you already are. Other free resources and tools will accompany your score instantly. So, go to resiliencerank.com and

find out just how resilient you are. Oh, yeah. Well, my story doesn't top that at all. I simply sometimes say to people, look, I speak for a living and yet I'm an introvert. So, I travel and I'm in front of audiences of new people, strangers, if you will, kind of all the time. Yet I'm an introvert. I don't have the same cred when I say that as you when you say, hey, if I can do it, you can do it. I've got MS, that kind of thing. And it'll be something you'll be able to say as you're public speaking and you're the face of your foundation more and more as well. But it does resonate with people because there are a lot of folks out there who tell themselves a story that because they're shy or they're an introvert or they just don't really see themselves as having this charisma or something, that they can't get out. And be a voice, speak a message, create that kind of a legacy and impact the world in a really— using that tool to impact the world in a really positive way. So, it's great leverage, brother. So, more power to you that you use it in that way. You've already ticked off these first 2 things. And I said, from our research, there's 3 ways that people typically create resilience. And this is looking at folks in many different situations. So, Without my saying what I think the third one is, or at least what research tells us is the third thing, I'm curious if there was a third way that you've been resilient, a character trait or a way of being, what would you say the third thing is? So first one being you frame, your perception is very positive. So you frame up, you reframe things really well. You find the meaning or you found the meaning in your situation. Very quickly, and you've continued to find more meaning in the MS than in something else like, why me? And this is unfair, or any of the other stories you could make up about it. What's the third thing?

I wish I would have known there was going to be a quiz. I know it's in your book. I read it and I was like, oh, I love this. I even marked it, put some notes on it, but I can't remember the third thing. So my guess is persistence. Tenacity, ambition, action, overcoming. That's my guess. I know I could find it in the book in a couple of minutes.

This is so much fun because you're right. There wasn't supposed to be a quiz. I apologize. I'm putting you on the spot. But really, as opposed to what might have been written in the book or something, I'm just curious about for you so far, are you on board with the fact that at least 2 traits that we can detect that's created resilience in you is that positive attitude and your ability to find meaning in your situation. Would you agree with that?

Absolutely, yes.

Okay, cool. So if there's a third one, and there might be 10, is there something else that you've done consistently over the last 10 years or so that have— or at least even from the 5 years since your diagnosis— that you would say has contributed to your being able to be Resilient, to bounce back.

I would say my vision of the future, as well as one phrase that is— I can't remember the movie that it came from, but it's like, keep on keeping on.

Yeah.

It's kind of like the consistency, the persistence. But yeah, I should have studied before I came.

No, you know what? I'm the one studying because this is great for everybody listening, watching, and it's great for me as well as part of just ongoing Curiosity. Really, this is a big thing for us these days. It's just because we, you know, in the world that we're living in right now, there's too many things that we could say are wrong, too many things to sort of count or catalog, and the world is changing rapidly. So in the midst of all this sort of divisiveness and division and all that stuff that's really negative, there's also a world that's just rapidly changing through technology and other things, and disruption is ever-present, change is ever-present. So to be resilient. From our standpoint and cultivating resilience. It's not something you're born with. That's the research as well. It can be learned. Epigenetics is a big factor in this, how the environment and our proximity to people who can show us what resilience looks like. So that's why I'm so thrilled that you're on the show, that people get to hear who you are and what your message has been. And the third thing that we found is just people that are resilient, they have rituals for self-care. Yeah. They have rituals to take great care of themselves. And I'm assuming, because I know you a little bit, we've met, you know, came to our home for a couple of days for our workshop and things. So it's not like we're strangers. I think you take really good care of yourself. So am I off base there?

A little off base when you use the word really. I take good care of myself. I wouldn't say really good. I'm working on the really, the really part. But yeah, I do take good care of myself and it's getting a lot better, especially after my diagnosis. Night and day.

Yeah. So what does that look like for you? What are those rituals for self-care? If you, you could share those with us.

All right. So in the morning, this is something that I got from Bob Proctor in one of his videos. Uh, I can't remember the exact video. It's like the most powerful habit that you can do in the morning. But every single morning I express gratitude for 10 things that I'm grateful for. And what I've actually done recently is I'm expressing gratitude towards 10 things that I have yet to achieve. So I'm already grateful for the things that I'm working towards. And the reason why I'm doing that is because of, uh, there's a study by Dr. Patrick Hill and Dr. Nicholas Toriano. It was a 14-year study. I believe it was 14 years with 12,000 people. And out of that, that 14 years and 12,000 people, only— obviously, and with that amount of people during that amount of time, some people are going to pass away. But they found that the only people that passed away were the people that showed a sign of low A low life purpose, and so by having that purpose and working towards it, you're going to live a happier, healthier, and longer life is what they found. And so it's like oh, like I'm just going to start giving be grateful for the things that I'm working towards, which is also something that Bob Proctor teaches. But I'm taking it to like a next level type thing where it's like I'm grateful everything that I'm grateful for is something that I'm working towards because throughout the day I also in the From the movie The Secret, they talk about the gratitude stone. So I always carry around a gratitude stone. Every time I touch it, I give something that I'm grateful for. And so I use that stone to give something that I'm grateful for in this moment. Absolutely. So I just talk about— use that for what I'm doing grateful for that day. But the other rituals that I have is right after that, then I send love to 3 people that are bothering me. And what I found is that I'm sending love to the same 3 people almost every day. Every once in a while it'll change, but it's this Same 3 people that are bothering me. One thing that you wrote in your book about the story with Keith Leon and how he changed his day from planning, as well as something that Bob Proctor teaches, is ask spirit, sit in silence for 5 minutes and ask spirit for guidance for the day. And spirit is either the energy of God, however, whatever word you use for God, Allah, Yahweh. So you're just asking spirit for guidance for the day. And then after that, I read for a little bit. I always read out of Think and Grow Rich in the morning. I just love Napoleon Hill. And I'm just— my goal within the next couple of years is to actually memorize that book. But so every morning I read Think and Grow Rich and then I have a smoothie. And this is where the really, really part comes in is I should work out. But if you look at me, you know, I don't.

Yoga, brother. That's what I gotta say to you. Yoga. Yoga is gonna be your thing, Lucas.

I've actually started with planks just to like keep it so simple. I just have to just, just, just stay there for a couple of minutes, but baby steps.

Wow. Well, Lucas, you fulfilled for sure for me what self-care looks like because that, that's a very intentional beginning of the day. And, and I'm with you on so many of the things you just said about beginning with gratitude. And earlier when you were saying it, I was holding up a stone. I have stones all over my desk. It's a kind of a, Crystals, stones, rocks that we found on the beach, shells, things, pieces of wood, just natural things from nature that when I hold them in my hand, I just feel closer to nature. I feel closer to Mother Earth and to God and spirit, to all of my brothers and sisters. I think what you said as well about sending out love to people that bother you, what a concept. 3 people that bother you. Everybody tomorrow when you wake up in the morning, you're gonna send out love to 3 people. Who are irking you. We had a guest on our show some months ago, Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith, and we had a great conversation about starting the day with an assignment and asking spirit for that assignment. And similar to what you just said, that you can ask for that guidance, ask to be guided. Doesn't matter, I suppose, what you think that source of guidance is. That's not even the point. So it's not a religious thing. It's just It's just really a place of asking. I don't believe you can ever ask a question and not receive an answer. I believe it's cause and effect. So there's always going to be an answer to a question that's asked. And the only question is when. That's the part I never know. That's the timing thing about it. And just lastly, with Napoleon Hill, I'm such a fan of his work. And I say something to myself pretty much every day and have for more than I guess for about 10 years now, said this, I ask not, O Divine Providence, for more riches, but more wisdom with which to accept and use wisely the riches I received at birth in the form of power to control and direct my mind to whatever ends I desire. That's out of that book you've been reading every day. Yeah. Yeah. To have that whole book committed to memory, man. I want to interview you at that point as well. As I imagine you'll be even more of a transformed individual.

I have talking points committed to memory and a couple of quotes, but when it comes to the whole thing—

So cool.

I got a lot of studying to do on that.

Sure. Absolutely. Lucas, what a blast. I mean, I knew it would be so much fun to have you on the show. We'll have full show notes. You can find out more about Lucas Robach and his book, I Am, his children's book, his other books he's got going on, as well as the work he's Doing in the wellness fair that will be happening in the fall, right? What are the dates for the wellness fair?

The wellness fair is on the 3rd Sunday of October every year in Southeast Wisconsin.

Beautiful.

And sooner or later we will expand. We'll be— the aspiration is to be an international organization. So—

Take a minute now if you would, Lucas, and just share a little bit about the fair. I know you're looking for— I believe you've got— you're sold out when it comes to your vendors, which is really cool, but you're gonna be looking for sponsors and others and So just share, if you could, 30 seconds, what's this fair about?

All right. So yeah, the 2019 fair is already sold out, but fair itself is to connect accredited wellness professionals with those seeking complete wellbeing. And what it is, is we have a bunch of different vendors and then we also have 5 presentations, 5 speakers who actually compete 1 month before in order to win that slot. So if somebody just says, oh, it's like, I want to speak, it's like, well, you first have to become a vendor and then you have to compete for it because I don't want to pick it. I get a panel of 10 judges that elect the speakers. And I'm thankful every single year. I'm so grateful that I came up with that idea to have a panel of people choose instead of me. Every single vendor is different in terms of what it is that they're able to do for somebody as it's all natural, organic. And in terms of The reason why we use the word wellness instead of holistic is because holistic is saying no Western medicine, period. Like, I'm not going to work with you if you're on Western medicine, versus wellness is saying, okay, keep taking your medication, but let's do this, and maybe possibly one day you might be able to take yourself off that medication. Yes. And so like the wellness practitioners are like chiropractors, acupuncturists, massage therapists, Uh, yoga. There's a lot of innovative— I can't really say innovative. It's just like out of this world type stuff, like, uh, color puncture therapy, where it's like they use crystals and colors and light on your feet. And that, it's unbelievable. I have some, uh, pretty amazing results with that as well as like CBD is becoming like the new wave of the future. And so it's, there's some shops that are opening up here in Wisconsin. They're fine. They finally legalized CBD at least. So now we're bringing that in. And it's just a way to learn about everything that's out there that we— you really don't know about. Because how Hollywood portrays acupuncture and chiropractic is not even close to what it actually is. And so to actually experience it or talk to somebody about it, it's nothing like Hollywood. And so the entire idea is just to wisdom share and help people become more aware of what's out there. Yeah. And to connect with somebody right away to start that healing process, because our bodies are designed to heal themselves. And so let's just allow that to happen.

I really hope you're enjoying this episode of the Change Proof Podcast. If you've not yet gone out and gotten your own copy of Change Proof, it's not too late. You can get your copy right now by going to ChangeProof.com, and not only getting the book and all the bonuses there, but getting access to our proprietary resilience assessment tool. It'll just take you 3 minutes to do, and it's something that will really help you to utilize the book even more effectively to create practices and rituals and habits that will increase your mental, emotional, physical, and even spiritual resilience. Again, go to changeproof.com to get your copy today. Yes. No, it's beautiful. Well, and I know you're looking for sponsorship. So, folks that are listening to this, folks that may have some interest in getting involved, whether it's as a vendor or as a sponsor for either this year or next year's Wellness Fair, Again, there'll be full information about Lucas, a website you can reach out to him, etc. So what a blessing it's been. Lucas, thank you so much for being on the show today.

You're welcome, Adam, and thank you very much for having me as a guest. I appreciate it.

Yeah, wonderful. And for everybody, as we wind down, just thinking ahead of time what that morning ritual will consist of and look like for each of us tomorrow morning. Because today when we woke up, we had certain choices. We could feel a variety of different ways. We had the choice to wake up and put our feet on the floor and just dash off to the bathroom or to the nearest coffee station, to pick up our phones, to start thinking about perhaps things that are not as we'd like them to be or worrying about money or responsibilities or feeling obligations. I mean, we had all those choices. that were available to us when we woke up this morning. And we also had the opportunity in that moment, that waking moment, to realize that it was not a guarantee that we would get another day. It was actually something of a surprise, a blessing, something that we don't have to take for granted. I always remind myself when I'm having that moment, and maybe I woke up and I didn't sleep well, maybe I was up in the middle of the night or I was tossing or my back was hurting me when I woke up or something. I always get myself to a place where I can just imagine as I'm taking a breath, a deep early morning breath as I'm taking right now, just filling up my lungs and feeling it, that there are people in this very moment who are taking their last breath. There are people breathing in right now who will not exhale. And that was the same this morning when I woke up. It's the same for all of us. So tomorrow morning when you are waking up, as I fully expect that we all will, even though there's no guarantee, it will be another miracle. And we get to experience a miracle right out of the gate. And in that moment when you take your first miracle breath of the day, realize there are people who are taking their last breath at that moment. And that means that moment is special. Whether you feel it or not, there's something sacred and even holy about the fact that you've been given another day and that you have an assignment, that there's something important for you to do in the world. And that's the reason, the meaning, the purpose behind your getting that extra day. And then that energy of feeling grateful, feeling appreciation for yourself, you could take 10 seconds, just 10 seconds, and Sit up in bed, put your feet on the floor if you can. What a blessing that is to be able to say out loud these words or think them even. I love my life. I love my life. What are the words, Lucas?

I love my life.

Yes, those are the words. Everybody have a beautiful rest of your day, whatever you're up to. Sending you lots of appreciation, lots of love and peace. Ciao for now.

Thanks for listening, everyone. We hope you now have the tools and greater insights to navigate your own pivot. Help us inspire others by sharing this episode and leaving your comments over at adammarkel.com/podcasts. For more tips, strategies, and support as you consciously pivot into a new business and lifestyle you love, join our Pivot Community on Facebook at pivotfb.com.