The Positive Attitude And Its Gift Of Resiliency with Lucas Robak

Welcome to the Conscious Pivot Podcast with international speaker, business mentor, best selling author of Pivot, and your host, Adam Markell. 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 Markell, and I am sitting in the seat today, just thrilled to be with all of you. 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, that old Led Zeppelin song. I hope you guys all got that musical reference and if not, then go, go check out that tune. It's such a rad song, but I just, 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, watching, 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. And 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 and 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. 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 best selling authority. He helps other people become best selling 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 that was. It says here, ages 0 to 5, which I always find is funny, that this book is for zero to five, because frankly, I'm past the age of five and I love this book. I think it's incredible, 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.

Thank you very much, Adam, for having me. I great 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. Because the reason why is after some parents are like, oh, my child's six years old. And I'm just like, are you serious? Yeah, it's 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.

Exactly.

Baby to adult. And even, even adults that are still babies. Right.

Exactly. At heart.

So, Lucas, I would love it if you would share a little bit more. You know, 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 story 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. 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 into what we know of today as the Wellness Fair. So mainly like the ms, getting diagnosed with the Ms. And then going to the realization that what we're taught is not high, 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. And. 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, happy, skinny. Yeah, you are. You're. 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 a. Like a, you know, yoga shirt on a Buddha shirt right now, and I've got a belly to go with it. As time goes on, that part of the body seems 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? And 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 chill just thinking about it. But so, first of all, just when people get diagnosed with ms, it takes. 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 24 hours. 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, I think it's hilarious. But. So 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. 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 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 experienced today. And all it really is is that I just can't finish peeing. Starting. So just to start peeing and to stop peeing, it takes a lot of effort, which I. I'm not going to go into details more about that.

No, we're probably okay there.

But.

So you're. You're in college and this is. The symptoms are showing up and very. I mean, you know, we could all, in this moment, just imagine how difficult that that situation would be and to not understand where or what. And then to have a doctor tell you it's one thing that, 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, good, good thinking. And there was other times too, like, I guess, like, here's me, like, making excuses, but in 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 afterwards. 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. So I don't believe that. So 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 little. 10. 10 years later, I'm getting back around to working out. But so it was 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, where with the altitude, everyone's 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 ting. 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. 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. And then 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. Door frames just had this crazy knack to just jump out of nowhere and hit me, whereas I couldn't just walk through a door. I had to bounce off, like, play a little pinball going through a door frame. 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 three 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 Can't. I'm taking that in for my. 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. Hear that? So 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 dying diagnosed?

Yeah. Being told you've got something, especially something you never heard of before. And I'm sure they would. They were giving you some sense of what it meant. Right. Were they telling you what Ms. Is and what.

The doctors tried to tell me, but they speak in doctor language that nobody else can understand unless you spent a very long time reading. 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 have no. Everything was right over my head, but it was actually a very empowering moment for me. I didn't see myself as a victim. I still don't see myself as the 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. A very positive moment while it was happening. 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. They. 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 buy it. 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. 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. 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, which I want to. 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 through research and through our own personal experiences, mine and, and others that, that I've worked with, that there's sort of three things involved in resilience. Or when you speak to people who've been resilient, they've got these three 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 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 will watching, listening now. Can. Can learn from you, sir.

Okay, well, I guess like it almost starts like even a little more than 10 years before that 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 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, 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. He mentioned Ken Candy Lightner, I believe I pronounced her name right, who's the founder of Mars Against Drunk Driving and mad was created solely because her daughter was killed by a drunk driver. A horrible thing to happen. And yet a lot of drink, 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 about a year or two 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, but 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 like, oh my gosh, now I know it's like, I can go and do this. I could 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 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. As we speak.

Man.

The story of a girl of a girlfriend who left you thinking you had chlamydia when. 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? You can't catch it. Oh, my goodness. So where do you go? Where do you go from there, Lucas? So, I mean, you're you're getting. 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, this pretty ominous diagnosis?

Yeah, it's actually. It's a little bit of a funny story. I think it's funny. But so I went in on Thursday night. Like, I gave us. 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, especially since she. 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 blood sugar levels and we, 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 it 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. It was just a lot of fun. It was just games as well as. What was that?

It's against the union rules.

Yeah, exactly. You can't help.

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

And then another thing that made it fun was because I was a fall risk. I was 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 where I actually timed it 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. So that, that made it a lot of fun too because they, they were just good sports with me as well.

Yeah, it was like the, your own nurse nurse Olympics. You know, how quick, quickly can they get in here? Lucas, what happens post, you know, you get out of the hospital, obviously, and, and first of all, again, not to make too, too little of this because truthfully, I don't think there's any, there's, there's a possibility of making too much of this. You, you took the situation you were in and you reframed it. That's at least this, the 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 look at, take a look at a situation and it's not like they are Pollyanna, as my father in law used to say. Sometimes they don't, they're not ignoring the reality. You aren't ignoring the reality. You weren't saying, hey, I don't have Ms. I have, I have chlamydia. They got it backwards. Right now you are making up a different diagnosis. You knew exactly what you were told. You weren't questioning the fact that this was something going on, but you were looking at it in a very empowered way, in a very positive way. You were framing it in a way that was, 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, you know, people that are around these situations all the time, and, and they know when they walk into a room and it's dark and it's, and it's depressing and it's, it's awful news. It's like, you know, that's a particular energy. And then, then they got this guy over here who's just been told he has ms, but meanwhile he's like, you know, creating the nurse Olympics and, and he's, you'll get the prices right on his blood tests and things and it's completely different, different energy. So you, you, you took a realistic approach to something, but also applied a level of just, you know, would you call, what's the word? Is it empowerment? Is that the word you would use for how, for your mindset at that moment?

Yeah, it's, 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. It's 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, I'm. It's a phenomenal marketing tool. We were talking about this before we started recording. Yes, it's multiple sclerosis. Like, as long as you can, no matter who you are, you're able to use it in whatever way that you want, as even 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. 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 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. They're just something that are what we call the dirty little secret. And so you. You taking that speaker, that speaker training, and determining that your dirty little secret was something that would actually be your could be strongest marketing tool or the strongest connection point of connection between yourself and other people. Because there's such. There's such transparency. It's just such. 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, you know, and your, 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, you know, 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 that the character trait that resilient people have, in addition to being able to find the creative opportunities and see the. See the sunshine in a situation or the, you know, the positive side of even a real, real situation like, 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. And 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, of of these things.

Well, as you said, like I'm, I'm extremely transparent with my health. Like I waived it. Like when I do things with other like functional medical practitioners, I tell them it's just like just wave the HIPAA law, I'll sign whatever you need to say sign just so that you can use me as a real life example versus metaphors and made up facts and 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 waved 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 is 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, when it comes to the Wellness Fair and working with connecting accredited wellness professionals with people that are that desire complete well being. I use my Ms. As a tool in terms of. Here's my story. After I learned about ms, that's when I learned about natural medicine and that's the direction that I'm heading now. You should join me because this is something that we should all be doing to be 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 and actually do something, and I was a master of that in college to where people would call me up and like, lucas, I need an excuse. I'm like, all right, I got five. 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. So I use my honest in that way to, like, motivate them, or they probably demotivate some people, obviously. But it's just a way for me to say, 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 experiment along the way. And so it's like, if I can do it, you can do it.

Oh, yeah. Well, my story doesn't. Doesn't top that at all. I simply sometimes say to people, look, I'm a. 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. And yet I'm an introvert. So it's not. It's not. I don't have the same cred when I say that as. 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 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, you know, this charisma or something that they can't get out and. And be a voice, speak a message, create. 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 I think it's great leverage, brother. So more power to you that you use it in that way. So you've already ticked off these first two things. And I said from our Research. There's three 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, at least what research tells us is the third 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? The first one being that you frame. Your perception is very positive. So you frame up, you reframe things really well. You find the meaning where 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 that 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. 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. Okay, I know, I know. I could find it in the book in a couple.

This is so much fun because you're right. There wasn't supposed to be a quiz. I apologize, I'm putting on your 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. Are you on board with the fact that at least two 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, but let's. Is there something else that you've done consistently over the last 10 years or so that have. Or at least even from the five years since your diagnosis that would. You would say has contributed to your. 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. Although otherwise I would. I should have studied before I came.

No, you know what? I'm the one studying because this is. 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, this, we don't have to. 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, 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 are. They have rituals for care, for self care. They have rituals to take great care of themselves. And I just, I mean, I'm assuming because I know you a little bit. We've met, you came, 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 has been night and day.

Yeah. So what does that look like for you? What are those rituals for self care for you? You could share those with us in the morning.

This is something that I got from Bob Proctor in one of his videos. 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. 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 gonna 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 gonna live a happier, healthier and longer life, is what they found. And so it's like, oh, like I'm just gonna start giving, be grateful for the things 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. And 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 I'm grateful for. And so I use that stone to give something that I'm grateful for in this moment. Ah, absolutely. And so I just talk. 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 three people that are bothering me. And what I found is that I'm sending love to the same three people almost every day. Every once in a while it change, but it's the same three people that are bothering me. And then I. 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 science for five minutes and ask spirit for guidance for the day. And spirit is either the energy, 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 thinking grow rich in the morning. I just love Napoleon Hill. And I'm just. My goal within the next couple 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 actually started with planks just to like keep it so simple. I just have to just, just, you know, just, just stay there for a couple minutes. But baby steps. Wow.

Well, Lucas, you fulfilled. You fulfilled for sure. For me, what self care looks like, because that's a very intentional beginning of the day. 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 crystal 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, Spirit, to all of my brothers and sisters. I think what you said as well, about sending out love. Sending out love to people that bother you. What a concept, man. Three people that bother you. Everybody. Tomorrow when you wake up in the morning, you're going to send out love to three people who are irking you. We had a guest on a 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 what you just said, that you can ask for that guidance. Ask to be guided. Doesn't matter. I suppose what you think that that source of guidance is. That's not even the point. So it's not a religious thing. It's. 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.

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 just. You've been reading every day. So. 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 Roback 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, what are the dates for the Wellness Fair?

The Wellness Fair is in the third Sunday of October every year in southeast Wisconsin. Beautiful. And sooner or later it will, we will expand, will be. The aspiration is to be an international organization.

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

So yeah, the 2019 fair is already sold out. But the fair itself is to connect accredited wellness professionals. But those seeking complete well being and what it is is we have a bunch of different vendors and then we also have five presentations, five speakers who actually compete one month before in order to win that slot. So if somebody just say, oh, it's like I want to speak 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. But it's. 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. So like the wellness practitioners are like chiropractors, acupuncturist, massage therapists, yoga. There's a lot of innovative. I can't really say innovative. It's just like out of this world type stuff like color puncture therapy where it's like they use crystals and colors and light to on your feet and that it's unbelievable. I have some 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. 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. What it actually is. And so did they actually experience it or take talk to somebody about it? It's nothing like Hollywood. And so the entire idea is just a wisdom share and help people become more aware of what's out there and if not, 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.

Yes. Now 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, as a sponsor for either this year or next year's wellness fair. Again, there'll be full information about Lucas, website you can reach out to him, etc. So what. What a. Just 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 and 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 then when I'm having that moment, and maybe, 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 breath, early morning breath, as I'm taking right now, Just filling up my lungs, 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, not exhale. And that was the same this morning when I woke up. And 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'll 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 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 in 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, too, 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, Lukas?

I love my life.

Yes, those are the words. Everybody, have a beautiful rest of your day. Whatever you are 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@adammarkel.com podcasts for more tips, strategies and support as you contact Pivot into a new business and lifestyle you love, join our Pivot community on Facebook at pivotfb.

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