From 1% Chance to a Second Life with Matthew Long

What advice would you give them to someone who is saying, I could never do that?

First thing I would do is to try your best to change that attitude, because if you're going to wake up and think you could never do it, then you're right.

For you, your injuries internally, like you were completely ripped open.

I mean, they basically gave me a 1% chance to live. So when, you know, what's funny is I've said that for the better part of 19 years. And when I sat down with our friend, Led Mylett, he stopped me and said, you do understand that's a 99% chance not being here. And I was like, whoo, like, I didn't— he really like got me there. I was like, wow, I never looked at it that way. I always was thinking like, wow, I beat a 1% chance to live. So pretty surreal to do— be able to do the things I'm doing now after what happened to me.

Do you still live with pain?

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, every day. I mean, I'm not on any kind of medication, but there's definitely muscles that never came back. There's nerve damage to the right side. And it goes down my right leg. So I have battles with nerve pain. Your body wants to move. And if you keep moving your body, you'll keep it healthy. So I don't do the things to the extreme that I used to, but I do the things I know that are good for me.

Thank you for tuning in today. I have such an inspiring story and I can't wait for you to add, just to change your life after hearing this amazing man. Whether you're facing loss or failure or adversity, this conversation is really your wake-up call that you are stronger than you think. I mean, imagine facing an event so catastrophic that doctors give you a 1% chance to live. And now imagine coming out the other side, not only surviving, but thriving, but running a marathon just 3 years later. That's the reality of today's guest, Matt Long. He was a firefighter, athlete, And a man in peak performance condition when life threw him under the bus, like literally under the bus. Y'all, now he is now a speaker. He speaks all over the world. He's got an amazing TED Talk. Um, he's been featured in things like Men's Fitness, Runner's World, CBS. He's even been on the Ed Mylett Show. So it is such an honor to have you with us. Thank you so much for being here, Matt.

Thanks for having me, Amberly. Appreciate it.

Yeah. Well, I found you because my daughter's best friend, I was at her house and she started telling me, she goes, what do you do? And I was like, well, I speak, I travel for speaking and I'm an author. And she goes, oh, well, I have a friend that's a speaker too. And I looked you up and I was like, oh my goodness, I have got to have this man on my show because this show is all about resilience and turning tragedy to triumph. And Your story is one of just proof that miracles happen. And so I know you've told your story a lot, but one thing that really, um, touched me and gave me goosebumps when I was researching you was you said, you know, at one point you thought you were training for a marathon, but you realized you were training to live for your life. Like just to survive and for your life. And so I can relate to your story in so many ways, especially because your femoral artery was severed and so was mine. But can you take us back? Because are you still in New York?

Uh, no, I'm, I'm in Florida now.

You're in Florida. What part of Florida?

Oh, I live right in the middle of our friends, John and Ed.

Oh my gosh. You're kidding.

Yes, I do. Yeah, I live right down, right down the street from both of them. Oh, good for you. Oh, sweet. It's beautiful.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, we're moving because, yeah, John and Catherine are really, really good friends of mine and they've been saying forever, like, when are you moving here? When do you move? And so my daughter graduates and this, she's a senior and we're already looking at places in Florida. And so I know I said that a few at one on one. And I had people going, you're moving to Florida? And I'm like, well, yeah, cat's out of the bag. That's what we're doing. So yeah. Well, awesome. I'll get to actually get to hang out with you, I hope, and see you in Florida. So yeah, we're looking up that area. We're looking at Jacksonville. Yeah. Awesome.

It's beautiful. It's a beautiful part of Florida. North, north, you get all 3 seasons and, um, And it's just a great place to live. So I'm enjoying it so far.

Yeah. That's awesome. So when you recorded your episode with Ed, did you go to his place in Florida or his place in California?

His place in Florida.

Okay. Okay. Me too. I was there. It's just gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. But I mean, seriously, you are a miracle. So I was given a 1% chance of saving my leg from amputation and I focused on that that 1% instead of the 99% reasons of the chances that they were going to be able, they were going to take my leg. What can you, so take us back a little bit to, you were a firefighter in New York in the best shape of your life. Take us back to that moment, if you will, that in the blink of an eye, everything changed.

Yeah. So, um, it's a little bit of preaching to the choir here, but, uh, but it's, um, I'm happy to be on the, on your channel and your platform to just hopefully inspire some others that may need it. So they're getting a double dose of inspiration from us today. Um, you know, in 2000 and, uh, you know, look, I was at New York City Firemen during September 11th. And after that day, I would like to tell people that I kind of lost my way. Um, A bit physically, mentally, you know, drinking a little too much, maybe a lot too much. And really, really lost the spark of life. And it took a friend of mine to ask me to do something. I've always been willing to help raise money or help others as a firefighter. I mean, that's your job pretty much. And a friend of mine, I don't know if he did it on purpose. I don't— you know, we never even had this conversation, me and my buddy. But, uh, he asked me if I wanted to get involved in raising money for a leukemia foundation. And, you know, we'd have to do a triathlon and collectively we'd get like 5 or 10 people to do it with us and we'd raise all this money. And I was outta shape. I was, you know, borderline depressed because of the events of 9/11. And, um, but I signed up. I said, sure. You know, I said, let's, let's go for it. I said, I have to get a bike. I have to learn how to swim. But I, I am the type A personality who, you know, I was the type of guy who, if you put, you know, in May, you know, growing up on the East Coast, when it hits May and your first 90-degree day, if you, you go up to the shoreline and you're gonna jump in the ocean, but you put your toe in, the water's too cold. You probably don't go until July 4th. I was always the guy who ran into the ocean. So I ran into this triathlon thing.

You guys are a lot alike.

Yeah, I was always the just let me jump in because I know if I touch it with my toe, I'm not going in for another month. So I just jumped right in and I did this for the triathlon to raise money for the Leukemia Foundation. I jumped right in and I slowly started getting back into shape, that shape that I was in in college as a college athlete, and slowly started to see my mood change, slowly started to see that Happiness come back to my life. And I would, I was 38 years old, got within a year, a year and a half, got into the best shape of my life. I was running, you know, the New York City Marathon with the fire department, qualified for Boston. So I'm, you know, I'm running a 3-hour, 13-minute marathon. I did an Ironman in 11 hours.

Wow.

So physically, there was nothing I couldn't accomplish, but it was very interesting how that changed my life. Like, just going to work again was good. And yeah, did I— I'll never forget what happened on September 11th, nor do I think anyone should. But I was functioning again in a happy-go-lucky way that I always did. As a kid.

Well, I think going back to what you've just described is you were a little lost. You lost your way a little bit, started drinking, which is depressant. Um, got into these habits of that's what you did every day. And it becomes a vicious cycle. I've been there after my accident. I was, I got, I slipped into not my, like a totally different person almost.

Yeah.

And found purpose. First, you had somebody that reached out to you. You don't know if they asked you on purpose or what, but that could have saved your life just right there. Them saying, hey, we want you involved in this. So you had that purpose. And you talk a lot about visual, you know, repetition, visualization, and routine. Is that something that you focused on when you were training for this, this Ironman, this triathlon?

And Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's part of every training plan. You know, it's great to have a community of like-minded people with you so you have a better chance of succeeding. But, uh, one of, one of the, one of the key things for training for an Ironman triathlon is you gotta go ride 100 miles on a bike by yourself.

Wow.

And, you know, like when I had a coach who laid out a plan for me, he's like, all right, here's, this is your day. You know, you know the route. And you're gonna pass people on the road. He goes, but you're by yourself. And I was like, what's, you know, 5 to 6 hours of riding a bike by myself? What, you know, I was like, what's the point? Like, what's the fun in that? And he's like, well, it's not supposed to be about fun, but when you're out on the racecourse, you're gonna question yourself. You're gonna question why you did this. You're gonna question why you're here. And you need to be able to face those battles. And answer those questions.

Wow.

And so, yes, visualization. Yeah. Okay. So, I did the 100 miles by myself. I didn't get any flat tires, but the whole time I was going, I'm like, all right, what if I get a flat tire? What am I going to do? Like, pull over, flip the bike over. What's my routine? How am I going to go about it without panicking and further delaying my day? What if you lose nutrition outta the back pocket of your, of your bike jersey and you didn't know, uh, what are you going to do? What's your next step? You know, so a lot of things like that when it came to triathlon and endurance running, that's what you have to do. You, you have to visualize yourself seeing these obstacles so that you can handle 'em when and if they happen. Now, I, I wasn't visualizing You know, the big story of why we're here talking today. But, you know, what you've brought it up early about training, I was training. I always say that I thought I was training for Boston or training for the Ironman, but I was— turned out I was training for life. And that was one of our slogans at the fire academy. It was just a big, big sign on the wall. The fitness academy said, train for life. And in the fire service, it means that we're training to save, you know, someone else's life, not only your own. And, um, you know, whatever my friend did that, that time and got me into the best shape of my life, I thought I was training for all these races and got a new bug, a new, new, um, birth of happiness in my life. I wound up that the level of fitness I was able to achieve is what saved my own life in, in December of 2022.

What, what, when did your accident happen?

It was December 22nd. 2000, I'm sorry, December 22nd, 2005.

2005.

Oh yeah. So it'd be 20 years this December.

Wow. Isn't that wild that how time flies in years? So tell us about that. What happened? So the audience can kind of understand because sitting here looking at you, and I'm sure you get this a lot, like people would never imagine. That what you've been through. In fact, you know, I just thought about this yesterday. I took my daughter and I went and got a mani and a pedi. And for me, most people think a pedicure, oh, it's so relaxing. For me, because I have this, uh, nerve disease and it's mostly in my right foot and leg where I had my accident, it, and my whole leg is metal. My toes are all metal. And so I put my foot up. And she goes, um, relax, relax your foot. So I said, it is relaxed. I was like, it's all metal. My toes do not bend. My foot does not bend. My ankle does not bend. It is fused together. Like I'm trying to explain this. And most people feel like it's going to be relaxing. But for me, when you just barely touch my foot, it feels like if she puts the towel on it, it feels like sandpaper on my foot. But I just thought it's so funny because To look at me, I look normal. Then I sit down in the chair, put my leg up, and they're like, what happened to you? You know? And so like, I see you and you just are this picture of health. You're smiling. No one would ever imagine the hell that you have been through and that you almost did give up. And so take us back to the morning of your accident where you were just It was like any other day and everything changed.

Yeah. I was an instructor at the New York City Fire Academy, and this was my last day going to teach before I'd go back to my firehouse. It took a 1-year detail to the academy to be an instructor of all things health and fitness. I was training, physically training the new recruits, taking them on runs and Pushups, situps, all that stuff. And I was forced to ride my bike to work. It was a really cold December morning. And so I, you know, I got, I put on layer after layer, got my bicycle out of my apartment and started to pedal up Third Avenue. And I, you know, I got 4 blocks before I was run over by a 40,000-pound bus.

Wow.

Um, it's usually where people go, nah, come on, you look at, like, like you just said, look at you, you weren't run over by a bus. I'm like, well, unfortunately I was.

Actually, it was. Let me show you the pictures of me in the hospital. So this is a question, and I'm wondering if you get this question. I'll never forget being in the hospital, and I had a friend of mine who came to see me in the hospital, and she goes, did it hurt? Because I got hit by an SUV. And I'm like, Well, yeah, it hurt. He goes, oh, you felt it? Well, yeah, I felt it. I was awake and alert throughout the whole process until they put me in induced coma. Were you awake and alert? And if so, I can imagine how traumatic that would be being underneath a bus.

So I, um, I was, um, I was semi-conscious, and the last thing I remember was the fire department that responded. When they cut the, the hood that I was wearing, uh, to keep myself warm off, off my head to— so they can get me, you know, stabilized, um, I heard one of the firefighters say, you know, holy shit, it's, it's Matt Long. from 43 Truck. So once I knew that they knew me, uh, I, I just passed out. I went to sleep. So I don't remember anything else, um, from that moment on. And the way I looked at it was, you know, and I too was quickly put into a, a medically induced coma. I was there probably for like 6 weeks. And, um, I, I just think the mind is super powerful that, um, if I had remembered that accident and the pain I was in, uh, would I ever ride a bike again? Would I ever want to run again? Would I, would I ever want to, you know, be, be near traffic again? I, I don't know. So I didn't remember much of my accident at all. Well, that's, you know, it's, it's kind of funny. It's like So the mind wiped out so much. I forgot— I had forgotten things that I did just weeks or months before the accident. You know, once I came out of the coma, they would come in and speak to me just to check the cognitive, make sure the head was okay. And they'd ask me in front of family or friends, oh, do you like to travel? And I'm like, nah, I don't like to travel. And my friend sitting next to me was like, what are you talking about? He said, we just— we were in Puerto Rico. We did this. We had a great time, blah, blah, blah. And, uh, I'm like, oh yeah, yeah, you know, I do like to travel. So as things, as things were said to me, memory came back, but nothing of the accident. I, I've even seen the accident on video.

You have?

Yep. And, you know, everybody else was like, you don't want to see it, you don't want to see it. I said, ah, I think I do because I don't, I don't have any recollection of it. So, um, I was like, well, okay, that's it, that's me. And then That's not me. I'm gone.

Oh my goodness. Yeah, I remember every detail from the whole ambulance ride and everything. But for you, your injuries, uh, internally, like you were completely ripped open and the doctors told your parents, your mom, or I guess your parents, That doesn't look good.

Right. And then they basically gave me a 1% chance to live. Um, so when, you know, what's funny is I've said that for, for the better part of 19 years. And when I sat down with our friend Ed Mylett, he stopped me and said, you do understand that's a 99% chance of not being here. And I was like, whoo. Like, I didn't— like, he really, like, got me there. I was like, wow. I, I never looked at it that way. I always was thinking like, wow, I beat a 1% chance to live. He's like, that's a 99% chance of you not being here today. I'm like, wow. So pretty surreal to, uh, to do, be able to do the things I'm doing now after what happened to me.

Yeah. But it also, it's like shows what you focused on. You focused on there is a chance. There, there was a chance.

Yes. I did, but not right away. There was, there was, you know, a year and a half or 2 years of battling, of surgery after surgery. In my first 5 months, I had 43 surgeries. I think even today, my last one with regards to the accident was in 2020, and I'm up to probably like 55, and I'll probably have to go in for more. As scar tissue grows in the body, it wreaks havoc. So, um, I have unfortunately tons and tons of scar tissue growing in my intestines. And, and, um, the guy's like, look, you're, you're going to be back. Hopefully I buy you 5 or 10 years more, you know. That's okay. Yeah, I'll be back.

And that, that's the thing I think a lot of people don't understand is, um, it's not that you were hit and now you're fine and life— I mean, you are fine, But it's like, do you still live with pain?

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I'm every day. I mean, I'm not on any kind of medication, but, uh, but there's definitely muscles that never came back. There's nerve damage to the right side and it goes down my right leg. So I have, I have battles with nerve pain. Um, yeah. You know, so I just try to, I, the way I look at it is your body wants to move. And if you keep moving your body, you'll keep it healthy. So, you know, I don't do the things to the extreme that I used to, but I do the things I know that are good for me. You know, I constantly exercise. I try to do swimming a lot. You know, you just got to keep moving. A lot of people that suffer with different things, they go, I can't do that because I have this. I'm like, well, maybe you have this ailment because you're not I completely agree. And I know you have a fitness background, so we both, like I said, we have a lot in common. And that's what I used to tell everyone. Like, yeah, you have a bad back. I had a bad back once, and guess what I did? I started to run, and I started to strength train, and I lost weight. And guess what happened? Bad back went away. I said, so I didn't have a bad back. It was the body telling me to get your ass up.

Oh my goodness. I just had a conversation With a friend, um, who has been struggling and wants to quit drinking. And she's like, well, yeah, I need to quit drinking, but I get anxious. So I need to go to the doctor and I need to get a pill for that. And I'm like, well, no, I know it's not easy because I got sober in 2016. I started drinking after my accident. I was like, yeah, you're going to feel anxious. Go out and get some sunshine and go out and just Go for a walk, just move your body, you know, because it moves your mood. Um, so I'm curious with the, the, you know, because you travel for speaking all the time and it's not always easy traveling and sitting on a plane and the air pressure can, I don't know, it flares me up pretty good. And I always fly into an event the night before because I need to have my body, the nerves just kind of calm down so I can. I get up on stage the next day. Is it hard for you to travel? And if so, what are some of the things that help you?

Yeah. So I'll do things like it is, I do pretty much the same. Depending on how far the flight is, I try to request an earlier arrival. One, I don't want to be delayed and miss my engagement, but also I do need to get my body back into its routine, especially if, you know, I'm flying early or whatnot. Most of my issues, Amberly, you know, the ones you don't want to talk about, but it's with the digestive tract and all that stuff. So, you know, just the everyday task of using the bathroom for me is difficult. And, and, you know, that does, you know, just imagine, oh, well, I didn't get things moving today and now I got to be on stage in 30 minutes.

Yeah.

So, I try to arrange my flying with enough time for everything to just get me back to a comfort level. As far as my legs, I'll wear compression socks or calf sleeves to keep the blood circulating. It's probably the only time I take like an extra Advil or so when I'm flying.

Mm-hmm.

But, once I'm, you know, once I'm where I have to be, you know, it just— what— it's funny, it'll go back to it. But, especially if I'm traveling and I got an afternoon or an evening engagement, then the first thing I'm doing in the morning is getting to the gym. I'm stretching, I'm lifting weights, you know, getting out and the endorphins moving, and then feeling normal again.

Yeah.

And, you know what I like to talk— you know, we talk about it. A lot is that you and I, you know, we'll get introduced so many ways, but most, most of the time they'll say, wow, it's amazing the adversity she or he has overcome. Well, uh, we didn't overcome anything. We, we've accepted it and now we're living with our adversity. You know, you, I, you just explained about the mani-pedi and how your foot doesn't move normally and how you have nerve pain. Well, that's still part of what happened to you.

Yeah.

And my bathroom issues and my lack of nerve, uh, uh, stimulation down my right leg and muscle that atrophied and never came back. That's, that's, that's, that's my adversity that I'm, I'm, I'm living with.

Yeah, I agree. And I had somebody ask me one time, they're like, I'll never, uh, I'll never forget this. So for 2 years I had a nonunion in my leg. So like for 2 years they, I was basically walking on metal and they were hoping that it would grow back so they wouldn't have to take bone from my hip and put it down in my leg. And I was just, man, I got all kinds of comments all the time. And this one lady came up to me at the gym and I guess I was limping. I mean, I live with pain every day and I try not to limp, but I guess I was limping this day after training a bunch of clients. And she goes, well, when are you going to start limping? Aren't you tired of limping? I said, well, I guess I'll stop limping when I'm not walking on a broken And she goes, oh, like, cause I just, I'm, I'm walking on a broken leg, lady. You, you know what I mean? I was just like, you know, most of the time I have compassion, but I think I was just, I just had it. So I'm sure you probably get some comments sometimes too. Was it hard for you as a man? Okay. This is the difference. See, I remember my first boyfriend had a scar on his face and it was I was so like, I was like, man, scars on guys are so cool. They're like tough, rough and tumble, and they look good. Scars on women.

Hmm.

Took me a while to accept all these scars. Do you know what I mean? Did you have a while? Did it take you some time to accept, since we're talking about acceptance, accept your scars and look at them as strength instead of, ugh, look at the scar?

Yeah, I guess once the battle— once I was winning the battle with depression and the mindset had shifted, now I wouldn't say that I was back to where I needed to be, but progress was visible. Once that happened, then I took ownership of my scars. My left leg, it has a— where the femur broke and was compound fracture, it just has like a big softball-sized dent in it where they— and then, on the right leg, has a white patch where they took the skin from that leg to cover that hole. So, I know what I like to do is when I'm sitting on the beach and my younger nieces and nephews or, you know, any of their friends are around and I can see them, And they, you know, kids are kids and they just get caught with their eye and they look and the next thing I go, oh, you see that? And they're like, yeah, yeah, what happened? I go, shark bite.

I say the same thing. Freaks people out. I say the same thing.

Especially being on the ocean. And then I had to tell them, no, no, I'm kidding. I'm just kidding. It wasn't a shark. But, yeah, I just take ownership. I laugh and, you know, I have skin grafts on both legs that hurt more than anything I remember. And, you know, that's— the skin has no pigment, so it doesn't tan, it doesn't burn, nothing. It's just this big white patch. And, you know, I'll joke about my tan lines or whatever, but—

Oh, that's good. I haven't joked about the tan line, but actually I have joked about— because My, the, all the skin on my right leg is gone. They took that off and put it on my lower leg. And so, yeah, it doesn't, it doesn't tan. It just remains white. And, and I'll look, somebody will kind of look and I'm like, yeah, it was a bad situation with the self-tanner, you know, because they're like, they don't quite get like that whole thing. But I want to go back to, you said something very important. Talk about mindset, because I think. It really begins by shifting your perspective and with the right mindset, because without it, man, despair comes, the why me comes. What was it in you that shifted that allowed you, you started to see the progress, but what was it in you that allowed you to start to shift your mindset and move forward? Because there's a lot of people that are stuck right now. And they're thinking, woe is me. And you're like, dude, I'm having trouble even going to the bathroom. So you know what? I don't want to hear it. Just keep going. You know? So what is it? What is the mindset shift that started? How did that happen? And what can somebody do today to start to shift and start moving forward?

So, so my mind shift came, first of all, it came, it was externally motivated by my mom. And she, she gave me a really tough love message at a crucial point. I'd gone to— I was still living in a wheelchair and they had taken me to the doctor for an appointment. And I was trying— I was, I was banking everything on this appointment going well. It was with my colorectal doctor and I was hoping that they would be able to reverse And, you know, remove the colostomy bag. So, I've put, basically put my plumbing back together. And, you know, I remember days and weeks before this appointment praying, you know, just give me this. And, if I'm in a wheelchair the rest of my life, that's fine. Just put me back together. And, if I limp the rest of my life, I'll be fine. Yeah, I was begging and praying for the results. And my body wasn't ready. And the doctor told me flat out that I may have to live like this the rest of my life. And I did not want to hear that. Uh, you know, I was a 38-year-old single guy living in Manhattan. And, um, it was at that moment when I said something pretty harsh to my mom and dad. And I, I told them, you know, you guys prayed for me to live and your prayers were answered. And I wish you had prayed for me to die. And I, I said, no one deserves to, to live the way I'm going to live. No one deserves to suffer like this. And I, you know, I don't know if I was looking for a hug. I, I laugh about it now when I speak. I say, you know, just wanted a hug. But my mother just, she just put her hands on the table and said, enough's enough. And she goes, you're not the only person in this world going through a hard time. And if you're going to be miserable about it and just sit here in your wheelchair, then do it by yourself. So it didn't happen. Yeah, it was, you know, it was tough. It was, it was very tough for her. I'm sure it was tougher for her to think it and say it out loud that quickly. But, uh, for me to hear it, it was tough. And I wanted to go home and I told them that and they took me home. And a couple weeks later, I remember sitting there just having one of those pity parties about why I— and it was never why me, it was always why did I live? That was always the question I asked. Why did I live? Why did I live? Why? It was never why did I get hit? I responded to accidents like this over 17 years of a firefighter all the time. And I just know it happens. And I don't— it just hit me and I said, she's right. You know, somewhere in New York City, somewhere in this country, there's someone that was hit by a lesser vehicle that didn't make it, that didn't go home. I said, you know, I'm alive and now I have to start to live. And That's when I changed the mindset to just, I will. It was an I will mindset. And I said, I will make a comeback. I'm going to run a marathon again. I'm going to run an Ironman again. I'm going to get myself back in shape. And so, at that point, I was 122 pounds, could barely stand for 5 minutes in my wheelchair. Adam, how tall are you? 5'11.

5'11 and 122 pounds?

Down from— down from the day of the accident, it was 178.

Wow.

And, um, so that moment of mind shift, I went to therapy and took everything they said more seriously.

What, uh, therapy and physical therapy? Are you talking about like a therapist?

Oh no. Well, I did, but I did both. I did both. So, but my physical therapy, the physical, I no longer went, was just going through the motions. I was now out of the hospital and I was going back to the hospital as an outpatient therapist 3 days a week. I hired the 2 therapists, the one occupational therapist and the one physical therapist to come to my home on the other 2 days privately. I did this every 5 days a week.

I had—

Yeah. 5 days a week. And then I started, when I started to feel more energy, I, I started going back to the gym that was near my house. I had someone take me to the gym and I talked to a, a, a guy who I used to see there all the time. He was an older gentleman, older trainer. His name was Ed Rhodes. And I walked in the gym and he was like, he hasn't seen me in like maybe 11 months. He knew what happened to me, but never saw me again. And I was like, Ed, I, I need your help. And he is like, what do you need? I said, I was like, you know, I know what I'm doing cuz you see me in the gym. You knew I was fit. I said, but I, I can't get outta the chair and into the machines. I said, I need you. I, I, I trust you. Can you help me? And I, I saw him 3 days a week and he just got me in and out of every Nautilus machine. You know, at this point I was just doing those, the Nautilus station. There's the push, there's the pull, there's the legs, there's the up. And I would just do that. And, um, and you know, I had another doctor's appointment with that doctor and he saw the difference and he said, what have you been doing? I said, uh, I'm training again. I'm, this is no longer therapy. This is training. I, I, I, I want my life back. And he examined me and he said, you keep it up in 6 months, we'll get rid of that colostomy bag.

Wow.

Yep. And that's what happened.

You could have easily sat back, but instead you said, no, I will. I will. Every day.

100%.

And I know.

Okay.

Well, I just love that even, um, your, um, sizzle reel on your website gives me goosebumps. And it says right away, I will. And I'm just like, man, those 2 words are so powerful. For deter— determining your destiny. They— so you went in 6 months later and you got to get the colonoscopy bag removed?

Yeah, they put my plumbing back together and, um, and, you know, thank God everything worked out. And, you know, life has been, you know, an uphill battle since, but it's, it's a great battle. The one I, I, I, every day I put my feet on the ground, I'm very happy.

Oh, you're a miracle. Well, what are some of the daily practices or mindset practices that help you still to this day?

Well, I think one of the things that we were just talking about that I learned the most is that your mind and your thoughts are going to control your outcome, period. Just because you wake up in the morning and say, I will, You know, make this comeback. Doesn't mean it's going to happen tomorrow. Doesn't mean it's going to happen fully. You know, I tell a story about when I was making my comeback in the New York City Marathon 3 years after the accident. All the newspapers were all over me. You know, the New York City fireman makes his courageous comeback, blah, blah, blah. He's running New York City Marathon. There's stories in every paper and on every TV channel. And my brother Jim says to me the night before the marathon, now I have to be up at 4 in the morning. I have to get in a, uh, get a car, get to the start of the race. And he talks to me the night before and says, what if you don't make it? And I said, what? And he goes, well, everyone's following you.

Mm-hmm.

Everyone's gonna ask how the fireman did. What if you don't make it? And at first I was upset with him. I was like, what, you know, what'd you punch me in the gut for the night before I'm trying to make this comeback? And then I said to him, you know what, Jim? I said, the marathon is 26.2 miles. Let's say I finish 20 and I leave 6 on the course, 6.2. I said, I go back into my journal. 3 years ago, I should have been dead. So this is 20 miles of success, not 16— 6.2 of failure.

Wow.

And that was my mindset going into the race, that every mile was a victory, every step forward was a victory. And did I stop a few times? Absolutely. It took me 7 hours and 21 minutes, so I stopped quite a bit. Um, but every mile was a victory. And I think that's what people have to understand is, okay, If you're going to wake up with an I will mindset, if you have a vision of where you want to be in 6 months and you're not there, well, turn around and look back. If you're no longer in the spot where you started, if you moved forward, that's a, that's a just a different level of success. Push your target line back a little further, move it further away from you. Give it another 6 months. You'll get there.

Oh, that's so powerful. Yeah. I always think about like, if I'm giving myself a hard time or that self-doubt creeps up or anything, I think, well, I may not like exactly where I am right now, but it's a heck of a lot better than where I used to be. So I think it's very powerful to, to look at that. For people that are sitting there going, well, that's great. He made it through, but I could never do a marathon. I could never overcome this situation in their life. What advice would you give them to someone who is saying, I could never do that? Or, I just don't think it's possible for me?

Well, first thing I would do is to try your best to change that attitude, because if you're going to wake up and think you can never do it, then you're right. And then, the other thing I would say to them is, it doesn't have to be a marathon. What is your marathon? What is your goal? Look, I just had a girl email me or She didn't even email me. I'm sorry. She just tagged me on Instagram. She made a post. She, she, there was nothing wrong with her. Like she's a per— perfectly healthy fitness professional. And she heard me speak and she said, I'm going to be an Ironman one day. And she wrote it in the book while I was speaking. And she took a picture of the journal, tagged it on Instagram, and she just became an Iron Girl. Ironman, but Ironwoman, whatever you wanna call it nowadays. But she just did it on Saturday. And, uh, so, you know, like, we, we're now connected and she had nothing wrong with him. It was never in her plans. So—

Inspiring so many.

I, I think so. You know, when, when I said to you earlier about why, why I lived, you know, I, I remember having a conversation with a priest, a family priest while I was still in the hospital. And he asked me if I was angry with God and I lied to him and said no. I was pissed. I was very upset that this happened to me. Um, I, I do believe in God and I do believe he has plans. And I said to the priest, I said, Father Jim, I said, I just wanna know why I live.

Mm-hmm.

And he said, that's between you and God. And, you know, I found that out later in life. And selfishly, it was a marathon. Uh, selfishly, it was an Ironman. But when the story got out, when I wrote my book about it, when I get on stage and talk about it, my purpose in life is, is to be that guide that lets people know they should not give up, that anything's possible. We all, we all have the same human spirit that burns inside of us. You just gotta fuel, you gotta find out what burns it, the, the strongest flame. Oh, that's so powerful.

Well, what does resilience mean to you? What is your definition of resilience?

Well, I believe that resilience is a learned practice through life's adversities. I believe that, you know, my adversity, your adversity taught us resilience, and then we in turn turn resilience into the fuel, the energy source that's going to get you past Or get you through the obstacles ahead. That's what I believe. I believe 100% that, you know, like I said, I accepted this accident. I accepted my new body. Now, how do I live a fulfilled life? Okay, so I'm not running a 3-hour marathon anymore. You know, in fact, when I, after I ran, did the Ironman comeback, I stopped. I'm like, this wasn't healthy for me. So, what does a guy who, you know, who's running 100 miles a week or 200 miles a week, what does he do? I looked for something else to fuel my passion.

That's so important. That's so important.

Yeah. So, it's super important to keep reinventing yourself. And, it all could be driven by the same thing or the same type of outcome. But, for me, I was always an athlete. I was always into fitness. And that's what I wanted my life to be like. So, so now I'm at 60 years old, I'm trying to play golf. I'm trying to get like good at golf. And, but I, I still weight train, I still swim, I still ride a bike because that's going to keep me around longer.

And, and, and I love that you brought that up that like, okay, you're like, well, wait a minute, this just isn't healthy for me to be doing this. And, you know, I tried to get back into what I was doing. I was in the fitness industry for 26 years. And I realized one day when I was bleeding out, my stitches came open and I'd had a surgery and I had one of those medical boots on and was bleeding. There was a trail of blood across the gym floor. And my husband was like, happened to be at the gym working out. And he was like, what are you doing? And it took that for me to go, oh, maybe this isn't the best thing for me to be doing for myself, for my clients, for my family. And sometimes I think it is, you got to take a good hard look at your life and it's okay to reinvent yourself. It's okay. And like you are playing golf now. And I'll say one more thing really quick is I was, you know, I loved to run. I was, I ran everywhere and my youngest daughter wanted to go for a run and I looked at my husband and I was like, Oh, it's such, such a shame. I can't, you know, go for a run with her. I would love to be able to go for a run with her. And I mean, I can run. I just pay for it later. I'm in a whole lot of pain later. I can do it, but it's not pretty. And then I pay for it later. And so he goes, well, ride your bike beside her. And I was like, oh yeah. So there's always Another way you can think outside the box. There's always, but the, the bottom line is finding something to fuel you. Like you have such a fulfilling life. You're speaking all over the world. What's next for you besides playing golf? And maybe I'll take up golf, especially when I moved to Florida. A lot of golf there. Uh, or I could just be your caddy for you. Uh, But, what's next for you? What are you doing next?

You know, that's funny because I get that question all the time. So, that might be the title of my next book, What's Next? So, you know, physically, my goal is to die young as late as possible. I have no events that I'm— that's the way I say it. My wife goes, please stop. I'm like, nope. That's my goal. I have no physical events that I'm training for or anything. I was training for some indoor rowing competitions and just to keep the athletic mindset. But right now, I'm just training for— I'm back to that train for life status. I've, you know, I stopped speaking for a little while and then in the last maybe I went, when COVID hit, it was funny. I started getting some calls. There was like a 2 or 3 year period where speaking just kind of dried up. My book came out in 2012. I spoke for a couple years. It was great. And then, you know, it just moved on. COVID came and speaking, the opportunity to speak virtually started coming to me and I was like, wow. So I'm really trying to keep the speaking career going. And, you know, I like to tell people when I'm— whether I'm on stage talking about it, if it's appropriate to the client, or if I'm in a small group setting, a lot of people think that starting over is a sign of failure, and it's not. And that's what I tell people. I said, you know, starting over is probably one of the most courageous things you can do. The most courageous decision you can make in life, you know. But, but the way I look at it is I, I can't start over without really remembering who I was in the past and what pushed me. So, so for what, you know, I don't know physically if I have any besides the golf, which is mentally, uh, challenging. The ball doesn't move and you could be a Division 1 level athlete and you can't hit the freaking ball. It's just amazing. But, um, but besides golf right now, that's, that's the biggest challenge. And just, you know, that mindset of staying fit for life is what I'm trying to do right now.

Oh, that's amazing. Well, I hope to see you in Florida really soon, actually. Oh, I think, um, actually, you know what, I may be reaching out to you because I'm speaking at an event in Florida in March. So I'm thinking of taking a little road trip and driving to, uh, your area, your neck of the woods. And so I may reach out to you. Maybe I can caddy for you, um, while you play. Oh, cheerleader. Um, but anyway, where can people find you and how can they get your book? What's the best place? Where's the best place to get your book?

The best place to get the book right now is on Amazon. Uh, Matt, It's called The Long Run. And I didn't have time to put a shirt on, so that's why I'm bare-chested on the COVID So, that's the other motivation for me to stay as fit as I can. I got to, you know, my picture's out there on the COVID of a book. I should at least resemble it a little bit when I'm on stage.

That's right.

That's right. And then, the best place to find me is mattlongspeaker.com. That's my website, or Matt Long Speaker at Instagram, Matt Long on LinkedIn. That's the best place to get me.

Well, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom. I'm so grateful that we got to connect, and I feel like this is just the beginning of a long friendship. You're not getting rid of me.

I hope so. I hope so.

Yeah, I just appreciate you being on the show, sharing your wisdom, sharing your inspiration, sharing the hope. And, um, thank you so much for tuning into the show today. It's really, I appreciate you tuning in, downloading the episode and sharing it with friends. Share this episode with someone who needs a little bit of inspiration to keep going, um, to show them to never give up, to, to, to use, you know, Matt's wisdom and his story to inspire them. And thank you again for tuning in and we will see you next week.