Booster #1: Dr. Chuck Dietzen From Closet to Global Healer

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You have a purpose on this planet and the sooner you find that, or at least begin the exploration of what that is, the better you'll do.

Hello and welcome to the Gap. The Gap, the Get Attitude Podcast. The Gap. Bridging the gap from who you are to who you want to become and from where you are to where you want to be. Hello, my name is Glenn Bill, founder of the University of Attitude, keynote speaker and author of the ABCs of Attitude. I've been fortunate enough to help tens of thousands of people Get Attitude. Attitude, the secret formula to your success in life and in business. This podcast will help you get yours. So let's get some. I want to welcome everybody to our podcast today. Want to remind you to please subscribe, rate and review. And today we are here with Global Healer, founder of Timmy Global Health, Dr. Chuck Dietzen. Dr. Chuck, welcome to the Get Attitude podcast.

Thank you, thank you for having me.

We, we love the gear. First of all, where did you get that gear?

Well, it's this nice soft T shirt given to me by a dear friend of mine that being my Mr. Well, he looks a lot like you, Mr. Glenn Bill. Yes, yes.

So, Chuck, I want to thank you for always supporting the University of Attitude. And what we do, and certainly what we do is founded in our deep friendship and our relationship over the past 20 years. And as we have been doing this podcast, as many of our gappers know, that's what we call our people. Gappers that we are taking Attitude booster number one this month. Be nice. And we have brought you in because being nice, boy, you've had some mentors, you've had some people that certainly have taught you what being nice, what being human is, what doing for others is all about. So what we'd like to do first is just start off number one. Let's just talk a little bit about where you were to where you've become and some of those lessons that maybe you've learned that have helped you become who you've become and the influences that you have and how being nice is tied into that. So why don't we let our gappers know who in the hell is Dr. Chuck and what's going on here with you?

Well, it was, you know, I grew up in a family out in the country north of Kokomo, kind of halfway between Kokomo, Peru, Indiana. My dad worked in a factory. We were very, very involved with our church, St. Patrick's Parish in Kokomo, Indiana, and did a lot of fundraising for both the school and the church. But I think the important thing was learning at a very young age to count my blessings. I had no interest in being a doctor. Actually. I was going to be Jim from Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. Marlon says, as I stay in the safety of the Jeep, Jim wrestles the 30 foot anaconda. And I'm going, hell, I'm going to wrest the anaconda. And ended up eventually did actually get to hold anaconda. And just for your viewers out there, I'd recommend that that's not a very good idea. I wasn't sure I was going to get my left arm back. But ultimately, when I was seven, we started taking care of foster children. And over the next 20 years, we had 150 children come through. And I just saw, I have to take note, we actually have boy Jason.

This is our crack staff producer, Jason.

Jol am impressed, my man. I didn't even know you. I didn't know you had that picture. But yeah, you can see my buddy there, Eduardo, he wasn't real excited, but he had one get around his neck in the past. And so here he is with, you know, we show up in the villagers, hey, we just caught an anaconda here. Get a photo and they hand you the snake. And wow. I remember we were as we, you know, smiling that. Which was going to turn into a grimace pretty quick because I wasn't sure I was going to keep my left hand right. Those things can constrict.

It looks like dinner.

Yeah. But I was actually doing clinics in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil when this occurred. And it's just been a great life where, as I said, at the age of seven, we began taking care of foster children. We had about 150 kids come through our home over the next 20 years. It helped us learn to appreciate the blessings. And I remember some people had said to me, did you ever feel cheated, you know, with time with your parents? No, heaven's sakes. You know, we had a home and we at least had a roof over our head and it wasn't fancy, but, you know, we had a great, loving family. And so we invited all these kids in and thankfully, got to keep only. Well, we wanted to keep them all, but we only got to keep two. And it's just been a great way to live life. And eventually my mom started pointing out that, you know, maybe you're supposed to be a pediatrician. So ended up withdrawing from the vet school at Purdue University to go to medical school to become a general pediatrician. But as you and I have exchanged a lot of the sports stories, played a lot of sports, enjoyed sports. And then I found out about this specialty called pediatric rehab, where I can be a coach and a doctor. Put me in. That's for me. So that's the specialty I chose for myself in this country.

Yeah, that's cool. And so pediatric rehab. Yeah. Mixing being a doctor and a coach, that obviously is why it spoke to you. Tell me when we focus on this attitude booster called being nice, what I'd love to know is, where did your attitude, quote unquote, originate? What does attitude mean to you? And then talk to me about the lesson of being nice. And who might have taught that to you?

Well, you know, throughout my life, I, you know, in fact, I was a very small kid, very small kid. And so I, you know, had to have a bit of an attitude because of the sports I chose. I picked football and wrestling and then ultimately rugby. Right. And so, you know, I had a very competitive attitude. I wanted to show that somebody smaller could do it. And, you know, eventually, once I finished my amateur wrestling career, I was able to start putting on some. Some size and focus more on the football and the rugby. But what I've always enjoyed about that is as I was surrounded by these children, and particularly as I began practicing medicine, I realized that winning wasn't so important. I mean, it's. It's fun to be out there and throwing the ball and, you know, doing whatever you are out on the pitch or the rugby pitch or the football field. But the most important thing to me was healing children, making a difference there. And then when I can bring them along, that makes it so much more special, which I also was allowed to invite my buddies from the rugby team, the football team. Hey, come and meet these kids, man. These kids are the spiritual leaders of today. You need to spend some time with them.

So that leads us to the book, Pint Sized Profits. Right, Right. Pint Sized Profits has been out for two or three years, I think, now, right?

Yes. Came out in 2016.

And tell us a little bit about Pint Sized Profits, the inspiration on that, and maybe one or two stories from the book that can get our gappers right. There are people that are listening. And I think the lessons of our podcast today is whether you're somebody that's small. And you may be small in the bank account, you may be small in opportunity, you may, you may be small in energy and drive, but Chuck's message that it's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight and the dog relates to his patients and ultimately his heroes and these young people that he calls prophets and would love to hear a little bit about the book and maybe one or two inspirational stories that come from the book that people can maybe relate to and take a lesson from on how to get from where they are to where they want to be. There's people listening, going, I know there's more to my life. I know there's more to me in this life. What can we learn from these pint sized prophets that are in the book?

Well, again, I've been very blessed to get to do what I do. And I'm the caregiver of my spiritual leaders. And I said, you know, whatever religion you choose, it really distills down to two simple messages. You're here to learn, you're here to love to learn, and most importantly, you're here to learn to love. And the kids have made that so obvious to me. I've said for years, I'm not the story. I'm just trying to be a good storyteller. And so I had been traveling around doing lectures, mostly on campuses where they were training medical experts and then training, as I did at the medical center, but also going to different hospitals and we would talk about the mission of healthcare, which again, what did these kids teach me? And ultimately, as I started doing more of this, the YPO Young Presidents Organization, some of those individuals who have worked with Timmy Global Health started pushing me to write a book when they heard the lecture. And I said, you know, I wasn't that excited about writing a book and I had other things to do, but I had Mike Malloy in particular was the guy that put the pressure on me to finally do this.

Awesome.

Or excuse me, Mike Mattek. And then Mike Malloy also was involved in saying, you should do this. So finally worked on the book and put it out in 2016. And then it won a couple of awards in 2017 for adult spirituality and the Founders Award from the Christophers organization out of New York. Now what I try to do in the book is highlight what are these important principles the kids taught me, Right? And the One that I would say that, you know, that people would really relate to is, like, when you go out and you're being an athlete, you're. And you don't have the skills right. Initially. So Kylie Toy, who I just love dearly, she's like a daughter to me. And years ago, she was a patient in my clinic. She's two years old. She has cerebral palsy affecting the right side of her body. And despite that, she decides she's going to run the quarter and a half mile. Wow. Now she's probably going to come in quite a distance behind the others, you know, and what was great was I ended up saying at one point, you know, we would always hug each other, and, you know, we were big fans of each other. And by the age of 10, she comes to see me and she had a brace on her leg. And we're working on different things in therapy, her physical therapy. And I said, are you still playing sports? She said, oh, yeah, yeah, I'm still playing soccer. And I go, well, aren't you running track anymore? Oh, yeah. And guess what, Dr. Chuck, I don't get last anymore. That was a valuable lesson for me because I was still trying to play football at a competitive level. And I'm going like, you know, that's a good point. You don't have to win. You just choose what those goals are for you personally, and then you go get it. And that's what she did.

So she wasn't last. Who did she beat?

Well, it's just fun to listen to her. She was explaining how, I think some of them had gotten kind of diverted off the track, but somehow she came in, you know, ahead of several of the other girls.

Right.

And it was just so neat to see, you know, her reaction at 10 years old, I don't get last anymore.

You know, I think, you know, the point there for the people that are listening is we are so obsessed with achievement. We're so obsessed with judging ourselves against others. But I think one of the biggest things that are affecting America's attitude is this self judgment.

Correct.

Everybody's looking, but ultimately they're sitting there going, I got to be first. I got to be better. And I believe that people are harder on themselves than anybody else ever is, you know, Absolutely.

In fact, when I talk to people about, you know, forgiveness or love, I mean, you know, unless you learn to forgive yourself and love yourself, then it's impossible for that to move on. And, yeah, you do. I think you do compete with yourself. Your former self or your present self can you make yourself better in some way. The answer is, of course you can.

Right. And what a great lesson for those gappers is that, you know what, sometimes not finishing in last is one hell of an accomplishment.

That's exactly right.

Right. And depending, really, the best person to measure yourself against is you and your personal growth. And that gets into the saying, that's overused or becoming overused. I just want to get 1% better each and every day. You. So let's talk about possibly the nicest person that you've ever run into and have learned from and the messages of kindness, humility, and humanity. You spent some time with Mother. Talk to us a little bit about Mother Teresa and the lessons that she taught you that you could help our listeners.

I wasn't sure if you were going to talk about David Buskill or about Mother Teresa, but yes. So this was the great moment in my life was in 1997, in March of 1997. I was doing a lot of work with the Missionaries of Charity in India, and I was asked to. In fact, I'd been there in January, and they asked me to come back quickly to meet with Mother in March. And that was the great moment of my life. Mother always had these great little quips that I just hung onto. In fact, I had them taped on my mirror. I read everything that was authored by her or her quotes that had been authored by other people who were putting these down. But one of the things Mother always said, we can do no great things, only small things with great love. And that says an awful lot right there. The other thing she used to say is, peace begins with a smile.

Love it. Yeah, that's good.

Yeah. And so it was quite the experience. It was the highlight of my life because as a kid, I wanted to be St. Francis, and Mother Teresa was on that same level as far as I was concerned. Yeah.

Well, obviously she's been canonized.

Yeah, she has.

So she is actually on that same level.

Right.

What was it like? What was her karma, her aura? What, like you touched her, you shook her hand. What was it about her that maybe surprised you or that you go, I can't believe. You know, like, take us back to that initial meeting.

Well, I didn't expect anyone to roll out a red carpet. I didn't expect there'd be trumpets or anything, but I thought there'd be a little bit of formality.

Right.

They came in, we were standing there, and I remember I checked my pulse because I thought I ran the Bulls in 1995, and I couldn't Sleep all night. My heart rate was 180, 190 beats per minute. Now here I'm waiting to meet Mother, and I'm, like, thinking, I'm going to pass out. You know, that'd be poor form, pass out and headbutt Mother Teresa or something.

But memorable nonetheless. Yes.

So one of the sisters eventually came out and said, hey, everybody here, just take a seat. Mother will be here shortly. And so we sit down on these little benches. Yeah. And there was what appeared to be more like a tablecloth in the doorway. And in the picture, you can see it in the background. So we're sitting there, and she pulls it back, and there she is, and there's Mother again. No fanfare. And the only place for her to sit was right next to me. All the other benches were covered. I mean, we just all plopped down.

God's funny. God works in funny ways.

Well, and one of the nuns had said, now when Mother finds out you're not married, she may ask you to become a priest.

Right.

And so I remember thinking, you know, I said, I don't know if I'm just excited about meeting my great hero, my idol, or that I have a big career change, because I said, if.

She asks you to become a priest.

You got to take that seriously. Who says no to Mother Teresa? I wasn't going to. I prayed. I said, if that's what she said, that's what I do.

What do you think if I put Mother on a podcast? If I said, mother, what's your attitude? What would she tell you?

You know, I'm glad you asked that, because this ties into what we talked about earlier. This is what I kept taped on my mirror for years. When I came back from this one trip, I had evaluated 150 patients one day. And then we determined that we could do surgeries on these kids and we could do them safely in very limited resources there. And so we did 26 orthopedic surgeries so these kids wouldn't have to crawl around in their villages anymore. They had polio and cerebral palsy. And I come back to the U.S. and all these people said, hey, Dr. Chuck, how successful was your trip? How many surgeries did you do? I said, it was very successful. We did 26 surgeries. I think we only have 3 million to go.

Right.

It was like, if we're counting, if we're going to count. Nobody asked me, how successful am I in a week here? Like, how many kids did I treat here? In fact, the sad part is it'd be a lot Less per day simply because of the documentation. All the other bureaucratic stuff.

You can't practice medicine in America. Like you can practice medicine outside.

The freedom to do good in these other places is wonderful. But anyway, so I said, you know, we did 26 surgeries. I think we only got 3 million to go. So the goal was, this is how Timmy Global Health got started. How are we going to invite other people to make that happen? See, my belief is my belief, my spiritual belief is if I touch 26 and those 26 each touch 26 and then the next 26, suddenly 3 million is not such a big number. And for my part, I came back to the US and I started an organization to recruit young people to help them find their way. How are they going to become community leaders? How can they be healers? You don't need to be a doctor or nurse. You can be a healer. You are supposed to be a healer. One of the things mother used to say, and I actually have this in a PowerPoint, it's not my job to be successful. It is my job to be faithful. So back to your original comment. If I can just improve 1% a day. But you see, when I'm talking about 1%, I'm talking about saving children's lives. It weighed on me a lot. And so I had to invite other people into this mission. Right.

It's the ultimate multi level marketing scheme. Absolutely.

Like Jim.

No, it's multi level medical. Well, we call it. You know what, we've just created something new here.

This, this sort of reminds me of my. One of my other great little heroes here in town. Or he's not a little hero anymore. He's a young man. But Jimmy Kennedy, Sure. I remember when you asked me to come and speak to your realtors group and I said, oh, I got better than that. I got a young man, 10 years old, Jimmy walks in and you kills it. He killed it. He said he started off with, well, every day I get up, I stretch my legs for like an hour so I can walk.

Right. Hello.

And then he looks at your realtors and goes, so if you got to get up early and work hard to walk or to sell houses. And it was to him, it was the same thing, Right?

No question. And so everybody knows, you know, the University of attitude does have a speaker's bureau and Chuck is one of our featured speakers. So if you're interested in having Chuck come and do a keynote address for your convention, your expo, your seminar, whatever, you can go to the universityofattitude.com Bureau of Speakers and register with us and we'll be able to help you get in touch with Chuck for speaking. And he's an amazing speaker. But like you said, you passed the buck and you said, let's listen to the 10 year old kid. One of the events that. Well, number one, timmyglobalhealth.org if they want to get involved with Timmy Global health, go to timmyglobalhealth.org you can learn all about the incredible work. How about we just do a very quick one minute synopsis of all the great things that happen at Timmy Global so they know what happens. What's your mission? What's your goal?

Well, I should give a little background real quick. Timmy was my oldest brother who died just a few days after he was born. And as I always tell people, although I never met him, I always felt like I knew him. And when I was asked to start the Dietzen foundation, we didn't want to put the name on it. I was actually the medical director of pediatric hospice during that time also. I did that for seven years. And so I looked at all the children's name, the names of the kids who'd come here and lived a rather short life. And could we somehow take the first letter or create a name for a foundation that way? Ultimately I went to my parents and said, how about we call it Timmy Foundation? Eventually it evolved into Timmy Global Health. What Timmy Global Health is, is where we invite high schoolers and college. We have multiple undergraduate programs now, but now we've also got medical schools and nursing schools. So the, the graduate schools are now joining the effort. What we do is we invite them to solve some of the world's most challenging issues in developing health care not only in the United States, but abroad. Presently we do serve Ecuador, Guatemala, Dominican Republic and we have an outreach in Nigeria. What we are doing constantly is just trying to help give access to health care to people who are wouldn't even have an opportunity to see a doctor, nurse, therapist, pharmacist. And at the same time, as I mentioned, we are honing the skills of these young people to become the great leaders of tomorrow.

Yeah, that's. And I've been involved with Chuck and Timmy since day one. Actually, I think I sold you the first on 106th Street. Isn't that where you started?

Yeah, well, yeah, you sold my house. Well, actually it was at my kitchen table. Timmy was kind of me for a couple years and then we ended up, we got a closet at Methodist Hospital.

Oh, that's what it was.

And Then we ended up over on 106 Glen. Huh?

Oh, no, go ahead.

Well, then we ended up from there, we moved to Glendale Mall, right in the Galleria, Down.

Down below.

And then we now are at 22 East 22nd Street. Right.

And one of the. One of the coolest things, you know, that Chuck does is this thing called the Timmy Takedown. And I don't know if our producer has a little picture of that.

I'll bet he does. He came up. I can't believe he came up with the Anaconda.

Jason is in Studio J. So you help people globally, but you also help people locally here in Indianapolis and the surrounding counties. And I'm sure he'll bring it up here. Maybe he'll find one or not. Just real quick, you know, I think one of the coolest things you do is the Timmy Takedown event. You are a semi pro professional wrestler and football player.

Yeah.

What is. What is wrestling or the theater of wrestling? There he is getting pinned by one of his things. What has it taught you? And as I understand it, your record is now 0 and 142 versus the kids. Just talk a little bit about that.

Well, first of all, the Timmy Takedown is where we create an arena for the kids to show off their ability. If you're in a wheelchair or you have braces on your legs, you're walking with crutches or walker, I mean, that. That catches people's attention.

Right.

You know, the focus is the disability. I want them to get in the ring and show what they have. They show their ability. Right. We also now do a fashion show. We just did that a few weeks ago.

Very cool.

But, yeah, actually, you were wrong on the record. Cargo Cargo and Dr. Doom, we are now probably 0 and 963. We've had a lot of matches since. Somehow they just haven't been going our way.

And then who's our other guy? Gorgeous George or.

Oh, no, no, no, Actually, well, yeah, Mighty Joe Pittman.

Mighty Joe Pittman.

He's sort of eye candy for the younger ladies. And he is an awesome guy. He's a great pro wrestler, too. But yeah, Mighty Joe Pittman, like the young ladies at Timmy would always go, now is Handsome Joe wrestling this year. And I go, well, it's actually Mighty Joe Pittman, but.

Right.

But yeah, we're hoping to take it to Mexico in November.

I love it. Let's get the ring and let's get going. Now, one other person I just want to talk about. You have had on good occasion and I believe it's been with two of the popes. Is that correct?

No, actually, I just met with Pope John Paul ii.

Okay. And so just give us a quick story on what that experience was like. What was Pope John Paul II's attitude, and what was the big lesson there?

Well, first of all, the rumor has it that he was a great rugby player. Now, they. But they don't usually broadcast that a lot, really. But I'll tell you what was fantastic about that.

That's Joe.

That's Joe Flitcraft. And that's what I love about this picture. You know, I came back from this trip, and everyone said, let me see this picture. I've been hearing about it. Let me see this picture. Joe Flitcraft is a young man who. He's also.

He's got attitude.

He does have attitude. He's awesome. He's coaching high school football. He's a defensive coordinator now, and he's just an incredible young man. In fact, in Kenya, they call him Super Joe. And the reason they call him Super Joe, I was working in Kenya some years ago, and I met with a young man that was a rugby player from New Zealand who was trying to get. Grow the plants, grow, you know, have the agriculture program that would then produce all the food for the children in the orphanage. And so I connected him with Joe Flitcraft. And Joe had intended to go to Purdue University to study agriculture, which I actually got my bachelor's in agriculture. So we connected all of this, and Joe was sending information to Kenya via email and keeping them abreast of what they could do to grow these foods. So in Kenya, he's known as Super Joe. So when Joe came to my clinic one day, he was getting a wish granted by the Indiana Children's Wish Fund. And he said, do you think they'd let me go to Rome? I've always been interested in Roman ruins. I said, well, when you go there, do you. Would you be interested in meeting the Pope? And he looks at me and goes, if it was anybody but you asking, I think you'd be bullshitting me. And he said, sure. So he went on this trip, and I remember when people would see this photo, they would go, I think it's great Joe got to meet the Pope. And I'd say, I think it's great the Pope got to meet Joe, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Joe's a phenomenal soul. He's an incredible person. And despite disability, he makes a big difference. He actually works for Goodwill Industries and does some of their initial interviews when they're hiring and that sort, but he's just, you know, like a son to me.

Yeah, that's cool. And then, so let's talk about, though, Pope John Paul that I know it's not a big. That's not a half an hour meeting. It was probably, what, five minutes. Did Pope say anything to you or what was that? What was the attitude lesson there, if anything?

Well, again, this one in the book, I talk about be humble, right. And that was, you know, again, because it was the humor of. It was, you know, like, you're going to the Vatican. And we actually met him two days. The first day, you know, I'm pushing Joe up the steep incline up for the papal blessing the day before this shot. And I'm joking with Joe going, like, man, if I lose my footing, you're going down a heck of a ride backwards. And anyway, we got to meet him that day. And then again, you know, he gave his papal blessing here, and I do have a large papal blessing from him.

That's cool.

For my work and supporting. And again, I was granted the audience because of the global work of taking care of the children. But it was a wonderful experience. And again, the thing that always impressed me is if you watch him pray, if you watch Pope John Paul II pray, there was a humility and just a remarkable serenity in his face as he prayed. And you felt there was a deep connection there.

And I think the lesson there is when people think about, how do I get from where I am to where I want to be and from who I am to who I want to become? So many of us think about goals, and we think about action, and we think about conquering, and we think about, but how can we destroy and how can we get after things? And maybe the answer is found in what you just mentioned with Pope John Paul ii. Maybe it's found in serenity, it's found in humility, and it's found deep in prayer and deep inside yourself.

Well, again, that's part of the book, pmp Prayer and Pondering. The other thing is, as you've heard many times before, every journey begins with the first step. Right, Right. That's. That is. My attitude has always been that the things that I don't know about, the things that I think that would be interesting to learn more about, I'll usually just step into it and give it a shot. I mean, it's, you know, and I'm a big fan of Abraham Lincoln. And the reason is I've learned a lot more from my failures than I have from my success.

Amen on that.

Right.

I mean, so here's what we're going to do. We're going to go ahead and take just a quick minute to pay for this program, and we are going to learn just a little bit more with Dr. Chuck and we're going to wrap up our podcast. Chuck has been great to have you with us. And we'll be right back after this. Sponsored message.

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And welcome back to the Gap. We're here with Dr. Chuck Dietzen, global healer and founder of the Timmy Global Health Foundation. Dr. Chuck, we close all of our interviews with this fun, fun thing called knowledge through the decades. I know that you're going to be put on the spot here, but we know that you got attitude and you got talent. What we always like to ask our guests is, what have you learned through the decades? And we actually start with birth. And a lot of people go, glenn, I don't know what the hell I learned at birth. I don't remember my birth. So our first question is for our Gappers, right? What is the advice? What is the attitude advice? The mindset that you learned as a newborn or that newborns teach you about attitude?

Well, ironically enough, I have a couple memories of when I was still in diapers, and I've talked to people about that, and it was really. Yeah, I do.

Yeah, it was just two years ago.

But I remember standing in a high chair with a diaper on, and I learned this. Don't try to bite a cap off of the Coke bottle. It kind of hurts your gums and your teeth. All right, I remember that. But I think the important thing that I've learned, particularly now in my career of working with the babies that shouldn't be born yet, the little children that had graduated from the nicu, they're a blank slate. Keep that in mind. And they learn what they live. And that's a very important thing for people to know, that child development begins so early and to be held and to have contact. In fact, that's one of the things I always did in the hospital. I would round three times a day, and the first time I would round, the nurses would be in their meetings and doing the. You know, reviewing the patients and basically handing them off to each other. But during that time, I would round on the babies in particular, who had so much technology, too, and how much human touch do they feel? And so in those cases, I would just get through all the tubing, and I would try to show the parents as to. You cup their head, and you put your face to theirs and you say, God loves you, and so do I.

Oh, man, that's awesome.

I just think they need to feel that, and they need to hear it. And that's a very, very, very important lesson for moms and dads. You know, that human touch and that those positive things that are said throughout development. And this begins very, very early. Yeah.

And not only for moms and dads, even for uncles, aunts, caretakers of infants who don't have moms and dads, even for volunteers that come into hospitals, you know what? Go hold babies.

That's right. That's absolutely right.

And here's the attitude point. After holding an infant and saying, God loves you and looking in their eyes and coddling their head, I'm guessing you probably feel a little bit better than you did before you held them.

Absolutely. Sure. That's right.

So now I want you to think about being 10 years old and you got all these people running around your home. You're on a farm in Kokomo. What's your attitude lesson from Dr. Chuck? If Dr. Chuck was an attitude teacher and speaker before he became Dr. Chuck, what. What was your attitude lesson as you.

Were 10 already at 10, by the way, the most important thing for me at age 10 was getting a hit in Little League. That was my biggest stress. Right. Somebody could throw a fastball, and I'm like, I don't want to get in. And that kid was twice my height, weighed two or three times my weight. Sure, if I can just get the bat on the ball. But beyond that, what I did learn with all these kids coming through our home. And of course, I had several brothers and sisters, and we were the Kool Aid House, of course. But I learned this. It ain't about me. And that was very important. You are here to do something. You have a purpose on this planet. And the sooner you find that, or at least begin the exploration of what that is, the better you'll do. I remember a nurse once said to me, Dr. Chuck, if there's one fault I can find with you, it's that you only see the good in others. And I go, actually, that's not true. I know what I like and what I wouldn't necessarily how I would like to act or not act. But I think we are here to nurture the good in each other. So it's just like raising a child. You have to tell them if it's not acceptable. Ideally, when they do something positive and it helps the community, it's always about community. If you see something positive, you want to encourage and reinforce that.

Yeah, that's good. And, you know, when we launched this podcast, we talked about booster number one, being nice. And I challenge people. How many compliments do you give a day?

Right?

Like. And people are going, well, that's so fake. That's so funny. I'm like, okay, start it being fake and phony. But when you. What a compliment truly is is being able to see the good in others. And, boy, you talk about changing the world one attitude at a time. What would happen if. If everybody had the attitude and the mindset that all's I really want to do is see the good in others. Could you imagine the difference that makes?

Well, and again, with my work, you know, I've been medical director or chief of staff in most every hospital I've been, or at least for the division. And I remember people stopping me in the hallway, have to go, you have to be the most smiling doctor I've ever seen. And again, I think there's a way to smile where it's encouraging as Mother Teresa. That's the beginning of peace. Right? So how do you smile in such a way, particularly under the circumstances that we're taking care of the children? Sure, very, very difficult. But to be very positive about that. And I just quoted this again today with Maria, who I was working with in the office. I said, you know, I can't tell you how many doctors that I've reminded that if you can just learn to say, please, thank you and I'm sorry, that'll go pretty far around the planet.

Yeah. Amazing. So now you've graduated from CO and you're at Purdue in your 20, right. Do you remember being 20?

Ironically enough, my first rugby match in history was on my 20th birthday.

I love it.

Yeah.

Well, this is. So what is the attitude lesson from Dr. Chuck when he was 20?

Well, at 20, you know, now you're off to school and you don't, you know, you're not coming home, parents aren't monitoring you as Closely. That sort of thing. Yes. But it was. I still, you know, I had fun, but I knew in seventh grade when my sister told me, if you really want to go to vet school, you can't get a B. And I remember setting my goals then. I need to be valedictorian. I need to be state champion in some sport, whatever sport. Well, by the time I got to Purdue and I've got some scholarships and I'm enjoying the camaraderie, we were 17 guys living in one unit. You know, what we did wasn't always intelligent, but it was fun. And yet I still have some of those friendships to this day. But ultimately, I still knew that I am here to get an education. I paid for all of my undergraduate and all my graduate school. We didn't have the means for any in our family to go off to college, so I paid for it all. I couldn't. You know, I could have fun, but I needed to get my work done and maintain that GPA.

Right. And so the lesson when you were 20 is what for our gaffers, what's the realization? What's the profound. Dr. Chuck.

All right, brace yourself for this.

Give it to me, baby.

Despite probably having ADHD like the two of us, huh? Yeah.

What were we talking? Are we on 40?

Yeah. What were we just talking about? No, but the point is, you got. At some time, you still. You got to get focused. You got to, no matter how difficult it is, you had to sit yourself down and get the work done. But I do think getting back to this age 20 and picking up rugby, that was a great sport for me. You know, you go out there, like you playing football, too, right? You go out there, you get aggressive, you spend some of that energy, and it was easier to stay focused if you used up some of that energy in the proper arena.

Yeah, that's great. And I think, yeah, the message there is no matter the chaos in your life, make sure that you've identified your driving force.

Right.

And people that are listening. I know, because I know why people listen to this podcast. Because there's chaos. There's questioning, there's doubt. And the bottom line is, in the midst of the chaos, you better have a guiding principle and you better find it. And that's what it sounds like. We learned at 20.

Well, and back to this podcast theme, being nice. People have always been shocked when they come and see a rugby match. We knock the snot out of each other, and then the whistle blows, and you shake hands and usually hand each other a cold beer. Oh, yeah. Hey, great match. We're done. Leave it on the field. Leave it on the pitch.

I love it. So now you fight through medical school, and there's Dr. Chuck standing there at 30 years old. What was going on in your life at 30? And what was the attitude lesson that you can give our gappers?

Well, by 30 now, see, because you, of course, you do undergrad, then you do medical school. Then in my specialty, it was another four years of training. So at 30, I'm finally going to get to practice and make enough money I could start paying back some of these student loans. So I think the important thing there was. I really hated the first two years of med school. In fact, I quit during the fourth semester, and my girlfriend at the time and two of my friends from med school literally drugged me back. I felt like it was strangling out the very character, the great. You know, what I thought would make me a good doctor. That was being wrung out of me because it was just so taxing. But once I got onto the rotations where I was taking care of the children, I had endless energy. It just never got. Yes, it was tiring, but you had to be there for the kids, and there was a great synergy for me. So I think the important thing at 30 was to realize that all of those principles that I had learned as a child in the home that I did with the parents I had, and how we functioned as a family within a community, yes, those things could still be carried on, and I could be who I wanted to be. And I did have some professional goals in medicine. Quite frankly, those were already. Those were checked off the list by the age of 35. There were just other things to do in the world. Right.

And so when you think about Dr. Chuck at 30, what's the mindset? What's the lesson? What rings true to you?

Well, that's it. Be true. Be true to who you are. And I just. I needed to get. You know, I even had my chairman of the residency where I was training at UAB take me aside and go. Now, Chuck, I need to ask you to. Don't do this, don't do that. You're going to get the reputation of being a maverick even before you're practicing medicine. Well, now I've got a TED talk out called Maverick Medicine. You got to be who you are. Oscar Wilde, the great author, once said, be yourself. Everyone else is taken.

Sure. I think the message there for our listeners is that, boy, the world, society does everything they can to morph you and not make you who you are.

Correct.

And this gets into self judgment, self loathing, which, you know, there are people I know sitting in their cars, walking on the beach, wherever they are right now that are going, I can't be myself because other factors aren't letting me be. Because I need to stay in my job. Because, you know, I got to stay in this place and not go to where I want to be. Because if I'm truly myself, it won't happen. But you were at that place. I mean, that's the point. So keep with it.

You don't have a choice. You gotta be who you are.

So now you hit 40. Oh, my God. And you're going, holy crap, how did I turn 40?

Right, right.

And that's when we met. And I think we actually were you. Yeah, we met in your mid-30s. I think we've known each other for 25 years.

Right? Yeah, it's been a while. Yeah, that's right. Because I came back to Indianapolis in January of 94. So there you go. There you were selling houses five years ago.

My God. So you hit 40. Things are starting to really happen, Timmy. Global Health is doing some cool stuff, and I think it was getting some traction. What is the attitude lesson? I want you to think back to when you were 40. What was the epiphany where you said, oh, my God, I'm 40. What am I doing?

Well, I do remember thinking around 40, if I'm actually going to get married and have kids, I need to be thinking about it. But at the same time, I had all these dependents all over the world. And that became your family. My calling. Yes. Taking care of those kids.

So, yes, ladies, he is still single, just so you know. Go ahead.

That is true. But I think at 40, what I, you know, again, you can relate to this. I said, the thing is, like, in my 20s, playing all these sports that I enjoyed. Yes. You know, you break something, you heal up. 30s, it seems to take a little slower. At 40, you're going, man, is this ever going to heal? And am I ever going to get my range of motion back? I've had about 19 fractures from my sports. The point was this, at 40, keep learning every day. I really believe in being a lifetime learner. As I mentioned earlier, love to learn. Most importantly, learn to love. Which with that, of course, comes being nice. And then the other part of that was I needed to do more to take better care of what I now refer to as the soul vehicle. This is how my soul gets around. I need to just do a Better job of taking care of it so I can be there. And as Kylie used to say, just to participate, I don't need to win, but I still like to be involved.

Right. So it really came. 40 was kind of like crap. My. My temple.

Right.

I have it. My body is a temple. And I need to maybe start honing in on that a little bit.

Well, I played my last. My last semi pro football game at age 45.

Yeah.

I broke my hand. Broke my hand.

I remember. I remember.

Yes. So maybe that's a. But it was about that same time, you know, where I'm talking to Kylie about this. I don't get last anymore. And I thought, that's a good point. I can still throw the ball. I just didn't seem to be so concerned about winning anymore. Because one thing you'll notice when you're in sports, and I don't care how big it is, the next day they forget. Yeah. You know, it's a whole new season.

The sun will come up tomorrow. What we would tell our kickers. And so now you are in the fifth decade. Right.

Right.

You're 50. 58.

Yeah.

And you're 58.

58.

Holy moly. In three years, maybe we can do.

And I keep. I know I keep forgetting that you're younger than. Right.

I know I'm looking.

Not that you're more mature. Right?

Yeah. Well, I definitely am not more mature and I'm definitely looking older than you, so.

Wow.

58 years old and you're 50. And you know, Timmy Global Health was awarded the Chase giving awards, number one, not for profit. That was in your 50s, right.

2012.

And that's really. I mean, the 50s has seen an explosion in Timmy Global Health and with what you're doing. But from a personal level.

Right.

From a personal and or a medical level, when you were 50, what was the attitude lesson there? What have you been living the past eight years? What's been ringing true? What's been your pivotal question? That question you always are asking yourself in the past eight years, in times of great stress or in times of great decision making, what's the one question you're asking yourself? What's that attitude lesson?

Well, I'll go back to the pmp, the prayer and pondering. I still pray, frankly. I pray every day. I use anointing oil that was given to me by a priest who came to heal one of my children some years ago. And I bless myself with that each day. And I just say, please help me heal someone today. And to me, healing is Mutual is where you use these things that, you know, the heartaches, the loves and the losses in life and then you bring that forward and for this moment in time to help this particular individual. And one of the things that occurred to me was, you know, the children have kept me grounded. I'd like to think very humble, because I love these kids. They made me a better person. And so in my 50s, the answer is pretty simple. Just stay the course. It's been a great way to live a life and being nice to people is a darn good start. And frankly, I'm trying to remember. I've been trying to put the ego away my whole life. I think when you're an athlete, it's a big part of it, but being able to heal kids has just done so much to heal myself about all this other stuff. Like they say, the important things in life aren't things. The kids have made that so clear to me and they made it clear to me too. And I think this important thing there is something beyond this life. And I know we all profess this, but I'm going to tell you, I've had so many kids who have stepped over and come back, been resuscitated, and I look forward to seeing them again after this life.

Man, that's deep and that's awesome. And I think in the spirit of nice and the spirit of healing, Dr. Chuck I know will allow me to dedicate this podcast to the one and only Chooch Kennedy, Jimmy's father, who just passed away yesterday, or was it two days ago?

Two days ago now.

And so Chooch and Jimmy, this podcast is dedicated for you. Chuck, as always, it's always a pleasure to be with you on this podcast. It's always a pleasure to just be in your presence when you mention healing. I, I can't imagine that our gappers, after listening to this podcast, you didn't touch some people and, or that you did touch people and that you did heal them. And hopefully our gappers are going to go out there and take this message of be nice. Some of the strategies that you've given us, some of the stories that you've given us, that they'll actually go out into the world, try to change the world one attitude at a time, try to be healers in the world. And for that, my friend, awesome job. And I hope that you will go to Timmy Global health, check out Dr. Chuck, make sure you buy pint sized profits and take a look at that. And you know what, make sure that you rate, subscribe and review share this podcast. If this podcast needs to go to your friends, family, businesses, share this thing on social media. Because Chuck's message needs to get out. Not around just the country, but the world, which is what he's doing now. So, Chuck, my friend, great to have you on the Get Attitude podcast. And that's going to be a wrap for Be Nice.

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