877 Navy Seal Mindset for Living Your Best Life with Chadd Wright

This is episode number 877 with retired Navy SEAL, Chad Wright.

Welcome to the School of Greatness.

My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur, and each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Bruce Lee said, Do not pray for an easy life. Pray for the strength to endure a difficult one. Welcome to this episode. I'm so glad you're here. We have an inspirational guest. His name is Chad Wright. And I know you've gone through many adversities in your life. and you might be going through an extreme challenge right now, trying to figure out decisions in your life, where to head moving forward in your relationships. You might be struggling with some type of physical ailment right now or lack of physical health. You might be dealing with insecurities, doubt, fear, uncertainty of your financial future. You might be wondering, what is my purpose in life right now? Why am I here? What's the next step I'm supposed to take? And if you're wondering any of these things, or if you're just looking to get to the next level of where you're at currently, then this episode is for you. It's all about nourishing your body, soul, and spirit to live a complete life and becoming a warrior in the face of adversity. Chad is a retired Navy SEAL turned ultra marathon runner and entrepreneur and an inspirational speaker. I had the opportunity to connect with him at Jesse Itzler's event 29029, which is a 35-hour endurance hike up a mountain. And he blew me away. Was so inspired by his mindset and his ability to endure extreme adversity and pain. And he served as a team leader on multiple deployments as a Navy SEAL, an instructor and master training specialist. And after 12 years as a SEAL, Chad retired and went on to start the project three of project with his brother Blake. And the 3 of 7 project is a merging of Chad and Blake's passions and paths to provide a resource that gives people the knowledge and ability to complete themselves through the nourishment of body, soul, and spirit. They also have a podcast, the 3 of 7 podcast, where they interview the most complete human beings and collaborate, share, and provide practical applications for experiencing life more abundantly. And in this interview, we talk about Chad's extreme commitment to becoming a SEAL and how he tried out every single week for four months just to qualify for the physical assessment. Every week for four months. His extremely rare heart condition and consequential surgery for it that gave him the motivational boost to train even harder. He had to have surgery to become a Navy SEAL. That's how dedicated and committed he was. to achieving his dream, the power of the spoken word and how Chad became conscious of how he speaks to himself and those around him. This is one of the most important parts of the interview you're gonna hear that could drastically change where you're at in your life right now. Chad's routine for investing in his body, mind, and spirit before everything else, it's amazing the amount of dedication he has towards his body and mind, and he's gonna break down his exact training regime Throughout this interview, how adversity can be the greatest teacher in life and how we should be looking for challenges in our life, not asking for an easy life. I'm super pumped. I think you're gonna love this one. The mindset of a Navy SEAL has always fascinated me, and Chad has got a beautiful experience and a beautiful way of being since retiring as a SEAL. I think you're really gonna love this. Make sure to share it with one friend today who you think might be going through some type of challenge or looking to get to the next level in their life. Just send them the link lewishouse.com/877 or copy and paste the podcast link you're listening to on Apple Podcast or Spotify, as I really believe people are going to get a ton of value out of this. And now without further ado, let's dive into this interview with the one and only Chad Wright.

Chad Wright is in the house. Welcome to the School of Greatness podcast. Excited you're here, man. We met, was it three weeks ago?

Four weeks, yeah.

When was the mountain? What was the date?

Date, I don't know. It's back there somewhere.

We met at an event that Jesse Itzler hosts called 29029. It's climbing a mountain 17 times in Vermont, the equivalent of Mount Everest. Challenging. You smoked through it pretty quickly on a lot of the hills. I was keeping a slow pace. But we got to have an amazing conversation on the Last Hill, which I was excited about. And we talked, I made you stop much longer to share your story. And we said, let's do a longer interview and talk about this. First thing I want to ask about is, what is three of seven? You've got it on your hat, you've got it on your shirt. What is it? What does it mean?

Okay, yeah. So I guess to start with kind of how it was born and I'll tell you kind of the meaning that goes along with it. So my brother and I, we run Ultramarathons together, and obviously with my time in the SEAL teams, it's been a lot of physical, mental challenges, and we really enjoy that. So we asked ourselves, what are we trying to do with these crazy, hard things that we always go out and do? Essentially, we were trying to complete ourselves from a body, soul, and spirit aspects. So that's what three of seven is all about. So the three and three of seven is representative of the three aspects of us as humans, our body, soul and spirit. And the seven is the universal number for completion. So complete yourself is essentially the tagline for three of seven. Okay, so what we're doing.

You're never complete.

Oh, you're. No. So it's. It's a journey. It's a. It's a journey for sure. But, you know, I think I feel like we're all on that journey to kind of find that complete and wholesome. existence in life. So yeah, we have a little podcast. We're having a lot of fun with that. We have guests on, anybody from ultra runners to, we had Jesse Itzler on the other day, even just your normal everyday people that have went through some type of severe adversity in their lives, whether it's in their control or out of their control. And we talk through them about what they learn from those adverse situations and moving forward, what do they do on a day-to-day basis to master, nourish and maintain their body, soul and spirit?

Cool. So now you were a Navy SEAL for how many years?

12 years.

12 years. And the story of how you became a Navy SEAL is pretty crazy. Can you share how you didn't get accepted and then the process you had to go through in order to become the chance of going to be an NFL player.

Can you tell us that story? Yeah, brother. Yeah, so yeah, my story's a little bit different. It took me a while to just get on the start line of SEAL training. Background on me, I was born and raised in North Georgia, never played sports, never ran, never swam in a swimming pool. Never ran. No, never ran. I mean, you know, other than, you know, just running through the woods for fun, you know, nothing for fitness.

No swimming.

Never swam in a swimming pool till I went and took the physical standards test to get a SEAL contract. Wow. So that's kind of where I was coming from, but I had this goal all of a sudden that I wanted to be a Navy SEAL and that was kind of born through when I graduated high school. I was working in the construction industry and I just kind of had this revelation one day, man, that if I didn't go, like, step outside of that and do something that I considered special or different, that kind of that was going to be my lot in life. I was never going to have any more than what that little construction job in my hometown could offer. And that's fine for a lot of people. Like, I know a bunch of dudes that are still working at that exact same place. to this day, and they're totally happy with their lives. But for me, I just wasn't happy with the place that I was in. So I was browsing the internet, saw this flyer of hardest military training in the free world, Navy SEALs, and for some reason it clicked, and that's what I decided I wanted to go do.

So you were researching, you saw this as like the hardest thing to do. Yeah, the elite. and it hits you in your core. You're 18 years old.

Yeah.

19 at the time. It hits you in your heart. You're like, okay, this is my mission. This is my dream, my goal.

That's it, man. Yeah. So that became my. That became kind of my.

Obsessed over it.

Raw thing, dude.

Yeah.

I went and took the PST to get a seal contract. I failed that multiple, multiple times. It's a physical standards testing. It's a. It's a run. swim, push up, pull up kind of test. So I failed it multiple times, finally got to where I learned how to swim, learned how to run a mile and a half, all that good stuff.

How many times can you take it?

You can take it as many times as you want. Yeah, so I took it once a week and it probably took me, I'd go and take it once a week, it probably took me four months to finally pass it. So, so I'm coming from nothing, dude.

Is this like a standard test? with the government or the, you know, the Navy, like in your local town, or is this just you want a stopwatch testing yourself?

No, the Navy has contracted mentors, SEAL mentors that administer the test and they have one in every, you know, they have multiple in each state.

And you were in Georgia, so you were driving to the nearest town and.

You'D do it there or whatever. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Okay. So finally passed that.

Get a SEAL contract.

Yeah.

Every week.

But you saw growth. You saw that you were getting better. Oh, yeah, for sure, man. Yeah. And it was really the skills. I didn't have, I didn't have the skills that I needed to pass. I mean, I didn't know how to do a combat swimmer side stroke, like I could dog paddle when I first started, you know?

So were you teaching yourself in between the testing every week?

Yeah.

You were swimming every day, you're running, you're teaching yourself.

That's right. That's right. So yeah, that progressed slowly, but over time I finally got it down pat. So I went into the Navy and with my SEAL contract finally. So the SEAL contract basically means you get a shot at SEAL training.

You can go to training camp.

Yep.

Got it.

That means they guarantee you a spot on the start line at BUDS. It's called Basic Underwater Demolition SEAL Training. But you have to go to Navy boot camp first. So I went to Navy boot camp. I made it all the way through boot camp. And it was our last day of boot camp. and we had this big final training exercise and we got that done and all my other classmates were going off to graduation, the ceremony, and they were going to move on with their dreams and aspirations to go to SEAL training. And my drill instructor pulls me aside after this final training exercise and he says, Hey Chad, you got to go to medical man. They found something on your physical that they need to talk to you about. So while everybody else is going off to graduation, I'm walking over to medical and I walk into the medical officer and he says, Chad, you have a pericardial cyst on your heart. And It's asymptomatic, but we're afraid that when you go down to depth diving, that it will burst this cyst on your heart. So he said, We can't let you be a seal, man. Oh, wow. So in that last moment, as I was about to move forward with everything that I had invested myself into, it was all taken from me.

And... Did you try to say, it's okay, I'll sign a waiver, like, I'll do whatever it takes, or were you accepting of it right away, like, oh.

He didn't give me a choice. There was no choice in the matter. There's nothing you can do.

Black and white, this is a no, you're out.

That's it. That's it. Now, I did try to say, you know, okay, well, I'm in the Navy now. Like, can't you guys perform a surgery to take this thing off my heart?

Right.

And of course, he said, no, this is asymptomatic. It's a very rare condition. We're not willing to risk the surgery just so you can go to SEAL training. And if they perform the surgery, there was no guarantee that it would be successful and I would be able to move forward anyways.

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Exactly. And work on some other job. Just not going underwater. Exactly.

Yep, yep. So that's what they basically did. They tried to send me out to the fleet. But that wasn't where I had set my goal, man. So I was able to pull some strings and get out of the Navy on an administrative discharge.

And.

You said, well, I don't want to go work anymore for you then if.

I can't do what I want to do. Yeah, I mean. But the thing is, Louis, it's weird, dude, because When he told me, like, I can remember when that dive medical officer told me basically, no, you cannot be a SEAL. You will never be able to be a SEAL. Like, for some reason, I don't know if it was because I was young and naive, but I never let go of that goal. Like, even after he gave me a definitive answer, I still had in my mind, I'm gonna find a way over, under, around, I'm going to do something. to fix this so I can move forward with my dreams. So maybe that's, you know, why I had so much confidence to get out of the Navy, you know, completely out. I cut all ties with the Navy, show back up to my hometown. And of course, everybody looks at me and it's a small town, so everybody knew where I was going and what my aspirations were. And they look at me and of course they all say, well, what are you doing back here, bro? You obviously quit, right? 'Cause that's what everybody does, is quit sitting, and very few people make it through. So yeah, that was something I had to deal with when I got home. That was pretty tough.

How long was that time for?

So, when I got home, I started immediately trying to find a surgeon that would take this thing off my heart.

Right away, you were like, okay, who can help me?

Totally, man. Yep, right off the bat. And I went to like three or four different heart surgeons there in Atlanta and nobody would touch it. They said the same thing that the dive medical officer in the Navy told me. Finally, I found a surgeon that would take this thing off my heart. His name was Dr. Cooper and he was a Army surgeon. He had served time on the battlefield, active duty. So he understood what I wanted to go do and that I wanted to serve my country. He understood my dream, you know, more so than somebody that hadn't served their country could. So Dr. Cooper was willing to accept the risk of performing this surgery on my behalf.

Did he do a pro bono? Did you have to pay him a premium? What was it? Did insurance cover this?

That's an interesting thing. We were not sure, so I didn't have health insurance at the time. We were not sure how we were gonna pay for it. You know, obviously I had my family was supportive of me and we were just as a group we decided we're just gonna go have this surgery done. We'll get the bill and we'll pay payments on it for the rest of our lives if we need to, you know. So went in, Dr. Cooper performed the surgery. I only remember one moment of doubt. It was the morning of the surgery. We were driving to the hospital. And I was about to like lay there and let him cut my chest open. Because you have to do an open.

Well, he went, he actually, they actually.

Detached my pectoral muscle, peeled it up, and then broke my ribs and went in through my rib cage.

Oh my gosh. Yeah.

So.

So they didn't open the middle of your chest.

No, they didn't split my sternum. That's crazy.

Yeah. So he cuts you here.

Detaches the muscle. Yeah.

Pulls the muscle up. and then breaks rib or just like bends in?

They actually had to break the ribs to get in, I guess to create a cavity big enough to act. The cyst was seven centimeters, so it was a pretty large, I mean compared to your heart, that's a fairly large cyst, you know?

Yeah. How do they, how does the bones heal back?

Dude, I have no clue, dude. And I was so young back then, dude, I didn't ask questions about like, how are you going to do this surgery? How long is it going to take? me to recover.

Fear.

Yeah, like it didn't matter. I was just, I was so thankful I had someone that was willing to perform the surgery. I didn't ask those questions, you know?

Wow. Okay, so you were, you had a moment of doubt going to the hospital. What was that fear?

Yeah, so the fear was, I think it was just the reality set in, the reality of the risk I was about to take to gamble upon my dreams, basically.

And the risk being, I might die.

I might die, that's right. So I look over at my dad, it's like five in the morning, we're riding to the hospital and I say, Dad, do you really think I should do this, man? And he just looked back at me stone cold and he said, Chad, if you want to be a SEAL, you don't have any choice. And I was like, Roger that, man. And we rolled, laid out on the operating table.

Dad, boy, Roger that.

That's it, man. Surgery was successful. Woke up, first thing I remember coming out of anesthesia, my grandmother was standing beside my hospital bed and I grabbed her hand and I said, I got my dreams back. And so like from that point forward, bro, nothing was going to stop me.

Nothing.

I took that adversity and I used it as a tool from that point forward. I was so invested at that point. That furnace of adversity had stripped me down and purified me down to the core, dude, of why did I want to do this? You know, it was just 100% from that point forward.

Why did you want to do it? Did you ask yourself and recheck in? Like, is this really worth opening my chest and doing this? potentially dying?

The best way I can answer that, Louis, and that's a good question, man, because I guess a lot of people would expect me to say, because I wanted to serve my country or I wanted to go to war or this, but at that time in my life, it wasn't that. The only way I can answer that question about why did I want to do it is because that is what my goal was. That was what my goal was, and I was told, when I was told no, it made me want it a hundred fold.

Wow.

You know what I mean?

Wow. Do you think if you wouldn't have had that surgery, you would have completed being a Navy SEAL? You would have went through the testing and made it through and you think you would have made it still?

Well, so there's, I mean, there's no way I can answer that 100% with 100% certainty. My honest opinion is no, I wouldn't have made it through training, honestly.

Why do you think you wouldn't have if you didn't have that adversity?

For one, I don't think that I was prepared mentally or physically prior to that adversity. So like I said, that moment of adversity with the heart condition and all that, not only did it purify my intentions and my will and all that, but also I had to recover after that surgery.

So how long was that?

I was back in the Navy standing in front of the same dive medical officer that had disqualified me less than a year after the surgery.

Surgery. Wow.

So I had that block after the surgery to really hunker down and train with the right mindset. So I had the right mindset then for that training block. So that training block was so much more effective than any of the training that I had done prior to that adversity.

Right.

You know what I mean?

Because it took you probably three to six months to heal to a point where you could start running and start moving effectively, I'm assuming.

Yeah.

And then you have maybe a six, four to six month runway to train hard.

That's it.

Yeah.

And train your mind the whole time.

Yeah. Yeah.

So you stand in front of the guy who said, no, it's not possible. What was that like?

It was pretty wild, man. I remember walking in his office and he remember you?

Yeah.

Oh, yeah. He totally did. I mean, it was, this is such a rare condition. And, and this, all this is written in medical journals. This is public information that you can if you research Navy SEAL pericardial cyst, you can read the medical journals on this. So it was so rare, they had never seen it in a SEAL candidate before, so he remembered me definitely, you know. But yeah, I remember walking in his office and of course he still had to give me the go ahead. I didn't walk in there all cocky like, screw you, dude, you know, but I went in there and I remember he looked at me, dude, and he said, what are you doing back here? and I had the paperwork from my civilian surgeon that performed the surgery, and I just said, Hey man, will you take a look at this? Set it down in front of him, and he went over the documents right there, and pretty much gave me the go ahead and said, Hey.

He said, I did the surgery, here's all the documents.

That's it.

Here's the medical release, here's the whatever, right?

That's it, brother.

And then he said, All right, good to go.

Yeah, and yeah, he said, you, got it now. And I think he respected, I think he understood better than anyone else what I had done.

The amount of commitment that you had to you.

Exactly.

That you were all in. This isn't, he was like, okay, that's not a, you know, I don't know, stitch up some, some wound you have surgery. This is life threatening surgery that you did just for this one thing.

That's it, brother. And I think he understood that better than anybody else could have. You know what I mean?

And how old are you at this time?

19, I would have been 19. Wow.

So that he gives you the clear, what did that feel like when he just said, you know, signed off or whatever he said that you can go into now budge training, which you were not even a seal. It doesn't even say you're a seal yet. You almost have still passed the six month test.

That's it. Yeah.

So how is that feeling when he said you're good to go?

That's crazy, Louis. Nobody's ever asked me that question. But I can remember it, you know, bringing it up in my mind now that you asked me that.

Screaming inside. Did you hug him? crying? Were you calling someone?

Well, it was definitely no hugging or nothing. I mean, it was a professional relationship. I was a seaman and he was an officer. But yeah, it was just that. I mean, like I've never experienced before, either before that or even now after that in my life, just this welling up of like passion and drive within me when he signed the dotted line and I knew, I was like, I got this.

And you're watching him sign it, thinking to yourself, like, it just be so emotionally overwhelming probably.

It is, dude.

For a year, everything you sacrificed.

Yep. Wow. It was, it was amazing. It was an amazing moment. And I thank you for asking that question because I never reflect on that moment.

Wow.

Never reflected on that moment in the last 13 years of my life.

Wow, that's cool.

It's cool to go back and think about it.

Yeah, man. That's powerful. Who was the first person you called? or what was the first thing you did after you left that room?

It would have been my mother. My mother has always been my biggest supporter, man.

And what did you say and what did she say?

Oh my gosh. I can't remember the exact words of that conversation, but I'm sure she was crying because she was as invested as I was into this, you know what I mean?

Okay. So you go off into budge training, it's called, right? And this is the six month intensive where you see on, you know, Discovery Channel of all the seals in the ocean holding up the, the rafts together, just getting crashed on waves, just no sleep, all that type of stuff.

Right.

That's it, bro.

That's what it, cold, freezing cold water, 50 degree water, whatever it is. And this goes on for. Tell us the process of what this training is like. And, you know, a couple of minutes, like from the first couple months. to the last couple of months because you told me that the last couple of months is not as tough physically. It's more mentally then, right?

Yeah, yeah. A lot of people know about bloods now, but I'll just give you a quick rundown on it. This first phase is the selection phase. It's about six or eight weeks long and that's where hell week is. Hell week's a block where you're up for, I think it's like five days and six nights with no sleep and you're just getting hammered the whole time. So that's where we lose a lot of guys is in first phase. When you move on to second phase, that's combat diving. We do lose quite a few guys in one evolution there called pool competency. And it's basically where you get just beat all to pieces underwater.

You just try to drown you essentially.

Yeah, basically, yeah. So yeah, we lose a lot of guys there. But other than that in second phase, after you get past pool comp and second phase, you're gonna be there. For the, you know, for the duration of the training. And then third phase is land warfare. It's, you know, learning patrol formations and, you know, your, your land warfare stuff, shooting the whole, the whole nine yards.

-Huh you had told me, I don't know if this is, you're allowed to say this or not, speaking edit if so, but you told me that there was a, a day where the most people quit. I don't remember saying this, what you told me.

Yeah.

Yeah. When they played a movie. You said the most people I quit on this one day. Are you glad to share that?

Yeah, man. Yeah. I mean, I've never shared that publicly before. I don't guess it's any secret, but yeah, the one day that I remember the most guys quitting was they set the class down in front of a big projector screen and played a video of Al-Qaeda operatives sawing the head off of an American and, you know, basically told, all the class guys in the class that, hey, this is who you're going to war against. Like, this is no game. We're not here to do push-ups. You're not going to be running with a boat on your head for the rest of your career. It's not about going out to the bar with a trident on your chest or any of that. This is about, these are the people you're going to fight and destroy. So it was very graphic and we had to watch it multiple times with instructor staff around us, basically. yelling in our faces. And so, you know, a good portion of the class got afraid. And then you had a small group that it made them angry. And then I think there was probably some in between that didn't really know how to feel about it. Had to go sleep on it. You know what I mean? So I remember after them showing that we went straight from there to eat lunch. Yeah, imagine that, dude.

Crazy.

And we're standing in the chow line and like, guys just start falling out of the formation just like by the tens and dozens and yeah, and they're just all going to ring the bell.

And they already went through Hell Week.

This was prior to Hell Week. Yeah, this was prior to Hell Week.

So they didn't even go through any physically demanding stuff at this point.

No, man.

With no sleep, they just were psychologically out.

That's it. And that's the whole point. That's the whole thing with this training or really anything in life. Louis is, it could be running an ultra marathon, it could be starting a business, it could be SEAL training. So other than that day, and that day was all mental, the biggest reason that people quit any of those things we just, I just talked about is because they look at the whole, they're looking at the big picture, man. So like with SEAL training, there's no single evolution that's that difficult. Yeah. Really, I mean, it's four mile runs and two mile swims and it's nothing that you couldn't get up from this table and go do right now. But the guys that quit, they couldn't break it down like into digestible pieces.

One hour at a time, one moment at a time, one day at a time, one step at a time, one breath at a time. It seems so overwhelming. You're like, if I can't do this right now, if I'm struggling this moment, how am I going to take on all of this, right, six months, four months, three months, and so we become overwhelmed and in fear as opposed to just one step at a time.

That's it, bro. I remember in Evolution during Hell Week, all it was was a one-mile repeat. The instructors just got everybody together and said, all you got to do is run one mile over and over again until we tell you to stop. There's no time standards. There's no- you- could walk. You could walk. I mean, you had to look like you were running. You could walk. So I'm out here like, heck yeah, dude. All I got to do is run one mile at my own pace on a sunny beach on Coronado Island. This is amazing. Nobody's bothering me.

It's like vacation.

Yeah, yeah, man. but that was the single evolution during Hell Week where we lost the most guys. And it was because of what we just talked about. They could not, certain people just could not focus on that mile, dude. All they could think about was all the miles in front of them, which they didn't know if this was the last one or not. So they looked at it as a big picture and they just couldn't handle it. And really it was the easiest evolution that we did in all of Hell Week.

Do you remember how many miles you actually ran?

Dude, I have no clue. And what the instructors do, they just keep it going until enough people quit. And then they're like, okay. And then they call it.

Yeah.

Really?

Yeah.

And just to, they're like, okay, we're gonna do 10 miles, 15, 20 miles.

Whatever, until many people quit. That's right.

Yeah. Wow.

Yeah. So that's the biggest thing, dude, about, and I take that now into, like, ultra running and and even three of seven, you know, the business model for three of seven and all that we have going on with that, it's just like, you know, conquer what's like right in front of you. And if you can stay in that mindset, you know, on an ultra race, when I'm 95 miles deep into a race and I've got to climb a 2,000-foot mountain, how do you think I do it, bro?

One step at a time.

Yeah.

I mean, I pick a tree 20 yards ahead of me, and I get to that tree and then I pick another tree and then eventually I'm at the summit.

How do you manage your mind and the thoughts of man, I've got five more miles or however many more miles to go, how many more hours to go, days to go. And this is freaking hard. How do you manage the mind that wants to tell you to stop when it seems like there's so much ahead of you, but you're just going 10 feet at a time? how do you do that? When you're tired, when you're hurting, when you're exhausted, or you just don't get tired?

No, no. That's a mantra we use, right? And yeah, we can talk about that later. But for me, bro, it's like if you will push yourself hard enough, you reach this place, I call it the steady state, and it's where It's not gonna hurt any worse. And it's not gonna get any harder. It's the steady state, man.

It's gonna stay hard.

It's gonna just stay just like that. That's exactly right. And it's almost like a, for me, it's almost like a primal feeling. Like everything else is stripped away. And all I have to deal with is this pain, physical pain that I'm feeling. And it's a beauty, for me it's a beautiful thing, man. So I don't- To feel the pain? Well, to reach that steady state to where everything's just boiled down and it's just so simple, dude.

You're not stressing about who's calling you, what's happening at home, friends, or- that's it, bro.

Yeah.

You're not stressed about that stuff. You're focused on one thing.

Yeah, and one way that I managed that, I like getting to that point in the first place. But some way that I guess you could say that I manage that pain is I stop fighting against it.

I.

Literally just tell myself, I accept this. And I almost just like in my mind's eye, I see it passing through me.

The pain.

The pain? And you can use this with all different types of things that are uncomfortable, like cold, If you stop, we'll stop fighting against it, it diminishes its power. But as long as you're fighting against the pain or you're using your energy to fight against the cold, it's gonna continue to gain traction and power over your mind. So it's just forcing yourself to let go and stop fighting against that discomfort and just rock and roll, man.

So for the everyday human being who is does a five mile run, or maybe there's someone going extreme into an ice tub for two minutes and they feel pain after a few miles or that first minute in the ice tub. How would you process that mentally or in your mind's eye when you're entering the ice, when you're going to that five mile run where it starts to hurt, you get the cramps, you get the heartaches, sweating. What would you do in that moment? Obviously for you, that's like 50 to 100 miles, but for the everyday human, how would you approach that mentally? Like a process we could understand. I understand of like surrendering and letting it go through you, but what is it, what's a strategy we could implement, you think?

Well, I mean, I think the strategy to implement that particular thing about not fighting against it, I think, is that you could speak it out loud. I talk to myself all the time, and that's something I'm so adamant about is the spoken word. You know, if you.

So it's starting to feel painful. I'm on my third mile. I feel like wanting to slow down. What would I say to myself?

You can counter punch that with any number of statements or mantras, whatever works best for you. You know what I mean? Of course, I have some that I use on my own, but that's, for me, that would be the number one tool to kind of manage that pain.

A spoken mantra out loud.

Yeah, the spoken word.

Not an internal mantra. or a whisper, but actually saying it, you think?

Yeah, totally, man. Yeah. Yeah, it has to be said out loud.

Okay. What's the killer of getting through hard challenges in your mind? What's the thing that kills most individuals once it starts to get hard and they stop?

Negativity, man. Yeah. The thought process, it's not necessarily the negative thought. because we can't control our thoughts, obviously, all the time. We're gonna have thoughts in our head that pop up that we don't want to be there. But it's when you give those thoughts power through the things that you say. So I give you an example. One of my best friends going through SEAL training, he came to me one morning and he said, he said, he had been, I could tell he had been in a bad place mentally, but he was doing fine, progressing through training, but he came to me one morning and he said out loud for the first time, I don't think I'm good enough to make it through this training anymore, which was a lie. He was completely physically capable of doing every single thing that we had to do that day and every other day. But when he came and said that, it gave those thoughts that he had, that, what do you call it? Like lack of confidence or, you know, those, those thoughts that he was having that he wasn't good enough, they didn't have enough traction to stop him until he came and told me that out loud.

Spoke it into existence.

He spoke it out loud, yeah man.

You might be thinking, ah, am I good enough to do this? Can I make it through? Maybe I'm not as strong as these guys. These guys are more talented. But once you start saying it to someone else out loud, that's when your body starts to believe it. even stronger and it gets harder and harder to go back into a confident place, I'm assuming. -That's it, brother. Yeah.

So, like when he told me that, it was just like seconds later he was going to ring the bell. -Really? -Yeah. And there was nothing that I could do to stop him.

It's like he finally believed it 100% and he was out. -Yeah.

-Yeah.

Just don't say it and you're half the way there, right? If you like, just don't say it. You have a chance.

That's it brother. That's it. And so your tongue, your tongue is the thing, I compare it to a rudder. A rudder is the main control surface that steers a ship, steers the direction of a ship. Your tongue is your rudder. It's going to steer the direction of your life and the outcomes of your situations 98% of the time.

So.

What you say is pretty important.

It's paramount to me, bro. I mean, that's like, I take this to such an extreme that I don't curse. I'm a Christian, but not cursing is not a Christian thing. It's because none of those words in and of themselves have a positive meaning. So why am I going to use them? So for me, it is paramount, dude. the things that we say, yes.

Did you ever come to a place where you started saying negative things to yourself during Bud's training or as a seal where you had to catch yourself or have you always been clear with your words to yourself?

I have not always been clear with my words to myself. I became more conscious about the power of my words throughout life and doing really, really hard stuff. to where, you know, I've put myself in enough situations with other people around me to see the power of the spoken word actually work, not only in my own situations, but in the men around me or women around me in racing, you know?

Yeah.

So as every time I see it work, I'm like, Holy smokes, this is powerful. This is powerful. Well, then finally I started going on some podcasts telling people that it works. And then I now get hundreds of messages a month of people saying, oh my gosh, this works.

What are the words we should never say to ourselves? And what should we say to ourselves every day?

You know, I think that's really, I think that's really individualized, man. I mean, as far as the words that you should never say to yourself, it's going to be dependent on the situation you're in, you know what I mean? And then the things that you're saying to yourself, you know, a big one for me is, I will not die in the chair. That's a huge mantra, you know, that I use. I won't die in the chair. And that has a whole meaning and story behind it.

What's the brief meaning?

That was born out of that last man standing race that I did a few months. Well, no, it was back in May. Where I was running, you know, we had to run 4.16 miles every hour on the hour. Each one of those hours, I would dedicate to a fallen brother in the SEAL Team.

And their actual names.

Yeah, I had a wrist coach that I was wearing and I would have their index card with their face name, their family's names, their date of sacrifice.

And so, holy cow, that probably gave you a lot more power and strength.

It did, man. But it gave me a lot more pressure too, dude, because each one of these laps was for this guy and some of those guys were guys that I had spent a lot of time with, you know what I mean? So the way that race worked, there was no definitive finish line. You just kept running until only one runner was left standing. So I could not promise my brothers that I would win. I couldn't promise them victory because I didn't know if my body would break or, you know, I was, I didn't know. I didn't know where the race was going to end. So, but I could promise them that if I died in death, meaning death within a situation, not physical death, but death in this scenario would be of my race, if that time came, I would die out on the race course battling for every step that I took.

Not on the chair.

I won't die in the chair, that's exactly right.

Sitting around waiting.

Yep, so at the end of each one of these laps, there was a chair so if I came in off the lap in 55 minutes, I could sit down for 5 minutes. And it was hard. A lot of people died in the chair that day.

I'm done. I'm done.

Cause it was hard to rise back up, man. For sure.

Did you win the race?

No, I was the, I think I was the third man standing. I ran 116.5 miles. And my last lap dude was actually for My last lap was for a good friend of mine named Blake Marston, and we lost Blake in a skydiving accident not long ago. And, dude, I remember looking down at... I went out on that lap, and so it was muddy. I had tied my shoes too tight, and so my shoelaces were sawing through that large tendon in the front of my ankle.

It was painful.

Yeah, so it got to the point that I could no longer flex my toes toward my shin anymore. Every step was like I was dragging my feet like lead weights. So I went out on that lap and I pretty much, I was broken, dude.

Yeah, your whole body.

But I wasn't gonna die in a chair, dude.

You were on the lap, though.

I was out on the lap.

You were out on the lap, but you didn't make it back in time.

Yeah, I got out there, dude, and I remember looking down at Blake, I started crying because I knew, I knew at a certain point that I could not make it back in time.

Oh my gosh.

And I thought, you know, what does Blake think of me right now, you know? and then I just had the sense of peace come over me, dude. And I could see his face in my mind's eye laughing at my poor physical state. Because we always find, I mean, team guys, we always find humor in adversity. I mean, no matter how miserable it got, we would be joking and laughing at each other. So I saw him laughing at me, you know, and then, I found a stick on the ground and hobbled my way back to the finish line.

Yeah, so you made it through. It wasn't in the time allotted. It was after the time.

It was after the time. That's right. Yeah.

116 miles, wow.

Yeah, but you know, you can apply, I apply that now, that don't die in the chair to all aspects of my life, man, whether it's business or personal relationships or marriages or you name it, dude.

So you have a mantra and you'll say this mantra out loud or internally every day when you feel it gets It's tough.

Yeah, yeah. It's used as a counter punch, dude, to those negative thoughts.

You know what's funny? Mantras are talked about a lot in kind of the spiritual meditation communities. But you're this hardcore Navy SEAL guy who's saying the power of the spoken word, the power of a mantra, a positive mantra, is what gets you through adversity.

That's it, brother.

And that's the secret.

That'S your router, man.

So it's not. There's nothing to be some woo-woo-y spirituality, meditation only type of thought process. This is tactical, real life strategies that get you through War. Actual War.

That's it, bro.

The war in your mind, the war for the day, physical War, wherever you are deployed. That's what this does. When you were out in. You deployed how many times?

I did four different deployments, but they were all over. I never had one deployment that was like one location the whole time. Okay.

So you're going out in different, four different times, 12 years.

Yeah.

What was this one of the scariest times that you're allowed to talk about or moments or situations where you had back to that moment of doubt when you were driving to the surgery table? Did you have lots of those moments over 12 years of doubt or insecurity? security or uncertainty? Or did you have this positive mindset every time you went into a scary situation?

I've never really had doubts per se, like I had that morning of the surgery where, you know, everything hinged on that one decision. I know one crazy thing, I guess, doubt that I had, I think I shared with you on the mountain, was one of the first times that I went out with with my platoon, you know, I was out on a blocking position, so I wasn't part of the main assault force, but-- which for people.

That don't know what that means, yeah.

That's basically they-- you're in charge of keeping anybody from the outside coming into the actual target complex. So you've got your assault force that handles the actual direct action, and then you've got blocking, positions on four corners around that complex, but they can be pushed out, you know, quite a ways to where you don't have direct contact. Not even in walkie-talkie or.

Well, I mean, you can have comms.

But you don't, you know, you don't necessarily, you're alone.

Yeah, I'll let you know.

You don't have a buddy next to you. Well, it depends, and it all depends. It's all mission dependent, man. You know, it could be, it could be two brand new guys out on a blocking position. It could be whoever you need there. So it's Mission dependent. But, yeah, I was out way out here on this blocking position as a brand new frog man. And Frog Man means Navy SEAL.

Okay.

Yeah.

And so the assault forces is taking care of the main Target complex, and we get a. I get a secondary contact out here on my corner, my blocking position, and I remember, like, thinking in my head, like, oh my gosh, like, I hesitated, like waiting for, is someone going to tell me what to do? You know, can I shoot back? Waiting for a call or some advice. And then I had this epiphany that no one's going to tell me what to do right now. I have to handle this situation on my own.

Yeah.

And so that was a grand moment for me, like realizing that in life, there are going to be a lot of situations, whether it's business deals or your own personal life, that you're not going to have time to sit around and wait for someone to come and tell you what to do, man. You've got to react in that moment with the tools that you have, and you've got to make the best decision that you can. within that moment. And I learned that lesson. And for some reason, that was just such an awesome lesson for me because now with 3 of 7, I'm not a businessman, dude. I'm a warrior, bro. I don't know nothing about business. And there's things that come up all the time that I'm like, you know, what am I supposed to do about this? And yeah, I could sit around and wait for or pay somebody else to figure it out, but no, I make the best decision that I that I can come up with and I rock and roll with it, man. It's not always the prettiest, but I always learn from it if it's not the prettiest. You know what I mean? That's the way I live my life now.

Yeah, yeah. And can you tell us what you did? What was your main job or main role as a Navy SEAL?

My main role within a platoon was a breacher. So it's an explosives expert. If we need to get into a door that's locked or say there's a walled compound or something, You make a bomb. I make a bomb and from scratch.

Or with whatever you have, maybe you have the tools on you or you gotta make a bomb chemically, right?

Yeah.

Put it together.

Yeah.

And then you set the bomb off.

Yeah, we set it off and, you know, wherever the primary entry might be and you have to calculate it all out and make sure it's gonna penetrate the barrier that you're trying to get through.

Right, so have enough firepower to blow it up. Did you ever have a bomb that didn't knock the wall down or that didn't open the whole big Dude, I.

Tended to overbuild my bombs, man. That's probably why-- Boom!

It's like you blew up the whole thing, not just the wall.

Yeah, no doubt, man. And that's, I guess that's part of the reason why the Navy considers me disabled now. I overbuilt my bombs a lot, and yeah, the blast wave, the shock wave as it passes through your skull, actually tears away at the fibers within your brain. Oh wow. You know that from playing ball, man. Yeah, of course. Yeah, it's just like a mini concussion.

Every time.

Every time, yeah, for thousands. I mean, no telling how many bombs.

Really? 'Cause you just feel it and you just, you feel it rattle your brain a little bit.

Oh, yeah.

It goes through your body, your chest, everything. It's probably like a.

It's a shockwave, yeah. I mean, it hits you, you can feel it.

And you didn't have sometimes 100 yards to go behind a nice big wall to block it. You're looking for a barrel of rock, a little hill, something within 40 yards.

You might be, well, dude, you might be in this house. I mean, you might be in a house. I mean, you're talking about you've got probably, you've got 10 doors in here, dude. And if, you know, if I needed to get into any of these doors, I'd be breaching right here in an enclosed space.

So why, why use a bomb on a door? It's supposed to be like, you know, ramming through it, kicking the door down.

It's just like it's so, it's fun using bombs, dude. I just got, why would I kick.

A door when I could blow it down, man?

Save your brain. Well, yeah, we weren't thinking about that back then.

So that was just protocol.

That awareness is building about brain injury. They're implementing a lot of new, really good stuff.

That's good.

Yeah. For guys, I'm so thankful that that's happening. So, even just five or six years ago, nobody thought. I mean, we calculated a minimum safe distance for every bomb, but but no, you couldn't always get that, you know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah. Okay, so thousands of bombs. I mean, how long does it take you to make a bomb? If you're like, we gotta get through this door, how long does it take you?

Well, you would have some on you pre-rigged most of the time as a breacher.

Ready to go. So you're just mounting, wiring, boom. Yeah, one minute, two minutes, whatever.

Yeah, you'd build them back at the shop, you know, and then you'd have them Okay, cool.

What is a Navy SEAL's guide to eliminating self-doubt? What are the things that you saw other guys do really well or that you did to learn how to overcome being insecure, lacking the confidence of something, and just overall doubting yourself that everyday human beings could apply on a daily basis?

Bro, I think that we all need to come to the realization that we're all made of the same stuff, man. Freaking dirt. That's all. We are all made of the same stuff. So, Louis, you are a awesome dude. You have accomplished so much, man. But you know why you have done, you have used your tools properly. Yeah. You don't have anything that I don't, and I hope you don't mind me using us as a direct example. You don't have anything that I don't have from a physical, I have a strong healthy body and a strong healthy mind. We're made of the exact same stuff. You have utilized your tools, your time, the people around you, your speech, your relationships, all these universal tools that we all have access to We all have access to time. We all have access to people around us.

Resources at our disposal.

Yeah, those are, and you can't use the argument that, oh, well, say, take time, for example. Say time is a tool that helps you accomplish your mission. Well, yeah, you may have more time than me. But take and look at it in the natural world as say we both had a hammer. The hammer represents time. We need to drive a nail through this table right here. Your hammer's bigger than mine. So obviously you're going to drive the nail faster than me. But I have a hammer too, even though it's smaller, I can still drive that nail flush with this table right here. So it's not an excuse to say, well, Lewis has so much more resources than I have. It doesn't matter, dude. We're made of the same stuff.

Yeah, you can still get the job done.

We can still get the job done. So for me, that's essential, is to stop looking at each other like somebody, you know, and look at me, for example, bro. I'm some old country dude from North Georgia. How could I have ever dreamed to go and serve at the tip of the spear with the best men America has to offer in the United States fighting forces. How could I have ever dreamed of going to do that? It makes no logical sense. But even back in those days, I had the same viewpoint. We're all made of the same stuff, bro.

So that's step one, is realizing that we're all made of the same stuff.

For me, for me it is, yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, and then from that point, forward, it's recognizing what are the tools that you need, you call them resources, I call them tools, what are the resources or tools that you need to accomplish your mission, and then it's learning to utilize those tools or resources in the most effective and efficient way. And then at that point, I mean, that's how you get greatness, right? It's not because if we both died right now, what would we turn into? Both turn into piles of dirt, right?

That's true, man. How do we, what can we do on a daily basis besides having that understanding of the tools and time to, again, overcome that doubt that we have, overcome the insecurity or the fear or the judgment we put on ourselves in order to have more belief in ourselves to accomplish our mission. Is it you should have a set of routines and habits that you honor your word to every day and you are your word to yourself of what you say or to do? Is it doing hard things every day that builds more belief? Is it the words you use as well? Like what's the ingredients?

That's an excellent combination, Louis.

I like those.

It sounds like you answered that question, right? But is there anything I can, I'm very hesitant to give advice. I never give advice. I can tell you what I do based around those things that you just said. I have a routine. I get up every morning at about six in the morning. The first part of my day, I dedicate to my God. So I give him the first fruits of my day. I honor him in that way because I feel like he expects that of me. Through prayer, through prayer or reading. are reading. For me, it's the Bible. So that's what I do. It could be for five minutes, it could be for 45 minutes. But that's how I start my day every single day. If I don't do that, I'm screwed up, dude.

Really?

Yeah. So, you know, I do that, then I spend four hours a day training. It may sound crazy, but I train for four hours a day. And that right there, that's where all my perspective comes from. That's where my outlook on life comes from. during that four hour block, I am honing my body and my soul, my mind, will, and emotions. That's where the battle is, is in the soul. What do you want to do? What do you think you want to do? How do you feel about something? Those are the things that we have need to get a hold of, right? But when you're out doing something hard, self-inflicted adversity, it hones that soul portion of us down at the same time same time that it's training our body. So the two are very intertwined.

Giving you energy, keeping you healthy, keeping you lean, sharp. It provides that for the body.

It provides that for the body.

And the soul and the mind, right?

The soul being the mind, will and emotions. It makes you force your mind, your will, what do you want to do and your emotions, how do you feel about this activity and this pain?

Because you don't want to do it.

Exactly. But when you go out and do it, you're honing that portion of you as a human and then moving forward from there.

So that's every day, seven days a week, or is it five days a week training four hours a day?

Yeah, I train every day. I set that block. Now the intensity may vary. It may just be a four hour hike in the woods, you know what I mean?

It's not a ultra marathon every day.

No, no, totally. I may only cover cover 10 miles in that four hours. I may cover 30 miles.

It's always a run, is it something else, a swim?

It could be a combination. It could be weight training. I do weight training, you know, strength training twice a week at least.

Why four hours? Why not one, three, five? Is there a number with four?

Because there's no number. I feel like that's what I need personally to perform on the level that I want to perform and to maintain the perspective that I have on life.

Powerful, okay.

So after that, after that is my work time. So from noon to the rest of the day, up until five, six, sometimes seven o'clock, that's my work time. And so I take all that perspective and all that energy and all that good stuff that I get out there on that run or that weightlifting or whatever. and then I transfer that over into my work time. -Wow.

That's probably powerful. You get so much clarity.

-That'S it, brother.

-And you get all your best ideas from those four hours. You probably let go of all the pain or frustration or anger or whatever you've got in your head that's festering from the day before. If you have anything, that clears out. -That's it, brother. -You purge that stuff.

You get back to a peaceful place. -Yep. So, I took care of my spirit in that first 30 minutes. take care of my body, soul, and that next four hours, the rest of the day, man, I can hammer some stuff out. I can put down some. So that's the one thing, you know, that's my biggest fear as things grow. My biggest fear is that this telephone and this phone, text messages and social media, my biggest fear is that that stuff is one day going to maybe tarnish the clarity of my perspective? Is gonna take away from that four hour block of time? Because if I don't put the time in to myself, all that Instagram, all that stuff, none of that matters because if I don't put that four hours into myself, the stuff that I put out on the back half of the day is not gonna be as pure as it should be. So my biggest fear is losing that purity, man. And I shouldn't say I fear it. I'm very conscious of it, man.

So you finish around 5:67 and then what's the evening look like?

That's my wife's time, man. Yeah. See, I love her more than anything else in the world. Yeah.

How long you been together?

Brooke and I have been together for seven years now.

She got married while you're in the Navy.

Yeah. And.

Was that challenging for her to be with someone who's off in war every day?

Oh, it's, I wish you could ask her that question. I mean, I feel like it was more challenging for her than it was for me. And as a SEAL, you're gone on average, I'd say 300 days out of the year. I mean, you're not at war that whole time. It's training, but, you know, it's a mix of both. and yeah, it's extremely difficult, man. Yeah, for sure. And she suffered from it, you know, but luckily we're still together. And again, because of the adversity we went through in our marriage, it's the same theme, brother. The adversity we went through in our marriage, my wife had a very dangerous disease called addiction. she got wrapped up in that for a while, and we had to go through the process. I shouldn't say wrapped up. She was, you know, in it. In it. Yeah. And it was bad, dude. That's a whole nother story, man. But we had to go through that adversity together, and now we have the best freaking marriage on Earth.

Wow. You know, so what's the greatest lesson she's taught you while you're active? navy seal and since your retirement.

Humility. Humility for 100%. She's, she keeps me grounded, man. Because as a team guy, man, you're hanging out with active duty, pipe-hitting alpha males all day long and you need somebody to pull you back down to earth sometimes. And even with ultra running, you know, I'm really competitive there. And I'm not a cocky person, dude, but. But if I start to get a little lofty with, you know, my speech or something like that, man, she'd snatch me right back down to where I need to be.

Okay.

So.

So humility has been the biggest lesson. What's something she, that you've learned about her since you've left the Navy that has surprised you? That's different than when you were together in the Navy. Because you've had more time with her, assuming.

I would say, I would say how talented she is. like, I didn't get to pay enough attention to her talents when I was active duty. And now that I get to spend more time with her, and she's getting to pursue some of her passions, it just has blown me away with how talented she is. So she loves photography. She's awesome cook and, and just her people skills, man. So that that's, Bigest thing.

What's the, do you have any regrets from anything in the 12 years? Or wish you could have gone longer? Because you had to retire essentially because of the hearing loss from all the bombs and.

Yeah, it was a whole combination of stuff.

A bunch of things they pretty much said.

So I was medically retired.

Gotcha.

Yeah.

Would you have stayed in it had you been perfectly healthy? 100%.

Oh yeah, man. Yeah, I would have definitely, I mean, I would have stayed in the teams and as long as they would have let me, I mean, you get to go to work with heroes every single day, bro. Why would you ever want to leave that? You know? Do I have any regrets? Nothing that really stands out, man. I really wouldn't change a thing.

You wish we would have found a few more walls to get behind, a couple more rocks.

No, no, man. Because it's all brought brought me to where I am now. I'm sitting here talking to Lewis Howes, man. I mean, in my opinion, I don't deserve to be here, bro. But the whole chain of events have brought me to where I am now, present in this day, man.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, and yeah. And I'm not trying to put you on a pedestal. I'm just using you as an example, 'cause we're sitting right here.

Sure, sure.

Face to face, you know?

What were some of the coolest moments that you got to experience where you're actually in the moment thinking, man, I'm just a kid from this town in Georgia, and now I'm, I don't want to speak out of line for you of what you've told me in the past, but now I'm doing this, and now I'm doing this, and this is crazy. Did you ever have any of those moments or were you just?

The coolest moments that I've had in my life have been since I retired this past January. Really? They have totally, man. So much stuff has happened, dude. Just like the vision I told you about and being able to let go and move forward into this awesome future.

I mean, not holding onto the identity of the past.

Exactly.

This is who I was. This is my dream. This is my whole life. Now it's over.

That's it, bro.

Holding onto like the glory days.

Yeah, so the coolest moments have definitely been in this last eight, ten months. The coolest moments of my life, dude. Absolutely. Yeah, man. And not to take away from what we did in the teams, but that was a job. It got to the point, and I think all guys get that, it's just, it's no different than, you know, you going to do what you do with your group every day. It was a job. Dude, we had a mission. We went and did it. Skydiving, diving, that was all the job, man. But now it's fun, and it's like all these exciting things have happened and just the network, getting to know people like you, like Jesse, Scott Worthington out in New Zealand, getting to know, create this network of just awesome individuals. And it's been amazing, bro.

Wow.

So I would say those are, those are, I know that doesn't directly answer your question, but.

Yeah, it's all good. What's the thing you're most proud of that you did that maybe not a lot of people know about? but it's something that you know you did that you're like, man, I'm really proud that I did this thing or things as an active duty member. Maybe no one ever saw you do it, but what's something that you know, like, wow, I'm proud that I did that thing or did that. I didn't even need to do that, but I did this thing or there was a kid that was. I don't know.

You. You.

This won't be the answer that you anticipated.

It's all good.

I am proud when my wife was battling addiction that I had the courage to go to my team and tell them that I needed to take a knee and help my wife get better. I'm proud that I didn't give up on the person that I love the.

Most.

For the job. because the job went away and now I still have the person that I love the most. So that's what I'm most proud of.

Taking a knee meeting, taking a break from the team or from the Navy?

No, it was just, I went to be an instructor for a little while so I didn't have to travel near as much. I could help my wife in the battle that she was fighting as a husband. I could be a husband for once. But that was hard. It was hard to have courage to go. We had just come back off deployment. It was hard to have courage to go to my team because I know what they were gonna do, dude. I mean, were they gonna attack me? Were they gonna look down upon me? But they didn't. They embraced me and gave me the tools that I needed.

So they said, so essentially you weren't with the team going out on missions.

Yep.

You were coming back, you were to work at a stable place near your wife.

That's right. That's right.

And you could stay at home, I guess.

Yep. And until she had won that battle.

How long did that take until you went back out?

That was about two years.

Wow.

Yeah.

It's pretty powerful.

So that's, yeah, that's what I'm most proud of, man.

That's great. I love that.

Never been asked that question before. I hope it's a good answer, man. I like that.

Great answer, man.

Okay.

If you could give three lessons to any civilian who might be just going through some challenges in their own mind, whatever, whether they're valid challenges or big challenges or small, but someone's just going through a hard time. They're struggling in their relationship, they're struggling with their health, something is off their career. They don't know what their mission or purpose is. They don't know why they're here. If you could give three lessons or three things that they could start doing on a daily basis where you think it start the process of healing or clarity or peace? What do you think those three things could be from where you learned in all your lessons?

That is a deep question, bro.

There's a lot of work people need to do on a lot of things.

But it's not... That's it, brother.

So, this isn't a fix all.

The best way that I can answer that question, Louis, is When I talk about body, soul, and spirit, we can all use that as humans as a diagnostic. Yeah.

So you're talking- what's off?

You're talking about people that are struggling with their purpose, that are struggling with, you know, their day to day, maybe their relationship, their marriage. I can guarantee you, if you take Those three aspects, whether you're a Christian, Muslim, atheist, it doesn't matter, you still are composed of a body, soul, and spirit. If you take those three aspects and you break them each down and you say, okay, what am I doing in each one of these lanes to nourish this part of my humanity? You're going to find the holes.

Yeah.

Maybe you don't know how to nurture your spirit. Maybe you don't know how to nurture your soul or your body. Go find a way or surround yourself with people that can help you with either three of those aspects. That would be, I mean, that would be my biggest piece of advice for somebody in that situation. Second would have to be, definitely utilize the spoken word. Keep control of your rudder, man. That's made a tremendous impact on my life, my relationships, every aspect of my life. And then third, I would say go out and put yourself in some adverse situations, whether it's with ultra running, whether it's with a marathon or a 5K, the distance doesn't matter as far as a race goes. If it's weight training at a gym, put yourself into some adverse situations.

And.

Let yourself grow there. Because that's where we grow, man. Don't be afraid of that stuff, dude. That's how we as humans were meant to be in those situations. I mean, back a couple thousand years ago, it was a day-to-day thing, you know? We don't get that anymore, dude. Yeah.

So inflict adversity.

Self-inflicted adversity, man.

I say this all the time that, and maybe this is my sports background, but I would. I tell people, like, find something that causes you pain every single day. And for me, it doesn't.

I like that.

It doesn't even be four hours. You know, it's like doing a three mile run this morning was painful because.

In the last half a mile, I.

Turned the freaking thing up when I didn't. Because I was in a comfortable Pace at a seven and a half on the treadmill. and I'm like, okay, I could keep this up and have a normal heart rate. But I was like, I need to push it so I'm burning. I don't want to, but I'm going to.

I love that, bro.

So even if it's an extra five minutes that I don't want to do to feel a pain and be out of breath and sweating and hurting, I know now that I did something hard. Maybe it's not 100 miles or 4 hours, it's something hard for me. And I think when people inflict pain in a, not a broke, not break your arm pain, but in a container that is safe, you build a sense of belief and confidence and you start to have more clarity like you said. And that's why I love that you're doing the four hours a day.

Yeah, man. And with what you said too, Louis, with doing it every day, that's so important because you have to continue to earn it. You can't bottle it. You got to continue to earn it every day, man.

That's it. Do you have any doubts currently in your life? Or do you feel pretty doubtless on a day-to-day basis?

I mean, I don't really look at, I don't have any doubts again, because I don't look at life as like anymore as, as I see the design in life, if that makes any sense. So it takes out, it takes out the whole doubt portion of it because I see it, I see the design.

What does that mean? You see the design?

So for me, it's I'm being guided by something bigger than myself. And it just goes back to that moment that I was really able to just let go and recognize the design within my purpose in life.

Being guided by God?

Yeah, by my God. I'm being guided and I see this through I see this through actual events that happen in my life that if I've told you about them, you'd think I was freaking crazy, dude. But I see that design in my life and I tell people that are close to me about the things that happen. Not that I'm special. I don't know why God's put me where I am today. I don't deserve it. But that just removes all the doubt. For me personally.

That's helpful. You have that spiritual connection of being guided. So you understand the context of life and you trust the process, you trust your path.

Such a gift, brother.

Yeah. When you start to trust the uncertainty, trust the breakdown, trust the heart, the pain, trust the addiction, and you know it's a part of a bigger design and you can get through it.

Totally, brother. You get it, Louis.

Peace be with you. yeah, I get it. Okay, cool. I'm still learning every day. You know, this question is called the three truths. So imagine it's your last day on Earth many years from now, and you've achieved everything you want at every stage of your life. You accomplished your first dream of being in the Navy SEAL. Now you're in your next phase of your life. You're going to take on amazing things, and you're going to conquer mountains, and then there's going to be multiple. decades where you do that in different ways. And you've done everything you can imagine you want to do. But for whatever reason, you've got to take all the content and the awards and the accomplishments and the business businesses you built and anything you've created, you've got to take it with you to the next place when the lights go off. But you get to leave behind three things you know to be true. The lessons you would leave behind to the world. And these are three things that they would have to remember you by. Hypothetical question, but just play with me on it. If you could have three truths that you would share with the world, what do you think would be those three for you?

Three truths. I can just tell you what comes to my mind first of all, man. Faith, hope, and love are all good things, but the greatest is love. So those are my thoughts on love.

Thank you, man. I like it.

I mean, that's just what came to my mind when you answered that question, bro. Perfect.

Well, Chad, I want to acknowledge you, Chad, for how you've shown up consistently. I've only known you for a little bit of time, but the way that you handled yourself to achieve your dream of being a Navy SEAL and serve our country, the way you showed up with your team, the way you showed up to serve without asking questions, without, you know, being resistant and just being of service. I want to acknowledge you for that. I want to acknowledge you also for your ability to shift your identity quickly and not hold on to the past. Where a lot of athletes I've seen have lived in the glory days of the past for years. And I'm sure people in the military I can only assume probably hold on to something from the past as well when they retire.

Totally, bro.

So I acknowledge you for your ability to transition and serve at a different level. You're serving a lot of people in the ultra endurance races and experiences. You're serving business leaders now. You're serving my audience. You're serving other people now. And I think that's amazing that you're using your life as a channel to give and serve other people with the tools and the gifts that you have.

Thank you, Louis.

So I acknowledge you for that and for being a great human being, being a great husband and showing up in a powerful way. I really acknowledge and appreciate for all.

Of that, my man.

What is the thing that you're most excited about right now and how can we support you? You're on Instagram, which you try to limit your time on your phone, but you're there sharing wisdom. You've got a podcast. Where can we support, follow along, get more of Chad?

Yeah, so Instagram's definitely the main, that's the only social media platform that I can handle. So I try to be interactive on there as much as I possibly can, and that's just @chadcha1d, C-H-A-D, W-I-G-H-T-2-7-8. Yeah, and then the podcast, it's just three of seven podcasts. You guys can listen in. anytime it's on Apple and you know the whole nine is just look.

Three of seven podcasts.

Three of seven podcasts and that's spelled out and then also probably the best place to really dig into what three of seven is and what it has to offer is as the website threeofsevenproject.com okay cool. So everything as everything unfolds and we add new new stuff to the project and you know new products or whatever it may be It'll all be there.

Yeah.

So, 3of7project.com, yep. Do you have any questions for me?

I don't, brother. I just want to thank you, Louis. I really genuinely appreciate your friendship. Yeah, man. I appreciate the time that we spent on the mountain together. You impacted me in a tremendous way.

Oh, thank you.

And that's from the bottom of my heart, man.

Thanks, brother. I appreciate it. I'm excited to connect more, to learn more, and hopefully push myself more when I'm around you and the physical challenges Final question I have for you is, what's your definition of greatness?

It's so relative, right? I love that you asked this question because there's an infinite number of definitions.

-Your definition.

-For me, it is just simply about happiness and fulfillment. That is greatness. That's like those guys that I told you about that are still working at that on that construction job where I was when I was 18, and they're happy. I've known men, I've known great men that have wore a pair of overalls every day of their lives and worked in a farm field and never left their hometown. And they are, in my book, they're great men because they're happy, they're whole, they're complete, they've raised a beautiful family and they're fulfilled with their life. So for me, that's the definition of greatness.

Thanks, Chad. Love you, brother. Love you, man. Appreciate it.

There you have it, my friend. I hope you enjoyed this interview. Blows me away. The discipline, the dedication, the commitment, the command that Chad has built for himself to create freedom in his life. Again, he dedicates hours every day on his health so he doesn't have to stress about it. He dedicates consistency on his relationship so he doesn't have problems in it. He puts attention towards the words that he says so it doesn't affect his mindset throughout the day. Because when we create discipline in our life, we create power and freedom in our dreams. And that's what I want you to take away from this episode. I hope you enjoyed his way of being, his message, his to his skills, the tools he provides. And if you enjoyed this, please share with a friend. Chad is just starting to come out of retirement. He's just starting to make a name for himself and he's going to be blowing up over the next few years. Make sure to spread this message far and wide to your friends. Text it to a WhatsApp group chat that you have, a Facebook group to some friends you have on text. Post it on social media. Tag me@lewis.howes. Make sure to tag Chad as well. and you can find the full show notes of how to connect with him at lewishouse.com/877. So inspired by his message, so inspired by his way of being, his ability to communicate clearly and effectively, and have non-negotiables in his life so that he does have freedom and doesn't create these experiences that hurt him. He seeks the challenge as opposed to waiting for challenge to find him. Either way, we are going to find challenges in our life. It's just our decision. Do we want to seek out the challenge so we have the strength to overcome them as they come? Or do we want to play safe and let challenges come to us and make it harder for us to overcome them? Again, Bruce Lee said, Do not pray for an easy life. Pray for the strength to endure a difficult one. And that's what Chad has done. he has created a life of strength so that he can endure all the pain and challenges that might try to come his way. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Again, I hope you enjoyed this episode. Powerful insights from someone who's gone through extreme adversity and extreme challenges in his life on every different level. Bruce Lee said, Do not pray for an easy life. Pray for the strength to endure a difficult one. I pray that you have the strength to endure all the challenges in your life. I love you so very much and you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.