Bonus Episode 11 | with Eric North - Mick Unplugged

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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Mick Unplugged, where we go beyond the why to discover your real because. And today we have a very special guest who's dedicated his life to the pursuit of happiness, helping others find their inner peace. He's a renowned coach, writer, and motivational speaker known for his unique approach to unlocking human potential. It is truly an honor for me to welcome Happiness Warrior, my happiness warrior. Mr. Eric north to the show. Eric, welcome on board, my brother.

I can barely contain myself. You're so. It's so awesome just hearing your words and how meaningful they are to me. I don't hear words like that all the time. So it's. I'm really appreciative because I don't always listen to people who want to compliment me, which is. Which is something I need to work on still. There's things we all need to work on. So thank you so much.

I'm honored.

I am very honored to be here today.

No, I am definitely the honored one in the audience that's listening and those that are watching, you're going to understand why I call Eric my happiness warrior. So, so many nuggets he's about to give us. We haven't even prepped for this call. No, I can promise you you're going to get nuggets in and there's some things that I'm going to want you to do throughout this, this podcast episode today, for all the listeners, there's going to be a lot that I'm going to want you to write down. Eric, I would love just for the audience to know a little bit about who you are and what experiences in your early life inspired you to become a happiness coach and a motivational speaker. Because motivational speakers we hear about. Right? But a happiness coach, that's something that's unique and something that only Eric north can bring. I'd love to hear that story.

I think a lot of things in our lives are passed through genetics, and I think a lot of our traits can come through with some things we. We can fix and change, but some things are just. You can't help it. And I have. I was a kid. I was very. I was a young kid and I was very. I was very aware of the world around me at a very young. I remember things from when I was 1 years old. I can remember watching the Andy Griffith show at a hotel room. I knew I was one, so I remember things and I started being really aware of people's behavior. And I was too smart for most people. I was too smart at a young age. And I was. I was always kind of perplexing people and beginning kind of odd because I was too smart. Then when I went to school, I was in second grade. I was with reading, with the sixth graders, and I was in math. They were trying to send me to math. Even. I was driven to Lear and just getting the most out of life at a young age. I was also probably a Little weird. And I wasn't. I was. I was always shy. I was very shy, and I stuttered, which was terrible. My father made. My father made me feel very ashamed of it. So that was kind of a source of trouble. I look at it now, and I think I'm glad I went through all that. I'm kind of glad. A lot of it taught me about being more respectful of others and realizing that we're not walking in someone else's shoes and we need to really think about how other people. You know, we don't know what's going on. So a lot of good things came of that, too. But my father would always put me in a. Gather the way or in someone's way. I always felt like I was in the way, and he was embarrassed about me. And we had a good relationship basically, though, too, so it wasn't all bad. But there was just. You know, parents think that they're doing the right thing, and sometimes they're. They're. They're. They're causing more harm, you know, So I think that's just part of life. It's just what we have to. We have to just be, you know, accept that they're doing their best. But I have these three aunts, and they were my dad's sisters of varying ages. And I have one left, and she is one of the most. She's like my. My female version of me. And I. It's like when we're together, it's like we're twins, and she's 20 years older, but it's like we just. We're on the same path, the same humor, the same kindness. And I. And I just spent some time with her because it's important to spend time with people that are getting older in your life. And going to a restaurant in New York, and she had the entire male staff of this restaurant coming to her every minute. Princess, can I get for you? You know, and she was. She had the whole restaurant just in her. In her spirit, and everyone was happy. And I have another aunt. She's passed away. And she was courageous and very glamorous, very striking and very, very, very, very intelligent. And she. She was an advocate for conditions in mental hospitals. In time when no one really cares and I can't go out in public about shopping or somewhere near in my area that I live in without a lot of people wanting to stop and tell me what's going on with their life. And they're excited to see me, you know, and they, oh, I'm doing all this since Last time I saw you, and I so happy. And they, you know, so it can take a while with me to get somewhere. Okay.

So.

And that's how she was too. So I have. My other aunt was a serious educator, and she was like my cheerleader, who. She was the youngest one and very serious. She was. She was right there with me. When I was young, when we were doing IQ tests and things, and I always felt like I was a weird kid. Maybe I was a little out of place, but I always felt like the power of their belief in me made me always feel like I had an amazing future because they were so cool, you know, and so they kind of kept me going mentally. You know, my mom was cool, but I was kind of still out of. I was not the kid that they wanted, sort of, you know, I wasn't like the football playing. I like sports and beyond. I was always outdoors, but I wasn't, like. I wasn't a good boy scout. I wasn't good in that type of situation. Okay. I didn't like. I'm not really good with authority figures if I don't respect them. Okay. If they're respectable, I'm honored. I'm honored to respect somebody. But like I said, I can see things. A younger age than most people are aware of. And that was where I got my kind of, like, I have a big thing about something, about if I find someone that is like, especially another man or woman that has a strong, honest integrity, you know, and. And sort of stands up for things, that I'm gonna automatically I'm gonna feel aligned.

Yeah.

And they're generally going to be people that are happier. They're going to be people that are easy to laugh, and they let people in.

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Yeah, so that's what you look for. I go in the room at a new place, just like going to a new podcast and I expect that I'm going to meet friends right away and look at us. Yeah. I always say, I always go out, I go, I like everyone. And then how does that feel when you say that? How does that change your whole dynamic in your day to day life? And there are people, man, they are hard. They make it hard sometimes, you know, but, but you know, you have to just say I don't know what they're going through. I don't know what they've been through. Really learning that lesson a lot as, as I'm mature, I think that's really important is to really be respectful of what people want to tell you.

Yeah, business.

I, I still think mind your own business is the greatest phrase. I think that's important, you know, and.

Mind your own business. Right Stay focus on you.

Focus on being your best, being your best example, being your, being your hero. We got to be our own hero. Right? Right, Right, Mick. You know, we have to be our own heroes for ourselves because everyone counts on us. That's.

That's correct. You can't be a hero for someone else until you become a hero for yourself. And I learned that from Eric. I learned that.

Well, I just think it really important. I think it's really important that we, that we, we don't have to have the moment. We don't have to have a lot of self congratulation. Okay. We don't have to have a lot of that. But I think we need to be able to realize our innate powers and able to be able to vocalize them and actually use them and feel them. So if we have, if I have a warrior like mentality, a lot of people have a warrior like mentality. I'm not the only one. And you know, it's about. It's about using that for good. For. It's using that. I care about everyone. I care about my own needs and my family, but I also care about the impact we have on everyone. El. And equity or fairness and everything else.

No, absolutely. You know, we've talked a little bit offline and you talked about your personal journey and some of the challenges that you faced. Can you share a specific moment where you had to dig deep to find happiness and how that influenced your future work?

You know, I had, I always had a lot of friends and I was kind of. I was part of the fun crowd and everything. And then I got to a point where I met someone who was kind of dangerous and ended up being someone very dangerous for me. And we were together for a long time. We had a really two rocks, two dysfunctional rock star couple together kind of times. Okay. We had a lot of stuff that was cool and a lot of stuff that was like really like, ah. And it was very abusive. Not on my part. It was a very abusive relationship towards me.

Yeah.

And I'm not. And I, and I didn't have. I've never had like, I've done partying, drinking and things, but I was never like part of that. There was never something that had me locked down. And we just got into a place where I was concerned for my life. When you're with someone who's abusive, they usually try to control everything in your life. So they try to get rid of your family, get rid of your friends, get rid of your job, anything that distracts you from being from Being kept in line by them, you know, so, you know, to isolate you become isolated. And I was extremely isolated. And there was an incident where all I could do was call my mom and I hadn't talked to in six months and guess what? She came right to the rescue. And I was able to take that moment and go, turn not. I'm not turning around, I'm not turning around. I'm not looking back going forward now I'm done. I had 20, I had like $50 and I, and I, and I had lost through a lot of reasons. I lost a real, a really good corporate job, my own. I was like 30, I was like 31, 32. And I lost a really. I just. That career just kind of sputtered and it was just good too because that's not what I was, not what I wanted to do with my life anyway. So you think, I think about all these things is, is anything that brings you into a place where there's a reckoning, you know, and you really have to think about, I don't know if there's some way out of this, you know, like. And if you're thinking that there always is a way out of it, okay. And a lot of people think they have no choice and it leads to self harm and leads to other things that are bad, like bad nutrition, poor nutrition, you know, sleep or sell anything and just gotta let it go and you gotta think, you gotta let it go. It's hard because I had, I was angry for a long time after we've, after we split up. I think you go through a phase of. I was angry, I was angry myself. I was, I was angry, I was, I was, I was like. I was not a victim, but I was, I was, I was kind of damaged emotionally because I wouldn't, wasn't able to trust anyone for long time after that. So I put myself into work. You know, work for me is a solace to, to going to another place that, a better place. So I put myself to work and I, I liked working. I found I could start working for myself and then I got into real estate and, and it was a ideal career for me for about 10 years. And during that 10 years that I'd started my, I'd started my. I started doing testosterone replacement therapy with a clinic In Florida around 2011 or so and 2010, I was at 43 and I was 42. 43, 42. And I was, I was, I was going from super high achiever, full of energy every day. So my energy levels were down. I was not feeling myself. And I was actually feeling sometimes coming home from a really great day at real estate. And then I didn't. I didn't feel like going to the gym. I didn't feel like having sex. I didn't feel like, you know, just things were just kind of going to, like, kind of not, Not a happy place. And I got on this therapy and it changed my. It just changed my. The clinic I went to is from Florida. And I think Florida, everything there was kind of chaotic. Anyway, they were wonderful people and I learned. But I learned about my own health from them. I really, I learned about how my blood, what these blood work numbers meant and things like that. So I was able to start learning how to take control of my health, you know, and doing in a way that was safely done and nothing crazy. It was just therapy. And I always seem to people, I think I'm a trustworthy person. I think people tend to. People can come to me with ideas or they want to help me help them for sure. And the owner of the clinic had heard about me from people he was from, from his employees. And he was like, I'm really excited to meet this guy. Maybe he wants to go into business with me. So I went down to Florida, I met him and like, And I just, I. I just, I just. And we didn't end up going to business, but he, he helped me get started. I spent like two weeks in his business every day with different people in the office. And then I was like, I don't want to do any of this in my own, in my own place. If I open up my own place, we're going to do things a lot differently. And. But I learned, but I'm learning how I want. At least I'm learning the approach. I'm learning the approach. I'm learning the nuts and bolts. So then I started that and that was the beginning of like working for myself. It's, it was my. I just had a picture the other day. I just came up in Facebook. It was of me and like a sleeveless shirt. I'm 40 something, so I'm pretty jacked up. And I used to do men's physique competitions. So it's pretty like I looked like the owner of a TRT clinic. And there's a picture of me doing drywall because I'm in the beginning of the business. I invested all of my money. I went into my 401k to start it. I mean, I was, I was going to be broke, broke, broke, broke, or I was going to make it.

And you were all the hats in the business, right?

When I started a business that was at the time, not mainstream, it was, there was a lot of negativity, there's a lot of misinformation, facts that were not, they were not correct about it. And in that, in this time period now I have the enjoyment that when people call me, how soon can I make an appointment? Back in the day, I had to do everything. I was cleaning the bathroom, taking the trash out, you know, they're doing everything and you know, all aspects and working on weekends too. Going to trade shows and going places to get my, my name out. That was a time when I had to be. I had to let all that other stuff in the past going and I had to, I had to start learning how to be in control of my life, you know, and it was, it was, there were times when it was really hard and the times when I wasn't sure about the mortgage. Almost 12 years later, now I have, I have a business that has helped me launch other businesses now and give me the opportunity to have really good, to create really great jobs for people that they work for me.

Love it. Let's talk about the Happiness Warrior.

Yes. And then we go into Happiness Warrior. It's all the entrepreneur stuff. But that's where I got to the point where I got kind of bored with business. Okay. Because I thought, I wouldn't say I never get bored, but I say I got the point where I was like, I need to do something more. I need to do more. And I sort of fool around the modeling business for a while. That was kind of fun. I got to meet a lot of people and then the Happiness Warrior. Once my publicist told me that I was a happiness Warrior, I just took that braid on and put it right on like a suit. I thought this would give me a really, really powerful motivation to be my best every day. Never let anyone down, never let myself down. Always being adaptable, always being ready for change. I developed my core values and I use those a lot and I have to take care of them. It was going into Covid time and everybody was health wise. I said, I need to help people. I started doing a lot of, I did a lot of videos online that, you know, they'd just be like, you know, this is how we just take it, take it down a notch here and start, start feeling better about ourselves first. We can get out in the world again, get our mask off, you know. But that was a tough time to help people get through as well. And that was the time that I felt like I could do a lot of good. Like when the. When Covet started and this is terrible. I. I was thinking, I'm. I was thinking I'm training for something. I've been doing all these things to get all my, all my skills and every. All my powers honed. And I, you know, when it came, I said, oh, my God, I gotta close my business. I gotta do all this stuff. And I thought, this is what I'm ready for now. I'm ready to be a leader now. I'm ready to make sure this is in my world, this is going to be handled as well as I can and get through this too. Wherever the other side is, I think the other side now is awesome. I think where we are right now, despite some political stuff, I think where we are now as a world, we have a lot. We have a lot of potential now.

So in the book the Happiness Warrior, what are three things that people should go dive into the book that they're going to get out of it that they can implement, like right now?

First thing is that they have a right to be happy and give themselves permission to be happy. You need to make, I think, really, really, really important to make the mind, body, connection, that bird spear, you know, like everything in our bodies, in our mind. And we eat what we think, what we speak. It affects who we are, it affects our health, it affects our outcome. You know, making that just adjustment to loving yourself as much as possible. That includes loving yourself in spirit and soul and body and mind. And I think it's very important. We just. People don't realize that they deserve much more in their lives. Yeah, that's what I really try to think about is that act of just starting something that, that you're dreaming about doing can lead to something that is more amazing than you ever thought of.

I totally agree.

So I try to always be positive spin without calling myself a positive person. I don't want to have that level, but I always. I don't like. I like to steer the ship.

Yeah.

My direction, where I steer is towards everyone is happy with themselves, content with themselves, and at peace with everyone around them.

Tough.

That is a hot. That is a mighty go. But I think it's. I think it's possible.

Oh, wholeheartedly, wholeheartedly. And I told the audience and the listeners when we started that there's some things that I want them to write down. And they. These things were impactful for me. Okay, Eric, one of the things that you released is titled the only Five things that matters. And I have to be very honest and transparent. It is probably the best article or blog that I have read in 2024.

Wow.

Because it is so impactful. Like, I love things that are action. And that's what this podcast is about. Right. Like we want to give the listeners, the viewers things that they can start implementing in their life today. Right. Like you don't need to go hire anyone. These are insights that you can start putting into your life.

Everyone's capable. The answers, the answers we're looking for are always within.

Absolutely.

You know that your story is so inspirational, too, because you were able to dig past whatever was going on and say, I deserve to live better and make my life the way. The way I want it to be.

Right. And I had to go.

When we're younger, we get put into boxes and places and we don't necessarily get a chance to make what we want to do of ourselves, you know, and then when you get older, the blessing is that we really have that. That wisdom.

Yeah, Wholeheartedly. Wholeheartedly. I want to go into again for those. And we'll have this, the link to this article in the show notes, but it's on the metropolitan digital.com metropolitan digital.com and with Eric, it's the five things that matter and what he's talking about here. The five things that truly matter. To have a happy life and to impart happiness in your life. And so, Eric, we're going to go through these together. So I'm going to highlight what the first one is. And I want you to kind of tell us what you meant by that. So number one and everyone write this down. Express gratitude before rest at night. When I say that again, Express gratitude before rest at night. Eric, why is that important? I'm going to tell you. It totally changed my life. I had the best sleep the first night that I implemented this. I slept like a baby.

Since being a baby, it started for my need to get better sleep. And then I was with my sister one day and she has a pretty high stressful. She's an entrepreneur, too. We don't have time to talk half the time. When we do have something to say. It was kind of very insightful. And she says, when I go to bed at night, I know that I've done my best. I go to sleep right away. And I said, well, so it wasn't what I was expecting. That wasn't what I was expecting her to say. But it touched me because I was like, that's kind of what I needed to hear myself. So nothing I'm doing is new. I'm just passing information that I'm processing information and sharing it. And I think it's important. But that was very important. So then I started this practice of, you know, I grew up, I grew up, you know, prayer before bed and things like that. And I, it wasn't my thing, but I did it because it was the right thing to do at the time. And I still think there's something very valuable in kind of recounting your day. And that's the first thing I say in my, in my prayer or whatever it is. And my affirmation is, I did my best today, I will do better tomorrow. Because what's the point if you don't want to be there tomorrow? What's the point? What's the point? You know, And I think, you know, oh, I did this really cool today. Maybe I can hit if you're just, if you're like shooting baskets, okay. And you're getting like, you're getting, you're getting them all in, keep doing it better, you know, anything like that, something that creates a higher level of self esteem, skill, affirmation, anything like that. And that I can do better tomorrow is always exciting to me.

Yeah.

Excited.

Totally agree.

And then I might go through a little bit and then depends on how tired I am. I'm usually, I'm usually ready for bed.

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Rated M for mature. And I was about to say I am grateful. I am thankful. I am content. I am happy. You can go, you can go Amen. Or you can go nothing. You can do whatever you want. There's no rules. Okay? It's whatever strikes us as individuals is important. But I think that I, I did my best today. I can do that. I will do better tomorrow. I think that's Crucial.

It is.

And I'll tell you again, once I read this, and then I. I saw a few of your videos that were kind of talking about this as well. You actually have to believe it, too, right? Gratitude.

Yeah.

But don't say things just to say things, like, have conviction around that gratitud. And like I said, Eric, I. I owe you. Because now it is a part of my nightly routine. It really is.

I'll tell you an embarrassing tidbit real quick off the. I went to my high school reunion last year, and I. I was one of those kids, was. I was a good kid. And the kids and the guys, the kids, the adults that came, the older adults that came to my reunion, they were the core group of friends that I had back then that was like the cheerleaders and the class president and all the good. All the kids that participated. They're good kids. They're all grown up now. And one of them, she said to me, she says, I just. I remember you as being very earnest. I thought, well, that's probably. I mean, that at that age, at a young age, I would have been embarrassed by that. And then for. At this age, I'm just like, oh, that, that. That's so awesome to hear that. Because I never. I've never changed. Yeah. You know, and I was honest. I mean, I was in earnest. That's embarrassing. You know, I was like. I said, you know, I see. I said, you should get to know me better now, because now I'm a whole another world going on. So that's how I feel. And I also. I know you're on your questions, but in the morning, what's the first thing that we should do as we wake up?

Be thankful that we saw this day.

Right. But I always say. I always say. And I did this. I used to have Another Instagram called Redefining50 when I was turning 50. And a lot of people followed that. And some people were like, I give my employees this. I want them to listen to what you're saying, you know, because it's motivational. And I. I started this thing. I heard, I picked it up somewhere. As soon as I wake up, I don't care where I am or what I'm doing. I say, good morning, Eric. It's going to be a great day. That's all I have to say.

I like it and you believe it.

One time, I was. I was. I was. It was during COVID and I. I skipped it. And I was traveling to. I was traveling to Arizona. I was at the airport and everything was going wrong and it was just a big mess. And usually I have a really happy journey. Usually when I go anywhere, I'm happy. Everything's going wonderful. Nothing gets in my way. Everything's hot, fun. And this morning everything was kind of like dark. And then I was going up into the elevator to the. To get coffee in the place that was closed. I said to myself, oh, my God. I didn't say that. This. I didn't give my affirmation this morning. That's the reason everything is terrible. Okay, dramatic. But I. And then I did it. And I was by myself in this mirrored elevator and I'm looking at myself and I'm like, hey, Eric, it's going to be a great day. After that, everything went really well. So it's just voodoo. It's whatever you want to call it, but I think it's. It's the mindset.

There you go.

Mindset. It's a mindset that. And people tell me it's so. It's so a three year old can do this as well as a 60, 70 year old. It can be any age. But for p. I've had a lot of really high level folks, a lot of high level people that do amazing things. They've told me. And you would think, oh, they're just too jaded to do anything like that. Right? Well, they do it. And then, and then I hear, oh, who? I believe how awesome my life has been. Yeah, I do believe it, because I believe in it, you know, But I love hearing that because I think, okay, they might. Even if they forget about me, they're still going to spread that. They're still going to share that with others and that's going to help more people.

So that's really good stuff. Really good stuff.

I go rambling off, but I think those are important things to get to know what my real intention is.

Of course, of course. And that's why we're doing this. This is. This is your show. This is. This is what it's about. All right, so let's go through the other four. So we have a personal.

I won't digress. I'll keep going.

No, no, no, you're good. So number one was express gratitude before rest at night. Number two, and this one is deep. Always express desires and intentions verbally with someone you trust.

What's the.

What's the meaning behind that one?

Do we want our life to happen or do we not want it to happen? If we want to happen, we have to be proud of. We have to Be proud of our decisions and our choices. And we have to own it. We have to own it. And by owning it, I mean, I know I have, like, this idea of accountability. I mean, this is now something that belongs to us. These are our dreams. This is our destiny. So sharing that with someone that you trust. I didn't just become the happiest warrior all by myself. There's so many people that I've sort of come along with me in my journey over the years that would do anything for me, and they're. They're, they're, they're. They're. I'm not. It's another thing that I don't. I don't deserve that. But I think if I have to make it honorable, I want to make sure I give. I give value, you know, so it's just balance.

I love it. I love it. All right, number three, be always at work on something that provides value.

Love it.

To me, that's one of the best nuggets of wisdom that I've heard in a while. Always be working on something that provides value.

There is always something that we can be doing to improve our mindset, make ourselves happier, take our mind off something that's negative, and be. Turn it around. And I think that it really comes down to what am I doing with my time right now? And we need to take time off. I'm a big believer in time off, and I'm a big believer in being outside and tuning out and tuning out of our phones and everything. But I think that having something that gives us pleasure, too, and something that gives. That makes us feel like we're part of something, that we're creating something. There's so many things it doesn't. There's no definition of what that is. It's just the definition that we find within ourselves. And for me, it's coming from my aunts. It's that I want to. I'm happy. Happiness warrior. They were happiness. They were happiness. Worse. It's just I was. Maybe I'm the one in the family who's carrying that along, you know? But that's my. Right now in my time in life, right at the present, that's who I am.

Love it.

Words. They're my name. I don't care. That is it.

That is it. All right. Number four. Number four is absolutely my favorite, and it's something that I work on a couple of times a year. Number four, Nurture key relationships and let others go. And so I say this a little bit differently. I say, always work on your Circle your circle of friends, but nurture key relationships. And most important, you gotta be able and willing to let others go. So powerful. Because when you talk about happiness and Eric, I say this a lot. Everyone that you think is for you isn't always for you.

Yes, right.

When you talk about happiness, there are some people in this world whose main objective is to bring up all the obstacles in life. There are people in this world who are just negative by nature. And the more that you have, and you have this in the blog, the negative vocabulary around you, the negative mindsets around you, it starts to penetrate into you whether you want it to or not. And so I love number four, nurture key relationships. Most importantly, let others go. So Eric, I love your two minute take off.

I have such a place in my life for friendship. A very important part of who I am. And it's not about having I have friends everywhere. But I mean it's this friends that I've had for maybe a short time that have become very important. But a lot, a lot of it with me are long term, deep friendships that don't, we don't see each other all the time. But I call those my friends for life. And I always tell them, you're my friend for life, you know, you're my friend for life no matter what, you know, and if we, you're in my one best friend's halfway across the world for five years, but we're still walk in the door, they're best friends again, you know what I mean? There's not going to be. I'm, I'm still, I'm still solid with that friendship. There are other. I, I've also found that there are, like you just said, there are people who hurt people, hurt other people, hurt other people. So you got to think about and having, having anyone who's gone through a rebuild in their life or a renewal in their life knows that we have to, man, we have to. If we wanted to get out of our, our funk or whatever where our trauma, we have to be around. We have to say no to negative people. We have to say no to people that are gossiping or saying things about people or people, any, anything where they, we have to be around positive people that are happy and they're there. You can find them, you know, they're always there.

And that's the key. Go to those places. Because if there's situations, if there's places that always bring negativity to you, stop going there.

Yeah, right.

It is totally okay to be in control of your surroundings. And your situations as adults, it is totally okay to stop negativity from creeping.

I felt the same way with business too. I think it just. It overlays everything in our lives. And I think it's important with family. I think no one can hurt you more than family. No one can hurt us more than our family members. I think they can dig deep. It's important to be forgiving, too. I mean, I think in realizing that there are people, I might be angry at them, but I think it's important to realize that you don't get a lot of second chances in life. Right? That's right. Some things are very finite, and once you cross that line, you're done. And that's why I'm big on. That's why I'm really big on the. Words have spirit. Words have spirit because words never go away. And so. And words are beautiful. I find so much pleasure in writing words, you know, and my thoughts come out of my head so fast when I'm creating a new column, I'm not even sure who. Who actually writes it. It just comes out of my head because I. On the keyboard, and I look at that as a gift. It's a gift. Not that I have. It's a gift that's been given to me. I. I feel like if I don't use it, I will lose it. But I'm also. I'm using it because it really. I find that it really helps me to have more clarity, maintain more clarity and ident. Need to hear. So I go through phases where I'm thinking a lot about. So I do a lot. Almost everything is self empowerment. I want people to feel self empowerment.

Absolutely.

And I want people to feel they have everything that I have. Okay. I don't want to be.

I don't.

I'm not. I want to always have that kind of idea that no one's better than anyone else. I don't think that's ever true. You can be kind and be kind. Not nice is fine, but kind is actually taking. Taking that feeling that. That you do care about someone else. You know, we do care about other people, and they. And that can change someone's entire life.

Absolutely.

Yeah, Totally.

All right, Number five.

Okay. We get there.

Dang it, Eric, you wrote number five for me. Take care of your bodies and minds as if your life depends on it. Because honestly, it does. And So I made 2024 my year to. To get back into better shape. You know, I don't make excuses. So I'll just say I took advantage of COVID How about that? I took advantage.

I have some really. I don't have a diet for your plan for you, but I have a couple of really good tips for almost anyone. Okay.

All right, let's get these tips now. We need them.

Starts with you. It's. I'm gonna do first book will be a reference book kind of thing. But my books, the future will be happiness words guide to love. The happiness Words guide to your body. Okay. And not science so much. Well, science, it's solid, factual stuff. But I'm coming to as a regular person trying to help someone else, you know, on their journey without feeling bad about them. And my biggest thing is I don't want anyone to ever feel bad about themselves. Okay. You can't start anything good if you're feeling like you're. You're already fighting yourself and you're in your defensive side. I want everybody to feel like happy playing field, where it's just about learning about themselves. So for food, and I think everything we eat has a purpose today. I want to have a really good brain for you. I want to be on. I want my brain to be on fire, not on caffeine. So I had. I had some, like canned salmon. I made some brain food, and I just had something light that kept me some good protein, good energy, a little holy bread. And that to me was like, was perfect because I had the protein, but I wasn't feeling heavy from a hamburger or something like that. I'm so limited. I'm subconsciously feeding my brain and feeding my. Feeding my brain. Mostly. I want to stay sharp and focus. And then one of the rules that I have, which is not always easy to do, is that everything that every time we have a unit, if it's a snack, right, Some snacks are not so good. Every meal, every major meal. And it should have a Something, something from the produce family. Okay, so breakfast. Have some fruit of some sort. Don't have fruit juice because that's high in sugar. Except raw fruit. You know, usually I do. I do frozen blueberries, which are easy and much cheaper. And that's also brain food because that's after I have my. My little breakfast I have. I'm going to write, right? I'm gonna close out the move. I'm do a little emails, a little bit of work, and get everything set up for the day. And then I'm going to shut that side down. I'm going to write for an hour. And I need my brain to be under my control. You know, I need to have things under Control. I need to have, you know, everything be on track. And then I say every meal, have. What we do in our house is we have. I like preparing my own food most of the time. So we have a big salad before every meal and eat that first, first, because when you have that fiber in that and the greens inside of you, you're fuller. And you're also going to accept the food that's coming on top of it now. It's going to be better, easier to digest too. So you're not going to eat as much, but you're going to feel full and you're going to feel satisfied and you're going to feel energized from food that way. It's pretty easy stuff. And the other thing I have, this is about bigger for me. Water, black coffee, whole organic milk. And not very much if you want to have any kind of milk, whole organic milk, milk a small amount if you young, eat every day. And, but water, black coffee, tea or something like that. Anything else? All beverages, no sweet beverages, put that way.

So I need to throw the oat milk away that I just bought here.

You can do that. I, I, that's, that's, that's also dietary too, so that's not a point. But for me, that's how I am. I'm very like, has to be the cleanest, best stuff. And that's all I will drink. Mostly I drink water, coffee, I drink coffee during the day and, but that way you're, A lot of people get a lot of sneaky calories in from things that they drink.

I believe it.

I love, I love it all, I love all that stuff. But I have to say to myself, you know, it's, I, I have, I want to be the good example for you, okay? And yes, sir, you can count on this. You're gonna not kick your butt, but it's going to be like on your side, you know, I don't like the idea you're a coach and you gotta hurt somebody. I like the idea that you go, okay, well, you know, how do you feel about doing this? How do you feel today? Which is this making a difference? Is this positive thing for you? It's not working. There's another way.

Absolutely, absolutely.

And also, my whole thing is never give up, especially on yourself.

There you go. I love that. All right, Eric, I'm getting you out of here on this. What's one thing you want listeners to do right now? What's, what's your biggest key to happiness?

Well, I, I really would like to have Everyone reading me every week. Okay. I'd like to have people start to really and talk to me and then get back to me. And I have a new website. It's beautiful. It's www.thwarrior.com so stands for the Happiness Warrior. Th warrior.com. get in there. I'm gonna get some new pictures pretty soon. I did some. I didn't. I did a new photo shoot with a really cool guy the other day and I just try to keep it. All my. All my articles are on there too. So you can get into the issue wire file in there. And I'm just trying to build an audience that we can start saying, hey, do you want me to come and speak for your event? I'd love to go speak for your event and set something up there and a speaker that you've never had before like you've never had before. Because I'm not going to do it it in the scripted kind of way that is done.

There you go.

I'm going to take. I'm going to mold this. Anything I do, I'm going to kind of mold it in the way I want it to be. So everyone's having fun, learning and serious too. I think I'm always serious too. I'm very serious person. I like to laugh, but I'm very serious too.

So yeah, awesome stuff. So.thwarwarwar.com thwarrior.com and you can also find Eric on Facebook, on Instagram articles. He has a ton of videos like, I promise you, you will not regret it.

You will Instagram. I have everything as well. Mick and I have. It's called the Happiness Warrior official.

Yep.

So that is. That's. That's where all my. On my. A lot of. A lot of my video. All my videos and things are too. So.

And that's what I follow the Happiness Warrior official on Instagram.

That's what I follow you to there.

So I promise you, you will not be disappointed. You can find daily inspiration, daily motivation.

You.

You will find I something every day from Eric and it'll put a smile on your face and a smile in your heart as well. And Eric, that's what I appreciate the most about you, brother.

Oh, I. I can't. I. I have so many things I appreciate about. About you as well as well. And also just thank you for having me on your show. This is your personal show and it means a lot to. Means more than anything to me.

So it means the world that you're here. It means the world that you're here and we're definitely going to do this again so I I could see us having a Happiness Warrior series that we do on the podcast. I think we should do that for the people.

We'll be the happiest warrior duo.

Okay, there you go. I love it. All the listeners out there remember your because is your superpower. Unleash it.

Thanks for listening to Mick Unplugged. We hope this episode helps you take the next step toward the extraordinary and launches a revolution in your life. Don't forget to rate and review the podcast and be sure to check us out on YouTube at MC Unplugged. Remember, stay empowered, stay inspired, and stay unplugged.

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