Your Greatest Moment Happens When You Think You are Broken

Hello and welcome to the Soul of Innovation podcast. I am the host Thomas Anglero, and my mission for this podcast is to share with you those private thoughts and reflections that I have being one of the top keynote speakers around the world on technology, motivation, and innovation. I hope you truly enjoy all the lessons I share, all the dots I connect that sometimes are just really difficult to get out but it's all for you. I truly hope you enjoy this episode. Welcome to the Soul of Innovation podcast. I'm Thomas Anglero, and I am pumped today because I just saw a video that has inspired me, that has made me reflect and remind myself how incredible and lucky we are, how incredibly lucky you are, how incredibly lucky we are to just have every moment that we could decide to do whatever we want and make great things happen. Not great things by anybody's standard, but by our own standards. This video I was watching was this gentleman called the Iron— what's this— the Iron Triathlete. I think that's his name. He— I'm sorry, the Iron Cowboy. That's his name, the Iron Cowboy. He did 50 Ironman triathlons in 50 days in 50 US states in a row. This is incredible. This guy's incredible. He gave a speech at Google because Google has welcomed or invites people who've done amazing things to something called Google Talks. If you want to see amazing, listen to amazing people and see amazing people and their amazing talks and amazing accomplishments, just type in Google Talks, T-A-L-K-S, into YouTube and you'll come across and you can list the listing and subscribe to it. And it's amazing anyway. These people, this guy, his story of what he went through. I mean, to, to do an Ironman is an accomplishment for any of us. If any of us did Ironman, that would be a lifelong accomplishment. He did an Ironman, got up the next morning and did another one, got up next morning, 50 days in a row. The hurdles he had, the, the, the moments where he could not go any further. At every one of those moments when he could not go any further, he had a story about his wife, he had a story about his daughter. But every one of his stories was that at that moment when he could not go anymore, the pain was too much, the torn muscles were too much, the mental anguish, the negative mental What messages did you talk to yourself and tell yourself when you put yourself down so much? It was too much for him. Someone was there. Someone came to him and changed his perspective. Made him realize that that moment was over. That that moment of doubt, of negativeness, of pity was nothing compared to getting your butt up and keep on going. Because when you get your butt up and you keep on going, when you finish what you started, that accomplishment lasts forever and it changes everyone else. He has story after story about his experience there. So I want to share with you my story, with my experience when I ran my first marathon in New York City. And it's amazing how so many of us— I mean, ask yourself, do you have a story when you push yourself to the absolute limit and someone came to you right when you were about to give up, right when you're about to break and you couldn't take anymore? Do you have a story? And if you don't, that's okay, because right now you have an opportunity to make a decision to do something to create that story. What happened to me, this is back in, I think, 1993, '94. I was a— I was training like a madman, running 5Ks, 10Ks, bike races, doing Olympic distance triathlons, doing biathlons, you name it. Great shape. I decided to do the New York City Marathon with my girlfriend, who's now my wife, and my buddy Ron Tyler. Love Ron. The three of us, uh, we trained together every once in a while because our schedules didn't match perfectly, but we met up on race day, went over to Staten Island. Like, I think was the— back then it was only about 7,000 people. Today I think it's 25,000 people who race the race. Anyway, we, uh, started the marathon together and we did the whole first half of the marathon, three of us together. And it was, you know, they said 4 million people line up to clap for you in a marathon. There's nothing like running the New York City Marathon. You want to feel no pain, you want to feel on a high, you want to feel like if you ever needed attention You run the New York City Marathon and your ego will be fed insanely, right? So we're floating along and my girlfriend, who's now my wife, she has, 'cause she's Norwegian, she has a Norwegian flag on her chest and on her back. And whenever anybody in the audience would go, "Hai, Norge!" which means, you know, "Go Norway!" She would run to that side of the curb and high-five those people. And if somebody all the way on the other side of the curb, on the far right said, "Hiya, Norge!" She would run to that side. So she did the first half of the marathon doing Zs. She must have ran 3 marathons that day. It was so much fun. When we got to the halfway point, we found this abandoned building, which there's tons of in New York, and we ran off the marathon course, ran into the abandoned building, into the backyard, and we all just urinated because you got to go to the bathroom when you're running a marathon, right? And there's no porta-potties back then. Um, so the problem with that was that was the first time we had stopped, stopped running. When we started to run again, my body, my right knee started to swell. That had never had a knee problem before. So I told, uh, Ron and Camila to keep on going and that I'm hurting too much. And they left me and they kept on going. And I was just trying to do my thing, and I realized I could not run anymore, or it was— I was at a hobble. I finally made it to the 20-mile mark, and I was at the tip of Central Park, and I couldn't run anymore, but I still had another, I think, 4 miles left. Or 6 miles. I forget, seeing 6, that's— and my body was done. My right knee was the size of a watermelon. I am not exaggerating. I looked down, I said, how, how, how can my skin possibly stretch this much? I can't lift my leg. I'm in so much pain. I've just done 20 miles and I got another 6 to go, and my skin's about to explode from being so swollen. My knee can't take any weight. I'm mentally shot. The sun has set. I've been running, I've been up, it's been running since 6 in the morning. I was, I was broken and I was ready to give up. And as I look down, as we enter the north part of Central Park, I look down and I go, I can't do this, I can't do this. And all of a sudden this guy comes out of nowhere. There was nobody around me, I'm telling you. I was in an abandoned part of northern part of Central Park. There were no crowds or anything. It was too late in the day. I had taken too long to run. People had gone home. Nobody was there to cheer. And I tell you, this, this guy appeared out of nowhere with the softest voice, and he, he came up next to me. He goes, It looks like you could use some company. I would have naturally, you know, I was in New York mode. I would have naturally just say, go to hell, or something like that. But his voice was so soft, so soothing. I just nodded, yeah. And he just kept on talking to me as we slowly began to walk. Slowly started moving again, and he kept me company, I think, for over 2 hours. He did all the talking, but his words, his energy was flowing through me. He kept me going. When we got to about 100 meters from the finish line, the 100 meters for the finish line, it was a downhill to the finish line. I turned to him and he said, 'You got this.' And I started to run, and as I As I ran the next 50 meters, I turned around and I looked back for him before I crossed the finish line. And he was gone. And I finished my first marathon. I turned around looking for him, looking for him to wave hi, to thank him. I was gonna want to run back to him and give him a hug. But he was gone. At those moments when you push yourself to your absolute limit and you don't think you could go on anymore, someone shows up to help you. Someone will show up to get you to finish your destiny, to be the person that you know you can be. But right in that moment, you just cannot believe in yourself anymore. The Iron Cowboy and his 50 Ironmans in 50 days in 50 states— his story reminded me of my story and my experience. I'm wondering, what's yours? Have you put yourself out there so much that you could not physically go? I mean, you're thinking you're going to die. And you have— you're looking at your body and like, this thing is breaking down. Someone's going to be there for you. Someone has probably been there for you. Maybe it wasn't something physical, maybe it was something mental. You were about to break down, and at that moment when you could not go on anymore, someone showed up, someone called you, someone put her arm around you. Who was that person? You see, we're not alone. You're not alone. There's always going to be someone there, but you have to get to that breaking point. Not that casual, oh, I'm so upset. That's not a breaking point. It's to the point where you cannot go on anymore. My life cannot continue, I am going to die point. That point, you will not be alone. That's when someone shows up, shows up and says, looks like you need some company. I don't know who that guy was, but in my mind I always remember him as my angel. My angel. How many angels have you had? Those angels will come to you when you're there and when you most, most need them. Don't discourage Don't run from adversity, from, from possibly getting your feelings hurt, from possibly losing, from, from risk. Run to it. Run to all challenges. Get yourself in the most uncomfortable situation possible. You don't think you can do it? Then you damn well better do it. That is what you should be running to. You want those moments because in that moment when you got a break, someone will show up for you and you realize you've never been alone, that you're always being taken care of. And I'm not talking anything religious or anything like that. I'm just telling you that we're all in it together and someone will show up for you. Someone always does. But you have to be at that point where you got a break. So go for it. Try to break yourself, and in the process, try to achieve something absolutely incredible. Absolutely incredible. What do you dream of? What do you think is absolutely insane? Go for it. Go for it. Because that— right when you— right when it's not gonna work, right when you can't do anymore, that person will show up. Isn't that exciting to know that? That you're not going to get broken, that someone will show up there for you right at that moment when you cannot go on. It's our gift, but we have to pay the pain to get and see the gift. Go for the pain. Run to the pain. Choose the pain. Every day. He did 50 days in a row. He chose the pain. And he has more stories about love, more stories about— forget loneliness— being together with people. He met thousands, tens of thousands of people showed up along his race as he raced. They raced, ran with him, they swam with him, they bike with him. 50 days in a row, he motivated people to lose weight. He partnered with Jamie Oliver, the cook, to reduce obesity in children throughout the United States. As he ran throughout the United States, sponsors showed up. Love, people, this is what it's all about. When you, when you ignite yourself, when you choose a goal, you will inspire other people and you will make a difference to tens of thousands, maybe tens of millions of people. And when you think you're gonna break, a person or people or a group will show up and give you the love you need. This is your moment. This is your life, and we're all here for you. Just go for it. Go forward and spread beauty and light. Look forward to all the moments that may break you, because it's not. Love will show up. Someone will show up. Something will happen that will redefine you, grow you, and make you go, life is beautiful. I love you. Take care. Till the next time. Thank you for listening to that episode. If you want to contact me, you can contact me on my website at anglero.com, and you can also subscribe to the newsletter, or you can find me anywhere on social media with Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. Thank you so much, and I hope to hear from you very soon.