Tackle Goals Like A Navy SEAL: Chadd Wright | Rich Roll Podcast

[Music] it's a pleasure and honor to meet you I'm super excited to talk to you our mutual friend Jesse hit me up recently he's like you gotta meet this guy chat man he's his story's crazy you're gonna love him and he was kind of describing few as he's like how do you like 32 33 31 he's like he's only like he's only like 31 but he's like my go-to guy for advice he's like he's my Tuesdays with Maurey guy he's like this incredible ultra athlete and badass Navy SEAL but he's also sort of this obi-wan Kenobi Kenobi type character who's deeply wise and that's like right in my wheelhouse man so well thank you excited to talk to you yeah that's a blessing to be here brother thank you so let's why don't we start with the whole like Navy SEAL thing man you know it's it's interesting because you don't you don't necessarily cut the figure of what somebody would expect never had a beard and the beard might be a little bit long I mean the beard goes with it I guess and more I guess we're seeing more and more military dudes embracing the ultra the ultra running lifestyle but I mean you did the whole deal man buds and the whole thing and the story leading up to it is is pretty crazy getting what what what in what what you had to endure and and undergo to kind of achieve your dream so talk about that a little bit yeah and I guess I never really fit the mold rich because I was born and raised in North Georgia I never played sports I had never swam in a swimming pool right never ran on purpose never never was in a pool until you were in the military until I went to yet take the the PST to get a seal contract yeah but your mom is a triathlete right yeah she was bring it down to the pool ever know she would bring me out on the trail when I was young you know and allow me to hike around and kind of follow her but water was I mean growing up in North Georgia man like you know we didn't we lived out in the country so we didn't have a swimming pool in like the most swimming you would do would be like to swim out across the pond to unhook your fishing lure that was hung on a log yeah you know what I mean so like dog paddle was was was my limit so yeah you know but but I worked through that I you know when I went to take that physical standards testing it was a run swim push up pull up sit up I failed that thing probably a dozen times dude but I kept coming back every week I would take it and improve a little bit a little bit finally passed with minimum standards and but where does that where does the dream to become a seal come from well and I think for everyone is different for me personally I was I had just graduated high school and of course you know the small town that I'm from that I was living in there's not a whole lot of especially back then there wasn't a whole lot of economic opportunities there and I didn't like school it just wasn't for me mm-hmm so I went to work in the construction industry and I was I did that for a few months and I just had this moment one day while I'm sitting you know in this you know just environment that I wasn't enjoying and I realized that if if I wanted more out of life if I wanted you know financially you know spiritually and and visit you know everything as a whole package I was going to have to step out of that environment yeah and I realize that if I didn't make that move that this that I was surrounded with was just that was going to be my lot in life and know like mentors or anybody like no no no really prior military you know service in my family it wasn't about me being a patriot at the time nothing like that it was just me wanting more out of life right you know I always tell I'm always hesitant when I tell that story because I don't ever want to sound like I deserve more or that I'm better than anyone else because there were a lot of guys that I worked alongside in that industry and they were happy with that life and that's awesome but I wasn't happy with it yeah you know at the time just had a little bit more ambition yeah maybe a little more ambition but you know I tell people all the time some of the greatest men that I that I've ever met in my life have wore overalls every day of their lives and worked the fields and they've raised a beautiful family and and they have this really happy wholesome complete lifestyle but for me I just wanted to kind of step out so that's where the the decision I guess was born but you could have done a lot of different things in the military like what was it about SEAL training man I just saw I just saw at least that you weren't it's not like you were a football player good I just saw this thing online I was sitting like I said I was looking on my computer and researching jobs within the military and this thing just pops up I'm talking about Navy SEALs and I didn't really even know what Navy SEALs did but it said this is the hardest military training in the free world and it was like for something clicked in my head like boom this is this is what I'm going to go do mm-hmm and I can't I can't really explain why it was that one single thing right but but yeah from that point forward that became my mission that became my entire dream in life is to get on the start line and at least get a shot you know to reach this goal that I set for myself so you sign up for the military you head off but it doesn't exactly go to plan no it didn't quite go as as I planned and so basically what happened rich is you have to go through navy boot camp before you go to SEAL training while you're in boot camp they run you a series of medical evaluations to make sure that your body is physically perfect they're not going to send you off to the super arduous training unless they know you're good to go so I make it all the way through boot camp and the last day we have our big final training exercise and like that is wrapping up and everybody's heading off to graduation and my drill instructor comes to me and says Chad you need to go see medical they found something that they need to talk to you about so in that last moment as as everybody's going off to you know to chase their dream and their goals I'm walking over to medical as I'm just a young kid and thinking what in the world is this all about and I walk in to this office and the dive Medical Officer standing there and he says Chad we found a pericardial cyst on your heart and he said this is totally asymptomatic he said it was never gonna bother you your whole life but we're afraid when you go down to depth when you're diving as a seal that the pressure change could potentially burst that cyst on your heart and he said we can't let you be a seal yeah so he based all my dreams and aspirations were taken from me in that one definitive moment you know I was I was given this this you know you can't do this right so how did I feel it was crud it crushed me man it it crushed me but the strange thing is is that when he when he told me that even though this was the guy in charge telling me that I couldn't do the things that I wanted to do for I never let go of that dream yeah so I I immediately said to myself I'm going to find some way over under around this condition you know even though there's basically I mean short of heart surgery there's no way around this right so what are they what do they do they just reassign you at that point so they tried that's what they tried the Navy tried to just send me out to the fleet which is the big Navy which is awesome that's an awesome place to be but it's not where I had set my roles so how do you finagle out of that so I reached back to my family they made some phone calls and I was able to get an administrative discharge from the Navy it was basically because they had essentially breached the contract that I had with them because my contract was to go to seal Tracey so I got out of the Navy like I say I still had had aspirations to be a seal and and the only Avenue like you said rich was I got to have heart surgery right so I started going all these heart surgeons air in Atlanta and trying and every surgeon I went to would told me the same thing that the dive Medical Officer told me this is a rare condition it's asymptomatic we're not willing to accept the risk of performing this surgery even if you waived all of it even if I waived all of it they didn't want to just live your whole life with this thing it's nope it's no problemo they didn't want to touch it man uh-huh so I finally find a surgeon in Atlanta named dr. Cooper and he had served in the Army as a combat surgeon downrange and he understood what I wanted to go do I think more so than somebody that hasn't served at capacity how many how many doctors did you go to before him I was turned down by three doctors and to the best of my memory it was three doctors before I finally found dr. Cooper huh and he's like I'll do it he was like I'll do it he was a runner dude awesome I mean I remember my first appointment like every appointment I had with this dude would be early in the morning and he would be he would come into the office in his running clothes uh-huh like still sweating and I'm like this is this is my guy right here my dude for you right brother how risky was this procedure you know and I get asked that a lot rich but back then I was I was a kid dude I wasn't asking these questions I had a singular focus right I never asked the question how risky is this I just I knew that it had to be done for me to move forward with my with my dream uh-huh I think the riskiest part of the surgery is that the condition was so rare so dr. Cooper for instance is a well-known surgeon in Atlanta he had never removed a pericardial cyst so it was a he pretty much I remember him pretty much telling me okay we've got a general plan but we've never done this surgery before so we're gonna have to open you up and we're gonna figure it out you know when we get in there right so that's right crack your sternum open that way like an open heart they actually detached my PEC muscle moved it up and then went in through my ribcage to get to my heart yeah Wow was her moment beforehand where you thought like this is insane there was one distinct moment and it was it was actually the morning of the surgery man I was riding to the hospital with my dad at like 5:00 a.m. and I look over at my dad I had this moment of doubt and I look over at my dad and I said dad do you think I should really go through with this and he looked back at me and without stuttering he says son if you want to be a seal you have no choice yeah and that resonated with me that's the way my mind ticks we'll talk about that I simplify things that resonated with me and I just said Roger that that was the truth I had no other choice right so fueled perhaps by maybe a little bit of naivete that comes with youth in that sense of being impervious and immortal when you're young totally problem so you get through it and then what you go back and just show up and say I'm I'm ready to go now well it wasn't that easy I get through it this this surgery was successful but it was still a gamble because I still had to get waiver as I still had to get signed off I you know the the Navy had to review the civilian medical documents you know from the surgery and basically sign off on it so this whole time I'm just gambling man how long did that take I can tell you I was back in the Navy standing before the same dive medical officer that has that had disqualified me less than a year after surgery so I walked back in his office rich and he looks at me and he says what are you doing back here man uh-huh he remembered me because it was it was rare so so rare and and all this is written this is a public information if you just google Navy Seal pericardial cyst you can read how rare it was in a medical journal that that doctor wrote uh-huh and so I hand him over the documents and he looks him over and I think that he really respected what I had done the risk that I had taken right like this is the kind of crazy we need here that I understood the doctor understood it more than anyone else could have understood because he knew what was involved with with the surgery right you know well in the history of seals had anybody else you must be the first person that was the first one no the first case of a pericardial cyst in a sealed candidate that's ever existed until now people hear this right alright so you're back in and then what you just go from there into buds like how does it work yeah so luckily the Navy blessed me off gave me the waiver I needed and they did not make me go through boot camp again I had got far enough along that make me go back through that process so I am in a holding pattern for a few months waiting for the buds class to kind of class up but yeah pretty much essentially I'm right back in and I finally get to toe the line there at my biggest dream and aspiration that I've ever had and brother nothing was going to stop me and there's like well like 300 people in a buds class back in those days yeah I mean it was we were you know that was a big influx that was 2007 uh war was going pretty hard right so we've all those kids in high school that that were there for 2004 9/11 we're kind of aging up into that time know so we started with about 300 guys yeah well my only frame of reference for wrapping my head around what goes on at Budds is is David Goggins and the stories that he's told on this podcast and what he wrote in his book I mean what was your experience like you know buds is a weird thing rich it's a crazy thing about it is nothing about buds no singular evolution is really all that hard man what do you mean by though like the time like the timed evolutions that perform the things that you have to do and Buzz is like a four-mile time to run uh-huh you get like 32 minutes to do that you got to swim two miles you get ample time to do that so nothing in buds is really all that hard meaning like in isolation is visual tasks it's just the accumulation of them the hardest thing is when you when you look at the total pictures the grind man and that's why that's why dudes quit essentially I would say that's the number one reason that people quit it's just like running alter you know how to break an ultra down well buds is like that but magnify it into like a it's like a six month long ultra yeah right right so this is kind of part of your core philosophy right like breaking things down into the they're sort of smallest components so that you can digest them one by one I think it's essential rich for me in my life it's yeah it's breaking not only breaking say a race breaking it down from you know a tree to tree or rock to rock perspective but even breaking down the the outcomes you know when I when I go and race I never feel any pressure and I never really get nervous man because in my mind I've broken that I've broken that race down into two outcomes I'm either going to break my body oh I'm going to achieve victory or across the finish line that simplifies it so much for me and is it is that philosophy advisable well I don't know I think that's a choice for every individual to make but for me I look at these races as as missions almost like missions in my life and I'm willing to accept the fact that I could potentially break myself to accomplish this mission right well the other option is to quit quit yeah but you just don't put that on the table I won't put it on the table man and and I'm not by no means am I trying to sound super tough or I subscribe to this saying it's be hard when it gets hard uh-huh and an ultra it gets hard so that's when I like to hunker down yeah there's this ethos out there I saw you kind of speaking about this on Instagram out there like stay hard you got to be hard 24/7 you know and I think people in general need a kick in the pants and that's a worthy message that I think is helpful to a lot of people who have gotten a little too cushy or comfortable in their lives but staying hard all the time is not a sustainable lifestyle philosophy is it it's not sustainable rich and I really feel like for me personally it's a dangerous philosophy because if you have if you think as a man or a woman that you have to be hard all the time we said it's not sustainable so you're gonna fall short of that mark and when you fall short of that mark you're gonna beat yourself up about it and it just causes problems I feel like for me personally and it causes problems in in relationships man you know when you know when I was active duty you know I could be out on the road or be on deployment well when when you come back you got to be able to to love your family and and love the other people around you and show compassion and and emotion and those are all those aren't components of being hard all the time out there Konitz that are necessary to living a healthy lifestyle oh what's the point otherwise right but they're not they're not teaching that to you and buds no that's something that I had to learn yeah I mean they turn you into this I don't want to say monster but they turn you into what I guess society we call an alpha male and buds oh yeah right so stay hard when it's it's appropriate to be hard when you need to be hard have a place inside a yeah that you can that you can go to when it gets hard and you can get the job done but couldn't you make an argument that setting yourself up with these two options either victory or you know completely you know going until your body breaks down that that could be considered an unsustainable model - all right that could be yeah that could be but I mean I'm you know pick your moments or pick your battles I suppose and and that's why I say is it is that specific philosophy advisable I think it's it's called it's called you know risk calculation you calculate what you're willing to accept to accomplish this mission for me I'm willing to accept that right you know but everybody's not me I like this idea of breaking things down into tiny little nuggets to achieve your goals I think people you know this is gonna go up in the New Year people are thinking about their new year's resolutions everybody set this like aspiration for themselves and as you know most people you know fall off the wagon and don't end up self actualizing whatever it is that they're looking to do in their lives and I think I think you know that message is really important because we get caught up in the sexy idea of what it's gonna be like and feel like and look like when we achieve that goal but we're just not willing to do those little things every day that keep us moving in that trajectory in kind of a relentless way because it's not sexy because those little things are tiny little things they're not things that are gonna get anybody excited they're just stuff you got to do relentlessly to create that kind of momentum that that creates like a self-perpetuating machined Title II brother yeah I agree on it right all right so you're well all right so you're in buds is it what you thought it would be expected it to be yeah harder easier I would say seal training is probably like the one thing in life that surpassed its reputation in terms of difficult in terms of difficulty yeah and there again that's I'm talking about the whole the whole picture right now you know what is the main thing that you take away from that experience you know there's so many things that that we could talk about that were born in that experience I'd say the one thing that I'd utilized the most right now is the lessons that we learned that revolve around the I call it the power of the spoken word the the things that we say how the things that we say impact our direction in life and the outcome of our situations and one of the earliest times I remember seeing seeing this work was in first phase my best friend came to me one day and he said Chad I don't think I'm good enough to make it through this training anymore and you know I had known prior to that statement that he had been having some thoughts of doubt but when he kept those thoughts within his own head he was able to continue from day to day but as soon as he came to me that that morning and spoke it out loud that statement he created that reality it became real it crushed him man he was crushed by that single statement I don't think I'm good enough and it's and shortly after he made that statement he went in and quit and I thought you know this guy my buddy you know he was completely physically capable of doing everything that we had to do that day and every single day until graduation but those words crushed him man it was like the rubicon once he once he crossed that yeah there's no return once you once you give voice to whatever it is whatever demon is swimming around in your head it gives it a gives it a power that you can't take that there's there's something about when it's something about the spoken word man and I think the the written word has has similar and equal power but you know a lot of my stuff lessons revolve around that spoken word and now that's transferred that lesson has transferred into ultrarunning and you know I've seen that power of the spoken word push people beyond their conceived and limits so give me an example of practicing that so I can give you an example of how we practice it at a race a few months ago I we were doing a Last Man Standing race right so this is one with Jesse know this was one that I didn't do the one with Jesse I had done one a few more four uh-huh so I became acquainted with a young man named Thomas Thomas had never ran more than a 10k race before so she's about six miles and me and Thomas kind of partnered up and I thought I'm gonna I'm gonna mentor Thomas and it starts to get you know we'd been we had made it to like 15 hours so is it one of those were you do a loop and you get a break and you have to do it in a certain way I mean just keep going until no there's only one person live 6 miles every hour on the hour until was this the race that you created we we actually hosted a race that was a similar format but this was one I was actually competing in okay so Thomas we get the the Sun starts to set and I you know I look in his eyes and I can tell he's hurting bad man he he's he's he's almost done and I told Thomas I said Thomas I just want I want you to do something for me I said I want you to just say I will never quit and Thomas looks over at me and he he says I'll never quit and I'm like no man I want you to yell it out loud let everyone around here know that you will never quit and I think Thomas kind of thought that it was cocky but it wasn't about being cocky it was about us creating this confidence in this reality for ourselves through the words that we spoke so Thomas yelled I will never quit and then throughout the rest of that night every time I'd see Thomas we'd yell back and forth to each other I'll never quit Thomas ran over a hundred miles Wow that day so from a 10k he ran over a hundred miles do you know what his goal was going in 200-mile it was to run it was a hundred miles but you know we we had also made a pact with each other that uh and and I had I had made this for myself but I brought Thomas on board that will never that we wouldn't die in the chair during that race that we would die out on the race course when our time came battling for every step so on Thomas's last lap he reached his goal and he said he's sitting in his chair he said brother Chad he said I got my hundred miles man I'm good uh-huh and I said naw Thomas we said we're not dying in the chair brother so Thomas Thomas rose up out of the chair man out of that that he did speak those words out loud he now you got to overcome them yeah but maybe it reached his goal essentially he had every right to be there but he had just had a little he forgot about don't die in the chair you know so Thomas rises up in and and comes back out toes the line again and he's running with me and based essentially waiting for my permission to to end right and yeah we get out about 300 yards from the start line and I say all right Thomas you did it rather good you could have withheld that permission and just see you know how much further this guy's keep it cattle so proud man it was amazing so what do you what do you make of that like what is that about like how is how is it like that the spoken word can carry that kind of power it's you know and and I don't know I don't know what for me something in your thought that's in your head hmm it's just a thought it's it's not tangible to anyone else except for you but when you speak something out loud it actually becomes something real something that can be measured so it becomes something that's part of this reality that we live in and and and I feel like that's what gives it the power the power of the spoken word I feel like that's why it's so powerful because as a thought it's it's essentially it's not part of this reality that we're living in but as soon as you speak it it becomes real right that's where I find a power at man so the the practical application of that or the practice of it is to be very measured or judicious and what comes out of your mouth and to be careful that that to be mindful of the words that you speak such that whatever is coming out of your mouth is is you know a positive affirmation that underscores the the goal that you're trying to achieve I think you have to be constant constantly conscious of it man and and it's that something I practice in my own life and you know I obviously I take it kind of some people would think to the extreme you know I don't curse that's not a I'm a Christian but that's not a Christian thing it's because none of those words in and of themselves have a positive meaning so I try to stay constantly in control of my rudder I look I look at my tongue as my do you ever [ __ ] that up oh yeah I mean everybody's gonna make mistakes man for sure but you know a big thing rich is to be especially aware of your rudder during times of adversity right you know because that's when that's when it really matters when you're in the struggle when you're in the furnace of adversity that's when you have to be really conscious of the things that you're saying yeah in my opinion back to Budds was there ever a breaking moment for you or will you just and and was this kind of perspective taught to you or you just this was an intuitive thing that you stumbled upon as a survival mechanism to get through this it so it wasn't all I think it's been it was an intuitive thing but I think that it's also developed now through you know as I get older and I continue to see at work and I teach these skills to other people and then I hear their testimonies when they come back and say oh my gosh you know I was in this terrible situation or this terrible moment and I just spoke life into my situation and it changed the direction it changed the outcome those things all strengthened my faith in these actual tools that we have right in Budds there was no breaking point for me though there was never a time that I thought about that I thought about quitting never a single moment I never looked toward the Bell and and again that's not because I'm any tougher than anyone else man but it's because I had been through a furnace of adversity prior to even toeing the line so I had quite a bit invested right so you get through that and then what where and what was your deployment like like what was the experience of actually being a Navy SEAL so you know I did multiple deployments over the course of the 12 years that I was active duty as far as the experience of being a Navy SEAL man it's not as sexy as you would think it's I'll tell you the best part about being a Navy SEAL is you get to go to work with heroes every single day you get to go to work with these men that are just you know have integrity these men that just will not quit and you get to be surrounded by those people every day that was the best part of actually being in the SEAL Teams as far as the day-to-day job it's a job man yeah you you know you have a mission every day whether it's training or you know actual mission and you're a professional you're an operator and you get the job done and it's not you know buddy there's doing it for glory at least not you know they may be your oddball every now and then that that that's the why they do it but you're real operators are are just there to get a job done that needs to be done man yeah we're in an interesting time now we're kind of prior to maybe a decade or so ago nobody who was a Navy SEAL or a Special Forces soldier really talked about that experience publicly but then somebody cracked the seal on that I wrote a book and then there was there's been kind of this tremendous amount of interest in what that experience is like lots of books lots of people who have become public speakers and these things turn into movies and television shows I don't know how much you're allowed to talk about your actual missions or deployment but there is kind of a public lens on this life that didn't exist probably when you you know when you began all of this so how do you like think about that as somebody who is you know an alumnus of that experience I'll tell you rich that's a that's a really interesting question and I think that the times that we're in the times we're living in right now the more complicating life becomes the more complicating our society becomes the more we we have where we have these devices we have social media the more complicating life becomes the more people are hungry for the lessons that we've learned as at not only as seals but you know in ultrarunning I think that's why ultra running is is making this huge jump right now I think we're living in a time in that that people are hungry for these lessons and for this pure mentality and you know I I could be just as happy rich if I moved to the mountains in North Georgia and lived in a cabin and never spoke to anyone other than my hands again yeah but I feel like I would be doing a disservice to my brothers and sisters my you know everyone within our community everyone that listens to this if I didn't at least come and share with you but things that I've learned in the things that have worked for me yeah so you consider that I call the service I say yeah it's it's almost it's like for me it's like continued service it's like I've this is how I continue my mission is by sharing the things that that I've been given man right well I think we are you know in a moment where you know we've never seen people as lonely and kind of you know mentally discontent as they are and yet we're more prosperous than we ever have been before it's not about like you know I can't buy the tell it's about this social contract that we've created that prioritizes comfort and luxury and ease above the things that actually make us happy which is connection with other humans and experience and living outside of your comfort zone and tackling obstacles and challenges and also you know I think it's it's sort of not socially acceptable to kind of tell people the hard truth you know in polite conversation and here comes all these Navy SEALs who are like that's [ __ ] man if you want this then you're gonna have to do that like they're just they're just they're not mincing words they're just telling you what you actually really need to hear if you feel like you're in a rut or you're trying to you know kind of you know achieve a better life for yourself that's right rich and rich there's a lot of days that go by that I never talk about being a sea of life okay when I could do when I come on these podcasts to talk about seals like Navy SEALs done huh it there is a aspect of it that makes me uncomfortable really to be honest with you because why because we were trained to be silent professional race and that's what we we are the whole time we're active-duty you you you are a silent professional and and now I think the important thing for me now is to remember the fact that I'm not sharing these things with you because for my own glory or to put myself on a pedestal I'm sharing these things with you because I love you and I want you to have a everything that you want I want you to be able to achieve your goals and you may be able to do that without me but if I can help you in any way shape or form that's my mission man I get that I believe you to does it feel a little bit like a betrayal then to talk about it given that you were trained to kind of zip it I don't I don't feel like it's a betrayal because here's the thing rich I we're not we're not sitting here talking about the missions that we did we not sitting here talking about the bad things the war and the things that happen there we're talking about tools that that we can apply in our day-to-day life right if I was sitting here talking to you about some mission overseas and and the intricacy and the details of that that would be a betrayal but we're not talking about tactics man right I'm not telling you anything right now that an enemy could listen to at some day and have and get an advantage over the guys that are still in the fight right now do you understand that yeah I get that yeah lately so I don't feel you know that's why I don't feel like I'm betraying right anyone yeah I get it so other than die in the chair don't die in the chair and you know break things down into what sit you know immediately in front of you to do like what are the other and and the spoken-word thing like what are the other like big lessons that you want people that understand um I'd say another essential and message that people might take the wrong way I use this now and ultrarunning and we used it back you know in training it's don't give a voice to your pain or suffer in silence that was a mantra we had in the teams and that is not that is not at all related to mental or emotional pain I'm talking about physical pain that you feel during times of self-inflicted adversity and it's helped me tremendously in ultrarunning you know when you're deep into a race man and and everything hurts and you look over at your buddy and when you look over at your buddy remember that your buddy feels the same pain that you're feeling huh so what use what's what service are you doing to him or to yourself if you say gosh man this hurts so bad like he already knows it hurts man and that was how we operated you know you're going through buds you never looked at you looked over at your buddy and you said man that guy's as cold as I am there's no reason for me to talk about how cold I am right now right so it kind of we're you know an example of how well you utilize it and ultrarunning or seen it work was did a race last May called cruel jewel it was 106 miler in North Georgia had 33,000 feet of elevation gain and lost so super difficult course and this was actually my first hundred mile er it was it was two years ago actually and so I'm running this race I'm doing good up into about mile 70 and I tore my hamstring right down here work connects to the back of my knee and man you won't talk about hurt and brother it hurt something terrible and it's got swollen up and red and but I didn't so I still had 30 miles left I never said a word to anyone about it never told an aid station worker never told my crew like oh my gosh I tore my hamstring it hurts like crazy so I can't carry on through this race and I'm still able to make ground and I hadn't gave a voice to that pain until I had five miles left I came to the last aid station and I lost control of my rudder man and I told the aid station worker how bad my hamstring had been hurting for the last four or five hours and when I gave a voice to that physical pain that I was feeling there again it gave power to that that pain and that injury and it almost took control of me from a mental standpoint when I gave it a voice and I had like five miles left it took me three hours to cover that last five miles man so it crushed me well so you finished I finish you finish there is an argument that maybe that wasn't the wisest thing to do right like there's a difference between physical pain and the pain that emanates from like damaging yourself in a really bad way like if you ripped your hamstring I don't think anybody would first of all no one would give a [ __ ] if you stopped and it might it like if you had finished that race with that torn hamstring and then you were out for like a year because you just screwed yourself up so badly there again it's operational risk management it's your decision man yeah I didn't care what anybody else thought this is all these this is all these missions of mine do you got it you know what I mean I got it so all right so so how long were you a seal for that 12 year 12 years yeah I actually just got out this past January right right one of the things Jesse told me that you did is you you were you like bodyguards for Obama can you talk about that or is that like off the records yeah I work I work with Obama a few times yeah yeah yeah it's been cool yeah oh I enjoyed it yeah he's a good dude enjoyed spending time with him it was a cool experience for sure right so just one of many spoken like a CEO like I could tell you don't want to talk too much about this that's okay so twelve years and then you get kind of what's the equivalent of like a an honorable discharge right like you had some injuries as a result like there's a there's a brain injury involved and and I think some PTSD could you talk about that a little bit yeah it was more it was multiple you know just just kind of its it was kind of looking at the whole picture of me and then especially looking at the brain injury stuff I was a breacher which means we we deal with explosives we're like an explosives expert within the platoon and I had been exposed to you know multiple no telling how many blasts and I noticed that it it was affecting me in in different ways both mentally and physically and finally I had to go and talk to a doctor about it I you know it was just it became it was impacting my performance right you know out in the field and they basically said yeah this is what's going on you don't need to be exposed to this anymore because we risk really diminishing your quality of life if we continue to expose you to this and I was medically retired got it so basically exposure to ordnance blasts yep over however long period of time like time and time again like the repetitive nature of that being exposed to that yeah yeah that's that's a that was essentially the big one and of course you know you have joint injuries they look at the whole picture when they start thinking about yeah the medical retirement right so so when you're now faced with having to return to civilian life like that is that hard yeah yeah yeah it's tough rich and I think the toughest thing about it man is when you it's the same as a professional athlete or or a musician or when you have your entire identity wrapped around this one thing when when you lose that one thing whether it's a professional athlete a CEO a musician whatever it can be can be a crushing blow yeah so you know I was blessed in a way that I had found ultrarunning that helped me diversify my identity it helped me you found that when you were CEO about a year before so when they started talking about the whole medical retirement thing I started ultrarunning because that was a really stressful time for me man I don't like going to the doctor I was going to the doctor like three times a day and it was driving me crazy so I started ultrarunning right off the bat or just like I'm gonna run like most people start running you know I'm gonna go run around the base or something like that like they're not like I'm gonna be an ultra runner was it was it that baked in from the beginning like I'm gonna do ultras yeah I never I mean I had never ran a marathon um any I've never ran a 10k I just I signed up for a 50-mile race the first race he signed up for the first race it was the Iron Mountain ultra marathon in Omaha skis Virginia so yeah I signed up for that racing went out there and it completely obliterated me but I I saw the community there like I really loved the community like that grassroots feel it was all it's almost like family dude like when I'm out on the trail I'm calling guys like brother sister and and because I legitimately view them as my brother or sister it's like family I loved it and I loved how that event crushed me it like broke down all these barriers that we have built up you know between each other hmm man when you're out there and you just crush yourself all these barriers just crumble and like an ultra is the one place that I can truly like let my emotions just flow and I can cry if I want to cry I can laugh I can get angry it doesn't matter those and that was something that as an operator you didn't really show emotion you know kind of train that way not to show emotion so you have this opportunity to express that in a different way yeah it almost it makes it it brings you back to like a pure form of humanity yeah it's almost like that's what you need it in order to be integrated once again and you found a way to figure that out through this vehicle of running that's it yeah so but it was still it was still when I finally was separated from the Navy it was still tough man because I was still in a sense when I got out of the Navy I was still trying to like hang on to all those things that I had done as a seal and I was trying to depend upon those things to like move me forward into the into my future life right but I had a vision one night man and I was able to to let go of all that old stuff because a ship doesn't sail on yesterday's wind right and and and when I when I had that vision and I was able to let go it allowed me to then propel myself into the life I'm living now right well if you think we're just gonna blow by the fact that you have this vision without me asking you about it you're the same so tell me about this vision man I'll tell you about it and I this is probably the first time I've talked about this publicly but I'm late so I'm in that place where like we talked about I'm depending on I'm hanging on to all this old stuff thinking that it's just gonna move me forward in life from a career standpoint from a social standpoint you know still kind of hanging on to that identity and I'm laying in bed one night and I'm just frustrated rich and in my mind's eye as I'm laying in bed I'm awake and I see a scroll up here in front of me in the center of my vision and on that scroll was written everything that I was hanging on to it was like a resume essentially and as I'm looking at the scroll I'm like what in the world like I like an old tough like an ancient like an iris scroll or something man yeah it was like an old scroll and and so I'm really my resume all this cool stuff I've done so around that scroll these clouds dark clouds started to build and as those clouds were building that scroll began to shrink well what those clouds came to me in that moment those clouds represented the of my god and as the presence of God built around this scroll it's shrunk and it continued to shrink and the presence of God continue to build and the scroll got so tiny that I could no longer read the words written on the scroll so what do you make I have some ideas but don't tell me how you interpret it so how how I interpreted that was my God was telling me in that moment that Chad I can do so much more than what you have done but you've got to let go of these things that you're hanging on to if you want to let me work with in your life and propel you forward into into your new mission you've got to let go of these and and when I got in when I had that revelation when that was revealed to me the message of that vision I no longer looked at that scroll as a resume I looked at it as a tomb mmm they were actually things that I thought you know I could that could propel me forward but they were actually things that in reality were going to hold me back so I gave it all I was able in that moment when I when I when I figured out the message here I was able to let it all go go and move forward now into my future with just this clean and pure ass you know perspective and just just let go and I'm also able now to really see the design within my life the things that are orchestrated obviously by something larger than more powerful than more powerful than me but you know I couldn't see that before man because I was depending upon myself forever right I mean that's a beautiful spiritual experience you know what I what I see in that is somebody who was holding on very tightly to this story this identity who you who you tell yourself you are and like kind of hanging your ego on these pegs based on these experiences that you've had and the journey forward to wholeness to this next chapter was to surrender all of that to like lay it down at the feet of God right basically basically to set aside your ego and just be open to possibilities and kind of wipe that chalkboard cleaned so that's a hard thing to do it is you know I mean these like when I was in rehab I kind of had I had my own version of that like learning how to you know really surrender and I think for somebody who is a type-a personality or somebody who like look clearly you had this dream of becoming a seal and nothing was gonna get in the way of that and the only person that was gonna make it happen was you so you're you were somebody who is kind of crafted you know sort of born out of this willfulness like self will right and I'm sure you have a million things that you can point to in your memory and experiences to say I would have died had I not done that or I took care of that and it's all me me me but in order to broaden your life experience ultimately you have to realize the limitations of self well on that really in reality self will is your biggest limiter but that's something that's very difficult to let go of for somebody who is accomplished or somebody who you know knows how to set a goal and achieve it yeah yeah and it was essential for me to to be able to let I'm not saying you know I had to I it was essential in that moment because I had you know that part of my identity had ended and I had to move forward you know right but you hit the nail on the head rich I mean that that is the right a perfect interpretation of that vision you so you speak it so much more eloquent now and I like I like your version but I want to I want to talk about I want to talk your faith more because I think it's super interesting I mean you first of all you have this wild story you know one of the catalysts that brought you into your spiritual perspective can you share that you know what I'm talking about oh yeah yeah I mean you weren't you you weren't born and bred you know reading the Bible every day right like this is a this is a newer thing it is rich and I'll you know I'll talk to you about my faith but I want to preface it with this by no means am I telling anyone what they should do all I can do is tell you what has worked for me and why I can tell you the stories of why I believe how I believe uh-huh that's all there is to it brother Rishi ate it so yeah when I essentially and I'll use some some Jesus talk now okay when I when I have my come to Jesus moment was actually while I was overseas and I had no you know spiritual spirituality that was just wasn't a part of my life man had no connection to to a God didn't grow up with it you know it was it was I have to say it was on and off as we were coming up as children but you know I at that point I had branched off and I was living my own life man you know I had me personally I had no personal relationship to of God yeah so we're staying in this place overseas and one it was only there was four of us one of the four guys was a Christian and we're staying in this building and the one that was a Christian he started reading his Bible every evening well sounds crazy brother but when he started doing that these weird things started happening within this place we were staying uh-huh and they were I call them now it was it was really an evil thing so the things that were happening we're causing fear and discontent and discomfort within our group so he starts reading his Bible he obviously aggravates this spiritual presence this other spiritual presence that is dwelling in this place right you're talking about paranormal paranoia so yeah I remember the first thing like laying in bed one night and something hits my door and I hear like singing up and down the hallways of this place where we were staying and I get up and everybody's passed out and it they it scared me what kind of singing um it would did it I don't remember it as sound and it was not words it was more just like tones tones flowing up and down the hallway and it didn't have an evil sound to it but the event had fear attached to it right and hearing some kind of not like a house but like a build you're on a mission yes yeah yeah we're on we're on deployment and and so as as the day's progress these this Paranormal Activity continues to happen and also our moods as like as teammates this spiritual presence was bearing down on our moods and and it got to the point where it was affecting our interactions with each other and you know the way we felt about each other and just really just getting us in a rut man so you're not the only one who's experienced so eventually after you know after a week or so you you got you got four Navy SEALs sleeping in the same room together because they're they're freaked out about what's going on right like these super badasses now all have left their respective rooms and you're all sleeping in the same that's it my man so all right hold on a second so what was that like the first time like when this happens to you you must think either I'm imagining something or or I'm the only one who's having this experience right so at some point you you have to somebody you have to have a conversation with someone else like hey I heard this thing did you hear it too like how did that go yeah oh we were so close I mean it was like you know we did you hear that exactly hey what what hap so what happened in your room last night and we you know we would we would talk about these things and it wasn't necessarily at night I mean this place you could walk into this it got to a point where you could walk into this place and like I remember there was a stairwell and like the stairwell went up and then it cut back so as I was walking up the first portion of the stairwell I could feel a presence of something up in behind me watching me and bearing down on me as I enter this place and and when I would make that turn I would fully expect to see something people standing there but I never did so we're talking about it man and it's obvious that that this crazy stuff is going on and it's obviously it was obviously initiated by the the the spiritual side of our one teammate that that had that as a part of his life right he opened up this Pandora's box of little spirits raining down upon you so real so I dig it I'm into we're in this like a crazy battle of good and evil and finally I get sick of it dude and I called my brother back home in the States and I knew that my brother was a Christian he had made that decision long ago and I knew about that and I said look like I don't know what's going on here man but I'm tired of this I can't rest we can't work together as teammates it's this is just getting out of hand do you do you have any advice what can we do here because I'm sick of it and he he said well let me put you in touch with my pastor he puts me in touch with the pastor of his local church there that gentleman calls me up back overseas and says hey I got an idea of what's going on here will you put me on speakerphone and and allow me to walk walk around this building will you allow me to pray over this space essentially he's gonna perform an exorcism right I actually when this went down I waited for everyone else to leave because I thought that even though every this was so real to all of us like I'm taking it one like a step too far Brian and you're like all of two days into Bible study at this point man yeah so I walk around this building with this this guy that I don't know never met before praying over this area and then he says hey go get some olive oil and we're gonna I'm gonna we're gonna anoint the door and I'm I I come on man get some all poured in a little cup he continues to pray and I just take my finger and anoint the door uh-huh of the place we were staying in like the outside door the outside door and also the door to the room that we were staying right okay and so after I did this man complete and total peace returned to this place and to our mood our relationships within our team it was like it was like I can breathe again that's bananas and and so it blew me away and I was like okay there is some power here maybe I should look into this because of this experience that I just had it was so real so I went out and bought me a Bible and and I start digging into the teachings of this guy named Jesus and throughout the rest of that deployment there were things that happened there really set my faith into concrete give me an example all that I'll give you one single example we were out playing one day and we were in this waterway that was filled with trash and dead bodies and I was waterskiing on a spine board for fun hmm and I fell off and fell into this water with literally with decaying human beings around me it's just that the terribleness of the place that we were in and I get a gut full of this water and I get up back up on our vessel and I shouldn't have been doing what I was doing in the first place right but our medic starts freaking out he's like dude this is bad like this this is not good and I had remembered I had been studying the Bible for about a month prior to this event and I remembered when the Bible the Bible said if you know if if you'll speak my words out loud if you'll if you'll if you'll remember the scripture and use it it's it'll work for you that's essentially you know a simple message of the Bible and I had remembered a scripture that said no pestilence or plague shall come near unto me and I spoke when my you know when this happened I told my group I said I'm good bro no pestilence or plague she'll come near unto me and I used that scripture in front of a group of unbelievers and I was totally fine from that point forward never it never had any any sickness or issues now that could potentially be coincidence but you know that's just one example and so these things continue to happen throughout deployment then I get home and my wife was dying from a disease called addiction and I had this newfound faith and I started to learn about addiction obviously because I was about to lose her but that I realized that there was nothing that I could say to change her mind so all I did was I was using this new tool that I had now called prayer mm-hmm and I prayed I would March circles around my house pray over the place in bed where she slept and after about a month of that she came to me one day and she said hey I want to get clean there was no reason for it I wasn't having this discussion with her about hey you need to get clean you need to get in rehab I knew how helpless I was so I just shut my mouth man and so there again I take that as my my prayers and affirmation of it an affirmation of the prayers that you know that I had said and you know of course there's going to be 10,000 people listen to this and just say that's all coincidence it doesn't matter this is your experience yeah it's just it's just my experience man and that's that's what I'm saying all I can tell you is the design that I've seen within my life and then you know so that event in and of itself you know was was another thing that you really just just set my faith in concrete and made me say well oh my gosh you know here here is this loving God that has actually honored my prayers because I have I have chose to serve Him yeah you know I'm sorry to hear about your wife so you come back after deployment and she's struggling with this thing I mean that's a very you know powerless place to find yourself yeah yeah yeah and but it but it was there again rich I mean it's one of those things that first of all I didn't know anything about addiction and I always looked down on addicts but walking through this when I when I was when I walked as I walked through this with my wife I realized that addicts are some of the best people on earth if they can just get clean so it changed my whole perspective on addiction mmm so thankful for that man when I see somebody struggling with that drug addiction or alcohol never do I look down upon them because I know they're just bound up with these chains man and if they can break these chains they're gonna be some of the best people on earth sometimes most of the time I was second that yeah you know I think I think there's a lot of people that suffer from addiction and alcoholism that are in a certain respect spiritual seekers they're just seeking their answers in an unhealthy way and they fall prey to this thing that becomes very difficult to you know claw out of but when you it and and I believe strongly that this that that a huge part of the solution is spiritual like you have to find a spiritual connection you have to you have to whether a version of what you experienced with the scroll right like you have to surrender yourself you have to understand that there's a Power greater than yourself that you can avail yourself of to help you confront this thing and it's about relinquishing the ego and and self well that's a big part of it mmm-hmm I think so she's okay now though she's awesome I'll tell you rich it's there again you know we we went through that that furnace of adversity together within you know as I'm as a as a married couple and of course her her portion of that was a lot more painful than my portion all my pain came just through watching the pain that she was going through I can only tell my side of that that journey of course but um but you know we went through that together rich and we came out the other end brother and we got the best marriage on earth like she's my best friend in the world and everything is just wonderful but it's because we can I appreciate the time that we have together now yeah so adversities a tool man yeah that's all it is well one of the things that you've talked about that that I love and I agree with completely is this idea that the intensity of adversity tends to ratchet up or increase the closer you get to accomplishing the goal right it's almost like you know the closer that you got to becoming a seal you got thrown this thing that seemed like it was an impossible obstacle that you had to overcome or the closer you get to the finish line of an ultra that's when you know it becomes the hardest and I look at that and I see it getting played out time and time again and no matter what people are trying to accomplish or achieve and it's I I think of it as like a spiritual test like okay this is the thing you want we're gonna work towards that but before before I let you have it let's just make sure that you're actually ready for it you know well not only is it a test but it's the laws of nature okay did you know library did you know rich that we can look at these things around us this knit this nature that we live in and that you can take principles from nature and see the application in life so what you just said did you know that this is a fact that the darkest and coldest part of every single night is right before the dawn breaks mm-hmm that is the darkest and coldest part of a night and you know that from ultrarunning man yeah man when you get to those hours that are like three four five right there before the dawn is about to break oh my gosh it is if it's wintertime race you know that's the coldest part of the night man right and so that's a law of nature and it's it that all that stuff transfers into into life in my opinion I look look at the lessons and within nature and see the parallels and right so what is the relationship between your faith and ultrarunning like what does that interplay look like for you I think a big part of talk about faith faith in and of itself riches all that word means to me is that I believe in something bigger than myself that I can't see or put my hands on I think the the the better question that I might could answer is how does altar running help me from a spiritual physical and emotional aspect those so from a body soul spirit aspect so I don't feel like ultrarunning in any way impacts my faith it doesn't it doesn't make me believe any more or less in a God but it does help me from a body soul spirit standpoint which then in turn brings me closer to God but doesn't necessarily and it allows me to listen to him and be in tune with him more so than I could without also running you know right so ultra running rich essentially when you're when you're ultra running it is a body and soul exercise and it for a lot of people it's just also a spiritual thing but when you're ultra running you are mastering you're bringing your flesh into subjection you're making your flesh your body do what you want it to do so you're training the body you're making it stronger you're you're building that discipline and from a soul perspective the soul being the mind will and emotions that's what that's what our soul is it's it's what do we want to do or not want to do how do we feel about a certain activity your disciplining your mind will and emotions and your bringing those the aspects of your soul also into subjection and then from a spiritual standpoint for me just being in nature what I would call God creation is how it nurtures me from a spiritual standpoint all these trees and plants and stuff me and all the stuffs alive yeah man it's all alive man yeah so I love that that was beautifully put I would imagine that you didn't expect to have that kind of broad perspective when you signed up for that first 50-miler right like how did you come into this love affair with this sport well there again for me rich it was that first one it was I was that doubt that you up it was it was that it just it just broke me down it broke these walls down it you know it was it was that body soul spirit type thing and I was able to identify how how ultrarunning was helping me master nourish and maintain those three aspects of alright he has a human you know and after and also the community I loved the community that was another break one man well I would imagine a big part of of having to kind of weather the transition into civilian life is is that you is that you don't have these guides that your that you have such an intimate relationship with like these teammates like the Brotherhood and all of that is sort of gone and you have to figure out another way to build that into your life right so that community I'm sure played a part in that and there is something very specific about ultrarunning that when you're trying to answer these big questions for yourself like okay well what am I going to do now with my life all that solitude and that connection with nature is a great way to kind of wrestle with those questions to try to find the answers for yourself it is it is yeah yeah and and there you talk about that solitude and that connection with nature you know I get I get so much energy from the living things within nature like it's happened to me only twice but I I can distinctly remember two times I was leaning against three for a long period of time and I actually was able to feel the life and almost personality of this tree like pass through me or into me I could feel it right right in here where my where my heart is and like you're having a psychedelic experience right yeah but I've never done drugs before man but it was I think your brain is dripping DMT and your system like that you have all these visions I realize that this dang this stuff this stuff is alive man like we can get energy we can get perspective we can get that from from nature and the things that are living in nature uh-huh so that's a big like we see it like there's something about ultrarunning that strips away you know everything you know that gets in the way of being able to have that connection yeah totally man yeah so I think that's a big part of those walls you know tearing those walls down but there's a difference between hey you know I like this ultrarunning thing and like winning races and just like doing these super crazy rate like you've you've created quite a career for yourself as an ultra runner like you've been super successful I want to talk about this revenant race we talked about that yeah yeah yeah last year when did you do that was last year and then we'll be going we're going or I'm going down about this year obviously to give it another go but the revenant is a very unique event held on the South Island of New Zealand and the basic format of the race it's 450 kilometre loops but it's all off trail and you have to navigate the course with map and compass uh-huh so it's very similar I'm sure you've heard of the Berkeley man yeah of course it's Bart Berkeley gets all the press but this revenant one's even harder yeah it's well I mean each every race is it's hard to say which race is harder than the other because they all have their specific you know difficulties but yeah the the terrain on the South Island New Zealand is very very hard to get through it's very harsh environment and then also too you have weather I would say you know the weather in in New Zealand is is just as extreme if not more extreme as the weather you would experience in Tennessee you know so it uh yeah it's we went out and I gave it the first shot last year and made it around one loop so hold on a second first of all so this race it also has like a hundred and five thousand feet of vertical game - yeah yeah it's got a lot of climbing bushwhacking and prior to your involvement with this race not a single person had ever completed one loop let alone four yeah yeah how many years is the race been around um well actually the the so the the thing is last year was the inaugural winner of the race yeah so this was this was something that the race director has the race director Scott Worthington he's he has went out and designed this course and he has done this course under perfect condition so he knows it can be completed but but there's so many things when you're doing a race like this that are out of your control my environmental factors you know what I mean right so you know that's what makes it different than a normal hundred mile er is if you have inversion layer move in and it's so foggy you can't see the ground you're standing on you can't navigate in that type of environment right where's a normal race you're just on a trail where your head down you can turn everything off and rock and roll so you show up for this thing there's crazy unprecedented weather but you're able to do a loop right you're the only person who's done a loop um there were I think three people that did that finished one lower last year no one finished a second loop I got that one loop is the most that's been done on the course yeah I mean we got through it man it wasn't pretty my favorite thing are these the races that no one has ever actually completed yeah well these Last Man Standing races you know just a different way to compete with yourself yeah I love them too many yeah so how did you how did you get connected with Jesse Jesse was training for a Last Man Standing event uh-huh and he actually hit me up on Instagram I just had created this newfangled Instagram account last May uh-huh so uh yeah he hit me up and said hey man you can't you can't be on Instagram when you're a Navy SEAL yeah so much yeah my buddy was like you got to do this Instagram thing and I got on there Jesse heating me up it's it's been a blessing time that's been an awesome platform to share the message you got on now but he just invited me to come out and run with him and my brother Mark Brown and we spent a day we ran 50 miles that day there were a few rules that I had you know set in place for our group that day and we hit it off I mean what were the rules what do you mean you sent rules so the rules for the day where we had to run until I said stop we didn't I didn't want them to know where the finish line was because we were really trying to replicate the environment that they were going to experience that the last man standing event we had to share one thing every hour that we were thankful for with each other that's cool three grown men yeah might that might sound silly right no I don't think that's not I think that's cool yeah it was it was it was so cool because like when when Jesse or Mark would share something that they were thankful for it might have been something that by no means applies to my life but just them expressing that thankfulness like gave me a boost of energy yeah so that was the point in that exercise was to really keep our speech revolving around things that we were thankful for and things that positivity right last rule no cussing same stuff spoken man so right yeah we ran if we ran fifty miles together you know the bonds that form in in those times and that was that and that was it I mean how can you not like how could you not like being around Jesse and you don't know mark yeah yeah well for those that are listening we got the two guys here sitting like right off camera I mean and Jesse is such an amazing person yeah he said he's a he's such a beautiful and also charismatic natural leader and he's just all about the group you know what I mean you spent 15 minutes around Jesse you're gonna feel like you can conquer the world I know I know he's very gifted I'm so thankful for his friendship and you know he's taught me so much you know you talked about Jesse saying I was his like go-to guy well Jesse's also my go-to guy you know we it's it's a friendship we just share with each other the lessons that that have worked for us right so do you live around Atlanta now or where do where do you call home we just moved back to Atlanta my wife and I about three or three or four weeks ago okay yeah so we just left Virginia Beach and we're loving life man I know what George is awesome what's uh what's a typical day look like for you training wise um so typical day rich I wake up in the morning around 6 o'clock I give the first fruits of my day to God so that maybe that's five minutes maybe that's 45 minutes either studying his word or prayer move on from there a French press a little coffee get a cup of coffee in and then I'm training from 8:00 you know 7:00 or 8:00 in the morning until noon mm-hmm so I'm taking a four I'm blocking out four to five hours a day usually to train that is all dependent on what I'm training for or where I'm at within that training cycle so it could be a four hour hike it could be a thirty mile run it could be intervals it could be interval it could be a long run plus strength training it's different depending on obviously what I'm training do you work with a coach or are you doing this yourself yeah I don't I don't work with a coach and you know I've been we've been doing I've been doing kind of hard stuff running endurance type stuff for so long I mean that all that stuff was born in the in the SEAL Teams you know that um I just I've reached a point that I can listen to my body and kind of know when I need to push hard and when I need to back off so I haven't really got to the point that I need a coach yet right and what are you currently training for like what's what's the big race that you're keying on right now so the revenant in January that's that's a big one and then I'll probably do cruel Jule again in May that race in North Georgia where tore my hamstring I actually finished eighth place out there two years ago so I'm thinking I can go back now with a little more knowledge and a stronger body and hopefully you know do very much better and what about Berkeley um let me I got a crack the revenue yes man I mean yeah well talking about Berkeley well let's pivot a little bit to talking about like I'm interested in hearing more about you know your wisdom that could be helpful to people that are listening out there we're embarking on a new year and you know like I said at the outset you know people are trying to wrap their heads around how to achieve these goals that they've set for themselves and what do you think are some of the biggest obstacles that people put in front of themselves unnecessarily so one of the one of the big ones for me personally is overthinking stuff man and that just I mean it just goes back to to simplifying a situation you know so if you set a goal for yourself or you might be trying to establish a goal for me there's only two questions is this something that you want and are you going to have fun along the journey along the way so whatever that goal may be instead of sitting there thinking about it and stressing about and thinking about everything that's that could potentially stop you or hinder you just make sure it's what you want make sure you're gonna have fun on the journey to accomplishing that goal and then just rock and roll with it get started you start surrounding yourself with with the people that are that are going to help you the people that might have the knowledge that you need to accomplish that goal start you know utilizing your time better to you know to accomplish your goal or to reach the point that you're trying to it's utilizing all those tools that the universal tools that we all have we have people we have time all of us have these things some of us may have a little more than others but that doesn't matter what about the guy who sends you with DM on Instagram and says man I'm so inspired by all these things that you've done I'd love to run an ultra one day but like you know I I life Stu busy for that oh man you have time for what you what you make time for man your life that to me it's not a valid excuse dude here's the thing at that specific question I just did to know a month ago I did two back-to-back hundred mile races I did a hundred mile er called the Georgia jewel I placed second place there the week after that I did another hundred mile ER with Jesse so back-to-back prior to those races the three months prior to those races I had only averaged about 20 miles per week of training Wow so the the time commitment if people people just blow up the training cycle that that they think has to proceed these races man you know the time commitment is not that that significant and was the idea that before you're gonna run 100 miler you got to put in two years of consistent hundred mile weeks exactly man I just I don't I don't subscribe to that there again I think somebody that that doesn't have much running background if they if they surround themselves with people that can kind of give them the right the right advice from a mindset standpoint and also just from how to take care of yourself standpoint that that the training commitment is not that great it's it's all for me it's all about just having a strong healthy body and spending time on your feet man yeah so what is the the mental routine that you that you utilize to get your head right for these things I mean I guess it's baked into you at this point but if you were coaching somebody who you know isn't skilled at at you know measuring their spoken words or you know doesn't quite have the ability to kind of master their emotional state because they're you know have some mental weaknesses like how do you get that person to the next level I would tell them after we talked about the spoken word we talked about all those tools when the pain gets when this self-inflicted pain when it gets to be significant and you think that you just cannot handle it the biggest thing that I do is I stop fighting against it and I understand that like I I reached this steady state I call it the steady state to where yeah it hurts but I understand that it's not going to hurt any worse because it already hurts as bad and you know as bad as it can and then I stopped fighting against the pain because when you fight like when you're using your your energy like emotionally to like battle against this pain and you're hating it you know you're just hating this feeling that you're having it actually gives that pain more power over you and I learned this in trend and buds man with the cold when they put us in a surf zone and yeah and frees us to death it's like when you would fight against the cold you just got colder and you were just more miserable but when you just accepted the fact that oh I'm cold and you just let that feeling just pass through you it's it's like freeing you free up this well of energy that you can then use to to carry on with your mission right right and how does that play out in other areas of your life outside of running outside of running so I'll tell you rich how that plays out is we talk about not fighting against the things that that we hate like I hate the cold so I stop fighting against the cold in my life or in in all of our lives we only have a certain amount of energy every single day so we choose how we want to use our energy every every interaction that we have every post we make every email we respond to every word we say is a withdrawal from our tank of energy I try to remain constantly aware of how I'm using that precious energy and I use that energy never to fight against the things that I might not agree with the things that I might hate but I try to use that energy to foster and promote the things that have worked for me that I believed and have found to be true and pure and and the message that that I've been delivered you know so using that energy not fighting against the things that you might hate because that's just going to grind you down man no matter what the issue is if it's a political or a social issue you're wasting your time and usually it's not effective anyway it's not usually you can make the biggest impact on the things that you hate hmm by promoting the things that you love and it's so much easier to promote the things that you love I think that's very wise and we could all use a little bit more of that particularly in our public discourse and on social media and there's a you know there is a significant portion of the population that exerts a huge amount of energy trying to tear other people down or just getting into arguments and fighting with people and it's not effective and I think it wears on your soul and I think there's a sense of like weirdly look there's a sense of accomplishment that people have when they do it like they think that they've actually like if you feel strongly about something and you criticize somebody else because they see the world differently there's a sense that you actually are advancing your cause by doing that and I think that that's an illusion and I think it's it's it it really does kind of I wrote it there's an erosion on yourself when you participate in that and I I'm always challenged though because I think it is important to speak up for what you believe in right and there's a lot of dissonance out there right now and there's a lot of problems in the world and a lot of you know things that we could be doing better that we're not doing but what is the best way to accomplish those things yeah you know totally and this it's like I said rich this is this is just my perspective management just works for what works for me I think you're you know you saying that yeah you should stand up for the things that you believe in like yes that has validity but you know to put this in practical terms if there's an issue in today's society that I don't agree with you're not going to find me in town holding a poster board right marching against this cause you're not going to find me posting things out into so so media that are warring against this cause you're gonna find me marching for the things that I believe in and to be pure and true it's so much easier to do that yeah I know that's a way better life better for you too okay in brother you know no kid so what is the bigot we're gonna wrap this up in a minute but what what is the what is the thing that you're still struggling with like when you look at yourself or you know where you want to do better and be better like talk to me about the obstacles that you're grappling with now and how you're trying to overcome them I would say one of the biggest obstacles that I'm I'm grappling with right now and I hate even calling it an obstacle man because it's just something that I need to an opportunity yeah it's just something that I'm aware of right now is that kind of as as things as my life starts rolling now and and you know as things kind of grow and get bigger with three of seven and and the stuff that we have going on the biggest thing that I try to remain aware of is I never want all this all the stuff like all the social media and and just all the the phone calls and the emails I never want that to get in the way of our tarnish the purity of myself or the things that I that that I my message yeah you know what I mean so that's something that I that's right so I just try to stay aware of that man and and not that I'm not that I'm famous or anything on any in any I'm not even close to that but things you know are the influence with three of seven we get you know I get messages every day and you know it takes time to respond all that stuff and I have to say okay this four or five-hour block in the morning this is non-negotiable this is my time to go spend in the woods doing what I love to do because if I don't keep my own ship in order I can't do anything for anybody else yeah so maybe that sums it up keeping my own ship in order so I can carry on be the best advocate that you can be and I feel you man and it gets you know it gets it gets hard to do rather well basically people dangle in front of you like you know shiny things like cool opportunities to go to cool places and do cool stuff yeah and and sometimes that's great you know but also it can be at the cost of making sure that you have boundaries around those things so I've been on both sides of that and it gets it's it's hard but I think your your your heads in the right place with trying to make sure that you protect that because without that there's nothing there's nothing man you know there's nothing and also being the best husband that I can be that's another thing you know that's part of my shift as I say keeping my own ship in order that that's my wife and I our family a view that as a whole right you know so that's all part of that man cool all right well let's end this with a final thought for the person who's who's out there and feels stuck there in a rut maybe they're not happy with their job or they're trying to get off the couch and move their body for the first time in a long time like how do we how do we cattle-prod that that that that dude or that young lady to get after it a little bit more come on man bring us home man I am not much of a liar use my life coach bro I am not much of a cattle prodder that's a that's the thing rich I mean like I said I just I'm so hesitant to give advice or to try to tell someone what to do I mean I I guess I could just keep it super simple and and and you know go over the things we talked about simplify things don't be afraid to put yourself in adverse situations because that's where you're going to grow as a human being the decisions you make in times of adversity self-inflicted or or totally out of your control are the things that those decisions define who you are as a human but don't fear inflicting that adversity on yourself because it's going to help you grow as a human being so I would say go put yourself through a little adversity it may be it may be only running for five minutes to start with it may not be running I may be something completely different than that yeah but don't fear it because I feel like it's essential for us as humans to experience that in life and the last thing that I would say is if you're struggling emotionally from that kind of aspect is take a look at your body soul and spirit look at those three aspects of your humanity each as a single length and think about what are you doing on a day-to-day basis to master nourish and maintain your body your soul and spirit and usually that can be used as a diagnostic to see okay I am lacking here I'm lacking and I need to get some help with my emotional side my will what I want and don't want to do do I want to get out of bed in the morning do I not want to get out of it you know that type of stuff and then the spiritual side you know that can be it doesn't matter what it is it could be spending time in nature for me it's spending time in God's Word it could it could be anything you know right well for somebody who is very reluctant to provide a little I mean I guess I called it the cattle prod but you know a little wisdom and advice I think that's very beautifully said man thank you rich I appreciate it thank you for coming here today I appreciate it and thank you for your service and please come back and talk to me some more about Roger take it next time we got it we got to go running now oh yeah you went running in Beverly Hills today right LA I like dude I was about to have a pain it was crazy man that's pretty good I'm thankful to be out here in the country today max Knight yeah this is joked with you ahead of time this is the North Georgia of Lausanne that's it next time you know where to hang out and stay thank you so if people want to connect with you instagrams the best place for them to find you yeah Instagram it's not you can put it in the show notes eh ad w RI ght 2 7 8 is my Instagram panel and then also if you're interested in more about 3 of 7 project that's just 3 of 7 project comm right and you can find that on Apple podcasts and all that kinda stuff so the the podcast portion is 3 of 7 podcast and yeah that's on Apple on your blog and all that kind of you can yeah you can find the podcast on the website 3 of 7 project comm so yeah you can find it if if you're meant to find it you'll find it it's easy cool all right man thank you brother thank you god bless you [Music]

Channel: Rich Roll

Views: 737,830

Rating: 4.8738151 out of 5

Keywords: rich roll, rich roll podcast, self-improvement podcasts, education podcasts, health podcasts, wellness podcasts, fitness podcasts, spirituality podcasts, mindfulness podcasts, mindset podcast, vegan podcasts, plant-based nutrition, chadd wright, chadd wright navy seal, navy seal mindset, ultrarunning podcast, special forces podcast, navy seal mental toughness, rich roll chadd wright, endurance podcast, new years resolutions, new years resolutions navy seal

Id: vPktBJzi88g

Length: 108min 15sec (6495 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 06 2020