Good morning! It’s Monday, another great start to the week. Here on Live a Life by Design, I’m your host Jimmy Williams coming to you live this morning with your Monday morning moments of motivation. Something that will get you started on your week to success and reach your full potential in life. Hey, it has been a pleasure these last few months, coming to you, every Monday with something that’s empowering you to give your life the opportunity that is so within you that wants to come out. And make you a bigger, better, and bolder you for the world to benefit.
Today we’re gonna talk about something that I know is faced by everyone in our audience. Myself, I face this literally on a daily basis. I’m talking about overcoming adversity. When we work toward any accomplishment in life, there are always those people, maybe those obstacles, those things in life that try to hold us back and keep us in that comfort zone, keep us where we are in the status quo instead of reaching for the golden ring to make us better. We’re gonna talk today about how some of these forms of adversity can be overcome. Before I do though, I want to do one simple request that may help us help you. Take a look around this website at some of our opportunities for you to learn from the coaching programs we have, the speaking opportunities, the webinars we provide. Look at the website, see if there’s something that might be helpful to you and we’ll gladly reach out and give you some useful tools and tactics and strategies to help you become, as I say, a bigger, better, and bolder you. The other thing I’d like for you to do is go to iTunes, SoundCloud, wherever you may listen to podcasts. Listen to this podcast, many many of you have listened, reviewed, rated it, we certainly appreciate it. Subscribe to the podcast, give yourself the opportunity to have a positive voice on a Monday morning. You know I’m one of those people, I’ve said in the past I just don’t like to listen to the news of today. Today’s news doesn’t tell us anything positive in life, but only wants to fill our minds with those things that are negative, condescending, it paints the picture in our mind which we do realize that day that we are going to have a horrible day by listening to all the negativity. We want to reverse that for you. We want you to listen to this podcast first thing when you arise in the morning. Give your brain that positive, pure and powerful message to get you started on the day that you deserve.
Adversity
Let’s talk about adversity for just a moment. I’ve got a special guest that will be on later in the podcast. And this episode we’re gonna talk to a gentleman that has overcome the most extreme adversity and we’re gonna talk in more detail about that in just a few moments. But first and foremost let’s look at some of the adversity that exists. You know, adversity comes to our life in all forms and facets. You know, two effects of adversity are this:
- it can make you better by overcoming it, or
- it’ll keep you discouraged.
The big decision is, you are the one that can ultimately decide and realize which of these two answers you wish. So, are you going to make your life better and be a better you? Or, are you going to continue in your discouraged self? I think we’re gonna choose the former over the latter. I’m going to show you how to get that done in just a few moments.
You know for many years back in 1954, and prior to that, the human body had never conquered the four-minute mile. Four minutes to run a mile. That seemed impossible. Medical doctors said that the human body could not withstand the pressure that it would take to produce a sub-four-minute mile. Many people stood around athletes that were elite of their day and told them you’ll never be able to run a sub-four-minute mile. You just aren’t made as a human to do that. Your brain can’t withstand it, your lungs can’t produce the oxygen necessary to fire the muscles that are needed to run a sub-four-minute mile. But you see there was a man that didn’t listen to what I call the naysayers. Yea you know those people. The ones that are uncomfortable in life because you are taking your life to the next level, you are realizing the dreams that you’ve had for you and your family. You that are progressing in your career at a much more quick pace than they. Because you invest in yourself and your time; to grow. Well, this gentleman decided he would develop a plan that would help him break the four-minute mile barrier. This gentleman’s name was Roger Bannister. Roger Bannister was an athlete of his time, he was also a neurosurgeon. Roger Bannister didn’t listen to those around him that said you can not, and implanted in his mind, for the day until he reached his goal, an I can attitude. He said to himself, I just have to find a way to make it happen. He didn’t sit down and determine what he didn’t have, he sat down and said what do I have and how can I accomplish this goal? So Roger sat down with four other elite athletes. He then set out a course of a one-mile track and these athletes worked to help pace him for the quarter mile at the pace necessary to be a sub-four-minute mile. So, he would have a fresh athlete, if you will, pacing him at every quarter-mile. This was his motivation to maintain the proper speed, the cadence of his feet, his breathing, his mindset, and his eyes focused only on that ahead of him, not what was behind or beside him That’s the key here, right? If we’re always looking ahead we can’t be dragged down in the mire and the negativity and the consequences of what’s behind or yesterday. Yesterday was in the past for Roger Bannister, today was the day he was going to break the four-minute mile barrier. On May 6th, 1954 Roger Bannister became the first man to ever break the four-minute mile barrier. That’s right, he didn’t get it done in one day, but by training with the appropriate goals aligned with his ultimate goal of breaking that sub-four-minute mile, Roger Bannister became the first man to ever run a sub-four-minute mile. Now I know what you’re thinking, cause our listeners are some of the most empowered people, they’re saying well wait a minute Jimmy, I know a lot of people that have now run a sub-four-minute mile. You’re absolutely right. There are some men that saw Roger Bannister when he passed that record book and had his name listed and they themselves said, “well, if Roger Bannister can do a four-minute or less mile, perhaps we can do a three-fifty-four mile”. Three minutes and fifty-four seconds to run a mile. Now that’s a pretty daunting task just to trim six seconds from a record. It has been done. There are other athletes now that have come after Roger Bannister when he had paved the way with greatness with a mindset of I can and now have broken even Roger Bannister’s record for a sub-four-minute mile.
As I said earlier, don’t listen to naysayers. By becoming your potential you and realizing the greatness within you, many people may feel uncomfortable or inferior because you changed and they didn’t have the same courage. I’m reminded of the certain crab that’s caught in the Atlantic Ocean, and this crab is caught all day long by the hundreds, if not thousands. This certain crab will follow into a cage to get some meat. This cage is an open cage at the top, the meat is just sitting down in the bottom of this cage. And the first crab to go in gets to start eating on the meat that’s at the bottom of the cage. Before too long his friends see him inside eating all of this nice food, they come in the open top of the cage. Keep in mind there is no trap door at the top, there’s nothing to keep them in the cage, they simply get in the cage and start dining. And before you know it, there are literally ten if not twenty crabs sitting down in the bottom of this cage. And just eating away at the bait. The next thing that happens, one of the crabs decide that, well I think I’ve had enough and I’m going to leave. As the crab starts climbing up the edge of the cage, going toward the mouth of the opening of the trap, his fellow crabs will pull him down from the side of the cage. You see, they don’t want anyone to be different than they. They followed him in to eat, to their peril and doom, and they don’t wish for this crab to leave. I’ll tell you how bad it gets, that should the crab continue to try and climb the walls, the other crabs inside this cage in this trap will attempt to tear off the claws of the crab, thereby dooming him obviously to death, unable to defend himself. You see people are like this, maybe not so egregiously as the crab, but some people are like this, they really don’t want you to succeed because they are themselves not succeeding in the manner they wish. You see Muhammad Ali, the great boxing champion, had some controversy around himself during the Vietman War for example. He also had controversy during his career, but one thing you had to admire about Muhammad Ali, as a heavyweight champion was his ability to set a goal, set the action steps necessary to reach the goal and then to execute flawlessly. Yes, I said flawlessly, that didn’t look like it at the time, right? But I assure you he reached his goal. One of my favorite quotes of Muhammad Ali, “I hated every minute of training, but I said don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion. ” Man those are powerful words. You see it’s just that one extra movement that one extra step. That one extra thought that might be the pinnacle to take you over the edge to greatness.
You see your brain truly only has one role in life. And that is simply to keep your body alive and functioning. It is a survival mechanism. Many times you see activities that make be imperiling to you, for example, if you see a tightrope walker across Niagara Falls and you go to yourself, “oh my goodness I couldn’t do that”, that’s simply your brain going into the protection mode of, “ok I’ve got to make certain I don’t make a decision that could cause this body to be harmed and ultimately my brain to quit.” So your brain also has the opposite effect. It is a super computer of human nature that can perform amazing feats if it’s properly trained. For example, there were no such things as electric filament light bulbs that would last any period of time until a certain gentleman named Edison, through many many failures and never quitting, finally reached the filament that would last. Thomas Edison then became known as the man that “invented” the light bulb, and that’s not true. Thomas Edison merely invented the filament that would last in the light bulb in a productive state. How about this gentleman, Robert Oppenheimer. Many of you may not know who Dr. Robert Oppenheimer is, but he’s saved perhaps millions of lives by doing one thing. He built greatness on the back of another great gentleman, Dr. Einstein. Dr. Oppenheimer was the primary developer of the atomic bomb. Yes, this bomb dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima to end the war of all wars at that time, World War II. Japan surrenders after the second bombing, ultimately saving millions of Japanese and allied lives. And the third person that I want you to think about, this person changed the way we think of time and space quantum. Now I know this is a deep topic, but think about this from the physics standpoint, although his body didn’t support such a massive thought, his brain overcame a devastating disease, which for most people means they never live very far beyond their twenties. Yes, I’m talking about Stephen Hawking. This gentleman had such an ability to will himself to greatness. He overcame tremendous obstacles.
Steps for overcoming adversity
So the three steps today that I want to give you of overcoming adversity are this: Simple yet powerful, here they are.
Number one, I want you to stop what you’re doing. That’s right, find a quiet moment to stop. It’s hard to watch the movie when you’re in it, is a phrase I’ve used many times. Stop what you’re doing. Sit down for a minute, and get away from the noise of the world and the negativity of the world. And simply just stop and sit still.
Then step two, don’t think of your current circumstances. Don’t think of your adversity, think of what your desired end result would be. What you want to see happen. Think of that and place that on your journal or your notepad at the top. This is where I want to be. That’s my destination. That’s where I want to be as my goal. For Roger Bannister it said run a sub-four-minute mile, right?
The last step is the next action step. I didn’t say he got up and ran the sub-four-minute mile immediately, he trained for months. He got appropriate people around him to help him achieve his goal. You may need to find someone that helps you. A coach, perhaps some of our coaching services, I currently coach many people. And they did not realize that within them was the greatness they were trying to achieve, they just needed someone to help channel that energy in the proper direction.
So this week my challenge for you is this, list one item of adversity that you wish to overcome this week. Email your adversity challenge to us. And now our interview with Randy Thurman.
Guest: Randy Thurman
JW: Folks I am excited today. Our guest today is a gentleman that has inspired me deeply in my personal and professional life. He’s not only one of my best friends, he’s a mentor, he’s a coach, he’s someone that I can depend on when the going gets tough. When I face adversity, I call this gentleman, night or day. And he can help me through any situation. I want to introduce to you this morning, my special guest, Randy Thurman. Good morning Randy.
RT: Good morning, Jimmy it’s great to be here.
JW: I tell you what man, I have been looking forward to this. You’re a very busy person, you run a thriving business. You’re an author of books, many many titles, including one on running that I find interesting. Care to tell our audience a little bit about why you wrote a running book?
RT: One day I woke up and I was two hundred and five pounds, which is about 35% body fat for me. And I said, I need to try to be doing something, getting out and exercising a little bit, and moving, so I just thought and made the decision to run a marathon that year. So I got out and made a plan, started running and I found that inspirational quotes really helped me. I started gathering inspirational quotes, and I put it all together in a little running book called One More Step, of inspirational quotes and my journey to the marathon.
JW: Wow, I’ve got to tell you folks, I’ve read this book and don’t want to brag, but I’ve got an autographed author’s copy that sits on my library shelf, very inspirational stuff, Randy. Let me ask you a couple of things though, when you got up that morning and decided, you know hey, I’m a little heavier than I choose to be, did you get up and say well you know that’s just how life is, or did you face it in a different way
RT: Well, you know there comes a point in time, I think in a lot of different areas when you just go, here’s a moment where I’ve got to make a decision, and am I going to go down the same path or am I going to make a better decision, a better choice. It would have been easier if I would have made that decision earlier, but I didn’t, I got to the point where I got to make it and I just decided to do it and I did it and I had a plan and I worked the plan.
JW: I love that, so what I hope our listeners took from that I heard first thing from you is that you wished you had started earlier. There is a statement I always use Randy, that you’ve probably heard me say a hundred times, but I always say to people, on my tombstone I wish to have the saying of “I’m glad I did, not I wish I had”.
RT: That’s wonderful I like that.
JW: So let’s talk a little bit more about your background for our listeners, so I’ve listed you as an author, you’re an inspiring speaker across this state and the stage of the world. We’ve shared the stage all across the US at times in places such as Las Vegas, and so forth, but tell us a little more about your background, where were you raised?
RT: Well Jimmy I grew up in Harrah, OK, the big metropolis of Harrah. Population about 2,000, I believe. I grew up on a farm and raised pigs and milked cows. Anyone that tells you that cows give milk, have never milked cows. Cause you have to work for it. Then I went to Oklahoma State University, got an electrical engineering degree, BA, saved up about $6500 working minimum wage jobs over the course of seven years, and went to work for a bank and I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my life. Searching, searching, was asking, praying and just didn’t get any answers and my stock broker called me up and invested my life savings into investments, after which the stockbroker lost all my life savings with the stock tips that he gave me, and I cannot even begin to tell you how painful that was at the time. And you know it’s funny how life works out. It was actually the best thing that could ever happen to me because then I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. And that was to be a financial adviser. And this adversity turned into the best thing that could have happened.
JW: You know you just told me two areas of adversity that you’ve overcome through life, and I know just recently and I don’t want to get too personal as I said, but I know recently you faced another adversity where you met the challenge and exceeded what was necessary to make certain that your father enjoyed the highest quality of life that was possible during his last few years Do you care to give a few comments about that, not to get too personal, but to let our audience understand that things happen in life no matter who we are, or what state of life that we are, it doesn’t matter, if we’re ultra-rich, or we’re very poor, life has challenges. Wouldn’t you agree?
RT: Definitely Jimmy, life does have challenges, and you know my father passed away last year, you know he was probably the most inspirational person in my life and it was tough, but I tell you we went through the last three years of this life, he was in a nursing home and while they were taking care of him, I visited with him, virtually every evening, and a lot over the weekends and I’d like to tell you every evening and every day I looked forward to going to see him, and most days I certainly did, but there were some days it was tough. I was tired, exhausted, worked all week, and yet, one of the things that helped me through that is every time I felt like that I said, you now, just today, just today, I’m going to be upbeat and positive and I’m going to do my best and make it a very special evening for him or weekend for him and I’ll worry about tomorrow, tomorrow, because today I’m going to be on top of my game. Life is challenging sometimes, it’s part of the deal.
JW: You know my father always told me, he had a very limited education, Randy, he only had a 6th grade education, but he learned a Ph.D. in logistics and transportation through a 42 year career, but he always said that challenges and adversity are what adds the color to a black and white page of life. How do you feel about that?
RT: Ah that’s incredible, that needs to be in a quote right there.
JW: Well I told my dad, you know I’d like for that crayon to be a little brighter some days, but that’s how it is. Hey, talk to me real quick about what is your greatest accomplishment, you know we talked about adversity and what you’ve overcome, but talk to me about your greatest accomplishment, say in your career and your life at this point.
RT: My greatest accomplishment in my areer would probably, well it would be starting up and having an incredibly successful business from scratch, with all the regulatory systems today, tax systems and everything that goes on, it’s tough to build a business from scratch, and today we have a thriving business and working employees and some people say it’s not that big but we think it’s pretty wonderful in terms of business, the business side of the equation. Of life, it has to be being a father, right? I think you might agree with that. One of the most rewarding and yet the most challenging job at times too. I have a wonderful son, with Asperger’s syndrome, so it’s a little bit of a challenge now and then. But he’s just incredible, and I’m so proud of him and what he’s become as a young man, and that would have to be my greatest accomplishment in terms of family or life.
JW: You know it’s funny how you say life has its challenges and talking about some of the things you’ve faced in your past. We’re going to talk in just a little bit about one of the biggest challenges your family faced, and we’re going to talk about that horrific day. But I want to say it this way, that life, to our listeners, life is like this to me. It’s the one that gives you the test first, and then you learn the lesson. So it’s totally opposite than anything they teach us in school or college, right?
RT: That’s right, and you think about it, adversity and those challenges are probably the greatest classroom, right.
JW: Absolutely, well let’s do this, talk to me a little bit about who is your mentor, and why are they your mentor?
RT: Are you asking family or non-family?
JW: I’m asking you what inspires you to be the biggest, baddest, boldest Randy there is? Who is that person?
RT: Well, I’d have to go back again with my dad. You know my dad grew up and he was poor, and I was poor, right, it’s all relative. And he grew up in a one-room house with a brother and two sisters and his dad died at a very early age, and he sometimes, he said, ya know that adversity in his life caused him to be a better father, a better version. So a lot of things, how he looked at things, how he reacted to things. We don’t have complete control of things that happen, but we do have complete control of how we respond, and sure he lost his dad and he came through it and they didn’t have running water, they had to pump water, they had an outhouse, and he grew up and was very successful as a football coach and I just admired that.
JW: Ah fantastic. And what little I have been around your father, which was very, very little, but I do get to read a lot, and have seen a lot of his photos with you and your son, and on the football field at OSU where you attended your university years. Quite an inspiring man. The story I know of him is awfully inspirational to me. Let’s talk about something I alluded to just a moment ago. Something occurred in your life with your family when your son was a very small child. That was devastating not just to your house, and your family, but to the entire community of Moore, OK and South Oklahoma City. Could you give us a little bit of information about what happened, and what was that? Cause I know it’s in your memory.
RT: That was on May 3rd, 1999, where a little F-5 tornado went through our house at 318 miles per hour and that was certainly a challenging event in our life. The only thing left after it was over, we went to the bedroom closet and the only thing left when it was over was a 3′ by 3′ piece of carpet and rubble. We were on top of the carpet on the front pages of the Sunday Oklahoman, a newspaper at the time, their story of survival and it was just a certainly a miracle.
JW: Well describe the feelings you know, some of our listeners, I’m sure have never faced that type of adversity Randy, give me some idea, what are the first human characteristics that you faced when you dug yourself out of this rubble and you look around to see that this beautiful home that your family had worked so hard to achieve is now reduced to a pile of wood and brick and stone just sitting around you? What was your first feelings?
RT: Well it’s a little bit surreal, and I, we were in the bedroom closet in one moment and the next moment we’re outside. And we weren’t buried under anything, we were the first ones out in our neighborhood because we had nothing to get out of. Our other neighbors were buried under rubble, and we had to get them out. It was just a real weird feeling, and another thing that was odd, is your brain just kicks in, and you’re not fearful necessarily, you just do what you have to do to survive and get things done and it was maybe four hours later when you look back and you go into a cold sweat, it’s odd how the brain works in those situations.
JW: You know you go into survival mode, I talked about that a little bit earlier before you were included in this episode of the podcast about adversity and what the brain does for survival. You know your brain really does one thing, it’s to keep the body alive. Right?
RT: That’s right.
JW: So let’s talk a little bit then about, what one strategy or tactic do you utilize when you’re confronted with and adversarial situation for example?
RT: Well, you’d think about every adversarial situation, adversity, every failure, every heartache, carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit, and we can learn from that and we can use that to help others and because there are others that are going through that situation and you can help those people you know, there’s a great quote, Jimmy, that I often look at from Mel Robbins, “You’ve been assigned this mountain so that you can show others it can be moved”. And I think that’s a lot about adversity in life. That maybe, maybe we’re having this adversity so that later on we can show others you can make it, you can get through this.
JW: Wow, that’s a powerful statement. I’ve read Mel’s book, you know The Five Second Rule, an outstanding book for our listeners if they want to get a book that’s motivational yet also calming to the point of how to solve an adversarial issue in their own lives is called, The Five Second Rule, by Mel Robbins. Great book. So let me ask you this, you’ve written some books that I’ve really enjoyed and I’ve had the honor and privilege of writing the forward to one of these books, but let’s talk about the most recent book called More Than a Millionaire. I want to visit with you not so much on the tactics of what you can do to help on reading this book and implementing those tactics to becoming a millionaire, I want to talk to you and inspire our audience a little bit on why you even wrote the book.
RT: Well, that’s a great question and that’s not one that I’ve shared very much, or mentioned at all actually. That the thing about a book is it’s going to be there long after I’m gone from this earth. And it’s kind of a legacy and it was meant to help people long after I’m gone to be able to not only be financially independent, but be happier in the process, be happier in their lives, and having a great balance in life, you know, it’s not about dying with the most chips, right? And the flip side of the question is not about just hoarding your money and not enjoying it, it’s about enjoying life because you need to enjoy it while you can, so it’s a balance too, in the book there’s a chapter on the traits of the wealthy and happy and that balance. So it’s really a legacy, Jimmy, something that will go far beyond my lifetime.
JW: Oh that’s fantastic. I often kid my wife, as we’ve added to my library at home, and I’ve seen your personal library and you are ahead of me actually, but my wife one day came to me she said, “You do understand that we’re about at full capacity on your library”, and I said, “What you’ve got to understand is my goal”. And she said, “What goal is that honey?”, and I said “I only want about half the volumes of President Jefferson”. She didn’t understand that so I had to clarify a little bit, and I clarified by saying he only had about 70,000 volumes of books. Scattered all over. So, let’s talk a little bit about a couple of other things I want to visit with to inspire our audience. So you now run marathons, and half marathons, and you are pretty diligent about what you do on your runs. Tell us about your morning routine, cause you turned me on to a book once, by a gentleman named Hal Elrod and I actually changed my life by implementing some of these strategies in this book and it’s just simply titled The Morning Miracle. Give us a little bit about your morning miracles that you perform each morning.
RT: I start off with having a week schedule, trying to have my perfect week, right. And then I break that down into each day. What I want to accomplish that day, then I break that down in more terms in the morning. What I want to do in the morning, and I have try to work out six days a week, I say try, you know what was it that Yoda says “Do or do no, there is no try”.
JW: When you start quoting Star Wars, I know we’re in a good podcast cause that’s great stuff.
RT: Yeah, so in the morning I try to wake up happy and I’d like to tell you that I always do that. I don’t, but if I don’t wake up happy and I act happy, and act inspired and work that way or try to work, more times than not it helps me; sing a little song, you know, if you wanna sing a song, you’ll find a song, right, so then I go out and I stretch and I run, and I do that three to four times a week and then I try to do the upper body workout three times a week, go from there and that to me is part of my perfect week. And it all starts in the morning. And eating a good breakfast.
JW: So Randy, tell me this, am I understanding you correctly, that you actually plan, execute and evaluate your activities for the week?
RT: I’m a week person. I think you should take at least, for me, maybe it’s not for everyone, but I think you should take your chunks of time and weekly chunks. I actually have lifetime goals, and I got that down to ten year goals, and five year goals, and one year goals. And quarterly goals, and monthly goals, and I break that down into weekly goals. I actually do all that, and it does help me be more productive and happier in the end. In fact, that weekly is a great chunk of time in terms of tackling things I think.
JW: No, I think that’s a great idea. I actually use a planner that allows me to focus on my three biggest if you will, three biggest challenges for the week that I wish to overcome, or three biggest goals, or weekly big three, it’s called in the planner. I like to sit down and plan that for the week, next week for example. But I like to do something Randy, that I’m sure you do as well. I feel such empowerment, and I feel so inspired when I can get those weekly big three done by Wednesday at noon. Now I know that sounds a little over jazzed up but I’m just saying to you that’s kinda my goal. I tackle the hard stuff first, the rest of the week is easy wouldn’t you think?
RT: I think so, I’m curious, what planner do you use Jimmy?
JW: I use what’s called the Full Focus Planners, put out by Michael Hyatt and Company and it’s really transformed the way I do my planning. It has everything I need to coordinate what I used to do totally electronic. And I will tell you I’m very technical, I like to use my technology, but there’s something about putting the thought down on paper, Randy, that helps me really ingrain in my mind what the goal is; make it more clear and it gives me a vision or a pathway to achievement far better than just putting it on my iPad or phone. What do you do?
RT: Well for years and years and years I just used a spiral notebook and just wrote down my weekly goals and wrote those down and on the right hand side I’d write my prayer list and that way I’d have that. I also have a goal board for that I have on the wall of my office. Where my annual goals and I’m constantly looking at those so their right in front of me. When I accomplish a goal I just erase it off. I’ve got basically eight different areas of life, and I’ve got about 12 goals on that. I’ve got my book and tapes that I want to read and listen to.
JW: Ah man, that’s fantastic, now I’ve got to ask you to do a little confession time here on our podcast. You know, Live a Life by Design, Randy, is all about honesty to the people that listen to this podcast. Here it goes. Have you ever completed a task and then written it down in your book just so you could highlight it off or mark it off as accomplished?
RT: No I have done that, and I’ve written that down. And I tried to rationalize that because I’ll say, well, I’ll look back and I’ll want to make sure that I know that I’ve got that done, right. But it always feels good to cross those things off, doesn’t it?
JW: You know, absolutely. You know our brain has releases a chemical through our body called endorphins, right, that keeps you motivated and going like when we get scared or something like on a roller coaster for example, or someone chasing you that’s much bigger than you, you get these endorphins going that keeps the body going faster. So let me as you this Randy, before we wrap up today. One thing I would like to know is if you could change one thing about your life, what would it be?
RT: Wow, ok, um, that’s a tough question. You know this, to say that I’d like to change some things in my life would mean that I would want to change who I am today, because who I am today is all what happened over the course of my life. But to try and answer the question, I think I’d say that I’d want to try and find humor in things, to laugh more would be my one thing, ya know, and during the tornado they wouldn’t let us back in for a couple of days, when we came back in you know it’s all nothing but rubble, right, it was just all nothing but rubble. I came up to the house, there’s nothing there, and in the driveway there’s a cassette tape in pristine condition, pristine condition, out of hundreds and hundreds of cassette tapes I had, they’re all gone except for this one tape in the driveway. And I come up on to it, and I’m like what is this tape, it’s almost like it’s meant to be found, and it was how to organize your life and remove your clutter.
JW: I’m sorry to laugh, but that’s pretty humorous Randy.
RT: I know! And you just have to laugh and it took that incredibly intense situation, difficult situation and made it better through laughter and I think the Bible says the very hard something is like medicine. It is true. I guess looking back I wish in tough situations I would have laughed more, found the humor in them.
JW: That, I think you know me well enough, I’m not laughing at you friend, I’m laughing with you in that respect, because that is pretty humorous in my opinion. I will say this, one thing that I know about you is and I’ve always instilled this in our listeners throughout these months is that you need to be honest first with yourself, in other words, what you do Randy, it sounds like you’re honest with yourself about where you are in life, where you wish to be in life, and it’s simply then a task of making those two ends meet. How do you feel about that comment?
RT: I think it’s great, and I think you start with the end in mind, right? So you start with the end in mind, look where you want to be and you don’t want to be like Alice in Wonderland when she comes up on the Cheshire cat, and goes is this the way, and it goes where are you going and she goes, I don’t know and he says that’s the way. So you want to know where you’re going and when your road is going to get you there, so, and I think it’s important to put in writing, put your plans in writing. Doesn’t mean it won’t change or alter, but something about putting it in writing, Jimmy, I just think that increases the probability of success.
JW: Certainly agree with that, and I’ll be honest with our listeners here again. I’ve not ever met a hundred percent of all of my goals that I set each year, because I set these goals, Randy, that I consider to be real stretch goals, real life changing goals and my best year ever was I met ninety-two percent of them.
RT: That’s pretty good Jimmy, you know I have that goal board on my wall, I think you’ve seen.
JW: I have.
RT: And I think my best year was eighty five percent, so I’m impressed.
JW: Well, actually, maybe I just didn’t have enough challenges as you do. I need to work on that.
RT: I look at it kinda like a school grade, so you got an A on that, I’m still a B student.
JW: Well I think you’re doing wonderful things, Randy, I can’t tell you, thank you enough, thank you for joining us today. Our listeners are going to be so inspired as they hear these wise words about how you’ve overcome adversity in life. I want you to understand to that I listen to learn and gain so much from you that some point in my life I hope to contribute back, my friend, at least a piece of that.
RT: You’re constantly giving back Jimmy, that’s one of the many things I appreciate about you.
JW: Thank you so much for joining us today, and one of the challenges I did leave earlier for our listeners is I’d like for each of you this week to list one item of adversity that you’re currently experiencing that you wish to overcome and then I want you to email that adversity challenge to let us see what you’re doing in the most powerful way this week to be a bigger, better, and bolder you. And overcome these adversities.
Special thanks this week to our guest Randy Thurman. If you like the show, please tell your family and friends about it. Also, we would be very appreciative if you would leave a review of the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you for listening to this episode of Live a Life by Design. Now go out and be a bigger, better and bolder you. We’ll see you next Monday.
