Beyond Your Limits

Practicing Your "Just A Minute" Habits, with Willie Mekki.

A lot of people dream of winning the Powerball lottery in the U.S; however, around the world there is another type of lottery called a visa or green card lottery which allows one to travel and create a new life in America for one’s family and that happened to be the story of this individual.

Willie Mekki was born in Athens, Greece after his parents left Sudan to study and live abroad. Once his family came to America the only advice heard was to become a lawyer, doctor, or engineer in order to succeed in today’s society. After finishing up with a degree in civil engineering from ODU, Willie accepted his first full time career in construction management and quickly realized that 1 income stream cannot do what 1 income stream did back when his parents were his age.

Today Willie has a successful marketing business he runs online and exemplifies the quote of “The greatest charity in the world is eliminating the need for charity by teaching self sufficiency”. In his late 20’s he teaches professionals how to to take advantage of the online paradigm shift going on around the world and it starts with mastering yourself and your mind. Tune in to hear this young entrepreneur’s journey and the thought process behind how one can change the direction of their life.

2:11 Jam stands for just a minute. And what that means is do just a minute of something you really believe in.

4:40 Now I can play like Pirates of the Caribbean and stuff that I don't even I don't even know how it came to be. But it was because of those small little increments every single day. And just really taking that principle to life. I feel like that So I could really change someone's life from like point A to point B.

12:08 I always love doing things, not because of the thing itself, but because of the people and the memories created while doing whatever thing that it was.

15:48 You know, mistakes are the accelerant to learning. You actually. You had that point seven. My GPA after my first semester was 1.2. And when the staff called me in and asked me, invited me to leave, they said we'd like to give you the chance to excel elsewhere. And I said why?

22:49 If I were to go to any grocery store and buy milk, most people will check the expiration date first. But the issue is people don't do that with their goals. Because me I want to be successful and help my parents yes. But at the path of engineering, I realized, I'll still be able to do that. But maybe not in the timeframe that I'd like to. Because what I found out is just to retire as a millennial USA Today. So it's like 75 to 85 something crazy, because it doesn't account for inflation. It doesn't account for a lot of different things going on in the world today.

28:41 So with the expiration date mentality, it's not just for our goals, it's for ourselves as well. So it made me take life seriously. But that's also sometimes a negative because if you take life too seriously, you tend to overlook and I kind of walked that path as well.

The Doctor on Whole Person Health and Fitness, with John Owens. Dr. John Owens is a leading health expert, workplace wellness advocate and a true believer that health comes from within. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience back from years of working in California with Olympic gold medalists and professional football, baseball, basketball, hockey and volleyball athletes. He is passionate about giving back to the community by educating from a health and wellness perspective on how to live a healthy lifestyle. He takes this mindset into local businesses and corporations with the same goal in mind. His objective is to revolutionize health care and strengthen the vitality of the Tulsa community. Dr. Owens believes in treating the body as a whole by looking at the cause of dysfunction and not just the symptom. He prides himself on staying current in the latest techniques and healthcare advancements in order to maintain his reputation for excellence. John strives each day to better the lives of his patients; choosing to care for the individual and not just their symptoms allows for a personal and unique experience. He grew up in Tulsa as the youngest of six children. He played college football at DePauw University and later finished his degree at the University of Arkansas. John received three undergraduate degrees (Exercise Physiology/Biomechanics, Anatomy & Physiology, Health & Wellness). After graduation, he attended Chiropractic School at Parker University in Dallas.

1:55 So this is a new era and let the presuppositions go away.

3:33 It's not just one thing, not one factor, that's gonna get you feeling better and get you healthy.

7:07 When you do when you take care of all the pillars, everything just comes together and add a you will be healthy, you'll be better across the board, more longevity, you will age, well, your body will feel better, you'll be able to your immune system is going to function significantly better.

10:29 Do everything that you can in order to be positive on the body, to have that positive effect. Be active move, take care of yourself, get some rest.

19:51 Be mindful, use something be thinking about it and that makes you conscious of your choices, and that makes you make better choices.

25:49 Prevention is for young people. Because by the time you're old, you're experiencing the consequences.

Vietnam Veteran to Veterans' Champion, with Lon Hodge.

Lon Hodge voluntarily enlisted in the U.S. military in 1973, during the Vietnam War. He later taught at the Academy of Health Sciences, headed for OCS, and became an EOD-trained Ordnance officer. He holds graduate degrees in counselor education and communications and psychology, and an MFA in literature/creative writing. He is a past national Endowment for the Arts fellow in literature. Lon served as a professor of psychology and literature in Japan, China, Macau, and the United States. He has been running Operation Fetch, voluntarily and without pay, for nine years. In that time they have raised over $3 million for other veterans' groups and their initiatives and done hundreds of seminars on PTSD, suicide awareness, and Service Dog issues. He has led hundreds of planned acts of community kindness thanks to the celebrity of Service Dog May and dearly departed Service Dog Gander. He works with homeless veterans around the country, and has traveled to 46 states. They have done over 300 seminars for law enforcement, community groups, national conferences, colleges, medical schools, service organizations, and corporations about veterans, PTSD, suicide awareness, and service dogs.

7:00 "It was then decided to start educating about PTSD, suicide prevention, because Gander saved my life. I literally would not be here if I hadn't had Gander in my life."

12:19 "We've traveled the country, we've done over 300 seminars for law enforcement, medical schools, you know, talking about PTSD, suicide prevention, which I think service dogs are, are an absolute key to suicide prevention, especially among veterans."

20:38 "It's part of that impostor syndrome. And all through my life, you know, I've had great successes and monumental failures, too, but but with the successes have always felt like somebody else should have gotten this, you know, somebody else should be on your podcast besides."

24:22 "I said, you and I need to go outside because I'm gonna kick your ass. And you know, I don't think those words that ever come out of my mouth before the end. And the guy looked at me and his face fell. And he goes, Do you really hate me that much?"

30:00 "It's a huge expression of courage as well to seek that, finally see, oh, yes, to actually ask for help to actually accept it and are walking through the process of healing."

A Teacher on the Crisis of Mass Killings by Teens, with Jaime McMillan.

Jaime McMillan - Mom, Teacher, Seeker. 21 year high school English teacher. Lover of mountains and all things outdoors.

2:40 "We have an expert on the subject on the show today, a dear friend of mine who has been teaching for over 20 years in high schools and seeing every iteration for an entire generation of young people coming up through the childhood into teen years where she managed them."

4:17 "There is a need for young adults to understand that they have a place in this world and that there is something they can do themselves to make a difference."

8:11 "I noticed in some of the research about school shootings or young adults who are put into this into these cities, or put themselves into these situations, there have been several school shootings that young adults have planned, but never followed through with because an adult intervened and taught them or in some way that attention that the adult gave the it caused the potential shooter to change his mind."

13:59 "They're searching for belonging, they're searching for community, and when you can't find that, or that gets taken away from you. And I think even when it gets taken away from you, it is as damaging and more damaging than, you know, like when you're a part of something, and then that's gone."

25:55 "They came up with four common characteristics that they all had. The number one thing is that they had either suffered an early childhood trauma, or they had exposure to violence at a young age. This is every single one of them that had this common denominator."

Violent White Nationalism - View from the Inside, with Arno Michaelis, Part 2. Arno Michaelis is a speaker, author of My Life After Hate, co-author of The Gift of Our Wounds, Filmmaker, and Peacebuilding Consultant. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Arno was a leader of hate groups, and frontman of the hate-metal band Centurion before single parenthood, love for his daughter, and the forgiveness shown by people he once hated helped to change his world, bringing love for diversity and gratitude for all life.

1:09 It's so the not even the parable, but the image of the, you know, the frogs in the slowly boiling water. Yeah. Like, oh, this is a little warm. It's kind of nice. So it's okay. Really hot now, but I'm really sweating the next day, you know, and you're done. And, and quite often violent extremism happens in that way.

5:04 a paraphrase of Sun Tzu. He said, If you know yourself, and you know your enemy, you need not fear the result of 100 battles, because you will prevail in all of them. He said, If you don't one or the other, you're gonna win half your battles. If you don't know, either yourself or your enemy, you will not win a single battle.

15:23 So it wasn't like the Pyramids of Giza were built, like as a volunteer community project.

18:22 She worked on Thursday nights and Seinfeld aired, and I had to tape it for her back on those archaic VCR things that always blinked 12. And we couldn't write Seinfeld on the spine of the tape. Because if my guys came by and saw that it had shot I mean, it was the very least it would it would diminish my position in our group, but that the worst I could have been like killed for it.

29:00 And he basically says it's it's easy to feel kinship with people who look like you pray like you eat like you smell like you like that's easy, but what is truly spiritual is to feel that same kinship with people who don't look like you, and don't pray like you and don't eat like you don't smell like you don't speak like you like that that's when you really attained a sense of spirituality.

Violent White Nationalism - View from the Inside, with Arno Michaelis. Arno Michaelis is a speaker, author of My Life After Hate, co-author of The Gift of Our Wounds, Filmmaker, and Peacebuilding Consultant. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Arno was a leader of hate groups, and frontman of the hate-metal band Centurion before single parenthood, love for his daughter, and the forgiveness shown by people he once hated helped to change his world, bringing love for diversity and gratitude for all life.

4:57 There are unconscious bigotries unconscious bias says and our guest today is a man who is an absolute expert in understanding bias, bigotry and the unconscious hatreds that are actually formed from fears fear and pain.

7:05 Everything was seeing through a racial lens.

8:20 Some people doubt the authenticity of my turnaround, or they're going to come at me with accusations of privilege. And, oh, I'm an oppressor and I'm going to colonizer and all sorts of things that clouded my judgment in this matter, but actually, everything I've learned about race, I've learned from listening to people who don't look like me.

24:39 That's incredibly nuanced and incredibly clear to me as you're describing it, because you're saying that basically, the more we do define people as white and not white. The more we enable the categorization and therefore the radicalization of those who are willing to are susceptible to it among the so called white group

35:29 But I think it's entirely possible to be extremely proud of one's heritage. And I am diverse, you know, all Northwestern European, Celtic, and Viking and such. And, of course, a little bit of French in there because of the name. But but that doesn't mean that mine is better. It just means I'm grateful and appreciative and loving of those from whom I came, and I honor you black or Hispanic or Polynesian, for where you came from, and your deep love and pride in your ancestors, where you came from. There's they're not mutually exclusive.

The Operational Mindset, with Jeff Banman. Jeff is a recognized leader in the area of human performance and human behavior in high-stress environments. With over 30 years of experience across multiple domains including the Fire Service, the US Army Special Operations Command and the Central Intelligence Agency, Jeff now serves as the COO & Chief Human Performance Officer for a Global Fitness Brand. After conducting Counterterrorism operations in over twenty-three countries, two combat zones and multiple high-threat/non-permissive environments, Jeff has the privilege of dissecting human behavior at a micro level in order to enhance individual and team performance in some of the most intense moments imaginable. His study evaluated and developed algorithms for calculating minute shifts in Heart Rate Variability against variable stressors, distinct practices for managing the Central Nervous System while under significant stress and integrative techniques to help high-level operators remain fully present in order to navigate extreme situations.

4:32 We'll rewind kind of go back and Can you unpack this idea you and I were talking offline about the waited the imbalance of the body?

5:51 The foundation of kind of the sandbag workout or kind of broaden it out to the unstable load object, we call it Yulu. Workout is, it's a different dimension, really, it becomes a very visceral expression in fitness in a way.

23:48 It's been very hard for me to change around that scarcity, approaching things from a scarcity mindset and the things that I say to myself, I have to catch.

27:09 The path that I'm now exploring to understand is, how do we move people down a line of, of releasing that originating sensation, right of, of giving that freedom to disperse and reregulate so that you can return to zero, you know, and it's not a, you know, space of stillness.

33:04 If you cannot, for the next however long we're going to be together, take judgment and set it aside. Then do me a favor and just leave because one judgment is the barrier to growth 100%. I firmly believe that we come from worlds that are highly developed to sit in constant judgment.

Gifts of Trauma with Josh Boyer. Josh Boyer is a U.S. Air Force veteran, husband, and proud father of four rambunctious boys. He is host of the hard-hitting podcast, “My Backstory,” where show topics range from business, to philosophy, to personal growth, to much more. The only rule: no filters. Real life.

4:40 You just never know who's listening you know? So you record a podcast and put it out on the end of the world and you just get random messages from people and who knows like a message that you share might touch one live might touch five might touch tight who knows? You know, there's so many people and you never know who's listening.

8:58 Josh's backstory

15:23 You're in charge of your own destiny, you have to own that ship.

20:20 I would like to believe that people innately desire to help people. But I also believe that there are dark forces at play, and I think people have inner demons and until they work with them.

34:50 We are naturally designed to feel negative to perceive negatively 62.5% of the time, how often? five out of eight times if you see a situation that's going to be perceived as more often than not negative, and that goes back to the self actualization.

Natural Response for Effective Self-Defense, with Tony Blauer. Tony Blauer has been in the martial arts, self-defense, defensive tactics and combatives. industry for over four decades. He is one of the only combatives experts who have successfully effective training across all the combat related communities, self-defense, combat sports and the military and law enforcement sector. His research on physiology and mindset as it relates to confrontation management has influenced over three decades of reality based martial artists and enhance the survivability of law enforcement, military and emergency services personnel around the world. He founded Blauer tactical systems BTS in 1985. And it's grown into one of the world's leading consulting companies specializing in the research and development of performance psychology, personal safety and close quarter tactics and scenario based training for law enforcement, military and professional self-defense instructors.

00:28 I once sucker punched a nationally ranked Thai boxer in Muay Thai training session. It was an accidental sucker punch.

08:19 So high gear is a hard to describe it's like a it's like a it's a condom you fight in? It's 99%. It's 99% effective. Now what I did was I designed the world's first impact reduction training suit for Scenario training.

15:35 You're getting unrealistic training. And that's not what we want for our tier one, guys, that are the people that are at the tip of the tip of the spear of any spear law enforcement or any responder.

30:21 SPEAR is an acronym for spontaneous protection, enabling accelerated response against spontaneous protection, enabling accelerated response.

41:55 A slogan we like to use as nobody needs to know how to defend themselves. Until the moment they need to know how to defend themselves. And then it's too late. Like you don't need to know how to put on a tourniquet. You don't need to know how to, you know, save somebody who's choking. You don't need to know how to change a flat tire, you know, like, like, so you don't need to know any of that stuff until you need it.

Train Smarter, with Navy SEAL trainer Stew Smith. Stew Smith is the Owner of StewSmithFitness.com, training Military, Special Ops, Law Enforcement and Firefighter candidates to get TO and TROUGH intense tactical selection programs.

6:05 I just wrote an article today basically called, you know, optimal performance is the mastery of recovery.The mastery of recovery is really the key to longevity, as well as optimal performance

10:22 Your body doesn't delineate doesn't make doesn't differentiate between the types of stress. It's physical stress, emotional stress, your body just looks at that as a straight stress.

15:26 There are peaks and valleys and you know, different elements of fitness that you focus on spread throughout the year where you don't neglect any weaknesses. But at the same time, you're not burning out on one particular element month after month after month, year after year to a point where you're just beat up and injured all the time.

31:30 Phases of tactical fitness

43:09 That leads to a generation of males I was talking to all kids these days are, are being deprived of PE in. I mean, of course they're still sports. They exist. They happen in high schools. But when we think about again, ripple effects, the repercussion, that butterfly effect of telling kids it's not important to train every day. It's not important.

You can reach Rob at [email protected]

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