Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

-       Mark Twain

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too…

-       Rudyard Kipling “If”

There are times when all of us find ourselves in a dilemma, unsure of which option to take. We have our own intuition about the best path forward, but this conflicts with a majority view. How do we proceed when at this crossroads?

Do we blindly follow the herd?

Do we blindly follow our instincts?

Join your hosts as they discuss this thorny topic. How can we develop the discernment and judge correctly when it is correct to follow a widely held belief, and when it is better to follow our own decision?

You will hear your hosts discuss how to develop your judgement based on principles and core values; how to listen to your intuition and inner voice; when and where to seek out expert advice.

Sometimes the correct path is clear, but having the ability to hold opposing views while researching a position is one we need to develop, because we too are human and prone to error. We may also have made a snap decision, or we may not have all the information needed for a quality decision.

How do we know whether our own opinion is reliable?

When is it best to listen to others?

Is there a way we can recast dilemmas as opportunities for growth?

Please subscribe, share and review our podcast. Let us know what topics you’d like us to cover- we are getting great suggestions on various social media!

Goals for 2023:

-100  Ratings on Apple Podcasts

-50 Written reviews on Apple Podcasts

-500 followers on FB, IG & YouTube

#PBC #PushingBackChaos #HMG #HeroesMediaGrp #Veterans #selformajority #trustyourself  #circleofinfluence  #trustyourcircle

[email protected]

We’ve created a Link Tree with easy click links to all major podcast players:

https://linktr.ee/pushingbackchaos?fbclid=PAAaZykcT6ZW50mWbcnrSm1BnZyAKkF-_v2chG9bjPWzkBowtb9fwuhtV_hyQ

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Is today the perfect time? How about next week? Next year? How about we just say “one day?” That will cover it!

The real question is: When are you going to choose to celebrate and be happy?

This week, Melon and Mike are joined by longtime friend and guest, Simon, who is a former Australian military soldier, who also lives a life of traveling and exceptional challenges. Listen in as the three discuss personal stories on the struggle of making time to celebrate achievements, milestones, or the general “just good days.”

Life, work, family, etc. is hard enough. Why do we usually find excuses or set future dates on the calendar where we will allow ourselves to be happy or celebrate certain things? Why not now? Practicing a life of gratefulness and understanding that our greatest resource is our time, and how we spend it. Every day we wake up is a day to be grateful and celebrate something right?  

We would love to hear your thoughts!

Mike’s Challenge:

1.) What or who can you celebrate right now?

2.) If you could envision a celebration for it, what would it look like?

3.) When is the best available time to do it?

Goals for 2023:

 -100  Ratings on Apple Podcasts

 -50 Written reviews on Apple Podcasts 

-500 followers on FB, IG, and YouTube! 

#PBC #PushingBackChaos #Podcast #HMG #HeroesMediaGrp #Veterans #goals #Transition #Military#Hobbies#Operationonceinalifetime #TeamAddo #Makingopportunities #Maketime #Celebrate #Behappy #whynotnow #dontwastetime #todayisagoodday 

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Are you perfect? Are you the best or you done learning? Are you satisfied? These are the questions we should reflect on as we move through life.

Mastery of anything can be considered a temporary view. Life is never at a standstill. Everything is constantly evolving and we would be false to believe that accomplishing  something once would be enough for the future as well.

This week, Melon and Mike return to the basics. They both share their own experiences from both past and present and describe why it is important to return to the basics periodically in all aspects of our professional lives, to emotional connections, our physical & mental health, and also spiritual relationships.

Back to Basics:

1.) Clarity of Concepts

2.) Humility and Openness 

3.) Recommit to Mastery

4.) Adaptation to Change

5.) Take responsibility for your own actions & failures

Mike’s Challenge:

1.) How can you be a better ________?

2.)What defines being a good ________?

3.)Where did you get this info at? (Is it the right place/person?)

Goals for 2023:

 -100  Ratings on Apple Podcasts

 -50 Written reviews on Apple Podcasts 

-500 followers on FB, IG, and YouTube! 

#PBC #PushingBackChaos #Podcast #HMG #HeroesMediaGrp #Veterans #goals #Transition #Military#Hobbies#Operationonceinalifetime #TeamAddo #Makingopportunities #Family #Familyfirst #Familyvscareer #Balance #Priorities 

#Basics #Backtothebasics 

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We all have plans in life. Hopes and dreams for our lives and our future. At times, though, all of us will be dealt out a different set of cards than what we were hoping for. Worse than we were expecting. Worse than we deserve.

What do we do, what CAN we do then?

Your hosts maintain that focusing on the area of life that is under our control is the only strategy that will work long term when the chips are down and life serves up one of those difficult hands of cards.

Mike shares a story from his current Special Forces training- where things inevitably were harder and more miserable than planned, and yet he and his team were able to stick it out to achieve the objective.

You will also hear the story of the birth of Melon’s super premature daughter, Annie. By rights she never should have survived the delivery, but by focusing on research and understanding the situation, Melon was able to shift the outcome right at the critical stage.

Mike’s mum wrote him a poem back when he was 1 year old, and he recently found it behind an old photo- you can hear him share it with Melon for the first time. She was having a hard time and found solace by being in the moment with her new baby boy.

By focusing on the present moment, and the area of life we can influence, we can maximise our effectiveness and minimise our suffering, to the maximum extent possible.

Please subscribe, share and review our podcast. Let us know what topics you’d like us to cover- we are getting great suggestions on various social media!

Goals for 2023:

-100  Ratings on Apple Podcasts

-50 Written reviews on Apple Podcasts

-500 followers on FB, IG & YouTube

#PBC #PushingBackChaos #HMG #HeroesMediaGrp #Veterans #dealingwithlife #callyourmother  #circleofinfluence  #thistooshallpass

[email protected]

We’ve created a Link Tree with easy click links to all major podcast players:

https://linktr.ee/pushingbackchaos?fbclid=PAAaZykcT6ZW50mWbcnrSm1BnZyAKkF-_v2chG9bjPWzkBowtb9fwuhtV_hyQ

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“Family is not an important thing. It’s everything.” -Michael J. Fox

This is probably one of the biggest debates within today’s society. 

How do we balance our commitments to both our family and our career? Do we solely focus on the family and not obtain all the resources required through work? Do we focus on our careers so that our families can be supported with resources? Are we being selfish? Are we being selfless? So many questions.

This week, Mike and Melon are joined by their great mate, Simon, who is also former Australian military. Listen in as they openly and honestly discuss the questions above. These three men have chosen a life of service for the greater good but found themselves struggling at key points when it came to balancing family and their partners at home. 

They share failures as men, partners, and fathers, but also share their lessons learned as they have taken the time to process those failures, and have the required conversations with their families to get to where they needed to be in a state of balance.

Do you struggle with your balance of family and work? How have you failed? How have you succeeded? What advice would you give to others if you were asked how to do this? 

We are all trying to figure out the best way forward.

Goals for 2023:

 -100  Ratings on Apple Podcasts

 -50 Written reviews on Apple Podcasts 

-500 followers on FB, IG, and YouTube! 

#PBC #PushingBackChaos #Podcast #HMG #HeroesMediaGrp #Veterans #goals #Transition #Military#Hobbies#Operationonceinalifetime #TeamAddo #Makingopportunities #Family #Familyfirst #Familyvscareer #Balance #Priorities 

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This week your hosts are joined by Cherie McFadden for an upbeat and positive conversation around happiness. What is it that makes you truly happy?

Mike opens with a favourite quote- “Your best ability is availability”, from the famous NFL coach Bill Parcells. If you aren’t participating, you aren’t contributing- in your own life and with your loved ones. He shares feedback he received last year from a Korean War Veteran, William. William said that God must really love Mike, as he has given him so many challenges and hard times early in his life- so that he can have a beautiful life later. This theme of hard times leading to character development and gratitude has been present over the last several conversations, and is echoed again here.

What does make you truly happy?

It bears thinking about deeply. We can spend money, energy and our most precious resource- time- pursuing things that in the end will not contribute to our happiness.

You will hear the three people in this conversation as they open up on the things that make them genuinely happy- and it is not the pursuit of anything beyond reach for any of us.

Essential elements for all three hosts centered on gratitude for the good things they already have, and most of all, for time with people they love.

Listen to the end to catch Mike’s Challenge, and make sure you let us know how you go completing it!

Please subscribe and share our podcast. Let us know what you think with a review. We read all the feedback and love suggestions for topics you’d like explored.

Goals for 2023:

 -100  Ratings on Apple Podcasts

 -50 Written reviews on Apple Podcasts 

 -500 Followers on FB, IG, and YouTube! 

#PBC #PushingBackChaos #Podcast #HMG 

#HeroesMediaGrp #Veterans #goals #Transition #Military #Hobbies #Operationonceinalifetime #TeamAddo  

#ExpressYourEmotions #InnerPeaceJourney #Happy #StayCalmStayStrong #happiness

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“The good is good. The bad is good as well.”

How often do we find ourselves in an unplanned challenging situation that induces feelings such as pain, fear, and anxiety that slides us into a downward spiral that seems unrecoverable? 

This week, Mike & Melon address the less than popular topic that challenges, hardship, and struggles are actually essential in the pursuit of a meaningful and fulfilled life. Lets face it, nobody wants to admit that someone or something that caused a massive setback actually helped you become the current version of ourselves. Giving credit to the one who cast the stone? Not the best option, right? Or is it?

The guys open up and share some of their own life experiences such as Melon having a prematurely born daughter, to dealing with his wife’s cancer, and his own setbacks in losing his father at a young age. Mike shares his own list of his most massive hardships with the death of his father, losing teammates, emotional breakdowns, facing death, divorce, and heartbreak; highlighting his first initial feelings with each & followed by the results of positive lessons & opportunities.

How do you view failures, setbacks, and hardship in your life? Can you focus on the negative & the positive? Do you truly believe that everything that has happened up until this point has made you who you are now? 

Grab pen and paper and get ready to write your own list!

Goals for 2023:

 -100  Ratings on Apple Podcasts

 -50 Written reviews on Apple Podcasts 

-500 followers on FB, IG, and YouTube! 

#PBC #PushingBackChaos #Podcast #HMG #HeroesMediaGrp #Veterans #goals #Transition #Military#Hobbies#Operationonceinalifetime #TeamAddo #Challenges #Trusttheprocess #Personaldevelopment #hardship #Makingopportunities 

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Join Melon, Mike, and Raf as they discuss the methods and steps they take individually to control their negative emotions from derailing them. The trio unanimously agree that feelings, even bad ones, shouldn’t be repressed, but expressed. 

More importantly, they should be regulated. We’re all too familiar with those moments that negative emotions take us hostage and make a potentially bad situation, almost catastrophic. 

Mike offers that we should always attempt to be the calmest person in the room, especially in the face of adversity. He uses the “pausing technique” before he wants to reply with an immediate emotionally charged response. Melon similarly highlights the power in clarifying the emotion so that your partner can better understand. In doing so, it will empower you to learn the lesson from what you’re feeling, rather than allowing the undesired behavior to arise. 

Finally, Raf talks about the importance of understanding how to control your physiology and trying to “get ahead of it”. Everyone has their own unique way, his is usually deep breathing and working out. 

How do you control and navigate around negative emotions that can overwhelm you?

Goals for 2023:

 -100  Ratings on Apple Podcasts

 -50 Written reviews on Apple Podcasts 

 -500 Followers on FB, IG, and YouTube! 

#PBC #PushingBackChaos #Podcast #HMG 

#HeroesMediaGrp #Veterans #goals #Transition #Military #Hobbies #Operationonceinalifetime #TeamAddo  #CalmInTheStorm

#ExpressYourEmotions #InnerPeaceJourney

#EmotionalResilience #FindingBalanceWithin #MindfulExpression #StayCalmStayStrong #EmotionalWellbeing

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“Sometimes God gives you exactly what you want in order to see if you can handle it.”

We all will experience good times and bad times. They are etched into our story of life and we have very little control over them. They can either make us or break us, but we do not have to experience them alone.

What we do have control of is who we allow to be a part of our circle and what role they play in it. We decide on the company we ultimately keep or walk away from. These are some of the most important decisions we must make in our lives.

This week, Mike and Melon discuss the importance of maintaining a healthy circle of relationships and share some stout examples on how and when they have greatly benefited and overcame both incremental and massive challenges. 

They unpack the characteristics of a truly healthy circle of mutual friends, family, and coworkers. Character, empowerment, encouragement, honesty, openness, personal responsibility, integrity, and trust are just a few.

How have you overcame challenges within your own circle? Are they dependable? Do they push you to be better? Are they present during victory and failure?

Goals for 2023:

 -100  Ratings on Apple Podcasts

 -50 Written reviews on Apple Podcasts 

-500 followers on FB, IG, and YouTube! 

#PBC #PushingBackChaos #Podcast #HMG #HeroesMediaGrp #Veterans #goals #Transition #Military#Hobbies#Operationonceinalifetime #TeamAddo #Circleoffriends #teamwork #dependability #truefriends 

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Mike and Melon kick off an episode building on the June Mental Health Awareness Month theme. Before we get to that topic, you’ll get a leadership masterclass from our own SF Operator, Mike. You’ll hear how he has been growing and developing his team as they work through their training program. The main points covered are:

·      Innovation- how to foster it in complex situations

·      Problem solving- using experience and training to see what needs doing

·      Freedom to manoeuvre- freedom to fail and learn

·      Commander’s intent- clear and simple

·      Culture- the bedrock for group behaviours

·      Integrity- ownership of failures

The conversation then moves on to the topic of how family, friends and the community can support individuals dealing with depression and mental health issues.

At times all of us will face challenges and headwinds. When we are the ones finding it hard, our friends, family and community all can provide the key support we need. Conversely, all of us will also fall into those roles when people around us have their hard times. Among other aspects, the importance of having a safety net, or building a net is covered, along with an example of the recreation of purpose as demonstrated by veterans Mike encountered. 

Let us know how you have dealt with hard times yourself, how you have assisted others, or how you have seen it done effectively.

Please subscribe, share and review our podcast. Let us know what topics you’d like us to cover- we are getting great suggestions on various social media!

Goals for 2023:

-100  Ratings on Apple Podcasts

-50 Written reviews on Apple Podcasts

-500 followers on FB, IG & YouTube

#PBC #PushingBackChaos #HMG #HeroesMediaGrp #Veterans #leadership #mentalhealth  #depression  #support

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