May 28, 2024 • 35 mins
This week we are talking fitness with my colleague Todd Durkin.
Todd Durkin, MA, CSCS, is a world-renowned coach, trainer, author, and speaker who inspires people globally. He founded Fitness Quest 10 in San Diego, an award-winning facility working with elite athletes like NFL MVPs, Super Bowl Champions, Heisman Trophy Winners, and Olympic Gold Medalists. Durkin's accolades include Personal Trainer of the Year by IDEA and ACE and the 2017 Jack LaLanne Award. He recently launched IMPACT-X Performance, a franchise blending Faith, Fitness, Recovery, and Life Coaching.
His clients include LaDainian Tomlinson, Drew Brees, and Aaron Rodgers. Todd was a featured trainer on NBC STRONG, part of the Under Armour Training Team, and has appeared on 60 Minutes, ESPN, and the NFL Network. His best-selling book, GET YOUR MIND RIGHT, shares his insights on achieving high performance. Todd's podcast, The Todd Durkin IMPACT Show, motivates listeners on leadership, health, and fitness.
Through the Durkin IMPACT Foundation, Todd and his wife Melanie have raised over $350,000 for scholarships and mental health initiatives. They have three children and a golden retriever, Jersey. Learn more at www.ToddDurkin.com.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
Todd, welcome to the show. Greg, thank you, man.
It's great to be here. We were just riffing so hard and
I was like stop, stop talking. We gotta press record, OK?
Go so. Let's dive right into it.
You wrote a book. Get your mind right.
And then it wasn't right and everything fell apart.
Talk to me about that. Let's.
Big man up. Into the weeds, man.
(00:27):
Let's. Big man laughed at me up top.
You know, Greg, I've, I've spentmy entire life training athletes
and CEO's and moms and dads and that I've spent 24 years at my
gym, Fitness Quest 10 in San Diego and in some of the, the
top athletes in the world. And they've always looked at me
as like a mindset coach, even though I'm their trainer and
their coach. I'm the mindset guy.
(00:49):
So in 2018, after my first knee replacement, I wrote a book
called Get Your Mind Right, How to Get your mind right when your
Mind's not Right. Little did I know that when I
was writing the book right priorto the pandemic that I would
face hell, literally like I had this string of setbacks that
(01:09):
I've never faced in my life. And I faced, you know, a fair
amount of setbacks like everybody else.
But all of a sudden I write the book in June of 2020.
Now June of 2020. I know in Canada it was bad,
right? It's the worst time of the of
the world's history was June of 2020.
And this book comes out called Get Your Mind Right that I
wrote. And I'm like, there's never been
(01:30):
a better time for this book called Get Your Mind Right.
And all of a sudden, man, my life just kind of unraveled and
I was fighting. Everything that I wrote was like
for me. It was like I wrote the book for
myself in a lot of ways. That's crazy.
My book came out as well. And like right around that time
a media tour booked and everything disappeared.
(01:52):
The radar and it's, it's all disappeared, but I can't imagine
like we had obviously huge challenges around the psychology
of lockdowns and that I don't want to get into it 'cause I
have PTSD, as does most of my audience around that.
But curious about how your physical body created the
(02:12):
challenge that you had to apply all of that knowledge, all of
that mindset training that you've given to everyone else to
yourself to get through that. I mean, your back got really
messed up, right? Yeah.
You know, Greg, it's interestingbecause I'll put this in a
nutshell for your listeners. And as I record this with you,
my newest book is coming out. It's called True Strength, and
(02:34):
it really depicts the last 3 1/2years of going through this
battle that was overwhelming. And I was already the point in
my early 50s here of like I was soul searching for the next
level. I was already, I already had
attained success in the gym was award-winning and I was speaking
on stages and all this stuff. But in my in my heart and soul,
(02:56):
I knew there was a deeper level.And one of my clients, his name
is Pastor David Jeremiah. He's one of the most iconic
passage of our time. You see him on TV on Sundays and
I train him three times a week. And one day he said something to
me that I'll never forget. I start the book out this way,
the the true strength book. He said the Crest of the way
determines the depth of the valley and the depth of the
(03:18):
valley determines the Crest of the wave.
And I was like thinking about that because I had faced a lot
of crests in my career, but never did I face the valleys
that I faced in the 3 1/2 year period.
Now for me, you mentioned my back, but it first kicked off
with the pandemic and laying off42 of my employees trying to
save gyms, not my own, not only my own gym, but I have a
(03:39):
mastermind program for other coaches and trainers around the
world. Couple hundred gym owners and
I'm trying to save their gyms and I'm like get on my back
guys, we got this. Get on my back.
I go live every day on Instagramduring this time.
I said, hey, if my gym's closed,I'll just go live, get on my
back. Well, little did I know, as I'm
(03:59):
saying, get on my back, get on my back.
I was manifesting all of this stuff because after 91 days of
going live, every day at 12 noonon the West Coast, all of a
sudden at my body was just falling apart.
I'm in the middle of the pandemic, stress is high.
I'm trying to save everyone's life and seven days a week, not
5, seven days a week, I'm doing this and my knees are hurting,
(04:22):
my back is hurting. And lo and behold, to short
story, this is I had my second knee replacement in December of
2020. My second knee replacement, my
right was 2018, my left. I'm 50 years old when I got
that. I'm like, I'm too young to have
a knee replacement, let alone two.
My body's falling apart. Six weeks after I have my second
(04:43):
knee replacement, my back startskilling me, like killing me.
And I'm like, what is going on? Well, when I had the X-ray, you
all know when you get the X-ray and you stand in front of the
machine, the guy goes behind thelittle the little wall.
And I, I hear this and I'm not going to repeat his words, but
I'll give you a little some. And I, he goes, holy shit.
(05:06):
And he says something I'd never forget.
He's like, what? The.
So I knew something was wrong. Like, is everything OK?
He's like, yeah, I knew by the way he said it, Like, I'm in
trouble. Like, go and get my phone, Greg.
I take a picture behind there, which I wasn't supposed to do,
but I have it on my phone. I said, is that my back?
(05:28):
He said, yes, that's your back, and your doctor's going to be
calling you in less than an hour.
I'm like, that's not good because doctors never call in
less than an hour. My doctor calls me 30 minutes
later. He says, Todd, did you serve in
Afghanistan? Were you in the military?
I said no Doc, he said you got aproblem and we need to talk
(05:51):
immediately. Now again, this at this point is
February. It was my anniversary, February
17th, 2021. It was my 20th wedding
anniversary and I'll never forget it because I was in such
pain at that point with my back.When I went and got the X-ray,
39° curvature of my spine, 39° curvature of my spine, all my
(06:12):
discs were gone. Everything was compressed.
I had lost two inches of my back.
I finally by the 7th doctor, a back deformity specialist tells
me you need a 14 hour back surgery.
I'm like 14 hour back surgery. Now, Greg, I'm going to tell you
this. I share it in my book, the True
Strength book. I went out in the car and I
(06:32):
cried like a baby because I had the mission to save 10 million
people with their bodies, their minds and their souls.
I wanted to get people healthier.
I want to get their mind right. I want to get their spirits
right. I want to make sure that I was
serving people and for the firsttime I felt like my life was
over. And I cried to my wife.
I said how how can this be? I've been serving people for 20
(06:55):
something years and now this I've got a death sentence.
And I complained to my wife for about 5 minutes.
And so she said time out stop. Ha, Do you understand that this
isn't happening to you? What's happening for you?
I'm telling you, you what you'vebeen preaching for so many
years. God's using you in a way right
(07:16):
now that is going to eventually pay off.
Maybe it's not 10 million people.
I said then, well, what is it? She said, maybe it's 100 million
people. I said, stop, I don't want to
hear it. And I was like yelling, 'cause I
didn't want to hear that. My vision was expanding because
Greg, frankly, I was contemplating like, can I keep
(07:38):
going? I don't know how I'm going to
keep doing this and I don't wantto face A14.
I'm like, how do you do a 14 hour surgery?
I asked the doc, maybe you do a 14 hour surgery.
He's like, we do 7 hours. One day we roll you back up to
your room and the next day we doanother seven hours.
It's going to take a year out ofyour life and you're not going
to ever be able to do the same stuff that you're at your you do
now. You can't go speaking around the
world. You can't go to different
continents like you have now, like what you were doing before
(07:59):
the pandemic. And Greg, I'm telling you, my
life flashed before me and that was the start of hell for 3 1/2
years between my knee surgery and my back surgery, the stress,
I end up selling a big portion of my business, Fitness Quest
10, which is my baby. And that's his own emotional
roller coaster. And I was in this.
All of a sudden, I'm this, I'm the fitness guy, I'm the mindset
guy. I wrote the book.
I'll get your mind right. And I'm spiraling down, but I'm
(08:23):
creating content because I'm trying to save everyone else.
I'm like, what am I doing? Well, that was a 3 1/2 year
period I'll never forget. And, and here I sit 3 1/2 years
later, so grateful for that experience because I went
through hell, hell physically and I know pain.
I was a football player and my my professional career ended to
(08:45):
a back injury. 25 years later, it reeled.
It reared its ugly head again. And here I am on the cusp of my
next iteration, the next phase as, as Arthur C Brooks would
say, as you step into your next season of life, this is the, you
know, you go from crystallized intelligence to fluid
intelligence. And, and, and I'm really excited
(09:06):
for this next phase that I'm nowentering into.
We have so many parallels. It's unbelievable.
I I everyone who knows this podcast, like I broke my neck.
I had the moment lying under theX-ray.
The technician goes, don't fucking move.
I, I don't swear on the podcast,but I'm just repeating this, you
know, like that's just like what?
So when you're telling this story I'm having, I'm having
(09:28):
flashbacks, neurosurgery, rehab,all those sorts of things.
It does take a year out of your life, but it's so funny you
mention it was that your attitude is, is actually one of
gratitude. And if you ask me to go back and
like, would you go through it all again?
Yes, I would, because it sets you up to do things you can't
even perceive now as what what this is doing for you.
(09:49):
It's hard to go through. So props to you man for getting
through that. I want to know a little bit more
about your definition of strength and how did that focus
on strength on your body, on your mind, on your spirit,
enable you then to move past pain?
And I asked this specifically because I know that about 30 to
40% of people that I interface with have some sort of physical
(10:12):
pain. So a huge percentage of the
population are affected by this and the rest know someone who is
affected by pain. And it's also cool because at
the hospital we work a lot with pain, but we don't we also
acknowledge that we don't reallyknow what pain is.
So I'm curious about your thoughts on strength pain and
how you overcame that. And don't be afraid to dig into
the weeds and be kind of specific about it 'cause so many
(10:34):
people are struggling with this.It's a very long question, but
strength and pain are curious me.
So what's what is strength for you?
It's a good question Greg and, and 1st off, thank you for the
work that you do with everyone you work with at the hospital.
I know you're making a huge difference and impact with those
those kids and adults that you work with.
I know it makes a huge difference because we all know
this. I say it all the time, but he or
(10:56):
she who has her health has 1000 dreams.
He or she who does not as one, you don't have your health.
You got 1 dream. Get my health back.
And someone who's been in the health, fitness and sports
industry for now 25 plus years, I know how important health is
and I know when you don't have your health, that's the only
thing you want back. If you get a cancer diagnosis,
you want one thing, get rid of the cancer and solve it.
(11:16):
My father died when he was 58 years old of a heart attack.
I know what it's like when I wasjust 20 years old and lost my
pops due to heart attack. That's one of the reasons why I
got into the fitness industry isto make a difference in people's
lives. Walking through the hell that I
walked through for 3 1/2 years, I was preaching that for two
decades, Greg, like he or she who has her health has 1000
(11:39):
dreams and he or she who does not has one now.
I was the. I was.
I was the one. I need the one.
I need to get my health back. And I knew it.
And I'm journaling and I'm journaling and journaling.
Like, you know, you talk about gratitude.
I'm trying to find gratitude. I couldn't walk to the mailbox.
I couldn't work out. And I'm a workout freak.
(12:00):
Like, I love working out. I, I work out most days of the
week. I train all the top athletes in
the world. And here I am.
I put a back brace on. I'm popping pills and I'm
training Drew Brees and all these guys.
Jordan Love, I wasn't going to tell them I was in pain because
I don't want to become the pain because everything's like, how's
your back? How's your back?
How's your back? I don't want to become my back.
I live that life 25 years ago where you manifest that because
(12:21):
that's what you become because it becomes your identity.
Your pain becomes your identity.So I know I'm going off on a
tangent because I'm getting fired up because I know how many
people live in pain and it envelops your brain and mind and
you live in it. And you got to break that cycle.
And I'll, I'll answer your question this way about really
what is true strength. And this is kind of ironic, very
(12:45):
ironic. But my book True Strength starts
like this. And this is crazy.
I wrote my first book, it's called The Impact Body Plan in
2010. Now stay with me.
Drew Brees had just won the Super Bowl and the Saints won.
All of a sudden I always wanted a book deal.
I get the Impact body plan, Men's Health, Rodale come to me
with a book deal. The Impact body plan, it's a ten
(13:06):
week plan. I go to New York City, I meet
Rodale, the president of Rodale Books Men's Health.
I go into his office six weeks before it's going to come out on
news stands just before the NFL season was to kick off, the
Impact body plan was done. I didn't have a brand called
Impact. I it was like my first time
using the words impact, but there was something deep in me
(13:27):
that was like it's impact body plan.
I walk in and all over this guy's office was my book cover.
My book cover right here is my book cover with that pose, but
it wasn't called the impact bodyplan.
I'm like, what is this? He goes, well, we've talked and
(13:47):
I was like, who's we? He goes, all of the executives
sitting in this room right here have talked.
And we don't like the word impact.
We hear impact. We think car crash.
And we don't think we're going to sell as many books with the
word impact as we do with this book cover, which was plastered
all over his office. Now this office is like
overlooking Times Square. It's all glass.
They're in three piece suits. I was nobody.
(14:09):
I was a trainer who had a dream to write a book.
I didn't have much to stand by. But Greg, when he said that
there was something in me and that's where I always say trust
your intuition. Something's like walk, walk.
I'm like, what do you mean? It's the impact by plan.
He said, sorry, if it's going tobe impact, then we're not going
(14:30):
to print. You don't have a deal.
I'd already written the book andI said, peace, I'm out.
Thank you. I turn around and left like what
did? What is going on?
I flew back to San Diego depressed that I just written
the book, the entire book, The impact by plan.
Well, six weeks later the ImpactBody Plan came out 'cause I
(14:52):
stuck to my guns. How does that have to do with
strength? You know what the funny part is?
God works in mysterious ways. Cause 14 years later, True
Strength coming out June 18th. The book title that they wanted
to call the Impact Body Plan wascalled True Strength.
(15:13):
I go into his office and all of his books called True Strength.
I'm like, bro, this isn't true strength.
It's called impact body plan. He's like, no, this is true
strength. I said no, it's not.
It's not true strength. This is a book that is all
about, it's a ten week body and mind transformation program, but
that ain't true strength. I hadn't faced the adversity I'd
face now. So now that true strength is
(15:34):
coming out. To answer your question along
about way, it's kind of ironic that 14 years prior, true
strength was in my face. I'm like my gut.
I didn't have a brand called Impact, which now I have a
franchise called Impact and everything else.
He's like, it's now true strength because true strength
is when your body, mind and soulintegrates together and works
(15:55):
together your body, mind and spirit.
Because when your body is strong, your mind is strong.
When your mind is strong as yourbody is strong, and when you can
infiltrate your spirit and feed your spirit and work out and get
your mind right. The triad, the, the triad of the
body, mind and soul. To me, that's when you can
totally live your best life and be the best version of yourself
(16:17):
because spiritually, regardless of what your faith is or you
don't have faith whatever, to me, we're all spiritual beings
living a human experience. We're not human beings, right,
living that spiritual experience.
We're all spiritual beings. So how do you get your body
right? How do you get your mind right?
And how do you get your spirit right?
How do you get where you're really, really on the inside,
You're thriving and your belief system is strong and you're,
(16:40):
you're really serving a purpose that can help humanity.
That's why true strength is coming out here as we record
this in about a month is it's all about the integration of the
body, mind and soul. True strength is when you face
adversity, you lean into everything you know on the
(17:00):
inside so that you can really get through that time and look
back and be grateful for the adversity, challenge and strife
that you've been through. To live your best life as a mom
or a dad, as a husband or a wife, as a human being, as a
coach, trainer, author, as a doctor of what you do, Greg,
and, and anyone listening in of as an entrepreneur and
(17:21):
executive, whatever your divine purpose is, man, we got to live
it. We got to live it.
And to me, that's what, that's what this whole experience, 3
1/2 years of hell. I look back now in gratitude,
But let me tell you, when you'regoing through it, you know this,
Greg, you broke your neck. You're not grateful necessarily.
You're, you're finding like, right, like I'm like, I'm
grateful I have food on the table.
(17:42):
I'm grateful I have a roof over my head.
I'm not grateful. I have a book and all this, like
I just man, I'm like, I got to just survive.
Isn't it interesting that when we're faced with challenges, the
instinct is to look outside, butthe answer is always to look
inside. And why don't we walk through
those three different areas and beginning with the body, what do
(18:03):
we need to do to get the body right?
To use your, your term, 'cause I, I love that.
What do we need to do there? Move.
Motion is lotion. Movement is medicine.
One of my hero's name is Jacqueline.
If you're younger than forty, you probably know who Jacqueline
is, but he's the godfather of fitness.
I was up at his house. He's now passed away, but his
his wife is 98 years old. Elaine.
(18:23):
Elaine still living. I was up Central California just
last week visiting her because he's one of my heroes.
Jack Elaine. There's a movie coming out on
him next year. But what do you need to do?
You got to move. Now depending on the audience,
that's going to mean different things, but most days of the
week you got to move your body. When I say motion is lotion and
movement is medicine, motion is lotion, movement is medicine.
(18:46):
You got to fight for your movement.
And if your back is hurting, find a way to sit on a bench if
you can and do some arm curls up, your knees are being
replaced or they're hurting or killing and do upper body core
to figure out a way to cardio orswim, get in the water, move
your body. Why?
Because when you can move your body and lift weights, there's a
chemical, a biochemical reactionthat happens when there's going
(19:06):
to be what I call a dose that's released of hormones dose
dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins.
Dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins.
These make you feel elated and up and excited and where you can
live so heavy. Every Thursday I come out with
my dose of Durkin. It's kind of like this fun video
(19:27):
and stuff like you got to get your dose daily, move most days
of the week. And whether that's a walk,
that's a run or a lift, you got to build that in because the
dose, it's all about hormones and how you can get your
hormones right. Because physiologically
speaking, as hormonal beings, I get an Amen.
Anyone like, Oh yeah, TD, let's go like, but that's the truth.
(19:47):
As hormonal beings, when you canlift weights, right, to release
stress, when you can lift and challenge yourself and you're
around maybe even sometimes a group of people that you're
getting the community possibly along with the lift or the run
or the walk, whatever that may be.
Now you're living a healthy lifestyle.
And also along with the body, just because it is body, the
(20:10):
hardest part, as you know, Greg,is the nutritional aspect and
what you eat because sometimes it's easy to work out for 20 or
40 or 60 minutes a day. But the other part, what you put
in your mouth ain't so easy because it's easy to mess up
with with that. Or you go, you know, 8 hour
stretches without eating lunch and you're not putting enough
protein in your body and you're not getting enough PFF,
(20:30):
proteins, fats and fibers in your body.
So I'm like, OK, you know, how you start and how you change all
it just focus on changing breakfast.
Just if you're looking to make achange, like man, I, I need to
clean it up, then just change breakfast.
Just start eating real food for breakfast and not just having a
coffee and a bagel. Like that's not a real great
breakfast is a coffee and a bagel.
(20:50):
But we need protein with every meal.
And, and how do you get, you know, and a gram of a gram of a
pound of protein in a day, But eat breakfast.
It could be oatmeal with a protein shake.
It could be eggs with a protein shake.
It could be some fresh fruit. It always make me laugh like,
well, is fruit going to make it fat to the sugar?
No, you're not going to get fat from eating fruit.
(21:12):
Yes, it has high sugar, but it'sall natural sugar.
And no, most people don't eat enough fruit and vegetables like
so if you want to change, just start simple.
Start eating a great breakfast. If if you work out, I call it
the holy hour in the morning. If you have a great workout in
the morning and you eat a great breakfast, man, you're you're in
a good start to the day. And when you get that start, now
(21:32):
you can go be productive at workor whatever you do, and then you
can make the right choices when it comes to eating.
So that's the body part. Love it.
Let's move into the mind. What do we need to get our
mindset right? How much time we got?
We got #1 #1 hours my friend. Number one, get your mind right.
You got to be careful what's coming into the mind, right,
(21:54):
right. So the phones like I got three
kids, 2119 and 16, right and we all are on our phones all the
time. But how do you turn your phone
off because actually has a off button, but the the mind of
like, what are you scrolling on it?
I mean, nowadays the the drug ofInstagram, like I love
Instagram, social media, I love it, but you got to turn it off
too. Otherwise it it sucks you in.
(22:14):
It's a drug and you're wasting 20 minutes, an hour, 3 hours a
day, kids, thousands of hits on Snapchat a day.
I'm like, man, that's going to weaken the mind.
Like that's one way is what you're watching on TV.
If you watch TV, most of it's garbage.
If you're watching the news on and on, you're watching replays
of the news. It's going to affect your mind.
(22:36):
I talked about that and get yourmind right of like, don't do
these things. And I have 12 rules of my life.
And one of them is I don't turn my phone on the first hour of my
day because I'm on everyone else's schedule versus my own.
My holy hour, don't turn the phone on.
And I get my, my own quiet time,my prayer time.
I do a little journaling, I get my work out and I eat right now,
my first hour. I've dominated the day just by
(22:57):
dominating that first hour. What happened during this 3 1/2
year period, Greg is as I was not sleeping good, I was
stressed. I had all this stuff going on
and here I am, I'm preaching. I'm like, I got to figure out
like, why am I not sleeping good?
So I started this evening journaling.
I actually created a journal, the impact journal.
People are like, well, you created a lot of products during
this time. Yeah, because I was trying to
(23:18):
figure out my own life because I'm like creating stuff for me.
And the impact journal I createdthis evening journal to write to
turn off TV, have a 321 routine 3 hours before you go to sleep.
Eat 2 hours before you go to sleep.
No more work one hour before yougo to sleep.
It's all personal self-care, self-care.
Maybe it's stretching for 1015 minutes.
(23:39):
Maybe it's reading a book, doingsome prayers, spending time with
the honey like. But if you can spend the last 30
to 60 minutes in self-care and not just lying in bed on the
Instagram checking out the latest stuff like, then you're
really tending to your spirit, which allows you to potentially
sleep better. So the minds, the mindset is
(24:00):
this. The last thing I'll say is be
careful the self talk. Most people don't have great
self talk. And I work on my athletes all
the time with the self talk. And I'm talking NFL quarterbacks
that I got a handful these guys now that I work with and it and
you'd be shocked, even with athletes, how much self talk
plays a part of their own success, good or bad.
(24:22):
It's no different than you or me, Greg, or a mom or a dad
listening in of what are the stories you might need to
divorce yourself from? Because you keep telling
yourself the same stuff or it's,it's negative or it's bad or
you're, you're not good enough, you're too old, you're too
young, you're not educated enough.
And you fill yourself with a bunch of stinking thinking.
And it's not good for the mindset that's you got to get
your mind right. So my guy's like, Hey, TD, can
(24:45):
you send me one of those mind right videos?
Because I do these kind of crazyvideos I put out and, and I'm,
I'm filling their mind with positive thoughts.
I had a baseball pitcher today. We're in the middle of baseball
season who's got a big start today at the pros.
And he said, can I, can I get one of those videos?
Because I'm just breathing life in him because most of us don't
have enough cheerleaders in our life.
(25:06):
We all need cheerleaders. So how can you be around people,
you know, 235 people that are going to breathe life into you
and breathe like Greg, your podcast, a great example.
You put out great stuff and you're listening to to this
content right now. And Greg does this weekly is
like you're listening to words that are going to fill your soul
up and your mind up with good nourishing content.
(25:29):
That's what you need to do more of.
And that's one of my when I'm out for a walk in the morning.
Listen to great podcasts that are not full of garbage.
That's gonna affect your mindset.
I've had some crazy experiences in my life around spirituality
that I don't understand, that I can't explain.
I have not yet received the giftof faith, but I'm curious and
(25:53):
open and I know that I, I don't know this area, which.
So I'm asking of you, if this final pillar that you have, the
third leg of the stool if you will, is around soul and spirit,
So what do we need to do in thatspace?
Yeah, it's a great question. And I'm a man of faith, but I
always didn't have faith becausewhen I was 20, when my dad died,
I did a lot of soul searching, Craig, man.
I did a lot of soul searching. And I was a college football
(26:15):
player and I was at this Chapel one day and I realized that I
didn't even know that this pastor, Pastor Freddie Mitchell,
you spoke life into me. And he said, man, even though I
grew up like Catholic, I'm the youngest of eight kids.
I have five sisters, Greg, five sisters.
So I grew. Up in the that's own defense in
your family you ain't. Kidding, like and my parents
were divorced when I was five. I was the lunch ticking kid.
(26:36):
We had no money. It's a crazy story, but I knew
this like whenever I was at church, quote church, I always
felt like a sense of peace. Like it was a place where I felt
peace, but it was always about religion.
And I realized like I never had a relationship with God.
Like it was more for me, it was,I did it 'cause I was supposed
to do it and it made me feel good.
But then when my dad died and I did all the soul searching and,
(26:59):
and Pastor Freddie Mitchell spoke life into me and I asked
God to come into my life. I just developed a relationship.
Now just being a father and a husband of what now 23 years, I
realize how much faith plays a part in everything I do.
And a lot of my faith in the last 3 1/2 years was tested, but
(27:21):
my faith was actually deepened through being tested.
Because it's like the only thingI could count on was God being
by my side because man, it was areally, really dark, dark time.
And I went deeper in my own faith.
I'm very fortunate. I'm around some really strong
men of faith. David, Jeremiah, Pastor
Jeremiah, again, I mentioned hisname earlier on.
(27:44):
He's become a mentor to me. He's 83 years old.
He's spoken so much life into me.
I actually spoke at his church on Father's Day last year, which
was a tremendous honor. He's got like millions of
followers and, and he's got, he's just such a great man.
And Pastor Miles McPherson, who I've gone to his church for 23
years now, and he's always said it's not about religion, God,
(28:05):
it's not about religion, it's about a relationship.
And as a man of Christian faith,of a man with a relationship
with Jesus, But whether you're Jewish, you're Muslim, Hindu, to
me it's like, how do you developyour faith?
Walk so you can get closer to God?
So that something that was recently said to me is this our
time on earth is so short compared to our time and
(28:25):
eternity. So we got to figure that out
because if you don't believe, what if there really is a heaven
and you don't believe in, you going to have a very short time
on earth, whether that's 50 years, 90 years, 110 years,
whatever it may be. But the sole part is this
spending time in, in quiet and peace in in in the woods.
And because here's what I say inin my get your mind right book
(28:47):
in the 2020 book is God doesn't shout at us, he whispers.
I say the Chapter 9 is called tap into your whispers is
because it's easy in a noisy world to listen to shouts and
shouts often come from ego and what our ego tells us we should
do or it's a power play. But really our our profound
(29:09):
wisdom comes from silence. The hardest exercise any of us
can do is being silent is meditating and and try to silent
the mind. And that's when I find that
typically the spirit speaks is in the quiet and there's these
whispers. They're not shouts.
There's these whispers and I like to write them down And over
time, weeks and months, if I keep hearing the same whispers
(29:31):
to me, that's God messaging me to step up into my own divine
purpose of what that's supposed to be as a man of impact of
like, Hey, you're supposed to bedoing this.
That 3 1/2 year trial period forme of going through all this and
the back pain and, and, and searching in an ultimate ending
in a crazy diagnosis of sleep apnea, which was the final nail
(29:54):
in the coffin. Yeah, that was like, I was
fortunate because that was the final nail of I got you.
I got you. That was the turning point for
me. That turning point allowed me to
say, OK, you know what? At 53 years young, my best is
yet to come. And it's for me as a man of
faith, it was God that got me through this tough time.
(30:16):
Heck, I just launched that fitness franchise Impact X
Performance. It's it's faith, fitness,
recovery and life coaching. Those are the four pillars.
Like I'm not going to shy behindit.
It's here's who I am. If you want that part, great.
If you don't want that, that's fine.
If you ever want it, I'm here for you to help be as a man and
a brother to serve you. And that's how I walk and I try
(30:40):
to do everything in that capacity.
It's been so fun and I'm it's sensitive to the fact that
you've got loads of media going on right now around your new
book and the new gyms that you're opening and and setting
up around the country. What do you want people to take
away from true strength? Like, what's the the powerful
(31:00):
idea that you want to launch outinto the world that you think
could make the biggest difference for some of the
people listening today? Number one is if you're
struggling in any way, if you'rebeing challenged, you're facing
depression, you're overwhelmed, you're burnt out, you lost your
mojo, You're not, you don't havethe same mojo or energy is keep
(31:22):
going and find yourself someone that you can, you can be around
that is going to infiltrate you with with hope and motivation
and inspiration. And that, that, you know, it's
part of the plan, the master plan that someday, and it might
be a week, it might be a month, it might be a year, it might be
three, that you're going to lookback and be grateful for the
(31:44):
time that you're walking through.
Greg, I lost two athletes up to suicide during the pandemic.
And part of the true Strength book is we're giving back to
suicide prevention and mental health because these are kids I
coached. These are 19 year old men that
took their life during the pandemic.
And part of the reason why I'm starting the gyms and, and, and
(32:07):
writing the book and a lot's hidden at the same time is
because I realized for my own walk that it's short.
And if I don't do it, who's going to do it?
If we don't do it now, when we going to do it?
Because the world is messed up and there's a lot of darkness.
And I'll say this is, you know, that's what the book is about,
true strength. But I'll say is be the light.
Be the light in a Dark World that exists right now is be the
(32:29):
light, whatever that means to you.
Because for 3 1/2 years there was a flicker on.
There was a flicker because at 11:59 AM when I was going live
every day, there were days I waslike I got nothing to say.
And then people are trying to hold on every word I said and I
got nothing. But I've found somehow to go
103060 minutes go live. Sometimes there's a flicker, but
(32:51):
ultimately there's someone todaythat you're going to speak with
as you listen to Someone today might be a son or a daughter,
might be a husband or a wife, significant other, a teacher, a
Co worker or a colleague. Someone you're getting interact
with today need your word more than you can even imagine.
So speak life into that person because if by doing so, it's
going to put life back into you.And that's how the world is
(33:14):
going to get lit up. And that's why I'm excited for
the impact X performance facilities because it's all
about being a lighthouse. Our, our symbol, our logo is a
lighthouse. We will be shining light in the
communities. And I'm going to be speaking
more on the true strength message again, it's just coming
out now. And why?
Because this was, it was going through 3 1/2 years of hell that
(33:35):
allowed me to really see the light of like, you know what I'm
going from where I was, what I was doing for 23 years.
And now I'm just, I'm just beingobedient to what God's calling
me to do and step into. And I'll be speaking more.
I got a lot of speaking engagements coming up.
And while they're to the secularcrowd, I love that it's not a,
you know, it's not a spiritual message.
(33:56):
It's about true strength, going down to your deepest self and 31
hard earned lessons of what you gotta do to dig down deep and
you know, treat yourself like the pro athletes do or the moms
and dads do to say keep battling, keep going and get
your mind right, get your body right and get your soul right.
This has been so fun. I've had a blast.
And I'm gonna take away the faith walk for sure.
(34:17):
That's a concept I'm gonna lean into.
And I also really, really love the idea of speaking life into
someone. I think that's a neat sort of
mindset that I'm going to adopt.And I'm just like, I'm beaming.
I'm ear to ear smiles. It's been so much fun.
Thank you for the work that you've done.
Thanks for going through everything that you've gone
through to get us to true strength.
And if people want to learn moreabout you and your work in the
(34:39):
book, where Can they Find you? Todd durkin.com todddurkin.com
The Website todddurkin.com Instagram Todd Durkin Impact X
franchise.com On the on the business side, Impact X
franchise, but everything hangs out at coddurkin.com.
If you want more information andof course True Strength, you
know, you can go to Amazon as ofMay 31st here in 2024, Amazon
(35:04):
will have True Strength up and we're really excited about
everything happening with True Strength and, and what we'll be
doing. And hey, I'm going to be up in
Canada. I know in August, so I'll be in
Toronto. Greg, we'd have to get together.
I'll be. Let's do it.
We'll be. Here I'll be at the Convention
Center, love to see you and, andthe crew and, and that.
(35:25):
But Greg, thank you for what you're doing and the impact
you're making, man. I it's really inspiring to see
the people who you're hitting and, and impacting on a regular
basis. Your show was awesome.
I just want to thank you for having me on man Appreciate you.
It's amazing, Super thrilled. Thanks for taking the time
buddy. I'm I'm sure we're going to end
up doing some cool things and we'll see you live and in person
(35:45):
soon. Thank you, Greg.
Todd, welcome to the show. Greg, thank you, man.
It's great to be here. We were just riffing so hard and
I was like stop, stop talking. We gotta press record, OK?
Go so. Let's dive right into it.
You wrote a book. Get your mind right.
And then it wasn't right and everything fell apart.
Talk to me about that. Let's.
Big man up. Into the weeds, man.
(00:27):
Let's. Big man laughed at me up top.
You know, Greg, I've, I've spentmy entire life training athletes
and CEO's and moms and dads and that I've spent 24 years at my
gym, Fitness Quest 10 in San Diego and in some of the, the
top athletes in the world. And they've always looked at me
as like a mindset coach, even though I'm their trainer and
their coach. I'm the mindset guy.
(00:49):
So in 2018, after my first knee replacement, I wrote a book
called Get Your Mind Right, How to Get your mind right when your
Mind's not Right. Little did I know that when I
was writing the book right priorto the pandemic that I would
face hell, literally like I had this string of setbacks that
(01:09):
I've never faced in my life. And I faced, you know, a fair
amount of setbacks like everybody else.
But all of a sudden I write the book in June of 2020.
Now June of 2020. I know in Canada it was bad,
right? It's the worst time of the of
the world's history was June of 2020.
And this book comes out called Get Your Mind Right that I
wrote. And I'm like, there's never been
(01:30):
a better time for this book called Get Your Mind Right.
And all of a sudden, man, my life just kind of unraveled and
I was fighting. Everything that I wrote was like
for me. It was like I wrote the book for
myself in a lot of ways. That's crazy.
My book came out as well. And like right around that time
a media tour booked and everything disappeared.
(01:52):
The radar and it's, it's all disappeared, but I can't imagine
like we had obviously huge challenges around the psychology
of lockdowns and that I don't want to get into it 'cause I
have PTSD, as does most of my audience around that.
But curious about how your physical body created the
(02:12):
challenge that you had to apply all of that knowledge, all of
that mindset training that you've given to everyone else to
yourself to get through that. I mean, your back got really
messed up, right? Yeah.
You know, Greg, it's interestingbecause I'll put this in a
nutshell for your listeners. And as I record this with you,
my newest book is coming out. It's called True Strength, and
(02:34):
it really depicts the last 3 1/2years of going through this
battle that was overwhelming. And I was already the point in
my early 50s here of like I was soul searching for the next
level. I was already, I already had
attained success in the gym was award-winning and I was speaking
on stages and all this stuff. But in my in my heart and soul,
(02:56):
I knew there was a deeper level.And one of my clients, his name
is Pastor David Jeremiah. He's one of the most iconic
passage of our time. You see him on TV on Sundays and
I train him three times a week. And one day he said something to
me that I'll never forget. I start the book out this way,
the the true strength book. He said the Crest of the way
determines the depth of the valley and the depth of the
(03:18):
valley determines the Crest of the wave.
And I was like thinking about that because I had faced a lot
of crests in my career, but never did I face the valleys
that I faced in the 3 1/2 year period.
Now for me, you mentioned my back, but it first kicked off
with the pandemic and laying off42 of my employees trying to
save gyms, not my own, not only my own gym, but I have a
(03:39):
mastermind program for other coaches and trainers around the
world. Couple hundred gym owners and
I'm trying to save their gyms and I'm like get on my back
guys, we got this. Get on my back.
I go live every day on Instagramduring this time.
I said, hey, if my gym's closed,I'll just go live, get on my
back. Well, little did I know, as I'm
(03:59):
saying, get on my back, get on my back.
I was manifesting all of this stuff because after 91 days of
going live, every day at 12 noonon the West Coast, all of a
sudden at my body was just falling apart.
I'm in the middle of the pandemic, stress is high.
I'm trying to save everyone's life and seven days a week, not
5, seven days a week, I'm doing this and my knees are hurting,
(04:22):
my back is hurting. And lo and behold, to short
story, this is I had my second knee replacement in December of
2020. My second knee replacement, my
right was 2018, my left. I'm 50 years old when I got
that. I'm like, I'm too young to have
a knee replacement, let alone two.
My body's falling apart. Six weeks after I have my second
(04:43):
knee replacement, my back startskilling me, like killing me.
And I'm like, what is going on? Well, when I had the X-ray, you
all know when you get the X-ray and you stand in front of the
machine, the guy goes behind thelittle the little wall.
And I, I hear this and I'm not going to repeat his words, but
I'll give you a little some. And I, he goes, holy shit.
(05:06):
And he says something I'd never forget.
He's like, what? The.
So I knew something was wrong. Like, is everything OK?
He's like, yeah, I knew by the way he said it, Like, I'm in
trouble. Like, go and get my phone, Greg.
I take a picture behind there, which I wasn't supposed to do,
but I have it on my phone. I said, is that my back?
(05:28):
He said, yes, that's your back, and your doctor's going to be
calling you in less than an hour.
I'm like, that's not good because doctors never call in
less than an hour. My doctor calls me 30 minutes
later. He says, Todd, did you serve in
Afghanistan? Were you in the military?
I said no Doc, he said you got aproblem and we need to talk
(05:51):
immediately. Now again, this at this point is
February. It was my anniversary, February
17th, 2021. It was my 20th wedding
anniversary and I'll never forget it because I was in such
pain at that point with my back.When I went and got the X-ray,
39° curvature of my spine, 39° curvature of my spine, all my
(06:12):
discs were gone. Everything was compressed.
I had lost two inches of my back.
I finally by the 7th doctor, a back deformity specialist tells
me you need a 14 hour back surgery.
I'm like 14 hour back surgery. Now, Greg, I'm going to tell you
this. I share it in my book, the True
Strength book. I went out in the car and I
(06:32):
cried like a baby because I had the mission to save 10 million
people with their bodies, their minds and their souls.
I wanted to get people healthier.
I want to get their mind right. I want to get their spirits
right. I want to make sure that I was
serving people and for the firsttime I felt like my life was
over. And I cried to my wife.
I said how how can this be? I've been serving people for 20
(06:55):
something years and now this I've got a death sentence.
And I complained to my wife for about 5 minutes.
And so she said time out stop. Ha, Do you understand that this
isn't happening to you? What's happening for you?
I'm telling you, you what you'vebeen preaching for so many
years. God's using you in a way right
(07:16):
now that is going to eventually pay off.
Maybe it's not 10 million people.
I said then, well, what is it? She said, maybe it's 100 million
people. I said, stop, I don't want to
hear it. And I was like yelling, 'cause I
didn't want to hear that. My vision was expanding because
Greg, frankly, I was contemplating like, can I keep
(07:38):
going? I don't know how I'm going to
keep doing this and I don't wantto face A14.
I'm like, how do you do a 14 hour surgery?
I asked the doc, maybe you do a 14 hour surgery.
He's like, we do 7 hours. One day we roll you back up to
your room and the next day we doanother seven hours.
It's going to take a year out ofyour life and you're not going
to ever be able to do the same stuff that you're at your you do
now. You can't go speaking around the
world. You can't go to different
continents like you have now, like what you were doing before
(07:59):
the pandemic. And Greg, I'm telling you, my
life flashed before me and that was the start of hell for 3 1/2
years between my knee surgery and my back surgery, the stress,
I end up selling a big portion of my business, Fitness Quest
10, which is my baby. And that's his own emotional
roller coaster. And I was in this.
All of a sudden, I'm this, I'm the fitness guy, I'm the mindset
guy. I wrote the book.
I'll get your mind right. And I'm spiraling down, but I'm
(08:23):
creating content because I'm trying to save everyone else.
I'm like, what am I doing? Well, that was a 3 1/2 year
period I'll never forget. And, and here I sit 3 1/2 years
later, so grateful for that experience because I went
through hell, hell physically and I know pain.
I was a football player and my my professional career ended to
(08:45):
a back injury. 25 years later, it reeled.
It reared its ugly head again. And here I am on the cusp of my
next iteration, the next phase as, as Arthur C Brooks would
say, as you step into your next season of life, this is the, you
know, you go from crystallized intelligence to fluid
intelligence. And, and, and I'm really excited
(09:06):
for this next phase that I'm nowentering into.
We have so many parallels. It's unbelievable.
I I everyone who knows this podcast, like I broke my neck.
I had the moment lying under theX-ray.
The technician goes, don't fucking move.
I, I don't swear on the podcast,but I'm just repeating this, you
know, like that's just like what?
So when you're telling this story I'm having, I'm having
(09:28):
flashbacks, neurosurgery, rehab,all those sorts of things.
It does take a year out of your life, but it's so funny you
mention it was that your attitude is, is actually one of
gratitude. And if you ask me to go back and
like, would you go through it all again?
Yes, I would, because it sets you up to do things you can't
even perceive now as what what this is doing for you.
(09:49):
It's hard to go through. So props to you man for getting
through that. I want to know a little bit more
about your definition of strength and how did that focus
on strength on your body, on your mind, on your spirit,
enable you then to move past pain?
And I asked this specifically because I know that about 30 to
40% of people that I interface with have some sort of physical
(10:12):
pain. So a huge percentage of the
population are affected by this and the rest know someone who is
affected by pain. And it's also cool because at
the hospital we work a lot with pain, but we don't we also
acknowledge that we don't reallyknow what pain is.
So I'm curious about your thoughts on strength pain and
how you overcame that. And don't be afraid to dig into
the weeds and be kind of specific about it 'cause so many
(10:34):
people are struggling with this.It's a very long question, but
strength and pain are curious me.
So what's what is strength for you?
It's a good question Greg and, and 1st off, thank you for the
work that you do with everyone you work with at the hospital.
I know you're making a huge difference and impact with those
those kids and adults that you work with.
I know it makes a huge difference because we all know
this. I say it all the time, but he or
(10:56):
she who has her health has 1000 dreams.
He or she who does not as one, you don't have your health.
You got 1 dream. Get my health back.
And someone who's been in the health, fitness and sports
industry for now 25 plus years, I know how important health is
and I know when you don't have your health, that's the only
thing you want back. If you get a cancer diagnosis,
you want one thing, get rid of the cancer and solve it.
(11:16):
My father died when he was 58 years old of a heart attack.
I know what it's like when I wasjust 20 years old and lost my
pops due to heart attack. That's one of the reasons why I
got into the fitness industry isto make a difference in people's
lives. Walking through the hell that I
walked through for 3 1/2 years, I was preaching that for two
decades, Greg, like he or she who has her health has 1000
(11:39):
dreams and he or she who does not has one now.
I was the. I was.
I was the one. I need the one.
I need to get my health back. And I knew it.
And I'm journaling and I'm journaling and journaling.
Like, you know, you talk about gratitude.
I'm trying to find gratitude. I couldn't walk to the mailbox.
I couldn't work out. And I'm a workout freak.
(12:00):
Like, I love working out. I, I work out most days of the
week. I train all the top athletes in
the world. And here I am.
I put a back brace on. I'm popping pills and I'm
training Drew Brees and all these guys.
Jordan Love, I wasn't going to tell them I was in pain because
I don't want to become the pain because everything's like, how's
your back? How's your back?
How's your back? I don't want to become my back.
I live that life 25 years ago where you manifest that because
(12:21):
that's what you become because it becomes your identity.
Your pain becomes your identity.So I know I'm going off on a
tangent because I'm getting fired up because I know how many
people live in pain and it envelops your brain and mind and
you live in it. And you got to break that cycle.
And I'll, I'll answer your question this way about really
what is true strength. And this is kind of ironic, very
(12:45):
ironic. But my book True Strength starts
like this. And this is crazy.
I wrote my first book, it's called The Impact Body Plan in
2010. Now stay with me.
Drew Brees had just won the Super Bowl and the Saints won.
All of a sudden I always wanted a book deal.
I get the Impact body plan, Men's Health, Rodale come to me
with a book deal. The Impact body plan, it's a ten
(13:06):
week plan. I go to New York City, I meet
Rodale, the president of Rodale Books Men's Health.
I go into his office six weeks before it's going to come out on
news stands just before the NFL season was to kick off, the
Impact body plan was done. I didn't have a brand called
Impact. I it was like my first time
using the words impact, but there was something deep in me
(13:27):
that was like it's impact body plan.
I walk in and all over this guy's office was my book cover.
My book cover right here is my book cover with that pose, but
it wasn't called the impact bodyplan.
I'm like, what is this? He goes, well, we've talked and
(13:47):
I was like, who's we? He goes, all of the executives
sitting in this room right here have talked.
And we don't like the word impact.
We hear impact. We think car crash.
And we don't think we're going to sell as many books with the
word impact as we do with this book cover, which was plastered
all over his office. Now this office is like
overlooking Times Square. It's all glass.
They're in three piece suits. I was nobody.
(14:09):
I was a trainer who had a dream to write a book.
I didn't have much to stand by. But Greg, when he said that
there was something in me and that's where I always say trust
your intuition. Something's like walk, walk.
I'm like, what do you mean? It's the impact by plan.
He said, sorry, if it's going tobe impact, then we're not going
(14:30):
to print. You don't have a deal.
I'd already written the book andI said, peace, I'm out.
Thank you. I turn around and left like what
did? What is going on?
I flew back to San Diego depressed that I just written
the book, the entire book, The impact by plan.
Well, six weeks later the ImpactBody Plan came out 'cause I
(14:52):
stuck to my guns. How does that have to do with
strength? You know what the funny part is?
God works in mysterious ways. Cause 14 years later, True
Strength coming out June 18th. The book title that they wanted
to call the Impact Body Plan wascalled True Strength.
(15:13):
I go into his office and all of his books called True Strength.
I'm like, bro, this isn't true strength.
It's called impact body plan. He's like, no, this is true
strength. I said no, it's not.
It's not true strength. This is a book that is all
about, it's a ten week body and mind transformation program, but
that ain't true strength. I hadn't faced the adversity I'd
face now. So now that true strength is
(15:34):
coming out. To answer your question along
about way, it's kind of ironic that 14 years prior, true
strength was in my face. I'm like my gut.
I didn't have a brand called Impact, which now I have a
franchise called Impact and everything else.
He's like, it's now true strength because true strength
is when your body, mind and soulintegrates together and works
(15:55):
together your body, mind and spirit.
Because when your body is strong, your mind is strong.
When your mind is strong as yourbody is strong, and when you can
infiltrate your spirit and feed your spirit and work out and get
your mind right. The triad, the, the triad of the
body, mind and soul. To me, that's when you can
totally live your best life and be the best version of yourself
(16:17):
because spiritually, regardless of what your faith is or you
don't have faith whatever, to me, we're all spiritual beings
living a human experience. We're not human beings, right,
living that spiritual experience.
We're all spiritual beings. So how do you get your body
right? How do you get your mind right?
And how do you get your spirit right?
How do you get where you're really, really on the inside,
You're thriving and your belief system is strong and you're,
(16:40):
you're really serving a purpose that can help humanity.
That's why true strength is coming out here as we record
this in about a month is it's all about the integration of the
body, mind and soul. True strength is when you face
adversity, you lean into everything you know on the
(17:00):
inside so that you can really get through that time and look
back and be grateful for the adversity, challenge and strife
that you've been through. To live your best life as a mom
or a dad, as a husband or a wife, as a human being, as a
coach, trainer, author, as a doctor of what you do, Greg,
and, and anyone listening in of as an entrepreneur and
(17:21):
executive, whatever your divine purpose is, man, we got to live
it. We got to live it.
And to me, that's what, that's what this whole experience, 3
1/2 years of hell. I look back now in gratitude,
But let me tell you, when you'regoing through it, you know this,
Greg, you broke your neck. You're not grateful necessarily.
You're, you're finding like, right, like I'm like, I'm
grateful I have food on the table.
(17:42):
I'm grateful I have a roof over my head.
I'm not grateful. I have a book and all this, like
I just man, I'm like, I got to just survive.
Isn't it interesting that when we're faced with challenges, the
instinct is to look outside, butthe answer is always to look
inside. And why don't we walk through
those three different areas and beginning with the body, what do
(18:03):
we need to do to get the body right?
To use your, your term, 'cause I, I love that.
What do we need to do there? Move.
Motion is lotion. Movement is medicine.
One of my hero's name is Jacqueline.
If you're younger than forty, you probably know who Jacqueline
is, but he's the godfather of fitness.
I was up at his house. He's now passed away, but his
his wife is 98 years old. Elaine.
(18:23):
Elaine still living. I was up Central California just
last week visiting her because he's one of my heroes.
Jack Elaine. There's a movie coming out on
him next year. But what do you need to do?
You got to move. Now depending on the audience,
that's going to mean different things, but most days of the
week you got to move your body. When I say motion is lotion and
movement is medicine, motion is lotion, movement is medicine.
(18:46):
You got to fight for your movement.
And if your back is hurting, find a way to sit on a bench if
you can and do some arm curls up, your knees are being
replaced or they're hurting or killing and do upper body core
to figure out a way to cardio orswim, get in the water, move
your body. Why?
Because when you can move your body and lift weights, there's a
chemical, a biochemical reactionthat happens when there's going
(19:06):
to be what I call a dose that's released of hormones dose
dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins.
Dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins.
These make you feel elated and up and excited and where you can
live so heavy. Every Thursday I come out with
my dose of Durkin. It's kind of like this fun video
(19:27):
and stuff like you got to get your dose daily, move most days
of the week. And whether that's a walk,
that's a run or a lift, you got to build that in because the
dose, it's all about hormones and how you can get your
hormones right. Because physiologically
speaking, as hormonal beings, I get an Amen.
Anyone like, Oh yeah, TD, let's go like, but that's the truth.
(19:47):
As hormonal beings, when you canlift weights, right, to release
stress, when you can lift and challenge yourself and you're
around maybe even sometimes a group of people that you're
getting the community possibly along with the lift or the run
or the walk, whatever that may be.
Now you're living a healthy lifestyle.
And also along with the body, just because it is body, the
(20:10):
hardest part, as you know, Greg,is the nutritional aspect and
what you eat because sometimes it's easy to work out for 20 or
40 or 60 minutes a day. But the other part, what you put
in your mouth ain't so easy because it's easy to mess up
with with that. Or you go, you know, 8 hour
stretches without eating lunch and you're not putting enough
protein in your body and you're not getting enough PFF,
(20:30):
proteins, fats and fibers in your body.
So I'm like, OK, you know, how you start and how you change all
it just focus on changing breakfast.
Just if you're looking to make achange, like man, I, I need to
clean it up, then just change breakfast.
Just start eating real food for breakfast and not just having a
coffee and a bagel. Like that's not a real great
breakfast is a coffee and a bagel.
(20:50):
But we need protein with every meal.
And, and how do you get, you know, and a gram of a gram of a
pound of protein in a day, But eat breakfast.
It could be oatmeal with a protein shake.
It could be eggs with a protein shake.
It could be some fresh fruit. It always make me laugh like,
well, is fruit going to make it fat to the sugar?
No, you're not going to get fat from eating fruit.
(21:12):
Yes, it has high sugar, but it'sall natural sugar.
And no, most people don't eat enough fruit and vegetables like
so if you want to change, just start simple.
Start eating a great breakfast. If if you work out, I call it
the holy hour in the morning. If you have a great workout in
the morning and you eat a great breakfast, man, you're you're in
a good start to the day. And when you get that start, now
(21:32):
you can go be productive at workor whatever you do, and then you
can make the right choices when it comes to eating.
So that's the body part. Love it.
Let's move into the mind. What do we need to get our
mindset right? How much time we got?
We got #1 #1 hours my friend. Number one, get your mind right.
You got to be careful what's coming into the mind, right,
(21:54):
right. So the phones like I got three
kids, 2119 and 16, right and we all are on our phones all the
time. But how do you turn your phone
off because actually has a off button, but the the mind of
like, what are you scrolling on it?
I mean, nowadays the the drug ofInstagram, like I love
Instagram, social media, I love it, but you got to turn it off
too. Otherwise it it sucks you in.
(22:14):
It's a drug and you're wasting 20 minutes, an hour, 3 hours a
day, kids, thousands of hits on Snapchat a day.
I'm like, man, that's going to weaken the mind.
Like that's one way is what you're watching on TV.
If you watch TV, most of it's garbage.
If you're watching the news on and on, you're watching replays
of the news. It's going to affect your mind.
(22:36):
I talked about that and get yourmind right of like, don't do
these things. And I have 12 rules of my life.
And one of them is I don't turn my phone on the first hour of my
day because I'm on everyone else's schedule versus my own.
My holy hour, don't turn the phone on.
And I get my, my own quiet time,my prayer time.
I do a little journaling, I get my work out and I eat right now,
my first hour. I've dominated the day just by
(22:57):
dominating that first hour. What happened during this 3 1/2
year period, Greg is as I was not sleeping good, I was
stressed. I had all this stuff going on
and here I am, I'm preaching. I'm like, I got to figure out
like, why am I not sleeping good?
So I started this evening journaling.
I actually created a journal, the impact journal.
People are like, well, you created a lot of products during
this time. Yeah, because I was trying to
(23:18):
figure out my own life because I'm like creating stuff for me.
And the impact journal I createdthis evening journal to write to
turn off TV, have a 321 routine 3 hours before you go to sleep.
Eat 2 hours before you go to sleep.
No more work one hour before yougo to sleep.
It's all personal self-care, self-care.
Maybe it's stretching for 1015 minutes.
(23:39):
Maybe it's reading a book, doingsome prayers, spending time with
the honey like. But if you can spend the last 30
to 60 minutes in self-care and not just lying in bed on the
Instagram checking out the latest stuff like, then you're
really tending to your spirit, which allows you to potentially
sleep better. So the minds, the mindset is
(24:00):
this. The last thing I'll say is be
careful the self talk. Most people don't have great
self talk. And I work on my athletes all
the time with the self talk. And I'm talking NFL quarterbacks
that I got a handful these guys now that I work with and it and
you'd be shocked, even with athletes, how much self talk
plays a part of their own success, good or bad.
(24:22):
It's no different than you or me, Greg, or a mom or a dad
listening in of what are the stories you might need to
divorce yourself from? Because you keep telling
yourself the same stuff or it's,it's negative or it's bad or
you're, you're not good enough, you're too old, you're too
young, you're not educated enough.
And you fill yourself with a bunch of stinking thinking.
And it's not good for the mindset that's you got to get
your mind right. So my guy's like, Hey, TD, can
(24:45):
you send me one of those mind right videos?
Because I do these kind of crazyvideos I put out and, and I'm,
I'm filling their mind with positive thoughts.
I had a baseball pitcher today. We're in the middle of baseball
season who's got a big start today at the pros.
And he said, can I, can I get one of those videos?
Because I'm just breathing life in him because most of us don't
have enough cheerleaders in our life.
(25:06):
We all need cheerleaders. So how can you be around people,
you know, 235 people that are going to breathe life into you
and breathe like Greg, your podcast, a great example.
You put out great stuff and you're listening to to this
content right now. And Greg does this weekly is
like you're listening to words that are going to fill your soul
up and your mind up with good nourishing content.
(25:29):
That's what you need to do more of.
And that's one of my when I'm out for a walk in the morning.
Listen to great podcasts that are not full of garbage.
That's gonna affect your mindset.
I've had some crazy experiences in my life around spirituality
that I don't understand, that I can't explain.
I have not yet received the giftof faith, but I'm curious and
(25:53):
open and I know that I, I don't know this area, which.
So I'm asking of you, if this final pillar that you have, the
third leg of the stool if you will, is around soul and spirit,
So what do we need to do in thatspace?
Yeah, it's a great question. And I'm a man of faith, but I
always didn't have faith becausewhen I was 20, when my dad died,
I did a lot of soul searching, Craig, man.
I did a lot of soul searching. And I was a college football
(26:15):
player and I was at this Chapel one day and I realized that I
didn't even know that this pastor, Pastor Freddie Mitchell,
you spoke life into me. And he said, man, even though I
grew up like Catholic, I'm the youngest of eight kids.
I have five sisters, Greg, five sisters.
So I grew. Up in the that's own defense in
your family you ain't. Kidding, like and my parents
were divorced when I was five. I was the lunch ticking kid.
(26:36):
We had no money. It's a crazy story, but I knew
this like whenever I was at church, quote church, I always
felt like a sense of peace. Like it was a place where I felt
peace, but it was always about religion.
And I realized like I never had a relationship with God.
Like it was more for me, it was,I did it 'cause I was supposed
to do it and it made me feel good.
But then when my dad died and I did all the soul searching and,
(26:59):
and Pastor Freddie Mitchell spoke life into me and I asked
God to come into my life. I just developed a relationship.
Now just being a father and a husband of what now 23 years, I
realize how much faith plays a part in everything I do.
And a lot of my faith in the last 3 1/2 years was tested, but
(27:21):
my faith was actually deepened through being tested.
Because it's like the only thingI could count on was God being
by my side because man, it was areally, really dark, dark time.
And I went deeper in my own faith.
I'm very fortunate. I'm around some really strong
men of faith. David, Jeremiah, Pastor
Jeremiah, again, I mentioned hisname earlier on.
(27:44):
He's become a mentor to me. He's 83 years old.
He's spoken so much life into me.
I actually spoke at his church on Father's Day last year, which
was a tremendous honor. He's got like millions of
followers and, and he's got, he's just such a great man.
And Pastor Miles McPherson, who I've gone to his church for 23
years now, and he's always said it's not about religion, God,
(28:05):
it's not about religion, it's about a relationship.
And as a man of Christian faith,of a man with a relationship
with Jesus, But whether you're Jewish, you're Muslim, Hindu, to
me it's like, how do you developyour faith?
Walk so you can get closer to God?
So that something that was recently said to me is this our
time on earth is so short compared to our time and
(28:25):
eternity. So we got to figure that out
because if you don't believe, what if there really is a heaven
and you don't believe in, you going to have a very short time
on earth, whether that's 50 years, 90 years, 110 years,
whatever it may be. But the sole part is this
spending time in, in quiet and peace in in in the woods.
And because here's what I say inin my get your mind right book
(28:47):
in the 2020 book is God doesn't shout at us, he whispers.
I say the Chapter 9 is called tap into your whispers is
because it's easy in a noisy world to listen to shouts and
shouts often come from ego and what our ego tells us we should
do or it's a power play. But really our our profound
(29:09):
wisdom comes from silence. The hardest exercise any of us
can do is being silent is meditating and and try to silent
the mind. And that's when I find that
typically the spirit speaks is in the quiet and there's these
whispers. They're not shouts.
There's these whispers and I like to write them down And over
time, weeks and months, if I keep hearing the same whispers
(29:31):
to me, that's God messaging me to step up into my own divine
purpose of what that's supposed to be as a man of impact of
like, Hey, you're supposed to bedoing this.
That 3 1/2 year trial period forme of going through all this and
the back pain and, and, and searching in an ultimate ending
in a crazy diagnosis of sleep apnea, which was the final nail
(29:54):
in the coffin. Yeah, that was like, I was
fortunate because that was the final nail of I got you.
I got you. That was the turning point for
me. That turning point allowed me to
say, OK, you know what? At 53 years young, my best is
yet to come. And it's for me as a man of
faith, it was God that got me through this tough time.
(30:16):
Heck, I just launched that fitness franchise Impact X
Performance. It's it's faith, fitness,
recovery and life coaching. Those are the four pillars.
Like I'm not going to shy behindit.
It's here's who I am. If you want that part, great.
If you don't want that, that's fine.
If you ever want it, I'm here for you to help be as a man and
a brother to serve you. And that's how I walk and I try
(30:40):
to do everything in that capacity.
It's been so fun and I'm it's sensitive to the fact that
you've got loads of media going on right now around your new
book and the new gyms that you're opening and and setting
up around the country. What do you want people to take
away from true strength? Like, what's the the powerful
(31:00):
idea that you want to launch outinto the world that you think
could make the biggest difference for some of the
people listening today? Number one is if you're
struggling in any way, if you'rebeing challenged, you're facing
depression, you're overwhelmed, you're burnt out, you lost your
mojo, You're not, you don't havethe same mojo or energy is keep
(31:22):
going and find yourself someone that you can, you can be around
that is going to infiltrate you with with hope and motivation
and inspiration. And that, that, you know, it's
part of the plan, the master plan that someday, and it might
be a week, it might be a month, it might be a year, it might be
three, that you're going to lookback and be grateful for the
(31:44):
time that you're walking through.
Greg, I lost two athletes up to suicide during the pandemic.
And part of the true Strength book is we're giving back to
suicide prevention and mental health because these are kids I
coached. These are 19 year old men that
took their life during the pandemic.
And part of the reason why I'm starting the gyms and, and, and
(32:07):
writing the book and a lot's hidden at the same time is
because I realized for my own walk that it's short.
And if I don't do it, who's going to do it?
If we don't do it now, when we going to do it?
Because the world is messed up and there's a lot of darkness.
And I'll say this is, you know, that's what the book is about,
true strength. But I'll say is be the light.
Be the light in a Dark World that exists right now is be the
(32:29):
light, whatever that means to you.
Because for 3 1/2 years there was a flicker on.
There was a flicker because at 11:59 AM when I was going live
every day, there were days I waslike I got nothing to say.
And then people are trying to hold on every word I said and I
got nothing. But I've found somehow to go
103060 minutes go live. Sometimes there's a flicker, but
(32:51):
ultimately there's someone todaythat you're going to speak with
as you listen to Someone today might be a son or a daughter,
might be a husband or a wife, significant other, a teacher, a
Co worker or a colleague. Someone you're getting interact
with today need your word more than you can even imagine.
So speak life into that person because if by doing so, it's
going to put life back into you.And that's how the world is
(33:14):
going to get lit up. And that's why I'm excited for
the impact X performance facilities because it's all
about being a lighthouse. Our, our symbol, our logo is a
lighthouse. We will be shining light in the
communities. And I'm going to be speaking
more on the true strength message again, it's just coming
out now. And why?
Because this was, it was going through 3 1/2 years of hell that
(33:35):
allowed me to really see the light of like, you know what I'm
going from where I was, what I was doing for 23 years.
And now I'm just, I'm just beingobedient to what God's calling
me to do and step into. And I'll be speaking more.
I got a lot of speaking engagements coming up.
And while they're to the secularcrowd, I love that it's not a,
you know, it's not a spiritual message.
(33:56):
It's about true strength, going down to your deepest self and 31
hard earned lessons of what you gotta do to dig down deep and
you know, treat yourself like the pro athletes do or the moms
and dads do to say keep battling, keep going and get
your mind right, get your body right and get your soul right.
This has been so fun. I've had a blast.
And I'm gonna take away the faith walk for sure.
(34:17):
That's a concept I'm gonna lean into.
And I also really, really love the idea of speaking life into
someone. I think that's a neat sort of
mindset that I'm going to adopt.And I'm just like, I'm beaming.
I'm ear to ear smiles. It's been so much fun.
Thank you for the work that you've done.
Thanks for going through everything that you've gone
through to get us to true strength.
And if people want to learn moreabout you and your work in the
(34:39):
book, where Can they Find you? Todd durkin.com todddurkin.com
The Website todddurkin.com Instagram Todd Durkin Impact X
franchise.com On the on the business side, Impact X
franchise, but everything hangs out at coddurkin.com.
If you want more information andof course True Strength, you
know, you can go to Amazon as ofMay 31st here in 2024, Amazon
(35:04):
will have True Strength up and we're really excited about
everything happening with True Strength and, and what we'll be
doing. And hey, I'm going to be up in
Canada. I know in August, so I'll be in
Toronto. Greg, we'd have to get together.
I'll be. Let's do it.
We'll be. Here I'll be at the Convention
Center, love to see you and, andthe crew and, and that.
(35:25):
But Greg, thank you for what you're doing and the impact
you're making, man. I it's really inspiring to see
the people who you're hitting and, and impacting on a regular
basis. Your show was awesome.
I just want to thank you for having me on man Appreciate you.
It's amazing, Super thrilled. Thanks for taking the time
buddy. I'm I'm sure we're going to end
up doing some cool things and we'll see you live and in person
(35:45):
soon. Thank you, Greg.
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