November 2, 2025 • 16 mins
What if inspiration isn’t something you wait for, but somewhere you go? Shawn opens up about 13 years of sobriety, the daily grind that keeps faith alive, and the surprising places where gratitude hits hardest. From a Sunday service that turned into three chances to serve, to the moment a video of women hauling water across miles reframed what “hard” really means, this conversation challenges comfort and invites action.
We walk through tangible ways to turn belief into muscle memory: a pre‑Thanksgiving day of service with the family, a half marathon to fund clean water projects in African communities, and a father–son trip to build homes in Mexico. Along the way, Shawn unpacks the mindset shift from “I have to” to “I get to,” showing how perspective can turn a stairmaster into a privilege and a busy calendar into a mission. He also addresses the noise of modern life—polarized media, cultural cynicism, and the temptation to fight everything—and explains why stepping into a room of volunteers restores hope faster than any timeline ever will.
If you’ve felt stuck, isolated, or numb, this is your nudge to rejoin a community that lifts you higher. Learn how disciplined habits, service-driven goals, and faith-filled relationships create momentum you can feel at home, at work, and with your kids. Listen, reflect, then choose one act of service you’ll commit to this month. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs encouragement, and leave a review telling us: what’s your next step from faith to action?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Faith without works is dead, meaning you can wish
for and pray for and ask for allthe good to happen in your life.
But if you're not willing to dothe work and make the change,
it's not gonna happen.
You don't know what you haveuntil it's taken from you.
You don't know how gifted andblessed you truly are until
these opportunities are gone.
(00:24):
Welcome back to another episodeof the Unstoppable Mindset
Podcast.
I'm your host, Shawn MichaelCrane.
Now, you guys, if you haven'tsubscribed to the podcast, you
can go on YouTube, you can go umon Apple, you can go on Spotify,
all major platforms.
Make sure to subscribe and sharesome of these messages, you
guys.
I know that something I share,uh, a memory, a testimonial from
(00:47):
somebody that I've worked with,a client, transformation,
something is going to registerand connect with you or a family
member or a friend, and it'sgonna help them to make a
positive change.
That's my goal.
I want to be a catalyst forpositive change and for good in
this world.
I want to do the most good foras many people as possible.
You know, one of my goals is tochange the lives of one million
(01:09):
men by the time I die in apositive way.
Their mindset, their habits,their leadership potential.
That's why I'm showing up everyday to share these messages.
That's why I'm living as anexample every day, because I
want to impact people for thebetter.
And today I want to share withyou something that was profound
that happened to me over theweekend.
In fact, I want to share withyou where I go for inspiration.
(01:30):
Because every day I get onsocial media and my goal is to
inspire other people, to share apositive, anecdotal story, a
message, like I said earlier, atestimonial, a transformation,
whatever it may be, in the hopesand it registers and resonates
with you so you can go out andchange your life for the better.
But where do I go forinspiration?
Well, I'm gonna tell you.
I go to church.
(01:51):
I go to church on Sundays, andthat's where I'm inspired.
Now, I have a relationship withGod, and for the past 13 years,
I've been walking the path thatGod has laid before me.
I made a commitment 13 years agothat I was gonna change my life
for the better.
I was gonna give up drugs andalcohol forever, and I was gonna
live a life of excellence.
And what do they say?
Faith without works is dead,meaning you can wish for and
(02:12):
pray for and ask for all thegood to happen in your life.
But if you're not willing to dothe work and make the change,
it's not gonna happen.
So I've done my part for thelast 13 years.
I've made the commitments, I'vemade the sacrifices, I've
followed through, and God hasblessed me a million times over.
I have a beautiful wife,beautiful children, we live in a
beautiful home.
We live in sunny Santa Barbara,California.
(02:33):
My kids go into amazing school,they're healthy, and I get to do
what I love every day, which ishelp people and share my
message.
I get to travel, I get to speak,I get to author books, I get to
do all the stuff that God hasput on my heart.
But just like you, there's timeswhere I lack inspiration.
Or just like you, I'm constantlyseeking inspiration.
I want to look to other peopleor read stories about people who
(02:54):
have lived before me, studyhistory, study noble
individuals, and I want toderive inspiration because we
all need to be inspired attimes.
And collectively, we arestronger than doing things on
our own.
That's why getting aroundlike-minded people, getting
around brilliant people,learning from others, having
good friendships, goodrelationships, getting around
(03:15):
people who think differently,getting around people who are
doing big things in their lifeis so important because it's
going to rub off on you.
And so I go to events often, Iget mentorship from coaches and
mentorship in business and allthese things.
But I'll tell you what, one ofthe places that I get the most
inspiration is church onSundays.
And it happened this pastweekend.
I went to church with my wifeJessica and our four children.
(03:37):
Uh, four.
Wow, we have four children from15 all the way to seven months.
And we were in the service, andevery so often there's kind of a
special service where they'rebringing in people from the
community who are doing prosocial uh type things, giving
back, um, donating time, energy,resources to less fortunate, and
just bringing a powerful messageto the audience that day.
(03:59):
And they brought threeopportunities to the members of
the church that we could allparticipate in.
The first one was uh gonna be onNovember 22nd, the week before
Thanksgiving, where we could alldo community service uh and you
know give back our time and ourenergy and go help less
fortunate within our community.
So we're gonna do that as afamily.
Jessica and I and the kids aregonna do that as a family.
(04:19):
Now, the next presentation wasreally eye-opening.
This woman got up and spoke, andshe has a nonprofit that's about
generating awareness andresources for people in Africa
who are less fortunate.
And she showed this clip ofthese three women hiking down to
basically like this desolatearea away from their village,
and they all have these uh bigjugs strapped to their backs,
(04:42):
and they were climbing overthese rocks, going through
these, you know, cavernous areasand hiking for a good distance,
a couple miles, and then itshowed them walk to this big
open dirt, almost like fuel.
It was kind of like clay andmud, and they started digging in
it, and then water startedseeping to the surface.
So if you've ever been to theocean and the beach and you
know, like if you walk away fromthe water, but then you dig down
in the sand, water starts tocome up to the surface.
(05:05):
It looked like that, but thenthey took the jugs off their
back and started filling upthose jugs with water, and then
they had to hike back with three40-pound jugs on their back all
the way to their village so theycould provide water, drinking
water, for their family, theirfriends, and for the people in
the village.
And I'm sure this wasn't asclean as the drinking water that
you could get out of yourfaucet, and it just really puts
(05:26):
things in perspective.
Like, wow, these women had tohike just to get drinking water,
things that we take for grantedevery day, you know.
Um, in other parts of the world,they don't have the
opportunities we have, theydon't have the resources, they
don't live the way we do.
So seeing things like that,especially for my wife and my
children, I know it puts thingsin perspective and resonates for
them as it does for me.
(05:47):
And I'm sitting there watchingthese women going, gosh, like we
have it so good.
You know, we have it so good.
And so what they're doing isthey're running to raise
awareness for these villages andprovide resources and funding to
fix this problem so they havedrinking water, so they can have
wells that are in their village,so they don't and they can have
running water so they don't haveto hike to get it.
(06:08):
And they're doing a halfmarathon in Los Angeles in
March.
So my wife and my son Masonsigned up for it.
And I thought that's so coolthat they're gonna now be able
to create that experiencetogether, push themselves to do
something challenging, but alsofor such a just and profound
cause.
And the last thing that theypresented at church on Sunday
was building homes in Mexicoduring spring break for people
(06:31):
that are homeless.
And they showed these clips oflast year how they went down
there and built homes forpeople.
And we heard individuals talkingabout stories where the people
in Mexico, literally right overthe border from San Diego.
Now, just put this inperspective.
San Diego was just rated themost peaceful city in the world.
Now, I don't know who does thesethis research and comes up with
this, but we know that SanDiego, California is a beautiful
(06:54):
area, right by the ocean.
Uh, it's it's it's amazing.
If you've ever been there, youunderstand.
And I don't know if it's themost peaceful city in the world,
but I know it's pretty damnbeautiful and it's pretty
amazing.
The people are laid back.
Um, and if you just go over theborder, you know, a couple dozen
miles, if that, you're now inMexico and in Tijuana, where
(07:14):
people are literally burningtrash to stay warm, burning
trash to cook their food.
It's kind of like a third-worldcountry in some parts, you know.
Uh dirt roads still in a lot ofparts, cartels are are
infiltrating all the majorbureaucratic entities in
government and they run thecountry, and uh it's kind of
cutthroat in some areas, justright over the border of San
Diego, you know, like literallyyou could throw a rock over
(07:35):
there, and now like that rocklands in a place with way
different rules and waydifferent um outcomes for
people, you know, and uh so myson and I we signed up to go
over there in spring break for aweek and build homes for people
who are less fortunate.
And I can't think of a betterthing to do with him, honestly,
at 15, growing up in America,growing up in the 2010s and 20s,
(07:58):
when everything is just easyhere and we have abundance and
like we don't really want foranything, let's be honest.
You know, we live now in Americaand dine every night and have
resources at our disposal theway kings did hundreds or
thousands of years ago.
Like a thousand years ago, avery small percentage of the
population lived the way you andI do.
Every night we dine and feastlike kings.
(08:20):
We are so blessed.
But oftentimes we lose sight ofthis and we get so caught up in
our own issues.
And I'm not to say that peopledon't have problems or we don't
go through hardships, butthere's something really
powerful that takes place whenyou can shift your perspective.
You know, like I used to get Iget to mentality a lot.
Like I was having a conversationwith someone earlier, and
they're like, Oh, I hate doingthe stairmaster, I don't want to
(08:41):
go to the gym and do thestairmaster.
And this is what I do in mymindset when I'm being
ungrateful or negative, youknow, and I'm just battling with
myself and negotiating withmyself.
I always remind myself of thefact that I get to go do the
stairmaster, or I get to go tothe gym, or I get to do whatever
it is that you're talkingnegatively about.
Because if you found yourself ina hospital bed tomorrow morning
(09:02):
and you woke up and you weredazed and you realized you had
been hit by a car, run over,some horrific accident happened,
and you didn't have the use ofyour legs.
In fact, the doctor said thatyou were now paralyzed from the
waist down, and you spent therest of your life in a
wheelchair.
Okay, could you imagine howbadly you'd want to be able to
use your legs?
Can you imagine what you woulddo to be able to get those legs
(09:26):
back and go on that stairmasteror go on that run or go do that
thing that you were negativelytalking about doing?
You would give anything.
You don't know what you haveuntil it's taken from you.
You don't know how gifted andblessed you truly are until
these opportunities are gone.
That's human nature.
(09:46):
We don't understand how goodthings are until we suffer some
pain or some tragedy.
I wish we could learn andunderstand before it gets to
that point.
But what I've seen working withpeople, going through my own
transformation, striving to helppeople make change, oftentimes
humans will not change untilthere's some pain threshold met.
You don't understand how amazingyour marriage is until your wife
(10:08):
files for a divorce.
You don't understand howbeautiful and incredible your
children are until one of them'ssick and their life's at stake.
You don't understand how goodyou had it until you're in your
financial situation or yourcompany goes bankrupt or all
your best team members quit andleave you.
Now you see the value in thosepeople.
Now you see the value in thosethings.
Now you wish you could go backand do it the right way.
(10:30):
But it doesn't have to be thatway.
That's why I'm always readingbooks, I'm always listening and
observing other people, and I'mgoing to places like church
where I can be inspired and Ican follow the path that God put
on my heart.
Because I went there that dayand I just looked around at a
room full of people raisingtheir hands to volunteer their
time, to go out and do goodthings in the world, to help
people, to be examples, to beleaders.
(10:51):
And honestly, looking at thestate of our country recently,
and if you watch social media orgo on Twitter or watch the news
or follow politics, you wouldhave a perspective of our
country and our world that wasreally negative.
You know, I look around and Igo, man, what happened to
people?
No one's trying anymore.
No one's out doing good.
The average man's, you know,standards are just drastically
(11:14):
low.
We have the most obese peopleand children in the world.
What's going on with that?
Why is our food so toxic?
Why are we getting these shotsthat could actually have harmful
effects and they're being pushedon us?
You know, why are we alwaysbeing bombarded with all this
information that feels likepsychological warfare?
You know, why am I be told beingtold I'm racist?
Because I'm a white man.
(11:34):
Why is masculinity beingattacked?
Why are, you know, men andwomen's sports, all of a sudden
you start getting all thisnegativity and you start getting
all political and you startgetting divisive and angry and
upset and you want to pick aside and you want to fight.
And that doesn't feel good tolive that way.
Because all you want to do is bein like a defensive attack mode.
We're like, I'm right, you'rewrong.
(11:54):
I'm right, you're wrong.
My views are right, yours arewrong.
My beliefs are right, yours arewrong.
Look at how I'm living, look atwhat I'm doing.
And you get in this whole warpmentality.
And I'll be honest with you, itdoesn't feel good to live that
way.
It feels really unnatural,inauthentic, combative.
It doesn't feel good.
You're not in a harmoniousstate.
Versus the feeling that I havewhen I go to church and
(12:15):
everyone's worshiping andsinging.
And I get tears in my eyes whenthose songs come on because I
remember when I was in prison,every so often, you know, people
come in from outside to providea service for the inmates.
And they volunteered their time,didn't have to do it, and
they're coming into such anegative and despairing
environment.
And we valued and appreciatedthem so much for that.
And for about two hours, we'dsit there and worship and we'd
(12:38):
listen to the sermon.
And I remember in those moments,just hearing the voices and the
melody and the music, it was someaningful for me because in
there you don't get to hearthose sounds.
All you hear in prison is thesound of walkie-talkies and cell
doors closing and just noise,people chattering.
And then sometimes you hear thesound of like footsteps
squeaking on the ground, like ona basketball court.
(12:59):
That's when you know people arefighting.
And, you know, so for me, ittakes me back to those moments
when I was at my lowest andrebuilding myself, and I found
such a tremendous source ofpeace within.
And that was God igniting mysoul to his message and to this
path that I've been on eversince.
So I go to church and I hear theworship songs, and then I see
(13:20):
all the people raising theirhands with smiles on their
faces, saying, Yeah, I'm gonnado the half marathon.
I want to go to Mexico and buildthe homes.
I'm gonna go out and pick uptrash, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do
my part.
Like, it just shows me thatthere's so many good people in
this world that are leading byexample.
And honestly, it humbled mebecause at times I'm like, I'm
doing so much, I'm trying sohard.
Look at me.
(13:40):
And I'm not sitting theresaying, look at me, because I'm
like braggadocious andegotistical, but it's easy to
get side inside our own mindsand just see things from one
vantage point.
Sometimes we got to go into aplace like a church and get
around a lot of good people torecognize, hey, there's a whole
different perspective rightthere of what people are doing.
It's not a bunch of negativepeople fighting out in the
(14:02):
world, it's not a bunch ofpolarizing views.
In that building, it was a bunchof people with very similar
views, with very similarbeliefs, with very similar
morals, with very similarvalues, and they were carrying
them out.
And that's the power, man, inChristianity, and going to a
church and being a part ofsomething that's bigger than us.
Uh, and it's really special.
And so, if someone was to comeup to me right now, and actually
(14:25):
I shared this on my groupcoaching call earlier with my
clients and said, Sean, whereshould I go to seek inspiration?
Who should I get around?
I'd say, go to a church, man.
Go to a church and get aroundpeople who are living up those
values and those morals.
And not to say that every churchis perfect, every pastor is a
great human being.
We're all flawed.
This is the thing I've learned.
Doesn't matter if you're apastor, doesn't matter if you're
(14:45):
a Christian, doesn't matter ifyou're an atheist, doesn't
matter if you're straight, gay,black, white, into politics, not
into politics, whatever it isthat you label yourself or
identify as.
I feel stupid saying thatbecause I don't like that term.
But the truth is we all havegood and evil inside of us.
We all have good thoughts andpositive thoughts that are
leading us to make positivechange in life.
(15:07):
And we all have temptation, andwe all have that thing inside of
us that wants to seek pleasureor wants to do bad for some
reason or wants to gossip orwants to do something negative.
You know, that's what we have tocombat each and every day.
That's what we have to fight.
It's that evil inside of you.
And I found a path for the last13 years through sobriety, so
through personal development,through exercise that allows me
(15:27):
to combat my demons, my negativeself-talk, those evil tendencies
inside all human beings becausewe are all flawed.
But you know what I learned isthat when you get around good
people and you actively fightthose demons each and every day,
and then you can share withothers how you've done it,
that's a pretty remarkable thingto do.
So, you guys, that's my messagefor you today.
I'm not pushing anything on you.
I'm just sharing my experiencewith you and uh how God's
(15:49):
guiding me and using me as aconduit of thy energy, a vessel
of that message that's been puton my heart to share with you.
And I hope it touched someone'slife.
I hope someone heard thismessage today that needed to
hear it, whether it's that, hey,you got to get back to church or
hey, maybe go volunteer some ofyour time, or hey, despite the
adversity in your life and thehardships you've gone through,
we have it pretty damn good inAmerica in 2025.
(16:09):
Let's be grateful for that.
Let's go share that gratitudewith other people.
Let's do positive things intheir lives to show how grateful
we are, and then lead by examplefor the younger generation.
You know, I don't know what youtook from this message, but I
hope it was something that youtook to heart that's going to
positively impact your life.
And if so, drop a comment below.
Share this with somebody else,share it on your feed, and let's
go out and change the worldtogether.
Faith without works is dead, meaning you can wish
for and pray for and ask for allthe good to happen in your life.
But if you're not willing to dothe work and make the change,
it's not gonna happen.
You don't know what you haveuntil it's taken from you.
You don't know how gifted andblessed you truly are until
these opportunities are gone.
(00:24):
Welcome back to another episodeof the Unstoppable Mindset
Podcast.
I'm your host, Shawn MichaelCrane.
Now, you guys, if you haven'tsubscribed to the podcast, you
can go on YouTube, you can go umon Apple, you can go on Spotify,
all major platforms.
Make sure to subscribe and sharesome of these messages, you
guys.
I know that something I share,uh, a memory, a testimonial from
(00:47):
somebody that I've worked with,a client, transformation,
something is going to registerand connect with you or a family
member or a friend, and it'sgonna help them to make a
positive change.
That's my goal.
I want to be a catalyst forpositive change and for good in
this world.
I want to do the most good foras many people as possible.
You know, one of my goals is tochange the lives of one million
(01:09):
men by the time I die in apositive way.
Their mindset, their habits,their leadership potential.
That's why I'm showing up everyday to share these messages.
That's why I'm living as anexample every day, because I
want to impact people for thebetter.
And today I want to share withyou something that was profound
that happened to me over theweekend.
In fact, I want to share withyou where I go for inspiration.
(01:30):
Because every day I get onsocial media and my goal is to
inspire other people, to share apositive, anecdotal story, a
message, like I said earlier, atestimonial, a transformation,
whatever it may be, in the hopesand it registers and resonates
with you so you can go out andchange your life for the better.
But where do I go forinspiration?
Well, I'm gonna tell you.
I go to church.
(01:51):
I go to church on Sundays, andthat's where I'm inspired.
Now, I have a relationship withGod, and for the past 13 years,
I've been walking the path thatGod has laid before me.
I made a commitment 13 years agothat I was gonna change my life
for the better.
I was gonna give up drugs andalcohol forever, and I was gonna
live a life of excellence.
And what do they say?
Faith without works is dead,meaning you can wish for and
(02:12):
pray for and ask for all thegood to happen in your life.
But if you're not willing to dothe work and make the change,
it's not gonna happen.
So I've done my part for thelast 13 years.
I've made the commitments, I'vemade the sacrifices, I've
followed through, and God hasblessed me a million times over.
I have a beautiful wife,beautiful children, we live in a
beautiful home.
We live in sunny Santa Barbara,California.
(02:33):
My kids go into amazing school,they're healthy, and I get to do
what I love every day, which ishelp people and share my
message.
I get to travel, I get to speak,I get to author books, I get to
do all the stuff that God hasput on my heart.
But just like you, there's timeswhere I lack inspiration.
Or just like you, I'm constantlyseeking inspiration.
I want to look to other peopleor read stories about people who
(02:54):
have lived before me, studyhistory, study noble
individuals, and I want toderive inspiration because we
all need to be inspired attimes.
And collectively, we arestronger than doing things on
our own.
That's why getting aroundlike-minded people, getting
around brilliant people,learning from others, having
good friendships, goodrelationships, getting around
(03:15):
people who think differently,getting around people who are
doing big things in their lifeis so important because it's
going to rub off on you.
And so I go to events often, Iget mentorship from coaches and
mentorship in business and allthese things.
But I'll tell you what, one ofthe places that I get the most
inspiration is church onSundays.
And it happened this pastweekend.
I went to church with my wifeJessica and our four children.
(03:37):
Uh, four.
Wow, we have four children from15 all the way to seven months.
And we were in the service, andevery so often there's kind of a
special service where they'rebringing in people from the
community who are doing prosocial uh type things, giving
back, um, donating time, energy,resources to less fortunate, and
just bringing a powerful messageto the audience that day.
(03:59):
And they brought threeopportunities to the members of
the church that we could allparticipate in.
The first one was uh gonna be onNovember 22nd, the week before
Thanksgiving, where we could alldo community service uh and you
know give back our time and ourenergy and go help less
fortunate within our community.
So we're gonna do that as afamily.
Jessica and I and the kids aregonna do that as a family.
(04:19):
Now, the next presentation wasreally eye-opening.
This woman got up and spoke, andshe has a nonprofit that's about
generating awareness andresources for people in Africa
who are less fortunate.
And she showed this clip ofthese three women hiking down to
basically like this desolatearea away from their village,
and they all have these uh bigjugs strapped to their backs,
(04:42):
and they were climbing overthese rocks, going through
these, you know, cavernous areasand hiking for a good distance,
a couple miles, and then itshowed them walk to this big
open dirt, almost like fuel.
It was kind of like clay andmud, and they started digging in
it, and then water startedseeping to the surface.
So if you've ever been to theocean and the beach and you
know, like if you walk away fromthe water, but then you dig down
in the sand, water starts tocome up to the surface.
(05:05):
It looked like that, but thenthey took the jugs off their
back and started filling upthose jugs with water, and then
they had to hike back with three40-pound jugs on their back all
the way to their village so theycould provide water, drinking
water, for their family, theirfriends, and for the people in
the village.
And I'm sure this wasn't asclean as the drinking water that
you could get out of yourfaucet, and it just really puts
(05:26):
things in perspective.
Like, wow, these women had tohike just to get drinking water,
things that we take for grantedevery day, you know.
Um, in other parts of the world,they don't have the
opportunities we have, theydon't have the resources, they
don't live the way we do.
So seeing things like that,especially for my wife and my
children, I know it puts thingsin perspective and resonates for
them as it does for me.
(05:47):
And I'm sitting there watchingthese women going, gosh, like we
have it so good.
You know, we have it so good.
And so what they're doing isthey're running to raise
awareness for these villages andprovide resources and funding to
fix this problem so they havedrinking water, so they can have
wells that are in their village,so they don't and they can have
running water so they don't haveto hike to get it.
(06:08):
And they're doing a halfmarathon in Los Angeles in
March.
So my wife and my son Masonsigned up for it.
And I thought that's so coolthat they're gonna now be able
to create that experiencetogether, push themselves to do
something challenging, but alsofor such a just and profound
cause.
And the last thing that theypresented at church on Sunday
was building homes in Mexicoduring spring break for people
(06:31):
that are homeless.
And they showed these clips oflast year how they went down
there and built homes forpeople.
And we heard individuals talkingabout stories where the people
in Mexico, literally right overthe border from San Diego.
Now, just put this inperspective.
San Diego was just rated themost peaceful city in the world.
Now, I don't know who does thesethis research and comes up with
this, but we know that SanDiego, California is a beautiful
(06:54):
area, right by the ocean.
Uh, it's it's it's amazing.
If you've ever been there, youunderstand.
And I don't know if it's themost peaceful city in the world,
but I know it's pretty damnbeautiful and it's pretty
amazing.
The people are laid back.
Um, and if you just go over theborder, you know, a couple dozen
miles, if that, you're now inMexico and in Tijuana, where
(07:14):
people are literally burningtrash to stay warm, burning
trash to cook their food.
It's kind of like a third-worldcountry in some parts, you know.
Uh dirt roads still in a lot ofparts, cartels are are
infiltrating all the majorbureaucratic entities in
government and they run thecountry, and uh it's kind of
cutthroat in some areas, justright over the border of San
Diego, you know, like literallyyou could throw a rock over
(07:35):
there, and now like that rocklands in a place with way
different rules and waydifferent um outcomes for
people, you know, and uh so myson and I we signed up to go
over there in spring break for aweek and build homes for people
who are less fortunate.
And I can't think of a betterthing to do with him, honestly,
at 15, growing up in America,growing up in the 2010s and 20s,
(07:58):
when everything is just easyhere and we have abundance and
like we don't really want foranything, let's be honest.
You know, we live now in Americaand dine every night and have
resources at our disposal theway kings did hundreds or
thousands of years ago.
Like a thousand years ago, avery small percentage of the
population lived the way you andI do.
Every night we dine and feastlike kings.
(08:20):
We are so blessed.
But oftentimes we lose sight ofthis and we get so caught up in
our own issues.
And I'm not to say that peopledon't have problems or we don't
go through hardships, butthere's something really
powerful that takes place whenyou can shift your perspective.
You know, like I used to get Iget to mentality a lot.
Like I was having a conversationwith someone earlier, and
they're like, Oh, I hate doingthe stairmaster, I don't want to
(08:41):
go to the gym and do thestairmaster.
And this is what I do in mymindset when I'm being
ungrateful or negative, youknow, and I'm just battling with
myself and negotiating withmyself.
I always remind myself of thefact that I get to go do the
stairmaster, or I get to go tothe gym, or I get to do whatever
it is that you're talkingnegatively about.
Because if you found yourself ina hospital bed tomorrow morning
(09:02):
and you woke up and you weredazed and you realized you had
been hit by a car, run over,some horrific accident happened,
and you didn't have the use ofyour legs.
In fact, the doctor said thatyou were now paralyzed from the
waist down, and you spent therest of your life in a
wheelchair.
Okay, could you imagine howbadly you'd want to be able to
use your legs?
Can you imagine what you woulddo to be able to get those legs
(09:26):
back and go on that stairmasteror go on that run or go do that
thing that you were negativelytalking about doing?
You would give anything.
You don't know what you haveuntil it's taken from you.
You don't know how gifted andblessed you truly are until
these opportunities are gone.
That's human nature.
(09:46):
We don't understand how goodthings are until we suffer some
pain or some tragedy.
I wish we could learn andunderstand before it gets to
that point.
But what I've seen working withpeople, going through my own
transformation, striving to helppeople make change, oftentimes
humans will not change untilthere's some pain threshold met.
You don't understand how amazingyour marriage is until your wife
(10:08):
files for a divorce.
You don't understand howbeautiful and incredible your
children are until one of them'ssick and their life's at stake.
You don't understand how goodyou had it until you're in your
financial situation or yourcompany goes bankrupt or all
your best team members quit andleave you.
Now you see the value in thosepeople.
Now you see the value in thosethings.
Now you wish you could go backand do it the right way.
(10:30):
But it doesn't have to be thatway.
That's why I'm always readingbooks, I'm always listening and
observing other people, and I'mgoing to places like church
where I can be inspired and Ican follow the path that God put
on my heart.
Because I went there that dayand I just looked around at a
room full of people raisingtheir hands to volunteer their
time, to go out and do goodthings in the world, to help
people, to be examples, to beleaders.
(10:51):
And honestly, looking at thestate of our country recently,
and if you watch social media orgo on Twitter or watch the news
or follow politics, you wouldhave a perspective of our
country and our world that wasreally negative.
You know, I look around and Igo, man, what happened to
people?
No one's trying anymore.
No one's out doing good.
The average man's, you know,standards are just drastically
(11:14):
low.
We have the most obese peopleand children in the world.
What's going on with that?
Why is our food so toxic?
Why are we getting these shotsthat could actually have harmful
effects and they're being pushedon us?
You know, why are we alwaysbeing bombarded with all this
information that feels likepsychological warfare?
You know, why am I be told beingtold I'm racist?
Because I'm a white man.
(11:34):
Why is masculinity beingattacked?
Why are, you know, men andwomen's sports, all of a sudden
you start getting all thisnegativity and you start getting
all political and you startgetting divisive and angry and
upset and you want to pick aside and you want to fight.
And that doesn't feel good tolive that way.
Because all you want to do is bein like a defensive attack mode.
We're like, I'm right, you'rewrong.
(11:54):
I'm right, you're wrong.
My views are right, yours arewrong.
My beliefs are right, yours arewrong.
Look at how I'm living, look atwhat I'm doing.
And you get in this whole warpmentality.
And I'll be honest with you, itdoesn't feel good to live that
way.
It feels really unnatural,inauthentic, combative.
It doesn't feel good.
You're not in a harmoniousstate.
Versus the feeling that I havewhen I go to church and
(12:15):
everyone's worshiping andsinging.
And I get tears in my eyes whenthose songs come on because I
remember when I was in prison,every so often, you know, people
come in from outside to providea service for the inmates.
And they volunteered their time,didn't have to do it, and
they're coming into such anegative and despairing
environment.
And we valued and appreciatedthem so much for that.
And for about two hours, we'dsit there and worship and we'd
(12:38):
listen to the sermon.
And I remember in those moments,just hearing the voices and the
melody and the music, it was someaningful for me because in
there you don't get to hearthose sounds.
All you hear in prison is thesound of walkie-talkies and cell
doors closing and just noise,people chattering.
And then sometimes you hear thesound of like footsteps
squeaking on the ground, like ona basketball court.
(12:59):
That's when you know people arefighting.
And, you know, so for me, ittakes me back to those moments
when I was at my lowest andrebuilding myself, and I found
such a tremendous source ofpeace within.
And that was God igniting mysoul to his message and to this
path that I've been on eversince.
So I go to church and I hear theworship songs, and then I see
(13:20):
all the people raising theirhands with smiles on their
faces, saying, Yeah, I'm gonnado the half marathon.
I want to go to Mexico and buildthe homes.
I'm gonna go out and pick uptrash, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do
my part.
Like, it just shows me thatthere's so many good people in
this world that are leading byexample.
And honestly, it humbled mebecause at times I'm like, I'm
doing so much, I'm trying sohard.
Look at me.
(13:40):
And I'm not sitting theresaying, look at me, because I'm
like braggadocious andegotistical, but it's easy to
get side inside our own mindsand just see things from one
vantage point.
Sometimes we got to go into aplace like a church and get
around a lot of good people torecognize, hey, there's a whole
different perspective rightthere of what people are doing.
It's not a bunch of negativepeople fighting out in the
(14:02):
world, it's not a bunch ofpolarizing views.
In that building, it was a bunchof people with very similar
views, with very similarbeliefs, with very similar
morals, with very similarvalues, and they were carrying
them out.
And that's the power, man, inChristianity, and going to a
church and being a part ofsomething that's bigger than us.
Uh, and it's really special.
And so, if someone was to comeup to me right now, and actually
(14:25):
I shared this on my groupcoaching call earlier with my
clients and said, Sean, whereshould I go to seek inspiration?
Who should I get around?
I'd say, go to a church, man.
Go to a church and get aroundpeople who are living up those
values and those morals.
And not to say that every churchis perfect, every pastor is a
great human being.
We're all flawed.
This is the thing I've learned.
Doesn't matter if you're apastor, doesn't matter if you're
(14:45):
a Christian, doesn't matter ifyou're an atheist, doesn't
matter if you're straight, gay,black, white, into politics, not
into politics, whatever it isthat you label yourself or
identify as.
I feel stupid saying thatbecause I don't like that term.
But the truth is we all havegood and evil inside of us.
We all have good thoughts andpositive thoughts that are
leading us to make positivechange in life.
(15:07):
And we all have temptation, andwe all have that thing inside of
us that wants to seek pleasureor wants to do bad for some
reason or wants to gossip orwants to do something negative.
You know, that's what we have tocombat each and every day.
That's what we have to fight.
It's that evil inside of you.
And I found a path for the last13 years through sobriety, so
through personal development,through exercise that allows me
(15:27):
to combat my demons, my negativeself-talk, those evil tendencies
inside all human beings becausewe are all flawed.
But you know what I learned isthat when you get around good
people and you actively fightthose demons each and every day,
and then you can share withothers how you've done it,
that's a pretty remarkable thingto do.
So, you guys, that's my messagefor you today.
I'm not pushing anything on you.
I'm just sharing my experiencewith you and uh how God's
(15:49):
guiding me and using me as aconduit of thy energy, a vessel
of that message that's been puton my heart to share with you.
And I hope it touched someone'slife.
I hope someone heard thismessage today that needed to
hear it, whether it's that, hey,you got to get back to church or
hey, maybe go volunteer some ofyour time, or hey, despite the
adversity in your life and thehardships you've gone through,
we have it pretty damn good inAmerica in 2025.
(16:09):
Let's be grateful for that.
Let's go share that gratitudewith other people.
Let's do positive things intheir lives to show how grateful
we are, and then lead by examplefor the younger generation.
You know, I don't know what youtook from this message, but I
hope it was something that youtook to heart that's going to
positively impact your life.
And if so, drop a comment below.
Share this with somebody else,share it on your feed, and let's
go out and change the worldtogether.
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