236. Strong Men Don’t Happen by Accident: The Vision Unlock

Most men drift through life reacting to circumstances instead of living from vision. But the strongest men in history—the ones who led, built, and endured—had a clear picture of who they were and where they were going.

In this episode of The Impossible Life, Garrett and Nick dive into what it means to be a vision-strong man—a man whose identity is defined not by culture or emotion but by a standard he sees clearly and lives out daily.

From Michelangelo’s chiseling of David, to the brotherhood of the Navy SEAL teams, to raising the next generation of “mighty men,” you’ll learn how to build an identity that guides your choices, strengthens your family, and sets you apart in a world of compromise.


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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
If I took a picture of you or a video
of you the way that you talk to your wife sometimes,
you wouldn't be proud of it. If I took a
picture of you or video of you the way you
look when you're working out, you wouldn't be proud of it. Right,
and so with all of these things, right, it's having
a standard visual in your mind of what strong looks like.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
That's impossible. Let me tell you what I believe. What's
your weakness? It's not your technique. Don't think you know
you the Impossible Life Podcast, you're.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Sitting on a winning lottery second, an idea that is
fully formed, fully understood, that sticks. This is the Impossible
Life Podcast because Nick and I are attempting to live
impossible lives. What we know is that nothing is impossible.
So instead of using impossible as an excuse to not try,

(00:57):
we'll use the pursuit of impossible as an accelerant for greatness.
If something's never been done before, that just means it's unexplored.
If they tell you it's too hard, it's just waiting
to be simplified. Impossible as a default label used by
uncourageous people unwilling to take a risk. The real truth

(01:18):
is this The solution to any impossible task starts with
this question, if I had to, what would it take?

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Would it take?

Speaker 3 (01:32):
Welcome to another episode of the Impossible Life podcast. I'm
your co host Nick Surface, and I'm looking across as
a man who only hates three things in life, sin, wickedness,
and territorial geese. That's right, friends, Garret akaback, a man
who fights for righteousness in all forms.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
That might not be an entirely exhaustive list. Well, dude,
I mean I yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
If I was like a man who only hates four
hundred and sixty three, that would be a long intro.
But the territorial geese was a recent one that amused
us greatly. And I love that your wife knows when
it text me and my wife to tell us.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
He goes, can I tell Nick? I said, sure, It's wonderful.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
We were related. For the people that have no idea
what we're talking about. Rie and I were laying in
bed literally last night, unwinding.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
I'm glad. I'm glad that I give you guys a laugh.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
You do give us a laugh because Rieen goes, hey,
do you see your text? And my phone was already
a nightmode.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
I was like, no.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
So she shows me your phone and it's Lindsay texting
our group chat that we have for the four of us,
saying like, oh, we went for a run today and
this ge this goose hissed it, Garrett, and then hissed
again when you guys came back, which led to you
chasing down the goose.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Here's the here's the backstory. It's like Lindsey told me
she didn't like running when the geese are here because
the geese always hiss at her. Oh so they already
set themselves up for failure, already set themselves up for failure.
And we, you know, so we ran by. You know,
we did a little two mile, which Lindsay's doing great.

(02:56):
I think we were just under twenty two minutes on
a two mile yesterday she.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Could pass the mighty bed fitness she could not.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Everyone can know. So we ran ran past the geese.
She's like, they don't hiss when you're here. And then
we were running back, one of the geese hissed at me,
and without hesitation, I snapped and took took off after
it like I was going to murder it, which I
was fully willing to like kick a goose because like, look,

(03:25):
I'm not a mean towards animals person. I've seen this,
although people who listened to this wouldn't believe you'd probably
well it's again, that's oh Navy seal mean killer guy.
Like it's okay, that's that's the throwback to Colonel Grossman.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
You have a strong sense of dominion.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Yeah, throw back to Colonel Grossman. You know what she
don't like the sheep dog. This thing hissed at me,
and I took I mean, I snapped after it like
I was going to murder it, which I was, and
it and it and it like flinched and ran away,
and so I gave it space. And as soon as
I turned back, it turned and hissed at me again,

(04:02):
and I went after it like I was going to
destroy it, and it flew off right, And so I
was like, okay, that's fine, Like do I want to
crush this thing? No, I don't care about a goose,
But what I don't want In my mind, I'm thinking, look, man,
right there, you've got lots of space out here, there's
these giant ponds or anywhere else. This sidewalk belongs to

(04:23):
the light farms neighborhood, and there are women and children
here inappropriate behavior, right, And I'm more than happy to
trample a goose under my feet to make an example
to all the other geese that you don't treat our
women and children here. My wife should be able to
run on the sidewalk in our neighborhood in peace and
not be terrorized by an animal.

Speaker 3 (04:40):
Yeah, and you made so. I do laugh at that
because I laugh at my friend all the time. But
but there's actually a powerful thought process there, because you
once said if a line was in your neighborhood, you
wouldn't go inside and close the door and be like,
oh thank god it didn't get us. You'd go kill
the lion because you don't want it to get someone else.
And that's it. That's the sheep dog thought process, is like,
it's not about me protecting me and my ow just me.
It's there's other people I'm responsible for, so men, and

(05:03):
that's you.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
You know, if it was just me out here, i'd
laugh when the goose hissed at me, like okay, goose, yeah,
silly goose. Right, you don't know, right, Like you're just
protecting your family, which that's exactly the reason the goose
is hissing, and I respect that, except like the fact
that you make my wife and children uncomfortable. You're not
welcome here. You are a guest in this neighborhood, and

(05:26):
you breathe at my allowance.

Speaker 3 (05:29):
Now we we will not go into the other history
that you have of personal combatants with certain animals, and don't.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
I don't need to.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
You know, I've had a lot of opportunities in life
to prove myself, so I'm not trying to. No, yeah,
flex on a unweaponized animal. You know, a goose has
a beak, it doesn't even have claws or talents. They're
not scary animals. The whole, the whole. You know, we're
making this more of a thing than it is. But
the whole point was for me, right, like, you're not
going to terrorize my family, right, you're not welcome here.

(05:58):
I just thought it was hilarious and I and I
hope for the goose's sake that you know, Lindsay gives
me a positive praise report this week that the goose
have realized the sidewalk is not a great place to
hang out and hiss at women like you can go anywhere.
There's just giant ponds in all this green space, and
every go over there, but for whatever reason, they camp
out on the sidewalk and hiss at people as they

(06:19):
go by.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
So to the goose, if you're listening, don't hiss next
time they come by.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
And we have a lot of geese. That yeah, we
got a lot of gees. Come back.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
I listen to the podcast. I know that for a
fact that we saw it in the stats. All Right, dude,
today's is h I hope you enjoyed that not planned
long intro that gave a thought of how Garrett lives.
But uh, this today is man the power of having
a visualized, standardized identity. And you might be going, well,
what's that mean? Good, we're going to get into it
because this one, man, men, listen up, grasp this one.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
It's so important. We're going to get into this.

Speaker 3 (06:53):
But I think we're a great story that I love
that shows this and I think we've told it before.
But like if you know, if you've ever seen Michael
Angelo's David, and you've been to Florence and you've gone
and seen that, you go into this museum, there's literally
nothing else there. I mean, there's there's other stuff there,
but you kind of walk by and you're like, oh, whatever.
And then there's Michael Angela's David, and I mean it's
the way they have it in the is so that

(07:14):
you can stand back and behold this thing from a distance.
Oh yeah, it's massive, but like they have you know,
the roof is a certain level, and then they have
a dome that it's in and it's and the lighting
is perfect, and you just go, oh wow, I mean
it's impressive. So you go and see Michael Angela's David,
and I mean just the attention to detail, the vascularity
that he has in some of the deed, it's unbelievable.

(07:34):
And so if you know that your carved veins and yes, yeah,
I mean it's a good idea. But I'd been like, ah,
he doesn't need to be veiny, but I mean everything
in there is. It's unbelievable. So but the story of
it is even more incredible. They had this piece of
marble that I think three different guys had been commissioned
to try and carve something out of and they'd all
passed up on it. They gotten to the point of like, ah,
I can't do it. So then Michael Angela gets it,

(07:56):
starts going to work on it, and when he was done,
obviously he's created this master pie. I mean, to carve
anything would be incredible. To carve something that's like, I
don't know how tall it is. Maybe it's like six
or seven feet tall. I probably should have looked it
up beforehand.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
I think bigger than that. It's it's big. I'm gonna
look it up in a second.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
It's bigger than life size. Okay, you know how big
David was David, Well, it says that, yeah, you know,
Saul was a tall man, so I'm guessing that David wasn't.

Speaker 3 (08:21):
Well, okay, that's a fair point. Okay, but the point being,
so when they asked him, they said, hey, wouldn't.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
Have been quite the David and Gliath picture if David
was like, you know, a seven foot human against the
ten foot guy.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
Oh my gosh, it's seventeen feet I was way off. Okay, yeah,
seventeen feet tall. Anyways, so yeah, the point is amazing.
And he did this and they said, well, how did
you you know, how did you do this? And he said, oh,
it's simple. I just took I removed everything that wasn't David.
Now I love that story because what does that mean.
It means he had a very clear understanding of what
David looked like. So as you're sitting there over and

(08:54):
over again just hitting the chisel, they taking a chunk off,
you know, getting this little piece, standing that part down,
he was removing what wasn't David. AK When something wasn't David,
I identified it very clearly, and there was no decision.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
It was he could see, I mean just not not
just like getting a picture, not just finally having the
portrait of David's statue that you're making the statue look
like the picture. But he had to see who David
was in his mind before he could visualize it. And
then once he visualized it, he turned the stone into
that picture.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
Yeah, and I can imagine him like doing something.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
I mean, when you especially when you know who David
is in scripture and then you look at that statue,
I think it. I think it does brilliantly embody what
that who who David was. There's an interesting thing in
the when you look at David's statue, just the posture
of his head and his body and everything, it embodies

(09:47):
who he is. There's so many little little nods that
you miss sometimes, Like one of the things that you
might not know, for example, on the sealed trident, right,
it's it's an eagle on an anchor holding a holding
a flint lock pistol. But one of the things that
you may not notice when you look at the seal
trident is that the eagle's head is down really low, right,

(10:09):
Like you don't ever see an eagle in that position, right.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
But one of the reasons they.

Speaker 1 (10:12):
Did that is like that's meant to be some of
the humility of the seal teams at school, right, Like
an eagle's head hung low. An eagle doesn't do that
because it's afraid of something. It's like the eagle's head
is bowing right, right. And so I'm just using that
as an example of all these little things. And when
you look at David's statue, you see very little things
like his eyes and where his head is at and
all of that. But always I can imagine him taking

(10:34):
a little piece off then stepping back to like you
know what I mean, like kind of always assessed he
saw who he was, Yeah, he saw who he was.
And that's what we're going to get into and so
many people bump into lack of identity. Where I'm seeing
something that I'm very proud of as a father's we
do might have been as people who listen to this know,
every week we get over four hundred men now that
are showing up. For those who don't know, just give them,

(10:55):
you know, give him a quick shout at where. Well,
we get messages all the time like, hey, where's y'all's
men's thing.

Speaker 3 (10:59):
Yeah, it's in Frisco, Texas at Elevate Life Church. Every
Saturday morning at seven am. Over four hundred men get together.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
Garrett. You'll hear Garrett preach. You will experience any other
between Maine and Teal Parkway. Yeah, between Maine and Teal Parkway.
And it's just brotherhood.

Speaker 3 (11:13):
It's guys doing life together, being real about walking and
following after Jesus's discipleship. And I'm very proud of it. Well,
one of the things that I've learned by being there
is you take your son with you wherever you go.

Speaker 2 (11:23):
So guess what I do.

Speaker 3 (11:24):
Since my son was four years old aka long enough
to sit still, I've been bringing him to mighty men.
So he comes to monument and Elijah's now six, and
his identity is one hundred percent as a mighty man
when we're playing with action figures, because he always wants
to do that.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
He's like, you be the.

Speaker 3 (11:38):
Mighty man, and I don't really know what he means,
and then he'll shove a pile of soldiers over to me.
That's what he thinks is the mighty man, and you're going, Okay,
that's kind of cute. Well, let me tell you how
this works out. He got hit in the neck with
a baseball because he plays baseball, and he just sort
of rubbed it off and he was like the next
pitch he was a little bit I could tell you
was still a little bit scwolly, and then he locked
straight back in and I was like, good for you. Afterwards,

(11:59):
he told me say, hey, Dad, when I got hit,
I was going to start to cry, but then I
realized might Then I reminded myself that mighty man can
take pain. And I love that. He told me his
first day of school, which he just started this recently.
I was trying to get all this information out of
what was your favorite thing? Did you make friends?

Speaker 2 (12:13):
What'd you do?

Speaker 3 (12:13):
He's like, I don't remember, and then we're just walking
along and I'm like, dude, I just wanted to hear something.
He's like, this kid was trying to push me around
today and he wouldn't listen, and I told him to
stop it. So I twisted his arm and I told him,
you don't want to mess with me. I'm a mighty man.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
Now, dude. I laughed because I thought it was hilarious.

Speaker 3 (12:29):
But I can't tell you how proud like imagine having
that sense of identity that you're walking around You're like, no,
I'm a mighty man. Like in his mind, like he'll
say things to me like, hey, dad, if a bear
came to our neighborhood, the mighty man would go kill it.
And I'm like, that's right, we would. This is who
he's growing up to be.

Speaker 1 (12:43):
It's the power of an identity is Yeah, he's not
saying what is Elijah do? He's saying, what would a
mighty man?

Speaker 2 (12:48):
Right?

Speaker 3 (12:48):
And it's an expectation beyond himself because he knows that's
who he is. And you know what, so few people
get that. And fathers, if that's you, if you like
I call elige to my warrior. If you don't, you
should be speaking the best parts into your kids and
telling them who they are, because that's what your responsibility is.
Mom gives this this self esteem. Dad needs to give
the identity. That's a little side note that we're not
going to get further into, but understand this identity and

(13:10):
you need to have this as a man. Well, fortunately
you were in the Seal Teams, g and you guys
knew a thing or two about having an identity. You
guys have one of the strongest brands in the world.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
Well, you know, I want to jump off into a
statement that it's it's funny, but it's actually really serious
and it means a lot. And the Seal Teams, like
guys joke about it, but it actually, I think embodies
a lot of who we are. And there's positives negatives
to it. But one of the things that we would
say in the Seal Teams is rule number one is

(13:39):
look cool at all times, right right, And then, like
other guys would joke, rule number two is never get lost.
Rule number three is if you fail at rule number two,
revert back to rule number one, right, Like, even if
you are if your lost, still look cool.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
Man.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
I need to remember that the rule number two and
three were kind of a joke. Real rule number one
was actually really like a standard in the Seal teams,
like everything you do you should look cool while doing it.
And what that turned in, like there were there's other
I have so much respect for everyone who's served. You
want to ever hear me talk down about other service groups.

(14:13):
I will highlight the strengths of some service groups over
others at times, but I will say there's you know,
people think there's so much like tension between like the
different Special Operations groups.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
There's not.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
What you do have is like immature people, right, people
who have envy and ego, who take shots at different
service groups. But it doesn't like exist between the overall groups.
It exists between individuals, right okay. And what I heard
sometimes from individuals and other branches and it's fine, you
gotta you know, that's just part of Special Operations too,
Like you got to mess with people, right yeah. And

(14:48):
you know, guys would take shots at the Seal teams,
and like the the attitude, the attitude or like the
archetype that seals had was like these are the guys
who show up on target and they have you know,
gel spiked hair and sunglasses on and a red bull
in their hand.

Speaker 2 (15:07):
Whereas like the other branch.

Speaker 1 (15:10):
The way other branches are saying that is like, you
guys aren't tough, right, like you literally had a helicopter
drop you off and you just shoot some stuff up
and leave, whereas other guys is like, man, we've been
here for seven days, right, like we all stink, we're
all nasty. So that was like some of the the
way people would like Seals are the pretty boys amongst
all the special forces groups, or if you like, get

(15:31):
on YouTube and look at people like archetyping all the
special forces groups, like Seals are the pretty boys. Okay,
it's just some of the reputation that they have, and
that's I wouldn't say it's negative, but that's one way
that they'll look cool at all times comes across. But
really what looked cool at all times was for us,
it was a guide and it's not like, oh cool,
Like it's not just trying to be a cool guy,

(15:53):
but everything you do, whether it's jumping out of airplanes
doing otb's which is over the beach, which we talked
about a few weeks ago. Right, if you're a surfer,
you understand somewhat of the challenge that it would be
to swim in with all of your gear and then
make a transition in the sand out of wet gear
into dry gear. Do it low signature, so not moving

(16:13):
around a bunch, no light, no sound, and middle of
the dark, and then just patrol out of there like cool. Yeah, right,
Like when you're doing it right, it looks cool. One
of the other ones that's really challenging is when we
would like assault, we would dive in and assault ships.
When you come up from like a two hour dive,
the last thing you want to do is look cool.

(16:34):
What you really want to do is like take all
your gear off and like finally take a breath and
be so glad that you're not under You've been underwater, cold,
staring in the dark for like two hours. But the
way that you're supposed to actually do it is you
do a gear change underwater, which is this is I
could spend a long time on this, I won't, but
you change like from wet soup gear into a tacticle gear.

(16:55):
You take all your dive gear off while still using it,
stage it underwater and like do a slow tactical peak
with your weapon coming up out of the water with
you as you come on to the ladder and like
assault the ship silently. It looks exactly the way like
Hollywood makes it look. It doesn't feel cool, but it
looks extreme like it feels terrible. It's those that's like

(17:17):
the true frogman stuff that was not fun at all.
But when you look back at like the photos and video,
but you're like, that was sick. Yeah, okay, I hated
every second, but it was.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
Absolutely miserable to do.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
But when you look at the photos like that was
cool and that was some of the guide and look
cool at all times and really like whether it's shooting
on the range, like I was showing Nick some pictures,
is as we were kind of preparing for this is
like this is what this is what this meant, right,
Like when you looked at pictures of me, when you
looked at pictures of my team, guys, helmets weren't crooked.
Guy's gear all looked tight, guys are in really good shape.

(17:49):
When you look at pictures of guys in action, the
way they ran, the way they stopped in formation, it
always looked cool. That's not just because you're a cool dude.
It's very intentional. You have an idea of the way
things are supposed to look, and especially like when you
first start in that program, like seal students, they don't
look cool. They haven't figured it out yet. They're like

(18:10):
still just trying to make sure they don't break the
rules and get their career into These are all these
buzz pictures we see if guys like straining and yeah,
they're just trying to make sure their career doesn't end
before it starts, right, But as guys mature and get
really good at it, they've understood like, Okay, a great
performance actually looks cool. And so I could spend a
long time talking about that. But the important part is

(18:31):
that when you have this visualized standard, right, you have
an idea that becomes a picture, that becomes a set
of actions. You have your guide for like this is
what this is what good looks like, this is what
bad looks like. And there are times where like things
are going horribly on the battlefield and you don't feel
cool and you don't look cool. It's just a signal

(18:51):
of like, hey, things aren't going well if you don't
look cool right now, Like if your stuff's all a mess,
your emotions are all a mess, like you have internal
alarms going off, like you're you're not in black performance
right now. You need to correct yourself, You need to
fix your stuff.

Speaker 2 (19:05):
Yeah, I love that you. That's so you said.

Speaker 3 (19:07):
It becomes a picture, which becomes a guide and that
that's really really powerful and that's what we want to
dive into.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
I mean, and you you talked.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
About Yeah, some of some of the things I was
getting at there is for one, when you have this
strong identity, people will misinterpret it, right, Like the misinterpretation
is like seals are you know, hairjel, sunglasses and red
bull on the target. And that's fine, that's the misinterpretation
of it. The real interpretation of it is like we fat,

(19:35):
we we spent uh. We critiqued each other so hard
and prepared so much that when I fast rope off
of a when I fast rope in the middle of
the night down like off of a helicopter onto a
ship or onto a rooftop, the way I just casually
step over the rope to you know, take my next step.
My gloves come off immediately, my hands are on my rifle,

(19:56):
and I just take a knee and posture up in
a security position. It looks cool, and it is thousands
of reps to be able to do that.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
One of the mental pictures I had of this is
one of the most dangerous things that we do is
assaulting ships. You have a big ship in the ocean
that's you know, cruising at a some especially if they
know that they're potentially going to be assaulted, they'll move
the ship up to full speed, right, okay. And these
big ships the waves go around them. Yeah, little ships
go up and down with the waves. And I have

(20:26):
assaulted ships before where you know, from the if you
have a like a ten to twelve foot wave, I
wish you could easily get rollers that big out in
the middle of the ocean. You have like fifteen feet
from the peak down to the very bottom, I understand.
And so and this is in like three to five
second cycles, depending on the ocean and how fast the

(20:48):
ship is going. So you're moving up fifteen feet down
the side of the ship every three to five seconds.
You grab onto the ladder at the wrong time, you like,
there's a good chance you'll die. And so one of
the things like I had this picture in my mind. Okay,
you'll think this is funny, but I had this picture

(21:09):
in my mind. I can't remember which movie it is.
There's a Chuck Norris movie, right, Chuck Norris, Love It
already looks cool. There's a Chuck Norris movie where he's
hanging from the ladder underneath a helicopter like shooting him
at like with one arm and with his other arm
shooting a machine gun standard. I don't remember which movie
this is, but I have the picture in my mind,
and that was the cool picture in my mind. When

(21:29):
we would do this assault right like one you had
to be really strong for the fact that I have
an extra forty to sixty pounds of gear on me,
and I need to climb a ladder and climb a
ladder quickly, but I would when you're moving up to
the ship, you get some time to like not a
bunch of time, but just like a surfer season set,
you can time and catch the cycles and so as
we're moving up and sometimes I'm first guy up the ladder.

(21:52):
As soon as that ladder is set, I've already kind
of timed out the sequence and I can see it
and feel it when we're at the top of a
crest and I would come up to that ladder and
reach up as high as I could grab, like full stretch,
grab that top rung, and then the boat would just
strop out, it would fall away from me. And as
soon as it fell, I'm one arm, second arm, go another,

(22:13):
because sometimes you know one wave will be higher than
the other. So you got to get up that ladder
a little bit, one arm, two arm, and then pull
my feet up really high, knees up to my waist,
get my feet on that next step and stand up.
And so I should be ideally five seven feet higher
up the ladder before in that three to five seconds
before the next wave cycle comes back, and I don't.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
Get crushed by the boat.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
But I had this picture in my mind of cool
guy Chuck Norris just hanging full arm outstretched from the ladder,
and that was my mental picture as I grabbed the ladder.
And I've seen video of myself climbing and that's exactly
what it looked like, and so I had this standardized
visual of what good looked like. I've also seen people
climb those ladders and do those assaults that it doesn't

(22:57):
look like that, And so that's the of having a
visual in your mind. This is what my dad would
say to me when I was a little boy, he'd say,
I wish you could see yourself right now, because you
don't look good. And what my dad was signaling to
me was how you're being is not in line with
who you are and who you want to be. My
dad would say that to me when I was like,

(23:19):
when I was a little kid, I was a hot head.
When I was a little kid, I was emotional just
like any five year old is, right, like it's called
being five. And as I grew my dad was helping
me go out of that, and he's saying, the way
you're being's not the way that I am. The way
your being's not the way that you want to be.
So if you'll take some personal inventory, and in this

(23:39):
sense of an inventory, it's looking at yourself, seeing yourself,
you wouldn't like what you see, right And the same
thing for men who are listening to this podcast. If
I took a picture of you or a video of
you the way that you talk to your wife sometimes,
you wouldn't be proud of it. If I took a
picture of you or a video of you the way
you look when you're working out, you wouldn't be out

(24:00):
of it, right. And so when with with all of
these things, right, it's having a standard visual in your
mind of what they called it cool and what we're
going to call it today is what strong looks like.

Speaker 3 (24:10):
Yeah, and so and that's I'm glad you went there,
because that's what I was going to say. I mean,
most people, what I would say in my observations of
talking to people and just you know life, is they
don't really have a clear vision. They don't have a
clear vision of an idealized standard of who they want
to be. And so we're telling you today, if you're
a man like you were made to be strong at
all times not And we're not talking about having massive
biceps and like, yes, you should be physically strong, we've

(24:33):
covered that recently. There's no excuse for you to be
out of shape and not able to you know, you
don't have to bene five hundred pounds ago Christian right.
And because I mean, I think there's a lot of
people out there like, oh, I'm in great shape, and
they're like, that's my past.

Speaker 2 (24:45):
No, it's not.

Speaker 3 (24:46):
Because you're falling apart all the time in other areas
and showing the weakness. So we're going to get into
what that looks like. And as always g we're the
impossible life. So we have certain things we do all
the time we define strong and how did we define
a gen Well, I have.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
Kind of my own definition for strength, yes, which for well,
my personal definition of strength is strength isn't about what
you can pick up. It's about what you never have
to put down. Because a lot of people would define strength.
That's that's Nick's you know sound for when I when
I quote Garrett on our podcast, I always do that.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
A couple of people have sound bites for quotes if
you don't know, and that's I quote you on our
own podcast.

Speaker 1 (25:23):
Nick's also trying to subtly trigger me because she goes,
it's a gun cocking sound, and I'm like, we don't
do that. The gun should already be loaded. I don't
have to cock the gun.

Speaker 3 (25:31):
As you've said many times, if it's not got one
of the chamber, it's a dead man's gun.

Speaker 1 (25:35):
So that's literally what we called in the Seal teams.
But but my definition of strength is not about what
you can pick up. It's about what you never have
to put down. Because a lot of men like just
try to be strong for a moment, like we look
how much I can bench, Like, look at what I
did this one time versus to me, strength is like
what are the weights you're caring that have become normal
to you?

Speaker 2 (25:55):
Right?

Speaker 1 (25:55):
Like when you first become a dad, it's hard and
then you and then you really I was like, oh,
I actually got stronger, and this is just who I am.
And now when I first had to pick up this weight,
I had to put some other stuff down. But now
I just carry this weight all the time, and I
carry these other weights all the time. And that's not
like a woe is Me mentality. It's more so like, oh,
look I got stronger, and I had this mindset from

(26:16):
the beginning of what is hard for me today will
not be hard for me tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (26:20):
Yeah. So that's really what strength is to me.

Speaker 3 (26:22):
Yeah, And real quick, I want to highlight when we're
saying to you as men like you should be strong.
This is not our opinion, Okay. I want to give scripture.
First Corinthians sixteen thirteen says be on guard, stand firm
in your faith, act like men like, be courageous, be strong.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
It's all where and that's New Testament Old Testament one
of my favorite scriptures. First King's chapter two David's Dying
Breath too. His son says, Stan, he's in the you know,
this is the man. This is the man who it
says is a man after God's own heart. Yep, you know,
the great leader of the Israelites, the almost the Jesus

(27:00):
figure of the Old Testament of truly the leader. And
to his son Solomon, the wisest man could say anything,
could have given so many lessons. But the first thing
he says is stand firm, act like a man. Yep, right, don't.
He didn't say you are a man? Son, He says,
act like what because there's a lot of men who
don't act like man.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
Difference between being a male and being a man.

Speaker 3 (27:22):
Yeah, is one hundred percent right there. The full scripture,
just in case the guys that were wondering. It's First
Kings two to two. He says, So be strong, act
like a man, and then he qualifies it. And observe
what the Lord your God requires, Walk in obedience to him,
and keep his degrees, in commands, his laws and regulations
as written in the Law of Moses. Do this so
that you may prosper in all you do. And wherever
you go talk about understanding where your strength.

Speaker 1 (27:44):
Comes from, and that there David defines, you know, strength
isn't just about like Solomon, make sure you you know
before you're twenty can bench to fifty five percent?

Speaker 2 (27:53):
Yeah right.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
What he's saying is like, these are all the things
that it means to be a man. One of them
is following God. Yeahn love it.

Speaker 3 (28:00):
And that's why I want to say, because I don't
want people to be like, oh, this is like the impossible.
And you said something earlier that I want to highlight
actually before we get into it, because we're going to
go into some specific ways of where what strength looks
like in family, mindset, and business, and also some cues
for weakness. The same way that Garrett would know if
he didn't look cool it was going wrong. You should
know whenever you're not being strong, and it should alert
you like, oh, I need to snap out of this

(28:20):
and remember who I am. But you talked about whenever
you have a strong identity, people will misinterpret it. I
think what this looks like in modern day society is
the term toxic masculinity, which I hate that term. Or
they'll be like, oh, you're misogynistic and it's thrown around
a lot. It's very common. Can you speak a little
bit to that.

Speaker 2 (28:37):
Man about toxic masculinity? Yeah, because obviously you talked about
how the seals have interpret it.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
I think when you really have some strength, it allows
you to have mercy for that. Again, this is I mean,
no one really said it better I think than Colonel
Grossman about the sheep dog and in his book, Like,
that's what resonated with me. The sheep don't like the
sheep dog. The sheep think the sheep dog is mean.
The sheep see the sheep dogs claws and teeth. The

(29:02):
only difference between a sheep dog and a wolf is
really the sheep dog's heart and purpose and intent. And
so when like, and I don't mean this, like I'm
so much better than you, but if someone would look
at me or things that I do or that I'm
associated with and call it toxic masculinity, like I'm okay,

(29:22):
Like it doesn't hurt my feelings. I know why I
do what I do, and I don't need to like
I'm not doing it to flex on people and look tough.
There's a heart behind why I do what I do,
and those who are calling it that are really like
it's the same way that veterans felt in the military,
like when people would burn the flag, and it's like,
you know what, like I think you're an absolute fool,

(29:44):
but I'm fighting for your right to do that, right,
Like you don't realize the price that I've paid. Other
people have paid that people who gave their life paid
for you to be able to do that, And that's okay.
I'm not asking for that in return. And so when
the point of this, you know, just like I said,
the seals, you know, sometimes people will put them on

(30:04):
not necessarily a pedestal, but put them in an archetype.
That's like calling out ego or vanity. And seals aren't perfect,
that's for sure. There's plenty of imperfect people there who
were seals, myself included, but more so understanding that when
you have an identity that you're trying to associate with,
sometimes people will look at it the wrong way.

Speaker 3 (30:24):
I love that you answered to show mercy because I'm
thinking of the Scripture and what old man, does the
Lord require of you to do justice, love mercy and
walk humbly with your God. And I think that's such
a great sign of real strength.

Speaker 1 (30:37):
Well, the test of masculinity is like, how does it
respond to being called toxic masculinity? Yeah, because true toxic
masculinity would lash out against people calling it that, and
it would show that you're really weak. Like I to me,
one of my personal forms of like strength is like resilience.
How quick like if you take a hit, what happens
to you? And like a strong man a hit and

(31:01):
it was like what you see in movies, right, like
the heroes fighting the bad guy and the bad guy
takes one square in the face and doesn't even blink.
You're like, oh crap, yeah exactly. That's that's a lot
of what I think strength looks like. And if that
you would insult me or try to invalidate me, and
if it actually bothered me, that's not strong.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (31:20):
Well, I mean that's Jesus, that's the definition of meekness
is strength under.

Speaker 1 (31:24):
Control literally said Father, forgive them, they know not what
they do. That's that's strength in its highest form.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
It blows.

Speaker 3 (31:30):
That's I'm still like trying to grasp that scripture. I've
every time it said it blows me away. Just to
be in the moment and to be able to recognize that.
All right, well, let's let's get it. You said strong
is three things, because like we're talking about strength, we're
gonna give you very specific pictures. But you said that
strong is I know where I'm going, I have the
strength to get there, and I have the care to
bring others with me.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
Yeah, this is you know, I was trying to relate. Okay,
the seals have looked cool at all times, right, like
cool something. It's a good guy, but maybe we could
make a better one. Yeah, And I'm thinking about like
what should a man be. That's what a man should be, Like,
I know where I'm going. That's that's a little bit
of vision, that's a little bit of wisdom, Like I
have a plan, I have a path, I have the
strength to get there.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
But then also, yes, the care for others.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
Right, that you're not just focused on yourself, You're not
just worried about yourself. But you're saying, like, I'm looking
after my the same thing I was doing with the goose.

Speaker 3 (32:22):
Right.

Speaker 1 (32:22):
I was not offended by the goose because, like you know,
the goose couldn't even hurt me, right, But it does
bother me that you make my wife uncomfortable, right, and
that is not.

Speaker 2 (32:32):
A position you want to put yourself in.

Speaker 3 (32:33):
I love that our intro came back around to be
able for a real life teaching moment. That's that is
a bonus win for the impossible life right there. But
grasp that I know where I'm going, I have the
strength to get there, and I have the care to
bring others with me. And what I said to Garrett
whenever he because he just when we're preparing for these things,
everyone's on Gart like, just give me a minute and
he'll just be quiet and I'll be doing some other
work and then he'll just come out with something and

(32:54):
it's my job to record it, which is what happened here.
And when you said those things that my first response was,
I was like, I think most people don't know where
they're going. And that's just the truth a lot of people.
If you don't have a vision, where are you going
to Comfortville? Because I'm gonna I'm gonna make a decision
in the moment to retirement land. Yeah, retirement land, That's
where I'm going. And is that your vision? What sounds
pretty awesome? Okay, Like I wouldn't say that's the.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
Culture put this carrot in front of me, so I'm
chasing after.

Speaker 3 (33:18):
It exactly right, And so we're going to show you
what this looks like and in family, business and mindset.

Speaker 2 (33:24):
So let's let's dive into it. Man.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
So when you if you really know where you're going, right,
if you like, I think this would be like and
this is not me taking a shot at Nick.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
But like say.

Speaker 1 (33:35):
We were in the middle of the forest and you're
like questioning me on like dude, like you said you
know it would only take this long. It doesn't seem
like you know where we are, like it. You know,
I haven't seen a trail or anything in a long time.
But if I told you I know where I'm going
compared to Nick, I'm not taking a shot at Nick.
I'm this is something that I this is a skill

(33:56):
that I have a lot of training in. Like I
know where I'm going, and even Nick wouldn't. But even
if Nick is like getting mad at me or accusing
me or getting emotional or upset, it wouldn't bother me.
I would just keep going exactly where I know that
I'm going.

Speaker 3 (34:08):
Yeah, I think this is funny because what actually happens
is I like, instead of you taking shot of at all.
And I'm not the guy who's going Garrett, I've never
questioned you. You know, if anything, I go, Man, I'm
amazing you're able to do this. And then you tell
me how dumb it is that I don't know, and
I feel even worse. So like that's what it actually
looks like. But anyways, and we're gonna be getting We're
getting ready climb the mountain next weekend together, so I

(34:29):
can't be a nice, pretty trail. I'm looking forward to it.
It's our once a year adventure. Client, I'm looking forward
to it. Okay, So let's get into it in family
and so in family, here's here's the strength. And here's
like we talked about. I said, a lot of people
don't know where they're going. Here's where you're going. It's
knowing that your family is here to glorify God and
produce godly offspring. Okay, and don't misunderstand your assignment. You're like, O,

(34:50):
well that sounds great, Nick, that sounds a lot like
what Garrett said. His picture is for his family. Well
guess where Garrett got it from? Malachi two thirteen through
sixteen says another thing you do this is God talking
through a prophet too, Israel. Whenever they are like teetering,
Malachi is the last time they heard from God for
four hundred years before Jesus came. So this is the
last things He's saying to them. You flood the Lord's
altars with tears. You weep and wail because he doesn't

(35:11):
look with favor on your offspring or accept them with
pleasure from your hands. And you say, why, Well, it's
because the Lord is the witness between you and the
wife of your youth. You have been unfaithful to her,
though she is your partner. The wife of your marriage
covenant has not the one God made you. You belong
to him in body and spirit. And what does the
one God seek, godly offspring. That's what God's seeking in

(35:32):
your marriage. So be on your guard and do not
be unfaithful to the wife of your youth. And then
this is God saying like, hey, this is what it
looks like to misunderstand the assignment. In verse sixteen, he says,
the man who hates and divorces his wife, says the Lord,
the God of Israel, does violence to the one he
should protect. Says the Lord Almighty should from God is like,

(35:52):
wake up, because this is this. I designed you for this,
and if you don't realize that, you are going to
grossly misunderstand and so like the cute like this is
what strength looks like. You need to be the guy
that understands why your family is here. That's your idealized,
standardized vision. We're here to glorify God, produce godly offspring,
and truly produce the people of God in the earth.
And your cue for weakness is if you just want

(36:14):
it to be easy, if you're just like man, I wish,
I wish my kids would just stop being emotional. Man,
I wish my wife would quit nagging me. Man, why
are we having to insert whatever that should be you going,
hang on a minute, I've lost sight of the vision
of what our family is supposed to look like. Because
who's supposed to bring the order whenever the things are
all falling down, Who's supposed to be the one that's
carrying weight? Whenever things break, people get sick, you know,

(36:35):
people are dealing.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
With different things.

Speaker 3 (36:37):
You are You're the man in the family, So remember
and wake up and realize you have to be the
one to bear the weight in that moment. And bring
whatever the room requires, and not do it pitifully and
not like pointing out to your wife about how great
you are later, but to just freaking do it because
that's who God made you to do. You should protect
your family, says right there.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
As as a man, you've got to be the one
in your family that knows where you're going. But also
there's some parentheses on that, and I just knows where
you're going. But where we're going is where we should
be going. And the reason, like you know, some of
my strength is what I bring, but also Lindsay is
so much of my strength. And Lindsay like I didn't
have to, like you know, manipulator or or sell or

(37:19):
something that's invalid. Like she knows that my life is
based upon scripture, and what I'm pointing us to is
what's in scripture. Right, So I'm not saying, hey, don't
don't just trust me, trust God, right, And I'm doing
what I can't what I believe is right. I'm doing
what I can to honor God. And where Lindsay has
seen me model that her belief in me gets to

(37:40):
this incredibly high level, not just like oh, you know,
I'm married to a good man, like my husband's following God.

Speaker 2 (37:47):
I don't know how.

Speaker 3 (37:48):
Honestly, I don't know how people do it if they
either don't follow God or one of them follows God
and somebody doesn't. I think that's the recipe for tension,
because who's right. You both bring in this idea of
the way things should be, and if you don't have
a subscrip a submission to God and Scripture, I just
I don't even know where you go.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
But like I hope you guys capture that.

Speaker 3 (38:06):
Because Garrett is following after God whole hardly does he
get it right all the time. No, But because his
wife sees his heart and sees his desire and that
he's operating from a place of principle and seeking God
and Scripture, she's going to respect and fallow.

Speaker 1 (38:18):
It also gives my wife the right and this is different.
We could spend a lot of time talking about this,
but it gives my wife the right and proper outlet
to ever question me if she needs to. If she
is going to question me, she's just going to say, like, hey,
I want to make sure if it like she hasn't
had to do this, but if she did, this is

(38:39):
how she would, and I want to make sure that
the things that you're doing right now, or the direction
you're taking us is still towards what God said. She's
not saying, I don't think you have good ideas right right.
She's saying is you know God's already given us the
idea and the picture, and I just want to make
sure that what you're doing is still going in that direction.
Can you explain that to me, right? Just some clarity

(39:00):
the plan, not questioning like the intent of my plans.

Speaker 3 (39:03):
Yeah, yeah, that's so good man. And once again, like
I know I said it, but I just want to
say it again. You should know you're being weak when
you just want it to be easy, because what that's
saying is like, man, I just want things to just
just go on their own. I don't want to have
to get that that's modeled by the man, because I
have done like Lindsay has seen me look at everything
in my life and say, well, I guess this is
here to make me stronger. I know God has a

(39:25):
great plan and here's where I want to be. But
if I'm not there yet, that means I need to grow.
And she's seen me do that. She's done the same thing. Yeah,
and I hope men. I just want to say for
men out there, because I've been a weak man. So
I'm not throwing stones from my glasshouse, but but I
will say now I'm not a weak man. And there's
such a strength and like you always talk about Holy
as a hammer hitting and nail, Holy means to be

(39:46):
set apart and it's basically to be fulfill your intended use.
It's what God made you for us, all right. So
when you're a man and you're being strong, what do
you think happens you? You feel God's good pleasure. It's
like in Charot's the Fire, when I run, I feel
as pleasure. When I'm strong, I feel God's pleasure. And
what I mean by this, had a crazy day recently.
We've been going through We've had a very eventful summer

(40:08):
in my life. I'm not going to talk about everything
on the podcast here, but I mean, you talk about
health issues to people that are close to you, people
in our family home, being.

Speaker 2 (40:14):
Disrupted, all sorts of stuff.

Speaker 3 (40:16):
And I had a day recently where it was just
from like four am to about eight pm was just
full on everything that you would imagine. And at eight pm,
I finally got it myself escaped away to go take
myself a nice hot shower, and the water had gone out,
and so.

Speaker 2 (40:30):
I took the cold shoff.

Speaker 3 (40:31):
And you know what before cold water ready man, And
so I took the cold shower, and I actually laughed
whenever I thought it was cold. When I found out
the water, well, I just thought it was funny. A
soft man would cry, right, And so I took the
cold shower, and I sat down and I told my
wife and said, you know what I said, here's what
I said.

Speaker 2 (40:46):
This day has been wild.

Speaker 3 (40:47):
And I told her, I said, and you know what,
it's exactly what I should do, and it I just can't.
I wasn't flexing for my wife. It was just like
I knew in that moment. I'm like, I'm who God
made me to be, and it's it's so satisfying. So
I want to encourage you men out there. So in
mindset G gave this earlier. This is the strength mindset.
It's what you's not defined by what you can pick
up by, but which you never have to put down.

(41:09):
And that's a quote from our very own Garrett Uncle Block.
It's the endurance mindset. I think like A lot of
strength is mindset. It's the way that you think, yeah,
and the and the that's where like Nick has also
seen me take some of my mindset around strength and
seen it come out physically and what I think a
man is supposed to be. When when Nick has seen

(41:29):
me create the Warrior games and the Mighty Man Games
things that we do at summer Camp, I didn't. I
don't look for like just an individual feat right like
how much you can bench moment. A lot of guys
think that's that's it's it's a very shallow interpretation of strength.
Look at this one thing. I can do this one
time in a short amount of time, right like the

(41:50):
actual peak Warrior event. I do like it. Take it's
a it's chop a log. That's not a one hit,
that's a mini hits.

Speaker 2 (41:58):
A telephone poll, not like a log. This is a
telephone po. Yeah, chop it. It's truly what it is.

Speaker 1 (42:02):
I mean, it's a pine log, but a pine log
the size of what they make telephone poles out of.
And then you pick up half of an eight foot log.
So run a four foot telephone pole for a mile,
swim with it, do an accuracy shoot at the end
of that where you're high, where you're tired and exhausted,
and you got to make accurate hits. I'm testing, like,

(42:24):
you need to have the strength to be able to
chop a log, but can you endure while you do it?
And that's so like, it's not hey, look at what
I did this one time. When you look at who
warriors have been in history, everyone thinks like, oh, man,
look at the big guy who could swing a sword. Well,
if you study like warfare, many times these guys had

(42:44):
to go hundred or hundreds of miles to get to
the battle. So all you guys who spend all your
time on upper body in the gym, you wouldn't even
make it to the battle. You don't have the strength
and the ability to get yourself to the battle. You
need the arms to swing the sword, but the legs
get the soldier to the battle.

Speaker 2 (43:03):
Yeah, that's so good man. Uh. And and the.

Speaker 1 (43:06):
Ers that that's a that's a that's a pit, and
that's a picture that becomes a mindset of like strength
really is about the ability to endure, the ability to
keep going. That is my definition of strength. Yeah, that's
that's Isaiah. Yeah, it's Isaiah twenty sixty three. And this
is this is the mindset part of strength, and it's
you will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are

(43:27):
steadfast because they trust in you.

Speaker 2 (43:31):
Why are you steadfast?

Speaker 1 (43:32):
And that's it says like, it's that's what you want
is to be steadfast. And the scriptures is where does
it come from? It comes from trusting in God? Right,
Like where so many people quit and give up in
their life is they get to this, They get to
a self preservation moment. This is I saw a lot
of seal training screening for this.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
Right.

Speaker 1 (43:52):
They're looking for people, will you give all that you have?
Most people won't because they feel like they have to
leave a little bit of gas in the because like
what if I truly what happens when I emptied the tank?
They're unwilling to go to that place. It truly is
a fearless mentality to be able to fully exhaust yourself,
to run all the way to the end of yourself.

(44:13):
Many people they hold a little bit back because they
don't know what's there.

Speaker 3 (44:16):
Yeah, I remember when I told you I was telling
the story of my one hundred miler and I said
I was like I physically at the end of myself
and you stepped in. You're like you weren't the end
of yourself? And I remember, I remember when he said
it kind of like jolted me in the moment. I
was like, dude, we're on a podcast. I'm trying to
tell a story here, but this I took that away
and thought about that money.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
I didn't want you to because I care for you.
I didn't want that to I didn't want you to
think that was true.

Speaker 3 (44:39):
Right, well, and I had to question. I went and said, like,
how does geo? And then I was like, well, he's
been in an environment that's he knows just how much you.

Speaker 2 (44:46):
Weren't than to yourself.

Speaker 3 (44:47):
Because I got up, he got up and going' that
was how I logic.

Speaker 2 (44:50):
You could have done another hundred if you had to,
if I had to, Yeah, what would it take.

Speaker 3 (44:54):
But so this mindset strength that we're talking about, right
and having that like that, your mind is in perfect
peace and fast because you trust in God.

Speaker 2 (45:02):
Man.

Speaker 3 (45:02):
I think what that looks like practically is Flippians four
six through seven, which I love it, which is in
all things cast your anxieties on God through prayer, supplication
and thanksgiving and the peace that surpasses all understanding will
guard your heart and mind. It's a thought process of like,
I'm not going to just be like, well, I can
take anything. It's knowing where your actual strength comes from.
And there's so many cues for weakness here. I mean

(45:23):
you talked about it. If you're starting to rely on yourself,
oftentimes it leads to anxiety, it leads to frustration. I
think one cue that a lot of people glaze past
is they lose their tempers. I mean, when you're steadfast
and whenever you have strength of mind, you keep your
emotions in check. And that means even the ones that
we've glorified as being like oh look how strong and
angry that well, and that's.

Speaker 1 (45:42):
That's the steadfast part, yeah right, Like it's not hey,
like you had when you ran the one hundred mile race.
You were strong, you also had a weak moment, right right.
But the story is a story of strength, You're going
to have the weak moments. And while we're just using
this example, I want to put a scripture here that
I think gets taken out of context so often as

(46:02):
like as an excuse to be a certain way, and
that Second Corinthians chapter twelve. I don't remember the verse,
but it s tecond Corinthians, chapter twelve, and no Oaks have
quoted this one enough. I just remember the verse where
Paul says, in your weakness, I am strong. And a
lot of Christians take this as like, see, like you
guys are talking about strength. That's not God's way. No,

(46:23):
God does want you to be strong. If you actually
read what Paul's responding to. When Paul writes this, he's
responding to some apostles who thought they were like the
special perfect apostles. And then Paul responds with he's a
little sarcastic in his response, but then Paul responds with, like,
here's all the great things I did. But also, you
know what, I'm going to brag about God's strength and

(46:45):
my weakness because it's not saying like I should just
be weak, but God God's strength shows up where I'm
weak and helps me get to the real outcome we
need to get to is to be strong. Right, God
doesn't want you to be weak. Problem is we're not
God and we're not perfect, so I do need to
be strong. There will also be places where I am

(47:07):
Paul was referring to the thorn in his side. Right,
we don't know what that was, because Paul doesn't tell us.
You could infer many different things, but I think for
a lot of men these would be things like lust
or vanity. It's like, man, I just can't get rid
of this thing.

Speaker 2 (47:19):
You know what.

Speaker 1 (47:20):
That's actually a big weakness in your life, your inability
to control your temper. It's a huge weakness in your life.
You look like a little girl when you act that way,
when you fail to lust and temptation over and over again,
you look like a little boy when you act that way.
You have no self control. You are the samson of
Look how big my arms are. But a woman can
lead me to my death. Right, We're gonna have weaknesses

(47:43):
in our life, but you've got to say, you know what,
but my strength comes from the Lord, and the Lord's
going to help fix me in this area where I'm weak.
Not that scripture is not an excuse to be like, see, look,
we're supposed to be weak.

Speaker 2 (47:55):
Absolutely not.

Speaker 3 (47:56):
That's so good, gee, it's a reminder of your reliance
on God. And that's two Corinthians twelve nine for those
that were looking all right, last one here Ge is
in business which is like, oh, well, wait a minute, business, Yeah,
we all have business.

Speaker 1 (48:09):
I think there's a false perception of what strength looks like,
and it's how big your wallet is, Like, look how
much I've accomplished, Look how many people I employ, Look
how much money I have. Like that's actually you know,
you know what the Bible says about that stuff here today,
gone tomorrow. It can be taken from you in an instant. Yeah,
here's it like to me, this is a great example
of what strength looks like in business. I've heard Robert

(48:32):
Kiyosaki talk about this, and Robert Kiyosaki talked about he says,
you know, he's worth hundreds of millions of dollars now.
He said, you could take it all away from me now,
and it would only take me a few years to
build it back. That's what strength and business looks like.
Not look at the castle that I've built, he says,
Look at the courage, look at the character, look at
the relationships, Look at the depth that I have. I

(48:55):
could build my castle back in a minute. Now I
have this castle, I have this money that text me
from hard things out there. That's where a castle be
makes a king become weak. Where he thinks the castle
is his strength. The strength is that the king built
the castle in the first place. And Robert Kiyosaki is saying, like,
my strength isn't in my money, in my assets. My

(49:15):
strength is in my understanding of principles, and I know
how to build them.

Speaker 2 (49:19):
So that's really what strength like.

Speaker 1 (49:20):
If you don't know, we probably we talk about principles
on this podcast all the time. If you don't know
the principles of your business, if you don't know the
principles that lead to growth, if you don't know the
principles that lead to like this is the way God works,
by the way, this is the Stuart. Principles is a
stewardship thing. Principles is not a vision thing. Principles is
a stewardship thing. Says that those who are faithful over

(49:40):
little will become rulers over much. When you're faithful of it,
you're a good steward over it. When you're a good
steward over it, just like the parable of the talents teaches
you know how to make it produce. Robert Kiyosaki is saying,
you know what my strength is, I know how to
produce value and that's really what strength and business is.
So when I hear men struggle, it's set. It's sad
to me. It is sad to me, and not like

(50:03):
I look down on this. I want to help you.
It's why this podcast exists. When I see men who
struggle with lust and temptation makes me sad. When I
see men who can't control their emotions, who can't control
their anger, makes me sad. And when I see men
who like who cry and weep because they struggle financially,
it makes me sad. Right, unless you are in a

(50:23):
vegetative state in the hospital, providing for your family should
not be hard for you. Right, it's a mind. Now,
that doesn't mean you know, just because you got out
there and tried hard, that you can put your family
up at the ritz. Now, that takes a great level
of wisdom and a great level of principles and a
lot of time and repetition to get to that place.
But your ability to provide for your family, to at

(50:44):
least put a roof over their head and feed your family,
that is not something that takes a great amount of
wisdom to do.

Speaker 2 (50:51):
It takes some.

Speaker 1 (50:52):
Consistency and an understanding of just a couple principles to
be able to get that thing right. And what will
help cure you in this mindset is realizing that what
I just told you is true. Right, it's not meant
to be easy. It's also not meant to be complicated.
You don't have to have a super high IQ. And
that's that's the thing of many successful people that I've met,
like they're they're you know, they're one hundred and twenty IQ,

(51:14):
which is not a genius, right. A genius, I think
is it's either one thirty five or one forties, like
the genius market. IQ is not even a perfect measure anyways.
But there's many people who are very, very successful that
they are average IQ at best. It's not an intelligence quotion.
It's understanding these are the things that work, and I'll
consistently do them over and over again. And where I

(51:35):
see men who are weak in business is they tried
one time to do the right thing and it didn't work,
and they cried and they're and they're asking for it
to be easier, where really you just need the strength
mindset and say you can look at your business outcomes
and say, you know what, I'm not the smartest dude.
But you know what I am as I'm a strong dude,
and I'm a good learner. I'm not a good reader,
but I'll learn. I'll read the books. Maybe I have

(51:56):
to read the book four times, that's okay. Maybe I
have I'm going to have to fail five times, that's okay.
I'll succeed on the sixth. And when you have that
mindset in business, it's not going to be so.

Speaker 2 (52:05):
Hard for you. Yeah, that's so good. Gee.

Speaker 3 (52:08):
I mean, because the que for weakness, in case you
missed it, you gave it there is being afraid that
you won't be able to provide for your family. I mean,
first Timathy five eighths is a man who does not
provide for his own, especially his family, has denied the
faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Speaker 1 (52:20):
Now there's a lot to that scripture, and I won't
unpack the entire thing, but if God put it that
way that a man who cannot provide for his family
is worse than an unbeliever, God would not put you
in that position in a place that you're not able
to do that.

Speaker 2 (52:34):
Yeah. What I'm saying is.

Speaker 1 (52:36):
That like this, this scripture shows that you have the
ability to provide for your family.

Speaker 3 (52:41):
Yeah, and the principle's basic focus that g is talking about.
I want to give a real practical example this because
it happened to me in my own life.

Speaker 2 (52:47):
Last year.

Speaker 3 (52:48):
I got I just a combination of things happened, and
I got down to where we were very tight, like
literally two weeks of money left, and I, you know,
I knew it, And of course the fear and anxiety
tried to come on me. But one of the things
that I've developed is a resistance to that. Like when
I recognized the voice of fear, I immediately throw it out.
So I'm like, okay, well there's a lie. So understand

(53:08):
that I needed to trust in God, because I think
you could flip the scripture around of like, okay, you
know God, I'm gonna be principal focused and God has
a plan for my business, So like, okay, Lord, I
just need you to bless me. And it's like, why
isn't happening? Oh, come on, God's gonna do everything. It's
like it's like sitting there being a farmer and being
like why aren't the plants growing? It's like it's raining, yeah,
but you didn't plant any seed. And you didn't till
the ground, and you didn't do all the things you

(53:29):
were supposed to do. So the rains come and you're
just gonna be poor and broke and not have any harvest.
So I'm sitting there with two weeks of money left,
and I'm going, Lord, I trust you. I sought after
a wise counsel. I got some focus, and I just realized.
I was like, you know what I need to do.
I need to get up and I need to start
telling my story. I need to start marketing myself. I
tapped into a few things. I won't go into all
the details, but I started pressing and I realized as well,

(53:50):
I need to get into the details of my business
because part of the reason I was tight was because
people were paying late.

Speaker 2 (53:54):
And this is something I hadn't had to deal with.
So what do you think I did.

Speaker 3 (53:57):
I got so detailed, not only into my budget but
everybody that owed me. I started contacting people regularly for
collections or it's not something I had to do. I
started pitching myself to the right type of people with
I had to go in and refine my story. What
do you mean you're a marketer that should be no
I market other people. I don't often have to market myself.

Speaker 1 (54:13):
I better get tight and big businesses AR accounts receable
is a full time job. You got someone who just
calls people an email type of exactly right, you owe
me money right when you're you gonna pay.

Speaker 3 (54:23):
I got so, I got in, I got through it all,
and we came out the other side super blessed. God
showed up as only he can on top of all
the things that I did. You know, of course, paid dividends.
So what do you think happened again? Earlier this year?
I once again hit a point where I was looking
like a slowdown. And so rather than being afraid, like
oh no, I just hope it. I hope it works
out again I was. I knew exactly what to do.
There was zero panic. It was like, Okay, here's what

(54:45):
I'm gonna do. Because I'd been there before, I understood
what moved the needle. And I will say I'm having
the greatest year I've ever had in business this year
currently as we record this in twenty twenty five. And
that's not like me patting myself on the back. It's
like I've been there, I understand the principles and I
trust in God. And one of my favorite scriptures just
to give everybody before we wrap up, Jeremiah seventeen.

Speaker 2 (55:03):
I'm just going to go seven and eight.

Speaker 3 (55:05):
It says, Blessed is the man who's trusted in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him. He's like a tree planted
by water. He sends out its roots to the stream
and has no fear when heat comes, for its leaves
remain green. It's not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.

Speaker 2 (55:19):
What is that?

Speaker 3 (55:20):
That's a man who's planted in God, understands where it
comes from, understands that if he's going through something difficult
because there's something to learn, not because God's forsaken him.
And he rises up, remembers who he is, doesn't drop
off or forget or lose sight of that. He's made
to be strong, and he presses forward with a mind
perfectly fixed on God, steadfast in peace because he knows
who his source is. So men, get out there, understand

(55:43):
who you're made to be, and be strong.

Speaker 2 (55:46):
Thank you very much for listening.

Speaker 3 (55:48):
Guys, remember to share, like subscribe if you think that
this would be something that someone would enjoy.

Speaker 2 (55:54):
Please send it to him. We appreciate it all.

Speaker 3 (55:56):
If you want to get in touch, you can follow
us on Instagram at the Impossible Life. You'll find us
on there. You can also email at Impossible Life Podcasts
at gmail dot com if you have any questions. If
you want to get in touch and find out about
Carrett's personal or business coaching, that's the way to do it.
Thank you again for listening. Go out there and think
better and live the impossible. To see again soon