“Mindset Is a Lifeline: DK Kang on Faith, Grit, and Growth”

Episode Summary:
When life hits harder than you ever imagined, how do you keep moving forward?

In this powerful conversation, Coach Alex Van Houten sits down with martial artist, author, and fellow believer DK Kang — a man who has walked through job loss, financial strain, and his wife’s battle with cancer, yet discovered how mindset became his lifeline.

Drawing from his book Mindset Metamorphosis, DK unpacks what it means to shift from a fixed mindset (“I’ll never be good enough”) to a growth mindset rooted in God’s truth and daily choices. 

Together, Alex and DK explore:
-How reframing negative self-talk can transform despair into hope.
-Why saying no creates space for stewardship, health, and family.
-The biblical foundation of mindset renewal in Romans 12 and Philippians
-Martial arts lessons, Spartan race grit, and even Dragon Ball Z wisdom.

By the end, you’ll see why mindset isn’t just psychology or motivation — it’s spiritual stewardship. Whether you’re fighting battles in your health, relationships, or faith, DK’s story will inspire you to keep showing up, keep growing, and keep trusting God with your next step.

Key Themes & Timestamps:
[0:00] Mindset as martial arts training for the soul
[6:30] Dragon Ball Z, Jackie Chan, and the fight scenes that shaped DK
[10:50] Why mindset became DK’s lifeline through cancer and job loss
[15:00] Fixed vs. growth mindset — the biblical perspective
[20:00] Reframing negative self-talk through journaling and faith
[33:00] How “die trying” became a breakthrough moment
[39:00] Spartan races, grit, and the power of repetition
[43:00] Lessons from Job and encountering God in suffering
[51:00] Why saying no is essential to stewardship
[58:00] Why Vegeta (not Goku) is DK’s favorite character — and what that reveals about redemption [1:05:00] Final encouragement: start small, pray harder, and keep growing

Show Resources:
 Visit https//:Faithfulfitnessdevo.com to explore the Faithful Fitness Devotional
 Subscribe and share the Faithful Fitness Podcast with someone walking through suffering or looking to serve through their fitness
 Take a look at Mindset-Metamorphosis here: https://www.amazon.com/Mindset-Metamorphosis-practical-transformative-mastering-ebook/dp/B0DJC1W8H3

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/faithful-fitness-by-better-daily--5150768/support.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Faithful Fitness Podcast for my Dad. Coach
Alex Van Houghten helps you get stronger and mind, body,
and spirit. He believes that your body is a temple,
so taking good care of it is an actual worship.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
I should know.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
I live with him every week. He brings truth from
the Bible, tool from science, and stories that will set
your heart on fire. May God bless you to become
everything He made you to be just one percent better
every single day.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
So guys, this is Coach Alexvnton on the Faithful Fitness Podcast,
where we integrate faith, fitness and stewardship by becoming one
percent better every single day. I'm so excited about our
guest today, mister d K Kang.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
What's up brother? How you doing today?

Speaker 4 (00:43):
I'm doing well? How are you?

Speaker 3 (00:45):
I'm doing excellent among being a martial artist and a
mindset writer, which I can't wait to talk about your
but the mindset metamorphosis. You are a fellow dragon ball
Z nerd. So to anybody listening who doesn't know what
dragon ball Z is, I can't help you, but I do.
You want to nerd out with DK before we go anywhere,
because he likes dragon ball Z. He's a big Vegeta fan,
which we might actually talk about later. And then also

(01:08):
he really likes Jackie Chan. So I got to ask, man,
favorite fight scene of old time? And it can be
one or the other, but I need to know, like,
if you were going to sit down and be like, hey,
I'm going to enjoy this fight scene as a martial
artist and a fan of both Jackie Chan and Vegeta,
what one do you have to pick?

Speaker 4 (01:26):
If we're talking about Dragon ball Z, it would be
the original fight between Goku and Vegeta.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
Ayah with the big command man the kayak finish. Yeah, okay,
my boys love that scene. We've we've watched that probably
I don't know, one hundred times at this point. Okay, okay,
what about for Jackie Chan ooh, favorite fight scene or
favorite favorite fight scene?

Speaker 4 (01:48):
Man, Okay, I'm gonna take it back. I don't know
if you know the movie called Wheels on Meals.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
That's so old school. I've seen it once and it
was all.

Speaker 4 (02:00):
It's an old school movie. It's Jack Chan and Benny
the Jet. Your careras like amazing fight scene. I mean honestly,
I mean, like Benny the Jet. He literally blows out
candles with the hook kick. It's amazing And.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
It was not Cgi. That was real stuff.

Speaker 4 (02:20):
This is like the eighties. This is like real stuff. Yeah,
Like it was just like that was one of the
like that is like the maybe third movie that I
watched Jackie Chan, and I just my first movie I
watched was Romo in the Bronx, and I fell in
love with him. And then I watched like Drunken Master,
I watched Feels Hyena, and I just watched him like

(02:42):
just his training because I started training when I was
five in Marshall Art and so you know, Jackie Chan
was like he was like my Bruce Lee and the
things that he was doing. I was just like, wow,
Like this guy is like awesome.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Yes.

Speaker 4 (02:56):
I just started like I'm like, how can I incorporate
some of that into my Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
I just just so humble and sun about it too.

Speaker 3 (03:04):
That's the thing. Like I love Bruce Lee. Don't get
me wrong, I love Bruce Lee, but the man's so
serious about everything. Oh Like, and I even quote Bruce
Lee pretty frequently. But Jackie Chan has a way of
being like this dangerous martial artist who is just so
humble and has such a like peaceful demeanor around him
seems to set everybody at ease. My my favorite with
him is and I'm sorry to be annoyingly like you know,

(03:27):
mainstream or whatever, but I loved the synergy between between
him and Chris Tucker and Rush Hour. Like all of
their fight scenes are just so funny.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
Which one of y'all kick me? It's just so good. Anyway,
thank you for that. Thank you. I'm gonna actually have
to go watch that. What was that? Meal?

Speaker 3 (03:45):
Meals on Wheels, Wheels on Meals is meals on meals
wheels and Meals on Wheels is a ministry. So Wheels
on Meals Okay, all right, I'll have to go check
that out.

Speaker 4 (03:55):
There's a funny story with that, really quick.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (03:58):
So he originally named it Meals on Wheels, but he
renamed it to Wheels on Meals because in China there
was like all these titles that were coming out with
movies were named with an M and they were just
like failing at the box office. So then he flipped
it and then he's like, we're going to change it

(04:18):
to Wheels on Meals And that's kind of.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Nice, humble and smart.

Speaker 3 (04:22):
Also, actually that leads me to this mindset conversation your book,
Mindset Metamorphosis. I really appreciated the book. I thought it had.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
A real.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
Stephen Kobe how to win friends and influence people vibe,
except it was about how to do that in yourself.
It wasn't about you know, getting the most out of
people or making people think a certain way, which Stephen
Kobe's book was great, but it wasn't about influencing other people.
It was about influencing yourself. And the entire time I
was reading it, I kept thinking about the verse in Romans.

(04:56):
I think it's chapter twelve where Paul says, being not
conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing
of your mind, And in the entire book really spoke
to that. Very very useful, very very practical, very easy
to read, but not it not shallow. So so that
that said, I wanted to dive into some things here

(05:16):
that that you cover in your book that we can
kind of expand on here in the podcast. And I
have the link for our listeners. I have the link
in the show notes below so you can go pick
up DK's book Mindset Metamorphosis. But I got to ask first,
you said in your book, you said, mindset to me,
this this training that I'm about to write and the

(05:36):
tools that I've included here, this is a lifeline to me.
Can you unpack what that means the the that mindset
is a lifeline to you.

Speaker 4 (05:47):
Yeah, so a lot. It means a lifeline to me
because it's really like when everything is going out of
out of your own control. Like so, for instance, I mean,
my wife had a bunch of health issues. You can
go watch another podcast I did with six Weeks to Fitness.
I kind of dive deep into it. My wife was

(06:09):
diagnosed with cancer. All these things was like out of
my control. But like one thing I had in control
was was how I approach It was like my mind
was my mindset, and so you know, I could look
at it as like, oh what was us? Why is
this happening to us? Like why is why can't we
have children? Why can't you know? Why does my wife

(06:31):
have cancer? Why did I lose my job after her
cancer diagnosis? And I go into that in another podcast
I don't know watched it.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
But.

Speaker 4 (06:41):
You know, but having that mindset shift, it's like, Okay,
I can choose to look at all the negative, but
I can also choose to look at the positive or
maybe I don't know what this is going to like happen,
or what it's maybe gonna somebody else, because somebody else

(07:02):
might be going through that, And so it's really reframing
those negative things those because I think our biggest like
our big biggest critic is ourselves, honestly, like oh I
didn't I didn't do enough push ups, or I didn't
I didn't do enough x y Z. And I think
that goes back to the spiritual sense, like when we

(07:24):
look at works, we think that it's like, oh, I
need to do X y Z to please God. But
then it's like no, like God has already He's already
sent his son, his son died on the cross for us,
and his grace is sufficient, or else there's no amount
of work that we can do to please God. But

(07:51):
it's also a choice, like you know, your mind frame
is your choice. You can you can choose to go
do like you know, like my wife was diagnosed cancer,
I'm like I can choose to like, oh, life is over,
what are we gonna do? This is a bummer. Well
there's nothing I can do, But what I can do,

(08:12):
I can choose how I look at it, how I
frame things, and that's for me. That's why it was
a lifeline for both the bus because I mean there
were days where it was just hard, like we were
like we don't know, like I don't know where income
is going to come in, like because I lost my
job from February twenty twenty four and then we didn't

(08:34):
have any income from February to all way to December. Man,
so like really no income. I mean I had a
part time job, but it wasn't like bringing in much money.
And we're like, okay, God, like this is it. Like
we're gonna choose faith, We're gonna choose our mind and
you know, like Roman says, to transform our minds and

(08:55):
what is that? Like that's not be worldly. Let's dive
in God's word and see what he says, and all right,
we're gonna go on faith and we're just gonna do
this like and I'm going to stay by her side
and no matter what. So so that that was the
lifeline for us.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
Awesome, awesome, and like in the in the present day,
the word mindset is is a buzzword. A lot of
people will say mindset and there's there's a lot of
secular ideas around that, and actually a lot of psychological research,
which some of it you you cite in your book.
That's that's very useful and practical, and I want I
want believers to understand that that mindset's not a new

(09:36):
modern thing. This is actually something that that uh, Paul
in The New Testament talks a lot about. I quoted
him just a second ago, but I'm going to quote
another and I'm going to quote it because this one
I don't have is memorized as well. I always mix
up some of the words, so I'm going to read
it directly. But Philippin's for you says, finally, brethren, whatsoever
things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are

(09:56):
just pure, lovely of good report, if there be any virtue,
any praise, think on these things. So he's saying, take
the active control that you have over your mind, which
isn't always a lot, but just a little bit, take
the active control that you have your on your mind,
and put the spotlight over your mind on the things

(10:17):
that are worth ruminating, hoping, praying, believing. Put your mind
on those things regardless. And you know, Paul gets quoted
a lot because he wrote most of the New Testament,
but he gets quoted a lot specifically because if you
think of you know, mindset work in a bad day,
let's talk about getting shipwrecked, beat up, thrown in jail.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
You know, in his mind.

Speaker 3 (10:39):
Constantly is is God has placed this in my life
for a reason. I'm going to glorify him with this opportunity.
Doesn't matter if I'm hungry, it doesn't matter if I
got a lot of money. It doesn't matter if I
have friends or no friends, it doesn't matter. I'm going
to I'm going to make the most out of this opportunity.
I'm going to be a good steward with my mind

(11:00):
in this moment. And So one of the things that
you talk about in your book that I think is
intensely practical, I think is worth worth chatting through here
is the difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset.

Speaker 2 (11:09):
And in many.

Speaker 3 (11:10):
Ways, as I understand these these two concepts, a growth
mindset is really the starting point for all of these
tools that you open up in your book. We'll talk
about a few of them, but again to the listeners,
if you want to get all these tools, I need
you to click on that link and check out DK
King's book, Mindset Metamorphosis.

Speaker 2 (11:30):
So in your book, you spend.

Speaker 3 (11:33):
The time to talk about the difference between a fixed
mindset and a growth mindset. Can you can you help
my listeners understand that well? And I'll see if I
can articulate it just as well as you do after that?

Speaker 4 (11:45):
Okay, so kind of So, a fixed mindset is basically
like you're like, that's the end the line, Like I
don't have nothing else to learn, and you get comfortable
and so like if you look at a growth mindset,
like I think about like martial arts, like everybody starts
at a white belt, you know, very beginner, you don't

(12:06):
know anything, and then you progress, you know, into the bells,
you become a black belt. But there's something that my
instructor said to me when I was pretty young, and
he said, every time you walk into that door, you
are a white belt. I was thinking about it. I
was like, I'm looking at him, like, dude, I'm a
black belt, Like what are you talking about. It's that

(12:27):
mind It's that humbleness of like, Okay, I'm willing to
learn something new, something more. How can I improve my technique?
How can I improve my fitness? How can I improve
my nutrition? Like all these things. It's not just like
one and done, you know, you kind of that which
is like the fixed mindset, we're like, oh, I learned
everything I can. There's nothing to learn. I'm good, I'm comfortable.

(12:52):
Get out of my comfort zone. But with that growth,
it's like you know, it's like it's like children, they're
always growing. They're like sponges. They just want to observe everything.
And I think there's so much to learn in this world,
Like you can study the Bible for your entire life
and you still don't understand it because God says like
there are things that we are not meant to understand.

Speaker 3 (13:14):
And so that's that's such a good example. So like
a like when I think of it fixed mindset, growth mindset,
it's it's a way of understanding that that if I'm
in a fixed mindset, I and tell me if I'm
getting this right, I believe that there's nothing more I
can learn like that that what I've learned currently is
either one sufficient which is dangerous, or too it's not sufficient.

(13:38):
But I can never learn what I need to learn right.
I think about my son, I have a my my
ten year old. He's he's a very bright kid, very
very quick minded, and he's very gifted. In a lot
of ways. Things come easy to him. When he comes
up against something that actually requires effort, that actually challenges him,

(13:59):
his immediate response to that is like, I'm never going
to be good at this, you know, because he expected
it to instantly click. You know, he's he's playing the
drums right now, he's learning the drums, and and you know,
he's got the perfect personality for he's he's the most
fidgety kid. He's got great rhythm, you know, he's he's
moving and grooving and stuff.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
But but drums are hard.

Speaker 3 (14:17):
It's hard to make your left foot do something different
from your right foot while your right hand does something
different from your left hand. And then you're I mean,
I don't know how many bands you've listened to. You like,
you're the guy who keeps everybody on rhythm so you
can't mess out.

Speaker 4 (14:32):
Yeah, so they put all four things plus in rhythm
and like don't mess it up at coronation. Yeah, so
I would agree that would be like a fixed mindset,
but also like that that negative self tongue, like, oh
I will never be good enough.

Speaker 3 (14:47):
H and and and for him, the bridge. The bridge
here is because he expected to pick up the drums
and immediately be great at it, which I mean, you
and I both know better, but you know, for a
ten year old, it's like, oh, yeah, it's the drums.

Speaker 2 (14:59):
I've seen, will play them. I can do that. No
you can't. No, you can't.

Speaker 3 (15:02):
Like you got to coordinate everything right, and so and
so he expected to be immediately good at them. And
when he tried and couldn't get his body to do
what he was telling it to do, he was immediately defeated.
He was immediately And that's that's a perfect example of
a fixed mindset. I'm not good at drums. I'll never
be good at drums. They're not for me. I see

(15:22):
this in fitness all the time. Running's hard, I'm never
going to be a runner. Lifting weights hurts. I'm never
gonna lift lift heavy. You know that that sort of thing.
And and what I told him was, of course you're
terrible at the drums.

Speaker 2 (15:35):
Of course you're you're just started.

Speaker 3 (15:37):
Do you think people who are good at drums just
sat down and played one day.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
No, it's not natural.

Speaker 3 (15:43):
But but if you're willing to practice. If you're willing
to put in the effort, what I can promise is
you'll get better every day, and you'll get better every
day for a very long time. And and so and so,
being trying to be a good father, I don't know
if this is the best way to do things, but
being a good father, I said, you're going to practice
twenty minutes a day, whether you like it or not.

(16:03):
I want to hear those drums and they could be
the most terrible sounding drums in the world, and you
could try replaying the same rhythm every single time, right,
But but you need to practice. And you know, fast
forward three weeks later, he's in there playing I had
the tiger.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
Oh nice, Yeah, I can hear it.

Speaker 3 (16:22):
I also, your day is every martial artist's anthem, you know, right,
So he's in there in their playing and you know
he's got a long way to go to to learn
a bunch of fills and all that stuff. But but
that is the growth mindset is saying, hey, I might
not know this yet, but there's always an opportunity to

(16:43):
become better. And and in my mind, that's a choice.
What do you think about that?

Speaker 4 (16:49):
Is?

Speaker 1 (16:49):
It?

Speaker 3 (16:49):
Is it a choice to be Hey, I can grow,
I can learn, and I'm willing to try. Like what
what has to happen there to convert from a fixed
mindset to a growth mindset?

Speaker 4 (17:00):
Yeah, I mean I think just we as society is
so like beaten down with the negative with everything on
the news, and it's really to like, you know, there's
that saying like it takes ten positives to get rid
of that one negative, you know, And so it's that repetition,
you know, And and I just feel like people just

(17:22):
aren't they don't have that grit of the repetition. Like
there's there's a quote that I love from Bruce Lee.
I'm not scared of the man who's practiced ten thousand kicks,
But I'm afraid of the man who's practiced one kick
ten thousand times, Like he get you with that one kick, Man,
he's gonna blow you away, Like right right. It's that repetition.

(17:44):
And I think so many of us just we want
a quick fix, want to and we want instant gratification,
but that's not how life works. And I think we
just as like people as a society, especially here in America,
that like, hey, put some work in, like you don't
become a black belt overnight. Rome wasn't built in a day.

(18:07):
I mean the world that God was building wasn't even
built in a day. So why do we as humans expect, Oh,
I want this business to be done. Oh I want
a six pack right now, Like I want a great
relationship with God. Like, no, it takes time and it's repetition.
If you want to have a relationship with God, be

(18:29):
in his word every single thing, like whether it's five minutes,
start small, but and build up. Don't just read the
Bible for twenty four hours and I don't want to
know God. Like no, that's I mean, that just doesn't
work that way, you know.

Speaker 3 (18:44):
So now I will say to people about reading the Bible,
and I love to hear what you think about this.
I believe reading the Bible is always beneficial. It was
I think it was Chesterton who said that the that
the one of the powerful things about the Bible is
that a child can get in as if it were
a pool, a child can get in without drowning. So like,
if you can read, you can read the Bible. But

(19:08):
theologians have been swimming around in the deep end and
still haven't reached the bottom after thousands of years, right,
And what I tell individuals about reading God's Word is
that that you might read it now and certain things
will stand out to you that are important for your
faith journey right now. And whether you're a super baby Christian,

(19:29):
maybe even a non believer like you're like, I'm interested
in this Bible thing.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
I don't really know what it says it. You will learn,
you will grow, right.

Speaker 3 (19:37):
But you come back to it regularly. Why because the
words don't change, but you do. And there's things in
there that you couldn't see, that you couldn't understand, that
you couldn't you couldn't grasp until you have reached a
certain level of maturity or had certain experiences in your
life that brought new new me to the bones, so

(20:01):
to speak, of the words. But a growth mindset is
that choice I'm going to show up repeatedly because that's
how I grow.

Speaker 2 (20:11):
That's how God made it.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
Actually, scientifically speaking, the way our brain connects to our
body and the way our nervous system connects to our muscles,
it's it's the repetition over time that makes those pathways work.
So I'm training a lady right now. She had two
knee replacements, and after her knee replacements, as you can imagine,

(20:33):
it kind of changes the way the body relates to itself.
The tibia and the femur, they're they're not really moving
like they used to. The quadricept kind of has to
act on the joint in a different way. So so
she couldn't squat, like she couldn't sit down on the
toilet behind her because she had lost that connection. And

(20:54):
the only way to relearn how to squat is squatted.
And so she had to, you know, and we had
to rebuild the muscle, and we had to get her
balance right, and we had to get the form right
and stuff. But after several months, she could squat again
and she could move because the repetition over time, not
one squat like ten thousand squads. The repetition over time

(21:16):
connected the mind to the muscle, and now it just works.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
That's how That's how God made it.

Speaker 3 (21:23):
So, so you talking in your book, one of the
aspects of the growth mindset versus the fixed mindset is
identifying negative thoughts and then reframing them.

Speaker 2 (21:35):
But you kind of walk through a process.

Speaker 3 (21:37):
You identify a negative thought and then you write it
down to externalize it and then you reframe it.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
So can you for me and my listeners, can you
give us.

Speaker 3 (21:47):
An example of maybe a negative thought that you've wrestled
with and what it looks like to write that down
and to reframe that.

Speaker 4 (21:55):
Yeah, I was really quick to kind of go back
to what you're talking about, like reading the Bok every day,
and you know, the Bible says that the God's word
is alive and active, and that you know that that's
transforming us when we're at in that moment because ten
years ago I read the same scripture, It's going to
mean something completely different from where I'm at now because

(22:17):
I'm in a different by situation, different just situation in total,
you know, and so and then I look at them,
I'm like, Oh, that's what it means in this moment.
Go back to what you're saying with that question with
reframing negative. Like for me, there are times where I'm like,
I'm like just thinking what do I do or can

(22:41):
I don't know if I can handle this, Like with
my wife having cancer, both no income. I'm like, but
then I'm like, I just need to take a step
back breathe, and I'm like, all right, what is What
does that mean to reframe it? Well, it means like,
all right, well what can I do right now? Okay?

(23:02):
I can? We can change our diet because we're reading
a bunch of nutrition books. We're reading about cancer and
how to how to beat it with nutrition. I'm like, okay,
let's let's implement what they are talking about.

Speaker 2 (23:16):
Ah.

Speaker 4 (23:17):
One thing was we were reading about broccoli sprouse, and
you know, for me, I could I could think like, oh,
just because I read it in a book, that's not
going to be correct. But then I started diving deep
into it, I'm like, all right, broccoli sprouse grow our own.
So there's ten times more? Was it cancer and fighting

(23:40):
ingredients like the self what I can't even pronounce it,
the self fame thing they mentioned in the book, But
it has ten times more than actual broccoli. We're like,
all right, let's incorporate it into our smoothies, let's incorporate
it into our diet. And and so you know, I

(24:01):
think not only just like reframing those negative thoughts, but
it's really taken action, Like we don't know until we
actually take that action, like what the results are going
to be, or we can be set and just be
like a I'm just gonna go in the corner and
woe is me. Nothing changes though when you're doing this

(24:22):
negative self taught nothing only thing that changes is you
go into a depressive state. You go into this whole
and you just want people to like come to you
and like but sometimes people don't w't understand people know
how to like take care of you. So and it's

(24:43):
really that mental shift, and it's really like blocking out
negative things, like stop watching the news. The news is
so depressing. It's so negative and we don't know if
they're telling the truth or not. Like, but I think
just being in that positive like being in God's word,
Like there'se are so many positive things in reading God's word,

(25:05):
Like it changes your mental state in so many ways.
And you know, and just reading doing something positive like
reading positive books, being around positive people. I mean, I'm
not talking about like you know, like the toxic positivity,
which you know is a thing, but I'm just saying,
like when someone when you're down, like have someone to

(25:26):
bring you up and like then pick you up and like, hey,
how are you really doing? Like can I help you
with whatever you're dealing with?

Speaker 3 (25:34):
Sometimes it requires another person in our life to help
us to reframe a negative belief positively.

Speaker 2 (25:41):
Oh.

Speaker 3 (25:41):
Actually, as you were speaking, I was I was reminded
of of something that happened in my life. I have
a family member who has a lot of chronic illness,
and at one point I was having a conversation with
this individual. In many ways, she had kind of given
up on not just things in life, but she'd really
kind of given up life. In her mind, she was dying.

(26:02):
And so we had this conversation and at at a
certain point that's what she said. She said, Look, Alex,
I'm dying, Like that's that's really, that's really what's.

Speaker 2 (26:10):
Going on here.

Speaker 3 (26:11):
And and I'm I've been accused of not being particularly compassionate,
and we can dive into that if if you want
to coaching is this very strange balance of encouragement and compassion.
If you're infinitely compassionate, then when somebody's having a hard time,
you're like, ah, they're there, you don't say hey, get up,

(26:31):
you got you got more in you.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
You can make it.

Speaker 3 (26:33):
And that's what a good coach does is is can
give encouragement without creating resentment, but really thick.

Speaker 4 (26:40):
So we're talking about that your family member. I think
empathy also goes a long way, Like when we suffer ourselves,
we understand what that person might be going through. And
it's the same with Christ, like Christ suffered like painful
death like that, none of us can ever understand or

(27:00):
even like know what it feels like that kind of
pain physically, emotionally, aertually, like all the above, that empathy
goes a long way.

Speaker 3 (27:09):
So I said to my family member who said, hey,
you know, I'm dying, And I said, I hate that
for you. We will miss you. But if you're going
to die, can you die trying? Wouldn't you rather die trying?
And it's like a switch flipped because a couple of
weeks later, they had started walking, they started changing some
things about their diet, they had started making a shift

(27:31):
in the way they practice things. And I got to
talk to them several months later and by the way,
they're not dead, like they're doing great. Several months later
and I'm like, okay, like what happened?

Speaker 2 (27:43):
What changed?

Speaker 3 (27:43):
And she said, you know, if I have to die,
I'm going to die trying. And she didn't even remember
our conversation, which is fine, Like I don't want to
take credit for it, but that but sometimes it requires
another person in our life to help us reframe that
that negative belief, gative belief.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
Is I'm dying. And you know, from a perspective, it's like, hey,
so what we're all going to get there?

Speaker 4 (28:06):
Right? Yeah, we're in this window, right, yes, yeah, like
we only see like this, but when this comes out,
they see different perspectives, different angles.

Speaker 2 (28:16):
That's that's right.

Speaker 3 (28:17):
And and and sometimes they can they can say hey,
look up or you know, it's like giving you a picture,
like look at this picture. See like there's something outside
of the window that you're looking at. So so yeah,
when you're talking about reframing, there was there was one
thing that that you mentioned in your book I think
is very very powerful, and it's bared it's bared out,
born out, it's born out in the psychological literature. When

(28:40):
we have thoughts in our mind that we need to
wrestle with, we gotta we gotta look at them and
flip them around and stuff. It's actually very powerful to
just write it down. You call it externalizing it. Can
you can you describe and there's some some useful tools
in your book about this, but can you describe how

(29:01):
externalizing things have have worked for you and your wife
through these these difficult seasons.

Speaker 4 (29:07):
Yeah, I mean sometimes like to externalize, I mean, you know,
like journaling things like that, but sometimes it's getting that
like whatever you're feeling like out on paper. M h there,
there's there there's just something that happens to you, like
I know happens to me, just like just personally, Like
I don't know if it's like chemically or emotionally, but

(29:29):
there's just something like as you're writing it down, you're like, Okay,
oh I was feeling that, like I was feeling depressed
or I'm feeling overwhelmed, you know, whatever it is, and
then just getting it out into paper or digital or whatever,
and then actually like like seeing it like, oh I
did feel that there's there's something that happens. Like with me,
I'm just like okay, I'm able to express this but

(29:53):
not be like, not criticize it. I'm just like expressing
it whatever as it is. And it's just helpful to
because like I said, we're our own critics at the
end of the day, and we're gonna beat ourselves up
in so many ways. But just to write those things down,

(30:15):
it just speaks volumes because I think we're human beings.
We're like being in the moment. At that present moment,
I am feeling overwhelmed. Instead of talking to something, it's
like it's almost like therapy. It's like talking to somebody else,
but kind of talking to a piece of paper or whatever.

Speaker 3 (30:33):
And doctor Pennerbaker's work, he wrote a book going through
the research of trauma journaling, specifically so going through a
traumatic time or remembering a traumatic memory from the past
and then writing it down. And I believe the book
is called Healing It Up by Writing It Down or
something like that, but it actually looks at the physiological

(30:55):
the immune system response that happens when you write difficult
things down right, And it actually turns out the more
painful it is to write it, the more it messes
your mood up in the immediate but the greater immune
system boosts you have thereafter, and interestingly, the lowered incidents

(31:17):
of depression, anxiety, and even actual illness six months from
the time that you write those things down. And you know,
he postulated that there's something biochemically that happens within us
when when we revisit something emotionally, but we put it
on paper that I have a theory. I don't have

(31:37):
a PhD, so they probably won't take this too seriously.
But my theory is we have a left and right hemisphere.
One of them's connected to language and the other ones
connected to emotion and feeling in general associatively speaking. So
imagine you have a feeling but you can't express it.
Writing it down requires that both hemispheres work on this
problems that exactly, And now we get everybody on the

(32:01):
same page because because they can talk to each other,
we're not owned by our emotions, right, but but our
emotions can be informed by that top down process too.
So if you write something down like I am overwhelmed
my wife has cancer, that's honest, that's real. It's very difficult, right,
But but now that you have that out in front,

(32:22):
you can actually walk yourself through the process.

Speaker 2 (32:24):
Of is there anything I can do about that?

Speaker 3 (32:26):
Now?

Speaker 1 (32:27):
What?

Speaker 2 (32:27):
Right?

Speaker 3 (32:28):
And and that that gives you an opportunity to choose
a growth mindset or to choose how how am I
going to to manage this feeling and thing that I've
finally articulated and and it's it's very beneficial to do that.

Speaker 4 (32:45):
I totally agree, Yeah, really quick to go back to
you know that your family member that was saying that
they're gonna you know they're gonna die. You know, it's
those like talks like that that it's basically like a
self fulfilling off to see that you're making to yourself.
So giving it. Give you example. So I do Spartan races.

(33:07):
I've done ten so far. I've done a fifty k, yeah,
the fifty k Ultra with sixty obstacles. So really quick
recap everything that went wrong went wrong with me. So
for me, I'm also a massage therapist. So you know,
I bring gloves with me because there's a rope climb.

(33:28):
I don't want, you know, my hands to burn things
like that because I gotta protect my hands. So I
lost my gloves. My tracker got hooked on one of
the obstacles. So I was already halfway down, like half
a mile down. I had to run another half mile
back up to pick up my tracker.

Speaker 2 (33:45):
Dang it.

Speaker 4 (33:46):
I had a nosebleed. I dropped a boulder on my
big toe. I tore the because I lost my gloves.
I tore the hands, the callous on my hands. I
ate way too many cliff bars, because you know, when
you're training for something, especially for an event, you don't
change what you've been already been doing. And then it's

(34:08):
this YouTube video where the guy's like, if you do
an Ultra of fifty K, you need to eat every
forty five minutes every hour at least like one hundred
to two hundred calories every hour, and so like, okay,
well it has one hundred calories to two hundred calories.
It was like a cliff bar. So I was eating
every hour, every forty five minutes, and that literally like
made my digestion just.

Speaker 2 (34:28):
Like back so much fiber.

Speaker 4 (34:30):
Yeah, I was like, this is terrible. And then I
also had three bags of hydration because I sweat a lot,
and so I would be passing people It's like, oh hey,
it's three bags and so but there were so many people,
so the ultra has had. My event had about six
hundred people, six hundred and twenty five and at the

(34:53):
end about three hundred and twenty five actually completed. Because
if you there's checkpoints, if you don't meet those, you'll
get a DNF. You know, did not finish. So I
mean I finished mine, but every time I kept passing
the people. And this is the second loop. After you
do twenty five k, you go back out and insane person,

(35:15):
you're going to go do another twenty five k with
another thirty obstacles, but saying like, oh, this is too hard.
I can't do this. Where's the finish line? Like I'm tired,
and all those people they did not finish the race,
Like I know they did not finish the race because
I hit the checkpoints like right before the cutoff line

(35:37):
because all my injuries and things like that that was
going on with me, Like but for me, I just
like I need to keep going the finish lines right there.
You know, the Bible talks about run the race as
if you're in the prize. Yes, with all these people,
and they said it, this is a fifty percent fail rate,
like half of you guys are going to fail this race. Wow,

(36:00):
pay three hundred dollars to be in this race. Half
of you guys are gonna fail. And it's that mindset
because they're already saying this is too hard, I can't
cross that finish line, and they it's self fulfilling prophecies
that they've already done, you know, So like the mind
is so powerful that we don't use it to the
fullest capability that we're created to do well.

Speaker 3 (36:23):
And from a Christian perspective, I believe that requires an
encounter with God personally. So I read the Book of Job,
and given all the things that you've been through, I imagine
you've spent a lot of time meditating on it, right,
And so to those who haven't read Job, I'm going
to give you just.

Speaker 2 (36:38):
A quick quick overview.

Speaker 3 (36:40):
Basically, Job encounters the worst case scenario for a man
of his time, losing his children, coming down with illness,
losing all of his flocks, basically his entire everything he owns,
everything he cares about, including his own health, all it all,
for lack of a better way to put it, goes
to hell in a hand basket, right, And a big

(37:02):
piece of that is actually Satan. It's it's not just
like happenstance. It happens to be Satan ruining his life
to to see if he'll denounce God. That's the that's
kind of the framework for the story. And what happens
is Job and his friends sit down and most of
the Book of Job is them trying to rationalize through
why this has happened. You know, Is it because I've

(37:24):
I've done something wrong? Is it because you know it's
just the arbitrary malevolence of the universe. Maybe God's a
terrible thing like whatever. And in all this it says
that that Job never sinned against God. That job, that
Job never he questioned God. He was angry, he was hurt.
You know, he had a lot of things to say
about that. But what's really interesting is all of this

(37:46):
mindset stuff he's done doesn't get set straight until a
dude named Eli who shows up and he said, Hey,
you guys are speculating a lot, but how about we
invite God to the party, because you know, God's God's
a big God. He can answer for himself. And and
God shows up in Job, and and he shows up
in a whirld whin, And he doesn't say what people

(38:06):
would think you would say to somebody who's lost everything.

Speaker 2 (38:09):
It's not like they're there.

Speaker 3 (38:10):
He's he says something like, I'm God, I made everything.
Because I made everything, You're in the palm of my hand,
and and and so Job. Actually he repents, he he
he repents if all of his all of his thoughts
and all of his prayers and all of his anger
and all of his all of his you know, tying

(38:31):
himself up and knots and and it sets him straight.
And what what and Job ends really with with that
change in Job's life, not denouncing God like Satan thought
he would, but but actually coming to a place of
humility and honor at the same time and saying, you
know what, God, whatever you want, my life is yours,

(38:52):
like that your God. And and that that sets him
so straight, that that actually says that he he it
restores to him everything that he lost, and then something yes, yes,
and and on top of that very interesting. I find
this very interesting. Before everything's restored to him, this this

(39:13):
one verse right after, right after he repents before God
and dust and ashes, it says, and then God asked
Job to pray for his friends.

Speaker 2 (39:22):
And so that's what Job does.

Speaker 3 (39:23):
He basically lifts up his friends and like, help these
guys who who haven't had this conversation with you, Help
these guys who you know, we're willing to pin this
on things that that.

Speaker 2 (39:33):
Weren't causal, that weren't weren't part of the process.

Speaker 3 (39:36):
And so I think it's so crazy that that that
Job has to encounter God first before his mind is
set right, because our mind can tie us up into knots,
and and on top of that that that having encountered God,
he gets to share that praying, He gets to share
that with those around him in a life changing manner,

(39:58):
and then they get to see the fruit of that
because like, look at this guy. We knew him when
he was broken, unhealthy, had lost everything and stuff, but
he never denied and dead outs God and actually came
to a place of humility and honor in relationship with God.
And now like this dude has more than everybody else
and is fine. Like what's going on here? So I, personally,

(40:22):
when I think about the growth and fixed mindset thing
from a Christian perspective, I believe truly that that is
a work of the Holy Spirit. I believe truly that
that transformation in the mind that goes from I can't
do this, there's no other way out. I've reached the top.
That would be the Pride version of it, right or

(40:42):
I've reached the bottom and there's no way out.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
That's the other version.

Speaker 3 (40:45):
But that transformation to I'm going to take what God's
given me, whatever this little bit is. My body my mind,
my broccoli sprouts. I'm going to take what little I've
been given and I'm going to steward it well and
do so in faith and see what happens. And I
believe that that's that's the work of God in a

(41:05):
person's life. Do you I'm sure you've you've done some
meditating on Job in your your past decade or so.
Do you have anything to add to that or something
to share that that I might have sparked in you?

Speaker 4 (41:17):
I mean, yeah, Job is just it's he's just a
great dude to look up to because at the end
of the day, we're all suffering in some form or fashion,
like and the Bible talks about, you know, in this world,
well we will have trouble with take hard because Christ
has overcome the world. I mean, it's pretty blatant that

(41:40):
we're gonna have trouble whatever that means. And I think,
you know, but if you look at Job, like all
the things that he suffered through, how much more can
here like relate to like and Jesus wasn't around at
this time, but she suffered crazy like. I mean, if
you look at if you just read the medical account

(42:02):
and like actual doctors going through what Jesus went through.
It's it's mind boggling, it really is. I mean, or
just go watch the Passion of Christ. But when when
you lose something, there's like really there's nowhere to go
but up and look up. I mean, God is up.

(42:23):
If you're at the if you're at rock bottom, look up,
because that's where that's where you're That's where we my
wife and I, that's where we got healing from. That's
where we found just peace because we don't know what
this is going to happen, where this is going to
take us. And like job, I mean he had all

(42:45):
kinds of stuff, He had all his money taken away,
kids dying, he had what is it, some sort of
skin disease or something like that. All things were just
going crazy for him. But he's just like I'm just
gonna trust in God, and like, yeah, Joe, Like I
always go back to Joe because it's like I'm like, Okay,

(43:06):
he went through a lot worse than what I went through.
I can I'm going through right.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (43:11):
I think it's just a great example because he was human,
you know, but not once did he curse God. Not once,
And I think that's just amazing.

Speaker 3 (43:18):
Yeah, well, well said, well said, there's there's one more
element in your book. And again I'm encouraging listeners to
go go pick it up because from a mindset perspective,
there's just a lot of very useful tools throughout this book.
And the uh the idea that no is a healthy

(43:39):
thing for me, that the two letter word n o
is a healthy thing for me. This is recurring throughout
my coaching experience with clients. And let me explain what
I mean by that. Jesus told us to let our
yes be yes and our no be no. In other words,
let there not be a lot of gray area in
your speech. And I've extrapolated that to also mean it's

(44:03):
important that there's not a lot of gray area and
the way we orchestrate our day because because you know,
if anything that I say yes to I was teaching
my ten year old about opportunity cost, anything that I
say yes to is a no to something else. If
I say yes to doing this interview with you, which
by the way, has been very enjoyable, thank you. If
I say yes to doing this interview with you, that

(44:23):
is an hour that I can't spend on something else.
I can't spend it with my kids. I can't spend
it orchestrating the digital aspects of our business. I can't
spend it coaching clients. It's an hour spent doing this, right,
And so I've said yes to this and no to
everything else, but I've done so intention intentionally.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
This wasn't an accident, right.

Speaker 3 (44:43):
And for many individuals when they go throughout their day,
there's a lot of things that we can we can
spend our time doing that are on accident. I didn't
say yes to this, I didn't say no to this.

Speaker 2 (44:55):
It's just there.

Speaker 3 (44:57):
And it's hard for people, especially when it starts to
take a toll on their health or a toll on
their mental health, to feel like I don't have any
time to go for a walk, I don't have any
time to journal, I don't have any time to read
my Bible. I don't have any time to spend with
my family. Right, and what's important is a fixed mindset

(45:18):
versus a growth mindset. Says that if I'm in a
growth mindset, I start evaluating what is in my day,
what have I said yes to that maybe I need
to say no to? And then how do I make
my no strong enough? That the things I said no
to don't enter and you actually talk through how to

(45:38):
do that in the book, specifically with regard to when
people ask you for favors and how to do that
without burning any networking bridges. Right, So, can you talk
through how, in your experience with your wife and the
things that have gone on in the past decade, you
guys have had to say no to quite a few things.
Could you describe one of those situations for me and
help our listeners understand how they're no can create space

(46:02):
for for a growth mindset.

Speaker 4 (46:05):
Yeah. I mean there were times when you know, so
my wife was going through chemotherapy and somebody would ask like, hey,
are you guys coming to church on Sunday and we're
like no, They're like and they at this point, I mean,
they didn't know, and and so you know, we had
to explain and then we're like, well, my wife is

(46:27):
i mean compromise at the moment, and you know, we're
just gonna have to do you know, online for now,
or you know, they invite us to like a birthday
party or something like that, and we're like, yeah, we're
gonna have to pass just just because we don't want
to get anything from the kids and things like that,
me included, you know, and so and so. But I

(46:49):
think it's just saying no in like in a respectful way,
but giving giving a reason behind it, not an excuse,
but like a legitimate reason of like hey, yeah, like
we're gonna say no. But then there's also times where
like we can spread ourselves so thin that we say

(47:11):
yes to everything and we don't we don't do any
self care. Like when we don't do self care, that's
when all these diseases happen. That's when stress goes off
off the charts. And then we're so bogged down, we're
not getting any sleep and we're not drinking any water.
And then now we just kind of feel almost obligated

(47:32):
to say yes because like they're like, oh, I said
yes to this, I said yes to that. But when
you're so beaten up and just stressed out because you're
saying yes so many times. And I think we as
a culture in the US, just said, can you get
do this extra project?

Speaker 1 (47:49):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (47:50):
Sure, you know, you know it's going to take an
extra three hours over time, But then, like you said,
that takes you away from family time, you know, especially
and and today we're in a remote society now where
it's like, oh, you're working from home, go ahead and
just knock this out. But I think at the same time,
is like, no, like to set those boundaries of like no,

(48:14):
I'm I'm literally off the clock at five o'clock. This
is my time spend with my family. Like and if
you set those boundaries like early on with you know,
your coworkers or your boss or whoever, they should respect
it and understand it. And so many of us are
just like, yes, I'll get this done, or does it

(48:35):
at the end of the day, does it really matter
to do this extra project? Like in the grand scheme
of things, is it Is it going to do anything
for you to make it to heaven? Is it going
to do anything for your kids? Well maybe financially, but
money is always there, Like it's always going to be there.

Speaker 2 (48:52):
You know.

Speaker 4 (48:53):
There's just pretty more.

Speaker 2 (48:55):
Right. So I'll say this to my son. I could
say yes to this project.

Speaker 3 (48:59):
And and I'm a business owner and I'm working to
teach my children what that looks like because you know,
I work in the online space. It's not like I
build houses, and so when you build a house, you
can say, look, kids, this is what I built. And
so so it's hard to show them what daddy does
for a living because it's not something you can put
your hands on always. You know, they see clients that

(49:20):
I work with and they see transformation and that's cool.
But I'll explain to my son. Look, I could say
yes to this project. I estimate it's going to take
twenty hours of my time, has a deadline in a week,
blah blah blah. If I say yes to this project,
I will make this much money. But if I say
no to this project, then I can take you and
your brother camping. And the question is, and this is

(49:43):
a real question, every dad has to answer it, even
moms too, is this amount of money worth saying no
to that other thing? Or I like to think of
it this way, twenty years from now, what I have
paid four thousand dollars ten thousand dollars to take my
kids ca again for a day or two? Right, and
and so so this no idea is actually it requires

(50:08):
a deep understanding of what your values are, what your
beliefs are. And unfortunately I have to use there's no
other way to say it but from a Christianese language
as a son of the Most High King. Is this
part of my assignment today? That's really the question. That's
really a question, And if it's not, it could be
a great thing to be up to, Like going to church.

(50:30):
There's nothing wrong with going to church, right, But is
this wise? Is this a part of what God's called
me to today? As a as a husband to a
wife who's immino compromised? The answer is no, Like the
answer is now, I'm here to serve my wife today.
We're going to spend this morning doing something differently, we
can still honor God. Right, And I'm not arguing that
you don't need to go to church. I'm arguing that
in that instance it's a great thing to be a

(50:52):
part of, just like an extra project at work, just
like this, you know, another thing that needs to happen.
This happens so much in the Christian community with regard
to service now, because if God's broken your heart to
serve others, what you'll notice is the needs in the
world are essentially infinite.

Speaker 2 (51:10):
Yes, And you'll start to look.

Speaker 3 (51:12):
Around and you'll start noticing all of them, and even
good hearted not necessarily trying to earn God's happiness, but
just in a.

Speaker 2 (51:22):
Good hearted sense, just trying to meet all the needs.
At some point.

Speaker 3 (51:27):
You run out of resources, you run out of energy,
you run out of money, you run out of time,
right and know no understanding your assignment, what God has
you here for? What's important and high priority in your life?
Your no shapes the organizations that you interact with, the
relationships that you interact with, and ultimately your day. So

(51:49):
from me to the listeners, if you find yourself in
a place we're having to say no regularly to stewarding
your body well, to getting enough rest, to drinking water,
to eat healthy foods, getting exercise. If you're having to
say no regularly to those things in you, I need
you to reevaluate your resources. As your coach, I'm telling

(52:11):
you to start looking in your life as it could
be just one little thing, one little thing you say
no to, but that will create the space to steward
your body well, because if you don't, it will catch
up with you. Sorry, I'm to get off my soapbox.
Do you have anything to add to that?

Speaker 4 (52:28):
No, I mean I totally agree. I mean just I
think asking the question, like what's more important, what's more
invaluable to you as a person doing extra work or
spending time with my kids or your wife or whatever,
and really like evaluate like which one really is more
important because at the end of the day, your work

(52:52):
doesn't come home to your wife and kids, you know,
Like when your wife and kids or your kids are
all grown up, that's time that you just you just
completely missed, you know, and was it worth it? Like
I think just asking those questions like is this really
important that important? Is it more is more important to
work or is it more important to spend time with

(53:12):
my kids and watch them grow and teach them? And so, yeah,
I totally agree with what you're saying. And self care
is big, like yeah.

Speaker 3 (53:21):
So so as we as we come to the end
of this conversation, I have I have to ask. So
I'm going to end on a on a lighthearted note
before I pray over you and your wife and your
your ministry. But I have to know why vegeta like So,
so I love I love dragon ball Z in my
mind and for those of you who don't know dragon
ball Z, it's it's an anime that I find so

(53:43):
fascinating because the core, even even my atheist friends like
dragon ball Z okay, and I always I think it's
so funny, Like you do realize that this is the
christ story, right, Greater love has no man than this,
that he would lay down his life for his friends. Goku,
the main character, his friends so much that he lays
down his life when the difficulty calls for it, and

(54:06):
then you know, they wish him back from the dragon balls.
Turns out he comes back to life. Has nothing to
do with Christianity in that sense, but it's the archetypal
story of the hero who's willing to give himself in
order to save the world ultimately.

Speaker 2 (54:21):
And it's just that iteration over and over again.

Speaker 3 (54:23):
And all Goku's friends look up to him and they're
trying to be like him, and they help him in
his adventures and stuff. But Vegeta is like Goku's first
arch nemesis, right, and through the story things shift and
change for Vegeta. But dude, the guy's got such a
crummy attitude for like, I don't know ninety percent of
the entire show, So I got as a guy who

(54:44):
seems to have been through it but also has such
a heart for people.

Speaker 2 (54:49):
Why Vegeta?

Speaker 4 (54:52):
Why Vegeta?

Speaker 2 (54:53):
You know? For me?

Speaker 4 (54:55):
A couple things, actually, I feel that. I feel like
that was me. I like, Vegeta is like totally me,
not like personalitywise, But so I have an older brother.
I was always trying to catch up to him, like
with and he's three years older than me. So I'm
always trying to catch up to him. Like he didn't
push up, I'm gonna do ten push ups still can't

(55:17):
catch up to him. I feel like that Vegeta. But
at the same time, as as a Christian, I look
at Vegeta as he is someone that is super relatable.
I've been there. I was in that dark moment. I
was in that dark place. I was that sinner who
had the bad attitude, who didn't care about people, who

(55:41):
you know, was doing random things like just sinning. And
I feel like Vegeta is so relatable to human the
human person, because we're all sinners. And then, as you know,
I'm gonna just say, Goku's kind of I guess the
christ I guess, and Vegeta comes in contact with him,

(56:03):
it starts changing his heart, his mind, and on who
he becomes. And if you look later on, like you know,
if you look at like Battle of Gods when Beer
slaps Boma and then he yells out, that's my boma
and goes on and crazy things like that. But I
think that that same shift is I was there at

(56:24):
that dark dark places before Christ. And so for me,
it's just like it's a reminder that it almost like
humanizes him. But at the same time, he's relentless. He's
relentless in like his training. He's I mean, he's relentless

(56:44):
as a family man as he grows, like and that's
like where we're at. That's where I'm at, Like I'm
still growing as a human being because I'm not in
heaven yet. Look at Goku is just like he's very
one dimensional and he's have you go lucky. He always
saves the day, you know, and Vegeta doesn't get the

(57:05):
love that the like I feel like Vegeta's kind of
like the Paul. Like Paul was like Christians, he was
I love that. You know, he gets blinded and then
scales gets off his eyes and then you know, because
God or Christ is like, why are you persecuting my disciples?
And so you know, so I feel like he's kind

(57:26):
of like the Paul. And really just because Paul he
wrote most of the New Testament, like you said, and
I feel like Vegeta doesn't get the shine that he should,
and not that he's better than Goku, but it's just
always that like, yeah, I just feel like he's just
that that Paul. Yeah, like I want to be like that,
you know.

Speaker 3 (57:45):
Also in my mind, you know, but in the show,
like Vegeta is is the necessary struggle for Goku to
push him forward. Like there's so many times where if
it wasn't for Vegeta, Goku's done, like like and and
all of their friends, you know, and uh, it was
actually really interesting that I love the Cell saga. And

(58:07):
I've probably lost all of my listeners at this point
because they're like, what.

Speaker 2 (58:10):
Are you talking about?

Speaker 3 (58:10):
But but but I loved in the Cell saga where
where team Gohan is is is struggling with with Sell.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
He's a half power there.

Speaker 3 (58:19):
They've got this command a wave in the middle, and
it's really it's really do or die at this point,
like either everybody that Gohan loves is going to die
or or he's gonna be Sell and he's he's out,
he's got no more power in him. He's got his
dad in his ear, you know, trying to push him
forward and it's Vegeta who was just like crushed laying
the dirt, musters his last bit of energy, big bangs

(58:42):
him in the back, and he's like now he gives
him that split second and sells just toast and and
in a way that that is that is the the
redeeming power of vegetas.

Speaker 2 (58:52):
That you're right, he was the guy.

Speaker 3 (58:54):
He was the sinner who who's redeemed in the journey
of of well growth, like redeemed in the process of
of you know, becoming somebody completely different from who he
was before. And it's it's because he's in the right
place at the right time, using his gifts for the
right reasons. That that the well the journey continues, uh

(59:16):
and the adventure keeps going underway.

Speaker 2 (59:18):
So so anyway, I.

Speaker 3 (59:19):
Appreciate you, like be like I was like, Vegeta, that's
your favorite. Okay, well we got to talk about that.
So so thanks for thanks for being a nerd with
me on the on the podcast for dragon ball Z,
because I don't know anybody else who's going to talk about.

Speaker 2 (59:31):
It with me.

Speaker 3 (59:35):
Brother, I'm going to give you an opportunity to leave
our listeners with a last thought, and then I want
to pray over you and Florina and your your growing
ministry is as well as your business. So if if
somebody walks away from this conversation and we didn't lose
them talking about Goku and begeta, what do you want
them to take away from from our talk?

Speaker 4 (59:56):
Uh? Honestly, I would say, don't be overwhelmed and start small.
Start take those baby steps whatever it is, whether it
be nutrition. I do have I talk about kimchi if
you're really interested in that, about it's a superfood and
things like that. But you know, whether it be nutrition, fitness,
your faith, your family, your friends, like, start small. Like

(01:00:20):
I said, nothing was built in a day, even the
world God that that God was building wasn't even built
in a day. And so I would say just start
small and keep going like you're only going to grow
and be better. I mean like your podcasts say, you say,
get one percent better, you know, and train hard, pray
even harder, right, like there's nothing better than praying, like

(01:00:44):
it's so powerful and effective.

Speaker 3 (01:00:48):
Well, thanks for that, brother, and thank you for being
an excellent guest. I'm going to pray over you and
your wife and then we'll close us out here. If
you would pray with me. Father God, thank you so
much for this day. Thank you for the opportunity to
spend time with my DK, and thank you for the
road that you've led him through in his life over
this last decade. God, I pray your blessing and favor

(01:01:08):
on the lessons that he's learned and his willingness to
articulate faith in a mindset arena. God, I pray that
you would bless our listeners with the opportunity to move
forward with your Holy Spirit. Teach us to be good
stewards of the day that you've given us. It's the
day You've made, and I pray that we rejoice and

(01:01:30):
be glad in it. Bless the work of DK in
Florina's hands and give them guidance and wisdom as they
work how best to speak the truth of what You've
done in their lives and also to share some of
their struggles in a way that's beneficial to everyone. Thank you,
Lord for this podcast and the opportunity to spend time

(01:01:51):
with my brother in Jesus name.

Speaker 2 (01:01:53):
Amen, DK.

Speaker 3 (01:01:55):
Thank you so much for being here, and to the listeners,
you guys know what I'm about to say next. This
has been coach Alex been Houton on the Faithful Fitness podcast.
Until next time, train hard, but pray harder.

Speaker 1 (01:02:10):
Hey, if this episode helps you, jare it with someone
who needs to hear it, and don't forget to subscribe
and leave us a raving review so more people can
find Faithful Fitness. Oh and my dad's new devotional is
almost out now. You can grab a copy for yourself
and then join our free community at Better Daily by

(01:02:33):
clicking on the links in the show notes below. We
all have a cross to carry, but it's lighter when
we do it together, so check out both links in
the show notes. Don't be a big well Bob, just
do it. Until next time, don't forget, Train hard and
pray even harder.