Episode 104 - Annual Wild West Paralegal CLE Granbury City Hall Speech

Annual Wild West Paralegal CLE Granbury City Hall Speech Speech

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
This is the Vic Fizzelle Show podcasthosted by Vic Fizzell and Jonathan Zimmy,
sponsored by Morosso Wood Fired Pizzeria andPinewood Coffee Roasters. I was sitting out
in the hall and I heard Paulsay that he didn't want to follow me.

(00:24):
Well, I listened to Paul's talking. He's gonna be hard to fall
off. Paul's a good speaker.And not only that, I learned how
my wife can save money when sheputs me in the nursing hall. So
thank you, Paul, Wayne,thank you for inviting me again. Thank

(00:47):
all of you for inviting me again. This is my second time to speak
with you. I think if youinvite me back again, that means we're
going steady, so so big carefall All right, give you a little

(01:07):
bit of my background, but Idon't want to talk about that. Last
time I was here, I toldyou all about my background, And if
you want to know it in detail, watch The Confession Killer on Netflix because
they tell the story a whole lotbetter than I do. It's a five

(01:29):
part series. I come in towardthe end of part two and I'm in
the rest of it. You'll seethat I was involved in blowing the lid
off of the fake Henry Lee Lucasconfessions. He had confessed to six hundred
by the time I came along andsaw three in my county. I was
a DA in Waco. Three inmy county in the mid eighties he had

(01:52):
confessed to and they just didn't lookright to me. So we pulled together
a grand jury to see how Lucaswas confess I saying to all these crimes
that it didn't look like he hadcommitted anyway. I made some real powerful
people angry with that. I gotarrested, trumped up charges. I was
looking at eighty years in prison,yeah, a federal years. I had

(02:15):
made a really powerful man named JimAdams, who has had the state police
and used to be former director ofthe FBI under Jagger Hoover. I had
made him mad when I did this, because I was basically calling him liars
over these Henry Lee Lucas confessions.He had confessed to six hundred. They
had cleared three hundred, a littlemore than three hundred, actually, And

(02:37):
after my grand jury cast doubt onall of those, those confessions started being
those cases started being reopened. Canyou imagine three hundred closed cases when somebody
had not done the crime. Somatter fact, in today's San Antonio newspaper,
I saw it this morning. Igot a news alert because I get

(02:59):
alerts, and anytime they say anythingabout Henry Lucas. They solved another one
with DNA, a murder from nineteeneighty one that Henry had confessed to.
And now they have the real killerthis morning San Antonio paper. Thank god
for that got the real murderer.Same way I was arrested. I did.

(03:28):
I did do the thumbs up.Matter of fact, I brought some
cards. I even signed them,put Today's data on them. They're on
one of the tables out there.Well, the cuffs up if anybody wants
them. We ordered those by thehundreds, so if you want them,
please take them. My paralegal isin the back with the camera back there.
Jonathan Jonathan Zimmick. Jonathan has beenwith me for I think what nineteen

(03:57):
years seen sick close anyway, hewas nineteen years old when I hired him,
so he learned was his work.That was back when we still had
mail rooms before email took everything over. He did all our copying, ran
stuff to the courthouse for us,worked our mail room, all that kind

(04:18):
of stuff, and then started learningit from the bottom up. Then we
sent him to paralegal school and justlove having him. He was with my
Austin office until the pandemic. Afterwe went nearly a year and a half
without stepping foot in that office,so I finally closed it and moved everybody
to Waco. So Jonathan's in Wacowith me now. But anyway, after

(04:40):
I was found not guilty in Austin, I turned around and I sued all
those suckers. Yeah, and oneof them I sued was Below Broadcasting Channel
at Dallas, because they had comein and helped Colonel Jim Adams smear me
like you wouldn't believe, eleven episodesover a three month period, accusing me

(05:03):
of everything. Our Congressman Bob Polksaid, they've accused that boy of everything
except sex with a live boy ordead girl, And that's pretty much true
they did. And so I endedup suing Below Broadcasting. This is in
nineteen ninety one. I got thelargest verdict in the history of America on

(05:27):
a libel case, fifty eight millionbucks. Now, we didn't collect all
that, but I gotta tell youwe collected a lot and I split it
with my lawyer, who had reallysacrificed a lot to stick with me during
a long time when I wasn't ableto pay him because I was just to
poor, old broke DA living frompaycheck to paycheck. So that is in

(05:49):
the Guinness Book of World Records,is the largest ever, and Netflix tells
all about that. The only thingNetflix left out is that five years after
I got that money, six yearssomething like that, the IRS changed the
tax code and they made liable recoveriestaxable. Before it's considered personal injury and

(06:13):
non taxable. But I've been livingfor five or six years thinking this was
non taxable money, and it was, and they made that law retroactive just
to get me. Colonel Jim Adamssaid, well, we weren't able to
put him in jail, but wedon't have to let him keep that money.
So he pulled everything he could andthey pretty much took most of that

(06:36):
money away from me. That's whyI'm still practicing law because I did take
off for about five years during thattime that I thought I had all that
money. And not only did Itake off, but wow, I went
around and I bought cars for peoplelike I was Elvis. Anybody was ever

(06:59):
nice to me, buy you acar? And I did, and then
the irs came. And so backto practice and law. But I gotta
tell you, during that time thatI took off, I did some really
cool things. I gave up allmy cases. I closed my law office.

(07:21):
I had to close it because theywere still sending FBI agents in on
me, trying to set me up. This is before I had ever even
I didn't know where Pakistan was.I doubt I could pick it out on
a map. I had two guysshow up in my office. Mister Fizzelle,
we hear you're such a good triallawyer. They looked in middle Eastern,

(07:43):
said we just want to put youon retainer in case we need you.
And he slides a briefcase across thedesk, opens it up and man,
it is full of cash. Andhere I am. This is before
I got the below vert. Iwasn't DA anymore. I had resigned from
the DA's office so that I couldpursue this lawsuit. And that was more

(08:05):
money and I'd ever seen in oneplace at one time, and it was
all in cash. And he said, mister Fizel, this is your money.
You just can't deposit it, don'tput it in a bank, don't
fill out any forms, and it'syours. Well, y'all know what that
would have done. I'd have beenin the handcuffs again. Right, But

(08:28):
they're saying, no, we're fromPakistan and we're just really trying to start
some businesses here and we don't wantto get in trouble. Well, after,
when I was on trial for mylife, I wouldn't have afforded any
discovery at all. Doesn't before MichaelMorton and all the new stuff to let
you know what you're actually being chargedwith and what they're gonna say. So
I didn't get any of that.But when you follow the lawsuit for a

(08:54):
hundred bucks, you know I'm suingyou for a hundred bucks. Man,
they can look up your in witha microscope, you know, you get
all kinds of discovery. So Istarted sending open records and freedom of information
to the DPS and to the tothe FEDS, and i'd get them back
from both. Man, it wasdis redacted like crazy, but I'd put

(09:16):
them together, you know, andsome would redact this and some would redact
that. But I got a goodpicture because they weren't redacting the same thing.
I don't know why they didn't gettogether. If that was before computers,
you know, they couldn't really comparethem. And sure enough there was
a three O two and FBI threeh two. That's one of their daily

(09:37):
reports of their activities from the twoagents who had come in and tried to
give me that money. Thank god, I pushed it back to him and
said, nope, I'm not goingto do that. So and I was
maxed out on my credit cards too, and getting ready to try to go
to Austin, I mean getting readyto getting ready to try to be lokay.

(09:58):
So I'd already and found not guilty, So I was getting ready to
try to be locase in Waco.We got that verdict in Waco, and
I'm sure a lot of you haveheard about how conservative juries are in Waco.
Not with the right case, Notwith the right case. So keep
pushing your cases, keep pushing.I know we got people here today on

(10:20):
the defense and on the planiff side, maybe even some criminal paralegals in here.
But I hope what I say willgive you all something to think about,
because during that five times that Itook off from work. I'm telling
you I had PTSD. I'd beenthrough so much. They had drugged me

(10:41):
through so much. I've been accusedof everything in the book. Every time
I turned around, a friend ofmine was being subpoena to the grand jury
in Austin. It was terrible.My wife was already tired of me and
had thrown me out by then.We had all this and he so we
could afford to live separately. Isaid, what I do? I got

(11:03):
PTSD? I said to my wife, I said, we need to get
into therapy. She said, notherapies for crazy people like you. I
don't need it. I wish wehad, maybe that marriage would still be
together. But I got to tellyou, all things work together for the
good of those that love the Lord. It did work out. She's happy
now. I'm happy. Now Igot the love of my life. We've

(11:24):
been married twenty three years. Yeah, I'm crazy better, so it all
works out. By the wonder,what do I do? I got PTSD.
I'm feeling terrible. I'm miserable.I got all this money. I
could go out and pay cash forMercedes if I want to, I can
pay cash for Mercedes for you,Paul. Back then, I might have
done it. So I decided togoth. I had heard about a place

(11:52):
called the Pavilion up in North Carolina. It was a rehab center. I
wasn't an alcoholic, I hadn't starteddrinking, and I wasn't a drug addict.
I hadn't started using drugs. ButI knew that it was a possibility
because I was just so miserable.So I went to the Pavilion and I
met two of the greatest people there, Jill and Lilly and dejar Dan,

(12:15):
and they started opening me up,talking to me about things that I had
never been talked to about before,about my own feelings, and about how
to deal with my feelings and howto change my feelings, and how to
choose my feelings, and how tochoose my thoughts, and how to have
more direction and control over my life. And Wow, that gave me the

(12:37):
foundation that I needed. So thenI decided to travel east on a twist
on a question of journey to findinner peace. I did. I talked
to a priest, I talked toswammies, I talked to all kinds of
holy men, and I read stacksof books and went to more retreats and

(13:01):
meditated and learned yoga and got mylife together. I still had trouble,
but I learned how to deal withit. And I want to talk to
you today about how can we dealwith some of the troubles of the stresses
that come up in our lives dayafter day after day. And I'm telling

(13:24):
you, I'm looking at an audiencehere that I know get stress dumped on
him every day, every day.Amen, you are the backbone of the

(13:45):
legal profession. You're the some ofthe most unappreciated in the legal profession.
Yet you are the backbone. There'snot a lawyer that could do it without
you. There's not a lawyer thatcould walk into the courtroom without your help.
None of them could do it withoutyou. And so I appreciate you,
and I hope some of the littlehints I give you today are gonna

(14:07):
help. Now. I'm gonna giveyou some couple of big hints towards the
end, but I'm gonna give yousome little bitty life hacks right now.
The first one you probably already heardof. It. It's simple, but
in case you haven't, I wantto share it with you. And that's
the one about why did I comein here? You ever walk in a
room and then you don't remember whyyou're there? It seemed like the older

(14:30):
I get that more that happens tome. But I learned that our mind
is set up compart mentally, andwe compartmentalize our thoughts and when we change
subjects in our mind, it's likewalking through a door into a different room.
So if you walk into a roomand you don't remember why you walked
in there, just walk out backout going to remember what you walked in

(14:54):
there for. If that doesn't work, go back to the room you're in
where you started your little trip tothat room, and it will come to
you. It will. I promiseyou try it. Now. Here's one
all of you need to know.This is a game, and people play
this game all the time, andit's called Who's Got the Monkey? You

(15:16):
need to be an expert in Who'sGot the monkey? Because I'm telling you,
most of the time, you're theone with a monkey. You are.
Somebody walks into your office, andif it's your boss, you almost
got no choice, But sometimes youdo, even with him because or her,

(15:37):
they might be putting stuff on yourdesk that doesn't even really need to
be there. You know, sooften we hear this is a priority.
Now, this is a priority.This is a priority, and you got
to say I got to prioritize mypriorities. So somebody will walk into your

(15:58):
office and say, you know,I could use some help with this.
I got this thing going on,and would you would you give me a
little help with this problem. I'vegot this research plan or are drafting this
document I've never drafted before. Andyou're nice. You know you don't like
to say no, but let metell you you have a perfect right to

(16:18):
say no, even toil your boss. Sometimes, be careful with your boss.
You don't want to get fired.If he's a kind of boss's going
to fire you like that, Youjust really might need another job for your
own peace of mind. Seriously,studies are showing the people that jump around
in their jobs actually ended up makingmore money in their lifetime. Going uh,
So, don't stay anywhere where you'redisrespected. So if you say yes,

(16:42):
guess who's got the monkey? Youdo? That monkey is on your
desk. And you know what,even if you forget that monkey's in there,
it's gonna make noise. And thatperson that left that monkey on your
desk is gonna walk in and goes, hey, how's that project going?

(17:03):
I left with you. What they'regoing is, how's my monkey? Yeah,
how's my monkey? Give them backtheir monkey? Yeah, give them
back their monkey when they come in. Your goal is to not have any
monkeys in your office. Get thatmonkey off your desk. If it's not
something that's in your job description,get that monkey off your desk. Especially

(17:29):
if it's someone I've seen this somany times. If it's somebody that works
for you, you may have anassistant under you, or somebody that's on
an equal level with you. It'sgiving you their monkeys. Don't do it.
You're you're You're not a zookeeper.Take care of your business, all

(17:52):
right now. This one works,and I'm gonna get to the big ones
after a while. This is anotherlittle one, but it works. I
have a client I had to gethim ready for deposition. He remodeled homes
for a living, worked with hisbody, worked with his hands. A
decent sort of guy, but hehad he had had it rough his whole

(18:14):
life. You know, people hadbeen dumping on him his whole life.
He felt disrespected, He felt likelife had given him a fair shake.
He was a kind of guy thatcould be walking down the sidewalk and somebody
else coming down the sidewalk and theylook at each other and getting a fight.
You know the reason for that.It's a concept called the pain body.

(18:37):
We started collecting these things that happenedto us. My parents weren't good
enough to me. My teachers weremean to me. My coach was mean
to me. I flunked this classand its screwed me up. The army
was bad to me. Whatever,And we collect all these things and it
becomes like a part of our identity. That's called our pain body. And

(19:00):
a lot of people live in thatpain body. And the problem with that
is if somebody else is in theirpain body, their pain body is going
to recognize your pain body and beforeyou know if they're going to blows.
Well, my client lived in hispain body, and one night he was
going down I thirty five Access Roadten at night, dark out there no

(19:25):
lights. He's got the fifty milean hour right of way. When a
big tractor trailer with no illumination onthe side runs a stop sign right in
front of him, he te bonesit. It pushes the engine up into
the cab of his pickup truck.I've got a video, thank god,

(19:48):
because of the convenience store across thestreet. We got her investigator over there
right away and they still had theirvideo. And you can see the top
of the back of the lights onhis truck go up and bounce like that.
It's so hard. Broke both hislegs. Fortunately, there were two
policemen over in the convenience store gettinggas. They saw the wreck. They

(20:10):
ran or they had to put thetourniquet on him keep him from dying right
there. He's gonna lose this leg. He hasn't lost it yet, but
he's going to. So you canimagine how angry that would make somebody.
It's already living in their pain bodyand this lawyer from Dallas is gonna come
down to Waco and take my painbody client's deposition. So I started meeting

(20:34):
with him once a week two monthsout. Would meet for beginning an hour
and it got to two hours.I learned to do this when I was
a psychotherapist who they made Tomorrow beforeit became a lawyer. It's a way
to change your mood. And Icall this guy mister T because his first

(20:56):
name starts to tea. And Isaid, mister T, let me show
you something. Clap your hands infront of your face like this. He
did, and he smiled before thatis like this. I said, all
right, do it again, andhe did it. I'd like Pew to

(21:17):
do it right now. Where'd youcome on? Everybody, do it again.
It will change your mood. Idon't know why, I don't know
what, but it will change yourmood. I said, what the real

(21:38):
name is, Terrence? I say, Terrence. If you can do that
and it changes your mood for justa second. And the only people it
doesn't change their mood to somebody whodecides to hit them. I'm not gonna
let it change my name, butit will. It will. And if
you can change your mood for asecond, then you can change your mood.

(22:00):
Right. If you can change yourmood for a second, you can
choose how you're going to feel aboutsomething. So Terence would come in every
week and we would practice that,and as I would pretend to be this
lawyer. Oh and for all ofyou out there, share this with your
lawyers too. If you're going toget your clients ready for deposition and you're
going to play that you're the otherlawyer and you're being mean to him.

(22:23):
You don't want them getting mad atyou and hating you right just because you're
being mean to him. So takethis trick home to your lawyer. I
have a funny looking little costume.Top hat looks weird when you put it
on. So when I'm Vic,I'm sitting there talking to him like this,
when I decide to be John,the Meno lawyer from Dallas, I

(22:44):
put on the top hat. Thatway he can be mad at John,
and when I take the top hatoff, he's not mad at Vic.
It works. So share that withyour lawyer. Get him a funny little
hat to put on when he's workingwith his client and he's playing the other
guy doing the cross exam nation onhim. It works. So anyway,
I got Terence to doing that,and when he had start getting on you

(23:07):
know, I don't want to answerthat, I go to clap your hands
it smiled, and then answer thequestion. By the time we got the
deposition, he sat there and hedid good. He did really good.
I'm so proud of him. Ireally think we might get that case settled.
It's still going on. I reallythink we might get it settled now
because he did so good, andthis lawyer did not think he'd be able

(23:30):
to do that good. So that'sanother hack, that clapping. Remember that
that can help you. Now,somebody might think you're crazy, you said
you destined to do that, butso what, it can keep you from
really going crazy. So the painbody concept is sort of like, oh
man, I don't see anybody here. All you people are too young.

(23:53):
You don't remember green stamps, doyou? Oh? You do? I
remember my mama. We'd go tothe store. She wanted those green stamps.
Man, because you you would checkout, and however much you spent
for that many dollars, you getthat many little stamps, You lick them,
put them in the book, andwhen you get enough books, get

(24:14):
that book full or two or threebooks, you take it to their little
store and you could get a toasteror maybe a set of dishes, or
a bowl or a mixer or somethinglike that. Well, people, the
pain body they're they're stamp savers.Somebody hurt my feelings. That's a stamp,
he frowned at me. That's astamp, my husband yelled at me.

(24:37):
That's a stamp. I'm gonna puthim in there. I'm gonna save
him, and i'm gonna save them. And when I get my book full,
i'm gonna throw a timber fit.I'm gonna raise hell. I'm gonna
do something that then I'm probably gonnaregret. I'm gonna be embarrassed about it.
So don't be a stamp saver.The way to do it is when
you get one of those little stamps, get rid of it right. Then

(25:02):
get rid of it right. Then. Let me tell you, the power
of forgiveness is so wonderful. It'snot for the other person. Forgiveness is
for you, so that you're notcarrying all that baggage with you now.
I do have to say, though, that whoever said forgive and forget that

(25:23):
was the perpetrator just trying to sneakback in forgiveness is divine forgetting that's naive.
So forgive, but don't be stupid. Forgive. But that doesn't mean
you have to give them your moneyagain. That doesn't mean you have to

(25:44):
trust him again. That doesn't meanyou have to forget what they did.
But let go of that emotional attachmentto the wrong. You always have time
to stop and breathe and y'll go. That's called pranyama. I love pranioma.
Learn to breathe slow when you getstressed in and out. Take four

(26:11):
in, five out, five in, six out, because the exhale is
what lowers your blood pressure. Theexhale is what works the vegas nerve and
lowers the blood pressure. I learnedthis from people in Sri Lanka a few
years back. Lowers the blood pressure. So learn to breathe slow, let

(26:33):
go of your ego and try tosee God in all people. That's pranioma,
and then stop to think, thinkabout what you're doing. Don't have
immediate reactions. So many of usare prone to immediately say no, to
immediately throw up a negative screen becauseoh, I've heard that in the past,

(26:55):
or I've had an experience like thatin the past. Now just stop
and think of about it and tryto be more open. Doesn't mean you
can't say no. Like I said, you have a perfect right to say
no, but think about it andbe open to it. I heard a
guys say one time, but I'mafraid if I stop to think, I

(27:15):
may not ever get started again.You will stop and think about it,
Now, everybody wants to know howto get what they want right, But
what is it that we want?We have to boil that down to its
essence, And through my years ofmeditation and reading, I've come to the

(27:40):
conclusion that it all boils down tothis. We want two things, happiness
and peace. That's it. Everythingelse just builds towards those two things,
happiness and peace. So I cameto realize what we all seek is the
same happy and peace. I wantthat for me, and I want it

(28:03):
for everybody that I come in contactwith, and I try to project that
I want happiness and peace for me, I want happiness and peace for you.
Happiness is so important. It's evenin our Declaration of Independence. Franklin
and Jefferson and Adams wrote it intothe Declaration of Independence. It says the

(28:26):
life, liberty, and the pursuitof happiness. So that must really be
important. But we as humans,oh, and they said, those are
I love this work unalienable rights.That means they can't be taken away.
They should never be taken away.But too often we as human beings take

(28:47):
away our own unalienable rights by ourcompulsive, obsessive, negative thinking. Any
of us have tapes going on inour head. They're left over from our
childhood, childhood imprints from mom orteachers that you're unworthy, you're stupid,

(29:11):
you don't deserve this, so you'renot right, something's wrong with you,
you're not lovable, you should beashamed, and so often those voices go
off in our head. Those arechildhood imprints. Childhood imprints are hard to
deal with because they're almost hardwired intoour brain. Our brains are made up

(29:33):
of three parts. The stem,which is the reptile brain. A lot
of you've read about that. That'swhere people come from defensive, always seeing
danger, always trying to protect themselves, always trying to protect their spawn.
It's the reptile. The second oneis just the subcortex that makes us emotional
and bonding. And then there's thefrontal cortex that's where we get all our

(29:55):
higher reasoning. But oh, ofthose parts of our brain have only two
operating systems, two programs that worksthrough all of them, so it doesn't
matter which one of those you're in. Choose the right operating system. The
first operating system is reactive, that'sa red operating system. Humans evolved the

(30:22):
reactive for our own protection, seeingdanger in everything, seeing something on the
ground. Oh, it's a snake. No, it's a stick, it's
a snake. You know what.The guy who thought it was the snake,
he probably lived longer and he passedthat trade on to his offspring,
so that they are more nervous aboutthings that are out there, seeing the
danger, seeing it. So we'reprone that way. So we're gonna have

(30:48):
to do a little work to getaway from the reactive programming. But it
can't be done. Imagine a mountain. It's like a cone, and the
rain falls on the mountain and thewater runs down the mountain and it makes
these grooves down the mountain, itmakes these ruts. That's how our brain

(31:12):
is because rue grooves and ruts areour neuron trails, and our neuron trails
are put in there by repetitive thinkingthe things that we dwell alone, and
that's our programming. And a lotof those neuron trails are already there and
they're negative. Now. The wayto get rid of that is you don't

(31:33):
use it. You accentuate the positive. That's a good old song, isn't
there, But it's true. Youaccentuate the positive and you spend less time
on the negative and what happens thosetrails start growing over with grass and the
other trails are stronger. So whatwe do is we need to operate under

(31:59):
the other program, the responsive program, the red program. The reactive program
makes us feel apprehensive, exasperated.We get it when we feel pulled in
all different directions. The reactive modesends a signal from your brain to your

(32:20):
body that releases a cascade of stresshormones, adrenaline and cortisol. They are
going to affect your health, notjust your mental health, but your physical
health as well. We need toget rid of those chemicals circulating through us
that are generated by that negative thinking. Now, that was put there in

(32:45):
us originally to help save our liveswhen the tiger would show up, when
the bear would show up, whenwe had tribal warfare and death was imminent.
It was for that emergency energy tokeep us alive. But then when
it's over, our brain's created anotherthing that shoots out a little chemical that's

(33:07):
to help us relax, to getback into the responsive zone, to get
into the green zone. And ourgoal is to stay in the green as
much as possible, because that's reallyour home, that's our default. The
red zone is for when we're justneed it immediately, for that immediate help,

(33:30):
and then go back as soon asyou can to the other But the
problem is that the human mind iscapable of staying in a state of agitation
even when our immediate environment does notcall for it, Even when the danger
has left, we're sitting there thinkingit over, rehearsing things that have already

(33:55):
been said, refighting the battle,dwelling on him. The secret is to
try to stay in the now,not in the past where all that stuff
is that's bothering you, not inthe future with the things to worry about.
But try to stay in the now, try to stay with those positive

(34:17):
things. And the way you dothat because fear of frustration and heartache,
man, they color the mind.And even if you start this exercise right
after you leave here today, it'sgoing to take a little while because it
takes a while to change course.So I'm urging you to start concentrating on

(34:40):
the positive. Stay in the greenDavid and Psalm said, He maketh me
to lie down in green pastures.That's the restorative. He leadeth me by
the still waters, not even leadsme by the rapids where I might fall

(35:02):
in, not even leading me bythe rough water. He leads me by
the still water so I can lookin and see my reflection looking back at
me, so I can be reflected, so I can change my behavior.
The next line is he restoreth mysoul. That's where the restoration comes from,

(35:23):
is giving up our compulsive negative thinkingand restoring our soul by concentrating on
the positive. When in the greenyou're meeting your challenges without without them becoming
stressors. And all of you haveenough stressors in your life. Being in

(35:45):
the green zone slows your heart rate, it promotes digestion, it lowers your
blood pressure, and it replenishes thebody and the brain. After we've had
these little flurries in the red zone. Those flurries are meant to be temporary.
You've seen swans on the lake orducks on the lake. They're so

(36:07):
peaceful. They're gliding, but everyonce while one might get a little too
close to the other and they're like, why flapping the water. They're not
really hitting each other, but theyflap the water and they go a little
crazy, and then they stop andthey slide off, just really gently.
That's the way it's supposed to be. Recover from that as quick as you
can. Recover from those challenges asquick as you can, and know that

(36:30):
when you dwell on it, you'rehurting yourself. You're just drinking poison when
you do that. Let the greenson be be your default. Now,
all of you have too much todo. I know that. But I
heard a story about a man whowas in wrong and he walks into a

(36:52):
big cathedral and he sees way acrossthe side a man on his knees working
on something on the floor. Sohe walks over and realizes he's putting them
a mosaic together, gluing in thesesmall little pieces of glass and rock and
putting the groud over it. Buthe looks and he sees it. It's
gonna go all the way around thebuilding, and he's got maybe twenty feet

(37:15):
of it done, he said.I asked the man, how do you
manage that? Knowing you've got allthis to do? He said, well,
I just kind of draw off whatI think I can get to today.
I work on that and I'm notgonna worry about the rest of it
until I come in tomorrow. Anddraw off what I'm gonna do tomorrow.

(37:35):
Right now, you've got a thousandthings on your desk and you're worrying about
the ones that you can't get toMonday morning. What am I gonna do?
That can be paralyzing. Don't worryabout the thousand things on your desk.
Don't be paralyzed by that. Takethe one thing you know you can
do today and concentrate on it,get it finished, and it will give

(38:00):
you such a sense of completion andenjoyment, and it'll leave and raise your
self esteem. I iced to watchSaturday Night Live. You remember Stuart Smalley.
People laughed at him. I'm goodenough, I'm smart enough and dog

(38:21):
going at people like me. Welaughed at him, But you know what,
that's the way to do it.Tell yourself that believe that, and
not only believe it, believe thatother people believe it. The self filling
prophecy is I am what I thinkyou think I am. I am what

(38:45):
I think you think I am.That's why we behave differently with other people.
Sometimes they come in and go,I don't know why I always act
so stupid or in that person.It's because you think that person thinks you're
stupid, so we try to fulfillwhat they're what they're thinking. So get
away from that. I am whatI think you think. I am kind
of thinking too. You are whatyou are. Find that strength from within

(39:07):
and rotate around it, rotate aroundit. Now, some of the stressors
that you're going through right now isdoing multiple things at once, processing dense
streams of information. Wow, racingfrom here to there, working long hours,

(39:30):
rapidly shifting gears from one thing toanother. Traffic. Don't you hate
traffic? That's part of the reasonI left Austin. I opened the newspaper
one morning and it said Austin trafficapproaching critical mass. Oh babe, we
gotta get out of here. Sowe put our house on the market.
One month later, we had acash buyer, and I said, oh

(39:50):
my god, I'm homeless. Whatdo I do now. Fortunately, even
in spite of Chip and joyanaor,we were able to find a house and
wake up that was within our prizerange. So balancing work and family is
another one. You've got to maketime for your family and make time for
yourself and take care of yourself.It can't just be sacrifice, sacrifice,

(40:14):
sacrifice, for the job, oryou're going to start feeling a sense of
inadequacy that you're not going to getover if you don't take care of yourself.
Move, get up and move too. In the wild work they were
able to work off that court isall. Our ancestors worked off. All
that court is all because they're physicallyactive. Today our society, the way

(40:37):
things are set up, we can'tbe as physically active as we used to.
I mean, my dad's a Baptistpreacher and we lived in the parsonage
lists like two doors down from thechurch, and my mom was still getting
the car and drive to the church. Anytime you have an opportunity just to

(40:59):
do a little bit of movement,it'll help your body, it'll help your
mind, and it puts it putsthe mind. Right now, I tell
you, we have this negativity bias, the stick, the snake, all
that kind of stuff. For somany people. That's the new normal,
that's the new normal. But ifyou stay in that, if you stay
in the negativity when the responsive,green, restorative mode is your real home,

(41:27):
you're basically making yourself homeless, psychologicallyhomeless, because you're not living where
you should be living. If you'rein that negative state. Well, I
want to talk to you now.And this is my last hack. Bellcrow
for the for the brain. Bello, bell crow for the mind. You

(41:50):
can use your mind to change yourbrain. The mountain with the rain on
it, the grooves, use yourmind to change your brain. I want
you to think of something right nowthat made you happy. I want you

(42:14):
to think of a time when youfelt strong, when you felt good,
or think of somebody that you lovethat makes you happy. Has everybody got
that now? Once you take yourfingers and reach out and grab it like
it's a thing, that experience,that time with my child, that time

(42:36):
with my wife, that great mealwe had, that whatever, and I
want you to take it and putit on that bellcrow on your brain.
Imagine that brain with bellcrow and youtake that experience and you put it there.
And when you do that, it'sgonna be there so you can go

(42:58):
back and revisit it. You cango see it. And what I want
you to do is, whenever somethinggreat happens that feels good, make that
little bell crow wide and stick itthere and then go back and visit it.
I want you to have a wholefile a whole playlist like you do

(43:20):
on your phone your songs. Havea whole playlist up here of positive things
that you can go back and visitto lift your spirit and to lift you
up. A couple of weeks agoat home, my wife got up from
the living room and she was goingto go back to the bathroom to brush
your teeth. So I just gotup and followed her. I like her,

(43:44):
and I kind of like her rearend, and you know, we
after twenty three years, we stillget along. So I got it.
I followed her to the bathroom,and by the time we got in the
hall, I started singing, Iwill follow you, and she looked at
me, and he started singing,follow you wherever you may go. And

(44:04):
then we had our toothbrushes like microphones, and we're singing to each other.
And then we danced a little bit, and I said, oh my god,
that's gotta be a water velcrow.So I took that little experience and
I put it right there. I'vegone back and I've visited that experience several
times in the last two weeks.Like when I'm driving to work, I

(44:27):
hit the red light. Well,let me open my playlist and go through
some of those positive green zone experiencesand remind myself of that. And you
know what's wonderful about that is thatthe more you do that, the less
you're going to be thinking about thenegative things you've been obsessing over. And

(44:52):
those negative trails are going to startgrowing over with grass and that velcrow that
you've put up here for those othertrails, they're gonna get stronger and stronger.
And you know what the great thingabout that is, the green mind

(45:14):
is contagious birds of a feather flocktogether like the gats, like those are
basic laws of the universe. Andas you spend more time in the positive,
as you spend more time belcrowing thosepositive things, you're gonna find out

(45:37):
that better things are happening to you, That people are treating you better.
Now, it takes a little whileto turn that ship rend, but you'll
see that they're treating you better becauseyou're treating yourself better. And that spills
over. People pick up on thatI am what I think you think I
am. Well, that person isgoing to be seeing that you think much

(45:58):
more highly of yourself than they Ihave thought, and they're gonna treat you
that way. They will treat youthe way that they think you are.
They will treat you what they theway. They'll treat you the way you
think you are because they're gonna startthinking it. So meet your challenges with

(46:23):
a sense of kindness, compassion andlove and it will be drawn back to
you. Because the road we're travelingkeeps unraveling. I'm quoting him a friendly
mine here MC Yogi. His realname is Nick. Check out his music
sometimes mcogi. He has a mostspiritual, uplifting music. He's a yoga

(46:49):
teacher out on point where he is. I spent a month with him a
couple of years ago in Sri Lanka, study and meditation and yoga. This
is a This is from one ofhis songs. Because the road that we're
traveling keeps unraveling, you gotta payattention to see what's happening through the ups
and the downs, the highs andthe lows, the ends and the outs,

(47:12):
the ebbs and the flows. What'saround the corner. Nobody knows.
That's why we always have to stayon our toes through the twist and the
turns, the bins and the curbs. Each lesson in life is karma that
we learn. Then you know there'sa good karma, there's a bad karma.
You got a bank account for eachbuild up your good karma bank account.

(47:34):
I love y'all. Work on yourminds, work on those priorities,
and you can be the sweetest personin the world and still not take crap
off. Anybody do that. Thankyou for listening to The Vic Gazelle Show

(47:55):
podcast. We're a primary source podcast. We talk about people we've known,
things we've experienced. We're a primarysource podcast. For more information, visit
Vic fezelle dot com, leave usa comment or a review, Subscribe to

(48:15):
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