Bonus Episode 11 | with Eric North - Mick Unplugged

Are you ready to change your habits, sculpt your destiny, and light up your path to greatness?

Welcome to the epicenter of transformation.

This is Mick Unplugged.

We'll help you identify your because

so you can create a routine that's not just productive but powerful.

You'll embrace the art of evolution, adapt strategies to stay ahead of the game, and take a step toward the extraordinary.

So let's unleash your your potential.

Now, here's Mick.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Mick Unplode, where we go beyond the why to discover your real because.

And today we have a very special guest who's dedicated his life to the pursuit of happiness, helping others find their inner peace.

He's a renowned coach, writer, and motivational speaker, known for his unique approach to unlocking human potential.

It is truly an honor for me to welcome Happiness Warrior, my happiness warrior, Oh, Mr.

Eric North to the show.

Eric, welcome on board, my brother.

I can barely contain myself.

You're so, it's so awesome just hearing your words and how meaningful they are to me.

I don't hear words like that all the time.

So I'm really appreciative because I don't always listen to people who want to compliment me,

which is something I need to work on still.

There's things we all need to work on.

So thank you so much.

I'm honored.

I am very honored to be here today.

No, I am definitely the honored one in the audience that's listening and those that are watching.

You're going to understand why I call Eric my happiness warrior.

So, so many nuggets he's about to give us.

We haven't even prepped for this call.

And I can promise you, you're going to get nuggets.

And there's some things that I'm going to want you to do throughout this podcast episode today for all the listeners.

There's going to be a lot that I'm going to want you to write down.

Eric, I would love.

just for the audience to know a little bit about who you are and what experiences in your early life inspired you to become a happiness coach and a motivational speaker because motivational speakers we hear about, right?

But a happiness coach, that's something that's unique and something that only Eric North can bring.

I'd love to hear that story.

I think a lot of things in our lives are passed through genetics.

And I think a lot of our traits can come through with some things

we can fix and change, but some things are just, you can't help it.

And I have, I was a kid, I was very, I was a young kid, and I was very, I was very aware of the world around me.

And very young, I remember things from when I was one years old.

I can remember watching the Andy Griffiths show at a hotel room.

I knew I was one.

So I remember things and I started being really aware of people's behavior.

And I was too smart for most people.

I was too smart at a young age.

And I was always kind of perplexing people.

And beginning, I was odd because I was too smart.

Then I went to school.

I was in second grade.

I was with reading with the sixth graders and I was in math.

I mean, they were trying to send me to math.

I was driven to learn and just

getting the most out of life at a young age.

I was also probably a little weird.

I wasn't, I was also, I was very shy and I stuttered, which was terrible.

My father made, my father made me feel very ashamed of it.

So that was kind of a source of trouble.

I look at it now and I think, I'm glad I went through all that.

I'm kind of glad a lot of it taught me about being more respectful of others and realizing that we're not walking in someone else's shoes and we need to really think about how other people, you know, we don't know what's going on.

So a lot of good things came of that too.

But my father would always put me in, get out of the way or in someone's way.

I always felt like I was in the way and he was embarrassed about me.

And we had a good relationship basically though, too.

So it wasn't all bad.

But it was just, you know, parents think that they're doing the right thing and sometimes

they're causing more harm, you know?

So, and I think that's just part of life.

It's just what we have to, we have to just be, you know,

accept that they're doing their best.

But I have these three aunts and they were my dad's sisters of varying ages.

And even

I have one left and she is one of the most, she's like my, my female version of me.

And I, it's like when we're together, it's like we're twins.

And she's 20 years older, but it's like we just, we're on the same path, the same humor, the same kindness.

And I just spent some time with her because it's important to spend time with people that are getting older in your life.

And I went to a restaurant in New York, and she had the entire male staff of this restaurant coming to her every minute.

Princessa, can I get it for you?

And she had the whole restaurant just in

her sphere, and everyone was happy.

And I have another aunt, she's passed away, and she was courageous and very glamorous, very striking, and very, very, very, very intelligent.

And she was an advocate for conditions in mental hospitals in a time when no one really cares.

And you can't go out in public about shopping or somewhere in my area that I live in without a lot of people wanting to stop and tell me what's going on with their life.

And they're excited to see me, you know.

And they, and they, oh, I'm doing all this since last time I saw you, and I'm so happy.

And they, you know, so it can take a while with me to get somewhere.

Okay.

So, and that's how she was too so i have my other aunt was a serious educator and she was like my cheerleader she was the youngest one and very serious she was she was right there with me when i was young when we were doing iq tests and things and i always felt like i was a weird kid maybe i was a little out of place but i always felt like the power of their belief in me made me always feel like i had an amazing future because they were so cool you know and so they kind of kept me going mentally you know my mom was cool but i was kind of still out of i was not the kid that they wanted sort of you know i wasn't like the football playing i i like sports and being out i was always outdoors but i wasn't like the i wasn't a good boy scout i wasn't good in that type of situation okay so i didn't like the i'm not i'm not really good with authority figures if i don't respect them okay if they're respectable i i'm i'm i'm honored i'm honored to respect somebody but i i guess i i could see things at a younger age than most people are aware of and that was where i got my kind of like i have a big thing about something about if i find someone that is like, especially another man or woman that has a strong, honest integrity, you know, and

sort of stands up for things, then I'm going to automatically, I'm going to feel aligned.

Yeah.

And they're generally going to be people that are happier.

They're going to be people that are easy to laugh and they let people in.

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So that's what you look for.

I go in the room of a new place, just like going to a new podcast, and I expect that I'm going to meet friends right away.

And look at us.

Yeah.

I've never had that.

I always say, I always go out, I go, I like everyone.

And then, how does that feel when you say that?

How does that change your whole dynamic in your day-to-day life?

And there are people, man, they are hard, they make it hard sometimes, you know, but you know, you have to just say, I don't know what they're going through.

I don't know what they've been through.

So really learning that lesson a lot as I mature.

I think that's really important is to really be respectful of what people want to tell you.

Yeah.

Mind your own business.

I still think mind your own business is the greatest phrase.

I think it's important, you know, and mind your own business, right?

Stay focused on you.

Focused on being your best, being your best example,

being your hero.

We got to be our own hero, right?

Right, right, Mick.

You know, we have to be our own heroes for ourselves because everyone counts on us.

That's correct.

You can't be a hero for someone else until you become a hero for yourself.

And I learned that from Eric.

I learned that from her.

Well, I just think it's really important.

I think it's really important that

we don't have to have a lot of self-congratulation.

Okay.

We don't have to have a lot of that.

But I think we need to be able to realize our innate powers and able to vocalize them and actually use them and feel them.

So if we have, if I have a warrior-like mentality, a lot of people have a warrior-like mentality.

I'm not the only one.

And

it's about using that for good.

It's using that.

I care about everyone.

I care about my own needs and my family, but I also care about the impact we have on everyone else and equity and fairness and everything else.

No, absolutely.

You know, we've talked a little bit offline and you talked about your personal journey and some of the challenges that you faced.

Can you share a specific moment where you had to dig deep to find happiness and how that influenced your future work?

You know,

I always had a lot of friends and I was kind of part of the fun crowd and everything.

And then I got to a point where I met someone who was kind of dangerous and ended up being being someone very dangerous for me.

And we were together for a long time.

We had a really

two rocks, two dysfunctional rock star couple together kind of times.

Okay.

We had a lot of stuff that was cool and a lot of stuff that was like really like, ah.

And it was very abusive.

I'm not on my part.

It was a very abusive relationship towards me.

And I'm not, and I didn't have, and I've never had like, I've done partying, drinking, and things, but I was never like part of that.

There was never something that had me locked down.

And we just got into a place where I was concerned for my life.

When you're with someone who's abusive, they usually try to control everything in your life.

So they try to get rid of your family, get rid of your friends, rid of your job, anything that distracts you from being from being kept in line by them.

So

you become isolated.

And I was extremely isolated.

And

there was an incident where all I could do was call my mom and I hadn't talked to her in six six months.

And guess what?

She came right to the rescue and I was able to take that moment and go,

I'm not turning around.

I'm not turning around.

I'm not looking back going forward now.

I'm done.

I had 20, I had like $50.

And I had lost

through a lot of reasons.

I lost

a really good corporate job.

I was like 30.

I was like 31, 32.

And I lost her really,

that career just kind of sputtered.

And it was just good too, because

it's not what I wanted to do with my life anyway.

So

I think about all these things is anything that brings you into a place where there's a reckoning, you know, and you really have to think about, I don't know if there's some way out of this, you know, like, and if you're thinking that, there always is a way out of it.

Okay.

And a lot of people think they have no choice and it leads to self-harm and leads to other things that are bad, like bad nutrition, like poor nutrition, you know, sleep or self, anything.

And just got to let it go.

You know, you got to, and you got to think, you got to let it go.

It's hard because I was angry for a long time

after we split up.

I think you go through a phase of I was angry.

I was angry at myself.

I was not a victim, but

I was kind of damaged emotionally because I wasn't able to trust anyone for a long time after that.

So I put myself into work.

Work for me is a solace to going to another place, a better place.

So I put myself to work and I liked working.

I found I could start working for myself.

And then I got into real estate and it was an ideal career for me for about 10 years.

And during that 10 years, though,

I started doing testosterone replacement therapy with a clinic in Florida around 2011 or so.

And in 2010, I was at 43 and I was 42, 43, 42.

And I was going from super high achiever, full of energy every day.

So my energy levels were down.

I was not feeling myself.

And I was actually feeling sometimes coming home from a really great day at real estate.

And then I didn't feel feel like going to the gym.

I didn't feel like having sex.

I didn't feel like, you know, just things were just kind of going to like kind of

not a happy place.

And I got on this therapy, and it changed my, it just changed my

clinic.

I went to it was from Florida, and I think Florida, everything there was kind of chaotic anyway.

But they were wonderful people, and I learned, but I learned about my own health from them.

I learned about how my blood, what these blood work numbers meant, and things like that.

So I was able to start learning how to take control of my health, you know, and doing it in a way that was safely done.

nothing crazy it was just therapy and

i always seem to people i i i think i'm a trustworthy person i think people tend to people come to me with ideas or they want to help me help them for sure and the owner of the clinic had heard about me from people he was from from his employees and he was like i'm really excited to meet this guy maybe he wants to go into business with me so i went down to florida i met him and like and i just i i just i just and we didn't end up going to business but he he helped me get started i spent like two weeks in his business every day with different people in the office.

And then I was like, I don't want to do any of this

in my own place.

If I open up my own place, we're going to do things a lot differently.

And but I learned, but I'm learning how I want to, at least I'm learning the approach.

And learning the approach, I'm learning the nuts and bolts.

So then I started that, and that was the beginning of like working for myself.

It was my, I just had a picture the other day.

It just came up in Facebook.

It was of me in like a sleeveless shirt.

I'm 40-something, so I'm pretty jacked up.

And I used to do men's physique competitions, so it's pretty like I looked like an owner of a TRT clinic.

And there's a picture of me doing drywall because I'm in the beginning of the business.

I invested all of my money.

I went into my 401k to start it.

I mean, I was,

I was going to be broke, broke, broke, broke, or I was going to make it.

And you were all the hats in the business, right?

When I started a business that was at the time not mainstream, it was, there was a lot of negativity, there's a lot of misinformation, facts that were not, that were not correct about it.

And

in this time period, period now, I have the enjoyment that when people call me, how soon can I make an appointment?

Back in the day, I had to do everything.

I was cleaning the bath and taking the trash out,

doing everything and all aspects and working on weekends too, going to trade shows and going to places to get my name out.

That was a time when I had to be...

I had to let all that other stuff in the past go and I had to start learning how to be in control of my life.

And there were times when it was really hard and times when I was unsure about the mortgage.

Almost 12 years later now, I have a business that has helped me launch other businesses now and give me the opportunity to have really good, to create really great jobs for people that they were for me.

Love it.

Let's talk about the happiness warrior.

Yes.

And then we go into happiness warrior.

It's all that entrepreneur stuff.

But that's where I got to the point where I got kind of bored with business, okay?

Because I thought, no, I wouldn't say I never get bored, but I say I got the point where I was like, I need to do something more.

I need to do more.

And I sort of fool around the modeling business for a while.

That was kind of fun.

I got to meet a lot of people.

And then the happiness warrior, once my publicist told me that I was a happiness warrior, I just took that raid on and put it right on like a suit.

I thought, this will give me a really, really powerful motivation to be my best every day, never let anyone down, never let myself down, always being adaptable, always being ready for a change.

I developed my core values and I use those a lot.

And I have to take care of it.

And we were going into COVID time and everybody was health-wise.

And I said, I need to help people.

So I started doing a lot of, I did a lot of videos online that, you know, they would just be like, you know, this is how we just take it down a notch here and start feeling better about ourselves first.

Then we can get out in the world again and get our mask off, you know.

But

that was a tough time to help people get through as well.

And that was a time that I felt like I could do a lot of good.

Like when COVID started, this is terrible.

I was thinking, I was thinking I'm training for something.

I've been doing all these things to get all my skills and all my powers honed.

And

it came, I said, oh my God, I got to close my business.

I got to do all this stuff.

And I thought, this is what I'm ready for now.

I'm ready to be a leader now.

I'm ready to make sure this is, in my world, this is going to be handled as well as I can.

get through this to wherever the other side is.

I think the other side now is awesome.

I think where we are right now, despite some political stuff, I think where we are now as a world,

we have a lot of potential now.

so in the book the happiness warrior what are three things that people should go dive into the book that they're gonna get out of it that they can implement like right now first thing is that they have a right to be happy and they need to give themselves permission to be happy we need to make I think we're really really really important is to make the mind-body connection that we're sphere you know like we're

everything in our bodies and our mind and what we eat what we think what we speak it affects who we are it affects our health it affects our outcome.

You know, making that just adjustment to loving yourself as much as possible, and that includes loving yourself in spirit, soul, and body and mind.

And I think it's very important.

People don't realize that they deserve much more in their lives.

That's what I really try to think about: is that act of just starting something that you're dreaming about doing can lead to something that is more amazing than you ever thought of.

I totally agree.

So I try to always be positive, Sven, without calling myself a positive person.

I don't want to have that level, but I always, I don't like, I like to steer the ship.

Yeah.

My direction where I steer is towards everyone is happy with themselves, content with themselves, and at peace with everyone around them.

Tough.

That is a mighty goal, but I think it's possible.

Oh, wholeheartedly.

wholeheartedly.

And I told the audience and the listeners when we started that there's some things that I want them to write down.

And these things were impactful for me.

Okay.

Eric, one of the things that you released is titled The Only Five Things That Matters.

And I have to be very honest and transparent.

It is probably the best article or blog that I have read in 2024.

Wow, thank you.

Because it is so impactful.

Like I love things that are action.

And that's what this podcast is about, right?

Like we want to give the listeners, the viewers, things that they can start implementing in their life today, right?

Like you don't need to go hire anyone.

These are insights that you can start putting into your life.

everyone is capable the answers the answers we're looking for are always within absolutely you know that this is

your your story is so inspirational too because you were able to dig past whatever was going on and say i deserve to live and be better and make my life the way i the way i want it to be right and i know i had to go

when we're younger we get put into boxes and places and we don't necessarily get a chance to make what we want to do of ourselves you know and then when you get older the blessing is that we really have that that wisdom.

Yeah.

Wholeheartedly, wholeheartedly.

I want to go into, again, for those, and we'll have this, the link to this article in the show notes, but it's on the metropolitan digital.com.

Metropolitan Digital.com.

And with Eric, it's the five things that matter.

And what he's talking about here, the five things that truly matter.

to have a happy life and to impart happiness in your life.

And so, Eric, we're going to go through these together.

So I'm going to highlight what the first one is.

And I want you to kind of tell us what you meant by that.

So number one, and everyone write this down, express gratitude before rest at night.

I'm going to say that again.

Express gratitude before rest at night.

Eric, why is that important?

I'm going to tell you, it totally changed my life.

I had the best sleep the first night that I implemented this.

I slept like a baby

since being a baby.

It started from my need to get better sleep.

And then I was with my sister one day, and she has has a pretty high stress hold.

She's an entrepreneur too.

We don't have time to talk half the time.

When we do have something to say, it was kind of very insightful.

And she says, when I go to bed at night, I know that I've done my best.

I sleep, I go to sleep right away.

And I said, well, so it wasn't what I was expecting.

That wasn't what I was expecting her to say.

But it touched me because I was like, that's kind of what I needed to hear myself.

So nothing I'm doing is new.

I'm just passing information that I'm processing information and sharing it.

And I think it's important.

But that was very important.

So then I started this practice of, you know,

I grew up, you know, prayer before bed and things like that.

And I literally, it wasn't my thing, but I did it because it was the right thing to do at the time.

And I still think there's something very valuable in kind of recounting your day.

And that's the first thing I say in my prayer or whatever it is, in my affirmation is, I did my best today.

I will do better tomorrow.

Because what's the point?

If you don't want to do better tomorrow, what's the point?

What's the point?

And I think, oh, I did this really cool today.

Maybe I can hit.

If you're like shooting baskets, okay, and you're getting like, you know, you're getting them all in.

Keep doing it better, you know, and anything like that.

Something that creates a higher level of self-esteem, skill, affirmation, anything like that.

And that I can do better tomorrow is always exciting to me.

Yeah.

I'm excited.

Totally agree.

And then I might go through a little bit, and then it depends on how tired I am.

I'm usually ready for bed.

And I'll just say, I am grateful.

I am thankful.

I am content.

I am happy.

You can go amen or you can go nothing.

You can do whatever you want.

There's no rules.

It's whatever strikes us as individuals is important.

But I think that I did my best today.

I can do that.

I will do better tomorrow.

I think that's crucial.

It is.

And I'll tell you, again, once I read this and then I saw a few of your videos that were kind of talking about this as well.

You actually have to believe it too, right?

Gratitude.

Yeah.

But don't say things just to say things, like have conviction around that gratitude.

And like I said, Eric, I owe you because now it is a part of my nightly routine.

It really is.

I'll tell you an embarrassing tidbit real quick off the, I went to my high school reunion last year and I was one of those kids.

I was a good kid.

And the kids that came, the guys, the kids, the adults that came, the older adults that came to my reunion, they were like the core group of friends that I had back then.

That was like the cheerleaders and the class president and all the good, all the kids that participated very good kids they're all grown up now and one of them she said to me she says i just i remember you as being very earnest

and i thought well that's probably that at that age at a young age i would have been embarrassed by that and then for at this age i'm just like oh that that that is so awesome to hear that because i never i've never changed yeah you know and i was honest i mean like i was in earnest that's embarrassing you know i was like i said you know i see i said you should get to know me better now because now it's an all

all another world going on.

So

that's how I feel.

And I also,

I know you're on your questions, but in the morning, what's the first thing

we should do as we wake up?

Be thankful that we saw this day.

Right.

But I always say, I always say, and I did this.

I used to have another

Instagram called Redefining 50 when I was turning 50.

And a lot of people followed that.

And some people were like, I give my employees this.

I want them to listen to what you're saying.

You know, it's motivational.

And I started this thing.

I heard, I picked it up somewhere.

As soon as I wake up, I don't care where I am or what I'm doing.

I say, good morning, Eric.

It's going to be a great day.

That's all I have to say.

I like it.

Can you believe it?

One time

it was during COVID and I skipped it.

And I was traveling to,

I was traveling to Arizona and I was at the airport.

And everything was going wrong.

And it was just a big mess.

And usually I have a really happy journey.

Usually when I go anywhere, I'm happy.

Everything's wonderful.

nothing gets in my way, everything's fun.

And this morning, everything was kind of like dark.

And then I was going up into the elevator to the, to get coffee and the place that was closed.

I said to myself, oh my God, I didn't say that.

I didn't give my affirmation this morning.

That's the reason everything is terrible.

Okay.

Dramatic.

And then I did it.

And I was

by myself in this

mirrored elevator.

And I'm looking at myself and I'm like, hey, Eric, it's going to be a great day.

After that, everything went really well.

So it's just voodoo.

it's whatever you want to call it, but I think it's the mindset.

There you go.

Mindset.

It's a mindset that, and people would tell me

a three-year-old can do this as well as a 60, 70-year-old.

It can be any age, but for people, I've had a lot of really high-level folks, people, high-level people that do amazing things that have told me.

And you would think, oh, they're just too jaded to do anything like that, right?

Well, they do it.

And then I hear, oh, you wouldn't believe how awesome my life has been.

Yeah, I do believe it because I believe in it, you know, but I love hearing that because I think, okay, they might, even if they forget about me, they're still going to spread that.

They're still going to share that with others.

And that's going to help more people.

So

that's really good stuff.

Really good stuff.

I go rambling off, but I think those are important things to get to know what my real intention is.

Of course.

Of course.

And that's why we're doing this.

This is, this is your show.

This is, this is what it's about.

All right.

So let's go through the other four.

So we have a personal.

I won't digress.

I'll keep going.

No, no, no.

good.

So, number one was express gratitude before rest at night.

Number two, and this one is deep: always express desires and intentions verbally with someone you trust.

What's the meaning behind that one?

Do we want our life to happen or do we not want it to happen?

If we want it to happen, we have to be proud of it.

We have to be proud of our decisions and our choices, and we have to own it.

We have to own it.

And by owning it, I mean, I don't want to have like this idea of accountability.

I mean, this is now something that belongs to us.

This is our dreams.

This is our destiny.

So, sharing that with someone that you trust,

I didn't just become the happiest warrior all by myself.

There's so many people that I've sort of come along with me in my journey over the years that would do anything for me.

It's another thing that I don't deserve that, but I think if I have to make it honorable, I want to make sure I can give value.

So it's just balance.

It's balance.

I love it.

I love it.

All right.

Number three, be always at work on something that provides value.

Love it.

To me, that's one of the best nuggets of wisdom that I've heard in a while.

Always be working on something that provides value.

There is always something that we can be doing to improve our mindset, make ourselves happier, take our mind off something that's negative and turn it around.

And I think that it really comes down to what am I doing with my time right now?

I mean, we need to take time off.

I'm a big believer in time off, and I'm a a big believer in being outside and tuning out and tuning out of our phones and everything.

But I think that having something that gives us pleasure too, and something that makes us feel like we're part of something, that we're creating something.

And there's so many things.

There's no definition of what that is.

It's just the definition that we find within ourselves.

And for me, it's coming from my aunts.

It's that I want to,

I'm the happiest wear.

Their happiness wears.

It's just,

maybe I'm the one in the family who's carrying that along you know that that's my right now in my time in life right at the present that's who i am love it

probably happiness wears say my name i don't care

that is it that is it all right number four number four is absolutely my favorite and it's something that i work on a couple of times a year number four nurture key relationships and let others go and so i say this a little bit differently i say always work on your circle your circle of friends

but nurture key relationships.

And most important, you got to be able and willing to let others go.

So powerful because when you talk about happiness, and Eric, I say this a lot.

Everyone that you think is for you isn't always for you.

Yes.

Right.

When you talk about happiness, there are some people in this world whose main objective is to bring up all the obstacles in life.

There are people in this world who are just negative by nature.

And the more that you have, and you have this in the blog, the negative vocabulary around you, the negative mindsets around you, it starts to penetrate into you, whether you want it to or not.

And so I love number four, nurture key relationships.

Most importantly, let others go.

So Eric, I love your two-minute take on that.

I have such a place in my life for friendship.

It's a very important part of who I am.

And it's not about having, I have friends everywhere, but I mean, there's friends that I've had for maybe a short time that have become very important, but a lot of it with me are long-term, deep friendships that don't, we don't see each other all the time.

But I call those my friends for life, and I always tell them, you're my friend for life.

You know, you're my friend for life, no matter what.

You know, and if we, you're in my one best friend halfway across the world for five years, but we're still walking the door, they're best friends again.

You know what I mean?

There's not going to be,

I'm still, I'm still solid with that friendship.

There are other, I've also found that there are, like you just said, there are people who hurt people, hurt other people.

Hurt other people.

So you got to think about, and having a, having a, anyone who's gone through a rebuild in their life or a renewal in their life knows that we have to man, we have to, if we want to get out of our funk or whatever,

or our trauma, we have to be around.

We have to say no to negative people.

We have to say no to people that are gossiping or saying things about people or people,

anything where they're, we have to be around positive people that are happy.

And they're there.

You can find them.

You know, they're always there.

And that's the key.

Go to those places because if there's situations, if there's places that always bring negativity to you, stop going there.

Yeah.

Right.

It is totally okay to be in control of your surroundings and your situations as adults.

It is totally okay to stop negativity from creeping in.

I felt the same way with business too.

I think it just overlays everything in our lives.

And I think it's important with family.

I think no one can hurt you more than family.

No one can hurt us more than our family members, I think, because they can dig deep.

It's important to be forgiving too.

I mean, I think in realizing that there are people, I might be angry at them, but I think it's important to realize that we don't get a lot of second chances in life, right?

That's right.

Some things are very finite.

And once you cross that line, you're done.

And that's why I'm big on, that's why I'm really big on the words have spirit.

Words have spirit because words never go away.

And so, and words are beautiful.

I find so much pleasure in writing words.

My thoughts come out of my head so fast when I'm creating a new column.

I'm not even sure who actually writes it.

It just comes out of my head, comes out of my hand on the keyboard.

And I look at that as a gift.

It's a gift, not that I have, it's a gift that's been given to me.

I feel like if I don't use it, I will lose it, but I'm also, I'm using it because it really, I find that it really helps me to have more clarity, maintain more clarity, and identify what people need to hear.

So I go through phases where I'm thinking a lot about self, I do a lot, almost everything is self-empowerment.

I want people to feel self-empower.

Absolutely.

And I want people to feel that they have everything that I have.

Okay.

And I want to be,

I want to always have that kind of idea that no one's better than anyone else.

I don't think that's ever true.

Be kind.

Be kind.

Nice is fine, but kind is actually taking

that feeling that you do care about someone else, you know, and we do care about other people and that they, and that can change someone's entire life.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Totally.

All right.

Number five.

Okay, We'll get there.

Dang it, Eric.

You wrote number five for me.

Take care of your bodies and minds as if your life depends on it, because honestly, it does.

And so I made 2024 my year to get back into better shape.

You know, I don't make excuses, so I'll just say I took advantage of COVID.

How about that?

I took advantage of that.

I have some really, I don't have a diet for your plan for you, but I have a couple of really good tips for almost anyone.

Okay.

All right.

Let's get these tips now.

We need them.

It's, I'm going to do the first book will be a reference book kind of thing, but my books, the future will be Happiest Warrior, it's a Guide to Love, the Happiest Warrior's Guide to Your Body, okay?

And not science so much, all science is, it's solid, factual stuff, but I'm coming to, as a regular person, trying to help someone else, you know, on their journey without feeling bad about them.

And my biggest thing is I don't want anyone to ever feel bad about themselves, okay?

You can't start anything good if you're feeling like you're already fighting yourself and you're under defensive.

So I want everybody to feel like happy playing a field where it's just about learning about themselves.

So for food, and I think everything we eat has a purpose.

Today, I want to have a really good brain feed.

I want to be on, I want my brain to be on fire, not on caffeine.

So I had some canned salmon,

I made some brain food.

And I just had something light that kept me some good protein, good energy, a little whole wheat bread.

And that to me was

perfect because I had the protein, but I wasn't feeling heavy from a hammer or something like that.

I'm subconsciously feeding my brain.

I'm

feeding my brain mostly.

I want to stay sharp and focus.

And then one of the rules that I have, which is not always so easy to do, is that everything that every time we have, even if it's a snack,

some snacks are not so bad.

Every meal, every major meal

should have

something from the produce family.

Okay.

So breakfast, have some fruit of some sort.

Don't have fruit juice because that's high in sugar.

Just have raw fruit.

I do frozen blueberries, which are easy and much cheaper.

And

that's also brain food because that's after I have my little breakfast I have, I'm going to write.

I'm going to close out the

do little emails and a little bit of work and get everything set up for the day.

And then I'm going to shut that side down.

I'm going to write for an hour.

And I need my brain to be under my control.

You know, I need to have things under control.

I need to have, you know, everything be on track.

And then I say every meal,

what we do in our house is we have, I like preparing my own food most of the time.

So we have a big salad before every meal and eat that first.

Because when you have that fiber and the greens inside of you, you're fuller.

And you're also going to accept the food that's coming on top of it now.

It's going to be better, easier to digest, too.

So you're not going to eat as much, but you're going to feel full and you're going to feel satisfied and you're going to feel energized from food that way.

It's pretty easy stuff.

And the other thing I have, this is my big one for me, water, black coffee whole organic milk not very much if you want to have any kind of milk whole organic milk a small amount if you young and eat it every day and but water black coffee tea or something like that anything else all beverages no sweet beverages put that way so i need to throw the oat milk away that i just bought here you can do that i i that's that's that's also dietary too so that's not a point but for me that's how i am i'm very like has to be the cleanest best stuff and that's all i will drink mostly i drink water coffee i drink coffee during the day and um but that way you're a lot of people get a lot of sneaky calories and from things that they drink i believe it i love i love it all i love all that stuff but i have to say to myself you know it's i i have i want to be the good example for you okay and

you can count on that's gonna not kick your butt but it's gonna be like on your side you know i don't like the idea you're a coach and you gotta hurt somebody i like the idea that you go okay well you know how do you feel about doing this how do you feel today is this is this making a difference is this positive thing for you?

If it's not working,

there's another way.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

And also, my whole day is never give up, especially on yourself.

There you go.

I love that.

All right, Eric, I'm getting you out of here on this.

What's one thing you want listeners to do right now?

What's your biggest key to happiness?

Well, I really would like to have everyone reading me every week.

Okay.

I'd like to have people start to really

talk to me and get back to me.

And I have a new website.

It's beautiful.

It's www.thwarrior.com.

So it stands for the happiness warrior, thwarrior.com.

Get in there.

I'm going to get some new pictures pretty soon.

I did a new photo shoot with a really cool guy there today.

And I'm just trying to keep it.

All my articles are on there, too.

So you can get into the issue wire file in there.

And I'm just trying to build an audience that we can start to say, hey, do you want me to come and speak for your event?

I'd love to go speak for your event and set something up that

a speaker that you've never had before, like like you've never had before, because I'm not going to do it in the scripted kind of way that is done.

There you go.

I'm going to take it, I'm going to mold this.

Anything I do, I'm going to kind of mold it in the way I want it to be.

So everyone's having fun and

learning and serious too.

I think I'm always serious too.

I'm a very serious person.

I like to laugh, but I'm very serious too.

So

awesome stuff.

So TH Warrior.

Warrior.com.

T-H.

Warrior.com.

And you can also find Eric on Facebook, on Instagram.

He has a ton of articles.

He has a ton of videos.

I promise you, you will not regret it.

You will.

On Instagram, I have everything as well, Mick.

And I have, it's called The Happiness Warrior Official.

Yep.

So that is, that's, that's where all my, all my, a lot of, a lot of my videos, all my videos and things are too.

So, and that's what I follow, the happiness warrior official on Instagram.

That's what I follow.

I follow YouTube there.

So I promise you, you will not be disappointed.

You can find daily inspiration, daily motivation.

You will find, I promise you, something every day from Eric.

And it'll put a smile on your face and a smile in your heart as well.

And Eric, that's what I appreciate the most about you, brother.

Oh, I can't tell.

I have so many things I appreciate about you as well, Mick.

And also, just thank you for having me on your show.

This is your personal show, and it means a lot to me.

It means more than anything to me.

So it means the world that you're here.

It means the world that you're here.

And we're definitely going to do this again.

So I could see us having a happiness warrior series that we do on the podcast.

I think we should do that for the people.

It'll be the happiness warrior duo, okay?

There you go.

I love it.

All the listeners out there, remember, you're because is your superpower.

I'm we should.

Thanks for listening to Mick Unplugged.

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