What Wrestling Taught Me About Pain, Purpose & Pushing Through | #Success - Ep. 21

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Speaker 2 This is the Russell Brunson show.

Speaker 2 What's up, everybody? This is Russell Brunson. Welcome back to the show.
Excited to be hanging out with you guys today.

Speaker 2 And this is like an old school show. For those who are newer to the podcast, you probably don't know this, but the podcast has taken a couple of different changes over the years.

Speaker 2 When I first launched, it was called the Marketing Your Car podcast.

Speaker 2 Then it shifted to the Marketing Secrets podcast. Now it's just the Russell Brunson show because I'm talking about all sorts of stuff, not just marketing, all the fun things.

Speaker 2 But when I first started the podcast, I literally would, I had a four-minute commute from my house to the office every day, and I would hold my phone up to my mouth like I'm doing right now, and I would talk while I was driving.

Speaker 2 Anyway, today,

Speaker 2 I have a 30-minute commute to the doctor, and so I thought I would jump on and record an episode to you right now while we're hanging out in traffic, like the good old days.

Speaker 6 So,

Speaker 2 and just to give you context, so

Speaker 2 the time I'm recording this right now,

Speaker 2 last in the last 30 days, my life's been a little crazy. My life's always a little crazy, as you know, But

Speaker 2 twice a year, or sorry, once a year, I basically

Speaker 2 try to get back in shape and relive my glory days by going out and wrestling. And there's a tournament every single year for

Speaker 2 basically all age groups, all the up to veterans, which are like the really old, like 70, 80-year-old guys who wrestle in this tournament.

Speaker 2 And it's funny because I remember when I was wrestling in college, I remember going to an open tournament, and there were these guys that were like in their 70s wrestling.

Speaker 2 And I was like, that's so cool. And I forgot about it.
And for almost 20 years, I didn't wrestle.

Speaker 2 I was just

Speaker 2 doing my thing, doing my business. And then

Speaker 2 when I moved into our house I'm in now about 10 years ago, a half 10 years ago, I built a wrestling room. And so I just built it to be able to wrestle.

Speaker 2 And it's like by a bunch of my friends over, we started wrestling. And it was just kind of fun.
Like we get together three or four times a year and beat each other up.

Speaker 2 It was just like, ah, reliving the glory days was so great. And then

Speaker 2 after

Speaker 2 one time, one of my, one of the wrestling guys was the wrestling, he came one day. He's like, yeah, competing in tournament this weekend.
I'm like, what?

Speaker 2 He's like, yeah, there's a tournament every year. I went and wrestled it.
I'm like, why didn't you tell me? And so the next year, I was like, I'm going to go wrestle in this tournament. So

Speaker 2 I remember we start, I was going to, I was going to try to get in shape,

Speaker 2 but ran out of time. And so the week before the tournament, we started working out.
And then my very first practice, it was like Monday morning.

Speaker 2 We got to, we had a practice to get prepared for the tournament that weekend.

Speaker 2 And the very first practice, I tore my neck and like could barely walk and had a chiropractor coming over like every single day, try to put me back together, but like, I couldn't, it hurt so bad.

Speaker 2 And so I literally had half of a practice before we went to this tournament, showed the tournament. I'm on sore as can be.
And there's two styles. There's two Olympic styles.

Speaker 2 There's a freestyle and a Greco.

Speaker 6 And so

Speaker 2 I went and

Speaker 2 anyway, did the freestyle tournament. Or sorry, it was Greco first.
And I can't remember.

Speaker 2 I think I took third place in that tournament with a stiff neck. And then I did freestyle.
And I think I took second,

Speaker 2 second, or something like that. But anyway, I placed it at both the tournaments.

Speaker 2 And I had so much fun. But there's a moment that was like really cool.
And I remember what happened is we were warming up before, and there was this old guy came over to me.

Speaker 2 It was Tony, I think, from London. And he's probably

Speaker 2 70 to 80 years old, somewhere in that window, right? Older guy. And he came up and we were warming up.
He walked over and he's just wearing like a wrestling singlet and knee pads. He's an old guy.

Speaker 2 And like, you know, we're nowadays, like, we don't want to walk around in our singlets. We're all wearing shorts and t-shirts and there's singlet underneath, but like, we're not just walking around.

Speaker 2 This guy's walking around it with his knee pads on. He walks over and he's like, hey, you want to wrestle? I was like,

Speaker 2 fuck, I guess. And so I was like, cool.
He's like, I've had two knees and two hips replaced. So just don't shoot on me.
And I was like, what? Like, wrestling is all about shooting on people.

Speaker 2 So anyway, so we warmed up and we drilled together. And it was just so funny.
And then I remember watching him and he went out there and he won one or two matches.

Speaker 2 And I was like, okay, if this dude who's in his 70s, who's got double knee replacements, double hip replacements, is still competing at this age, I'm like, I'm making a commitment to myself right now.

Speaker 2 I'm going to do this every single year till I die. And so that was kind of the, that was the, the promise myself, right? And so I did that year to the next year.
And then COVID year hit.

Speaker 2 And so we, during that year, we went in

Speaker 2 actually down Florida, which was usually these are in Vegas. This one's in Florida.
There was a beach wrestling tournament we got to do, which was like insanely cool. So we're wrestling on the beach.

Speaker 2 And then they had the regular tournament. And this tournament, there was this old guy and

Speaker 2 he was terminal. In fact, if you watch my YouTube channel from McDowell, we did a whole vlog about it.
He's a, he was a judge and he'd never wrestled his whole life.

Speaker 2 But for some reason, like 10 years earlier, he decided he wanted to become a wrestler. And

Speaker 2 he told, and anyway, I pulled him apart because I wanted to interview him a little bit.

Speaker 2 He said that, you know, he's like, he's like, when I was a, as a judge, he's like, it's tough because he's like, there's people that love me or they hate me.

Speaker 2 And there's, there's always this, this politics and these things. Like, my shoulder as a, as a wrestler, he's like, I'm a wrestler.
He's like, there's like, there's no judging.

Speaker 2 He's like, I'm part of a community. And like, that's why I'm here.
And he was not good. And like, he'd walk out on crutches and then he'd put the crutches down.
He'd hobble out in the middle.

Speaker 2 He'd start wrestling.

Speaker 2 And so we watched these matches. It was just like crazy watching this old guy do it.
And I remember at the end of it, over the speaker, they made an announcement.

Speaker 2 And basically, and somebody hasn't heard me tell the story before, but in wrestling, when you retire,

Speaker 2 if you're good, I mean, not for most people, but you retire, you take your shoes off, and you leave them on the side of that.

Speaker 2 So Funnel Hacking Live this year, by the way, that's something that I did is that when the event ended, me and Todd

Speaker 2 took off our shoes and we had Dave Woodward's shoes and we left them on the stage and we walked off stage to kind of symbolize like the ending of an era.

Speaker 2 But at this wrestling tournament, they announced of a speaker that this judge has said he has a terminal illness and this was his last time having a chance to wrestle.

Speaker 2 And I remember he took his shoes off and let it onside the mat and everyone clapped for him. And I was like, oh man, I'm looking at this guy who had never wrestled till 10 years prior.
He's in his

Speaker 2 70s and he just wanted to wrestle. You know, like it wasn't even something he was doing his whole life.
He just wanted to be a wrestler and he

Speaker 2 and he was dying all the way till, you know, till the end.

Speaker 2 Anyway, so for me, it's like kind of recommitted. Like, this is something I do every single year till I die.

Speaker 2 It's been fun, like, since I've been doing this, I've had a lot of people message me who are like, oh, like, I used to do karate when I was a kid. Now I'm doing karate again.

Speaker 2 Or I used to do this when I was a kid. Now, because

Speaker 2 you're chasing these dreams of yours, I'm doing it as well. So one of my main goals of sharing any of this is just to hopefully,

Speaker 2 for most of you guys, to think back, like when you were a kid, what was the thing that brought you the most happiness? For me, 100%, it was wrestling, right?

Speaker 2 And then we get done wrestling, our career ends, and we stop doing it.

Speaker 2 And I think other sports are probably better, you know, like I have friends who played basketball and they still go find pick up games here and there and stuff, you know, but in wrestling, it's hard.

Speaker 2 There's not really stuff happening other than jiu-jitsu. Jiu-Jitsu is like the drug for, you know, for wrestlers to get to do something similar.
So jiu-jitsu is a big one out there.

Speaker 2 But anyway, I'm hoping that by sharing some of these stories and gets you guys to figure out like, what was the thing that you loved when you were a kid that...

Speaker 2 that was like that meant the most in the world. Like, go start doing that thing again.
Go

Speaker 2 into a wrestling tournament. Go play soccer.
Go um, go act in a play, like whatever your thing is, because like, man, I can't tell you how much life and excitement it brings.

Speaker 2 So for me, it's like once a year, I have this thing and it's like, I've, you know, for me to compete, I gotta, I have to get back in shape, I gotta wrestle, I gotta get my cardio up, I get my strength training back up, uh, but it means the world to me.

Speaker 2 Like it's, it, it's the best, right?

Speaker 2 Um, and so this year was interesting because

Speaker 2 there, uh, so there's freestyle and grack or Olympic styles, but there's a third style, which is, um, you know, we call it like collegiate style or folk style, which is the only style that we wrestle here in America.

Speaker 2 And so I was so excited because I wanted to, there's, there's every single year they have it, but it's like during spring break. So every year I'm with my family on a cruise ship.

Speaker 2 It's like, I can't do it, right? Because the cruise ship leaves at a certain time and you just can't make it.

Speaker 2 And so this year, our family decided for spring break not to go on a cruise, but just to go on a vacation.

Speaker 2 And so I was like, wait, based on that, I don't have to be at the vacation spot, like, right would happen.

Speaker 2 So I told Claire, I'm like, okay, you're going to take the kids to Hawaii and then I'm going to go wrestle and I'll fly there a day late.

Speaker 2 I think she was a little annoyed with me because, you know, yeah,

Speaker 2 especially this year's first spring break where our twins, Dallin and Bowen, weren't with us. Like Dallin was home working.
Bowen's on a mission. So it was already like a smaller family anyway.

Speaker 2 But I told Claire, I'm like, I want to do this. I need to wrestle in this tournament.
Like it's a collegiate style which I'm better at that style than the other ones. I'm so excited to go.

Speaker 2 And so anyway, long story short, I'm preparing for this tournament. I start wrestling and things went well.
I'm like, I'm doing well. I'm getting back in shape.

Speaker 2 And then this Sunday, it was March 2nd, I believe. So it's like two weeks before, I was out cleaning up the the resting room, getting ready to like turn on.

Speaker 2 We're going to be doing like, you know, at least one, maybe two practices a day getting ready for the tournament.

Speaker 2 And I had this big tire, like it's a big tire that you can flip and you can, you know, hit. And it's, it's a, it's a really big tire.
Like it's hard for me to lift.

Speaker 2 In fact, it usually takes two people to actually be able to lift the tire and flip it. But I was cleaning the resting room.
I was like, I wanted to move the tire.

Speaker 2 So I went to the lift to try to pick it up. I'm like, I can't pick it up.
I'm going to hurt my back. And so I didn't.
And then a few minutes later, I'm like, I'm going to move it.

Speaker 2 So I walked over and I started lifting it again. And what's crazy is I had, I had

Speaker 2 like my noise canceling headphones on so that

Speaker 2 because I was listening to the music and stuff. And so I couldn't hear anything in the room.
And so I started lifting it. And as I'm lifting the tire, I get underneath it.

Speaker 2 I had both my hands underneath it. And all of a sudden I hear a pop in my left forearm, like a, like, like I could hear it through the noise canceling.
It's like, pop. And I'm like, what the crap?

Speaker 2 I'm like, what was that? And I'm like, oh, well, and it's like you got to kind of readjust, start lifting in and it pops again. And I was like, oh, no.
So I dropped the tire.

Speaker 2 I looked down at my arm and my arm looks like it's broken. Like it's, it does not look good.

Speaker 2 And I try to like, i'm like like what's wrong with that i tried to pick something up i couldn't pick anything up i'm like oh no so i called one of my friends tyo gada who lives in the neighbor next to me he's like he's a chiropractor he's awesome and he raced over and he's like dude your ulna popped out of your elbow or whatever or something like that and so he goes and he snaps it back in oh and it was hurt um but then like the muscles looked weird my arm looked deformed i was like what's happening it's like he's like your muscles all freaking out because you know the bone moved and so He spent like an hour like massaging my form to get it back to like, so it looked like a normal arm.

Speaker 2 And then I started doing some some basic pressure. I pressured my hand over, up, and then as soon as I put some pressure up, my ulna popped out again.
And I'm like, oh, no.

Speaker 2 So I got to reset it back in there. And I was like, dang it.
And so Chloe was so happy. She's like, all right, you know, cancel wrestling.
You're going to come.

Speaker 2 And I'm like, like, like, don't cancel it yet. Cause like, maybe there's a way we can heal.
And so then in true Russell Brunson fashion, I was like, all right. How do we solve this problem?

Speaker 2 There's got to be a way. So I'm calling everyone I know, trying to figure out the right things, right? So the guy who does my Doug Grand, who does my blood work and does my supplements, I tell him.

Speaker 2 So he's like, okay, there's this, these peptides, it's called the Wolverine Protocol. And so he ships me out, overnights me, these peptides, they're supposed to make me heal super fast.

Speaker 2 So twice a day, I'm giving myself peptide shots directly into my arm, right? I'm doing all sorts of stuff, try to get this thing healed as fast as I can. And

Speaker 2 it just hurts. Every time I try to do anything, it hurts.
And so I was about to spot where I was going to give up. And then.
Ty, my chiropractor, came over. He's like, I have an idea.

Speaker 2 So we went and he taped my wrist really, really tight on that side. He taped about three inches deep on my wrist.
And by taping it, it kept the two bones together closer.

Speaker 2 And so I could actually move my wrist. I'm like, oh my gosh, like it still hurts, but not like, I think I could actually wrestle this way.
And so I was like, okay, I'm going to test tomorrow morning.

Speaker 2 I called Mike Vambrill, who's my, one of my wrestling partners. I was like, hey, come out tomorrow.
Let's wrestle. I'm going to see if I do it.
So he came out the next morning and I wrestled.

Speaker 2 And yeah, it hurts a lot. But I was able to, I was able to do a whole wrestling practice.
I'm like, okay, I'm back in. Told my wife, I was like, sorry, Colette, I'm going to go wrestle.

Speaker 2 She's like, what? You like, you literally dislocated your arm like two days ago. I'm like, I know, but I'm going to do it anyway.
And so I committed to doing it again, right?

Speaker 2 At this point, some of you guys are like, Wrestle's insane.

Speaker 2 And I remember I posted on social something because everyone's like, oh, sorry, you're going to miss your wrestling. And I was like, I don't think you guys understand.

Speaker 2 I was like, if I was missing a leg, I would still go to wrestling. This has nothing to do with like, oh, I'm healthier.
Am I healthy?

Speaker 2 Like, this is something I committed to that I'm going to do every year till I die. Like, I'm going to this tournament.

Speaker 2 And so that was kind of planned. So then fast forward now, a couple of days.
Now it's like, okay, now, as I get close to the tournament, there's two weight classes.

Speaker 2 And in old guy wrestling, the weight classes are a bigger gap, right? When you're competing as a younger guy, like every eight to 10 pounds, there's a different weight class.

Speaker 2 So you're kind of in there. But with my age group, there's like a

Speaker 2 there's like a 20 pound gap.

Speaker 2 So like there's one, it's in kilos, but if you're, if you were to put it into like pounds, there's like 194 pound weight class, which is what I know I would normally weigh about.

Speaker 2 And then there's one down below, which is 172, which is a huge gap, right? That's like a 22 pound gap. But the problem is everyone's cutting weight.

Speaker 2 So if I wrestle 194, I'm going to be wrestling with people who are cutting down from 220. If I wrestle 172, I'm wrestling people my same size.

Speaker 2 And so I'm like, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to cut down weight for this. And so I decided and committed to actually cutting weight.

Speaker 2 And so that was kind of the game plan.

Speaker 2 And so I got to lose, you know, I've come down from, I was actually 195 pounds on Sunday. And I'd weigh in that Friday, which I'd weigh 171.9 technically.

Speaker 2 So yeah, that's a lot of weight. weight.
It's 20, what, 23 pounds? And so, I started the weight cut.

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Speaker 2 So first we at my house before we left, we were cutting weight. So putting on plastics, you know, cranking the heat of the wrestling up to 90, whatever degrees, and I'm wrestling like crazy, right?

Speaker 2 It's like that was the first pass at it, right?

Speaker 2 And so we lost five or six pounds from there. And then I did the next thing.
And then we flew out to Iowa where the tournament's at.

Speaker 2 And then the night before, we put our plastics, went out there, started wrestling again to lose some weight. And in that wrestling practice, I'm wrestling and my arm's hurting a little bit.

Speaker 2 But in one of our scrambles, Mike is spinning around to get behind me to get points. And I went and lifted my right arm, so the other arm to kind of block him.

Speaker 2 And as I do that, it like he's spinning behind and it pops my other, my right forearm. I was like, what the heck? So now I've got my left elbow thing jacked up.

Speaker 2 My right forearm's hurting so bad, but I'm still cutting weight, right? So we get down that night, I go in, I'm like 13 pounds over. I'm like, okay, 13 pounds, weighs her tomorrow.

Speaker 2 And normally one of the ways we cut weight is we fill the bathtub up with like scolding hot water and you sit in it and it makes you lose a lot of weight.

Speaker 2 You can lose like two or three pounds every 15 minutes. And so I'm like, okay, here's the plan.
So we go that, we got an Airbnb. We

Speaker 2 filled up the bathtub with water. And two things happened.
Number one, the hot water heater does not have enough hot water to fill the bathtub. So it's like halfway filled.
I get in.

Speaker 2 I'm like, it's not covering my whole body. And number two is the bathtub is draining.
So within like two minutes of me getting in, the bathtub's half empty and I'm not covering water.

Speaker 2 I'm like, oh no, this is my, this is my catch-all to be able to lose weight. And now I can't do it.

Speaker 2 And so,

Speaker 2 yeah. So, and again, some of you guys are like, Russell, I thought this was a podcast about marketing or sales.

Speaker 2 Like, yeah, some days, but today is about, about you doing what it takes for you to go live the life you want to live.

Speaker 2 So there, there's the theme for today is we're going to go, because this is all I want to do, right? I want to go wrestle. I want to go compete.

Speaker 2 Anyway, so

Speaker 2 so we go to bed that night I'm still 13 awake in the morning I'm 12 over and I'm like okay what am I gonna do I lose 12 pounds the next like 12 hours and so uh we went and we started looking for saunas we go to this first place we find a sauna they let us go in there and um you know I'm like hey I'm like we have like two hours in here they're like no you know you're capped at one session a day and each session is 40 minutes.

Speaker 2 So like, okay, so we go in there for the first sauna session. We do 40 minutes,

Speaker 2 come back out, go check our weight. I lost three pounds.
Like now I'm nine over. I'm like, okay, that's enough.
So we find a different sauna place. This place had like saunas with bikes in the saunas.

Speaker 2 So we go there, throw in the plastics, red bikes for an hour straight, come out, lost four pounds. Now I'm within five pounds, right?

Speaker 2 So then we go back, we need another sauna to find another place that's a sauna, but they also have a cryo, um, a cryotherapy chamber.

Speaker 2 And so we went there, got cryotherapy, froze it off just because not to lose weight, but just because it felt good. We were so beat up at this time, hadn't drinking anything in like two or three days.

Speaker 2 Um,

Speaker 2 completely dehydrated. So we go do cryosauna, go back home, check our weight.
It's still, I can't remember, four or five pounds over.

Speaker 2 So we go back, do that sauna session, get down to like right on weight, go back, check my weight at the

Speaker 2 hotel. I'm right on.
So let me race over to the place to go do our weigh-ins. I get the weigh-ins.
And the way weigh-ins work is there's an hour for weigh-ins, right?

Speaker 2 But as soon as you step on the scale, like, like, like, that's your time. You can't go and like leave afterwards.
So I go get in line, get on the scale. Again, at the hotel, I checked.

Speaker 2 I was right, right on weight.

Speaker 2 I get on scale, and every scale is a little different so i get on scale and they're they're like you're 0.2 pounds over and i'm like what and he's like yeah sorry and he's like you you have two challenges if you want you can challenge but like you can't leave that you can't go lose any one more weight like you're done um

Speaker 2 and so i'm like yes let's do the other check scale so we go out to this other check scale i check on that one i'm still i'm 0.1 over on that one And I'm like, if I don't do this, I have to wrestle 194.

Speaker 2 I just lost 25 pounds in the last five days.

Speaker 2 It was all for nothing. And I'm like almost in tears, which would have been nice if I could cry.
I could lose some weight. But unfortunately, I completely dehydrated my body.
So I had no tears left.

Speaker 2 So I'm kind of freaking out.

Speaker 2 You get on the last scale. I jump on and sure enough, I'm at 78 kilos exactly.
I jump off and he's like, they count. So I'm like, oh, my gosh.
And so we do that. We go back.

Speaker 2 And then again, this is not like weight cutting, like smart weight cutting where you're like losing calories. This is just purely

Speaker 2 you're dehydrating your body, right? So a gallon of water weighs eight pounds. So basically, it was three gallons of water I had to suck out of my body to lose the weight, weight.
Right.

Speaker 2 And so you're so dehydrated. And like, it's funny.
I looked, my abs looked awesome. Like you could actually see I had a six pack and I had like no love handles.
It was amazing.

Speaker 2 But my face is like sunken in. My eyes are sunken in.
Like there's, it's just dehydrating your body. So you get done and you start drinking like crazy.

Speaker 2 But it actually hurts to drink because you haven't drinking or eaten anything. So I'm just drinking as much as I can, as fast as I can.

Speaker 2 And then the place that we'd gone into the cryotherapy, they also do IV drips. And so we went over back to there and we did an IV drip, rehydrated through IVs and then water.

Speaker 2 And what's crazy, that night we got back and I had already gained 14 pounds of water weight by the time we got back to our hotels that night.

Speaker 2 So all the water we'd sucked out in the previous 24 hours was back just by drinking and doing the IV drip. But anyway, so that's what got me to the spot, right?

Speaker 2 And I'm like, a lot of you guys are like, Russell, why would you do this? Like, this seems insane. This is like torture.
And the answer is, and the reality is, yes, it is torture. It is insane.

Speaker 2 But also, like, I don't know, like, for me as a wrestler who used to do this every single week for a decade of my life, like, it was so much fun.

Speaker 2 It was, it was like making me feel alive again to like go through the pressure and the pain and the sweating and the cutting weight and the deprivation and all this stuff, all to like, to be able to have the opportunity to compete.

Speaker 2 It was just, oh, anyway, yeah, it was horrible and amazing at the same time. So then we fast forward the next day.
We go to the tournament to wrestle. I strap up my arm.

Speaker 2 I'm so excited because we're doing collegiate style, which means I can do my favorite moves like a cheap tilt and leg rides, which you can't do in freestyle and Greco.

Speaker 2 My first match, I go out there wrestling. I get the guy to cheap tilt, my favorite move, I turn him, and he starts spazzing out.

Speaker 2 And as soon as he does, he's like jumping, he's kicking back and forth, and I feel my arm pop. The ulna pops out again.
I was like, oh, crap. I heard it, felt it.

Speaker 2 And literally, I can't even move my left arm. Mike, that's how bad it was.
And so I finish that match. I lose the match.
I'm trying to like reset the arm myself and it just, it hurts so bad.

Speaker 2 And they call me for my second match. I go out there wrestling guy.
I'm doing really, really well against him. Um, I get on top, same day.
I'm trying to cheap tilt him, and it just hurts so bad.

Speaker 2 And then we get back on our feet, and he locks it up in this weird throw and throws me right on that arm again. And so, my left arm is just destroyed.

Speaker 2 I can't flex, there's no bicep, it's all like bruised. It just looked horrible.
And so, I lost two matches. Means usually you're two and out, and I was just like, Man, that sucks.
Oh,

Speaker 2 I lost both matches, and my left arm now is completely jagged. I can't flex my bicep, it's swollen, It looks bad.

Speaker 2 And so we're getting ready. Like,

Speaker 2 you know, I'm about to leave the tournament. All of a sudden, I hear him call my name again.
I'm like, what? And run over, like, yeah, you're up again. I'm like,

Speaker 2 okay. And so I already

Speaker 2 like had like undone my, my wrist wrap, everything. So I go back.
I rewrapped my wrist. So I'm running out there to wrestle.
I save you guys' hand. We start wrestling.
And

Speaker 2 I shoot a shot on this guy with my right hand. So it's now the other arm, the one that had kind of hurt a little bit during the practice when we're cutting weight.
I shoot on that leg.

Speaker 2 He sprawls back. And I hear my right bicep go pop.
And I was like, oh my gosh. I let go of his leg.
And

Speaker 2 also I'm like, I have no arms. Both my arms, the biceps are torn now.
I don't even know what's happening. And so I start wrestling this guy.

Speaker 2 And luckily, I'm able to flip him over and pin him, get the match over with. I come off, I look down, and both my arms look deformed.
I was like, oh no, this is not good.

Speaker 2 And so anyway, tournament's done. I go over, I have the trainers like wrap him in ice so that we're icing these, these my biceps.

Speaker 2 I go back, you know, to our hope, to our Airbnb afterwards. I unwrap them and I look at my arms, I'm like, they both lift to form.

Speaker 2 Like, my bicep does not look normal, it doesn't go to like where it normally hooks, like it looks

Speaker 2 really, really bad.

Speaker 6 Um,

Speaker 2 and so I'm calling some of my doctors and friends. I'm like, what do I do? And they're like, if you have a torn bicep, like, you need to get in surgery and stuff.
I'm like, well, I would love to.

Speaker 2 Except if I'm flying in like five hours to Hawaii for my family spring break, I cannot miss that, or my wife would literally destroy me. Um, I don't have an opportunity to do that, and um, and so

Speaker 2 yeah, they

Speaker 2 like basically my arms swole up. I take a bunch of ibuprofen and stuff.
And then I don't go to bed that night because my flight's like at three in the morning.

Speaker 2 I jump on the plane and I fly to Hawaii and both my arms are like, I can't move them. I can't, like, it hurts to lift it.
I can't lift my backpack up. Like excruciating pain.

Speaker 2 And as I'm flying to Hawaii, I have this realization. I'm like, my wife did not want me to wrestle.
Number one, she wanted me to spend time with her and the kids.

Speaker 2 You know, she's got the, she definitely got like, I told you so attitude, attitude you know which rightfully so um but i was like i don't want to ruin this trip for her or for my family i was like i'm going to go to this trip and i'm going to have extreme annoying happiness and optimism to the point where

Speaker 2 yeah just to just because i don't want to ruin this trip my kids and i don't i don't care about myself like this is not about me this is about them and so i go to the um I go to Hawaii.

Speaker 2 And first off, we're in Hawaii. And I'm like, it's beautiful.
And I was like, so happy to be there. And even though I couldn't couldn't lift my own bag up, I couldn't move.

Speaker 2 Both my arms at this point are swollen. Like they are huge.
It looks like Popeye arms. It's kind of cool.
Other than it's just swollen with fluid on both.

Speaker 2 It's like from my wrist to my, to my armpit, like both arms are just completely swollen. I can't even bend them.

Speaker 2 And it was crazy because I was there at Hawaii and I was like, again, extreme happiness and optimism and like everything is positive. I'm trying to have no

Speaker 2 thought for my pain or for any of these things because this was about them. And anyway, the Hawaii trip was insane.
It's so much fun. It was such a good time.

Speaker 2 So I'm almost at the doctor's, which leads me to why I do this podcast. I'm actually now we're back from Hawaii and I'm going to the doctor's to have them check my arms and do MRIs.

Speaker 2 And I'm going to find out here a little bit if I tore both my biceps, which I have a weird inkling that I have. It's been over a week now.

Speaker 2 And again, from my wrist to my armpit, it's completely, my arms are complete yellow and purple just of pretty bad bruising.

Speaker 2 My both my biceps don't look normal, which sucks. I'm like, oh, these don't look like my arms.
So we're about to find out. But I share this for a couple of reasons.

Speaker 2 Number one, you guys probably think I'm crazy. Now you know I really am.
Number two is I want to kind of go back. Like,

Speaker 2 like

Speaker 2 a lot of people don't, they don't want to do things they don't want to get hurt. Right.
Like, what else do I have to do? Right. Like, I have a desk job.

Speaker 2 I'm sitting all day making funnels and talking with my, like, I don't need my body, my arms, you know, like.

Speaker 2 Anyway, I think a lot of people are so scared of getting hurt or they're so scared of something happening, they don't do anything. Whereas for me, it's like, I don't care if I get hurt.

Speaker 2 Like, that's the point of it. Like, I want the soreness.
I want that, like, I want to relive my glory days. I wanted to have that fun experience again, you know?

Speaker 2 And so it wasn't about like, I don't want to get hurt. It's like, I'm probably hurt.
In fact, every year I've done these tournaments, I've gotten hurt consistently.

Speaker 2 There's not been a year that I haven't.

Speaker 2 I always get hurt in them, but it's okay because I have a year to heal, right? Like, but it makes me feel alive. And that's the key, right?

Speaker 2 And so the lessons I hope you get from this, number one is do things that make you feel alive. Don't be scared of getting hurt.
Like worst case scenario, like,

Speaker 2 like, what else am I doing with my life, right? Like, like, this is such a fun, exciting thing. It made me feel alive.

Speaker 2 Like, all the pain, the suffering, the torture, all those kind of things all made me feel alive. So that's number one.
Number two is looking through the pain I was in and like.

Speaker 2 And by just mentally shifting, like, I'm going to have a positive attitude. I mean, like, I'm not going to let my wife or kids know how bad this is hurting me.

Speaker 2 I'm just going to be extremely optimistic and positive. And we made this Hawaii trip so much fun for everybody.

Speaker 2 And nobody, I mean, I'm sure they kind of knew I was going to, that I was, you know, being a wuss because I heard I couldn't do ziplining with them and a couple things like that.

Speaker 2 But, but like, I brought my, my,

Speaker 2 you know, happiest, most optimistic attitude to it. And we made the trip amazing.

Speaker 2 And now I have a chance to heal and figure out. I'd probably have to get some surgery.
Who knows what's going to happen? But I don't regret it. I would do it again in a heartbeat because

Speaker 2 just that, that. that reason to exist, that reason to work out, the reason to cut weight, the reason to like be excited

Speaker 2 was worth everything. Like it added energy and excitement on every other piece of my life, my business, my writing, my everything.
And so I didn't want to lose that.

Speaker 2 And it's worth the pain and the suffering. So there you go.
I hope it helps you guys. Again, some of you guys are going to ride this absolute off like Russell's crazy.

Speaker 2 And some of you guys are like, I'm going to go and do the thing I want to do now. And hopefully, you give yourself permission.

Speaker 2 And don't be afraid of being hurt because the worst case scenario, you get a surgery and you're back at it.

Speaker 2 I got a year to heal before next year's tournament. So thanks, guys.
I appreciate y'all. And I'll talk to y'all soon.

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