Shaping a Positive Mindset in our Kids with Scott White

Josh (00:00:02) - Good day, fellas. Welcome to Uncensored Advice for men. Super glad you're here. Really proud of you guys. I love you guys. And, uh, this show is for me, but it's also for you. Uh, I get a lot of free coaching, free therapy, a lot of free advice. Uh, from very, very, very smart people. People with a heart to share with you. And, uh, I just want to capture that and share it. So if you ever need help, first of all, if it's a medical emergency, call 911. But if you ever need help, uncensored advice for men. Com uh, you can fill out a quick form, and maybe I could introduce you to some of my friends who are coaches, counselors, therapists, uh, psychologists and, uh, author speakers. So, like, we want to help you guys. That's the message of this. So on today's show, we're I just this is a recent friend that I met on LinkedIn.

Josh (00:00:49) - He's very active. Great following there. And, uh, he wrote a book that caught my attention. It's in his headline, The Life is Too Short guy. And I was like, what does that mean? So we started a conversation and we have Scott on the show. Scott, welcome.

Steve (00:01:03) - Hi, Josh. How are you?

Josh (00:01:04) - Yeah, man, I'm I'm freaking awesome. And I appreciate that question. Um, Scott, who are you?

Steve (00:01:12) - Who am I?

Steve (00:01:14) - Wow. Great way to start. So many ways to go. I'm gonna I'm gonna dive right into the meat of the subject. So, um, in the context of this discussion, the life is too short guy. And and look, we all wear lots of different hats. I'm a, I'm a father and my husband. I'm a CEO of a public company. I'm a passionate college sports fan. There's so many things I am. But for today, let's go with, uh, the Life is Too Short guy and the Life is Too Short guy is a project that I started about two years ago.

Steve (00:01:41) - Um, sort of stumbled into it. Like so many things in life, they just happen and it's become it started as a a challenge, a goal. I wanted to write a book. It then evolved to a passion project. Wow, this is a lot of fun. And today I'd say it's an obsession. I am having the time of my life. I'm spreading the message and I'm on a mission to make the world happier. One smile at a time.

Steve (00:02:02) - Yeah.

Josh (00:02:02) - What was the what was the the light bulb that went off that one day where you're like, I need to write a book, right? So life is too short, guy. There's probably something in there that that forced that. I got to write this book from passion to obsession. That's a great way to describe it. How did that happen?

Steve (00:02:20) - So I've wanted to write a book for many years now. I can't tell you what the original impetus was. It's got to be at least a decade, and it's on a long list of things I want to do.

Steve (00:02:28) - I'm always up for a new challenge. I'm always up for learning something new. I'm always up for for taking a chance. And this is one of many things. I mean, we could spend a whole show on all the things that I want to do with the rest of my life, but for now, one of them was write a book, and it was one of those sort of, yeah, someday. But no real plan, no real timeline, no real idea what I would write about. You know, one of those Jack of all trades, master of none. What are you going to write about? Who's going to care? And then early in Covid, I'd say in early 2021, I started working with an executive coach. You talk at the outset of the show about introducing people to coaches. I think coaches or coaches, mentors, um, I think they're amazing. I think they're an important part of our lives and our ability to to improve ourselves, to learn from others. So I started working with a new coach in 2021.

Steve (00:03:13) - His name is Kevin. And first session he asks me a lot of questions. Then he gives me a couple of these personality tests and questionnaires to fill out, and then we start the second call. And this is exactly how we started. I remembered it was a zoom call and he started like this. He's like, dude, you are Mr. Life is too short guy. Everything's rah rah positivity. Get it done today. Happiness. Like wow. And I was like, yeah, I guess so. But that's just who I am. Like, I hadn't thought of it through that lens. I hadn't had a title for it. I was like, yeah, that's me. That's my life, that's how I live. And that night I mention it to my wife and I'm very blessed and fortunate. I've been with my wife now since high school, and she she knows me well. There's no one that knows me better. And she says to me, you know, maybe that's the book you always wanted to write.

Steve (00:03:58) - Mr.. Life is too short, guy. And I look at her like. The heck with that book belt. What a dumb idea. Um, I mean, I could say that now, but I'm not sure I said it out loud. It was more a bubble over my head. What a dumb idea, Mr. Guy. But anyway, she's really good at. She planted that seed, and then she watered that seed. And over the next couple of months in 2021, I started to develop a little bit of an outline and then it died. You know, I think I said before, I'm a passionate college sports fan. I love March Madness. So I started that in January. March came around. I was like, all right, I'm out of the book business. It's basketball time. Uh, and then early 2022, I met another gentleman, same as Eric Custer. And Eric has his own book publishing company and coaching and a bunch of different things. And, you know, you bump into people in life that change the trajectory of your life.

Steve (00:04:46) - First it was Kevin giving me the idea and then Eric in early 2022 saying, this is a brilliant idea. We can make this into something special. I bought in, I wrote all through 2022, released it early in 2023, and now I'm out spreading the message of life is too short. Guy.

Josh (00:05:01) - Yeah, so life is too short guy right. So we're going to we're going to go real deep. Real fast. Good. I weave in our audience. My background is firefighter medic. And then I've had, you know, a thousand different jobs. My my biggest life crisis is were around, um, major career changes, changes in identity in deaths and trauma. Right. So when I hear life is too short, guy, man, I've seen it, delivered babies and walked babies into, you know, an afterlife. Being that when I hear life is too short, you know, like, sometimes I go, yeah, no, no, no shit. Like, yes, it is.

Josh (00:05:42) - But then there's people like me, I'm 42 years old and and I get so caught up on dumb details like today. Correct. My phone doesn't work. Right.

Steve (00:05:51) - And end of the world.

Josh (00:05:53) - End of the world. I'm stressed out. It's a cyber attack. I just went into my safe and I'm like, packing all my dollar, you know, like my my stack of cash and my gun, you know, like, everywhere. And I'm like, all right, I need to have this message with you. I thought about cancer and I go, I need to have this message with you, guy, because my my brain gets so attached to dumb shit, that doesn't matter. Yeah. So encapsulate that for me. Like, I've. I cannot believe that I still get stressed out about a cell phone. So how does this book, how does this book work? How does your mindset work? I need to learn, Josh.

Steve (00:06:23) - It's brilliant. I mean, you you teed me up.

Steve (00:06:25) - It's almost as if you threw me the softball. Now I'm going to knock it out of the park. What you did is exactly the purpose of this book. So. So let me start with what the book's not. What is the book? Not the book is not an academic tome. The book is not tons of empirical, boring stuff that's going to put you to sleep. The book is not a business case study. I thought about writing a business book and I was like, hey, there's enough of those. So what is it? It's a practical guide, day to day living your best life. And the whole idea is exactly what you said is so beautiful and that we all experience setbacks. We all experience observations of the world around us where we're like, wow, I gotta make the most of my life. And then 10s later you realize, oh my God, my car is almost out of gas. What am I going to do? The world's coming to an end. This is part of my mission, and part of what I'm doing is to give people that constant reminder, to give people simple tools.

Steve (00:07:16) - And that's really important. This isn't I'm going to listen to this show, I'm going to read Scott's book, and I'm going to change my life entirely because that never happens. Let's be honest, ten minutes after the call, you're like, oh, whatever. They instead, if you could take away from this call one or 2 or 3 little tools little and I mean little, and that's really important, little tools where all of a sudden you start going about your life and you think a little bit differently, then all of a sudden, instead of freaking out about the cell phone, you're smiling a little bit more. All of a sudden, instead of sitting there brooding about, oh, I can't make a call, you're on maybe a train or you're, you're at a store and you start talking to a stranger. These are some of the things I talk about to empower people to say, you know what? Life is too short. And the way I went about it, which is also beautiful, the way you explained about delivering babies and unfortunately, taking babies into the afterlife.

Steve (00:08:04) - I created ten principles and I'm happy to walk through each of these principles. There are ten principles, and in each of the principles I highlight some of my own life experiences. And like everyone else, look, I'm the happiest guy you're ever going to meet. Period. Full stop. I live my best life every day. But let's be honest, we all have setbacks. I've had setbacks, and I illustrate four big setbacks in my life that that set the tone for this this theory. But even more interesting, because I'm only a little bit interesting. Even more interesting, Josh, is I tell the stories of other people that have had major setbacks, people that have, um, dealt with with a child with cancer who ended up dying, people that have tried to commit suicide, people that have had catastrophic injuries. They're they're quadriplegics. People that have had to, uh, overcome alcoholism, people. I mean, there's so many of these stories that we watch every day that I illustrate in this book with ties to the principles so that this is your aha moment.

Steve (00:09:09) - Listening to this right now, right now, or reading the book or seeing me speak, you walk out and you're like, you know what? I don't need to get that you have cancer message to say, I'm going to go out and live my best life today. And that's that's what I'm trying to accomplish.

Steve (00:09:23) - Yeah.

Josh (00:09:24) - So I do want to hear some of these principles, but I want to hear the story of like, share a principle that attached to the person with the kid with the cancer who passed away. Right. So attach that principle to that. Because to me, I got three beautiful kids. They're my like my, my four year old at three in the morning, crawled into bed, woke me up and I'm like, Now I'm awake. And I was thinking about just going heading off to work because I work a lot. But then I was like, man, I'm just going to go lay next to her and snuggle her. She's going to be passed out. But like, I'm not going to miss that time.

Josh (00:09:58) - Um, but they're my everything, man. Like, I love the I love my wife, love my kids. So like, give me that principle and then tie it to that story or share the story, then tie it to the principle.

Steve (00:10:08) - You got it. So the. The principle. It's the fifth principle is funny. Things are everywhere. Find humor every day. Laugh at yourself. Laugh at the world around you. Laugh. Uh, regularly. We take things too seriously. And. And what I try to illustrate in the book is, no matter what the circumstances, there is something funny there. And I, God, give me almost any example. And there's a way to find humor. It's about a perspective and it's about laughing. And I tell stories about bringing humor to very intense negotiations to to boardroom discussions. But the two stories I'll tell here, which I think are more illustrative and more interesting to people, um, to demonstrate funny things are everywhere and, and bring that power into your life every day.

Steve (00:10:51) - So unfortunately, my father passed away about 17 years ago. Uh, yeah. Just coming up on 17 years in a few weeks. And, uh, there's no doubt it was one of the hardest things I've I've ever had to experience. It's a transformative event in my life. And I'm there on the the day of the funeral. And we're in the back of the funeral home. Myself, my brother and the immediate relatives. And my father's lying in the casket. It's open and you can hear in the background, you know, people arriving and you hear the murmurs and the noise going on. And, you know, it's a very uncomfortable, sad situation. Thank God I'd never really been in it. So you don't know how to react or whatever, and you're looking down and all of a sudden my phone rings, right? My phone rings. So, so, you know, some people's immediate reactions. And I think most people would be like, oh my God, where is that? Let me, let me mute it.

Steve (00:11:39) - Or, or some people would just have like gasp I can't believe this guy can't shut his phone or or leave his phone home as he's bettering his father. Instead, I reach in my pocket. I grab out my ringing phone. I don't even look who it is because I don't care, and I just, I don't I don't actually answer it. I click the button on the side. I'm like, hey dad, how are you doing? What are you up to today? And the room sort of paused for a second. There were about ten people in the room. They pause, looking like. And then everyone just started cracking up. Everyone's laughing, their tears rolling down. And that demonstrates sort of some of the worst moments in your life, finding humor. And I'm going to now tie it back because you asked the question, what about the the, um, the parents who had to bury a child. So a high school friend of mine, Greg, um, he when his daughter was about three years old, um, he started noticing that she was bumping into things and and slurring her words a little bit is he explained that it was almost as if she'd been drinking wine, and they took her to a couple of different doctors and tested her for for Lyme disease and tested for all these different things and couldn't quite figure it out.

Steve (00:12:40) - And then finally they brought her to a specialist who said, I want to send you for for an MRI at the hospital now, um, and just I want to see the results before I refer you to my wife. Greg's like. Oh, okay. What does your wife do? And the doctor says she's a pediatric oncologist. And that obviously put put Greg on, you know, step back and say, oh, okay. So you go to the hospital, do the, uh, the CT scans and it turns out is the daughter has a fairly aggressive form of brain cancer. She's three years old, and she is quote unquote. And I sort of hate to say this, but a survivor, because she lived five years and one day post the diagnosis and a technical survivor of the cancer is five years. So she lived five years in one day. Um, and, you know, I followed his journey on social media, and then I spoke to him about it. And one of the things he talked about is how he and his daughter and the family used humor to cope very difficult times.

Steve (00:13:36) - And it was five years of fairly aggressive cancer to to to a baby. I mean, think about a four year old, a five year old. And he said the number of times they'd laugh because she was losing her hair, or she'd make a joke about waking up naked, or she'd make a joke about the doctors and the nurses and they used humor as a coping mechanism. So funny things Are everywhere is one of the principles. And there are two stories that I illustrate in the book to make people think. And as you're listening to this right now, laugh today. Find something funny. Laugh at yourself. Laugh at the world around you. There's humor everywhere.

Josh (00:14:08) - Yeah, and I love this message. As when I was in, uh, the trauma units or in the emergency rooms or in the back of an ambulance or whatever, or even afterwards, back when you get, you know, you're cleaning up the blood and and such. Um, we would use humor, not of the situation, but just in general because that's we had to cope.

Josh (00:14:31) - Our souls were not designed for tough, you know, tough news consistently. Uh, so, you know, we developed humor and we would joke with each other and bust balls, you know, that that would be a form of our love language. Right? But I think it is I think it is so vital. And but I just know that there's people out there who get a will get offended from that, from that message, of course. Yeah.

Steve (00:14:54) - So like how do you approach that.

Steve (00:14:57) - So I have ten principles and not all ten principles apply to everybody. Like I said before, it is rare, very rare that I've met a person that reads a book, buys into everything in the book, and goes and changes their lives the next day. It just doesn't happen. And if I set out to do that, I'd never accomplish my goal. So instead, my mission is to make the world happier one smile at a time. So if one of your listeners picks up on this and on their way home today, they start laughing at something, or they get to the dinner table and they make a joke that they wouldn't have otherwise done.

Steve (00:15:26) - Great. I've accomplished my goal. And if 99% of your listeners say, yeah, you know, that's great, I'm just not that funny. And I don't think the world is that funny. That's fine. I got nine other principles for you to play with.

Steve (00:15:36) - Yeah?

Josh (00:15:37) - What, out of all the nine principles, which one do you struggle or the ten principles? The other nine, ten total. Which one do you struggle with the most? Writing. So as you were writing it, you're like, oh man, do I. Am I truly being authentic to this? Am I is this is this something I live by?

Steve (00:15:52) - So so the answer to that, which is a little bit of a cop out so you can wave your cop out flag. Scott, you're not answering my question is what makes this book so beautiful and amazing for me and many of my friends have read it is this is authentic to me. As I said from the beginning, I didn't set out to write an academic book.

Steve (00:16:10) - I didn't do research and try to tie. All right, well, I have a thesis X. Can I prove that? No, that's just that's boring. That's boring. And that's not what I. This is me. This is me in a nutshell. Every one of these principles I live by. Now, look, some of them, I think are more important to me at different times in my life. And some of them, as I wrote, I started to think more about I'm investing more time in. But every one of these ten principles I believe in wholeheartedly.

Steve (00:16:36) - Yeah.

Josh (00:16:36) - How old are you, Scott?

Steve (00:16:37) - I just turned 50.

Steve (00:16:38) - Oh. Happy birthday.

Josh (00:16:40) - Did you have a good.

Steve (00:16:41) - That was a.

Steve (00:16:41) - Few months ago. It was a few months ago.

Steve (00:16:42) - Okay.

Steve (00:16:43) - But I did have a wonderful time. I did, I, my wife and I, as part of some of these principles of, of take a chance and get it done today or, uh, live today.

Steve (00:16:52) - Don't wait for tomorrow. We did a two and a half week trip through Europe. We, we I actually spent my 50th birthday at Oktoberfest. Now that's pretty cool.

Josh (00:17:00) - That sounds freaking awesome. Let me ask you a question. Pretty cool being the Life is Too Short guy. There's an identity that kind of gets attached to this or this persona, right? Does that ever eliminate you from having a bad day? Right. So like here you are now taking stages, podcast interviews, getting publicity of this. Now, are you never allowed to have a bad day again because of this? The life is too short guy a happy guy on earth.

Steve (00:17:25) - I have plenty of bad days. Again, the book The persona is who I am. I didn't create a persona that I'm trying to live by. I live a life that somebody once called Mr. Life is too short guy. And then I was like, you know what? I'm gonna tell the world about it. So yes, I have plenty of bad days.

Steve (00:17:43) - I have plenty of bad minutes within the day. I have setbacks, I get angry people. It's a great question because people have asked and usually asked my wife, you know, does the life is too short guy ever get upset? Does he ever get depressed? Does he ever get angry? Absolutely. We're all humans. I'm. I'm no better or different than every one of your listeners. I just have a vision and a lens to which I view the world, where when I have that setback, I'm like, okay, opportunity, how can I overcome it? What can I do? You know what? It could be worse. You know, one of the things I say a lot and I even mentioned this in the book, um, one of my statements is, um, let this be the worst thing to happen to me today, right? Let this, no matter what it is, let this be the worst thing to happen to me. And and again, you know, I tell a story in the book, which is really it illustrates one of the principles of choose your attitude and own it.

Steve (00:18:31) - So choose your attitude and own it is one of the principles. And I talked to, um, the gentleman by the name of Eric, and the story is in the book about 13 ish years ago, 12 or 13 years ago, I, uh, I was on the sidelines of a college football game, getting getting back to my passion of college sports. I'm a big Rutgers fan. So is that a Rutgers game? And it was at MetLife Stadium. And and I'm there with my two young children, my wife. And it's the fourth quarter. And any of the gentlemen listening to this right now know that that the most dangerous point in the game is the kickoffs, right? I mean, it's it's the kick return is usually problematic. Fourth quarter. It's Army versus Rutgers or Rutgers, uh, kicks the ball off. Army's running it back on the far sideline and. Boom. Massive collision. A couple players go down and I'm there again with my daughters and I'm watching. And I've been to a lot of football games and injuries, a part of the game, but I realize this one seems a bit more serious.

Steve (00:19:26) - And, you know, finally after a few minutes, one of the players gets up and one of the players doesn't get up, and you see more and more, you know, emergency medical personnel coming on and you see the stretcher and the neck brace and you see them putting a Eric on the the cart. And Eric rolls out of the stadium. And as Eric went through the tunnel, he began the the next phase of his journey. He's laying there that night and, and I talk about this in the book, um, in his hospital bed, and he hears the doctor say to his mom, Eric will never eat solid food again. Eric will never walk again. Eric will never breathe again on his own. And. We're hopeful Eric makes it through the night.

Steve (00:20:04) - Wow.

Steve (00:20:04) - Now, 12 or 13 years later, Eric has his own bourbon brand. Nice bourbon brand. Eric has his own, um, inspirational speaking business. Eric is a professional sports broadcaster, and he calls games on ESPN radio and on other broadcasts.

Steve (00:20:25) - Eric has a coffee shop. Um, there's probably a few more things that I'm forgetting about, Eric. But the point is, when you meet Eric, he tells a couple of things. And this gets back to your question about do you ever have a bad day? And, and me sort of saying, let this be the worst thing to happen to me. Eric said, you know, if a doctor says to me, you have I'm sorry, it's terminal. You have a month to live. My immediate reaction is, wow, that's great, because you could have told me I have a couple of days to live. So now I got some bonus time where I could spend some time with family and friends. And that's a unique and interesting perspective about, uh, choose your attitude, knowing that the other thing that Eric says, which I think is amazing.

Steve (00:21:03) - Is.

Steve (00:21:04) - As I tell that story and you think about his situation and what he's done with it, he said, look, I can't dress myself, I can't dry myself.

Steve (00:21:10) - And he and he is a he is paralyzed from the neck down. Um, I can't brush my own teeth and look at all that I've done. So when you think about why you can't, it's time to think about why you can.

Steve (00:21:21) - Wow.

Josh (00:21:24) - You know, when I hear a story like this, it makes me very thankful for being able to walk, talk.

Steve (00:21:31) - Eat.

Josh (00:21:32) - Wipe my own. But I'll do, you know, fill in the blank, right? And then I still get caught in. I'm frustrated and stressed out about a stupid damn phone, right? And I'm just using this as an example because it was just.

Steve (00:21:45) - A great example.

Josh (00:21:46) - Right? And it's just like how how quickly we forget I, you know, I've been through some traumatic stuff and and when you're going through that, you're not worried about the dumbshit, the phone, the gas in the car, that scratch on the side of the new vehicle or the whatever, you're not worried about that because the most important thing at the moment.

Josh (00:22:04) - But these other things nag you. Right. They make it inconvenient until something bigger happens, and then you can focus on that and then it's no longer a big deal. How do you maintain perspective? So like Eric. You know, he's like, well, at least, you know, look at all I've accomplished with what I have. I could be proud of myself and I choose this rather than that. How do you maintain perspective on value and importance on life?

Steve (00:22:33) - So again, we're all human and I like everyone else's side of it. My mission right now is by telling these stories, is having people like, I'm hopeful right after this call you personally, you're like, wow, there's some pretty powerful stories. And I know I, Josh, have lived through some, some pretty amazing things, but I lost sight of it. I forgot, because I go through life and just hearing Scott tell some of these stories. All right, so my phone doesn't work, I got it. I'm literally going to move on and look.

Steve (00:22:58) - It requires you to be deliberate, thoughtful and proactive. And we all have setbacks and we all get lost and we all forget. Again, it's human nature. I'm not superhuman. No one is. But by hearing these stories, by listening to me and others speak, by by taking some time to to reorient and reassess right after this call, instead of hopping on your next call. Maybe I have 3 minutes or 4 minutes where you literally just sit there and you're like. You know, this isn't so bad as my phone's not working or whatever. I got three beautiful kids and a wife, and we just had a great show, and I'm employed and I have food on my table and clothes on my back, and the sun is shining and the weather is great. And that's part of, you know, one of the the principles, the very first principle I talk about is attitude is everything. The power, positivity, attitude is everything. The power positivity that is the number one, the through line, uh, the principle through which you can, uh, you pull the whole book and those are just words, right? So, so what you're going to ask and I'm going to jump ahead of you is, all right.

Steve (00:24:00) - So what does that mean? And how do I put that into real life. And this ties very specifically to your question of all right. Fine. But we just get back to our life and our reality and so on and so forth. Um, so this is a little exercise that I often talk about, and I will tell you almost all the time when I talk about this, and I'm talking about it on stages across the country, uh, people look at me, I could just tell you really audience where they're just like.

Steve (00:24:25) - Okay.

Steve (00:24:26) - Yeah. All right. Whatever. And then I will tell you, Josh, I get emails and texts and LinkedIn notes days, weeks, months later saying, you know, I took that goofy little thing and I did it. And it's it's kind of cool. It's kind of how it works. Kind of interesting. It kind of works. So. So here's what I'd say. Here's here's the the exercise. So Josh, you open your eyes this morning.

Steve (00:24:46) - Very first thought. When you open your eyes do you remember.

Josh (00:24:50) - Well, yeah. My three year old was walking in the room like, oh crap, is everything okay? Did she wet the bed? She or four year old like, is everything all right? So the first thing was like, an alarm. Like, this isn't normal. What's what's up? You know, assess the situation.

Steve (00:25:04) - Okay, so yours was a little bit of a reactionary. I will tell you. I asked that question. And 60% of the time I get a very vague sort of, um. Ah, I hope my eyes and I. Well, I was tired and I probably should go to the bathroom and, uh, you know, probably thinking, I want coffee. Am I all right? So so I call that and I literally go through this exercise, the blurry lenses, you see, I'm putting on my blurry lenses right now. And most of us wake up, most of you, because I very deliberate about this, wake up and put on our blurry lenses the, uh, it's Thursday.

Steve (00:25:39) - It's, um, got some things going on today, and, uh, I don't feel like getting up. All right, so those are the blurry lenses. Unfortunately, I think a lot of people, and they don't admit it. I will tell you when I ask this question, almost no one admits this, but I know it happens. Put on there muddy lenses there.

Steve (00:25:54) - Oh.

Steve (00:25:55) - It's Thursday, it's not the weekend yet. I'm tired. It's cold, it's dark. I have so much shit to do. I do not feel like getting out of bed, right. There are many of those people. When I ask people, no one ever admits that. Usually they give me the blurry glasses. So I tell people, here's the exercise. Why not tomorrow morning? And again, you're going to be like, all right, come on, really try it tomorrow morning, reach over and grab your actual glasses or go through the motion of of of like pretend glasses because it's a physical sort of.

Steve (00:26:22) - Good morning. It's Thursday. I'm so excited I can hear the birds chirping. It's actually a little bit light out this morning. You know, I get up at 6:00 and it's it's a little bit more light out this morning than it's been. And I have an amazing day ahead of me. I know I have a podcast I'm doing today, which I absolutely love. I know I'm heading to a weekend house that I that I have with my wife, which is awesome. My daughters are both thriving in college. Wow! I am now 10s 10s into the day. I just rattle off 5 or 6 things that I'm grateful for, and I didn't even mention them in bed next to the woman I love. I didn't mention that I have a roof over my head. I didn't mention that I have my physical faculties. I didn't mention that I was going out for a bike ride. I didn't mention all those things, but that was all going on my head. So the the idea of attitude is everything.

Steve (00:27:04) - The power of positivity and the simple tool is when you wake up tomorrow morning and every morning, give yourself that positive roadmap. I understand the skeptic is listening to how great I do that I rah rah, I step out of bed, I twist my ankle and on and it swells up. Okay, I understand that. But as Henry Ford said, if you think you can or you think you can't, you're probably right. Why not at least set yourself on the tone and getting your mind working in the today is going to be the best day ever. I am so happy and grateful for what I have ahead of me. Let's go live our best life today.

Steve (00:27:36) - Yeah man.

Josh (00:27:37) - It's goofy to be honest.

Steve (00:27:39) - It's goofy.

Steve (00:27:40) - Of course it is. But that's the point.

Steve (00:27:41) - Yeah, but it.

Josh (00:27:44) - But I could see it being. It's an intentional change of attitude.

Steve (00:27:49) - Yep.

Josh (00:27:50) - And I, you know, like I don't remember. It might have been yesterday I started out on a on a rough day or it was one of the days this week I'm, I'm typically a optimistic dude.

Josh (00:28:01) - Right. But if my day starts wrong I have to like, forcefully change my attitude, take deep breaths. What am I thankful for? I write in a journal like what am I grateful for? I'll text or call somebody. Can't do that today, right? So I start encouraging people and by the by the practice of doing that shit like I go, are all right. My attitude shifts and I can feel the energy shift. I could feel the things change. So like goofy but works, right? Correct. And that's that's good. I'd rather I'd rather do something goofy. Anyways, it's it's a lot more fun. So I'm going to I'm going to practice that man. It's easy. Pour it back in. Yeah.

Steve (00:28:37) - Easy. Right.

Steve (00:28:38) - Josh that's the point is it's not. You have to change your whole life. Tomorrow morning when you open your eyes, even if you're like, I talked to this crazy dude yesterday. And he was like, all right, you know what? It's funny.

Steve (00:28:48) - It's going to be a great day. It's almost the weekend. My kids are healthy and and I have a roof over my head and I feel great. I'm going to go embrace the day. At worst, you waste the 10s. You look back in the middle of the day and you're like, all right, you know what? That's not working for him. I can do it anymore. Fine. No harm, no foul. Why not try it?

Steve (00:29:05) - Yeah.

Josh (00:29:06) - When you're riding your bike, do you are you the kind of guy with the clipping pedals, with the, you know, the the tight shorts and the, you know, the helmet, the rearview mirror hanging from your. Are you, like, road bike or are you do I have a basket with with no streamers? Okay. Got it. I'm road bike.

Steve (00:29:21) - I'm training for a half Ironman right now.

Steve (00:29:23) - Oh okay.

Josh (00:29:23) - Excellent. In the. Wow. So swimming in new Jersey sounds absolutely terrible. Unless it's like an indoor.

Steve (00:29:30) - It's indoors right now. Right now it's all I bike indoors and I swim indoors. I run outdoors in the spring, I'll start training outside. And the actual race is out in central Pennsylvania at the end of June.

Josh (00:29:41) - Oh man, that sounds pretty cool. Um, what if during the actual Ironman, you're not going to, you know, listen to music or whatever because you'll be jumping in water and such? I assume I've never done one. Um, what is your what is your jam song that changes your attitude?

Steve (00:29:57) - You know, I. You're right. I don't use music. It's more about perspective. And I use a lot of these principles when I, when I run, when I race, I, I've done 15 marathons, I've done an Ironman. And there's no doubt there's a mental fortitude associated with that. And thinking about, look, one of the principles is take a chance and get it done today. So there is somebody on this call right now listening, saying, you know, I've thought about doing a triathlon, but.

Steve (00:30:21) - Ah.

Steve (00:30:21) - I don't know. I'm not a very good swimmer and I don't know if I have time. Stop, stop, stop with the excuses. Take a chance and get it done today. That's the idea. If one person listening to this is like, you know, this guy screaming and getting all fired up and excited, why not? Life is too short. That's what I'm hoping to accomplish. And I guarantee you, there are people listening to this that are like, yeah, you know, I kind of want to do a triathlon or, you know, maybe a half marathon, but I don't know if I can get of course you can get it done. That's the point.

Josh (00:30:49) - Yeah. Super cool. One final question. Well, there'll be two final questions. Uh, I have kids. And one of the things that for me is super important is attitude, man. Like, the thing that gets under my skin is griping, right? Like, and then I try to remind them these all the great things that you have and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Josh (00:31:06) - And then I'll go gripe, you know, I'll bitch about my own phone. But anyways, uh, what what's a piece of advice for the dads out there for their kids to really start to train them in, in positivity, in having this, this attitude?

Steve (00:31:20) - Oh, it's easy. Live it, live it.

Steve (00:31:22) - Kids reflect.

Steve (00:31:23) - You.

Steve (00:31:24) - Right. And I will tell you, people have asked me. So I have two teenage well actually not even teenage anymore. I have an 18 and a 21 year old daughter. So um, and people have asked me, do they live the same principles? Do they buy into it? And no, they live their own lives. And there are some things they do and some things they don't. But I will tell you that I fundamentally believe my ra ra positive, live in the moment, make the most, take chances, get out of your comfort zone, learn, be passionate. All these principles I see that in in how they go about their lives and look teenage kids, for example.

Steve (00:31:57) - I don't know it sounds like yours were a bit younger. You'll realize that that that that sort of positive attitude is, is challenging. Um, there's no doubt about it. But the best thing I could say is, is one be authentic to yourself and live your best life. And then watch. Your kids will watch and observe. If you're walking around complaining and brooding and and the world is out to get me and and it's always someone else's fault. Guess what? Your kids are going to learn.

Josh (00:32:21) - Yeah. For sure. Yeah, that's good reminder. Uh, final question for for dudes out there who are interested in your book and going through all ten principles, the name of it and where they where could they go to find it?

Steve (00:32:33) - Sure.

Steve (00:32:34) - So the name of the book is the Life is Too Short guy. The life is too short guy. I'm the author, Scott White. You can find it on Amazon or Barnes and noble.com, or you can go to my website. Life is too short guy.com.

Steve (00:32:46) - That's life is too short guy.com and you'll see uh, you know you could subscribe to my newsletter there. You could find any information about my speaking engagements. I am out aggressively now speaking across the country at a companies, to teams, to organizations, to conferences. It's a pretty powerful and thoughtful message. So to the extent that that you're with an organization that's looking for that, you could definitely catch me on life is too short guy com yeah.

Josh (00:33:12) - Man Scott, thanks for coming on. Super appreciate your your time. And, uh, to your message here. Right. Because it's a good reminder of what I'm experiencing today. But I also want to shape, help shape my kids and arm them with this, these tools. So thank you for doing that. Uh, guys, as always, reach out to our guests, say thanks for being on the show. Their contact information will be in the show notes below. I love you guys. If, like I said, if you need some help, uncensored advice for men.

Josh (00:33:38) - Com I could connect you with any of our past guests. We have a great lineup of them. And or if you just need a dude to sit with, talk with, pray with, whatever, I'm there for you. Love you guys and we'll see you all on the next episode. Bye bye.