TOUTES TES EXCUSES SONT DES MENSONGES

There is no substitute for action. So even if I tell you things, I can tell you to be patient, present and focused. And you will be there to think, it sounds pretty good. Except that you will never understand, as long as you haven't done it. Stop looking at me or anyone else, and choose to do something. Whether it's a 160km race or a challenge you decide to take up, because it will be your great opportunity to really see how these things work. See how it can take you further, or get you out of a hole. Running has changed my life. I mean, ultramarathons have changed my life. And I have the impression that so many people watch people like you and me, who travel these very long distances, who just can't understand why we do this. It's not healthy. I mean, physically, it's really not healthy to run 160km. But it prepares you so well for life. Like, there are so many things that are transcribed in the fact of running a 160km race. Like the lessons you learn, this state of mind you need to have, these things you learn to put into practice. All of this is perfectly transcribed in real life. And it prepares you completely to succeed in business, in your marriage, just in all areas of your life, in all the things that really matter. And I think that, at least for me, it has completely changed my life. I'm totally committed to running. And for all the people who are listening right now, if you're not running yet, I'll be honest with you. Get out and try to run. Start, start slowly, and go for it. Because it's a game changer. When you say running, do you think that running in general has changed your life? Or is it the ultramarathons that have changed your life? The reason why I started running... First of all, I was in the Navy for 12 years. I was with the Navy SEALs for 12 years. I joined the Navy to become a Navy SEAL and... When you do this job, you are challenged to a relatively high level. Like, almost every day. You do things that are dangerous, you do things that are really hard. You are constantly surrounded by other alpha males, and you are perpetually maintained at a very high physical and mental level. And in 2019, I was told that I would be medically withdrawn from the Navy. And that's why I started running, because... I realized, quite quickly, when I left the Navy, you are... You are not challenged in the same way here as with the SEALs. You are not challenged at all at the same level. You don't have a... A team of alpha males around you, who holds you responsible and who constantly pushes you to your limits. And so, I thought, like, Dude, I have to find something else in my life, that will really push me to go deep into myself. And I came across a 80km trail race. I didn't even know that a human could run 80km in a row. Okay. But when I saw that, I thought, It looks really difficult. So I'm going to sign up for this race, to find out if it could be the next thing that will challenge me and force me to continue to grow as a human being. So I signed up for this 80km race. My very first official race was this 80km race. It was in Virginia. And... It completely destroyed me. And that's why I started running. Because I realized, like, It's really, really difficult. And I'm better now, than I was before running those 80km. And so, that's what the race means to me. Because not only, it prepares me for what's to come in life. Um... But it forces me to continue to grow and become a better human being. And so I don't know if running shorter distances would do the same for me. To grow in life, you have to face friction. We see it in sports, we see it in business, in marriage. And most people feel this friction growing in their first 140km. And so most of them end up giving up somewhere between 0 and 140km. And they never reach those last 20km. So the most important thing is to find out how you're going to go through those first 140km, so that you can experience those last 20km of growth. And for me, it comes down to three things. Three things to get to this place where you're actually growing, by pushing yourself on new territories, and learning new things about yourself. And it takes a lot of time before you get there. Three things. These are the three pillars of my life. The first is patience. I... What makes me strong is that I'm really patient. I can... I can lock my mind and continue to perform much longer than most people. I manage to trust this process, okay? And endure this process until I get to this place where I can access this growth. You have to be patient in the process. You have to be patient with the team around you, because it's this patience that will allow you to go so far. The second thing is that you have to stay in the present. You have to stay in the present. You have to... You can't let your mind go too far into the future when you're enduring a process that is challenging. And we'll talk about that later, but the main reason why people give up difficult training, end up divorcing, throw the sponge in the middle of an ultramarathon, or whatever, it's because they can't stay in the present. In fact, what they do is allow themselves to... to go too far into the future to really understand what awaits them. And so they find themselves submerged by all this. The last race I participated in, I ran for 38 hours. And, you know, there were so many moments during this 38-hour race where... I could surprise my mind to think, even just 5 minutes in advance, like I was 5 minutes from the next refueling station, to be thinking that I have to change shoes at the next station. Except that if I think of something that will happen in 5 minutes, I'm no longer in the present, right? So you have to be aware of yourself, and you have to recognize when your mind goes too far into the future and you have to bring yourself back into the present in the same way I can. I literally tell myself, Chad, be patient, or be present. Chad, stay in the present. And it brings me back into the present. So you have to be patient, you have to stay in the present, and you have to be focused. I lost... I lost a lot of friends. Friends who died because of really stupid things. You have to stay focused. I'm so passionate about being focused, and the way it applies in ultra races, especially trail races. Because if you're not focused at every new step you take, when you run during this trail, what's going to happen? Well, you're going to sprain your ankle, you're going to hurt your knee, you're going to hurt yourself somewhere, because you lacked concentration. If you don't pay attention to every new bite of food, you're going to get fat. So you have to pay attention at every step. About our actions, and you also have to pay attention to the words you pronounce. Your fucking language. Your language is the ruler who leads this ship in which you live. I see so many people when I'm running, I hear so many people during the races, and when you look in their direction, you see them simply and they start making comments like Oh, you know, it could be better. Like, they're never focused on what they let out of their mouths. And these people never finish, they never reach these last 20 kilometers that really matter. They never make it. Because they're not patient, because they can't stay in the present, and because they choose to be nonchalant about their actions, their words and their thoughts. I mean, it doesn't even shock most people, but when you start implementing this in yourself, you start analyzing people, and you realize that most of them are like Oh man, it's really hot today. Dude, who cares? Like, I mean, we don't give a fuck. In any case, you have a race ahead of you, why do you start talking like that? Or, I constantly hear phrases like I've already heard men say Um, my wife just had a baby. And it instantly describes the way they interact with their wife. Like, watch what you're saying, dude. We, we just had a baby. I talk about this all the time. The difference between being good and being the best in the world comes from these little things we're talking about here. And if you manage to implement these little things on the way you speak, the way you think, the way your mind works, you'll become unstoppable. I live my life according to a certain norm. I don't live my life um, based on trying to get a result. Okay, so, my ultimate goal every day, in the middle of difficulty, in the middle of stress, of pain, my ultimate goal is to maintain the norm of the person I want to be. Okay, and I leave the results out of it all. For example, a few years ago, I was running a 160km race and I had a rhythm that kept me in first place. I wanted to win. That was the result I wanted to achieve. But, around the 96th kilometer, my stomach stopped working, and it twisted my pain. When your stomach explodes during an ultra race, I don't care how strong you are, you can't stand it. You have to stop and let your stomach calm down. So I lay down on the edge of the path, in a fetal position, and then I got doubled by one person, two people, three people. I ended up in 6th place before being able to get up and walk again. So the result went through the window. But it wasn't important to me. Because my default value is to always live according to this norm. But then, why didn't I give up? I mean, I still had 64km to run, and I couldn't reach the result I had set. Except that I had nothing to do with it. So, why do I keep running, knowing that I couldn't reach this result? Well, because my ultimate goal is to respect this norm I set. And a part of this norm says that I never give up. Ok, that's part of my credo. It's one of the lines of my credo. I will never give up. Which means that I will get back up. And even if I still have 64km to run, I will never end up in the lead. I will keep running. Now, while you run those 64km, you know, you arrive at some places where the path is in the shape of a zigzag. You're going down a mountain, you go down this zigzag path. And then, when you look at these zigzags, there's always something in your mind that says you know, there's no one in the parishes. Why wouldn't I just go down the hillside and find the path that would allow me to cut all these zigzags? It would allow me to save some time. In any case, I couldn't win. That's part of my credo. And to behave with honor and integrity. Honor is the adhesion to what is right. Most people don't even know what honor means. They want to live their life with honor, but they don't even know how to define honor. What is right in this scenario? Well, what is right in this scenario is that I stay on the official path of this race. Without taking any shortcuts. Now, integrity is to behave with honor when no one is watching. I look around me, I don't see any other runners in the parishes. I could cut through these zigzags, no one will ever know. But my goal is to behave with integrity. Which means I'm going to run this race as it was made. I'm so passionate. These are some of my values, okay? Not to give up, to behave with honor and integrity. Simple things like that. And I put them all together in a credo according to which I live my life. And you know, it's so important to me. Because, generally, if you can define a norm for yourself, by the way, my ultimate norm is the Holy Bible, the Word of God. This is the ultimate norm of my life. But, often, if you can live according to a norm, you will concretely get the results you want to get. But that's not what I'm looking for. I'm just trying to live according to this norm. And it's just so important for me because all these things I say, I don't say any of these things based on theory. Everything we're talking about here, for example, when we talk about integrity, it's a moment in my life where everything that followed in my life was impacted by a decision based on my integrity. I can remember that once, in the third phase of the Navy SEAL training, we were in the middle of terrestrial navigation and I was at one of my last points. I was in the desert for six days, sailing. And I had this big uncomfortable backpack on my shoulders. And I had one of these big military radios in this bag. This radio was so heavy and so hard. And then I looked up at the top of the hill that I had to climb. And it was my last point. I was getting to the end of this terrestrial navigation. I had been moving non-stop for six days and I was seeing my last point at the top of this hill. And at the beginning of the navigation, the instructor had told me, never put this radio down. You know how serious it is if you lose a radio in the army. It's a big, big problem. You are expelled from the army if you lose a radio. I was still in training. And you know what I did when I opened my eyes and I looked in this direction next to me. And there was a tree right there. And I said to myself, I'm just going to put this damn radio at the foot of this tree. I'm not going to carry it all the way up. This backpack is already quite heavy. And in fact it was one of my last points. Because after I was going to go back there. I look around me. There were no instructors in the parishes. I was completely alone in this large perimeter. I put this radio at the foot of this tree. I climbed to the top of this hill. I validated my point of reference. And they all looked like the tree against which I had put my radio. At that moment. Everything I had worked for. In my life. By the way, I had to undergo a heart surgery to become a Navy SEAL. I had my story to become a SEAL. And very different from that of most others. Everything I had worked for could have disappeared because of this lack of integrity that I had at that moment. If I hadn't found this radio. I wouldn't be here talking to you today. Without a doubt. Because of a lack of integrity. But fortunately. After about 30 minutes of frantic research of this radio. I finally found it. And that's partly the reason why I'm here today. I am. Who I am today. Thanks to. More than a decade. Of. Achievements. More importantly. Failures. Bad decisions. Bad examples of leadership. Of all these bad things. Okay? And in SEAL teams. You know. All bad decisions are multiplied. The consequences of bad decisions are multiplied. So you learn from these mistakes much faster. Because of the nature of the work we do. It was a long process. To become. Who I am today. Now. What really brought me. This last piece of the puzzle. It was. My relationship with Christ. I learned that all these wonderful things of life. Had no kind of. Spiritual relationship. I believe that we all as humans. You can dispute that if you want. I believe that every human being. Is composed of a physical body. Of a soul. And of a spirit. I deeply believe that this is the case. Now my spirit. The spiritual part of me. Was dead and confused. And I had this great physically strong body. A very strong spirit. But when I started to merge with this spiritual aspect of myself. And that I. I learned to feed this part of myself. I mean. It was something completely different. It's just incredible. How long ago was it? I gave my life to Christ if you want to put it that way. Yet I'm not. I'm not a religious person at first. I never went to church. I believe that we can't go to church. I believe that the body of Christ is the church. Alive on earth. It was in 2012. And you joined the Navy in what year? In 2007. But your journey to become a SEAL. You didn't grow up thinking I'm going to be a Navy SEAL. It just happened in a different way, didn't it? Oh yes. Yes. I would love to hear this story. Yeah totally. So when I was growing up in the northwest of Georgia. To make it short. I had never run before and I didn't even know how to swim. I hadn't done any of that. I had never practiced a single sport. And I got my high school diploma. And right after that I went to work. In a farm. And I wasn't good at school. Not because I was stupid. But because I didn't like school. I didn't want to go to college. And then I realized that if I didn't do anything else than this job I was doing at the time. You know, in this farm. To earn a few hundred dollars a week. It would be all I would have in life. I just had this awareness. And then that's when I started to turn to the army. And to discover the universe of Navy SEALs. With its training which is supposed to be the most difficult in the world. And I had this mentality all or nothing in me. I think it was my mother who instilled that in me. This thing of all or nothing. So when I saw written the most difficult. It attracted me. And... I joined the Navy. Then I didn't pass the physical standards test necessary to enter. And it took me about... Probably three months to pass this test. I had to learn to swim. Learn to run. I went back to pass this test every week. This famous physical standards test. Literally every week. It took me about three months to finally pass it once. Then I got my contract for the SEALs. Then I went to the training camp. The last day of the training camp, I was about to be graduated. Then one of my instructors withdrew me from the training. We were literally walking towards the area of the graduated students. The place where you are replaced your recruit beret. By your Navy SEAL beret. And he said you have to go to the hospital. So I went to see the doctor. And the... The officer there. He told me that I had a pericardial cyst. 7 cm on my heart. That I was the very first candidate of the Navy to be diagnosed with a pericardial cyst. That he didn't know anything about it. Because it's a very rare disease. And he said it was totally asymptomatic. That it was the reason why I never realized that I had it at the level of the heart. And the instructors added that they were very worried about it. Because if I found myself again in deep water. The change of pressure could burst this cyst. So they told me. You can never become a SEAL. And we're not going to take this thing off your heart. In fact, none of these surgeons in the Navy had ever removed a pericardial cyst. And I was told. We're going to send you to the lower ranks. Or you can leave the Navy. Because it's a breach of contract. So I left the Navy. Then I paid for my own heart surgery as a civilian. With the help of my family and my community. Because I had no money. And... I went back to the Navy a little less than a year after this heart surgery. What most people refuse to realize. Is that the difficulty you are experiencing now. Is what will save you. No matter what you're going through in life right now. Whether it's a damn disease. A heart surgery. A divorce. A disastrous marriage. No matter what you're going through right now. All these difficulties are manifesting in your life. What you're going through is forging you. So that you become the person. That you're supposed to become in the end. Okay? But if you give up. You will never become the person you were created for. This heart surgery. All this bullshit. All this. All this happened to me for a reason. Because earlier I didn't tell you about the official training you know. Which lasts 6 months. I told you about the small training camp. Which precedes the training to be able to participate. I was disqualified on the last day of the small training camp. So that the day I would present myself. At the finish line of the real training. I can succeed. If I had started this training the very first time. I would never have succeeded. It's impossible. It's so difficult. I can't even describe to you how difficult it is. I would never have succeeded. So. My creator. No matter who your creator is according to you. My creator knew. Like hey. I'm going to make this man go through a few more steps. To prepare him more. And give him a chance to do what I created him for. You all have to put that in your head. Stop being afraid about all the challenges you're facing right now. Because it's. It's a blessing. The main reason why people give up the Navy SEAL training. Is because they let themselves be submerged by the situation as a whole. If you ask any guy. Who gave up. Why he gave up. If he chooses to be honest with you. Very few of them would be. But if he chooses to be honest with you. He will start talking to you about a certain moment. Where. They were doing something really difficult. And they thought. I can't do this for 6 more months. There's no way I can do this for 6 more months. He will start talking to you about a very specific moment. I remember an evolution in the week of hell. We were running back and forth for a kilometer. We started from a point. We ran for a kilometer. And we came back to the starting point. And there was no particular rhythm. The instructors made us do that. Because if we stopped for a minute. We were tired. And. The only instruction for this evolution. Is that we didn't know. When this kilometer that we were doing again and again. Was going to stop. And I saw more guys giving up. During this evolution. Than in probably no other evolution of the whole formation. It's because a lot of them. Had this realization that. If I have to repeat this kilometer. Like. I will be unable to do this for another. Maybe 50 hours. I can't do this for another 50 hours. And so what I did. I said to myself. I can run one more kilometer on this Californian beach. I will do this kilometer. And when I have done this kilometer. I will turn 180 degrees. And I will do another kilometer. And I will focus on the next kilometer. This is the main reason why people give up. It's because they let themselves be submerged by the task as a whole. They project themselves too far. You know. My best friend in the Navy SEAL formation. His name. I will call him Tom. He was a fighter at the base. And you know. He's just a robust and solid guy. And Tom had this negative inner speech. To which he had been facing for a long time. You know. Every human being has negative thoughts in their head at some point. And he was fighting against that for a while. And it didn't beat him. Until a certain morning. I will never forget that. It was during the first phase. We were getting ready for a 3km swim in the ocean. We were getting ready in the barracks. And we knew very well that we were about to do a good dive in the cold of the Pacific Ocean. A water that doesn't make you a gift. In which we were going to swim for 3km. And swim 3 nautical kilometers. Because by the way. In the Navy SEAL formation, we never talk about classic miles. We always talk about sea miles. So we put on our diving suits. And Tom came to me and said. Chad, I don't think I'm good enough to succeed in this formation. But it was a lie. His mind. Your mind. Your mind is telling you constantly lies about you. Like, can someone can relate to this? To which frequency, does your mind tell lies about who you are and what you are capable of? You know that I know, because my mind does this to me all the time. But you know what? Let's not spread that lie out pointlessly, like he did when he came to me that day. And he mixed up this lie and then guess what he did? even before you put a single foot in the water. Um... Listen. When your mind starts telling you lies about what you are capable of, counter it with the truth. Tell the truth out loud. If you think you're not good enough to do something, just tell yourself that you are capable of it out loud. And I don't care who's next to you. Let people think you're crazy. We don't care! Do you prefer people to think you're crazy while you're winning or do you prefer them to think you're just average while you're losing? Like, I prefer winning. So I'm just going to say to myself, No, go fuck yourself. I'm going to start talking to all these lies that appear in my head and tell them, No, I'm capable. I'm literally unstoppable. I keep telling myself that I can't die. I literally believe that I can't die. I'm telling myself that right now, during this podcast. I can't die. I really believe that. And I'm saying it out loud. And maybe you're here to listen to me to think that I'm completely crazy. But I'm going to tell you something. It's for this reason that you will never beat me. That's how I work. And you know, by the way, this method doesn't necessarily work for everyone. I want to put this in perspective. That's how I work. And it works very well for me because it really helps me stay in the present. And I'm not submerged or stuck about what could happen. Because I don't know what's going to happen. I just know that I'm very resilient. And that no matter what happens, I'll be able to make the most of it. And keep pushing myself as hard as I can. Um... But some people need to have a plan. I think... I think there's a... There's... I think that in the end, the best human being is able to combine the two. To have a good, solid plan. But also to have confidence in himself. And to be resilient. Um... And to be able to remember that he'll be able to manage everything that happens to him. In case it doesn't go as planned. When I participate in a race, I mean, I'll tell you the truth. I always have a plan for what I need to eat. And I have... I have a plan for what I want for my crew. You know, for what's in the food stock or water bottles, things like that. I have a more or less precise plan for the people who follow me. And I always make sure to have a general understanding of what's going on. People around me, external elements. So that I can run in a more or less strategic way. But... My strong point is categorically on the side of resilience. Now, there are times when I can be a little more focused on the planning side. But... Yeah. It's the balance of the two that is, I think, the perfect mix. When I started to read the Bible, and, you know, the Bible is written in a way that could be understood by schoolchildren. And... I started with the Gospel according to Matthew. And that's when I started to understand what Jesus said, what he was, what he was talking about, and... what he was doing. And then, in the end, why I need him. And... All of this was revealed to me through the Scriptures. And it just completely changed me. Like, in one night, when I started to read that, it totally changed who I was. And... All of a sudden, I was... You have to know that I was a bad person. And... I didn't look like it. It couldn't be seen from the outside. I enjoyed doing things that I knew were bad. It was much later that I learned to appreciate doing things that I knew were right. So, I mean, I was watching pornography, I was talking like an idiot, I was mean, I was angry. You know, I was just... I was... This guy, I constantly blamed everyone. I did... all those things that... I mean... Wake up, dude. When you're there, sitting and watching porn, dude, you know it's not good. You know it's not good. I knew it wasn't good. And it was long before I gave my life to Christ. Except that, at the time, I found more pleasure doing things that weren't good. And so, when I... When I submitted myself to my Creator, all of a sudden, I had this... supernatural change, where I really wanted it to happen. And I suddenly found more pleasure doing things that were right. Things that I knew were good, right, pure, that simply make people better around me, that make me better. And it wasn't something hypocritical. It's as if this ability had been given to me. There is no substitute for... action. So, even though I told you things, I can tell you to be patient, present and focused. And you'll be there to think, it sounds pretty good. Except that you'll never understand, as long as you haven't done it. Stop looking at me or anyone else, and choose to do something. Whether it's a 160km race or a challenge you decide to take up, because it will be your great opportunity to really see how these things work. To see how it can take you further, or get you out of a hole. Sometimes we need to choose opportunities that will confront us with adversity, to be able to face this adversity itself. My guy, exactly. Like, it's really something that people have a hard time doing. In other words, investing in themselves. People are afraid at this time. With everything that's happening, there are so many people who are afraid. They're like, oh, what will be the next constraint? You know, after going through things like the coronavirus and the chaos and... People always ask me, what do I have to do to prepare myself? Like, because I'm afraid? Well, the answer is simple. Go find your limits. Train yourself. Like, our potential is the ultimate. It's by exploiting your potential that you will find the power to conquer this fear that you feel. But you will never be able to, unless you are ready to go find your damn limits. And people don't want to do that. You know what people want? People want to have fun. It's true. People want to have fun. They don't... They don't want to be told, They don't want to hear things like, Hey, I set up a really delicate mission. I... I'm just going to take myself as an example. There are a lot of other people you can choose to train with, but I'm going to speak for myself. The... No. The last two years of my career as a Navy SEAL, I was an instructor. And I love teaching. And I perfectly know how to set up really difficult missions that will make people grow. And so I could say, Hey, I set up this really difficult mission. Here's the date. Here's how much it's going to cost you. I just introduced you. They don't want to hear that. Instead, they're going to watch fucking YouTube videos. They're going to have fun. They're not going to do it. They don't want to invest in themselves. So they just sit there, and they're scared for the rest of their lives. I can't do anything for you guys, as long as you're not ready to invest in yourself. Everything in life requires investment. You won't get anything for free. But people still don't want to do it. I mean, I'm talking about the vast majority of people. I trained hundreds of people who are ready to do it. I... I don't... I don't target anyone in particular, okay? But the majority. I'm talking about the majority of people. Honestly, man. I've spent my whole adult life investing in myself. Why am I so passionate about this? Since I was 18, until... um... my 30s, I've invested all my life in becoming competent. If... If you're listening to this and... you... you're worried about... setting a standard for yourself, going to a higher level, and... really being responsible for yourself, then listen to what I'm going to tell you. I'm always below the bars I set myself. I can never reach them. Okay? If you often reach the bars you set yourself, it just means that you don't set yourself high enough. Now, what do you do when you can't reach your standards? Well, you learn from it. You make a little report of what happened, just mentally or with someone you trust. You learn from this experience, and you move forward. And you'll just try to get a little closer the next time you'll have the opportunity to reach it. So, don't be discouraged. Don't... Don't think... Don't think that you're not able to... live the way we just talked about. You're going to fail. Except that's where all the lessons are. And I really only learned one lesson from all my victories. Which is that accomplishments reinforce self-confidence. But in general, lessons come from failures. Learn from your failures.