I have been leading others from a very young age.  I was hired as a police officer and had checked the police academy off my bucket list just as I turned 21.  At that same time, I was mentoring newly immigrated Sudanese Refugees at the AZ Lost Boys Center. These remarkable and resilient friends thought I was teaching them, but quite the opposite was true. They were the first people who really modeled and showed me what relentless optimism, resiliency, gratitude, and true happiness despite facing extreme adversity looked like. This is where my paradigm shifted and my character began to be forged. At 25 I stepped away from law enforcement and transitioned into another academy and became a firefighter.  

As I climbed the ranks as a firefighter, I became the guy always trying to get people to talk about their feelings. I was always willing to share that some of our  calls were hard on me, or that the marriage at home was rough, or that parenting wasn’t exactly what I thought I had signed up for. It never ceased to amaze me that we were brave enough to go into house fires, but not brave enough to investigate or share our feelings. It also never ceased to amaze me that whenever I opened up, quite often the floodgates would open and my coworkers would open up and process with me. 

After 15 amazing years in public safety and right at the top of my game, a brain & spinal injury on the job forced me into a medical retirement. Shortly thereafter, my family  lost 11 loved ones and my daughter was diagnosed with a disability. I lost my career, half my income, and my whole entire house was in turmoil. 

As if that wasn’t enough, all these issues were compounded with PTSD and normal day to day challenges. I became totally lost, depressed, unsure how to cope with the pain and the struggle. This feeling was so new and foreign, honestly I was shocked because prior to my world crumbling, I was such a resilient dude who was obsessed with wellness. I had been practicing mindfulness for 20 years, plus I was skilled and experienced at the fire department’s adapt-and-overcome leadership mentality and I had a super positive mindset.

However, I was quickly driven into such a dark space and had so many emotional challenges and so much pain that I had a very near miss with suicide. 

After I survived that day, I was 100% determined to not ever get anywhere near that place again. I'm so grateful that I'm alive, and that I spared my family from that tragedy and hardship that I doubled down on my pursuit of wellness. I got a new counselor. I worked tirelessly honing in on my mental, emotional and spiritual wellness and I reached out to my incredible tribe and got the help that I needed.

I have since become exceptionally proficient at many different skills and emotional wellness practices such as expressive writing, gratitude, empathy, mindfulness, and meditation. I found that many of these things didn’t work for me when I needed them the most and I wanted to know why. 

What I learned was that when taught properly and utilized effectively, these are incredible tools and can give you the superpowers of being able to turn obstacles into opportunities for growth and pain into purpose. But the key point here is that they must be taught properly and practiced effectively. And that's not something that everybody knows how to do.

So now I feel like the luckiest guy on the planet to be in this amazing headspace and to have had these incredible (yes incredible, despite being very painful) experiences. I’m so freaking stoked to have figured out how to maintain my personality, my edge, and my strong attributes that I love, while also integrating emotional wellness, mindfulness, meditation, effective decision-making models,critical thinking skills, healthy communication and boundaries. I want nothing more than to pass on that transformation to you!

With the proper mindset, the right guide, and some effort, you too can lean in, enjoy life, spread love, and let the awesomeness unfold.