Latest / Motivational Podcast / The Indestructible Soldier – Wesley Grant's Path to Unstoppable Strength
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: If gos do or die, don't come up with excuses
- 0:02Speaker 1: and just get shipped done. Well, everyone's got the same
- 0:05Speaker 1: twenty four hours in the day. You can't sleep whilst,
- 0:08Speaker 1: I'd say sleep less, So stop making the excuses and
- 0:10Speaker 1: start making solutions, regardless ofthing like can you're doing. Never
- 0:13Speaker 1: give up. There's one thing worse than carrying on, and
- 0:16Speaker 1: that's giving up life. Life is just worth living. Yeah,
- 0:42Speaker 1: don't look too deeply into the word fear, or rather
- 0:45Speaker 1: just look at it head on, give it that mord
- 0:49Speaker 1: and go for it. People come up with the excuses
- 0:52Speaker 1: all the time. I don't have time for gym. You know,
- 0:56Speaker 1: if only I had the time to prep my meals,
- 0:58Speaker 1: if only I had the time, how could look like you? Well,
- 1:01Speaker 1: everyone's got the same twenty four hours in the day,
- 1:04Speaker 1: and it's just how you utilize them. If you only
- 1:08Speaker 1: sleep for six hours, sleep faster. But you can't sleep faster,
- 1:15Speaker 1: I'd say sleep less. If you need to have that done,
- 1:22Speaker 1: you will get it done. You'll wake up earlier. You
- 1:24Speaker 1: would go to the gym for you know, that one
- 1:28Speaker 1: hour instead of sitting in bed. Managing that time and
- 1:34Speaker 1: utilizing it. I try and at least dedicate to three
- 1:41Speaker 1: hours for sleep, rest, and recovery. A lot of people
- 1:46Speaker 1: say that's absolutely madness. You can't functional for that. I'm
- 1:49Speaker 1: living proof you can. Don't come up with excuses. Just
- 1:54Speaker 1: get shit done, you know, be stronger than your weakest
- 1:58Speaker 1: excuse and get ship done. The more excuses you make,
- 2:02Speaker 1: the less probability of getting that task done. So stop
- 2:09Speaker 1: making the excuses and start making solutions. Stop finding an
- 2:12Speaker 1: exit strategy and find a solution to find an entrance
- 2:15Speaker 1: strategy into solving that problem that puzzle put in front
- 2:18Speaker 1: of you. Anything in life worth doing is worth overdoing
- 2:22Speaker 1: because moderation is from cowards. Don't be mediocre. Always be
- 2:27Speaker 1: that extreme the elite. Push yourself, keep moving forward. Impossible
- 2:34Speaker 1: is a word that I choose to ignore because nothing
- 2:37Speaker 1: is impossible. So you just set those goals out in
- 2:40Speaker 1: front of you and just go and smash them. Success
- 2:44Speaker 1: is what you make of it of your own life.
- 2:47Speaker 1: You create your own success. You have to be the
- 2:50Speaker 1: master of your own destiny, you know, the captain of
- 2:54Speaker 1: your own ship. Without pushing yourself, creating the time, overcoming
- 3:00Speaker 1: those backlones, all the words that you've thrown in are
- 3:03Speaker 1: never going to be successful. Because you keep making excuses.
- 3:06Speaker 1: So stop making excuses and get ship done. My biggest
- 3:09Speaker 1: fear is being the same as everyone else, and you
- 3:17Speaker 1: don't want to be governed by your fears. My name
- 3:23Speaker 1: is Wesley grant people call me Big Grantee. Originally from
- 3:27Speaker 1: South Africa, born and bred there, spent most of my
- 3:30Speaker 1: time there as a teenager, growing up into my mid twenties,
- 3:34Speaker 1: and I moved over to the UK with the ambitions
- 3:38Speaker 1: of becoming a Royal Marine. Opportunity was presented to me
- 3:42Speaker 1: by a recruiting team that came over to South Africa.
- 3:47Speaker 1: I took that as another challenge and I thought that
- 3:51Speaker 1: would be a great, you know, sort of string to
- 3:54Speaker 1: my bow, to add to my life, sort of accomplishments
- 3:57Speaker 1: and goals. And I've always wanted to be a military man,
- 4:01Speaker 1: So knowing that coming over to England to join the
- 4:04Speaker 1: Royal Marines, the best fighting force in the world and
- 4:07Speaker 1: the longest and hardest NATO training in the world, was
- 4:10Speaker 1: that challenge that I decided to accept and embark upon.
- 4:14Speaker 1: In the process of doing that, I made a promise
- 4:17Speaker 1: to myself, as you say, it's coming over, had I
- 4:21Speaker 1: sold everything off, one bag on my back put some
- 4:25Speaker 1: clothing items in and one hundred pounds in my pocket,
- 4:28Speaker 1: came over to the UK knowing that my goal and
- 4:32Speaker 1: my only goal, was to join the Royal Marines, and
- 4:36Speaker 1: I came over with the intention on doing it, and
- 4:38Speaker 1: there was no point of return for me. I had
- 4:41Speaker 1: no exit strategy, no return ticket, no get out of
- 4:45Speaker 1: jail free card. It was do or die, and that,
- 4:48Speaker 1: I think is what led me to pursue the career
- 4:54Speaker 1: that I did, and to adapt that state of mind
- 4:57Speaker 1: that I did, and the mental attitude which was then doubled,
- 5:02Speaker 1: if not tripled along the way, was in my military career.
- 5:07Speaker 1: So embarking along that journey I think was the best
- 5:10Speaker 1: thing that I could have ever done. A lot of
- 5:13Speaker 1: people ask me why I always choose the most difficult route,
- 5:17Speaker 1: and I tend to ask them the question, why do
- 5:19Speaker 1: you always assume I see two routes. There's only one
- 5:30Speaker 1: route for me, and that's the hard the route that
- 5:33Speaker 1: I choose, the route that I am going to succeed in.
- 5:39Speaker 1: There's only one end goal and outcome for me, and
- 5:43Speaker 1: that's all the way or nothing at all. Everyone is
- 6:00Speaker 1: naturally programmed to fear the loss of their own life
- 6:05Speaker 1: the loss of experience in a traumatic experience like being shot,
- 6:10Speaker 1: being blown up, being set on fire, for example, dealing
- 6:25Speaker 1: with fear is done to the individual. I tackle them
- 6:30Speaker 1: straight on and almost use it to my advantage at first,
- 6:36Speaker 1: suppressing it, hiding it. That's pretty much the go to
- 6:41Speaker 1: answer for for everyone. You know. You don't want to
- 6:44Speaker 1: be seen as the weak character, as the person that's
- 6:46Speaker 1: suffering from PTSD or is fearful of anything, afraid of heights,
- 6:52Speaker 1: or whatever it may be. After I'd been caught in
- 6:57Speaker 1: the fire, I was pretty fearful wildfire, in fact, to
- 7:01Speaker 1: the degree that I couldn't even stand near a barbecue.
- 7:06Speaker 1: I couldn't be around on Guy Fox Night. It's just
- 7:09Speaker 1: one of those things that I sort of stepped back
- 7:13Speaker 1: and away from, my shide away from, and that was
- 7:16Speaker 1: my fear. Dealing with it was the next stage questioning anymore,
- 7:21Speaker 1: why is he not standing around the barbecue or why
- 7:23Speaker 1: is he over there when everyone was facing the fire
- 7:26Speaker 1: works that side. So it's the way that you deal
- 7:30Speaker 1: with it, You confront that fear, And the way I've
- 7:34Speaker 1: confronted it is by hitting it head on, by utilizing
- 7:38Speaker 1: whatever it was I was fearful of and turning it
- 7:41Speaker 1: totally around and just taking full advantage of the situation
- 7:46Speaker 1: by putting myself in that situation again. It's not like
- 7:52Speaker 1: I'm going to go and run into a fire and
- 7:53Speaker 1: set myself alight again. But what it was was becoming
- 7:56Speaker 1: a firefighter where I'd have to now take on the dangers,
- 8:01Speaker 1: putting myself, exposing myself to dangers to help other people
- 8:05Speaker 1: out that may be in danger themselves. And it's that
- 8:08Speaker 1: fear that's led me to now use it as a
- 8:11Speaker 1: positive to help other people that could be fearing fire themselves.
- 8:34Speaker 1: The biggest thing I could have learned from the military
- 8:37Speaker 1: was controlling your mind and the state of mind that
- 8:40Speaker 1: you're in. So every situation that anyone goes through will
- 8:46Speaker 1: have a negative impact on you. So whether it be
- 8:49Speaker 1: from loss of a family member to a car accident,
- 8:53Speaker 1: being diagnosed with a disease or incurable element, the way
- 8:59Speaker 1: you deal with that is obviously dictated by your state
- 9:02Speaker 1: of mind. So you can either, you know, just accept
- 9:05Speaker 1: it and take it for what it is, let it
- 9:10Speaker 1: get the better of you and pretty much eat your way,
- 9:13Speaker 1: and you know you're not going to experience life to
- 9:17Speaker 1: the fullest, and you're obviously just going to let it
- 9:20Speaker 1: get the better of you, Whereas I think it's instilled
- 9:22Speaker 1: in me to take that and turn it into a positive,
- 9:26Speaker 1: find a solution, find a way of overcoming it. I'll
- 9:31Speaker 1: almost take it as a challenge. I'm very competitive, so
- 9:37Speaker 1: any challenge presented in front of me, I would hit
- 9:41Speaker 1: full on from the front and let's go for it.
- 9:44Speaker 1: So I'll take everything, use the state of mind that
- 9:50Speaker 1: I've learned to adapt over the years, within the monetary
- 9:54Speaker 1: as a positive state of wine, and push myself to
- 9:58Speaker 1: overcome in whatever it is. Those demons. That is what
- 10:02Speaker 1: you have to overcome. Now everyone's got demons and it's
- 10:05Speaker 1: how we deal with them, which you know is the
- 10:08Speaker 1: ultimate result. At first, people said why was I drinking?
- 10:17Speaker 1: And that was to drown my demons. Eventually, my demons
- 10:20Speaker 1: learned to have a swim and the drink wasn't carrying that,
- 10:22Speaker 1: so I had to find something else, and I've used
- 10:26Speaker 1: gym as my release and I find that's my therapy too, Yeah,
- 10:34Speaker 1: to chase out the demons. And again it's that mindset
- 10:39Speaker 1: to take any negative and turn it into a positive.
- 10:53Speaker 1: If somebody wanted to be a Royal Marine's commander in
- 10:56Speaker 1: terms of their character or their mindset, what were some
- 10:57Speaker 1: of the attributes they would need to have. I'd say
- 11:02Speaker 1: the strongest attribute that you would need is the mindset
- 11:07Speaker 1: of a warrior, of an absolute lion, the toughest of
- 11:12Speaker 1: the tough, and it's only because your mind is what
- 11:16Speaker 1: is going to carry you through. It is the strongest
- 11:18Speaker 1: muscle in your body. You could take marines put them
- 11:24Speaker 1: side by side. Not all of them looked like me.
- 11:29Speaker 1: We had some, you know, of my best friends, half
- 11:32Speaker 1: my size, half my weight, half my height, and the
- 11:37Speaker 1: exact same capabilities. At the end of it, we passed
- 11:39Speaker 1: the exact same testing, so the standards never dropped. There
- 11:43Speaker 1: was always a set criteria that you had to meet,
- 11:46Speaker 1: and regardless of who they were or their physical look
- 11:51Speaker 1: or shape, it was their mind that got them to
- 11:54Speaker 1: that end goal. You've all just got to get through it. Yeah,
- 12:00Speaker 1: it's your mindset that takes you to that next level
- 12:03Speaker 1: or that criteria that you have to meet. I think
- 12:06Speaker 1: the body is what you make it. You can always
- 12:12Speaker 1: train to become an ultramarathon runner. You could train to
- 12:15Speaker 1: become a strong man competitor and lifter or powerlifter. You
- 12:19Speaker 1: could train to become the fastest swimmer. But your mind
- 12:23Speaker 1: is the strongest part of your body because it's something
- 12:26Speaker 1: that is forever developing, and if you don't take control
- 12:31Speaker 1: of it, it could make or break you within an instant.
- 12:36Speaker 1: It's got the ability to bring the strongest men to
- 12:39Speaker 1: their knees, and it's got the ability to lift the
- 12:42Speaker 1: weakest person to the heights of the highest towers. So
- 12:47Speaker 1: it's something that you've really got to use to your
- 12:50Speaker 1: advantage being the strongest muscle. Utilize it, make it your friend,
- 12:58Speaker 1: use it to the best of your to what you
- 13:01Speaker 1: can for whatever goals are set out in front of you,
- 13:03Speaker 1: to whatever obstacles are set out in front of you.
- 13:06Speaker 1: And like I've always said, overcoming things, it's just down
- 13:10Speaker 1: to the state of mind that you've you've got and
- 13:13Speaker 1: that you persevere and push through, whether it be a
- 13:16Speaker 1: sticky situation or you know, a great one. Everything that
- 13:27Speaker 1: you do in life, make time for, whether it be
- 13:31Speaker 1: for your kids, for your passion, for progression studies, for
- 13:35Speaker 1: whatever it is. You need to just make that time.
- 13:38Speaker 1: Stop making excuses, make the time for it. I love
- 13:43Speaker 1: by saying that I'm always the hardest worker in the
- 13:45Speaker 1: room the harder work you put in, the bigger the rewards.
- 13:57Speaker 1: You know, it's again further up the tree climb suite
- 14:01Speaker 1: to the fruits that bear. Going through tours of Afghanistan,
- 14:23Speaker 1: you know, seeing things that we did experience in things
- 14:25Speaker 1: that normal people shouldn't have to experience, creative demons and
- 14:31Speaker 1: everyone has a certain level of acceptance of those demons.
- 14:35Speaker 1: And it doesn't necessarily have to be you know, the
- 14:37Speaker 1: military side of things. That could be any situation, as
- 14:42Speaker 1: I've previously mentioned again, from illnesses to losses to any situation.
- 14:51Speaker 1: Everyone has their own story and within that story there's
- 14:54Speaker 1: positives and negatives, goods and bads. And from the bads
- 14:58Speaker 1: they are those demons, and I like to obviously refer
- 15:01Speaker 1: to them as demons. It's those negative setbacks, the stuff
- 15:05Speaker 1: which is holding your back, the stuff which is cramping
- 15:07Speaker 1: your style, which is preventing you from progressing or moving forward.
- 15:12Speaker 1: Those demons are dealt with in different and manners, and
- 15:17Speaker 1: there's different ways and mechanisms that we used, you know,
- 15:20Speaker 1: to overcome them. Like I had said, I drank, they
- 15:24Speaker 1: learned how to swim, and I have to find an alternative.
- 15:28Speaker 1: Some people turn to drugs, Some people turn to footness.
- 15:30Speaker 1: Some people just talk about it, some people go the
- 15:34Speaker 1: other way and don't talk about it, and everyone's got
- 15:37Speaker 1: their own way of dealing with it. Now, if you
- 15:52Speaker 1: don't progress, that's when the issues start happening and the
- 15:56Speaker 1: mental illness side of things come into effect. I'm a
- 16:00Speaker 1: big advocate on that. I lost my sister to mental
- 16:04Speaker 1: illness and it's something that I support and I rarely
- 16:12Speaker 1: don't turn the blind eye to people suffer from PTSD,
- 16:16Speaker 1: and it's a blase, a taboo subject initially until you
- 16:21Speaker 1: know someone that is actually suffering from these things. And
- 16:23Speaker 1: PTSD doesn't necessarily have to be from military experience. It
- 16:28Speaker 1: could be from any traumatic experience that you exposed to.
- 16:31Speaker 1: And if you don't talk about it, those demons build
- 16:34Speaker 1: up and eventually they could consume your life and consume you.
- 16:40Speaker 1: Stand by those people to let them know that they're
- 16:42Speaker 1: not alone. It's something that hit home for me, and
- 16:46Speaker 1: somethings got hold close to my heart to I've always
- 16:51Speaker 1: been a bog applcate of saying, never give up. Regardless
- 16:55Speaker 1: of what you're doing, never give up. So there's one
- 16:58Speaker 1: thing worse than carrying on, and that's giving up so
- 17:02Speaker 1: if you do give up, that's it. You've got no
- 17:05Speaker 1: no comebacks to that. I always say keep moving. If
- 17:09Speaker 1: I stop moving, I think that's when I'll fade away
- 17:12Speaker 1: and break for by the way side. That absolutely humble.
- 17:17Speaker 1: I'll have to have purpose for my day. And whatever
- 17:20Speaker 1: the purpose is, whether it's be to be a better,
- 17:23Speaker 1: better father, whether it's to walk taller, walk the extra bit, further,
- 17:28Speaker 1: be prouder, dress smarter, train harder, lift heavier, it's keep moving,
- 17:34Speaker 1: keep doing that, keep pushing yourself forward the whole time. Life.
- 17:39Speaker 1: Life is just worth living. It's it's worth being there,
- 17:42Speaker 1: it's experiencing things, pushing yourself, just being, just being