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Empowering Veteran Purpose: Louis Stockley's Journey from Addiction to Advocacy through Operation Dream Big · Your Thoughts Your Reality

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to your Thoughts, your Reality with Michael Cole, the podcast that shines a compassionate light on the journey of veterans battling through life's challenges.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Michael is a dual elite certified neuro encoding specialist in coaching and keynote training presentations dedicated to guiding military veterans as they navigate the intricate pathways of post-deployment life.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Join him as we delve into the profound realm of neuroencoding science, empowering these brave individuals to conquer universal battles procrastination, self-doubt, fear and more.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Together, let's uncover the strength within you to re-engage with families and society, forging a new path forward.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Hello, hello, hello everybody.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: So after a vacation, I am back and we have a great guest today, very happy to have Louis Stokely on here.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Louis Stokely has served as a 25B IT specialist in the US Army, excelled in the IT field with the Department of Justice after his military service, overcame personal battles with addiction to TV and video games and is very dedicated to empowering veterans through transition to civilian life, including his Operation Dream Big, which we're going to talk about.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: That as well.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Lewis, so good to see you, my friend.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: So why don't you tell us people that haven't seen you on here yet or listening on podcasts?
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: tell us a little more about yourself.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: Hey, buddy, could you say that one more time?
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: It kind of broke up on the end there.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Oh, can you go ahead and tell?
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: us a little bit more about yourself.
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, sure.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: So my name is Louis James Arthur Stockley Jr there's two of us with that super long name.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: Military veteran I was in for six years.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: I went in for IT, did IT in high school, did it in the military and then I do it for the US government as well.
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: I am an avid father and husband.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: I want to say entrepreneur, but I'm going more in the nonprofit arena, so maybe lean in towards a philanthropist type deal.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: I want to say entrepreneur, but I'm going more in the nonprofit arena, so maybe lean in towards a philanthropist type deal.
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: But either way, you know, I would say I'm just a crazy guy who when I turn the path, I go to the extreme on it until I see where it's going to go.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: I love it, man.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: So I would say there's a little bit of entrepreneurship spirited there, for sure.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: So thank you for sharing that.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Tell us a little bit of entrepreneurship spirit there, for sure.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: So thank you for sharing that.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Tell us a little bit more about speaking, of going big Talk about your Operation, dream, big project.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Then we'll dive into the purpose and so forth.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: But I do want to make sure we get that in.
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: Yep.
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: So Operation Dream Big is a brainchild of mine that I created back in the day when I was going through a veterans program, healing myself from PTSD and different issues, along with my fellow brothers and sisters, and I came up with first the idea that I was going to be a fitness coach and I said let me start with something there.
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: I like the idea of dream big.
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: I'm always about following your dreams.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: So I said I'll start something called Dream Big Calisthenics and eventually, as time went on, that evolved to what it is today, which is Operation Dream Big, as I picked up new skills.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: I picked up skills in fitness, nutrition and coaching in general mindset, life coaching, and I just would put together programs intuitively that would help people not just veterans at that point to heal, and heal from a lot of different things.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: It's amazing, like fatty liver, different diseases, people would heal from arthritis.
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: Through the coaching I did.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: People would be able to conquer anxiety, depression, lots of different issues that they were facing.
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: They would conquer them and the big question that would always pop up for my veteran brothers and sisters is how much does it cost?
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: And because of the prices that I was charging, there was always a huge barrier to entry.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: I couldn't help as many people as I wanted to help in the veteran space and this year just kind of hit me like a lightning bolt.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: You know, maybe I'm meant to go in the direction of trying to help more veterans that were struggling the way I was.
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: So enter Operation Dream Big, where I decided I'll make a nonprofit that will create an online educational curriculum for veterans and military members that are in the process of transitioning out.
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: It gives you those three key pillars that you can start to work on in fitness and nutrition and mindset, which encompasses a lot of different things, and help you to just walk through those areas step by step, just teaching you what I learned in order to get myself to the point where I'm at now, tackling all the different things I had to tackle.
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: I got ADHD, depression, ptsd, like you name it.
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: I've struggled with it.
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: So I just want to bring that to the masses and the overall vision of this.
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: The big vision purpose of it is to have this be a program listed under the VA so that when you're getting out and you're signing your little checklist and they're collecting your gear and stuff, one of the things they give you is access to that site.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: That's fantastic man.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: That truly is fantastic.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: Thank you for what you did and what you're going to do, my friend.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: It's impressive, it truly is, and make sure you go big with it, because that's just who you are.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: So, amen, I love it.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: That's the goal.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: I absolutely love it.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: If you need any help with anything, I always you know I want to be involved, so let me know.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Okay, Will do, I'll let you know.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely so.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: Your journey with the Army to Department of Justice it's inspiring.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: So how did your sense of purpose that I know that's what we want to talk about today is purpose?
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: How did your sense of purpose evolve during these transitions?
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: So, to start with, when I first joined the military, my honest, only purpose was was that the army and military is all I knew, all family members I knew of uncles, aunts, father, stepfather, mother we're all Army.
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: So I said that's what I know.
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: I can't stay in college, so I'm going to try to join the military and I'll try to do it on my own terms, which I knew.
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: I've been doing IT in high school.
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: But I knew I had a troubled record.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: I got four reckless driving tickets before the age of 18.
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: I was a street racer back then.
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: So you know there was a huge barrier to get in for me and let alone get the job that I wanted, which was in IT, because that's the bar is high for those, that's, the ones that they have to spend the most money on.
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: But through it all, just through amazing people and things like that, I started to start to form that little purpose when I ran into certain people, like the recruiter who walked into court with me in his class A uniform to help me sign up, knowing that if I don't take care of all these fees that I have no way to pay for.
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: You know, with the tickets and everything like that, there's no way I'm going to join.
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: He spoke to the judge for me, told him my intention to join and we go up to the cashier after because the judge reduced the fines but there's still fines, right, and I at that point hadn't told him.
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: Like me and my mom were, were broke, I don't have the money to even pay for this ticket so that I could finish up and join.
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: He didn't even ask questions.
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: He pulled out his own debit card and paid those fees for me.
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: So that was my first real experience, you know, joining the military and seeing how kind and powerful certain leaders can be.
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: And you know I still went through my teenage growing pains because I became more of a man in the military.
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: I joined at 17 years old.
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: So you know I joined at 17.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: And I guess, as I'm going through, I'm finding mentors.
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: First duty station was Germany, after going through almost a year of IT training, basic and advanced training and things like that and there I had an E-5, a sergeant that was my mentor and he's a great guy.
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: I still talk to him today and one of the first accidents or troubled events that happened for me is I met a girl and I wanted to go visit her in Wiesbaden looks like we just lost Lewis for a second.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: He's coming back on right now.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: Hey, lewis, we lost you just for a second, so there was a girl there was a girl.
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: So I decided, not even knowing how Germany works, that I'm going to get on this train ride four hours away, spend the weekend with her and then, oh, I'll magically be able to make it back by monday morning when we have our first formation, which is at like five in the morning, and I'll be good to go so fast forward to sunday that weekend.
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: She brings me to the train station.
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, trains are probably still going to be running.
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: It's 5 pm, I'm going to get on the train, I'm gonna head back, get some sleep and I'll be good right.
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: I walk into this train station and it was completely dark.
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: Everything was shut down, nothing there, just just a bunch of benches.
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: It smelled like piss everywhere.
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: It was like at 17 years old, not speaking the language, we had those old nokias, you know.
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: So it just ran out of battery, had no way to charge it, no money for a payphone.
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: I was just up that creek with no way back and um, so, long story short, I do get on the train after sleeping at the station and I make it to formation at 9 am and that E5, bless his heart, he chewed me up from left and right.
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: You know, just read me.
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: The riot act gave me what you call the counseling statements, had me doing pushups and exercises, had me talking about what my goals were and all this other stuff, and I was so angry at him.
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: But that was my first real, real experience with a male role model that wasn't going to take any of my stuff, was going to show me what it really means to be an actual man and be responsible.
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: And so I, a long time after that, I realized he was so tough on me because he actually cared.
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: And then he was legit worried for my safety because they couldn't reach me.
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: I was in that foreign country and I didn't speak the language.
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: He knew the situation and he was worried for my safety.
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: But anyway, like after having situations like that and many different things occur during my service, I started to form this purpose of wanting to help people.
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: And it was just with small stuff, you know know, like if somebody needed help I would take the shift.
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: I would always be available to sit down and talk with my brothers, especially when we were on deployment and things like that.
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: But I knew in the back of my mind that after my six years were up, I was ready to go because I wanted to find a way to support my family and make more money.
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: I knew I liked IT.
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: I knew it came natural to me.
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: So at that point I said, okay, I'm on deployment when I finally decide I'm not going to stay in any longer.
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: I've been in the same rank I had for three years, even though I should be promoted.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: Seems like it's top heavy right now in the Army time for me to go.
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: So my purpose solely for getting out was just supporting my family and making more money.
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: So I get out.
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: I go through the struggles that veterans start to go through where you're trying to make your way in the world.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: If we can, really quick, lewis, I just want to really bring light to before we move into this next section.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: Thank you First of all, those those amazing men that were in your life, that cared enough that changed your whole trajectory.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: Man, that's, that's really awesome.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: So I just want to bring the point of hey, you never know when you're going to touch somebody and literally change their life.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: Be kind and really just just you know, treat others as you want to be treated, right, the golden rule from I don't know how long ago, but it's just amazing how it changed the trajectory of your life.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: That's awesome, man, and I forgot about the story till you started talking about it.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: It's a, it's a really great story.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: It really is.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: Thanks for.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: Thank you for sharing.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: All right, sorry, man, no problem, I just needed to really bring that out.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: So your purpose moving, taking care of your family, moving into the Department of Justice.
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: Yep.
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: So I guess what happened to me was, after getting out with that goal of making money, I struggled for many months trying to find a job.
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: I'm driving some weeks a job.
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: I'm driving some weeks every day.
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: I'm driving an hour back and forth looking for jobs.
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: I get a couple, but they only keep me on for like a week, even though I'm doing an amazing job, and they say stuff like they ran out of funding or things like that.
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: And this is what I was experiencing going into the contracting environment, you know, as a contractor in IT, and I just kept going, kept applying, kept doing what I needed to do because I knew my family was depending on me.
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: I knew the terminal leave money that we get when we get out.
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: You know that was going to run out.
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: And, long story short, after three or four months of that struggling, my wife is pregnant with my son and we hit this moment where we need insurance because that's running out too.
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: We look into an insurance guy who tells me I'm a veteran, trust me.
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: So I'm like cool, you know, not really knowing any better because, yeah, that's what I came from the military Trust your brothers and sisters.
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: We paid the guy up front almost five thousand dollars to get this plan established, because my wife was going to be due in december of that year and she hadn't been to an ob appointment yet again.
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: So we buy the insurance, get the cards in the mail, everything's good.
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: But we go into the office, hand them the card, they tell us nothing's covered.
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: So right there, right then, and there my wife's crying in front of the um.
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: The receptionist says it just hit me, I just got screwed over.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: You know, like there's nothing I can do, because when I tried to call the guy, the number was disconnected, wasn't answering email, I didn't know who to turn him into, none of that.
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: How to get that money back, I don't even know.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: I didn't know who to turn them into none of that.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: How to get that money back.
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: I didn't even know how to work the legal system to do that.
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: And so that type of experience made me start to be ashamed of being a veteran myself.
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: I had a few other experiences like that as well.
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: So through all of this, I'm still keeping this idea of kindness and still talking to my brothers and sisters on Facebook and things like that.
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: And luckily, a couple of months later, three offers came through for government jobs, one of them being the one that I spent 12 years at the Department of Justice, and again, you know I ran into veterans, but this time on the positive side of it.
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: I got to see what it's like when a veteran who has something is able to help others, and he chooses to do that, because if I hadn't applied for that job, I wouldn't have come in front of a fellow veteran, a mentor, who said man, look what this guy's been doing for his military career.
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: He's done everything you could think of in IT and he's like he goes up to his boss and says this guy is perfect, you need to throw everybody else out, fly him up here and pitch him on joining this team.
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: So they actually flew me up to DC, let me see the office, and gave me that experience and I ended up going with that job.
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: We left Fort Campbell and got the job there.
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: As I got the job and I'm working in a small team a few of the guys are veterans, a team of five.
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: I start to get a mentor or two there, one in the IT realm.
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: He was an Air Force vet, been in for 25 years and got out and was an entrepreneur.
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: And then I had another army vet who was 56 years old and this man worked out like nobody else I've ever seen.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: So I'm getting all of these different things.
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: I've never seen A guy at that age who's physically performing at that level and a gentleman who's just pushing forward in career and entrepreneurship and things like that.
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: And basically what it turned out to be is I started gathering my skills, learning how to be a coach from them, because they used it all on me to help me get to where I needed to be, but my purpose didn't really develop until the next pilot.
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: You ask any questions if you want.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah no, I think it's fantastic.
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: So the next part everything sounds all good because I'm making money six figures or more getting accolades I was a GS-14 at the age of 25 years old, which is unheard of, if you know the government realm and I'm really cruising along.
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: So I hit all my goals that I have for myself on paper, but that question came up what's next?
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: I'm like you hit all your goals but you still feel like crap mentally.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: We're always looking for fulfillment, man.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: That purpose is what really fills us.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: That's where the purpose comes in.
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: I didn't have one, so I fell by the wayside.
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: And what we veterans tend to do even regular people as well we choose to find something to fill in the void, and for me that ended up being video games.
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: That's where the video game addiction came into play.
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: I would play.
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: I started playing innocently, because I played them from childhood.
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: But it didn't get to that point until later on.
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: Whereas excessive because I had nothing else to really look forward to anymore, I was still messed up inside.
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: I didn't know what to do with it.
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: So whenever my emotions got to be too much, it was the game controller or the phone or the computer, whatever I could expose myself to.
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: And that started out innocent.
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: It's a couple hours here, a couple hours there.
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: But then it built and built over time until it's mixed into every part of my life, like I don't want to go spend time with my wife and kids on the weekend because I just want to get through it, so I can get back home to the peace and quiet of my master bedroom with that big TV and just play video games.
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: Tv and just play video games.
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: And so it went even farther from there, to where you can imagine that I'm spending absorbent amounts of money every month on these games, thousands of dollars on upgrades, equipment, things like that.
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: And that wasn't even the worst part.
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: The worst part is that I hid it from my wife.
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: I hid the expenses from my wife because I was ashamed of it.
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: At the same time I felt like I needed it and so that came to a head because eventually she found out.
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: Of course she's going to find out.
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: The statement comes in the mail, the bill comes due.
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: We could add the money to pay it, but it was the betrayal and the trust that was broken from that right.
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: So, she did what she was supposed to when dealing with an addict.
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: She put her foot down and she said you have to go.
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: And so I packed up my stuff, going through all that pain, and I went and stayed at a hotel for the night and that was all it took to just rewire myself and realize, man, having those flashbacks of where my life was going up till now, is this really what I want to do?
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: Is this, how, having those flashbacks of where my life was going up till now, this is really what I want to do?
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: This is how I want to live my life.
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: And so I said, you know, I got on the phone with her.
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: I said I'll do whatever it takes, went home, got with a therapist, started looking back into the past to figure out how to crawl back forward.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: Okay, you found that leverage man.
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: Yep.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: Most people don't find it that easy, Louis, so amen man.
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: Well, I look at it like this it was my wife making that courageous decision to stand up and say that and draw the line there, and then me, caring enough to say I don't want to lose my family, I don't want to end up in a basement somewhere and play video games.
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: Those two things met and created that explosive change, whereas in in other situations, even the people I've worked with is one or the other.
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: Somebody drew the line, but they didn't care enough to avoid crossing and so they just let things get worse.
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: Or the other way around they care, but there's nobody setting boundaries with them, the people they care about so they just say, oh, I'm gonna keep going, nothing's wrong.
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: So what happened is I'm just on my journey six months into it.
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: I'm working out, I'm listening to content, doing everything I need to do, not even worried about helping anybody.
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: I'm just like.
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: I want to stay on the right side of this.
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: I want to keep on doing better and feeling better and doing things like that.
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: A veteran friend of mine, friend of myself and my wife.
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: He was a military policeman for 10 years.
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: He got out and he had massive issues with PTSD and struggling to adjust and all of that you know the typical issues that we run into and what we said is he needs a safe place, he needs a good place to be.
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: He was in New York, we were in Maryland.
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: We said pack up your stuff, come, stay with us over the holidays, which is the time where it's really tough and most people will make that decision to hurt themselves.
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: We didn't want to see that happen for him, so we said come, stay with us, the kids are going to.
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: He's a big kid, he liked to play with my kids and stuff like that.
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: So we got, we gave him that time and I said that'll be it.
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: He'll just hang with us for a couple months November, december, maybe January and then he can figure out a plan and start to get himself back and head back.
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: But what ended up happening is I was getting up every morning at 4 am before work because I wanted to stay on my recovery path working out, listening to content, journaling, doing what I needed to do, not thinking anything of it.
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: About two weeks into him being there, he comes downstairs because he's like what are you up to, man?
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: I hear this noise every morning.
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: I'm just curious and I'm sweating from the workout I was currently doing.
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: I was doing P90X.
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: I don't know if you do know that.
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: Yep, that's what I started oh yeah so Mr Tony Horton was the start of my physical recovery, but uh, and then I went to insanity after that.
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: But uh, he comes down, that's what I'm doing.
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: I said nothing, nothing special, I'm just working out.
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: I had that motivational content playing in the background.
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: You know ET, the hip-hop preacher Eric Thomas, was playing in the background and he just motivated me.
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: And I'm working out and training and he's like can I join?
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: He comes back a couple days later asking, hey, can I join you?
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: And I was like, sure, no problem.
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: I felt kind of uncomfortable about it because I'm like I'm not really the best role model, because I don't know what I'm doing, but sure you can join in.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: Six months ago, but sure you just really do what I do Really quick list that you can just speak to and let's get back to the story.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: But if you can just speak to how important it is for physical action or the mind and or physiology, you know, emotions, all of that during that transition period, that would be really ideal to talk about just for a second.
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: So here's what I always go back to when I'm talking to clients and coaching people.
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: I have never had a bad experience that came from me working out, being in the gym.
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: It always always felt good After or before or whatever at some point.
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: It was always an amazing, peaceful, zen experience for me to work out and train and it was simply because moving your body really is medicine, like that statement says.
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: That physical peace is what allowed me to quiet the mind long enough for me to start to think about what I needed to do and to be all right with myself for a little bit and explore those emotions.
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: Because when those emotions are coming in tough and heavy, you can't think logically.
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: You don't even feel like you want to move.
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: So if you can just do the hard thing, get the workout done in the morning and get yourself to move, that physical piece will pull you through.
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: It starts to pull you away from what you're struggling with, and I think that's what my buddy felt when he came down and saw me working out Like man.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: I have this kind of longing to feel what he's feeling right now, you know yeah, absolutely, and and two things with that is um, he got camaraderie again, right, because he's doing it with you, you guys all probably bonded and it was probably awesome for you also.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: When you do that physical activity, it releases a bunch of good hormones throughout your body.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: That that's why you get that euphoric.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: I'm relaxed.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: You know this is amazing.
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: And when you do it with people, you get the oxytocin as well.
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: You get the nice yep, Absolutely.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: Okay, so we got about five minutes left, man.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: So if you want to go ahead and continue on with that story, that would be awesome.
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll make it quick.
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: So ultimately he was 300 pounds.
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: He did his first pull-up working out, working out down in the basement with me.
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: The pull-up bar was bending and everything, and we started this journey of just working out for two to three months and so after those two to three months he went down from around I said 300 is around 250.
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: He went down to 200 pounds because he was eating, doing everything he needed to do.
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: He felt amazing.
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: I asked him what's your goal?
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: What do you want to do next?
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: He's like I still want to serve and so I'm like all right, let's figure out how to do that.
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: So he applied for the police academy.
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: He applied for the police academy, left in january.
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: He did not get in, but he had the mental fortitude enough to say okay, what's the next thing I can do?
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: So he started taking security jobs and then going into head of security and doing stuff like that, and so ultimately I coached him and helped him turn his life around and he's still doing well to this day.
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: You know, he had life hits him with those curves and he still does good.
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: But what that led me to realize is that I had a strong purpose and gift and ability to communicate with and help other people.
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: I didn't know what got me through those tough times.
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: What got me through was my ability to just learn at a high level from my mistakes and correct them, and so that purpose led me to the current, you know, mission I have with Operation Dream Big to just help.
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: As many people realize that the key to living a powerful, amazing life and feeling the way you want to feel is just having a strong purpose.
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: Because once I realized that my purpose was to help people and then to help veterans at some point every step of the way that got me through the challenges I'm, I was getting up at 4 am without an alarm after I figured out what I really wanted to do.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: Like it's that powerful to know what your purpose is awesome yeah, it's awesome when you, when you, when you stay up late and you're up early because you find your purpose and it's not work, it's just fun and exciting and you know, anticipated excitement.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: I call it man.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: You just can't wait for what's coming next.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: It's fantastic when you find that Lewis always such an awesome time when we're on here.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: So I know we've got a couple minutes left, but I want to ask you some more questions, if that's all right.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: So I'm always going to ask you for the three tips at the end, but what advice would you give veterans who feel lost and directionless during the transition into civilian life or military life?
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: Well, I always tell vets that are feeling that lost or they feel misunderstood a lot of times is step one is to make sure you have a routine established.
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: It's better even if you make a routine separate to your military stuff before you even get out, so that you can continue with it and in the transition out, that routine is going to become your foundation and your lifeline, even if it's just as simple as a 15-minute walk every day and some journaling, some easy stuff that you consistently can do every single day.
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: The next thing I would tell them for sure is to look into military organizations or organizations based on the military that are reputable, not those ones that are just going to keep you in the past, stuck in your pain, you know, making fun of death and doing all those morbid jokes and stuff like that.
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: The guys that know what you're going through and maybe have been through it and have come out the other side, that are a good example for you.
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: And then the last thing I would say is find someone else to help as well.
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: Once you start feeling like you've gotten a little bit of results in your group, look for the next guy to help him out the same way you were helped, because that's the way you end this struggle and end that curse that we're all going through.
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: Well, and you gave me three.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: So do you want to use those three tips or do you got more?
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: So for the three tips, three tips for finding your purpose Number one, I would say, is figure out what your gifts are.
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: Everybody has gifts that you do so easily, but it's complex for other people and you're like what do you mean?
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: You just do this, this and this.
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: Figure out what those are.
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: Just brain dump until you know what those are.
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: Next, figure out how you can use that gift to help other people.
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: Once until you know what those are.
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: Next, figure out how you can use that gift to help other people.
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: Once I did that, that's when my purpose started to reveal itself.
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: You figure out how to use your gifts to help other people and then, once you've figured out how to help other people and you start doing that a little bit start to look into what your big dreams are.
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: Once you have figured out what your big dreams are and understand this stuff can change as you develop and get more experience you figure out how to connect your big dream to what you're doing with your gift and you'll find a purpose there.
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, awesome and and they will change right as you grow.
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: As a person, dreams will change.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: That's natural awesome tip.
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: That was the big, that was the big hold up right there.
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: I thought it had to be the same thing every time.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: Absolutely and really.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: It's what do you want.
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: You know what do you want with any aspect of life and then, once you know that, just keep taking steps, it will happen.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: You know what you want comes first, how come second, and most people try to get around.
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: Awesome, hey.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: So if people want to reach out to you, how they?
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: How do they get a hold of you?
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: Just vetcoachlouis on Instagram or TikTok and YouTube.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: Awesome man.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: So, as always, louis, I want to just say thank you for spending the time.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: Most valuable resource we have as human beings is time.
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: We don't get it back.
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: So thank you for spending the time with us.
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: No, problem.
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: I appreciate you letting me go over a little bit.
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: No, don't worry, I own the place.
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: It's fine, it's all good man.
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: So everybody just want to point out the top right-hand corner.
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: You have a blue QR code.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: There are all kinds of resources for veterans.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: Please scan that.
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: It takes you to empowerperformancestrategiescom Again empowerperformancestrategiescom, Again empowerperformancestrategiescom.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: There are all kinds of free resources books I've written, there's Facebook groups to get involved in with other vets and so on.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: So please take advantage of those.
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: And on that, Lewis, again, thank you and we're out of here, All right.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us on another insightful journey of your Thoughts your Reality podcast with your host, michael Cole.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: We hope the conversation sparked some thoughts that resonate with you.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: To dive deeper into empowering your thoughts and enhancing your reality, visit empowerperformancestrategiescom.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: Remember your thoughts shape your reality, so make them count.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: Until next time, stay inspired and keep creating the reality you desire.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: Catch you on the next episode.