Dan Martell - How to Overcome Setbacks Like an Athlete

00:00:00.200 I literally laid there on the ground and said,

00:00:01.600 God, why are you doing this?

00:00:03.120 What, why are you challenging me?

00:00:05.460 I'm racing, you're not gonna stop me.

00:00:21.600 Hey there, I'm Dan Martell, serial entrepreneur,

00:00:23.520 investor, creator of SaaS Academy.

00:00:25.200 In this episode, I wanna share with you

00:00:26.800 how to overcome physical setbacks.

00:00:30.520 I'm talking about like punched in the gut kind of scenarios

00:00:35.020 where it doesn't matter if it's like injuries,

00:00:39.260 COVID, sickness, whatever it is.

00:00:42.520 Like there might be something that happens to you

00:00:44.500 and you just like physically feel down.

00:00:47.040 I wanna share with you some mindset and some beliefs

00:00:49.080 that are gonna help you overcome them

00:00:50.640 that I learned from my experience.

00:00:52.080 And I know you guys may be new to my journey,

00:00:54.400 but I try to share my life out loud.

00:00:56.800 I shine my light as bright as possible

00:00:58.980 because I just feel like, hey, if I'm learning these lessons,

00:01:01.740 I just wanna share my journey.

00:01:03.720 And about a year and a half ago,

00:01:06.400 I made the decision to move to the other side of Canada.

00:01:10.280 So I grew up on East Coast, Canada,

00:01:12.120 a place called New Brunswick,

00:01:13.440 and I moved to British Columbia into the mountains

00:01:15.480 in this beautiful city called Kelowna.

00:01:17.700 And at the time I was training for an Ironman.

00:01:20.960 And the challenge was is that, you know,

00:01:23.060 One of my favorite parts about training for triathlon

00:01:26.500 is working out with my friends.

00:01:29.020 And here I was in a new city,

00:01:31.640 moved away from all my training partners,

00:01:34.140 and I had to continue training

00:01:36.600 to try to keep up to the volume required

00:01:38.940 to actually be successful doing this Ironman distance races.

00:01:43.180 And it was tough.

00:01:44.900 It was really hard to find that rhythm and whatnot.

00:01:48.420 And early in my training season, I think in May,

00:01:52.100 I went mountain biking with some friends

00:01:54.760 and I'm kind of new to mountain biking.

00:01:57.700 And I think sometimes my skill is a little too,

00:02:02.320 I'm a little too confident for the level I'm at

00:02:05.000 and I'm aggressive.

00:02:06.660 And I was doing this run.

00:02:08.380 It was like off trail forks.

00:02:10.200 It was like a hidden local run in this place

00:02:12.020 called Kamloops called Rio.

00:02:15.300 Oh, I forget, it was just called Rio.

00:02:16.720 And I come around the turn, I hit this jump,

00:02:18.660 I go in the air and I didn't realize

00:02:20.380 but the jump actually turned right.

00:02:21.740 And I went straight and I ended up punching a tree

00:02:24.580 with my hand, breaking my knuckles, landing sideways,

00:02:28.400 rolling down a ravine, breaking my shoulder

00:02:31.500 and just laying there thinking to myself,

00:02:34.440 like, what did I just do?

00:02:36.260 Like my hand went numb, my shoulder was in pain.

00:02:39.800 I had to like grab my bike, pull myself out of this ravine,

00:02:42.580 scream at my friends that were down the mountain

00:02:44.900 a little bit, try to ride out another 10 kilometers

00:02:48.080 with a broken hand.

00:02:49.360 And I didn't know it at the time.

00:02:51.760 And the whole time I'm just thinking like,

00:02:53.720 oh my gosh, like I just screwed up my race season, you know?

00:02:58.160 And I didn't even wanna tell anybody for hours.

00:03:01.780 I didn't call my wife.

00:03:02.740 I just, you know, they were like, how's your shoulder?

00:03:04.540 I'm like, I don't know.

00:03:05.460 And how's the hand?

00:03:06.600 And even my buddy Jason's like, hey dude,

00:03:08.800 I don't know if it's broken or dislocated.

00:03:10.780 He was a paramedic.

00:03:11.840 So I was like listening to him and he's like,

00:03:13.600 but if I pull on it, it might fix it.

00:03:17.660 but if it's broken, it's gonna hurt like a mofo.

00:03:21.620 And I was like, I just put my hand out and I said, pull.

00:03:24.980 And he grabbed it and he pulled

00:03:26.800 and my whole hand went like,

00:03:29.060 almost like it got like blown up by a bomb.

00:03:31.440 And I was just like, ah!

00:03:32.860 And he's like, oh, well, it's not dislocated.

00:03:35.480 You probably gotta go to the hospital.

00:03:36.660 So that night I went to the hospital

00:03:38.060 at like seven o'clock at night,

00:03:39.420 spent the whole night in the hospital.

00:03:40.500 I woke up the next morning and I was in a depression.

00:03:43.700 Like here I am bandaged up, you know,

00:03:47.840 tore out my shoulder, broke my hand.

00:03:51.440 You know, I can't sleep.

00:03:53.120 I'm super uncomfortable.

00:03:54.240 I got full road rash.

00:03:56.060 And like for the first three hours of that morning,

00:04:00.060 I was like, I was in a funk.

00:04:03.000 Like I normally don't wake up like that.

00:04:04.940 I'm a very happy go get it kind of guy.

00:04:08.600 And I was mad at myself for getting into that headspace.

00:04:12.460 And I just thought, okay, I got to take massive action.

00:04:14.260 This is something I learned a long time ago.

00:04:15.420 I got to do something.

00:04:16.120 So I got up, I got dressed,

00:04:17.760 and I went and I hiked a mountain locally

00:04:19.820 called Mount Knox, okay?

00:04:21.040 Like pretty serious hike.

00:04:22.140 Takes about an hour to go up and down.

00:04:24.100 And my wife's like, shouldn't you be resting?

00:04:26.360 Shouldn't you relax?

00:04:27.140 And I'm like, I just can't.

00:04:29.220 I can't sit here and do that.

00:04:31.400 So I started working with a physio person.

00:04:34.380 I had essentially nine weeks before my race,

00:04:37.120 and I kept at it.

00:04:39.260 And it was looking promising.

00:04:41.440 and it'd be great if that was the story but it wasn't a month and a bit later i'm at the marina

00:04:49.280 and um i was a boat i went and got some food for the family i was coming back to my boat

00:04:55.360 and as i went through the marina door the steel door shut on my heel and sliced the back of my

00:05:03.460 heel open and i just remember running down to the boat i'd like jumped inside the boat i just like

00:05:09.520 laid on the bed and I was like peanut my wife's name's peanuts my name I said I cut my heel open

00:05:14.880 I think it's bleeding and she was like oh my god what did you do and I was like what is it bad

00:05:19.660 she's like yeah it's bad and it's like I don't want to make anybody throw up but um so she somehow

00:05:25.660 got the blood you know to kind of like stop bleeding and I went to the hospital and I'm

00:05:30.200 laying there and I'm like I cannot believe I just did this like I did all this work on rehab and I

00:05:34.880 have a chance to even race and luckily the doctor was my friend's wife Jose and she's a triathlete

00:05:43.800 and I said Jose I need your help she's like what I said I got a race she goes how far is the race I

00:05:47.780 said in a couple weeks she's like oh my gosh so she like put these stitches and like this this

00:05:54.440 skin new skin all this stuff and she's like it may not hold but at least get you through the race and 0.99

00:05:59.260 I was like thank you right like crisis avoided but I was just like at that point I was starting to

00:06:04.560 you know people are saying to me like shouldn't you slow down isn't this life telling you like

00:06:10.060 all these things and I was like no this is just what happens when you live life like I want to

00:06:15.980 go on my boat I want a mountain bike I want to do stuff I'm not going to sit around and

00:06:19.400 you know live life in a bubble and do nothing that was the the thing the stories I was telling

00:06:24.980 myself and then fast forward a couple weeks after that I'm training and I'm in aero position coming

00:06:32.420 down fairly busy street probably shouldn't have been doing this and a car without turning their

00:06:38.080 blinkers on cuts off the bike lane I'm in the bike lane cuts me off and I hit the side of it

00:06:43.840 luckily they're at a 45 degree and I'll hit the side of it in aero position and go flying like

00:06:48.540 Superman over the car and when I land I did this tuck and roll and you'll see the video I'm going

00:06:55.060 to splice it in you'll see what happened okay and luckily I just got the the rotation done

00:07:01.860 where I just, I didn't even hit my head.

00:07:03.900 I didn't even hit my shoulder.

00:07:05.280 And I almost could have stood up.

00:07:06.700 Like I was really close to standoff.

00:07:08.360 This is years of snowboarding accidents, okay?

00:07:11.820 And all I thought to myself as I laid there

00:07:15.400 and there was like this guy that ran over.

00:07:16.840 He's like, don't move, I called the ambulance.

00:07:18.320 And I'm sitting there checking over my bike.

00:07:19.720 I'm like, I'm fine.

00:07:20.540 He's like, you're in shock.

00:07:21.600 And I'm like, dude, back away, right?

00:07:23.840 The only thing I was thinking about

00:07:24.860 is that my bike has crashed, okay?

00:07:26.760 Like anybody that does triathlons,

00:07:28.660 you don't, these are not bikes you pick up

00:07:30.860 at a Canadian tire or at a, you know, a Home Depot.

00:07:33.920 Like these are bikes that are made of carbon

00:07:37.300 and they're very expensive and they're very unique

00:07:39.200 and their size is specific to me.

00:07:41.840 And I'm just thinking my race is in a couple of weeks

00:07:44.320 and I don't have my bike anymore.

00:07:48.020 So when you talk about setbacks, physically, pain,

00:07:53.580 we make decisions.

00:07:54.980 We make decisions about the story that tells us

00:07:57.360 and how we respond.

00:07:58.560 and I'll tell you my mental fortitude was being challenged in that moment I literally laid there

00:08:05.300 on the ground and said God why are you doing this what why are you challenging me I'm racing

00:08:10.660 you're not gonna stop me I don't know why you're making me go through this but I made a decision

00:08:17.100 to race for bigger reasons it's more important than me so like can you please give me a break

00:08:23.780 because this was like crash rehab sliced teal not even fixed but like can do it and then you took

00:08:32.500 my bike away from me over a two-week period i had to find another bike okay and luckily i found a

00:08:38.360 used bike in another province and through a bunch of relationships and asking for favors we got the

00:08:44.080 bike taken apart put in a bar blah blah blah and maybe had two trainings on it prior to this race

00:08:50.720 for a full Ironman distance race.

00:08:53.380 And the morning of, I just sat there staring at the water

00:08:56.640 because it goes swim, bike, run,

00:08:59.580 thinking the amount of challenges that came up

00:09:02.980 to just get to this point to start the race.

00:09:06.140 I was just grateful.

00:09:06.960 I was like, I'm at least at the starting line.

00:09:09.500 I'm going to start this.

00:09:11.560 I know it's gonna be a suffer fest.

00:09:13.240 It's not gonna be easy, but I'm gonna do it.

00:09:15.440 And I'm gonna skip to the end

00:09:16.840 because it was one of the hardest things

00:09:19.200 I've ever done in my life physically and mentally, hands down. And I got the Ironman done through all

00:09:26.960 the challenges in 12 hours, 12 minutes, and 43 seconds. And I broke down at the fish and shine.

00:09:32.120 Like, you know, family was there, like just emotional wreck with my buddies that I've been

00:09:37.420 training years to do this, this, this full distance Ironman. And when I looked back,

00:09:43.840 there was a bunch of lessons learned,

00:09:46.860 things that I took from those moments,

00:09:49.520 stories that I started telling myself

00:09:51.320 because there was so many people saying different things.

00:09:55.460 Like the first thing I wanna share with all of you guys

00:09:57.120 is everybody would say to me, maybe you should slow down.

00:10:01.180 Maybe the world's trying to tell you something.

00:10:04.280 Maybe you should take it easy.

00:10:06.260 And I think a lot of people out there would have said,

00:10:09.040 you know what, maybe you're right.

00:10:10.400 And they would have.

00:10:11.040 They would have literally said like,

00:10:12.240 okay, maybe I should calm down.

00:10:14.280 Maybe I don't need to be mountain biking

00:10:15.860 and training for an Ironman at the same time, blah, blah.

00:10:17.780 Maybe I should pick one.

00:10:19.160 And I just kept saying, no, that's not true.

00:10:23.740 I'm not slowing down.

00:10:25.360 I would actually like get in my head and go,

00:10:27.180 no, what more can I do?

00:10:28.840 What's possible?

00:10:30.160 Do I really feel like I'm at the limit of my possibilities?

00:10:33.620 No.

00:10:34.900 And I think if you ask yourself the same question,

00:10:37.840 you'll find your answer.

00:10:40.200 You know, when the world says, people say,

00:10:41.860 oh, maybe you should slow down because, you know,

00:10:43.800 you just got sick, you got the flu and you go,

00:10:45.980 I haven't been really working that hard, you know?

00:10:48.720 Maybe I'm not working like serious enough.

00:10:51.420 Maybe I'm half-assing this.

00:10:53.060 Maybe I'm being an amateur when I should be a pro.

00:10:56.080 You know.

00:10:57.640 So my question to you is,

00:10:59.620 is it that you should slow down

00:11:01.140 or maybe you should be a little bit more serious

00:11:03.040 and intentional and attack your goals and dreams

00:11:06.440 a little bit ferociously with more intensity?

00:11:10.100 That's where I was coming from.

00:11:11.100 I was like, you know what?

00:11:12.060 No, I don't, when I audit my life

00:11:13.660 and I look at where I'm at, I don't need to slow down.

00:11:16.220 Maybe I need to push more.

00:11:17.540 Maybe I have more capacity.

00:11:19.300 Maybe this is just some weird way

00:11:21.900 of challenging my intent and desire

00:11:24.020 and saying like, do you really want this?

00:11:25.680 Like, is this something that you're kind of interested in

00:11:28.800 or are you committed?

00:11:30.900 That's my question to you.

00:11:32.500 Are you interested in your goals and your dreams

00:11:35.020 or are you committed to their outcome?

00:11:37.660 So I would reframe that and that's what I was doing.

00:11:40.780 the first thing the second one is i look at the facts not the feelings people you know and look

00:11:45.420 i love my family they were worried about me they wanted me to do the right thing they wanted me to

00:11:49.500 be safe i get it but i look at the facts you know like for example when i crashed on my road bike

00:11:55.580 and i got cut off and i got in a biking accident my biking coach a long time prior to that two

00:12:00.060 years prior said to me the reality of it is it with a road bike if you're training on the road

00:12:05.340 It's not if you crash, it's when you will crash.

00:12:08.780 It's just part of the numbers.

00:12:10.400 It's a fact, it's the data.

00:12:13.120 So do I look at it as a sign that I should stop?

00:12:17.600 No, I look at it as like, hey, that's normal.

00:12:20.020 That's a normal thing that happens.

00:12:21.840 And where I went to was,

00:12:24.640 how did I contribute to that outcome?

00:12:27.600 Which is crazy talk for a lot of people.

00:12:30.520 Some of you guys get in an accident

00:12:32.400 or something bad happens and you go,

00:12:33.900 it's that person's fault.

00:12:34.960 I can't believe this person did this to me.

00:12:36.420 I can't believe this happened to me.

00:12:38.020 I get cut off and not my fault at all.

00:12:42.360 Person doesn't set their blinker,

00:12:43.660 doesn't see me, cuts off a bike lane.

00:12:45.860 And I immediately go to,

00:12:47.680 what did I do to contribute to this?

00:12:50.700 Did I need to be going 30 some kilometers an hour

00:12:53.580 in a major city on a bike lane?

00:12:55.460 Did I need to be driving a narrow position?

00:12:57.920 Could I have, you know, like there's so many things.

00:13:01.480 Did I have a front flashing white light on my bike?

00:13:03.860 The answer was no.

00:13:04.920 Do I have one today?

00:13:05.900 Yes, I looked at what the lessons were for me to learn

00:13:09.740 and I moved forward using facts, not feeling.

00:13:12.880 And that is my question to you.

00:13:15.160 When you've looked at things that have happened,

00:13:17.080 your failed business, a failed hire,

00:13:19.640 a failed customer experience or whatever,

00:13:21.860 customer fires you or whatever, 0.99

00:13:23.480 is it fact that you suck or is it fact that you're not good? 1.00

00:13:26.320 Is it fact that you're a bad entrepreneur 1.00

00:13:27.980 or did you have a moment?

00:13:30.020 And did you ask yourself, how did I contribute to that?

00:13:32.260 What are the lessons I need to learn?

00:13:33.840 internalize those get them then move forward with that new perspective and then finally it's filter

00:13:40.640 the feedback look i love my family i love my friends but when it comes to internalizing

00:13:49.760 suggestions feedback okay you should slow down maybe the world's trying to tell you something

00:13:55.360 etc i went to my coach i went to my mentors i went to the doctors i love my friends and my family

00:14:03.840 but their opinion is not an expert opinion.

00:14:07.940 I went to the doctor, can I do this race? 1.00

00:14:11.260 The answer was, if you do these things, yes.

00:14:14.660 I went to my coach, is it possible for me to rehab

00:14:18.080 and to do the volume I need to set my fitness level

00:14:20.160 at a certain level to be able to come back?

00:14:21.820 Yes, are these things abnormal or normal?

00:14:26.080 Normal, okay, is there anything I can learn from this?

00:14:28.920 Yes, X, Y, and Z, perfect,

00:14:30.600 let's incorporate it into the training,

00:14:31.920 and let's change the way we move forward.

00:14:33.980 But I had to filter that feedback

00:14:35.800 so that I wasn't inadvertently telling myself stories

00:14:38.640 that just aren't true.

00:14:41.100 Like we're meaning makers.

00:14:42.480 As a human, we define the meaning

00:14:45.820 that we associate to experiences, to events,

00:14:48.960 to moments in our life.

00:14:50.620 And we can either choose to make that moment

00:14:53.720 like a powerful, empowering, and supportive thing,

00:14:57.020 that's the meaning we give it,

00:14:58.660 or we could use it as a way

00:15:00.420 to like bring us small and shrivel us down

00:15:03.720 and pull back our desires and play a small game.

00:15:08.020 I choose expansive, I choose big.

00:15:11.180 I choose to use these moments

00:15:13.820 as the foundation to build from, right?

00:15:17.400 And use that as the reason, the meaning to move forward

00:15:21.420 with more ferociousness, with more drive,

00:15:24.560 with more certainty, with more courageousness.

00:15:26.860 And that's what I want from all of you.

00:15:28.580 There's this great quote.

00:15:29.900 I don't know who said it because a lot of quotes,

00:15:31.440 it's like, was it Einstein?

00:15:33.520 Was it Michael Jordan?

00:15:34.420 I don't know.

00:15:35.260 But it's, it doesn't get easier, you get better, okay?

00:15:39.640 It doesn't get easier.

00:15:41.140 Life will not get easier.

00:15:42.240 If you want more from life, it will get harder.

00:15:44.820 But what will change?

00:15:46.340 My experience has been from physically having my body attack

00:15:49.540 and it didn't stop.

00:15:50.380 It happened again this year, injuries.

00:15:53.020 Like, if you want to play life to the fullest, right?

00:15:57.340 and not end up at the end totally protected

00:15:59.980 and feeling safe in a cocoon,

00:16:01.300 but totally, like instead what I wanna do

00:16:03.440 is just like slide into the end

00:16:05.000 and just feel like super weathered and be like,

00:16:07.060 oh my gosh, what a crazy ride, right?

00:16:09.700 When my time comes, I'm gonna be like,

00:16:11.980 whoo, that was amazing.

00:16:13.560 That was crazy.

00:16:15.200 I cannot believe I fit all that in

00:16:17.120 and got to do all these things

00:16:18.700 and experience life to the fullest.

00:16:20.460 That's the way I'm gonna finish things, right?

00:16:24.260 And what I've discovered is that if I want that,

00:16:26.220 if I wanna live this life and be extraordinary,

00:16:29.620 because you can't be ordinary

00:16:30.660 if you want extraordinary results,

00:16:32.040 if I wanna be extraordinary is that I need to get better

00:16:36.760 because life will not get easier on me.

00:16:38.920 I will get better on how I approach it,

00:16:40.960 attack it and solve problems.

00:16:42.480 And that's what I want for all of you.

00:16:44.280 So that's what I hope this message lands

00:16:46.940 in your soul and your heart, okay?

00:16:49.100 Is that instead of telling yourself a negative story

00:16:52.100 around the meaning of what things happen,

00:16:53.440 you decide to choose positive and push forward.

00:16:55.640 because my belief is you got way more in you, way more.

00:16:59.720 I know it in my soul.

00:17:00.560 I don't even need to know you to say that.

00:17:02.340 You have more capacity

00:17:03.640 than you're giving yourself permission to express.

00:17:06.260 And if this message is resonating with you,

00:17:08.420 that is your calling in your heart to do more, to be more,

00:17:12.940 to not dim your light,

00:17:14.060 to shine it as bright as freaking possible.

00:17:17.060 And with that, I hope this message finds you incredibly well.

00:17:19.640 And I wanna challenge you as per usual

00:17:21.260 to live a bigger life and a bigger business.

00:17:23.700 And I'll see you next Monday.

00:17:25.640 We'll be back.

Dan Martell - November 07, 2022

How to Overcome Setbacks Like an Athlete

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