Jeff Griffin | Overcoming Excuses, Paralysis, & the Prisoner that Set Him Free: How to Flip the Switch and Live Life in HD

“Trails are like manure. They stink, but boy do they help things grow!” – Jeff Griffin
 

GUEST BIO: 

His mother named him Jeffrey but his friends call him Griff. Griff played in the 2004 Paralympic games in Athens, Greece, and is a silver medalist in wheelchair basketball. He is a National Champion, in the (Wheelchair NBA), and a four-time All-Star MVP. Griff has two Guinness Book of World Records, and wrote an award-winning book titled I'MPOSSIBLE: Desire. Dream. Do. He also created a worldwide peer-to-peer leadership program that was recognized at the United Nations. With more than 20 years of research and real-life results Griff has a proven and predictable process that eliminates your excuses which helps YOU SUCCEED! Like Michel Gagne, Canada and Malaysia’s Olympic mental coach, said, “Griff is the 1% of the 1%….”

SHOW NOTES:

• Website: https://griffinmotivation.com/
• YouTube: My desire is to build my YouTube channel to a thousand subscribers this year.  Would you mind helping and subscribe for FREE today?  https://youtube.com/@JeffGriffin (https://youtube.com/@JeffGriffin). Thanks a million!

REMARKABLE LISTENER SPECIAL OFFER:

• Visit Jeff's website and use coupon code “love” to receive 50% off your order AND free shipping for two books!
• Free gift. Possibility Principle

CORE THEMES, KEYWORDS, & MENTIONS:

• counterfeit, crap to a crop, mess into a message, work ethic, paralyzed from the waist down, doubt, fear, complacency, solving problems, problem solving,  mental paralysis, Creator, your song, the power of faith, faith, work with integrity, painting accident, self pity, quitting, desires, mindset, p squared mindset, 2004 Athens games, para Olympics basketball, two time Guinness book of world records winner, flecks of gold, gold nuggets, struggle, dream new dreams, the healing of laughter, possibility principle, hope, grit, flipping the switch, letting go of our excuses, self talk, holy habits, righteous routines, greatness inside of you

For more Remarkable Episodes, Inspiration, and Motivation, please vi

Transcript

Jeff Griffin | Overcoming Excuses, Paralysis, & the Prisoner that Set Him Free: How to Flip the Switch and Live Life in HD

INTRO RPP S8 E810 Jeff Griffin 4 Aug 23: Hello friends. Welcome to the Remarkable People Podcast. This week we have Jeff Griffin. Jeff Griffin is going to share his Remarkable story with us. He's going to talk about a chicken named chicken. He's going to talk about how he went from six one to four, seven in an instant. He's going to talk about how he's his mother's son.

And this episode is packed with powerful one-liners. One-liners that if you consider and. Ponder and meditate on, they can change your life. We're going to talk to Jeff [00:01:00] about making excuses about overcoming adversity. We're going to talk about how he ended up going from a college athlete to a wheelchair to the 2004 Paralympics, and he's in the Guinness Book of World Records.

So we're going to talk about letting go of excuses and just making sure that you are the best you can be. And also we're going to talk about how. People say you wasted your education. We're going to talk about his mom best used her education for Jeff's benefit, for his siblings benefit, and honestly mine and your benefit.

So all this and more right now in the Remarkable, People Podcast, the Jeff Griffin episode.

INTERVIEW RPP S8 E810 Jeff Griffin 4 Aug 23: Hey Jeff. How are you today, brother? Dude, I'm s I'm doing great. I appreciate this opportunity. You know, I like to say that there is power in organized effort, so thank you so much in organizing this.

Oh, no problem. It's an honor. It's been great to meet you and get to know you. [00:02:00] And you know, we've talked very little off camera, so our relationship is going to be building on camera in front of the whole world. But that's great because now us and our Remarkable community and you we're all going to grow together.

So thank you. I just told our listeners a little bit about you and what to expect in this episode, but whether someone's been a loyal listener from day one, or if this is the first time they've listened to the podcast in eight seasons when they listen to your episode, you're going to drop a ton of gold and wisdom that they can take and pick up and apply to their lives and thrive.

But if there was one key point that you're going to promise them they're going to get in this episode, that they know when they listen to the end, they're going to walk away with and be a better human. What is that message? Oh, that is, that is, that is a great question. And, and the answer is, is that you. The solution to impossible.

The listeners who are listening and those who are watching, I want you to understand that you have the ability to [00:03:00] achieve your dreams and desires. That you come from infinite intelligence, and that you are capable of climbing those mountains, conducting an orchestrating, this song that sings to your soul and, and being able to live life in hd.

Awesome man. How many, we all need this, right? We all need to have that. Even the most confident person has moments of doubt. So Jeff. Something or many things distinct have happened in your life to bring you to this point. So let's start off in your life and you can move as fast or as slow as you want through the different phases.

We're going to start off, where were you born? You know, mother, father, aunt, uncle, cousin, orphanage. What was your background like brother, sisters. And then we'll just move through the phases and we'll stop along the way. So when you're talking about things you were able to achieve or overcome, we'll break it down in the practical steps so our listeners can too.

Yeah. Then once we go through your life, then we'll stop at where are you [00:04:00] today and where are you heading? So now me and the listeners can get behind you, you just helped us for an hour. How can we help you hit your next goal moving forward? Sound good? No abs. Yeah, absolutely. I love it. I love it. Awesome man.

So where were you born, Jeff? Where, what was your upbringing like? What was the origin story of my friend Jeff? Oh, absolutely. And, and, and I, this, this is, this is unique. 'cause I don't, I, I don't really go back to where, you know, you know, in 1973, you know, the world became a better place because I was born in February of that year.

But I, you know, if I were to write a biography, David, it would it would be titled My mother's Son. My mother's son. And you know, my mom had a huge, huge influence on us. And, and, and a little tribute to her, you know, she, she went to school. She was born in between the Great Depression and, and World War ii, and she didn't, she didn't grow up with much, you [00:05:00] know, she didn't see a balloon until she was 12 years old.

She grew up in northern Utah on a farm, and she learned her life lessons knee deep in cow poop, you know, shoveling that stuff to where, you know, they would shovel it and put it in a cart and in a tractor, and then they would go put it on a field and hoping they would yield a, a bigger crop. And and I remember one time when I was about her age, 10 years old, going into her office and on her computer there was a little sticky note.

And the sticky note said that trials are like manure. They sure do stink, but they certainly help things grow. And, and so I looked at that and, and I try to simplify things in my mind. And so as a little 10 year old kid, I try to simplify it and I'm like, oh, yeah, I got it. And so for my sticky note that I learned from my mother was, turn your crap into a crop.

Nice. And, and so, you know, if I had to write a [00:06:00] biography, it would be my mother's son because I, I, I am my mother. My father is amazing. He's been around for you know, many years as you know, they've been married together. They've been married 50 plus years. They have eight kids. We're all married. We we're, we're productive citizens of society.

And The reason why I share that is because, you know, I learned my life lessons from my mother as well as my dad. My dad was out working all the time. I didn't see him much. And I, I wanna share a story about him as well. But you know, to finish paying tribute to my, I won't say finish, but to, to, to end this tribute to my mother.

I remember her telling me a story one time that, you know, she, she grew up on a farm. She learned her life lessons on that farm in northern Utah. And then she fell in love with my, my father. And she went to school while, while he took off and served a, a mission in the eastern east coast of the United States, mostly in [00:07:00] the Carolinas.

And while he was there serving a mission, my mom was going to school and earning her English degree. When my dad got back, two years later, they got married and my mom had graduated and she was teaching English, and so she got a PhD or whatever they call, put your husband through. That's what they used to have, their little honorary degree.

She put my dad through school and they, they, they got pregnant and they were having their first child. And my mom had just, you know, taught two or three years she was in the English department. And so she went and told the I, I wouldn't call it a dean, but was the person who was in charge of the English department. In fact, I had her in high school later on, and I didn't know this, but my mom went and told her that she was going to retire from English so that she could stay home [00:08:00] and raise her child.

And this teacher looked at her and she's like, Ugh, Kaylene. You are a perfect example of a wasted education. And, and so I just, I, I shake my head and I'm like, no. My mother is a perfect example of a used education. She taught her children how to be productive citizens of society. She taught us how to, you know, provide for ourselves, provide for our family.

She taught us how to do some civil duties how to. You know, worship God, she taught us how to defend liberty and our country and our rights. And I'm telling you, if I were to write a biography, it would be my mother son because of the lessons that she has taught me and my other seven brothers and sisters.

And so, you know, [00:09:00] my mom was, was amazing. I didn't think so all the time, but you know, she, she was, she was not a wasted education. Yeah. No, not at all. And that's interesting because you were growing up during the seventies, right? Yeah. I, I was born in the seventies eighties. You know, se late seventies, eighties is when the most, you know, the, the most impact I, I remember and had on my life.

Yeah. And that's interesting 'cause you know, every country's different. But within America, during that sixties and seventies, that's really when the woman's movement moved in. And it's not, men and women are equal but different. They're like, women can do everything that men can do, but better. And it was this just really unbiblical broken backwards mindset.

And that mindset leverage us for the filth we're living in today, where people, people are redefining what anything is. You know what I mean? It's, it's a real sickness, but telling your [00:10:00] mom that she's wasting her education on raising great children for God and for a benefit to society. That's such screwed up thinking.

Yeah, it is. It's twisted. It is twisted thinking. And, and you know, what I've learned over these years is, you know, counterfeit, it's very hard to spot and, and it can get you things until you, it can't. And I've also learned too, that counterfeit always catches up to you. And, and that's what I've, and that's what I've tried to, to stay away from is, you know, when I compliment people to make sure that it's sincere, to make sure that you know, that I'm, I'm giving, you know, honest and, and real praise.

And because, you know, it, it just doesn't hold water. You know, that, that, that counterfeit, it catches up to you. And, and so it's catching up to us. It's catching up to our society. It's catching up to families, but you know, it's not lost. I really don't believe it's lost. And, and so, you know, I really do believe that we can, we can really, [00:11:00] truly turn our crap into a crop.

We can take our mess and turn it into a message. We can take our challenges and turn them into opportunities. And, and that's you know, I learned a lot from my mother. That's fantastic. So when you're growing up, you're learning this firsthand, you're seeing it, you're observing it, you're seeing everything line up.

Where were you in the eight children? Were you the oldest, the youngest, the middle? Where were you at? Yeah, I like to, I, I'm smack dab in the middle. I like to think that I'm well-rounded. You know, I'm like the, the liaison from the oldest and the youngest, the oldest, are always picking on the younger ones, saying you don't know how good you have it.

And, and the younger ones, you know, they, they're almost like strangers to the older ones and, and I get to be that bridge. But you know, my sister, who's right next to me in age, she's the, she's the fourth, I'm the fifth. She had a different outlook and a [00:12:00] different perspective in life and we're only 18 months, two years apart.

And so it's interesting how our perspective is different. She's, you know, she's female. I'm male. I don't know if that has anything to play in it as well. But I. I got lost. I did, I got lost in the middle, literally and figuratively. You know, there's, you know, there's times we pile into the truck and we take off and, you know, my dad was a, a, an in a math teacher growing up.

And so with eight kids, my mom stayed home, raised us. We didn't have much money. You know, people talk about being poor. I'm like, I've been, I've been in around the world. The poorest people in America are still richer than most people in the, in the world. I get that. But you know, my circumstance, I always tell people who, who think they're poor.

I'm like, well, did you have a communal underwear drawer? Because I did, I had an older brother and a younger brother, and my mom just threw the, the clean underwear in the drawer [00:13:00] in that one single drawer. And so some days it, it was a little loose. Some days it was tight, and other days it just fit just right.

And, and, and so, you know, we, we, we have this, you know, my, my dad was a, was a teacher. My mom stayed at home and, you know, we, we'd go on vacations in, in this big huge king cab truck that my dad bought. And he, he put the backside of the truck. He, he converted it into like a sleeping bed. And then we had a pop-up trailer that we you know, he and the neighbor bought.

And so it was like a, you know, a co-op trailer that we would drag around the country to do our vacations. And I remember being in the Midwest there in, in Illinois. And I remember the neighbor, the campers next to us, after about three days, they stopped my mom. And like, I'm sorry, we just need to [00:14:00] ask, we just need to ask, how many kids do you have?

We've been trying to count and they're just coming in, going out, coming in. We don't know how many kids you have. And you know, it, it was, it was just, you know, growing up was that type of a lifestyle where I didn't know any better. We, I just went and we did and, and we explored and we played. And I experienced life and my mom and dad provided us in, in, in such a way that we're so much more wealth than I can imagine because of the, what they provided for us besides the the tangible things besides the The materialistic things and, and, and so, you know, I just loved my upbringing.

I loved, you know, my position right there, there in the middle. And, and sometimes, you know, like I said, I got lost. I got lost in the middle. And, and sometimes, you know, with, with eight kids, you could imagine, my mom, she's, she's not counting every [00:15:00] time, but I would be left in the store a handful of times.

One time my brother was left on one of our trips, you know, you know, those, those gumball machines and those candy machines that sometimes you could lift your arm up to and, and grab some of the lower Yeah. Things. Yep. My bro, my little brother was, you know, trying to, you know, get him a, a candy bar or a bag of chips or whatever, and we left him and it wasn't until.

I don't know, maybe 10 miles that finally somebody realized that we were missing Chris, and so we had to turn around and go back and get him and, and no big deal. He had this big wad of gum in his mouth, just enjoying himself, sitting next to, you know, the gas station attendant. Nice, nice. So your upbringing, you saw that, you know, money's a tool, but it can't buy joy.

It can buy happiness, but it can't buy [00:16:00] joy. Did that sink in as a kid? Did you acknowledge as a kid, or is that lessons, looking back that were they, they were planted in you and they grew in your adulthood? At what point did you really start appreciating that? It, it, I, I didn't start appreciating it until I left, you know, for, I grew up in Cash Valley, Northern Utah, and you know, my childhood was, I.

You know, my mom grew up on a farm, as I mentioned, and so when, when, you know, we grew up in, in Lo Logan, Utah, north Logan, Utah. And, and it was a small community, but, you know, we had an acre piece of property and so my dad put half of it into a garden. And so he wanted to, you know, teach us some work values and, and so we had to take care of the, the flower beds and the, and the gardens and do, and do some other chores as well.

And so my mom had us work [00:17:00] from eight o'clock in the morning until noon, and we'd have to pick peas. We had to weeded the garden. We would, you know, the harvest season. We would can corn, we'd can, we'd freeze peas. We would bottle cherries and peaches and. All these things. And, and we were in charge of helping, we'd have to do our laundry.

My dad purchased a pool table from one of the local bars, and that pool table was used more for a laundry table than it was for pool. And I just remember mountains of, of laundry always happened to, to be done. But once lunch was over, my mother let me go and play and let me explore. And there was enough, you know, open fields and there was a canal behind my house that we, me and my friends would go and explore in the beginning of summer.

I'd take my shoes off, my feet were tender. By the end of summer, my, my feet were like shoes and I could run on the rocks and run in the thorns. And, and we [00:18:00] just had a, we had a great time, you know, just growing up and, and so, you know, I didn't re, I didn't realize what I had until it was gone. You know, that idealistic time period of my life.

Just went by so quick. Your teenage years, at least for me, where you become angry. 15, 14, you, you get the testosterone and you became angry and whatnot. I wanted to leave. I wanted to leave Cache Valley. I wanted to get away from it. And then when I was 19, I left for two years. And, and then after that I'm like, holy cow.

I didn't realize what I had until it was gone. And and so, you know, one of my favorite things that, one of my favorite stories to share to kind of give people an idea besides my underwear drawer is in kindergarten, my kindergarten teacher taught us you know, the, the. The principle of [00:19:00] life with you know, bringing in some fertilized eggs and hatching them.

So we hatched about 30 chicks in our, in our classroom. They, they started to, you know, the teacher's like, okay, now that we've hatched these, what do we do? And she's like, if you want one of these chickens, bring a shoebox or something like that, and, and you can take them. So I wandered one. So I asked my mom if I could have a chicken for a pet, and she's like, yep.

And I'm, well, I need a shoebox. And so we found a shoebox, we poked some holes in it. Teacher says that if there's too much noise, you'll kill it. So I'm on the big yellow school bus, you know, trying to, to soften the noise from my chicken. And, and I'm just like, this, this is, this is my this is my new pet.

And you know, I was such a creative kid. I named my chicken, chicken. That was, that was its name was chicken. And I raised my, my chicken like a pet, you know, as this kindergartner. And we didn't have a place to put it. And we had an old hamster cage, and so we put the chicken in the hamster cage and the chicken would run on the, the [00:20:00] wheel all the time.

And so I raised a healthy, you know, healthy chicken there. And, and I would play with it. I would, you know, try to catch it like Rocky Balboa and I would climb up in the cherry tree and hold it and pet it. So like it was a cat or a dog. And, and every time my friend wanted to hold it, I'd give it to, to my friend and, and chicken would poop on them Every time he, he chicken would not poop on me or, or do anything.

He's like, he was my buddy. But chicken turned in, you know, to be a, a rooster and we were not in a farm area and so it would crow at the crack of dawn and people were complaining. And so my mom took. My chicken and my pet chicken to her, her parents' place up in northern Utah in Cove and put 'em in the coop.

It was like a Taj Mahal for chickens. And it was, it was like 50 feet long and it was just the only chicken in the whole thing. And so I had would go up, go up there frequently, feed it, take care of it. [00:21:00] One Sunday we went up there and we were having our meal and my older brother's like, Hey Jeff, how do you like the chicken?

And I didn't think anything of it and I was eating it. And I'm like, yeah, this is good chicken. He's like, no, how do you like chicken? And it dawned on me. I'm like I'm eating my pet chicken. Oh, no. And so to this day, to this day, I still eat chicken. I like it. But, you know, I learned some live lessons as well there.

But you know, that's, that's the kind, the, the type of childhood I had was, you know, being able to go explore on the canal, swing across the canal, play in the water, you play, kick the camp, played night games and, and whatnot. And I learned how to, you know, get along with people. I learned how to play with people.

I learned how, you know, learned what a community was like. I knew, I learned what it was like to to come together on the 4th of July and have that pancake breakfast in the morning. The, the, the, the [00:22:00] police officers, sheriff, local sheriff would go down their streets with this loudspeaker and says, breakfast is ready at seven, breakfast is ready at seven.

And anyway, we'd go and have some, some greats. Great time there at the 4th of July celebrations and, and it was just an, i i ideal childhood in my opinion. You know, I didn't realize how little I had because I had so much, and and so it, you know, I, I loved it. I loved it. In fact, I, I've moved to a place to try to give my kids a, a similar experience.

Yeah. And that's fantastic because so many people, myself, you, everybody, we can fall into the trap. We're not grateful, we're not thankful, we're not appreciative for what we have, and instead of counting our blessings, we're missing the joy that God gave us. So it's awesome that you can look back and see, and you said you actually moved out for two years and saw right away, [00:23:00] like, wow, this is not the same.

Right? Where, what did you do for those two years? Did you travel? Did you work? Did you join the military? What happened in that time period? Yeah, absolutely. So, so here in, in, in Utah, there's a lot of l d s churchgoers and, you know, we're, we're expected to go on a two year pro mission at the age of 19 for two years.

And, and you know, I, my mother, you know, another thing that my mother taught me was the Bible stories. And you know, I'm sure we're going to get to it, but I had a huge setback and a, and a major challenge that I experienced in my life with that left me paralyzed from the waist down. You know, I, I, at 21, I was paralyzed from the waist down and changed my life forever.

But you know, those faith-filled stories that my mother told me have, have gone with me. Everywhere I go. And that's what's really given me the strength. People always ask me like, you know, where do you find the [00:24:00] strength to keep going? Where do you find the strength to climb your, your mountains today?

Where do you find the strength and the faith to, to do the things that you've done? And, and it goes back to the roots that my mother sewed in us with those biblical stories of some of my greatest heroes. You know, I love the story of Abraham. I love the story of David. I love the story of Hezekiah.

You know, he's one of my, one of my heroes. I love the story of Joseph. And love the story of, you know, Jericho and the, the 300 Warriors. And and anyways, and, and my favorite is the New Testament, the story of Jesus and, and everything that he has done. And, and that's really who gives me the strength or what gives me the strength to, to do the things that I've done.

And, and so so yeah, so when I was at 19, I left to Spain Barcelona, to, to share the [00:25:00] good news to the, the folks of. The Barcelona, the Mediterranean coast, and, and you learn some valuable lessons there. But for, yeah, for two years was gone realized. Holy cow, you know, you know, they, they talk about places in the United States like Penn State as, you know, a bubble or Happy Valley, you know, cache Valley was Happy Valley.

It was, you know, we were, there was a bubble there. And I, here, I'm in Spain, I'm walking down the streets and they have, they're, they're sewage drain full of syringes and prostitutes, you know, trying, you know, trying to, to get us to come in and whatnot. And I'm like, what, what, what, what just happened here?

And I was introduced to a whole new world. And, and so then I realized, oh my gosh, you know, I truly was raised in God's country. And when I tell people, I'm like, yeah, I was raised in God's country. I know I offend the rest of the world, but I totally loved where I grew up. [00:26:00] And to have that upbringing, that's such a blessing.

'cause there's one race, the human race, but there's nations. There's nations all over the world. And we should be proud of the culture. We come, well there's nation and there's culture, but we should be proud from where God placed us. And it's awesome that you have that pride and you're thankful. So when you're growing up, you get out for those two years, you end up finishing your mission and then you come back.

Where does your life go from there, Jeff? Yeah, that's a great question. And and I don't wanna skip anything. If we missed anything between childhood and that point, you go back, I wanna make sure we had everything important along the way, but I wanna make sure we also keep moving. So you tell the story how you want it to be told, like it's your autobiography.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And I love that because you know, what's interesting here is because what people may or may not know is, you know, I speak all over the world. I, I. [00:27:00] After I, after I got hurt, you know, paralyzed I went and graduated and I was a banker for three years, was not edifying at all.

So I went back and was an educator for 17 years and had an opportunity to teach seminary and institute to teach those, the scriptures and the biblical stories as well to the high schoolers and the college kids that would, would take that that class. And I love what I did, but I couldn't do what I loved.

And that was to, to get this message of the good news out to the world. This message of changing the impossible into the possible, you know, by including the great I am. And, and so in 2017, I jumped into speaking full time. I left my, my comfortable and consistent paycheck and jumped into the speaking world and, and tackled that.

And so I speak all over the world and, and as I come out in my wheelchair, I address the elephant on stage. And that's how good looking I am. That's awesome. No, I'm totally joking. But [00:28:00] you know, people can see my chair and, and can see that I am in, in a wheelchair, that I'm physically paralyzed. And the elephant is me going from six one to four seven and seeing things different.

But you know the people see me and look at me as a man who is paralyzed physically. And I am, couldn't move. I was, I was given a life sentence to never walk, never stand, never move my legs again. And I've learned over these years that most of us, if not all of us, are paralyzed from the demons of doubt, fear, and complacency, which keeps us from obtaining our dreams, which keeps us from orchestrating and conducting that song that sings inside our soul.

And so these are some of the lessons I learned from my mother, and as I learned growing up in Cash Valley. And, and so, you know, I address. I believe are at the, is the foundation to every challenge that we have that, that we're faced with. You know? 'cause the problem isn't the problem. I have problems.

You have problems. And I, I know a lot of people like to talk about their [00:29:00] problems, but, you know, I like to talk about how do we solve those problems? 'cause the problem isn't the problem. It's how we approach those problems. You know, kind of like going back to the flipping the switch and, and reframing things, seeing things in a different light, you know, like instead of, you know, my mother's quote, challenges like manure, but, you know, they certain, they sure do stink, but they certainly help things grow and, and so I.

This idea of, okay, well how do we focus on the solution instead of the challenge? Because how many of us know what to do, but we don't do what we know and there's this great big, huge gap. And that's, you know, that's my message is how do we bridge this gap? How do we bridge this gap to where we can get from point A to point B?

How can we find the simplicity on the far side of complexity? How can we find and accomplish that, which the masses says is impossible? And, and, and so, you know, for me, I believe there's three things there at the foundation. And, and, and my mother and father [00:30:00] helped establish that foundation. Me moving and going to Spain for two years helped establish that foundation.

My time in the scriptures, my time learning the language of the Lord as I call it, has helped me create that foundation. And I've simplified it down to three. Major blocks or major, you know, golden nuggets and those three major golden nuggets is desire, dream, and do. And, and, and I love those three things.

And we, and we can dissect them and, you know, we can dissect what a desire is. We can take a look at the anatomy of a dream. We can take a look at some of these tried and true truths that are predictable, repeatable, and proven to to help us climb these mountains and, and conduct the song that sings in our soul.

And these three, these three things, desire treatment, do is at the foundation of all success in my opinion. And so that's what I get to do is I get to go [00:31:00] around and teach people how to overcome their mental paralysis and give them some tools to help create this foundation that's going to hold up their dreams, that's going to hold up their life that's going to help them get to heaven.

That to help them get to, you know, their. Destination. And, and so, you know, so my question that I always ask people is, what's your dream? You know, what is your dream? When's the last time you allowed yourself to dream? And and I'm not talking about at night. I'm talking about when we opened up the floodgates of imagination and allow ourselves to, to, to dream in color.

You know, when was the last time we slowed down enough to, you know, allow ourselves to, to contemplate our expectations, to contemplate our greatness, to contemplate where we come from and who we come from. And, you know, I believe that I was created to create, and that I was, I was created to create with my creator.

That we are to [00:32:00] co-create. And, and so for me, I'm like, okay, I gotta tap into this. And, and there was times where I lost sight of that. There was times that I forgot about that, and there was times that I doubted it, and there was times where I didn't believe. And and, and so, you know, this idea of, okay, when's the last time we've allowed ourselves to dream, to dream in hd, to dream in color?

It's where we weave that tapestry of dreams that's going to hang on somebody else's social media wall to where, you know, we're like, you know what? I absolutely do believe in these stories, in, in the, in the scriptures, in these ancient texts that you know what, yeah, God created me. And if, if God created me, then, then I come from him.

I have Royal d n a and, and so why not be able to do the things that he has done, if not greater as Jesus says, you know, you're going to be able to do things that I've seen, if not greater. Than I have done. And so do we believe that? Do we really truly believe that we have the ability to achieve our dreams and [00:33:00] desires?

And most of us, I that I've come across don't, the problem isn't the problem. 'cause we all have problems. The problem is how we address those problems. The problem is how we see those problems. And I went from six one to four seven, and I see things different figuratively and literally. And I've learned that different isn't always better, but better is always different.

And if we wanna make things better, we're going to have to think different. We're going to have to change our mindset. We're going to have to, you know, kinda like back in the sixties and seventies, they're trying to change the mindset of, of, of women's value and women's rights and trying to make them equal. And, and, and we're, we're not equal.

You know, women, I believe motherhood is next to Godhood. And and, and, and so I'm like, listen. We, we are, we're different and we're different for a reason. And let's take those differences and let's, and let's come together and, and, and make the most out of it. And so, you know, like as a little kid growing up in Cache Valley, my [00:34:00] dream was to play football.

To play football on the big stage. I loved football, David, I, I carried it everywhere I went. The song that sing to my soul was to play football in college. I grew up in northern Utah in Cache Valley, but I wanted to go play down south at B Y u at, at Brigham Young University. And, you know, in Cache Valley, they breed 'em to hate 'em down south.

But that was my dream, you know, besides, you know, going around and exploring the canal and playing and working and whatnot. You know, I would carry a football with me everywhere I went. And I wanted to play football on the big stage. And I remember telling somebody my dream of playing football in college, and I dunno if you've ever told to me your dream.

See, you know, tell somebody what you could see, but that what they can't. But for me and my experience was, they laughed at me and they told me all the reasons why I couldn't. They're like, Griff, you can't play football in college. You're too short. You're too slow, you're too white. I'm like, okay, too short, too slow, too white.

But that was my dream. And I realized that most people listening to this probably don't have a dream of playing football in college. But I do know that there's a song [00:35:00] that sings inside their soul. There's a song that's out there, and the world needs to hear your song. The world needs to hear your song.

And and if, and if you're not conducting and orchestrating, you know, that masterpiece, then who's going to hear it and who's, and you know, who's going to benefit from it. And and so I didn't realize as a little kid at that time, you know how good I had it. I didn't realize at the time that we as individuals, we base other people's possibilities on our limitations.

I. Or other times we base other people's possibilities on our limitations. Or I'll, as I like to say, we reject what we don't understand and we base our possibilities on what we know. And, and if we want to go somewhere we've never been before, we don't know where that, where that goes. And so we've got to do something.

We've gotta develop something. And and you know, that goes back to, to faith. Do we have faith that it's all about faith? And I'm not talking about religion, I'm not talking about church. I'm talking about power. The power to [00:36:00] change things. The power to go and do things. The power to take those steps into the darkness long before we ever see the end.

You know, do we have that ability to, to do that? And you know, I, I didn't realize how good I had it, you know, growing up that to help me continue to chase after my dreams. And, and just to kind of illustrate that, you know, when I I'll get to that in a second here. But again, going back to this, this idea of a dream.

And so I continued to, fortunately for me, the song was so loud and I didn't understand what they were saying and what they were doing to me. I did because I believed that it wouldn't happen to me because I was told so many times that one day after practice, I came home and there was an envelope from Lavelle Edwards, the legendary Hall of fame coach, inviting me the short, slow white guy to come play for him and to make sure I wasn't dreaming.

I touched the embossed helmet. I opened up the envelope, I pulled it out, and there was a letter addressed from Lavelle Edwards inviting me to come [00:37:00] play at his school. And because I heard that message so many times, you can't do this, you can't do that, you can't do this. I thought he was giving him to everybody on our team.

And so I took the envelope to practice. I'm like, Hey guys, did you get this envelope? Did it come to you? And they thought I was like, bragging and, and they wanted to take my head off at practice and whatnot. And, and it was a great practice. We had a great time and, and I got to taste the sweetness of success.

David, I got to experience what it'd be like to be on the big stage. I got to, to experience what it would be like to you know, to have a taste of accomplishing your dream. And it was a beautiful experience and it was a beautiful moment. And and, and I, and I'd like to contribute that to, you know, my upbringing, contribute that to the stories that I learned in the scriptures and you, you know, and the things that I had to experience myself.

'cause, you know, I didn't realize that that word I can't, is shared 150,000 times by the time we're [00:38:00] 17 years old compared to I can 5,000 times. And, and, and so that word I can't is poisonous. It's debilitating. It's limiting. And as soon as we believe that we can't, and as soon as we think that in our mind, the mind accepts it and it shuts off all those possibilities, all those solutions.

And so every minute we doubt it's possible. We give up 60 seconds and finding the solution. And, and, and to me that's what faith is. Faith is the ability to see the invisible and hope for the incredible, which allows us, and enables us to achieve and receive that which the masses says is impossible. Or as, or as Paul says in Hebrews, you know, faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things, you know, but it is to, to hope for things which are not seen, but what, but which are true.

And so you know, I, I [00:39:00] learned some valuable lessons growing up and, and, and having that experience and and so, you know, I don't care what tell you and whether it was back then, whether it's back then for you or people today listening, the message still holds true to have that. Unwavering faith in God and yourself and your abilities, and just to push out, you know, there's wisdom in counsel, but not to listen to people's negativity if you know there's a different path or if you have your dream correct.

Absolutely. In fact, I believe that you know, we as a society, we as a world try to give formulas to people, formulas, success, formulas of, you know, results. And, and we try to give people the recipe without including God in it. And as soon as we remove God from the equation, we make it All wre, no vomit. It's useless. Yes. Abs [00:40:00] absolutely. It just, it becomes incomplete automatically is what I'm trying to, is what I'm trying to come up with, is it just becomes incomplete without including, you know, the great I am into this, into this equation. And I, and I wasn't always this believing and I didn't have this type of faith and I didn't, you know, trust in the Lord as much as I do today.

You know, when I was younger and, you know, I learned a valuable lesson, a lesson of a lifetime in between seasons. Because they don't pay enough money to play football in college. And so I'm like, okay, I've got to earn enough money to to, you know, to focus on football. And so I came home from school and I started my own business and I'm like, what can I do?

And hang on. Before you go before you go on, Jeff, I'm, I'm a little lost in that timeline. So you grow up in the first, let's say 18 years. We talked about then you graduated and you went two years to the mission, and then you came back and played football. Correct. Or did you go from high school? Correct.

Okay. [00:41:00] Okay. Correct. That was just a little unclear, the timeline. Okay. So now you go for two years, you come back, you get the letter for college to go to Brigham Young, and then you're playing football for them. So pick up there. I just wanna make sure I was on, I was tracking with you. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

In fact, I'm going to be doing a little flash, you know, flashbacks here to kind of, to kind of, you know, keep the, keep the story moving here. But thank you for clarifying. And so, so yeah, so Taste of the sweetness of success, got to experience what it would be like to be on the big stage to, to be on the first team all the time.

Not just, just not, not just twice. Because you know, while I was there, you know, that first year that first year of playing football, they put me on the scrub team. They called it the scrub team Team. And and that shook, it shook my world. Like, oh my gosh. I'm like, I'm not a scrub. I thought I was like the starter.

And, and I, and I learned some valuable lessons there. [00:42:00] And, and so, but I also learned too that some of the greatest men and women of history are men of service. And I learned such a valuable lesson from one of my, from one of my captains on the football team which we'll come back to, but I, I, I want to.

Go back to in-between seasons because I, I want people to understand, you know, what's happening here. So I've just hit the, the pinnacle of my college career where I got to taste the sweet of success, got to play two downs in between seasons. I'm like, okay, I need some money to, to go back and focus on, on school.

So I start my own business as a painter. You know, my dad painted during the summertime, I learned that trade growing up with him. And, and so I said like, I gotta start my own business. So I started my own business as a painter, and paint business was booming, but I went into the, I went into the paint shop because I wanted the same discount that my, my father got.

And I went in there and talked to them. I'm like, Hey, I'm starting my [00:43:00] own business. I was wondering if I could get the, the same discount as my father has. And they're like, well, who's your dad? I'm like, his, his name is Terry. And he, he's paused for a second and he's like, yeah, we can do that as long as you pay your bills.

And so to, to give him some insurance. You know, I'm like, I, I did a little, a snarky remark. I'm like, oh, listen, I'll pay my bills better than my dad. And he stopped me and he pointed his finger at my chest and he's like, son, there is no one better than your dad. And at that moment I realized what kind of a father I had, what kind of a man that, that raised me and taught me how to, you know, work with integrity and, and work an honest day and, and to be, you know, well known and liked in the community.

You know, he was a, he was a religious leader in [00:44:00] the area. He was a later became a principal of that high school that I went to. He was, he was the principal of the night school. He, he he helped with some community service there in, in the at our church. And then he also, you know, ran this what's it called?

Campground up in the mountain. And so he was constantly busy doing all these things, and so I didn't get to see much of my father, but at that moment, when that owner of the paint store was pointing his finger in my chest and saying, there was no one better than your dad. It, the, the whole world just hit me.

Just, just the, the realization of, holy crap. Yeah. My dad, my dad is, is my superhero. My dad is, is my hero. In fact, David, I have, I have what I call the Hall of Heroes, and there's this hallway that has my heroes on there. I mentioned a few of my, you know, my biblical ones, Abraham and Joshua, and [00:45:00] Hezekiah. My father and my son are up on that wall.

And yeah, my, my dad means, The world to me. And, and I'm getting choked up right now thinking of, of, of him and, and, and all the lessons that he's, he's taught me. Amen. That's a great testimony and legacy. So to go chronologically, not you can go wherever you want with your story, but to help move through it.

What happened after you went to college and started playing ball to bring you to your accident? Yeah. In fact, that, that's a great a great lead up into what happened next. Right? I, I get a phone call from Napoleon Dynamite Country in Preston, Idaho, which is right across the, the border of, of Idaho.

And. I wanted enough money to focus on football and enough money [00:46:00] to have a bullet bike. 'cause every time I saw a guy with a bull bike, there was a lady on back, and I thought maybe in the, in the small print it said girls included. And so in my mind, somebody called me out and like, Griff, you didn't want the bullet bike.

You just wanted the chicks. I'm like, you're right. I did want the ladies. And so I went up there and bid, took a bid on her barn, and three days later and $3,000 richer, I had enough money to focus on my my dream of playing football and, and get my bullet bike. And, and so I went up there, took some equipment with me.

We went up there and we set up the equipment and I wanted to get the tall parts of the barn done first. And I'm up 40 feet on some scaffolding in the ladder, and the scaffolding slips out from underneath me and I come straight down and I, and I hit the ground straight legged. Which caused my legs to come up, my back to come down and my L one vertebrae to explode inside me.

And the pain was excruciating. [00:47:00] And I remember crumbling to the ground and grabbing my leg with my hand. And my hand could feel my legs, but my legs could not feel my hands. And I was hoping that it was just kinda like the stinger that I had received and practiced in the past. And they would come back, but it wasn't coming back.

And I couldn't move and I couldn't turn over. And by this time, my buddy had recovered from his small little fall. He was on the scaffolding, holding the ladder, and he comes over and starts shaking. He's like, Jeff, are you okay? Are you okay? I'm like, I don't think you should be doing that. And I remember looking up at him and voicing my fears for the first time out loud.

And I said, Doug, I think I'm paralyzed. Go call the ambulance.

And he took off and he left me there. I'd fallen 40 feet. My dreams of playing football done shattered my dreams of riding a motorcycle with the lady on back over. At least at that moment. And I wasn't quite sure at the moment. And, and so I'm like, oh my goodness.[00:48:00] 

And then the sky began to circle and everything is just, the heaviness started to come in. It was like, do descending upon me doo of doubts and, and fear and all this stuff and, and the heartache and the realization like, oh my gosh, I may never walk or stand again. I may never get back up and run another route.

I may never catch a ball from the next all American quarterback from b y u. And my, my buddy had left me, you know, while he went to go call the ambulance. He left me in my, in, in my, you know, in this horrible situation and with my thoughts. And that's not a good place at times is with your thoughts. And so he comes back, ambulance comes, they take a picture of, you know, they finally, I, I'm, I'm, I'm cutting a lot of corners here and, and, and, and whatnot.

But they finally [00:49:00] get me to the hospital and they take a picture of my back and they confirm the news that I'm paralyzed from the waist down. They're going to go in and do surgery. Gave me a life sentence to never walk, never move, never stand ever again. And for a 21 year old kid, that was devastating because I hadn't experienced certain things in life.

My whole identity was wrapped up in my physicality. How fast I could jump, how, you know, how fast I could run, how high I could jump, how well I could catch a ball. And that was all stripped away from me. My, my manliness, my manhood that le that I had just, you know, wrapped my whole identity in was taken away.

And I went into a tailspin. Mental tailspin spiral, I mean, to a bad place. I en entered the sauna of self-pity, as I called it, and I was in a nasty place. I was in a nasty place there, and, and it kind of brought flashbacks [00:50:00] of my freshman year in college because, you know, as I mentioned, I played two downs in college and I got the taste of sweetness of success.

What I didn't tell you is right after high school, I went up to college, I went to the college, and you know, I arrived on campus my freshman year and showed up to practice routes that I typically ran with Christmas, I stumbled and fell passes. I typically caught, I dropped teammates that were once encouraging me were now discouraging me and day in and day out, it, it just got worse and worse and worse.

And, and I couldn't, I thought I couldn't handle the pressure and so I went into the coach and into the office and told them, That I needed to quit. And to think about that experience to this day is, is, is still embarrassing a little bit. But it and, and it's hard to mention 'cause I go around and tell people not to [00:51:00] quit.

Tell people to, Hey, listen, there's a process in place. I tell people to be optimistic and here I am quitting. And to make matters worse, I call my parents up and said that I was cut to save face. Not only did I quit on my dreams, but I lied. I lied to my parents, I lied to myself, you know, and, and, and, you know, when are we going to stop lying to ourselves?

When are we going to stop lying to our friends? When are we going to stop lying to society? And when are we going to start telling the truth? And, and here I am, you know, telling my parents that I had been cut when in reality I had quit. And. As I mentioned, it's embarrassing and it hurts to this day, but I learned a lesson of a lifetime that I believe helped me pick up the pieces and exit that sauna of self-pity two years later.

And the lesson that I learned is this, when our dreams do not match up with our desires, [00:52:00] we allow the demons of doubt, fear, and complacency enter inside and paralyze us with the debilitating darkness to quit. To quit on our family, to quit on our friends, to quit on our jobs, to quit. To quit on our dreams, and even to quit on life.

And I learned that in order to be a successful leader or a leader success, we've got to develop a desperate, deliberate desire that matches up with our dreams because of the conflicting Desires that constantly creep in. And, and, and so that's when I left on my two year mission, was able to kind of take a step back and really assess what had just happened.

And fortunately enough for me, the coach says, after your mission, you can come back and try again. [00:53:00] And so I came back two years later with a completely different mindset. I call it the P square mindset, the, it's the possibility principle. And, and I came back a different man. I came back a different person, and and I was a completely different player.

And, and that's when I was able to, you know, experience the things that I did in college. And then of course, now here we are where I'm in this sauna of self-pity, just spiraling outta control and forgetting. I. Some of those lessons that I learned growing up as a kid, growing up on my mission and you know, and you know, experiencing for myself in person.

And it was an ugly, dark, depressing state. And I like to say that, you know, I was wallowing in that syrupy sticky sauna of self-pity, and it was a ugly [00:54:00] place to be. And how did you, and this might be, you continue the story it's going to show, but sadly, so many of us are in the same position of listeners all around the world who are stuck in the self-pity cycle.

What are some of the things you recommend as a catalyst? Or at least try this, like, you know, this may not work for you, but this is what worked for me. What helped you get out of that self pity cycle? Two things that I would love to share with your listeners and those who are watching some things that just had a major impact on my life and, and over these last 30 years, we've been able to kind of unpack things.

'cause as I mentioned before, you know, I had an opportunity to kind of sift through my broken back and shattered dreams and discovered these fucks of gold. And I, and I did this back in 2005 after the Paralympics. You know, behind me is my jersey that I experienced the 2004 Athens games. And I was, I was on the u s a men's wheelchair basketball team.

And I got to [00:55:00] experience what it would be like to play on the world stage, not just the big stage, the world stage. And, and not only that, you know, the, the, the doctor gave me a life sentence to never stand, ever walk and remove my legs again. They gave me a 0% chance of ever having kids. Like it's the first function to come, to go, the last to come back.

Some of the experts gave me, you know, 0% chance of giving, getting married, not because of my wheelchair, but just because of who I am. And my wife and I have just celebrated 26 years. We have four beautiful biological kids, and now I can get up outta my chair and walk across the stage. Amen. And, and so I'm like, okay, well how did I get here?

How did I go to the Paralympics? How did I, you know, win two Guinness World Records? How did I become one of the youngest trust managers at this bank? You know, how did I, you know, have two kids when I was told I have zero kids? You know, how did I become, you know, four time m v p in the wheelchair, b a all-star [00:56:00] event?

And, you know, the list goes on, and I don't share this to to brag, but I share this to, you know, to impress upon people's minds like, okay, there's a process in place. So I was just contemplating, I'm like, okay, how did I get here in 2005? And so I discovered some flux of gold that helped me get to that point.

And so I'm like, I took these flux of gold. I defined them, I refined them, I forged them into some gold nuggets. And then I started to practice on these critics called teenagers for 17 years. And, and we experimented not only on my own life, but can I duplicate this with other people. And so, you know, so this, this tragedy has turned into a triumph for myself.

But at the time, I was in a dark place and I'm like, oh my gosh. I'm like, this, this is nasty. This is ugly. And, and again, you know, I'm, I'm feeling like a self-righteous fraud here, where I'm like, you know, where I'm going out and trying to teach people how to not give up on their dreams and not to quit and, and to be optimistic and positive, you know, being [00:57:00] positive.

Where here I am, I quit on my dreams and I lied and all these things. And not only that, I'm like, okay, well, I got second chances. I believe in second chances. And then I come back and I taste the sweetness of success. I get to experience, you know, what it'd be like on the college, on the college stage as a collegiate receiver.

And then to have that stripped away from me again, I'm like, oh my gosh, now what? And so you're like, you know, what helped you pick up the pieces? And it's easy today, you know, looking back almost 30 years from now and saying, listen, when when your dreams are shattered and, and you, and you're dealt and you're dealt with a major setback or a difficult challenge, what do you do?

Well, the answer's simple. It's dream new dreams, pick yourself up and move forward. But at the time I'm like, oh my gosh, now what? Now what do I do? I, I, I can't do anything here. In fact, you know, you know, one of the, one of the hardest things for me to deal with as a 21 year old kid was first [00:58:00] function to go last.

Function to come back that, that sexual function, you know, I was a young man that was saving himself for his wife and had never experienced, you know, that, that, that, that sacred symbol, you know, that that takes place between a man and a woman when, when you, when you get married. And, and so I've been living the law of chastity my whole life.

And now that function was gone. I'm like, okay, now what? Now what do I do? You know, people think that not being able to walk is the hardest thing to deal with, but there's other things worse than not being able to, to, to walk. And for me, at 21, I'm like, that was a huge, a huge deal. And so here I am in this sauna of self pity and I'm like, okay, now what, what do I do?

And after my surgery, you know, they sent me to a different hospital where I was doing my rehab and they stopped feeding me in bed. And, and if I wanted to eat, I had to get outta bed. And it took me a half an hour to get outta bed. And it took me 20 minutes to put on my pants. It I needed [00:59:00] the, the aid of some nurses to roll me over 'cause I couldn't even move.

And everything that would came with ease was just a struggle, and life was just miserable. And I'm like, this, this sucks. I'm like, what can I do? And I was thinking of all the things that I couldn't do now. My identity had been stripped away from me and, and, and I'm being weighted upon. And, and so I get outta bed because I'm hung, I'm, I want to eat.

And I'm rolling down these sterile halls of the hospital. Tears are starting to appear. I think this is the first time I cried. And I'm just having the worst day ever. And you know, when you're in pain, You wanna be left alone? I'm like, I just wanna be left alone. And I get my food and I, and I go to the corner of the cafeteria and I put my tray on the table and I'm flavoring my food with my tears, and I just wanna be left alone and my misery, and I'm just feeling sorry for myself.

And all of a sudden, this tray plops in front of me and I look up and I'm about to tell this guy to go take a hike and say some [01:00:00] things that I won't repeat on this, on this podcast. And this person who was sitting across from me happened to be a prisoner at the point of the mountain state of state of Utah.

He was lifting weights in prison, had an aneurysm in his brain, paralyzed the right side of his body, and he had a slurred speech. But the irony of this, David, is this prisoner asked a question that set me free from my prison, that set me free from that sauna of self-pity. And what's interesting is a lot of people look at prisoners as citizens of society that have nothing to give that you know, that they're just worthless and the, and that there's, you know, their burden on society.

But this prisoner asked me a question that set me free from my prison, and the question that he asked [01:01:00] me was, why are you crying, dude? And I'm like, what? He's like, why are you crying, dude? In his third speech, I recognized the question that he was asking me, and the question that he was asking me was, why are you crying, dude?

And that question right there snapped me outta my pity party, snap me outta my funk, helped me flip the switch, reframe things, and see things different. I all of a sudden recognized things that were around me that I didn't see before. In fact, I had passed this individual who was paralyzed from the neck down, who had a halo screwed to his skull.

He couldn't even move, he couldn't even feed himself. He had to have somebody feed him. And here I could, here, I could feed myself here, I could move my arms here, I could give some hugs. The guy next to him was paralyzed from the neck down as well, but he had some movement in his arm, and he was able to tape a fork to his finger in his thumb.

And, and here he is attempting to try to bring the food to his mouth, and the morsels are falling off. And he's struggling just to feed [01:02:00] himself, but he's attempting to feed himself. And here I am feeling sorry for myself that you know that I'm in a wheelchair, that I can't walk. And that question, why are you crying, dude?

Snap me outta my pity party, snap me outta that tailspin, and helped me exit that sauna of self pity and start to focus on things that I could do instead of what I couldn't do. It reminded me of all these lessons that I learned. It reminded me of, of that moment of having to, you know, call my parents up and tell them that I was, that I, that I had been cut.

In reality, I, I had, I had quit. It was like that movie where those flashbacks just of all the horrible things that you experienced in your life, it was just rushing back. Why are you crying, dude? And all these things just came rushing back to me and I'm like, holy crap. Why am I crying? Why am I thinking that things aren't possible?

Why am I thinking that this can't be done? Why, why do I [01:03:00] think that I'm not good enough? Why do I think that I don't have the tools or skills? Why do I think that I have to do this by myself? Why do I continue to listen to these lies that are being preached all around us? And it was like, it was like, it was like a flash of just light, and it was like instantly you can focus on what you can do.

Or you can focus on what you can't do. And what I could do, David, was dream new dreams. And what I, and what I could do is live life to the fullest, even if it had to be in a wheelchair. And and, and so I dreamt new dreams. My dream is to walk again and not faint. It's to run and not be weary, and it's to have a full recovery.

That's, that's my dream. And I remember telling the doctor my dream, and he, and he just laughed at me. [01:04:00] He's like, it can't, it can't be done. It's impossible. It, he showed a picture of my back. He showed me the x-ray. There's a four inch plate in my back. You know, two screws up above, two screws down below.

Spinal cord severed in, you know, can't even feel a thing from my waist down, no movements. And but that was his opinion. And the opinion that wa that I had was, no, I can't walk. I will walk, I will run, I will box out my son, I will walk my daughters to the altar. I will go on walks with my wife on the beach.

I will live life to the fullest. And and, and, and, and so I'm like, okay, let, let's do it. Let's, let's live life to the fullest. And what I could do, David, is I could, I could go to the front of the hospital even though I couldn't move and the doctor was accurate. I couldn't move, I [01:05:00] couldn't feel, I couldn't stand, I couldn't walk.

But what I could do is I could go to the front of the hospital. I brought my Calvin Hobbes book because I needed to laugh a little bit. Laughters is, is the best medicine I'm telling you right now. It is the best medicine and you can find joy. Yeah. Mary hard do is good like a medicine, right? Oh, absolutely.

And you can find joy even in the worst of circumstances. And I could go to front of the hospital reading my Calvin Hobbes book, and then I could visualize myself doing leg extensions, leg curls, leg presses. I could even see myself walking down the streets. And I was doing it to the point where I was physically perspiring, even though I was just doing it in my mind.

And some of the heaviest lifting that I've experienced is in between my ears. And, but it's the most accessible and it's some of the most powerful exercises that we can do. I.[01:06:00] 

Then, so now you have this moment, this epiphany, you see like, man, I've been looking at this backwards. And it doesn't matter what the doc doctor says, married is what God says and what I believe. So you are moving forward, you're setting new goals, new dreams, and between then and today, Jeff, your life go, like you mentioned all the things you're able to achieve and overcome, but bring us through that and stop at any milestones that we need to.

But from that point of epiphany to today, bring us through that timeline. Yeah, absolutely. And, and, and the other thing that I want to give your listeners who are still here is the possibility principle. You are like, you know, how did I exit that son of self-pity? You know that, that question from the prisoner really did.

But if, if you'll, if you'll email me, Contact, you know, contact@griffmotivation.com. If you, if you put in the subject line possible, I will send you the [01:07:00] possibility principle that companies pay me thousands and thousands of dollars to teach their, their employees and their workers. This principle, I'll give it to you for free.

It's the Possibility Principle. It's based on Ralph Waldo Emerson's quotes, that which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do, period. You know, reading his, reading, writing, his writing, even if you have listy, even if, if numbers are hard, even if, you know, being socially awkward is difficult, you can overcome that and you can become optimistic.

You can be, you can be grateful and you can be, you know, the The optimist instead of the pessimist if you work on it. And this possibility principle leads to the P squared mindset that leads to the ability to, you know, to, to create that foundation that's going to hold up your dreams, that helps you, you know, go and conquer you know, those demons and those dragons, and helps you climb those mountains and orchestrate that song that sings to your [01:08:00] soul.

And the P squared mindset, it's beautiful. There's like five benefits that come from this. The first one is it teaches you how to match your dreams and desires to where the floodgates of imagination just open up. And then you start living life in color, in hd and you get to experience life. Kind of like, you know, that first time I was on the football field where I'm, I'm not just watching the game.

I'm not just sitting on the, standing on the sidelines, but I'm in the game. I'm smelling, I'm hearing, I'm experiencing what it would be like to be in this game. So as successful leaders and leader success, our job is not just to get people to the stadium and not just down, out of the stands onto the sideline and, and get a jersey on our backs, but our job is to get them to get out there and get into the game called life.

Because once we start to play and participate in life, we get to experience something in a completely different fashion. And so, and, and so, you know, the en the enemy, the adversary is [01:09:00] trying to get us to do nothing, to be complacent, to be fearful, to be doubtful. And if he can. And, and if and if we can be in that state, then we're not going to experience the, the life that, that we're intended or, or we've been created to fulfill.

And so that P Square mindset helps you match your desires with your dreams. It teaches you what success really is. What failure really isn't. You know, so many times we see the opposite of success is failure, but I've never met anyone who hasn't failed their way to success. Yeah, that's so true. It's, it's like working out.

You don't lift weights one time. You continuously challenge and burn and stretch and tear, and then eventually over time all those injuries become beautiful. Oh, absolutely. And, and, and so it is like, again, I've never met anyone who hasn't felt their way to success. And so give yourself permission to fail because failures at first are triumphs that last as long as you just don't quit.

And so, you know, that's two outta the [01:10:00] five. You know, it, it, it teaches you that it's the process, not the promise that helps you progress. But so often we abort the promise and focus on the, we abort the, we abort the process and we focus on the promise, but it's the process that helps us progress. And and it teaches us to be comfortable being uncomfortable.

I. It's in the struggle that we find, the strength, it's in the stretch that we, that we grow. And my, and, and the last, one of my favorite one is it teaches us what hope is. Angela Duckworth has a book called Grit, and it's a beautiful book about how these West Point Academy cadets, you know, how they get there and then why so many quits, and then those who don't, what's, what's the, you know, what's the, the, the commonality in there and it's grit.

She, she concludes and she says that gritty people are hopeful people, and I love her book, but I think it's upside down in this area. I think she has it upside down in, in this particular place of, of, of hope. [01:11:00] And to me, hope is the ability to reach out to the future and grab onto your dreams and bring it back to the present in spite of your past, in spite of your setbacks, in spite of your challenges, in spite of your failures, in spite of all those things that you know, caused you some heartache.

And to me, I believe hopeful people. Are gritty people. And, and that is that right there. That possibility principle will help you develop that P square mindset. And you know that question of why are you crying, dude, hopefully it will snap you outta your pity party and help you begin this process of finding out what do I really want?

What do I truly want? How can I develop this desire that's going to match up with this dream? And what are some tools and, and, and skills I can do to help me get closer in fulfilling that to get those results? And that simple formula right there, those three Ds has helped countless of people, thousands of people, you know, obtain their dreams and, [01:12:00] and understand what they want, and then go down and chase after it.

And, and that's where I find the greatest joy today is, is helping other people have the skills and tools in order to accomplish their dreams and desires. My greatest desire is to, you know, Help leaders lead, help them make more money, help them impact the world, and help them solve pesky problems. And, and we do that with the three Ds.

We do that with the, the 10 steps that world record leaders fall and finish with the, with exactness. And it's just so fulfilling to see people chase after their dreams and and accomplish it. And, and as the tide rises, you know, all boats, all boats rises as well. And so that's, that's, that's, that's my mission.

That's my purpose is, is to, is to teach people that you are the solution to impossible. That you come from infinite intelligence. [01:13:00] If you include the great I am, the impossible becomes possible. And you know, we, what you think. Possible. And I pause intentionally because what you think is possible, and again, every every minute you doubt it's possible.

You give up 60 seconds and find the solution. We have so much to do and so much to give and so much to accomplish together. And it's beautiful. Life is beautiful even in these times that we're experiencing right now. Well said Jeff. And before we go and transition to where Jeff is today and where are you heading between your birth and today, is there anything we missed or any of the thoughts you want to talk about?

I know it's so cliche, but inch by inch is a ci and yard by [01:14:00] yard is hard. And, and so many people I work with and so many people I see, they try to consume the whole dream in one bite. They try to consume the, their whole life. In one day, in one moment. And you know, Confucius, I'm sure has been, has been, has been said to say many things that he hasn't.

But one of the things that I've learned as a little kid was, you know, a man cannot eat an elephant in one bite. My first thought is, who eats elephants? But I'm like, I'm going to change it to a man cannot consume a cow in one bite, but I'm sure I've consumed three or four cows in my lifetime. You know, bite by bite by bite, you know, is easy.

And if, and if I've got some meat, meat eaters out there, I mean, it's some vegetarians out there that don't like my analogy with meat. You can't consume the whole garden with one bite. You know, it's, it's bite after bite. It's step after step. A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. [01:15:00] And looking back after, you know, 30 years of being in a wheelchair, I look back and I'm like, holy crap.

I have done. More in a wheelchair than most men do out of it. And not, and not to compare and not to degrade and not to point fingers, but how amazing is it if we can learn how to flip that switch, focus on what we can do instead of what we can't do. Just enjoy the journey along the way. Enjoy every step along the way.

Inch by inch is a inch, yard by yard is hard. And so if we learn how to be able to find our destination, know what we want, where we want to go, and then course, you know, map out that course and then just enjoy the journey and, and, and trust the process. And I've learned it. I've learned for myself that if I do it arm in arm with the man who has gone [01:16:00] before and knows all things, he can do more with my life than I can do.

With my life on my own. Amen to that. So that's, we can't beat God. God loves us. He wants the best for us. And what do they say when we tell God our plans? He laughs. Right. Nothing we can say or do, cannot whitt God. You get time for another question. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. All right. So those paradigm shifts we have that are so valuable in life, you know, sometimes the, like in your case there's a catalyst.

Why are you crying, dude? And that was just the moment where there was a shift and a switch went off in your brain, you said. Correct. Right. So in the [01:17:00] nineties, you know, there was about 6 billion people in the world. I. That same thing could have been said by about probably 5.4 billion. Right? But there was something about that man at that time that you knew like, what am I crying about?

He's got it worse. And that was the power he has. Am I correct that far? So far? Oh, absolutely. 100%. Yeah. So for the people out there who are listening, if anybody else said that same message, they'd actually get more upset and more depressed and more bitter, or feel all these, more of the negatives. What's the manual override, Jeff?

Like right now, if people are listening, like whether someone's there or whether I'm going to have the attitude shift right now, God's real, he loves me. I'm the one holding onto this crap. What's the manual override? [01:18:00] What's the person saying? Why are you crying, dude? That we can flip ourselves? Yeah, that, that's a great question because what's interesting is everybody everyone who is struggling and hasn't been able to overcome, you know, we've, we're, we're the, we're the creators of our own excuses, and because we created those excuses, we hold onto them and we're like, well, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But yeah. But you know, there's three lies that, that we tell our three main lies that we tell ourselves all the time. Line number one is, I'm, I'm not capable of doing that. David May be, Joey, may be Jennifer, may be, Rebecca, may be, but I, I'm not able to lie. Number one is I'm not able to do X, Y, or Z. But the truth is, is, is we all come from.

Infinite intelligence. We all have that Royal d n a, we [01:19:00] all have the ability. We might have to do it different, but we can, but we're still capable of doing, you know, I love, I love, you know, team Hoyt, if you've ever seen them. And it's, it's the father, son common, you know, team, you know, combination where this, you know, this father has a son who can't communicate, can't talk.

They wanna put him in a, in, in a, in a psych ward. He's like, no, no, I'm taking him everywhere. Anyways, this man drags his son and he does all these Ironman and he swims two and a half miles with his son on, you know, in a, in a raft. And, and he, he bikes 116 miles, 110 miles, whatever that is, with his son in the front.

And then he runs 26.2 miles with his son in a, in a, in a, you know, a stroller.

You know, so many people [01:20:00] are like, this just can't be done. It can't be done. You know, this guy is lost. And what's interesting as time comes, you know, this boy is able to tap out on a computer. His mind, he graduates from Boston University, by the way, and he just, he's an intellectual, intelligent individual and and he had so much more to give and he accomplished so much and he was able to do so much, but he could have easily said, oh yeah, I can't do this.

His dad could have easily created those excuses for him, but we as individuals, we create these excuses. And because we're the owners of these excuses, we don't want to give them up. We don't want to give them up. And so a lot of people are like, well, yeah, it's just, maybe it's okay for him, but not for me.

But the the reality is, is every single one of us can flip the switch right now and let go of all of our excuses. Start to believe, you know, people are like, ah, I can't do that, I can't do that. No, no, you can, you do it all the time. You flip the [01:21:00] switch all the time. You know, our self-talk determines our results.

And people are, I don't self-talk. If you're saying that right now, you're self-talk. Ah. And so we all do that. We can all flip the switch. We can all start to believe that we have the ability to do this. And what I and how to illustrate that is how many guys, you know, how many, how many times do you know somebody who has a phone voice?

You know, you're talking to 'em, the phone rings and they get on there like, hello? Yes, absolutely. And, and they have that phone voice. And, and when was the last time you've had that, you know, argument with somebody and you're yelling at each other and you're ready to go to blows and the phone rings and you have to get it, and you pick it up, you're like, hello?

Yeah, Uhhuh. Okay. Absolutely click and you just go at it again. We're, we're flipping that switch constantly and it happens all the time. And, and so again, going back to that person who's like, man, nah, it doesn't, it may work for him, but not, I mean, not for [01:22:00] me. It may work for you, but not for me. And that, and, and let it go.

Let your excuse go, let it go. Be believing, you know, lie number one, I don't have the ability lie Number two, I don't have the tools or skills. We do. We have the tools and skills in order to do it. It's inside of us. Every single one of us has it. We just have to be still and know who he is. And then line number three is, I can do this by myself.

So many times we think we can do it ourselves. No one, no one understands me. No one understands me. You know, I had one person tell me one time, like, he's like, Griff, You don't understand me. You don't know what it is. It is what it is. And I'm like, it is what it is, but it doesn't have to be. And so going back to, you know, this being unique to me, that that's this question, you know, you know, why you crying, dude?

You know, the question might turn people off. [01:23:00] Absolutely. I get that, that question could have turned off so many people. Like, why are you crying, dude, let's, let's fight, let's fight right now. It could've, it could've, you know, turned me off as well. But my point in this is, is we all have that ability to flip the switch.

We can change instantly if we choose to. We can believe if we choose to. And, and it's just a matter of Okay. Yeah, absolutely. Right now. Yeah. I'm optimistic, I'm believing. You know, and, and so, so it's just a matter of

just let go, let go of the crap. Hold on to the goodness. Yeah, I think that's so well said. And I think also, you know, you had an extreme circumstance and fork in the road. Right. But I also know the Bible's true. And the Bible says, commit the works to the Lord and thy thought shall be established. You know, you hear this, this is song that's in the hymn [01:24:00] books count that many blessings.

And the story behind it is a woman was depressed and she was going to the pastor for counseling. So he starts giving her tasks to do, and then she gets so busy helping other people, she doesn't have time to go to counseling and she forgets about her depression. Right. So it's what you're saying, it's like flicking that switch.

But sometimes we just gotta do and then it'll catch up to us and you start living the right life and your priorities get right and your mind gets right and you heal and you're miles away before you know it. Mm-hmm. So I think it was awesome that you had that man in your life's just like, Strong dude, you know, get up.

Yeah. Why are you crying, dude? Yeah. I'm like, yeah, why am I crying? Absolutely. No, absolutely. If I said that you would've hit me, but he said it and you're like, oh, damn. That's right. Possibly, possibly I could, you know, I could've gone to blows with you, but you know, it, it was, it was the, it, you know how they say, you know, when the time is right.

The[01:25:00] The Jedi will show up, right? When, when the time is right the, the person that's, that you're needed, that's needed in your life will show up. And so that, that person right there, that man, that prisoner was exactly the, the person that I needed. And it was the, and it was the right time.

You know, it was, people are like, well, how long were you in the sauna? I'm like, for me it was two, two weeks. It was a long two weeks. And some people are two years, some are 10 years. And so what I'm saying is, is I learned for myself though, that it can just snap in an instance. It can, and, and it doesn't have to be from somebody else.

It can just be from ourselves. It says, you know what? I'm done. Yeah, I'm done. I'm done. I'm going to go. I'm going to get out and do, I'm going to develop, I'm going to develop a desire that matches up with my dreams, and we're going to go and conquer the world. We're going to go and help the world. We're going to go and impact the world.

We're going to make more money. You know, we're going to solve these pesky problems. We're going to forgive. Our enemy, we're going to you know, love those who don't deserve loving, which I don't believe there's anyone who doesn't deserve [01:26:00] loving. But that's what we've, that's what we've created in our minds.

So our listeners, many of them are going to want to connect with you and follow up on the conversation, read your book, take advantage of that. Super awesome, you know, kind resource you're willing to give our listeners. But where is Jeff today? Where are you heading and what's the best way for our listeners to reach you?

Yeah, absolutely. I, I'm speaking all over the world, just was, just, came from Talent Estonia went to Vicon, spoke, spoke there at Vicon with Gary V and then was. New York three days ago heading to Sun Valley, speaking with Drew Brees at a conference and, and then back to Jamestown. I'm all over the place.

The easiest and fastest way to get ahold of me is just to go to my website@griffinmotivation.com. G R I F F I N. It's like Griffin, the Mythical Beast, half Eagle, half Lion [01:27:00] but griffin motivation.com. You can go to any of my, you know, LinkedIn, Instagram accounts. But if you want to get a book or both books, I've got two behind my shoulders.

I'm possible and endless possibilities. If you get both books, shipping is free. And and David, those, those listeners who are still around and still here, we will throw in a little bit of love. And if you put in the coupon code, love. L o v e, we'll knock off 50% on, on the books. And so it's 50% buy two, get the, the shipping for free.

It's a great deal. It will the first one I'm possible is the genesis that introduces the three Ds. The endless possibilities is like the, the tool that helps you overcome your optimism in the opposition because there's going to be opposition to your optimism. There's going to be some pushback to your programming.

And and, [01:28:00] and we need a process. So I call them holy habits and righteous routines. We need a process in place. We need a system in place. The solution to pollution is dilution and we need to put what we want to get out in. So we want to put whatever we put in is what we're going to get out. Yeah, that's a life principle for sure.

I don't think anybody can dispute that. Well, man, you've been an inspiration. It's been fantastic talking to you today, Jeff. Between your birth and today in the future, is there anything we missed? And when people connect with you, is there a better social media platform or the website you, like, you mentioned your email, you mentioned your website.

What's best for you? The fastest way is just to go to, you know, to contact@griffinmotivation.com. My team will, will get your message, they'll send it on to me. If you wanna get contact directly to me, Instagram is probably where I'm [01:29:00] on the most. And you know, I, I check out those messages as well. But but again, I, I want your listeners to, to really understand the greatness inside of them.

I really hope and understand that they realize, you know, you know, That that they have the ability to achieve their dreams and desires. You know, you and I were talking before we even recorded this, that my dream and desire is at the end of my life, my friends and family remember me as a man who lifted their loads, lightened their spirits and loved them.

That's my dream and desire, and hopefully your, your spirits have been lifted, your loads have been lightened and that you know that you're loved. Amen. I know it has for me, and I'm super thankful. So, Jeff, you are a Remarkable man. I'm glad that we are friends and had this time together and I'm looking to forward to continuing the friendship in the future.

Ladies and gentlemen, reach out to Jeff, take advantage of his kind [01:30:00] offer. Get those books and, you know, start the growth process. Hopefully that'll be the catalyst in your life. And if you have any questions, reach out to ge, reach out to Jeff, reach out to myself. Share this episode with your friends and family, because we're looking to help as many people as we can grow.

We wanna see you grow, your friends, your family. We wanna see even Jeff thrive. Everybody, everybody thrive for God's glory. So Jeff, thank you again for being here today, my friend. I really appreciate it. David. Get feeling better, my friend. I'm telling you, you are, you are amazing. And thank you for allowing me to, to sit on your shoulders these last few minutes.

Well, not these last few minutes, but the, the short amount of time that we've had with each other, you know, it's, it's easy. It's easy to look good sitting on the shoulders of giants, and you are a Remarkable person. And so thank you for allowing me to be a part of your journey. Oh no, thank you. The honor is all mine.

And we appreciate you, Jeff. So thank you [01:31:00] for being on the show, and I look forward to you in a follow up in a year or two and just checking in and hanging out together. Absolutely, man. Anytime. Oh yeah, it'll be beautiful. So ladies and gentlemen, thank you again for listening to this Remarkable episode.

Check out the show notes to get linked to Jeff's pages for his website, Instagram account, and more. We love you and like our slogan says, and like Jeff just said, don't just listen to great content, but do it. Take those actions you need to each day, repeat it over and over again each day so you can have a great life in this world, but most importantly, an attorney to come.

So I'm David Pasqualone. This was our friend Jeff, and we'll see you in the next episode. Chow. 

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