Starting Health Warrior, a business borne out of a passion for health and fitness, moved Daniel Gluck away from Wall Street. He seized the opportunity to fill a niche in a food industry dominated by overly processed and high sugar offerings with healthful chia based alternatives. He was inspired by the legendary Tarahumara Indians who, fueled with chia seeds, are the ultra endurance runners described in the book “Born To Run.” Gluck talks about what it takes to build something from scratch and how building this business changed his life for the better.

Lessons:

    1.    Follow your passion even if it means struggling through hardship to find it.

    2.    Celebrate the wins; don’t dwell on the losses. 

    3.    Focus on the big picture of how it’s going to work without getting mired in the day to day problems.


CREDITS
Producer – Marion Abrams, Madmotion, llc.
Hosts: Joe De Sena with Johnny Waite, Sefra Alexandra, Col. Tim Nye, Dr. Delle & David Deluca
Synopsis – Matt Baatz
© 2017 Spartan


Battling addiction late in the Vietnam era, the US Army’s Deputy Chief of Chaplains Brigadier General Thomas Solhjem found redemption through his faith and other’s mentorship. As he realizes now, isolation, though a common strategy, is the worst way to deal with adversity. Reaching out to others and sharing your experiences is an admission of strength. He has spent an extremely long time in the military, forty years with thirty of those as a chaplain, helping others cope with the rigors of battle and drawing strength from trying circumstances. Solhjem sources his vast experiences to tell us how to be better people.

Lessons:
    1.    The person who overcomes adversity is the person who is able to channel strength from outside theirself.

    2.    Post traumatic order  is finding a positive context for hardship and becoming stronger as a result.

    3.    Resilience is the integration of elements into your life that enable you to be flexible.

CREDITS
Producer – Marion Abrams, Madmotion, llc.
Hosts: Joe De Sena with Johnny Waite, Sefra Alexandra, Col. Tim Nye, Dr. Delle & David Deluca
Synopsis – Matt Baatz
© 2017 Spartan


Running across the Sahara, all 4600 miles, 50 miles a day for 111 consecutive days. That’s what Ultrarunner Charlie Engle did to raise 6 million dollars for H20 Africa (now Water.org). In doing so he took his passion and did good with it. Engle overcame addiction and an unexpected jail sentence, but instead of running away from adversity, he embraced it.  He started running marathons which turned into a gateway for more daunting races like ecochallenges. All told he’s been racing for 30 years. His top piece of advice: attempting to make your life easier is a mistake.

Lessons:
    1.    Welcome some suffering when it enters your life, some of the greatest lessons are from hardship.

    2.    Keep forward momentum going. 

    3.    Find a way to use what you love to improve the world. 



CREDITS
Producer – Marion Abrams, Madmotion, llc.
Hosts: Joe De Sena with Johnny Waite, Sefra Alexandra, Col. Tim Nye, Dr. Delle & David Deluca
Synopsis – Matt Baatz
© 2017 Spartan

Behavioral scientist & expert on adventure, Jon Levy knows what makes Spartans tick. He wrote a book about it, The 2AM Principle: Discover the Science of Adventure.  A big reason why people undertake challenges outside their comfort zone is to reach flow state, a zen like sense of timelessness, total absorption in an activity, and sense of mastery. The IKEA effect, loving an activity according to the amount of effort you invested in it, also explains how Spartans are made. But the real gift of adventure, Levy explains, is it’s transformative power. In this episode, Levy explains how to live a fun and exciting life and gain success in the process.

Lessons:
    1.    Say yes to experiences.
    2.    Do something a little outside your comfort zone to help induce a state of flow.
    3.    Take advantage of the winner effect by getting some easy victories and building momentum for larger challenges.



CREDITS
Producer – Marion Abrams, Madmotion, llc.
Hosts: Joe De Sena with Johnny Waite, Sefra Alexandra, Col. Tim Nye, Dr. Delle & David Deluca
Synopsis – Matt Baatz
© 2017 Spartan

Not wanting to spend his life on the sidelines, blind athlete Pete Cossaboon started participating in Spartan events.  He sought out and found a way to achieve this seemingly impossible goal. Nelson Diaz has dedicated himself to facilitating the implausible achievements of adaptive athletes through compassion and action. The events only have meaning and purpose to the degree that they can be applied to life at large and to what extent the athletes can use them to tell their unique story to the world.

Lessons:
- Any new situation, when confronted, evolves from fear to adaptation.
- If life is a dash between you birthday and your death day, measure your value by the lives you have you changed in the interim.
- Avoid distractions to the degree that they are diverting you from the main purpose of your life.



CREDITS
Producer – Marion Abrams, Madmotion, llc.
Hosts: Joe De Sena with Johnny Waite, Sefra Alexandra, Col. Tim Nye, Dr. Delle & David Deluca
Synopsis – Matt Baatz
© 2016 Spartan