#146 Worth the Fight

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the construction corner podcast. I'm Dylan, I'm your host and guys today on this episode joined as always by my blue collar. Bad-ass Matt and, uh, we do have a special guest, but before we get to, uh, today's special guests, Matt, how how's Michigan these days.

 

Michigan's not too bad, man. The weather has been a little dicey or getting storms like crazy lately, but you know, we're, we're still navigating the, uh, the crazy construction market we got hit this week now, uh, with an unexpected eight week lead time on some siding for two different projects that, you know, normally this stuff's supposed to take three days.

 

So it's always, uh, a little bit of fun. But it's good.

 

Yeah. I've seen that in many projects and, uh, people that I follow, you know, we're in the entrepreneur space and people building out new headquarters, new places, and they, uh, seem to not have the materials that they'd like to open on the timelines that they'd, they'd love to be opening.

 

I think things are getting better. Uh, I'd like to think that anyways, at least they're, they're pointing in the right direction, but it's a, it's a slow fix for sure.

 

Yeah, and guys, so today our special guest joins us all the way from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Brett Leante, and being that it's a suicide awareness prevention month, mental health, mental health awareness.

 

Uh, we figured we'd bring on Brent as. Uh, I hate to say expert, but I think it's fitting in this context that he's, he's a person to really help us navigate this. As you know, he had to navigate his way through the challenges of business, of getting divorced, learn how to be a single. Um, all while managing, you know, and recovering from depression, uh, and his journey through this, uh, he's published a book worth the fight, uh, which is part autobiography, part strategy guide to help take your life back when it feels out of control.

 

So without further ado, Brett, welcome to the show.

 

Thanks for having me guys. I appreciate you bringing me on. It's definitely a heavy topic. So, uh, happy to talk about it, share a little bit of my story here, a little bit of yours and, uh, you know, give some people some tools that they can use.

 

Perfect, man.

 

That's what we're hoping for.

 

Absolutely in construction. So, uh, as our listeners, now I sit on the design side of the table, uh, for the time being and mats on the general contractor side. And. On both sides of the table. There's really different anxieties pressures that we all face. One of which being time, timelines, deadlines, and getting projects finished and built, uh, personally.

 

So I've talked about this here before, but for me, I ended up getting shingles as a reaction to the stress of just getting projects out the door, right. It was an new project, something I had never done before. It was 30 operating rooms. So you try not to mess those up in any way, uh, make sure they're designed properly.

 

And it was one of the things that you just get. I got thrown into the deep end. Everyone else had their own projects, had their own things to deal with and was kind of just. To myself, to my own devices to figure it out. And I mean, I did. We're getting through that, which is very stressful. A lot of late nights, um, drank probably too much through that process on the weekends to like just the stress out of it.

 

And I'm sure that's something that a lot of people can relate to. And then as the story goes, I sat on the beach for the next seven to 10 days on any virals. Uh, cause I got shingles like two days before going on a vacation and I was in Hawaii. So. Being on the beach, uh, with jingles, no drinks. No, my ties is not, uh, not necessarily the vacation that everybody imagines, but that's also why, like for my company, everything is beach themed.

 

Um, you know, ocean is to, to kind of, for me to remember why I do what I do to help people. You know, not have to worry about deadlines and that kind of stress, but for, I guess for you, how did some of those things, I guess, take us through your story and how it kind of manifested for you and what things kind of happened.

 

Uh, now

 

I guess for you. Yeah, for sure. And, you know, I got to say, that's the worst time to get a sickness like shingles, a buddy of mine, cut it a few years back. And he was a wreck for weeks. So, uh, yeah, going to Hawaii was jingles. That sucks. But like you said, I mean, construction is a stressful job or you're constantly working on timelines.

 

You've got clients, you've got, uh, other contractors, subcontractors constantly that you have to negotiate. You got to navigate through all those different people. Uh, everybody has their own expectations, their own timelines and their own struggles that they're dealing with. It's a stressful line work. And that stress, uh, is definitely a contributing factor to a depressive states, depressive, moods, that kind of thing.

 

Uh, I should go back for a quick second and, uh, touch on one thing. So myself. I appreciate being described as an expert. I don't know if I'd consider myself one, but, uh, you know, it's, I'm a, I'm an, I guess I'm an expert from experience, you know, I'm not, I'm not a psychologist, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a therapist.

 

Any of those things, what I am is a survivor. Uh, I went right to the brink of suicide. I was ready to take my own life. I had a plan, I had it all figured out and, uh, I was thorough enough. That's had, I just taken that one step. If I'd had just one bad day, one bad moment. Um, there's nothing anyone could have done to stop me.

 

Um, you know, unfortunately I didn't go that route. I took steps to. Take myself away from that. And you know, one of the things that you learn is, uh, you learn who is going to, who's really going to be there for you. You know? Uh it's if I had to say there was a couple of silver linings to my experience, one, I really know the people that I can count on because people that I didn't expect stood up and helped me out.

 

And people that I really thought would be there for me. Um, Kept me at arms distance, or even turn their back. And, uh, it was a hard lesson to learn, but, uh, you know, how go into a few of the details a little bit later on the other thing I wanted to touch base on or touch on, there was something that you said there, Dylan, um, when you were.

 

You know, going to that period of stress and you're doing a lot of drinking, you know, that's something that a lot of people do is, uh, drinking or turn into drugs. That kind of thing. It's a self-medicating procedure. Unfortunately, you know, those things don't really help. Uh it's it's kinda like putting a bandaid over a bullet wound, right?

 

The bullet's still in there. It's still causing problems. You can stick a bandaid over top of it. You might not see the blood coming through on your clothing. But it's still in there. You still got to extract that you still got to get to the root of the problem first. And, uh, yeah, I mean, depression is a big issue for people.

 

Um, like it's the third leading cause of disease burden. So the third biggest strain on our medical system worldwide is depression. And I think it's one in three people, uh, one in two people experiencing mental. Health concern at some point in their life and one in three, uh, go through some state of depression.

 

So this is a common problem, and I know it's a big issue in the construction industry as well. So as for my story, uh, I always had a little bit of a predisposition for, for depression. Um, you know, whether it was environments or genetics or whatever it was, I don't know. Uh, but I had my first. The first thing that I remember of like, wanting to hurt myself happened when I was about 12 years old, but I didn't recognize that that's what it was until 20 years later when I was actually diagnosed.

 

And I started thinking back and going, okay, that was kind of a messed up thing to think about. Right. And it's an insidious condition because a lot of people go through their whole life, uh, without realizing that, uh, They have a problem. And that's why it gets so severe. And so many people, because the longer it sits and festers, the longer you go without addressing it, the worse it becomes.

 

Right. And, uh, for me, the tipping point came when I sustained a head, a concussion, it wasn't really a head injury. I was in a car accidents. My wife at the time and I were driving and our newborn baby was in the backseat. She was only seven days old. And, uh, we got rear-ended by a truck. Um, I got, I was turning in my seat.

 

At the time that we got hit. And so I got snapped back in my chair and that twisting motion, uh, caused me to get a concussion that was never diagnosed and never treated. And one of the symptoms of concussion and post-concussion syndrome is new or worsening depression. So I was already depressed. I was already unhappy about a lot of things.

 

And, you know, like I had a lot of good stuff going on in my life too. It's not like everything sucks. It's just, I was so fixated on the things that weren't going, the way that I wanted them to. And so once I sustained this concussion and this post-concussion syndrome, my depression just absolutely nosedive.

 

And I went into a very dark place. Like I said, I was ready to take my own life. And I was convinced that, all right. Was doing people a favor. It there's, there's a stigma around depression and suicide that, uh, it's weakness. It's weakness to take your own life, but that's a very damaging stigma. It's very harmful.

 

For the whole, for anyone who is experiencing depression, anyone who is experiencing suicidal ideations, it's a very damaging stigma because when you're in that state, it doesn't seem like the easy way out. There's nothing easy about killing yourself. Nothing easy about it. Like, I mean, you imagine taking, you know, trying to go through with that.

 

That's it for most people, that's a terrifying prospect. And even for someone who is depressed and suicidal, it's still a terrifying prospect. It's a very hard thing to wrap your mind around. Uh, it just feels like your only option. So it doesn't feel like easy option. It feels like the only option. And when someone is depressed, they're very effective at convincing themselves that they're actually doing other people a favor.

 

I believe wholeheartedly. That my wife and my children would be better off if I was gone.

 

Yeah.

 

That's uh, that's pretty intense, man. I appreciate you. Uh, you sharing it, you know, I think, I mean, you covered a lot there. I think, to, to kind of talk. And under the construction industry specifically, you mentioned that the fixation on all the bad shit going on, and I think no in construction a lot of times, and we talked about this, uh, on our last episode, it's a very thankless job, you know, across the board.

 

And, and in that, you know, when you do things correctly, There's no big celebration and you should, right. You should do the shit correctly, but when you screw something up really bad or, or mess it up, um, there's huge repercussions. And so I think a lot of, uh, folks, a lot of people in the industry especially really do fixate only on the bad stuff.

 

You know, we don't celebrate the wins, we don't celebrate the small victories. Um, so I can totally see that. You know, railroading and adding up to a really big problem. And the other thing, you know, just by it's a, it's a bold stereotype, but I think it's generally true construction guys, construction people.

 

Aren't typically the demographic that tend to talk about feelings, right? They don't, they don't tend to go and find help, you know, or tell anyone anything instead they, and I'm going to say, we will go to a beer or a bottle of something and you self-medicate. You know, sleep through the night and you get up and do it all over again.

 

So it, it's not a healthy way to go about it, but it's very helpful to hear people talk about it.

 

Yeah, absolutely. There's a, there's a book by Lieutenant Colonel, Dave Grossman. It's called on Kili and, uh, it's about the psychology of soldiers going into combat to take the lives of other people. And he's studied the subject extensively.

 

One of the things that he brings up in that book is the saying, um, pain shared is pain. Julie's shared is joy multiplied. So whatever's going on and the more you talk about it, the better off you are. If you're going through something that's painful. If you're going through some rough experience, the more you can talk about that experience, the less pain that you Harbor for yourself, you share it with others so that the burden is easier to bear and over time becomes easier to heal.

 

Whereas, you know, joy shared is joy multiplied. The more, you know, if you have a good experience, something positive happens, the more you can tell other people about that, the more they get to experience that joy and live vicariously through you. And you get to have the experience of. Uh, being lifted up by others.

 

So it's a, just a positive experience all around. Why, why it's so important. Whatever's going on, have a circle of people that you talk to about it. And you know, it doesn't mean just, uh, you know, sit around over a couple of drinks and bitch about everything that's going on, because I know there's a lot of that that happens, right.

 

Uh, you know, there's a time to vent, but, uh, you know, there's a venting is only going to get you so far, you know, at some point you got to. And you got to start changing the subject because when you get caught in that cycle, that's just, that's it, it's a negative environment. It's a negative cycle. It's a toxic place to be.

 

And if you constantly around that, well, guess what all your attention is going to be all the time. It's always going to be on the negative. And so that's a very interesting point that you brought up Matt about, uh, how, you know, you, you do everything right. And there's, there's no parade at the iPad, right?

 

That's what you're supposed to do. That's how the job's supposed to go. Uh, whereas if you make a mistake, we'll discuss time, it costs money. It costs all kinds of, and there's, there's, that's a pain point. That's a rough thing for people to deal with. So, um, I mean, how, how do you, how do you address that?

 

Right. You've got to have. We got to have some way in which to, uh, give yourself the opportunity to actually appreciate the things that you do accomplish. Right. And, you know, maybe as, as an employee in the construction industry, uh, what you need to do is just at the end of the. Take a minute, take five minutes to look at the work that you've done.

 

Uh, you know, construction you're in a unique position because at the end of the day, you know, at the end of your Workday, you get to look back at what you did and stay I accomplish. I accomplished something right. There are a lot of environments, a lot of businesses. Industries end of the day, you look at what you've done.

 

There's nothing to show for it. It's just the same shit over and over. Whereas in construction, you know, if you're assigned to do a project, you invest your eight hours and putting that project together and you can look at it and go, I did that, that wouldn't be here if I hadn't done that. And if you spend even 30 seconds at the end of your day gone, you know what fucking did.

 

Good. Maybe that's all. And as a, you know, as a contractor or someone who has employees, you know, taking that, uh, that extra minutes out of your day to go around and see what people have done. Uh, and just say, you know, like give people a pat on the back. Um, maybe that's something that needs to happen a little bit more in that industry.

 

Um, Honestly, I I've, I've only spent a few days out of my life doing construction, so I can't speak to what the experience is like, but I've heard stories. So

 

yeah, I mean, I think you nailed it, you know, it's celebrating the small victories, even if it's just a pat on the back or a thank you, you know, a nice job it's really important.

 

And it, it fosters a positive mindset across the whole job site and, you know, I dominate the conversation with the construction side. Cause that's what I do. But you know, Dylan on the design side, I, I got to imagine there's a lot of the same, the same lack of celebration. You know, the same if you screw up.

 

You're shit out of luck if you do it right then. Good.

 

Yeah. It's I mean, especially like in the engineering front, you know, like people admire the architecture side of it, but if you do a great job, like as a structural engineer, like, oh good. The building didn't fall down, you know, it's like you did your job, right.

 

There's only a few. Structures that really have that structural, like marble to them, right? Like big candle leavers or things coming out of the side of a building, which most people don't think of. Like the structural guy, they still think of it as cool architecture. So, and the engineering disciplines, especially with like mechanical plumbing, like I just saw a video of like sewage leaking at a Redskins game onto a bunch of people.

 

Like it's like catastrophic. That, you know, like somebody is not happy about, but when the plumbing works, you know, no one's like cheering, right? So there's, there's for sure that side of it. Right. And if something breaks, it's usually like catastrophic failures or failures to the point of like very bad things are happening.

 

Whether that's the AC going out and people are super uncomfortable, whether the lights go out or don't work or they flicker or whatever it might be happening, like it's usually a. Catastrophic failure in some regard it's bad enough that you've got to go deal with it. Um, so there's for sure that from the design side, but the other thing that I think we don't do enough in, in design, in the design community in general is.

 

Go to ribbon cuttings, um, to get people out of the office. And this is across the board, like how many of your admins have ever been out onto a ribbon cutting or a project opening, or even just like a sneak peek, right. For the design team and owner to like do a walkthrough and that's across the board, even in on the construction side, like your accountants, your admin people, right.

 

To get out and just see the project, whether it's at, you know, A punch list or a random Tuesday or a pre opening, whatever. And I don't think we do that enough. I've been to cross the, like, I don't know, 50 projects I've done. I've been to two, uh, like previews, you know, other than like final punch list, right?

 

Like. It just doesn't happen, you know, for the design team, they, we don't go out and really see the projects, um, appended back to plenty that had issues we had to work through. But for the actual like celebration piece of it, the actual. Victory piece of that opening. It's usually, you know, the PM the, uh, project executive, the principal in charge.

 

Like those are the, usually the people that go out for it, maybe the lead architects, whatever. And a lot of people get left in the office. So, and then they, they don't appreciate the project. It's just another thing that they add. They've seen renderings, but not never actually experienced, uh, the finished space.

 

So when we talk about. Being out on job sites. I think, uh, frankly the, the actual construction side has a lot better view of that and seeing it come to life and working through that, but even still like go into those ribbon cuttings, like how many guys down the chain, you know, like put on their good blue jeans, right.

 

And go to a, uh, ribbon cutting or, uh, opening ceremony or do something specific for, you know, the full construction team, you know, everybody up and down. Design owners, everybody to come out and do that for just the team versus, you know, all the other stakeholders and investors and community and all that other stuff.

 

So from a inclusion standpoint and, and seeing those victories to, to make everybody feel good about these projects, you know, um, I think things like that would be very well received. It's not done, uh, That often and to, to make the point of like, what we do is important, right? You're not for a lot of design.

 

It's not just looking at a screen. It's not just being in an office. Um, it's, you know, we do impact the community in a lot of ways. I don't think even architects, uh, really appreciate your, you know, engineers, like the whole design community. It's just another thing. And another project to get yelled at for something.

 

So

 

Brett, um, And we've kind of talked about where you got to the point you got to, um, and you can share as much or as little as you are comfortable with, but can you, can you give us some, some insight as to how you got from that? Kind of out of that bad space, you know, what, what brought you out of the darkness and into the light, because you've obviously come a long way from that.

 

I've heard you speak a couple of times, you, you own a business, you're now an author. So things are at least on the surface from my level you're, you're doing pretty damn well. So do you have any, you know, tactical advice as to what you did personally, to remove that from yourself?

 

Yeah, absolutely. And. Know, it was a process, right?

 

Everything, depression. It doesn't, it's not something that sets in overnight and it's not something that you can fix overnight. There's, there's a process to it. It takes time and it takes repetitive action. But understanding that you. Need help and then choosing to go out and get help is a big part of it.

 

Uh, you know, take advantage of all the tools that are available to you. Um, there are tools that you can do on your own and yeah, I'll, I'll get into some of those in just a second here. Uh, but they're also, you know, like going and talking to your doctor, uh, seeing a therapist, those are all beneficial things that anyone can do, but I understand that some of those things aren't necessarily.

 

Uh, economically viable for some people like going to going and seeing a therapist once a week for months at a time, is it costs lot of money, right? Uh, financially it's, uh, challenging for some people to do that. Uh, so that's why, you know, most, most of what I went through in, in my book and most of the strategies that I applied were, uh, just simple things that you can do with.

 

Uh, the biggest thing is changing how you focus your attention, right? And the way you can do that is by taking conscious action throughout your day. And at the end of your day, one of the first tools that I learned, and it's one of the ones that I talked about most is, uh, every day you're writing down three good things, three good things that happen in your day.

 

And I mean, it can be anything that you want. I can be. But some days you going to be able to come up with 15 good things and that's great. And other days you write down one and you're gonna really struggled to come up with number two or number three. Uh, but a good thing can be anything from, uh, the, the Starbucks barista and got my drink.

 

Great. The first time, uh, or, you know, I, you know, like anything my, my car started with. First time I turned it over. Right. Um, I found five bucks sitting on the ground for, you know, I.

 

Anything. Right. One of the, one of the examples that I said in the book is a, you know, I, I went pee and it didn't burn. Right. So for some, for some people, that's something they can write every day. Some people that might be something just, that's just occasional, but, uh, you know, it's, it's like anything can be considered a good thing if you're looking at it in the right.

 

So write down three good things, three good things that happened that day, whatever it was, you know, uh, I showed up to work on time, right. Or, you know, I was able to finish that project that's that I've been working on for the last eight days or, uh, you know, I met up with a buddy for a drink at the bar, whatever, uh, I, I got to the gym and did some exercise, anything.

 

Boosts your mood, write it down. And the reason that we do this, two things, one at the end of the day, it forces you to pay attention to the good things. It forces you to look at your day through the lens of finding the positive elements. And the more you do that, the more you're going to become consciously aware throughout your day that these positive things are happening.

 

So. Changing how we focus our attention by repetitively drawing attention, to the good things that happen. You become more aware throughout your day as good things happen. You become more aware of it. You start to be able to live in that moment a little bit more and appreciate those moments a little bit more as they happen.

 

The other thing is it creates a record. Of just good things. Like, we don't want to write anything negative when we're writing this, you know, I, I had a book and I just wrote point for him. Right. Nice and simple. You know, like, like we said, at the beginning, I'm single dad, you know? So when I get to do stuff with my kids, they spend most of the time with their mom.

 

I only get them part-time. But when I get to spend time with my kids, I write down the things that I did with them. Right. Uh, but then I've learned to become more invested in that moment while it's still. And then when you go back after you've been doing this for, you know, a week or two or couple of months, uh, you can go back and you can read about all the good things that happened to you.

 

And it's a reminder that in every day, no matter how shitty the day, there's always something good that happens. There's always some positive that you can take from it. Uh, so that's a reminder that, you know, I might be having a hard time right now. They might be having a rough day, but there's going to be something good to happen.

 

And tomorrow there's going to be something good that happens too. And the day after that, the day after that, the day after that, there's always going to be something good that happens. So that's one of the most powerful tools that I learned early on. Another one is a. Setting long-term goals for yourself.

 

It's kind of like a bucket list. You know, I, I tell people just have five items, five items on their list of things that they have to accomplish in their life. And it doesn't have to be like big momentous things. Uh, it can be something small, something simple, but it has to have really personal significance to you.

 

So, you know, again, for me, one of mine is, you know, my kids are pretty small. They're five and seven right now, but one day, if they choose to have kids of their own, I want to be there. I not just, I want to be there. I'm going to be there if they don't have. No big deal. That's their choice or their life circumstance.

 

But if they do God damn right, I'm going to be, they're going to be there to support them, going to be there, to help them out. That's a big thing for me. So having five items that you can go back to and be like, and when, when you have them written down, what you want to do is you want to take a few minutes to think about what it's going to feel.

 

When you get when you achieve that, whatever it is, when that moment, when that experience happens, whatever it is, you know, it could be traveling to a new destination. It could be starting your own company. If you haven't done that before, it can be landed, a big contract with a certain amount of money, whatever it is, whatever that goal is, whatever that target put yourself in that moment as though it's already happened and feel the feelings that you would have in that moment, the pride, the joy that whatever it is that you would experience once that is.

 

And, you know, it's a form of visualization, right? Put yourself in that moment and remember what that feeling is like. So that when that day finally comes, you know, you've been there before and it's going to give you that much more value. So those two things together, uh, are pretty big, right? One of the one practice that I took on, uh, once I started this process was I had my five.

 

Bucket list items. And I had my journal of three good things. Point form notes every day. And when I was having a really rough day, when I was really feeling low, I had to go back through the book. I'd flip through, I'd read all the things that I'd written down on a daily basis. And, you know, most of it just kind of blends in it doesn't really, it doesn't necessarily mean a whole lot, but then there are those moments that are a little bit different, a little bit more significant to you remember it, it reminds you that, that no, this really positive thing happened.

 

And after you've been reading through this for awhile and you get back to your list of five items and you can go, okay, I can do this. I can achieve this. All I have to do is get through today. I've made it through every day. So far, every day I'd been through. Some are bad. Some are good, some are terrible, but there's always been something good that's happened.

 

And no matter how many bad days I've had, I've made it through every one so far. And when I get to these things, these five goals, whatever they are, that's going to be grit. So that steady reminder, uh, that's always available to you that there are good things to look forward to.

 

I love it. I mean, the conscious action to change your focus and really just forcing yourself to see the positive, you know, that, that that's good stuff. I appreciate you sharing that.

 

Yeah. And, uh, the other thing is, um, I mean, we've got a whole list of. Uh, and for those who are watching the video, I think Tabasco page is just a list of things that people can do to kind of get themselves out of a state.

 

But, uh, you know, it's 18 chapters, 18 tools with some other stuff mixed in. Um, a big one that I'm a big proponent of is exercise. Uh, you know, I work in the fitness industry now and that's the business I opened into, uh, which has been very beneficial because I have, I feel like I have a purpose to strive for.

 

And, uh, you know, I have when, when my. Reach certain goals when you reach certain benchmarks, there's that sense of accomplishment? I feel proud of them and you know, that that's an awesome feeling, right? So having that purpose to work towards that's a big step as well, but exercise in and of itself is just tremendously important to both physical and mental health.

 

So in the construction industry, you know, if you want to avoid it, Uh, w if you're on the contractor side doing the actual work, put, you know, boots on the ground, the more you can exercise on a consistent basis, better shape, you're going to be in, and the less chance of getting injured on the job, the more money you're going to make, because you're going to be able to output more effort on the job site, get more work done.

 

And, uh, you know, it's going to open up new opportunities on the design side. Well, Uh, exercising on a regular basis, improves your mental focus. And you know, if your job is sitting behind the desk all day, well, that gets real tiring, especially if you're in front of a screen all the time. So getting out and doing that focused effort to make sure you get some exercise in and get the blood flowing, boosts your mental performance as well as your physical performance, but it also improves your, both your physical and mental health.

 

So, I mean, even, even half an hour, a day, even 15 minutes a day, Going out and doing something physically active, physically beneficial is going to have immediate, tangible benefits other than the soreness that happens when you first start working out. But once you get past that, uh, there are tangible benefits, uh, both mentally and physically.

 

Yeah, without a doubt. I mean, I see it in myself. Um, I'll go through stretches where I get lazy and I'm not really doing shit. And you know, along with my body, starting to slog down, I can feel my mind getting the same way. And as soon as I start working on, again, it kind of ramps me back up to that level of performance, that level of clarity, that where I want to be, you know, um, 75 heart is a great example of that.

 

I don't know if you've done it Brett, but I know Dylan has done it a couple of times or is doing it. Um, I've done it, you know, it's, uh, it, it really truly showed me personally. You know, that that continuous tie between physical exertion exercise and mental clarity, I'd never really noticed the correlation before, I guess, personally.

 

Yeah, definitely. And you know what? 7,500 is an awesome tool. I actually have an entire chapter dedicated 7,500 experience. Uh, you know, it was the first time that I consciously combine a whole bunch of these tools and it wasn't until I started looking back. Back at it afterwards that I was like, wow. Okay.

 

That's why it works because I was doing all of these things on a consistent basis and, uh, pushing myself to achieve. Um, so yeah, I've, I've gone through it a couple of times because, uh, you know, I just, I love the way that I feel when I'm on that program, as challenging as the program is. And, um, it's.

 

Unparalleled in terms of mental sharpness and personal transformation, um, you know, it's, is it, is it something that everyone has to do, uh, in order to recover from being in a mentally low place? No, no. I mean, there are tons of different ways out of it, but, uh, for me that was like the Keystone moment. That was, that

 

was

 

the turning point for me was when I started seventy-five hard for the first time.

 

Yeah, thanks for bringing

 

it up. I'm glad I did.

 

Yeah, I can't advocate for it. Strongly enough.

 

Yeah. And guys, in that point too, um, seventy-five heart. So I've gone through it multiple times. I've done phase one, a couple of times. Don a few iron mans run 62 miles on a few 50 milers. Like I've done hard things.

 

And the thing with a lot of these events, a lot of the. Experiences is it's not going to be the fix-all for everything. Like 75 heart is probably the best program for most people to get out of whatever rut that they're in, but there's going to be there's levels to like all this, right. So it's not going to be like the complete and total cure for everything.

 

Because if you still don't have something to look forward to, if you don't have that next thing that you're going after, if you don't have hope in any way, shape or form, it's still not going to be the cure for you. So even if you're on the program, it is, and I highly recommend it. I'm not saying don't do it, but I'm just saying that like, You've you've got to do.

 

If your mind is not in the right place from the start, it won't be the thing that's going to get you out of where you are. So to, you know, if this is the thing that keeps your focus off of like bad places and depression do that, right. It's going to be beneficial for you. But if you can't get your mind off of bad things, if you can't.

 

We have a new milestone, a new marker, a new goalpost to look forward to. Even being on 75 heart, isn't going to solve that. And frankly, that's from personal experience where like doing all the right things, student holler, gratitude lists being as like pot. And I just didn't have the next project. I didn't have the next thing to look forward to.

 

And I was still in a low state. So for, for everybody out there, like all these positive things that we're talking about, all the things to like look forward to, to have that mission, that vision, that purpose behind that's the thing that's going to help you. To really get to that happier place. Right? I don't, I'm not saying there's ever an end destination, but it's just a better, better state of being better state of living, a better place for you to be in.

 

You've got to have that next goal, that next milestone, that next, whatever for you to kind of move forward.

 

Yeah, that's a, that's a good point. And. I just got to unpack this for a sec. Um, the process of going through 75 hard it's, it's a tool, right? Just like every, like all these other things that we can do, there are tools that are at your disposal.

 

The intention that you put behind it is going to make a tremendous difference. But, uh, one important point is. Um, big trigger in my experience for, uh, dealing with depression and, you know, the low points in my life versus the high points is the trust that I built in myself. You have a relationship with yourself and just like any relationship there's trust involved.

 

So if you are constantly breaking promises to your. You're trusting yourself is going to drop. If you consistently maintain the promises that you made yourself, you're going to gain trust. You're going to build trust. You can strengthen that relationship that you have with you. And that is a huge component of feeling good about yourself is actually being able to trust that you're going to follow through with what you say you're going to do.

 

So. Last year, uh, after, you know, with the lockdowns and everything that was happening, like I'm in the fitness industry. My in, in where I am in Alberta, Canada, uh, the fitness industry was one of the hardest hit places. Like we were the first ones locked down and we were the last ones to open every time there was a new wave.

 

Right. And, uh, yeah, I mean, It was a, it's still a struggle. Like I'm still trying to recover. I'm still fighting to recover here. Uh, but I decided that, uh, like I, I got into a relationship that didn't work out. I got into a bad place mentally during this whole lockdown, I was losing lots of money and things were tough.

 

And I decided I was going to follow the 7,500 lifestyle for 365 days. I was going to do a full year. And I did that fall through, but I'm never going to do it again. I'm glad I did it. Never going to do it again. Uh, I'll do 75 heart program again. That's that's fine. But if go on for a full year again, uh, yeah, there were a lot of challenges that came up along the way.

 

And, uh, even in spite of doing that, like I finished on August 13th. That was the last. Uh, it was August 13, so about a month ago. And, uh, since then, even after going through all of that, even after 365 days of 100% consistency following a specific meal plan, that was custom tailored to give me the results I wanted working on twice a day, reading books, doing visualization, taking cold showers, every like I did 300 cold showers in a row.

 

And, and w we're talking, Colbert's like, hold cold showers. It was, it was brutal. But even after all that, I still have the ability to lose trust in myself. I still have the ability to make promises to myself and not follow through yesterday. I told myself I was going to get up before work and go to the gym and my alarm went off and I was like, yeah.

 

And went back to sleep. So. It's still possible to break those promises yourself. So the important thing is, whatever you say that you're going to do, go do it. There's a trick that you can do as well. Like, uh, if it's something that you're going to do anyway, tell yourself you're going to do it before you go do it.

 

So, you know, it's like it's time to eat dinner. Tell yourself, you're going to go wash your hands before you go wash your hands. You know, tell yourself that you're going to go have a shower before you have shower. So you're still, if you're gonna make dinner before you make the simple things, tell yourself you're going to go to the gas station to gas before you get guests.

 

And it creates this. Keeping the promises that you make to yourself and helps strengthen that relationship that you have because the more you do it, the more you can build that relationship with yourself, by keeping the promises to yourself, the more likely you are to continue. It becomes a habit to follow through on completing the things that you said you were going to do.

 

It doesn't become a challenge anymore. And that's, you know, that's the beautiful thing about the 7,500 program is it creates obstacles in your life that you have to overcome. And so you've learned to overcome obstacles by habit. It's no longer effort. It's just habitual to pivot, to adapt, to overcome whatever comes across your path.

 

All that being said, uh, you know, there's a caveat that comes with that program for anyone who is thinking about it. Uh, don't start unless you have the intention to finish follow through, because that is one of the biggest promises that you're gonna make. And if you break that promise, if you start, when you break that promise to yourself, then you got to start over again.

 

You got to finish it. You got, if you start, you must finish because if you break that promise to yourself, that's a doozy. That's a big one. So

 

a hundred percent agree with you, man. Uh, it is a tough program, excuse me, for sure. But it's, it's so worthwhile, but, but yeah, it was from someone who, who started it.

 

I'm not even gonna tell you how many times I started to finally then doing it, committing and doing it and finishing it. You got to go through it. You got to give yourself that reward and you got to build that mental toughness up and it's it's worth its weight for sure.

 

Absolutely. And good for you for getting through a man to be, even to have those setbacks where you, you know, you didn't get it the first time and you had to start over to follow through.

 

That's huge. So good on you.

 

Likewise. Thank you.

 

Yeah, Brett, I love the habit of key and the promises to yourself, even in these little things, uh, build that momentum. Um, so there was something I read recently that trends don't change themselves. People change trends, waiting, procrastinating, or delaying action on a problem or a negative situation.

 

Not almost always an error. It is always an error problems, not improve with age, nor do they go away on their own. And I think that's perfect for construction for basically life in general is like, look, you can't ignore these things. You've got to face them head on. You've got to deal with it. And, you know, by delaying it, as we know in construction, that always makes it work.

 

Yeah, absolutely. That's a very pertinent, uh, statement and, you know, with construction, with, uh, you know, whether it's personal finances, whether it's your mental health, the earlier that you can adjust the problem the earlier that you can start fixing it, the easier it's going to be, the less problems that you're going to face down the road, you know?

 

Yes. There's a stigma with mental health. Yes. There's a stigma with depression. Yeah. It sucks to admit they have depression. Uh, because you don't want to be attached to that. Say goodbye. You know, I avoided taking medication for awhile because I didn't want to be the guy taking antidepressants, but in the end I decided, you know what, it's a tool that's available to me to help me out.

 

And, uh, yeah, I was on them for awhile. And then I got myself to a place where I was mentally well enough that I was able to get myself off of them. Uh, you know, I followed all the processes, did everything under my doctor's direction, all that. But, uh, yeah, I mean, I didn't want to be the guy that takes antidepressants, who knows, who wants to be that guy.

 

Right. So before I got into fitness, I was actually a jail guard. I worked in a maximum security prison. I think there isn't a tough guy mentality thing. There isn't that attitude. I don't need help. I don't need anyone to do anything for me. I can handle this shit. Yeah. It's uh, so like I get that. If you're in construction, I get that there's that attitude, uh, I'm mad enough to handle this, but you know what asking for help is not a sign of weakness.

 

It takes strength. It takes strength to be able to admit that you need help. It takes strength to be able to go in and ask for help. And that is something that was very hard for me to learn, but it was one of the most important lessons.

 

I love that, man. Um, I know we're getting up on time here. This has been one of the longer episodes we've recorded in a while and frankly, I could keep going.

 

Um, but to that end, you know, I just. Kind of reinforced that for everybody listening, when you get to that point or B, hopefully before you get to that point, ask for help, you know, talk to somebody there's plenty of organizations, um, prevent construction, suicide.com is a great website with lots of resources.

 

Uh there's there's lifelines, there's there's text numbers. You can, you can text now, you know, reach out, talk to a doctor, talk to a friend, talk to. Uh, co-worker, you know, just, we got to get past that stigma that, you know, only the weak ask for help and this tough guy, macho bullshit that we all put on and I'm not immune to it.

 

Right. The prison guards aren't immune to it, but it's not helping you in the long run. Right. You gotta put yourself, put your, your own health, your mental health, your own well-being first. And, and this is how you do it. So, Brett, I really appreciate it.

 

Thanks for having me on Matt, Dylan. Appreciate it. You know, like you said, we could probably talk all day about this stuff, but you know, we gotta, gotta keep things in a, just, you know, easily digestible pieces

 

at that point, Brett.

 

Uh, if they're looking for more resources, you know, where they, where can they find you? Where can they find your book?

 

For sure. Uh, yeah, my book is called worth the fights. Uh, you know, got a video. That's what it looks like for those that have this, watching it on YouTube. I'm worth the fight and it's available on Amazon.

 

Uh, you can find me on Instagram, just at Brett Leon T so B R E T T L E O N T Y. And, uh, as far as resources, I mean, There are so many different resources available to reach out to, um, you know, you look up mental health, help on Google. You're going to get inundated with different options and yeah. Always ask for help.

 

You know, it's, it's always okay to ask for help. And I guarantee you no matter who you ask, they'd rather talk to you about what's going on than, uh, you know, have to put you six feet under.

 

So guys go, go grab Bret's book. Uh, especially if you're having any difficulties, any problems going through whatever it might be right now, it could be divorce. It could be just bad environment. Could be a lot of things. There's a lot of things in the world right now that are, uh, you know, bigger and out of our control, but control the things that you can control on a daily basis, whether that's 7,500.

 

Um, just the things you eat, drink, you know, get outside, get some exercise, control those controllables. And you know, if you do have anything that you're going through, I mean, talk to people in construction, uh, suicide rate is four and a half times that of the other industries. So this is, this is not a small problem.

 

Uh, and in that, you know, you never know what people are going through. You never know. What's going on behind closed doors. So reach out, ask, you know, your team, your fellow coworkers, you know, what's going on, how are things going? Um, you know, and if things seem a little off, try to address that as quickly as possible.

 

Uh, like we talked about last week with Alex and then to, to start going through these things that Brent mentioned today and what you can do, um, At the end of the day, you know, you got to take control of your own life and put things in the right direction. You know, those positive things, the gratitude, whether it's for the hot coffee that you, uh, made it to work your car, didn't run out of.

 

Whatever it might be. You know, those nice things. You didn't get a diarrhea from the water you're drinking. Um, unless you're in Flint,

 

you

 

guys at the end of the day, like there's a lot to be happy about, right. That, you know, we got clean water, we got not sewer water running on us and you know, the sunshine. And so, or you're getting rain, which we desperately need here in California. So there's a lot of things to be happy about. There's a lot of things to be excited about.

 

Focus on those and your life will be better for it. So go grab Bret's book and until next time.