Snippets from my Podcast with Joel Hassenritter. To listen to the full podcast episode listen here.
Joel Haasenritter:
So many personal development programs, which are incredible, like they're wonderful. I've taken a bunch of them. You've taken a bunch of them. And a lot of them focus on one or two aspects of real life and they're pertinent and they're relevant, but we are a complete picture and there are so many aspects that make us who we are, and everything affects everything.
You know, if we're having a crisis in our health, that usually means a crisis in our body. If we're having a toxic relationship issue and it's robbing our time and it could be robbing what we need to do for our health and our family relationships, and our faith walk and so forth. And so, yeah, I love the Oola program so much because it is, it’s a picture of how real life works in all, all encompassing of who we are.
And so how I ran across it is through my own, you know, points of crisis in my own life. And my wife, probably 10, I guess now 12 years ago or, so she was struggling with her health and her health just began to decline over that decade to the point that the two and a half to three years or so prior to us making a big change in our life, she was basically bedridden.
And it was, it was that, that apex moment, you know, in our life where we said, okay, if we don't do something now, looking at the past 10 years and where that's gotten us, if we don't make a change to something, and we had no idea what at that point, but if it don't make a change to something the next 10 years is probably not going to look so great.
And so, we did a lot of research. We did a lot of contemplation, a lot of prayer and a lot of advice, counselling seeking, and decided to take a big jump from one side of the country to the other side of the country, which was, we knew that part of our health issues were invited environmentally related.
So, we decided to change the environment completely and really set an intention to do life differently. And again, we didn't know what we didn't have a structure around that. And so, moving out here, we saw different doctors, both traditional and non-traditional medicine doctors. We found different ways to change the environment of our home.
We used to have literally, you know, toxic plugins and, and scented candles that are carcinogenic. And we switched those out to essential oils and healthy foods. And, you know, just things like that to change. What is influencing us from the outside, but then there's also what is influencing us from the inside.
Right? So along that journey, I was reading a couple of books. One is resilience. It's a fantastic book. It's a Navy seal that helps one of his fellow comrades come back from, near suicide to having an abundant life. And at the same time, I was reading this book. I had come across called Oola, finding balance in an unbalanced world.
And I thought, well, let's me raise my hand. And they were, they're both fantastic books they’re similar along the lines of just how life works. And I read them both and I put them down. I thought, that was the great books. And then COVID hit and, and all the things happened. Life changed for the globe. And I got to the point probably about six or seven months after that, that I, it was toward the end of the year and I thought I need to just kind of look back at the year and figure out what's worked, what hasn't worked.
My, my big wins, my, my massive face plops and see what I can learn and see how it can do things differently. And so, I thought I should, I should pick up that Oola book again. And so, I did. And one of the things of course, you learn more the second time going through it anyway.
Some more things stuck. But one thing I didn't realize this is just a brain fog moment is in the back of the book, there's actually a section on how to apply it to your life. And I'm like, oh, it's not just theory. It's actual tangible something to do with your life. I thought, okay, well, I'll start to do that.
And so, I downloaded all the stuff and I started working through the workbooks and then joined their Facebook groups. And every step of the journey for me was like, you say that next layer of onion, peeling back revealing the parts that you are vulnerable or feeling the parts that stink and make you cry.
And I really latched onto it. Like it just, it, it impacted me personally in a way that I thought this is a system that I can actually use to move my life forward in meaningful ways and impact those around me. And so that's when I decided to do the life coaching thing, but I didn't do it to start a business doing life coaching.
I did it because I wanted to learn Oola at the deepest level that I could for myself. And that's at the level that you can teach it. And so, as I did, I was like, man, this is so good. Like, this is really good. And it was helping me. And those that were around me were saying, I don't know what you're doing, but something's different and keep it up, you know?
And so that kind of parallels back to how Oola started in the beginning, which was these two, two guys, their health practitioners, and Troy was mentoring Dave and backup to when Troy was in the 11th grade he thought, I'm going to live my life in a way that I will retire debt-free at the age of 40. And that was, that was his goal.
He failed by the way. Yes, he was 42. Yeah. So, I'll give them, give them that like, yeah, we're gonna, we're gonna let that one pass. And along the way, of course he mentored Dave on these, these principles. Dave built incredibly successful businesses had, health and wellness clinics all over the place, had gyms, real estate and then 2007, 2008 hit and he, he lost everything.
He lost his businesses, lost his wife, lost his cars like found himself in the ratty part of town, driving his mom's, you know, beat up car and in his world. It was because his head got too big for his body. You know, he was, I'm doing it. I'm, I'm living the life. And he woke up one night the police were bombarding the room next to him to arrest the, the person that was next to him.
And it was just one of those. What in the world? How did I get from where I was to where I am now? And more importantly, what do I do about it? And that's when he called Troy and Troy said, you know, you know what to do.
You obviously haven't been doing it. You haven't been applying these principles that we've talked about, that we used to meet once or twice a year to go over to plan, to keep each other accountable. And you've obviously drifted from that. Not that unfortunate things can't happen to people who are enacting these principles.
Of course, they do. But where he was, it was partly because of what he chose not to, not to do. And so, Troy said, all right, well, it's time to get your trying to get your butt in gear. And Dave said, okay, well, if, if this works for me, then I will make it my life's mission to serve with.
Candice Smiley: Which I really love, right.
Because I think there's such a huge piece about, I mean, one of my favorite books and I talk about it a lot on the podcast is the power of your subconscious mind. And they say that, you know, when you're making out your plan or you're looking at your goals and you're wondering why they are working or not working, is it can't just be about you.
It has to be able to wait for you to give back and, be in service. And when you have goals that are aligned, like that have a bigger impact, it's amazing how they become true. So, I just love how that is woven into what the Oola guys are all about.
Joel Haasenritter: No, I can't agree more like it there's, there's a principle in Oola that when it's time to put your mask on your face, you need to put your mask on your face.
Now the oxygen mask that drops down from the plane and do that before you are going to go outside of yourself, because you can't fill up someone else's cup, if yours is empty, right. And then there's a point where that's working for you, and it becomes an [00:14:00] obligation to help someone that's around you.
And that's a big principle.
Candice Smiley: So, let's go through first the seven F's.
Joel Haasenritter: So, Troy talks about an example of that time that maybe we were at the circus and the guy comes out [00:16:00] and he's got, you know, seven different sticks and they're, they're mounted on the table, and he takes a plate, and he starts spinning one of the plates on one of the sticks.
And then he takes another one. And starts spinning that one. It takes the third one and starts spinning that one in the first one, starting to slow down. And then he puts a fourth one on, and meanwhile, there's two of them that are slowing down by the time it gets to the fifth or sixth, the first or second are about to fall off.
And you know, you, you see that picture in your mind of just running around in circles, right. Trying to keep all these things spinning and what you said there is perfect. That there's so much. If, if we don't have the self-awareness. To know that that's what we're doing in these different areas of life absolutely something is going to suffer.
And so, the seven F’s are fitness, finance, family, field, which is your career, faith, friends, and fun. And that kind of encompasses subcategories a million times. You can divide things up and sub divide things up, but [00:17:00] most abundance and most stress falls under one of those seven categories.
Joel Haasenritter: So, there's seven blockers. There are seven accelerators. Just like there's seven F’s and the blockers, like you that's when it really got real for me, like that's when it was, you know, oh, wow. That's hitting home. And it's something I should focus on and start to start to change about myself. Right. So, fear, guilt, anger, self-sabotage, laziness, envy and focus or lack of focus.
Focus can either be a positive thing or a negative thing, right? Depending on what, what you're hyper-focusing on.
Joel Haasenritter: Yeah, those, those blockers will absolutely shut you down. Absolutely shut you down.
Usually what I find when I'm coaching clients is in an area that their struggle there is usually a dominant blocker. There might be, there might be two or three that are coming to play, but there's usually a dominant blocker. And like you said, by being self-aware by understanding that that's a problem.
It's you can't fix what you can't see about yourself. Right? So just by seeing it, calling it out, recognizing [00:28:00] that it's there, then you can start to deal with it. And what I also find is that usually one dominant accelerator is the key to getting through one of those blocks.
Candice Smiley: Isn't that interesting. Okay.
So that's a great segue. Let's give the listeners the accelerators and then I think they can start to see that. But first let's go through the blockers just one more time. So, somebody is writing them down, they can be following along and then let's lead straight into the accelerators.
Joel Haasenritter: Absolutely. Fear, guilt, anger, self-sabotage laziness, envy and focus, or lack of focus.
So, the accelerators. What I, what I love to do myself and love for my clients to do is to literally pick a lot of people, pick a word of the year I have for this year. I have traditionally through the, through the years, but I also want to pick an accelerator. [00:29:00] And when you, when you pick one accelerator, that is going to be the thing that you're just kind of it's, it's that, it's that concept that's out there that begins to just, just nick at you a little bit, just kind of tap you on the shoulder just a little bit and remind you, is this what you're doing?
Is this in alignment with what you said you're going to focus on for the year, right? So, the accelerators are gratitude, love, discipline, integrity, passion, humility, and wisdom.
Joel Haasenritter: Do you know, the story behind be grateful, have faith?
Candice Smiley: I’d love for you to tell me, go for it.
Joel Haasenritter: I will not do this story justice. But there's no possible way anybody can do this story, but Dave himself.
Dr. Dave Braun, the Oola seeker, but I will share the story as best I can. Dave has, a sister, his two sisters and his nephew, Jared was, you know, a bountiful teenager. I mean, he was athletic into all the sports, really doing amazing, doing great in school and everything was going great. He was on his way to possibly getting [00:37:00] scholarships as he exited high school and so forth.
And one day his sister called them up and this was during the time, by the way that Dave had lost everything. And so, he's trying to rebuild his life and usually he would call his sister up and, you know, I, everything sucks right now. Like it's just awful and just, you know, kind of go through this grumbling and complaining mode of this is where I am in life and not, you know, this is just really horrible and so forth.
And it was, and he picked up the phone and he was driving his car. I picked up the phone and could tell that she was in tears. And so, he pulled his car over and he said, I, no matter what's going on, I'm here for you. You know, talk to me so backup, whenever he would call his sister and his sister would end the phone call saying, be grateful and have faith.
Right. And it was just their way of her way of selling into positivity into him. And so, his sister [00:38:00] says, Jared has cancer and it's not looking good. We all know what it means. We don't know anything, but it's not good. And so, they had this short conversation at the end of it. He said, be grateful and have faith. Hung up the phone and just beat himself up over it saying, you know, how could I tell someone who just found out their kid has cancer to be grateful?
Like that was the dumbest thing I could possibly say. The next time they talked, he, he apologized to her, and he said, you know, I, I'm sorry for saying that. That was insensitive of me. And she said, no, it's actually what I needed to hear. I needed to hear. Find something to be grateful for regardless of what your circumstances are grateful in all things.
And so just that I want you to say that to me, as we end the conversation, tell me, be grateful and have faith. And they went through this, Jared, he had several treatments for his cancer. He wound up getting better [00:39:00] and life was great. He's back. I believe at that point in time, point in time, he was dating and, you know, just loving life.
And then unfortunately, because of the amount of cancer treatments, he got some sort of very rare bone disease. And I don't remember what, what it is, but it was a result of the intensity of the cancer treatments. And so, she called them up and you know, this is going on with Jared again. And they ended that conversation and he said, do you want me to end the conversation this way?
And she said, yeah, I do. Okay, well, let's do that then. Fast forward and I won't take too long on this, but he went to go see Jared in the hospital just a few weeks I believe before Christmas. And as he left, he was driving. They were supposed to fly and meet him at his parents' house, I believe. And a sister called and said there was a, a complication and we [00:40:00] couldn't get on the plane.
We had to go back to the hospital and Jared passed away and he was just in tears of course, and just didn't know what to do. Didn't know what to say. She said, we're going to take care of things here. We'll meet you back at the house. And so, there was several hours drive with his kids driving to the, to the house and he gets there.
His sister's already there and she greets him and says, I want to show you something. It's a journal that Jared kept during this process. And Dave's immediate thought was here's, here's a kid that was living life and enjoying life to the fullest, hit this downturn, came out of it and then hit another one that completely wrecked his life completely changed everything.
It's probably going to be a pretty negative journal for most teenagers. It would be for most adults, it would be. And he is reading this journal and it gets toward [00:41:00] the, the middle end of it. And Jared says, thank you God for giving me cancer, so my parents didn't have to go through that. Thank you, God, for giving me cancer, so my cousins didn't have to go through that.
And that's Dave's kids. Thank you, God, for giving me cancer so I can show what it means to be grateful. And that story is why Oola exists today. And that's why the slogan is be grateful, have faith. Go get your Oola life.
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