Tackling Adversity: Gaining Your Second Wind Of Resilience With Clint Schumacher

 

When it comes to tackling adversity, it doesn’t matter how many times you fall; what matters is how many times you get up. This rings especially for athletes and is preached by high school football coach and lawyer Clint Schumacher. Clint joins host Rodney Flowers to talk about his experiences in the field, what it’s taught him, and how he’s applied that into helping others as a TEDx speaker and author. He discusses his book, Second Wind: Decisions the Resilient Make to Overcome Adversity, and speaks on how the outcome of any adversity all comes down to choice and perspective.

—

Listen to the podcast here:

Tackling Adversity: Gaining Your Second Wind Of Resilience With Clint Schumacher

As always, I am excited about this episode. I have Clint Schumacher with me. He is a high-stakes trial lawyer, a high school football coach in Texas, a two-time TEDx speaker, and an insightful author. He is passionate about building teams that are resilient, engaged and motivated. He has the unique experience of working to solve complex legal problems and coaching young athletes to succeed. Let’s welcome Clint Schumacher to the show. Welcome to the show, Clint.

Rodney, that was great. I feel like I’m ready to run out and take the field. That was awesome. It’s great to be with you.

It’s great to have you. Pat on the back for motivating the young athletes and football players in Texas. I know there are a lot of great football players that have come out of Texas. Texas is like a big football state. Being a coach down there, I can imagine that it’s very exciting.

Friday nights are a lot of fun in the fall in Texas. It’s a big deal. We take our football seriously down here. To me, it’s a great way to teach young athletes things. I know you’re all about resilience and overcoming adversity. It’s a great way to open up.

I don’t know what I would have done if I didn’t play football and experienced an injury like this. There has been so much that I have pulled from that experience. The mentality, grit, grind, focus, conditioning. I can go on and on about a lot of the things that you get from playing the game that you can pull into your personal and business life. It’s basic training. Maybe even more so important than basic training. It’s one of those things that sometimes I feel everyone needs to play football. Go through a couple of years of preparing for that type of sport because you gain so much from it.

There’s no doubt about that. I tell people the football field or any sports venue is a safe place to learn how to deal with hard times, obstacles and adversity. Those are all skills that we’re going to need as we get into life. When you’re on the field and experiencing failure, hopefully, it will only last for one week or one game and doesn’t have consequences as it does when you get later into life. It’s a great place to learn some life lessons.

Clint, you are now an author. I’m assuming you’re pulling some of those football lessons and experiences into your authorship, books, coaching and training. Tell us a little bit about what you’re doing and some of the lessons that you’re teaching?

Adverse events are the fabric of our life. It’s the very mosaic of our being. Click To Tweet

The idea for this book came from a strange place, Rodney. Of all places, it came on the sideline of a fifth-grade youth football game several years ago. We had had a great season. That team had had two good seasons. They had won 20 or 21 games in a row or something like that. We were playing in the league championship game. We got behind in the game early. It was the first time this group of kids had been behind in a football game in two years. Instead of responding as I wish that they would have responded, they got anxious, got nervous and by the end of the game, they started shutting down and tapping out. I walked off the field and thought, “What happened?” I was frustrated with the kids. After experiencing so much success, they get into some adversity in a game and don’t respond very well.

After about two weeks of being frustrated with the kids, this thought came careening into my head that we talked about in the coaching community, which is everything you see on the field, you either taught or you allowed it to happen. It dawned on me, “I’m blaming the kids but I should be blaming myself. There was a hole in my coaching. I had not prepared these kids to deal with adversity.” To be a better coach the next season, I took this deep dive into, how do you teach young athletes how to be resilient and mentally tough? Can you teach it? Is that something that can be taught?

The lessons I started learning and using with the team the next season, but also I started using it in my professional career, with people I was mentoring. I started using it with clients who were coming to see me and dealing with problems that they had. I realized there’s a real need to teach people how to be resilient. You have some innate abilities to do that but it’s like anything else. It’s a skill that can be enhanced. As we learn how to do what resilient people do well, we can come through adversity and obstacles with greater velocity. We can get through them more quickly and come out the other side a stronger, wiser and more prepared person.

That resonates with me. That’s right in point. It is my message and everything that I’m about. A lot of times we are preparing and want to win. We’re focusing on winning. We have the path that we want to take, but we don’t plan for those unexpected obstacles, hits in the face, and punches in the mouth that can distract us and knock us off guard. It’s like, “What do we do in this type of situation?” What have you learned? What’s your philosophy for managing and navigating those types of situations?

What I saw as I started to study both resilient people, when I had encountered adversity in my own life, I started to notice a common set of decisions that people make. The most important is I’m going to decide not to be defined by whatever this adversity is. I’m going to define my life by my response to that adversity. I borrowed this from somebody else, but there’s a great model that I think about and share with my athletes and with other people. It’s E plus R equals O. That adverse event doesn’t have to define us. It doesn’t have to define our outcome, which is the O. We get to choose how we respond to that event.

When we make an intentional response to deal with that adversity in a positive and meaningful way, it’s the event plus our response to that event that then can dictate our outcome. While we can’t always control what happens to us and we can’t always control the event, we do have control over the response. When we decide that we’re going to respond to it in an intentional and meaningful way, it can change the outcome. It can turn something bad into something good and life-altering in a positive way instead of a negative way.

You’ve said it all because your response dictates everything, which puts you in the driver’s seat. Sometimes we say, “I don’t have control of this environment.” True but in many cases, we don’t. However, we do have control over how we respond. The key here is that’s all you need. You don’t need to have control over the environment. What you need to have control over is how do you respond. When you have control over that, you essentially take over everything. You have control over the outcome. It being something negative or something positive.

 

We never have complete control over our environment. We never have complete control over our events. Sometimes we get frustrated about that, but adverse events are the fabric of life. It’s the very mosaic of our being. When we all sit around and talk to each other, we talk about that crazy thing that happened and how we dealt with it. That’s the very substance of life. We ought not to expect that life is going to be perfect. Another one of the decisions is, “I’m going to give up this and that nothing bad is ever going to happen because that’s false. I’m going to accept that there are going to be adversities and obstacles, and those can be growth opportunities if I approach them that way.”

I believe that they are. That’s what I have decided and that’s it. I closed the book on that. That’s what they are. I was listening to a Navy SEAL after a workout. This Navy SEAL talked about how he loved it when he was going through BUD/S Training. In BUD/S Training, they would break and beat you down, torture you and train you vigorously. They wouldn’t allow you to get sleep and everything. It was designed seemingly to break you, get rid of the people that can’t take it. That’s not what it was for. The reason why they did that is they wanted to expose the weaknesses and flaws of the people that went through that training.

When they exposed the weaknesses and flaws at the end of the training, what they would then do is help each individual in the area where they needed it the most or where there are the most flaws. They will build them up in those areas. He said it was the most beautiful thing. I thought about it like, “What would I have done if I didn’t play football?” I would have wanted to go into the military because I like training. I love when you do this type of psychological and physical training because it turns you into such an incredible person. I thought to myself, “What if we looked at life as a training ground like this?” A lot of times, we look at the challenges. What comes up as something that’s holding us back is resistance. It’s preventing me from moving forward, but what if it was exposing your weaknesses and your flaws?

The most powerful word in any language is whatever word in your mind follows 'I am.' Click To Tweet

It was essentially raising your awareness where you needed a little bit of work, give your life, mindset, body, finances, relationship, whatever it is, a little attention in order for you to strengthen yourself in those areas. I thought, “What a powerful conception if as individuals, we would look at the challenges that show up on the field of adversity as teaching opportunities?” It’s opportunities for growth and development. At that point, we can’t appreciate what’s on the field, the opposition and the resistance because even though it may be defeating me right now, if I’m still alive. I have the opportunity to go back, develop myself in that area and eventually overcome.

Here’s what that makes me think about. First of all, you got me inspired. That’s awesome. When we have a baby and see a baby trying to walk for the first time, we expect the baby to fall. We don’t go over and grab the baby and say, “No, I don’t want you to fall. I’m going to carry you around everywhere. I’m not going to allow you to walk.” We find it perfectly acceptable to let that baby figure out how to walk on his or her own. For some reason, we think that’s going to stop into adulthood. It’s not learning how to walk but learning how to deal with a difficult relationship and transform a bad habit that you have into a good habit. We’ve got these learning experiences that we ought to expect in life. We shouldn’t think they’re going to change just because we’ve reached a certain age.

It’s funny how you use that analogy of the baby falling down. One thing about a baby falling down when it’s a baby is it’s expected to fall down. It may cry because it’s a baby and doesn’t know what else to do when it falls because it’s a baby. When we become adults, we’re too afraid or too prideful to fall. We have to look at par as if we have everything together. If we have a blemish, then it doesn’t seem quite right. It’s not something that I would want the world to know. I’m not supposed to go through a challenge. I’m supposed to be able to handle everything.

It’s an illusion. If we can go back to our childlike selves and realize that it’s the repetition of falling over and over again that got the baby to walk in the first place. We can accept the fact that it’s not always going to be perfect. We have to fall forward towards whatever it is that we want in life in order to get back up. It’s a natural process of growth and development to have to go through some type of challenges or adversities. If it did not exist, then how would we grow? It is the pressure of the thing if channeled properly, which is the key here. This is the mentality side of things. If channeled properly, that allows us the intelligence, ability and strength to overcome. It’s that pressure because you have to do something in order to get beyond this.

It’s the perspective. Part of dealing with adversity is having that kind of perspective you’re talking about, Rodney, a long-term perspective. I think about one of my sons. He had his first serious girlfriend in eighth grade. My wife and I knew what the ultimate result of that relationship was going to be. They were going to break up, and then he was going to find somebody else. As he’s going through that breakup for the first time, he didn’t have that perspective. He didn’t have that long-term vision that my wife and I had from experience. He didn’t know, “I’m going to go through this, and then I’m going to start over, and everything’s going to be okay.” The same thing is true with obstacles in our life.

If we get so myopic about where we are at that moment, it can feel overwhelming. It can feel like, “I’m never going to get out of this hole that I’m in.” If we take this perspective like you’re talking about, “This is an opportunity for growth. I will figure out a way to deal with the obstacle that’s in front of me. When I come out of it, I’m going to be a better person than the one I walked into it.” If we can have that kind of perspective, it buoys our heart and our spirit. It allows us to have joy even in the midst of the adversity that we’re walking through.

I like to encourage people to have a vision beyond the obstacle. It isn’t something you see with your eyes. It’s something you see with your heart. Sometimes you have to close your eyes and see because when you see with your physical eye, all you see is the challenge, obstacle, lack, shortcomings, mistakes and failure. It’s not hard to see that. It’s difficult to look beyond the horizon and see that destination. Sometimes you have to see that with your heart. Sometimes you can’t go by that physical part of it. You got to go by that faith walk. You got to have that faith in you. That means you’re getting up every day, putting your boots on, strapping up and going to work. Even though it doesn’t seem like the work you’re going to do today is going to get you a step further, you know that it is.

That’s when you’re working with your heart. When your heart is aligned with your vision, that’s power. That’s what allows people to go over and beyond expectations and what is socially expected. It is when you’re leading and working from your heart, from a faith side. It’s not talked about a lot, but that’s part of what it means to get back up. That’s part of what it means to be resilient and bounce back. I say that because there are devastating things that happen, not just bad things. It’s devastating things that happen out on your feet. Sometimes you can get hit so hard that you don’t even want to get up. You’re like, “You know what? I’m done.”

You were talking about the Navy SEAL experience. When you start to think about, “Practically, once I find myself in the midst of adversity, how do I begin to crawl out when it seems overwhelming?” I love something that Admiral William McRaven said. He was the top Admiral in the Navy. He came up as a Navy SEAL. He was in charge of the raid that eventually killed Osama Bin Laden. He was talking to a group of graduates at the University of Texas. The advice he gave them was profound, only in its simplicity. He encouraged them every day to make their bed. He said, “If you want to change the world, start by making your bed in the morning.”

The point that he made was the way you start your day. If you can get some positive momentum early in the day by doing something as simple as making your bed, it puts you on a trajectory where, “Now, I’m going to do the next thing.” As we think about rising out of adversity, a lot of times, it’s the start that stops most people. Even with something simple, develop a simple habit that gets you out of adversity every day and then build on it and build on it. You can start to see yourself rise above that circumstance that you talked about earlier, the circumstance that you’re in.

Getting up and bouncing back isn’t always overnight. It’s the compilation of multiple things that you do on a repetitive basis. In my book, I wrote a chapter called Ignite the Small Accomplishments. What I meant by that is taking baby steps, small little accomplishments every single day. A lot of times, we were at A. Everybody wants to get to Z because that is where the gold is. That’s the end result. That’s fame, money, destination, whatever it is that you want to get to, that’s where that is. A lot of times, we’re focusing on getting the Z, but there’s a lot of alphabets between A and Z. You got to deal with B, C, D, E, F, all the alphabets in order to get to Z. You can’t skip them.

 

What’s most important? Z is not the most important. That’s what you want to get to. Z is not important at all. It’s the small things in between A and Z. Those are the most important. Once you get to Z, you’re going to feel what it feels like to have it, but it starts over. Z becomes A at this point. There’s a new Z that’s established. You’re starting this process all over again. The process in and of itself is the most important thing. That includes making your bed, brushing your teeth twice a day, going to the gym, meditating, taking some time to do yourself care, focusing on your vision, and getting clarity on your vision. These are the steps between A and Z. You go to any successful athlete, CEO, military commander, whatever, and they will have a unique set of activities that they practice every single day. That is what makes them who they are. That is why we look up to them. They’re able to accomplish what they accomplish because they have mastered what we call the process of success.

It’s different for everyone. It’s essentially your blueprint. For anyone who’s reading who wants to get a leg up, to understand how to get up, it’s establishing a process that empowers you, keeps you in a state of inspiration, focus, faithful and confident in what it is you are attempting to accomplish, and you execute it every single day like a religion. It’s your ritual. It’s like going to practice. I love football because in order to prepare for football, you had to go to practice. If you didn’t go to practice, you didn’t play. The practice was important in order for you to play. This is why when we get hit, something comes up, and we don’t know what to do, it’s because we don’t practice.

I was listening to someone talking about whenever you’re in a situation and there’s some uncertainty, you revert to your training or the lack thereof. What is happening for those who want to have some very true clarity on what’s going on is we are being exposed to our lack of training. In uncertainty, if you have the training, you’re not knocked off, exposed, shaking. You’re like, “I know exactly what to do because I’ve been doing this all along. I am well-practiced in this type of experience and arena. I’m familiar with my environment.”

When you get knocked off course unexpectedly and it’s putting you in a place of unfamiliarity, you don’t know what to do because you haven’t had that type of practice. If you can practice resilience, getting up, overcoming challenges, and make that be something that you’re familiar with, whenever that uncertainty hits, it’s not to say that it won’t shake you at all, but you’ll be in a better place to handle it mentally, emotionally, spiritually and intellectually. That’s the state of power we want to be in.

There is a lot of wisdom in that, Rodney. That was right on target. What you’re saying resonates with me. I want to dig into one thing you talked about, which is clarifying your vision. What is it that motivates us to do the process every day to take those steps and get up in the right frame of mind? There’s got to be something that’s driving us ahead. One of the things that I found resilient people did is they had these core values that propelled them forward. We talk about core values in the corporate world. It’s almost laughable because most of the time, leadership does a poor job of connecting the people in their organization with the core values.

They become words on the wall. When you think about using a core value in your own life, even the way that word comes from, core comes from the Latin word cor, which in that language means your heart. A core value carries with it the idea that it’s a value that bubbles up from your heart. Your audience has to sit down and figure out, “What are my core values? What are those values that bubble up from my heart? What is it that I want my life to be around?” Take the time to sit down and figure out what that is and put it on a piece of paper. For me, I put it on the wall so that I can see it every day. I have 4 or 5 core values, and that’s what I want my life to be about.

One of my core values is to be a great spouse. Another is to be a great father. When things get hard in the relationships at home, or when my kids are not doing what I want them to do, then I have to battle through the complacency to let that be subpar and live into that core value and do the hard things that it takes to make the relationship right, to get my kids doing what I want them to do, or what they need to be doing. The great thing about having a core value that bubbles up from your heart is the same Latin root word for courage. When we have these core values and we’re connected to them, they bubble up from our hearts. They give us the courage to do the hard things that we’ve got to do to then be able to live out those core values. When you talk about clarifying the vision and living into the process, I love that. Finding the motivation to do the hard things that it requires keeps us going day after day. It’s that consistency that begins to make the difference.

Core values or values in general drive behavior. Wherever you are right now, whatever you’re doing, however you behave every day is driven by your core values. If you’re not happy with the outcomes and the things that are happening right now, how we go back and correct that is we look at what are some of my core values. Evaluate if we need to change any of those. I love the way you explained it, “What’s my heart values?” When you look at what you value versus what’s in your heart, because when you can take a good look at it from that point of view, it’s like, “Maybe I need to make some change in some of the values I have. Maybe I need to let some of these things go and bring in some new ones.”

I love what you said about aligning that with your vision. You can see a thing and not have the values that align with it, but it’s the values that are driving the behavior. A vision is a vision. It’s only until that vision is aligned with the heart do you initiate the power, the inspiration and the motivation to bring the vision forward. Your core values are driving behavior right now. If that behavior isn’t aligned with that vision, we have to go back and check those values because the value is what’s driving the behavior, not the vision. The vision is a place that we want to get to. We’re talking about how do we get to it? Those values are the engine. That’s what’s propelling, your values. When you can align those values with that vision, you get the propulsion that you need to take you toward that vision.

There’s something magical that happens when somebody with a healed scar helps somebody with a fresh wound. Click To Tweet

If 90% of your behavior is unconscious behaviors, what’s driving it? It’s those deep-rooted values that you have inside that you’ve been programmed to have based on your upbringing and your background and all of those things. Aligning those core values with your vision is integral. We have goals, objectives and visions that we want to achieve. We have to change because success is all about becoming a lot. The thing that you want to accomplish, the goal, the money or whatever it is that you want to do is that end item. It’s a result of you becoming something, developing into a type of person who would either play that game, produce this level of income, generate this level of the surface, contribute this product. It’s a result of being that person. It’s not so much getting. It’s becoming. To become a lot of things you got to un-become to become what you need to become to produce, serve, generate or obtain whatever it is that you want to obtain. It’s all in the transformation of the person that allows the result that you have this vision of to come to fruition.

It’s that transformation that’s required. You have values and things that are programmed into your subconscious mind as you are growing up, and that is dictating how you behave right now. If you haven’t taken the time to change that or massage it or modify it or align it, it being those things in your subconscious mind, i.e., your core values and things like that. If you haven’t taken the time to align those things with this vision so that you can become the type of person that can bring that vision forward, then that may be where the disconnect is. It could be the reason you’re not getting up, falling short. It could be the reason that you’re not experiencing the vision that you want to experience. I believe that identity is everything. I’m so glad that you brought up core values because your core values make up who you are.

It’s the identity. You can look at a person and look at who they are. Not only looking at someone, seeing who they are, but you’re looking at yourself and being able to be very clear and confident in who you are. A lot of times, we don’t even know what’s driving us. You don’t even know why you’re doing what you’re doing. It’s like, “Why don’t you do this or that? Why do you think the way you think?” We got to know why.

One of the chapters in the book is the decision to create a positive internal script for exactly what you’re talking about. To me, the most powerful word in any language is whatever word in your mind follows, “I am.” If it’s, “I am a failure. I am fat. I can’t control my emotions or what I drink.” Whatever it is, you’re going to live into that. This is what I’ve found that super resilient people do. When you start to switch that script, the mind movie that’s playing in your mind, and you start to say, “I am sufficient. I am going to be successful. I am going to figure this out. I am capable of being a great father. I am capable of being a great spouse. I am a great spouse.” When you start to change that movie that’s playing in your head, as you say, so much of what we do is driven by the subconscious. There are hundreds of words that are playing in our heads every minute. When we start to feed into that in a positive way and pay attention to make sure that script is positive, resilient and intentional, it impacts so much else.

The key takeaway from this is that wherever you are and whatever you’ve become now, you have to ability to change it. One of the things that I so appreciate about waking up every day is I get another shot. I used to be devastated by my accident. It wasn’t until I realized that if I could wake up the next day, then I had a shot at changing the outcome. Regardless of what it is, I could change it to something that is going to be beneficial for me. I need to decide, based on where I’m at, what would be beneficial for me? If I can wake up every day and work on that, it was such a privilege. I knew that I had some level of control.

It was enough to control that I felt like, “I can make something happen. If I can make something happen, then I can make life worth living for me.” That’s what we all want. We want to feel like we’re contributing, making a difference, and causing a positive impact. If you can wake up to that, it’s not over for you. The thing I love about life is it’s an infinite game. It’s not a finite game. The game of football is finite. You got to score a certain amount of points in a certain amount of time. Whoever can do that are classified as the winner. It doesn’t mean they’re better. They were able to guard enough points within the regulated time. That’s all you got to do. That’s the objective. Do that and we’ll classify you as the winner, but life is an infinite game.

We don’t even know what happens. We know there’s some point in time where our bodies stop working and something happens after that. There’s a lot of speculation. That’s not what this show is all about, but there’s some eternal part of that. It’s another conversation. That makes life an infinite game. In an infinite game, the game is always going. There’s no stopping it and then you say, “You win here.” No, it’s different opportunities for you to score and win throughout the life of this game, which is infinite.

The beauty about that is some of those games or opportunities is you pick up little tools to play the upcoming games or opportunities that are going to come up. You pour from those things to learn how to play, practice, implement and execute certain plays, ways of thinking, ways of being, rituals, ways of speaking, calming the mind, conditioning the body. All of these things play well because that’s what we want to do in life. We want to play well. If we play well, then we serve, contribute and lead well. That all requires what I call a game-changer mentality, which is what we’ve been talking about here. The game has got to present itself in the way that the game is going to present itself. We don’t know how the game is going to present itself. We just know that the game is going to present itself. The discriminated here is us. How are we going to play what’s presented?

Part of what encourages me in listening to you, your show, and the people that you talk to is you suffered a tragic injury. You had this incredible adversity that you have dealt with in a mind-blowingly great way. When you talk about the infinite game and the effect that you can have being part of what happens in adversity is now because of what you have gone through. You have this unique ability to minister to people on the road behind you. Either they are dealing with an injury, a sickness, a frightening medical prognosis, or any other kind of adversity that we face. Once we have walked through the storm, we know there are people on the path behind us.

Part of our obligation is not just to get through the storm ourselves, but once we are through the storm and equipped to walk through it, find the people on the path behind us and give them guidance on how they can make it through their storm too, somebody like you that is able to do what you do and to spend your time doing what you’re doing, the ripple effect that you have because of what you walked through and the impact that you have on the people that listen to you, and then the impact that they have on the people that they influence and mentor, that’s incredible. The positive impact that one person, that you make in the world around you. For any of us, as we come out of our own storms, if we take that same mindset of saying, “This is not just for me but it’s now for me to pass on to the generations behind me,” what a positive influence that we can make in the world that we’re in.

One of the chapters in my book is called Don’t Just Do It for You, Do It for Those That Need to See You Do It. I believe our challenges and obstacles aren’t for us. I don’t believe that my challenge and obstacles obstacle was for me. It was for somebody else. It was for those around me. Those who have the opportunity to experience me. I think the challenge that you may be going through, Clint or someone who’s reading, is bigger. It’s naive to think that it’s all about you. That is a distraction. When you get into, “Why is this happening to me? Why do I feel like something is stopping me? I can’t get a break.” It’s not about you. It’s about you figuring it out for somebody else. Your challenge is I want people to hear me. It is your privilege and your responsibility.

It’s your privilege because as you overcome, you’re going to get it. If you stop looking at everything that is stopping you from doing, instead of looking at the opportunities that are giving you, you will see that this is a privilege. You are gaining a whole lot more than you’re losing and the things that you are losing, you probably didn’t need anyway. How many of you have ever set out on something and say, “I want to go and accomplish this. I want to become this?” As soon as you say that, resistance hit. It’s hitting for a reason. You made a declaration that this is what you want to go do. In order for you to do that, you got to get it massaged into the person that’s able to do it.

The best way to do that is through resistance. The resistance is causing you to take a look at the things that you need to let go of like those relationships that you’re having challenges with or spending habits or things like that. That’s what that’s doing and causing you to look at, “What do I need to gain? What do I need to pick up? What do I need to bring to me? What networks do I need to create?” You have the responsibility of dealing and navigating with creating the mindset, spiritual endurance, spiritual strength, mental strength, creating the health condition in your mind. Developing your spirit and endurance and understanding who you are and how you relate to the universe, and why it’s so important for you to be the type of person to come through this because it’s not about you.

It’s about somebody who’s watching you. You can develop the resilience to say, “I’m going to be the person that overcomes,” because some people may not have that until they witness you. As a result of them seeing you go through, they say, “I can too.” Whatever it is that you’re after, if you can make it through the turbulence, get to the other side and bring that service and contribution forward, everybody benefits. It’s when you don’t get to the other side, everybody suffers. It’s not about you. It’s you getting there so we all can win.

This is a team effort. We’re all on this game. What you have is a role that you have to play. The quarterback has to do his thing. The tight end has to do his thing. Even the kicker is important. The water boy is important. What if we didn’t have water boys or the people that go out and lay the lines out on the field? Everybody has their role. Everybody has challenges and obstacles within their role that they have to overcome so that we can win collectively.

 

Your storm may not be for you. It may be for somebody that comes after you. You’re there to give them hope. That’s a powerful tool. One of the things I believe is that there’s something magical that happens when somebody with a healed scar. Something broke in their life is now healed. Somebody with a healed scar helps somebody else with a fresh wound. The scars that we all have, there’s somebody else that’s got a wound that hadn’t healed yet. Aren’t we called to come and minister and be a doctor to them? That’s powerful, what you said.

How can people connect with you, Clint, if they wanted to learn more about you?

We have a webpage for the book. It’s called www.FindSecondWind.com. You can find me there. You can find other ways to connect with me there. You can find a way to get our book there. The TEDx talks are there. I believe that this message was given to me to share. There’s somebody out there that needs it. I don’t know who they are, but I’m hoping to connect to them. If you decide to get the book and read it, I’d love to hear what you think about it. Rodney, it has been inspiring to get to visit with you.

Thank you. You’re firing me up and having this conversation has inspired me. I love transferring the knowledge, the inspiration and the passion that I have for overcoming obstacles to you and to the audience. I know that once we can all get into that momentum and you know all about this as a coach. When your team is hitting on all cylinders, everyone is fired up and they’re doing their job and celebrating each other, they’re unstoppable at that point. There’s no team out there, no opposition out there that can stop your team. I feel the same way about my followers and people in general. If we can get to that space where we are encouraging each other through the storms and teaching each other how to be resilient, and we understand the importance of bouncing back and where we fit in, then I know that as a race, as a people, we will be unstoppable.

I love it. Let’s live into it.

I know we talked about a lot of things here on the show, but if there’s one thing that you would say will help us bounce back from adversity, dominate our challenges and win in the game of life, what would that be?

It all starts with the decision. Decide that your adversity and circumstance is not what is going to define you, but you are going to be defined by how you respond to that adversity. Once you make that decision, the resources that you need, you’ll start to find them. They’ll start to make their way into your life, but it starts with that decision.

Thank you so much. Clint Schumacher on the show. This has been a pleasure. It’s been a blast. Thank you so much for stopping by. Let me know how we can support you because I love what you’re doing. Congrats on the book and good luck to you.

Thank you, sir. It’s great to be with you.

—

There you have it, folks, another successful episode of the show. Go out and grab the book, Second Wind. For those of you who are looking for the tools, ideas, strategies on how to get back up, get back in the game and keep going. Even though you’re tired and you’ve been hit, how do I catch my second wind? Go check out the book, Second Wind by Clint Schumacher. I’m sure that there’s even more information in there than we have shared here on the show and you’ll be glad that you did. Thank you for reading. Until next time, peace and love.

 Important Links:

• Clint Schumacher
• Second Wind
• http://RodneyFlowers.com/get-up-book/
• http://RodneyFlowers.com/essential-assertions-book/
• https://RodneyFlowers.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=01f76a038256f77a6fbc93590&id=307d726734
• Is Life Knocking You Down? Read Rodney’s inspiring story – Get Up! I Can’t. I Will. I Did… Here’s How! https://rodneyflowers.com/get-up-book/
• Recognize Your Positive Potential – Essential Assertions by Rodney Flowers https://rodneyflowers.com/essential-assertions-book/
• Get Access to Rodney’s Daily Inspiration in your Inbox Today https://rodneyflowers.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=01f76a038256f77a6fbc93590&id=307d726734

About J. Clint Schumacher

J. Clint Schumacher is a high-stakes trial lawyer, a high school football coach in Texas, a two-time TEDx speaker, and an insightful author. He is passionate about building teams that are resilient, engaged, and motivated. He has the unique experience of both workings to solve complex legal problems and coaching young athletes to succeed.

Clint works in two of the most complex and competitive environments – the courtroom and the football fields of Texas. He has helped clients obtain over $100 million in judgments or settlements. He has completed a marathon, climbed the Sydney Harbor Bridge, won a bellyflop contest, and finished deep in the money at the World Series of Poker.