A Magical Life: Health, Wealth, and Weight Loss

Creating Passion Projects From Adversity with David McBee

April 27, 2022 David McBee Season 1 Episode 103
A Magical Life: Health, Wealth, and Weight Loss
Creating Passion Projects From Adversity with David McBee
A Magical Life: Health, Wealth, and Weight Loss +
Help us continue making great content for listeners everywhere.
Starting at $3/month
Support
Show Notes Transcript

As a professional speaker and trainer, David McBee has inspired thousands of salespeople and business owners all while his own relationships suffered. After many years of struggling, he decided to make a change. Though David was a fan of self-help books for years, he realized he more often tried to get others to follow the advice than he would follow it himself. With this newfound understanding, David mapped out a plan to improve his relationships. Part of that plan was to read 20 minutes a day, every day, from a quality self-help book and apply the wisdom to his own life.

Today I'll chat with David about his books, "Everyday Lessons Everyday," and "DJ's Off-Road Adventures." Meet DJ and his Jeep friends at https://djsoffroadadventures.com/

Connect with David:
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialdavidmcbee/
Online: http://www.davidmcbee.com/
Everyday Lessons Everyday on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/davidmcbee
David's book "Everyday Lessons Everyday: A Journey From Grumpy to Grateful"

Connect with Magic:

A Magical Life Podcast on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amagicallifepodcast/

On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wholisticnaturalhealth/

Online: https://wholisticnaturalhealth.com.au

A Subito Media production

Support the show

Connect with Magic:
A Magical Life Podcast on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amagicallifepodcast/
On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wholisticnaturalhealth/
Online: https://wholisticnaturalhealth.com.au
A Subito Media production

Magic Barclay:

Welcome back to a magical life. I'm your host magic Barkley. And I'm again today joined by David McBee. Now listeners, if you've heard episode 1 0 2, you will know that we were talking about taking small steps to create big things about becoming your best self reading books. And we kind of touched on the fact that David is an author. So David, welcome back.

David McBee:

All right. It's good to be back.

Magic Barclay:

Thank you. Now let's get into the nitty gritty here. You authored a book and it's not just any book. It's a book about inspiration. It's a book about making changes. It's a book about self-development. Can you tell us more about it?

David McBee:

Yeah. So my book is really. Almost a journal, almost a personal journal about my journey from being an uptight, anxious, short tempered selfish, man. Wow. It sounds terrible. When I described like that, uh, to becoming a. More appreciative of my family more patient man, patients has been a huge opportunity for me. And, understanding and just a more well-rounded individual. And really the book is just the story of how I went from one end of that spectrum to the other. And I would say that it's, uh, it's I guess you could call it a self-help book. I would be in the self-improvement category, but it's not preachy it. Doesn't tell you what to do. It just shares what I did, right. Most of the folks who have read my book and reached out to me, tell me that they can relate to a lot of the situations that I was in. And they learn from what I learned, and it has helped their marriages and their experiences with their children or their senior parents.

Magic Barclay:

Okay. So what is this fabulous book called?

David McBee:

It is called everyday lessons every day. And it's called that because. I would read every single day from a self-improvement book of some kind. I would learn the lessons from those books and I would apply them to my own life and learning the lesson every single day. Something that helps you grow as an individual every single day for around eight months. It will change you. I promise, I promise, I promise. Now a lot of people just read self-improvement and self-help books because, uh, they're enjoyable. They're entertaining. But if you truly embrace the lessons and apply them to your life, uh, for me, I can say it made a significant difference in who I am.

Magic Barclay:

That's something I think I've learned, especially in the last maybe one or two years is you don't have to go looking for lessons. Sometimes they're not obvious, but in the end of the day, when you're in. And you're doing like a stock take of the day. Something will pop up that you thought was completely insignificant and there's a life lesson there. And I think too many people walk around expecting a lesson to be like a brick dropping on their head, but it doesn't have to be that way. So how would you suggest to listeners that they tune into everything the world is teaching them?

David McBee:

Well, for me, I was always on the lookout for what can I write about in my next chapter or when the book was finished, I started a podcast and I was always like, well, what, what is going on in my life? What am I consuming that contains lessons? What can I talk about in next week's episode? Right. And kind of a fun example is, uh, one of the last episodes I produced was called buzz and Woody taught me in everyday lesson. And it's all about. I watched the toy story movies again, great movies, you know, they're just amazing. And I remember, uh, A lesson that I learned from buzz and Woody and how it related to, to me growing up and some stuff that my daughter was going through as well. So I guess the answer to your question is just pay attention to these things, you know, look for these lessons. Um, and they're everywhere. They can be the lyrics of a song. There can be in a book that you're picking up for self-improvement or they can be in a book that you've picked up for entertainment. Um, their lessons are everywhere and you just kind of, kind of pay attention to the world around you and, and you'll see them. You'll hear them. You'll you'll notice them

Magic Barclay:

definitely. And something I've learned from having pets and children is lessons come in the most irregular and absurd forms. And that can be something as simple as. I have an elderly cat, for example, now, yesterday he decided to walk around an imaginary thing in the lounge room. It was nothing. There absolutely nothing there, right to the visual eye. He was walking around something he made up in his mind. Until I thought a better explore this. Now we had the air conditioner on here in Australia. It's summer. It's pretty hot. So I crawled around on the floor in the pathway that he took because my mind was not letting it go. Why did he walk around in his huge arc around this imaginary thing? And I realized he was walking with the current of where the cold air was going around the lounge room. So he wanted, he wanted to be comfortable, but to my naked eye, he was making something up. There was some imaginary forcefield or whatever, and I thought he's a lunatic, you know, he's getting a bit senile. And in actual fact, he was being scientific and smart and comfortable. And I was the idiot that was sweating and he was perfectly temperature controlled and happy. So my life lesson from that moment was don't judge by what I can see, don't assume I know what's going on because here's his 17 year old geriatric cat. Scientifically and methodically staying comfortable, but to my eye, he was doing something crazy.

David McBee:

I love that you shared that story and, and pets are a huge source of lessons. In fact, probably my favorite chapter in my own book is a chapter entitled act like the dog. So I shared with you in our last episode that sometimes when I came home, From a trip or whatever. I didn't feel like my family greeted me with much enthusiasm or wasn't that grateful to see me. Right. And to be fair, they had long days right there. They didn't have to hop up off the couch and go daddy you're home. I mean, I travel a lot. That would be weird if they did, but I noticed that the dogs always greeted me. Like I had been gone forever, you know, they would wag their tails and shake their butts and wine and just, oh, please pet me. Like, and they always made me feel really loved. And so one day about halfway through my journey, one of the things I decided to do was act just like the dog. And so. My son came home from school and I ran to the front door and I was like, oh my gosh, I'm so glad you're home. How was school? And I started wagging my butt and I kind of hugged him. And I was just having the best time just greeting him. And he was like, what's going on? But, but he had laughed and it made him smile. And I did the same thing to my daughter when she came home and then my wife came home and I did that to her. She's like his dad. Okay. And they were both like, he did it to us too, mom. We don't know what's going on. But every once in a while, especially when I know they've had a long day or a hard day, I will pretend to be the dog when they get home. And I will wag my tail and I will like, I will even go up and lick their faces if they'll let me like, and it just makes them smile and it makes me smile and it's so much fun to greet them with such enthusiasm.

Magic Barclay:

Not being a dog family. I'm giggling while you're talking because not being a dog family. If I did that to my kids, I think I'd get a punch in the face.

David McBee:

I don't know old your kids are, but I would challenge you. I would challenge all of your listeners. Just try it one day. You will make your family laugh. It will be so much fun. Okay.

Magic Barclay:

The 20 and 22, I'm going to try it tomorrow. Yeah,

David McBee:

that's, that's an age that is an iffy age. They might punch you, but, but try it anyway. It'll be fun.

Magic Barclay:

See this. I used to cats in the household. If I just completely ignore them, they're used to that. Now we're having a lot of fun to hear and talking about fun. You've written another book as well, and that is DJ's off-road adventures. Tell us about that.

David McBee:

I'm really glad you asked me about that one, because as proud as I am of everyday lessons every day, I adore DJs off-road adventures. And I just, I have so much love for these characters. It is a children's book. It's a picture book, you know, it's written for elementary age children, and it's about a little truck. That goes off road for the first time it gets these big tires and his friends take him off road to go in the mountains of Colorado and Moab, Utah. And, there's these huge cliffs. Right. And he has a panic attack and he just. Stops in his tracks. He's freaking out because he's so afraid, but his friends come to his rescue and they offer him encouragement and they're patient with them. And they're kind to him. And only because of his friends, if he were there alone, he would have turned around and gone home. But because of his friends, he's able to overcome his fear, overcome the obstacles and make it to the top of the mountain to see this beautiful, beautiful. And it's a little bit like the little engine that could, right. He's trying, but he really is struggling, but his friends help him to overcome his fears. And, um, and then he of course pays it forward. The next time he goes off road and he's helping another little truck. Uh, who's scared. And, um, I, I love this story for a couple of reasons. One, it's just the artwork's beautiful and kids love to read it, but more than. It's all based on an actual, true story that happened to me. I guess you could kind of Intuit what the story was, but I'll tell you, I actually got invited to go to Moab in my new Jeep. I've been off road a little bit here and there just some trails in Missouri and Kansas, but you go to Colorado and Utah and there are some significant cliffs and I'm driving my Jeep up. This. It's a trail called, um, the entrance to hell's revenge. That's not intimidating at all. Right. And it's kind of like imagine a hot wheel toy driving up the back of a dinosaur. And it's like a 70, 80 foot drop on the right. And it's like a 70, 80 foot drop on the left. It's maybe 12 or 15 feet of rock that you're driving up and it's not flat. So your, your Jeep's tipping to the left and it's tipping to the right. And I had an actual. Freakout. Like I put the car in park. I pulled on the emergency brake because my hands were shaking. My hands are shaking right now. Just telling the story. I almost passed out. I had just started losing feeling in my lips and my face, and I was. I drove all this way to go do this fun adventure with my friends and I, and I can't do it. I have to turn around. I have to go home. I have to go back to Kansas where it's flat, but my friends wouldn't, they wouldn't allow that they got out of their vehicles. They walked right up to my. And they walked with me as I drove over this dinosaurs back and for, and for three days they were patient with me and kind and understanding and just, they handled me with kid gloves. If you will. They, they took care of me in ways that. Uh, you know, I haven't been, I haven't been taken care of since I was a child and it was the greatest adventure. I went to the top of these mountains. I saw these beautiful views and I've been back three, four times. I've taken other people. It has become my passion. And of course, when I got back into Kansas and I was telling people that story, they were like, that sounds like a children's book. And so that is how I became a children's book author.

Magic Barclay:

That's great story and so visual so I can see why kids will really love the book. What life lessons do you think you learnt from that experience and what do you think the kids will get from the book in a nutshell?

David McBee:

I think, uh, the, the lessons I learned from it were all about, um, being, I learned from my friends and their actions and they were patient and they were kind, and no one gave me a hard time or made me feel like I was slowing them down. Um, and so I've learned to be that way when I, you know, in my life. Right. But another really, really important lesson in the book. And DJ says this in much more childish terms, but I'll share with you the lesson as more of an adult perspective is that, um, and I, and I, I didn't come up with this. Uh, Mel Robbins actually, uh, talks about this in one of her books, um, that fear and anxiety. Have the exact same effect on your body as excitement. So remember I was just describing, breathing, heavy shaking. You know, those are the same feelings that you experienced when you're excited about something you're going to meet a celebrity or you're going to get to do this wonderful, exciting thing. Right. And, um, so Mel taught me and one of the things I learned is that if you can trick yourself, When you're starting to feel that anxiety, when you're starting to feel the fear kick in what you say to yourself is this is not. This is excitement. I am really excited by this cliff. I'm excited to be driving my Jeep up this dangerous, scary mountain. This is an exciting day. What an exciting adventure I'm on, not scary. Adventure, not scary, uh, trip, not afraid. You, you, you take those words out of your vocabulary, even your head, not just the things you say out loud, but in your head, you say this is excitement that I'm feeling and you really can't. Fool yourself. You can shift your perspective from being afraid to being excited. And that is what I tried to portray in the simplest terms possible in DJs off-road adventures, DJ faces is fear.

Magic Barclay:

I love that. And listeners, if you think back to episode 96, we actually talked about the science of fear and fear is false expectations appearing real. So. Switch between excitement and being scared has such a big impact physically on your body, because it is your false expectations appearing real. So make that excitement. That is real, that doesn't appear real, but that is real and make it fun. Everything that you experience can be. Even if it's sitting in the pit of your stomach and you think, oh, I don't know if this rollercoasters for me, you know, I might vomit or whatever. Think about it differently. I don't know if this rollercoasters for me, but wow. When it's over, I'm going to have a story to tell, and isn't this exciting. I'm going to experience something new, something I haven't stepped out of my box to try before. And you know, that really is up to you to make that switch because no one else can do it for.

David McBee:

So glad you used the rollercoaster example. Um, there was a time, not that long ago when my daughter was like 10 years old, she was just tall enough to ride some of these roller coasters and we were in line and she was really nervous, really, really nervous. And. You're going to drive this. You're going to love it because every time in the past, I'm like, like not pushing her beyond her limits. But in the past, when I had convinced her to ride a roller coaster, even when she said she didn't want to, she always got to the end and said, thank you, daddy. That was the greatest, right? So we're standing in line and she's nervous. She's so nervous and she's sweating bullets. And I just looked at her and I thought, I miss that feeling. When I rode roller coasters, I have written them so much. It's just, okay, I'm going to get on this rollercoaster now. And I didn't, I didn't get that rush like she was having. And that's crazy to think, like, I want the anxiety of riding a rollercoaster. Yes. That's absolutely what you want because that feeling and overcoming that feeling makes you feel so alive. It really, really just gets your heart beating and your blood pumping. It makes you feel so much more alive than. All the things that we do in regular life. So do something that scares you and you will feel alive.

Magic Barclay:

Couldn't agree more. I do something that scares me every day in my, a hobby, I guess my spare time. I do wildlife rescue and every situation that I turn up to, I get that rush because, you know, I, it could be a terrible outcome, but it just might not be. And I just get that spare of go and do it, you know, help this animal for them, but you're going to learn something and you're going to feel something, something that if I wasn't doing, I wouldn't be feeling every day. You know, the certainty of the life and death circle, the certainty of gratefulness. Like I just get so much. And that gives me a rush. Every time I step out of the car, I'm not saying everyone has to do something like that, but find something that just gives you that, that buzz, that excitement, something in life. I'm not talking a substance, something in life that gives you that buzz, whether it's competing in a sport, whether it's going for a walk and challenging yourself to go for a bigger, better walk or a different. Same to walk through, find something that gives you that rush. So, David, we've talked this episode about your books. When you first decided to write a book, what spurred you to do that? Like how did you get that message that you had something to share with.

David McBee:

Well, the everyday lessons, everyday book I really wrote for me, I really did. I didn't even know that I was going to publish it as I was writing it. I'm like, I don't know if anybody will care what I'm reading and what I'm learning and what's going on in my life. But once I had kind of put all of it down in writing, And I'd shared it with a handful of people. They said it was valuable and that it could have a positive impact on the world. And some, some folks have told me, David, that's really brave of you because I'm really vulnerable in it. And I'm really, I mean, there are moments in this book where I'm a jerk to my daughter. I'm a terrible husband and I put it all out. So to answer your question, I decided to publish it a book because I felt like other people could learn from my mistake and it would improve their lives, improve their relationships, improve their marriages. And for me, that was worth any embarrassment that I might feel from the way I act. It also holds me accountable magic. Right? Like I can't go back to be in that jerk after I've written and published a book about how not to be a jerk. So, uh, so that is another kind of a secondary reason. The children's book, boy, I don't know what, inspired me to do that. I loved telling the story about the panic attack and how my friends came to my rescue and the adventure that I went on. And I guess I told the story often enough that people really enjoy hearing it. And I don't know, I just felt like it could be a fun children's. We haven't talked about this, but there's a second DJ book too, and it's all about working together as a team, uh, teamwork and kindness. And really, basically what has happened is when I go on these off-road adventures in real life, I look around and I see these things happening and I realize, Hey, there's some really cool lessons that children could learn that I could turn into another book. And so now I'm writing a third book. Bullying and females standing up for other females and how females can do anything they want. It's about a little pink Jeep. Uh, so I don't know why I feel the need to write all these books. It's certainly not to make money. Stephen King has this really famous quote and I don't know what exactly, but the gist of it is you don't write. To make friends or get famous or get popular, or make a bunch of money. You do it because you have to, and you need to, and you want to get your, your creativity out there into the world. And so maybe that's my answer for you. Magic is that I just felt inspired to create, and I wanted to share my creations with the world.

Magic Barclay:

I love that now, where can people find the DJ booth?

David McBee:

Uh, they're on Amazon. Both of my books are on Amazon. You just look at DJ's off-road adventures or everyday lessons every day, or each of my books also have their own website. So DJs off-road adventures.com and everyday lessons every day.com. Uh, also kind of a fun thing is if you're on social media, DJ has his own Facebook page. So it's facebook.com forward slash DJs off-road adventures. And on that page, I show, uh, some of the behind the scenes, uh, uh, of the book being created. Like a, it's kind of fun that I take hot wheels and I placed them on my bed. And so they look like they're climbing mountains and I take a photograph of that. And then I send that to the artist and the artist makes a sketch. So that's kind of a fun thing that I put out there and some sneak peaks of the next book, but I also post real photos of our Jeep adventures and what's going on with the Jeeps and DJ's friends. So if you're into off-road stuff at all, or if you're in. These lessons for children. Uh, that's a really fun Facebook page to follow it. So it's DJs offered adventures on Facebook.

Magic Barclay:

I've just written that down for my homeschooling network. Great. So I think I'll make that one of our texts. Fantastic. We've discovered so much about you and about your writing in this episode, what's a key takeaway. You'd like the listeners to have today with your message.

David McBee:

How about this pay attention to the world around you? There is so much to learn from this journey that we are all on, whether it's in the books that you read, the poems that you read, the songs that you hear, the movies that you watch, there is so much wonderful stuff that has been created by other people. And the more of it that you consume, the more you become a part of the global community, the more you can personally grow. And if you have an inspiration, it's my opinion. Magic that those inspirations are divinely inspired and that you cannot ignore. There has never been another book, just like mine. There's never been a, a DJ book. Like the one I wrote and if I hadn't brought it into the world, no one would, and I felt an obligation to do that. And I, I want to inspire anyone who has. A book inside of them or a movie or a song to write it and put it out there. And so what if no one reads it? So what if it doesn't make you millions of dollars? Just create it and put it out there because if one or two people pick it up and enjoy it, you will have made the world a better place.

Magic Barclay:

Couldn't agree more now. Thank you so much again, for your time today, David listeners, you can find David at Facebook official David McBee, David McBee on Instagram, LinkedIn, and on Twitter. Don't forget to grab your copies of those fantastic books. Head over to Amazon. And listeners coming up in episode 1 0 4. We have Kelly Shields talking about unlocking the golden handcuffs. Now I know that sounds strange, but stay tuned more on that soon. Listeners, thank you again for your time. Go forth and create your magical life.