Build A Life That Adapts When The World Doesn’t | Episode 450

Build A Life That Adapts When The World Doesn’t | Episode 450

Real life rarely follows a neat script, and that is exactly why we center mental health as health. We open up about the messy parts—seasonal slumps, lost sleep, career shocks, and the pressure to stay silent—and trade quick fixes for the steady work of change you can actually keep. Our goal is bold and simple: reach people everywhere with honest stories and practical steps that help them adapt, recover, and move forward.

We dig into why the phrase “has mental health” misses the mark and how naming challenges without shame empowers action. From the sluggish days between the clock change and the winter solstice to the groggy mornings after losing an hour, we unpack how time and light tug at motivation. Then we get specific about sleep hygiene that respects the body’s clock: consistent bed and wake times, dimmer evenings, cooler rooms, earlier caffeine cutoffs, and short wind-down rituals that survive busy nights.

Change, though, is bigger than bedtime. We walk through a simple arc—think, try, iterate, sustain—so progress becomes visible and doable. That same approach applies to work in a world where layoffs and shifting incentives upend the old promise of stability. We talk personal brand, transferable skills, and the courage to read signals and pivot without losing yourself. Along the way, we share why candid teaching and storytelling matter, even when it ruffles feathers, and how listener engagement and a growing roster of guests prove that honest conversations travel far.

If this resonates, pass it on. Share the episode with someone who needs a nudge, subscribe for more real talk on mental health, and leave a review to help others find us. Your voice can be the start of someone else’s turning point—what small change will you make today?

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Chapter Markers

0:00 Mission And Global Reach

2:45 Mental Health As Core Health

6:40 Time Shifts And Seasonal Slumps

12:00 Sleep Hygiene And Personal Change

18:40 Getting Started And Sticking With It

24:30 Careers, Layoffs, And Adaptability

30:20 Teaching Real Life And Pushback

36:10 Proof Of Impact And Growth

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Transcript

Mission And Global Reach

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes 0:02

Hi everyone, this is Justin here, Voices for Voices. Thank you so much for joining us on this episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. I am your host and founder of Voices for Voices. Thank you for watching. Thank you for listening. Whether you're here in the United States or uh in another country outside of the United States, uh, we are an organization that focuses on culture and not politics. We focus on real life events, uh, not just the fluffy uh events that that happen uh because we know life throws curveballs at us uh just about every day. Um help us get to reach and help over three billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond, which would include helping and reaching 300 countries, territories, provinces across the world, and over 3,000 cities across the world. We're well on our way, 1100 cities, uh, countries were uh I think we're around like 110 at this point, and we can only do this with your help. We only got to this point with your help. So thank you very much for helping spread the word about voices for voices and letting everybody know that we are a trusted resource that brings real facts, real experiences uh to our shows, to you, and to the millions of others that we are reaching. Uh, we are only behind uh the Joe Rogan experience and the Dan Bongino show. So we are growing and we are growing. And thank you for that. Um, we can't do any of this with without you. If you're able to reach out to 25 year contacts, maybe 50, maybe 100. Let them know about the voices for voices TV show and podcast. That's how we're uh that's how we're reaching more and more people. And the analytics show that is uh individuals just like yourself are reaching out to their friends, their family, their colleagues, their loved ones, uh, their coaches, you name it. Uh that's how we're growing. That's one of the big ways that we're growing. We're having you know organic growth, uh, other ways, but mouth to mouth, you know, or word of mouth, uh, or you know, using using the old the old phone to uh to to help out. And please follow us on our social media channels. We're everywhere. If you can Etsy on it, you can voices for voices on it. So thank you for watching, thank you for listening, thank you for being part of this groundswelling um grassroots movement called Voices for Voices. Mental health is the uh is the key foundation of the organization. And without mental health, we don't have health because we have physical health, we have mental health. So one thing that bothers me is when people say, oh, he has mental health. Well, we all have mental health now, mental health challenges, uh, mental illnesses, okay, that's a little bit different. But just to say, oh, he has mental health or she has mental health, we all have mental health. Doesn't matter where we live, doesn't matter what country, what state, what province, what territory, what city, what township, what county, borough, we all have mental health. And that's why our organization is so vital for our society, to do the work that we're doing, to share the stories. Are they all fun? No. In fact, a majority of them aren't fun to talk about. But we have to. We have to. We have to talk about the tough stories because the easy stories are what? They're easy, they're easy to talk about. It's those hard stories, losing a loved one, losing a relationship, uh having an absolute tragedy happen to our family, to being to being classified as I would say, mental. Oh, they have mental health. Yeah, you're right. We do, I do, you do too. Um, so that's the key. We like to go over these at the beginning because we know there's a lot of channels, we know there's a lot of options, and we want to thank you for joining us. We're sending our love, our good vibes your way, whether you're a believer or not. We can never have too many good vibes, too much positive energy. So we're sending that to you. And we wish, we hope, nothing but the best for you, your loved ones, whoever's in your front circle. So we've turned the page of the calendar from February. Now we're into March. So American baseball season uh will be upon us. Uh, the uh spring training, which is in all intents and purposes, uh practice, practice games, the days are getting a little bit longer. I think we clockwise, I think we spring forward an hour, so we're gonna lose an hour of sleep. And I don't know about you, but for me, it takes my body a lot a long time to to get caught up to that. It's one thing when we're traveling, when it's for a few days, but when we have a full scale shift in time, literally. Uh at least where I live, I know I know some areas have different different uh different rules. Some of them spring forward and some of them don't fall back, and vice versa. But for where we live, uh we have both. Uh we have both springing forward and falling back. And one of the hardest times for me, just body-wise, I could just tell it's not me being a baby. Uh it just is something that is hard for for my body, and that's when we fall back, and then when the days get shorter and shorter and shorter until we hit the winter solstice, where we have the shortest day, you know, by minutes and hours and all the those uh those numbers, those calculations. So for me, I say suffer, but seasonal effective disorder is really what it's called. And the time from when we fall back to the time where we hit the winter solstice is very, very hard. It's hard for motivation, and again, it's not me being a baby, it's not me complaining at all. It's it's none of that. It's just the way I am. And so I I just have to get I have to get used to it. And there's really not a whole lot I can do. And you may be in the same same boat with me of that being just a hard time. Now we're in the March where days are getting longer, I think by maybe a minute or so each day. So I'm looking forward to it. I'm not looking forward to losing the sleep because I love my sleep. I made a big, big change to my sleep hygiene recently. I think it's healthy to it's healthy to kind of assess you know where we're at and if there's anything we can do to change. And you probably have heard, you know, the change begins with you or me. And so we can be told a lot of things, right? We can be we can be taught a lot of told a lot of things. I just made a shift there to my camera for those watching. It's one thing for you know people to talk and and say, you should do this, and you should do that, and you should do this. It really takes, again, it takes us as individuals to number one, to make the change. And then it doesn't have to do with well, I don't believe a person for saying that. It's not that at all. I just have to ha have that I don't know, have that reason have that ability and wanting to do that. So whether that means rearranging our schedules in order to to do those changes, that's usually the hardest part. Making a shift to our our schedules. Right? We've only been doing things a long time. It gets kind of hard sometimes to make a change. And so it takes time, right? We go through these we kind of go through these cycles in a way where somebody brings it up, says, Justin, you need to do this. Or what about this or that, or this, or that, or this, or that. Okay. And it could have been in my mind or your mind for a while. But again, it's it's it's you and me that has to get whatever get through whatever obstacle that we need to get through. Or over or around. Or maybe we've hit that fork in the road, maybe we've gone down maybe a little bit the wrong fork. So we gotta back up and then adapt and change. And so that's something that is key for me. Is first I have to meant mentally go mentally go through it. You know, some people maybe maybe you write things down. Maybe that's maybe that's the first thing is to write something down. For me, I try to, but I don't always succeed on that. So that might be why it takes a little bit longer for me to um maybe make a make a change. Because I gotta get through that first step that might look like the psalm in action, and then once we get to that next spot, then it's like, oh, okay. Just thinking about it. And then kind of the third spot is let's try it. Sometimes it's a big thing, sometimes it's a small thing. Let's try it. If it's something big, we we should just break it into pieces. You know just try one thing. It's complex. And so for me, getting through to that next next spot, that second spot, and then ultimately seeing some of the action. You kind of have to get started. Sometimes for people to see that he's trying, that he is making an effort. So it kind of comes from the mind into whatever that process or whatever that thing is. People go, Oh, I didn't realize this, or something's different. Or I can see a little bit of a change, but does that mean it's gonna be a full change or not? And again, we all have good days, we all have bad days. So sometimes it's gonna be a little easier, sometimes it's gonna be a little tougher. And I'm here to say, as a testament, as a witness, that you can do it. You can make a change. You can very well make a change. But it has to start with us. You know, there's a lot of books, there's a lot of people that have all these tips and whatever you want to call them. Well, if you just do this, uh this will help everything. That's that's kind of that first part. That's kind of that first part. Gotta see if it's is it doable? Are they saying, well, if I just do these two things, these three things that voila abracadabra and poof everything's everything's in a in a better state of mind. It's not like that, as I mentioned. Some days are gonna be easier, some steps, some parts are gonna be easier, and some are gonna be ultra difficult. The key is it something we can stick with then? Right? I equated the going to the gym back when I was going to the gym and had this regimen when I was younger. The hardest part was getting started. Then I got started and I started seeing results. And then there came a point where for whatever reason I was trying to cut my cost because my organization, my company that I was working for had just gone through a layoff. They didn't teach us about that in school. They don't they they didn't teach at so when I teach, I teach about it. Why goes back to the very beginning of this show and other shows because it's real life. There's no utopia where you're just gonna go in and you're gonna work for the next forty years. Maybe can't say it's impossible, but from where we're at in twenty sixteen that twenty twenty six, I mean it's less and less possible. Greed has snuck in for people in executive roles and management roles. If we cut costs, maybe I'll get more shares of stock. Maybe my bonus will be higher. So you always have to be looking out for number one yourself. And that might be unpopular. In fact, it usually is unpopular. It's looked at as being selfish. You name it. Well, you don't care about growing within the company. No, actually, I do. I just can spot the signs, the signals a little bit better the older I get. So they don't teach that in school. I've had so many students tell me that. They're not thinking, well, I'm going to do this, and then I might have to shift and I might have to find something else. So that's when we talk about searching for a job. We talk about building the personal brand that you can be flexible and adapt from one industry to another. So that's a big change from I'm gonna work here till I retire to, well, I may go through five to ten different jobs in my career or more. It's not easy to hear. It's not fun to hear. It's not the popular thing to hear. The fluffiness that I talked about earlier is teaching this new generation, this next generation of leaders to be able to be so adaptable. Not because I'm saying it, but because it's the truth. And so, oh Justin, you can't talk about that. We can't have you talking about mental health, too. Oh, really? Okay. It's interesting, right? So I have a I have a president that's behind me and behind the mental health sharing. Told me keep sharing. And then this dean comes along. Oh, you can't do this and shouldn't do that. I've been teaching for ten years, folks. Ten years. A lot of students. Maybe a thousand total. I've taught in class, in person, remote. I've designed an entire course and haven't got really the compensation. So I've done a lot of things without getting a lot of without getting compensation. And I've been okay with that to an extent. And so again, this dean comes along and is like, whoa, you know, we gotta we gotta check all these boxes of people that are teaching. I'm not lying. This is the truth, folks. This is what's happening. One student says one thing because class is getting real. Like, well, I don't know if you should be sharing that with us. Oh, okay. I guess I'm not supposed to share what's real. Except the president telling me. Keep bringing that to the classroom. And this president came to my dad's calling hours. This dean didn't. And I've talked about on other shows, but it makes a world of difference when you have a president of a university that's got a gazillion things going on every day of the week. And the stand in line for at least an hour. He didn't say, hey everyone, I'm the president. I should get preferential treatment. I should get to go to the front of the line. He didn't do that. He didn't do that. He's been behind. My missions trips. In fact, he was interviewed for one of one of the news stories, one of the TV news stories. And I owe a debt of gratitude to him for not just for that, but just being a human being. And so I know you've been teaching for 10 years, but you're basically done. Has nothing to do with selling book, selling my books in the classroom. Has everything to do with checking the box, the boxes. As you know, I've got so much experience in the positive. I got so much experience in the negative. And that's what real life is. It's positive and it's negative. It ebbs and it flows. You hit peaks, you hit valleys. And so this is what I'm talking about. The voices for voices. We're helping people. So when somebody's like, well, okay, I don't know about you. I don't think nobody's listening. Okay. That's fine. Then how one of the metrics, I'm getting every month at least ten, at least ten people that want to be a guest on the show, reaching out to me and saying, here's my story. I want to be on your show. Well, how would they know about the show if nobody's watching or listening? Beats me. Well, that's growing, but nobody's watching or listening. So to those that say, nobody's watching, nobody's listening, that's fine. Figure out something else to do. But what I see, I see the engagement between us. I see the sharing of voices for voices and the voices for voices TV show and podcast through the contacts in their phone, following our social media profiles. And nothing worth doing is easy. Nothing worth doing is easy. So we're gonna hit five hundred episodes soon. Five hundred. Not fifty, not one hundred, not two hundred, not three hundred, not four hundred, not four fifty, not four sixty. Five hundred episodes. And we're gonna keep on going. And we're gonna keep on going, and we're gonna keep on going. So I want to thank you for watching, for listening, for sharing. We can do this, folks. We can help it as many people in the entire world. Maybe we can reach everybody in the entire world. Or maybe we can't. I don't know. All I know is when I log in and I see just on the downloads for the audio portion of the show, reaching the numbers we're reaching. That's fine. Go ahead. Be negative. Tell me I can't do it. Tell me it's not gonna happen. Tell me nobody's listening. Tell me nobody's watching. And you know what? That right there is extra fuel to see to it. To see to it, to see to it that it will happen. So thank you for watching. Thank you for listening. We love you all. Thank you for your support. Again, if you can reach out to 25, 50, maybe 100 people in your contacts, in your phone, let them know about the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. You can watch, you can listen everywhere. This is uh we're over 449 episodes of the show, the podcast. I guarantee you'll find at least 50, if not more, shows, guest topics, experiences. And you'll go, you know what? Where have I been? You know what you do? You just you download them all. So you have them, whether you're at home or whether you're on the go. So thank you for being a part of Voices for Voices. We love you, we're thinking about you, we're sending good vibes, we're praying for you every day. Until next time, I'm Justin Alan Hayes. Let's celebrate the voices of everybody in the world. And let's be a voice for ourselves and those individuals who don't and aren't able to share their own voice. We'll see you later.