Reginald D: Welcome to Real Talk with Reginald D.

I'm your host, Reginald D.

So, fam. Every now and then, someone walks into this world carrying a story that doesn't just inspire you, it shifts you.

It makes you sit up, it makes you rethink what's possible.

Today's guest is one of those rare voices.

Today I have, Dr. Wally Babatunde.

Wally is a physician, scientist,

psychiatrist, epidemiologist, researcher, servant leader, and now author of Adapt and Advance,

a Faith Based Guide to Turning Trials Into Triumphs, and now serves as chief resident in psychiatry at Prisma Health in my hometown of Greenville, South Carolina.

Welcome to the show, Wally.

Dr. Wally: Thank you so much for the introduction, Regina.

I am excited to be here today and I'm always very happy to share my story to inspire others.

I believe I have the story that can help people put things in perspective no matter how difficult life is, and to help them adapt and advance and keep moving on, irrespective of how hard or how difficult life is at different seasons of life.

Reginald D: Fantastic. You do have a remarkable story.

Dr. Wally: We're about to jump into it.

Reginald D: So, Dr. Walley, before we dive into all the incredible work you've done and you're still doing,

I want to start with your childhood.

What do you remember most vividly about your childhood in Nigeria?

Dr. Wally: Something good or bad or it doesn't matter.

Reginald D: Doesn't matter how you want to give it to me.

Dr. Wally: I think the biggest thing from my childhood story is the fact that the biggest thing I remember from my childhood is not a good one, is the fact that my mom died when I was seven years old and my father died when I was 13 years old.

Those were extreme situations and circumstances that I had to deal with all my life after those two events happened to me.

But honestly, it wasn't completely all bad. I still have a lot of good memories from my mom, good memories from my dad.

I always say one good memory I have from my mom is, you know, she's always a wonderful woman.

And she was in the choir, I remember, in our church. And I remember those days they wear these choir robes. I always like to hide under ropes when I was much more younger, before I lost her.

I think that's one memory, one good thing I remember about. It's really good.

So that's my childhood from Nigeria.

Reginald D: So you talked about losing your parents at a younger age. And I know that could be very devastating.

When did you first realize that your pain was pushing you for purpose rather than destroying you?

Dr. Wally: I would say it's just a little bit after the Loss of my dad.

He had this friend, which I mentioned. He wrote like, a page in my book who was a medical doctor back then.

And he wrote me letters like I was his friend after the loss of my dad.

Like, he would write me letters, I would reply him. He write me letters, I will reply. Those were the days where you post physical letters.

And one thing he always said was,

I should not let this define me negatively,

and I should use the opportunity to have big dreams and big visions for my life.

And I remember him telling me, like,

your dad always wanted to be a medical doctor, eventually was a pharmacist.

And he encouraged me and said one dream he knew my father always had was he wants one of his children to be a medical doctor.

So I think that was one of the things. Although even before my father died, I've always wanted to be a medical doctor. But I think that solidified it. And in my mind, like, oh,

okay. I could use my pain as a medical doctor to reach out to people,

which today I do every day as a psychiatrist,

because in psychiatry, we get to listen to people's problems a lot.

Not that other doctors don't listen to people's problems, but I think we do it a lot more because most of what we deal with are disorders that have to do with people's individual stressors.

Like, we have depression almost always there will be something going on in your life at that time, something difficult that pushed it out.

Even people who have things like schizophrenia and bipolar, almost always there will be one event or multiple events. Maybe it's unemployment. Maybe it's, you know,

problems in their relationships,

financial problems, homelessness. We have, you know, you can count so many things that pushed out that thing out of them. So as a psychiatrist today, I'm glad that I. I was able to use all of my pains at that time.

So I started moving in the direction of being a medical doctor after the loss of my father. I moved more tangibly towards it because I felt I want the pain I'm going through at this time.

I want to use it to be a blessing to a lot of people.

Reginald D: So, Dr. Wall, let me ask you this. I really like that, what you said.

What did your relationship with God look like in those early years of loss and uncertainty?

Dr. Wally: So I always say this, that I was lucky. Lucky in the sense that my parents were Christians and were, like, committed, relatively committed, practicing Christians.

So I was born into a Christian family. We used to go to a Baptist church at that time.

My mom, like I said, she was in the choir and was committed.

My father was also a committed member of the church at those period.

So they introduced me to God early. We used to pray together as a family every morning and every night. There was a time it was only morning. There was a time it was both morning and night.

So we had the devotional, the Baptist devotional we were using at that time to pray every day.

So I would honestly say to a large extent, that also shaped me.

So when I lost both parents,

although life was difficult, life was hard.

It was like all the covering I have protecting me from the world was completely removed and I had to face the world myself.

The fact that I was born into faith and knew God early, like I became born again Christian before my father died in middle school.

So all of that kind of that did not reduce the fact that I went through so much pain, but the fact that I had a higher power, like they were saying Alcoholic Anonymous.

The fact that I had a higher power to lean on was extremely, extremely helpful.

There were days I cried, I wept, I felt sad. There were days I wished my parents could just come back to do their roles. There were days I was depressed.

There were days I almost contemplated, you know, suicide at some point because the pain was just unbearable.

But all of this said the fact that I had God, I had my faith, I could pray,

was a strong thing for me.

And the biggest catalyst happened when I was 20.

That was when I joined a church called Living Faith Church in Nigeria. And that was really huge for me. That was when I started reading one book every week. Because my pastor, who is still alive, Dr.

Oyedepo, is in his 70s now, he reads a lot.

And I read one of his book Towards Mental Exploits.

And in it was like I read and I think that's all I used bulk of my time to do.

And that was when I decided I would read one book every single week. Then I was reading physical books. Now I listen to audiobooks.

But now it's not only Christian books. Of course I listen to books, any book I can learn something from.

But it started from the church. And most of the initial books were Christian books. So they really shaped me. I read books by Max Monroe about purpose.

Like he had three series, Maximizing your purpose, discovering your purpose. I've forgotten the third one now in year 2000. I read all of that. It was very helpful for me.

I read Rick Warren's the Purpose Driven Life at that time.

I read books by Joyce Meyer, who went through a lot of hardship. I read books by Joel Osteen, who is a Pastor in Texas. I know there was just so many books that were very, very helpful for me at that time.

And they helped me realize that no matter I'm going through, no matter the difficulties, people have been through similar difficulties of similar gravity, and they got through it.

So I was very excited about my future. I am still excited about the future because I realized when I read those books and I read those stories,

my story too will end well.

Reginald D: Yes, Exactly. Exactly. So, Dr. Wally, what's one moment in your journey where you know, without a question that God intervened?

Dr. Wally: Honestly, I will again go back to year 2000, and I would say year 2000, because at that point I just felt a hunger in my heart.

Of course, I've been a Christian before then all my life. But at that point I felt a hunger in me, like to seek God in a deeper way,

to seek God to know him better.

And I just felt the church I was going at that point was a great church, but I just felt was not meeting my spiritual needs at that time.

And I prayed for about a few days, weeks and sought the face of God. And that's when God led me to this church, Living Faith Church. Although I'm no longer in Nigeria, I no longer go there.

Bread Spirit. Even now in the US I still listen to the message from my pastor, Dr. David Oedipo, every week on Sundays. I still connect with the church services despite I have my own church here.

That was a big turning point for me, and I call it the biggest because at that point, not only did I join the church, I started serving a little more intentionally and actively.

I was fellowship leader at that time.

At that point was when I started.

I was hosting like weekly, monthly, like motivational talks at that time. I was in medical school at that point.

At that point I also started reading one book every week. So all of that added up for me to be able to like. I started understanding my purpose more clearly.

And my mission statement,

which has evolved over the years, began at that time.

That time it was simple to clothe men with knowledge to reach the top.

But currently it has evolved over the years. I've edited it again and again and is currently to fulfill God's purpose and live the best version of my life daily as I move from a level of good success and good value to a greater level of good success and good value daily and to contribute positively to the lives of people that God has placed on my path.

So it's in three different parts.

One is fulfill God's purpose and be the best version. The Second part is every single day should be better than the previous, which means I move from level of success and value to a greater one on a daily basis.

And the third part is to use everything I have to be a blessing to every person around me. My patients,

my patients, family, my colleagues,

my co workers,

my anybody, every and everybody I come across is to use my life to be a blessing to them. So the purpose,

my mission statement has evolved, but it started that year, 2000.

Reginald D: Okay. Yeah. So that's the thing about it. You have to shift sometimes and have to move away from things in order to start walking in your purpose, you know, And a lot of people want to stay to the same place, but it doesn't work like that.

A lot of times you have to shift.

Dr. Wally: Yes, yes.

Reginald D: So, Dr. Waller, you moved from being an orphan teenager in Nigeria to becoming a physician in Nigeria,

which is an achievement on his own,

and then uprooted your life to pursue a PhD in the United States.

What made you pursue a new path in the United States? And what gave you the courage to keep pushing into the unknown?

Dr. Wally: So, and that's a wonderful question I get to answer all the time.

Every time I've interviewed for something in the US for my PhD, I had to answer that question. For my postdoc, I had to answer that question even for my residency in psychiatry, which just concluded in June.

And by the way, I'm no longer the chief resident. I was a chief resident till June this year. So I completed residency June this year, and currently I'm an attending physician.

So I've answered this question multiple times and I've reflected why it's multiple times.

So became a medical doctor in Nigeria, did residency in Nigeria in community medicine school,

worked for a few years,

started some research work in Nigeria. But all at that point, just like I felt the hunger in year 2000, then it was a spiritual hunger. I wanted like more. I wanted to know God more.

I wanted to develop my identity in God. That was in year 2000,

in year 2013-14,

which I moved to the US in 2014. For a year before that time, there was another hunger in me, which was an anger for there is more than where I am right now.

And I need a supportive environment to help me achieve all that God has placed inside of me beyond what the Nigerian environment was providing for me at that time.

I never had a dream to leave Nigeria when I was in medical school, even for years.

I've always wanted to be a part of the solution. Even if there are problems, I want to Be a part of the solution wherever I find myself.

But I haven't completed residency like reach the peak as a medical doctor in Nigeria, like a little bit quite early.

I started to see that There's a gap.

One I needed a PhD training in a place where I could do any type of analysis I want to do any kind of research I wanted to do.

Nigeria didn't give me the opportunity to do that.

So I remember talking to one of my mentors. I did masters in Nigeria in addition to my medical degree,

but I talked to some of my professors and they were like the kind of things you seem to be dreaming of,

you might not be able to get it even if you do your PhD in Nigeria.

So I felt I needed an environment where I could comfortably write any kind of paper I want to write where I could comfortably write for any kind of grants I want to write without the limitations of my environment being a limitation on what I could do.

And that was what pushed me to the PhD and practicing a little bit as a medical doctor in Nigeria. I knew I wanted to practice medicine all my life because I wanted to talk to people and be able to use my story to help people.

And the closest to it,

like I say, is psychiatry. The closest to being a pastor in medicine,

in my opinion,

is psychiatry.

Because psychiatry gives me the opportunity to really listen to people's problems,

listen to what people are going through,

and be able to genuinely, from a place of pain that I've been through,

say it's going to be okay. Not just as a punctuation or just as the right thing to say, but from the place of my own pain, from the place of my own healing.

I could offer healing to people.

So that was what I felt. Okay.

PhD in the US psychiatry residency in the US would be the best thing that put me on this unique advantage to be able to help people in a very unique way.

So that's the push for the US and I came in 2014. It's been 11 years now. Time flies by so quickly.

Reginald D: Yes, it does. So did you have any self doubt?

Dr. Wally: Sorry, I didn't hear that.

Reginald D: Did you have any self doubt doubts? Yeah.

Dr. Wally: Did you have any doubt about coming here?

Reginald D: Yeah, about coming and being successful and making everything happen.

Dr. Wally: I'm glad everything worked well,

maybe even honestly I can say it's better than even planned.

Maybe not as quick as I planned it,

but eventually everything made sense and everything joined together. Like you know, I got an NIH grant during my PhD so that made my PhD longer than usual. I wanted to do it two to three years.

It ended up being five years, but for a good reason. The last two years was when I got the NIH grant to be able to study something.

And apart from that, I was able to, like, get into psychiatry residency four years, and complete that in a record time, too, you know, so everything worked well. Eventually,

maybe it took a longer time, but it's. Everything weaved together beautifully at the end of the day. So I'm grateful to God for that opportunity.

Reginald D: Awesome. Awesome. So, Dr. Walley, as chief resident in psychiatry, what do you see people struggling with the most in this generation?

Dr. Wally: I believe one thing that I've noticed is I strongly believe people give up too soon.

And, you know,

it's not completely their fault.

Life can be very hard.

Life can be very difficult.

And I wish I could just shout on the mountaintop, please, don't give up. Don't give up. No matter how hard it is.

No matter how difficult it is,

there is always hope at the end of the tunnel. There's always light at the end of the tunnel. So what I see people,

you know,

the amount of work, I wouldn't say it is. It's not going to be easy. I don't ever want to give anybody a false hope.

It's never going to be easy, but it's going to be doable.

That's one of the words I always love to say. And in the words of Abraham Lincoln, one of the things I heard about him that he loves to say is, these two shall pass.

These two shall pass. So I want to let everybody, everybody listening to me know that no matter the current situation you might be in, no matter how difficult it may look, no matter how impossible that mountain may look like,

know that this too shall pass.

And if you give up before you get to the good parts,

it's not good. It's not. Don't give up before you get to understand that this is not how my story ends.

I've been through it,

and I'm still going through it in a different way for different things.

But I always tell myself my story will not end negatively.

So what I see generations,

people struggle a lot with right now is when people look at the amount of work that you need to put in to turn your current adversity or your current troubles or your current difficulties,

to flip it around to good.

I see people giving up because they feel it's just a lot of work.

It's a lot of work, but it's doable,

and you do it one day at a time.

Some problems you can flip in one day.

Some will take a week, some will take a month, some will take 10 years. And some will take a lifetime.

And some you might not even finish during your lifetime. Others will need to take on even after you are gone. So when we look at our troubles that way, it frees us from wanting to do everything.

All just do one day at a time,

one victory at a time. And keep it moving wherever you stop,

the next generation can continue it from there.

Reginald D: And I like the way you put, when you said it, you said it's a lot, but it's doable.

Dr. Wally: It a doable. Yeah, yeah.

Reginald D: I really like that.

Dr. Wally: Yeah, it's doable. I remember, you know, my first United States medical licensing exam.

I failed it in 2018. And you know, I need this exam to practice medicine in the U. S.

I always tell people it's difficult, but it's doable.

You know, there are four exams. That was the only one I ended up failing before passing the next one the second time. But it's doable. It's doable.

Yeah. It's going to be done.

Reginald D: Yes, Exactly.

Dr. Wally: Yeah.

Reginald D: So Dr. Waller, you uniquely combine psychiatry, epidemiology, medical science and faith. How do you bring those worlds together when helping someone heal?

Dr. Wally: Yeah. So what I'll say is everything works together for good. That's one of my top bible verses that I work with every single day. I strongly believe everything works together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose.

It's easy to combine everything for me because I don't necessarily completely separate them.

Of course, when I'm doing my basic job, I don't go about talking about the bible or faith, but faith still serves the foundation of everything that I do inside of me.

And my faith still serves as the foundation of the way I live my life. The way I smile.

I want to touch everybody with the love of Jesus without mentioning the name Jesus.

And that's the way I live my life every single day.

Touching lives with the love of God without mentioning God. So you don't see me mentioning Jesus or God on my day to day job,

but I see the love of God and the love of Jesus touching the lives of people around me when I tell them it's going to be okay. Even without mentioning the name Jesus,

I see, you know, the love of God spilling to the surface every single day in every single interaction that I have.

So I don't really see my faith as separate from my job or from my research or from everything else. I Do I aim for excellence? I want to be the best I can, and I want the best I can every day.

To touch lives,

to bless lives, and to be a blessing to people. And that's what I see happening every single day in my daily practice. You know, I have quotes that I, you know, post on my Facebook every day.

Some of them are from the Bible. But, you know, I don't necessarily say it's from the Bible,

but, you know,

I get it from God's word. I get the inspiration from God's word to do the things I do every single day.

Reginald D: Awesome. So what's the meaning behind the phrase adapt and advance? How did it become your personal philosophy?

Dr. Wally: So when I was writing my book, I tried to come up with a title that captures my entire life and how I have been able to deal with the challenges that life threw at me.

And the phrase adapt and advance came to the surface after so many working on it. Working on it.

To adapt means to accept the reality of a difficult situation without letting it define you.

That's my own definition of adapt.

So you accept that this situation is there.

You are not denying it. I'm not living in denial, and I'm not expecting anybody to live in denial.

Life is hard. Life is difficult. Or maybe the loss of a loved one. For me, the loss of my mom was crushing. The loss of my dad was devastating.

So adapt means accepting the reality of a difficult situation without letting that difficult situation define me. So that is adapt in advance. Is that difficult situation not minding or not withstanding?

I'm going to move forward,

which means on one hand, I have the difficult situations going on, but on the second hand, I'm making progress irrespective of it.

So at times, one thing I see people struggle with is you want to solve the problem and then you want to move forward after solving the problem. No.

While the problem is still there,

you are moving forward.

So you don't let the problem grind you to a stop.

And you are not solving the problem. No. While you are solving the problem on one side,

you are moving forward on the other side. So. And that's what my entire life has been.

I've been through very difficult, for example, financial challenges because of the loss of my parents, when I don't even know where I'm going to get the next school fees from, for example.

But I kept studying hard, I kept working hard, I kept going to school even when I don't know. For example, you know, we go to school in Nigeria. Maybe there's a due date to pay school fees,

you resume school on 1st of, let's say 1st of January, you to pay the school fees by February 15th. But I kept at it when I don't know where the money will come forth on February 15,

I kept putting in my best,

kept thinking of solutions to that problem on one hand. And I kept studying hard on the other hand to make sure I succeed. I kept going forward.

And that was the way I live every single day of my life. And other problems that came that are not even related to finances too well, I'm solving it on one hand,

I'm advancing on the other hand. So at the end of the day,

whether the problem is completely solved or half solved, I've made some progress, I've gained some ground.

And that's the whole essence of adapt and advance. And in my book Adapt and Advance, I talked about seven core principles which formed the seven sections in the book. The first one is meaning making.

To adapt and advance, you've got to be able to make meaning of things you are going through. And I used the philosophy of the book Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.

Viktor Frankl was a psychiatrist too, who was one of those in concentration camps. He was a Jew in during the Hitler war. And he noticed that three things that help people make meaning.

Number one is your attitude towards the problem.

I just talked about Abraham Lincoln saying these two shall pass is an attitude. So if you understand that these two shall pass, no matter the depth or the size of your problems, you know it will pass.

So you have a good attitude towards it.

It's not the attitude of oh my life is off.

Oh,

I can't survive this. Those are not good attitude to us. We have attitude towards the problem.

The second one is experiencing someone experiencing something.

Personally, the biggest things I experience that helps me through challenges is music.

I love music.

Music. Some of them are Christians who are not Christian. Music helps me through tough seasons. The other thing that helps me is podcast or reading of books. I listen to one book every week.

It gives me perspective when I read difficult things people have been through biographies. When people have been through very tough situations,

it helps me through those tough seasons of life. And the third one by Viktor Franco that he says is using your problem to help others even when you are still going through that problem.

That has been my philosophy all my life. Even when I was in medical school, things were rough, things were tough. I was still home cell leaders of my church. I was teaching people of how to get through difficulties.

When I was at the height of my own difficult situations and circumstances.

And one thing Viktor Frankl said is one of the things he noticed that in the concentration camp,

those that tended to make it out were people that were even helping others in the middle of their own problems. So that's number one, meaning making, which we all have to do to adapt and advance.

Number two is action. Oh, you've got to take actions to adapt and advance.

Don't let your problems grind you to a stop where you don't take actions. So there are problems notwithstanding. Like I said, keep taking action if you want to. For example, be a doctor.

We've got to keep studying, preparing for it.

We all have different visions, we all have different things we are called to do. Whatever it is you are called to do, back it up with massive action.

Every morning, wake up. No matter the problem going on in your life,

do something specific towards achieving your goals, achieving your vision in life. P is planning. On the planning I talked about. Capture, clarify, organize, prioritize, simplify,

which means you've got to plan yourself. Capture the ideas in your brain, Write it down, sticky notes like I do,

clarify them. Which one is big, which one is small, which one do I want to achieve at the season?

Organize them into your calendars, whatever you use to organize into your notebooks. Prioritize what is most important,

then make it simple, as much as possible and do this process again every day, every week, every month to organize, to plan yourself.

Then. L is learning.

And all I would say here is I read one book every week and they help me a lot.

The one I just finished reading currently recently is the Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday, which is a book that tells me no matter your obstacles, you can overcome it.

The new one I'm reading right now is a book that tells me 10x rule that helps me to put massive action behind the things I'm doing. So I will encourage everybody watching this at least every month.

If you can do every week, have one book inspirational of someone who has achieved something you want to achieve or something similar who have walked the work,

get their books, read it one every month.

And then A is alliance formation you can do live alone. You need to recognize people that will stand with you to fulfill your purpose. And P is prayers, believing in the higher power.

I strongly believe in prayers and the Bible verses. I have seven Bible verses that are core for me. The biggest,

most important one for every day. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And every morning I say to myself, I walk using those Bible verses. So that's what Adapt.

And that's the summary of my book in a nutshell.

Reginald D: Man, that's amazing. I want to talk about something real quick. Okay.

You served in ministry for like over 30 years.

How has serving others help you heal and stay grounded through your own trials?

Dr. Wally: It has helped, helped, helped a lot. And that's a wonderful question. Thanks for asking it. At every season of my life,

even when I was still a teenager, as every season of my life,

I have always used my pain to want to be a blessing to other people. And that has helped me a lot, helped me a lot to heal.

For example, after at the age of, I think 20, 21, 22, when I started going to Living Faith Church, I became our home self fellowship leader where I teach like every Sunday, every other Sunday.

And you know, I remember using a lot of my personal stories, you know, to encourage other people,

how difficult things were and how I was able to use it even to be a blessing to other people.

We check my Facebook page today. You know, I post quotes every day. I quote, post things that can encourage somebody that stumbled on it who is going through difficult situations and difficult times.

We all have these opportunities around us, whatever it is, you know, even for the students that work with me now, I'm an attending psychiatrist right now. So I have residents, I have students on my team.

Every time I work, like last, you know, last one week I worked, I had two residents, three students, as a team of three residents, three students, a team of seven of us.

Every morning I send one of the quotes to them just to encourage them every single day that it's going to be a great day, it's going to be a wonderful day.

Don't be discouraged and all of that because at times we can just get lost in the difficulty of what we are doing and we don't move forward enough. So all of this helps me.

It helps me personally to keep growing. And whatever I do to help other people, it comes back to me too. So when I go to my Facebook page, the first thing I see is all the quotes I've said there.

So they keep me going to.

By giving it out, it comes back to me too. By teaching it, it comes back to me too.

My book Adapt and Advance. When I read some of the reviews people give on Amazon, it moves me into tears.

Some of them people I know, most of them people I don't even know who they are, but they've been touched, they've been blessed by this book and that's why I wrote it.

So I believe in giving out. It Comes back to us many, many, many more fold. So that's been my story at every stage of my life. For example, in my church currently, I have high school students that I mentor.

We call it like Fuse group, where small groups of people in high school. And I've had two sets now, the first sets, I've graduated.

I graduated high school. They are now in college. Some of them are even finishing college up now. And I'm still in touch with them. It gives me joy to see people I've mentored, people have used either God's word or at lunch together,

dinner together at different times,

and we've encouraged each other. It gives me a lot of joy to see them doing great in life and moving forward in life. So it's one of the things that makes me happy the most.

Reginald D: I'll tell you what, man, I think serving is one of the most powerful things you can do.

Dr. Wally: Yes, Sir. Yeah.

Reginald D: So, Dr. Waller, if my listeners take one message from this episode and your book, what do you hope that message is?

Dr. Wally: The biggest message from my book is just the title is Adapt and advance. No matter what is going on,

take a step back and adapt. Meaning accept the difficulty,

the reality of the difficult situations whenever you have one, which we all have enough of, more than enough of.

Accept the reality that this is difficult.

Don't deny it.

But also accept the reality that despite this difficulty, it will not define my life in a negative way. That's adapt.

Adapting is accepting. Accept it,

know it is there,

but don't stop there.

Advance,

meaning every single day of your life, do something specific that moves you forward.

Use that map lamp principle that I just talked about. Make meaning every day of things, little things, big things that happen to you.

Put action behind your vision. Have your vision written clearly. Have my mission statement I read to us. I read it myself every day.

Have a clear mission and you can change it, you know, in the light of what you know. It can be something as simple as be a good father or be a good son or whatever it is that's important to you.

And as you continue to learn and grow, you can refine it. Like mine is a little more refined right now.

So have your mission statement clearly in front of you. Have your vision of where you want to be.

Bible says Jesus, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross.

So when you have your mission statement clearly and you have a vision of what you are moving towards, the cross will not matter to you.

The daily challenges will not stop you because you know you are moving in the Right direction towards the big thing and the things that matter in your life. But one thing I want everybody to take away is you can adapt and advance.

Make meaning action every day, put some action every day I make sure I put some action behind where I'm going pee every day I make sure I'm planning the next thing I want to do.

I'm working on my second book, for example, right now, and many other things I want to. That's not. No. My job, my career, what I want to do, the papers I want to publish, the grants I want to write.

Every day I'm doing something small towards them. Or every week at least I'm moving a little bit in that direction.

L. Every week I'm learning something new, reading one new book every week.

Reginald D: A.

Dr. Wally: Every day I'm working,

building my network of people that will work with me to achieve my purpose. And my mission statement is clearly written and I'm refining it every day. Put it before me, say it every day.

And p. I'm praying every day, trusting that God is moving, moving me in that direction. So if there's only one thing that I want everybody to take is you can adapt and advance every day.

You can do a little bit of these seven things every single day. You can do one, one minute, two. Two minutes of everything every day and keep it moving forward.

Reginald D: I really love it. I mean, I really love it, man, because it's steps to this thing in life people don't understand, you know, it's steps to getting to where you want to go.

And you gave them permission to shift and change, you know, because as you go,

the more you learn and then you can say, hey, I need to go this way instead of this way. No, it depends on the hand of life deals you, you know.

Dr. Wally: Yes, yes.

Reginald D: So lastly, Dr. Wally, how can people stay connected with you, follow your journey and get involved in your work? And of course, where can they get your book Adapt and Advance?

Dr. Wally: Okay, let me start with the last one.

So my book Adapt and Advance, it's available on Amazon. I'll show you what it looks like.

You see Adapt and Advance and you see a young man jumping over a cliff.

If you type Adapt and Advance, it should pull it up for you with the color green.

And I would like really everyone listening to get a copy. Currently we started pushing towards the one year anniversary which is May 13, 2026.

And so we set the price at just $1 for the ebook.

So I want everybody listening at least you can get the ebook for just $1. $1 to get an ebook that you can read on the phone if you want the ad copy.

I think it's $11 for the paperback and $21 for the ad copy pack. And it's also available on Audible for those who prefer to listen. Driving to work. Like I listen to these books, I don't have the time to sit down and read them, but I listen to the book.

Driving to work for me too. I'm free seven hours a week, which is one hour every day for my commute to work.

So you can get it. So I encourage everybody to get a book, listen to it or read it on your phone, whatever version you are able to get to connect with me.

If you get the book in it, I have an email that you can use to reach out to me.

And the other email I have, which is very simple is my first name, last name oluwole.babatunde@outlook.com will always get to me. I have Facebook page, same name Oluwole Babatunde on Facebook and my YouTube page.

I release a video every two weeks for now and 15 minutes video every two weeks and it's Oluwole Babatunde 1870. That is 1870 Oluwale Babatunde 1870 on YouTube.

And if you subscribe to my channel, you get 15 minute video every two weeks that I release. So I think those are the easiest way. I'm also on other platforms but I think those are the main one.

Facebook,

YouTube, Amazon to get my book.

Reginald D: There you have it. Dr. Adewale, Papa Dunde. Thank you so much man. Being on the show, it's been a blast today.

Dr. Wally: Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here with you. Reginald. I appreciate what you do.

People like you keep it going to give us the opportunity to talk about our stories and I am deeply grateful to you.

Reginald D: Bless you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

Dr. Wally: You're welcome, sir.

Reginald D: Thanks for tuning in with Real Talk, Reginald D. If you enjoyed listening to Real Talk Reginald D. Please rate and review on Apple Podcasts. See you next time.