When Mindset Becomes Survival

Have you ever considered that the battle raging inside your mind might actually be a matter of life and death? Not just for you, but for everyone your life touches?

This deeply personal episode explores the profound truth that success isn't created through external achievements but through winning the daily battle within ourselves. I share the heartbreaking news of losing a 39-year-old former client to cirrhosis of the liver, leaving behind two young children who will now grow up fatherless – a pain I understand all too intimately from my own childhood with an alcoholic father.

The contrast becomes even more striking when compared with another client who faced identical health challenges – cirrhosis, pre-diabetes, and a doctor's two-year death sentence if he continued his behaviors. Yet this man completely transformed his life, lost 90 pounds, reversed his medical conditions, and now runs marathons while inspiring his community. Same diagnosis, dramatically different outcomes – all because of internal choices.

Through raw emotion and hard-won wisdom, I explore how we often get caught up in meaningless distractions while missing what truly matters. The greatest freedom, I've discovered, comes when we remove ourselves from ourselves – when we transcend our petty needs and desires to focus on serving others. This is what spiritual traditions have taught for millennia: liberation comes through selflessness.

If someone in your life is struggling with addiction or other demons, don't give up on them. Sometimes people need others to fight for them a little longer until they reach that moment when they're finally ready to change. Your persistence might create the opportunity for their redemption, just as others did for me during my darkest times. Reach out today with a call, a visit, or just your presence – it might be the lifeline they need to keep fighting one more day.

Chapters

• 0:00 The Inner Battle of Life or Death
• 1:42 Losing a Client to Addiction
• 4:42 Two Paths: Redemption vs. Surrender
• 6:43 Finding Purpose Beyond Self
• 9:09 Never Stop Fighting for Others

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This battle that you face each and every day, you versus you, is a matter of life and death. What I found out a long time ago is that's where success is either created or it's defeated it's inside your own mind. One of the most freeing moments is when you remove yourself from yourself and you realize, dude, I can be so much more than I am by being selfless and just dedicating my life to being an example for others. Just keep fighting for a man, because sometimes we just need people to fight for us a little bit longer until we get that opportunity to change. Welcome back to another episode of the Unstoppable Mindset Podcast. I'm your host, sean Crane, and you guys. Very simply put, I want to let you know that this is life or death. This battle that you face each and every day, you versus you, is a matter of life and death, and what I mean by that is on one given day, you can experience so much gratitude, so much love, so much abundance that it feels like the best day of your life. And in the same week, you can experience such lows that it feels like the best day of your life. And in the same week, you can experience such lows that it feels like one of the worst days of your life. Human beings are constantly battling within themselves. We all have this good inside of us and we all have this bad. You know the yin and yang of the universe. It's good and evil, it's God and the devil. It's very apparent, right, and you can probably experience this or testify for yourself that you have days where you have positive thoughts and you feel amazing, and then days where you feel the opposite, and what I found out a long time ago is that's where success is either created or it's defeated. It's inside your own mind, it's inside your own being, it's your energy, it's your spirit, it's the way that you think, it's the way that you live. But for me, the ultimate form of success is how I feel each and every day, because if I feel excited, happy, inspired, purpose-driven, if I feel all those amazing qualities, I'm bringing such an infectious and positive energy into the world, to my family, to my wife, to my children, to you guys, to my messages, to my clients, to everybody.

Speaker 1: 2:01

But when we're afflicted and we're suffering and we're struggling, we do the opposite. We bring apathy, we bring pessimism, we bring just negative energy, complaining, just like stuff that people don't want to feel and the worst is that at times when we're suffering internally, we can't help but affect other people negatively. Right, it bleeds into the way that we show up in our lives and you know, I'm reminded by that today, like the good and the bad in this life. I got a really sad text message this morning from one of my past client's wives and she said that you know he passed away. I'm not going to say his name here on on this, but one of my past clients died of cirrhosis of the liver man and he was 39 years old and he had two children.

Speaker 1: 2:51

And and when I think of his children I get so emotional because a lot of what I do and what I'm driven by is to make the wrongs of my own past right, to be the best dad, to heal my own pain and my traumas by being a good man, by being the man I needed as a kid. I know that pain of having an alcoholic father and just that struggle growing up I know it all too well and when I see it play out in other people's lives I can't help but get emotional. And, yeah, I'm sad that this man left this planet early. I'm sad for his wife. They were divorced but they were still close. But my heart is really broken for his children because they're like 12 and nine and this boy, like, needs his dad more than ever and now he doesn't have his dad and I couldn't help but feel like I failed this man because we worked together about three years ago and he struggled to maintain sobriety. He struggled to establish the habits I was trying him to develop. He struggled to shift his mindset and his thinking. Ultimately, I couldn't save him. I couldn't save him and his wife texted me the same thing. She's like Sean, we did our best but he couldn't be saved.

Speaker 1: 3:56

You know, and it's a very difficult thing as a coach, as somebody who cares about other people, as somebody who works with a lot of other people to see that happen, I've never lost a client like that. I'm like fuck dude, like that's what's at stake here, like it is life or death. Some people die quickly, some people die over decades. But if we can't fix this in here and here, some people die over decades. But if we can't fix this in here and here, it could be such a painful slow death for a lot of people. And, like I said, those children, like people in our lives. They're the ones that are affected too, and it could be fixed. We could overcome these things. We could conquer our demons. We can transform ourselves. We can reprogram the way we think and operate. I've done it. I've seen it happen.

Speaker 1: 4:36

Because then I started thinking about another client about a year and a half ago who he had cirrhosis of the liver. He was pre-diabetic. His doctor told him he had two years to live if he continued to drink and do the things he was doing. And that man got sober, got fit. He's running marathons and doing Spartan races. He's becoming an inspiring individual in his community. He lost 90 pounds. He's completely changed his life. He saved his life, in fact. He went back to the doctor and they said I don't know what you're doing, but keep doing it. You're no longer pre-diabetic, you reversed the fatty liver, your cirrhosis of the liver. You're getting healthier as you age. This is incredible. All by just making that deep internal commitment to become the man he wanted to be and fighting each and every day To lose the weight, to eat better, to get out and run to just every day fight his demons, to conquer those demons through action. And this other gentleman who perished. He couldn't do that.

Speaker 1: 5:31

And it's so heartbreaking, like if you're a parent or if you have family members who have struggled with addiction or just mental health or anything in life, like we see this play out all the time. There's certain people in life that we feel like we can't help, like we feel like we're just talking to them and it's like talking to a wall. Sometimes you might feel like that when you're talking to your children or a significant other or a friend or a family member. What I would tell you is continue to put forth your best effort and plant those seeds and be there for them, because sometimes it just takes one moment time for all the stuff that you've been hearing to click and resonate and you're ready to change and now you know what to do, right. But there's some times where that doesn't take place and people they never change. My dad was one of them. My dad never changed. He died at 49. My mom died at 49 as well. They never changed. My dad was one of them. My dad never changed. He died at 49. My mom died at 49 as well. They never changed. They never changed. They perished to and they succumbed to their own demons.

Speaker 1: 6:25

And so did this, this man that recently passed away, and I, for me, I've seen so many people die due to addiction. So many people die from overdose, accidental overdose. Maybe it's suicide, maybe it's some other cause that was preventable, and it's freaking, heartbreaking, and what it does is it just drives me to want to reach more people and help more people. But it also puts things in perspective, because we get so caught up in the stuff going on in our day-to-day lives. We get caught up in bills, finances, work-related stuff, fucking politics, all these things and then when someone dies, you're like damn, time stands still and none of that shit even matters in the moment. You're like God, I wish we could just bring this person back. I wish we could have saved this person. I wish we could have helped them. That's what I feel, and I feel responsible and that'll never go away. And it's a good thing because I care, and if I didn't feel responsible or if I didn't care, I wouldn't show up the way I do.

Speaker 1: 7:28

And, dude, this is what motivates me to get my ass up early every day and do the work. Like some people complain about it. You're tired, you need sleep, like dude, I think. So far beyond that I don't give a fuck about sleep. Like I need to think about myself way less and be more of service to people, sacrifice more, be more of an example, go way bigger in life to show people what's possible. Like, try so much fucking harder. Like you guys think you need snacks and food or you need your drink, or you need your TV or your phone or your sleep Like dude.

Speaker 1: 7:57

One of the most freeing moments is when you remove yourself from yourself and you realize, like dude, I can be so much more than I am by being selfless and just dedicating my life to being an example for others. You don't crave any substance when you're in that thought process. You don't have these desires for pleasure, you don't need sleep. In fact, you sleep less, you eat less. You just have these higher faculty thoughts, ideas, internal things taking place in your life that it changes the way you live and operate.

Speaker 1: 8:29

So you see it, that's what monks are after. They're after this peace that is so pervasive that they need nothing and they can be everything to anyone who needs them. And that's what I'm after, man, and this is a reminder that I have a lot more growth to acquire. I need to get out of myself and my needs and my wants much more and be 100% of service to the world. Because maybe, if I was that way, I could have reached this man and connected with him on an energetic level, a spiritual level, to help him to change his life, and he'd still be here for his children.

Speaker 1: 9:00

And this is just my thought process. I can't help but feel and think this way. And it's not even about me, man. It's just like this pain that people experience because a loss that's preventable. We can change that and that's the mission that I'm on is to eradicate the pain in young people's lives and relationships and the struggles we endure so we can experience life in the highest level possible.

Speaker 1: 9:25

And so you guys, if there's someone struggling in your life that you know, with addiction, with other stuff, give them a call today, go out and meet them in person, give them a hug, tell them you love them, be there for them. And if there's people that you're thinking about quitting and giving up on, just keep fighting for them, man, because sometimes we just need people to fight for us a little bit longer until we get that opportunity to change. And I'm immensely grateful for all my family members who continued to fight for me when I was going through my struggle, because they made it possible for me to change when the time was right. Games when the time was right. So that's my message for you guys today. I love you. Don't take this life for granted. Cherish it and cherish the people that you have.