Austin Anderson: Choose To Grow With the Live Hard Program

Austin Anderson was benched most of his Highschool basketball career. Today, he is a returned missionary, 3rd year medical student, and is finishing up 75 hard despite  just having a hernia surgery. This will be his 2nd time completing the program. He has gone on to do the Live Hard Program before and it wouldn't surprise me if he does it again. We discuss responsibility for your life. You are where you are because of the choices you make. And if you want somewhere different, then act different. 

Austin submitted his 500 word story, you should too.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc76uEhK_v7NmdtzBh9rDjJxk8tdYlLJ6e6qa15ba1nR0sVKA/viewform?usp=sf_link

Talmage:
Tiktok @talmagethayne
IG @talmagethayne

Austin:
IG @greatauz

Transcript

Talmage: 0:00

Hello, everybody, welcome back to release the podcast. I'm super excited for this episode because I got to talk to Austin Anderson. We discussed his journey after the mission with 75 heart. Now that is an incredibly hard program to do. If you guys know anything about it, you'll totally agree. But honestly the results that came from it in his life are amazing and his story is great. It's all about self discipline and knowing that you are where you are today because of your actions. And you can get out of that same situation because of the actions you make moving forward. Austin Anderson is born and raised in Boise, Idaho. He grew up in an active competitive family, playing many sports, hiking, camping and more. After high school he completed a semester of school at Boise State University, while coaching basketball for a season at his former high school. He then left to serve for two years in the Spain Madrid Mission Center, returning moved to Salt Lake and finished his undergraduate studies in the University of Utah in 2020. With a degree in kinesiology minoring in Spanish, and chemistry, we all have our pandemic stories. Austin's included moving to Denver, Colorado to start medical school at Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine. He is currently a third year medical student on his core clinical rotations. After graduating medical school, he hopes to enter a field to focus through neuro musculoskeletal systems and rehabilitative medicine. He's remained a faithful active member of the church since his release from full time missionary service in 2015. His passion for hard work and self development lead him to achieve continuous growth in his faith and life goals. Worse worse? We're not going away. 1000 miles away dude, Austin, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Absolutely. Happy to be here at such short notice to I called you last night around like, nine o'clock, eight or nine. So we're just being like, Hey, do you want to be on my podcast?

Austin: 2:27

It was perfect. I would already didn't really have plans today.

Talmage: 2:29

Yeah, perfect. Yeah. Tell everybody why you didn't have plans today.

Austin: 2:35

I I had an inguinal hernia repair surgery about three days ago, two days ago. Dang, where was it is it is on the right side lower right here. So I have three little incisions that are healing right here. And then I have a piece of mesh in my abdominal wall just in this lower right quadrant.

Talmage: 2:52

Dang, that sounds awful. It's a good time. Yeah.

Austin: 2:56

I don't recommend it. But it is bearable.

Talmage: 2:59

And you. You're you had the surgery at the tail end of 75. Hard.

Austin: 3:06

That is correct. Today is Day 70.

Talmage: 3:10

Dang, that's not well, five days to go.

Austin: 3:14

Five days and we're gonna finish it. I came too far. Why would I stop now?

Talmage: 3:18

Yeah, seriously? No, no hernias gonna stop this. That's freaking awesome. Well, let's jump into it. Can you tell me me a little bit about where you're from? How you grew up and kind of your formative years?

Austin: 3:32

Yeah, absolutely. So I'm from Boise, Idaho, born and raised. Go Boise and go yeah, go be Su. And I grew up in a family there. I have an older sister younger brother. And so there were five of us in the family. Great time, we grew up doing lots of activities, camping, hiking, all of us involved in sports, and very competitive. Yeah. And it's been you know, as I've been able to reflect more in my, in these last few years. It was so formative and a way to learn about, you know, just working hard getting having instilled from a young age that we work hard in this family in kind of a maybe a non traditional sense. My mother was always the primary breadwinner in our house. And she, you know, work so hard every day in a tech company, you know, just battling corporate America, and then come home and like make us dinner and ask us about our day. And she was such a great mother, and still is right. Yeah. And then my dad, he was working early on at a tech company got laid off. And we didn't see as kids him take unemployment or just sit at home. Right. Very quickly. He was back in the workforce. He was moving produce in the freezers of Costco pretty soon and then he started his own business doing a landscaping and like a sports type landscaping company that all of us were called to work in during the summers and so on money.

Talmage: 4:55

Did you see any hit to his ego when he went from a tech company to work at Costco not Oh, wow, that is sick.

Austin: 5:03

And I've never once seen him be resentful of his wife. If anything, it's been just support, support, support, and helping us kids understand like, we're all going to work hard in this family. And you're you don't get any shortcuts here. Yeah. And craps gonna happen, even if I work hard. Yeah. And when it does happen, you just keep going. Yeah. And, you know, after that he got out of that business. And it was working pretty soon the front desk of a hotel, doing a night shift. And then he started managing hotels, and then he, that career ended unceremoniously when some new owners just decided to fire him on day. And now he's been the last several years in the RV marine business, just like working with because we have a camper in our family. And he knows a lot about the product. And he's so great with people has worked with a couple different companies helping them just to reorganize, really consolidate and become more efficient in their process. So it's, like we were just always taught and had this example of we work hard, we have fun, but like you earn what you got.

Talmage: 6:02

Yeah, dude, that is sick. How is the landscaping business? Did he just kind of quit that after a while to do the hotel.

Austin: 6:12

So him and his brother were Yes, but him and his brother started this business called Metalist, putting greens and then it turned into snap sports where they were putting in putting greens in people's like backyards. And that's like plastic material that like outdoor basketball tennis courts are made of they did that for a while too. And then he just sold his shares to the business and decided to do something else for a while. Nice.

Talmage: 6:31

Dang. So he's kind of a serial entrepreneur.

Austin: 6:35

Just I mean, he's just he's a hustler. Yeah, doing a lot of things. That's sick, right. And it was just such, it sounds like successful in all of those different industries. Yeah. Very talented, diverse ly talented guy. And you don't really have a good opportunity or a good reason to have excuses. Around dad. Right? Yeah. There. I remember a particular moment that was so you know, he doesn't even remember this happened. But I do because of how much it impacted me. When I was playing high school basketball. I was on our varsity basketball team. I'm a senior in high school. And I don't play like at all. I sit every game day. And there are several. I mean, I probably played 13 minutes the entire season. Dang. And I was so frustrated. Like, why am I not? Why is this not happening? And in my mind, you know, I'm thinking, Okay, I'm a rule follower. I always have been. And so I would do anything coach asked me to one time my coach told me I bet you would run through a brick wall if I told you to. Yeah, I would. Yeah, exactly. Tell me which one. And during our drills and stuff, you know, when you're doing conditioning drills, and usually it's all based on the lines that are on the court, I always because my dad taught me to do this, I'd always go to the line bend down, touch my hand to the line. Because it was that extra mile, right? Yeah. And so I'm sitting there in high school. I'm thinking, I'm working so hard. I outwork everybody else in practice, I do what the coach is telling me to I'm, you know, I'm active in the church, and why am I not getting this blessing? Yeah, and I get good grades. Some of my teammates are having trouble with the law, let alone their grades, ya know, playing more minutes than me like, why is this not happening? So he, he cornered me one afternoon and was like, hey, so something's going on, dude. Like, tell me what's up. And I told him all this stuff. And he said, Well, you know, credit to him. He sat there. He listened to me. Yeah. And he said, Well, I understand what you're saying. The reason that you're not playing more is because your teammates are better than you at basketball. What a blow right? Yeah. And is that flops to? Yeah, exactly. Just very direct. But he's, uh, now if you want to get better, we can get you into camps drills, we can, like set things up for you to get you trained better. But this is how the situation is right now. Your teammates are better than you at basketball. And that's why they play more. Yeah. And you know, that caused me to reflect more on man I, I'm thinking back to now my summertimes in high school, right? How much time did I spend out with friends or sleeping or watching TV and not shooting in the gym? Not lifting, not dribbling, not you know, all this stuff. I realized, oh my gosh, like he's right. Yeah. Because of my own choices. I'm in the place where I am. And if I make new choices I can get out of the situation that I'm in. I mean, like I said, total watershed moments, so freeing and empowering to realize, oh, all of this is on me. And that's great. Because if it is, then I can do things to change it. Yeah. That's so cool. That's such a great flowering

Talmage: 9:33

to you to have your dad take such a blow, like, gave you such a blow and you had to take it. And you don't. And you don't resent your dad for it. Oh, no. Love. Yeah, you love him all the more because of it. And yeah, yeah, high standards get a bad rap a lot of times. And but but that's the thing that makes us grow and improve and so You took what he said. And you're like, I'm gonna do something about it rather than be, like all sad that my dad said something mean to me. Yeah. And so that's sick. So this was your senior year, though. Yep. So you only had that season to make a change.

Austin: 10:18

Right? And very limited time. So I have very limited time I ended up not really playing much the rest of the season. But the Yeah, the lesson carried on. Yeah, and everything that's happened since. And it's been, I mean, he grew up, he coached all of us in our sports until he couldn't anymore because we were like, in leagues, or we were in high school or other things. He was always our coach. And so we, we had always, we were in a unique position to receive that kind of instruction from him. And it was, it was normal.

Talmage: 10:49

Dude, that's sick. So what made you want to serve a mission?

Austin: 10:55

I, you know, I thought about this a lot when, especially when you sent me the other question to think, specifically this one. And I think I just always knew I, I feel like I have been so fortunate and blessed to have a, like one of the spiritual gifts of faith where I just I had faith in the Gospel, I had faith in Jesus Christ and in God. And it was just always in the cards. It was like, Okay, I finished high school, maybe I do some college. But then I go on a mission, and then the rest of my life happens. It was just always kind of in that sequence. And when it got closer and closer to the time, I just, it just seemed like okay, yeah, this is just part of the plan. This is how it goes. Yeah. And then I got my call to serve in the Spain Madrid mission. And I, I felt, I felt that confirmation in the moment of this is exactly where you're supposed to go. And you left 13,000 13,015

Talmage: 11:51

Did you know Terry Bailey? Elder

Austin: 11:56

did? Yeah. I believe I was in I was one of the office elders that picked him up when he got to them. No way.

Talmage: 12:02

Man, he's a stud. He's one of my best friends. Yeah, I was just in Spain with him. Oh, okay. I went to Madrid actually, I'm wearing my Madrid hat. And so I didn't even realize I was doing that. Perfect. But yeah, dude, that's so funny. What a small world we know, like three of the same people. Just in this short amount of time we've talked and so probably more, but let's just say

Austin: 12:25

we're all connected. brothers in Christ, right? Yes. Your sisters in Christ. Yeah.

Talmage: 12:31

Can you tell me a little bit about your mission in Spain, and maybe a moment or a lesson that you learned that changed you?

Austin: 12:39

Yeah. I loved my mission. I was so blessed to go the country of Spain to learn Spanish and to learn the particular form of Spanish that they speak. Yeah. And I love the accent. I love the people. And I was able to I only served in three areas during my time in Spain. Wow. I was eight months in one area in the Canary Islands, just off the coast of Morocco. Yeah. And I just went to Tenerife. Okay, perfect. So you got it. I was on lands rotate. And my companion and I were the only missionaries on the island was a little branch there. And then I was transferred up to Madrid, like the main city and I was in the same area for a year there. Wow, a lot of companions. I went through. And then I finished up my mission in the kind of South City area at SAIC, and it was, it was wonderful. I think, when I look back at my mission, there are two things that I will just be forever grateful for that I learned. The first one is it became just so ingrained in me. And it I really associated and resonated with a statement of overhaul and made of talking about the gospel talking about the Gospel, Jesus Christ. When he said, This means everything to me. And I felt that down to my core, it just became ingrained in me that this, this is forever, I need this forever. And I have to have this in my life. A foundational pillar, if you will, something that I can when everything else is failing, there is something that is just always going to be there. And that was it. And then the other thing that I learned and I credit a great mission president for this is learning about how to answer find answers to questions. So a lot of mission presidents have their own rules, right, you go to a mission and present will say in this mission. We don't do XYZ, right things that they've added on that they you know, I'm not knocking them, but they felt that they needed some extra supervision in certain areas. Yeah, totally. My mission president wasn't like that. He told us if there's a question that we have about the rules about the mission about anything that we're doing, if there's a question we have, we are first going to go to the missionary handbook. If we can't find the answer there, we're gonna go to preach my Gospel. If we can't find it there then we'll go to the church handbooks and you know, whatever the church has published, then we'll go to the school ushers will go to the words of ancient modern prophets. And if we still, after all, that we don't have an answer to our question. We will pray and follow the spirit and do the best that we can. Hmm. Very easy. So helped me with everything that I've had in the church since then, whenever I had a struggle or a question I needed answered. I knew where to go. I knew the process, right? Yeah, I go to the manuals, I go to the Scriptures. And I heard the other day on a podcast listen to about it's a comm follow me type podcast, to keep me helped me up to date keep up to date on the quality material. But this woman said, Dr. I can't remember her name. And she said, the best kept secret of the gospel, or the best kept secret in the church is the gospel. And I know where to find it. It's in the scriptures. Yeah. And so it's been, it was so helpful for me to learn that at that young age, and I'm sure as I get into other callings in the church, it'll be wherever I need to go, it'll be a safeguard for me, because he always told his elders, there is safety in the manual. And for whatever calling I've had, since I've gotten home, I always go straight to the manual to read about what the calling is, what the expectations are. So I know what I'm doing. I want to have questions about the church or the organization, I can go to the manuals, I can go to the Scriptures, and it's, it's helped so much, yeah,

Talmage: 16:17

saves you a lot of frustration to doing things wrong. That's my problem is I just, I just try things, even though like, the answers right there, I'm like, I'll figure it out. It takes me so much longer. And then I ended up going back to the manual, after I've tried every other way. And then I'm like, Oh, wait, I could have learned that so much faster to get there. Eventually. I got there eventually. But ya know, that's a really good lesson to learn how to ask those questions. Find those answers. When you were, first go into the handbook than Preach My Gospel than the scriptures. Were you ever? Because we're told to like pray in all things? Yeah. But you said that you prayed at the end? Would you? Would you also pray throughout that?

Austin: 17:06

Yeah, no, absolutely. I, I kind of started to look at it as more of a, a, that constant engagement and prayer more of a confirmation of okay, I'm pretty sure I know what to do here. Because I've found the answer here. Yeah. Then, you know, is this right, you know, if it's not right, helped me direct me in other way. Yeah. And it was it was I started to think about it, as you know, because when you talk to the people who have left the church, most of the time when I've had these conversations, I asked them about so Have you have you read the Book of Mormon, if you read the Bible, and mostly you'll get like a, I. I've read parts of A, where I've read, like, they haven't read the Scripture,

Talmage: 17:46

they're like, Yeah, I've read it. I'm like, when? Yeah, when's the last time? It's, like, years ago? Exactly. And

Austin: 17:55

they have some real, you know, deep issues they're working through with God. And I think about it, like if you have a friend who texted you that they're coming over, and your first response is to just get so frustrated and mad at them that they didn't show up to your doorstep. And to tell you the message that they just sent you over text, like, what do you do? And we have you we literally have the answers here to read and to go off of. And so I you know, it was I'm grateful, so grateful for ambition president that helped me to understand that like, it's right here. Yeah, it's written down and what is written down, you have the gift of the Holy Ghost, a member of the Godhead, to help you sift out through the weeds where it's not so clear. And it's I've had, even with friends who are in and out of the church people, you know, we talk they have questions, they have things they're angry about or wrestling with. And I can look to the scriptures for precedent. Yeah, right? Totally. If I'm upset with something that the church has published, or that the First Presidency released, then I can go and read about how Miriam and Erin got mad at Moses for marrying because they didn't like their sister in law. Yeah, they just hated Sephora, because she wasn't a Jew. And I'm like, man, maybe my little wobble is kind of like this. Yeah. And maybe I need to take a step back and humble myself and learn more from God and His prophets.

Talmage: 19:10

Dude, that is so cool. I love what you said. In that podcast, the best kept secret is the gospel. And it's found in the scriptures. I often feel that way as I like if I hadn't studied the scriptures for a while. And then I finally started again, like, wow, like, Oh, so many blessings. Why didn't anybody tell me I'm like, they have told me time and time again, to read it. But I just it's so simple. But sometimes we just don't do the most simple things. Right. It's interesting. Yeah, those sounds like sound like very incredible lessons to learn on the mission. Especially if you could take those lessons home with you and keep them. Keep them going. Keep them blessing you in your life. So can you tell me a little bit about that? Coming Home, and what that was like, and if there were any differences in between reality and your expectations for what home was going to be like?

Austin: 20:11

Yes. I think I had imagined this glorious return. Yeah, of how I'm home. He's welcome. But here, yeah, the hero's welcome. And now, all of life falls into place. Now, somehow, magically, I find the person I'm supposed to marry. And I'm all of a sudden in my career, and we're just getting after it and having the perfect life. I think that's the ideal that you imagine. Yeah. Hasn't happened. Yeah. I, I feel like kind of the line that talks about, you know, going from grace to grace, and just like barely being able to see the steps in front of you feel like that's the path that I've been on since then, rather than just like, here's everything laid out ready to receive you. It's like, okay, so you got to figure it out now. Yeah. And I'm, you know, I've got home from my mission. And I went to the earth of Utah, and, and did my undergraduate degree there, and was trying to get into the career that I wanted, but also trying to find the person I wanted to be with, and had several relationships that didn't really pan out. And then I moved to Denver for a few years to start medical school, and thought, Okay, well, this is it. Like, here we go. This is the next step. And I'm, you know, going after my career and like my education more, and, excuse me, and still thinking about this thing is back of my mind, like, looking for the person I want to be with, right? Yeah, that didn't happen. And now I'm here in Salt Lake again, I'm doing my 30 year clinical rotations and 29. And not married. Yeah. And I think that was something that I thought would happen a long time ago.

Talmage: 21:50

What the heck, yeah. I killed as a missionary. I did my very best. I was good. I tried to. And even since being home, I've been faithful. I've been I've been serving in the church, like during medical school, which is pretty cool thing. Oh, thank you. Oh, it's like, that's freaking dope. Yeah, it would definitely make you question. Why isn't this happening?

Austin: 22:15

And it's, it's been, you know, for that one thing, right? You know, I don't want to get fixated on one thing and ignore all the other blessings and horror that I've had in my life totally. Because it's been, I've had so much that I've gone through and that I've learned and, and I am so grateful as well, I forgot to leave, or I left this part out that since I've gotten home, I've been a Sunday school teacher, I probably moved seven or eight times. So I've been in seven or eight singles words. I've been called as a Sunday school teacher for the last six years. Wow. As always, I just get this calling. And it works out well, because I love it. And it's my favorite calling in the church. I think everybody can I don't think everybody but I really liked this calling. And I wish more people would do. And it's, I really feel that God has blessed me with this calling because it has kept me grounded in the scriptures. Initially, because I didn't want to be embarrassed, right? I don't want to go in front of class and be embarrassed not and not know what I'm talking about. I like to assume that I'm smart, right? And that I know what I'm talking about. Totally. And it's it's just been coupled with this growing love for the scriptures and being bound to them. And trying to be right, the best that I can. And of course I fail and I mess up in a periods where I'm like, oh, man, I got it. I'm not reading consistently. I should and I have to get back on to it. But I have such a love for the scriptures. I'm so grateful for that. That's happened since I've gone home. Dude,

Talmage: 23:37

dang, that's sick. That is sick. So. So yeah, what I've there been any experiences in particular that you could tell me about? Maybe maybe some lessons you learned from those past relationships that didn't pan out.

Austin: 23:55

I feel like the first major relationship that I had. When I started considering marriage for the first time, right? I guess, the most modern and potentially terse language I could use, I'd say I learned not to be a simple. I learned that I there is intrinsic value in who you are as a person. You don't deserve to be mistreated. And you shouldn't keep returning back to a relationship where maybe you are mistreated or not valued as much. And I'm not saying you know, this person was not horrible. Yes. But there, there were just some mistakes that were made. I don't fault them for it. And I've you know, I've moved on, I've healed from that. But I I learned a lot about how you can set boundaries for yourself. And you can. This is something I've been studying more recently, and it was a lesson I taught last week in Sunday school that you're actually supposed to use your judgment. You're not going to just marry anybody. Yeah, you won't just date. Anybody. When you have kids, you're not going to just let anybody watch your kids right you have have to make judgments about people. And these are more intermediate judgments, right? We're not supposed to make condemning judgments that's reserved for God. But we've been taught from ancient modern prophets, like we're supposed to use our better judgment and to realize like, Okay, this is right for me, or this is not. And they're the scriptures are just rife with examples of how we're supposed to use this type of judgment. And so that's something that I really learned. And I also set off on this path and well, I know we're, we'll get to this eventually. But I said on this path of self development, and making myself better. And when I started this about really, because I've always knew what prompted you

Talmage: 25:37

to do that. Were you just feeling bad about yourself? Were you I guess, in a way you weren't? Because you were a simp? You weren't you weren't valuing valuing yourself the way you should, right kind of thing. So yeah, what, what made you want to develop yourself? Well, I,

Austin: 25:55

I've always, I feel like I've wanted to be good at things. I've wanted to be better at things that I'm good at. Yeah. And to develop weaknesses, right. And this, you know, this really should have I just mentioned was, like, seven years ago. And so you progress along. And then I get to medical school. And I was doing actually fairly well, in my classes. In my first year of medical school, it was during the pandemic, so we're totally shut down. I thought I'd be out, you know, in clinics and shadowing doctors and stuff. No, we were we couldn't go to school, almost. We couldn't associate with our peers. I took anatomy over zoom. Yeah. I mean, how do you anyway, but we did that. And I got to a state. So going back to answer your question, I got to a state where I realized, like, I'm not living, like at my potential right now. I was, you know, that I had this desire of this vision of who I wanted to be. And I was like, You know what, every day I'm gonna get up. I'm gonna wake up with my alarm clock, get up early, go to the gym, start my day, right? Come back, eat healthy, work hard and play hard. Like all this stuff. And no, it was a bleak picture. My first year of medical school, I slap that snooze button like it delivered morphine. More Yeah, more more pleased. I had a gym membership rarely used. I knew how to work hard. But I started to reward myself a little too much. Yeah. And I did that with food. And so if I had a hard day, or I thought, Oh, I did really well, like on this project. I had no cookies, brownies, Dr. Pepper. Yeah, any type of dessert. Dessert ish debauchery, right? I was all about it. Yeah. And every exam I took, which, at the end of your first year, medicals, you've taken quite a bit of exams. But even though I did good or bad on exam, I'd crawl into like a deep bag of Chick fil A in search of happiness. Like it was just, it wasn't good. And I look in the mirror, and I like I don't like what I see there. Yeah, and I know, this isn't right. And if we're going to talk about where this like, kick to get like to make myself better started, I'm with some friends of mine. In school, we're at a, at one person's house or at a barbecue. We're all standing in a circle. And everyone's talking about their resistance training programs are doing these are highly motivated people type A personalities, my med school classmates, and they're just talking about the workouts that they do and how hard they go with these workouts. And I'm standing there starting to sweat. You know, I, I have worked out. But I haven't done a lot recently. And what I am doing, it's not super adequate. Yeah. And so then the, you know, the topic turns to me like, oh, Austin, what do you do at the gym? And so, you know, I, I tell them, some things they haven't been working on. And one of my friends who's in that circle, he looks over at me, kind of skeptically. And he lifts up the sleeve on my arm, and he wraps his entire hand around my bicep. And he says, you work out? Oh, oh, my goodness. Everybody, everyone in that room, what a tool. And we'll

Talmage: 28:58

vowed mortified me to have a friend do that in front of a whole group of people.

Austin: 29:03

In the moment, I was shocked. But luckily for me, and I don't know why this must also be the grace of God, humiliation and spite are such powerful motivators for me in my life. So I was humiliated. Yeah. And then I was determined to spite him and everyone in that room and to make myself better. Yeah. And so this guy is phenomenal. Right? His he doesn't put up with any BS. But he is stacked dude. He is just shredded. And I asked him if I could start training with him at the gym. He said, That's fine. I started 5am every day. So okay, yeah, I'll be there. And let me paint you a picture of who this guy is. So his name's Nate. And he is one of my med school classmates. He like I said he studied bodybuilding. I mean, just built. Yeah, he is jacked and he's a honorably discharged Navy veteran served three deployments during wartime. He is Working. He's in medical school working himself out of a cycle of generational poverty. He is just the hardest person I have ever met. Yeah. And he is so faithful and loyal to his friends. And he is such an example of hard work. And one of his favorite things to say, if you have any type of complaint or anything you're going through, is nobody cares, work harder. Just the greatest guy, and I'm so blessed that he came into my life. And oh, yeah, this is another key factor. He broke his neck a few years ago, was completely paralyzed from the waist down, and has worked his way back up to where he is now where he is putting up weight at the gym. He has some residual effects from his accident from his surgery, but he even today, he's hosting a 5k fundraiser for Spinal Cord Injury Awareness and research. And those three years ago, three years ago,

Talmage: 30:44

and he's running now,

Austin: 30:47

he has a hard time running. He can, yeah, it's hard for him, but he can. And he is hosting this 5k Walk like virtual thing for the cause. Because he's so passionate about it, he feels so lucky to have recovered the way that he has. And he's he's just such a great person. And a phenomenal example of hard work and that you can achieve anything, anything. So try having an excuse around this guy, right? So I started going to the gym and workout with him. And he sees that I'm willing to put in the work that I'm not complaining that I like doing what he asked me to do, because he's he's training he's tell me what to do. And when all this stuff. And then one day he asked me even heard of this thing called 75. Hard. And there we go. Then we start on 75 hard, and that was 2020. That was 2021 2021. Dude,

Talmage: 31:33

yeah. Tell me actually explain to everybody what 75 heart is?

Austin: 31:38

Yeah, absolutely. So 75 heart is a program for mental toughness. It was created by Entrepreneur Andy for Sela, who has either founded or is the CEO and is of numerous companies that do sports, supplementation, fitness, you know, they, they do all of it in that arena. And he has for 17 years 17 to 20 years, like work so hard to get where he has this multimillion dollar industry that he's a part of, and that he runs. And he realized there wasn't really a program for people to create mental toughness, and two, that that would lead to success in their lives. And so we created one on his own. Yeah, so 75 hard, there are two components to this program, there are 75 hard, and then there's live hard. So 75 hardest 75 days. Yeah, and there are five critical tasks you have to do every day, without any compromise, you have to do two outdoor, you have to do two workouts, one of them has to be outdoors, they have to be at least 45 minutes long, and they have to be three hours apart. You have to take a progress picture of yourself every day, in a way that can show that you're progressing. You have 13 gallon of water every day, I read 10 pages in a book every day. And this is a book that's self development, educational, something that's meant to make you better write nonfiction. And then you have to pick a diet and stick to it. No cheat meals, ever, for 75 days. That's tough. And that's 75 heart. Yeah. And then if you want to go on to his live Heart program, that that expands to the whole year. So 75 Hard plus 330 Day phases is what composes live hard. And when you do live hard, these next three phases, one, two, and three, you do the same five tasks of 75 hard, but then they are also other tasks added on, such as a five minute cold shower every day, meeting a stranger and having a conversation with a stranger every day doing an act of kindness every day. And actually, in phase one, you add on your own tasks that you have to do. So you end up doing like eight tasks every day or something. But they're they're they're spaced out. So it's supposed to be throughout the entire year. So by the time you finish phase three, it should be a year from when you started. Day one of 75 heart. Yeah. So I completed that program in August 2022. Dang. And I started over in January 1 of this year.

Talmage: 33:52

Holy cow. So 75 hard. And then three separate 30 Day phases phases. Dude, that's not we were talking earlier. And you said that you failed. The first time you tried.

Austin: 34:09

I did I failed one string phase or I failed one string 75 hard. And I failed once during phase two.

Talmage: 34:17

Dang, oh, I want phase two. You're deep into it. So.

Austin: 34:21

But when you the only time you have to start over the entire year is when you fail in phase three. Okay, so when in 75 hard or the phases one and two. If you fail those you just start at the beginning of the phase. Okay. But it was rough because in 75 hard the first time I was doing it, and I was in it. You know, I'm so motivated. I'm getting after it. One day, I forgot to take a progress picture. Dang. And the program is no compromise. Dude, if you fail once you have failed and so you have to start over. Did you

Talmage: 34:47

want to cheat? Did you want to lie outside? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. What made you not?

Austin: 34:54

I've just always been somebody who followed rules. And it's been made fun of for it, but it's just rules made sense to me. And so I follow them. And I knew that I wasn't, I wouldn't be honest with myself or the people around me like, how could I go and look Nate in the eye? This guy who has been training me and teaching me so much about working hard, and no compromise, and lie to him? Yeah, I couldn't do that I couldn't lie to myself, I couldn't lie to him. And so I ended up doing 75, hard turns into 100 days straight of doing all this stuff. So I could do the 75 days correctly. Yeah. And then in phase two, I went to bed one night, forgot to read my 10 pages. And it was like day 20 ish. And so I started that over. And it was right around the end of our semester in medical school, and all my friends wanted to go out and like, get drinks have food after and so I went to the bar with them, and I had a salad while they're all having like beers and pizza. But you know, it was my fault. Because I failed. I didn't get to participate in the reward.

Talmage: 35:54

And actually have a question about this, even though you failed. And you're like, it's my fault. Nothing. The only reason I haven't achieved something is because of me. How do you say that without hating yourself? Or having having shame or just being like, yeah, I am a loser.

Austin: 36:16

Yeah. Great question. I think it comes, I think it comes to you realizing what you're doing, and if you and the purpose behind what you're doing, right. Because if I think of the entire live Heart program, you know, I, I still have the things that I battle with, I still have my demons, right. I feel I'm inadequate in certain areas. I want to be in a relationship, I have a family, I want to be in my career. But I'm going through this program, and I'm realizing that this is making me better. Right. And when you fail, you start right over, you get right back on the horse, there's no time for you to wallow. Because all right, I failed. But I'm still going to do this. Because I know the motivation I have, I know what I want to get done. And when I think about the things that I was going through, if you are out doing lunges in a rainstorm, like I wasn't last August, if you are sitting there reading a book about communication that's going to help you in your career and help you with the people around you. If you're out like in phase three, you're talking to strangers every day, I went to Walmart just strike up a conversation with the cashiers. Big unhappy lady, but I told her her eyeshadow was a pretty color. And we had a beautiful conversation and she lit up right. Or in phase three, also doing an act of kindness every day, if I'm out in Walmart, or like any other store, right? If I'm out returning carts to the different bins, because I'm trying to do a good turn daily. When you're doing all of that stuff, it's pretty hard to get down. Because when you're doing all of that, even when you fail, when you fail, and when you're doing all of that one thing you're not doing is you're not sitting at home, think about how you're fat and lonely. Yeah, and sad. Wow. Because you realize you're making yourself into something more, even though you had a setback? Totally. And we are taught in this gospel of repentance, daily repentance. And if I didn't believe in repentance, I wouldn't have hope. I wouldn't be able to do it. Yeah. And it was elder Holland, who talked about it. I think it was with a group of students. And he said that, if there's one thing he can't stand when he's talking to students and adults, like whatever it is, it's when he hears the I think what was the word he said the poor, pitiful, withered cry of that's just the way I am people who resigned themselves to not achieving more. And he said, I've heard that phrase, that's just the way I am from too many people who wanted to sin and call it psychology. And he said, I refer to sin, you know, to refer to a vast array of behaviors that bring despair, discouragement, and rob you of hope and what your eternal purposes. He said, If there's one thing you want to do, if there's one thing that's satanic, it's to believe that you can't change. You can change, it takes as long to change as it takes for you to say, I'm going to change in a minute. And so, you know, that's a roundabout way of answering your question. Like, when you failed, that's, that's how I don't get down. Yeah, because I know what I'm becoming. And I know what I can do, and I know where I want to go. And I know that with why essays, right, we all of us worry about being single, right? But when you decide to make yourself better, because for you, because you know, you're commanded to be perfect. You know that God expects more of you, and you're creating that relationship with Him. It doesn't hurt to realize you're also making yourself a better candidate. Yeah, from hurt. It's so true. And I think it was Jordan Peterson, the clinical psychologist who said that if you're just going to sit back and be lazy, right, and you're going to say, well, I'll marry the right person, the right person for me. He said What makes you think the right person for you wouldn't take one look at you and run away screaming? Yeah. What are you doing to become the right person for somebody else?

Talmage: 39:59

Huh? Dude, I love Jordan Peterson, he always turns back around on you and been like, Okay, how are you going to improve? Absolutely. Which is just so cool. And I love what you said, you, you mentioned two principles. fill your life with good acts that you can point out and be like, Yeah, I might have failed. But look at everything I've done, as well as God's grace, being like, I failed. But because of the grace of God, I can get back up. And those failures won't count against me. Which is, which is amazing. And do you know Alex Hermoza. Super. He's kind of blown up on social media media over the past, like, year or so. But really big sales and business guy. Oh, and he talks about self esteem. And he's like, if you have like, low confidence, he's like, the way to deal with that isn't by looking at yourself in the mirror and repeating affirmations. It is by working hard, and creating a whole list of evidences of why you are who you say you are. outwork your self doubt. I'm like, dang, that's sick. And that's what you're doing. You're outworking your self doubt. Instead of being like, I'm fat and lazy, sitting at home all alone. You're like, I'm doing all of these things. And I messed up once. Yeah, the evidence for me being an achiever, and excellent is way higher than any evidence of me being a fat loser sitting at home.

Austin: 41:39

Right? Well, you can stack up the winds in your favor right? If you this is something that Andy for Zola talks about a lot. And I've been listening to almost all the stuff he's ever put out. Right Andy, who Andy for Sela, he's the one who created 75 hearts. Oh, he has a podcast that has you know, it's gross. Or not gross. But it's coming in at the top business or motivation podcast for years now.

Talmage: 42:01

Wow.

Austin: 42:01

But if you can, if you lay out your day with critical things you have to get done. And you can mark it off as a winner last like on the day, if you start stacking up wins in a row, you've created momentum. And now you're moving in a positive direction. And if you break momentum, alright, that's fine. But you know exactly. The recipe for success again, you get right back into it.

Talmage: 42:22

And never do never mess up two days in a row. Because try not to write Yeah, try not to add, that's actually I learned some something I learned dealing with addiction and recovery. Yeah. Is there always like, Hey, if you relapse, that's okay. That's part of that's part of recovery, but never twice in a row. Because if you're running and you stumble, like you can like, roll, get up and keep running. Yeah. But if you stumble, and then skid to a stop, and the jump off a cliff, and then jump off a cliff, it's like so much harder to jump up and get that momentum again. And so, yeah, do everything you can to keep that momentum. But if you fall, jump up again, as fast as you can, absolute fast recovery is so critical.

Austin: 43:09

And you can't wallow in it. Yeah. And I love what you said about realizing your own list of evidences right. At the end of their mission. Amman and his brother in the end of their 14 year mission. When they're looking back on all the things he says and he's reviewing it. I think this is Alma the 2026 or something. And he talks about look on the fruits of our labors, are they few? No, they are many. We have been to their houses, we have been in their synagogues. We have been on their hills and in their streets, and many of our brothers and have come to know Christ. And it's you and you can look back and see the successes. You're having your life, even if they're small wins. You've created a better version of yourself that you're now running with. Back in August, I think I was I was just starting to see someone just starting to talk to somebody. And I was getting really excited about it. I was like, Oh, great. I moved back to Utah. This is why I mean, I also have some professional things I want to accomplish here but there's a better dating pool here. And they called me one Saturday and this person said I can't date you because my mom says you're too old. Man that was rough. And old Austin right first year medical school Austin, who knows what that dude would have done with justice, physical condition, but I was I just finished up golfing when that person called me and told me that I went to the home, changes in my workout clothes, went to the gym, got on the bike and was doing flashcards and then I went home I bought myself a steak dinner. I spent a lot of time in the Scriptures talking to God that night because I had some things to work out with him. I was in bed by nine o'clock. Wow. And it's just it's a total change of who I used to be. Yeah, right, that snooze button that I used to sleep all the time. Before my injury. I was getting up 415 430 every day to go to the gym. I can look at any dessert and turn it down because I doesn't have any power over me anymore. I've improved that relationship with food, I've lost maybe 30 pounds, and I'm in a much better physical shape than I was then I've read and maybe 15

Talmage: 45:08

isn't going to come up and fit his whole hand around your bicep? Well, I mean,

Austin: 45:12

over the last few weeks, I've lost the most amount, because I can't lift right now, but not like he used to. And I've read a lot of books about communication and leadership and history, and you know, all of this stuff to make myself better. And it's, it's just been a total change. Yeah, who I was before.

Talmage: 45:28

Dude, that is amazing. That's what I, I love to hear those success stories, where they, someone is like, beat down, maybe from this like breakup. And it's such a critical moment in somebody's life. And the choices they make, as soon as they get beat down, like that can set the direction for a lot of things. So instead of turning to unhealthy habits, like you used to, you turn, you're like, No, like, I cannot go that way. I have to do something healthy right now. Because that is, in a way gonna cement those healthy habits, habits, more than any other day that you would do it. Yeah, because you're doing them on the hardest day to do it. And so

Austin: 46:17

that's been a great lesson I've learned from 75 hard in the whole live hard program. There was a day especially where it was my brother's wedding. I had to fly home to Boise for this wedding. And I was stressed because I had an exam coming up. But I had still to take time out of schedule to go and do the wedding stuff. It was the best man tried to set up like the bachelor party and all of this stuff. And it was the day of the wedding. And I had a nice pair of dress boots that I had worn for the first time that day. And my feet were killing me. And I got to about 10 o'clock at night and I hadn't done my second workout yet. Man. So I put on my tennis shoes. And I went and started I hit my timer and just started walking around my parents neighborhood to get in my second workout because it's it's scalable, right? So if I've already scalable based on what you're able to do, and oh my gosh, my feet hurts so bad. But I was out there and I was so it was a perfect opportunity to turn back to have an excuse. And I didn't, I did it anyway. And that gives you power that gives you confidence. That gives you an ability to realize there's something you're made of something you're made of something that's strong. And that's a pattern that you can put in place and repeat in your life. I think when I called you yesterday, it was raining super hard. Last night, I said I started to do my second workout.

Talmage: 47:28

And I go do your second workout. It was raining, it was dark. You just had surgery. I was like, Dang this guy. This guy that's sick

Austin: 47:37

boy, I put on my rain jacket. And I went out there and I hobbled around for about 4050 minutes and made it back in a

Talmage: 47:42

day. That's That's amazing. I remember one of those experiences that happened to me. I had just gone through a pretty rough breakup. Yeah. breakups, man,

Unknown: 47:54

I got a man.

Talmage: 47:57

But I went through a really rough breakup. And my brothers were like, props to them. They love me. They're like Colin there. Okay. That's all just take that day off work. Let's just do a bros day do something fun. Cool. Let's go get ice cream, let's play Call of Duty and all this stuff. And I was like, no, no, I can't do any of that. Let's get ASA evils. Let's go play basketball. Yeah, let's go play soccer. I cannot do something that is going to cement some bad habits. And I also was feeling a lot of pain. And I was determined that I'm not going to let anything worldly take this pain away from me because it's mine. And I am going to the only thing I'm going to allow to take away this pain is God. And so I decided to do those sports like soccer and basketball. I decided to eat the ice bowl, which was still nice. It was a tree is healthier. It was yummy, but not as appealing as ice cream in the moment. And I cannot tell you how much of a blessing that decision was. Because the next day I did the same thing and the next day and for like, a couple months I was I was hurting heart but I decided to keep doing the healthy choice. And that has changed my life more than anything. And so yeah, I totally know what you mean even though I've never done somebody I've heard I've tried I got seven days in strongly encourage

Austin: 49:38

you to do it. Anyone can do it and everyone should do it.

Talmage: 49:41

Dude, I should. I really should. And I I want to and so did you're inspiring me. I really appreciate you coming on and sharing this because I feel like this is a topic that a lot of return missionaries need to hear. Because as soon as they get back from the mission They've had their whole lives kind of regimented in the mission, and so they don't really have to. They have to make decisions, but not real hard ones. Yeah. And as soon as they get home, they're hit with real life. They're hit with loneliness with depression with faith crisis is with bad habits and whatnot. And and what your story shares is the power is in their court. It's not up to anybody else. It's not up to any zone leader. It's not up to any mission. President, it's up to you. And so I really appreciate you coming on and sharing that. Is there anything that you would like to share kind of like, before we close it all up? Like, any lasting lessons that you've learned from this that you haven't been able to share yet? Or? Or? Yeah, just anything else that would help a return to missionary?

Austin: 51:02

I think it's, it goes to what you said, it seems like it's been a common theme underlying our conversation that it comes down to you, what do you want to do? I believe that God's love is unconditional, in the sense that it is always there. But salvation and exaltation are conditional. And so there are things that are required of you to do. And it's clear that God will love you no matter what. But it's also clear, if you read the scriptures of Moses had to climb an entire mountain, if the brother of Jared and Lee heights across an entire ocean, that God appreciates effort. And there are things that we're supposed to do. And I, I've learned a lot about, about that topic about how really, I can do it. And this, this program that I've gone through, is strengthened my faith because I allowed it to strengthen my faith, when there are times to add an extra tasks or like the how I've learned to make task critical in my day, communing with God has been a critical task for me, reading the scriptures have been has been a critical task for me. And the effort that you put in the it's, it's only going to come back to you tenfold in blessings that you receive. And I would just in I would say that I think it's important that all of us have a relationship with Christ. Anytime that I talk to somebody who's having issues is because with the church with whatever, it's because they forgotten about that relationship they're supposed to have, it's supposed to start right here. him and me are supposed to have this connection, and everything else will come out from that. And I know that God knows me personally. And I know that pain that you're talking about. I've had experiences in my life and incredible disappointments, where I have felt nothing but pain and anger. And the God of the cosmos has looked down on me and taken it away from me. He's allowed me to keep going and to progress. And so I don't think really as we get down into the the final latter days here, there won't be room for excuses anymore. We have everything that we need. We are supposed to do this and to work it out on our own our own salvation. And so we're free forever to act for ourselves. That's what Lehigh taught. And so we got to get to work because there's a God that wants us to come home. And there's a plan a perfect plan that allows us to get there. And we're commanded to be perfect to follow that plan. But we're not yet so we need to get to work.

Talmage: 53:34

Dude. Amazing. Well, thank you so much for coming on. And if you want people to find you, where could they find you? Yes, I receive more inspiration from you.

Austin: 53:50

I have an Instagram account called Great Oz G R EA T AUC Ozzy was my name grown up all my family calls me oz. And I have a more of a professional Instagram where it's just from my student Doctor side of things called student or Stu doc underscore Austin A. And I I don't think I'm sharing too much inspirational things on there. But I do keep updates of my 75 Heart Journey. My live heart is posted on there. You can see my before and after pictures that are who they are drastic,

Talmage: 54:22

dude. I'm gonna go check it out. Give me some inspiration, man. Well, awesome, man. I really appreciate you coming on especially at such late notice.

Austin: 54:35

Thank you. Happy to be here

Talmage: 54:44

everybody, thank you so much for listening to this episode of release the podcast. It was a really fun podcast for me to do. We were able to really just hit it off right off the bat. That was the first time I met him. And as you can tell, he's a very impressive individual. With an amazing story, he really encourages all of us to take charge of our lives. And if we want a different outcome, we have to do something different. Now Austin and I never knew each other before today, he actually reached out after listening to one of the episodes of released, he submitted his 500 word story. I found it compelling and so I had him on. If you or somebody you know is interested in sharing their story, please reach out and hear your story. I really want to hear it. I really want to share it. And remember, God is good and is planning on your success. And though you've been released from your mission, you've not been released from your ministry.