142 – My Entire Life Changed

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Highlights from today’s show…

1. Dr. Dave meets up with an old friend. 
2. Today’s Facebook post and why Dr. Dave talks about it. 
3. How Dr. Dave knows his entire life changed…

Welcome to The David Madow Lifestyle Show. It’s Dr. Dave, “Mr. Vaygan” as they also call me. It’s Episode #142. Of course you know that this is the show where I help you live stronger, thinner, healthier, and happier. And I just want to Thank You for being a friend and not only for being a friend of mine but for being so positive and just enjoying life. That’s what it’s all about. Thank You from the bottom of my heart. And you might be thinking to yourself, “well, I am not so positive and I really don’t love my life.” If that’s the case, you must be new because my friends love their lives. And if you aren’t loving your life yet, just give it a few episodes and you will be. And if you’re not, message me and we’ll figure out why.

Be sure to follow my LIVE daily broadcasts on Periscope at www.periscope.tv/davidmadow.

Life is short and we really should be enjoying what we are doing. We should be. I don’t think we were put on this Earth just to get up in the morning to go to a job that we hate 5 days a week and be miserable and only look forward to the weekends and vacations. I just don’t think we were put on Earth to do that. Do you agree with me? That just doesn’t sound right, does it? So I hope you are not in that situation. I hope that you are not in a job or a relationship that you are unhappy with. Let’s make it work! Let’ s make it better!

I want to share something with you today and it’s incredible. I am still spending a little bit of extra time down here in Florida. Just outside of Orlando to be exact. I spoke at a very large convention here and I am spending a couple of days before I head home. I was fortunate enough to spend some time with a woman who I was very close with back in the 80’s. She was not my wife and I didn’t date her or anything like that, but we were close because Louisa was the one person who was most instrumental in really helping me build my dental practice almost from the beginning into a very successful practice. I owe this woman a lot. I hired her pretty much right out of high school and she was passionate, loved what she did, and she was personable and loved the patients. And the patients loved her! She could assist in the back with the patients and be on desk work. She pretty much ran the show. She was only 19 years old but she pretty much proved to me that she could run the show. And not only run the show but build the practice. She understood business and she understood communication. She was such a lucky find. I didn’t even know how to interview back then and I don’t even remember exactly how I found her. It might have been from an ad, I don’t know. I am glad I found her and she is a wonderful person.

So I spent some time with Louisa today poolside just sort of hanging out. I had told her that I had a lot of work to do and that I had to record a few podcasts but we made some time. And I was only going to spend about 30 minutes but we started hanging out and talking. And she introduced me to her present husband. I don’t know, I think a couple hours went by. We started reminiscing about old times and it was just unbelievable. The only reason we stopped was because a humongous storm is supposed to be coming through the area and they kicked everybody out of the pool. Otherwise, who knows, I probably would still would have been down there.

However, something came out of this conversation. I am not just talking here and telling you about my fun time. There’s a reason I am talking about this and I really think it’s going to help you. We were talking about old times, and when I say old time I mean at least 3 decades ago. So Louisa started asking me about my life back then and we sort of lost touch over the years. She didn’t even know I got divorced until recently. But she started asking me questions and I started talking about a lot of things. And normally some of the things she asked me I like to keep private. I don’t really tell a lot the reason I got divorced. But we got to talking and something that Louisa said really struck a chord with me today.

She told me that there was a point when we were working together that she could tell that I started looking older and maybe not as healthy. She could tell that I wasn’t looking as good as I should have. And maybe the reason that came up was that here I am 61 years old outside in a bathing suit. She said to me something like “Dr. Madow you look better now than you did a long time ago. You look younger now.” I told her that it had a lot to do with my vegan diet and exercise.

And it does but I will tell you what else it has to do with. I started feeling old when I was in a rut. I was in a business and a job that I didn’t love and I admitted this to her today. It was good and we had a good practice but I just didn’t think I wanted to be a practicing clinical dentist for the rest of my life. Don’t get me wrong it’s a great profession and I have a lot of friends that love it and do very well. But for some reason it just hit me along time ago that it wasn’t what I wanted to do forever. It started affecting my health, and they way I look, my psyche, and just my personality. I don’t think I was the real me. I was also in a relationship that was not really working out like I wanted it to. Again, I am not blaming anyone. Maybe it was me. There is no blame here at all but I was living a life that wasn’t really right for me.  It’s interesting spending some time with someone I spent a lot of time with back in the 80’s and how she sees me today.

I was in a place that wasn’t really right for me. I couldn’t truly be myself. So today at the pool, Louisa said “you know your personality is just totally different than it used to be back and then. You look and feel like a different person to me.” And I said to her that the reason was that I just didn’t feel the freedom to be myself back then. I just didn’t feel it. And maybe I didn’t give myself permission back then to be the true David Madow. What you are hearing now and what you have heard since the beginning has been the real David Madow. But if I had this microphone back in say 1985 or even 1995, you would be hearing an entirely different person back then. A different voice. I would probably be much more reserved, less confident, just a very very different David Madow.

I am a different person now because I had the guts, the courage, to admit to myself that the life I was living wasn’t the life I wanted to live. That sounds a little gruesome and no I never thought about harming myself. I didn’t mean it like that. But the life I was living back then wasn’t the life I wanted to live.

And so I made a change. I sold my dental practice. I remember the day I stopped practicing dentistry back in 1993. My whole life changed. I felt like a different person. As many of you know I work with dentists and help motivate dentists to make them successful. That’s one of the things I do. I have a lot of friends in dentistry and I love them. Dentistry is great and I am very close with the profession, I just don’t see patients anymore. And I’m married to a wonderful woman who I love. Who by the way is great on the show but hasn’t been on for a little while. I will get her back. I promise. I am just in a very good place. We hang out together, and do things together, and eat meals, and talk. I just feel really good inside. I know that it’s right. It’s not the first time that I have talked about this subject but it’s interesting coming from someone that I haven’t had a lot of contact with since back in the mid 80’s.

I don’t need to hear someone someone say I look younger because I am 61 and even if I look 61, that’s ok with me. If I look 68, as long as I feel good about myself and healthy inside, that’s fine. It’s always good to hear someone say you look young, but I don’t need it. I think the reason that she said I looked younger and seemed happier is because I am. I am happier now. I made the changes. It took guts it took courage but I made the changes.

So I hope if you are in that situation you have acted on it or are beginning to act on it. You know in your heart if you like what you are doing. And as I said, we weren’t put here to do things that we hate all the time. That’s not the way it should be! Of course we need to work but it should be something we are passionate about and love. If you are in that situation, I beg of you, make a change. If I did not make a change, I don’t know where I would be right now. I was heading in the direction where I would be very unhealthy, I wouldn’t have looked that good right now, and I wouldn’t feel alive. I’m not immune to anything. There is no guarantee in life and I could drop tomorrow. And if I did drop tomorrow, at least I went in a way that I was really happy with my life.

A lot of incredible things have been happening lately. I have been surrounding myself with positive people like you. When you surround yourself with positive people, you get that energy back. I like to hang out with like minded people. People that give me more positive energy.

I put a post on Facebook earlier today. I was sitting at the pool bar/restaurant and I was actually doing some writing on my Macbook. I love what I do because I can do work from wherever I am. So I was sitting at the counter. A woman came in with two very young girls. One was about 3 and the other was between 1 and 2. She ordered lunch for them and their lunches consisted of chicken nuggets, french fries, and a grilled cheese sandwich. I was looking at these young girls and there was not a green in sight and not a piece of fruit in sight. I was thinking to myself that these girls are growing up thinking that this is normal American food. Maybe it is. I don’t know. But I put up a post on Facebook saying that this is becoming normal food in this country and that’s why we are all getting so sick. I got a ton of positive responses but one guy was very sarcastic to me. He said something like, “why don’t you worry about yourself and don’t worry about what other people are eating.” I made a comment to him saying something like “make sure you unfollow me as soon as you can because I don’t really need this type of negative energy on my page.” Now, that doesn’t mean that people have to agree with me but let’s be nice about it. I want to surround myself with people like you! People that are positive.

That’s my message for today. I think it was really important. My meeting with Louisa wasn’t just a meeting. I started thinking about all the things I did in my previous life and how I changed them for the better. And I am positive  you can do the same!

Thanks for being a friend. I do love ya! See you next time!