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Hey there! Welcome back! It’s Dr. D the “V”, David Madow. Back for another fantastic episode. I welcome you to The David Madow Lifestyle Show. Thanks so much for being here. I really appreciate the feedback so many of you have given me!

I took a week off. We did not do a show last week and skipped the week. It was the first time I skipped an episode in about 2 years actually. And the outpouring of love from you guys asking me what was going on because you hadn’t seen the show this past week. I love you guys and thanks so much for being concerned!

To answer many of your questions, everything is great! I just had come off of the end of Hippie Road Trip #4, I had a lot of stuff going on in my business. And you know something? I never want to put out a show unless I think it is a great one for you. The last thing I want to do is waste 20 minutes of your day listening to something that is not valuable or something that doesn’t make sense. So I decided not to do a show last week. Will I ever skip any more weeks in the future? Yes, perhaps I will just depending on what I’ve got going on and my schedule. Trust me if I miss a week, I love you still. It has nothing to do with anything except for the fact that I just didn’t have it in me to do a show that week. That’s all.

So, getting past that, I am super super excited. As I am recording this, I am getting ready for the first Vegan Indian Buffet & Open Mic (VIBOM) dinner. It’s going to take place this evening in Owings Mills, MD. If you’re listening to this now, it has already passed and I am sure it was a huge success.

If you’re not on my list and you want to know more about upcoming events such as more vegan buffets and open mics, please make sure you get on my list. The way to do that is to visit my website and enter your email address to join the VIP list or find my Facebook group.

We are actually over capacity tonight and are expecting 44 people. I will be scheduling another one and the next time I do one I am going to see if I can get more capacity because this thing has taken off like crazy. It’s not just locals. We’ve got Mark “ThePro” Jackson coming in from North Carolina. He’s taking a train up to Baltimore from North Carolina to join us in this Vegan Indian Buffet & Open Mic. It’s going to be awesome and I cannot wait to see you. If you’re listening to this and you were there, I am so glad that I saw you at the Vegan Open Mic.

I want to share a few little things I learned from Hippie Road Trip #4. If you remember, Hippie Road Trip #4 went from Memphis, TN (where I spoke on a Saturday) and I had some time to take and drive down to West Palm Beach Florida where I would be speaking about 6 days later. I went through Memphis into Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, then into Florida. It was an awesome trip and I learned a lot actually.

One of the things I learned is that southerners are really good people. I want to back up and say, most people are really good people. But when I was driving through the south through Mississippi, Tennessee, and Alabama, and Georgia, and Florida, I had the opportunity to stop at a lot of truck stops. One of my favorites is Love’s Truck Stop and I make it a point to stop at a Love’s whenever I can and get some fresh brewed iced tea. Unsweetened of course. And you come in contact with a lot of people. Not necessarily conversations but let me tell you something. People are so nice and polite. If they’re walking down an aisle or opening a door, they’ll say thank you or excuse me. I really took a step back and just really tried to observe. You hear so many people these days saying that people these days aren’t nice and they think only about themselves. But I’m not finding that, my friend! I am not finding that. I am finding some really good people wherever I go. Maybe 1 out of 10 or 1 out of 20 aren’t so nice but I don’t know. Maybe it’s my energy. Maybe it’s my vibration. But I’m running into a lot of good people. I use the analogy about the south because I just spent a lot of time in the south but when I drive up north, people are really good there too. I think basic human nature is to be good. Do we have a few bad apples because of things that have happened in their lives? We do, but you know something? I try my best not to ever judge other people because you never know what somebody’s real story is. Somebody could appear like a total jerk to you or a total ahole. Maybe they do something wrong to you. But you never know why or what their whole story is or if something just happened to them. Maybe they had a bad day. Maybe they found out that a relative has a serious illness. Maybe they just broke up with their wife. You never know what’s going on. So don’t take it for granted that somebody was not a good person because maybe they just weren’t nice at that moment or maybe they crossed you the wrong way. I have learned this in my life and I am learning it more and more as each day goes by. Have faith in humanity. Let’s give people the benefit of the doubt. Let’s not judge. And let’s be kind to people!

Speaking of being kind to people, I want to talk about social media for a few minutes. Facebook in particular because that’s my main means of social media and of communicating with you. I see a lot of things on Facebook. Sometimes I think it’s a curse and sometimes I think it gets to be too much because it definitely takes a lot of time to be involved with the entire community on Facebook. But I see a lot of things. And what I am seeing now is that I am seeing people that are unfriending others at the drop of a hat. Someone makes a comment that someone else doesn’t like, they are unfriended. Someone makes a political comment one time or even several times and they are unfriended. I had a friend of mine that said their cousin, who he’s been close with his entire life (this guy is in his 60s), unfriended him because of a political comment. Guys I don’t see that. I just don’t understand. How can you unfriend somebody? How can you not be somebody’s friend because of their opinion on something?

There is no message or notification that you get when someone unfriends you but I was recently looking for a friend of mine on Facebook and noticed that when I went to her page it said “add friend.” So I was thinking, “wow she unfriended me for some reason.” I didn’t know why. When I reached out to her and said “hey what’s going on? I see that we’re not friends on Facebook anymore.” She said something interesting to me. She said, “yeah you know the last time I saw you a couple of years ago at one of your events, I just didn’t feel that you were giving me the love like you used to or that you were paying attention to me.” So I took a step back and thought about it for a minute and thought maybe I didn’t. But then I thought, this was an event that I had about 1500 people at and it’s really tough to give 1500 people the attention they deserve. You try to. When you’re on the stage you try to give energy but talking to 1500 separate people and trying to give them love is virtually impossible in a two day period. So for some reason this woman had a vibe from me that I didn’t like her anymore. That’s crazy! I felt horrible! So I said to her,
“hey look, that’s not the case. I always love you. Maybe we don’t talk for a few months or maybe even a couple years but you know I am your friend.” She finally understood and she asked for my friendship again which I gladly gave to her. We can’t be everywhere at every moment and sometimes our imagination and our assumptions are wrong.

I had somebody else recently who said to me that she didn’t think I was a friend because I just wasn’t paying attention to her also. I felt bad but this person was imagining all kinds of crazy things why I didn’t like her anymore. None of which were true!

I told you about the book The Four Agreements. I hope you read that. If you haven’t read it, I hope you read it because it’s really really powerful. One of the four agreements is to never assume. I have found, in my life, that when I assume something or get worked up over something as I have in the past, 90% (or more) of the time, I was dead wrong. So I try my best. I’m human. I’m not a machine. It’s not a 100% that I don’t assume anymore because I am not perfect. But I try my best not to assume because more often than not everytime I assume something about why somebody did something or why somebody didn’t do something, I was almost always wrong. Are you assuming? I’m going to highly recommend that you go back to that book and read The Four Agreements again. You’ll see what the other ones are. I have talked about them all on the show. I’m such a big fan and follower of this book. I am not doing it for any other reason besides it has changed my life.

Another one of the agreements is to be impeccable with your word. And I have tried my best not to say anything that’s going to get me in trouble or get another person in trouble. Be impeccable with your word. It will catch up with you ultimately. Everything does. Especially in this world of social media. This is my assumption, and I know I am not supposed to assume, but my it’s a principle. That might be better. But I go by the principle or assumption that whatever you put out there or whatever you tell somebody, there is no way that you can hide it. So if you tell somebody something or put something online, even if you think it’s hidden somewhere, assume that it’s out there for the public to see (I give you permission to assume in this case). So before you put something online or talk about somebody behind their back, you can assume that once you put it out there, it will be public. Please remember that! It’s true. Trust me on this one. And if you have a friend or an acquaintance or coworker that is always talking about other people, trust me when you turn your back they are talking about you. Trust me. In my almost 62 years on this planet, I’ve experienced a lot. If you’ve got one of those people, you know exactly who they are, and they are talking about people in a negative way, they are talking about you when they are not with you. Believe me. I try to separate myself from negative people. Sometimes they come across as really positive people. And then when you talk to them personally, they are bad mouthing other people. When you have to bad mouth somebody else, there is generally something going on. Some people may not be as great as they appear to be on social media because they talk about other people.

On Hippie Road Trip #1, I came up with a list of about 20 things I learned. If you remember one of them was…get rid of the mother fuckers (pardon my language). That’s harsh word. It’s a bad word. I would not use that word on stage although this is sort of like my stage here. But these people that you are not aligned with and that are saying bad things about other people, get rid of them. Don’t wish them any harm. I’m not saying they are bad people but when your life gets filled up there is no room for anything else. There’s not room for any other people or events or anything like that.

So make sure you’re spending your time with the people that you are aligned with or that you are vibrating with. I could give you a list of people that are great people but I just don’t feel that I’m vibrating with. I feel like I’ve got nothing to share with them. And they probably feel the same about me and that’s ok. I’ve got plenty (that’s you) that I feel like I am aligned with and we’re vibrating on that same frequency.

So be kind to people. Spend your time with the people that mean the most to you. I can’t emphasize that enough. I did a lot of thinking on Hippie Road Trip #4.

I met up with a friend of mine that I had not seen in quite some time. We actually graduated from dental school together in 1980. I hope he is listening to this. His name is Tony and what a great guy he is! We spent 3 hours in a restaurant one evening just talking and reminiscing. And when we talked, we talked about positive things. We didn’t say anything bad about anybody at all. We didn’t bad mouth anybody. We did talk about generalities. Like people who have to show off and have to acquire so many material things because something is wrong in their lives. Their lives are empty. So they’ve got to make up for that by driving expensive cars, and having jewelry, and fancy possessions.

It’s funny. Tony and I have not spent a lot of time together except online for the past 37 years but we’re so similar in our thinking. We both done very well financially over many many years. We’ve both been very fiscally (financially) responsible. And neither of us show off anything. Both of us are very down to earth family oriented people. We don’t necessarily have to have a lot of material things in our lives because we are basically happy. We don’t need junk to show people that we are successful or happy. Or to become happy. We don’t need that stuff.

I learned a lot. Hippie Road Trip #4 was great. Just driving from Memphis to the point where I actually put my feet in the Atlantic ocean was an incredible feeling. If you ever can get out on the road and do this, I beg you to. Please try a Hippie Road Trip. They do not have to cost a lot of money. I stay in very inexpensive hotels. Or you can “boondock” which means that if you have a car or truck, you can just sleep in your car or truck. Or pitch a tent somewhere. You don’t need a lot of money to do a Hippie Road Trip. I go online to hotels.com the day of and get a good deal in the area where I am going to be. I look at reviews. And I do not stay in the most expensive places. Trust me!

I am looking forward to Hippie Road Trip #5. I am not sure when or where but it’s going to be coming up. And when it does, I am going to be sharing with you. It’s one of the things in my life now that has become really important for me. Getting out on the road and observing and looking around and meeting people all over North America. It’s been incredible and I love it. I cannot wait to do the next one.

I’m getting ready for the Vegan Indian Buffet & Open Mic night. I am moving some equipment right now. I really hope you can join me at the next one. Please get on the VIP list!

I want you to have a great week! I’ll see you next week. Hopefully I won’t be taking any time off soon but if I do bear with me. You know I will be back. Here’s my promise to you. I am not going anywhere and I promise you that. I am going to be here for the long run to help you, to inspire you, to change your life, and to be with you so you will not be alone anymore. Because I’m with you my friend.

I’m Dr. Dave. See you next week!

CONNECT WITH ME AND SHARE

“Thank you very much for listening! The show is literally downloaded by the thousands each week now. In fact, we have passed the 375,000+ downloads mark! Wow! I so appreciate you listening and sharing this show with your family and friends. I love to help people live a healthier life! It is so great that we have listeners from all over the world from the United States to the UK to Canada to Europe to Japan to Australia. I love hearing from people all over the world on Facebook, Twitter, Email, and our phone hotline too!” – Dr. Dave.

Did you enjoy today’s show? Do you have any questions for me? Do you have any comments or feedback? You are not alone! We want to help you live better, stronger, happier, thinner lives!

—> My website:

Website: https://davidmadow.com

Check out the podcasts, recipes, blog posts, and more!

—> Enroll in my goals course:

Course: http://davidmadow.teachable.com/p/goalsetting/

Learn how to design the life of your dreams!

—> Connect with Dr. Dave on Facebook:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidmadow

—> Join the Facebook group: http://www.superchargehangout.com

Check out videos of the show and send questions/feedback

—> Connect with Dr. Dave on Instagram:

https://instagram.com/davidmadow/

—> Connect with Dr. Dave on Google+

https://plus.google.com/+DavidMadow/posts

—> Tweet with Dr. Dave on Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/davidmadow

—> Subscribe to Dr. Dave’s YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/rundrdave

—> Connect with Dr. Dave and his professional portfolio on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmadow

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Hey welcome back! It’s Dr. Dave! Dr. D the “V” and this is the show where I help you live stronger, thinner, healthier, and happier. Thanks so much for being back with me on The David Madow Lifestyle Show. I’ve got a great one for you today.

Before we get into it, I want to remind you first that Hippie Road Trip #4 is beginning on March 4th. So if you’re listening to the show before that just know that I am going to be on the road for about 5 or 6 days. It’s between two speaking gigs and I will be driving from Memphis, Tennessee all the way down to West Palm Beach, Florida. It’s going to be a great one. I’ve got a few stops already that I am thinking about. One of them hopefully is stopping off in Jacksonville, Florida to see my daughter, son in law, and two grandkids. So if that works out schedule wise, that could be a really good one.

Hippie Road Trips pretty much don’t have schedules so I could pretty much go with the flow wherever I want. Stopping at truck stops along the way. As long as I get to my gig in West Palm Beach by Thursday, March 9th, I’ll be ok. So I’ve got a bunch of days for hippie road trippin’.

And by the way, thanks so much to all of you that have commented on some of my Facebook posts lately. My wife Yoko and I really want to ultimately look into taking an RV trip. Getting rid of some of the junk we have, finding an RV, and going off and exploring the country. Maybe for a long period of time. I’m not sure. It’s still in the works. I am researching it. There are pros and cons. I found out about RV traveling and it looks very glamorous from the outside but there are some crazy things when you dig into it and find out. It’s not as easy as it looks so it’s something we are exploring right now.

Coincidentally, there happens to be a RV show in Maryland tomorrow which we are going to go check out. I’m not going to buy anything tomorrow. But I’m doing my research and figuring it out. Yoko and I want to be on the ultimate hippie road trip and just exploring this beautiful country of ours.

The thing is as soon as I posted this on Facebook, that I just wanted to get into a RV and travel around the country for a long period of time. Maybe a year or whatever. So many people responded like “go for it”, “I wish I could do this”, “I’m jealous, this is my dream”. And it led me to start thinking; wow, people have a lot of dreams but maybe they live vicariously through other people because they can’t fulfill them. Why can’t you do this? Why can’t I do this? Why can’t we do what we want in life instead of getting up in the morning, working for “the man”, doing a 9-5. Why can’t we live out our dreams? I am doing this.

You can do this! I am no different than you, trust me. We can live our dreams and if you want to live your dreams vicariously through me that’s ok but I want YOU to live the life of your dreams. Not just listen to me. Not just watch what I do. You can watch what I do but I hope you follow. That’s why it’s The David Madow Lifestyle Show. It’s not just me telling you what to do.I’d like you to try this stuff because it really does work.

Trust me. I am no smarter. I am not special or gifted in any type of way. I just figured out how to do this stuff and you can do the same thing. Just follow me. If you’re brand new start with Episode #1. Now we’re into the 170s so it’s going to take you some time. [Dave laughs] But start with episode #1 and start listening. Immerse yourself in the culture and we will change lives for sure.

By the way, one other quick announcement. If you happen to be local to the Maryland area and even it you’re not, I’ve got some people traveling in for this little event. It’s going to be taking place on Saturday March 18th. It’s the Vegan Indian Buffet and Open Mic. We are renting out a room at a local Indian restaurant and they are setting up a special vegan buffet. We’re going to have a great time! It’s actually pretty full right now. I’ve got maybe a couple of seats left that I am holding for VIPs and last minute people. I didn’t want to use every single ticket just in case.

By the way, if you’re ever doing any kind of events or anything like that always hold back a couple tickets just in case. You never know what’s going to happen at the last minute if somebody that you didn’t think about wants to come.

But it’s going to be an incredible event! And we’re going to do another one. We’re definitely going to. This one will take place on March 18th and then we’re going to look at sometime in May to do another one. I’ve got people coming in from out of town so no matter where you are on this planet look for future announcements for future vegan buffets and open mics because this is going to be a wild cool fun event. I’ll be hanging out with you guys and Yoko my wife will be there. It’s going to be full and it’s going to be fun!

So I want to segue into today’s topic. This is a free form podcast where I just talk and help you. It’s never scripted. Never. It’s basically what flows out of my brain.

This morning, I turned on my music and for some reason I was in the mood to hear an album that I hadn’t heard in many years. It’s called Seventh Sojourn. Without going to Google, do you know the artist that made that album? I’ll give you a hint. It came out in 1972. It’s old, very old. Seventh Sojourn was the seventh album by a group called the Moody Blues. I loved them when I was back in high school and college. They are just one of my favorite groups. I had a chance to see them live in the early 70s at the Baltimore Civic Center. It was one of my first concerts ever actually. I remember that it was so loud and distorted and I brought this little tape recorder and I tried to record some of their songs and it didn’t work. Just imagine someone sitting in the 50th row in this big arena with this little tape recorder. Imagine how that sounded. I played this album this morning.

So anyhow, I played this album this morning and it was really strange. I had this flashback to 1972 and I started feeling the way I felt in 1972. I had visions of me being in high school. I graduated in 1972 and I think it was right before I graduated high school when this came out. It was not necessarily a good thing. I had these feelings that I was kind of like a misguided kid who had no direction in life. That’s the feeling that came over me when I put this on. And I remember I was on a family camping trip with my dad and brothers and a couple other dads and their sons. It was a really cool time. It was very misty out and raining and I kind of had a flashback to that. But the overall feeling was that my childhood and adolescence was weird. To this day, I don’t know if I was depressed, misguided, or no ambition. I don’t know. But this all came from this album. My parents didn’t give me a lot of guidance. God love them. My parents were great! But they weren’t really on top of things as far as guiding me in the right direction.

I sort of remember to this day how I chose the college that I went to. I went to two undergraduate colleges because I transferred after two years. But the first college I went to was called Randolph Macon which is a very small liberal arts college in Ashland, Virginia. It’s not like a did a whole lot of research to find the perfect school for me.

I will tell you how I landed at Randolph Macon in Virginia. I don’t know how it happened, but it’s weird as shit. My mom, her friend Elaine, her son Jeff, and I went down to visit this college Randolph Macon. The four of us went down to visit this college and walked around the campus. We had dinner at some restaurant in Richmond, Virginia. That evening we decided that not only would Jeff and I go to this school but we decided that Jeff and I would be roommates. Boy that was stupid! That’s the way that I was guided to pick my college. It was ridiculous! And he was a nice guy and everything but Jeff and I didn’t really fit as roommates at all. It would have been much better if I maybe had someone randomly selected for me. I would have met someone new maybe from a different culture. It was just bizarre. It was weird and the school turned out not to be good for me. Not at all. It was tiny, very conservative, maybe something like a southern Baptist. I’m Jewish and they were sending me to a southern Baptist type school with maybe 1000 students total. And they had just begun admitting women the previous year. So there were like 930 men and 70 women in this whole school. Talk about a formula for disaster.

So this is what I started thinking about when this Moody Blues album come on this morning. I really did flashback to my whole weird life. It was like one series of misguided steps to the next. Don’t get me wrong. Anybody looking at me from the outside probably thought things were ok and I don’t really know that they were. I’m wondering if I had been guided in a different direction, would my life be different? Better? My life is good so maybe I needed the weirdness when I was younger. Maybe I needed that. But I lasted 2 years at that school. Jeff lasted all 4 years. He loved it! It was probably good for him but bad for me.

In the second year, I did have another roommate. Jeff and I kind of parted ways. I guess we figured we weren’t the best as roommates for each other. I think he moved into the frat house anyway. My second roommate’s name was Scott. He was a diabetic. It was like my first introduction into diabetes. I didn’t know anything about diabetes. But this guy had to take insulin. I didn’t even know what that was back then. He was a diabetic and he was a big masturbator. I don’t know if it had anything to do with the diabetes, but this guy masturbated so much. I would always walk into the room and catch this guy masturbating. It’s not like a really uncomfortable thing for me to always walk in on this. It was just really weird.

And again this album flashed me back to this weirdness. After 2 years at Randolph Macon. I came to my senses and I transferred closer to home at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). By the way, my grades at Randolph Macon were average at best. They were “B” and “C” type grades. They were ok not great. I didn’t even know what I wanted to do with my life so I transferred to UMBC where I then figured out that I had to grow up a little bit. I’ve got to start studying and working hard. And then I started getting “A’s”. It not that UMBC was easier. It was probably more difficult. But I totally grew up a little bit and moved back home. I studied hard because I wanted to go to dental school. Why did I want to go to dental school? I have no flipping idea. Again, it was probably because I was guided in that direction. But nobody gave me any tests or said, “Dave, I think you should be a dentist because…” So I am going to do something for the rest of my life because somebody said to try this.

This album brought this all back. I feel like this is my shrink appointment now. I feel like I am talking to my shrink. I don’t even have a shrink. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with seeing a shrink. I have seen shrinks in my life. When I was married the first time, I saw shrinks when I got divorced. I saw shrinks when I met Yoko because I was trying to figure out my life. There’s nothing at all wrong with it. It actually helped me a lot.

I’ll tell you the last time I spoke to a shrink. I remember exactly what happened. I spoke to my shrink 9 years ago. The reason I remember it was 9 years ago or so was because Obama was campaigning to be president. It was before he was elected. I said to my shrink, “I don’t think I am going to vote for Obama. I just don’t love him.”And she looked at me straight in the eye and said, “well Dave, if you are not voting for Obama that means you are racist.” And you know, I will never forget that. Because I wasn’t voting for somebody whose skin happened to be black, that meant I was racist. That was my last appointment ever with this woman. Up until then I thought she gave me a lot of good advice and helped me along with some questions I had with my life. That was the last time I ever saw shrink. The nerve of her looking at me and telling me, who loves everyone and looks at everyone the same regardless of skin color or sexual preference or age or gender. Whatever it is. I try my best to look at everybody as a human being. And this woman told me that I am a racist. So does that mean if I didn’t vote for Carter back in the 80s who I think ran against Reagan. Does that mean I hate southern people? That’s such a weird statement for a professional to tell me that if I didn’t vote for Obama I was racist. That’s just crazy.

Anyway, I digress. But again, my life was weird. I did a lot of crazy things and weird things when I was in college and dental school. But I just felt like I was a misguided mess. Thank God I finally came to my senses. It was really not until I divorced my wife of 23 years. And I went through some really tough times after that. I dated different women but I finally met Yoko and we got married. It was not until then, that I really figured it out. We’ve been married for 13 years now and it wasn’t until then that my life really started to come together. And I am going to thank the Moody Blues for coming on my iTunes this morning. Actually it might have been Spotify but I am the one that played it. But I want to thank the Moody Blues for flashing my entire adolescent life in front of me simply by playing that album. I might play it again. I’m not sure. I don’t know if I am going to play it again but I probably will. But I am going to be prepared to go back into 1972.

How about you? Do you ever listen to any music from your past that suddenly takes you back to that past whether it was good, bad, a mixture? Do you ever do that? Does it ever get you to think about how you’ve come such a long way? And how you’ve changed over many years?

I think a lot of it just has to do with life experience. When I was 17, 18, 19, I had almost no life experience and very little guidance and I had to figure things out on my own. But now about 45 years later, I think I am just starting to figure life out. Oh I wish God could give me 60 more years because I think in 60 more years I could figure a lot more out. But until then I have to enjoy every single day I have on this planet. The way I enjoy every single day is not only doing my thing but working and exploring this beautiful planet. But the way I really get my pleasure is by helping you. I love to help YOU live your best life!

Until next week! I’m Dr. Dave. I love you!

CONNECT WITH ME AND SHARE

“Thank you very much for listening! The show is literally downloaded by the thousands each week now. In fact, we have passed the 350,000+ downloads mark! Wow! I so appreciate you listening and sharing this show with your family and friends. I love to help people live a healthier life! It is so great that we have listeners from all over the world from the United States to the UK to Canada to Europe to Japan to Australia. I love hearing from people all over the world on Facebook, Twitter, Email, and our phone hotline too!” – Dr. Dave.

Did you enjoy today’s show? Do you have any questions for me? Do you have any comments or feedback? You are not alone! We want to help you live better, stronger, happier, thinner lives!

—> My website:

Website: https://davidmadow.com

Check out the podcasts, recipes, blog posts, and more!

—> Enroll in my goals course:

Course: http://davidmadow.teachable.com/p/goalsetting/

Learn how to design the life of your dreams!

—> Connect with Dr. Dave on Facebook:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidmadow

—> Join the Facebook group: http://www.superchargehangout.com

Check out videos of the show and send questions/feedback

—> Connect with Dr. Dave on Instagram:

https://instagram.com/davidmadow/

—> Connect with Dr. Dave on Google+

https://plus.google.com/+DavidMadow/posts

—> Tweet with Dr. Dave on Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/davidmadow

—> Subscribe to Dr. Dave’s YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/rundrdave

—> Connect with Dr. Dave and his professional portfolio on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmadow

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

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Hey there! How ya doing? It’s Dr. D the “V” back with you! Welcome to The David Madow Lifestyle Show. It’s the show where I help you live stronger, thinner, healthier, and happier. I’ve got a lot of great stuff coming at you today.

I’ve got a great show for you today. You can bookmark it and always come back to this one. Because I have been doing this show for about 3 years now as you know but this is going to be one of the most important shows I am doing for you. I’m serious about it! Bookmark it! Share it with your friends. Listen to it. And listen to it again, because it is going to help your life immensely.

Before I get into this subject, I have a couple of things for you real quick. I am still in Colorado. And it’s a beautiful cloudy snowy fairly warm day today in town. I am not skiing today, I am just cruising around doing my thing. I am really happy to say that the lifestyle here has worked really well for me. I’ve shed about 12 pounds in just about 3 weeks. I am concerned about going back East now because I have got to keep the lifestyle up. This is the way to live people! This is the way to do it! Love your body and eat healthy. These are important.

Speaking of moving your body and being outdoors, I want to share something with you. A good friend of mine, Steve Moore, down in Oklahoma City has started a Facebook group. I want you to check this out. It’s a small group right now.

I’ve talked about him a little bit before on the show. He is a retired truck driver who’s lived in the Oklahoma and Texas area I believe almost his whole life. Through listening to my shows and meeting me on Periscope video broadcasts, Steve told me his life changed. He told me that I was the one who was very influential. I am not going to take all the credit but Steve told me when we met up on Hippie Road Trip #1 that I changed his life. Steve grew up in an area that was pretty much a meat-eating area. Let’s face it, in Oklahoma and Texas, most people eat meat. And Steve, through listening to my words. Steve is in his late 50’s and now has totally changed his life. Steve I am proud of you and I want to share your group. The Facebook group is called Outdoor Tripin.

Steve now realizes that life is all about getting outdoors. If you’re going to run or do something, do it outside. Reconnect with the Earth. Steve put up a daily (almost) inspirational quote. I want you to check it out. It’s free! Steve doesn’t charge anything for his motivation and advice. I am honored to be the one (or one of the ones) that has mentored Steve in his new lifestyle.

So, I did a Facebook Live stream a few weeks ago on today’s topic so if you saw the video thanks for joining me there. I want you to listen very closely. A short time ago, maybe about a year ago, I made 4 agreements with myself and no one else. I did not come up with these 4 agreements. I did not invent them. I read the book The 4 Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. In this book, he very succinctly explains that if you abide by these 4 agreements and do the best you can, it’s going to come back to you. If you do the best you can with them, your life will change for the better. I’m doing this! I am going to share some experiences with you as I describe to you these 4 agreements.

I do recommend you read the book if you can. The book expands on what I am going to make a 10 minute version of. It’s not a thick book but it’s a regular book. So I am going to try my best to condense Don’s words into 10 minutes or so.

Admittedly, when I read this about 2 years ago, I read it on audiobook. So as I was out there every day doing my “Magic 4” I was listening to the book as an audiobook on my iPhone. If you don’t have the time to sit down and read page after page, it helps to listen to it on audiobook. Let’s get into this! I really want you to try your best to incorporate these into your life.

Agreement #1: Be impeccable with your word

What does that mean? In the old days there was a saying that went “sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me.” You know something? That’s really not true. Words can really hurt people. When Don Miguel Ruiz says to be impeccable with your word, it means that before you say something just think. Think about what you’re saying. Is it true? Can it possibly hurt somebody? Is it gossip? Is it ill-intended?

Since I’ve read this book, I’ve tried so hard to not say bad things about anybody. I’m full of love and I try my best but let’s face it there are some people who are just whack jobs out there. [Dave laughs] Let’s face the facts. But I am really sticking to the 4 agreements and I try not to say anything bad.

I’ll give you an example. About 1-2 weeks ago somebody got ahold of me on Facebook. And he was trying to bring up somebody’s name and trying to trash the person. And I said to my friend, “hey I am not going there. I choose not to say anything bad about this person.” Then I said, “have you read the 4 agreements?” He hadn’t so I told him that I highly recommend it.

Let’s just be really careful. Those of us that gossip and say bad things, what good does it do? Trust me I have done it both ways. Of course we are all grown ups and if there’s somebody you don’t like you may say something bad. I don’t do that anymore. And I haven’t done it in some time. It really really does make a tremendous difference.

Be impeccable with your word. Speak with integrity. Say what you mean.

“Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.”  

– Don Miguel Ruiz

Agreement #2: Don’t take anything personally

I was a big violator of this agreement for a long time. There are a million examples of things that happen in life. I always used to take things personally. What did I do wrong? Why did they do that to me? But you know something? You never know the circumstances. You might think you know. But you don’t know the circumstances and it doesn’t do any good to take something personally. So just forget about it. Don’t worry!

Don’t take it personally! Nothing others do is because of you. Chances are that someone is not even thinking of you. It’s not all about you. What others say and do is a projection of their reality. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering. Don’t take anything personally. Let it just fly away.

Agreement #3: Don’t make assumptions

Here’s another one that I know I have been super guilty of this. Super guilty! You always assume, oh this person didn’t do x because of… and that’s the reason. I’ve found that 90% of the time, I was wrong in my assumptions. It’s not good to make assumptions. It’s unhealthy to make assumptions. Trust me. Since I listened to the audio book I stopped making assumptions. I’m telling you it really is true.

Try this. If you’re assuming things, go back and take a look at the things you have assumed. Over the past few months or year the assumptions that you made were wrong.

I had somebody recently assume something about me. And she stopped talking to me. I noticed on Facebook and through other little hints that she just was pissed at me. And I am thinking to myself , “wow it’s a friend. What did I do?” So I got ahold of her and we started talking it out and she made these assumptions that were totally wrong. And I recommended the book to her, so I said “hey have you read the book The 4 Agreements?” And she said “I have not heard of it.” And I said, “I’ve learned over the years that when you assume and when I assume, it’s almost always wrong. Don’t assume.” It’s not good. Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want.

Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings. With just this one agreement you can completely transform your life. It’s true. It really is!

What’s the last agreement? Well that’s funny. I started the show off with this. When I first started talking about the 4 agreements, I said this is a little hint.

Agreement #4: Always do your best

No matter how good you are at something or if you’re really healthy whatever. All you can be asked to do is to do your best. Nobody’s perfect. I am far from perfect. We all try things. Sometimes we fail. Sometimes we just give up. A lot of times we give up way too quickly.

Over the years I’ve found that I thought I had a good idea, I started something and if it didn’t hit right away, I just gave up. Which is the stupidest thing ever by the way because sometimes success takes a long time. It does not happen overnight. You look at these overnight sensations on the internet and people that put out videos and they go viral and have millions and millions of views. But that is such a small tiny fraction of the minority. Most people, like me included, have to work hard at what they do and nothing is ever an overnight success.

For example, I have been doing The David Madow Lifestyle Show for 3 years now. And it’s not an overnight success. I’ve got a lot of great listeners and subscribers like you. And by the way if you find this helpful, share it with someone else. I’ve grown quite a bit but I really want to grow it more. I want to change the entire world even if it’s one person at a time. Even if it’s one person in the world. As I told you before, I don’t get paid for this podcast. All of my equipment I pay for, my time thinking about an episode and what I am going to talk about. It’s all time and money and I don’t get paid.

The way I do get paid is not really in cash. The way I get paid is when somebody like Steve Moore comes up to me and says “hey Dave you’ve changed my life!” That’s all I need people. That’s what I like to hear and I want to change lives. So the more people we can share this with, I appreciate it. I want the word to get out to more people.

But anyway this last agreement is just to do your best. Nobody is asking you to be perfect. You’re not going to be perfect. You’re not going to be the best in the world at something. Or probably not. But just do your best! Do the best you can. Your best is going to change from moment to moment. It will be different when you’re healthy as opposed to when you’re sick. Under any circumstance simply do your best and you will avoid self judgement, self abuse, and regret.

How do you like that? The 4 agreements that are so powerful and so life changing. I want you to start with those today. And when I say today I mean today. So think before you say something. Don’t talk about anybody else. Don’t gossip. Don’t say anything bad. Being impeccable with you word means that your words are really powerful and they will affect others. So speak the truth my friend.

The other 3 agreements I don’t need to repeat them because you can just rewind. I guess we don’t really rewind these days do we? [Dave laughs] In the old days when we had cassette tapes. Some of you might be too young to remember this but in the old days before we had online streaming videos we had to go to the video store if we wanted to watch a movie. So we went and rented one of these large bulky tapes. And when you brought them back to the shop if you didn’t rewind, many shops would charge a $2 rewind fee. There would be a sticker on the VHS that said “be kind, rewind.”

So I want you to be kind and I want you to rewind this and I want you to listen to it. How about if we make this a goal? Let’s do this! I look at the stats to see how many people are listening to each episode. Let’s do this! If you like this episode, which I hope you did, I’d like you to share this with 2 like minded people. 2 people that you’re close with. Maybe a family member. Maybe a spouse or significant other. Maybe a cousin or an associate at work. Someone that you are like minded with and you feel that they could really benefit from learning these 4 agreements. I’d like you to share this. Send them the link. Share with them how to listen to my podcast. I would appreciate it!

And you know what I am going to be doing? I am going to be looking at the statistics. I won’t be able to tell if you actually shared but I do get statistics on how many people download, what countries they’re from. But don’t worry, I don’t get names. But I’ll be able to tell if there is a spike in the downloads. And I’ll be happy because I am seeing that more people are getting it. More people want to live a better life, to help others, to help yourself, to help the planet, to help animals, and just to help everything and everybody. Isn’t that good enough? That’s the way I try to live my life. Is my life perfect? No! Not at all! I go through tough times like any of you. I go through difficult times. Trust me. Trust me I do. But I always know there’s going to be sunlight at the end of that tunnel for sure.

Thanks for being with me. If you’ve been with me for quite some time, thank for being with me today again. If you’re brand new to me, I really appreciate it. I love you! I appreciate you! And guess what? I’ll see you next week. I’m Dr. D the “V”. Have a great one!

CONNECT WITH ME AND SHARE

“Thank you very much for listening! The show is literally downloaded by the thousands each week now. In fact, we have passed the 350,000+ downloads mark! Wow! I so appreciate you listening and sharing this show with your family and friends. I love to help people live a healthier life! It is so great that we have listeners from all over the world from the United States to the UK to Canada to Europe to Japan to Australia. I love hearing from people all over the world on Facebook, Twitter, Email, and our phone hotline too!” – Dr. Dave.

Did you enjoy today’s show? Do you have any questions for me? Do you have any comments or feedback? You are not alone! We want to help you live better, stronger, happier, thinner lives!

—> My website:

Website: https://davidmadow.com

Check out the podcasts, recipes, blog posts, and more!

—> Enroll in my goals course:

Course: http://davidmadow.teachable.com/p/goalsetting/

Learn how to design the life of your dreams!

—> Connect with Dr. Dave on Facebook:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidmadow

—> Join the Facebook group: http://www.superchargehangout.com

Check out videos of the show and send questions/feedback

—> Connect with Dr. Dave on Instagram:

https://instagram.com/davidmadow/

—> Connect with Dr. Dave on Google+

https://plus.google.com/+DavidMadow/posts

—> Tweet with Dr. Dave on Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/davidmadow

—> Subscribe to Dr. Dave’s YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/rundrdave

—> Connect with Dr. Dave and his professional portfolio on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmadow

 

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Hey there! It’s Dr. Dave the “V”. That stands for David the vegan. Welcome back to The David Madow Lifestyle Show. I am still in Breckenridge, Colorado recording this live for you. It’s going to be a great show today. Remember this is the show where I help YOU live stronger, thinner, healthier, and happier.

I’ve got a great one and the reason it’s a great one is because we’re going to be doing another 3 questions. This is when I go on Facebook and say I am going to take the first 3 questions and I will answer them no matter what they are. It’s going to be a little bit different because I have 4. #3 and #4 came in so close so to be fair I will answer 4 today. So let’s get going. This is going to be a packed show. You’re going to love it!

1. How do you deal with violence against animals on a personal level? – Blooms Day

That’s a great question! Number 1 , I’d say the biggest thing that I do is that I don’t consume animals. I do not participate in animal agriculture, I do not consume animals, I do not wear animals, and I do not go and see animals for my entertainment.

And by the way, I am so glad that Ringling Brothers, Barnum, & Bailey Circus is just giving up. They couldn’t make it because there’s just too much awareness and activism and people are seeing how these animals are being terribly terribly abused and suffering. And they called it quits. And I know a lot of people messaged me on Facebook and said “but Dave don’t you care about all the people there that are losing their jobs? Of course I do! I am a humanitarian. I love people. But guess what? These people can find other jobs. These people will find other jobs. They are talented people. The animals had no voice. They had no say! It was a no brainer. It had to end. And I am so glad that the circus is ending.

That’s probably the primary way that I deal with violence against animals. I am vegan and I do not use animals for food, clothing, or entertainment.

About 16 or 17 years ago, I rescued 3 cats that were outside in the cold. I brought them in and gave them a wonderful home and they’re still our cats. Their names are Phil, Ackley, and Jade. I think animal rescue is a really great thing. I did it. And there are only so many animals that we can take care of at one time. So I’ve got 3 that I rescued and saved their lives.

I give money to animal charities. I also try to educate others. I don’t force my being vegan down other people’s throats. I am not the kind of person that says you better be vegan or I am not going to like you or respect you. I don’t do that. I lead by example. People see that I am approaching 62 years old and I am pretty damn healthy looking. And that’s because I don’t eat animals. I just kinda throw little hints out there that it’s the best way to live. And a lot of people follow me. To this day, I think I am responsible for turning on about 110-120 people to become vegan.

So Bloom’s, great question! And I hope I answered that really thoroughly for you.

2. What attracted you to Breckenridge? – Jason Powell

For those of you that don’t know, I love Breckenridge, Colorado. I come out here at least twice per year with my wife Yoko. We’re here right now. We spend a good month plus here in the winter and a good couple weeks (at least) in the summer. What attracted me to this area was originally skiing. I love skiing and I want to come out here more to get better and better. Probably about 8 years ago, I was a decent intermediate skier. And I just felt like the only way that I was going to get better was to come out here and ski for a month straight every winter. And I did! And I got better at the blacks and the double blacks and the expert slopes. I’m still not the best person on the mountain, trust me. But I can hold my own. I’m decent. So I love the skiing out here.

But, what I have found when I am in Breckenridge, is that being outdoors in the mountains we don’t drive a lot here. Everything is within walking distance. I get exercise every day. Whether it’s walking to the chair lift, walking through town. The other day for the very first time in my life, I actually cross country skied and snowshoed in the same day. And we like to hike. And in the summer, Yoko and I like to do a lot of hiking and we do a race or two every season here. By the way, a half marathon in the mountains is very very difficult. And we like to hike up 14’ers. A 14’er is a mountain whose altitude is 14,000 feet plus. Let me tell you something. Try hiking up a 14’er at some point. It is not easy. The air is thin. It’s usually pretty steep, and rocky, and slippery. But you should try it! There is no such thing as an easy 14’er. It just doesn’t exist. There is no such thing as easy when hiking up a 14’er. But I think a good beginner’s 14’er would be Mt. Quandary just outside of Breckenridge. Very easy access to get there from Breckenridge. I wouldn’t do it in the winter. I would do it in the summer months only. During the summer you really should pay attention and be off of the exposed area of the mountain by noon. Because if you are on the peak at the summit when lightning strikes, you’ve got some problems. Time it so that you can start early in the morning and you are off the peak noon.

So when I come out here, I just find that I eat healthier, I lose weight, it’s kind of like a cleanse. I think toxins build up when I am living on the East coast. They just do. But when I am out in Breckenridge, I am able to catch up with better eating and exercising everyday. Losing a little bit of weight that I may have put on while on the East coast.

That’s why we love it here! The sheer beauty of what’s going on here.

So Jason, I hope that answered your question. Thanks for asking that.

3. Amalgam or composite? – Jarrod Thomas

As most of you know, I am a dentist by profession. I don’t practice dentistry anymore but I am trained as a dentist. I am licensed as a dentist. And I am also a dental motivational speaker in addition to what I am doing here with The David Madow Lifestyle Show. So I think this question came from a dentist 😉

Amalgam are the old time silver mercury fillings that we used to put in people’s teeth. They look dark and grey and are made of metal. Composite is a tooth colored plastic resin filling that is bonded to the tooth instead of being shoved into the tooth like an amalgam.

This is not a dental podcast but since he asked this, it’s very interesting. To this day, there’s a lot of controversy out there. There are dentists that believe that every person should have all amalgam taken out of their mouth because it’s toxic and it’s dangerous. And even if the amalgam (mercury/silver) was placed in your mouth 20 years, some people are saying that you’ve got to get it out because it’s leeching mercury vapor and is possibly causing all kinds of possible medical issues, disease, etc.

Now, I don’t have the answer to that. If I were a practicing dentist today, I would absolutely not be doing any mercury fillings for sure. But would I be taking them out of everybody’s mouth that has them if they’ve been there for 20 years and look fantastic? I’m not so sure. There are two camps. Some docs say you’ve got to get them all out and others say no if they’re not causing any problems and there no leaking and there’s no decay around them, leave them.

So I am not sure. I don’t have the answer. Some of the smartest people on both sides make excellent arguments. So I just don’t know. In my mouth, I think I have one tiny amalgam filling. Am I going to get that ripped out and have it replaced? I don’t know. I haven’t done it yet. We’ll see.

There’s some compelling stories though from people that say they had all kinds of problems and once they replaced them with composite fillings, they say their problems all went away. So I don’t know. Who am I to say? But thanks so much for that question Jerrod!

4. How long did it take to rebuild your life when when you were going through the worst of times in a motel room? – Mallory Henderson

Many of you know, if you’re regular listeners, back in 2000 or 2001 I left a marriage that was a 23 year marriage. It wasn’t working for me. I’m not here to bad mouth anybody. That’s not what I do. But let’s just say, it was bad for me and there were some serious issues. If I stayed in that marriage, I don’t know what would have happened to me. I might have died one day soon prematurely because it wasn’t working for my health, for my body, for my psychological make-up. There were some bad things going on. I will say that.

So I left the situation. As Mallory indicated, I was kind of homeless because I didn’t have a place to go. So I found a motel room several miles from where we lived and I just checked in and lived there. I can’t really remember how long but fortunately a lot of that part of my life is just blacked out. And that’s maybe a good thing.

Suffice it to say, I was miserable. I lived in this motel room. I had a car a remember that it was winter so it was cold and snowy and sleeting outside. I would drive to work from this motel room to my office every day. I was depressed and it was just horrible.

There came a point where I knew I couldn’t stay in the motel room any longer. That just wasn’t working at all. So I found a townhouse that I rented. I think I signed a 1 year lease. And I moved in. It was fully furnished but to me the furnishings were to me really depressing and ugly. It wasn’t a super clean place. But at least it wasn’t a motel room.

But I was just depressed there. I felt bad. A lot of the people that I thought would support me when I was in my marriage, turned out to be fake friends. They weren’t really true friends. My true friends stuck with me through bad times as well as of course the good times. You think they are really your friends but when times get tough you find out they are not.

So I was in this depressing townhouse. My phone wasn’t really ringing a lot. I wasn’t talking to a lot of people. It was very tough for me. But I started going out a bit and seeing some people and getting involved with some things. There was never really a distinct date on the calendar. Over time, the feeling of being alone and being depressed and feeling worthless eventually went away. Just trying to be social and have some fun, my life started to get better and better and better. One of the most important things is that I found that it’s not about other people. I found out that I really didn’t love myself.

I had a lot of time to sit alone in that depressing townhouse and contemplate, meditate, think and learn how to truly feel comfortable within. I learned to like and love myself. And that took a lot. That was difficult! Because in the past I would always go with the program, go with the flow. I wasn’t really mindful of my whole life. I was going with the flow in my marriage. I knew in my heart it wasn’t right but I didn’t know what to do. So I just kept doing it. I got out of it but it took a lot of rebuilding time.

Probably after about a year of being in this townhouse, I was riding my bike one day about 4 miles away in a really cool rural area. And I found this house that said “open house”. So I parked my bike down  on the driveway and walked into the house and I said to myself “this is my house. I want to buy this house. This house is going to make me feel good.” Well, a house can’t make you feel good because you still have to feel good within. You have to love yourself. I can’t stress that enough. That is the most important thing. You have to love yourself. But when you come home everyday to a house that’s yours, and clean, furnished the way you like, and has your own music through a system that you installed, and you can do things like cook your own food, you start to feel a lot better.

So Mallory, I love that question and appreciate it. I could talk forever on this. But since that you asked that question, I sense that you might be going through something yourself. Some advice is to realize that it doesn’t happen overnight but you will get better. The situation will improve. You will meet better people. You will feel better about yourself. I guarantee that! I have been through all of this. I have been through hell where I thought wow, if my life continues like this I know my health would have went downhill. It would have been a disaster. So I made the change not knowing what’s going to be on the other side. People stay in the same relationship or they stay in the same job even though they don’t like it but it’s at least comfortable. It’s a known entity and they are not sure what’s on the other side. But let me tell you something. The other side is usually a lot better. If you are in a situation that you know in your heart is not right and you feel it in your gut every day. I promise you the other side will be better. Will it happen right away, no probably not. Will it take a little bit of time? Absolutely!

I can speak to this because I have been through all this. It’s been a good 16+ years now since I left a 23 year marriage and I wouldn’t want it any other way right now. There’s just no way. If somebody said to me, “Dave I will pay you 5 million dollars to go back into that situation.” I would say “screw you![Dave laughs] There’s no flipping way. There’s not enough money in the world. So I hope that illustrates how important it is to make that decision in a situation that’s really bad. I am not a proponent of divorce. I don’t tell people to go out and get divorced. Divorce is tough. It’s difficult. It’s not fun. There’s some people that might stop liking you. There’s still one family out there. I am not mentioning any names but they still despise me because this family felt that I should have remained in the marriage my entire life no matter what. They hate me. [Dave laughs]

Does it sound like a care? My life is great! I found a wonderful woman who respects me and who understands me. And who understands my family. So no, there’s not enough money in the entire world to make me go back into a toxic situation. So I beg you. You know in your heart the right thing to do.

Mallory, great question. And I really hope it not only helped you but that it helped a lot of people out there.

Hey guys, I’ll see you next week! I’m Dr. Dave and I will see you next I promise. You take care!

CONNECT WITH ME AND SHARE

“Thank you very much for listening! The show is literally downloaded by the thousands each week now. In fact, we have passed the 350,000+ downloads mark! Wow! I so appreciate you listening and sharing this show with your family and friends. I love to help people live a healthier life! It is so great that we have listeners from all over the world from the United States to the UK to Canada to Europe to Japan to Australia. I love hearing from people all over the world on Facebook, Twitter, Email, and our phone hotline too!” – Dr. Dave.

Did you enjoy today’s show? Do you have any questions for me? Do you have any comments or feedback? You are not alone! We want to help you live better, stronger, happier, thinner lives!

—> My website:

Website: https://davidmadow.com

Check out the podcasts, recipes, blog posts, and more!

—> Enroll in my goals course:

Course: http://davidmadow.teachable.com/p/goalsetting/

Learn how to design the life of your dreams!

—> Connect with Dr. Dave on Facebook:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidmadow

—> Join the Facebook group: http://www.superchargehangout.com

Check out videos of the show and send questions/feedback

—> Connect with Dr. Dave on Instagram:

https://instagram.com/davidmadow/

—> Connect with Dr. Dave on Google+

https://plus.google.com/+DavidMadow/posts

—> Tweet with Dr. Dave on Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/davidmadow

—> Subscribe to Dr. Dave’s YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/rundrdave

—> Connect with Dr. Dave and his professional portfolio on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmadow

—> Send Dr. Dave an Email:

dave@davidmadow.com

—> Share the show with a friend:

Do you have a friend that needs to hear this show and live a better life? Share this show with them and send them to https://www.davidmadow.com

 

 

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Hey there it’s Dr. D the “V!” What’s going on? Welcome back to The David Madow Lifestyle Show! I’m Dr. Dave. And I welcome you. Thanks so much for being here.

Right now I am recording from my outdoor studio right smack in the middle of Manhattan. That’s right New York City. I’m actually right in the middle of a lot of action. You’re gonna hear cars, you’re gonna hear trucks, you’re gonna hear buses, you’re gonna hear horns, you’re gonna hear loud people, but this is where the action is and I love it. And sometimes I like to be totally in solitude like on a 7 day backpack trip where no other human beings are around.

Figure this out. So what is it that I like. Do I like solitude? Do I like a busy city? I normally don’t like cities all that much except there are a few favorite ones that I just love traveling to. I happened to be here for a meeting yesterday and New York happens to be one of my favorites in the world. So when I get a chance to come here, I try to stay an extra day or so and combine it with some pleasure. I would recommend it. If you are listening to me from anywhere on this planet, if you have not visited Manhattan ever in your life or its been a long time, I recommend that you come take a look. There’s so much going on. So many cool people.

But there’s anything you want. And as you know I am trying to minimalize my life. I don’t go shopping anymore. You could come here and spend a fortune on shopping and get some great deals. But the only thing I have bought here over the last 2 1/2 days is food. No clothes, no electronic gadgets, no shoes, nothing. Nothing except food.

I am able to save extra money like that. When you don’t have that lifestyle where you’re always worried about buying something such as a new car or jewelry. I do make an exception for jewelry but the only jewelry that I wear are my beads from Desmond. I wear 3 beads that are full of energy – 3 beaded bracelets. And those are the only jewelry that I wear. I have no gold on, no expensive watch. Oh I have a Fitbit watch. So the only jewelry that I ever wear are my beaded bracelets on my right wrist and my beaded bracelets on my left wrist.

How’s your year coming so far? Can you believe that it’s already the middle of January. Things are going to go fast. I’m warning ya. So if there’s something that you want to do. Including visiting Manhattan. If there’s something that you want to do, whatever it might be; taking a trip, starting a new hobby, writing a book, writing a blog, whatever it might be. I’m going to give you some advice. Don’t hesitate! Don’t procrastinate! Just do it! Nike made millions with that slogan and I hope it’s ok that I stole it but just do it! Don’t worry about making mistakes. You will make some mistakes! Maybe if you’re starting something at the beginning, whatever it might be. Be really bad it. I was bad at so many things. I’m bad at things now as well. But the difference is I just did things.

I want to share a little story with you. I don’t think I’ve spoken about this on a previous episode. But sometimes they just run together and I forget what I talked about a few months ago. Not that I forget the podcasts but I forget if I’ve said something. So I don’t think I’ve said this before.

So here’s what I did. This goes back to the mid to late 1980’s. So a long time ago. I was a practicing dentist and I had an idea that I wanted to do something else. I wasn’t really sure what but I wanted to start another business and I truly had no idea what it was going to be.

Back in those days you had to go to the printer if you wanted to get cards or other stationary made up. These days anybody with a computer or online access can have business cards made up or letterhead or whatever with a logo. But back in those days you had to go to the printer.

So I went to the printer and I had a 1000 business cards made up with a totally made up business name. I still remember what it was to this day. I called myself DMM Management Consultants. It stood for David Michael Madow. I had my address and phone number on them. Back then there were really no fax machines yet or email, so I just had DMM Management Consultants, my name, my address, and my phone number.

Now if you were to ask me what the heck DMM Management Consultants did, I had no idea. But this is really weird. I started handing my card out to people. I didn’t even know what I wanted to do but I knew it was something. So management consultants is kind of a vague enough term. You can do a lot of different things. You could just be a consultant and help people with a lot of things. And remember I was a practicing dentist and I was pretty good with business as well.

So I started handing my card out, and as I started handing my card out and people asked me what I did, I started coming up with different things that I could do in this DMM Management Consultant business. As it turned out I had an idea a few months later to start selling a business form which I did and I started selling them by direct mail. That was like the first thing that DMM Management Consultants did. It worked. It’s the most bizarre thing because like I said when I first started I had no idea what I was going to do. This led to more things and different businesses. And that was kind of the start to my entrepreneurial career. Learning that if you want to do something, don’t flippin’ procrastinate. And don’t worry about if you’re good at it or not.

Back when I was younger, I tried my best to play the guitar. I just sucked, I was horrible. The biggest problem was that if someone said to me “Dave, you’re not good” or something like that, I took it very personally and I put the guitar down. And same thing with singing.

I think I told you this story before but I remember one time somebody told me that my singing always sounded too high. And I didn’t like that so I stopped singing. This is when I was a little kid. I picked up the guitar here and there a little bit and tried to take some lessons but I always kinda sucked and I never did much with the guitar. And I never really did much with singing until I became much older.

I tried it again when I was with my brother Rich. At first I totally sucked. I am sure I sounded horrible. To this day I have sung on stage solo, or with Rich, or with people in front of tens of thousands of people. Some small audiences and some audiences with as many as 5000 people.

The point is, I tried this. I tried it and I was not worried about how much I sucked. And now I do it for a living partly. When I speak at seminars and conferences with my brother Rich, I am on stage playing guitar and singing. And when I do my “10 Ways to Supercharge Your Life” at vegan conferences and veg fests, I oftentimes play my song that I wrote called Vegan on A Jet Plane and I play the guitar. And no I am not fantastic, and no I’m not a great singer, but I get standing ovations for this thing. So my point is not to talk about me and my guitar and my singing.

And by the way, when I first became a public speaker, I was horrible. I had no confidence. I was reading from slides. I was reading from cue cards and notes and it was horrible. I am surprised audiences didn’t get up and walk out. I’m really surprised. But they were courteous and they gave me extra energy to get better and better and better.

So what is it that you want to do? You know in your heart. What do you want to try? Whatever it is. A business, a hobby, a writer, a speaker like me teaching others, whatever it is; please just do it. Please don’t hesitate.

But this isn’t what I was going to talk to you about today. Since I am in New York, I was going to talk to you about traveling, how easy it is, and how you can do it for cheap.

So let me just share with you a few things that I always bring with me when I travel. First of all, when I travel generally it’s to someplace like New York. I will go on some place like hotels.com and find myself a good deal. Like I said during my Hippie Road Trip, you can go to hotels.com or use the app called Hotel Tonight. You can find some really good deals. I am not saying its 100%. Where I am staying in the middle of Manhattan, I got a room for $67 per night. You heard that right. I know there’s a lot of noise in the background here so you may have thought I misspoke. But no, you heard that right. And it was a nice room. Was it a 5 star hotel? Absolutely not! But was it clean and nice and in a good location? Yes!  You can do this. You can’t do it all the time. Sometimes the city is sold out and it’s more difficult. But you can do it.

I carry a lot of my own food. Granted when I am here in New York, I love to go to the vegan restaurants and check them out. Which I’ve done so far here. But I also save a lot of money on food because when I first get to a city, I find a good natural grocery store. Here’s what I do for breakfast. I’ll get some strawberries and carry them back to my room. I wash them off and cut up the strawberries. I will then get my shaker bottle. I usually carry packets of organic instant oatmeal with no sugar added. I’ll open up a packet or a packet and a half and put it in the shaker bottle. I’ll then add a little protein powder. If you’ve been listening to me for a long time, you’ll know I love MRM Protein Powder. I’ll add that to the mix. Just a couple of tablespoons. I’ll add some chia seed, flax seed, or hemp seed. And I’ll top it off with a nice portion of almond milk. About 8 to 10 ounces. I shake that all up and let it sit for about 10 minutes. The almond milk will soak into the oatmeal really well. You don’t have to cook oatmeal. I never knew this. But you can have oatmeal totally raw and it’s fine. So I let it sit for about 5 or 10 minutes. Then you’ve got yourself a nice breakfast. And it’s really inexpensive. And it’s healthier than anything you’re going to get at a diner. I promise you. I promise! It’s great!

And I bring rice crackers and almond butter. But there is something that I always carry with me that is indispensable. I am going to urge you to get this. You can get this on Amazon or at a local Asian market. Locally, in the Maryland area, check out HMart. Look for a Korean spoon. Korean spoons are longer than the typical spoons we are used to [in the U.S.]. They come in either metal or wood. I prefer wood just because it feels really good in my hand. And I carry this Korean spoon so that I can scoop out a big thing of almond butter and put it on a cracker or I can eat anything with it. I actually just used it for my breakfast that I just described to you because as it gets down low sometimes you have to use a longer spoon sometimes. It’s an instrument that I use all the time when I travel, even something that you normally need a fork for. You can use this as a fork. I love it! Go on Amazon or if you’re fortunate enough to have a really nice Asian market, especially a Korean market. 

Something else that I love is that I will go to a Wegman’s or someplace like that and get these chickpea snacks. They are dried chickpeas that are seasoned. They come in bag. And I know in the past I have said to beware of anything that comes in a bag because chances are it’s processed. I guess you could probably call this processed. But they are whole organic chickpeas, they’re just dried and spiced up a little bit. Picture that as a snack you put your hands into, it is wonderful! I carry these wherever I go. I carry almonds. You can also carry break if you like. I’m kinda on a gluten free kick. And I’ll explain why in a future episode. I’m not a 100% gluten free but I’m eliminating wheat and things like. I’m going to see if it makes a differences guys and I will report back to you. I’ve got a couple things that I want to see improved so that’s why I am kinda eliminating the bread, the wheat, and the gluten for now. I’ll get back to you and let you know how it goes.

I used to carry like a whole briefcase that had my connections, and little gadgets, and wires but now I carry one REI backpack. I’ve used a lot of backpacks for travel and this is the best one I’ve ever had. I’m thinking it was probably in the $80 to $90 range. It holds a really nice container of water. It has 3 sections. One I use for food, and I use for electronic type gadgets like this portable microphone and recorder I am recording on now. I always have it with me in my backpack. Always. And another thing I always carry with me is…? You know! What am I going to say? It’s my book of goals. It’s always with me in my backpack or my back pocket. It’s in a small pocket sized notebook. I have my book of goals and I read them every single day.

As I started off the show, I said if there’s something you want to do in your life don’t procrastinate. Put it down on your list of goals and read it every single day. I’m sure it’s going to make it easier for you to get it going.

Those are some of the things that I carry when I travel and I really am able to save a lot of money. Because again I eat a lot of food and snacks in the hotel room or when I’m walking around. But I do like to go to dinner if I’m in a different area and sample vegan restaurants. But I do not go to very expensive ones either. I just don’t feel the need to have to spend a lot of money. Last evening, I was down in Chinatown in a place called Buddha Bodai for dinner. I was by myself. I ordered a main course and it came with tea and the whole thing cost me like $9.95. I also left a tip so it came to a few bucks more than that. You can eat healthy and not have to spend a lot of money for it. You can do it. I am doing it. I’m saving the difference. I’m putting it away. I’m investing it.

And I think we’re due pretty soon for a financial show especially since we are at the beginning of the year. I want to share some things and reinforce some things about money and finances. Because again it’s all about the lifestyle. And if you’re not stressed financially, you’re healthier generally. And your marriage is better generally if you’re not stressed financially. You’ll be setting yourself up for a better life as things come up so I want to help you with that as well. I don’t want to see any of you stressed over finances. And I see a very very high percentage of people in first world countries that are stressed over financial concerns. And it’s funny how I said that – first world countries. But we’ve got our own set of problems. We have a lot of wonderful things here. Think of all the convenient things we have in all these first world countries. But somebody in a third world country is most likely not stressed out over paying off a credit card bill or how they’re going to pay their mortgage or their cable. They’re stressed out over other things like where am I going to get clean water but they’re not stressed out over going bankrupt.

Isn’t it strange? Isn’t kinda weird the way things work? Isn’t it kinda crazy? But I am going to say it’s good. Know what else I am going to say? I am going to say…see you next week! I’m Dr. Dave, Dr. D the “V” with The David Madow Lifestyle Show. I really appreciate you!

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