Episode 190 Mark Booher Warrior Mindset: What it is, why it’s important, and how to develop it
This transcript is from episode 190 with guest Mark Booher.
Scott DeLuzio 00:00:00 Thanks for tuning into the Drive On Podcast, where we’re focused on giving hope and strength to the entire military community. Whether you’re a veteran, active duty, guard, reserve, or family member, this podcast will share inspirational stories and resources that are useful to you. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio. Now let’s get on with the show. Hey, everyone, welcome back to the Drive On Podcast. Today, my guest is Mark Booher. Mark is a former infantryman intelligence professional and a licensed attorney. He’s trained units from the DOD, DOJ, Fortune 500 companies, and officers from over 60 police departments around the country. He contributes to the Counter Terrorist Magazine and hosts the Pearl Snap Tactical Podcast. Today we’re gonna be talking about developing a warrior mindset, which I think is pretty important because a lot of us after getting out of the service, kind of forget that warrior mindset that we might have had while we were in the service. Also for the civilians out there who might be listening, those who might want to, develop a stronger mindset like that. So welcome to show Mark. I’m glad to have you on.
Mark Booher 00:01:07 Hey, Scott. Great to be here.
Scott DeLuzio 00:01:10 So why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background for the people out there, the listeners who might not be familiar with who you are.
Mark Booher 00:01:20 I was kind of a wild kid growing up and I really didn’t have purpose or direction and kind of was, kind of that stereotypical problem child getting in trouble. I always knew I wanted to go to the military and I’d had a lot of friends that had gone and family members, so, but that was kind of it back in the days before YouTube or anything. So you didn’t really know what I was getting into. So I just kind of went down and signed up and it was a really good adventure, the best thing I ever did. It really did a number on me to straighten me out and really kind of create a drive and ambition to want to do things to want, to accomplish, to challenge myself in ways that I just never had done before.
Mark Booher 00:02:07 I wanted to make it a career. I drank the whole Kool-Aid wanted to make it my career and I ended up kind of getting injured. I got out and I really didn’t have a plan B and I really didn’t want a plan B, but I learned the importance of whether you want to or not. You need to have a plan B maybe even a C and D. I went ahead and finished college and then I ended up going to law school and I was a deputy prosecutor for about six years and it was a great job. Of all the jobs that I had, that was probably the closest to a military type of environment, not intended, not in terms there was no physicality involved with it, but just the camaraderie of that office.
Mark Booher 00:02:57 We were very close. We spent a lot of time together and it was just a great experience. I had numerous jury trials and tried to hammer bad guys and keep my community safe. I had everything from hot checks to homicide really over those six years, but the military was just still very much in my blood and I just couldn’t let it go. Even though I tried to kind of put it at rest. I just worked on the next 10 to 15 years, even more really just trying to figure out these injuries and trying to rehab ’em, the doctor said you’re never gonna run again. That’s just kind of behind you, but I just kind of kept going and finally was able to rehab those injuries or at least manage them enough that I went back in. I actually went back in, but this time, not on active duty, but into the national guard and pursued some really good opportunities there. I’m going on my fifth year there.
Scott DeLuzio 00:04:00 You got out after being injured. You spent some time the next, you said 10, 15 plus years, you were rehabbing trying to get better. Basically not giving up on right. The military was still one of those things that was in the back of your head. You wanna keep going with that. Your body was not exactly allowing you to. But you weren’t taking no for an answer too easily. That’s kinda the gist of it.
Mark Booher 00:04:29 I just couldn’t and there’s a lot of heartache and a lot of disappointment, and then I got to a point where I was almost too old and I was kind of buttoned up against that as well. I just managed to do it. Do have some of those recurring injuries and some of it’s just from being older, too, right. I mean, you kind of got a different body, decades later than you did when you were 19 to 20. Some days you wake up wondering what version of yourself you’re gonna be that day, but you just kinda learn to adjust. I mean, that’s life, right? You just have to learn to adjust and you’re just gonna have to find a way to win.
Scott DeLuzio 00:05:13 I know what you’re talking about, getting older and having a different body. The other day I went to give my son a hug. I leaned down and then as I was standing back up, I felt something in my back. I was like, what the heck was that?
Scott DeLuzio 00:05:30 The 20 year old version of me would’ve been like that, what are you doing?
Mark Booher 00:05:34 Exactly,
Scott DeLuzio 00:05:35 But now the 40 year old version of me is, well, you gotta gotta be careful with who you’re hugging me.
Mark Booher 00:05:46 For real.
Scott DeLuzio 00:05:47 So it sounds like you had that, that never quick kind of mindset. Your body was giving you all these warning signs, these red flags saying, Hey, maybe you need to slow it down a bit. I don’t think so, this is still something I’m gonna do. So is that kind of that warrior mindset that we, we started talking about kind of in the, the beginning here, is that, that what you’re talking about or is there, what, how would you define the warrior mindset?
Mark Booher 00:06:14 . I think the irony of it is, prior to the army, I quit everything in my life that I ever did. I was the consummate quitter. That was one thing I really excelled at pre army. Then once I got in, I couldn’t quit anything, even though there were pros and there’s kind of a double edged sword to that, right? Once you begin to find the value and make commitments and stick to them and be a person of your word and things like that then you can run into the problem of overextending yourself. There’s only 24 hours in the day. You gotta sleep, you gotta eat there. I had those issues too, and kind of learned to balance that.
Mark Booher 00:07:06 But, getting back to your question of I guess to me you get the phone book, if you ask 20 different people probably get 20 different definitions of what a warrior mindset is. But to me it’s just the capacity and the willingness to, to face adversity. To push through, or metaphorically to die valiantly in the process. What do I mean? If it’s a goal and if it’s an endeavor, that’s righteous,if it’s noble, if you, if you believe in it, and it’s the right thing,being willing to just kind of die on that hill metaphorically I think kind of that hero’s journey. if you’re familiar with that, to me, that’s what it is to me. That’s how I see it,
Scott DeLuzio 00:08:06 Give it your all give it a hundred percent, you, you might fail in the process, right? In your rehabilitation for your physical injuries, your body might have just told you, Hey, there’s, there’s no way this is happening. You gave it your all and so you can’t possibly look back on that and say, well, I could have done more. I could have done this. I could have done that. You did all that. You got to be the best version of yourself that you possibly could. It wasn’t like you were, what, I’m not gonna do my rehab today because it’s raining out. I don’t feel like getting outside and, whatever it is, you’re gonna do it and you’re gonna push through. It’s that kind of attitude, right?
Mark Booher 00:08:51 I think it’s always easier if you can find that purpose, that endeavor, whatever the goal is I think I have found with me, it seems like that’s where the energy is. That’s where the power comes from. Not that you necessarily feel strong all the time, because sometimes you are at your weakest or you feel like you’re weakest. You feel like you can’t go on another inch. I think if, if the goal is worthwhile, if the, if the drive is there,I don’t know. It seems like you just find the energy to do it
Scott DeLuzio 00:09:29 I think that’s the key when we’re talking about people on this podcast, a lot of times we’re talking about people with PTSD, we’re talking about people with substance abuse problems. We’re talking about all sorts of issues that people are coming back home with after they’re getting out of our service or coming back from combat or whatever it is that they’re, they’re coming back from. They’re dealing with a whole host of different issues. When they might recognize, Hey, I have a problem. I need to go get some help But then they quit on that help sometimes. I think the key thing is what you were just saying, or is that if the goal is a noble goal or righteous goal, if it’s something worth fighting for you don’t quit on that.
Scott DeLuzio 00:10:28 In these cases where there are people who literally their families are depending on them getting better. , they’re depending on you to fight for that. If your spouse, your kids,whoever it is that’s in your life, that’s part of your family. They’re sitting there waiting for you to get better so that you can provide for the family so that you can take care of things around the house, take care of the kids, take care of your spouse, whatever it is you fight for, you do whatever it takes, right. To get back to that, that point where you can take care of things.
Mark Booher 00:11:06 You hit on something really, you’ve talked about getting help and quitting on the help. I think sometimes when people start thinking about warrior mindset or you drive not quitting and moving forward, that somehow they maybe may feel that will, that that’s something that they have to do on their own. That’s not true. I’ve been on three continents, I’ve worked a few different jobs. I’ve traveled all over the country, working with law enforcement, or other military guys or whatever. I’ve rubbed elbows with a lot of successful people. A lot of people who worked for that success. I can’t really say that I found too many that did it on their own completely. I think I’m a huge history nerd.
Mark Booher 00:11:59 Even if you go into history, I’m actually even bigger into myths and legends, and the kind of religious history of ancient peoples. If you look at their myths and their lore, you’ll see a recurring motif. Joseph Campbell kind of wrote this down in a book called the hero with a thousand faces, but you’ll see, what’s kind of termed the archetypal hero’s journey where, the hero leaves this town, he’s gotta go slay the dragon. He’s gonna go conquer the evil kingdom or whatever it is. But along the way, he realizes that he doesn’t have it. He’s missing something. If we look at star wars and I’m talking about the original Star Wars, Luke finds Obi Wan Kenobi and Yoda,then Obi Wan Kenobi gives him the light saber, but he still has to learn how to use it.
Mark Booher 00:13:03 Obi Wan Kenobi teaches him and sometimes, and then Yoda takes over or no matter what story you look at, every, if we look at the order of the rings, you got little from backs, but he’s got Gandolph right. That’s kind of co and AOR. That’s kind of coaching him and mentoring him along. I mean, you just see this time and time again. I think every good story, that’s a blockbuster. I think it’s a blockbuster cuz it hits on those themes that we just recognize inherently in ourselves that you never outgrow your need for a mentor. So, that mentor or that help can come from a variety of sources for me. I had chiropractors, medical doctors, physical therapists, I mean I had about a whole team and I spent thousands of dollars over the years trying to get my body back where I needed to be.
Mark Booher 00:14:00 A lot of it was spent trying to find out what was at the core of these injuries that were keeping me from being able to run? We looked at surgery, We looked at this, I had surgery and things like that. It wouldn’t help. For me that was one aspect. You have other people that might be supported as far as coaching you on and giving you kind of emotional encouragement, things like that. But whatever it is, you have to find someone that can help you navigate what your problem is. It could have been someone that was there, but four who dealt with it. Or maybe it’s a professional depending on if you have psychological or emotional trauma that you’re trying to work through, whatever it is, if you’re starting a business, right.
Mark Booher 00:14:47 I mean, you have to find somebody there’s somebody out there that knows the answers to your questions. Now you’re still gonna have to do the work. You can’t hire someone to do your pushups for you. I think that’s probably one of the biggest things that I see where, where people fail or maybe where I’ve failed is where I didn’t avail myself or go in search of the help that I needed, And that sometimes becomes a journey in and of itself. But again, if it’s something you really want, if it’s for your better health, a better business, better relationships, whatever it is, excuse me, you have to find that
Scott DeLuzio 00:15:29 Because nobody’s got all the answers, right?
Scott DeLuzio 00:15:33 No one person is gonna have all the answers or even if they have the answers, they may not have all the skills to do all the things. So you might be able to Google the symptoms that you were having for whatever your medical issues were, but you’re not gonna perform the surgery on yourself. That would just kind of be ridiculous. Try yourself. I got this and shadow whiskey.
Mark Booher 00:16:02 Don’t have whiskey on it. Put a bandaid on it.
Scott DeLuzio 00:16:08 Then you’re back into it. It doesn’t work that way in real life. You brought up a lot of good points. I wish I could pay someone to do the pushups for me. But you can’t do that. You’re not gonna get any stronger doing, you’re just gonna get broke.
Mark Booher 00:16:28 Well, what would it be worth though?Even if you could, what would it be on earth? I think that isn’t that one of the problems though, that we have in the society, that we’ve got a whole generation of kids that were handed trophies that didn’t work for it. What do I mean? I have the same temptations,sometimes, I wish I could just get the prize without having to drag the dragon. But that’s what makes the prize worthwhile. That’s what gives value to it is yep. Is what you suffered and sacrificed, and bled to get.
Scott DeLuzio 00:17:05 It makes you appreciate it a whole lot more when you get to that end result. When you struggle and you suffer through it. If it just came easy to you and you woke up tomorrow morning and you, you were ripped and you had muscles that you went to bed not having and you, all that kind of stuff. You woke up and you’d be like well that’s cool. You don’t appreciate it. You don’t appreciate all the hard work that went into it. And then when it comes to maintaining that, you think to yourself, okay, well, I worked this hard to get here. I don’t wanna lose this. So I’m gonna keep working at it to maintain it because if you just woke up magically and you had all these, these muscles and your fit and everything like that. If it came that easily, why would you work to maintain it?
Mark Booher 00:17:57 To riff off of that a little bit, then no matter where you’re in your stage in your, in your progression, I mean, there’s always something wrong with you. That’s gonna be bigger than you. The first enemy that you fight is really preparing you for the bigger enemy that you have to fight. So if you did, like you said, you woke up and you were so strong and all that and you didn’t understand, well, you, didn’t not only appreciate the process, but go through it because you’ve learned things and it equips you for the, for bigger challenges. Well, if you had just kind of skated through, then you would still be in the same spot you got. I got that thing, but now I have this in front of me and I don’t have it. I don’t know how to deal with it. I don’t have a roadmap or I don’t even know how to get ready for it,So you have to look at things holistically.
Scott DeLuzio 00:18:55 It’s like cheating on a test in school. You might get an A, if you’ve cheated on the test you might pass the class, but then the next year you go to the next class. You’re that next level up, and you don’t know the stuff that you’re supposed to learn from a year before, and now you’re supposed to do that. Next thing. That’s the next level higher. You’re not doing yourself any favors by, by doing that. I don’t think we’re realistically Going to cheat our way to this, but I think it’s more about the maintenance of this type of thing. You have this mindset to never quit and do what it takes to accomplish whatever the goal is.
Scott DeLuzio 00:19:36 I think that includes reaching out to other people, reaching out to a therapist, if you need mental health help reaching out to a trainer, if you need help in the gym, reaching out, a nutritionist, if you’re having trouble losing weight or whatever it is,use those assets that are available to you and some of them, you’re gonna have to work for some of them you’re you might even have to spend some money on some of them you’re gonna have to, you’re gonna have do some things that might be uncomfortable, but if you do, if you just continue doing what’s comfortable, you’re not gonna get anywhere other than where you’re at right now.
Mark Booher 00:20:20 I guess the next thing is people think, if I don’t have that drive, how do I get it? How do I develop that? I think there’s a few things you have to kind of go in open or eyes open to the fact that. Well, if we’re gonna go down this journey there’s gonna be suffering involved. There’s gonna be a struggle and sacrifice, there’s things that you’re gonna have to say no to, there’s things you’re gonna have to say yes to that are potentially uncomfortable and painful. You have to find a certain comfort level being in that, being in that state or else you’re not going to. I don’t do a lot of mountain climbing. I don’t know anybody that’s climbed a big mountain that said, man, that was intense.
Mark Booher 00:21:16 Didn’t get out of breath, didn’t find it was work. I mean, there’s gonna be work and effort. When I started my business, my training company, even though I knew other entrepreneurs and other people who had been in business and as much as they could understand what I was going through and were supportive and gave me good advice at the end of the day, it was still a very lonely journey. If you were in a room full of people there, it was still something that you, or me only, only I was going through because it was my business. It was me. Even if I had contractors or people that I was working with, it was still me making the decision and everything fell on me.
Mark Booher 00:22:05 It’s a very lonely road and that was something I wasn’t expecting at all. I had to become accustomed to that, that, that was the price of being able to have these awesome opportunities that I’ve been able to have and do these things that I’ve been able to do is just that that’s it’s still the same. It’s still like that even now, but it’s just now I’ve kind of grown accustomed to it and stronger because of it.
Scott DeLuzio 00:22:40 You got uncomfortable with that, or you got comfortable with that uncomfortable feeling of, of that. Oh basically all the decisions fall on you. I think you hit on a good point. There are people like contractors or employees or whatever who are able to do the things that you don’t have the skills for. Maybe it’s marketing or it’s building you a website or the things that, that maybe you’re strong at you go and you find that, that community of, of people who are going to be able to help you out. It’s the same thing that we’re talking about with doctors and therapists and other trainers. Whatever the case may be. It’s the same idea. There’s, there’s things that, that you’re not gonna, that you’re not gonna go do surgery on yourself. You’re not gonna maybe build the website. You’re maybe not gonna create pretty looking flyers and brochures and all that kind of stuff. People who can at least you can find those people. They’ll be able to be the ones who can do that stuff for you.
Scott DeLuzio 00:23:54 It’s kind of like, there has to be this culture but this group of people kind of in a similar mindset who are able to have that, let’s get this job done. Let’s work towards this common goal and work together to get this type of thing done.
Mark Booher 00:24:14 I mean, that’s optimal, but there might be some people saying I don’t have those resources. I don’t have those things. I would say I’m right there with you because yeah. I have had folks that could help me, but there’s still, I mean, I do 90% of it. I have to learn how to do it. There’s things like aspects of marketing or creating certain things that are copied or things that it’s not in my best skillset. It’s not really, maybe in my wheelhouse, but I had to learn it and just be okay with what I gotta do. It’s good enough. At some point, push it out so that I can get up and do the things that I am good at.
Mark Booher 00:25:00 I think what it all comes down to is regardless of what your resource, you have resources, even if you’re the resource. Whatever it is, you have to find a way to win. You have to approach the pop, the public that, or the problem with, Hey, if someone’s done it, then it can be done. If it can be done, then I can do it. If you think, and if you’re starting out at the bottom wrong where you don’t even have that kind of confidence, and then you have to start somewhere and you have to start building some successes, right. Even if they’re very small things, very, very small things, but you start building a track record of your success. Then you look back on it every once in a while. And you’re like, I did that. You start betting on yourself over time. Just always bet on yourself.
Scott DeLuzio 00:25:57 I think that’s really the point of this whole podcast. Not just this episode, but the every episode that we’ve done before this and the ones that we’re gonna do after the, the whole point is to talk to other people who have been there in, in the same kind of situations that some of the listeners might be in. They’ve experienced a situation they’ve worked their way through. They’re here sharing their success stories, talking about the things that they tried, all the different whether it’s going to therapy, whether it’s getting outdoors, whatever the thing is that they’re doing, they share these things. So now the listeners are hearing this and saying, okay, that person did it. Hopefully they can say to themselves, why can’t I do it?
Scott DeLuzio 00:26:52 Give them the confidence to say, look, there’s something out there. Maybe it’s not the thing that you heard in this particular episode. Maybe it’s not this episode, but maybe the next episode or the one after that, maybe there’s something out there for you that maybe you just didn’t try yet. Maybe you just didn’t even think to do whatever that thing is. And once you try it now, you can say, okay, this works, this doesn’t work. Okay, cool. If it works great, excellent. We found the thing. If it doesn’t work, all right, we’ve checked that box. Now you can put that behind you and you can move onto the next thing and you can try something else until you find the thing that works. But it’s really just that never quit attitude and just keep on working at it until you figure out what works.
Mark Booher 00:27:37 that you kind of hit on is you really, if you really feel like you’re really at a loss, if you really don’t have the confidence, if you really don’t feel like you have the resources within yourself, then your first step, I think is you have to take control of the way you talk to yourself. You have to take control of your thought life. BeCause I think what, something that holds people back, it all holds me back. Sometimes if I’m not careful, right. This isn’t something that you just master once. It’s an enemy that you constantly confront. You have to take control of your thought life and the words that you say to yourself and you think, well, that’s just positive thinking.
Mark Booher 00:28:28 That’s just fluffy talk and what if I tell myself I can do these things and then I fail anyway. Well, I mean, you’ll definitely fail if you, if you surround yourself and invest negativity in yourself, I don’t know anybody that’s ever been successful in anything that constantly had a negative attitude or a self-talk. The way that they coach themselves. You have to be your best fan. You have to be that internal coach. It’s not just about just pumping yourself up. I think all of us years ago have watched enough American Idol auditions of people who’ve told themselves I could sing and they get up there and they embarrass themselves or they should be embarrassed themselves. I’m not saying put yourself in those types of positions.
Mark Booher 00:29:22 You gotta be an honest broker with yourself, you can learn to sing. You may not get a record deal, but you can get better. But you’re gonna have to seek that help out, but it is amazing what can happen though. Once you do take charge of your thought processes and the stories that you tell yourself. I’ll tell it to myself. It’s kind of funny. It’s slightly embarrassing, but it proves the point. But so I had like a 15, 20 year break in service. I came back. I Went through an infantry course and one of the things you had to do there was a 12 mile ruck March. About the 12 mile ruck March, I’m sure you’ve done a couple.
Mark Booher 00:30:14 I hadn’t been on a Ruck March in like 20 years and there were several other events I had to prepare for. I focused on those and I really didn’t do a lot of rucking going on, but I had done a lot of it way, way back in my twenties. I knew it was gonna suck, but I knew I could do it. I realized what a challenge it was gonna be. Because I had to. I didn’t have time to get ready for it. So I had to focus on the other events and other things I had to do. So here we go. I’m with all these 20 year old dudes, I’m in my forties. It’s zero five we’re stepping off and it’s super hot in the summer.
Mark Booher 00:30:59 All of a sudden, I’m a two miles in man.. I am like, every pour in my body has opened. My uniform looks like I’ve jumped in the creek. I’m not kidding. I didn’t have a dry stitch of cloth on my uniform. I’m looking at these dudes around me and the sun is starting to come up and I mean, they are dry as a bone man. These cats look fresh, man. They haven’t even started yet. I can feel my pulse in my, sometimes you feel that pulse, that vein throbbing. I was like, oh my gosh, man. We had to pass this thing in order to pass. I just told myself, I’m like, and I don’t know if this was the smartest thing, but I just, I couldn’t help it.
Mark Booher 00:31:45 It wasn’t something I generated, just a thought that went in my head, as I said to myself, I was like, care if I die out here. They’re gonna have to carry me off this trail in a bag. I’m not going to quit. I don’t care if I die. I did that. What was amazing is I think once my body realized that I wasn’t gonna quit very shortly, I did the other 10 miles man, and now I’m not saying they were pretty, It broke it off in me. I mean, and now I can do 12 miles regularly. It’s not a problem. Right. It’s just, at that time, I wasn’t ready, but the mind, the mind is really amazing, it’s almost magical what it can do for you, if you will take control of it.
Scott DeLuzio 00:32:40 When I was out of the military, I took a break from any kind of physical exercise, anything.I was that stereotypical veteran where I gained weight, I got outta shape and everything like that. I realized I was like this, this is probably not the best thing for me. I got back out to running and the first day that I went out running again, I think I made it about a half mile before I was doubled over about the puke all over the side of the street. I was like, what the hell happened to me?
Scott DeLuzio 00:33:15 Where is the guy from, however many years ago that was maxing his PT score and doing yeah. Phenomenal with that. Like where is that guy? I gotta pull that guy back out of the closet because this is not gonna cut it. I don’t care how many times I puke on this run. I set a goal to go run a certain distance. I’m going to go do that. I’m not turning around now just cuz it sucks. I’m going to do it and I’m gonna finish this. I didn’t puke, but it was, it was one of those things where it was like, I felt like it pretty darn close if I kept going too much longer, I probably would’ve.
Mark Booher 00:33:56 I think that kind of goes back to what we were saying, like building that track record, so, okay. You had a big break in service, but you knew you could do it at one time. You knew, you knew you could do it. It’s tough now, but it certainly wouldn’t advocate, somebody go out and do something extremely, whatever their goal was, just kind of go off and have never done anything. You could hurt yourself. You could cause some damage, but there is something to be said for, if you’ve got a track record of what you’re capable of and maybe you’re not at your best performance, you can kind of slog it out just right. Getting over the mental hurdles. And then if you say, well, I don’t have a track record on that stuff. Well then start building a track record, start small and then start building it up from there. It’s really, what’s so funny is that the answers are very simple. They’re just not easy, but they really are simple.
Scott DeLuzio 00:35:04 It has simple answers. It’s simple for someone to tell you, okay, well start small, you’re having trouble running five miles, okay. Start with one and work your way up to two and then work up to three and just have those baby steps and get yourself worked up to that so that you can do that. It’s easy to tell you, tell someone that, but then, then again, the person telling you isn’t out there doing the run. Sucking through it as well. Or know it’s easy to say, oh, well,just go talk to a therapist and they’ll, they’ll help you. But the therapist is gonna have you do some rather uncomfortable things, yeah. Get to the root of whatever it is that’s going on with you.
Scott DeLuzio 00:35:45 That person’s not sitting there in the room going through all that uncomfortable stuff too. It’s easy to say. But putting it in practice and actually doing it is, is a hard way. But again, that hard work is what makes it worthwhile. What gives it meaning? At the end of it, when you go and look back at all the suck that you went through to get to where you’re at now, you’ll look back and be like, what I did that’s something to be proud of.
Mark Booher 00:36:15 I mean life is so short. We’re just vapor here. What a shame, I think I really do believe that people just have virtually unlimited potential and if they will get themselves on the track and start, start moving in that direction, that they want to go and not quit it. What a shame, that so many people are content to just play video games or just really stay in whatever miserable position they’re in. I think over time too, that can become a comfortable place to be, even though it’s painful, we kinda get used to it.
Scott DeLuzio 00:37:00 That comfort is really a killer when it comes right down to it. I mean, what do they say when you’re deployed, when you’re in a combat zone that complacency will get you killed. It’s kind of the same idea here, like you don’t want to just, sit back and rest and just take it easy, playing video games, eating crap on a couch and not doing anything with yourself because it’s not gonna help you any. It’s not gonna help your physical health. It’s not gonna help your mental health. It’s not, it’s really not helping anything. You’re really just wasting time.
Mark Booher 00:37:39 I mean, not to sound morbid, but we’re all dying each day. I mean, it could be tomorrow, it could be 20 years from now, but when this day’s done, that’s one less day that I have here. So we’re dying every day. So make sure you’re living as well.
Scott DeLuzio 00:37:58 We, everyone, have a fixed number of days on the earth. We don’t know what that number is. I’m kind of grateful that I don’t know what that number is, but, I don’t know what that end date is gonna be, I think if we, if we waste any of these days, if we’re sitting there on our deathbed, however many years now, and we look back and we’re like, man, I’ve wasted a lot of time just yeah. Screwing around playing video games, not to not doing anything worthwhile.. Was this really a life worth living? What have I done with myself? What can I show for myself? I think it’s important to make the most of what you get doesn’t mean you have to be out there every day, working yourself to the bone.
Scott DeLuzio 00:38:48 For sure. But do something that works towards something that you can be proud of, right?
Scott DeLuzio 00:38:55 So you went to school, becoming an attorney is not an easy thing to do. That’s not something like you can just snap your fingers, like we were saying just wound up passing the bar and, get it and, your schooling done and everything like that, you, you can’t do that. You have to work hard at that. I gotta imagine having this warrior mindset probably helped you get through, not only just the education part, but also the, the long hours, the, the, the work yeah. All that kind of stuff that you were doing too. How, how did that help you?
Mark Booher 00:39:36 I would say it might be easy for some people, but it wasn’t easy for me. So case in point, I’m not a good test taker and you have to take this entry test called the LSAT. I have no idea what it stands for, and I can go with my whole life without knowing what it is for, but it’s the L L S a T and they only offer it, I think, three times a year. I can’t remember, but I had to take it three times. Maybe they offer it once a quarter. I forget what it was, but like I had missed the first one. So I had only three times or else I was gonna have to wait another year. I had to take that thing three times.
Mark Booher 00:40:19 Now. I know plenty of people, they took it one and done, and I wish I could have been part of that group. Would’ve saved me a lot of headache heartache, but I wanted to go to law school and I knew, I knew I could, the only thing standing in my way was this stupid test. I was gonna make it happen. I basically had to study the whole year, but I did it,I got in, and then, my first, my oldest was born at the beginning of my second year. So I was juggling being a new dad and still trying to navigate a hard academic course of study for me. I did it and if I can do it, anybody, anybody promise you, anybody can.
Mark Booher 00:41:09 I definitely had to dig in and say, Hey, look, man, I’ve been in tighter spots before.It just comes down to self talk. I’ve been in tighter spots before I’ve done these things. I can do this. it’s not that it’s not, when you talk about taking power of your self talk, and the things that you tell yourself, it’s not that well, every day you’re walking in like a Disney movie where you got little birds chirping in your ears and everything’s fine. I mean you have some really dark days, but it’s just that. Like we said, with the mindset, just that willingness to just keep going, right? The willingness to continue slogging through one more step, because one more step is getting you closer to your goal and eventually you’ll run out of pavement and you’ll get to where you need to be, just in time for the next thing that you want to tackle.
Scott DeLuzio 00:42:09 I’ll be that much easier to tackle the next thing, because you’ve already accomplished that, that previous thing. You’ll have that tool set in your toolbox. You’ll be able to work towards that a little bit easier. depending on what the goal is maybe completely unrelated, but, but you’ll, you’ll at least have the confidence knowing that, Hey, if I apply myself and I push towards this,I can do this. E everyone who’s listening to this, who’s, who’s been in the military, we’ve all gone through boot camp or basic training, whatever you wanna call it. If you’re like a lot of people who are going into it who weren’t in the best of shape going into basic training, it wasn’t the easiest time for you.
Scott DeLuzio 00:42:56 You might have had to struggle and suffer and really dig deep to try to figure out how am I gonna get through this? But you did it and you figured it out. So if you can figure out something like that and maybe basic training isn’t the right example for everybody, but maybe there’s something else out there for somebody. It could have been something that you did on a deployment. It could have been some other hard training that you might have done, but if you could do those things and you could really find, find the, the way to dig down deep and be like, okay, I’m gonna do this no matter what, I’m, I’m gonna do this and you get through and you do it, you can, you can do just about anything. I think it’s really just a matter of having that mindset.
Scott DeLuzio 00:43:40 Well, Mark, it’s been a pleasure speaking with you to and talking about this and I really, really do enjoy having different people’s perspectives and the way that you have this attitude, that never quit attitude. This warrior mindset. To me, it really just makes it really drive home to say,, there’s just nothing that you can’t do if you apply yourself. To me that is just incredibly powerful. I’m hoping that the listeners take something away from this app. where can people go, the listeners go to find you online, wherever else you might be so that they can reach out and follow you for more information, if they are looking for it.
Mark Booher 00:44:29 My website is www.Bartisdefense.com., that’s one of them, $25 fancy Latin words. It kind of means roar right as or I took it from, but Bartis defense.com. We’re on the social media channels on Facebook and Instagram. Then our podcast is Pearl Snap, a tactical podcast.
Scott DeLuzio 00:45:05 I’ll have links to all of that in the show notes, but anyone who’s looking to check it out you don’t have to jot all that stuff down. I’ll, I’ll have the links easy for you to find, and we’ll, we’ll get you all hooked up there. So thanks again, Mark, for being on the show and sharing this information with me and the listeners, I think it was really valuable, and I really appreciate your time.
Mark Booher 00:45:26 Hey, thanks for having me on. It was a lot of fun.
Scott DeLuzio 00:45:29 Thanks for listening to the Drive On Podcast. If you want to check out more episodes or learn more about the show, you can visit our website DriveOnPodcast.com. We’re also on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube at Drive On Podcast.