Episode 482 Peter Gunn Fitness, Mindset, and Veteran Success Transcript
This transcript is from episode 482 with guest Peter Gunn.
Scott DeLuzio: [00:00:00] Are you struggling to find your identity after the military that drive that purpose? It felt so clear in uniform, but now, now it’s different. Transitioning out of the military means more than finding a new job or settling in a new city. Finding a renewed sense of identity and direction becomes essential.
And today we’re talking with Peter Gunn Air Force veteran, bodybuilder, and author about reinventing yourself after service. From overcoming PTSD to staying mission focused in civilian life, Peter shares hard earned lessons you won’t wanna miss. And before we dive in, make sure you’re subscribed at Drive On Podcast dot com slash subscribe.
You’ll get my five favorite episodes sent straight to your inbox, no fluff, just the best insights to help you drive on. Now, let’s get into it.
Peter wanna welcome you to the show.
Peter Gunn: Thank you, Scott i’s a [00:01:00] pleasure to be here.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, absolutely. Um, let’s maybe just take it back to kind of the beginning of your military career. Can you share some of your experiences kind of what your time in the military was like? And, you know, you, you switched from active duty to reserves, what was the thought process there all the way
Peter Gunn: Well, I initially was in the guard, technically was in the guard for a little while, and then of course you wait to go to bootcamp. When you’re the guard, you wait to go take the test. You wait for everything. So, I, once I got the asfab out of the way, I. The recruiter said, well, you asshole.
He threw the book at me and said, here, take any job you want because you qualify. So, I picked the electrical environmental system specialists. Basically layman’s terms. You’re an aircraft electrician of fighters.
Scott DeLuzio: Okay. Excellent. Yeah. So, and was there any rhyme or reason to why you picked that job, or it just sounded
Peter Gunn: I’ve always been fascinated with mechanical and electrical things. I remember being a young [00:02:00] child, pissing my father off when I ripped the thermometer off the wall to see how it worked, you know, and, but I was just curious. I was just a very curious person and I want to see how things work and how I can improve them, make them better.
Scott DeLuzio: yeah. Well, that, no, that’s awesome. And. I, I actually heard a story from a guy not too long ago and he said. With his kids as his kids are growing up. You know, kids do what they do. Things like ripping a thermometer off the wall and you know, kids are kids, right? They’re gonna be curious about the world around them.
They’re gonna wanna explore and do all these things. And he said his son found these little little like limestone, like rocks out in front of their house. And he was drawing on the sidewalk with them and they were drawing like. Chalk. And he is like, well, if they could draw like chalk here, they could draw like chalk anywhere.
And so he went to his fa the side of his father’s car and drew this picture with these rocks, which basically was, you know, you and I would know it would scratch the paint. It’s gonna destroy the side of the car. Right. And the father came up to him and he is like. [00:03:00] Man I wanted to ring his neck, but he was like, you know what, he’s exploring this new world around him.
He was a young kid. He was, you know, two or three years old or something like that. And he is like, you know what it’s a wonderful piece of, piece of art. You know, good work. Just don’t do it again. You know, that, that type of thing, you know,
Peter Gunn: That reminds me of the time my sons got into my wife’s makeup and they look like clowns.
Scott DeLuzio: yeah. Yeah. You know, tho those types of things happen. Right. And, you know, I, I know as a parent myself. I like, I’m hearing these stories and I’m thinking, oh my God, like my blood would be boiling and everything. But sometimes I, the reason why I brighten bring this up, because sometimes you gotta take a step back and just look at the situation and be like, you know what?
It’s a car. It’s not the end of the world. Or it’s a thermometer on the wall or whatever. It’s not the end of the world. We can replace those things, right?
Peter Gunn: Well, I look at it as you get mad at a dog for barking or for a cat for meowing you, it’s a dog. It’s a cat, it’s a child, you know? So yeah, it’s what they do. Yes.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, exactly. So, so cool. So you got into the Air Force you, you kind of were expanding on your [00:04:00] tinkering you know, from your younger days.
Peter Gunn: much so. Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: and so went through your Air Force career. How was that for you? Because you joined before nine 11? I, and talking to folks who were.
In the military during that time period. Gotta imagine. It was pretty, uh, pretty, uh, stressful time period, not knowing, you know,
Peter Gunn: Oh yeah. I remember the night vividly because I wound up injuring myself. Uh, granted I was stateside put. There was an alert pad set up and the jets were flying 24 7 and one went down for a generator. And because of the alert pad and the rules, the security forces were restrictive as to what could get near the jets, so no vehicles.
So I had to carry a 75 pound generator on my back to the aircraft, about a hundred yards to get it, you know, over there and fixed. Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: Wow. Yeah. And these are the types of stories that I like to share sometimes because it’s, it, it, it shows like the amount of dedication, amount of work that, that, that goes into the military service. And, you know, it’s [00:05:00] not all the glamorous Hollywood stuff where you’re kicking in doors and you’re shooting bad guys and all that kinda stuff.
In order to do that type of work, you need people like you who are hauling things 75 pounds on their back. You know,
Peter Gunn: Yes.
Scott DeLuzio: And, yeah. So, so. You serve you know, you get through your time you decide to switch over to the reserves. Was there a particular reason that you wanted to
Peter Gunn: There, there were incidents during my time serving like in Iraq, things I’ve seen and Afghanistan, things that happened to me or almost could have happened to me that put things in perspective, changed my viewpoint, shall we say. There was one where, if I had started walking that day with my interpreter in Afghanistan, maybe a minute or two earlier, I would’ve been in the center of where a mortar hit.
And then yeah, and then it put things into perspective. Like, I might not be here if I’d started walking any sooner that day. Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And. A lot of people have these types of experiences who, [00:06:00] you know, like yourself over in Iraq or Afghanistan or other places around the world. And there’s those, I guess you call ’em near misses. You know, those types of things. Where had it been a few minutes earlier, had it been you know, a different location, had we gone this different route that day or something, you could have been in the epicenter of whatever that.
Tragic incident could have been. And you know, as we look back and you know, I know I would be grateful that, you know, hey I was you know, a little faster that day or a little slower that day, you know, thank God I was right. But it, you’re right. It changes things in your mind that it’s like life is not you shouldn’t take life for granted, I guess I should say.
Right.
Peter Gunn: Yeah. It was only like when I came back stateside, you know, I was on leave and just taking care of stuff at home and I was getting my car line. I was sitting in the waiting room, and then someone had. I guess on their phone, the incoming alarm as their
Scott DeLuzio: yeah.
Peter Gunn: And it flipped something in my head and all of a [00:07:00] sudden my heart would started racing.
I started freaking out. Yeah, it found out later, but I have PTSD from it, so, yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And you know, unfortunately a lot of people wind up with that as well. And these traumatic events, whether and reason why I’m kind of harping on these things is because a lot of times people think that people get PTSD from the from the, I’m trying to think of like, being directly involved in an incident.
I was blown up. I was shot at, I was you know, I had to kill this kid. I had to do this thing that was terrible or something terrible was done to me. But it’s not always that. It could be the, like you said, that incoming, that you know, alert alarm type thing, that sound could just be triggering a bad memory of when.
There was a mortar attack on the base that you were at, on, you didn’t get blown up. Maybe nobody that you knew got blown up or anything, but it still [00:08:00] heightened your anxiety level probably. You’re, you were stressed out, not knowing. I mean, mortars, you never really know where they’re gonna hit.
Peter Gunn: . The people that are using them, if they’re Afghanis, yes. They don’t. It’s a, it’s where Wild guess? Yes.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, exactly. They’re, they’re, they’re kind of just like, you know what, let’s point it in that direction and we will lobb it over there and hopefully it hits, you know, and so yeah, tho those types of things can trigger a reaction years down the line. And you may not even recognize it in the moment, like, why am I feeling the way I’m feeling about.
Whatever it is. It could be a sound, a smell, a sight a taste. It could be all sorts of different things that trigger this reaction in you. And you don’t have to have been directly impacted, like you didn’t have to directly have, you know, a shrapnel wound or, you know, lose a leg or something like that for it to impact you that way.
And I want people to recognize that. [00:09:00] Especially the listeners who might be veterans who maybe are experiencing something like you, you did, and it’s like, I don’t know why I never got blown up. I never got shot, I never got, you know, any of these things. So why should I be having these reactions?
Well, it’s perfectly normal. You absolutely could. Right?
Peter Gunn: yeah. And it was only later that I realized after my PTSD diagnosis that, oh, now I understood why I’m. Don’t like noises. Why I don’t like crowds and why, you know, I acting a certain, I thought it was just ’cause I was becoming an old reon or something. But you know that too though.
Scott DeLuzio: I mean, there’s probably a sprinkling of that in there. As we get older we tend to get that way right. And that’s, I think that’s just human nature maybe. But there, there’s a reason, there’s that stereotype for us. But,
Peter Gunn: Yeah, definitely.
Scott DeLuzio: But you know, when. You have those experiences, it is normal to start to say, Hey, I don’t wanna be in crowds because I don’t know all these people in this crowd.
I don’t know what, which one of these people might be strapped with a bomb or,
Peter Gunn: veterans to start looking around if they’re in a crowded room, a club, and start looking for [00:10:00] exits. You know? It’s almost automatic.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, exactly. So, you know, and I’m saying this for the listeners benefit, you know, if that’s you, if that sounds like you or somebody you know hey it’s fine. Go talk to somebody, get some help and try to, you know, work through that so you can maybe never going to forget about that incident, that traumatic incident that you’re dealing with, but you’re.
You’re gonna be able to hopefully be able to cope with it a little bit better and, you know, live life in a, you know, the way you want to. Right. And
Peter Gunn: Yes.
Scott DeLuzio: what in your situation, you know, you got the PTSD diagnosis what, what did that journey look like for you as far as, you know, treatment in that type of thing?
Peter Gunn: Well, I started looking into alternative medicine. I’ve always been raised to be your own doctor. Okay. I, my mother had a avid hatred of medical doctors, not emergency doctors. Okay. The doc that could sew your leg on. There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s fine. It’s the other doctors, you know, the primary care and.
I was raised in natural medicine, so I looked for natural ways to heal and deal with my [00:11:00] PTSD. And I found ashwagandha which is a natural herb, helps dramatically and also CBD but unfortunately it’s something that the VA won’t prescribe us.
Scott DeLuzio: Right, right. And. One of the things that I’ve come to notice is that the VA is I don’t know if it’s government in general or it’s just the VA it’s probably all government, you know, any kind of big bureaucracy like that. It’s they’re way behind the innovations, right? You have like technological innovations, medical innovations, things that are going on at.
Warp speed. And it’s like they’re still using dial up internet and they’re like buffering and they just haven’t quite caught up yet. You know, they, and not to take away from the things that they do because what they do, I think they do pretty well. And I. The people that work there not trying to take anything away from them.
They’re doing the best they can with what they have to work with, but it’s like, there’s stuff that’s just light years away that they just, I don’t know. They just haven’t [00:12:00] caught on yet, you know?
Peter Gunn: Well, I would think, you know, hopefully with our new secretary of Defense, you know, things might change a little bit. He was always advocating for it for the va especially.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And you know, I’ve heard some things, you know, coming from him that you know, sounds like he might might be doing some sort of changes like
Peter Gunn: Yeah. Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: So I wanna shift gears just a little bit here and let’s talk about your book the Amazons. Tell us a little bit about the book and kind of how maybe some of your experiences in the military maybe inspired the book and what that book’s all about.
Peter Gunn: Well, I’ve always loved the epic poetry, the past, you know, Homer, the Odyssey, and, you know, Ferno Obey Wolf, stuff like that. And they’re always there available, you know, in the bookstore. They’re, whenever they run out there, buy more automatically. And then when I had my daughter, I want, of course, wanted her to enroll her in the books that I love, but then I realized something that.
The feminine seems to be left out almost completely of the epic poetry genre. Yes, there’s love poetry. Yes, [00:13:00] there’s poetry that women wrote, but there’s nothing enrolling the feminine into the Hebrew’s journey, you know? And I was surprised. I actually started looking and I really couldn’t find much.
So I decided to take it upon myself to start writing. And do something about it, you know, to as an homage to, not only to my daughter, but to All.
the military women that I’ve worked side by side with to say, Hey, you know, I hear you. I’m here to, I’m backing you up. This is for you.
Scott DeLuzio: Excellent. Excellent. So, you mentioned the hero’s journey and I talked about that a little bit in the intro. Tell us about what that is to you, what that means and kind of give us a little context on that. Paint that picture Well.
Peter Gunn: Well.
It’s in the hero journey. There’s 12 parts to it. And basically the, in the beginning, I think all military can I. Attest to this is the call to adventure really, you know, you’re coming from the ordinary world and going to that call to adventure. So there’s that. You raise your right hand moment.
There might’ve been something that [00:14:00] happened in civilian life. You know, you got the, you gave, they gave you ultimatum jail or military, you know, there’s guys out there like that. And you have to make the choice, you know, and I want to enroll the feminine into that as well, because, you know, a lot of females, you know, especially in other countries.
Try to shelter them, but I want to say to them, you know, with the Amazons is have your own hero’s journey, you know, and it’s okay for you to step out and go do it. Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, and I think for, I. For everybody who is listening here to this, that, that hero’s journey, right? Being a hero. I think that word sometimes gets thrown out there kind of loosely. Like, and they use it kind of a broad brush painting. Everybody you know, everybody in the military is a hero.
Everybody who’s a, you know, firefighter is a hero. Everybody, you know, those types of things. And I don’t think that’s what we’re getting at here, because that to me is. It kind of dilutes the meaning of the word. When you paint it with such a broad [00:15:00] brush because I mean, let’s face it.
You, I mean, you spent over 20 years in the military. You’ve probably known some people who you wouldn’t even classify as a good guy. Nevermind a hero, right?
Peter Gunn: We’ve all met those people. Yes.
Scott DeLuzio: And so, you know, when you, when it gets thrown out there so loosely where it’s just everybody is a hero then nobody’s a hero in that case.
Right? And so, so the hero what is it in, in, in your mind? What is the hero as far as this, what we’re talking about here?
Peter Gunn: You didn’t have to, so you didn’t have to give that bum $20, but you did okay. You didn’t have to give that person your kidney, but you did okay. You didn’t have to, but you did. We didn’t have to serve our country, but we stepped up and did it. We, and put our lives for years on hold.
Scott DeLuzio: Sure. You know,
Peter Gunn: that’s a key to
Scott DeLuzio: and you could take it even a step further, you know, within that. Group of people you know, you didn’t have to [00:16:00] jump on that grenade, but you did. You didn’t have to you know, you didn’t have to push that guy outta the way you know, as he was about to get shot.
But you did, you know, all these things, you know, tho those, yeah, those are the people the nine 11 the firefighters and the police officers who ran into the building, like they didn’t have to, but they did. And so, yeah I like that. As soon as you said. You didn’t have to. I like, just
Put that light bulb on for me and I was like, yeah, that, that’s it.
That’s the phrase, you know, when you sum up what is a hero. So you didn’t have to, but you did. And I get it. I like it. That, that makes a lot of sense. So, so your kind of real life experiences in the military you know, serving overseas, things like that, stuff that you’ve experienced were you able to kind of incorporate some of that into the book that you wrote?
Peter Gunn: Yeah definitely I looked at not necessarily specifically one person, but there in the characters is a combination of the people I’ve. Had to work with the [00:17:00] military. So there always were the ones that were, so we say like, to drink a little bit too much. Okay. Showed up late. And you know, that, that comes out in the characters.
There were ones that were always good at their job, excelled, you know, head to shoulders above everybody else. And, you know, I added that to the characters. And there were ones that you questioned, why were they there? But then they soon showed their worth. And like, oh yeah, we need this guy now. I see it now.
I didn’t see it at first, but now I do. Yeah he’s a valuable part of the unit, the team. Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah I like that. Yeah, because you’re right, there are some people like that where you look at ’em just kind of on the surface and you’re like, ah, gee, I don’t know if this person is gonna really be, you know, really gonna have what it takes to do this job. But then when it all comes down, down to it, they exceed and ex, you know, [00:18:00] exceed your expectations of whatever it is that they have to do.
And they surprise you at times. And it’s interesting to see how people can. Dig down deep and pull that out of themselves when you might not think much of them beforehand, but then they pull this out and all of a sudden it’s like, holy crap. That guy is a rock star when it comes down to it.
Right? So. When you’re thinking about, so you’ve transitioned out of the military you’ve gone through that whole process. You’ve transitioned from, you know, national Guard to active duty to reserves. You’ve gone through several different iterations of trans transitions.
Right. What advice or insights might you have for the veterans who are trying to reinvent themselves after getting out of the military?
Peter Gunn: realize that your best buddy or buddies, plural aren’t necessarily going to grow if you start growing. Okay, so you might surpass them some way mentally, [00:19:00] physically, spiritually, and they aren’t necessarily going to come with you.
Scott DeLuzio: Right.
Peter Gunn: Yeah.
And that bond that was there before the military might start to break and realize you might have to go on it alone, you know, like entrepreneurship and things like that.
Scott DeLuzio: I Well, that, that’s a actually a really interesting point. I’m not even sure if anybody’s really talked much about that on this show. Because yeah when you think about it, sometimes you get out and your buddies are still in, right? They’re still, I.
Peter Gunn: In their minds at least. Yep.
Scott DeLuzio: Well, yeah. In their minds or they may still physically be in, they may still you know, be active in the military and it’s your time to get out.
So you get out and they are still there and they’re still going on with life as, you know, business as usual. Right. And. You’re onto something else now you’re either going to school you’re finding a job you’re whatever it is that you’re doing after the military. And you’re right.
You’re growing, right? You go to school, you grow, [00:20:00] you’re growing your mind. You go to work. At some other job. You’re now figuring out, how do I climb this corporate ladder? Or whatever, you know, or you’re starting a
Peter Gunn: soon you might, pretty soon you might be more qualified than the officer that was giving your orders years ago.
Scott DeLuzio: That’s true too. Yeah. Because they’re still in that same setting and not allowing themselves to, to grow in the ways that you’ve allowed yourself to grow. And so I think that’s actually a great thing and you should definitely allow that, right? Like, don’t look at it and use that officer, like you said, don’t use that officer as your, guide and say, oh, well he’s only at this level. I can’t possibly get above that person. It’s like the hell you can’t, right. Like,
Peter Gunn: You’re capable of doing anything you put your
Scott DeLuzio: right. Exactly. You and you should, especially if you’ve put the time and effort into it, you should be able to allow yourself to grow. And even exceed past those people, not just your peers, you know, at the same level that [00:21:00] you are at the same rank or whatever.
You should be able to exceed even your superiors if you put that time and effort in to do the work to whatever it is that you need to do to get to that point. Absolutely. You should be able to do
Peter Gunn: And that’s really important too, is doing the work, becoming worthy of that position. Okay? So many people want a quick fix and they want quick fame, and they think it’ll happen, and they’ll. Now you have to become worthy of that. position you’re in. Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, for sure. And that, that means, you know, going to school and that education for whatever it is. And I’m not necessarily saying it has to be college. It could be, you know, a trade school, you know, you wanna be an electrician or a plumber or a, you know, whatever those things are great.
Go do
Peter Gunn: on the podcast.
Scott DeLuzio: or go on a podcast. Sure. Yeah. You know, or starting a podcast if that’s something that you want to do, you wanna get into.
Peter Gunn: Yep. Definitely.
Scott DeLuzio: Hone your skills. And I started this podcast five and a half, almost six years ago now. And when I started the show, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing.
I didn’t know any of the technology. I didn’t know how to [00:22:00] interview people. I didn’t know how to do any of this stuff. And I figured it out along the way. I mean, I’m not saying
Peter Gunn: Yeah. but that’s the best way to learn is figure it out along the
Scott DeLuzio: I, yeah, I a hundred percent agree. Because.
Peter Gunn: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: Part of that is you’re going to make mistakes. And I think that’s an important thing to, to point out too, is along the way, you’re gonna make mistakes a hundred percent.
Unless you just happen to get lucky and you figure it out to get it right the first time. Well, good on you. Right? Like
Peter Gunn: Well, the mistakes are valuable information you learn from it, you know, versus the ones that you didn’t make any mistakes, you didn’t learn anything.
Scott DeLuzio: Right. That’s true. That’s true. But yeah. When you make those mistakes you learn. Well, okay, shoot. Well, I just don’t do that again because that didn’t work. So now I’ve learned something, I’ve learned what doesn’t work, and I think that’s as valuable almost as what doesn’t work or, sorry, what does work?
Because it prevents you from wasting your time on those other things that don’t work. Right.
Peter Gunn: Yeah, definitely.
Scott DeLuzio: An interview that I’ve done with a guest, if the topic that we’re talking about is so [00:23:00] far off the wall, left field kind of nonsense conversation that the listeners are like, well, we don’t like this, and they don’t listen to it, I’m gonna look at my information that, the statistics, I’m gonna say, okay, well I’m not gonna do another episode like that because that didn’t work.
Right.
Again you need to have those kind of failures. And I use failure kind of loosely, but those things that didn’t quite go the way you wanted it to, in order for you to learn that information without having an episode like that, I wouldn’t learn that information. And it’s gonna make it so that, you know, I’m more likely to make that mistake again in the future.
So, so pay attention to the feedback that you’re getting from the world around you, whatever that may be. You know, go and, go to school. Pay attention to the feedback that you’re getting from your teachers or professors, whatever. You know, what are your grades looking like?
They, your grades are shitty. Well, you’re probably not studying very well, so figure out a different way to study. Don’t keep doing the same thing.
Peter Gunn: Oh Yeah. I, know, like I, had to write, I rewrote the Amazons eight times so far. So it was a [00:24:00] process.
Scott DeLuzio: I, yeah, that, that’s a great point too. The book that I wrote I started it. Going one way, like a direction in time, kind of working its way backwards. And then I completely rewrote it to have it go the opposite direction as, as far as the timeline went. And I, because I was reading it, I was like, this is confusing even to me.
And I was the one who wrote it. And so it’s like, if it’s confusing to me, it’s obviously gonna be confusing to everybody else, so,
Peter Gunn: I’ve gotten into literal arguments with editors over one word, and it was absolutely ridiculous because it’s poetry. I will use words that rhyme a lot. Okay. And we argued over the word on purse because it is technically a word. Okay. But everyone knows what it means. Okay. And I like, oh, this is an argument of like, and like, no, I refuse to, you know, concede, I’m going to leave it in. Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: That’s funny. Yeah. So in addition to all this other stuff that we’ve talked about so far you’re also in, into bodybuilding you know, obviously very successful with [00:25:00] that. I. How did that come about? I mean, I gotta imagine hauling 75 pound generators on your back probably had something to do with it, but
Peter Gunn: Yeah. Yeah. The military duty the da, the Daily Grind helped, but I still went to the gym every day. You know, it helped with discipline. I was already working out, you know, when I joined the military, I was already in love with Bothy, bodybuilding, you know, as a sport. And, the, when the discipline kicked in at bootcamp, it was an easy transition.
It’s like, oh, okay. This is simple. I mean, you want me to do 111 pushups in one minute? Fine. Okay, no problem. You know, and it made things easier. And then it, it’s, it makes life easier as a whole to stay in shape.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. It absolutely does. And I’m, you know, as I’m getting older I’m realizing this too, you know, you, you take for granted your youth sometimes
Peter Gunn: Yes. Yes, you do.
Scott DeLuzio: when you can eat. Crap. And your metabolism is high enough that you, it doesn’t affect your weight whatsoever. And then you get a little bit older, your metabolism starts to slow down.
You’re like, man, I had that one extra thing, and [00:26:00] I feel it now. Like it’s there. And then if you’re not exercising you’re starting to get weaker. You know, your muscles start to you know, get re reduced in size. I don’t know whatever the right term is for that. But you know, they.
They’re not being used. They’re going to disappear on you
Peter Gunn: You know, one thing that’s very alarming is a lot of veterans will stop working out immediately as when they hit the retire button, you know? and,
then if you look at statistically. Two years, three years, four years down line after that, the ones that stop working out, heart attack strokes across the board.
It’s increasing and it’s, you know, if you put yourself there, you need to maintain it to keep yourself there.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And the thing that I always think about, like whenever I go to the gym and it’s like one of those mornings where it’s just I don’t want to do it. I don’t want to get up. Yeah. I’m just ha I just had a rough night’s sleep maybe, and I just don’t wanna do it but I force myself to go anyways.
Right. And I think to myself, like, how much hard work was it to get to where I’m at now as far as my [00:27:00] physical shape and stuff? And if I start letting that slip even for a day, because when you can justify a day, you can justify a week when you can justify a week, a month, you know all that you can continue justifying, not exercising, not taking care of yourself for forever.
And when. When I have those kind of moments, I think like how hard was it to get to this point? How much hard work time and e effort and energy every morning, getting up and exercising. And I don’t wanna let that slip away, so I have to go back and do all that hard work over again just to get back to where I’m at now.
Like, if I’m gonna put in the hard work, I wanna get past here, I wanna get more advanced than where I’m at now. And so that’s the kind of thing that goes through my mind when I see people who are just like, you know what? Screw I’m out of the military now. I’m gonna just take it easy.
I’m not gonna go exercise and maintain what I
Peter Gunn: Well, y you know, there’s the difference between people that play act, so they’ll do it because it’s a part of the job. Okay. And [00:28:00] others that have. excessively integrated into their lives. Okay. They, you know, if someone comes up to you, says. Who are you know? And then you automatically, you know, autonomic system kicks in, you automatically say, I’m this, and this.
And one of the things is, you know, I’m a marathon runner, I’m a bodybuilder. I’m a, a, you know, avid crosstrainer refrigerator, you know? So, if that’s not there, then you aren’t that. If it’s not automatic, you’re just pushing it. You’re pretending It
Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. Well, that’s true too. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So, so looking back at your life, you’ve gone through several kind of reinvention periods of, you know, in your life, you know, going from one phase of the military to another, getting out of the military, writing a book, bodybuilding, all these things.
What would you say would be one of the biggest challenges and maybe even achievements during this, these transformation periods?
Peter Gunn: Um. It’s always a next step and it never ends. Okay. There’s always, I mean, some might say it’s like being on the hedonic treadmill, [00:29:00] but that’s for those that seek wealth and fame. Okay, that’s fine because it’s, but it’s, there’s always another step. So if you’re truly into your calling, your destiny, feeding your heart.
Not your pocketbook. Okay. Doing good to others, you know? There’s always another step. It’s always gonna get bigger and more challenging, and you have to be prepared for it. Yeah. It never gets easier.
Scott DeLuzio: Right. Yeah. And I think that was kind of what I was talking about before with the exercise too, is that when I. You, you go from, I’ve been sitting on the couch for the last five years. I haven’t done a single pushup or even ran a single mile or anything like that. And then you decide to go, okay, I’m gonna go get in shape.
And it’s hard from that point, right? But then you get better and better, and you get to a point where you’re better than you were when you were still sitting on that couch. But it’s still hard. It. You still have to do hard work because now you’re lifting more weight or you’re running [00:30:00] faster or you’re doing more.
Right. If you were to go back to do that same exercise, that very first exercise that you did, coming off that couch. That exercise would be rather easy for you at that point, right? The weight would be less the speed would be lower. You know, tho those types of things. It wouldn’t be that much of a challenge.
But you need to keep challenging yourself and pushing yourself to do faster, better smarter, whatever the thing is that you’re doing. And I’m not just talking physically, it could be mentally, it could be whatever it is. You have to find those things to keep pushing yourself to get better, right?
Peter Gunn: well, the easiest way to do it is to look back on yourself a year ago in the past, and then if you’re not surprised, like, wow, I did all that, or even five years like that, I’m not, then you start not recognizing yourself. You’re the new self, but you don’t recognize that old
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. Right.
Peter Gunn: In fact, you might look down on that old person, okay, then you’re on the Right.
path.
Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. Because when, yeah. When you look back and you see [00:31:00] this person who could barely run a mile and now you’re doing a marathon or something, right. Heck, that, that’s something to be proud of, right? You’ve made that achievement of going from one, one place to another and or you could, you know, barely do a pull up and now you’re doing.
You know, 15 pull-ups or so, you know, whatever you’re able to do that, that’s amazing. You know, that you should be proud of that. And those are things that I think everybody should be able to look back on, like you said and say, you know, am did I make that kind of transition? Am I better than I
Peter Gunn: Those are the people that don’t have depression because they’re forward moving forward. Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: I like that. Yeah. You know, that is a thing to. Be proud of of yourself to look back and it’s like, that’s an achievement. That’s a milestone. You know, I made it not I made it because like you said, it’s a continuous thing. But I’ve gotten to this point where I’m able to finish this marathon to this point where I’m able to do whatever it is.
Um, and that, yeah, [00:32:00] you’re right. That’s something to look back on and be proud of and not be depressed about. Like, those are good things.
Peter Gunn: Always in the past and anxiety is always in the future, so stay in the now and keep moving
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. Right? And if you’re looking back and you’re seeing someone worse off than you are now then you’re good to go. But
Peter Gunn: Not in the right
Scott DeLuzio: yeah. Yeah.
And if you’re not seeing that and you’re realizing that you’re on the wrong path, that gives you a little kick in the butt, a little motivation to, to say, Hey, I need to make some changes here. Right.
Peter Gunn: Yeah. It’s kind of come from you, not your therapist. Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And that’s another thing I’ve realized too over the years is that you can have the greatest therapist in the world. And if you’re not willing to put in the time and effort and energy to do the work to get better, whatever better looks like, this goes not just for, mental health therapists, for anything, for your career, for your physical health, for any whatever it is that you want to make an improvement on.[00:33:00]
If you’re not willing to put in the work, it’s probably not gonna happen. You know? No. Nobody’s gonna, nobody’s going to lose the weight for you. Nobody’s going to, change your mindset for you. You have to be able to do that yourself.
Peter Gunn: you could always tell that people didn’t put in the work. You know, they’re thrust into fame of fortune, but. They’re not deserving of it. And you could tell what it, when it comes down to it. Yeah,
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah becomes, rather obvious to, to see some of the people who, are sitting there with, rightfully so with imposter syndrome.
Peter Gunn: Yes.
Scott DeLuzio: So, so looking, for the listeners who are kind of hearing about you, about your story, things like that, they want to maybe get ahold of your book or follow your journey, things like that.
Where can they go to find out more about, about you? Find your book tho, those types of things.
Peter Gunn: You could go to Amazon Kindle, just type in Peter Gunn, the Amazons. It’s also on Audible and we are currently redoing the audiobook right now. And we’re getting all live actors. We’re gonna do a live audio drama [00:34:00] of it being played out real time. So it should be like listening to a
Scott DeLuzio: Oh, interesting. And I’ve heard some books that have, multiple speakers, as they’re being read for the audio book and it. It makes it a little bit more interesting than just the same
Peter Gunn: does. It does.
Scott DeLuzio: throughout the whole thing. And maybe it’s a, man who’s reading it and then there’s like a female, who, who says something and he just talks in a little higher voice and it’s like it’s really not
Peter Gunn: It doesn’t bring you in. It doesn’t hold your attention as much.
Scott DeLuzio: That’s cool. Glad that you’re getting that put together. ’cause that, that I think definitely will make it a little bit more interesting. So yeah, we’ll put the links to, the book in the show notes. Anything else that you have that you wanna share that you wanted to maybe we didn’t get a chance to cover?
Peter Gunn: Well, just feel free to step on my website, www.petergunn.net. You can see I put all my projects up there. I’m currently also working on a graphic novel. It’s gonna be launched in July.
Scott DeLuzio: Okay. Excellent. Well, we’ll have that link on there as well for the listeners and we can [00:35:00] certainly send ’em your way. Let us know in July when the book comes out. We’ll help get the word out there. Peter, it’s been, great chatting with you.
Hearing about your journey. I think it is inspiring in a way, hearing, how just the mindset of, looking forward instead of looking back, you know, let’s not worry about the past. Let’s look at how can we do better in the future and move forward.
And I think, a lot more people would be well-served to. Have that sort of mindset. So I do appreciate you, coming on, sharing that, sharing about your stories from the military, and reinventing yourself, after the service. I think that’s really awesome.
So thank you for taking the kind time to come on the show and, and sharing your journey. Thank
Peter Gunn: Oh, Thank you. Scott. I appreciate. you being here. Let me be
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, absolutely.