WARRIOR WEEK

Coach Sam’s special guest in this week’s epic episode of Warrior Week: Parables from the Pit, is Coach Tony Blauer, creator of the SPEAR system - Spontaneous Protection Enabling Accelerated Response.

Coach Sam welcomes Christian Davidson to the show today where their in-depth conversation leads them to share stories & experiences that uncover destructive patterns and behaviors of men in today’s society. Parable #1: Turning Points Christian was initially introduced to Warrior when he received a text from his friend that read, “You’ve got to check out this video! This guy’s crazy!” Christian found Garrett’s message riveting & compelling and wanted to feel the certainty and fire that Garrett was displaying. His buddy suggested they do Warrior Week together but in the end, it was Christian who ultimately reached out to Coach Sam, forever altering the trajectory of his life. ASK YOURSELF Describe a significant turning point in your life.   Parable #2:  Freedom & Fire In the years leading up to his immersion into Warrior, there were areas of Christan’s life that he felt had slipped and fallen; where he experienced subtle change and erosion over time due to his choices and stories. This brought with it heaviness, disappointment, and guilt that built up and clogged his energy. After Warrior, Christian experienced freedom and fire as he used the tools of Warrior, coupled with the accountability he found within the brotherhood. ASK YOURSELF Where in your world have you awakened to and noticed subtle erosion over time?   Parable #3: Stacking Obstacles As a teen, Christian had established a strong foundation in certain areas of his life through his choices and daily disciplines which continued through his 20s. In his 30s, as he took on more responsibility with marriage, children, and business, those disciplines shifted. Like many men, Christian began feeling shame and guilt as he started moving away from those disciplines and moved deeper into a pit. How does this happen? How do we find ourselves suddenly out of a routine that has been working so well for us for many years?   ASK YOURSELF What daily routines & disciplines did you change or give up once you entered into your marriage? Why?   Parable #4: Define Your Outcomes When men get married, most begin focusing on their business and body at the expense of their relationships and spirituality. Why? Because the hustle of business and body can be easily measured, while results in the areas of relationships and spiritually are built around assumptions and comparisons. In the 90 days post-Warrior, Christian was able to define for himself what successful outcomes looked like in all four areas of his life, including the oft-times difficult to define areas of relationships and spirituality, a practice he continues to find life-altering. ASK YOURSELF How do you define success in all areas of your life? What are those definitions based on?   Parable #5: Isolation Twenty years into his marriage, Christian experienced a divorce. His feelings of self-worth had dropped, and looking back, he felt he didn’t handle circumstances well at the time. “When I should have been communicating more, I communicated less.” When things inside of his business began crashing, instead of slowing things down and opening up to his wife about their circumstances, he doubled down on work and kept it all inside to try to protect her and their four children from the stress of it all. ASK YOURSELF What do you keep from your spouse in order to “protect” them? Parables from the Pit: “ You’re uncomfortable in the presence of truth because you’re a fucking liar. What if you began to practice the art of telling the truth? “ — Sam Falsafi “Wake Up Warrior is a unique tribe of powerful men, unlike anything we normally associate with in our day-to-day associations & connections; a tribe of truth hunters who are seeking expansion in every area of their life. “   -Christian Davidson

In this week’s special episode, Coach Sam and Coach Maximilian Mormont have a riveting conversation about Max’s myriad adventures & world travels, poignant turning points, mastery & family, and… Coach Sam makes an important announcement and commitment to Max. Parable #1: Blood Money In 1996, an accident that claimed the lives of two of his college friends became a turning point for Max where he began playing the ‘fuck you’ game. “God, you saved me…but, why?” He began putting himself in harm’s way after receiving settlement money from the accident and poured this ‘blood money’ into drugs. For a time, he traveled the U.S. dealing drugs and spending time with high-level athletes until deciding to return home to his mother. QUESTION How does this resonate with experiences in your life?   Parable #2: Turning It Around Max’s choices after returning home led him from the possibility of facing involuntary manslaughter charges to probation and ultimately to be in the position of wanting to turn his life around. He became a bartender, went back to school, got into bodybuilding, personal training, coaching, managing major gyms, helped develop CrossFit football, and found his way into Olympic weight lifting. QUESTION What has been a turning point in your life?   Parable #3: Mastery Sam: “It’s four years of your fucking life dedicated to two fucking movements day and night: clean and snatch. That’s mastery!” Max: “It’s 10,000 hours. And if you really look into the mastery of 10,000 hours of something, the reality is, you actually have to put time into something. QUESTION Where in your world are you devoting time to becoming a master at something? Parable #4: Train For Something Sam had an experience with Max’s wife, also a coach, where she instilled in him the necessity to train for something vs going to the gym or working out without having a target in mind. Max: Training for something doesn’t necessarily have to be training for fitness or health, it could just be discovering and understanding how your body works and taking ownership of it. QUESTION What are you currently training for?   Parable #5: Cyclops As Max entered Warrior, he began wondering, “What the fuck am I doing here? Everything’s pretty good in my life; what do I need to fix?” What Max discovered was a spiritual path, unlike anything he had experienced up to this point in his life. After the men had been directed to draw Light & Dark Warrior in their journals, Max drew a picture of Cyclops to represent his Dark Warrior. At first, he wanted to erase it until he realized that his drawing was the perfect representation of himself with the one eye mirroring his laser focus once he hooks onto something. QUESTION What does your Dark Warrior look like? Parables from the Pit: “When I first met Max several years ago, I was a sedated mother fucker who traveled the world with my Blackberry and suitcase and had a feeling of significance.” — Sam Falsafi “ People want to get strong until the weight gets heavy.”   — Coach Maximilian Mormont  

Warrior Week 52 graduate, Jason Kehler, and Coach Sam have a conversation about Jason’s journey over the past ten years, and how his introduction into Warrior through a message that pierced his heart ultimately opened the door to massive change inside his life and his marriage. Parable #1: Lack of Connection What Jason was experiencing at the time he was first introduced to the message of Warrior was a lack of connection with God, a lack of connection with his wife, a lack of purpose inside his business, and a feeling of shame for his nearly 300-pound body. Over time, he had filled his life with victim stories, particularly one involving his wife that caused him to drift away from her for ten years. During this period of time, he felt that none of the issues he was facing mattered or took priority. QUESTION Where in your world are you experiencing a complete lack of connection with a significant person or relationship?   Parable #2: Cracking the Shell Jason began delving deeper into Warrior via the various podcasts and books, which eventually led him to Kings Kit. It was through a protocol involving his family that ultimately prove to be a poignant turning point in his marriage. It was in the sharing of his feelings with his family that cracked open the hardened shell around him. This propelled him into the reality that his involvement inside of Warrior could actually be life-changing. QUESTION What was the turning point in your life that began to turn things around for you? Parable #3: Before & After After having experienced zero date nights with his wife for the past six to eight years – and perhaps only two to three sexual connections a year – Jason and his wife are now experiencing regular date nights and regular sex. Their discussions and collisions are enabling them to take a look at the things that have been impeding their growth and are now clearing them off the table. Their conversations have turned from ‘what do  I  want’ into ‘what do  we  want?’ QUESTION What does your ‘Before & After’ look like? What are the decisions and actions that created it? Parable #4: Two Sides of the Coin Coach Sam: There’s how you felt and what  you  experienced, and there’s also how your wife felt and  what she experienced . Where is her pain? Where is her pit? Who took her into her pit? Who is guiding her? Jason: I didn’t show up for her. I had no empathy for her, and I left all the responsibility to those who were caring for her. These past six months have been about recognizing this, stepping up, claiming responsibility, and expressing to her my need to have her at the core of my life. QUESTION When you take a step back, how have you been showing up inside your relationship? Parable #5: Faith & Focus When Jason looks back at who he used to be – a ‘man’ who was not showing up for his wife nor his children – he is blown away that she never left him. “I can only imagine that her faith in God is what kept her here.” Waking up every day with a focus on his wife and making deposits into her has allowed them to compress time and rebuild the connection & the spark between them. QUESTION What has kept you or your spouse inside a marriage that is seemingly ‘over?’ Parables from the Pit: “The puzzle that you have in front of you doesn’t tell you that you lost ten years; what you have is a blueprint for the next forty years.” — Sam Falsafi “When you get to the place of knowing that you’re enough, that’s an incredibly epic place to be after you have spent decades not feeling that.”   -Jason Kehler

Coach Sam and Warrior Week #52 graduate, Don Burris, have an in-depth conversation about important & relevant topics not often discussed with men and share significant insights in this week’s special episode of Warrior Week: Parables from the Pit. Parable #1: Obligation or Love? As men, at what point are we transitioning from being boys & teenagers into men? As fathers, how are you showing up for your children – as a supportive dad or like a fucking teenager? If you do show up as a dad, is it out of obligation and expectation, or is it from a space of love and wanting to empower your kids & your family? QUESTION How are you showing up for your children?   Parable #2: A Matter of Time Bedtime routines are unique to every family, yet inside of that, there’s this common belief that children should be in bed by 6:30pm, something Coach Sam vehemently disagrees with and questions. When men arrive home at night and the kids are already in bed, that’s a problem that needs to be addressed. If men don’t speak up about this to their wives, the future will surely hold regrets in the hearts of the men for the time they lost with their children. QUESTION What is the bedtime routine at your home? Are both you and your wife in agreement with it? Parable #3: The Forgotten Ones Children and their feelings are oft times the overlooked commodity when it comes to divorce. Many fathers, in an attempt to ‘find happiness’ again, begin spending less and less time with their children and more and more time searching for happiness in the arms of other women. Who really knows the struggles of children as they are thrust into this new situation? Do they struggle with darkness or being bullied? Significance or popularity? Before they drift off to sleep, what are their thoughts? What are they feeling? QUESTION What can you do to open up the lines of communication with your children about their feelings? Parable #4: Let it Flow The valve of the male heart gets shut down pretty early, where we don’t know where to pour all of this pure love & energy we feel as a kid. As a result, we begin restricting the flow of love. This ultimately leads to kids shutting down their hearts and lying during the time of their lives when they should actually be opening it wide open QUESTION What do you remember about this when you were a kid? Do you see the same thing happening with your children? Parable #5: Awareness Don: Inside the pit at Warrior Week, my heart was on fire again. I was aware of all these things I had suppressed, all the demons and lies I had created. Coach Sam: Our imagination is the source of that creation; the source of our fucking lies. When something happens, we imagine, we assume, and then as alpha males, we justify in order to back that fucking imagination. Awareness eliminates imagination. QUESTION What was your experience inside the Pit at Warrior Week? Parables from the Pit: “There’s one fucking time, and that time says, love.” — Sam Falsafi “I used to think my heart was my enemy; now my heart is my sword and my shield.”   –Don Burris