From Near Death to Being Truly Alive With Danny Bader -

Prepare to be inspired, motivated, and empowered to conquer any obstacle that comes your way. Remember, you have the power within you to create an extraordinary life! Today, Adam sits down with Danny Bader, the best-selling author of Back to Life and the host of the Back to Life podcast. Danny’s life took a transformative turn after an extraordinary near-death experience. Prepare to be inspired by his remarkable journey from the depths of despair to a life of immense vitality and purpose.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Danny’s near-death experience
Surviving tragedy and moving forward with resilience
The five principles of the jackrabbit
Developing a vision that can save your life
Practicing visualization to achieve your goals
Connecting with God and finding peace
The difference between just living and being truly alive

Episode Highlights:

[03:47] A Near-Death Experience

Danny had a near-death experience when he was almost 29 years old, working on a roofing job, and being electrocuted, resulting in his death and revival through CPR, during which he felt a sense of calm, communicated with a divine energy, and made the choice to return after thinking about his mother and girlfriend, ultimately helping his friend until paramedics arrived, but leaving mysterious holes in his feet and a discrepancy in his friend’s recollection of the incident.

[12:04] Don’t Life Like It’s Guaranteed

Life is fragile and not guaranteed. We take for granted the simple bodily functions that keep us alive like our heartbeat and breathing. But as Danny’s experience shows, our lives can change in an instant. We should live with more awareness, presence and appreciation for the gift of life. Don’t waste time on things that don’t matter. Focus on what truly fulfills you. Lead with love in all you do. Love is the greatest energy we have and the foundation for truly being alive. Marcus Aurelius, considered the last virtuous emperor of Rome, shared a quote that struck a chord: “You could leave this life right now. Let that determine what you do and think and say.” It reminds us that life is a precious gift, not something to fear, but rather to embrace and empower ourselves in the present moment.

[32:31] The Five Principles of the Jackrabbit (JCKRBBT)

The Five Principles of the Jackrabbit (JCKRBBT) that Danny developed to help him move from despair to fulfillment are:

Develop vision – Having a clear vision for where you want to go is important. Visualize your goals and future to motivate yourself to take action.
Be still – Stillness and quieting the mind allows your spirit to settle and reconnect with God or spirituality.
Know thyself – This means understanding your values, mindset and spiritual connection. Are you living in line with your values? Do you have useful thoughts? Are you connected to something greater?
Seek support – Seek support from others and also be supportive. Community and loved ones are important sources of strength.
Evolve – Have a learner’s mindset. Be curious and open to growth and change. Trust that life is a journey.

These principles help create fulfillment in life through goals achievement and resilience through difficult times. They encourage action, spirituality, community and an open mind.

Resources Mentioned:

www.dannybader.com

Danny’s Books

Back to Life: The Path of Resilience

The Daily Stoic

Transcript

loves the greatest energy we have you know for ourselves and for one another and that’s that’s what brought
me back so the message I take is well that’s it man we’ve got to Lead With Love
to the best of our ability and then you know fill in the blanks on life you know work make money you know do all those
other things it’s all good it’s not uh it’s not so much what you do it’s how you do it right
hello everyone and welcome to the flow over fear podcast where it is our mission to help you to rise above fear
and realize your ultimate potential in leadership and life I’m your host Adam
Hill and it is my goal to share with you the human side of high performance my
guests share their experience with fear anxiety struggle Challenge and most
importantly despite all of it how they Rose above it to achieve incredible
results so if you’re ready to rise up let’s get started
hey everyone welcome to flowover fear thank you so much for being here as we have a great show today and we’re gonna
have a great great conversation with my guest you know a few people actually experience the shift in perspective that
comes from a near-death experience and my next guest today has had his life
transformed by one such experience and it was the beginning of a journey of helping people to go from just living to
being fully alive uh Danny Bader is the best selling author of back to life the
host of The Back to Life podcast in a highly sought after speaker teaching people to invest in themselves develop
vision and leverage useful thoughts to build momentum in the midst of monotony he has become a trusted voice for such
organizations as Marriott lincolnfinancial Comcast Merck and many many many others I had the chance to
personally hear him speak recently and his story and message resonated deeply with me and I wanted to have him on this
show to talk about a story and share some of his Jackrabbit principles with us and we’ll get into that and talk a
little bit about what that what that means uh so we’ll learn all about that and I want to thank you for being here
Danny thanks so much for being here I appreciate it yeah it’s my pleasure Adam thanks I was uh certainly happy to cross
paths with you as well it’s cool when Kindred Spirits connect like that definitely well that’s that’s the thrill
of kind of being in in this in this industry I don’t know if you feel this way but like with with you know being a
speaker talking on stage you get to experience other speakers as well and learn a lot in the process so yes won a
few professions so so I’d love to and and what I heard in your story when you were on stage was was incredible you
know you you were uh uh you you had this near-death experience where you know you almost didn’t know that you were you you
had lost your life I’d love to kind of dig into that a bit and maybe talk a little bit about
about who you were before the accident and how you transformed
yeah great so I I had the tragic accident my buddy and I when I was almost 29 so 30 years ago and um I was
kind of drifting in life I graduated college and I lived in Colorado ski Town Aspen for a little while and I had a
girlfriend on again off again and I I just didn’t know that I wanted to commit so I certainly was in kind of a state of flux in my life and
one day at the end of the day I was working for two brothers who had a roofing company and me and one of the brothers were
lowering a metal ladder and we thought we were clear of the electric lines as it turned out we weren’t we hit them by
probably about less than two inches was the margin of error and it had an awful
lot of electricity in it about seven or eight thousand volts and that came down and went into both of our bodies and it
killed both of us I was dead according to an eyewitness there that worked CPR the other brother
um probably you know six seven eight minutes he he said somewhere in that range you were dead
um and then I came back to life you know my friend didn’t so he was 36 with three kids
you know Mary just beautiful man husband father son brother just great dude
so um as soon as the electricity hit me I had this absolute calm and peace
because as if I knew I was dying and and I knew I was dead I didn’t have any any anger any fear or anything like that and
I saw the other brother coming down the ladder on the roof so the one brother with me that got hit with the
electricity I didn’t see him I saw the other brother coming down because he heard the ladder hit the you
know it popped when it hit the wire and I remember yelling to him get your brother get your brother
and then my my soul Spirit consciousness you know I’m not tied to any label I
have my label for it and and the listeners might have their others but there’s an energy inside of us that
really makes us go that’s what I believe you have your heart and your brain and your lungs
and they’re they’re kind of you know the engine of this body you need them and then there’s that fourth energy that
Divine energy in the best way for me to describe it is it left I felt myself leaving my body
and I was joined with um you know my source of this I call it
God again people may call it something else and it was very hard to write about in
the book because I was trying to describe in our English language and experience that is not describable in
our English language so my editor said just you know keep going we’ll get it right and I I corresponded I had a
communication with this source and I didn’t want to come back I had a choice to stay or come back and I didn’t
necessarily want to come back and because it was more beautiful than than what I’d ever experienced here yeah
and I said cosmically I guess in thoughts or whatever what about my mom and what
about my girlfriend Lisa at the time and as soon as I expressed that I was right I was back in my body I just I was back
in my body it was like somebody plugged me in again and then I heard Stu the one brother working on his brother
so I crawled up next to him and he said how are you here and I said I don’t know what you’re talking about but I’ll help
so I started doing mouth to mouth Stewie was doing chest compressions and then the paramedics and the police got there
and they cleared us away and I looked pretty good you know they didn’t know that I had been dead and back
and I went and sat against the fence Adam my feet were killing me I looked down and I had little holes in my work
boots so I took them off I had holes in my white socks with black around there and then I had holes in my feet four
holes two in each foot on each side and there was no blood
so the interesting thing and I use that term interesting because it’s the only one I can kind of think of Stu comes
over to me then and is like you know what the what happened and I said I guess we hit the wire and he said yeah
you did I heard it and I said I know I saw you coming down the ladder I was yelling to you to get your brother and
he said what and I said I was yelling to you to get your brother and he said now he said you didn’t say anything he said
I came to you first you know you were laying on your side I rolled you over your eyes are all rolled back foam on your mouth you know you were dead I
tried CPR for a few minutes and then I I you know I just said to myself we killed Dan you know Dan’s dead so that’s when
he went and called ran across the street and called for help you know no cell phones back in 92
really right right so that’s the uh that’s the the quick version that’s that I mean it’s it’s a story
that a lot of people don’t don’t experience of course and a lot of people don’t hear about and I know there’s a lot of questions that that would come
from that but but you know just just thinking about that and and and you know kind of the tragedy that that happens
amidst that um I you know I I wonder kind of what
what was that first experience of of you know you had this jolt of electricity go through and I say that lightly because
yeah I mean that’s I can’t imagine I stuck my finger on a light switch yesterday and got shocked and it was you
know enough to set me back but it’s like getting 7 000 volts is incredible how uh
um when you say that you have the choice to come back what is that what does that
look like I mean I know it’s hard to explain and I guess terrestrial ways but but yeah what does that look like yeah
it really was that that innate knowing and it was it was far beyond how we know in this life yeah and you know certainly
when I came back we’ll get into that Journey because that was the that was the most difficult part moving through
that um when I came back though I started to read more about near-death experiences and I would certainly speak with people
who had them and see if there were similarities and a lot said that they had that choice to stay or go and I mean
and that’s the best way to describe it really for us to understand and though I’m pretty much convinced that when I
expressed love for my mom and my wife my girlfriend then my wife now yeah that’s what put me back so what I take away
from that right why why I’d offer this to the audience is for me it’s love
‘s the greatest energy we have you know for ourselves and for one another and that’s that’s what brought
me back so the message I take is well that’s it man yeah we’ve got to Lead With Love
to the best of our ability and then you know fill in the blanks on life you know work make money you know do all those
other things that’s all good it’s not uh it’s not so much what you do it’s how you do it right right right and what is
what does love look like to you like how does how does having had that perspective and that shift yeah how do
we experience and show love in this world that that would almost be like Divine love that you’re talking about
yeah that’s it that’s it I think I think for me it is um just a connection to
that something bigger to God and to know that that is love and that we all have
it in US so to lead with love is to have that connection you know one of the things I work on all the time because I’m
certainly not perfect and is to just really see the the Divine
spark in everybody right if somebody cuts me off in traffic if somebody’s rude to me in a restaurant
whatever it just really look and say man in there is that same energy that’s in
me and we’re all kind of connected on this yeah you know yeah yeah that’s so yeah and and how has your perspective
changed from before like so so when you before you had this accident uh what was
the shift and was it immediate did it take some time did you go through some uh some emotional challenges after that
yeah yeah it took some time brother yeah it was not immediate you know I had a really easy life up until that I’m one
of eight children my mom and dad are still alive you know we had the the crap that every family has to deal with yeah
but for the most part we were very cohesive group we had a strong faith you know my mom and dad instilled a strong
faith in us and you know I played Sports and and I went to high school and I went to
college and you know I got grades and everything was pretty easy and then it’s not right you know so I
think my perspective shifted over time and while the accident was a foundation
for that there was a lot of other events in life that continue to happen you know when I got married and then you know
marriage is difficult so you go through some struggles there then you begin to lose some people you know I lost a couple people younger
and then you know I’ve lost some people now in our 50s and early 60s yeah so I think it really secures for me that this
beautiful life in this journey that we’re on is not guaranteed and you know that’s
kind of the message right right right you breathe about 23 000 times a day and
your heart beats about a hundred thousand times a day and those bodily functions are automatic
they’re not guaranteed and that’s pretty much the core message that I offer people is don’t live like they’re
guaranteed because I have before and every now again I slip into it do not live like this life is guaranteed yeah
and that shouldn’t be a morbid thought you know yeah for like a motivational speaker you know you people go well
you’re off to a hell of a start I’m really motivated right now thinking about death sure sure that should be the
empowering thought yeah that should that should make you very aware and very present to to how you’re living and what
you are creating you know and how you’re loving yeah well it’s consistent with a lot of kind of the the the social media
things that you do I know you do your one one minute wisdom every day on on social media that uh two minutes or so
yeah right um yeah it draws people in uh yeah and
but and and a lot of that’s based on stoicism which kind of goes along that philosophy that that you know it’s kind
of breaking apart the the the the the the expect patients so to speak the
expectations that we need to have a good life or or that something needs to fall into place and just really appreciating
the now um is is that how you kind of gain that Foundation of that the the idea of
digging into the stoic philosophy yeah you know I think as I after the accident and I kind of always had the
foundation I was always curious about life and I was never really driven by material things
you know growing up and I guess still not not so much I mean you got to make money you know for your family and
retirement and kids and those things right um but as I as I read you know I read an
awful lot of books like you and as I read and I came across Ryan holiday who started that daily stoic and I started
to kind of dig into some of their thoughts the stoic philosophers well and again they’re not perfect their their
thoughts though we’re very consistent with mine you know Marcus Aurelius who they say was the last good emperor of
Rome right before all all kind of the band and first game right he has a great quote that I love he said you could
leave this life right now let that determine what you do and think and say
yeah so it’s that it’s that notion of man this is really a gift so you shouldn’t think you know oh I could
die right now the other side of that is right now as a gift
that’s the side that should be empowering yeah yeah yeah it’s it’s
um that’s kind of what I’ve found too is a lot of that a lot of that philosophy is I mean the root of all the personal
development that we’re we do right now is just in a different language different messages and so that’s why I love that that stuff and I love what you
post every day and by the way the book is called back to life and and so the
book that that you uh that you wrote is is you know it’s your story but it’s
based on the perspective of a different person uh so you’ve you kind of shared it in that way can you talk a little bit
about that on what you sure yeah yeah back to life was the first one I wrote It’s called The Path of resilience and
when I started to write it I started to write it in first person you know years ago I always thought about it it’s like the accident was 92 so this is like the
early 2000s you know almost 15 years afterwards and I really struggled with writing the story
true in real person because you know I’m thinking wow I’m writing a story about a
tragedy where my buddy died you know and then I was talking to a writing coach and she said well why don’t you just
make up characters and base it on what happened to you and and just weave that into a story yeah
and and I said well but then it wouldn’t be true and she said well parts of it would be true and if anybody said what
part’s true you just tell them it’s not as if you’re deceiving them and I had this breakthrough and I sat down I made up this guy Jake
and Jake is me and the first line of the book is why is there no blood and he’s
looking right into the hole in his foot and his left foot and it’s you know big hole but there’s no blood because it was all cauterized and as soon as I I did
that it kind of gave me permission to say okay I can I can base all this and kind of expand upon it and get my
lessons out you know through story which is what I like to do yeah yeah and
that’s uh it’s it’s a really powerful way of telling it I listened to I guess the first version of the audiobook that
was that had a different name but um but the uh but back to life if and that’s
available on Amazon and all that kind of good stuff too and yeah find out there yeah the first version was back from
Heaven’s front porch yeah and we could talk real quick about it so I got the rights back I had a small publisher that
helped me with that and then we we parted uh you know parted ways and everything was fine great people because
I I was starting to build the brand of back to life so I got the rights back and new cover
new title and I actually wrote a last chapter too the last time in back from Heaven’s
front porch the first version of the book Jake’s still 28 when you leave him yeah he he’s home and then in back to
life I wrote a chapter uh of his 50th birthday party oh that kind of fills in
a lot of blanks of different characters and all that’s awesome yeah I mean and it’s so well written too so I just wanna
yeah I mean it’s it’s a great great storytelling and that’s what I love is is the storytelling especially around
this you know potentially tragic event and you know and and the aftermath the
things that you don’t think about which a lot of us don’t you know have a chance to think about um I mean you you not only thank you for
that I got my editor I’m not Hemingway man I just kind of put it out there and
then I got a good editor so if anybody’s thinking about writing a book and they have all these fears right floating over
fear don’t be scared get it down and then there’s really a cool editor that can help you yeah yeah the editors are
great I agree with that having written my book there was a mess and like six edits later it was you know it was
something that was that was great um right but uh yeah so I I I love the
story and and I mean just kind of dealing with the tragedy of not just losing your own life but then you know losing the life of your friend and and
kind of seeing that seeing that Dynamic how did that I mean how did that make
you think a lot of these questions I guess that we have about death come from
the place of of the world and I guess it’s hard to a hard for a lot of us to
imagine that the grief stays here a lot of times it seems like how
um uh how did you originally think of I and I I uh how did you really think the
death of your friend you know how did that affect you as far as did you feel like you having been given the choice
did you feel like he didn’t choose to come back did you feel like there was something there how did that resonate
with you well initially we were in Two there were two positions to lower this ladder yeah one one guy was standing on
the ground behind the ladder between the ladder and the house and he would push it up straight and then the other guy would kind of walk it out because it was
a 28 foot ladder but you couldn’t collapse it it was all one length because it had the motor on it and I was
in the position where he was and you know he was doing something at the end of the day and I said I’m gonna
get a drink of water so I moved from that when I came back he was there and that was the position that
you know I think you know the intensity of the shock was was more yeah whereas
it hit me and went into me and blew me off you know he was more grounded to it so I had a lot I had a lot of guilt you
know it should have been me sure and same thing here I am 28 right trying to figure out life not married no kids
right and he’s 36 married three kids so for me it just didn’t make sense and that’s where you know my faith in God I
I threw it out in the trash can for a couple of months for sure sure because I just I didn’t believe that could happen
yeah so um you know in terms of in terms of death I I don’t want to die anytime
soon I enjoy my life I love my family you know if somebody came and put a gun
at me I’m gonna fight for my life and that said I’m not I’m not really scared to die you know like I said I would you
know if somebody threatens you you’re gonna you know fear is going to show up and you’re gonna fight him but haven’t experienced what I
experienced and having been with some people as they pass most recently my beautiful
brother-in-law last May so coming up on a year um that’s why I always tell folks man
don’t be afraid it is the experience that I had is is beautiful and there’s no pain and
there’s no uh-uh it’s uh yeah it’s it’s a pretty cool next
chapter yeah I mean it’s fascinating it kind of gets to the the root of of not
understanding I guess on the worldly plane too maybe we’re just trapped in our brains but
yeah you know you’re going through this this chaotic experience of not only dying yourself but you know seeing this
chaos existing around you and it’s discrete and you describe it as a beautiful experience what what a is
there any way that you can put into words what what about it was so beautiful yeah well the beautiful experience was
because I was no longer in that tragedy of the world I was no longer in that stress and anger and fear of the world
where where Stu was running around trying to figure out what happened to both of us and then when I came back we
were you know I was removed from that and I I mean the the beautiful is the
word I use it was just it was a union you know yeah
um I remember one uh doctor in the in the hospital described my experience as loc loss of
consciousness and I I said you know he was just this young resident kind of arrogant dude and
uh I said no man I’ve been knocked out before I’ve I’ve blacked out by drinking
uh trust me this was not a loss of concerts I called uoc Union of
Consciousness oh wow yeah because you know a lot of times people refer to God and as Consciousness right the universe
and Consciousness yeah so it was just the energy of of me going back together right back you know one time I described
it to a person I said you ever see like remember in like chemistry class we have mercury and you’d have a lot of mercury and then you’d have that one little drop
of mercury over here and then when it joins with the other one it just it’s no longer that drop it’s part of it yeah
and that that’s kind of what it was like man that’s powerful yeah that’s that’s what it was like yeah so and when you so
when you came back did did did that sense of of Love of of peace and
everything you’re feeling did it go away and were you immediately just kind of brought it back into chaos no I did not bring it back with me I think I did I
think I did and it was like in the in the that it was like if you know you’ve ever had a jacket on and there’s like a
hidden Pocket and you find it later and you find it that’s what it was no when I came back man I was just lost and
stressed and um you know Rock Bottom despair hopelessness regret you know all those
things just trying to figure it out I was in one hospital for just a quick visit and then they choppered me
to another one where I was for 10 days and I get out my friends you know he’s buried funerals over wow and I I’m like
you know I remember when I didn’t want to go to his grave for a little while then I finally went with my mom
and I’ll always remember it’s just me and her man and I just fell on my knees sobbing as soon as I got there you know
she just knelt down and hugged me I was just like what uh yeah you know yeah and you and you said you talked to
other people who’d had similar near-death experiences was that kind of your way of healing through it or how
did you get from that point of Despair to where you’re at now oh yeah that’s a
great question Adam and um no it certainly did not happen right away it
took some time you know when I came back I was just full of anger and regret and fear and uncertainty and and blaming
myself um for what had happened I was in one hospital for a brief period of time then
they flew me to another one and um yeah it took some time for sure I I
think the pivotal moment you know from the book is I went to the Outer Banks of North Carolina about three or four
months after the accident and I was drinking a whole lot and you know doing things that I shouldn’t be
doing that just trying to make me feel better and yeah they make you feel better in the moment but you wake up with a new hangover in the same problem
sure it doesn’t solve anything and I was in the Outer Banks and I was very close
to um taking my own life and the way that I had planned it was I was going to buy a
hose drive my Jeep onto the beach because I love the beach and put the hose in the tailpipe and through the
window and just you know leave the engine running and I went into a hardware store one day to buy a little
hardware store down there in the Outer Banks Kill Devil Hills and I’m looking at hoses in this little woman walks by
and I believe she was an angel I never saw her again don’t even remember what she said she was like 80 years old you
know bright blue eyes bright big white teeth smile real suntan wrinkled skin like this this little beach lady and she
just said something it kind of snapped me out of it and so I went I did the next I didn’t buy the hose but I did the
next best thing and I went out and got drunk and I’m walking back to my hotel room my motel room and I see a phone booth and I
go in call my mom collect and she says to me when are you coming home we can’t wait to see you and I don’t know why man
but something clicked right there and and I said I gotta get through this a
little voice in my head said I wonder what it’s going to be like when I get better yeah and that to me was always
that that pivotal moment of of kind of rock bottom where I said all right I’m not I got I gotta get through this and
it took some time and for me the way that that I did is I focused on the
future I I focused as much as I could I’d slip back but I’d focus on moving through
this I let everybody who loves me back in and I started going back to church and
having a faith and praying and and they were kind of the three things hold a
vision of moving through this let your people love and support you and believe in something bigger yeah so the love of
your community community comes up a lot on this show in terms of of your of your network of people that that help you
through it yeah uh do you remember what the uh 80 year old woman said to you yeah you don’t remember yeah it was
powerful it was powerful enough though don’t even remember it man she just kind
of yeah one of those things yeah and you mentioned um the faith that you know you
started getting back into church and things like that how has your faith changed I mean and your perception of
God uh what is uh uh you know what what does that look like today
well you know when I grow when you grow up Catholic with eight kids you know you think God’s up there sitting on a chair
and you know if you steal your sister’s Oreo cookies you’re gonna burn in hell right
um and I get that mine mine has shifted that I believe God’s everywhere yeah God
is in all of us and it’s you know it’s a God is a tremendous source of support
the ultimate source of support so my relationship with God comes first
and then you know then I’ve got my family my wife my kids my friends and other people yeah but for me it’s that
energy of love that that we’re all here we’re in this together and at some point that energy that that
came into us at conception is going to go back to its source yeah
and that’s when we’ll determine what heaven is you know I didn’t experience Street pays
of streets pays of gold or you know I didn’t see any departed relatives now maybe I had maybe I had further to go I
kind of felt like I did yeah that’s that’s why I called it back from Heaven’s front porch the first time because I felt like I was just getting
there um yeah that’s kind of how my faith is now you know I just believe in in Jesus and
his teachings and um you know he was the human version of that love we all have it in us he was
it yeah so I just worked to live you know as best I can like he lived
that’s fantastic yeah they come up short every day that’s the beauty of coming
back to life every day right every day you come back to life you open your eyes and you you know your heart’s beating
and you’re breathing you say okay let’s let’s get after it let’s do better than I did yesterday yeah and how um how do
we how do we better connect with God then I I’ve had these fear experiences in my life uh you know where you just
get caught up and everything and you know I’m I I believe in God too I I you
know go to church but there are just times where I just don’t feel that connection yeah how do we maintain that
yeah you have to work on it really yeah you really do and it’s it’s for me it’s
prayer it’s journaling sometimes I’ll listen to um Christian music in the morning
um you know sometimes it’s Christian contemporary rock or whatever it’s not Catholic hymns right and um those things
will work I did some volunteer work I’ve been thinking of doing some for a long time I used to do some and I got away from it and I went last week some
buddies of mine that go to this um house down in Philadelphia in a really bad part where there you know you’re just
dealing with homeless and alcoholics and addicts and I just went for about three hours and helped make breakfast and serve 200
people I was scooping out oatmeal and man when you look into the eyes of these people
hmm you know it was pretty powerful for me and I certainly felt the spirit at work you know yeah yeah so I think
there’s a lot of ways but you have to make your relationship with God or however you interpret that you’ve gotta
you gotta do the work man in life you know you that’s one of the things I talk about you you have to do the work
and the work is you know when I talk about my back to life principles five principles right Jackrabbit yeah but but
the back to life principles is really what they are develop Vision seek support know thyself evolve and be still
so through my journey I said hmm and I didn’t invent these I just put my spin on them they’ve been around forever
I I just said all right what when I I went to a coaching school and I had to make a model of five very valuable
principles and I thought all right what what did I do that took me from you know
the brink of self-destruction back to you know engaged in life and and fully Alive yeah and I just distilled it down
and said these are the things that I’ve come to understand that are really important for us yeah and can you share
those again that those five principles of the jackrabbit sure yeah so it’s developed Vision so you always want to
see where you’re going um be still because I believe the spirit lives in Stillness and I believe our
thoughts can settle yeah um know thyself which is all around your values for me
it’s three things knowing yourself is it’s a onion right you could peel that thing back if anyone who you are you
know if you’re a parent with your communication style if you’re a leader what’s your style towards fostering Innovation for me it’s three things what
are your values and are you living into them what’s your mindset to what what’s the
little voice or voices in your head telling you and are they useful thoughts right I have an acronym Hut hold useful
thoughts yeah and then the third one is your connection with God spirit
so know yourself in those three areas values mindset and connection to Spirit
and then seek support and be support to other people and the last one is to evolve just to be curious have the
learner’s mindset and just trust that it’s just a journey this this human life is
a beautiful Journey and um it’s all going to be okay it is you know yeah yeah well that’s uh that’s
powerful and and uh and and one of the things you touched on there too when
when you were talking about kind of getting that connection with God was does that element of service serving in your community or how we serve I’ve
always heard that a lot too is is that if we can get out of our own heads and we stop thinking in here and we can get
out and just serve I think that’s where the greater connection comes from and if we learn I think yeah people like Jesus
uh whether you know it’s the Son of God or a philosopher he he uh you know
that’s that’s what he lived yeah um yes yes and you can that’s a great point you
can serve every day Adam right you don’t have to go to a formal volunteer environment it’s great if you can or if
you do you can just you know so service is really just leading with love so how
can you lead with love when you go out to Home Depot to pick up light bulbs or how can you lead with love where you
know you go into a a restaurant that’s that’s really jamming and you know service is taking a little bit longer
than you would expect yeah yeah you know they even love exudes some patience and
maybe over tip a little bit you know this waiter waitress is you know in all likelihood they’re grinding away in life
yeah so there’s a lot of opportunities for us to lead with love it doesn’t have to be formal service
yeah as someone who is a former bartender slash server I didn’t tell you the value and the appreciation of being
over tipped it’s just you you make someone not just because of the money but because you’re just telling that person look you’re doing great in this
life you’re just doing yeah I mean so yeah that’s powerful um and so why why Jackrabbit I know you
kind of you brought up the concept of the jackrabbit in the book too I believed and so what’s a uh what is the
where does that come from and why are there no vowels yeah yeah yeah Jackrabbit so Jackrabbit is is kind of
what I call the model although revolving away from that we’ll call it back to life principles because it kind of brings everything together yeah um but
the jackrabbit of all the animals has in the animal kingdom when I was searching vision’s really important for me right
that’s what saved my life when I said I wonder what it’s going to be like when I get better when I visualized getting
better moving through this and the jackrabbit has really good Vision because its eyes are back on its head
and very high up yeah so it has a full awareness of its a whole environment which is what’s so needed for us as
people and uh no vows just because I thought it looked cooler on a t-shirt with no baths you know it does yeah
that’s for sure yeah well that’s a no that’s that’s great and and you kind of
talked about the vision part and and it’s pretty profound that you say it saved your life what is that importance
there what did how did you learn about that well it was really in reflection because
yeah you know I walked out of that phone booth and I was at as as as desperate as a human being could be and when I
started to have that vision of all right let me see myself going home let me see myself going to get more treatment let
me see myself um that’s it and then as I studied more gosh you look at any entrepreneurs any
athletes so many people use that principle of visualization yeah you know
imagining what seeing something before you do it and I just think it’s such a powerful principle that that the common
person I don’t mean this in a bad way you know those of us that aren’t entrepreneurs you know we we’re not
using that I would say 95 of the people I deal with don’t practice visualization
and it’s a very powerful concept yeah yeah yeah do you have any uh uh advice
on how to practice that that visualization or any yeah well there’s
there’s two really good ways one is just to sit close your eyes mentally rehearse whatever you’re going into
so if you’ve got to give a talk or a presentation see yourself doing that if you’ve got to run a race if you got to
hit a golf shot see it feel it watch the ball land where you want watch it roll so play it out in your head first and
then an exercise that I do that’s very well received that I’ve done gosh for I
don’t tens of thousands of people is pick a point in time usually a year from
now and go out to that point and then look back
and ask yourself if I had a really really good year in all those areas of my life my health
my wealth my career my finances my spirituality my fun my travel if I had a
really good 12 months and I had to tell somebody what happened what would that
be so if you’re sitting having a cup of coffee or a beer with somebody they say how was your year and you go it’s great
and they say why what would you say yeah so what I do then is get them to write that out as if it already happened
and then my Approach is put it as an all-day event on Friday in your calendar
and begin to read why am I getting my butt out of bed this is the big picture
because now you’re into a little bit of opposition with life see life doesn’t want that I don’t think yeah life life
wants you busy stressed out and overwhelmed so if you don’t have any guide that says
no no life this is really why I’m getting my butt out of bed if you don’t have it then we just get
busy life wins and we get to the end of the year somebody says how was your year you go out it’s okay but I couldn’t find the
time to and then you start naming all those things that you should be looking at every week yeah yeah you know yeah
that that’s a powerful perspective because it’s a powerful distinction too because a lot of times when we think
about the future we think of and shoulds we like think I should do this I should do that right or man this this thing is
coming up and I don’t know but we often don’t be in we’re often not intentional about actually looking at where we want
to be at that time yeah and kind of visualizing it I think that’s a really really great exercise on on how we can
how we can do that yeah so thanks for sharing it yeah I think it’s really powerful I’d encourage people to check
that out and when you write it in past tense here’s the thing that it does too our brain is wired for completion when
something comes onto our radar that we need to do scientists call it open loop right and we love closing the loop we
love marking things off our to-do list yeah so it’s the same way here I mean there’s a lot of people out listening
right now that probably have done something that was not on their list they go write it just so they can put a line through it sure because they feel
they feel better right the dopamine and everything’s released so if you write your year as if it already happened
before it does and you really stay focused on it more of it will because
now you’re reading the story of your life and you’re going wait a minute this has not happened yet so now you’re going okay what I need to do so it gets back
to that powerful concept of action yeah yeah without action we’re done so you just don’t sit there and think about
your year and everything happens yeah that’s your that’s your driver that’s your inspiration that’s your compass and
then action is what’s going to help you yeah work through it so what what are we
getting um and this may be a big question but what are we getting wrong you know having had this perspective of seeing
the end of life and having you know come back from that and knowing what’s you know having some perspective on what’s
beyond what what are we getting wrong what do we need to change about our own lives yeah it’s good I don’t know that
we’re getting anything wrong yeah I would just offer people be more Curious you know listen read observe
and just understand again just come back you know if you wake up in the morning and you you know you put your hand on
your heartbeat and feel it and realize that that thing’s going to beat 35 million times this year for you and
that’s not guaranteed so get clear get your ass out of bed and
say okay this is how I’m this is what I’m going to create and this is how I’m going to do it
all right this this is how I’m gonna do it yeah yeah because it’s really not it’s not about who you are
we all have our roles right moms dads entrepreneurs millionaires whatever it’s it’s not who I always say move that
W so if you take the W from who and move it to the back it’s how
move your W yes go out and be in all those roles hit your goals make money
buy cool houses all that’s great and I would pay attention to how yeah are you
doing that what are the values what words would people use to describe you that’s what I think is important that’s
that’s great great advice and yeah be more Curious and
um is is that just kind of stepping out of your uh out of your body for a moment or
out of your mind and just asking questions instead of getting frustrated yeah I think so yeah yeah it’s just
looking and sometimes you ask questions of people and sometimes you just ask questions maybe about them to yourself
yeah you know when you know when you grow up with eight kids Irish Catholic
you know I I some beliefs are formed that I don’t want to serve me anymore
you know what I mean there’s certain beliefs that are formed there’s certain stereotypes that you you have about
people and and I’ve you know as I’ve gotten older 30s 40s 50s on the doorstep
of 60. you know I don’t want them anymore so you so you have to be curious
you know if somebody comes in and they’re all tattooed up and they got you know the big gauges in their ears and
all like I I don’t understand that and who cares if I understand it or
not that’s them and somewhere that’s that’s them and that’s who they are and that’s that’s
you know that’s it’s all right so I I just want to then get to I just want to see Divine spark and get to their soul and say hey man
what’s going on you know versus let let House people are you know push you back yeah you know yeah I love it as long as
there’s good energy as long as there’s good energy man that’s what I want yeah you said if the server is if the
restaurant’s busy and the server is a knucklehead with a negative attitude I’ll try to shift them around a little
bit but if that’s their game I’m out yeah you know and I won’t over tip them yeah but if they go hey man you know
we’re really busy tonight and it’s going to take longer and I wish I could get it out quicker for you I’m gonna do the best I can so I appreciate your patience
and there are 10 that’s what I want yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah no absolutely I mean it’s it’s the spirit and I love
that perspective of of looking into the soul not just not just outward appearances I mean the whole cliche of
not judging a book by its cover okay yeah there’s a soul in every single one of us I mean there’s our energy or
whatever it may be and you know you’ve seen that on a deeper level and um and
and that’s that’s powerful advice and this is this has been huge um and what would so just you know kind
of one of the last questions I would have is I know there’s a lot of people that maybe experience grief or pain of
the loss of somebody else somebody may have passed away in their own lives what would you say to someone who might be
experiencing that grief yeah number one and and you know we’re
going through it as I said now my brother-in-law passed and it’ll be a month coming up and I lost a couple guys
last year um for me number one they’re okay
their their energy their soul their Spirit you know and for me you know if
they lived a good life they’re okay so I’m not I’m not worried
about them at all you know it’s it’s all of us and then the other thing is I talk to them all
the time all the time I visit I visit their graves
you know and and Bruce died today in the accident and then his brother Stu who who did CPR on me and
Stu live for gosh 20 some years after the accident he and I would always get together you know we live in Philly so
we grab a beer and a Cheesesteak he passed six years ago and then my brother-in-law and they’re all three in
the same Cemetery so it’s I it’s great man I go up there sometimes I take a chair sometimes I don’t I’ll just sit on
the grass but you know I’ll stop in see Stu then I see Bruce and I see Bobby and I feel better because I can feel
them yeah you know Adam I offer people a lot of times when they’re going through losing somebody I’ll just offer them
there’s a fine line between here and there
a very very fine line and their energy and their Spirit while they’re gone in the physical sense I believe their
energy and their spirit and their soul is still very much available to us yeah and is a is a wonderful source of
support now you may have answered this already in one of the earlier questions but I
wanted to ask in a different way so maybe the listeners could could hear it too but uh is there any way that we can
experience heaven on Earth or then that that sense of peace on Earth
yeah I think just lead with love lead with love you know what I mean when when I when you look into the eyes of another
person whether it’s a newborn baby it’s an old person dying
you know it’s a homeless person on the street when you look and you can get that connection and you both know
yeah I think that’s that’s it that’s a great life lesson to kind of
uh to uh to to put a nice bow on this episode this has been great and a great
perspective on a topic that we haven’t you know that we don’t talk about a lot but um and the final thing I’ll I’ll ask
you to uh is is how uh what is what is the difference I mean is that is that
the difference is is love really the difference between just living and being Fully Alive or is there something more
I think that’s the foundation for it um and by living it’s just for me it’s
just going through the motions you know you wake up you’re going through life you’re going through the motions you’re not appreciating the value of it you’re
not appreciating the the gift The Fragile nature of it being Fully Alive for me comes down to two things it’s
it’s really coming down to fulfillment which means am I getting out of life what I want yeah am I focused on it and
getting it and that’s in all areas right that’s relationships it’s love it’s and you don’t necessarily have to have it
but are you moving towards it that’s fulfillment and then the other one is resilience
when the tough times and the struggles hit how do I develop that energy of resilience to move through it yeah and
I’ve come to understand that those five principles the back to life principles they create fulfillment and resilience
hmm that’s that’s huge that’s powerful and I love that uh that idea of fulfillment
because really if we’re going to look back on our lives when we’re on our deathbed or whatever that may look back or we’re looking or we’re even Beyond it
we’re looking back on this life that we’ve experienced are we fulfilled did we did and fulfillment does come from
from growing from pushing beyond our comfort zones yeah and that takes kind of leaning into leaning into fear it
really sounds like what you’re saying today we don’t we don’t really have a lot to fear Beyond this life no no no no
I always I always say if I’m if I’m gifted with Consciousness while I take my last
breath I’m gonna try to add a little smile on it I love that well thank you thank you so
so much Danny and your book is Back to Life you’ve also got a number of other books uh I met Jesus for a middle of the
light uh yeah taking the taking the out of the show it looks like I actually
say the or yeah yeah you can I couldn’t put it on the cover of a book because my mom said I couldn’t of course
you said yeah so I had to put the asterisks in there yeah that’s seven short stories for navigating life’s challenges nice so all of my writings
and podcasts and certainly I appreciate being on with you because we’re like I said we’re kind of Kindred Spirits yeah
it’s all coming back to you know how can we support people in creating those two things fulfillment being Fully Alive and
and moving through the tough times trusting that that you’ll get through them well the back to life uh podcast is
also a wonderful podcast I’m a fan uh thank you I’ve really enjoyed those episodes and um and yeah where can
people find you yeah great so the best place to go is the website dannybayter.com and then
they can check out the podcast is there the books are there and if you know if they’re in an organization and they want
to talk about maybe bringing me in for a keynote or a workshop or something we could discuss that as well yeah they can
just email me through the website that’s great yeah and yeah thank you like I said at the beginning I had a chance to
see you speak you’re an amazing speaker and and took a lot of notes it’s a it’s
a powerful message you have to share and a lot of a lot of great lessons for it for any organization so reach out to
Danny find them at dannybayter.com Danny thank you so much for being here and having the willingness to share your
message uh it’s my pleasure Adam you’re doing great work keep it up brother thank you sir talk to you soon peace hey
everyone Thanks for tuning in to the flow over fear podcast if you’d like to learn more about getting into flow and
learn the foundations of flow I have a free video series on my website at
www.adamclifford Hill dot com called the foundations of flow feel free to go
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