How To Be WellnStrong

50: Break Your Limiting Beliefs & Become the Hero of Your Story | Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DNM, CNS

• Jacqueline Genova • Episode 50

Share episode

Send me a text!

In celebration of WellnStrong's 50th podcast episode, I have invited a very special guest to the podcast this week. He is widely recognized for his work in the fields of natural medicine and nutrition, and more recently, in educating his audience in how to develop a growth mindset. He has been an inspiration to me and has had a profoundly positive impact in the lives of thousands of people who have decided to lead healthier lifestyles. I am excited to introduce Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DNM, CNS, who is a doctor of chiropractic medicine, a certified doctor of natural medicine and a clinical nutritionist. Dr. Axe shares my passion to help people live a healthy lifestyle - in body, mind, and spirit.

His website, DrAxe.com, is among the most frequently visited natural health websites in the world. Dr. Axe is also a bestselling author. His books include “Eat Dirt,” “Ancient Remedies, and “the Keto Diet,” all of which focus on how to improve your health through the consumption of natural foods, and by choosing holistic and natural methods for healing. In our conversation today, Dr. Axe and I discuss his newest book, Think This Not That, in which he unpacks the top twelve mental barriers that can prevent people from realizing their full potential.


What you'll learn from this episode:

  • How to use the power of your mind to heal your body
  • How to shift from an “accomplishing” to a “becoming” mindset
  • Overcoming limiting beliefs
  • How to discover your talents & pursue your passion
  • Using your pain to become the hero of your story
  • Cultivating a growth mindset & overcoming the fear of failure


Suggested Resources:

Qualia Senolytic combines 9 vegan, plant-derived compounds to help your body naturally eliminate zombie (or senescent) cells, that help us age better at the cellular level so we can feel YEARS younger!  Use the code WELLNSTRONG for 15% off!

Join the WellnStrong mailing list for exclusive content here!

Want more of The How To Be WellnStrong Podcast? Subscribe to the YouTube channel.


Follow Jacqueline:


*Unedited Transcript*
===

Jacqueline: [00:00:00] Dr. Axe, welcome to the show. I just want to start by saying that this is very surreal and special for me because you were truly one of the very first influential people that I ever followed in the health space about 15 or so years ago when my mom was first diagnosed with breast cancer. So it's, it's truly an honor to, to have you here and be speaking with you today.

Dr. Josh Axe: Well, Jacqueline, thanks for having me. It's an honor, honor for me to be here as well.

Jacqueline: Absolutely. So to start, Dr. Axe, most people know you from your expertise in the holistic health and wellness space, but I absolutely love the transition that you've made into the growth and mindset space. In fact, your new podcast, the Dr. Josh Axe show is among my top favorites to listen to. You just share so much truth on your show, biblical truth that many people sadly are just scared today to vocalize, but truth that we really need to hear and in the world today.

So. I just wanted to thank you for everything that you've been putting out there over the past several months. It's [00:01:00] really had a positive impact on my life, and many others as well. But, um, I know you experienced a pretty serious back injury not too long ago, and I can't help but wonder, was that a primary driver of your shift to now focusing on the mindset space?

Dr. Josh Axe: You know, it was a big part of it. And, you know, even on my, my, my show now it's the Dr. Josh Jack show. And I do cover, as you said, um, a lot of things related how to grow. And so it's in specifically, um, I focus on personal growth. I also focus on health. and wellness and food is medicine and those sort of things.

And I also focus on spiritual growth. And so what, what, what I, you know, what, what I discovered is, is that I, um, you know, I, I've worked with tens of thousands of patients in functional medicine and helping them overcome a lot of different health issues. And I really think the biggest, area people need to heal right now is their mind and their spirit.

And, and so, you know, I, a lot of times people know what they should be doing, but they don't do it. Right. And so I think a lot of times that [00:02:00] has to do with our mind. And, and I think that also, um, right now when you look at medical conditions today, you know, when I first opened up my functional medicine practice, and that was probably 15 plus years ago.

But when that happened, uh, actually it was longer than that. Anyways, it's, it's been a while. So I'm sorry, I'm doing the math now. It was like 17, 18 years ago. But all that being said, you know, it used to be cancer, heart disease, diabetes, that was on the rise. Well, recently the past seven years, what's dwarfed those conditions has been, Mental health issues and, and, and it, and it goes far beyond that.

I think today everybody wants to, um. you know, uh, maximize their, their life. And I think that a lot of times people aren't able to do that for various reasons. And so I helped them do that on my podcast and show. But one of the things that I am, um, you know, really conscious of as I was writing my newest book called think this, not that is the importance of mindset.

Now, here's the crazy part. I decided that I wanted to write [00:03:00] a book on, on the mind body connection. How do we heal ourselves with the power of our mind? And also how do we grow and to live our best life possible? And when I set out to write this book, something crazy happened. I ended up almost dying and that might sound, and that's not an exaggeration.

So I went in and, and, um, I, I'd injured my back lifting weights and Ended up having some pain that just hadn't fully gone away after a few years And so I decided to go in and get something called stem cell done. Okay, and that's where they take your own bone marrow They concentrate the stem cells Inject it back in and after that one inject my using my own healing factors I probably got about 60 to 70 percent better.

And I thought, okay, I'm going to get this done one more time because I just had a little bit of nagging injury, but it was almost, I was probably back 85%. Okay. 90 percent almost no pain, but I thought, I'm going to get this done one more time. I got it injected again, and [00:04:00] then. I felt worse and then worse and worse and worse.

Chronic pain had to put on a back brace. It was so bad. And finally I get three months later and I woke up one morning, the pain was so bad I couldn't even walk. I mean, I literally couldn't even move out of bed, had to call an ambulance. They had to come pick me up. My wife and family and I were in Puerto Rico at the time.

They drive me to get an MRI. I get an MRI and when I get the results back, it said I have a spinal infection in my disc. It had gotten to my bone. And then it was by my spinal cord. And if anybody knows, if you have a bacterial infection and it's about to get in your, you know, it's, it's right by your spinal cord, it's, it's can be very serious.

And so I had to take a medical flight. Um, on a, on a jet to Florida, sit down with an infectious disease specialist. And he said, Josh, listen, he said, this is a really serious infection. It's in your bone. It's called osteomyelitis in your L five vertebra. And it's, and now there's an abscess that's in your spinal canal by your spinal cord.

And so this [00:05:00] infection is spread. And he said, your best case prognosis is you're going to have chronic pain the rest of your life. And you'll be the first person to know when there's bad weather coming through. He said, the worst case scenario, the reality is this could kill you. And also there's a really good chance you're going to be permanently disabled.

Now, this was a year and nine months ago, and I had just gone months before to throwing my two year old daughter up in the air in the pool. Doing squats and deadlifts, running and cycling and swimming, being in fantastic shape and to be told by this doctor that the most likely scenario for me was I was going to be permanently disabled was really, really hard to take.

And I had about 48 hours where I just felt distraught. There's emotions I'd never experienced before. Jacqueline, like despair and hopelessness. And if anybody's ever had something like this in their life and you're kind of wondering, how am I ever going to get through this? And for myself, I really had to turn to my faith and turn to God and just pray.

And I felt like God said, you're, you're not [00:06:00] focusing on the right things. Focus on me. And so I realized, you know what, I'd spent so much time focusing on the diagnosis for the last 48 hours. I was on the internet researching. I'm a researcher. That's what I, a big part of what I do, reading the studies and, and reading, okay, what are the prognosis of somebody who has this level of infection?

Well, it didn't make the matter. It didn't make me feel any better. It made, it actually made things seem worse because all the people who had had something like this, and some of them had to have rods in their spine because of the, the level it was at.

And so I decided, you know what, I'm going to fix my eyes on God and I'm going to just do everything I can in my power.

It's like this old, the old saying is, you know, get on your knees and pray, then get on your feet and work. Well I couldn't get on my feet and work, but I could pray and I could eat as healthy as I could. And I could do everything within my own power. Now I had not taken a medication since I was in high school for the most part.

Okay. And um, And the, the, the, the physician said you need to be on antibiotics [00:07:00] on an IV for six weeks and then a pill for another six. So you need to be on antibiotics for three months. That's how serious this is. Infection is. And I realized that's going to be very hard on my gut microbiome. Now my first priority was healing my spine, but I also realized I wanted to do it in a way where I maximize my healing and also minimize the damage to my body.

And so I went and I was doing research and read this study on hyperbaric chambers and how they can reduce the time that you need to be on an antibiotic. Because when you drive oxygen deep into your cells and tissues, it, uh, it acts as an antibiotic itself and actually, amplifies the antibiotic. And so I said, okay.

And I went and I got in a hyperbaric chamber every day for two hours, a hard chamber. And then I also got IVs of things like silver and methylene blue and all kinds of things. And then. I ate perfectly. The only thing I was meat and vegetables spent daily time in prayer and visualization, and I did take the antibiotic IV, but I only had to do it for four [00:08:00] weeks.

And I went through this whole process. And after a couple weeks, I started feeling a little better and then a little better, a little better. Now this wasn't overnight. One of the issues with this area of the body is it gets almost no blood supply. So it heals, uh, it takes about 10 times longer to heal. So I didn't walk for an entire year.

Well, let me say this. I didn't walk for 10 months and then I was on a walker for two months. Um, this time last year I was on a walker. I just gotten on a walker. So, so anyways, to kind of sum this up is that I continue to heal. Now, I'm about 80 percent, um, um, I'm not, I'm not a hundred percent yet, but I think I will be this year for sure. Um, I'm back lifting weights. I'm back carrying my daughter. I'm back doing everything for the most part I want to do.

I do want to run. And I, and I haven't tried that yet, but I think I'm pretty close to being back doing that. And so anyways, I'm already way better than the best case scenario prognosis. And so, you know, as I was, in bed for a year. I said, I [00:09:00] wanted to write a book that had have the most important life altering principles in them that I think are truly going to change someone's life for the better.

And these are principles that will bring health to your body, but I think it'll also help you find your purpose. It'll help you. limiting beliefs that will help you experience a breakthrough in your relationships and fulfilling your dreams and those things that you really want to do. And so that was a really, uh, big part of the book is I feel like God gave me the opportunity during that time to write in a way and put things in the book.

I never would have put in there and it because I had so much time to be able to think about. Think and work on it, reflect. And so, um, yeah, I'm very, very excited about it. Hit the New York times bestseller list first week, first week out. And, um, and so they had the books called think this, not that. So, so that's something that of course I, I am, uh, you know, excited to share.

Jacqueline: that's incredible. I have it here with me right now, Dr. Axe, and you're going to laugh. I actually ordered preordered it on January 1st of this year before I even knew I'd be having you on the show. So you can imagine how excited I [00:10:00] was for our conversation. but I mean, what an incredible story. So many things to say in response to that.

One thing that came to mind is I had a conversation not too long ago on my podcast with my dad's sister. Who is like a second mom to me and she's just been an incredible spiritual mentor and she's always told me Especially over the past five six years with my mom's cancer journey differentiate between fact versus truth, right?

So a doctor can give you a pet scan report. That's a fact, whatever that says the truth is, is that your mom is healed. Jesus says she is already healed. And that really changed. the perspective at which I've viewed everything. And I always tell my mom, whenever we see your oncologist, you know, take what he says with a grain of salt.

Prognosis is not truth. It's a fact. And just again, repeat those healing affirmations over yourself and first of all, Jesus heals, but the power of your mindset is so strong, it surpasses any medication. And we see all these studies coming out now of patients who, you know, [00:11:00] are given and they just, they, they heal, they experience radical remission.

Kelly Turner wrote an incredible book on it. So, just amen to all of that, and I'm very passionate about this area of, of work as well and another thing that came to mind, Dr. Axe, so kind of similar to, to your case, although not as severe, My mom actually had a prophylactic kyphoplasty surgery back in 2021.

Long story short, she should not have had it done, um, but we can't go back in time. We learned from our experiences, but following that surgery, so many doctors also said that this is going to be a chronic issue. She might have to have a laminectomy, other type of surgical procedures. And we just stood on the word of God and we prayed and again, did a lot of natural things.

Infrared sauna, I got her a PEMF mat, changed her diet, more anti inflammatory supplements. And again, over time she healed., and I think that's also a testament of the body's ability to heal. And I think nowadays we're so quick [00:12:00] to write a prescription or do a surgery, not recognizing that you know, the body created an issue, give it time to heal, especially with cancer diagnoses.

I feel like the second someone finds, they have cancer within a month or two, they're already doing treatment without recognizing that cancer took years to form in their body, right? So why not give the body a chance to heal it? So just, yeah, I'm, I'm 100 percent on board with everything that you preach.

And again, just words that a lot of people need to hear today. Yeah.

Dr. Josh Axe: if somebody is going to go natural, they need to be all in, you know, I think that's an important. mindset and perspective you, you want to have. And, um, and I've known plenty of people who've gotten bad diagnoses and didn't do what the doctor said and ended up with a great result.

Now, again, that's not always the case that you, sometimes you do want to, uh, obviously listen to what your doctor has to say. Um, but you know, my, my mom was one of those people. She was said she had a, you know, very small chance of survival and survived and [00:13:00] doing it all naturally in my business partner and one of my best friends, Jordan Rubin, was told you will die in three months if you don't do these treatments.

And he did a natural to me, he had testicular cancer and he was completely healed. Um, and so, yeah, I, I've got numerous examples of that. You know, one of the things that's interesting, and I don't think people fully realize the power of the mind and healing the body. And, you know, if you go back to world war one, um, there's a practicing physician there, and this is how the placebo effect really, really came about.

But, uh, he ran out of morphine. and we all know morphine is an incredibly strong painkiller and drug. Well, when he ran out, he said, well, I want to give these fallen soldiers who had lost limbs, I mean, excruciating pain, something to take care of the pain. So he gave them just sugar pills essentially. And the crazy part was 30 to 40 percent of them had the exact same amount of pain relief.

As if they were taking morphine. So think about that. Your brain, your body [00:14:00] can produce very similar chemicals, if not the same as morphine in terms of killing pain. And so whether somebody is dealing with hypothyroidism or Lyme disease or autoimmunity or whatever it is, Your brain is the most important part of you healing and building correct thoughts.

And we know this is true. The science today shows the power of the placebo effect and being able to heal. We know the Bible talks about it. Jesus doesn't say, take, you know, this drug or even take this supplement or even eat this food. He says, uh, your faith has healed you or your beliefs, what you believe, what you think.

That has healed you. And so it's really important that we know and understand the power of our, our mindset and what we become and who we become and how healthy we become.

Jacqueline: Yeah, there are just so many different ways. But again, he is the center of all healing.

Going back to your, your new book, Dr. Axe, which I just wrapped up reading the other day, you, you talk about having a becoming mindset instead of an achieving mindset. [00:15:00] And that really resonated with me because I feel like many listeners, myself included, Have been wired to be goal oriented, right?

We're always seeking the next accomplishment, the next milestone in life, never really taking time to stop and pause for self assessment on our growth and how we've changed. So I'd love if you could maybe share some tactical steps on how to actually make that mindset transition from achieving to more of becoming.

Dr. Josh Axe: Yeah. Well, first let me share how I, how I learned this. And I was at my grandfather's funeral. I had an amazing grandfather, World War II veteran from the Navy. And, um, just amazing man. And, um, what's the one interesting thing about him is when he was in his forties after Vietnam, after World War II, he went and he started working for the telephone company repairing power lines.

And after doing that for 20 some years, 25 years. He said, you know what I did? This is just not what I want to do with the rest of my life. And so he decided [00:16:00] to him and my grandmother took their life savings, bought land, a big lake. And, um, and they decided to start a campground in a swim park for families.

So people would hold retreats there and family reunions. And, um, then he did this till he was 96 years old. So I was at his funeral. This is about seven, six, seven years ago. And, um, Um, there's a part in the, and I haven't, I haven't really heard this at many funerals, but a part where the pastor said, does anyone have any final words about Howard?

And the person next to me immediately, a man in his seventies just blurted out and just tears sobbing, Howard was my best friend. And at first I looked over at him and I thought, I, I'm a little, I feel a little ashamed to say this, but I looked over him and I wasn't like, the first thing wasn't compassion.

Now it came right after, but I thought. Well, I know who my grandfather's best friends are and that's like my uncle Alan and Don like these other, but then I realized, you know what, I'm sure my grandfather was [00:17:00] your best friend because half the people in this room, there's, uh, you know, 150 people, whatever they probably, most of them felt like my grandfather was their best friend.

He was that sort of person. And so I realized at the time, like I started thinking about what was my grandfather successful? Cause he, he, he, what, when he died, did they did not have much money. I mean, they just gave so much away and he was never, I don't, I mean, maybe, you know, he got one newspaper article written about him because he, you know, what he did in world war two and some things, but really, I mean, he was very unknown.

And, um, and I started thinking about people I admired in the past and, you know, Things I was doing, because I was really going after, how do I accomplish things? That was very much my mindset. How do I write the, you know, write the next book or reach more people or grow the clinic or whatever it is. And I realized something, I thought, you know what, like that's, I've got the wrong mindset.

I'm focusing on accomplishing my grandfather. The only thing he ever focused on was becoming, becoming more like Christ, becoming [00:18:00] more generous, more loving, more wise, and all of those things. And that was really his biggest focus. And at the funeral, nobody talked about what he achieved or accomplished.

Nobody, everybody talked about, wow, Howard was so generous. What was amazing about this funeral was after the man next to me said that, Then so many people started saying, well, Howard saved my marriage or Howard gave me money when we didn't have any, or Howard led me to the Lord. I mean, just amazing stories.

You know, when I was a kid, I would go visit him. They lived about an hour north of us and I would love it. It was a kid's dream world cause they had this big swim park.

Jacqueline: I can imagine. 

Dr. Josh Axe: Yeah. So once a week he would go and it was, if you ever want to check it out, it's great. It's still operational. My brother runs it now it's up in close to Lima, Ohio.

It's called Winona Lake, uh, spelled after my named after my mom. And, um, so, so, so one of the things my grandfather would always do once a week, he would volunteer church and he would go to the hospital and he would just take care of somebody that was sick. So we would go, he'd [00:19:00] bring them their favorite meal. He'd sit there and pray with them, talk with them. And I would get to go with him and do this.

And it was just such an incredible experience. And you would see like you really just got to touch someone's life. In such a profound way. And, um, and so, and I started thinking about, okay, who is somebody I had admired in the past, and one of those people was Lance Armstrong, you know, Lance Armstrong won seven tour de Frances.

And then for me having a mom that was a breast cancer survivor, he started this great charity. And the year before that, I think, or so. He had got caught around the exact same time as my grandfather's funeral. He got caught doping and everything started coming out. And I remember just feeling betrayed.

Like this was, you know, just, um, so wrong. And I remember thinking like, why did he do this? And one of the things I realized was I read in his book in an interview, he said, he said this as well. He said, I had a win at all costs mentality. My mindset was when at all costs, even if I have to lose my family, [00:20:00] even if I have to lose my friends, even if I have to cheat, I just have to win at all costs.

And I thought that's, that's the definition of a accomplishing mindset is that no matter what, I'm just trying to accomplish something versus a becoming mindset. It's really more about people. It's really more about how do I change the ones I've been? It's really moving the focus off of yourself to others.

And so rather than just having a to do list, I encourage people to have a to be list, being conscious of, cause let's say you're going to run an errand that day. Oh, or let's say a customer service call. I got later on today, I've got to change a flight and I'll be calling Delta or Southwest. I'm trying to remember which airline, but I got to call them today to change a flight.

Now, listen, I've been on the phone with airlines and gotten pretty frustrated before. And I think that probably a lot of people have. And if I go into my to do list and I go in that without a becoming mindset, it's going to be like, you know what? I could be mean to the agent. I could be, I could be just trying to bully and get my way.

Versus if I go and say, no, the most important thing is. I will be kind. I will be generous. I will be [00:21:00] loving. I will be wise. I will be patient. And I go into that call like that with those, with that spirit and that mindset, it's going to be very, very different. If that's my priority over just accomplishing or getting that thing done.

And so that is one of the chapters in the book. I really go through, here's how you start to cultivate a becoming mindset versus an accomplishing mindset. And that's one of the biggest principles that's changed my life. I'm very. I'm excited about who I'm becoming as I pursue God and as I pursue becoming more virtuous in who I am And I I see you know that i've grown so much in you know You know in my relationship with my wife and my kids and with friends Because this is my primary mindset I have with everybody that I come in contact with

Jacqueline: Yeah. Just curious, Dr. Axe, how old were you when that mindset shift began, 

Dr. Josh Axe: Well, listen, I, I hadn't had a mindset. I don't want to act like at that funeral, I was a 100 percent in a [00:22:00] one comp accomplishing mindset and zero becoming, I would just say that it was. Let's call it 60 40. I still was more because, I mean, I had a lot of a becoming mindset or maybe 50 50. Uh, and I was always like, I, I've always read personal growth books.

Like I've read every John Maxwell book probably, you know, and I've always, you know, I've read a lot of Tony Robbins. I've read a lot of spiritual growth books by A. W. Tozer and C. S. Lewis and some other people I really love and admire. So it's not that I didn't already have that to a degree, but I realized.

When I was setting goals, what I was really still, ultimately my biggest focus was to a degree still on accomplishing as much as becoming. And so it was really just more, you know, I need to really shift and make becoming who I become the 92 by far the biggest focus of my life. But I would say his funeral was right about, uh, let's see, that would have been [00:23:00] 2017.

Yeah. About seven years ago. Yeah.

Jacqueline: Interesting. Yeah. I mean, I'm 28 years old, and since listening to your podcast and reading your book, I'm really starting to, uh, Be more intentional about that shift when I write my goals and one thing you said in the past that Really stuck with me too is if someone's setting a goal for followers, right?

Don't say I want to have a hundred thousand followers on instagram Rephrase it as I want to reach a hundred thousand people. I want to make a hundred thousand people's lives better And a simple modification like that Really truly does change how you approach the goal. 

Dr. Josh Axe: Well, yeah. And let me, let me give an example of that Jacqueline for everyone listening. Cause there's plenty of people today who could say, okay, I want to grow my, you know, I want to grow my following to a hundred thousand people on Instagram or 10, 000 or whatever the number is for you. But, but, but if that's your only goal, that accomplishing goal, then maybe you'd post anything.

Maybe you'd post pictures that are scandalous [00:24:00] where you're showing too much skin. And so you're, you know, you're, you're. You know, corrupting your character in that way, or maybe you're just saying something that's really, uh, sensationalized. So in a way, you're lying. Or maybe you're posting something that's spreading propaganda just to get likes and hits versus if you say, Okay, my goal is.

I want to help 100, 000 women, um, you know, grow in their self esteem or feel beautiful, you know, cause right now you look at the statistics on Instagram and you know, and what that does to women between the ages of 15 and 19 high schoolers and how I think it's close to 40 percent of them have taken a, Uh, self esteem hit in an identity hit because of self comparison to others.

I mean, the data is very revealing on that. And so my point there is, is saying, okay, that's a problem in the world. I'm going to go and solve that. I, Hey, I still want to reach a hundred thousand people, but it's, I want to help a hundred thousand women. You know, grow in their [00:25:00] identity in Christ or get healthier, build, build a healthier body self image with their, their body.

And so, yeah, that's, that's, uh, you know, an example

Jacqueline: Yeah. And again, it comes down to providing value. Everything I post now, I say, how does this provide some type of value to whoever is going to look at it? But going back to john Maxwell. So one of the books I just finished reading, was the 15 invaluable laws of growth. And 

Dr. Josh Axe: by the way, probably my favorite book. It has, if not, it's definitely my top three.

Jacqueline: Really, you know, it's funny again when I listen to your podcast, I take notes on all the books you're reading. So this year I've ordered probably five or six of his books. I'm through three of them right now, but he's absolutely incredible. But one of the many brilliant things that he wrote that really stuck with me was his statement that, One of the main keys to being successful and fulfilling your purpose is to understand your unique talents and to find the right arena in which to use them. However, I know that for many people, it might be challenging to [00:26:00] really identify what their strengths and gifts are. So, for that group, what advice could you offer them in terms of helping them uncover those talents?

Dr. Josh Axe: Well, here, here's what I would say about that. We're living in a society today that's very individualistic. And so I think a lot of times people are like, so here's what I see with Gen Z. Okay. And, and, and millennials more than I'm probably on that borderline of Gen X and millennia, but I'm a little bit more Gen X.

So, you know, um, when I, we, because we live in an individualized society, More than a communal society means that most people are trying to figure it out for themselves. So they're trying to figure it out by themselves via social media and maybe a few other people in their life, adding some opinions in, and they're kind of.

You know, trying to figure out what they're good at. You know, I, I think that I think, I think that what people need to do is one, spend time thinking about it [00:27:00] and writing it down yourself. Then go to people you really trust who have maybe seen you in certain arenas saying, Hey, what do you think I'm good at?

If there's any gifts and strengths that I have, what, what are those? And then ask for your weaknesses as well and embrace those because what a blessing for someone to tell you what you're weak at, because you, you, you, you can't grow in an area. You don't, you, that you don't know your weekend. So building up and cultivating that self awareness is really important.

So I would say we need to go to other people, coaches. teachers, pastors, parents, uh, again, mentors, just people that speak into our life and ask them if somebody knows us fairly well, um, that's something to think about. Like, here's an example. Like I, I would always ask a mentor of mine, Ben, um, Hey, Would you help me if like, I'm speaking, if there's something I'm doing, like saying, um, over and over again, or doing this, Hey, would you point that out?

And so he was able to do that for me, which was very helpful. [00:28:00] Here's another thing I learned by doing and trying lots of different things over time, what I was good at and what I was not good at. Most people think, well, I'm just going to figure it out before I do it. You know, for me to do what I'm doing today.

Which is, which is primarily becoming, being a doctor slash educator. I'm educating people mostly, and then I'm helping lead my business as an entrepreneur, but really my, my biggest roles as educator, you know, I, I wouldn't have thought that when I was younger, but I decided, well, I thought at one point, well, I want to be a doctor.

Okay. Well, maybe this sort of doctor I want to be as a physical therapist. Okay. Well, it's not a physical therapist. Well, maybe it's a car, you know, maybe it's actually a nutritionist. Well, okay. Well, let me go into chiropractic because they can do nutrition And chiropractic and physical therapy and then I have a license to do a lot of different things and functional medicine And then I thought well, hey, I want to run a clinic full time But then [00:29:00] I realized my favorite part of running my clinic was when I did my lectures uh, I would hold big lectures in my Clinic.

And then I started, they got so big that I started holding them in places like churches and buildings and things like that. And then I started a radio show. And then it was like, and then I started a YouTube show. And then I started something. My point is I tried a lot of things. And now I only said the things that sort of led me to the next.

There were other things I tried and I thought this isn't working. I don't want to do this. And, but, but I think you really need to dive in and be willing to like, let me, let me tell you some advice I have for my brother in law who's 26 years old. His name's Noah. He's a great guy. Um, and I have told him, I said, no, listen, do not worry about making money in your twenties.

Have your biggest focus on learning. If you can get, rather than going for a job where you can learn the most, where you can, Make the most possible, get in jobs where you can learn the most possible. So I've tried to set up [00:30:00] internships for him and set up things where he can go and learn and grow under people that are really amazing clinicians and marketers, because he wants to actually help grow and build functional medicine clinics more as a, uh, an entrepreneur and investor.

So, but my point is, is that I think most people in their twenties, it's. how, what can I make the most money doing now? What can you learn the most doing and do that in your twenties?

Jacqueline: hundred percent. And I think too, sadly, at least from what I observed, even in myself, is the fear of failure. That often prevents us from trying something example right here with this podcast, Dr. Axe. This is like my 50th episode that I'm recording with you right now. And I cringe when I look back and I hear the first 10, 15 episodes I recorded, but I didn't let that stop me, right?

I learned from failure. I learned from my mistakes and obviously two, 300 episodes from now, hopefully I'll be in a much better place, but I think that we really need to embrace making those mistakes and The [00:31:00] potential to fail because we all will, right? All the greats have at one point in time, um, and to really not let that be the reason we don't start.

Dr. Josh Axe: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. The best way to get better is to repetition and then it's not just repetition. It's, it's, it's, it's repetition where you are focused on getting better every episode. So watching your old episodes, watching and listening to people that are great at doing podcasts, you know, everyone from whether it's a, you know, Joe Rogan or a Jordan Peterson or a Mel Robbins or whoever, you know, I think that's a, you know, that, that's how you grow and get better.

Jacqueline: Yeah, absolutely. Going back though to discovering talents, are you a fan of personality tests? There's so many out there, like Myers Briggs, Enneagram. What's your take on those? Yep.

Dr. Josh Axe: am, you know, I, in, in, in one thing, my, one of my biggest areas of study has been ancient forms of medicine like Chinese medicine. And, um, and they really had the first personality test. Um, unless I, there, there, there is [00:32:00] a, There's an argument that Ayurveda maybe was before, but either way.

So Ayurveda has the doshas. Chinese medicine has what are called the five elements. And within those, that's really a personality. If you look at specifically the Chinese medicine, that's a personality profile. But they not only linked it to your personality, they went way deeper and said, well, this is also tied to an organ system and is tied to Emotions and it's tied to a numerous things.

And so, um, I'm generally a fan. Now, let me tell you what I don't like about, it's not the personality profile. What I don't like about the way some people respond to them is saying, well, Oh, I'm just like this and they use it as an excuse not to change and grow. So that's. That's not, you know, that's not good.

And I've seen some people kind of say, well, we shouldn't have personality profiles because you know, you're identifying yourself as something that's not, I don't know, I've, I saw one Christian say this biblical and it's, it just wasn't very, it was a very, uh, unwise comment. They didn't know what they were talking about.

But [00:33:00] all that being said, um, you know, I do like them a lot, um, from the standpoint of, you know, like for instance, Chelsea and I, we took the Enneagram test, I just went on whoever has, uh, Oh, I'm trying to remember his name now, but the, the, the founder of Enneagram, I just went on his podcast and, um, I shared with him that, you know, my wife and I really liked it because we joke around about it.

She knows I'm an eight, seven. I know she's a three too. So for her, she's highly competitive. So everything we do all the time, I mean, trying to play board game. Or anything with my wife. I mean, she is fully, I mean, she is in competitive and I was joking around like our daughter who's just turned four. I mean, she runs around the house.

She has to win. I mean, and everything caught them like we've got a little, you know, a little three here. And so, but, but, but it was good for us to get to know each other. Like, oh, you tick this way. Oh, you tick this way. So my wife is very competitive yet very supportive. You know, in that way. And I'm very direct and challenging.

Yeah. Also very, you know, [00:34:00] uh, what connection with others in a deep way and, and to have, and, and so, um, I do like them. Yes.

Jacqueline: Yeah, I think that's where most of the benefit lies is when you're either in some type of intimate relationship or even in a group setting where they're most helpful. So freshman year of college, I went to a school called Babson. I don't know if you're familiar with that, Dr. 

X. 

It's 

a 

Dr. Josh Axe: heard it, but I, I don't, I don't know 

much 

Jacqueline: Yeah, it's a it's a small business school.

They're known for entrepreneurship right outside Boston, and part of their curriculum for freshman students is, of course, called FME, which stands for foundations and management and entrepreneurship. And during this class, they basically split the class into two groups. And your goal is to create a product.

And sell it and make as much money as you can while still maintaining good relationships with your team and half of that class consisted of a behavioral component where we took a test called the disc assessment, which I'm I'm sure you've heard of before, [00:35:00] and I think it's like it's dominance, influence, steadiness and conscientiousness, but that was my first exposure to personality tests.

And. I learned a lot about myself, not only from the test, but just my interactions with the people in the group, because outside of friendships, you know, growing up, I mean, that was the first situation where I had to manage people, right? So just dealing in a business setting when we're all trying to, you know, So it was, it was a really interesting experience.

I'd probably say the behavioral component of that class was perhaps more beneficial uh, than like the tactical accounting finance part. But um, I, I'm a fan of the DISC assessment. Enneagram I've taken twice and interestingly, I've gotten different results on a different test. So I think I need to go to the actual source and retake it.

But I do think they have a place and they can be very beneficial.

Dr. Josh Axe: yeah. You know, we, we use di disc at my organizations, and so that's the one we use professionally most commonly. So, [00:36:00] yeah, and I, I, that was the first one I really, well, I, I actually, Myers-Briggs was the first one I did. I think I'm an INTJ, but I, uh, yeah, disc, I was a di. Um, yeah, I'm pretty, pretty familiar with those two.

Jacqueline: So on the opposite side of the spectrum, Dr. Axe, let's say someone knows what they are called to do. They know their God given purpose, but they don't necessarily feel ready to pursue it. Um, Ira posted a quote the other day on my Instagram that said, When it feels scary to jump, that is exactly when you jump.

Otherwise, you'll end up staying in the same place your entire life. So, I guess my question for you is, How do we discern when it's the right time to take a step of faith into an area that we feel called to pursue?

Dr. Josh Axe: Well, let, lemme share the way that I think about it. I, I think that, you know, um. I'm very focused on having a growth mindset, not a fixed mindset. And so like, if, if I'm, if I'm standing here, [00:37:00] most people think about, okay, how far can I get in the next few days or months or, or maybe even a year, I'm really focused on the next 10 years or next 25 years.

More so now I have those broken down into goals. So like as a business, we have quarterly goals and then a yearly goal and then a three and a five year plan. So we definitely have that. But also if I'm sitting, let me give you an example of this. My brother in law had a really great paying job, but. It just really allowed him to have no freedom.

He had to travel a lot with having kids now. He's like, well, I want to do something or in the near future. He really decided he wanted to be able to have more freedom. And so he had to weigh becoming a nurse practitioner. Um, which would give him lots of freedom to operate medically, start a clinic, do all kinds of things, but it would take him two, four years of not working at all.

So he's going to have a couple hundred dollars salary, just, you know, he's not going to get paid. So if he's only [00:38:00] looking at the next three years, he's losing out. That's not, that's not a good decision. Um, if he looks though at 10 years, Okay, well now he's, he, he, he beat those, uh, you know, he, he's, he's going to make more and have more freedom.

And that's not even counting 25 years from now in his quality of life and all those things. So I think really, you've got to be able to count the costs. You need to understand trade offs and say, okay, um, and invest in the future, um, in that way. I think, I think also, um, you know, this is, you know, this, sometimes it could happen where, Hey, if you go too early, it could, it could hurt you.

You know, I mean, I mean, so you need a way if that's reality or not. But I think generally speaking that that's how I make every decision is I really kind of sit down and I say, okay, there's two paths I could do this or this. Okay. Where will I be in one year, five year, 10 year, 20 year. If I follow both of the paths based on my calculations, based on Murphy's law, [00:39:00] not everything goes perfect, but generally good.

Okay. What would that look like? 

And then of course there's the wisdom of being prayerful. Asking the wise people around you, what would they think they should do? And not listen, you want to ask people, Hey, maybe it's your parents. Maybe it's not your parents. Maybe it's your, uh, maybe it's a, here's the thing you want to ask somebody who has done what you want to do, or who's very wise in that arena, because they're going to be able to share some wisdom with you, but you need to listen to God.

You need to listen to your own intuition. You need to listen to the wise counsel around you. And then you need to count the costs of both paths in order to make the right decision.

Jacqueline: I love that. Going back to the topic of beliefs, I've heard you talk a lot about limiting beliefs, right? Which are basically these thoughts that we believe to be absolute truths that often tend to stop us from doing certain things. Mm hmm. E. g. leaving your job or taking that step of faith. And I heard on one of your recent episodes, I think it was with Johnny cuff. The best way to identify [00:40:00] limiting beliefs is to write down some of your biggest goals and then observe the first few thoughts that come into mind when you start to talk yourself out of it. And I absolutely love that. I did that exercise right after that episode. And after doing a bit more reading on the power that these limiting beliefs have on our outlook of.

Not only ourselves, but the world. I really started to question the root of many of these limiting beliefs that I had have, um, that I've carried throughout my life, many of which started in childhood, which is the case for for most people. And you have a pretty profound story. Where one of your teachers said some pretty harsh words to you, I think, when you were in high school that, uh, contributed to the formation of a limiting belief that you had, but you were able to overcome that and that has clearly made all the difference.

So I'd love if you could share that story, because I think it's one 

of the most profound stories I've ever heard.

Dr. Josh Axe: Yeah. You know, this is, this was a turning point in my life. You know how all of us have these sort of some turning points. [00:41:00] I, I did this the other day by the way, this is a fun exercise for everybody to do. And I think an enlightening one right down. What are the top 10 turning points of your life?

Now, if you have eight or 12, that's fine too. It could go on, but generally what are the 10 biggest turning points of your life or 15 write those down. And so I was doing this and I realized, so, so going back and I'll share this, this story. And I think, by the way, everyone's going to resonate with this because most of you have had, had this happen to you in some way, shape or form.

So when I was a freshman in high school, I was not a very good student and I went, I was in freshman English class and I had a teacher, her name was Miss Noble and she at the, after the bell rang, she said, Josh, can you stay after class? And I stayed after class and, uh, and she said, Hey, Josh, what do you want to do after high school?

And I said, well, I actually really want to be a doctor. And I knew that because the year before my mom had gone through breast cancer and chemotherapy. And so, and I remember my [00:42:00] mom suffering and saying, I want to help people like my mom. And so I said, I want to be a doctor with total confidence. Well, she laughed out loud and she said, Josh, listen, With your GPA, you'd never get into med school.

She said, my own daughter had a 3. 8 GPA and barely got into med school. She said, you're getting a D minus right now in my class. You got an F on this paper. She said, if you're even going to graduate, you're gonna need to try harder. And that was it. And I walked out of there. Now, my takeaway from that, I kind of walked out of there thinking, well, I got, well, maybe I, I can't be a doctor.

So I, so I kind of like, like almost just, just left that dream completely. And then two and a half weeks later, my mom brings me in to see a physician who diagnosed me, diagnoses me with ADHD. And he talks about me like I'm not in the room. I still remember him talking to him saying, listen, your son has really, has it, has a learning, uh, a learning disability.

He has severe ADHD and he's always going to have trouble, you know, always trouble, trouble learning. And here's a prescription for the drug Ritalin. [00:43:00] And I never my mom never put me on the medication. She never felt right about it But I went through high school after hearing within a few weeks of hearing a teacher And then basically I felt like, well, not only am I not smart, I'm like medically not smart.

There's something wrong with me. So, so I thought, well, it's just not in the cards for me to get good grades. And so I just barely made it through high school. I barely graduated. I graduated with a C minus GPA. The only reason I graduated my whole, like I knew my dad would just be irate if I didn't graduate high school.

And that was my biggest motivation. And then. Um, I applied to a bunch of colleges, got denied by a lot, but there was one school I really wanted to go to and they sent me a letter back and it said this. It was University of Kentucky. It said, basically, now listen, I don't remember the exact verbiage, but it was something here.

Here's what I took away. You're not in, but if you come and take summer school and you average above a 3. 0, we'll let you in.

Jacqueline: Wow.

Dr. Josh Axe: And I thought, okay, well good. Okay. I'm going to go and I'm actually, I'm going to really try. And so my parents let me [00:44:00] go. I went to summer school. First class I had to take was English 101.

First big assignment was a paper. So I wrote this paper, really tried, turned it in a few days later. The teacher, Mrs. Williams says, Josh, can you stay after class? And my stomach just sunk. I thought, Oh no,

I failed. Not good. And she said, Josh, what's your major? And I said, um, I didn't, I haven't chosen one.

And she said, well, I want to let you know, I really think you should consider being an English major or journalism major. She said, because you got the highest grade in the class. You did a great job on this paper. I think you're a really gifted writer. Great work. And I walked out of there and it was just, here's what it was like for me.

It was like having an organ transplant. We now all called it a mind mindset transplant. I went from believing I wasn't smart. I had a learning disability. I was going to struggle in school to then finally having a teacher tell me. You got the highest grade in the class. You're a gifted writer. Hey, I'm going to even tell you what your career should be.

And, and [00:45:00] then, and so I almost changed it being a writer. And then by the first year though, I thought, no, I still want to be a doctor. And I averaged well above, you know, I three point something and, um, graduated. Uh, eventually much later on, but I went to Johns Hopkins university. I averaged a 3. 9 GPA at Johns Hopkins.

And, um, and so, you know, and became a doctor, started a supplement company, uh, wrote in seven books. I don't, I don't say any of that to boast. I say all of it to say if I would have held on to that one single limiting belief.

None of that would have happened. None of it. And there are so many people today listening to this or watching this, that you have a limiting belief and it's keeping you from fulfilling your dreams.

Like you're not writing the book yourself, or you're not changing your career, or you're not taking the risk, or you're not taking control of your health. Because at some point someone said something to you and you believe the lie. And so it's so important that we identify the lie, biblically speaking, God says, take every thought captive.

Is [00:46:00] this true? Does it line up with the word of God? If not, then it's a lie. And so we know that. And I saw this a lot medically, by the way, you have any patients I had come into me after seeing other physicians and they came in and they said, Well, Dr. Axe, I'm here to see you, but my doctor told me I had to be on this pill the rest of my life, or they told me my condition is irreversible.

Things like type two diabetes or even high cholesterol or high blood pressure or autoimmune disease. And I helped thousands of people. Reverse those conditions. And, and again, it was all because they just, mostly they overcame the limiting belief. I told him a few things to eat differently and do, do, do with their life.

And they did them. And so they were able to heal completely. So this really is one of the most important principles throughout the book that I get into is here is how to overcome the limiting beliefs. And, and, and, and so I give it, it's, it's a huge thing. I think it's, if I think about the biggest thing holding people back today, it's limiting beliefs about themselves.

[00:47:00] about others, about God, about the world. Cause I believe, here's another one. If you, if you don't believe the right things about God, it's going to affect your relationship with him. If you believe like some people believe that, I mean there are kids that believe they're cats. There are, uh, there are some people like a lot of the people trying to run the world and I'm not getting into things that are kind of out there, but just sharing reality, that, you know, they'll, they'll say that humans are viruses and like, Pests to the planet.

And so, you know, my, my point there is that's a limiting belief about humans. Cause the, the ultimate, the true belief is we're divine beings. Like CS Lewis talks about this

in his book and he says, you know, if we were to see one another in our spiritual forms, as God and goddesses, we would be with little G's, uh, we would be blown away and stunned in an awe and wonder.

And so limiting beliefs, here's the thing. If you're following a lie, it's going to lead you to a bad place. And that's the reality. And if you're believing a lie about yourself, you're not gifted, you're not smart, you're not beautiful, whatever lie [00:48:00] you're believing, 

it's, it's, it's, it's gonna, it's gonna hurt your life in some way.

And 

so it's important that we find and create new empowering beliefs.

Jacqueline: Amen to all of that. And I mean, you talk about this too in your book, but that all links to identity, who, who are we? And again, one thing I really love that you talk about a lot is, What are we putting our identity in? Is it our accomplishments? Is it our assets, material, how much money we make every year, even our relationships, but your identity first is, you know, you're a child of God and you have inherent value in that because he created you and you are loved.

Anything beyond that is a gift from him. And I think today, again, like. Not to get political, but there's a lot of people saying, Oh, like voice, your truth, what's your truth. And there is one truth, right? That is God's word. And if we just focus on that, I mean, the spillover effects of that truth in terms of overcoming limiting beliefs, recognizing our identity, who we are, our intrinsic value.

I mean, it just, it's, it's [00:49:00] incredible. The change that, that it has and the impact that it has.

Dr. Josh Axe: Yeah. Agreed.

Jacqueline: Yeah. Well, I touched on this before to Dr. Axe briefly, but. When it comes to failure, you've spoken with some incredible people on your show, what separates people who thrive from those who merely survive when it comes to really big setbacks they've experienced?

Dr. Josh Axe: You know, I, I, I think it's, um, our focus, what we're focused on, you know, when I think about Christ and what he did on the cross, he has, yeah, he had his eyes fixed on the price, you know, us. Which is amazing. That's incredible. Versus if he had his eyes only fixed on the pain and that's where his focus was.

That becomes very hard. I mean, this is true with everyone, by the way. I mean, so, um, when I had this spinal [00:50:00] infection, I didn't walk for a year. I had somebody come in to visit me and they said, what have you been doing? And I said, well, I've been writing a book and doing this with my two year old daughter and all the things I'd been doing.

And he said, well, if I were you, I would just be eating Cheetos and drinking Mountain Dew all day because I would be depressed knowing that I, you know, that you might not walk again. And I said, well, you know what? I've got a lot of purpose and I've got my eyes fixed on eternity. I've got my eyes fixed on.

I want to maximize my time here. And so I think this is true with everybody. What is your, what are your eyes fixed on? Is it fixed on yourself and your condition, your disease, or is it focused on? No, I'm going to get to the point where I'm back throwing my two year old in the pool again, or I'm going to bring, bring it, bringing my kids to Disney world.

This is how my mom, partly how my mom beat cancer is. We didn't focus on cancer.

Jacqueline: Yeah.

Dr. Josh Axe: We, she focused on, I want to bring my grandkids to this new world when I'm in my seventies and eighties and nineties. And she focused on that and said, okay, well, let's just eat and let's focus on that beautiful future ahead of you.

And so most people have their eyes fixed on the wrong things. And here's an example. There, there, there was a quite a few [00:51:00] psychologists and psychiatrists and therapists now who have said one of the biggest issues for Gen Z right now. As if they're ruminating on their thoughts, even when they go to counseling, it's like the number of kids going to counseling and talking about their problems over and over and over again, actually most of the time makes it worse because they're just recirculating and focusing on their problems.

I noticed this with patients. Listen, I, you know, I'm thinking about like a lot of patients. Yeah. I'm thinking about one right now that had Lyme disease, another one that had fibromyalgia, another one that had chronic fatigue. And the only thing they focus on is their condition. Now, listen. I'm sensitive to the fact that that's incredibly painful and debilitating and your energy is gone.

And that makes certain things in life very difficult. But if you want to heal, you can't live in that state and just focus on those things. You've got to focus on, on, on, on your future and healing and get in. And so your focus is very important. And also, When you look at the studies on [00:52:00] depression versus joy in life and somebody being happy with their life, the depressed group is the group that's the most self focused.

I'm going to take care of myself and my needs and me and me and me and me, whatever. Everybody needs to accommodate to me. Versus the people that are the happiest or the people that are most focused on others. Think about mother Teresa. She was in the slums in Calcutta, India. I mean the dirtiest place in the world and yet she was one of the most joyful people in the world.

And why is that because she was not focused on self at all focused mostly on others. Now we want to care for ourselves in order that we can care for others. But I think that, but really the people that thrive versus don't, it's the people that thrive or the people that focus on serving others. Um, yeah.

That's and have their eye more fixed on the eternal, more of the longterm. I cover this in my book, the people that, here's a quote by C. S. Lewis, this isn't word for word, but generally, I think he said some of the degree of the people that do the most in this life are the people that think most about the [00:53:00] next life. You know, you think about everyone from Moses to, you know, to, to Jesus, to Gandhi, to mother Teresa, to Abraham Lincoln, to, uh, Michelangelo. I mean, these people were very focused on eternity and that's why they, they did the work. They were the type of work. I mean, that's why, I mean, if you go and look at the Sistine Chapel today, it's mind blowing or the statues that he created Michelangelo.

And it, I mean, like you're an all, if I would go and look at a modern day artist, 99. 9 percent of them, even the best of the best today, who's ever known in the modern world as being a great artist, you'd be like, that just looks stupid. I know that just is politically incorrect for me to say, but it's all meaningless because it's void of the divine.

And so my point there is, is that it's, it's very, the people that thrive are the people that focus the most on the longterm and not the short term and most on others and not themselves.

Jacqueline: [00:54:00] Absolutely. And to that point too, I mean, even Michelangelo had a becoming mindset rather than accomplished in the sense that he started that project with knowing that he would not be there to see it through. Finished, 

right? 

Yeah. So a lot of similarities and you have this awesome section in your book to that includes a table of the characteristics of characters in a story and I actually screenshot it and I have it printed right now, but it's a wonderful illustration from the victim to the villain to the hero to the guide.

And you say how heroes use pain, but villains are used by it. What, in your opinion, would contribute to someone's choosing pain? One of those paths over the other because we hear stories to have people who grow up with you know parents who are alcoholics and one child goes in a similar route and the other child makes a 360 like What inherently like would if would impact that person's decision as to what route they pursue?

Dr. Josh Axe: [00:55:00] Well, I think ultimately it comes down to, um, People are always trying to avoid pain and create pleasure for themselves, and there's nothing wrong with that. That's how it should be in a way. It's only like for me, I still go through a hard workout because I know there's more pleasure on the back end where some people are focused more on the pain during the exercise and not worried enough on the back end.

And so that's really the only difference period of why somebody would work out or not work out or eat healthy or not eat healthy is it's where are you focused on the pain at? On the front or the back end, you want to pay it on the front, not the back. And so with those people, though, you look at, again, uh, you know, a example of a movie that most people modern day would know would be a movie like Harry Potter.

Uh, and there's loads of others, but just as an example, you've got, both of them are orphans, Voldemort and Harry and Harry, both of them were really, uh, you know, put through a difficult point time in their life. And Harry [00:56:00] decides to take the pain that he has, And say, you know what, I want to help others relieve this pain and that relieves his own pain where Voldemort says, well, I'm going to take this pain that was inflicted upon me and inflicted upon others.

And in a way it's going to give me, and actually a lot of this is hormonal. I actually, it's a sort of, you know, there's dopamine hits, there's serotonin, there's oxytocin and what sort of, sort of hit you get from each different one. And so you give example, I mean, somebody could go and get a head of drugs.

And have a certain type of, uh, experience chemically, and somebody could go to a praise and worship night at church and just sing at the top of their lungs and be engrossed in the music and have a different type of experience. But both are going to have really tremendous amounts of joy, but the one is going to lead to heaven and the other is going to listen metaphorically or a little bit.

a hellish state [00:57:00] and one's going to lead to a more heavenly state of your life. And so I think that, um, in terms of getting the exact psychology of why somebody, um, I think a lot of it is learned behavior is I saw my parents doing this and so I'm going to do this. Um, And, you know, outside of that, I don't know that I can answer it.

I just know that I think that, um, it still comes down to almost the answer before it's somebody is focused on the short term. Another person is focused more on the long term.

Jacqueline: And the people in your life too. I, I, I love the, the purpose of the guide. I mean, in, in the book too, like the guide is someone who makes the hero realize their full potential, right. And sheds light on things that they have deep within them that they may not have otherwise have ever realized.

Dr. Josh Axe: And I'll tell you this. What are the biggest things that most people are missing in life right now across the board? We're talking about Gen Z and millennia. Now this is everybody, but especially people that are younger. People are missing their Gandalf, [00:58:00] their Yoda, their coach, Nick Saban, their, their mentor, their guru.

And um, if you look at the Eastern world throughout history, whether you study Judaism and in the, in the structure of rabbis or early Christianity or others, there's this idea of. of being a, being a, a mentee or a disciple, uh, in those ways. Um, most people, again, it's one of your other questions is people trying to figure out themselves rather than say, no, who is somebody that I could latch a hold of that I could learn from and.

You know, here's another example. When I was in high school, I, I never, we always went to Sunday, I always went to church, but then I always went to Sunday school, you know, I bet almost every church had Sunday school years ago, like 30, 30 years ago. Now, almost none do [00:59:00] now. The reason I bring that up is one is a lot more small group focus.

One is a lot more mentor focus. And then from there, Sunday school, then we would get put in small groups. I go to on Wednesday night where I always had someone older than me that was leading me always in my life. And I was so blessed by that. And a lot of young people, you know, Do not have anyone to, to, to, to help lead them in their life.

So they're guessing everything. And so it creates an unstable identity. It creates anxiety, mental health disorders, created them to waste their time and not move far ahead, ahead, as quickly as they should be in life. And so the fastest way to move ahead faster in your life. And to flourish is to find someone to model.

Find your rabbi, find your priest, find your pastor, find your coach, find your mentor, find your, find that person to help you grow and lead. I always have somebody I'm following in that way.

Jacqueline: Yeah.

Dr. Josh Axe: And I try and do it both online via someone like a john Maxwell and I always try and do it in person with [01:00:00] someone I had Ben Lerner early on a man and uh, Greg Loman and Chuck Majors and Dan Yackter, these doctors.

And then I had Jordan Rubin and now he's my best friend, but he was a mentor. And, uh, you know, early I had my grandfather and my dad, and then I had Larry Kirk, this man at church. And then I had, uh, Mike Zeller and Anthony Humphrey. Like I can name all these people that helped me grow because I knew this principle.

I realized this early in my life. I think even in high school. I need to get connected to people that are ahead of me because that will help me grow the fastest and trying to become, and this is back going back to the becoming mindset rather than trying to accomplish things, trying to become like somebody great.

It's the, it's the fastest way for you to excel.

Jacqueline: That's so important. And one thing you highlighted. So I do just want to emphasize to you that because I am in the process to right now where I would love to be able to work one on one with a mentor, but for those folks out there who might not be in that position, john Maxwell can be your mentor, right?

You just listen to all of the information he's [01:01:00] put out his podcast, read all of his books. It doesn't necessarily have to be that one on one interaction. Um, Would that be ideal? Yes. But there's always information out there.

Dr. Josh Axe: Well, and here's how this should look. Okay. So, and let me tell a quick story. This was, When I was my, my, probably my first year of practice. Okay. So nobody knew I was, I didn't have anything. I was just getting started. Well, I started listening to Dave Ramsey. Okay. And he was really well known in the national area.

If you don't know, Dave's a big financial guru. And I went to this event, he did. I went to a mastermind event he did in Cancun. And um, when I was there, able to go up and ask him a question. I said, Dave, um, Hey, could, could, could, could you mentor me? So I asked him that point blank and he said, Josh, I am so honored that you would ask, but no, I do not.

I don't have the time to do that. And, um, but I thought, Hey, I'm going to go for it. I'm going to try it. And I, and I, And now, now that I'm in the position I am in life, I really get it even more. So, [01:02:00] um, but I decided I'm going to keep learning from Dave. I'm going to go to his events. I'm going to read his books and similar thing with John Maxwell.

I got to talk to John Maxwell once and was able to learn from him and some great ways at a distance, but I think it's important for people to have both mentors. That you're not in contact with and also those that you are. The mentors you're not in contact with, maybe the people that are very well known, again, the John Maxwell's, the Dave Ramsey's, the Craig Groeschel's, the Lisa Bevere's, the Sadie, you know, the Sadie Robertson, those sorts of people, you know, um, or the doctors, the Andrew Huberman's, the whoever's, you know, like learn from those people from afar, read everything they do, but also.

So, you know, go to your local church and join a small group and have someone who's a little bit ahead of you spiritually, right? I mean, you know, you know, find, talk to a friend of a friend, find an entrepreneur or some old sage, you know, that's, or male or female that can help, you know, disciple [01:03:00] you in your, in your business career, right?

I did that to a really, a really great degree. So I would say try and have both of those.

Jacqueline: Right. And to the point about an in person mentor, circling back on our initial conversation, you know, that person will help you identify things that you need. To improve upon areas of growth, right? You can't necessarily get that with someone who you're just listening to. So couldn't agree more with that.

recognizing that we have a few minutes left, Dr Axe I want to be conscious of your time. But I did have a few more questions for you. You have built so many successful companies and I am curious. What was your method of figuring out what you what you wanted to explore and invest in next. So I have so many ideas of where I want to take well and strong, but I'm also trying to be wise and homing in on one focus area, at least initially, because as they say, if you're chasing two rabbits, you're not going to catch either one.

So do you have any like advice in terms of a method for me to [01:04:00] perhaps use to really discern and narrow in on a focus area?

Dr. Josh Axe: Well, first off, Confucius was right. And the two on the two rabbits. So that's, you will, you will catch none. And I've, I've added points where I've tried to chase two and it didn't work out. So I totally agree with that. Uh, so, so here, here's how I think about it. What can you be the best in the world at? And what are you passionate about and what's the current opportunity you have? And then fourth, what can you get rewarded doing? Okay. Those are the four things to consider. Now, uh, I think it's a KGI, that's what it's called in Japanese, but, but many people have done this framework. Maxwell has the same framework that he learned from somebody.

So this has been, you know, people have learned this for, for, for a long time. But, but that's what I would say is for instance, like, what can you say I know I can get better and better and better and better at this. And can I monetize it? Okay. That's, that's really how you want to think about it. [01:05:00] And also, okay, maybe there's stages.

So let me give you an example of this. When I started, I started a functional medicine clinic and I loved seeing patients, but I loved even more educating and teaching. Now, again, I'm running a full time practice. It, you know, it brought in a good income, but, but I, biggest thing for me was following my passion.

Like I believed I could be one of the best in the world at. like at doing a radio show and YouTube videos and podcast, just being an educator. And so I said, I want to move into that. And so what I did was I, over time I said, okay, I'm going to do four days a week in my clinic and one full day a week, I'm just going to create content.

And I started writing articles on a website called DrAxe.com and doing one YouTube video week and then a radio show a week. And so I would do all that on Friday and over time. It just continued to grow and snowball to where finally one day it made sense for me to just full time do DrAxe.Com. And then it was like, [01:06:00] well, how am I going to monetize that?

Well, I'm going to create courses to help people heal. Like I created a course called the Dr. Axe Detox and another one. for healing leaky gut and then essential oil program and a number of other health programs to help people heal. And then over time, well, these people could also benefit from supplements.

So then I started a supplement line. And and so oftentimes if you think about it, it makes sense for you to maybe build your audience and grow your business in one way and then add other things as you continue to grow that are going to really help bless your business. and benefit the audience you're called to serve.

Um, and so I, I hope that's helpful, but, but I definitely think you really have to think about what you can be the best in the world at first. Secondarily, what can you be rewarded? You know, how can you be rewarded in doing that?

Jacqueline: I love that. Thank you. No, that was very helpful. I'll, uh, apply that framework and keep you posted on what that ends up

Dr. Josh Axe: Great. We'd love to hear.

Jacqueline: And [01:07:00] Dr. Axe, so where can listeners find you and get a copy of your latest book, Think This, Not That?

Dr. Josh Axe: Yeah. Well, first, uh, again, I have a podcast. It's called the Dr. Josh act show. Um, it is, um, it's really growing, you know, we're one of the top on iTunes and the health section, and I cover a lot of health. So if you have a hypothyroid or Lyme or want to know about saunas or cold plunge or anything. I'm really diving deep there into those topics along with how to grow in mindset and purpose.

So it's about 50 percent all health content, 50 percent other, you know how to grow in your life content. Um, so Dr. Josh acts show on YouTube and iTunes. The book is called think this, not that it's in bookstores nationwide on Amazon, uh, as well. And, um, I really think it's the best book I've written. I really think it would help bless people's lives and my, and on social media, my handle is at Dr.

Josh X.

Jacqueline: Wonderful. I will be including the links to all of those in the show notes. And I will say, Dr. Axe, my mom and I are probably your, [01:08:00] your top two fans on your podcast. Anytime a 

Dr. Josh Axe: I'm so 

honored. I'm texting, I'm like, mom, listen to this. But, uh, it's, it's truly my favorite podcast. I share it on WellnStrong all the time, so just keep up the great work.

Uh, so, well, thanks, Jacqueline. I'm praying you're blessed in your career and all you do, you're doing a great job and thanks again for having 

me. 

Jacqueline: Thank you, Dr. Axe. And one last question for you, and this is my 

Dr. Josh Axe: Sure. 

Jacqueline: to ask, and that is, what does being WellnStrong mean to you?

Dr. Josh Axe: Well, I think it's being strong in body, mind and spirit. You know, oftentimes somebody can be strong physically, but if you're weak spiritually and mentally, you know, your, your, your, your life can start to crumble. So for me primarily, it's being strong spiritually and then mentally and then physically. And so really focusing on all those areas.

You know, one way I do that is I try and win the morning and win the day. And so every morning I start off with, you know, I, I spend, I wake up and I get on my hands and knees first thing for a minute and just say, you know, just pray and then I'll go for a quick walk of just, you know, gratitude, get outside it for a minute and then I'll come back in, read my Bible for [01:09:00] a little bit and then I'll have a superfood smoothie that I'll work out.

So I'm really focused on growing my health, growing spiritually. And then right after that I typically see my wife and daughters and you know, lots of kisses and hugs and good mornings and for about 30 minutes before I dive into my work. But I would just say really being, being well is really, It's if, even if you look up in the dictionary, it's health and body, mind and spirit to all those 

areas. 

Jacqueline: Amen. Sounds like the perfect morning routine. Well, Dr. Axe, thank you so much again for your time. I'm super excited to share this with listeners, and I hope to have you on again at some point soon.

Dr. Josh Axe: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I know you're gonna be a big success. So thanks again.


People on this episode

Head Shot

Jacqueline Genova

Host