[00:00:00] Christine: Military spouses aren’t the only ones that struggle with getting unstuck and crafting a life with purpose. And today’s guest is here to talk about how this can be a challenge for veterans after they leave active duty. In fact, More than 48% of veterans struggle when transitioning from active service.

[00:00:23] Today’s guest is Bob Taylor, founder of the Patriot Promise Foundation, which was created to help drive down the rate of suicides among veterans and to provide a clear path to help war fighters transition into a new mission and purpose following their. Bob Vulnerably shares his struggles and how he transformed them into a new found purpose.

[00:00:47] So what do you say? Let’s dive into the show.

[00:01:44] Do you find yourself feeling pulled in all directions and yet you realize nothing you do is actually fueling and filling your cup? You’ve put those dreams, those passions, those goals. Of yours on the back burner because there are so many demands on your time and everyone seems to need you for all the things.

[00:02:07] And you find your day filled with running and volunteering and sitting in school pickup lines and driving to soccer practice and getting food for everybody on the table. And yet at the end of the day, you find yourself just existing through. You find yourself not really loving your life and not really knowing what you really need to do to change you long to have a sense of purpose, but you’re not sure what that purpose is and what will actually help you step into a life that fuels and fills.

[00:02:47] Friend, if that’s you, it’s time to start finding yourself again, getting in touch with who you are and what truly lights you up, and I have a free training to help you do just that. You can access my free identity workshop to help you get clarity. and rediscover who you are at your core so that you can begin to start reclaiming your life and dream.

[00:03:14] If you’re tired of trying to figure this all out on your own, if you’re tired of signing up for an mlm, hoping that that will solve your problems and give you a sense of purpose, or if you’re just waiting for that season when it’s time to be done with military life. So, Actually create the life you want, then this is for you.

[00:03:40] You, my friend, are more than a milspouse, and it’s time to discover who you truly are so that you can actually live a life of greater peace, purpose, joy, and fulfillment today. Just click the link in the show notes or visit milspouse mastermind.com/. To get started today. All right. Today we are talking with Bob Taylor.

[00:04:07] Just to let you know a little bit about Bob, he is the c e o founder and owner of Alliant Healthcare Products, Alliant Biotech, and Serge as a veteran. He has been a staunch advocate for legislative initiatives supporting veteran owned initiatives. He’s spoken on Capitol Hill several times. He is the author of the The forthcoming book From Service to Success, new Mission, new Purpose.

[00:04:37] Well, Bob Taylor, welcome to the MilSpouse Mastermind Show. I’m so excited to have you with us today. Would you tell my audience a little bit about yourself and what you. .

[00:04:48] Bob: Sure. Well, first, Christine, I’m really thankful for you having me on this. The book I’m I just wrote is is about veterans and also spouses of veterans.

[00:05:00] And so I just wanna thank you for For having the openness to having me on, on your podcast. So my background is I’m originally from Michigan, went to Michigan State, big Spartan. Unfortunately, this was a tough year for Spartans. Went to active duty Air Force when I graduated and went into navigating B 52 s.

[00:05:23] Part of that was 11 combat missions during Operation Desert Storm from Diego Garcia, which is a tiny little.in the middle of the Indian Ocean, almost on the opposite side of the earth. And after active duty, I left and a, a great friend of mine was working at a medical device company and I had an opportunity to, to use my engineering education to start design.

[00:05:51] In manufacturing medical devices and continued on with my Air Force reserves and KC 1 35 s as an navigator. And then finished my Air Force. I didn’t retire. I finished my my service after I was an Air Force Academy liaison officer for about five years. But just the balance of faith, family, and friends.

[00:06:12] I just had to kind of pick which way I was gonna go. And so I’ve owned this company, Alliant Healthcare Products, for the last 20 years to celebrate our 20th anniversary. Congratulations. Yep. Thank you. And just recently became a full fledged author, as amazing as that is to anyone who knows me.

[00:06:31] Christine: So, talk about this book. What, what is it about? What inspired it?

[00:06:35] Bob: So what inspired it is. . You know, I had my struggles and I’ve always known that other veterans have sacrificed far more than I have, but I wasn’t really aware of how common it is for veterans to struggle after they leave their service. We go through a process of, of, you know, bootcamp or officers training school.

[00:07:02] We basically get rewired with a lot of the things, the way that we look at the world. We become aimed at a very specific mission that we’re given from our military. And just like I’m sure your husband has, I felt like I reached the pinnacle of my career and I felt I was one of the best navigators in B 52 s.

[00:07:25] And when I left. Just, you know, the work I did was not as, it wasn’t life or death, it wasn’t as important. People didn’t trust me with their lives like they did in the military. And so making that adjustment back to civilian life can be a challenge for as many as one in or every other veteran. So about 11 million veterans are struggling with, with this transition.

[00:07:49] Christine: So what were some of the biggest things that you struggled? , what were some of the feelings you were having?

[00:07:55] Bob: For me, something that was completely unexpected for me is I started having nightmares and I don’t even know where they came from. I didn’t, you know, my combat experience wasn’t in the trenches.

[00:08:08] I was, you know, we had one mission that was at low altitude, but then we were flying at high altitude, but there was, I didn’t realize what the stress of combat and, you know, the thoughts of combat. I didn’t realize that what that was doing to me. And so it came out in the form of nightmares unexpectedly.

[00:08:29] And then they went away for about 16 years. Then they came back with a vengeance. And, you know, I got to the point where I was actually afraid to go to sleep. So I started having some, maybe one or two drinks to help me fall asleep. And if one or two. Then maybe one or two more works. And I really kind of got myself behind the eight ball.

[00:08:54] And so I got to a point where I decided I wasn’t living my best life and I needed to do something. So I went to the VA and I told the counselor there that I would do absolutely everything that she told me to do. I would take whatever advice she gave me and I would be her best. and I felt like I live out that promise and I’ve really made tremendous progress.

[00:09:21] And and so the, the premise of the book is there’s a way, there’s a path through this. And not only that, I think veterans have the raw materials to become some of the greatest, most successful people in our country. And I, I just can’t accept, you know, veterans getting out and just getting a job or struggl.

[00:09:43] I think a lot of what I shared in the book were not just my struggles, but other veterans struggles. And then a lot of what I learned from Bob Proctor, I’m not sure if you’re familiar with him, but very much about rewriting a paradigm in my mind to find my best future. And so that’s what I’ve.

[00:10:05] Christine: So I would love to know, was there something that made you say, okay, I’ve had enough. I need to go get help. What was that catalyst that made you say, I don’t want to continue to live this way? I think

[00:10:20] Bob: it was a little bit of my self-awareness and the impact that I could see it was having on my. , there’s an irritability that is just the strangest thing.

[00:10:31] You know, I ask people if you have someone in your life that that irritates you a little bit or says the wrong things at the wrong times. I think everyone has that experience, but this kind of irritability is like all of a sudden you wake up and everyone is saying the wrong things at the wrong time, and it’s just not a good space to be in.

[00:10:53] So, , I think it was my awareness and seeing the impact it was having on my family and also the health consequences that that it was having. I just realized I was not living the life I wanted to.

[00:11:07] Christine: Well, and if you’re not sleeping well, that affects so many things about your life.

[00:11:12] Bob: It’s the number one thing that the, that the VA says they wanna treat is if veterans could get a good night’s.

[00:11:21] Then we can cope much better with what’s going on. And I couldn’t, I couldn’t get a good night’s sleep. It was just really strange how it kind of creeped up on me and how quickly it was a matter of weeks before I. what I call getting behind the eight ball. I got

[00:11:39] Christine: way behind the eight ball. So what was that process when you went to the VA and you’re like, I will, I will do anything to really be able to move through this.

[00:11:48] What did you start doing? What were some of the things that they offered to you and what were you learning in that process?

[00:11:55] Bob: So they, you know, they’ve got this list of types of therapies that they will use. and because they’re trying to figure out what the source of the trauma is, what what triggered this, what, what can they do to help.

[00:12:10] I also saw, in addition to a psychologist, which you know, was aimed at therapies to help me cope, I was also seeing a psychiatrist who prescribed medication to help me with some depression, some some sleeping medication. and some other things. They had a, a medication that they used off label that actually I call the dream eraser is you would go to sleep, have the nightmares, but not remember ’em.

[00:12:41] And that gave me the space to use the therapy to then of a, I don’t have nightmares anymore. I didn’t know that you could reprogram your nightmares. I, I just thought we were stuck. , but through all this therapy cognitive behavior therapy was one of ’em. Coping skills on how to manage anger and I irritability, how to improve your self-awareness.

[00:13:07] And then also like I said, with studying some of Bob Proctor’s works. Really just setting a new, a new path for my life. You have to give up a lot of your old habits. and just rewrite. It’s like going through officers training, school or bootcamp in the beginning. You have to kind of go through a new bootcamp or officer’s training school or civilian training school for your new path because your military service is not the absolute epitome or highlight of your life there is.

[00:13:44] there is much more to live and finding a cause greater than yourself. Finding your true passion is worthwhile.

[00:13:54] Christine: I mean, I think it’s so interesting because there’s so many similarities to what we experience as military spouses, because if you are active duty, you have this sense of this mission, this purpose, this cause that you were helping.

[00:14:10] And when you become a military spouse and you take a step back from your career, from your dreams and you start to stay. , who am I and what do I have to offer? And it’s really being able to find that sense of meaning and purpose in the season that you’re in. And this is something. That we talk a lot about on this show, but at, if you are an active duty member, it’s kind of that process just done down the road after you step away from that service.

[00:14:40] Right?

[00:14:40] Bob: It’s putting it off. Right. And, and I think the people, the, the veterans that do best when they leave, you know, the spouse is a super critical part of that support, but also the prepar. of, you know, thinking about your civilian life and preparing for that and thinking through what is it that you really wanna do with your life.

[00:15:06] I think the work that you’re doing on this podcast is along the line of doing, you know, finding something greater than yourself and helping other people. I’m sure that gives you a great sense of, of

[00:15:19] Christine: purpose. It does. I mean it, it makes so much difference to know that we can take whatever the situation that we’re in and find a way to make it matter and to make it mean something and to say, okay, like the struggles that I’m going through, talking about that, looking for solutions can also help other people.

[00:15:40] And I think that’s some of what you’ve done in putting this book.

[00:15:45] Bob: Right. It, that’s exactly it To me, it wasn’t enough just for me to go through my struggles and come through. You know, the, the one image I have in my mind is a spouse, a military spouse sitting down with their veteran spouse and reading the book together because a lot of veterans say, oh, you just don’t understand.

[00:16:07] And okay, well, we can’t just. that, so going through the book together I think would allow the spouse the opportunity to kind of share what they’re going through and understand a little bit more what the veterans going through to come to a common understanding. Well,

[00:16:27] Christine: I think it’s so interesting because what I’ve experienced in, in being a military spouse is that there’s so.

[00:16:34] when they’re active duty, they’re like, I can’t tell you what’s going on. I can’t tell you. And then it becomes this place where you’re like, we don’t know how to talk about this together. So I love this idea of being able to go through the book together and say, okay, this gives us a framework to have some conversations about our different experiences.

[00:16:53] But how they impact each other.

[00:16:57] Bob: Exactly. The so there’s a couple things. The, the VA in battle. They asked me for a hundred books and they’re gonna use it for group therapy, and I, that just blows me away. I so excited to get feedback on how, how well that goes, but I think it, it just opens up a discussion.

[00:17:21] As an author, you hope that someone reads your book and l you know, reads the whole thing and follow, but that’s, I don’t have that belief that that’s gonna happen all the time. But if someone can read this book and just find one or two snippets throughout the book that they can share together. and that just moves their relationship forward.

[00:17:40] I think that’s a great thing. For

[00:17:42] Christine: sure. So talk about this process of after you went through the therapy, what led you to say, Hey, I wanna put this in a book and, and really start helping other people with this.

[00:17:55] Bob: Like I’ve, I’ve mentioned the Bob Proctor relationship. My, my son actually. For Bob Proctor and his background is, he was in the movie The Secret and he was a disciple of Napoleon Hill.

[00:18:10] Napoleon Hill was introduced to Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Carnegie wanted Napoleon Hill to understand the minds of the most successful people. At the turn of the. . So I introduced him to Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and the Vanderbilts, all these super successful people to find out what made them successful.

[00:18:33] And so he interviewed all these people and came out with a book called The Law of Success, and Henry Ford saw the book and said, you gotta trim that down. That’s too much to throw at everyone. So he came back with a book called Think and Grow Rich. , which behind the Bible is one of the highest selling books in the world.

[00:18:54] And it basically lays out a framework of how to change your paradigm, the way that you think. And so I was invited because of my son’s involvement to go to a Bob Proctor event. And I just had a whole, like an epiphany and. Started having all these ideas of things that I could do if I really allowed myself.

[00:19:20] So one of the ideas was I wanna write a book. One of ’em was I wanted to start a new business. One of ’em was I wanted to purchase a, a lake house and you know, so I had all these ideas and I’ve accomplished many of those. And so that’s, I was at an event I went. , probably six or seven events, but at one of the events, the book was kind of born as an

[00:19:46] Christine: idea.

[00:19:47] So I’m always amazed at just how much our thoughts about. , whatever it is, really impacts our actions and behaviors and, and really it’s changing our mindset about it. So would you talk to us a little bit about reframing those thoughts and what you’ve learned about how to reframe what you think about?

[00:20:12] Bob: Yeah, so thoughts are things, right. It’s amazing how you can think of something and that’s probably what motivates me more is having a. and seeing it come into reality and that’s what my passions are. So helping other see people for their potential, helping them reach that potential, that’s super rewarding to me.

[00:20:33] So the, the thoughts that we have, We inherit from our parents and grandparents and friends and family, we inherit all these different thoughts and behaviors, and it’s amazing how much we’re programmed from the very moment that we’re born and probably before we’re even born. And we have all this that creates what’s called a paradigm.

[00:20:55] And I look at a paradigm, like a path through a forest. And after you walk on that, Several hundred times it gets really worn down and it’s easier to walk on, right? You can tell where it’s gonna go, it’s very predicted. But if you’re on a kind of a bad path, but you keep following, you’re gonna have bad outcomes.

[00:21:18] right? So a lot of people try to change just a little bit. And so in that example, they would walk along the path, maybe not on the path, but as soon as they come to a Briar patch or something, then they go back on their old path and they just follow it to the bad outcome. So what we have to do is we have to establish a brand new paradigm.

[00:21:42] Now the military does that for us. in the training and the professional development that they do, they program us for the things that they want us to accomplish in the military, our mission. So when we get out, we’re not on that mission anymore. We have to lay down a brand new paradigm. It takes as much work and focus and energy as it did to train for what we do so well in the.

[00:22:12] And so those ideas and behaviors, we can’t just take ’em for granted. And so in, in my book, I’ve tried to lay out some simple exercises that can be done to do things like enhance your imagination your creativity because you have to use your imagination and creativity to think of new ways of doing things.

[00:22:33] And then visualization is a, is a tool that you can use to kind of visualize what your future could. . And then once you can do those things, you can start to make tho turn those into reality. And a lot of people say, if you can, if you can see it in your mind, you can hold it in your hand.

[00:22:51] Christine: And you’ve done exactly that.

[00:22:53] Talk about your work in building your businesses and, and some of those things that you have brought to reality in your.

[00:23:02] Bob: So, like I said, I jumped out of the military, started working with my, my best friend from college, and I was able to use a lot of the same disciplines. And from the military, I could consume information very, very quickly.

[00:23:19] Your husband is a pilot, does the same thing, just can probably read and study things really quickly. And I did that. And so a lot of the skills that I got from the military just helped me do really well. In my career, and I learned a lot about how to run a small business, and then I started a new business.

[00:23:39] I sold that three years later, and then I started this one that I’ve had for 20 years now. Last year we sold 112 million into the federal market, into VA and military hospital. We are developing new biotechnology products that we hope some of the products are aimed at treating veterans with some treatments for microvascular, for diabetic, and for wounds for healing.

[00:24:07] But I think the biggest thing that I’ve learned is how does help people reach their own success? That’s what I realized, that as a c e O of a company, if I can help everyone around. Find their success, then I’ll be successful, but it’s much more rewarding. to see other people see, experience their own success than it is for me to experience my own.

[00:24:32] Christine: Yes. I mean, I think that goes back to just this idea that when we’re just doing something for ourselves, it’s not as fulfilling as when we are able to use what we’ve done and let it benefit other people, and, and that’s where we find that sense of purpose and fulfillment.

[00:24:53] Bob: Yeah. I think when, when. Set out to do something for someone else and see the bene, there’s actually a brain reaction.

[00:25:00] You, your brain releases dopamine and you get, you get charged up from some of those things. So there’s actually neurochemicals in our brains that react to when you help someone else and they call it kind of the neurochemistry of happiness. So, There’s a true benefit, not only for the people around us, but I think it helps us as individuals too.

[00:25:28] Christine: For sure. So would you take us back and just give us a few of these tips if we are trying to reframe our thoughts and, and change those brain patterns and not do the things that we’ve gotten used to doing, how do we get started?

[00:25:44] Bob: So I think the very first. Is gratitude. Okay? So if you are a person that’s struggling in different aspects of your life, or the kids are, you know, driving you crazy, or you know, everyone has struggles through their day, well, we have to open our minds with gratitude because gratitude kind of reframes the way that we look at the world.

[00:26:07] And so some people say create a list of three things in the morning and then three things before you go to bed or. 10 things, but the key is write down a list of things that you’re grateful for every day, and that will gradually shift your mind to appreciate the things that you see around you. The other thing then is to start to attract what you think about you attract yourself.

[00:26:38] So if you think about a positive future, . So that’s where the, IM imagination and the visualization comes in. Once you start to program yourself, your subconscious, your subconscious doesn’t know if it’s real or not, but your subconscious will start to, to help you do the things throughout the day, throughout the week, throughout the month and year that will guide you in that direction.

[00:27:12] Writing a goal card of where you wanna be in the next three years, or something big that you want to accomplish, but you don’t say, I want to do this in three years, you convince yourself that you’re already there. So I am so happy and grateful now that I’ve written the book from service to success. . I actually had a book cover designed before I even started writing the book, so I could imagine what the book was gonna look like when it was done.

[00:27:44] And so that visualization and basically tricking your subconscious to believe that something that is in the future is actually happening right now, starts to guide you in that process.

[00:28:00] Christine: and those thoughts become your future reality.

[00:28:05] Bob: They do, and it’s not, I’m not different than anyone else, you know, I I didn’t wake up, I didn’t, my family didn’t come from money.

[00:28:15] I’ve done all this business basically from bootstraps, borrowing money, from, from people, from friends, from everything that I did on this side. None of it was given to. and it’s not just from my hard work. You know, some people can say, well, I, I worked, I deserved it. And I can’t say that I’ve been very blessed with the people around me.

[00:28:39] I’ve been very blessed. I’ll give you an example. There was a time early in my business that I didn’t have money for payroll. It was due on Thursday and I hadn’t, everyone knew that we were tight with. , but no one knew that I didn’t have payroll figured out, and I didn’t want to stress everyone out. So I sat in my office and I was thinking, thinking I’d never give up.

[00:29:05] I never, I just never give up. I’m thinking, thinking now. I just couldn’t. I had borrowed everything my credit cards could handle. I’d borrowed from everyone that I knew. I didn’t have a source to do it. Right in the midst of that thinking, my receptionist walked in and she said, I just want you to know, my husband and I, we were talking over the weekend and, and my payroll was $16,000 at the time.

[00:29:34] It’s a fraction of what it is now, but she said, I was talking to my husband, we’ve decided to loan the company $20,000. I hadn’t asked for anything, and she came in and offer. enough money to cover the payroll, and that’s what happens when you invite that into your life. You start to attract people like that into your life.

[00:30:02] You start to attract things that you would never anticipate. You can attract that into your life.

[00:30:10] Christine: And I know it’s easy. Sometimes it sounds like a little woowoo to talk about this, but I, I’ve been studying like the brain science behind it, and it actually is changing the way that your brain operates and, and it really can be backed up by studies of how the way that we think about things actually changes the.

[00:30:34] Bob: right? And you do by, by what you give out attracts others, right? So some people call it a vibe, right? Others call it vibration. But the vibe that you put out attracts other similar, similarly vibed people. So if you have a very positive. , you will start to attract other very positive spirited people into your life.

[00:31:09] And, and

[00:31:09] Christine: the, and the reverse is true as well. If you are walking around in a cloud of negativity, that’s what you are just bringing on and impacting everyone around you,

[00:31:21] Bob: right? And so it’s, and it’s not just negativity, it’s sadness, right? Mm-hmm. . And so that’s why, you know, my treatment with depression was so important is because sadness is like living in a, in a bog.

[00:31:37] I described it kind of a, you know, like everything is just more difficult and strenuous. And the people that you, what you see in people around you is, is negative. And so it’s absolutely critical that we practice. , you know, the positive aspects of our thinking and habits and work to attract those positive things into our lives.

[00:32:08] Christine: Absolutely. And, and gratitude just plays such an important role. The, the foundation for really changing our life. I agree. Starts with that foundation of just being grateful for where you are. what you have. One, one last question before we wrap up. I would love to know from the spouse perspective, if you are seeing your spouse especially, you know, most of my audience is currently active duty members, but eventually all of us our, our spouse, our loved one is going to get out.

[00:32:42] If you see your spouse struggling, what can you as the other partner do to support them and encourage.

[00:32:52] Bob: It’s really tough, right? Because as a spouse you can be the target of their anxiety, of their anger. So I think as a spouse, be watchful, right? Watch, make sure they’re getting a good night’s sleep, make sure that they’re doing things in their lives that that are.

[00:33:16] you know, good wellness goes a long ways. Help them with the gratitude. And then, you know, if you see your spouse heading in a direction that is unhealthy for them and for you, then you can seek help. And the help that you seek probably will give you advice on how to help your spouse. and I’ll just make a, a bold plug for the book.

[00:33:47] But, you know, read different things that are out there, read different books. I think that this book from service to success is different because it’s not just one part of the problem or one part of the solution. I think I tried to approach this as a holistic. A view of taking a look at what’s going on in someone’s life and how they can go beyond it.

[00:34:13] And I think it’s just as important for a spouse as it is for the veteran. If you can’t read it with your spouse, then I would say read it by yourself and try and encourage your spouse to, to read it themselves.

[00:34:29] Christine: because these principles really apply to all of us regardless of where we are, we do.

[00:34:35] And so I, I think that it’s so good to understand this for ourselves and understand this for our loved ones.

[00:34:44] Bob: I was just talking to my son today is a lot of people read self-help books in the eyes of, boy, my wife could really use this information. Right, right. Or my son could really use. We should read self help books for ourselves and kind of take the information and see how it applies to our own lives.

[00:35:06] And I think you’re exactly right. The from service to success was obviously aimed at military people and veterans, but the stories of veterans, that’s the only part that’s really unique. The things that we can do. that help us are u are not unique. It goes across all people. So I think anyone that reads this book is going to glean something

[00:35:32] Christine: helpful.

[00:35:34] So tell us when will the book be available? Where can you find it? How can we connect with you?

[00:35:40] Bob: Okay, so what I’m doing right now is the book will launch in all bookstores, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and all. Bookstores around Memorial Day next year. Right now it’s available through my 5 0 1 , the Patriot Promise Foundation.

[00:36:01] And so if people go to patriot promise.org, they can go there. And what I’m offering is a buy one, donate one. So if people buy a book will automatically donate. and then there’s two other options. If they buy one, they can donate five. I’ll sign the book for ’em. If they buy one and donate 10, then I have a, a little military coin and a patch that will go along with the book.

[00:36:31] And and then we, we’ll donate 10 books to veterans that I think need ’em. So I’m kind of on a mission to try and get as many books donated to veterans as. Is humanly

[00:36:43] Christine: possible. What’s your big hope for this

[00:36:44] Bob: book? I wanna start a conversation. I wanna get enough books into the hands of veterans and spouses of veterans to start a conversation to understand that there’s a path forward that 22 veterans don’t need to die by suicide every day, which means that there’s over 600 that are attempting suicide every.

[00:37:06] It’s a, it’s such a sad statistic. It’s, it’s more people are dying from suicide than are dying from combat operations. And so my hope is to start the conversation way before someone gets into the trouble that that comes from all this trauma that we’re experiencing. I’d like to see a hundred thousand books donated.

[00:37:32] That’s what we’re gonna do, some corporate campaigns. I’m hoping that people donate individually and and also get a chance to read a book with their spouse.

[00:37:44] Christine: Well, you’re right. It’s such a big problem. It’s, it’s a really sad statistic, but I truly appreciate what you’re doing in this mission and this passion that you have to help veterans.

[00:37:57] So thank you for that. And thank you for coming on the show today.

[00:38:01] Bob: Well, Christine, it’s been you’re a wonderful host and I appreciate the invitation and your generos.

[00:38:10] Christine: Guys, I was really excited to share this conversation with you for two reasons. Number one, if you are married to someone in the service, I think it’s important to understand some of the things that are active duty.

[00:38:27] Members will struggle with or perhaps will struggle when they leave active duty. And for many there’s trauma and for many, there is this sense of a loss of purpose. And so if you, as the spouse can recognize and help your. Significant other than that’s going to help solve a lot of problems. As he said, there are 22 veterans that die by suicide every day, and that number doesn’t need to be that high, and we as spouses can help.

[00:39:04] With that. But the second reason I wanted to have this conversation and share this conversation with you is because Bob is a great example of someone who has lived through a challenge and then turned around and used that and found a way to let it fuel him and make a difference in the lives of others and.

[00:39:26] Find a new purpose through what he’s walked through, and that is something that is available to all of us as military spouses. That is what crafting a life with purpose is all about. So I hope that his story inspires you. I hope it makes you wanna go grab a copy of his book from Service to Success, because success is possible for all of us and we can focus.

[00:39:52] On what we don’t love about our lives, we can focus on all of the things holding us back. We can get stuck or we can choose to do the work to get unstuck, to get the resources, to get the support that we need, and then to find a way to use our skills and experiences to positively impact the lives of those around us.

[00:40:17] Friends, I can’t wait to hear what your big takeaways from this episode were. If you are not already in our Facebook group, I would love for you to come in, say hello, introduce yourself, and let us get to know you a little bit more because that is where we continue the conversation. You can find our group just by going to our website.

[00:40:38] I will link that below in the show notes, or click on the community tab at the top of our homepage, and that will take you there as well. I will meet you back here and next week for another episode. Until then, may you live filled, fueled, and full of joy.