Life Happens... Then We Choose with Russ Hedge #151

Life doesn’t always go the way we planned.  We all face disappointments, setbacks and moments that test our strength.  The real question is not just what happens to us – but how we respond to it.

In this podcast, we’ll talk with our guest, Russ Hedge, about choosing a positive attitude, learning from life’s hardest moments, and refusing to let pain, failure, or adversity define our future. Every challenge can either push us down or help us grow stronger.  The choice is ours!

Transcript

Dan Wheeler: 0:02

Well, your life can change in an instant. You can get some bad news, maybe a prognosis, maybe you're in an accident. Your life can just turn upside down, or maybe it will turn up right side up. It depends on how you handle it. The fact is, life happens and then you choose, and we're going to talk about that with a man who's really had his share of those moments of hearing some bad news and deciding what he's going to do with it. He's learned powerful lessons, and he has practical advice for anyone who's facing those difficult circumstances. I'm Dan Wheeler, joined by Terry Steen and Brian Roland and guys, you know, I remember when I got that stage four cancer diagnosis of Beth, my priorities turned upside down, but ultimately right side up in an instant that changed my life. Yeah,

Brian Roland: 0:51

sure did. You sure did. And we saw it. We witnessed it.

Dan Wheeler: 0:54

Yeah, you did.

Terry Steen: 0:57

I just gonna say I'm looking forward to our guest, because some of these things that we have talked about for years now is apparently an integral part of his life and testimony. So it'll be fun to hear.

Dan Wheeler: 1:10

He's definitely a man that wants to finish strong, and he's doing just that. He's a best selling author, speaker and marketing coach. This is his recent book. Life happens, and then you choose, and we want to bring them out right now. Welcome Russ hedge to finish strong. Hey Russ. Hey Russ.

Russ Hedge: 1:28

Hey guys, so glad to be here, so blessed and honored. You'd have me. Thank you.

Dan Wheeler: 1:33

Yeah, we enjoyed reading your your book. You can get it, I guess, on Amazon and wherever else you might look for books, but you know, life can change quickly, and we've got a lot of questions for you, because you've had some experiences.

Russ Hedge: 1:51

Yeah, you know, I am, first off, blessed. I'm a Christ follower and love Jesus. It's with me every step of the way. Have a beautiful wife and an amazing family that has really kept me, you know, close to God, and helped me through some difficult times. But yes, I'm just very, very thankful for life, even through the even through the challenges.

Brian Roland: 2:18

Russ, I love the title, life happens and you choose, because I realized after reading this too, we don't make decisions until we have to, as something happens always that throws the wrong wrench into the works, and we have to make a choice. And and I was, and I'm reading in the book here, I couple places I want to talk to you about, too. Is you had some incidents happen in your life that you had to choose. And one, I think, if I counted the years, right, you were about 19 and you were in a severe car accident. And I wanted you to tell us, tell us a little bit about that and the choices you had to make there.

Russ Hedge: 2:52

Yeah, I was young and full of life, and one day went to golf, actually coming back, got hit by a truck on a highway going 65 miles an hour, threw me into, actually, a church yard, up against a tree, and anyone who saw the accident, they were just like, yeah, no one made it out of that accident. The car collected.

Terry Steen: 3:16

I hope that wasn't the cemetery. I hope that wasn't the church cemetery.

Russ Hedge: 3:22

No church cemetery, you know it wasn't, but yeah, and so they cut me out Jaws of Life, flew me life like stopped all traffic, flew me lifelight to Emmanuel Hospital in Portland, where they did life saving trauma surgeries. There was about six or seven trauma surgeons. The whole the whole experience was crazy, because I had a lot of brain trauma, and I lost my memory for two and a half weeks, so I didn't even, I don't remember, two and a half weeks of my life, which is really the grace of God protecting you through some of the worst times in your life. You know what I was going through, but you know, through that whole thing, I learned resilience. I did not know God at the time, God had great plans for me, had a future and hope, and everything planned out for me and for my family. But at the time, I didn't know but I was very resilient, and I was hungry for God. Over the next couple of years, I recovered quicker than most people would think, in about three weeks, and then I was back to college the next fall. It happened in July, so I recovered fairly quickly for being in intensive care, you know, but I learned the resiliency of of pushing forward and and doing life in spite of challenges through all that, and God started to use those things in me at an early stage.

Brian Roland: 4:48

Well, that's an amazing story. What happened there? Because when you read it in the book, folks, believe me, you're going to go, how in the world did he survive this? But then, if I ended up the years right again, I'm going to say 29 years later. And you came up, we had a cancer scare, which developed and developed and developed. And I would like you to talk about that,

Russ Hedge: 5:08

yeah, well, the next big incident that I had was, yeah, my dad actually got lung cancer, and so that first. So I think I'm jumping ahead of what you just said, but let me just tell you that that was my first experience with cancer, and he almost died. Had to have most of one lung removed, and so. And then, right on the heels of that, Mama was had Alzheimer's, so they, they had diagnosed her with Alzheimer's. So, so I had this whole journey with my parents. First that was, you know, it's a tough journey. Dealing with the dad with cancer was hard, but the but the he had dementia at the end of his life, and then she had Alzheimer's. And it was, it was, it was a tough journey, but there was so much good in it, too. God, had so many good things in that. And so that was my next really big thing. And let me tell you guys, you know what I chose every day with my dad passed pretty quickly, but Mama was around with Alzheimer's for several years, and I have some of my best memories. I had an amazing family. Was blessed, but my mama was the happiest person alive. So through her Alzheimer's journey, we would do a thing, we do happy moments with Mama. I recorded little videos, and she would do it. We do a thing she called Lapin and laugh. And we'd walk circles around her memory care in the hallway inside, and we would laugh and sing, laugh and sing, laugh and sing. And some of the best memories are from those last couple years with her. And some people say, really? And I said, Yeah, she may not have known what she was talking about, but she was happy. And we just, you know, she loved me, and she was happy. And so, so we can have some of the best moments in our life, if we choose to, in some of the worst circumstances.

Dan Wheeler: 7:00

That's really good advice, because I did the same thing with my wife when she was getting chemo. We called them chemo dates. I'd run down to first floor and get some croissants and, you know, juice, and bring them up, and we tried to make it fun. So that's, that's great advice for people so and then

Unknown: 7:18

I

Russ Hedge: 7:18

read your book, by the way, Dan, and that thank you. And I love those dates, yes.

Dan Wheeler: 7:23

Oh, thank you. Yeah. It's called hurricane of love. If anybody's interested, still available on Amazon. But Brian, then it sounds like Russ had a cancer journey of his own.

Russ Hedge: 7:34

Yeah,

Brian Roland: 7:35

yeah, he did. And that's why I wanted to tell us about it. Because it started with just a mole, a little mole in the bottom of your

Dan Wheeler: 7:40

foot,

Brian Roland: 7:41

and you think, okay, you know, it's a little more about,

Dan Wheeler: 7:44

right? Yeah,

Russ Hedge: 7:45

you know, it was interesting because we didn't know what it was. My wife, my beautiful wife, first thought it was a wart, and she so I started treating it like a wart, and,

Dan Wheeler: 7:55

oh,

Russ Hedge: 7:56

all of a sudden, about a month later, I said, I don't think this is a wart. She goes, why? I said, Well, now it's the size of a quarter and it's black, yeah, I don't think so. I think doctor, yeah, so I did, and they said, right off the bat, they immediately biopsied invasive melanoma, right off the bat.

Brian Roland: 8:17

So you think that you're done with the cancer. You cut it out, but it kept growing.

Russ Hedge: 8:22

Yeah, it well, this is interesting, because mama passed away on my dad's birthday, July 18, and it was only a week or so later that we found what we thought was the wart on the bottom of my foot. So I went from one thing right to the other. And so after dealing with both parents, and then suddenly I was thrust into this cancer. And so when they did, they were going to do surgery on the bottom of my foot and remove most of the instep of my foot. There was a lot to be done, lots of plastic surgery so I could still have a foot and walk and all that. So they borrowed skin from other parts of my body to put it back down there and help, you know, and all that. And but when they did it, they did a thing called lymph node mapping, so they're checking if it traveled in your body, where would it go? And so they did a test, and sure enough, they found a place. They thought, if it went somewhere, this is where it be. But they said, Yeah, don't worry. We think it's too early. We think you're fine, but we're going to do it just to be sure. Sure enough, after very successful surgery, getting all the cancer on my foot, I got a call and they said, Yep, it is metastasized to your groin. So there was a tumor in my groin at this point, so that was going from stage two, A to 3c on my cancer journey.

Brian Roland: 9:37

Wow. And that ain't all, because I know, as I keep reading on things developed from that cancer, which also developed into diabetes, yeah. So it

Russ Hedge: 9:48

was crazy, because my body, my first treatment after they diagnosed me to three See, I had to go on cancer treatment, have immunotherapy. And so my first round of immunotherapy. I was tired, and I had some things like that, but overall, it wasn't too bad. Problem was, at the end of it, they found more cancer, so they decided we're going to kick up to another drug, a stronger drug, and do it again. So one treatment, and my body just blew up, basically. And I'm sure, and Dan, you're really familiar with this, they gave you all the side effects that could happen. Well, you could just go, check, check, check, check, check, check on every single one and, oh, by the way, when we didn't list for you. Just fun fact is, you now have diabetes, type one diabetes because your pain.

Dan Wheeler: 10:35

I've never heard of someone developing type one diabetes on a cancer journey, but you said your pancreas shut down.

Russ Hedge: 10:44

It shut down my pancreas, so it quit creating the insulin that your body needs. So when you

Dan Wheeler: 10:50

was that from chemo or

Russ Hedge: 10:52

that was from the immunotherapy treatment,

Dan Wheeler: 10:55

immunotherapy, right? Okay, so it was the

Russ Hedge: 10:58

drug they use that works on, you know, helping with your immune system, fight the cancer. Well, my body did not like this drug, and so yeah, and I asked him, I said, I asked my doctor, I said, really? I said, type one diabetes. I said, you know, most people get that as kids. And they said, Yeah. I said, Well, what is the, what is the number of people, the percentage of people that get diabetes from their treatment? She goes less than 1% you know, I always wanted to be part of the 1% but

Dan Wheeler: 11:30

that's not the one. Yeah, no.

Russ Hedge: 11:32

And so, yeah. So they did another surgery. After that, they decided scratch the treatment that's that's killing him faster than the than the cancer. So they went in and they did another and they removed a whole bunch of lymph nodes in my upper groin, everything in the upper right part of my groin came home with tubes and all kinds of stuff. And that was a long recovery again, but they, at the end of that, took it to the tumor board, and the tumor board at OHSU, here in Portland, said, all good, no sign of cancer, no sign of disease. We're going to declare you not needing anything else, and all is good. We're just going to monitor you now for the next, you know, couple years, and see where things go. Well, that was great, until 10 months later. And 10 months later, they said, well, it's something we don't like, so we need to do some more treatments. So they did another needle biopsy. Found more cancer in my groin, but guess what? This time they found tumors in my lungs and in my brain. So in my left temporal lobe. Now I had a tumor here in my brain as well. And so now it was a matter of radiation for my brain and then more immunotherapy for the rest of my body. You know

Dan Wheeler: 12:43

they say three strikes, and you're out Russ, I think you've had five strikes so far, and you're still swinging.

Russ Hedge: 12:51

Well, you know what I tell you, it was I have an amazing group of doctors and an amazing care. So I was so thankful. And I always would tell them, I would tell my treatment oncologist, I have three oncology teams. I told my treatment oncologist, I said, You know what? She said something, I'm going to do this for you. I said, You know what, if you don't do that, you're in big trouble. And she goes, think, we've been way past that for a long time. I've been in big trouble for a long time. So they put me back on immunotherapy guys, and just four treatments later, I end up in the hospital over New Year. So New Year's Eve, I go into the hospital. Woo hoo, celebrate. And what a way,

Dan Wheeler: 13:29

yeah,

Russ Hedge: 13:30

yeah. Cuz now more of my body's shutting down. Now it's shut down, my adrenal glands, my thyroid, there's more happening. So yeah, this was really the final straw when we decided no more treatment. I told them, I choose to trust God. They thought that the medically that I was heading in the right direction and that hopefully would help. And I said, I'm just going to trust God. And I'm telling you, 10 months later, October of 2025 they took all the scans and said, No sign of disease, you're clean and good to go.

Brian Roland: 14:03

I love it with what you said in page 49 of your book, cancer is a lot for your body to take, but whether I deal with this temporarily or for a lifetime, I will continue to stay positive and keep a good perspective knowing God has blessed me far beyond my problems and my challenges. Love

Russ Hedge: 14:22

it. Oh my goodness, yeah, I am. I am way more than my problems and way more than my problems. I don't know if you guys ever heard

Dan Wheeler: 14:30

I like

Russ Hedge: 14:31

that of the I borrowed that phrase from an actual singer who was on I couldn't remember the name of the show, America's Got Talent. America's Got Talent. I met her brother at a cancer conference, and I want to say her name was night bird. Is what she went by, and she had cancer, and Simon Cowell and all those people were on this program. I'm telling you, I think spiritually she affected Simon Cowell. So much that he actually started looking to Jesus because of her testimony, and she said that I'm way more than my problems, because God is way bigger than any of our problems. And you know, every day, guys, every day of our lives, whether it's cancer, whether it's a spouse having cancer or other diseases, whatever was going through our life, just just challenges, life happens, and then we choose, where are we going to go from there, what perspective we have, where we choose to go next?

Terry Steen: 15:29

Yeah, so that leads us, Russ, that backdrop to your testimony is just incredible, and so many people would not have been able to face that. So you know, our ministry is called fearless. Faith and Faith and fear go hand in hand. They kind of fight each other. So let me ask you, as you're going through all this, two questions. One, how did you control your fear as you are going through all that? I mean, Human Nature says that had to happen. And then how did you shift that to grow your faith? How did those two fight each other? And how did you make that happen?

Russ Hedge: 16:09

Well, I can tell you that, yes, we all fear, and fear can just shut down life, right? The enemy uses fear all the time to just stop us in our tracks. But I tell you what?

Dan Wheeler: 16:20

Yeah,

Russ Hedge: 16:20

from the very, very beginning, I felt God whispering to me, it's all right, I've got this, you know, I mean, when they tell you of cancer right off the bat, it's kind of, it's so scary, but rattles your world, right? Yeah? It's like, okay, but you know when I first had cancer, that when it was on the bottom of my foot, after they talked me through it and everything, I thought, okay, so, I mean, it's a big deal, the surgery and all, but it sounds like they're confident they're going to get it and I'm going to be all good, right? And so it was early stage, I thought, all good. Well, when they called me afterwards and told me that there was more cancer, and it was now 3c and I was going to have to have treatments. Yeah, it took, it took a moment I was on the phone with my son and daughter in law, and my beautiful wife and daughter were in the room with me, and I'm all laid up in bed recovering from the surgery, and all of a sudden I looked up and my my son asked me how I was doing, and my beautiful wife and daughter were just bawling, and that I just lost it, you know, I just lost it, and then my son couldn't talk to me. We all had that moment, right? But I really, truthfully, woke up the next morning and I I just really felt that God was giving me the peace and the strength I needed. You know, my dad used to always tell me, tomorrow's a new day. You know, we just need to get a good night's rest sometimes, and wake up and have a fresh perspective on life. And I woke up and I had a fresh, godly perspective, and I decided, You know what, I've got this, because God's got me.

Terry Steen: 17:56

Yeah, how did you build your faith? Did you were you in the word every day. Get strength from other other people, other Christians,

Russ Hedge: 18:08

yes, yes and yes in the word every day. And I've had a morning routine that's lasted years and years every single day of my life, even if I'm on vacation, I always do reading in the word and I journal right? Always every single day for years and years and years, because I'm I'm the kind of human, and I think most people are like me. If I stop for one day, then I'll stop for two days, then I'll stop for a week, then I'll stop for a month. So I dedicated to God, to every day of my and to exercise. And people say, Well, how could you exercise when you were laid up? Hey, you could do some arm moves. You know, you can do different things. You can stretch. There's things you can do even if you can't move all around. I always did something because God told me, Don't beat yourself up because you can't do everything. Just do something. Just do something

Terry Steen: 19:01

that's good.

Russ Hedge: 19:02

My beautiful wife and family, of course, number one, and amazing friends. So much support, so much support. And when I originally this happened to me, God said you're going to take people on this journey with you. The first post that I made about my cancer dream, I'm the happy, upbeat guy, right? I don't post negative stuff. First post I make, about 1000s of people logged in and commented and looked at that post and had people praying for me in crazy parts of the world. Pastor from Uganda calling me pastors from across I mean, just crazy places. And it just showed me that God is so good and can bring community around you that make all the difference. So yes, yes and yes,

Terry Steen: 19:48

okay, yes, God has a way, doesn't he, if we'll do our part, he'll do his part. He makes His promises, if we'll be faithful, if we'll do what He asks us to do. Two, then he'll do the rest. He'll supply what you need. And it sounds that's like that's exactly what he did for you.

Russ Hedge: 20:07

Oh, my goodness, I can't even tell you the miracles, Miracle after miracle that happened, and not just supplying physically, but it shut me down financially. I could do a little bit of stuff from bed. I even live streamed from my bed. I would take my computer in there and I'd live stream from my bed even. But there was only so much I could do, and God provided all the way through in miraculous ways. And I'm just thank you Jesus, he told me early on, Terry, I've got it all figured out, so you don't have to.

Dan Wheeler: 20:40

Yeah, that's great. The thing about laying in bed is you're looking up a lot. You know, Russ, you had a quote in your book that I love. It's, time is non refundable, so give it all you've got. We don't think about that a lot, do we that time is so fleeting, and once it's gone, it's gone.

Russ Hedge: 21:00

Yeah? Well, you you wrote beautifully about it in your book, Dan, about how you made memories and special moments because you know they're going to be gone. I currently,

Dan Wheeler: 21:11

yeah,

Russ Hedge: 21:11

yeah. And I currently can't really go into this, but I currently have a friend who's going through the same thing that happened very quickly. Go very quickly. And so it is jarring when your world is shaken through these kind of things, and you you need to remember that every moment. So now, when my beautiful wife comes to me and says, Hey, honey, can we do this? I say, Yes, we can. She goes, Really, can we afford it? I say, No, we can't.

Dan Wheeler: 21:41

Yeah,

Russ Hedge: 21:43

God knows how we're going to do it, and it's meant to be. God will make the way, and you'll be surprised by God. Yeah,

Dan Wheeler: 21:49

I wrote my book that many times. My wife would say, come and sit before you go to work, let's have coffee. And I would always say, Gosh, I'm too busy. I got all these major people coming in, and I got to go. And once I got that cancer diagnosis, nothing else mattered. I sat and had coffee as long as she wanted to. Hey, the book is called, life happens, and then you choose by Russ hedge, this good looking guy right here. He's up in the corner of your screen. Russ on page 102, I found this fascinating. You talked about the four P's, we're going to start first with passion, the fuel that drives your life. And I honestly believe that you've got to be passionate. Tell us a little bit more

Russ Hedge: 22:30

well, I truly believe that. I think when you're passionate about something, you throw yourself into it, and you really make an impact on others. I love the quote by TD Jakes too, because he takes it a step further. He says, if you're trying to find your purpose, follow your passion, and your passion will lead you to your purpose. And I love that quote by TD Jakes, but it is so important, because when people talk to me, I do inspirational speaking. I love to speak to cancer groups. I love to speak to Alzheimer's dementia groups. I love to speak to businesses, right? But what I people say, you

Dan Wheeler: 23:03

know, I often speak to myself. I enjoy so

Russ Hedge: 23:07

you and me both, you and me both. But you know, the passion makes it easy, Dan, because I'm so passionate about what I talk about that I could jump up at any moment and talk about what I believe just I love live streams. I love live streams off the cuff. I don't want prepared questions. I just want to talk. I just want to go back and forth. I love that because people love to hear that, and they hear the passion in your voice. I think,

Dan Wheeler: 23:33

yeah, you would have loved being a QVC host. We just talked all the time. So passion fuels, drives your life that takes you to purpose. A lot of people you know have talked to me and said, Man, I just don't feel like I've achieved my purpose. And I always say, write down your what you're good at, strengths and weaknesses, and write down what you love, and that's the passion. So with all that you've been through, it seemed like it really drove you to the purpose of inspiring and being this upbeat motivator.

Russ Hedge: 24:06

Yeah, you know, I've always been an encourager, inspiring, encouraging people. I love to get up in the morning Dan and people that I have their cell phones. Lot of times, I'll just shoot them a text and say, Hey, praying for you this morning. Have a blessed and awesome Monday, right? And I'll just send something to encourage somebody. But it took it to a whole new level when I got diagnosed with cancer and my my life was thrown before my eyes, right? My mortality is like, wow, I could only be here for a short while longer, right? Well, the truth is that's true of all of us,

Dan Wheeler: 24:39

true

Russ Hedge: 24:39

of all of us. Time is done refundable. Life is precious. You've got to have passion and purpose. Without purpose, you're kind of living life by accident, and you know what it's going to take you somewhere. But who knows where it may not be, where you want to with purpose, at least you know the destination you're heading towards.

Dan Wheeler: 24:57

Right? There's a country song 100 years. Years. It's not that long in life. It just can go by like that. So passion, purpose, and then perspective. Now, this is really important. It could be one of the most important ones, because when you talk about life happens, and then you choose, a lot of it is in your perspective. You can choose to say, Man, this really stinks. I'm so unfortunate. Or you can say, all right, God, another opportunity for you to show your power. Would you agree with that?

Russ Hedge: 25:28

Oh yeah, oh yeah. And you know, a lot of situations in life are opportunities. And you know what I love about looking at your perspective, the way you look at life determines your experience of life, right? And so for example, I love what Chip Ingram says. I don't know if you know him. He's a pastor, an author, amazing. He's got the divine equation, c plus p equals E, your circumstances plus your perspective equals your experience. So if you're letting your circumstances drive your experience, you're in trouble, because you're going to be up and down all the time, but if you let your perspective drive your experience, life is going to be a whole lot different. And I always like to tell this quick example, to send two people, or you send multiple people in a room, they're all going to come out with a different perspective of what happened. But you send two people in this room and you show them a video of a car accident. The first person comes out and goes, oh my goodness, it was horrible. Life is falling apart. It was terrible. They got in a car accident and it was horrible, and they had to go to the hospital. And life is, oh my goodness, it was terrible. It was horrible. The next person they asked says, oh my goodness, praise God. It was amazing. These people were driving. They got in a car accident, but they were okay. Yeah, they had to go to the hospital to get checked out, but they were fine, and the cars were actually drivable. They could, even though they were beat up, they could drive their car back home. There were so many positives that came out of it, and it's the same exact experience, but a different perspective.

Dan Wheeler: 26:56

Okay, we're gonna keep moving here. The fourth P is people tell us how that plays into the equation.

Russ Hedge: 27:03

Oh, my goodness, you know what connection and community building, I think, is the foundation of life. It's definitely the foundation of any good marketing plan and any good business when I'm talking to people in business, but when you have good people around you, people as my good friend D Scott Smith says, people that won't let you fail, that lift you up, that send you in the right direction. Amazing things are possible. So if you have passion, drive, driven in life by purpose, you keep a good perspective, and then you surround yourself with amazing people. You are in great shape, because, you know, Jim Rohn says you're the average of the five people you spend the most time,

Dan Wheeler: 27:44

right, right?

Russ Hedge: 27:45

So surround yourself with amazing people like Brian, Dan and Terry, and you're in shape.

Brian Roland: 27:50

I was gonna say, If you wonder why I'm like, this is because I hang around with these two guys. No, it's they're great. They do lift you up. But, yeah, those, I love that section, the four piece, and also love when we talk about success and significance. And the question I have is, and so what is and you have it in your book too. What is success and what creates true significance?

Russ Hedge: 28:11

Yeah, well, I think true significance creates success. Significance is doing something that impacts and blesses and benefits others. When you go out and you want to be significant in life, that could be helping one person. You could be a caregiver for one person that needs you to make their life better, right? A significant friend of mine, Michael Ray online. He lives in the South. He has a daughter with Down syndrome, and he has created a significant life for her by doing the same thing I did with my mama. She is nonverbal, by the way, but they smile and they laugh, and he just has a wonderful time with her, because in the situation that a lot of people are in, Alzheimer's Down syndrome, things like that, you can lift them up and make them happy, or you could yell at them and drag them down and make their life horrible. What makes more significance in life? And I think truly, you are a success if you impact other people's lives in a positive way.

Dan Wheeler: 29:13

That's good word, yeah.

Terry Steen: 29:15

Another thing to think about is success. The term success that's a moving target. Different people have different ideas about what success is, whether it's financial success or more power or whatever, but when you can shift into the significance arena, like you just said, that's where the impact comes. Yeah, I like that,

Dan Wheeler: 29:36

yeah,

Russ Hedge: 29:37

yeah, and I'm a firm believer in that to making a significant difference in our world, trusting God every step of the way.

Brian Roland: 29:45

So I guess it would be the differences, what can I get versus what can I give? So you really want to give out stuff, take in and I like what you put the quote with Albert Einstein too. Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value. You, boy, right there.

Russ Hedge: 30:02

Oh my goodness, yeah. Add value. Add value to people. I believe that all day long. And you know, the other thing about giving, my good friend Bob Berg, and is the called the Go Giver. He, he and another gentleman wrote this book called The Go Giver that a lot of people use. It's all about giving to others, and that's how life really comes back to bless you as well. And I think that's true when we give and bless others. It's a biblical principle, life will be better for you because it will make you a better person. People don't have to give you anything back to make you better. When I went around with Mama, and she laughed and sang and we had a good time. I mean, she was giving me good memories, but she wasn't giving me anything, but just being with her and blessing her together made all the difference in the world. I didn't have to get any money or things or anything like that.

Brian Roland: 30:53

Yeah, that's so cool.

Terry Steen: 30:56

That's very cool. Well, you know, Russ, you talked about routine a little bit. But let me just come back to that and talk about how, I guess the long term effect for your mindset, your attitude, your life, you said you have the daily habits that you put into place, the morning devotions, the physical interaction and those kind of things, getting up early, spending time with the Lord it sounds like and I do the same thing. But the important part of that is that we're intentional, because there's so many things that can come in and cause life that it just kind of slips away.

Dan Wheeler: 31:35

Here's one of

Terry Steen: 31:36

we're not truly intentional.

Dan Wheeler: 31:38

What's that I said? This is one of them. Oh, I spilled my water all over the place. Oh, live, live podcast. The phone, it can distract you. I tried to turn it off first thing in the morning and have my devotions and not respond to any texts from you guys or anybody else.

Terry Steen: 32:00

But if you set up, if you intentionally set up boundaries, set goals for the day, those kind of things help keep you on track, don't they? And how does that impact your positive attitude?

Russ Hedge: 32:15

Oh, my goodness, it does everything for that. Yeah, I have made intentional choices. Number one, I choose to tell myself this every day before I get out of bed three things. Number one, I'm thankful. I'm thankful and blessed for God, my beautiful wife, my family. Number two, I say I've got this. Give myself a little pep talk. I said, I've got this because God's got me and I can I have the talents and abilities to do what I need to do. Number three, that's good. I choose today's gonna be awesome. And people laugh at me when they know I get up at four or 5am they say, oh my goodness, there's no way that early. I'm gonna say that today's gonna be awesome. But you know what it does is it puts that awesome filter in front of me. Suddenly I'm looking at life through this awesome filter. So when bad things happen, they're not quite so bad, and I'm looking at them through a brighter thing. So I do that, and then I immediately get up cherry and I do the I read scripture, I journal, and I exercise every day. And so those things set my day on the right path to do good things and to have a positive mindset and perspective and really and also, right after I get done with that, I text a few people and I encourage them, and so that encourages me, and I'm off and rolling and ready to go.

Terry Steen: 33:32

That's great. You wrote in your book, Charles Swindoll had made this quote. I'm convinced that life is 10% what happens to me 90% how I react to it, and that is so true for all of us, isn't it? And it's been so great to hear you share your thoughts and perspectives on this to help us come into line in agreement with what that quote says. Yeah.

Dan Wheeler: 34:00

Yeah. You know Russ, I used to carry that quote, the whole thing on attitude, in my pocket. And when I'd go through have a rough day, I'd bring it out to remind myself, you got to have those reminders. So yeah, again, the book is, life happens, and then you choose pick it up. Russ knows how to coach. He knows how to motivate. And I think it will be a blessing to you and Russ. We're so glad you joined us, and I think we're gonna return the favor, right, and be on your podcast in the future. Here,

Russ Hedge: 34:31

yes, you are, and I'm really, really looking forward to that.

Dan Wheeler: 34:34

We are too. We are

Brian Roland: 34:35

too.

Dan Wheeler: 34:35

Yeah, you are a great guy. We're glad we met you down at podfest and could have you on the podcast. Boy, keep that positive attitude. I know you will, and I know you'll keep following Jesus and finish strong. Do you like that's the title of this podcast? And I know

Terry Steen: 34:53

finish strong.

Dan Wheeler: 34:54

You kind of agree with that.

Russ Hedge: 34:56

Absolutely. I love it. Thank you,

Dan Wheeler: 34:57

yeah. Well, thank you so much. Russ, we're going to wrap things up. But it's been a pleasure. Guys, super positive guy, when you think of everything he went through, I mean, you know, when you first heard the word cancer, I've been there, it almost is paralyzing. And then you think, wow, how are we going to get this? Then you totally depend on God, God. We got to take this one step at a time.

Brian Roland: 35:21

Now that's so true. I've met so many people that as soon as they said they hear, see, like, can't come out. It's their whole rules crushed, they're gone. It's like, you know, what am I going to do? And so there we go. We have the answer. We have to make a choice. As hard as to choose. We choose the Lord. We choose to follow him.

Terry Steen: 35:43

Yeah, that kind of puts it in perspective. That makes me think a little bit, man, I haven't gone through that, and I still fight sometimes to keep that positive attitude and positive spirit every day. But God's there

Dan Wheeler: 35:57

if you're if you're on the road with Terry and he doesn't have a candy bar or a sweet drink. He really gets down.

Terry Steen: 36:04

Oh, man, life is not good, but

Brian Roland: 36:09

you got to choose.

Terry Steen: 36:13

I thought he meant choose which candy bar I want.

Dan Wheeler: 36:18

Well, the name of this podcast is finished strong, and that is our motto here at Fearless faith. We want to go hard for the Kingdom. We don't want to just retire and play golf, because none of us are really great golfers. I'd play basketball if I still could, but that's too hard on the knees. But guys, we want to go hard for the Kingdom. I mean, the finish line. We talk all the time, how life is like a football game. We're not only in the fourth quarter, we're in the two minute warning. I think our age.

Brian Roland: 36:45

Yes, we are.

Dan Wheeler: 36:46

So we got to punch it in. Hey, If this podcast has blessed you, share it with someone. Tell people about it. You can find it wherever podcasts are carried, wherever you get your podcast. Spotify apple. We also carry it on our Facebook page, fearless faith with the three flames. And we hope that you encourage others to tune in, guys, this has been fun and always looking forward to the next time. So stay strong, everybody and finish strong. God bless.

John Matarazzo: 37:20

Thank you for listening to finish strong. For more information about finish strong and fearless faith, check out their website, F faith.org make sure that you rate and review this podcast to help more people accomplish their God given purpose so that together we can finish strong. You.