— Inner Mastery, Outer Impact —
Master Your Inner Core with our 9-day Reflection Journey
Leah Goldstein is an internationally-renowned ultra endurance athlete and professional cyclist. She is the first female in the 40-year history of Race Across America (RAAM) to win first place overall in the solo division, one of the toughest endurance sports events in the world. As a teenager, Leah became a national TaeKwonDo and World Kickboxing champion. Having a deep desire to serve in the military, Leah enlisted in the Israeli Defense Force early in her life, becoming the first female Elite Commando instructor and subsequently transitioned into a special-forces unit, combating terrorism and violent crimes. Leah is also a coach, speaker and co-founder of No Finish Line Living, which provides customizable keynotes and retreats dedicated to moving others into a healthy, purposeful life, and has also published her memoir, No Limits.
Is there a method to achieving excellence in every chapter of our lives? How can we bypass the distractions and imperfections of the world, break away from stereotypical belief systems that may be percolating around us, and live every moment with inspiration, discipline and commitment to our chosen purpose? What actions can we take to bounce back from our biggest adversities, and build ourselves from the ground up, against all odds? And how can we best honor the gift of life, and seek to live with no limits?
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Welcome friends to Intersections, where inner mastery meets outer impact, where our quest is to explore the highest in human potential by dissolving boundaries between the spiritual and the material, between the inner and the outer, between East and West, and beyond.
Today, we have in our midst Leah Goldstein, who is a tremendous force of nature, as you will discover, an internationally known ultra-endurance athlete and professional cyclist. She is the first female in the 40-year history of Race Across America to win first place overall in the solo division. This is one of the toughest endurance events in the world. Early in her life as a teenager, she has been a champion nationally and internationally in taekwondo and kickboxing. She has also served in the Israeli military, where she has trained elite commandos and perfected the art of pushing past physical boundaries. She fought her way into a very male-oriented Special Ops Police course and eventually into Israel's undercover police unit, where she was combating terrorists and violent crimes. She has written her autobiography, No Limits. She is the speaker and co-founder of No Finish Line Living, where she provides customizable keynotes and retreats dedicated to moving others into a healthy and purposeful life. There is much that we have to uncover with Leah. So, let me invite her into our midst. Warm welcome! Thank you for joining us today.
Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure.
What a life. It's still unfolding in all its rich ways. I have to make a confession to you. Pretty early in my life, I hadn't yet decided what I want to be when I grow up. But, for some reason, I decided that one of the careers I was not going to pursue was the military. In sports, I was passionate about cricket, which is a big sport in India. But I really struggled with developing any real competence in it. And so, here you are. I'm speaking to somebody who has done such incredible things in the service of defence and being in the military and also who has pursued such incredible excellence in a domain of life that I can only admire from a healthy distance. So, I'm in awe of you and of this moment.
I thought maybe we could start by inviting you to reflect a little bit on your roots. I wonder as you look back at your childhood, if there might be certain defining moments or people in your life, parents and beyond, whom you could point to and say, "You know what, that really was a major influence in my life, like I woke up to new potentialities of possibilities or an understanding of me because I went through that experience."
I think my background actually is very important. My biggest influences are obviously my parents. My mother was born in Northern China and my father in the Soviet Union. They met in Israel. When my father was a sailor, he docked in Vancouver, Canada, and he just saw opportunity there. They were both very young, under 20. So, they emigrated. My sister was three. I was made in Israel, born in Canada. So I was in the oven and my dad came here with 100 bucks. No English at all. He was just determined to have a better life for his family. Growing up and seeing how hard my parents worked, my mom worked the night shift as a nurse, my dad during the day, and how he got work was just going to different companies in Vancouver and saying, "I need work." That was the only English he knew. Watching how my parents struggled and at one point, they had succeeded, bought three houses and we lived in a big house, and all of a sudden, my dad lost everything, going back to rock bottom and then building back up again. Just seeing my parents never giving up. No matter what happens in life, you don't give up, because quitting is never an option based on the world that I lived in.
When you're raised with that kind of mentality and that kind of leadership from my parents, it creates a strong individual. My father never coddled my sister and I. When we were in trouble or in a difficult situation, he said, "You've got to figure things out for yourself." You cannot always run to people when things go south, right? Because, if you get used to that one day you're going to run and there's nobody there to help you out. Just being independent in that regard started at a very young age. That's where my strong foundations stemmed from.
Wow! That's quite a lesson there for us about how to parent really in some of the ways in which you're mentioning your father and mother raised you and how at times when we are feeling very protective about ourselves and others. Mental health, for example, is one reason for that, like people are just feeling the need to just caution the world, don't expose me to this or that because that can trigger me. You're actually saying that you feel that there was a certain amount of strength you gained from having your parents just be comfortable in saying, "Listen, face the world, face the imperfections of the world, and learn to strengthen yourself from within."
Exactly! Learning at a young age what does it feel like to fail? That doesn't mean it's the end. You have to learn that failure is part of success. If you don't have the ability to fail, then succeeding will be very difficult, because a lot of times with people who have succeeded, you only hear the good story. You don't really hear the back story of the struggle they went through and how many times they were rejected and whatnot.
I learned that at a very young age. Obviously with me, when people know my stories, I was bullied at a very young age because I didn't know English very well. I spoke with a lisp. Learning was difficult for me. I had a little bit of a learning disability, put in a special class, and on the physical side, my left leg was growing at a faster rate than my right leg. It's longer, it's stronger, and the foot is bigger. Doctors told my parents that I'd never excel in sports or anything in athleticism, which was confusing for me as a child because it was the only subject that I got an A in. When you're different, kids can be cruel. So I was bullied. Every lunch hour I was chased by a group of eight boys called the Jason Gang. I couldn't tell my parents because, again, my father taught me and my sister that you have to be strong, independent, figure it out. Also back then, teachers said, "You don't want to tattletale." At that age, at 7 years old, I had to learn how am I going to get out of this? And of course, I saw Bruce Lee on television, and that was my solution.
The Bruce Lee moment. I have such fond memories of him as well from Enter the Dragon and all of that. He was quite a figure.
I was so happy to hear about how much he has positively influenced you at that age. In those moments when these things are happening, there is at times a prevailing sort of mindset on people that these things should beat you up or if that's what the expert says is about your lack of capacity to pursue athleticism, well then that's bad news for you and all that. Where did you develop this capacity in yourself from where you could pull away from those kinds of limiting mindsets and beliefs that may be percolating around you and choose for yourself a destiny and a set of actions, operate out of the box, choose to create the intention for yourself that even if I'm being put in a special education class, that there's no reason why I can't with effort, toil or etc. to overcome whatever it is that the world is telling me are my liabilities?
Well, for me, we'll go back to the martial arts. It wasn't like the physical part that helped me and really gave me the confidence. It was the mental strength. It's kind of like when you go into a dog park and you see this big dog with its tail between its leg and this little Chihuahua comes barking at him. It's that confidence, right? So because I wasn't afraid anymore, there's something about self-defense that gave me that strength to stand up for myself. And I felt really powerful. Because, I never had to get into a fight, because it wasn't the physical part. It was the mental part that was lacking. Then I realized, a lot of times, we want validation from others when we're seeking things to boost us or to lift our spirits. But really, it comes from you, right? Then I realize that mental strength is much more powerful than physical strength in anything, in any genre, not just in sports, but in arts, music, entertainment, whatever it may be, just going in there and believing in yourself. Your biggest support system is you and believing that you can do anything once you set your mind to it. And I kind of lived my life throughout the different careers that I've done with that kind of mentality.
There is such a testimony in your story about how to just break out of bounds. It's incredible. You entered professional cycling at an age and stage, which is typically a little bit on the later side. You then entered the ultra-endurance sport and then raced across America and won at a more mature age for an athlete. Can you talk a little bit about the ageism aspect of needing to challenge what might be stereotypical notions of what people can achieve at a certain age?
Well, absolutely. I got shunned. I knew what I wanted to do at a very young age. It was to work at some form of security in Israel. But as the years progressed and I got into my 30s, I realized that that wasn't my passion. I was an athlete and I wanted to pursue a cycling career, because I thought I was good enough. So when the security situation that happened allowed me to leave the country, I came back to North America around 30, and I just dove into the sport. The federation basically said, "You're too old. You basically missed the boat." They said I was too big for climbing, too small for sprinting, that this career would never happen for you. And it was a struggle, I have to admit that. I didn't realize. In Israel, I was a big fish in a very small pond. When I came to North America, I'm a shrimp in the ocean. But, I proved in the sport of pro racing, which took me 8 years to excel. You don't need a special gift in anything you choose to do. It doesn't matter what you do, because there's a gift all of us have. And it's called the gift of work.
I basically took that gift I had, and I knew that I had to work twice as hard as my competitors if I wanted to pursue this career. Everything started upstairs. Because, as I was struggling, my teammates were saying, "maybe you should think about just riding as an age group before you end up homeless." I was kind of trying to pursue this thing that people saw only as a dream for me. But, at 38 years old, I said, "No, this is what I want." And so, I shifted what was going on upstairs saying, "I'm going to become this climb, I'm going to become this great cyclist." That's exactly what happened the following year. It was just a matter of switching what was going on upstairs and working twice as hard than what I was working previously. Sometimes we think we're working hard enough, but we're not. For me, it was 110%. It was lasering in and putting everything else on a shelf and doing what my passion was if I wanted to pursue this as a career.
Yeah, there's an earlier juncture where you also give us a little bit of a glimpse into what discipline and hard work mean to you. This is when you're in school, you're being bullied. You see the Bruce Lee thing, and then you get invested in wanting to do something more to help affirm and assert your physical strength and prowess. Can you talk about that moment where the coach gives you a little bit of a formula for what it is that he's expecting you to take on if you so choose to or if you don't, then you can walk away?
I got into Taekwondo when I saw Bruce Lee when I was young. I excelled very fast. By the time I was 12 years old, I was a junior national champion. Part of the reason why is because my father was a champion in the sport of boxing. When he saw my interest in taekwondo, he started to teach me boxing. When you mix taekwondo and boxing, you get more of a kickboxer. At that time boys and girls fight together. So, I had this little bit of a big head, and when I went to look for something that was more challenging for me. That's where Allen Chen, saw a very talented kid, a little kid with too much confidence, a little bit on the cocky side and he wanted to teach me a lesson.
At that point, he puts me into a boxing ring and he brings in this kid that is half my size and I'm thinking, "Oh, I'm going to kill him." But, I didn't know it was his most skilled kickboxer. To make a long story short, he basically beats me up a little bit. So he sends me home and he goes, you think about it. Then I'm totally deflated. What he was trying to say is, whenever you're at the top of your game and no matter what you're doing, all that means is you're working twice as hard to stay. Never, ever overestimate yourself or underestimate anyone, because everybody is beatable. Remember, I'm barely 12 years old. Then he sat me down, he said, "Do you want to do this sport?" Then he gives me these conditions. No smoking, no drinking, no drugs, no friends, no swearing, train seven days a week, train twice a day. By following those principles, he said, "By 17 years old, you're a world champion."
I learned at that age, what does it take to be the best at anything you choose to do? And that's 110%. As for me at 13, I didn't do the parties, friends, or whatever the most teenagers do. I did correspondence and I didn't train seven days a week, twice a day. I trained seven days a week, three times a day. But by following that principle, lasering in and focusing 110%, I was a provincial champion, two-time national champion, North American champion. And as Allen Chen predicted at the age of 17 years old, I was undefeated champion of the world and that's what I learned. What does it take to be the best at anything you choose to do? It's 110%
There is today a lot of focus on habits. How do we sort of acquire good habits? How do we pursue excellence in any domain? There's a lot of psychological literature that's starting to come out. I think people are questing, people are aspiring. There is a growing awareness that our brain is plastic and that with the right diligence and effort that we can actually choose to sculpt it in new ways. You are a living testament to that. But, I also know for most people how it's really hard to give up their current lifestyle and to not fall for a certain instant gratification. In your case, this kind of laser-sharp-focused discipline, is it something that you feel has come quite naturally to you? Or are there any practices that you might perhaps share, in the spirit of helping, inspiring, and guiding others who may struggle at times between the kind of person that they want to be and the comfort zone that they're living in today?
Well, I think that's the issue. People are afraid to come out of their comfort zone because they don't know what the unknown is. I think, again, we talk about failure, right? I'm saying, don't expect it, but prepare for it. When I go into something, I know it's going to be a hard struggle. I know there may be some downfalls and I know I might hit rock bottom at times, but the strength comes when you're able to come out of that, and that's what builds character and that's what makes you a strong individual. It's not an easy road up. To succeed in anything, there is no easy road. Can you tell me one person who had it easy doing anything that they pursued? It doesn't exist. I think for me, it is going through those experiences at a young age and learning what it feels like to fail but work really hard and then succeed. For example, if I wanted to do something or go somewhere, my dad just didn't give me $5 or $10, which was like $100 for a little kid. I had to go and work. So I delivered newspapers or flyers or whatever. I remember getting my first check and going, "Wow, I did this on my own without the help of anyone else." It gives you that strength of independence. Then that just starts building as you go in through life. We talk about coddling people or always patting people on the back. Sometimes tough love is the best thing you can do, even for an adult. Sometimes, we need a little slap in the face saying life isn't always easy and it's going to be difficult. Be prepared for it. That's what gives you strength. I think it is those failures in those hard times, not the good times. The good times are just the bonus at the end.
Yeah. My spiritual teacher, Yogananda, says, "A smooth life is not a victorious life." And I see that so much in the way you live your life.
Absolutely. Because if it's smooth uphill, it's going to be smooth downhill.
You speak in your book, you really emphasize the physical, mental, and spiritual mix. I'm just curious when you talk about this notion of a worthwhile life requiring movement both physically, mentally, and spiritually to exercise, to challenge, and to change. You've emphasized in our conversation so far the power of mind over matter and what you have been able to achieve physically has really been based on what was there upstairs in the mind, what is your relationship with spirituality?
Well, it kind of evolved a little bit. In the beginning, when I was younger, I was quite religious. But I think it kind of changed. I think religion, for me, back then was based on what other people's beliefs are and them trying to push things onto me. And I realized that we know what's good, what feels good to you. What makes you feel happy by helping others? You don't need that coming from anyone else. You don't have to validate it by saying I'm religious and I'm good because I go to a synagogue, I go to a church, I go to a mosque, or whatever. We know what it takes to be a good person. And I started to learn that as I started to grow up. I lived in the most religious country in the world, and all I saw is a lot of violence in dealing with religion and stuff like that and this is not what it's about, right?
I don't really advertise my spirituality or whatever. I just know what's good for me, what feels good when I do good things, when I help others. I love being in nature. People don't know that. I love being by myself just away from all the chaos and everything else. We all have that seed in us and we know what's good and what's not good. We don't need anyone else telling us. I think what's in your heart is the most important. Everything else doesn't matter. Because, as I said, religion is in all of us and spirituality is in all of us. It's a matter of how we want to use it for strength and by helping others. And it just comes within. It's a very personal thing, and I think it means different things to different people.
Yeah, I like that very much. If I were to unpack that, correct me if I'm wrong, is that you're saying it's a very personal journey. It doesn't necessarily have to be mediated by any institution or any formal religion. It could be for some people, but it may not be for others. And there are certain practices like in your case, solitude, you know, making some time for yourself and being in nature, which tend to activate a little bit more of that subtler inkling or voice from within.
Absolutely Yes. It grounds you for sure. I'm a huge animal lover. I have two dogs. I live in Vernon. So the best part of my day is when I wake up in the morning and it's very beautiful. There are mountains here. When we go into the trails, there's nobody there. We might run into a bear or whatever, but it's just a Kickstarter of the day. For me, it's the most important part and it's what I love and what I'll always do till the day I die.
So beautiful! When you're able to make that little bit of time for yourself at the very beginning of the day, it grounds you, doesn't it?
Dogs are very special animals. I've just been observing them in the last several years in the following sense that if you think about most species, they tend to want to hang out more with their own species, they might enjoy a little bit with some other species for a bit of time, but they kind of want to hang out with their own kind. Dogs are very unique in that way. They'll go and play with another dog for like 2 minutes, but then they want to go back to their master. And it's such unconditional love. They just have such unconditional love. A person could be a messy person, could be a caring person or an uncaring person, or whatever, they just have this unconditional love and they are familiar with human beings is amazing.
Absolutely. They also have their instinct too. When you're not feeling well or you're not happy or you're excited about something or anxious about an issue that happened, they're just so intuitive with you. I've always had dogs. I can't imagine my life without an animal for sure.
I'm so happy to hear that. I have the same affection for animals. I've actually had it all through my life. One of the high points for me in that experience came when I and my family had a chance to go to Botswana, which we've done twice. And of course, that took our exposure to the wildlife and animals to a whole different level. It was so beautiful!
Coming back to the spirituality side, I want to just kind of invite you to help unpack a little bit of your inner life, not in any way that invades very sacred and private space for you, but in a way that informs and guides the way you pursue success in life, which is, you talk about mind over matter. Sometimes for me, it's helpful to really have a very fluid sense of my identity, where sometimes I see myself in the physical space and I have to take very practical stock of my strengths and weaknesses or what my current situation is in terms of health or what have you. Sometimes, in the mental space, which is all these mindsets and beliefs, and convictions that I may have. I just want to test this idea with you of pure spirit, a timeless, changeless, pure, constantly renewing unconditionally peaceful part of who I am. Is that a relationship that speaks to you or is that too abstract?
For me, I'm just a very simple person, to be honest with you. I don't dive deep into anything. I kind of stay on the surface. I'm careful with what I say. Sometimes it comes across as maybe too harsh or misunderstood or whatnot. People who know me know that I'm a very independent individual, not a super social butterfly or whatnot. But, I think for me, too, it is again, just learning to love life and not to dwell on the past.
When I talk to a lot of high-risk youth, I say, "Your future doesn't dictate your path." And I think we hang on to a lot of bad things that happen to us and we live our life like that. You have to use it as strength, not as direction when we've had hardships in our life. I think that's a lot of downfall for a lot of people. A lot of young people in particular. This is a one-time deal. We don't get second chances. You have to make every day count and you have to love your day. You have to love yourself, you have to love life. If you're not and if you're always bickering and negative or whatever, which comes a lot and I hear it a lot, it's not going to help you and it's not going to fulfill your soul. I think at some point we have to park things and just remember why we're here and appreciate it.
The big thing is volunteering, and helping others. I just discovered why I speak. I don't feel comfortable standing in front of thousands or hundreds of people. But for me, what it was, the feedback after people came up and said, "You know what, there was something you said that I just needed to hear." Being responsible for helping others in a positive way was a feeling I had never experienced in anything else for myself. That's the reason why I do this. And so when you're going in that direction, when I say trying new things that make you feel uncomfortable, we shut because you never know where it's going to take you. The biggest kind of message that I want to say is that, don't hold on to those negative things. They will haunt you till the day you die. You have got to part with that. Use it as strength and learn from it and take it to help others. The fulfillment will be indescribable. How you'll feel when you reach that kind of direction of positivity as opposed to the negativity in life. Because, we've all had difficult times. We all have. You're not the only one. Just reflect on who you are, what you're doing, and where you want to end up.
What my grandmother said to me when she was sitting on her deathbed had the biggest impact on me. She said, "You never want to say the words I wish or what if." And that struck me really strongly. It's doing the things that you love and not letting anything get in your way.
Yeah. You have achieved so much in just a short space of a few decades. Right here, in the way we are talking today, I see one of the secrets to that, which is that you don't waste any time. You honor the gift of every second and moment that comes to you. Part of it is not wallowing in anything in the past, which is not going to help inform or inspire you to create a better future for yourself and others. That capacity and the discipline with a laser-sharp mind not to waste any moments of your life is so beautiful.
Absolutely. This is it for us. This is our life. You can't sit there and wait for things to happen, because you're going to be sitting there for a very long time. You've got to take that step and make things happen for yourself. That takes courage. But once you get into that pattern, you go, Wow, this is what life is all about. And it would be so much more fulfilling than just sitting there and watching the time go by. And I hate that, too, when we use age as an excuse. You don't sit there and wait to die, right? You live every moment like it's your last day and it's so much more fulfilling doing things for yourself than watching other people do great things. You do great things, because there are so many things that we can do that we don't because we're so afraid. Age is a big part of it. Honestly, I stopped counting how old I was when I got into my mid-thirties. People would ask me, and I just throw out a number and say 1969, that's when I was born. Whatever age that is.
That's beautiful. In Leah's book, "No Limits" at the beginning of the very first chapter, Oceanside, California, there's a quote that you're sharing. "One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it's worth watching." I think I'm hearing you speak so much about how it's really important for each of us to make sure it's worth watching. It's about how we live our life. How beautiful!
The part that you picked up, one day your life would flash before your eyes. I'm not sure if you're familiar, but there is this research on near-death experiences. I've had one of the preeminent scientists who have studied in that field who came to the show, Dr. Bruce Greyson. I thought you might find this quite affirming. One of the things they found is that for people who have had a brush with death, but also who have gone into some kind of unconscious state during that period, and then they've been brought back, some of these people have very clear memories of what they experienced all the way through. From their own vantage point, they have actually never lost consciousness, although, from the physician's standpoint, they have lost consciousness. I know you've gone through a couple of brushes like that in your own case. So, maybe this is close to your experience or not, but what they have found is that for many of these people, they have very common themes in what they report back later when they're fully alive again as to what that experience was like. One of those themes is that they talk about the life review. The life review is that they say that, "My whole life flashed in front of me and not just the past that I actually consciously remember. Even the small little details that I may have consciously forgotten over the years going back all the way, they actually flashed in front of me as if it's like a movie of my life without judgment. But it was like playing in front of me." And it's a little bit like a time illusion because they may have actually only been unconscious for about 30 minutes, but they actually feel like they experienced the whole life.
Yeah. Yeah. I've heard the same kind of recollections of many people who've gone through that same kind of experience. At one point in 2005, I think I had the mother of all crashes when I was in a race and I landed on my face at about 85 kilometers an hour, which basically ripped up the bottom part of my face. My arm was broken, dislocated and from the friction of the fall, my first layer of skin was burnt. Most of my bones were broken. This was in Oregon. And as I was lying there, I didn't think I was going to make it. I thought this was it for me. I was trying to hold the pieces of my face, but obviously, I woke up in a hospital and in the trauma unit, and I was very lucky. Then I realized how precious life really is. It changed me at that point. The importance of living that life is that, at the end, you can say, "I did have a good life and I did great things and I am content." I think it's very important and going through those traumatic experiences, you realize how precious life really is.
This makes me a little bit sort of heavy-hearted. Just over the last week, we have lost a very dear person in our human community. I don't know if you knew Hilaree Nelson. Hillary was an ace mountaineer, one of the preeminent women mountaineers. She went to Nepal recently with a partner.
We had her on the show about a year and a half ago and I was going back and revisiting that conversation I had with her. A beautiful soul! Really questing, just like you, for so much in so many beautiful ways. What you were just sharing here is almost exactly her words in that podcast where she talks about how she lost a dear friend who passed away unexpectedly. And through that, one of the key things she learned was, death is just out there and it can come to you anytime, anywhere and so you might as well accept that and live life to its fullest.
Absolutely. I 100% agree with that comment in that statement. Life is precious. We don't realize how precious it is. Especially for us individuals who have a healthy, normal life, and we live in a great country that gives us the freedom to do the things that we want to do. I think a lot of times we don't realize how lucky we are compared to other people. And again, hearing other people telling what they've gone through, it'll ground you. I am lucky. I do have a good life and there are so many things that I can do. It's a choice. Especially, in the position that we're all here in North America in particular, and most of us in the world, of what you want to do. If you can't do, you can't blame anybody else but yourself. We're really good at blaming everything else with those past experiences that have happened to us. As I said, you're not the only one in that boat. It's a matter of your choice and how you want to live your life.
If you choose to do nothing, then zip it. Nobody wants to hear about it. They want to hear about the good things and the struggles, and that'll make you a superstar. No matter how many times you've hit rock bottom, you coming out of it makes anybody a superstar.
Yeah. So powerful! I think what I'm hearing from you in some ways is an invitation to us to challenge some of the just formulaic ways in which we have been told we can pursue happiness. The formula is, try to aspire for the good life, wake up, have a good meal, go out and do stimulating work, come back, relax, chill out with your friends, go party, have a great dinner, come back and go to sleep, and then wake up in the morning and do the same thing again and again and try to do it for as long as you can.
Exactly.
We think that's a good life. But, did you actually live in that life?
Exactly. Or you're just dwelling on the things. You focus on the bad things, right? What about all the great things that are way overpowering. Why don't we focus on that rather than every time you meet somebody, "Oh, this is what I went through." But what about, "This is what I went through. But look at me now. Look what I'm doing after going through all that." Why don't we go in that direction? You know that saying, "One bad apple makes the whole room shut down." That's all it takes. Nobody wants to hang around that one person. But it's a choice. You can change anything. And for you, it's your mentality.
Think about it. If you had to meet somebody with that same kind of attitude, it's not what you want, right? You want to do great things and be positive and say great things, that's uplifting. Not something that's going to just bury you down.
Do a list of all the bad things in your life, then do a list of all the good things in your life, and I can promise you it'll outweigh anything. That's the focus. It has to be on the positive because that's the only way it's going to change what's going on upstairs. No one's going to help you do it. It's a matter of coming from within. You're going to do it. Sometimes when they call that I'm this motivational speaker or whatever, right? It's not a matter of me being motivated. It's you. It's you hearing the words coming out of my mouth. It's not coming from me. When I go into a room and I can motivate you for that moment, I don't care about that moment. I want that moment to last a year down the road. I want that motivation to exist not just after you hear me for an hour. That's the focus. It's how you're doing a year from now. Can you keep that rolling? That's the struggle. That's the importance for me when I do presentations. I want to see, "What did you do with what you've learned from the things that I've said? How has that changed your life in a positive way?" Not just for a week or a month, but a year and years?
This is where our paths start to converge. I'm so inspired to hear that, because, in my role as a teacher and a trainer similar to you, I am very drawn to the idea of helping people advance to their ideal selves, to be their best self. There are two lessons that you've talked about here which really echo things that I've stumbled into as well. The first is that you don't do anything as a teacher. It's basically they who get sparked from within and it's the audience that gets to recognize and see what truth they want to see in your message. Often, they'll be the ones who will inspire with the path that they take on.
The other is, I remember that one time, when I was blessed to be able to get good readings for my class, and students were loving it and all of that. Then, I remember having this flash sometimes in me that, "Hitendra, this is kind of like a Broadway show, you're going there, there's a little bit of upliftment, surge, excitement, joy. But six months from now, a year from now, two years from now, was there any lasting positive change that was brought forth by this? And if so, great. If not, then this is a Broadway show.
I don't want to be a teacher. I want to be an elevator of humanity in a way which is more sustainable. I love thoughts and ideas you may have for those of us who are striving to be really good coaches at work, with our teams or parents at home with our kids or trainers or inspirational speakers, and any or all of us are put into that place from time to time. We want to help support other people's growth.
What have you found in that work, which I'm guessing is an increasing part of your career? Is that right?
Yeah, absolutely. I think the biggest uplifting as any coach leader, as you know, is when you get the feedback. Just yesterday I got a text message from a good friend of mine, she's struggling with her godson, who's 21 years old, and he doesn't know his direction. Then she just said, read the book. So, she gave him my autobiography. She said it's completely transformed him. It's huge. That's the most uplifting thing. Like I said, it's the greatest feeling than winning any race or setting records or whatnot. I think what thrives us as leaders, coaches and speakers is seeing what it does to people. How it changes lives. That's the biggest motivator. Again, that's what keeps me going. I still don't feel comfortable standing on those stages with all these people. But again, it's the feedback that makes it worth it. It's something that I had never felt doing anything else. And it's worth it. For my uncomfortableness, whatever for an hour is worth helping, possibly even 1, 2, 10, or 100 people. It's well worth it.
Wow! It's beautiful! What I see there is, a little bit of this closing of the loop that is happening where in the early part of your story, you talked about these six or seven bullies and how they were really the ones who were holding all the energy and you were the one who was getting victimized and beaten up a little bit. Then, you take the energy and you activate it within and a lot of your life has been about this personal quest for excellence and overcoming challenges. Now it's as if, you are taking a fresh look at the environment, at the world around you and you're activating that energy in everybody. It's like a multiplier that is happening, going from just beyond you into celebrating that activation of the inner Leah in everybody.
Well, I would hope so. That's the goal. It would be such a better world if we were all way more positive, loving, and caring to each other than aggression, road rage, and violence. It just feels like we've been coming so close up and not just caring about ourselves. A really stupid example is, when Covid hit, everybody's going after the toilet paper and hogging things for themselves. What about your neighbor or the lady who is in a wheelchair or the man who doesn't have transportation? We're so consumed with caring for ourselves and not our neighbors. I think that's got to change. I'm going to be honest, 20 years ago or 30 years ago, that wasn't important to me, but it is to me now because I realize how it's so much more harmonized how we are when we do care for others. There isn't this chaos, this anxiety and aggression. I think that's how we have to be in perspective too. Care for yourself for sure, love yourself, but care for your neighbors as well. Because, it does make a difference. It does. I'm not trying to preach or push things. I'm just saying just try it and see what it feels like. Don't take it from me. Just try it once and you'll see the feeling and how it changes you. It changes your life and it changes everything. It just makes it more harmonized when we live in that kind of environment and it's upon you to start it in your circle.
It's a very moving thing that you're talking about. You're reminding me of a story that Mother Teresa would share. She said that one time she heard some news about how there was a very poor family in the community who had been going hungry with lack of food for a couple of days. So, she cooked some rice and rushed over to their place which was about 10-15 minutes' walk away. She said she goes in and there's this Hindu family. She gives them this rice, which they were delighted to have. The mother in that home takes half the rice and disappears. Then comes back a few minutes later and then shares the rest of the half with the family. Mother Teresa enquires and asks what she did with the other half. Did she store it for them to eat later? Actually, it turns out that there was a Muslim family who was the neighbor, who was equally hungry and who also hadn't gotten food that Mother Teresa hadn't known about. She'd gone and just taken half the rice to them. Mother Teresa says, "You know, I had this impulse in that moment to quickly go and get more rice for both families." And she said, "But then I decided that instead of doing it that time, I would do it in the morning, because I wanted to allow this lady to continue to feel that joy of giving.
Absolutely. It's true. It's amazing. Again, a lot of times these conversations are not really listened to. Because people think "ah whatever. Everyone can take care of themselves or whatnot." Well, one day you could be in that situation and you'll appreciate that one person. If anything ever happens to you, you won't be forgotten. You never know where your life is going to lead you. You may need that person or that family that is hungry to help you out. It's all karma and I believe in it. I really do.
I want to come back and talk more about this chapter of your life. It seems like it's a powerful evolution and growth that continues to happen in your journey. Before we get there, the accident you had must have been such an epic moment. You were a part of the bicycle race, there were about 14 or 15 of you that came crashing on the highway and I as I understand, you were the one that was below all of them.
Yes. Right.
Can you maybe just give our audience just a glimpse of what that moment must have felt like? And then how is it that you cultivated and practiced the grit that it took to rebuild yourself literally from ground up?
Oh, yeah. Based on Velo News, which is one of the biggest cycling magazines in the world, it was one of the worst crashes in the history of the sport, of course, minus people who have passed away. The magnitude of that accident was, the diagnosis was, it was questionable about my ability to walk properly without a walker or a cane, but it was unquestionable that I'd never race again. That's what I was left with. Honestly, I had hit rock bottom at that point in my life, and people say, "How did you get out of it?" But because it was also one of the worst pains I'd ever gone through, everything hurt all the time, breathing, blinking, too much light, too much sound. I was bedbound. But again, when you hit rock bottom, if you don't mentally get out of there, you will always stay there.
I basically made a promise to myself that I don't care how long it's going to take and the kind of pain I go through, I'm going to get back on that bike and I'm going to race again and come back even stronger than I did before all this craziness happened. The point is, when we're faced with this overwhelming situation, we buckle, we freeze. We don't know what to do, so we do nothing. But the point is, you have to start somewhere, even if it seems like it's nowhere. At that point, the only thing I could do was contract my abs. But every day I did something today that I couldn't do the day before, and being in that positive mode, I could feel things starting to bind. As crazy as that might sound, I could just feel things happening in my body, because I said to myself, I am going to get back on that bike and nothing was going to stop me. I didn't care what I heard, even from the professionals, doctors, nurses. Even psychologists came because they thought, "Oh, she can go into a depression or whatnot." I was on a one-track mind that I was going to get back on that bike. And I did. Within say eight months, I was already training on the road. That was just pure determination coming from upstairs and believing in myself and not letting this negative thought tear me down.
To me, quitting is never an option. It's never an option. When you're in a situation, you get yourself out of it, no matter how long it takes, no matter how hard it's going to be, it doesn't matter. You get yourself out of it. Honestly, if you would see me in that picture of how I look like, I was trashed, it was like taking a pretzel and just squishing. Everything happened because of what I believed and what I said to myself. It wasn't the physical part. It was the mental part. And that's what got me out of one of the worst situations. I have ever been in. It's such a powerful thing.
Oh, wow! That is a bolt from the blue. It is such an incredible story. What you may have experienced in that moment, what you may have experienced in the days and weeks ahead with all that pain that you mentioned you felt in every part of your body, and how you literally willed yourself into not just recovery, but ultimately to a place of real thriving. It's a testament to the capacity of the human body to just biologically be this magical thing that can actually self-heal given the right patience and determination and mental environment that you create as well.
If I believed everything the doctors have told me, or if I absorbed every time somebody said I couldn't do something, I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you today. If I got a penny for every time somebody said I couldn't do something, I think I'd be a billionaire. That's a force for me. I'm going to show you exactly what I can do when they say that. For me, it was my mental ability. Again, just being in that positive mode is what allowed me to heal. Don't kid yourself. I had my low moments for sure. It was kind of like a rollercoaster ride. But when you dip, you use that momentum and get back up. That's just how you have to roll it. Just don't stay down there.
Again, with any genre that happened in your lifetime, no matter what the situation is, if you're going to stay in that rock bottom, you're going to always use that as an excuse for anything else you do in your life. I'm not going to use that. I can say, "I can't do this because in 2005 I had such a crash and doctors told me that I wouldn't do A, B, or C," And you just hold on to that, because that's like your rock. That's your excuse. Screw that. I'm going to determine what I can and can't do. It's going to come from me, not what's coming from you. And that's what I mean, we want validation from others. It doesn't matter what other people think. Only take in the good things. It's up to you to do the things that you love, to heal, to whatever it may be. But a lot of times we want that coddling. We talk about the coddling coming from others. You don't need that kind of support system. Again, your biggest support system is you. It's your ability to do the things that you love. It all comes within. It doesn't come from anyone else.
That's how I live my life. It is our choice to do the things that we want. If you don't do the things that you love, there's no one to blame but yourself. When you don't succeed in the things that you do, no one is to blame but yourself. And if you stay in that mode, you'll be surprised how things will change when you're the one to blame and you have no one else to blame but yourself.
It's almost that, that accident happened in part to have you prove to yourself how much more powerful you are over the circumstances of your life. But then through the storytelling that you're now engaging in, it's actually as if through that accident that you had to go through, Leah, all of us are getting proof points and all of us getting inspiration and guidance without having to hopefully go through anything close to that in our own lives. So there's a multiplicative impact of the value of that pain you went through for the world. Thank you for bringing that gift to us.
Are you familiar with this poem, Invictus?
The Invictus? The movie?
Well, there's the movie made on Nelson Mandela and a particular moment in his life called Invictus. There was a poem that used to inspire him, which is what the movie was based on.
This is a poem by a poet called William Henley, who really struggled with a lot of ill health in his life. Mandela was very inspired by this poem. He used to have it with him in the prison cell. I just am remembering the last four lines of this poem, because it speaks so much to your nature, to who you are. And William Henley wrote, "It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishment the scroll. I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.
Amen.
As you speak, these thoughts are coming to my mind. I wanted to ask you, who is the William Henley for you? In a sense, Mandela talked about how much this poem really helped him during his dark times. You speak with such force and conviction, inner direction, and it may be the most pivotal guide, coach, mentor for you is just your own inner voice. It used to be your parents at an earlier age in your life, but in your adult life, over time, have there been individuals living or dead or other forces that you've turned to during some of your darkest moments?
Believe it or not, it's my parents. They were always there for me. Good times, bad times. They were equally happy when I didn't do good in races or anything I wanted to do. They were my rock. They were so supportive at anything I chose to do. They're my heroes. Both my mum and dad. I'm really close to my mum. She is my best friend. She always is, always will be. Just living and growing up with that kind of influence, I'm so lucky. I am so blessed to have such supportive parents to this day. I talk to them every day and they're always supportive. My mother has never said no to me, even when I was a kid. She wanted me to experience everything. Even when she knew that I was horrible at something, she goes, "You're going to be great. Just experience and see what it's like" And not enclose me. Again, with my father, with independence. At times, I disliked him as a little kid. But I'm so grateful with the way he raised both my sister and I, because we are the way we are because of them. I'm very fortunate to have them as my role models when I was a little kid when I was 10 and they are when I'm in my 50s. I'm very lucky.
How nice! How beautiful! Well, when you talk to them next, can you just let them know how the world that you engage with now is very thankful to them for all that they've done to make you who you are. Because I do feel welling up from within of just a great sense of gratitude to them. I feel blessed to have had parents who have had a similar, very marked influence on my life. Therefore, to hear that from you and to see that as something that even till today continues to be a force for you, is so heartwarming and so beautiful.
Thank you. I will let them know for sure. Thank you very much.
In the last few minutes, maybe we can talk about the new chapter that is unfolding for you. There's so much that we could keep unpacking in your life. I've had to be very disciplined and selective in the forays that we made here today in the confines of time that we have in what is such an encyclopedic journey that you've taken in life. One of the things that's really special about it is, the reinvention that you keep going through every decade or two with what you pursue next. With where you are today, where is your athletic career going? And it sounds like more and more you're getting invested in wanting to help, support, and serve the world through your principles and ideas.
Can you talk a little bit about what's your big dream over the next ten years?
My speaking career has kind of exploded a little bit. I'm very fortunate enough to have the opportunity again to share my story with many genres, different areas of life, different disciplines, speaking with kids, high-risk youth is very heart-fulfilling for me, especially because that's where it stems, right? Those kids didn't have fortunate lifestyles as I did, or many of us did as children. So being there for them is very fulfilling for me and I've been involved for many years. We're also working on a documentary that should be released in the next couple of months. That's kind of the next project.
I think the biggest one for me though, is Race Across America is not done. I've won the whole thing and I've done it 3 times, and completed a very good result. For me, the goal is close to ten days and I still feel that I have the potential to do that. As an athlete, I'm going to try and do that in the next couple of years for sure. If all goes well, the goal for next year is to go into Race Across America at my age and see what we can do.
Wow! God bless you! Keep going on that. It's incredible to hear. What is your record so far? It's been like 11 days?
10 days 18 hours is the best I've done. So we want to cut out that 18 hours. Let's see what happens. I believe in my heart that I can. I'm willing to do the work for it. But of course, with Race Across America, Mother Nature plays a huge role. The heat dome in the race that I won, we had the heat dome where it was 50 Celsius or 120 Fahrenheit for Americans throughout the whole race, almost right across the country. In conditions like that, it's very hard to ride hard when you're racing when there's such extreme heat. But then again, in 2019, we had rain storms and cold temperatures. It depends how the cards fold out for you. You have to have a little bit of luck, not only just the great physical part. So, we're keeping our fingers crossed that we have a good set of cards, a good deck on our hands when we go after Race Across America.
Wishing you well, both with the documentary and with this next quest to continue to advance your physical accomplishments.
What is your fondest memory in life?
My fondest memory in life. Oh, my gosh! I have so many. It's going to sound weird, but, when I went into kickboxing, my father was not a fan. He didn't want his daughter looking like a boxer. So he didn't come to any of my fights or whatnot. The biggest fight I had was against an American fighter. And he actually just came to my corner and was with my coach, kind of guiding me and telling me how to fight it. It was just a very heartfelt moment because I was so obsessed with the sport and my father was so against it. Just having him stand and be in my corner. It was something that he did not want me to do. But, he finally just cracked and said, "Okay, she loves it, she's good at it, and I'm going to show her that I'm going to be there." For me, it was a moment that I probably will never forget.
Oh, that's so sweet. You must have been, 12, 13, 14?
I was like barely 14 years old when I was fighting a 28 year old. She was like 6 foot 7. It was a totally mixed match. Sometimes there are crazy things that happen in that sport because they wanted to see a knockout or whatever. Those kinds of memories of having that because I've struggled a lot with my father with the things that I've wanted to do because, growing up in a Jewish household, you're expected to be a lawyer, a doctor, a dentist, and the direction that I took wasn't that conventional in our traditions. And I think he finally kind of was supportive of the things that I wanted to do was a big breaking point.
Well, that's such a powerful lesson in how sometimes there are these small moments, small decisions, behaviors, and choices that we don't realize but it may be having a lifelong impact on somebody's life. What he did in that moment, perhaps for him, it was just an impulsive thing in that moment and maybe he forgot about it a year later or something. But, here you are still remembering it today.
Absolutely yeah. It's because my parents are both so important to me in my life. I want their validation. I want their support. It's important for me. So for me, that was like the best thing in the world. And those little memories that happen like that, you just don't forget them.
Of all the work that you have done to bring principles, insights, and inspiration to others from what you have lived and experienced in your own life. If you could offer one wish, what is the one thing which you may invite, hope, and inspire for all of us that, "Hey folks out there, from my here is one thing that if you could just take on, embrace and make your own, I know beautiful things are going to happen.
I think what's important is that if you do have the ability to get back up every time you get punched, kicked, shoved, knocked down, you get back up and you keep moving forward, then your possibilities of achievement, success, happiness of anything you want are truly endless. I think just remembering that and living a life to the fullest, loving yourself, loving life, and don't dwell on the past or bad experiences, those are used for strength. It's not the way you lead your life.
So beautiful. On that note, as we bring this to closure, I want to share that, on the one hand, I see a lot of ferocity, discipline, hard work, mental strength, and all of these amazing qualities that you are celebrating, affirming, practicing, showing us what they can do. And at the same time, I feel a great sense of love arising from within you, expressing itself in everything that you've shared. A love for life, a love for making every moment matter, a love for this romance between who am I at my core? What's my fullest potential? What is it that I can manifest in the world and then ultimately love that is growing and growing into wanting to help others as well in their own quest to be the best versions of themselves and honoring that spirit that lies within each of them as well. That's what I see your life as Leah, and it is really leaving me with a feeling of great upliftment in this moment.
Thank you for all you do. You're living so many really powerful truths and inviting us to live them as well, for which I'm really grateful. Wishing you all the best on every other quest that you take on from here till that moment where finally, like all of us, life has to come to a close. So thank you so much for all you're doing.
Thank you so much. It was a very real pleasure having a conversation with you today. Thank you so much.
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