How to Design the Man Within - Johnny Elsasser

<p dir="ltr">In today’s episode, our guest is a beautiful human being, Johnny Elsasser. Johnny has a crazy excellent story about his life being in Iraq protecting the American ambassador to Iraq. He has a lot which has never talked about. He has grown through the dark, finding the light times. He is the author of the book “Design the man within” which guides the man to realize that he is not alone in his journey full of struggles, feelings, and judgments to deserve the world.</p> <p dir="ltr"><strong>(3:07) Why should I listen to you?</strong></p> <p dir="ltr">You should listen to me because I struggle just as any other man works at the end of the day, and I don’t want to hide that. The only difference is how I use many tools and get through the dark times quicker than I used to. Hopefully, in this conversation, I can give you some tools to help.</p> <p dir="ltr"><strong>(3:40) Let’s unpack your framing of dark times. We all have perspectives relative to humans. What are the kinds of dark times you are referring to?</strong></p> <p dir="ltr">It’s always the moment when you are alone. Everything starts to close in, and you will be the harshest critic and the most judgemental person on the planet. It’s a dark time for me. It’s when we discover what can defeat us and put us in the dark. It can show us what keeps us away from our goals and targets. Dark times are what I look at myself.</p> <p dir="ltr"><strong>(4:48) I didn’t realize how I felt about being out of it. Some people may not realize that they are in the dark. Do you mind sharing your dark times as awake up call?</strong></p> <p dir="ltr">Most people may not know that they are having a dark time in their lives. They’re just going through lives but don’t know what’s happening. When I was in special operations protecting the US ambassador to Iraq, I loved it. After I came home, I didn’t have the flag anymore, and I wasn’t representing the flag or the country. At that moment, I thought, “Dude, what are you doing?”. When I lost my purpose of serving overseas a