Security Halt!
Welcome to Security Halt! Podcast, the show dedicated to Veterans, Active Duty Service Members, and First Responders. Hosted by retired Green Beret Deny Caballero, this podcast dives deep into the stories of resilience, triumph, and the unique challenges faced by those who serve.
Through powerful interviews and candid discussions, Security Halt! Podcast highlights vital resources, celebrates success stories, and offers actionable tools to navigate mental health, career transitions, and personal growth.
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Security Halt!
Alan Shebaro: From Special Forces to Saving Lives Through Jiu-Jitsu & Purpose
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In this powerful episode of Security Halt!, host Deny Caballero sits down with Alan Shebaro, a veteran who transformed personal hardship into a global mission of growth, healing, and service. Alan shares his candid journey from the depths of mental health struggles to discovering resilience through community, mindfulness, and the discipline of jiu-jitsu.
Explore how traveling the world, connecting with others, and choosing to live for today helped Alan rebuild a life rooted in purpose and perspective. His story is a beacon of hope for any veteran feeling stuck, isolated, or searching for meaning after service.
Whether you're navigating transition, struggling with mental health, or just need a reminder that you're not alone—this episode is for you.
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right how you doing brother any better. Couldn't stand myself right on, man dude I. I love finding veterans that uh, are hard at work and sticking to something that brings discipline in their life and can help inspire others. And what better way to do it than continuing that lifelong commitment of excellence by doing something hard every single day? And when you look and find your page on social media, it's nothing but a catalog of that doing hard shit every single day.
Speaker 1:So today, man, I want to tap into your story, not just the great accolades you've done in your service, but where you found success on the transition. You and I both know that we continue to lose our brothers, even within special operations. We have this myth that our guys can't break and sadly that's not true. But tapping into your story to share the things that go right, the things that work, that led you down this path of success and, yeah, I want to explore that today with you Awesome, so it actually started from hitting rock bottom, led you down this path of success and uh, yeah, I want to explore that today with you.
Speaker 1:Awesome, so it actually it actually started from hitting rock bottom. Yep, as often, more often than not, that's the way it starts, yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean to the point where. See about, I got out of active duty in 2010. I was national guard for a couple of years, um out in 2010. I was National Guard for a couple years out in Texas with 19th Group. In 2010, in May, I opened up my own gym in McKinney and I just dove into that headfirst, just trying to get up and going. I've never opened up, I never had a business period, so I was literally learning as I went along and I didn't have a plan B. Just I was going to make this work, no matter what.
Speaker 2:The problem was is that I was like super busy. I just wasn't very productive and I already had issues that I just didn't realize I had. There wasn't anything that was going to keep me from succeeding. That became kind of a problem because I couldn't read the signs. I was going full force and basically it just went from. I was teaching five, six classes a day, waking up at like 4.30 and teaching a a 6 am class, and then 9 am class, noon class, afternoon class like around 4 30, and then one after that and another jiu-jitsu one after that, and then another fitness one after that, and then I'd get right back on the computer and try to figure out, you know, google ads and like, literally like business for dummies. I was literally living in my gym for 18 months on the couch, because I felt that it was a, the sacrifice was worth it. I can have an apartment or I can make this business work. Okay, let me just sleep on the couch, I'm good.
Speaker 2:The problem was is that I didn't even recognize, like, all the things that were wrong. I just kept dismissing them and then I started kind of developing injuries. But I had to teach and I had to, you know, and I felt like I needed to be a leader and that means that I had to be first in line first, you know, first up front with the highest lifting, with the fastest times. I was still competing in juiu-jitsu and I was just wearing myself thin and running on red line for years. And it started out where I was taking like one Ambien in the morning and then 20 milligrams of Adderall in the morning to within a few years, I was taking, waking up and taking 30 milligrams in the morning, 30 milligrams around noon and then 30 milligrams in the afternoon, like late in the evening, and I just kept pushing and then, in order to fall asleep with all that dosage. I went from taking one Ambien to taking two Ambien, percocet and Washington Down, you know, with a six-pack of beer, and of course I only slept for like three hours, yeah, but it was three hours that I could, the only three hours that I could get, and it just everyone's got a limit.
Speaker 2:And what I didn't realize was, you know, we're all used to physical injuries and we can just kind of like, okay, this is what's wrong, I can fix it or I can just walk it off. But when it becomes like mental issues and that's what I was dealing with I didn't know what the signs, symptoms, you know, it was just yeah, I'm sad, just brush it off. You know, it was just yeah, I'm sad, just brush it off. And um, when you start rationalizing irrational thoughts, that's what got me and before you know, it starts spiraling down into these irrational thoughts of failure and just absolute, like catastrophe and everything that I'm doing and it's coming from my own mind.
Speaker 2:How do you fix that? You know, and I mean, it just got to the point where I just hit rock bottom in 2014 or 2015 one of the two I almost shot myself and kind of got lucky on that. I actually had a dog that kept like bugging the shit out of me and uh, kept pawing me, man like on my hand, and I remember just kicking the shit out of him and he went like halfway across the room and then he came right back and kept doing the same thing and I felt like such a fucking shit back, sorry um no, you can cuss all day, every day, on this, this show.
Speaker 2:I just felt so like honestly like it just like such a shit bag for kicking my dog and I love that dog, it was like the best dog I ever had and that's what actually pulled me away from what I was doing. So after that, you know, I actually started to seek help and realize that there was something wrong and I needed to kind of get something and get it fixed. And around that time I met Joey Bozic and he was a triple amputee. He was in Iraq, he got hit with an IED as an MP and you know he came in first. First he came in to kind of vet me because the original name of my gym was tier one training facility and he's like, oh, it's probably one of those of those you know jackasses that just uses the name. So we got to talking and you know he was, he was at brag, you know I was at brag and we started kind of talking and before I knew it we actually knew some of the same people and he had come in to to actually get lessons for his daughter.
Speaker 2:And then the conversation, um, kind of spiraled into. You know, like, have you of, you know, doing jiu-jitsu yourself? He's like, well, you know, I tried it before, because he was actually a martial artist before he got into jiu-jitsu, like when he had all his limbs. He spent a lifetime in it. So I was like man, I've never done this, but if you're willing to be patient with me, I'll be patient with you, we can work something out. And I was like, just come up tomorrow, we'll see what we got.
Speaker 2:And after one session everything was just so like complex. But it was such a relief because it was so different and it really took my mind off things and I really was able to focus just on that. It really took my mind off things and I really was able to focus just on that, and I wrote down like eight pages of notes and I had to scrap like six of them because I didn't know about the muscle flap being over. He has like titanium rods for femurs and so the flap's over so he can roll over it but he can't push off of it, which means like the center core is different for movements. And then he had one leg longer than the other. His arm was amputated just below the elbow. He had partial rotation in one arm but not in the other, and so but there was two pages that I literally could work.
Speaker 2:And so we started from there and I was like, cool man, come back tomorrow. And he's like what, come back tomorrow, man, we'll keep working on it. And so we just worked one-on-one for for a few months, like about four or five months, three, three days a week on average, damn and um. And then one day we're sitting in the corner of the mat and just trying to talk and and and like what kind of therapy would work for the shit that's wrong with them physically or mentally, because I know this shit works for me and obviously it's working for you, so why don't we try to come up with something? And so that's how we came up with the idea for we Defy Foundation and we're going on 10 years now. I think the number's up to about 1,800 veterans to the program. That's remarkable work. Yeah, it's amazing. I'm so proud of being able to start it.
Speaker 2:But the people that have been able to kind of take over because, again, you know, joey and I never had worked at a nonprofit, never had any clue how to do any of this and we're just trying to figure it out as we go, and I remember like we were doing seminars to raise money for that, and it cost about $2,000 for people to run through the program. Because what we do is we find a job, um, an academy, a jiu-jitsu academy, that's wanting to become an affiliate, and it doesn't matter. You know what flag they fly. And then, once we approve the facility, we recommend a veteran to them. So what ends up happening is um, they go up, they show up. As long as they show up for three times a week, we'll pay for the tuition, their gi, gi, their belt, their rash guard, everything they need to get started, and so all they have to do is show up. And the amazing part about that is that it was we didn't realize, like how much how the correlation between military and jujitsu was. I mean, we have that camaraderie. We have a ranking system. We have, you know it's, it's a combat sport, right, but it's also something that makes you think a lot. Thanks to social media, people are held accountable, you know, because if you don't have a training partner, well, there's someone that's going to be sitting out, and so we have mentors. Now we have affiliates in all 50 states. I think we're up to like 700 or 800 affiliates, including in Japan, guam, puerto Rico, up in Alaska everywhere Damn, it's just blown up.
Speaker 2:So four years, I was the director and the vice president, and also the international, and what grew out of it was in 2017, I went to England and met with a Royal Marine Commando. He'd been kind of following me since the inception of it and we started talking and I gave him like the full blueprint. This is what we did. This is how we did it. This is how we started. This is the things you got to look out for. They ended up starting Reorg, so Reorg Jiu-Jitsu Foundation. Now it's developed into Reorg Charity, but that's actually how Tom Hardy got into jiu-jitsu, was meeting through them and two years later, I get a message from Scott Steer, who was in the Australian Army, and then we started Veterans Grappling, so it was able to spawn off to different countries.
Speaker 2:The same idea run a little bit different due to the circumstances of you know. However, the nonprofit works, the laws work, but the idea and the concept itself was able to kind of take the blueprint and make it work for where you're at In 2023, there's going to be I'm not sure where they're at with it, but they started, they got the approval to start a we Defy Foundation Canada. Wow, hell. Yeah, I was able to really keep it going and spread it out by 2019. I was getting burned out and, um, I had to step down from the board, but the staff that that that took over has done such an amazing job with everything. It was able to take it out from that, from there, and just continue the growth of it to where we're at today, and I couldn't be any more proud of them for what they've done. They've just done a phenomenal job that's a testament of what.
Speaker 1:What can happen when you're able to pause like a lot of times we get stuck in our own suffering, we can sit down and let it eat us up and we just sit there and it will deteriorate you faster than anything. But through a chance encounter it took you out of that and brought you out of your own sphere. And then you saw somebody else. And we don't want to compare trauma, we don't want to compare. Somebody's got worse than me, no, but you're able to see somebody else that's missing arm, missing legs. How can I help you? How can I help you get some joy, get a little bit of respite from what you're dealing with? And that nexus being able to connect with a human being that's what's really helping a lot of people and we don't focus. There's a lot of interventions out there that do a lot of great care, but all in all, we're human beings, we're meant to connect. What's that friendship like? Today, you guys still connected, you guys still do this stuff together um, not so much, um, not for any other.
Speaker 2:I mean, we're still keeping contact, of course, but, um, I sold my gym, uh, last year and I just had kind of a calling. I guess I was raised overseas growing up, so I actually lived in Italy and Germany and Austria and Saudi Arabia, and so I didn't actually move to the States until I was 19. Wow, when I was 95. And then I, just after 14 years of owning a gym a gym is like taking care of an infant for the entire time that you're there you always got to be there. So it's a lot of responsibility, it's a lot of hard work, but if you love doing it, I mean there's so much benefit that comes out of it. And I got no regrets for what I did. But I felt like I needed to do something else. Man, I had um within one month. I was just reaching out to some you know some people and, kind of that, lost contact with them, like, hey, man, how you been? He's like man I got, I got cancer and I was like holy shit, dude, you're like 53. You know what I mean. And then I talked to another one and he got cancer. So three guys that I knew all, all of them like less than five years older than me, you know got some type of cancer and I was like dude, fuck this, dude, I'm Papa Tuck. There's like so much shit in the world that I haven't seen so I, literally I, sold my gym.
Speaker 2:Three weeks later I was on a flight and I took off and started in England and then I went to visit my best friend in Germany and went down. My mother lives in Italy and so I went and visited her, then went to. I went and visited her, then went to the West Bank for a couple of months, was in Jordan for a little bit, turned around, came back to the States for a few weeks and then headed out to Thailand. I was there for a bit, and then Vietnam for a month and then Laos for a month, came back down to Vietnam because I absolutely loved it, and then down to Malaysia and back to then Cambodia. I absolutely fell in love with Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City, and so that's actually my home base. Now, what about in Vietnam city?
Speaker 1:exactly, and so that's actually my home base now. So there's, I got a trip out of vietnam, that's something. Uh, you know, that's uh, we gotta dive in that for a little bit man.
Speaker 2:So I got really lucky, like everywhere that I went in laos, I was in vietnam and, um, I absolutely love that place. It's amazing and just the, the culture, the food, just all the food, everything about it. It was just and it was. I was, don't get me wrong, I wasn't like staying at the Ritz or anything. You know, I was staying at a lot of the places you know where. Just, I rent an apartment for like a month and it's, you know, relatively inexpensive.
Speaker 1:Doing the old Green Beret thing, living off the local economy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's amazing. Um, the street food. I, I fell in love with the street food. I just I couldn't get enough. And the the weird part is is that you know, most of it's like there's no preservatives, or pretty much all of it's no preservatives, no, and and you can eat healthy just as much for a fraction of the price. Yeah, and just being able to experience something new is what I really kind of fell in love with, and that's a part of the world that, like I've never been to spend a lot of time to in that area Islands, like in Bangkok, it's. It's beautiful, don't get me wrong, but it's kind of like Vegas. It's beautiful, don't get me wrong, but it's kind of like Vegas, you know, it's overwhelming, you know, so you can only take it.
Speaker 2:For so long I wanted to go to Chiang Mai, which is up north, but I picked the time frame where it's like everything was flooded, so that's how I ended up going straight to Vietnam after that and then I was in Hanoi for a month and man, that place is just crazy wild and I literally would just my favorite thing to do, honestly, was literally just go walk out of my apartment. I'm like, okay, I've been here and just I'd walk west and just see where it took me, you, I just walked the streets and you know, stop and eat some pho. You know, just out of nowhere, bumble way, there's all these different foods that I've never had, and and again, I just 20 bucks maybe for the day and I'd eat like five, six meals. Everyone was just very curious, you know. So the area that I staying at, there weren't many white expats there, so a lot of people were just kind of like staring. Laos, the same thing.
Speaker 2:Cambodia I was actually on the coastline of Cambodia and that was one of the more recent trips when I was in Vietnam, when I went down to Saigon. Actually I don't have a work visa, so what I did instead was I was raising money for like one of the orphanages there. So when I went to Cambodia, I wanted to kind of get involved with the human trafficking and things like that. So I met some people from a nonprofit. They showed me around there and amazing people, the program they have there. I spent like a week just kind of seeing the whole operation. It's truly phenomenal what they do with so little and they make it work and it's and it's absolutely amazing the um, the care that they put, the, the amount of, uh, just everything about it, like how caring they are. It's just, it's incredible yeah.
Speaker 1:Did you go there thinking that you were going to get involved with this fight or did it just kind of opportunity just opened up? It just?
Speaker 2:there's, no, there's nothing greater than to help someone in need, right, absolutely, and so anywhere that I can help somebody in any way, you know, whether it be training jujitsu and just showing them stuff to help their game, or just bringing more attention and awareness to a certain organization that I know is doing well, I'm more than happy to do it and it doesn't cost me anything. You know what I mean. I'm just kind of like I have somewhat of a following and you know. So I try to sort of just expose, like you know, give some exposure to to some like honest, good organizations, you know, to some honest, good organizations. So, yeah, there's a couple more that I want to go to, like in Vietnam there's some of the people that were affected by the Agent Orange, like generationally. Yeah, I'll try to go up there and see what we can do, because they recently got their USAID pulled, so we're talking a lot of people with physical defects and so forth from. I mean, they have 68,000 hecta acres that's still contaminated, wow, so it's kind of crazy. And you don't think about these things in the States because everything's so far away, we're so isolated in the States. Because everything's so far away, we're so isolated, I don't have a work visa.
Speaker 2:I was literally talking to someone about this today. My schedule is literally like I get up when the sun gets up, I go walk outside or I go to the gym, it doesn't matter. Whenever I feel like it, I go get my coconut which is like within 100 feet and they literally chop it right there and I'm just sipping on the coconut juice. Go get some fresh squeezed orange juice, a couple of banh mi sandwiches, you know stuff with some eggs and liver pate and all the good stuff, and hang out at a cafe, chill out for like an hour, come back, go train, then come back from there and go hang out at the pool. I mean, it's a hard life. It's a hard life, it's a wonderful life right now. I got no complaints. I got a trip to Bhutan scheduled in October. I'm going to Mongolia, all the places. I've never been man Life's too short, I still got my health. I can do things that are active. Been man life's too short, I still got my health. I can do things that are active.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna take advantage of that for as long as I can there's something to be said about that man.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of people settle into this idea of this work culture where, like you know, I'm a victim of it too. I'm victim of this mentality of just working non-stop the grind, the grind, the grind. And then you realize the year goes by really fucking fast, and then two years, three years, four years, five years. When are you making time for yourself? When are you like? Projects are great, the business is great, achieving things are great, but fuck a trophy, fuck the achievement Life. Life is the ultimate thing that you need to be worried about. What are you doing with your family, with your kids? Do you want them to only remember you at 5 pm, when you walk into the door as a ghost that tiptoes through the house, leaving at 430? Got to have a life, got to make it happen. I'm saying this because I need to hear it myself.
Speaker 2:I mean like right before, like during COVID it was one of the catalysts why I sold the gym is we had to shut down for several months. I was still paying my employees, I was still paying rent and, man, I managed to get myself in like so much debt from that. And trying to recover that, trying to get students back and try to get back up there, I ended up taking a corporate job as a project manager for a plumbing company. It was my first corporate job I'd ever done and I was making good money. Don't get me wrong. But I was waking up at 5 am, going to the gym for some type of workout like 45 minutes because I had a shower, get back to work and then I'd be working there from 7.30 to noon, then go teach, come back to work and then get off work around 5, you know enough time to go eat, come back, teach again, get home like around 8.30. And I was married at the time, so she was stressed out because I was only spending like a couple hours at night and by the time, you know, I got home, all I wanted to do was just chill out and she's about to go to sleep. Then the weekend comes, the only thing I want to do is sleep. So it really made things rough.
Speaker 2:And what I realized is that two and a half years of working at that job, yeah, I was able to make the money to pay off all my bills and pay off my debt.
Speaker 2:But what I realized is that those entire two and a half years was literally like an amalgam of one week, like I couldn't separate the days, I couldn't separate everything, because all I was doing looking at computer screen, going to job sites, and they all looked the same. And then realized that you know we work, you know eight to 10 hours a day to get two days off, and then for two weeks a year you have time off and to me and it could be perfect for other people, I'm not, I'm not, it's just not for me. You know what I mean. If that's what you'd like to do, and you know, by all means, I just I realized that it's just not for me and I quit that job and that's when I started kind of like pursuing this and then, a year later, I just said, no, I got to go now. And that's when I popped smoke and left.
Speaker 1:At the end of the day, you got to do what's right for you. You got to figure out what's right. And you mentioned the cancer epidemic that we're going through and hearing your friends like, yeah, and it's shocking Guys in their 40s too getting cancer To think that you can go out just like that without experiencing life and seeing things. It's a no brainer. You got to explore. It's a no brainer. You gotta explore that. Do you feel a longing or a sense of like missing out on? You know the things back home in the state or you know things going on in stateside, cause I can imagine there there's gotta be, there's gotta be some people you miss back in the mainland. Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:The people that I I mean I love my brothers that are back home. I definitely miss them. The people that I I mean I love my brothers that are back home, I definitely miss them. There's people back at home that I definitely miss. I miss riding. I used to.
Speaker 2:I got into horse riding and cutting event and after I did my first event I got so addicted to it and the coach that I had has been working at a ranch. He's like hey, do you want to come over? Yes, yes, I do. Yes, I do you want to come over? Yes, yes, I do, yes, I absolutely do. And so I would drive from McKinney to Weatherford, which is like about an hour and a half almost an hour and 45 minutes one way, and I absolutely loved it, like I would look forward to it. I loved like going out there and we just moved cows from one pen to the other and it truly was. Just. If you want to talk about therapy, that's the only thing that I found that's matched jiu-jitsu, for therapy is the equine therapy, and if anyone wants to do that, I would so highly recommend it. It is absolutely incredible. It's amazing.
Speaker 2:I got truly lucky meeting the people that I did, and he just kept inviting me out. I kept saying yes, so he couldn't get rid of me. The whole time I was there and that's something I don't have in Asia. You don't have cutting, you don't have the same type of ranches. We don't have the same connections Not yet. So I'm still working on it, but we'll see yeah, who taught you how to cut?
Speaker 2:what's that?
Speaker 1:he taught you how to cut, how to go. Uh, learn how to cut so july of 2023.
Speaker 2:I get a friend of mine that I've known from jiu-jitsu, that I've known for like 20 years and he ended up being the president of the nhca and he's like, hey, we're doing this uh cutting event, military cutting challenge. Do you want to be a part of? Like yes, anything that has to do with veterans and helping them out? I'm in, and so he starts kind of describing what we're doing and everything. And then, yeah, so 10 minutes later, I'm just like wait, you, you want me to ride? He's like, yeah, man, I'm like, dude, I've never ridden a horse. He's like, oh, you'll be fine. I was like holy shit, okay. And then I started looking up YouTube and I'm like cutting, cutting horses, horses, cutting. And I'm like holy shit, dude, those things are fast. And I always had like this.
Speaker 2:I always thought horses were like majestic, right Next to elephants. I think they're the most majestic creatures on this planet, but I had this respect for them like you stay over there, you'd be beautiful, and I'll stay over here, we'll just keep our distance, you know, yeah, and then, because they're massive, you know, but a good friend of mine, larry, he has a ranch and he's like man, we need to get you on horse if you're going to be doing this event. So there's a picture and I'm literally on the horse and he's like you got to kick it. I'm like, fuck you, dude, there's no way I'm kicking this thing. So I'm literally just like on the fence and just kind of like just hanging out, like am I doing? All right, you know it's not moving the horse, kind of looking back, kind of like waiting, and I'm just like, no, I'm good, we're good, we're good like this, this is really good. And then until, like, the trainer came up and grabbed the reins and, kind of like, walked me around, like it was like a kiss, but he taught me how to like approach a horse. When you walk around it, you got to keep contact and you know how to put on a saddle and all these small things that I had no clue about.
Speaker 2:And then a week later, I did that cutting event and it was like a competition, but it's like a fundraiser, so it's not like rated or anything, and I ended up getting third. I just absolutely loved it. And there were other veterans special operations veterans that were there too, rangers and sf, and then we had the navy guy as well. And so they do it annually now and it's a military cutting challenge. If anyone interested in that, it's a phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal deal that they have. You know they take care of them, they go and take them to a range to take them coaching and I'm talking like the best in the freaking world.
Speaker 2:You cutting coaches and you get exposed to something entirely new For me. It changed my life so I can't thank these guys enough. So Jay Winborn was the guy that got me involved and then Bruce Maureen was my coach that kept bringing me to the ranch and coached me through that twice but honestly it was life-changing. So I miss that. I honestly miss that, that.
Speaker 2:But it's kind of like a give or take because I'm like and every day I'm experiencing something new, which is kind of crazy because I've been in asia now for almost a year at different places, but everywhere I go experiencing something new. You know, when I was in kuala Lumpur it was entirely new, entirely different, different culture, different religions. Those cultures bring a taste of their world in there. You see that in the architecture, you taste it in the food. In Vietnam it's kind of crazy because it's one of the most friendly, freaking places I've ever been to and it's incredible because you walk down the street and just morning they may not know what you're saying, they just smile and kind of like, okay, whatever, but it's great. Yeah, absolutely love it.
Speaker 1:I absolutely love living there. Yeah, people have a misconception that Vietnam isn't friendly, just obviously because historically the the previous you know the wars that occurred. But it's it's everybody that I know that's traveled there has had nothing but great reviews for it. I enjoyed it immensely.
Speaker 2:I didn't know how it was going to be in a communist country, especially, you know, being a Green Beret.
Speaker 2:There's a different layer of complexity there, don't get me wrong. They still remember, you know, but they know it's kind of like, you know, when I was in Palestine, that they it's not the people they absolutely love me there. So like I got him, like when I was in Palestine, they invited me for coffee. I had to add 20 minutes to my walk everywhere I went because someone would just say, hey, come over here, come, come, come, welcome, come, sit down. I was like, oh, thank you, I don't drink coffee. No, come sit, sit, please, please, sit.
Speaker 2:Okay, it's that strong-ass coffee that's like a shot In, know, and it's that strong as a coffee that's like a shot in vietnam. It's, it's beer, you know. So everywhere I walked around, you know, and, and anytime in, like any afternoon, like late afternoon to evening, they were just like, hey, you know, come, sit, chill. You know, have beer, have beer. I'm like, oh, okay, and uh, yeah, especially the more rare that you are. Like I did a trip up north, about an hour south of the Chinese border, and literally people were getting out of their seats to kind of see me, you know, drive by with my little moped, because I probably looked like a bear on a tricycle, but you know.
Speaker 1:You want a moped?
Speaker 2:yes, I got a Vespa man. I got a little Vespa.
Speaker 1:You got to send me a photo, so I can slap that in here. Just a yoked out hitter.
Speaker 2:The thing is man in Vietnam. There's 11 million residents in Saigon, in Ho Chi Minh City, and there's 9 million registered motorcycles. The motorcycles have the right of way everywhere you go, so it's a lot safer than than people think. But it takes some time to get used to that. You know what I mean. But uh, it's, I love it, I absolutely love it. Like at the stoplights they're kind of like hey, what's going on? You know fist bumping, you know just beautiful. But it's fun, it's, everything's easy. It doesn't matter what you try to get, you can get it delivered. Vietnam is easy, it's awesome. Same thing with Laos. Laos was very close to that and it's very modern, very modern. I literally met Italians that were expats, that opened up Italian restaurants there. So you want Italian food, you can literally have the best Italian food there. There's Argentinian steakhouses. I met a Turkish guy that had a Turkish restaurant there best owner kebab. So I mean, anything you want out there you can get. It's incredible.
Speaker 1:Do you feel like being, now that you're an expat, a global citizen traveling around? Now that you're an expat, a global citizen traveling around, do you feel that getting rid of the American way of life mentality has helped you deal with your own mental health? Like? You feel like less pressure on a daily basis? Man.
Speaker 2:I think I got like 10 years back in my life. It only feels that way. It took me some months to kind of get out of that, because I've always been the the like anyone else, especially in our community, that they always have to have like a goal to achieve, you know, and the purpose like a drive, and you're always moving with a purpose right. You're always got like this is my goal. I got to get there, you know, this is my goal. I got to get there, you know, regardless of what it is, whether your job, whether it doesn't matter what it is and and it took me months, months to get out of that, you know. And now it's just kind of like yeah, I'll go, maybe I won't. Yeah, sure, yeah, no, no, and it's, it doesn't.
Speaker 2:It's one of those things where it's hard to let go because you've been so wired that way. But once you actually undo it, it's very gratifying. It's so relaxing and I literally feel like my sleep. I haven't taken anything to sleep in a year and a half. I sleep so well. I haven't felt that I honestly get like I haven't gotten like seven hours of sleep, sleep. I couldn't remember the last time I had seven hours of sleep and there's sometimes even eight or nine hours, just kind of crazy. But most of the time I just get up when the sun comes up, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's amazing it's just honestly, one of the best things you can do is like finally dial in your sleep like, like it's, and you know it and if you're listening you've served. Definitely understand that we also. We have this moniker of sleep's a crutch and you have to earn it, but it's the one thing you can do consistently to improve your brain health, your mood, your mental stability. Just get real sleep. Constantly being in a sleep deficit is a great recipe for psychotic break, for depression, for anxiety, and you don't have to go on pharmaceuticals. Just start by trying to figure out your sleep, man. You don't have to travel throughout Asia to start doing that. It's true.
Speaker 2:Absolutely true. And again, it's you know, and I live by this too, that the whole nobody cares work harder. You know what I mean? Yeah, and I honestly look at that, and the first thing that comes to mind do you remember the Auschwitz? There's the.
Speaker 1:Yes, work will set you free, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for now, now that I've kind of like switched over or switched off that mentality, I look at it going like to me they're almost identical. You know what I mean. Because if some people just are slave to their job and they will defend it, you know, with every fiber in their being, and they don't realize, like the damage that it does. And you know your family, your friends are much more important. Your mental health is more important. There's so many things that are more important than your fucking job. You know what I mean and don't get me wrong, you need a job to live and I get that. But you know, for me I've definitely become a minimalist and realized, like how little I really need, and I think that's one of the things that I'm so glad I got away from is because we have, you know, this mentality that our social status is determined by what we drive and the house that we have. You know what I mean. But it should be like how happy you are and we just that's just kind of like frowned upon, it's almost looked at as like weakness. You know, yes, absolutely kind of frowned upon, it's almost looked at as weakness. Yes, I don't get that Now, I don't get that Before it was like everything, and so I understand it. And it took me and, just like you said, it doesn't require you to leave the country and everything else. It just took me that it took that for me to leave, to separate myself, in order to realize, like, how much damage I was doing to myself. You know, because if I wasn't working hard, just like you said, yeah, I didn't earn my sleep. You know, if I didn't work out hard enough, I didn't earn my meals. And I eat whenever the fuck I want now and it's, you know, I don't feel bad about it, you know I I actually I eat more and I actually have lost weight being there, not just because of the food, but, you know, the preservatives and it's so much healthier and everything's fresh. That's the crazy part too.
Speaker 2:Fast food restaurants they don't fucking make it like. You don't see McDonald's and Burger King. You might have it like here and there, but you don't see them like that often, because it takes so much less time and it's so much more fresh for them to have fresh baked bread, you know, and they scramble the egg right there. Even at the they have circle Ks that they literally will scramble eggs for you right there and put it in the sandwich and everything else and make you like a breakfast sandwich, and that's the thing is that it's they shut down because it's more expensive, and that's the thing is that they shut down because it's more expensive. It doesn't taste as good but you have that in the States as well just not what you're used to.
Speaker 2:When you get accustomed to certain patterns and when you have your life, you get set in that same mode and it becomes repetitive. But you become accustomed to it and so breaking away from that takes time, you know, but it's so much worth it if you take that time to actually do it. Stretching before I go to bed got into yoga and that literally helped me sleep, you know, but I never would have thought of that like I needed that before. It was just kind of things if I get a chance to, now I absolutely like need to, you know, in order to get like really good sleep, I need to do that and it doesn't become like something I have to do. It's something I get to do because we all we're getting into that point now where, you know, I know that there's going to be a day coming where I can't, can't lift anymore.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. I don't know when it's going to happen and I'm making sure I I can do that as long as I can, but right now I, my mentality, has changed. It's very simple I get to do this, versus before I have to do this. You know what I mean. And that made a monumental change in my life. It truly did just changing that mentality in my head. Going and I have to get to the gym. No, I get to go to the gym, I get to go do this. I get to go on. I get to go swim, I get to go fucking hiking, I get to do all these things. I get to do that. I don't have to do any of it, but I get to and I want to.
Speaker 1:It's fucking wise. That's. That's the reality. If we stop looking at everything in our day-to-day life as a burden, as a task, that's a big shift. A lot of us have that. Many of you are programming time to hold your kids and the alarm goes off and you're fuck, I got to go Life's short. Nothing's guaranteed. You don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. When you get in your car, god forbid you're not met with some catastrophe that takes something away from you that you can't do Like. Walk, focus on the good in your life and understand that it might seem like a pain in the ass, but the real pain in the ass is you sitting there thinking that tomorrow's guaranteed, like that's. That's the ultimate greatest mind. Fuck is if you continue to believe that, because nothing's guaranteed, you gotta be able to look at the blessings you got today. That's why gratitude's so important, man. I'm sure you understand that more than anybody, right?
Speaker 2:now. There was an article I read about a CEO a few years ago, but one of the most things that made an impact on me was and he was a multi-billionaire and he was like the one thing I say there's never been a point in time that I've been ill and he knew he was about to pass. He had a short time left that I thought about I should have had. You know, I wish I would have had more overtime or wish I would have worked more. You know what I mean and just that I was like holy shit, you know, and you know sometimes it could be just that one passage in a paragraph that hits you hard. And, man, one of the things that I learned more than anything is like to my friends and I'll tell them, I love them to make it to the point where it's uncomfortable. I was like I love you, brother. You know what I mean and I got no problem saying that because you know, the last thing I want to do is this will be the last time I talk to them and I never told them and that to me would. I would carry that for the rest of my life. You know what I mean. Rather than I got no problem telling people that you know I care about them. I'll do anything for them, my, my family, my friends.
Speaker 2:That, to me is, is the priority, you know. And in order for me to take care of them the best I can, I have to be, you know, healthy. I have to be, you know, in a strong mental capacity. That needs to be if they need support, you know, and they do the same thing. So those have become my priorities now and again. I don't have the big fancy car. I got a little moped and I love my Vespa. That's really all I need. You know what I mean, because I'm so happy. I literally wake up with a smile on my face and I'm just like I fucking love this, I love this, and so I'm going to keep doing that for as long as I can.
Speaker 1:You know the status symbols don't mean much if you live a life devoid of being of service and helping other people. It's all about going into this next chapter of your life as listening service members anybody out there honestly Make sure your life is built more on the things that you're doing for others, the kindness, the generosity, the great things you're experiencing with your family and friends. Make that the lavish thing in your life. Like, look, I get it. It'd be nice to have that frigging awesome, flashy car, but what good is it if it's by yourself? Focus on the good you can bring for other people. Be a mentor, be of service to others. Be good to people around you. Trust me, that has more impact on the world around you and it will be far more rewarding later on in life than grinding away in work culture trying to get that fancy-ass car.
Speaker 1:It looks cool. I can't tell you that it doesn't look cool, but I will tell you that you will be more happy if you surround yourself with good people. Focus on your family and focus on what you can do for somebody else. Alan, I can't thank you for joining me today, man. It's been awesome diving in your story. What's next for you? What's the next adventure, man?
Speaker 2:actually you got just more countries I haven't been to. So there's a festival in Bhutan I'm going to. There's a like a horse trekking, I'm trying to get someone Mongolian wrestling. And when I go to Mongolia, just I've literally been kind of digging into some of the festivals. There's one in Japan, there's another one in Indonesia. Still got to go to the Philippines and work my way from there. I still haven't been to Africa, anywhere in Africa. So I definitely want to go there.
Speaker 1:I've got a guy I link up with, you can link up with. I can help you, provide you on a proper wildlife safari. Shout out to my boy, kevin Pip, former SF guy doing great things in South Africa. I'll plug him out there. If you're looking for a guided tour of the bush wild works, has got you. I'll get you guys connected. Uh, cause he's fucking awesome. And yeah, I'd like to see two Green Berets link up and down under Africa and do some fun stuff. Yeah, man, you're, you're living testament what we got to be willing to do. Man, break away from the matrix and go explore, maybe not forever, maybe not break completely off. I know I'm proud American, I like living here and I'm grounded here. I have a little one I like to raise here. But if you're adventurous and you're ready to go, do something big, go travel, follow Alan's footprints. Alan, if people want to follow you, where can they go?
Speaker 2:I'm on Instagram, on Facebook, just Alan Shibarro or AlanShibarro. I think Facebook is easier to find too.
Speaker 1:Heck, yeah, go ahead and pause. Go to episode, episode description. Those links will be there. As long as for uh links or how you can support the show, I'll leave us a comment or two. Give us a positive review. I'd really appreciate it. Go to spotify, apple podcast and youtube subscribe. You know the whole spiel. I'm dan caballero. Thank you for tuning in, alan. Thanks again. We'll see y'all next time, appreciate it.
