00:00 Tasha: Welcome to Diary of a Dreamer, where resilience unlocks your potential. I’m Tasha Eizinger, and each week I’ll bring you powerful stories and practical insights from my own experiences and inspiring guests. Whether you’re facing challenges or chasing dreams, this podcast is your go-to for motivation, building confidence, and practical tips for transforming obstacles into opportunities. Let’s dive into today’s episode and start turning your dreams into reality.

00:35 Good morning, Ben! How are you? You have been all over the place lately. Can you share what all you’ve been up to?

00:58 Ben: Actually this morning i was just thinking about this um so there’s a there’s a john wooden for anyone that doesn’t know john wooden and familiar with him he was a successful ucla head coach in the 1970s an incredible incredible record holder as a ncaa division one basketball coach in terms of games that he won and championships that he won but then off the court he became more known off the court than on the court has 12 pyramids of success is what he’s known for off the court and businesses um and just people use it uh for part of their you know mission statements and just their their walk and so one of the things he says is be quick don’t hurry and i was just thinking about this today and turn into my devotion when i was reading my devotionals as well today about be quick don’t hurry you know so you want to be busy but there’s a difference between being busy uh and productive right are you busy busy uh are you busy b or are you being productive so yeah i’ve definitely been all over the place doing a lot lately but i’m trying to to focus that on you know intentionality so being busy um yeah i have a book out that came out last year and now i’m getting in stepping into some speaking engagements um also some podcasts as well and then uh marketing so i’m really kind of stepping out of my comfort zone with the things that i want in my life and what i want to do um but it’s it’s sometimes the things that we want right we don’t have it’s still unconventional so i’m in a process now where um for things to be conventional in my life i have to understand the first unconventional and so the part of that is just kind of being busy um but so in that is seeing what being busy is all doing is it all centered around stuff so we have the book um which just came out as an audio book that i narrated it’ll be out this week from the best reading is it’s a book that’s going to be in the book folks are also reading it

03:25 Tasha: Ben, but you really are a rarity. We’re all rare, but your upbringing, your health challenges, that combination is, it’s inspiring because you have such a healthy mindset and you’ve had so many odds against you. So before we get into how you’ve created a healthier mindset and grown through a perspective that can inspire all of us, can you share a little bit about your background with some of your health challenges and how you were raised? 

04:15 Ben: Yeah. So I was diagnosed when I was six weeks old. I was diagnosed with meningitis encephalitis, and this was in 1986. So at that time, meningitis encephalitis, the survival rate was very low. I think it was around 20%. And my mom was a single mom. So when I was growing up, I was pretty early on because I was a single parent, uh, not single parent. My mom was a single parent. I was a single child, uh, no siblings. And so from a very early on my mom unintentionally, but because of our relationship, right. And just being her and I, I always early on had a chip on my shoulder that I felt right. That I needed to not be perfect. Um, but I felt like my purpose was to fulfill her. Right. So in other words, you know, being a good kid, it is, and that became a really, really big theme later on my life actually as well in the book and just in general. Um, so, but bring in the upbringing, uh, like I was a healthy child, but very early on, I knew to her, I was her miracle child. I was a miracle child because I survived. Right. And so I always was thinking I had to please her and it wasn’t on her, you know, it wasn’t her intention. Um, so pretty early on, uh, probably around like six or seven years old.

05:26 Ben: Um, I found the game of basketball. Uh, it was presented to me, a boyfriend that my mom was dating, uh, for a while. He brought, he bought a, like a six foot basketball hoop, who, who then I then on my birthday, put it in the basement and I was hooked. And I spent all my time, uh, playing basketball when I was little. And with that chip in my shoulder and being little, I always had that as a driving force, you know, and that drove me and I was competitive. I mean, being a boy and playing games, all of those things. But I always thought, at the time, that, Hey, I’m going to grow up and I’m going to play in the NBA. Right. Cause I loved the NBA, loved athletes who were idols. So I was like, Oh, this is it. This is my purpose. I’m going to grow up. I’m going to be an NBA athlete. Uh, and in doing so, right, I’m going to provide for my mom, single mom, all of our worries are gonna be taken care of. But what this created was a false narrative, right? Where I was trying to be the blessing instead of being a blessing, uh, early on in my life. 

06:25 Tasha: I hope everybody caught that Ben. You were trying to be the blessing, not a blessing. That is really powerful and a huge mindset shift. Just the difference between that one word. 

06:30 Ben: It is. And I mean, life’s in the details. And one of the things I’ve learned in my life and in my experiences, right. Um, and in a lot of ways, my experiences are my greatest teacher. Um, that’s why we can’t discount our experiences, whether they’re good or bad. Um, you know, whether they’re quote, when they’re losses, and we just were talking about this, but there’s winning, winning and learning. Uh, so when I was, um, like I said, basketball was, I thought basketball was my purpose and I loved the game, but the reason I love the game is I thought it was going to provide for my mom and I, right. And so I was being the blessing, not a blessing. And so when I was about 11 years old in seventh grade, I was poked in the eye by a friend of mine on accident.

07:24 Ben: We were at the gym. Um, and of course it got irritated, right? I mean, it’s not like a tickle or anything like that. Um, so I got poked in the eye and a couple of days later it was irritated. So we got it looked at and I was diagnosed with pink eye, but what we didn’t know is that it wasn’t pink eye. The getting poked in the eye created stress and that stress then actually, basically I had a virus from meningitis that was dormant. And so, um, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, so that stress from being poked in the eye, uh, instead of it being pink, I was actually a virus called retinal necrosis. And so when it was diagnosed as pink eye, there was drops that I was taking for pink eye and with the misdiagnosed pink eye, you need steroidal drops. The virus that I, that was erupted, then use the steroids to its advantage. And so the virus grew rapidly.

08:26 Ben: And I ended up losing sight in my right eye because I was misdiagnosed. And again, I was still in a place where my first reaction when I was diagnosed, my first reaction was, okay, that’s, it’s almost like ammo for me, right? It’s like, oh, this chip in my shoulder, that’s going to make my story even greater. So now, you know, I can only see out of one eye and I was driven and I was younger though. So I didn’t know what I didn’t know. So I just wanted to get right back there on the court. And so I was like, okay, I’m going to take this. I’m going to take right back out there and play. And then looking back in hindsight, that was kind of a distraction, right? Of just not grieving or not understanding or not healing. Right. I went right back into it.

09:10 Tasha: And there’s some goods out of this as well. You’re also trying to have some level of control, right? I can control going back out there, practicing, playing that something I can control in this uncontrollable situation. And I think we all tend to, you know, we all tend to do that, right? Instead of taking that, like you said, that time to grieve and process, take action, keep moving and do what you can. 

9:30 Ben: Yeah. And I also, too, the other thing is, so something I was thinking about today, not to jump back and forth, but today I was thinking about this as well. And having a plan is great, but having an A team is greater, right? So in the process, because my mom was a single mom, she also was an alcoholic.

09:56 Ben: And her alcoholism, the longer that, not the longer, but the older that I got, the more destructive her alcoholism became. And so when I was that time, seventh grade, there was so many times I was taking care of myself. You know, she was providing for me the best that she could, but when the times that she was absent, right, the times that she wasn’t there are the times that I needed it the most with medical appointments or IVs or things that I couldn’t do for myself. So that was part of then, like you said, like I was, the distraction was I was trying to take care of myself. Whereas had I had a support system, maybe I would have healed a little bit better. Maybe I would have, you know, maybe things would have been a little different, but everything does happen for a reason. So then in ninth grade, I was, because I played basketball in seventh and eighth grade, or I tried to play basketball and the team, and I ended up quitting.

10:56 Ben: I ended up quitting because at that age, you know, there’s a lot of bullies. And so I, and I put too much pressure on myself because now knowing that I wanted to play in the NBA, right. Knowing that it was hard to be a professional athlete, I did say to myself, okay, now I got to be perfect, right. I can only see out of one eye. So I got to play perfect out of, you know, practice perfect. And one of the things I really want young athletes to understand is happened to me when I was younger with the game that I love, the game of basketball is the team is not invented for you. You’re invented for the team. So when I was in seventh grade and I was growing up, right, I wanted to get to the NBA. I wanted to get to where I wanted to go.

11:49 Ben: So rather than serving my team, rather than being the greatest teammate I could be first, I thought the team was there for me to, right, grow, for me to then get to the next level. So I was never present. And that’s where a lot of the pressure came from, right? I was never free. I love the game, right? But then it was like, man, why didn’t I score or why didn’t I get minutes or all of these things? And it was because I thought the team was invented for me. I thought the team was there for me so that I could gain from it. And that’s not how it works. So when I… I feel like we’ve all…

12:26 Tasha: We’ve all kind of done something where it’s more ego-driven, right? And part of that’s like the learning and growing of life. So where did you shift from that ego-driven mindset to more being guided by your spirit and really why you’re here? There’s a reason you are here. There’s a reason we’re all here. But when you overcome some of the things that you’ve overcome, I feel like there is that pressure to live a purposeful life, but it was a little bit misguided, right? So where did that shift happen? 

12:50 Ben: Yeah, so the shift happened. I held on to the dream. I ended up… So long story, but I ended up with the same virus when I was in ninth grade. And the virus did not take the vision in my left eye because we knew what the virus was. And we knew how to take care of it. But I ended up walking away from basketball in ninth grade.

13:26 Ben: And when I walked away, then eventually, because I always get to where I’m going by walking away from where I’ve been. So I ended up walking away from playing basketball in high school. Now, I still played basketball and started to enjoy it a little bit more, started to have a little less pressure because I still played wherever I could. And eventually, in college, because of one of my best friends, I actually did walk on and play collegiately on a small Division II school.

13:56 Ben: And in doing so, I tried out for this team. And when I made the team, I thought I had arrived. I said, I thought finally I had arrived. And I remember crying after making the team. But then a couple years later, I still struggled. And when I struggled, then I wasn’t happy because even though I arrived on a collegiate basketball team, I thought that was just a stepping stone to the next part. So I was still having sort of the same issues. So I wasn’t fulfilled, right? My cup wasn’t filled.

14:26 Ben: And then when I was in college, I transferred to Pitt. And after college, eventually, I decided I was going to get into coaching and coach basketball. I was like, I can’t play basketball, right? So if you can’t play, a lot of times with coaches, they say coaches just couldn’t play, right? Or coaches coaches, players play. So I thought that’s my purpose. That’s what I’m meant to do. Take all of these lessons and coach. So I started coaching, but I met my fiance at the time in 2011.

14:56 Ben: Who then became my wife. And so we had this we met in December of 2011. She’s a teacher. And I’m a coach. So we came together for the love of children, right? And what a love of our goals and serving others. Because I loved coaching. I loved what I did. I felt fulfilled. And so then the plan was, hey, I’m going to be a coach, you know, you’re gonna be a teacher, life’s gonna be great. We both have a plan. Let’s go. In 2012, we got engaged.

15:26 Ben: Six months later, in 2013, I sustained a traumatic brain injury. I was home alone, January 9, 2013. And I felt on a flight of stairs. I was home alone for about five hours. And that’s in the journey. My worst day has become my best day. Right. And so that’s what the book Let Faith grow running through adversity. I ended up running a half marathon eight weeks after my brain injury. And what’s amazing about that is, I signed up to run this half marathon in 2012.

16:07 Ben: months before the race. And if I didn’t do that, that’s why it’s important for us to when we have opportunities to sign up when we have opportunities to dive in, right? And we’re scared. Let’s, let’s dive in anyway. Because once I had after my brain injury, the doctors, um, you know, everyone around me said, Look, you can’t run this half marathon. So I wasn’t going to run the half marathon. And I was gonna listen to what they were saying. It made sense. It was logical. So I called the Pittsburgh Marathon Expo. And I said, Hey, I can’t run this race.

16:39 Ben: The doctors told me, you know, I can’t do it. So I’m just letting you guys know, how can I get my money back? So they said, you have two options. You can either transfer your bib, okay, free, just give it to someone, and you will lose out of your money. Or right when you get your bed, then they can pay you for your your race entry. And that was kind of a moment where God that lies in the details and the details and then God, I realized that if I gave up this bid, whether I gave it to free or gave it away for free, or whether I paid someone to take it, someone else is running my race. I realized I can’t, I can’t do that.

17:24 Ben: So and again, everything, everything happens for a reason, right? So all of the hard times, all the lessons I learned later on, which I didn’t learn those lessons then, right? So I’ve learned them now. And I’m thankful for that. But because I’m motivated, because I’m driven, right, because I’ve had chips on my shoulder, then I was able to just, hey, make a decision of I’m going to run this race. And then that was it. Because I did that in the past, right when I had obstacles, because problems really all they are, are opportunities to test their faith.

17:54 Ben: So I ran the marathon, after my brain injury, and I was convinced, right, so convinced that I was convicted. Right? I didn’t matter that I was an at risk to fall. It didn’t matter. I couldn’t see out of my right eye. I couldn’t hear it on my left ear, right? It didn’t matter. All that mattered was finishing that race. Control what I can control. Because I needed to know is, right, what was the extent of this brain injury? Okay, who am I? So I ran the half marathon. And, you know, as my brain injury became stronger, I didn’t know what the next step was going to be.

18:30 Ben: I was trying to take the back off of my body, you know, for once. So after the half marathon was over, that’s where the journey of running was, you know. That’s where eventually over time, I running replaced basketball. But there’s more purpose in running than there ever was in basketball. Because when it came to basketball, before my brain injury, I was trying to take God where I wanted to go.

18:53 Ben: So he humbled me. basketball was taken away from my life, but running became my purpose. Um, but again, if I didn’t sign up for the half marathon in 2012, right, which then it wasn’t on my radar. If I had the brain injury, running wouldn’t have been an option. So it was only an option because I signed up. So sign up when you don’t think you’re ready.

19:19 Ben: Right. I signed up and started getting ready, had a brain injury, but because I had already signed up and made a commitment, I was able to see it through. Right. It’s nothing extraordinary about me. It’s more of like life’s in the details and the details of God. And it’s just the way it works. 

19:30 Tasha: Right. It’s just that simple. It’s just the way it works. Um, you know, I think people listening, they may think they understand what were some of the most challenging things for you. And I know with, my health issues, you know, I went from half marathon and hiking a mountain to a little over a year later on my worst days, I was in a wheelchair. We didn’t know why we didn’t know what was wrong. And people think it was me being in the wheelchair on those worst days that made it so dramatic and awful. It was really me having to shift all of my goals and dreams, scale them down.

20:19 Tasha: Not knowing what my life would look like and really coming to terms with reality. That’s what made it so hard. But I think it’s the visual of the wheelchair. Right. So I think people hearing what you’re sharing, they might have, might have in their head, oh, this would be so hard because of X, Y, Z. Can you share with us from your perspective, what has made all of these challenges so challenging? 

20:49 Ben: So I would say, I mean, the brain injury, it was a challenge. But I don’t, right now, I don’t, I don’t consider it a challenge. And the reason being is this. There are times where I feel like prior to my brain injury was more of a challenge. Because, right, if I was trying to take God where I wanted to go, right, a lot of times, we panic. True.

21:18 Ben: As opposed to, right, and here’s the thing, we panic because what are we doing, right? Again, I lost sight in my right eye. Then I had the, that on my left eye, right? And so things of this world, this world wants us to react. Okay. This world wants us to panic. This world wants us distracted. Okay. Now, the reason the worst day became my best day, and the reason I don’t want to look at it as a challenge, it was an obstacle, right? But it was a blessing. The reason it’s a blessing is the journey taught me how to pivot in the Lord, right? So we need to pivot in person, or sorry, we need to pivot in purpose, not panic. And when we understand, again, be quick, don’t hurry. I started that in the opening a little bit, right? So in my journey, after I was, I had my brain injury, it wasn’t until a year later, I started having brain rehab. And so in brain rehab is when someone, someone, right, told me the extent of my brain injury. Okay. So I was labeled, okay, you have to take some tests and cognitive tests, be able to see where you were, right? I was an adult. As an adult, I had a third grade reading and arithmetic level.

22:47 Ben: That hit me more than when I, again, eight weeks after my half, after brain injury, eight weeks later, ran a half marathon. It was when somebody told me, or when I did something that said, hey, you’re on a, you’re on a third grade reading math and reading level, right? That was the most difficult challenge. Because once I started labeling myself, that’s when it became a challenge. I never labeled myself growing up. I had chips on my shoulder. I had chips on my shoulder, so I wouldn’t go with labels.

23:16 Ben: And I thought that was good, but right. But it’s actually that when I, when I labeled myself, because I was, I was told you have a third grade math and reading level and I’m an adult, right? My wife and I, by the way, had just gotten engaged, right? In 2012, the brain injury was six months later. We were still going through with the wedding.

23:35 Ben: And then that idea of, holy cow, like I, you know, we’re going to be married, right? How am I going to provide for my, for my wife and I, how are we going to have, how are we going to have kids? I, my, one of my biggest fears was if I have a third grade math and reading level, can I even have kids? Can I even be a dad? Right. I’m not going to go to help my kids. I can’t help them with homework, right? I can’t, right? So I thought that was my reality. 

24:05 Tasha: How are you going to even keep a job, right? Like all of the logical stuff I’m sure was weighing on you. I’m actually currently reading a book called Limitless by Jim Quick. I highly recommend it, but it’s a similar story that he had a brain injury and had this limiting belief about where he was and it’s based on science and fact, and that’s important.

24:26 Tasha: There also comes a point where your perspective matters the most, your mindset and how you view your experiences and your bubble, if you will, your world and our world, it matters more than just about anything. And that’s kind of what I, I’m hearing from you is that shift in your perspective of going from, this is what I’m being told, but I’m going to overcome, this is going to become my new reality. And this is how I’m getting there was life-changing. 

25:00 Ben: Right. And so in my book, I talk about this and in one of my philosophies, this change your perception, change your reality. If you don’t like your perception, right. Or I’m sorry, if you don’t like your reality, change your reality. If you don’t like your perception. And here’s, here’s a perfect example to this. So if I was to ask someone, okay, what’s the most feared animal in the water? Okay. They’re going to most likely say shark, right? I would say ocean, not water. Okay. Cause water, you have other things, but let’s say, okay, what’s the most feared animal in the ocean? Okay. Shark. Okay. Great. I agree. And if I’m in the water, I have fear of the shark. Okay. That’s my perception. That’s my reality.

25:44 Ben: So let’s change my perception. What if I take a shark and I put the shark on land? Am I still as afraid of the shark? No. The shark’s the same, right? A shark’s a shark. Why am I, why was I afraid of the shark in the water versus on land? Because my perception changed. Change your perception, change reality. And the reason that’s important is because you can change your perception. We understand that we can control our perception, right? Proverbs 4.23 talks about guard your heart.

26:22 Ben: Here’s what I did a lot, a lot of my life for a long time in my faith, you know, through my faith journey was right. And this kind of, I say it’s funny in a way it’s kind of funny, right? Cause I had a fall. So it was kind of a sick, I guess, maybe sick sense of humor, but. But you know what, when you go through tough things, sometimes you kind of have to have a dark sense of humor because if you can’t laugh, sometimes you’re just stuck with crying. So you may as well laugh sometimes, you know? Yeah. Cause if you don’t have a dark sense of humor, which I had a humor about everything else I had gone through, right? I had a humor about only being able to see out of one eye. I had a humor about other things, right? Because I didn’t take it too seriously. It didn’t control me. But okay. When my brain injury had a hold of me, right? I took it personally. We want to make it personal, not take it personal. Because when we make something personal, we want to make it personal.

27:14 Ben: That means we get to create, right? We have ownership. We have more control, not all control, but self-control. So anyway, so I say this because Proverbs 423 talks about guarding your heart. But what I was doing and what a lot of people do is right. They build up, they build a wall. And here’s what I would say. The higher the wall, fall okay so if we’re building a wall which by the way the world wants us to do right the world wants us to react the water the world wants us to isolate well how do we isolate we put up a border we put up a wall the higher the wall the higher the fall now if we guard our heart right and for for those um you know for for those of faith and in the scriptures ephesians talks about the spirit or i’m sorry the armor of the spirit right the i’m sorry the armor of god right guarding our heart so that was a huge huge huge thing for me because if i was building a wall i wasn’t letting people in if i’m building a wall i wasn’t getting out in other words it was a prison right so that’s why that was a huge turn for me um after my brain injury was understanding so after i was labeled eventually what would happen is i started doing more and more races and as i was doing more and more races right i was realizing oh i can do this oh i can do more because my race times improved right and then it became curiosity so curiosity plus clarity right when we are curious because as humans we’re curious when we have curiosity and we seek clarity right then the journey is power love and self-control when we let chaos trump our curiosity we end up with timothy so that became my mission right through running and eventually through running okay i learned a journey right because in running if you run marathons and stuff and you’re training you learn a lot of lessons right my first my first full marathon i thought i was ready for and there’s a wall mile 20 uh in the marathon and when that wall hit me that gave me some of the best lessons of my life but in doing so those experiences taught me so much more because i was in brain rehab for a year and as you were saying about getting a job and things like that right so as i’m in brain rehab for a year that’s when i found personal development that’s when i found scripture that’s when i found my faith because right jim rohn he talks about work harder on yourself than you do on your job so i was in brain rehab 35 to 40 hours a week and others are telling me that i need to get a part-time job others are telling me that i need a good job and i got very very very frustrated right and one of the reasons i got frustrated is because again your perception is your reality and sometimes we try to force our perception on someone else one also let’s take a moment to realize that that 35 to 40 hours a week of brain rehab also like how much time did it take to recover from that rehab our brain consumes so much energy you had to have been exhausted so it’s not like a typical 35 to 40 hour work week this is like ramping it up right right and now so not only is it ramping it up but what happened was because it was my job right so so many of us who have jobs right when we talk about the rat race right we talk about a job the reason it’s exhausting right is because our cuffs aren’t filled a lot of times because we’re not putting ourselves first, right? We don’t understand priorities. We don’t have alignment. So with my job as brain rehab, treating it like a job, then it was literally the routine of get up, job, come home, get up, job, come home. So finally, when I started to work harder on myself than I do on my job, that’s when I started having the most transformation, right? The transition to the transformation. So I found personal development books, right? I found, okay, my faith when I was reading scriptures, when I was listening to worship music, right? My perception started to change and my philosophy started to change, right? So I went from having a third grade reading level, right? Math and reading level. My wife and I, we’ve been married now over 10 years. We have a nine-year-old and a four-year-old. I am an author and I’m a speaker and I have a teacher. 

32:07 Ben: I have an audio book, right? So because I worked harder on myself than in my job, right? And so I was putting more work on myself outside of brain rehab. I wasn’t just going to brain rehab, doing the work and then coming home, right? I was doing the work outside of the brain rehab and that’s where the growth was. 

32:30 Tasha: This is amazing, Ben, of like you just kind of breezed right past what you’ve been able to do because I know that it’s your life and it’s…It’s something that you live with every day, but that’s truly remarkable that you were able to work through everything that you did through your entire life and look at where you are now. Yeah. And I feel like not that this is just the beginning, but like this is the beginning of the multiplication of your efforts, of your impact, of all the lives that will be touched because you were willing. To work on yourself and grow through all of this. It’s so inspiring.

33:14 Ben: I really appreciate that because one of the things that helped me was growing up, right? Not having my dad around, right? My mom being a single mom, right? I was alone a lot of times, you know? And then when I had a brain injury, I was alone a lot of times. And so it wasn’t until I had the brain injury, I had a lot of time to be able to work on myself and grow through all of this. And so I was able to faith growing up. And now I look back at the past, right? I don’t live in the past. I see my past. I see God. I see Jesus in my past the whole time, right? I see him as, wow, he was with me as a child, right? So he’s now with me as an adult. And because now I know he was with me as a child, I know he’s with me as an adult. It’s completely changed my relationship with myself, right? And so now, so here’s something that’s kind of ironic.

34:07 Speaker: It’s ironic. And again, I want young athletes to understand that the team’s not invented for you. You’re invented for the team, right? And the reason you’re invented for the team is leader of one, leader of many. If I can’t lead one, I can’t lead any, right? So teams need to understand that there are a bunch of leaders that collectively become a team, right? And they’ll have true influence on what their goals and what their impacts are. But I didn’t have that.

34:37 Ben: So I always wanted to be part of a team, right? So the irony in there is that I run alone all the time, right? I run alone all the time. I go to races alone all the time, right? Knowing though that I’m not alone. And so now when I run, right, that’s why running is a purpose. Basketball, right? That was not, I don’t want to say distraction, right? But it’s so amazing.

35:02 Ben: And here’s the thing. You can’t beat a person who chooses to be happy, right? So I’ve chosen, you know, and as an adult, I’ve chosen to be happy, but I’ve looked at the whole picture and I’m blessed because again, I was alone as a child in a lot of ways. And there were times that I felt I was alone a lot in as an adult, but I’ve also realized, and again, on the faith aspect of things, because I share my faith, I want to share faith, not push agendas, right? I want to plant seeds. And so if I’m planting seeds, what it all comes down to is this, right? Matthew chapter four says, Jesus was led, he was spirit led into the wilderness. So in our lives, we have to recognize, we have to understand that there are going to be seasons that we’re going to be in the wilderness, but we’re not alone. The wilderness is actually preparing us. And that’s what my whole story’s done. It is a lot and I live it every day, but I’m thankful for it. And because, and I tell people this, your, your, your leadership, your leadership is born in your trenches. Your trials blaze trails for others, right? Your mess is a message. So my childhood was messy, right? But if I didn’t have my childhood, I wouldn’t have gone, gotten through a brain injury, right? And I’ve been able to put it all together, connect the dots. And a lot of this is so ironic because of what I’ve been able to do. Number one’s not me, but it is ironic that I’ve been able to do this after a brain injury. To me, I think that’s awesome.

36:37 Ben: And I, and I, I get excited about these kinds of things and it’s encouraging to me because in a lot of ways, it’s just like the irony of it is kind of funny. Um, but I want it to be impactful, right? And I, I don’t know if you’ve heard this before or not. Cause so, um, Josh Palmer, uh, if you’re familiar with the name, Joshua Palmer, he said something years ago, it stood out to me. He said, the goal isn’t to live forever. The goal is to create something that will.

37:06 Ben: So for me, right. So that’s what this kind of all is about, you know, and I’ve been so blessed that like, so there was a study done by Harvard that says we have 600,000 or no 60,000 thoughts a day. And about, I think it’s 80% of the thoughts are repetitive and 90% are negative. And so looking back at my life, right. I’ve seen all of that, right. I’ve seen what’s been repetitive. I’ve seen what’s been negative. And then I see where I’m at.

37:37 Ben: I mean, I’m not on a third grade math and reading level. I’m healthier now than I ever was. And the only reason my kids know about my brain injury or certain things, cause I told them, it’s not like they see it. It was actually just the other day, my four year old was looking at me and she looked at me and at four years old, she looks at me and then notices that my eyes are two different colors. And when she’s four years old. And what’s amazing about that is it made me realize, right.

38:06 Ben: That who you are is greater than what you see. She didn’t notice that until she was four years old and she’s seen me since she was a baby. Right. She’s seen me all of the time, but she’s seen me differently. Right. Then just the physical features. And so to me that even that was a blessing of like, yes, I have two different colored eyes. Yes. They, one does this, one does that. It’s like, where have you been for four years? But I just want people to understand. Having fun with their day. Yeah. That’s what she’s been doing.

38:37 Ben: Right. Exactly. I mean, so I just want people to be encouraged and I really want people to understand that we all have John Maxwell, right. His definition of leadership is influence. Yeah. We all have influence. Therefore we all have leadership in us. Yeah. Right. We just have to unlock that power. And that’s what my goal is. Yes. When I hope Ben that people get your book, let faith grow, where are they able to get your book? How can people get in contact with you? So I got the board for you. Come on, get it. Yeah. So I am on Instagram and that’s where I am a lot on social media. I’m on LinkedIn as well. Is my just first and last name, Ben Hinton. And also I am on a website. I have a website coming out. Sorry. I have a website coming out and, but let faith grow is my handle. Let faith grow. It’s my handle.

39:34 Tasha: I’ll make sure that I include those links so people can get in touch with you. I know I feel incredibly inspired by your story and everything that you have worked through and your faith and keep running my friends. I can’t wait to see all the lives that you impact as you keep growing and serving other people. Okay. Thank you for your time today, Ben. I really appreciate it.

40:08 Ben: Yeah, just as long as we focus on the effort and let’s just put our effort before the results and our effort will become our character and we can carry that on our back and God will do the rest. 

40:20 Tasha Love it. Thank you, Ben. Thank you for tuning into this episode of Diary of a Dreamer. I hope you found the stories and tips shared today to be a source of motivation and strength. Remember, every challenge you face is a chance to grow and move closer to your dreams. Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review and share this podcast with anyone who could use a boost of encouragement.