When I started the Heavy Duty Mike podcast in May of 2021, my mission was simple: I wanted to assist those entering the heavy-duty diesel and automotive trades, something I have done for a living for nearly 15 years, and help them find deeper meaning and purpose. more early on in their careers.

Stop waiting until everything is messed up to get with this stuff, right? I mean, people gotta stop being too cool to listen to good wisdom — worse, stop thinking that this way of thought is somehow inferior, or a soul-crushing, less fulfilling means of living — it’s not! In short, I started to talk about my own personal growth journey through these realities. There is nothing wrong with choosing the path of character and virtue above all else, and certainly, nothing messed up about searching for meaning through faith in God and His Way.

So I got after it and as I began to talk, I started realizing that this message isn’t just for dudes in my industry, but, it’s relevant to everyone, regardless of gender, job, trade, or vocation. I frequently found people, not in my target audience, telling me they listen to my podcast because it reminds them of how people used to think about being adults, you know, 30 years ago? I guess I have to agree with that too. I mean it’s totally true too. When I began to think about the implications of that statement, it became clear — so much is missing in our culture related to living a meaningful and purposeful life. 

To put this into perspective; it’s like ignoring the instructions to putting together the 4016 piece Lego Death Star from Star Wars without the 300+ page set of build instructions. I mean, come on, the instructions are the source code for unlocking the joy of playing with the Death Star.

But way too many people never get there. Instead, they get content playing with the pieces. It’s fun for them, easy, and instantly brings satisfaction. Others like me, get busy thinking they know how to put this thing together with their own set of instructions. That was me. Whatever the reason, just having a “good time” using the bricks to make cool things is enough. Here’s the thing though, whatever amount of fun or pleasure playing with grey lego bricks has for us at that moment… it does not compare to the satisfaction of playing with the completed Imperial Death Star. Besides, you paid a ridiculous amount of your hard-earned income for this thing right, why are you going to use it this way… right? No one does this!

Now the real sobering truth about our very day-to-day existence is that we do this all the time with life. Think about it, we rarely slow down enough to actually think about what we are doing. The consequences of our actions don’t really matter to us much either. We are not stupid, and we avoid doing totally dumb stuff, but for the most part, if it’s not hurting anyone, and it’s fun, we will find a way to justify doing it.

We ignore too much of the source code built into the world telling us how we should live. It hides in plain sight, the evidence points to purpose. For whatever reason, we ignore the need to look introspectively into all of these ideas. Instead of learning and investigating the principles of life, faith, and character to avoid some sort of judgment or some bad experience; you need to learn to embrace these things as the secrets treasure to a vastly new experience, one we were meant to know and enjoy. Opportunities that are beyond the horizon of your life, right now, will stay out of reach without this kind of relationship to the truth.

When I look at previous periods and versions of myself, I realize one thing right away, like so many today, I had a terrible grasp on these realities, until it was usually too late; the epicenter, where the truth meets collides with the reality of our day to day life is right where we will be on this podcast. Faith, Family, Relationship, Leadership, Discipline, Confrontation, Depression, Anxiety, Potential, Career Advice, Overcoming Adversity, Virtue, Character and the qualities that make for the best human experience are what we are talking about, just to a broader audience now.