This episode is different from the usual Normal 40 conversations.

This is a confession.

In this episode, Lon pulls back the curtain on a realization that caught him off guard while writing his second book, The Gap. As he mapped the patterns of thousands of conversations with high performers stuck on the backside of their success curve, he discovered something uncomfortable:

The same pattern he was writing about in others… was alive in him.

A quiet form of avoidance.

Not the avoidance of hard things.The avoidance of the easy things that matter most.

The emails you delay.The conversations you postpone.The follow-ups that turn into silence.

And when you avoid them long enough, you hit your ceiling.

This recording comes directly from The Insider, Normal 40’s private community where members wrestle with the work in real time. It’s messy, honest, and unscripted — the kind of conversation most people only have behind closed doors.

Lon shares the pattern he uncovered in himself, the childhood moment that wired it in, and how confronting it forced him to rethink how Normal 40 will grow from here.

It’s not comfortable.

But it might be exactly the conversation you needed to hear.

IN THIS EPISODE

--The difference between courage and honesty

--How superpowers often carry a matching weakness

--Why the work of transformation is deeply personal and often embarrassing

--The dangerous moment when success starts to flatline

--The hidden cost of protecting your image instead of facing the truth

--Why checklists and productivity systems won’t fix the real problem

KEY TAKEAWAYS

→ The things you avoid are rarely the hardest things — they’re the ones that matter most.

→ Your greatest strength often carries the seed of your greatest limitation.

→ Awareness without honesty doesn’t create change.

→ Freedom requires protecting what matters and letting others carry what they do best.

→ If the realization isn’t uncomfortable, you probably haven’t found the real problem yet.

→The hardest work in transformation isn’t external. It’s internal.

WHAT’S NEXT

If this episode resonated with you, it’s not by accident.

The conversations happening inside The Insider are exactly like this — honest, uncomfortable, and focused on moving forward.

It’s not just a community.

It’s a culture.

A place where people show up honestly, challenge one another, do the work, and help one another move toward the next chapter of their lives.

👉 Join The Insider here: https://normal40.circle.so/checkout/join-the-insider

Because the thing you’re avoiding right now?

That’s probably the doorway to what’s next.

Let’s be up to something.

Most of us don’t think about death.

Not really.

We think about promotions.College tuition.Quarterly numbers.The next vacation.The next deal.

But we don’t think about how it ends.

In this episode, Lon sits down with Dr. Josh Russell, an ER physician who moved into palliative care, and the conversation goes exactly where most people avoid going.

Death.

Not in a morbid way.In a clarifying way.

Josh has lived on both sides of medicine.In the ER, he fought to save lives.In palliative care, he helps people finish them.

And somewhere between those two callings, he realized something we all quietly know: If you don’t prepare for how you want to die, the system will decide for you.

This is not a conversation about fear.It’s about agency.

It’s about the difference between being kept alive… and living on purpose.

It’s about what happens when the default setting of medicine collides with the reality that everything that begins ends.

And it’s about why the conversations we avoid — with our spouses, our kids, our doctors — are often the most loving conversations we’ll ever have.

IN THIS EPISODE

->Why the “Denial of Death” is the default human setting

->What actually happens if you do nothing to prepare for the end of your life

->The quiet violence of aggressive medical intervention

->Why palliative care is not about giving up — but about choosing well

->The difference between hope and honesty

->What most families wish they had talked about sooner

->Why stopping “the insanity” can be the most compassionate act of all

THE REAL QUESTION

If something happens tomorrow… Would the people you love know what you want?

Or would they be forced to guess?

And if you’re honest — are you living today in a way that would let you finish well?

Because here’s the uncomfortable truth:

We prepare more carefully for retirement than we do for death. And one of those is guaranteed.

WHAT JOSH MAKES CLEAR

Death is not the enemy.

Avoidance is.

The goal is not to control the ending.The goal is to face it honestly enough that the time before it matters more.

When you stop pretending you’re immortal, something changes.

You start caring less about being right.Less about ego.Less about status.

You start caring more about people.About presence.About unfinished conversations.

About legacy.

WHAT’S NEXT?

You don’t need a terminal diagnosis to start thinking clearly.

Have the conversation. Write the directive. Tell the people you love what matters. And then live like it matters.

If this conversation stirred something in you — good. That’s the point.

You can find Dr. Josh Russell at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-russell-md/ thefocusedexam.com

And if you’re ready to stop drifting and start living intentionally, join us inside the Normal 40 community. You can find everything related to Normal 40 here: https://linktr.ee/lon.stroschein

There are moments that rearrange your priorities without asking permission.

They don’t feel profound when they arrive.

They feel urgent.

Final.

Unavoidable.

For Dave Sanderson, that moment came on January 15, 2009, when the words “Brace for impact” cut through the cabin of US Airways Flight 1549.

What followed was the Miracle on the Hudson. What came after was something far harder to navigate.

In this episode, Lon sits down with Dave for a deep, unhurried conversation that goes far beyond the crash itself. This is not a disaster story. It’s a story about identity, responsibility, regret, and the quiet decisions that shape the rest of your life long after the headlines fade.

Dave takes us back to second grade, to small-town values, to injuries that ended dreams, to mentors who saw something in him before he saw it in himself. He shares how a life built on achievement, travel, and significance slowly pulled him away from what mattered most—and how a single moment forced him to confront the cost of that drift.

The crash didn’t just threaten his life. It stripped away every illusion about what was important.

What followed was a choice:

Would this be something that happened to him…or something he would use for others?

Dave chose service.

And nothing has been the same since.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

-->Every life has a “brace for impact” moment. Most just aren’t as visible.

-->Success can quietly pull you away from the people you’re doing it for.

-->You don’t get to choose what happens to you, but you always choose the response.

-->Your story becomes powerful when you stop protecting it and start sharing it.

-->What you’ve learned isn’t meant to die with you; pass it on.

WHAT’S NEXT

If this episode stayed with you longer than you expected, that’s not an accident.

You may not be in a plane that’s going down—but you might be ignoring the voice in your head that’s been warning you something needs to change.

You don’t have to wait for catastrophe to choose differently.

Learn more about Dave’s work, books, and speaking here: https://davesandersonspeaks.com

And as always, you can find everything related to Normal 40 here: https://linktr.ee/lon.stroschein

Your life doesn’t change all at once.It changes the moment you decide what matters.