A man who doubts every decision he makes, wondering over and over whether it's the right one, usually learned as a boy that being himself wasn't safe. He starts trusting his gut again by getting clear on what he values. Michael Unbroken learned that growing up in Indianapolis. He was raised by a mother fighting addiction and an abusive stepfather, and he never met his father. His family was so poor the water company shut off their water. By fifteen he'd been expelled from school. He was selling drugs, breaking into houses, and stealing cars. He decided money was the way out and promised himself $100,000 a year by twenty-one, legally. He made it with a Fortune 10 company. The money brought an $80,000 car and a condo, but he still lived paycheck to paycheck. He weighed 350 pounds, smoked two packs a day, and drank himself to sleep. One day he looked in the bathroom mirror and didn't recognize the face. He remembered being eight, carrying a little blue bucket across the street to fill at a neighbor's spigot. That day he'd promised himself this would never be his life. On paper, it wasn't. So he asked himself, "Michael, what are you willing to do to have the life that you wanna have?"

In this conversation, Michael and Mike Forrester dig into what he built from that question. Michael runs every decision through four values: honesty, kindness, self-actualization, and leadership. He found them by typing words into a dictionary website and writing down what each one meant to him. That filter guides the hard calls, from letting a team member go to leaving a relationship. He explains why a boy punished for being himself grows into a man who argues with his own gut. For his health, those values show up in daily choices. He gets up early to work out, journals, drinks his water, and doesn't get drunk every night. He grew up terrified of money and blew nearly a million dollars. Now he invests in himself in proportion to what he earns and stays out of bad debt. Mike admits he's always been his own hardest critic. Michael's answer is to give yourself grace first so it can spill over to everyone else.

The turn comes with the friends who didn't come along. Michael invited people from home to come see the life he'd built. He couldn't pay most of them to get on the plane. He chose not to stay bitter. He let those friendships be what they were for as long as they lasted. He meets people halfway instead of holding them to his values. It's the same line Mike lives and teaches. What happened to you as a boy wasn't your fault, and what you do with it now is your responsibility. This one is for the man with the job and the paycheck who still doubts every call he makes. It's especially for the dad with kids at home who wants them to grow up trusting their own.

What You'll Learn In This Episode:

• Use a short list of values you've defined for yourself to make decisions at work and at home without doubting every call.
• Recognize why a man raised in a hard home learns to talk himself out of his gut, and how to start listening to it again.
• See how a successful career can sit on top of a man who's drinking himself to sleep, and why the paycheck never fixes that.
• Spot the fear of money that growing up poor leaves behind, and invest in yourself in proportion to what you earn without going into debt.
• Learn to give yourself grace first when you're your own hardest critic, so your wife and kids get the patience you've been withholding from yourself.
• Walk through what to do when old friends stop supporting the man you're becoming.

The key moments in this episode are:

00:02:12 - How to use your core values to make better decisions

00:04:44 - How to trust your gut instead of doubting every decision

00:07:12 - Why a man raised in a hard home feels like he doesn't know how to be himself

00:09:47 - How to find and define your own personal values

00:12:43 - How to stop being your own hardest critic

00:13:35 - Growing up with abuse, poverty, and a father he never met

00:15:14 - Why a six-figure income didn't fix his health or his self-worth

00:18:27 - Why he spent years telling therapists what they wanted to hear

00:31:23 - How growing up poor turns into a fear of money

00:34:46 - How to invest in yourself without going into debt

00:36:52 - What real change costs in time, effort, energy, and money

00:39:58 - What to do when old friends stop supporting the man you're becoming

Connect with Michael Unbroken

Website:

https://www.thinkunbroken.com/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/MichaelUnbroken/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/michaelunbroken/

Connect with Mike Forrester

https://hicoachmike.com/