Michael O’Neal is a speaker, content creator, athlete, coach and on-line entrepreneur. He’s well known for his popular podcast, The Solopreneur Hour where he interviews interesting people who, as he puts it, Zagged, when everyone else Zigged. Although he appears to be fast-paced with many balls in the air at any one time, I see him as a guy who’s centered and grounded, mindfully working towards his desired outcomes. You are going to love learning more about Michael O’Neal and how he seems to keep on nailing life.
Contact Info
- Website: www.SoloHour.com (www.SolopreneurHour.com)
- Coaching Group: IWantASoloLab.com
- Podcast: The Solopreneur Hour
- All Social Media: @SoloHour
Most Influential Person
- David Wood (Host of The Kick-Ass Life Podcast)
Effect on Emotions
- It allows me to not stress out over things I had no control over to begin with. It’s like The Four Agreements [by Don Miguel Luiz]. I don’t stress out about things I have no control over.
Thoughts On Breathing
- No suggestions on breathing
Suggested Resources
- Book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
- App: Evernote
Bullying Story
If I could time travel I think I would go back and stand up for myself, so I probably wouldn’t be mindful. There were 3 or 4 incidents in my life where I was a bit bullied. I’d be the opposite of mindful. I think mindfulness can be considered a very mature concept and even a lot of adults don’t understand it and they can’t mentally get to where they need to get so they can remove themselves from the equation.
Sometimes there’s not enough self-awareness for people to be mindful and so I think that’s a bit of a rich concept for a kid whose being bullied. That’s not to say that it’s impossible.
I’m thinking about this one incident. He was probably one of the bullies of the school and he would do that move where he would hit shoulders in the hallway and he would nail me like a hockey cross check. He would check me as we were walking down the hallway.
He was the kid who could do thirty pull-ups. He was really ripped and super strong. I don’t know if he did anything other than have great genetics. He was just a jerk, a jerky kid.
As I’m thinking now, I would probably go to the principal’s office and say, look, this is happening and I’m not going to tell you who it is, but don’t surprised if I end up in this office. I never did that. I was always scared of the kid.
Knowing what I know now about every one of the incidents; it probably only happened 3 or 4 times when somebody was a jerk to me repeatedly. It’s just standing up for yourself a little bit that makes them go to somebody else. I wouldn’t have had the capacity (that I have now), to say, I know you’re in a lot of pain and I can tell that you probably don’t have a very good home life and you’re looking at me and you’re feeling like you can take advantage of me. Ok, but I bet we’ve got some stuff in common.
That’s where I would go now with it. But that’s about sixty percent of what I would do now. The other forty percent’s still in Philly and I would fight back now. I’d say, we can talk about it or I can whack you over the head or something.
