Episode 224

Unleashing the Power Within: David Messano's Journey of Persistence and Resilience

Published on: 17th October, 2023

For some men, the gym becomes the one place where nothing else matters, and that place can keep a life on track. My guest David Messano is one of 18 kids. He grew up in a home torn by conflict over his parents' church. He watched his dad treat his mom with disrespect. Fighting was the daily norm. David picked up those same habits, lost friends, and felt invisible. At 14 he rode his bike to a bridge late one night, ready to end his life. Memories of his brothers and sisters flooded back, and he went home. Then he stopped speaking for three months, remembering his dad's warning that what you say becomes reality. His family was alarmed. David says he spent those months learning to love himself. He came out of the silence with better grades and new friends.

Fitness became David's replacement for the vices he picked up as a teen. At 17 he moved in with his sister in Las Vegas and left drinking and weed behind. An older brother told him a bad habit has to be replaced, so he replaced it with lifting. A talk from World's Strongest Man competitor Nick Best, once a skinny kid himself, lit the fire. David added 25 pounds of muscle by senior year, set a school deadlift record, and made the honor roll. Then the setbacks stacked up. After a stretch of college in Los Angeles, he joined the Marine Corps Reserve for discipline. His path to special forces stalled. On his way out, he spent about a week and a half in a psychiatric unit. His mentor dropped him, he lost his place to live, and his friends disappeared. A car rental business he built later crashed too.

What finally worked was asking for help. After following Wes Watson's videos for a year, David reached out. Watson told him he had too much potential to keep fitness to himself. David joined his mentorship and now coaches clients online in fitness, nutrition, and mindset. He lives by a line from that mentorship. Become the man you want to be inside and out, and give that man to the world. He pictures who he wants to become and acts like that man now. When negative thoughts creep in, he stops, breathes, and comes back to the present. Mike Forrester teaches that a man should quit trying to fix himself by himself. David says no one can make this journey alone. Dads, listen with your kids in mind. The arguing they hear at home shapes who they become, and David shows a kid can still find his way.

What You'll Learn In This Episode:

Recognize how the conflict kids hear at home shapes how they treat others, and what you can model instead.
Replace a bad habit with a healthy one, like training, so the old pattern has nowhere to land.
Learn how to keep going when setbacks stack up, from a lost job to a lost place to live.
See why a mentor who already has what you want can speed up your growth.
Picture the man you want to become and start acting like him today.
Use a pause and a few deep breaths to stop a negative thought before it takes over.

The key moments in this episode are:

00:01:16 - why CrossFit teaches lessons about life's setbacks

00:04:33 - how fitness gave a struggling teen a reason to keep going

00:10:53 - growing up in a home full of conflict

00:18:10 - how three months of silence helped him learn to love himself

00:21:20 - changing your perspective when your environment stays the same

00:22:40 - replacing bad habits with healthy ones

00:29:29 - feeling lost after high school graduation

00:31:17 - joining the Marines to build discipline

00:35:36 - when everything falls apart at once

00:38:49 - finding the right mentor

00:41:12 - the hero's journey and why you can't do it alone