Chris Ruden: Champion of Quitting Last
“It not about what’s going to make you happier. It’s not about what’s going to feel better. Which would make you more proud? When you look back, which decision is going to make you more proud?”
CHRIS RUDEN
Chris Ruden is an elite Powerlifter, entrepreneur, model, and motivational speaker– despite his congenital birth defect leaving him with only two fingers on his left hand and a shorter left arm. Nineteen years into battling his physical situation, he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. But for Chris, losing is not an option.
Chris uses his struggle to inspire people to overcome any adversity they may face in their lives through molding mindsets into resilient fortresses of self-belief. Through humor, logic, and passion, Chris' comedic relatability, yet hard-hitting message inspires the masses.
His education mirrors his experience, as he has a bachelor's degree in exercise science and health promotion as well as a laundry list of certifications and specializations in fitness, therapy, and life coaching.
Connect with Chris Ruden:
Website: chrisruden.com
Instagram: @chrisruden
Chris Ruden is an elite Powerlifter, entrepreneur, model, and motivational speaker– despite his congenital birth defect leaving him with only two fingers on his left hand and a shorter left arm. Nineteen years into battling his physical situation, he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. But for Chris, losing is not an option.
Chris uses his struggle to inspire people to overcome any adversity they may face in their lives through molding mindsets into resilient fortresses of self-belief. Through humor, logic, and passion, Chris' comedic relatability, yet hard-hitting message inspires the masses.
His education mirrors his experience, as he has a bachelor's degree in exercise science and health promotion as well as a laundry list of certifications and specializations in fitness, therapy, and life coaching.
Connect with Chris Ruden:
Website: chrisruden.com
Instagram: @chrisruden
Show Notes:
[00:04:41] Growing Up Feeling and Looking Different
“Just because of the way I looked, and I didn't grow up in a super nice area or anything. Growing up different, you definitely learn the positives and negatives of being different. And it was a struggle like anyone could imagine at the end of the day, we're all given choices and whether you're aware of them or not, you, you decide or decide not to do certain things based on your circumstances.”
[00:06:19] Chris' Childhood
[00:08:38] Feeling like an Outcast
“I basically lost my identity to my circumstances. And it's not a good feeling to do that. I lived every day. The difference didn't exist. So instead of accepting myself as is, and my disability as part of me, I made my disability myself and didn't accept my overall self, not to mention disabilities is the largest minority in the world, according to the CDC.
So people with disabilities are the largest minority group in the world. So to feel alone among the largest minority group, or to feel alone among type one diabetics who there are 89 million people with diabetes, it's about 10% of that is a type one. But still, you know, not alone in the sense of being alone, we feel alone, but we're not, because a lot of people feel that way, but it ultimately comes down to how you process things that happen to you.”
[00:10:33] When did Chris Start Challenging Assumptions?
[00:13:06] Failing and Failure
“That helped me a lot. Being in the gym and understanding the concept of failure early on or failing. I like to tell people that there's a difference between failing and failure. Everyone fails, but to be a failure. That's a noun. I'm like a person, place, or thing. It's an identity.
Failure is failing constantly and choosing to never get back up and never to keep going. So in the gym, when you fail a set. And you doing bicep curls, but you're doing squats or whatever, or your bicep curling in the squat rack like you shouldn't be. When you're doing these things, and you fail, you don't get upset.
You don't quit. You don't, you know, get into this emotional tirade of like misfortune, and how life sucks, and the universe is against you. You just know so what but outside of the gym. When you fail, you act like the world is over. It's crazy how the same concept of failure gets twisted the second you add emotion to certain things and take emotion out, what you choose to value is what's going to inevitably kill you if you look at it the wrong way.”
[00:16:10] Paying to overcome obstacles
[00:18:25] The stories you tell yourself
“I applaud people like that. I think it's the coolest thing in the world to possess a skill, to create a story from nothing.
My advice is that, like, Hey. I see that you did it this way. Can we try that main character finishing in a different way? You have the skill to tell the story. Can we flip it?
Flip the script literally with the script, because you're the one writing it. Of course, you can. You don't have to contact the producer cause you're the one producing your crappy film.”
[00:19:59] How do you know you can do difficult things?
[00:21:30] Motivation is wrongly placed
“Once you act, you get motivated and then you keep going. So let me explain this for my clients who had a hard time being motivated, how do, how do you stay so motivated? I say, go to the gym today, you're going to do one exercise, you're going to do three reps, and then you're going to go home. That's what I said.
No, this is what you're gonna do. You have a full workout, you have a 30 minute workout, but as soon as you do those three reps, you can go home. How many people do you think went home?
None.”
[00:23:36] Creating Discipline
[00:26:05] Which would make you more proud?
[00:27:11] The journey into powerlifting
[00:29:12] A story that changed his life
“I went there for about 12 days with the Sonia Nabeta Foundation and that I'm not kidding it literally change my life. One out of these 64 kids had a refrigerator. I'm guessing everyone listening has a refrigerator. If you didn't know type one diabetes, you have insulin, and it needs to be refrigerated.
So imagine that type one diabetes means if you don't take insulin, you die. You know, over here, we lived pretty much full lives. Type one diabetes, the average lifespan of a newly diagnosed type one in Africa, is one year. The nurses were stealing their medication and selling it. I ran the sports program, and you know, these kids were already scared of me.
I have a cool prosthetic arm, big muscly guy, you know, and tight tee shirts and white, you know, and they're like, Oh, what is it? What are you?
It took like a day or two to get comfortable with them, but I was fortunate enough to deliver a speech in two different dialects.
And I got to translate the concept of struggle, and we all understood the struggle. After that, We did the sports day, and I was like, I put shoes on, we're going to go play soccer or football, whatever you guys call it. And one of the kids raised his hand, and he said, we don't have shoes. And that killed me, but what killed me more is that they went outside and they played in, their shirts were ripped, and all this stuff and they were so damn happy.
The entire time I was there. There was nothing but gracious and so happy to be with each other and so happy to have me around and just so grateful for what little they have in mind. Came back. I was so angry because I didn't have my newest iPhone. I didn't have the things I wanted. I wasn't good enough.
I created this story about myself, where I never appreciated what I truly had.”
[00:31:21] A new definition of achievement
[00:32:50] Controlled Pessimism
[00:35:20] Stoicism and Controlling the thing you can
[00:39:48] The Power of Authenticity
[00:42:53] Choose where your focus is
[00:46:31] A favorite failure
[00:47:46] Comparing yourself to others
[00:49:27] Where did the idea of all “a work in progress” come from?
[00:51:15] How do you stay present
[00:53:17] Recommended Books
The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday
David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell
The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
[00:55:26] Synthesizing what you read
[00:57:49] How you learn doesn't matter?
[00:59:46] Don't live your life with supposed to
[01:01:35] Fixing Education
[01:03:22] Reflecting and the compound effect
[01:05:23] What are Chris' little things?
[01:07:57] What is authenticity?
“It's your authenticity to me is truly being who you feel you are regardless of the situation.
So how I talk to you is how I talk to CEOs. It's how I talk on stage. If you think that I go on stage and wear a 10 piece buttoned-up suit and look like a monkey and say raw, raw, raw stuff, that is not how this goes. You don't even have to see me imagine how I probably look for me, who I am and the value I give those don't change.
I don't have to change who I am around, so I don't have my professional voice and my situational voice, and I'm always this way.”
