Episode 107: Live Authentically is here with David Richman, a former overweight smoker who turned his life around to become a charitable endurance athlete. An author of two books, “Winning in the Middle of the Pack” and “Cycle of Lives,” he uses this newfound athleticism as a means to connect people on a similarly challenging path.
The episode begins with the quintessential question, what does it mean to live authentically? To which Richman swiftly replies, “living authentically is really understanding who you are and being at peace with that so you can connect with […] your place in the greater scheme of things.”
Richman goes on to explain how he found his place, and it started off dark. There he was, in his late thirties and trapped in a violent marriage, desperate to get his twin children out for their own safety and sake. Leading a sedentary lifestyle and a constant smoker, Richman was on his way to an “aha” moment after a prolonged glance in the mirror.
Who was he, really?
The alarm bells sounded in a short amount of time for Richman. After escaping a toxic relationship, he was able to embrace self-awareness for the first time in many years and didn’t like what he saw: a man looking to fix everything but himself. Then everything changed following a call from his sister; she had terminal brain cancer, and as Richman was starting a journey to finding himself, his loved one was on a journey to the other side.
For him, that was motivation enough to change for the better. “You gotta do this,” he says. “You gotta try to live a good life because maybe everybody doesn’t get a chance to.”
Throughout the episode, he emphasizes the process of living authentically as a journey. It’s about finding your purpose and accepting it tenfold, staying true to yourself once you learn who you are. As someone who used to constantly look to others for validation, Richman found breaking such patterns to be quite the challenge—but a welcomed one at that.
Ultimately, the news about his sister and the changes Richman was making in his lifestyle and mindset led him on another journey, culminating in “Cycle of Lives,” which recently debuted on Audible. Over the course of two years, he biked across the country and met with fifteen strangers, each of whom shared how working through their traumas has led to living an authentic life. The end result is always a higher vibration, compassion, and empathy.
For more on Richman’s events and books, visit his website here.