127: Brigadier General Thomas Solhjem | Hard Learned Secrets of Resilience

The Hard Way w/ Joe De Sena

Spartan Races

Fitness, Alternative Health, Health & Fitness, 792700

4.7 • 870 Ratings

🗓️ 24 January 2017

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Battling addiction late in the Vietnam era, the US Army’s Deputy Chief of Chaplains Brigadier General Thomas Solhjem found redemption through his faith and other’s mentorship. As he realizes now, isolation, though a common strategy, is the worst way to deal with adversity. Reaching out to others and sharing your experiences is an admission of strength. He has spent an extremely long time in the military, forty years with thirty of those as a chaplain, helping others cope with the rigors of battle and drawing strength from trying circumstances. Solhjem sources his vast experiences to tell us how to be better people.

Lessons:
1. The person who overcomes adversity is the person who is able to channel strength from outside theirself. 
2. Post traumatic order is finding a positive context for hardship and becoming stronger as a result. 
3. Resilience is the integration of elements into your life that enable you to be flexible.

CREDITS
Producer – Marion Abrams, Madmotion, llc.
Hosts: Joe De Sena with Johnny Waite, Sefra Alexandra, Col. Tim Nye, Dr. Delle & David Deluca
Synopsis – Matt Baatz
© 2017 Spartan 

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Spartan Up Podcast. Here we are in Brooklyn Bolders. This one is really
0:05.8	fascinating. It wouldn't be if I looked at the list and said these are going to be the
0:09.7	great ones it wouldn't have jumped out at me and it's incredible. This is a guy who
0:13.6	chaplain in the military for how long Tim? A good 35 years or so. Huge career
0:18.3	longer. But the lessons that he imparts and the stories that he tells and the grace with which he does it is really quite something so I'm just going to leave it at that you can go see for yourself.
0:28.0	One quick question, how many guys have lasted in the military that long? Well, don't answer it. Let's learn.
0:32.0	Fantastic. And who you're going to learn
0:33.7	with is retired Colonel nigh Tim nigh
0:37.4	cepra who isn't retired because she I'm not I'm never tired there's no anyway for the sprout there we go all sprouting thing we got a fearless leader Joe I'm Johnny and our fearless director Marian
0:49.4	let's go see Thomas soldier the Thomas Soldram. Welcome Spartans.
0:55.0	I'm here at the Pentagon and today it's really special for me because we're going to
1:00.0	interview a good friend of mine, chaplain,
1:03.4	Tom Solgen, actually Brigadier General Tom Solgen,
1:06.7	Chaplin, who is the deputy chief of chaplains
1:09.5	for the entire United States Army.
1:11.9	When we were together at SoCom, I mean you would get on a plane and go to
1:14.4	Afghanistan or Iraq to check on the troops and say you'd be back in two weeks and it'd be like
1:18.8	six months later you would reappear. That has happened. Yeah that has been no known to happen so you'll you'll just go I mean
1:26.0	when most people outside of people in the army they might not understand you know
1:34.4	they don't understand the one a chaplain maybe is even in the army right and two you're you're sitting there with a
1:37.6	ranger combat patch on you've served in special operations units most of your
1:42.2	career correct I mean yes you know you've in special operations units most of your career, correct?
	...

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