Build an Indestructible Mindset With This Green Beret's Journey

The Hard Way With Joe De Sena

Spartan Races

Fitness, Education, Self-improvement, Alternative Health, Health & Fitness, 792700

4.7 • 870 Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2025

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

He served multiple deployments, faced injury, and returned to duty with discipline and focus. Pain is the best teacher, and failure is where real growth begins. Joe De Sena talks with Ryan Hendrickson, retired Green Beret and landmine removal advocate, on mental toughness, navigating hardship, and rebuilding life through ownership and daily discipline.

What You Will Learn:

How failure and pain accelerate real growth.
Why ownership and discipline matter more than medals.
Daily routines and habits that reinforce resilience.

Episode Highlights:

[01:43] Ryan's military background and joining the Green Berets.
[02:50] Surviving a landmine and continuing multiple deployments.
[04:28] Mental health struggles and strategies for recovery.
[08:11] Three lessons for overcoming hardship.
[12:45] Using failure as a tool for growth and learning.

Tools, Frameworks, or Strategies Learned:

Pain as Teacher: Using difficult experiences to build toughness.
Failure Utilization: Reframing setbacks as learning opportunities.
Daily Discipline: Habits that reinforce resilience and mental clarity.

Closing Insight or Key Takeaway:
Real toughness isn't about muscles or medals. It's about getting up when life keeps trying to bury you.

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:26 Meet Ryan Hendrickson, retired Green Beret
01:43 Ryan's background & joining the military
02:50 A 22-year military career & stepping on IED
04:28 Mental health struggles & rebuilding life
08:11 Three lessons for overcoming hardship
12:45 Failure as a tool for growth and learning
15:13 Ryan's daily routine
16:24 How to support Ryan's organization
16:59 The most heavily mined country in the world
18:20 The dangers of untracked minefields

Connect to Ryan:
🌐 Website: ryanmhendrickson.com
📸 Instagram: @ryanmhendrickson.tipofthespear
📘 Facebook: Tip of the Spear Landmine Removal
💼 LinkedIn: Ryan Hendrickson
▶️ YouTube: Ryan Hendrickson – Tip of the Spear Landmine Removal
✖️ Twitter/X: @tipofthespear42

🎧 Listen & Subscribe:
👉 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-hard-way-with-joe-de-sena/id952870930
👉 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1pYBkk1T684YQg7CmoaAZt

📲 Short, Impactful Content:
👉 Instagram: @spartanuppodcast
👉 From host directly: @realjoedesena

💥 Join the Spartan Community:
👉 Find Your Next Spartan Race: https://www.spartan.com/en/race/find-race
👉 For everything Spartan: https://www.spartan.com/

About The Hard Way Podcast:
Hosted by Joe De Sena, founder and CEO of Spartan, this podcast explores resilience, discipline, and the Spartan mindset. De Sena's journey from building a multimillion-dollar pool cleaning business in his teens to Wall Street success, then running an organic farm and creating Spartan, showcases how embracing challenges and endurance can transform life.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Pain is the greatest teacher in the entire world. It really is. And you can use this pain.
0:05.7	If you use it properly, you could build yourself up and you'll be a better man in the end.
0:11.8	And you can make yourself stronger. But don't do it for you. Do it to help other people.
0:17.2	Build yourself up. Make yourself stronger so you can build other people up.
0:21.5	Spartans, listen up.
0:23.2	We need to sleep better.
0:24.4	How do you sleep better?
0:25.6	Never thought about it before.
0:26.9	And so I met Jack.
0:28.2	I met Ascentia.
0:29.4	I had attention to the mattress to sleep on because it's loaded with chemicals.
0:33.3	Recovery, cooling, and pressure relief.
0:36.0	All in one mattress. Up to 60% more deep and REM sleep.
0:40.3	Less inflammation, faster bounce back.
0:43.3	No toxins.
0:44.3	No EMFs.
0:45.3	No BS.
0:46.3	My buddy Jack, over at Ascentia, he's kind enough to give us a code for the Spartan community.
0:51.3	That's Deca, that's tough mother of all of us.
0:53.3	Use Spartan 25, get a discount that's tough mother of all of us use Spartan 25
0:54.9	get a discount prioritize your sleep so you can sleep faster you can do more burpees you can train
1:00.9	more you can get healthier when you sleep well you live well welcome to the hard way podcast with
	...

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