26. “How to RISE UP by Serving Others” – with Jeremy Jackson | #quarantineconversations
“There’s no shortage of problems in our world today, but the solutions are very simple and you can hold them all in your hands: Acceptance. Love. Faith. Compassion. Effort. Honesty. If you can’t get honest, you can’t really go anywhere.”
“There’s no shortage of problems in our world today, but the solutions are very simple and you can hold them all in your hands: Acceptance. Love. Faith. Compassion. Effort. Honesty. If you can’t get honest, you can’t really go anywhere.”
Jeremy Jackson
Guest Bio: Jeremy Jackson (@jeremyjacksonfitness/) is an actor, personal trainer, certified drugs & alcohol counselor, and meditation healer, most known for his starring role in the “Baywatch” television series.
About This Episode:
In this episode of “#quarantineconversations” I have a candid conversation with my longtime friend, Jeremy Jackson who played Hobie on the world’s #1 most watched television show, “Baywatch,” and who shared key lessons learned while traversing the peaks and valleys of fame, success, career, addiction, recovery, mental health and helping others.
I’ve known Jeremy Jackson for nearly 15 years and have seen firsthand how he has overcome adversity in all aspects of life, and so I wanted to have an empowering dialogue with him and provide insight into a life a lot of us are curious about.
Jeremy has been at the top of the top in so many ways—from starring as Hobie on “Baywatch” (the #1 most watched TV show in the history of television internationally), to helping launch iconic fashion brands, to becoming an elite athlete and being featured on the covers of top fitness magazines, to now devoting his time to helping others as a certified drug and alcohol counselor, personal trainer, clinical nutritionist, and coach in transformative breathwork. But he has also had to overcome some hard lessons along the way.
Jeremy shared how he came from very humble beginnings with a single mother and how he studied Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley in early childhood as he dreamed of becoming an entertainer. We talked about how he got into acting, landed his role in “Baywatch,” his favorite David Hasselhoff moments, his singing career and some fun behind-the-scenes stories.
I asked him how it felt to get to what most people would see as the pinnacle of success. “I always had a vision for myself and just believed it would happen,” he said. “It’s always about the journey, not the destination. A big lesson I learned, though, was that as a hyper overachiever I was always so focused on the next thing – what I could do better or do bigger – that I didn’t always appreciate or nurture what I already had… Life is not about getting what you want, but about wanting what you have.”
I was curious about his personal philosophy when it came to happiness versus success. “I’ve been beaten to a state of sweet reasonableness,” he said. “Through the highs and lows, successes and failures, I’ve realized that when you blend them all together, life is just a straight line of medium.”
We discussed the times when he slid from a peak into a deep valley and how he climbed his way out, as I believe that the value is not in the peaks but in those valleys. Jeremy was able to eventually rise above it all—and help others do the same.
He said: “I really can’t take any credit for the turnaround—it came from divine intervention. I went from being successful to then getting wrapped up in drugs, losing my money and looking at jail time… But I believe if you dig deep enough, you’ll eventually hit water, and it will come and lift you out. It was an accumulative effort; I did the work with counselors, had a lot of family love and support, faced honest fear… it was the perfect structure to keep me away from myself, take small steps forward and be grateful for it.”
It’s why Jeremy is so passionate about helping people who are in the same place where he was. We talked growth mindset and I asked him to share some of his own beliefs that have helped him:
“There’s no shortage of problems in our world today, but the solutions are very simple and you can hold them all in your hands: Acceptance. Love. Faith. Compassion. Effort. Honesty. If you can’t get honest, you can’t really go anywhere. Rather than treating the symptoms, address the causes and conditions.”
Today, Jeremy helps people through recovery, fitness and nutrition. He is also an Ambassador of the Imperfectly Imperfect campaign. I have invited him to my company events in the past to help attendees benefit from focused breathwork. Check out his virtual course on his own style of meditation called “Transformative Breathwork” at https://youtu.be/k_yR3z7EZK8.
“I’ve had the opportunity to lead some meditations online, which give me purpose,” he said. “I want people to know we are all connected and it’s about breaking the stigma and being open to conversations about mental health. I believe the disease of addiction is a mental health issue; if you don’t uncover it, you’ll never discover it. When you plug into a community of like-minded individuals, it’s empowering, for we’re stronger in numbers.”
What’s one thing of value you got from this episode?
Mentions on the Show:
Full experience of Jeremy’s Transformative Breathwork: https://youtu.be/k_yR3z7EZK8