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.

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