It's Not Your Time: David Chametzky's Journey From Suicide Attempt to TEDx Stage

Six years ago, David Chametzky was 36 hours into a suicide attempt when he heard a voice tell him, "It's not your time. Go back and tell your story." That moment turned into a TEDx talk, several Amazon bestselling books, and a philosophy he calls "peace, love, and bring a bat," a New York-born, baseball-rooted approach to authenticity, boundaries, and hitting your own sweet spot even when life throws curveballs.

David opens up about the cruelty he faced right after his attempt, the hard lesson that "knowing the resources" isn't the same as using them, and a heart scare two months ago that echoed the same "it's not your time" feeling (98% blocked widow maker artery, caught just in time). He shares why he believes 89% of suicide attempts don't end in death, and how the right resources and outside perspective can raise that number even higher. Maria shares her own experience navigating her daughter's bipolar diagnosis as a single mom, and together they dig into why telling your story, even the messy, unfinished parts, is how healing actually happens.

You'll leave with grounded takeaways on self-love, daily routines like meditation and goal-setting, and the permission to give yourself grace while you keep moving forward. If you or someone you love is carrying a story they're afraid to tell, this conversation is your permission slip.

Hit play, then subscribe, share it with someone who needs a lighthouse right now, and leave a review so more listeners can find hope and real tools.

Connect with David: 

Website: davidchametzky.com 

Instagram: @davidchametzky 

Facebook: David Chametzky 

LinkedIn: David Chametzky 

Podcast: Peace Love and Bring a Bat

📖 NEW BOOK: Against All Odds: The Less Than 1% Chance
I wasn't supposed to survive. As the surviving twin with less than a 1% chance at life, I've spent my whole existence beating odds nobody expected me to beat. In this memoir and anthology, I share my story alongside eight other unbelievable accounts of people who refused to let impossible circumstances write their ending, from cancer and addiction to childhood trauma and grief. Eleven stories. One roadmap for anyone who's ever been told "you can't."
Get your copy here: https://books.by/love-your-life

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome back to the Against All Odds, the Less than 1% Chance podcast with your host, Marina Aponte, where we will hear stories of incredible people surviving against them odds. And my hope is that we can most see how life is only happening for us, even when we are the less than 1% chance.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

Hey, hey, welcome back to Against All Odds, the Less than 1% Chance podcast with your host, Marina Aponte. I'm so excited for this next episode that you guys are gonna be. I know that it's gonna be a huge treat because I'm really excited to talk to him. So I'm just gonna quickly introduce you to David Shemetzky. I think I said that right and I'm excited. He is a deep message expert, speaker, author, podcast host, and producer, a TEDx speaker, executive coach, media host, growth coach, mentor, and philanthropist, a true pathfinder with a mission to uplift lives. He empowers individuals and groups day by day to discover resources for personal growth and embrace resilience. He brings a unique insight through his content and teachings so that you can, so others can grow and overcome obstacles. David, welcome to Against All Odds. I'm so excited to have you today.

SPEAKER_00 1:20

Hey, can I meet that guy that you just mentioned, man? But thank you so much for the opportunity, really. I'm looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Yeah, definitely.

The Turning Point After Suicide

SPEAKER_02 1:27

So I always like to start off with what is your Against All Odds story? What brings you to where you are today?

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Man, it's a wild ride. It held on tight, but started out real great, man. I was the lead swimmer and I won, right? So I we got born. And from there, it didn't always go as straight as I would have liked, but uh, there's a lot of stories. And the story that I talked about six years ago, I attempted suicide. And since that moment, TEDx speaker, a lot of those things that you just listed were things that I did. So it was one of those powerful parts that we always just have to figure out what we're going through and how to get through it. I know even at that time, I knew the resources. I was helping people get through their own pro chal challenges. I just wasn't using the resources for myself, and that's why I'm here today to make sure people understand it's not just one resource. There's so many different flavors in the ice cream, right? Basket Robbins has 31 flavors, and life has so many more than 31. And how do you get to taste some of those and make sure that you get through it by finding the right people circulating in the right communities?

SPEAKER_02 2:41

Yeah, I always say, Oh, this is a new tool in my toolbox, right? Because I think that we're in that growth mindset of I'm here to learn and I'll give you all of this information and if I can still learn more, that's awesome. We're continuing to grow. That means that we're living, you know, and we're here to continue to put tools in our toolbox. And I love that. I love that you were number one able to navigate through that. So, what how did you overcome the suicidal ideations and so forth?

SPEAKER_00 3:13

One of them is right after my attempt, I was confronted by somebody and they started calling me names. They put labels on me, and I was like, hell no. I don't know, it was just a decision. The labels didn't feel good, they didn't feel accurate. But that's easy, right? I've gotten labels my whole life. And what do we do with this? So there's a lot of things that I did is I was like, hell no, and how am I gonna build myself up? I don't know. I was broken in almost every way. So I needed to identify what worked for me, what didn't work for me, and how I can move through those things. Yeah, the ideations. Uh once you think about it, and I was in the act, I just wasn't successful. It wasn't like I was just thinking about it and I got distracted. I was in it while I was in it, actually. I heard a voice that said, It's not your time, and go back and tell your story, you know, cut and dry. And I'm like, all right, that's what I'm doing. It the ironic part is I thought it was just a story about the suicide, but then since then I've been an author, I've been a several-time author, uh Amazon, whatever that means, number one bestseller. So I've been in some situations, and because I'm an author and I tell stories and I got to speak to people about it, I see the power.

Why Your Story Matters

SPEAKER_00 4:33

The power in telling your stories. And that's why I help people. It's so important to me to help people tell their stories. And so many people sit around and go, I don't know what my story is. Okay, so talk to me. Or they don't even realize. I'll share. I also do ghostwriting.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

Okay, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

And I was just sitting with a client the other day, and she's telling me a story. She goes, I want to get my biography out there. Okay, great, no problem. Whatever you want, it's your story, right? I'm not who who am I to judge? She starts telling me this story, weaving this and that. Oh, this just happened. I don't really know if this happened, but I think it happened, and pop up. And I go, You're a healer. You have you're a generational healer. And she goes, Yeah, I am. She I'm a medium and intuitive reader, is what she calls it. And I go, Okay, great. I go, but no, no, you don't understand what I'm just saying to you. I go, Do you see this story from your great-great-grandmother and your great-great-great-grandfather? How it happened, how you then weave through your life going through your own issues and having experiences, but now you're at the point where you're returning back to Greece to then celebrate where your dad helped rescue Greece. He was a World War II paratrooper. I go, and you're going with your grandchildren. Where's the healing story there? She goes, Oh my god. That's where sometimes we need we get so tied up in our story again with another client. I'm talking the story. I go, You live through this. She's talking about she's also an older woman, and she's like, Yeah, when I was in college and I went to in Maslow, and I'm like, Maslow, man, I've heard of Abraham Maslow, the hierarchy of needs. She goes, Yeah, that guy. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Like, and to her, it right, to her, it means so little because it happened in her life. We don't recognize the parts of our lives that are great. She was that right, she was at one of the top people that people talk about science is based off of. And she's just, oh yeah, by the way, oh, and by the way, I was with this one, I was with that one. I was like, oh wow. And she's just as cute. I love my friend Carol. And she's just like, Yeah, that's what I do. I'm like, what you do.

SPEAKER_02 6:49

That's amazing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:51

Like, are you kidding me?

SPEAKER_02 6:52

It's so crazy. Sometimes we need to get that outside perspective to be able to see. I've been under so many different coaches in my life, right? And sometimes you just I was always that that that coaching client that I was like, yeah, I'll tell them, I'll share my story. I maybe it's just the outside perspective that I need because in the moment we're like, we're just doing life and we don't see from a 30,000-foot view of what exactly we've been able to accomplish. The whole against all odds came from even that 100%. How did how I that's not something that I'm like, oh yeah, I'm 16 years old and I know that I'm against all odds. No, it was over and over again. Me speaking to different coaches, and everyone's like, wow, that's that's not a normal thing to go through, or what are the chances? And so I kept like going back and I'm like, okay, yeah, I'm a surviving twin. My mom had a miscarriage, and they gave her 1% chance of me surviving. And I survived. So I'm that less than 1% chance. Okay, great. And so I'm four-time cancer survivor, like all the things, right? That sometimes you're like, I know that I've gone through these things.

SPEAKER_00 8:15

Me too. That's why when you're like, What's your one thing? I have a million stories I didn't know. And even recently, even my corporate career, I'm like, Well, yeah, I worked for these companies, yeah. And then somebody started asking me. I was on a podcast and I was like, Oh, yeah, I did this. Uh, this is what I did. You know, I work for billion-dollar products. I know the inventors of some of the world's top drugs. I'm like, Oh, that's that's that's that's actually a pretty cool thing. Yeah, you know, I run budgets of a hundred million dollars. Oh, oh, what do you mean? I was like, oh yeah. And then all the stories that come into us. That's why I love telling stories. There are so many stories that either you think about that you're like never happened to you, and you're just like, okay, this is a nice story, it makes me feel well, or you can heal through some of your stories. But then there's also those stories that you lived. Like, yeah, here you go, man. I you heard you're you're a surviving twin. You're like, oh my god, like I'd love to hear those stories because it's how we learned how to be in resilience, really do that because we all that's the biggest lesson that we all have to learn.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

Yeah, I think it's the epitome of I think that through stories you hear the epitome of human resilience, yeah, overall. And yes, some people when they ask me what is your podcast about, and I explain it to them. Oh, I've never been through anything like that. Honestly, we all have our against all odds story. And I told you that from the beginning when you jumped on. We all have our against all odds story. It's just because it's all shared emotion. The emotions that I felt every time I got a cancer diagnosis was probably the same kind of emotions when you felt you went through something completely different. And that's where we connect as human beings. And I think that's what I love so much about these conversations is that through stories, we can connect with others and feel part of a community and understand that damn, if they if he's gotten through this, if she's gotten through this, then maybe I can get through whatever darkness I'm going through right now.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

100%.

A Heart Scare And A Wake Up

SPEAKER_00 10:32

And you know that there's resources and things like that because I've never gone through cancer. But recently, two months ago, I had a heart situation. Yeah, I had to put a stent in.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

And I'm like, And it's scary.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

Yeah, it's a level. And I talk about it because one, I want everybody to get themselves checked, right? I I heard it because Sam Champion on Good Morning America really, that's what happened. He was like, he was very serious. He's usually that jovial guy, and he was like, No, this I want you to focus on. And I was like, All right, I'm laying in bed. I'm like, I Googled cardiologist, and the guy had an appointment three o'clock that afternoon.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

That's crazy because those are appointments that are like.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

Yeah, I was like, all right, I'll get one like in a week, maybe. Three o'clock, I was like, done. That got God was looking out for me, and I do believe I have a faith, strong faith. Two days later, I was I was back at the doctor's checking for the uh stress test. I failed the stress test, and I was like, man, all right, I'm fat. It's okay. Like, I that's why I wanted to go to the cardiologist, to be honest, to reduce weight. And two weeks after that, I'm under the gun, and you know I'm in the cath lab getting a stent put in, which did not feel so good. It doesn't sound as much fun as they make it sound.

SPEAKER_02 11:43

Yeah, yeah, it's crazy. It's it is it I think that it's those moments that could be the smallest thing someone could say the smallest suggestion, and you're like, okay, that's and I think that normally, okay, so I have a very strong faith in my connection with God, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:03

With my higher universe, whatever yourself, whatever you call it, whatever anybody wants to call it, right?

SPEAKER_02 12:08

I have a very strong relationship. I truly that's where my my my my fortitude uh comes from is that relationship that I know that I have. And I truly think that when we pray, when we meditate, when whatever we are praying up to God or the universe or whatever you believe in. And when we listen to our intuition, that gut instinct, it's hearing his words come back, right? It's the is their their answer, right? And so that those are those moments of because you could have heard that any other day and not have said, Oh, I should probably go do that.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Yeah, I knew I had to reduce weight. I was like, all right, I'll work it out. And I I'm lucky enough. I usually reduce weight really quickly because I I walk, uh but I went to the doctor and and you want to know if not, I would have done my walk the way that I would have done it, and it might have had different results. That's when I look at that situation, so many things aligned well for me. I am blessed again, 98% blocked of your widowmaker. Oh my gosh. I didn't know about it. I was like, all right, sometimes you get winded, but I knew I I hadn't exercised in years, yeah, and I gained weight and I was eating poorly, so none of that was stuff that I oh I didn't know. Yeah, but seeing that became something completely different, and that's where it goes back to storytelling. The things we don't know, we don't know, we don't recognize because we're too far from the trees, right? I'm in the middle of trees, and when we take that step back, people could see those things, or we could see those things again with my heart situation. I didn't I knew McDonald's wasn't good for me. I knew I was working a stressful job that I wasn't managing my stress 100% because of the requirements. I would come home late. So rather than I'm going home to myself, I grabbed fast food rather than healthier things. Now, guess what? In those two months, I've reduced 17 pounds.

SPEAKER_02 14:07

Wow, congratulations!

SPEAKER_00 14:09

No pills, no nothing. Yeah, you know, lots of yogurt and and mushrooms. Uh yogurt I've had before, but mush mushrooms I never did. So we have to change our behaviors, change the way we look at things, including our own stories, and having that power to know those things. I'm not this, I'm not anything special. I'm Dave, man. I'm Uncle Dave, and that, but it's recognizing what the patterns are in our life and how somebody needs to hear it because we all feel down. That's the part of the human experience. Yeah, we get down. Life's it's not gonna be sunny days, unicorns, and red and green lights the rest of our lives, it's gonna be the bigger issues that come out, and what do we do with those issues and how do we adjust with them?

SPEAKER_02 14:55

Yeah, absolutely.

Peace Love And Bring A Bat

SPEAKER_02 14:57

So give me a little bit of understanding of your philosophy of peace, love, and bring a bat.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

Yeah, that's easy.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

That's so interesting.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

Part of it is that you might have noticed I have a little bit of a New York accent. Want to embrace that? Go New York.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

Go next.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

So we'll start off there. But the philosophy actually goes back to so peace and love. I don't have to tell you what your definition is. Everybody has that definition of peace and love, what they want. We use the word love a little bit too much. For me, love is that unconditional love. You could still disappoint me, you could still do things that I don't like, but if I love you, I still want the best for you. Again, I've been divorced, so I understand about love and all right, man. What we thought was love is it is an emotional experience, is a human experience, but I still love those people. I still wish the best. When my ex-wife broke her ankle, I was I got there before the this my kids were there, I got there before the ambulance and tried to help her and helped her through that situation. Doesn't make me a great person, but it's it's who I am.

SPEAKER_02 15:59

Yeah, I feel the same. I would drop anything to help my ex-husband. He's the father of my kids, he's who I spent 10 years of my life with. And I why would I want anything other than a happy, healthy life for him? I'm with you 100% on that.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

Yeah, and no matter what they've done and whatever the reasons it really is, there's unlimited happiness in the world. We have to think about that. So it's not, hey, Maria had something she did something bad, or Dave did something bad to me. He should have less happiness. No, we should he should have just as much happiness, just not near me, right? Yeah, that's okay. It just may not be for me. No, and that's all right, but so that's the peace and love, right? You know, the the inner work. And then the bat is about bringing awesome thoughts, it's about being authentic today. So you always want to do in your present and being I am who I am. There's flaws, I still have flaws, even though I've worked really hard. And maybe one day I'll remove a lot of the flaws, and maybe I won't, and but it's gonna not be because I didn't try. So I want everybody to do that. And when we start talking about swinging a baseball bat, it's about hitting your sweet spot. Now, I don't know if you've ever played baseball or yeah, so you're not. So you know there's times when you don't hit the ball right and something good can happen, but there's times that you hit the ball exactly the way you're supposed to. It feels great, it's like an electric charge, and it still might not be exactly what you want it to happen. It could be a fly ball, it could be just a line drive somewhere. But if you did the best that you could do, man, who cares? Yeah, there's nothing you could do than do the best that you could do when you have the right balance. And there's a lot of metaphors that I use when I work with corporate and individuals about the baseball analogy. Because there's so much that you could pull out of that game. You could pull out of it from any game you want. But I chose baseball because that's how I grew up. I had dreams of playing in the majors, and once they started having those curveballs, I had to take a seat back. The fastballs, I'd eventually catch up to it. But man oh man, those curveballs. But that's like life is those curveballs will decide if you're gonna make the majors or what, how you handle the adversities in your life. And as we were talking about, man, I've had some adversities, and what I've gone over, I I didn't realize how many curveballs I I swung and missed at, and how many curveballs I hit because I learned how to have the patience. I learned at it, and patience is so important. So that's part of that philosophy, and it really is. And when people start hearing me explain it, they're like, Oh, I get it. Because when they see me with the bat, that was again one of the things about being authentic. People, when I first said, they're like, Oh, you're just gonna think they're gonna think it's a sports show, and some women might not like to be on the on the show because it's violence, and you put Uncle Dave in your logo, and they don't like uncles, and this and I'm like, that that's fine. Those are then it's not for them, those are all true statements, but I can't stop being who I want to be because I'm trying to please the people who had bad experiences. I'm sorry for anybody who had a bad uncle or anything like that. And I'd love everybody to talk to my nieces and nephews. Maybe I'm not 100%, um, but I'm clearly Uncle Dave and they know where to go. That Uncle Dave piece is actually a story, but it's also that person in your life that you could come to, right? You can't tell mom and dad everything, but you go to an uncle, an aunt, uh, a confidant, and you're like, man, I screwed up. I don't know how to get out of this. Uncle Dave get will help you figure it out. We won't hide the bodies, but uh there's federal laws on that. But uh, but the truth of the matter is it that's what you need. You need those people like yourself, like myself, who really come in and show up in a way that I don't want people to get taken advantage of. I don't want the things, and that's what that Uncle Dave is, because how I got that reputation is I worked in the recovery space. Every year, February 2nd, we would travel up to Albany, up in New York, where the Capitol is, and we would talk to the politicians, right? We want money, and that's really what it is. Yeah, the story we were in a senator's office, and they're talking about all the overdose of deaths from the substance disease. And it breaks my heart that all these parents were experiencing that. And but I interrupted the conversation because I saw the representatives that were in the room with us kind of tuning out, right? After you hear one, you sort of get it, and you don't want to attach yourself to it. So I did an EF Hudden moment. You might not understand that. It used to be a TV show, uh, commercial. E. F Hudden says and then makes everybody quiet. So I interrupted this woman explaining about her child, but I saw our time was getting closer to the end. And I said, I will listen to that story as much as you want to tell it to me, but they're walking out in a few seconds. And I saw that they caught me and I said, We want your money, we're not here to tell your stories because we'll be here all day and all night for thousands of hours to hear the stories. So we want to stop this and we need your funding. And guess what? I was Uncle Dave. I walked out of there. The woman was upset. She wants she felt the need, and I understand that we need our stories to be told, especially when we're telling a story to the people who can't speak from.

SPEAKER_02 21:20

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

But so I sat with her and I told, I said, Tell me as many times as you the story. I had actually heard the story before, and since then, every now and then she's like, Sit down, I got a story to tell you. I go, I promise you, anytime you want, and we laugh about it. But afterwards, she walked over to me. She goes, You were like Uncle. You she goes, You're Uncle Dave. She and that's was a reputation, a nickname that I had gotten that I had earned in that community here on the Long Island.

SPEAKER_02 21:48

Yeah, that's awesome. I love my title of Titi because I'm Puerto Rican, right? So to me it's Titi. I hear you. Uh, but uh that's like one of my favorite, like, I'm everybody's Titi. Titi. Maria, that's always so I get it. It's that person that will love you and be there for you no matter what. And so I totally I love that analogy. I've had amazing uncles think things.

SPEAKER_00 22:13

Oh my god, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:14

But yeah, I really love that. I think that it is super important to to be able to listen to the stories and then also look at those stories. And I think that from what I understand, you also helped them shift that perspective of their story isn't just a story, it's it's a healing journey, right?

SPEAKER_00 22:36

I mean, think about think about all the books you might have read, or even movies or things like that. The healing journey, even the stories that we all have, my suicide attempt, right? That could have been the worst day, and I could live in that. And I that's the vision that I I saw myself living at that time, until that woman said to me, You're white trash, you're a loser, you're a mental case, all of those things. And I was like, Hey, again, New Yorker-wise, I cried, but eep inside, once I kept on hearing that voice, yeah, and I still hear it, and I'm like, Hell no. Yeah, you want to believe that I can't change your beliefs to that, and I'm not here to change anybody's beliefs. You don't like me, great man. I'm sorry for you. If there's anything I could do to repair, I'm willing to repair. I'm I'm not perfect, but that's not my story. My story is even the TEDx when I did, you see, all these keyboard warriors, my performance wasn't that great. It was the first time I ever told the story of my suicide attempt to the public. And once you do a TEDx, you can't get it back. You can't be like, Oh, guys, could you take it down? No, it's not happening. No, it was out there, and it was during the pandemic. But when we were doing the TEDx, it was in an empty room other than the recorders, the producer and the cameraman. And they said, Oh, pretend that there's people out there. And I'm like, Okay, how do you do that? It wasn't, I'm not a performer. I when I go up there, I'm authentic, I'm who I am. Leave me alone. Yeah, and that's where so it didn't look good, right? So if you look at the video, but the great message that I will always talk about is 11 families reached out to me. Yeah, eight people who are about to take because I talk about suicide all the time, reached out to me and was like, Man, I'm in that place. You understand that darkness. My darkness is different than everybody else's darkness, and I understand that. But I was able to guide them to get professional help. There's only so much I could do. I'm not a therapist. And two families had family members who already had committed suicide. And I got to talk to them and it gave them a level of healing just to be able to talk to somebody what was I thinking.

SPEAKER_02 24:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:48

So that's where again our stories and talking about it. So that's why when I heard during my attempt of suicide 36 hours, and then I was told it's not your time, go tell your story. I don't know what my story was. Is it just the suicide? Is it the fact that I succeeded? Or is part of my story meeting people like you in that I now have an author, I get to tell people other stories that have nothing to do with suicide, but I also get to be a voice of people who attempted it and said it's okay. There's a way through whatever we've gone through.

Becoming A Lighthouse For Others

SPEAKER_02 25:24

Yeah, absolutely. I love that. I yeah, I feel that to the core of my being. I've had my I had a family member that attempted it and it she thankfully was not successful. But those are moments that were in this dark place. Then in my book, I the last chapter is all about being the lighthouse. And we always have to look for those lighthouses. And your story is a lighthouse, and my story is a lighthouse. And through those dark places, we always have to find those lighthouses, and they sometimes appear in the most random times and places, but those lighthouses are what's going to get us through. I understand that after being in that dark place, after hearing cancer four times, after being sexually assaulted, like after all of those things, I always had to find the lighthouse that would pull me towards the right direction. And looking back now, I always say I don't regret anything that I ever went through. I wouldn't change it because I wouldn't be who I am today if I wouldn't have experienced all the things that I did. And so I don't say that life happened to me because that is a way to look at it as a victim. But I always say that life happened for me and I found the purpose. And my purpose is partly this is speaking up about things that are hard that sometimes people hide. And I spoke about my sexual assault. It happened when I was 16, but I spoke about all the things that came from that after and the cost of not necessarily financial cost, which were there was, but the cost of the things that I had to go through because of that one situation or those two situations in my case. And someone reached out to me and said, Thank you for speaking up because it's what they needed to hear. And I was just like, ah, see, every time that I'm like, oh, should I even speak about this? The answer is always yes. When my oldest daughter was about 10 years ago, she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. And when she was having episodes as a single mom, it was really, really difficult. And then I had two other kids that I also had to take care of and worry about and make sure that they were okay. And so those days were very chaotic. And when she would calm down, when she would be in a better head space, I would say, Hey, do you mind if I talk about this on social media? And she at some point was like, Mom, do you think that would help somebody? And I said, Absolutely, it will. And the keyboard warriors had things to say in comments, but nobody saw the amount of messages that I got in private saying, Oh my gosh, I'm dealing with something similar with my child, and I didn't know what to do. And so I became the resource and I became the story of what you can do if you're in a situation where you don't even know what else to do anymore. And so I don't know. I think that speaking up about our stories is so super important.

SPEAKER_00 29:03

And some people, when I help people, because I do the ghostwriting, they're like, I don't want to mention Dave because he's still here and I don't want to get into a fight. And what I've done is that's why I said let's turn into a fiction book. There's lots of different ways to still tell your story to feel authentic and give healing. That's where when I first started coaching, I was coaching what with mental wellness. I wanted to help people, and I have a whole bunch of skill sets that's that so that's why when I help somebody write a book, I make sure that it's healing because it's also energy work, right? We we you and I live in a world of energy work, it's what you put in those books, and then you put it out to the universe, right? It's manifestation multiplied. That's really where I really feel bad telling people stories. There's my story, people like, oh man, really, you're gonna kill yourself for that. Are you stupid? All right, but that's how it felt for me, and that's okay. You might have made different choices. Great for you, and I'm glad. I don't want anybody to ever feel that way. And that's why I always say, look, call me, find a friend, and if you don't have a friend, call me, I'll be your friend. And that's one of the things that we need to do is keep showing people, showing up like you you're doing and you've done with your children, is let them know the stories because there are so many people. We go back to suicide. 89% of people attempt suicide are unsuccessful. And that's a crazy number. So it's not while we hear about all the suicides, and that's horrible to go. The numbers are higher than what we actually say because a lot of those then turn into homicides, right? There's a lot of different ways to hide the things that we're hiding. But let's go back to that 89%. How can we save those people? How can we reduce that number to people who don't even try? That's the power. I don't want the 11%, there's always going to be somebody successful, unfortunately. There's a million ways, and that's why I don't talk about the way that I tried. I don't want anybody to ever copy it. It's out there, people's done it. It's not like I'm the first one who thought of this idea. I'm not that smart, but I do know that if I would have used my resources, not just know them. Yeah, knowing your resources is one thing, but you have to use them, apply them to your life. And that's where sitting with people, reading books, writing books, knowing your the value of your story, even if it doesn't look like it's gonna end well, that's what the next page is for, right? How many movies have we seen? Oh my god, they're gonna lose that game, and then all of a sudden the wackiest things happen. Guess what? That happens in real life. Yeah, I mean, I've lived wacky stories in my life that I when I think back at, how'd I get through it? I'd have no idea. But I showed up and I didn't say this is it, and I'm not willing to do that.

SPEAKER_02 31:57

Yeah, absolutely.

Self Love And The Phoenix Spark

SPEAKER_02 31:59

So, what limiting beliefs or roadblocks said do you feel you had to overcome to get to where you are today?

SPEAKER_00 32:07

So, one of the biggest questions right after my suicide attempt was somebody asked me, Do I love myself? I didn't know that was an option. I knew that if you and I were hanging out together, I want to make sure Maria has a good time, make sure that one has a good time, that one has a good time. I didn't really care as much about Dave having a good time because if everybody had a good time, maybe Dave had to have a good time, right? So I didn't know that I could love myself and I know that now. And that's really important to know that love because I use the Phoenix metaphor, and this is how I explain it to people. I use the phoenix metaphor a lot. And everybody thinks the phoenix dies. It doesn't. It turns to ashes. But what do you think turns the ashes to the next bird? Do you have any idea? Do you know the story? Go ahead and the story is it is a spark of God. Right? It's that love of God. And every time I feel that way, I get the chills down my back. Because I'm like, please tell me that if you've lost your spark, then you just need to be reminded of it. And everybody else who does who hasn't lost their spark, think about it. God is there for you. And I'm not here to preach because I'm not a very religious person, but there's always something, and in the ashes, we're still alive. But it's that spark when we're ready to embrace that next spark. When that lady started calling me names, yeah, it hurt, man. I was in the ashes, I tasted the ashes, I felt the burn, but I didn't let it. But I use that as my spark. Sometimes the worst moments of our life could be the biggest spark of how we get up out of the ashes, turn into a new bird, get into the next layer. And guess what? You continue to soar. And that's what that's my book behind me is when your heart says it's your time to soar. It's knowing those parts of every level. If we've all been in a plane, when you're in the runway, it looks different than anything else. And then the next layer, as you're starting to ascend, it starts to get really small. Then, depending on where how far and how you're traveling, you get to see above the clouds. And how relaxing is that? That's what life's about is keep ascending to all those levels. And when you do crash, when you do turn to those ashes, guess what? It's the next time. And if you've found those resources, it then doesn't become a crash landing. And that's what I am avoiding now is the crash landings. I'll still bounce, bounce into stuff, I'll still make my mistakes for sure.

SPEAKER_02 34:42

We're human, that's part of the human experience.

SPEAKER_00 34:44

100%. But that tells me I need to learn something else. Look at that as something that didn't go well means we have to learn something else. And that's okay because we should be learning until they put us in the box. That's the only time, the final box that we can't learn anymore. At that point, we should be have already transferred all of our knowledge, all of our love to everybody because love is an energy. Even when we go to that next level, we're still there, we're still together with people because it's that love. And if you've given that love, you've left that love with them. That's powerful.

SPEAKER_02 35:16

Yeah, it's like leaving a little bit of your legacy everywhere you go.

SPEAKER_00 35:20

100%.

SPEAKER_02 35:21

Yeah, I understand that very well. So, what kind of daily habits or rituals helped you reach now the level of success where you are?

Daily Rituals Goals And Grace

SPEAKER_00 35:32

I set goals. So in the morning, I created a routine. So part of my routine is meditation, uh, a little prayer. So whatever that means to you, just intentions. And then I set goals. But I don't, I usually have one ugly goal, one don't eat the frog goal. You gotta eat the I rather eat the frog first than then at the end of the day when my energy is down. I'm a morning person, so I recognize that. So in the morning, before and and before anybody gets up, usually, if I can hit one thing out of the three things, I always say try not to do more than three things. You can always do more than three things in a day, but have three main goals for the day. And yeah, if you can meet that, then you can add things, you can always add, and it's okay when you don't when you can't meet those three things in a day, also. Give yourself permission. So I've given myself a lot more permission to be a little more grace to be with myself when I don't make it make my bar or I don't make all the estimations for that day. I'm like, okay, but what are we gonna do? I don't let it linger, I don't carry it with me as a jacket. I I'm like, okay, now I have to figure out tomorrow I might have four things, yeah. Or I readjust tomorrow's schedule to still keep to that three things. I don't want to start adding, right? We don't want to this then we start getting into that other mindset of oh, now I have too many things, so I'm gonna do that.

SPEAKER_02 36:55

Yeah, it's overwhelming, and I can't, and then I won't do anything at all.

SPEAKER_00 36:59

It's a balance. So really coming up with whatever routine works for you. Again, I was in the recovery space and I used to create wellness plans for people. You know, how where in your life did you get off your plan, right? Uh, we maybe we've seen that commercial for I think it was Fidelity, right? You stay on that green line, you'll get to retirement. And where do you get off, right? Where do we make a poor choice or where did we take a risk? We was a lot of people are afraid of risks, and I'm like, take as many risks as possible, but risk well. Don't just do something because everybody else is doing something, know why you're doing it. And that's really what I do. That's the plans that I live now, and I've seen the success, and try not to do too much. That was my biggest flaw until two months ago. I was doing too much. I wanted to not only please people, but I wanted to be part of something larger than what I am, and I didn't realize I was already where I needed to be with Dorothy, Wizard of Oz. I love The Wizard of Oz, my mom's favorite movie. I didn't need to kick my I need to wear Ruby slippers. I don't have red. It's all in this already, yeah. Right, but it's within us already. I already had all the stuff that I needed to do, I just needed to do it in a way that wasn't going to stress me out, didn't make me feel that I'm carrying the weight of the world.

SPEAKER_02 38:19

Yeah, absolutely.

Where To Find David

SPEAKER_02 38:20

Oh my gosh, Dave, this has been so amazing. Thank you so much. Let our listeners know where we could find you. And I will also put everything in the show notes. But go ahead and let us know where we could find you.

SPEAKER_00 38:33

Well, the great part is my name is unique, David Schemetzky. So you could really find me anywhere. I don't think I've have any tags, even in Instagram. It's David Schemetsky. So it's okay, it's easy to find. My website is davidshmetzky.com. Perfect. And then when you think about baseball, man, peace, love, and bring a bat. That's my podcast. We're in the top two percent of the world. And think about that philosophy that you have to bring and know those boundaries in life and just stay within yourself.

SPEAKER_02 39:00

Yeah, I love it. All right, so listeners, thank you so much for tuning in today, whether you are viewing this or listening to it with your ears, however, you are tuning in. Thank you so much. And I hope you got as much out of today's conversation as I did. And again, I will put everything in the show notes. So please make sure you go and check those out. And peace out, guys. Love your life.