Lie Big And Make Today Fantastic w/ Mikael Avatar

We talk with Michael Avatar about becoming who you really are by dropping the performance mask and building the kind of inner power that does not disappear when the applause stops. We break down small daily practices that build mental fitness and resilience, plus a simple way to rewrite your personal narrative without pretending the hard parts never happened. 
• Michael’s background and the mindset of acting past “non possibilities” 
• What the performance mask looks like and why it leads to emptiness 
• How to spot automatic responses and practice honest self-expression 
• What authentic power feels like and how it impacts other people 
• Why 1% daily shifts beat chasing massive breakthroughs 
• A simple “pause and breathe” method for better decisions under pressure 
• Staying committed when progress feels invisible through goals that energize you 
• Rewriting your story after setbacks and using a paper “life map” to choose direction 
To everyone listening, remember that transformation rarely happens all at once. Small shifts, repeated consistently, can completely change your life. I love you all. See ya. 

https://mindforcepodcast.buzzsprout.com

Transcript

Welcome And The Core Question

SPEAKER_00 0:00

As always, it's great to have you back. I'm your host, Snake Shear, and this is Mind Force, a podcast sponsored by the three Love, Life, and Learning. Today's conversation is all about becoming who you really are. We're talking about dropping that performance mask and living from authentic power, making daily shifts that are 1% that build mental fitness, resilience, and inner freedom, and rewriting your personal narrative after setbacks, adversity, or beginnings that seemed impossible to overcome. This episode is for anyone who's ever felt stuck between who they are and who they think they need to be. Michael, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

Thank you, not need. I'm really excited to be here.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Absolutely. For all the listeners that don't know you yet, who are you?

SPEAKER_02 0:52

I'm Michael Avatar. I was born with silver policy, but it has never stopped me to see whatever I want to

Michael’s Story And Bold Belief

SPEAKER_02 1:02

do in life. And I hope I can inspire you to open new doors in your life and commit to some new angle in your struggle, in your goal setting, or whatever. I was born in Sweden, but now I live in Thailand.

SPEAKER_00 1:25

What are you passionate about right now?

SPEAKER_02 1:28

Right now I have a I'm planning next week to do a performance in art. We have worked a long time. We have cut some movie that we have made by ourselves, made the music, made everything around it. And now it's time to practice for the performance, and that's next week. So that's my very exciting foot right now.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Nice. The big show's coming up. Yeah. What experiences shape the message that you bring into the world today?

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Oh, it's so many clues that I have had over my whole life.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

I thought everybody was like me. When I was four years old, I went to my mom and I said, Mom, I want to be a rock climber. And she looked at me and said, But you can't make money on that. My hands, I couldn't open my hands. My feet was opposite from Soly Chaplin and I ran and saw the climbing of Mount Deverest on TV. Twenty years later, twenty four years old, I was a climbing instructor. She was wrong. You can't make money on climbing. And that's the mindset that I have had all my life. It doesn't matter where you're from, who you are, what non possibilities you have. If you act on that and you have the passion for it, you can achieve nearly anything you want.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

Yeah, it's a powerful message. It's common, probably too common, where we're told the things we can't do. I think we probably need to be told the things we can do maybe a little bit more often.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

Yeah, that's right. Some of the things they tell you about what you can do, that's kind of boring stuff for you. Because your mind is made from you.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

Yeah, that makes sense. Before we get too much farther, Michael, I'd like to see if you have a question for me.

SPEAKER_02 3:57

Yeah, I want to know. I'm a curious guy. You in your background. How have you changed the magic you did in the Air Force and so on into your new life in what you do today?

Military Life And Learned Resilience

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Yeah, I think that the Air Force or really the military in general gives you a lot of tools to be able to get through and overcome difficult things. And I think a lot of it comes not necessarily from because I think a lot of people initially would think I was talking about the classes or the CBTs or the trainings we go through. I don't think it's necessarily that. I think it's more having to live in the military and get through some of it. I think I mentioned that on another show, but I've lived overseas multiple times. So right now, living in the United Kingdom and previously living in Japan, you have to get there and register your car and figure out how the trash works there and the taxes and the all these things you have to do and learn. And so you're continually learning and trying to grow and kind of moving through things. And so I think it builds a lot of resilience in you. So when difficult things do come up, you realize that you can get through them. Because yeah, living in Japan, completely different than living in the United Kingdom. And so getting through some of those things, like it feels really difficult. Like when you first get to a location, you know where nothing is, you got to get your rental car, you give all your stuff away, gets put in storage for a while. You, you know, make things, you just make do. I think you make do so much that when difficult things come up, it's really easy. Like at one point, when you go to move, they take all your stuff and you live on air mattresses and like cardboard boxes and stuff, and you're fine. You realize that you don't need as much as you you really need or you think you need. I think that's what I've learned.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

So so without that background, maybe you had gone to Japan or UK. Do you think that's Yeah, yeah, I think so. Wow, that's very interesting. Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 6:09

Yeah, uh, so we'll step into your first pillar, which is dropping the performance mask. When did you first realize you were performing rather than fully being yourself?

SPEAKER_02 6:21

I have been a public speaker for many, many years, back in Sweden, now I'm in Thailand, and when you're empty,

Spotting The Performance Mask

SPEAKER_02 6:32

you go off the stage and you are empty. There is nothing there. The performance you have made, people applaud, people see you on the up somewhere, but you go home alone to your hotel, take a taxi or airplane home and you are like empty. And I thought why is this emptiness so big? Didn't I cover that? It's a mask. When I go around, it's a mask, it's a performance mask that I put on in different situations. Sometimes they are good, but most of the time they are fake. That's not the real you. And especially here in Thailand, I was lazy is sometimes my girlfriend said, What are you doing? That's not you. And she told me straight away because to live in Thailand you have to be authentic. You have to be you. Why are you here on the planet? You have to be you all the time. No mask, nothing. And that's how I came up with this authenticity and mask of how do you live a life when you don't have a mask that you're in your authentic the whole time?

SPEAKER_00 8:07

Yeah, that makes sense. So you had a girlfriend that helped kind of get you back on track. I think a lot of people are kind of living through life and maybe they don't have that person that helps them. So what advice do you have from someone that maybe is wearing the mask but doesn't know it?

SPEAKER_02 8:23

I think like I told in the beginning, if you use the mask and you feel empty, like lonely, that's a sign that it's not good for you. It's not good for me. So what I do then, I take it a step back and breathe, and then I act authentic. And sometimes it's very hard in the beginning because I came to some friends and they told me, uh, are you hungry? No. But I was hungry and I said, sorry, I was lying, I'm really hungry, but I can eat with you. So you have to confirm yourself in the situation. And I practice a lot when I discover because I talk about half-life, you live automatically, and half-life is like half-dead. So you you don't really live fully you the authentic you take a step back to reflect. Do I need say what I want to do now and then act from the real you?

SPEAKER_01 9:51

That's my uh advice.

SPEAKER_02 9:54

And it's simple, it's free, anybody can do it anybody, but it's hurtful and it's relief because when you say no, sorry, I lied, I'm really hungry, then it's like wow, and you get uh and you get very much respect from the people that you are talking with, also.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

It's like a win-win situation, very interesting. Yeah, it's it's super interesting. I feel like the more we get with computers and AI and whatnot, the more we're almost automated ourselves. Like you said, you respond before you even really think about it. No, no, I'm not I'm I'm good. It's not even true. So it's that that is interesting. Why do you think so many people wear masks?

SPEAKER_01 10:59

They are afraid.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

What are people thinking about me? We are afraid because I teach from school to hide our how much we study, how how hide a lot of stuff from neighbors, from room, from we hiding behind because we are afraid like we should be discovered and everything will break down. So it's like a system we learn automatically.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Yeah, that makes sense. It it's interesting how often that we're worried about the outside perception. I took a class called outward mindset, and it was very interesting how that drives so many of our decisions on how others view us when we really shouldn't worry about it, but obviously that's easier said than done, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 11:59

Yeah, it's like anything, you have to practice. You have to practice, practice. If you really want to be free, you have to practice. And freedom is not about money, it's about finding out who am I. The more I learn about me, the more impact I will have on other people. That's the system. Because when I take a stand, I create a way that other people need to act. And that's the system. And if I'm true, but the problem with this, my truth today is not the same in one year. If I work on myself, because I will see the world differently. Hopefully, if I do what I want to explore in my world, so I will see other stuff in one year. So I will act from another. But the truth today is the truth today. And in one year, hopefully it's a better truth than today. Because I want to discover who I am and how I act and what happens when I do stuff in my life. Is is like an adventure in your own life. I call it an adventure.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

Yeah, I think the more I've, you know, read and researched, the more I believe you're either getting better or you're getting worse. And there's no really, you know, saying the exact same. I think a lot of people want to just kind of maintain a middle and just kind of stay the same. And if they don't work on anything, it's fine. But I don't think that's really the case. I think you either, like you said, have that mindset of changing and getting better, and that, you know, in one year you'll be a different person, or any one year I think you'll also be a different person. But in the negative aspect, if you don't try to work on some stuff, so I think we have to continuously, you know, keep showing up.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

Yeah, and the thing is that everything you want now and into the future is out of outside our comfort zone. Because we want to be in our comfort zone, because then we can relax, but all the things we want, they are outside. The cheapest way to go outside your comfort zone is to co confront you. Where you want to go, where you want to be. And the sad thing is that most people have no clue where they want to be in one year, five years. They have no idea.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

Yeah, it reminds me a lot of skydiving. I don't have too many, but I have 33 jumps, and you go up and you do your safety checks, and you ride the airplane up, and the door opens up, that the aircraft gets cold because all the air rushes in, you're super nervous, and then you have to push yourself out the door, and then as soon as you're falling, there's just a sense of peace and the scenery and the view, and everything is so nice for a full minute, but you have to like push yourself out the door. If you if you don't, then you're still in the airplane.

SPEAKER_02 15:39

Wow, that's wow, that's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 15:45

Yeah, you gotta you gotta get yourself out the door. So, like my mom, I got her to go on her 50th birthday, so we got her, and she, you know, was completely freaked out and then you know loved it. She's like, I'd go again, but you have to go. Wow. Yeah, I'm curious. So, what do you think authentic power feels like instead of the mask? What's that that freedom feel like?

SPEAKER_02 16:09

That's a very good question. The authentic power is you have like your inner smile, your inner glow, your inner unstoppable machine that just continue to wherever you

What Authentic Power Feels Like

SPEAKER_02 16:30

want to go. That is an authentic power that you can create.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

And you yes know that it's true.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

And people who meet you, they see in this situation, this goal you have your unstoppable, unstoppable.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

Yeah, I liked earlier you said it kind of ripples out, which I think is so true, and you also said it's free, and that's another thing I think is super important, like holding the door for someone or helping somebody or something, those little things like that person feels good, they kind of smile, they feel good, and then they start helping other people. There's so many things where we think about ourselves and only ourselves. I wish more times we think about other people, because like you said, you focus on the goal, and then maybe someone you don't even know, you're out for a run trying to, you know, run your first 5k or something, and then someone sees you, like, oh, I should get out there, and then they start. Maybe you never see that they, you know, you inspired them, but just being out there, maybe that was the inspiration they needed.

SPEAKER_02 17:45

I mean, I have so many stories. As I said, I was a public speaker in Sweden. I did a lot of public appearance, and sometimes you meet them on the street, and it was this lady. She was serviced food at the big dinner and she said sorry Michael, can I say something? Sure. Yesterday I was with my son at the doctor and he got some asthma children asthma probably have to have medicine his whole life and I was crying, but then I was laughing because they remember you telling your story. And I thought if Michael can do what he stands for, my son and I we have no problem. I mean whatever we do, whatever people meet, if you meet them authentically with you, then it affects people ten times more than if you act with a mask or whatever it is. It's I think that's the key to the mystery of life.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

That's awesome. Yeah, I really love the I love stories. Stories, I feel like, are so impactful. You can tell somebody, you know, an idea, but when you show them with a story, it's just so much more powerful. So that that's amazing. Well, Mike, we're gonna move into your second pillar, which is daily 1% shifts. People often look for massive breakthroughs. Why do small daily shifts matter so much?

SPEAKER_02 19:41

Oh, there is if you practice something five minutes every day for one year, you will be within the

The 1% Shifts That Compound

SPEAKER_02 19:50

five percent best in the world. Any subject, anything, five minutes, trumpet, guitar, computer, or whatever you want that you have a passion for, you do it every day.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

It's like a shame reaction.

SPEAKER_02 20:12

See, I call it the one percent because if you find the right one the one that gives your body a tingle in the stomach, your smile on your face, your glow in your eyes, to find that and do little every day, then it will start a change reaction that will change the other ninety nine in one year automatically. That's why it's so important to take a step back and yes see what will happen.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

Yeah, I feel like people always want the big thing, and I think you have to do the smaller things to get there. Like we've seen in different books and stories, like getting up and making your bed, that's super important. People think, oh, it's kind of silly. Like it doesn't matter if I make my bed, but they've proven if you make that, you feel better, and then your routine is better, you're off and going. And so it's kind of interesting how often we dismiss the small things, but I think the more I've lived, the small things really do get you there. People like look at the big stuff, but they don't realize it took the ten small things to get there.

SPEAKER_02 21:39

And you you're from the military. The military, they have tried out. If everybody makes the bed first step every morning, you have a different discipline all around. They are not wrong. But I used to tell people once. Step more first make your bed, then sit down on the bed and think what's the most important thing today that can make me smile? It's a good story. I had a man, he called me one day and said, I wake up this morning, everything is fucked up, nothing is working, I'm so depressed. And I said to him, But if he should lie to you, lie big. What do you mean? Well, if you go up tomorrow morning, it will be say the same as today. You can tell yourself, what a fantastic day today.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

Lie big Yeah, might as well. Those are not true.

SPEAKER_02 22:52

And two weeks later he called me back and said, What a difference. What a difference his whole life changed just because he lied big and said, What is a fantastic day?

SPEAKER_01 23:11

Incredible.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

Yeah, mind. There you go. Convince yourself the mind is a powerful thing. Michael, what are some simple practices that help strengthen mental fitness over time?

SPEAKER_02 23:26

Um when you get pressured in decision making, should I buy milk or should I buy chocolate or whatever it is, take a step back. Breathe. Because when your paths go down, your whole system goes down, then

Pause, Breathe, Then Decide

SPEAKER_02 23:49

you can change your direction and you have a bigger chance of making the right decision. I have so many stories about this. So take a step back, breathe, and then decide. It's very simple, and if you practice sometimes, practice means you have to practice 30, 40, 50 times. It takes only five seconds, so you have time to do it, and you will see me see speed change with this simple thing. That's the most important thing I teach people. Take a step back, breathe, and then you know the answer in your body. It's powerful.

SPEAKER_00 24:48

Yeah. Take a quick take a quick breath and pause, that's probably good. I think a lot of times are run by emotions and other things. So maybe taking that pause really lets you reset and get you a squirt away. How do you stay committed to growth when progress feels invisible?

SPEAKER_02 25:09

I think the key here is if you don't have the goal that fits what you are, then you cannot progress. But if you have a goal where you tingle in the stomach, your eyes glow, and you feel like wow wow wow wow, then you just continue. So the goal setting, whatever it is in your life, that's the magic, because then you continue, continue, and you don't care about nothing else. Money, famous, it's your goal. So I used to tell people this crazy story, it's a personal story about a cat, a wild cat in the kitchen. Behind in Thailand, you have the kitchen outside, a wild cat, and every time you go out there, he ran away. Then he ran away and airport. Well, I want to have that cat on my lap. So I was trying to go out quietly. I was so I was training myself, how can I get the cat to come to me? It took one month, two months, I think it took me seven months every day. And the cat sat on my lap. And my girlfriend should say, how do you do that? I mean, I I was so filled with proudness in my myself. I d I don't think I even told anybody the first two or three years that I have the goal of getting this wildcat sitting on my lap. That kind of feeling, having that answer your question. So it's not about crazy goals or achievement. It can be small things in your home too that gets you when you achieve them.

SPEAKER_00 27:25

So it's really more about the goal and how that fuels you with energy and things like that. That makes sense. Yeah, you gotta have something that really uh gets you going and motivates you.

SPEAKER_02 27:35

And you you know, this cat, I didn't get anywhere the first three months. Nowhere!

SPEAKER_00 27:44

Yet I had to keep showing up.

SPEAKER_02 27:47

It was committed, and every time I woke up to the kitchen, I spent five, ten seconds.

SPEAKER_01 27:55

That's it. But every time.

SPEAKER_00 28:02

Sometimes it takes seven months. Well, Michael, your third pillar is rewriting your personal narrative. How do our personal stories shape what we believe is possible?

SPEAKER_02 28:14

I mean, I was born dead forty-five minutes not breeding. I was laid by the babies that was dead. And after 30, 40 minutes, a nurse

Rewriting Your Personal Narrative

SPEAKER_02 28:27

came back by by and saw me breathing. So I had like several chance. If you have been without breath that long time, it affects everything you have. Walking possibilities, talking, eating by yourself, get a family, have a girlfriend or whatever. It affects everything in your life totally. But I never learned how to be like a person with cerebral palsy. I am never act as a person with cerebral I don't know how to do it. So I believe that if your mind can put up any goal in your life, you can achieve it. When I was ten years old, um ran my first two hundred meters down a hill and up a hill two hundred meters, and I was knocked down, I was totally so I had to lay down. I decided I want to go to the Olympic. So I started training for the Olympic. So I trained for ten years to the Olympic. And then after ten years they told me there is something called Paralympic. So then I knew I was going to go there. It took me another seven years before I went there. But it's like a sh life shame reaction. You don't know where you will end up. I ended up in Atlanta 1996, broke the world record, all this famous stuff. But I did that was an odd mask because I thought if you do that and you get famous, your emptiness inside you will disappear. But it didn't. I was searching where is the magic happening, but nothing happened. Nothing happened. So I tried to find it another way, but that's a long story. I don't know if this answered your question, but your story is important, but you failing and your things happening in your life, they will shape you for your future all the time. You like I ask you a question before how the military shush your way to Japan, to England, and so on. If you use your story in your new situation later on, that's a powerful tool.

SPEAKER_00 31:48

Yeah, absolutely. What are some of the things you said you set some records and that didn't really, you know, fill you? What are some of the things you've done that really, you know, made you glow? Except the cat story. Except the cat.

SPEAKER_02 32:04

Yeah. Yeah, I had this. I came, I lived four hours from Bangkok, Thailand, in a fishing village. I came here, I'm a painter, I paint big paintings and so on. And there was this table with 30 people sitting there, and I said, Michael, you can't sell paintings in Thailand. They don't know who you are. Well I will, how much will you take for a paint? 30,000 baht. That's like 1,000. Yeah, 1,000 euro, 1,000 dollars, something like that for painting, you're crazy. Two hours from here you can go to Pataya, you can buy money copy for like $100. You cannot sell painting, you're crazy. Two months later, I had my first exhibition in Bangkok. I had this beautiful painting, two by two meter, and I sold it for 10,000 euro. And then yeah, and the newspaper wrote, a business view paper wrote about it, that I saw this painting. So when I came back to this group, the I mean it's a magic. You can do whatever you want if you have the mindset. And that's a story that makes me glow. Not because the people were wrong, it's because I know it's like a ticket. I knew that I could do it, and I didn't did it even I'm unknown. It doesn't matter. You can do so much more with your life.

SPEAKER_00 34:06

Yeah, that's a powerful story. You're happy, you got the glow and energy, it has nothing to do with the money or proving anyone wrong, just that you could do it.

unknown 34:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:18

That's that's good stuff. How can someone begin rewriting their story without pretending the pain they had never happened?

SPEAKER_02 34:29

I used to call it like mapping out your life, stop everything, take a pen, write your name in the middle, make a circle, and then you put all the stuff that you think is important in your life and distance from your name, how important they are. Anybody can do it. A piece of paper, your name in the middle, and when you've done that, then you take a different color and then you write an arrow what direction you want this stuff to go. And then you have like a map of your own life. Very simple, anybody can do it, and then you put this on the fridge so you see it every day that should I have less fun, or that should I have more.

SPEAKER_01 35:32

And you can simple.

SPEAKER_00 35:38

Yeah, that's a good one. Some mind mapping, getting some ideas and thoughts out there. You probably have it within you. You just need to get it down on paper, and then you have something to reference. That's a great idea. I like that.

SPEAKER_02 35:49

And the thing is with the arrow going further away, going further to you. That's the trick, that's the magic. Because then you feel I should have less of that, more of that. It's a fantastic thing to do, really.

SPEAKER_00 36:08

Yeah, I like that. Okay, Michael, let's try to bring it all together. If someone listening feels trapped by their past, exhausted by performance, and unsure how to move forward, what first step would bring them back to building a more authentic and empowered life?

SPEAKER_02 36:25

Get to know you. Who are you? Think really who are you? And it's not the big thing, it's the small thing. Do you put your right shoe or your left shoe on first? That's not important. What's important? Do you know what happened is it put on the opposite because something else will happen even with a shoe? So when you try that, then you will see something different will happen. So try to know who are you? How many automatic things do you do every day without even thinking about it at all?

SPEAKER_01 37:21

Some are good, some are not good. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 37:26

You gotta get to know yourself. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You gotta get to know yourself before you can work on it. You can't rewrite your story until you know who you are. You gotta know the main character first. Well, Michael, thank you for sharing your perspective and your story. Before we wrap up, where can the listeners connect with you and follow your work?

SPEAKER_02 37:50

I think I'm on the main platform, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram. I have a website called Michaelalatar.com. Michael with

Connect With Michael And Closing

SPEAKER_02 38:03

a K not H with a K. And I find out last week or whatever that AI can't find. I'm trying to fix that.

SPEAKER_00 38:18

AI. Some good stuff and some not good stuff.

SPEAKER_02 38:22

But Michael Avatar.com with a K. You can find whatever Bobby's podcast. You have a lot of free stuff there, even.

SPEAKER_00 38:37

Perfect. And we'll get that stuff in the show notes and make sure that's all squared away so everyone can connect with you. To everyone listening, remember that transformation rarely happens all at once. Small shifts, repeated consistently, can completely change your life. I love you all. See ya.