How to Be the Father Your Kids Need with former Navy SEAL Luis Rivera
How can you learn how to be a good dad if your father wasn’t there for you? What does it mean to be a good dad? How can you learn to be the father your kids need?
Today we have retired Navy SEAL Senior Chief Luis Rivera on the show. He served with the SEALs for 24 years and was featured in Discovery Channel’s documentary Navy SEALs BUDs Class 234. Luis has been married for 14 years and has three kids.
Growing up, Luis’s father never made an effort to be involved in his life. Luis admits, he wasn’t always a good dad either. Military life always came first, until he realized what an impact his behavior was making on his kids.
Luis is now a fully present and invested dad. He’s also part of Mighty Oaks Programs, an organization that helps veterans, active duty military, and first responders deal with PTS and life trauma.
Luis opens up about his struggles and failures as a husband and father. He tells us how he spent 9 days in a hotel with his daughter to help her through drug withdrawals. He also talks about the free 5-step program that helps men get a full understanding of who they are and what their purpose is in the world.
You’ve never heard this side of Luis Rivera before. Don’t miss this in-depth interview!
“If you somehow break up the family, you’ll break up a community, and you’ll break up the nation.”—Luis Rivera
What You’ll Learn
- Luis gave up caring about things after his parents split up when he was 12 years old.
- Luis’s older brother took over a fatherly role, showing him how to ride a bike and teaching him about life.
- Luis remembers being angry at his dad for not being someone he could lean on and talk to, like his older brother.
- His father paid no child support, and Luis’s mom put herself through the police academy to support her five kids. I was her work ethic that gave Luis the example he needed to become a SEAL.
- Later, Luis discovered his dad, also a military man, was dealing with his own demons. He was sent home from Korea because after being involved in a grenade explosion that killed his cousin.
- Even when Luis became an adult, the relationship with his father never rekindled. His father is now deceased.
- Where Luis’s motivation to join the military came from
- How the stress from consequences of his bad decisions made him give up on BUDs training the first time.
- What helped him to grow up and start working hard to take care of his responsibilities
- What made him go back to BUDs after having been in the military for ten years
- Luis didn’t understand what he was doing to his kids at the time.
- During his second attempt, Luis got swimmer induced pulmonary edema and was pulled from the class
- Then he had to start over BUDs from the beginning for the third time.
- Luis knew this last attempt would make him or break him, and he welcomed the challenge.
- The thoughts that kept him going through the training
- How he used the Bible selfishly to avoid pain
- How passing BUDs was not a finish line, but a new beginning
- His mistake in putting his military life before his family
- The point when he decided to change things
- Luis realized that he didn’t maintain the same morals at work and home.
- When he finally felt good about who we was as a father and husband
- The harrowing meth 9-day meth detox he helped his daughter through
- How the experience with his daughter bonded them together and triggered his healing process
- How he’s held his marriage together
- His relationship with Christ and how it has changed his heart
- The 5-day program that equips warriors to fight through life’s challenges and discover the very purpose for their lives moving forward
- How veterans, active military, and first responders can apply for Might Oaks Programs, free of charge, including travel, food, and boarding
- Might Oaks programs available for women and couples
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Extreme Ownership for Fathers with Leif Babin
Owning Fatherhood with Dakota Meyer
Fighting the Battle Within with Chad Robichaux
Triumphing Through Dark Times: Exclusive Dad Edge Alliance Q&A with Chad Robichaux
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